6pm, ESPN-2, Okla. St. @ Florida Atlantic

[NT80]

Owls excited about national TV game

FAU says it will win, even if it loses game, thanks to exposure

By Ted Hutton

Staff Writer

Posted September 8 2005

In the long run, the score of tonight's game between Florida Atlantic and Oklahoma State will not mean as much as the fact that the Owls played a Big 12 opponent on national television.

"Anytime you can get on television it validates you to a degree," said FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger. "Our thinking is it is better to be on television and not win than it is not to be on television at all."

ESPN2, which reaches 88 million households, will broadcast the game at 6 p.m. CST at Dolphins Stadium.

"The exposure is more than you can hope for," said Kurt Van Valkenburgh, FAU's assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator. "It's justifying what we have been saying all along -- this is where we are going.

"Here we are, on national TV, playing Oklahoma State. It's not a dream. It's real."

It is the only college game on the schedule, and football fans will have just one choice until 9 p.m., when the NFL season opener between the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders begins.

"This will certainly go a long way into introducing our program to the nation," Schnellenberger said.

Despite being underdogs, FAU already has won, Athletic Director Craig Angelos said.

Getting a nationally known, Big 12 opponent to come to South Florida, and then having the game on national TV is something Angelos never anticipated, because FAU is starting its fifth season and first at the Division I-A level.

"For us to get that, for them to come to us first, that is unheard of," Angelos said. "It is nothing we did other than be really lucky."

FAU and Oklahoma State agreed to the deal in which FAU would play at Oklahoma State twice, with the Cowboys playing in South Florida once.

"Typically they'll want you to come up twice and on the third one they'll buy you out so they don't have to come to your place," Angelos said.

Instead, Oklahoma State agreed to play in South Florida first because that fit better with its future schedules, and the Owls will play at Stillwater, Okla., in 2006 and 2007.

Originally scheduled for Saturday, the game was moved to so it could be on ESPN2.

No matter what happens on the field, Van Valkenburgh said, recruiting will be easier.

"By November, kids will have forgotten the score, but they know you will have played on ESPN2 against Oklahoma State," Van Valkenburgh said.

"It was my dream, but when I got here I figured it wouldn't happen," offensive lineman Nello Faulk said about facing a Big 12 team on national TV. "We are a top team now. People can just turn on the TV and they'll see me playing. They can watch us newcomers and see what we can do."

While Schnellenberger and Van Valkenburgh know how the game will help build the football program, Angelos said the impact on the university is tougher to gauge.

"You can't exactly pinpoint what it does tangibly. People say these games are like a three-hour infomercial," Angelos said. "What we want to do is get more national attention to legitimize who we are."

[NT80]

The line has dropped from 17 to 14.5 in favor of OSU. This will be played at Dolphins Stadium. I'm curious to see what kind of crowd FAU draws for their first big 1-A home game and National TV. NT plays FAU later at their campus field.

[ipEAGLE]

FAU has a shot... Make the SBC proud.

[Got5onIt]

I picked it up at FAU +13.

Looking for the Owls to keep it close with a decent shot at an upset.

Go FAU!!!!

[CaribbeanGreen]

About to head out to the stadium - Go Owls! Go SBC!

[ipEAGLE]

LETS GO FAU!!!!

[Zeke]

Don't look now, but FAU is hanging with them early.

[DeepGreen]

I tell you what, other than the three first quarter snaffus, FAU looks pretty good. Their defense can really move.

[NT80]

13-3 OSU at half. FAU shot themselves in the foot many times in the first half. OSU looks horrible for a Big?12 team.

FAU has the quickness on defense to hold OSU. If only their offense can score FAU could shock em.

[H-towngreen]

Ok State barely beat 1-AA Montana last week 15-10. And that was at home in Stillwater.

[FirefightnRick]

FAU has a serious defense. Lots of speed. Take away the fumbles and this is a very close game going into the 4th.

Rick

[class84]

1. I like FAU's quarterback a lot. He doesn't have enough weapons to help him out, though.

2. I don't know why FAU was written off as an 0-11 team. They play decent defense and should be able to beat half the teams in the Sunbelt. We don't need to laugh off their game against them.

3. I don't understand the economics of renting Joe Robbie to play in front of 1,000 people, plus pay OSU for coming out. Someone please explain.

4. OSU is going to get killed in the Big 12. How have they sunk so far in one year?

[Nt4Life!]

OSU played terrible, FAU going to be very competitive...

