The Florida Atlantic Owls have spent much of their existence as a doormat Power 5 teams would use as a glorified scrimmage to get their legs under them to start the year. That’s probably what Joe Castiglione thought he was getting when he scheduled this game. This one was announced when Florida Atlantic was coming off of a three-year stretch where it went a combined 9-27. The Owls surpassed that three-year win total last season alone after one of the most surprising hires of the 2017 offseason paid off in spades.
Lane Kiffin turned a historically-irrelevant program around almost overnight.