With people coming up with predictions for Friday's college game between the FAU football team and the Michigan State Spartans, they could be surprised that the latter came away with a 16-10 victory. The road team in the Owls led by head coach Tom Herman and even a staff containing former NFL receiver Cris Carter have been looking for an upset win against a big opponent, but came up short.
Herman spoke after the game to the media about the loss as he is currently starting his second season with the FAU football program after a 4-8 record in 2023 in the Owls' first year in the American Athletic Association. Despite the loss, Herman was “proud” with the way his team played though expressed that they should not be satisfied with the result according to Robbie Lastella of FAU Owl's Nest.
“Proud of the way we fought, the physicality that we played with togetherness, but I told the team that there’s no moral victories,” Herman said. “I thought that we had come farther from an execution standpoint, I really thought that the physicality, togetherness, intensity that we saw tonight would manifest itself in some better execution, some smarter play. So I have to figure out, this is, I've got a saying, you know, once as an anomaly, twice as a coincidence, three times is a pattern, and I guess really quality opponents tell me we're on the right track. We are so close to getting over that hill.”
The FAU football team would have a fast start as while starting on defense, corner back Buggs Brown got an impressive tip drill interception on the sideline that gave them all the momentum.
FAU football's Tom Herman spoke on the offense and defense
However, the offense would stall out throughout the game and still lost by six, which is a sentiment to the defense, as Herman spoke on how winnable Friday's game was against the Spartans.
“We, as a staff, myself, as a head coach, we just got to figure out the right buttons to press,” Herman said. “Because the margin for error is so slim when you're playing teams like that in environments like that, and we played good enough defense, except for one play to win the game, you know, but that one play counts, and that's what I told the team, like, if you get away, you know, you can play 75 plays perfectly, perfectly. And that one play you decide to go 90% or you decide to have a mental brain fart, that could be the play that goes 67 yards, and so we've just got, we're so close, we've got to close that really, really small gap here very quickly. And I think we will, I really do.”
“I think playing to our level of competition? I should say this, we need to,” Herman continued. “We're not going to beat many American Conference teams. 50 yard penalties on special teams. 67 yard run untouched, two turnovers on offense. Can't convert fourth down, so give Michigan State a ton of credit. I got a lot of respect for Coach Smith and what he's building here, and they got some really, really good players. I felt like that was a winnable game for us, and I was hoping we were a little bit farther than we were, but we got a week to get better and get excited for our first conference game next Saturday.”
FAU football quaterback Cam Fancher candid on disappointing outing
In terms of the offense, the FAU football team announced redshirt junior and Marshall transfer Cam Fancher as the starting quarterback and struggled in his first game against Michigan State. He would throw for 116 yards to go with a touchdown and two interceptions along with 67 yards on the ground as he spoke about his disappointing night.
“You don’t want to dwell on it, it’s in the past, and now we just have to move forward and grow from those mistakes, missing those opportunities and be better,” Fancher said via FAU Owl's Nest.
At any rate, the FAU football team along with Fancher will look to improve in next Saturday's contest on Sept. 7 against Army as they are now 0-1 to start the season.
Follow Us
Subscribe