[fauowls44]

1.  I like FAU's quarterback a lot.  He doesn't have enough weapons to help him out, though.

2.  I don't know why FAU was written off as an 0-11 team.  They play decent defense and should be able to beat half the teams in the Sunbelt.  We don't need to laugh off their game against them.

3.  I don't understand the economics of renting Joe Robbie to play in front of 1,000 people, plus pay OSU for coming out.  Someone please explain.

4.  OSU is going to get killed in the Big 12.  How have they sunk so far in one year?

←

FAU fan here. I was reading other Sun Belt teams boards and thought i'd chime in. I agree with most of your observations. The only comments i'd make would be that FAU does have some offensive weapons, especially at WR and TE, but Embick had no time to throw in the 2nd half. They are very young, mostly freshman or sophs playing in their first college games, but if you saw the Kansas game, they did make a number of big plays.

Second, most people in the crowd were also wondering why the game last night wasn't at Lockhart Stadium(where our other home games are played). Not only because that stadium is only 15 minutes from campus, as opposed to 40 minutes as Dolphins Stadium is, but also because that crowd would have looked much better on TV in a much smaller stadium. I guess the thought was that OSU would have brought a bigger crowd, but that backfired. OSU didn't bring more than 1,000 fans, and the Dolphins Stadium is so far from campus, that many FAU students didn't show. the crowd was definately a disappointment, but better than in years past. Given time, the crowd's will come.

As for the economics, appearently with the game moved from Saturday to Thursday to accomodate TV, ESPN2 paid out enough to cover OSU and FAU was off the hook for the $150,000 that they would have paid the Cowboys to come to South Florida. So FAU, who paid $70,000 to rent the stadium, got to pocket the extra $80,000.

Anyway, I can't wait for our game against you guys later this season. Should be a fun year for the Sun Belt!

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

----Other than crowd size, they didn't hurt the Belt's image any. We will see how good/bad OSU really is later.... Can Baylor actually win a Big-12 South games? It looks like a maybe.

---A terrible night to have college TV game with the NFL opening up at the same time with the defending Super-Bowl champions playing the popular (love/hate) Raiders plus the game was not near the FAU campus.

--- I agree, FAU looked a lot better than I expected them to look especially the defense in the first half. Special team errors was killing FAU in the first half and they still hung tough..

[EagleMBA]

All told, I thought the Owls acquitted themselves well. But for the mistakes (see our last game against Arkansas for reference) it would have been a tight game. We need to be aware that these guys are legit, particularly since they handed us our asses at home last year.

I was not embarrassed for the SunBelt.

[OkState_Green]

I'll add a few things from an OSU alum's perspective who has watched UNT/Sun Belt for the last 5 years:

1. OSU has a new coaching staff including Off and Def coordinators running entirely different schemes than last year. The off coord was at UF last year, go back and look at how they progressed from week 1 on with a new QB.

2. OSU aka Tailback U lost Tatum Bell (now with the Bronchos) and Vernand Morency (Texans) in the last two years. None of the TB's on campus have experience. They have to get better.

3. FAU has a great QB. If he would have had time OSU would have been in troule. He is an accurate passer with a strong arm and good wheels. He only had 75 yards passing for the game!

4. FAU has very good team speed that will suprise lots of people.

5. It is interesting how many "mid-major" teams play well against the "majors" for a quarter or two, somethimes three, but usually fall short due to turnovers and mistakes. Their are two sides to that coin. If OSU turns those turnovers into TD's instead of FG's, the final is 35-3 instead of 23-3.

Summary: OSU offense will need to get much better if they want to win 7 games. They are 2-0 with Ark St, Colorado, Missouri, at A$M, at ISU, Texas, TTech, at Baylor and , at OU left. Those who think OSU will lose to Baylor didn't watch the OSU defense last night. FAU averaged 2.6 yards/play.

RE: Tulsa

I was at the Tulsa-Minn game. Tulsa fans are saying the same thing about that game as FAU fans are saying about the OSU game. "If we eliminated a couple of mistakes..." Just before halftime TU was driving across midfield down 17-3. If they score it is 17-10 at half. Instead, they fumble and Minn scores to make it 24-3. I beleive it was 27-10 halfway through the 4th qtr before two Minn TDs made it look really bad (41-10).

How will the Mean Green fare against TU? Hard to say, I haven't seen UNT play this year. I'll be watching... have a good year. FAU should be one of the best teams in the league IMO. They are very young so it really depends on how much they improve.

[NT80]

FAU lost 26 seniors from last year and it showed, mostly on offense and game endurance.