fauowls44

Well, 28 of the 31 points were a direct result of our offense/special teams turning the ball over. When a guy stupidly tries to field a punt inside the 10 on a windy night and your offense takes the ball at the 4, that's hardly the D's fault. So that's 21 of the 31 points UNT scored. The other TD drive was off a short field as well, when the offense turned the ball to you, I believe at the 34. Again, to me, when the offense gives up the ball on that side of the 50, I tend not to blame the D for not being able to stop the scoring drive, but if you want to credit your offense for that one, fine, our D gave up 10 points and still lost by 2 TDs. Still, congrats on the win. Your team took advantage of our mistakes, which is what you are supposed to do. Also, the stadium looked real nice on TV. Hopefully, I'll get to the next game we play there in a few years.

Congrats on the win guys. Man, that was ugly. I've never seen a worse offense then ours. I feel bad for our D. They gave up 3 points and we lost by 2 TDs...I now understand how you felt watching Dodge-ball. Next year and a new coaching staff can't come fast enough! Good luck the rest of the season.

Thanks for stopping by our campus. I also like to go around and look at college campuses when I travel. It's a good way to kill some time. Anyway, our stadium will be ready by mid October. We open with 4 straight road games. Our campus is currently undergoing a transformation of sorts. New dorms are going up and the football stadium is the centerpiece of the project. The goal is to transform us from a commuter school to a traditional college campus a la UCF a few years back. The results have been pretty good so far. When I was in school in the early 2000's, we'd get a few hundred people at a basketball game on a good night. Now we are consistently getting 1500-2500 every game. Students actually care about the programs now(which is a pleasant change!). It should only get better once the stadium opens. Please come back for a game sometime!

I hope it isn't a good game...I need a blowout win! My heart can't take anymore games that come down to the last second like our ULM win and MTSU loss. But I hope the stream works so everyone can watch the game. Apparently OwlTV has put a lot of work into getting this site up, and they'll be broadcasting any football home game not being televised and all the home basketball games. The picture quality of the exhibition bball game the other night was actually quite good. Anyway, good luck...just not too much luck today!

Student run OwlsTV is going to be streaming the game for free on their website. This is the first football game they are streaming, so there may be kinks, but they did a good job with the basketball game the other night, which was their first attempt at a live stream.. The link is in this thread: http://fauowlsnest.com/board/index.php?topic=6059.0

If he's an idiot, he's an idiot who learned from Bear Bryant and Don Shula, has won a National Championship, a super bowl ring(1972 Dophins), and that has turned 2 dying programs into College football powerhouses(UM and Louisville), and started one from scratch that has won a bowl game faster then any other. He also doesn't say things like he did without a reason. He'll have his team ready to give UT all they can handle.

That is what is being "reported" on the FAU board. This would be a step forward, but I'd still prefer another automatic bid. http://fauowlsnest.com/board/index.php?topic=5396.0

I hope that this is true. I only see the Belt getting stronger and stronger, so we definately need at least one more tie-in. We can't have more 7 or 8 win teams sitting at home when 6-6 teams are playing in the postseason. According to the MTSU board the even name which bowl the 2nd tie-in will be, but of course that is posted in their "premium" area. If anyone knows, please post that info.

You guys are right about the officiating. What a horrendous display by the Sun Belt crew. They missed some fairly obvious calls on both sides. There was a pass in the endzone where the FAU receiver's arm was help, and nothing was called. Also, that 4th and 1 play did appear to be short on the replay. In fact, the QB sneak the play before appeared to be plenty of yards for the 1st down and the spot was bad. And the replay...how is there no time limit on that?? They must have spent a total of 10 minutes looking at replays. There has to be a better system.

Hey, Just wanted to say good game. That was closer than I would have liked. You guys can shock some people if Thomas keeps running like that. He sure is a tough runner. Good luck the rest of the season!

FAU will use the same company that just built UCF's stadium. It took them 18 months to complete. They say FAU's stadium will follow the same timeline. It's steel construction, so it is faster and cheaper to build. By comparison, a regular stadium would normally take around 3 years, give or take a few months.

What I meant was that we both struggle with drawing fans to our games, not that we get the same numbers as you do. Obviously, you have a higher per game average. You also play on campus, which is mostly my point in why we struggle so much with attendance. But, I read on here is how you guys wish the crowds were bigger, or that more students would come to the games, etc. Just saying we are in the same situation in that we wish more people came to our home games. Also, just curious on how many opposing team fans traveled for those games against SMU, Tulsa, and Baylor? We had about 400 Minnesota fans there on Saturday.

Well the game was played at Dolphin Stadium, which is 40 miles away from campus. I agree that it shouldn't matter, and you agree that it shouldn't matter, but you guys are in the same situation we are with attendance...how much would those 40 miles hurt your crowd sizw? Those of us who post on these message boards are the program's core fans...we'll go anyplace to watch our teams play...But what about the average fan? What about most of your student body? Would they travel 40 miles from campus to the game? Think to yourself how playing 40 miles from your campus, even against a team like Minnesota, who despite being a Big 10 member, doesn't have much of a national following, would effect your attendance? I'm not saying it is excusable for students and fans to not show up, but this is the reality of our (and most SB teams) current situation. Playing off campus is an attendance killer. We've only been around a short time, and while our attendance is getting better, it is not where it needs to be yet...and likely won't be until we get on campus.

Thanks! Good luck to you guys too...well not too much luck Should be a good game, i'm looking forward to it. I can't make it to Texas, but it will be shown locally here in Florida.

Keeping kids in the area is the plan. In the past, the players a notch below the caliber of athletes recruited by the big 3 of UM, UF, and FSU would have to leave the state to play college ball. Now a lot of those players now going to UCF, USF, FAU, and FIU. It is no coincidence that you are seeing the growth in these teams. It is also the reason that UCF, FAU, and FIU have built or are building new stadiums on campus. They all need these facilities to compete for recruits.

FAU's attendance has always been an issue, but you have to keep in mind that they play either in Dolphin Stadium like we did on Saturday, which is 2 counties away and 40 miles from campus, or Lockhart(the aformentioned high school field), which is 20 miles away from campus in Broward county. Try playing Mean Green games at least 20 miles from Denton and see how many people(especially students) turn out. This isn't an excuse, our attendance has to get better, but the distance is a problem. Tomorrow FAU's Board is voting on the approval of a stadium in Boca that will open in 2010. When that place opens, our attendance will at least be in line with the rest of the Belt.

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!