FAU football: Three takeaways from the Owls' Spring Game

BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic suited up for its spring game on Saturday afternoon, and there’s plenty to get excited about if you’re a fan.

Second-year head coach Tom Herman has emphasized a need for a culture shift after the team dropped the final four games of last season. That shift could be seen starting to take root in this year’s spring classic with a high level of competitiveness and physicality. The score reflected that effort as the Red team came out with a 25-18 win despite a late push from the White squad.

“I thought we showed [the fans] a lot of what we were bragging about,” Herman said. “You mention the culture shift, that’s what I told the guys at the end. I was really, really proud of not just today but the whole spring. When you do it as long as I have, every team feels different. This team feels really good. The buy-in level is off the charts.”

Here are three things we learned in the 2024 FAU Spring Game.

Offense will have more of a shared burden this year

The hole leading receiver LaJohntay Wester left after transferring to Colorado would strain any program. But in Saturday’s scrimmage, Herman showed that the offense will take the "Moneyball" approach by recreating Wester’s nine receptions per game (second in the nation behind Virginia’s Malik Washington at 9.2) in the aggregate.

Eleven receivers tallied receptions in the first half, with Omari Hayes leading the way with 55 yards and one touchdown on seven catches.

“I feel like I always had it in me, but with a 1,000-yard receiver [like] LaJohntay being here, I feel like that overshadowed who I was and what I can do,” Hayes said. “So when I’m going, I feel like I can stress how good I am and show everybody what I can do.”

“That’s probably what you’re going to see …” Herman said. “I don’t know that we’re going to have a guy lead the country in catches again. The last two out of the three years I’ve been a head coach we have. But that’s OK, that means that we have a lot of depth and a lot of quality depth. … I think the fact that we’ve got six to eight guys that we feel really good about is a real positive, too.”

The quarterback battle is alive and well

With a need at quarterback arising with Daniel Richardson’s transfer to FAMU, Herman signed Marshall redshirt junior Cam Fancher and gave redshirt junior Tyriq Starks a chance to compete for the role.

Herman, Fancher and Starks have all emphasized that the competition is strong in the QB room, and that was apparent in the spring game.

Fancher went 15-of-25 for 115 yards and one touchdown in the first half but also threw two interceptions one minute apart.

“As a room, we just work as one,” Fancher said. “So when we see one guy’s having success, we have the same joy that he’s having. We don’t look at it like that, we work as one and want to help each other out as much as we can.”

Starks managed 136 yards in fewer drives while completing 9-of-16 passes with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

“[Fancher] is great,” Starks said. “He motivates me. Hopefully, I can motivate him too, we both just feed off of each other and just get better because at the end of the day, we’re all in one room.”

Secondary is picking up the pace behind a strong front

Herman said after the spring game that the defense hasn’t gotten the number of takeaways the staff has hoped for through the spring. But in Saturday’s scrimmage, the defense came up with three interceptions and multiple turnovers on downs.

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“The secondary is playing great, I don’t want to take anything away from them …” Herman said. “But that being said, [the front is] playing really well. Unless you can get pressure to the quarterback, you can cover really, really well but you can’t cover for 10 seconds. And the guys up front were really forcing the ball to get out of the quarterback’s hand which was good to see, too.”

Antonio Smith reeled in two interceptions for the White team and had several pass breakups as well. The secondary tallied numerous pass breakups, and limited big plays to a minimum. All while the front got good pressure on the quarterbacks, and came up with a handful of sacks and tackles for loss.

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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Three takeaways from Florida Atlantic football's Spring Game