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FAU-WKU Notebook



Hello World, I’m Greg “Buddy” Howell

Coming into this week’s game we knew the starting running back job was up for grabs after Jay Warren’s fumbling issues proceeded to get him on the bench.

The names that came up to replace him were the usual suspects, seniors Tony Moore and Martese Jackson. Not Greg Howell.

True freshman Greg Howell exploded onto the scene yesterday, carrying the ball 21 times for 118 yards and one touchdown in his first action of the season. “Its a great feeling, something I dreamed of,” said Howell on his first game.

Howell, a Coral Gables product who recieved scholarship offers from the likes of Minesotta, Marshall, and Western Kentucky among others - according to scouts.com -  was on the scout team the whole year leading up to today’s game and was looking at a redshirt season. “You can’t get into the mindset that ‘I’m a redshirt, I’m just going to wait,’” said Howell.

“You have to be like ‘I’m a redshirt, I’m going to get better everyday.’”

“Its not easy to pull a red shirt off of someone going into the seventh game,” said head coach Charlie Partridge on the decision to insert Howell into the lineup. “Coach Harriot, the offensive coaches, deserve a ton of credit because we saw him go from 211 lbs when got here to 222. We saw his strength numbers continue to climb. We saw him get better as a football player.”

Over the bye week Howell began to see reps with the first team. “It became pretty clear that this kid was potentially ready to help us,” said Partridge. “By the end of the week it was very clear this kid was potentially ready to help us.”

Howell will no longer be obscure after today’s performance. The spotlight will now be on him to make these types of contributions on the field on a regular basis, which for a true freshman could be a lot to handle.

“The thing I like about Buddy is I believe he’s got the personality and character to where he’s not all of a sudden going to be affected by change,” said Partridge.


Trey Hendrickson, The Defensive Line Comes Up Huge



In the first half Western Kentucky quarterback Brandon Doughty was flawless. Doughty went 19-26 for 256 yards and three touchdowns. The FAU defensive line did sack him two times in the first half but rarely let their presence be felt.

In the second half, that changed. Doughty was continually harassed and it showed in his numbers. Doughty went 9-18 for 79 yards with zero touchdowns and a turnover on his final play. The turnover was courtesy of a sack strip by Hendrickson’s huge hit on Doughty which jarred the ball loose for Trevon Coley to recover. On the final two defensive plays Coley and Hendrickson sacked the quarterback to seal the comeback for the Owls.

Doughty had been sacked just six times all season entering the game, but was bagged four times on the day by the Owls.

Rolling The Dice

Entering yesterday’s contest FAU was a mundane 1-4 on fourth down conversions. With their backs against the wall down 17-7 near the end of the first quarter, FAU attempted a fake punt from their own 41 yard line as Dalton Schomp completed a 16 yard pass to Jenson Stoshak to keep the drive alive. The Owls would convert another fourth down on the drive as Jaquez Johnson would find Lucky Whitehead for a four yard gain. Although the drive resulted in a 34 yard missed field goal from Greg Joseph, it sent a clear message that anywhere on the field was four down territory for the Owls.

The Owls would attempt four more 4th downs and converted all of them, finishing a rare 6-6 on 4th down conversions for the day. Instead of kicking a field goal to make it a potential two score game, Johnson ran for eight yards to convert a fourth and one from WKU’s 18 yard line to finish the game.

Notes

- FAU has won six straight home games dating back to last season

- FAU tied a school record with 29 first downs

- 38 Points is the most FAU has allowed in a win since defeating UAB 38-35 in 2011

- WKU has led by at least 10 points in every game this season

- FAU's 14 points was the most they've scored in the third quarter this season

- D'Joun Smith had a career high nine tackles

- Jaquez Johnson had his longest carry of the season with 40 yards

- Johnson is now ranked third in FAU history for touchdowns responsible for with 37

Rating

Unrated