Miami Hurricanes 2015 Opponent Preview
Week 2
At Florida Atlantic (September 11th)
The 2015 Miami Hurricanes Opponent Preview continues with the preview of the Florida Atlantic Owls, whom The U pays a visit to on Friday September 11th at 8 pm on FOX Sports 1.
The FAU Owls have Charlie Partridge returning for his 2nd season in Boca Raton. Partridge is building a program that’s ready to make some noise. They’re recruiting pretty well, now the next step for them is to have a statement win.
Let’s start with the offense.
They have Jaquez Johnson, who’s on the Wuerffel award list, coming back. If he stays healthy, this guy could be one of the better QBs in Conference USA. For a QB that’s mobile like he is, he did a tremendous job with ball protection in 2014. To emphasize that point, he only had 8 turnovers, and he also had 24 touchdowns and over 2,800 yards.
His O-Line will be very solid this year. They return both their guards, as well as LT Reggie Bain, who’s a 2nd team all C-USA player. Those three combined have twelve or more starts. When you add C Joe Gold, who started six games last year as a true freshman, as well as, UCF transfer Kelly Parfitt, who the coaches believe will start immediately, and you have an Offensive Line that will be a force to reckon with.
However, as good as their O-Line is, if they want to take that next step to contender status, other key guys are going to have to step up. In the backfield, it’s going to be up to Jay Warren, who was their main back in 2014. His issue was as that he had the same number of touchdowns as fumbles lost (2).
He has to step up his game or it’ll be Sophomore Greg Howell, who had 5.1 yards per carry as a freshman, that becomes their main back. The one back that the coaches there really like is true freshman Trey Rodriguez, who they think has the potential to be an immediate impact player back there.
Also, the receiving corps doesn’t have big play receivers and they lost their top possession receiver in Lucky Whitehead, who signed as an undrafted Free Agent by the Dallas Cowboys. They do have back Jenson Stoshak, who should at least be a viable downfield threat.
Onto the Defensive side
Let’s be frank here, FAU was just lorida Atlantic was pathetic vs the run in 2014. However, there is some reason to believe in improvement, hell, they can’t get any worse. The big question here is: How much/if they improve will probably be one of the bigger determining factors in how many games the Owls win in 2015. They do have back DT Trevon Coley (1st team all C-USA pre-season selection, and on the Lombardi Award watch list) and DE Trey Hendrickson (3rd team all C-USA pre-season selection). Both those guys are huge. Coley is 6’2” 300 and Hendrickson is 6’4” 265. These two players combined for 15 tackles for loss and 9 sacks last year, plus an interception for good measure (Coley).
The LB core was led by Andrae Kirk, who was clearly their top LB. However, he’s no longer there, signing as an Undrafted Free Agent with the Arizona Cardinals. They do have back Robert Relf and Jerrad Ward both of whom played in almost every game in 2014. They have younger players there that the coaches believe will play immediately in Kris Harris and Jaye Miner. Both of these freshmen (Harris a redshirt from Tallahassee Godby and Miner from Wesley Chapel Wiregrass Ranch) were three star recruits out of high school.
Their secondary, was easily the strength of this team last year. Yes, they lose some personnel there, however, they will be very very good again in 2015. Cre’von LeBlanc (1st team all C-USA player, in the video above) had two picks in 2014 as a CB, and was third on the team in tackles. He’s the leader of that secondary. They also have coming back Sharrod Neasman and Raekwon Williams, who in 2014, played in every one of their games, and Neasman also had two picks. This team is loaded, and young with seven freshmen or redshirt freshmen in the secondary, many of which were three-star high school recruits.
What to expect from FAU
Looking at them on tape, they will use their backs and they run the spread on offense, but the thing they do best is find lanes to get yards in chunks. The most dangerous weapon I see from them is their QB Johnson. This tape is from FAU's final game of last season vs Old Dominion, in which they lost at the end 31-28 to finish 2014 at 3-9. (Courtesy of Old Dominion).
In the end, too much CANES firepower here. Expect the starters to be out of the game by late in the 3rd quarter like the week before vs Bethune, and rested for the Nebraska game, and CANES cruise to an easy victory.
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