It is officially game week for FAU, as the Owls head into their season opener against Michigan State with a final week of practice in preparation for the Spartans, which also meant that FAU Coach Tom Herman
With 4 captains officially decided and starters on both sides of the ball mainly locked up, this week is about fine tuning the game plan and making sure execution is at its highest as the Owls look to upset a P4 opponent.
Herman took the podium on Monday afternoon to address a variety of topics, including the game plan on both sides of the ball, an injury report, and why his starting QB mimics a Big 10 legend.
Opening statement from Tom Herman
“I’m excited that game week is here. It’s upon us a little bit sooner for us, yesterday was like a normal Monday for our team. We took Saturday off. Had Friday like a normal what we call family Fridays where we went through, where we play games and have a walk through offense, defense, special teams walk through substitution call outs, and then we broke and our guys had about a day and a half off all day the rest of that day, Friday, and then Saturday, and we came back first thing Sunday morning, 7am out on the field, like a normal Monday, and then today was like a normal Tuesday, a little bit shorter. Obviously, it’s kind of round two, if you will, of game playing week. We practiced against Michigan State last week, and we did again this week, but it’ll be a lot shorter, a lot crisper, no tackling this week, really trying to get their bodies back as best we can, but also get the amount of work in that that we need to be competitive in this game. So again, really excited, because I haven’t seen half this team playing a game live. You know, half this team did not play football for FAU, so they were either in high school or playing for another school. So all I got to do was was watch them on film, so it’ll be fun to take this team into a hostile environment. Certainly respect the heck out of Michigan State, and their tradition, their fan base, it’s going to be a really, really difficult place to play. I know Coach Smith does a phenomenal job, and we’ll have those guys certainly ready. But again, it poses unique challenges too, in week one to have a brand new staff. You know, very little of our film study has been on Michigan State. We watched them early to kind of study personnel matchups, but beyond that, you know, we’re watching Oregon State. We’re watching Minnesota video. So it’ll be interesting to see what new wrinkles each side of the ball has, knowing that the personnel is a bit different for them as well.
Herman on facing a dual threat QB
“Yeah, a lot of there’s some misconception about guys like that where, you know, they make all their their hay outside the pocket. And obviously, Cam is not live, you know, we’re not tackling him. But I think where you get a feel is for those athletic guys in the pocket too. You know some of those. Hey, you reach out and you grab a guy, normal guys go down, or, you know, some of these guys in the pocket, as you reach out and you’re grabbing air, you know. So I think just his elusiveness in the pocket has definitely helped. And then when he does extend plays, it’s certainly different than when other guys do it with his with his speed and everything that he brings to the table,” Herman said.
Herman on the defensive game-plan
“I think there’s two schools of thought, right? I think it depends on on the guy, and how well he’s coached, the amount of reps he has, I think, with those guys, yeah, if you overload him and it confuses him, that’s certainly the way to go. A confused quarterback is a slow quarterback is a non functional quarterback. But if in our offense, we see blitz as opportunity, you know, and if he’s coached well and executes well, and can kind of pick that blitz apart, so to so to speak, definitely more high risk. And so you’ll see a lot of guys on on passing down, maybe drop eight in the coverage too, and kind of spy him. Or maybe just keep everything underneath, keep everything inside. So having coach guys like him, you do, you got to make sure when you’re studying the defensive coordinator, you’re studying teams with light quarterbacks, because their philosophy, especially on third down, changes quite a bit because depending on the type of quarterback you’re playing, because in third and six, you play man coverage and turn your back to, you know, these guys that can make you pay. That’s that’s a scary thought. You know that that guy, all you got to do is tuck it and get seven yards. So we’ll see, but they’ll definitely have a philosophy, and we’ll see if we can execute against it,” Herman said.
Injury report
“I think you guys are pretty caught up logic Hudgens had surgery on his ACL will will not play this season. Bj Alexander had surgery on his patellar tendon. Good news, did not tear his ACL. So, we’ll only need one surgery. Elijah Brown is still coming off of a concussion, so if everything goes according to plan he’ll be back for the game, though. Kaden Shield-Dutton, we should have in a week or two, I said, Scarlee, hopefully, Army, you know, but it’s kind of a week to week thing. Other than that, I think you guys are pretty caught up. Just BJ, potentially coming next year, he would be in the seventh year, he’s certainly eligible for it. So I haven’t had that discussion with him yet. I think we wanted to see first, you know, they were going to go in and do the surgery on the patellar tendon and decide whether they needed to then go back in in a couple months for the ACL, the answer is no. So I think now that he has a more informed prognosis,” Herman said.
