Veteran football coach realistic about Owls’ hopes

By Ryan Wood     Sep 1, 2005

There are some coaches who reek of optimism and are quick to talk up their own players and the progress they’ve made, no matter how honest the assessment actually is.

And then there’s Howard Schnellenberger.

Schnellenberger, Florida Atlantic’s football coach, lives by the code of honesty – no matter how much it stings to a sapling of a football program.

FAU, in its first year as a full-fledged NCAA Division I-A member, embarks on a brutal nonconference slate starting Saturday against Kansas University at Memorial Stadium.

Schnellenberger’s prospects for the Owls? Not so good.

“We go into this game recognizing we’re the prohibitive underdog, that a win by us would be something spectacular,” Schnellenberger said. “But we go in knowing this is what we need to do to develop this football program.”

Such a plan includes the game with Kansas – FAU is a 22-point underdog – followed by a clash with Oklahoma State next week, as well as matchups with Minnesota and Louisville later this season. Michigan State and Kansas State are on future slates.

The veteran coach hopes he has enough players to field a team after the overwhelming stretch of games upcoming. But if anyone knows what’s best for Florida Atlantic, it’s Schnellenberger, who has been in charge since the program was just a dream under construction.

“Obviously, we’re way overscheduled for this time in our development,” Schnellenberger said. “But for us to get to where we want to get to, we need to play as good a non-conference schedule as we can.”

Of the six power-conference teams scheduled to face Florida Atlantic in the near future, half are planning a return trip to Boca Raton, Fla.

Oklahoma State will travel to South Florida for a nationally televised game next week, and Minnesota and Michigan State have arranged two-for-one agreements, too, meaning in a three-game series, FAU will travel twice and play one home game and be compensated nicely for agreeing to such a deal.

“Two-for-one is really good for us at this juncture,” Schnellenberger said. “When Bobby Bowden was developing his team (at Florida State), he had to go out to Nebraska four times, maybe five times, and I’m not sure he got a return game.”

Prior to being put in charge of FAU football in 1998 – two years before the program’s first practice – Schnellenberger had success as coach at Louisville and Miami (Fla.), winning the national title with the Bernie Kosar-led Hurricanes in 1983. He also had a one-year stint at Oklahoma in 1995 and a two-year stint as head coach of the NFL’s Baltimore Colts in the mid 1970s.

Faced with a new and unique task, Schnellenberger has done wonders erecting the Florida Atlantic football program from scratch.

After three years of fund-raising, getting the word out and corralling potential players, the Owls played their first game on Sept. 1, 2001. Just two years and 22 games later, FAU had defeated a I-A opponent, a 20-19 victory over Middle Tennessee State.

It’s the fastest any program ever accomplished such a feat.

The Owls continued to rise, finishing 9-3 in 2004, beating four Division I-A teams (Hawaii, MTSU, North Texas and Florida International) and propelling the Owls into Division I-A on the right foot.

But an instrumental senior class was lost after last season, and it seemed that as soon as Schnellenberger put together a winner, he’d be forced to go back to the drawing board with an inexperienced squad.

To make matters worse, he’ll do so playing several of college football’s upper-echelon programs.

But you won’t hear him complaining. And considering his tell-it-like-it-is approach, it shouldn’t be dismissed as coach-speak, either.

“Being in a conference, we felt that it was going to be more difficult to get a type of non-conference schedule that we truly want,” Schnellenberger said. “Thank God it turned out to be just the opposite.”

Veteran football coach realistic about Owls’ hopes

By Joy Ludwig     Sep 1, 2005

There are some coaches who reek of optimism and are quick to talk up their own players and the progress they’ve made, no matter how honest the assessment actually is.

And then there’s Howard Schnellenberger.

Schnellenberger, Florida Atlantic’s football coach, lives by the code of honesty — no matter how much it stings to a sapling of a football program.

FAU, in its first year as a full-fledged NCAA Division I-A member, embarks on a brutal nonconference slate starting Saturday against Kansas University at Memorial Stadium.

Schnellenberger’s prospects for the Owls? Not so good.

“We go into this game recognizing we’re the prohibitive underdog, that a win by us would be something spectacular,” Schnellenberger said. “But we go in knowing this is what we need to do to develop this football program.”

Such a plan includes the game with Kansas — FAU is a 22-point underdog — followed by a clash with Oklahoma State next week, as well as matchups with Minnesota and Louisville later this season. Michigan State and Kansas State are on future slates.

The veteran coach hopes he has enough players to field a team after the overwhelming stretch of games upcoming. But if anyone knows what’s best for Florida Atlantic, it’s Schnellenberger, who has been in charge since the program was just a dream under construction.

“Obviously, we’re way overscheduled for this time in our development,” Schnellenberger said. “But for us to get to where we want to get to, we need to play as good a non-conference schedule as we can.”

Of the six power-conference teams scheduled to face Florida Atlantic in the near future, half are planning a return trip to Boca Raton, Fla.

Oklahoma State will travel to South Florida for a nationally televised game next week, and Minnesota and Michigan State have arranged two-for-one agreements, too, meaning in a three-game series, FAU will travel twice and play one home game and be compensated nicely for agreeing to such a deal.

“Two-for-one is really good for us at this juncture,” Schnellenberger said. “When Bobby Bowden was developing his team (at Florida State), he had to go out to Nebraska four times, maybe five times, and I’m not sure he got a return game.”

Prior to being put in charge of FAU football in 1998 — two years before the program’s first practice — Schnellenberger had success as coach at Louisville and Miami (Fla.), winning the national title with the Bernie Kosar-led Hurricanes in 1983. He also had a one-year stint at Oklahoma in 1995 and a two-year stint as head coach of the NFL’s Baltimore Colts in the mid 1970s.

Faced with a new and unique task, Schnellenberger has done wonders erecting the Florida Atlantic football program from scratch.

After three years of fund-raising, getting the word out and corralling potential players, the Owls played their first game on Sept. 1, 2001. Just two years and 22 games later, FAU had defeated a I-A opponent, a 20-19 victory over Middle Tennessee State.

It’s the fastest any program ever accomplished such a feat.

The Owls continued to rise, finishing 9-3 in 2004, beating four Division I-A teams (Hawaii, MTSU, North Texas and Florida International) and propelling the Owls into Division I-A on the right foot.

But an instrumental senior class was lost after last season, and it seemed that as soon as Schnellenberger put together a winner, he’d be forced to go back to the drawing board with an inexperienced squad.

To make matters worse, he’ll do so playing several of college football’s upper-echelon programs.

But you won’t hear him complaining. And considering his tell-it-like-it-is approach, it shouldn’t be dismissed as coach-speak, either.

“Being in a conference, we felt that it was going to be more difficult to get a type of non-conference schedule that we truly want,” Schnellenberger said. “Thank God it turned out to be just the opposite.”

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