The Florida Atlantic Football team will be searching for a new head coach this offseason, and one name that has floated around as a potential candidate is Ray Lewis. Lewis spent his entire NFL career with the Baltimore Ravens and retired back in 2012. He has zero coaching experience, but ex-NFL players becoming college coaches is getting more popular and it is often a good recruiting tool.

One person that thinks that Ray Lewis would be a good fit with the Florida Atlantic football team is former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson. Johnson recently discussed the matter on his podcast, All Facts No Brakes, and he thinks that Deion Sanders has paved the way for former NFL players to get into coaching the college game.

“It’s the Deion effect,” Keyshawn Johnson said. “The smart athletic directors and president’s at universities will start to look at ex-players that can resonate with the youth. You know the social media, the glitz and the glamour, the things that y’all like that can help y’all advance in life. The old stale crispy coach that they keep microwaving over, and over, and over again is not penetrating the brains of the student athlete the way that the Deion Sanders and the Ray Lewis’ have been able to do.”

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Johnson believes that Ray Lewis would be able to have a lot of success recruiting in the state of Florida. The Sunshine State has some of the best players in the entire country, but there is a lot of competition down there for the Owls. Florida, Florida State and Miami are obviously the premier programs, but UCF is a power four school now as well. Johnson still thinks that Lewis can put Florida Atlantic on the map.

“Ray Lewis has never coached but that doesn’t mean anything,” Johnson continued. “As long as you surround yourself with the right people Ray Lewis could dominate the state of Florida in terms of recruiting, and I think they’re looking at that and saying he could do it. Different than Deion, Deion is across the country, Colorado is a bigger school, his brand is bigger than Ray Lewis, but in the state of Florida they love Ray Lewis. Ray Lewis is an icon in the state of Florida. He went to University of Miami I don’t see why FAU wouldn’t really consider it.”

There is a lot of work to be done within the Florida Atlantic football program right now. Ray Lewis or whoever ever ends being the head will have their hands full. The Owls are currently 2-9 on the season and they are winless in American Conference play. Florida Atlantic will be taking on Tulsa to end their season this weekend, and they are hoping to pick up that first conference win as the Golden Hurricane is also struggling this year.

This coaching search is going to be an interesting one to monitor, and if Ray Lewis actually does get the job, the Owls will get a lot of attention. That is for sure.