Herman on the offensive game plan
“I think them being new helps, we always try to be simple in game 1, because as tempting as tempting as it is to surprise them with all of this new stuff, if it’s not you, you’re probably not going to be good at it. The flip side is, let’s be us and the best version of ourselves, let’s do what we do and do it well and do it at a level higher than them, we’re going to have enough to think about with the adjustments of what they’re doing differently, to worry about what we do differently. New staff, with the fear of the unknown, you don’t want to go in and have so many gadgets and surprises that are geared towards Minnesota’s defensive or Oregon States offense, when these are good coaches who say we could do this at Minnesota, we probably can’t at MSU, or we always wanted to do this but couldn’t and now we have the right personnel, there’s going to be some differences, just from it being a new staff, us being as consolidated as we can be will help adjust,” Herman said.
Herman on his memories at OSU
“I don’t have vivid memories of a lot, a lot of the guys I work with remember the visiting locker rooms and hotels, I hardly remember that, I remember the fanbase, I remember going there in 2014 when we won the national championship, we scored a lot of points and they did too, I just remember and this is no offense to there brothers in Ann Arbor, that stadium in A2 holds 40,000 more people and I thought east Lansing was significantly louder and more disruptive for an offense, we are going to have our hands full with that environment, week 1, Friday night, Big Ten network, the good thing about having a lot of transfers is a lot of these guys have played in environments like that” Herman said.
Herman on the similarities between Fancher and Braxton Miller
“They are from the same high school. Cam’s dad and Braxton grew up together. So you know, the closeness there gets you going down that road, but then you watch their game, and it’s very similar. I still, and this is no offense to Cam, but Braxton Miller is the best over six foot athlete I’ve ever seen in person, he could do things that I’ve never seen done. And so I don’t know that Cam quite has that kind of athletic ability, but he’s close. And just their demeanor, their persona, very, very calm and reserved and quiet, nothing, nothing gets to him, very stone face, but very, very, very much that way, when things are going great too, you’re not going to get a whole lot of rah rah out of either one of those guys, either. But when it’s go time, they they know how to lock back in. Braxton Miller was a dog. He was a dog, and I would want him in my foxhole any day of the week. And I’m pretty certain I would say the same about cam. We’re going to seal that package up Friday night, hopefully and make sure that
he’s worthy enough of getting in that foxhole with Braxton,” Herman said.
Herman on Fancher’s demeanor
“He played at Notre Dame Stadium, he’s been in some big games, He’s played in some big stadiums. And his demeanor, as you said, it’s like built for that, right? I mean, this is a guy that, even though you may not see a whole lot of rah, rah. You’re also in the ebbs and flows of a game, there’s going to be adversity, and he is steady, Eddie when it comes to that, and you can see that that rub off on our team, and the impact he’s had too,” Herman said.
Herman on the offense looking to run the ball
“It’s boring for the fans, right? Take them out of the game by lulling them to sleep. But no, we, want to run the football. I think, I think we’re going to be better in that facet this year compared to last year. How much better? I don’t know. This is going to be as good a front seven that will play all year and I think we are very simple in our run game, I think the offensive line and tight ends and backs feel really, really comfortable. We haven’t installed a new run in weeks, so they’ve been doing the same thing over and over and over again, and so we’re going to always want to run the football, you are right to that you don’t want to sit there and drop back, we’re not built to drop back 50 times a game, so when we throw the ball 1st and 2nd down, a lot of it’s going to be off the run action, and you better be able to run the ball for it to matter,” Herman said.
Herman on a focal point at WR for this matchup
“The open guy, they’ve had a really good camp, but no one has merited that and that’s a compliment because they’re all playing at a very high level, are any of them La’Johntay Wester, probably not, but as I’ve said before yes La’Johntay is gone, and what did he have 150 targets, we’re not going to throw the ball 150 times less, So those targets are going to go somewhere, those catches are going to go somewhere, those those touchdowns are going to go somewhere. It’s just probably going to be spread across five, six guys,” Herman said.
FAU will wind down their week of preparation over the next 2 days which will include a final walkthrough on Wednesday, before the team heads to East Lansing on Thursday afternoon. Not much will be decided positionally over the next 2 days, but it is critical that the Owls dial in and focus on execution and all the little things that go into pulling off an upset victory.
The Owls will have their work cut out for them as they attempt to upset MSU, but based off Herman’s answers during media availability, his squad is prepared for this matchup and will look to compete and execute at the highest level to pull off the upset.