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Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Owls Announce 2006 Schedule
3/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 28, 2006
Boca Raton, FL - Spring drills will get underway for Florida Atlantic University's football team March 29 but not before the Owls have put the finishing touches on the 2006 football schedule and reorganized its coaching staff.
The 2006 schedule will be much like the slate the Owls played one year ago. It will be the most difficult non-conference schedule that could be constructed and may very well be one of the more difficult non-conference schedules in the country.
"This year's schedule is indeed very challenging," said Craig Angelos, FAU's Athletics Director. However, I have always admired coach Schnellenberger's attitude of wanting to play the best competition anywhere, anytime and any place."
FAU will open the season with five road games. Clemson will be the first stop for the Owls when FAU travels to Memorial Stadium, Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 2.
One week later, FAU will make a return trip to Kansas, where the team scared the University of Kansas a year ago, to face Kansas State on Sept. 9. The Wildcats, in their 111th season, will play a total of 12 games, including home dates with the defending national champion Texas.
FAU will then travel to Stillwater, OK as part of a 2-for-1 series with the Cowboys who opened the home season for the Owls a year ago. Oklahoma State, who the Owls play Sept. 16, also shares a common opponent in Kansas State.
It will be back to South Carolina, Sept. 23, for FAU head coach Howard Schnellenberger who will face South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier and the Gamecocks for the first time. Both Schnellenberger and Spurrier have brought National Championships to the state of Florida. Both have also earned Division I-A coach of the year honors. In fact, there are just two universities in the country (Florida Atlantic and South Carolina) that have a football coach and a men's basketball coach that have received national coach of the year recognition. FAU basketball coach Matt Doherty completes FAU's pair while Dave Odom serves as South Carolina's head men's basketball coach.
The Owls will then turn their efforts towards vying for a Sun Belt Conference Championship. The SBC season will open at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, Sept. 30, a team that finished third a year ago and held the league's lead until the final week of the season. The Owls stole a game from the Ragin' Cajuns in 2005 so the 2006 meeting is expected to be a strong match-up. The contest has been selected by the Sun Belt as an ESPN2 game and will be FAU's first Wednesday night contest. ULL edged out in-state foe Louisiana-Monroe for a second place Sun Belt Conference finish in '05.
FAU will then have 10 days to prepare for the Sun Belt Conference defending champion Arkansas State, who is the fourth team on the Owls schedule that participated in a Bowl Game. Last season when the two teams met in Arkansas, the game became the first in NCAA history to end regulation play with a 0-0 tie.
The Owls will return to the road where they will return to the site of the program's first Division I-A victory in Murfreesboro, TN. FAU defeated Middle Tennessee in the 22nd game of the program's existence. 2005 was a return favor for MTSU, who dealt a loss to FAU at Lockhart Stadium. It will also be the first meeting for FAU and head coach Howard Schnellenberger and MTSU coach Rick Stockstill, who assumed the helm at Middle Tennessee in 2006.
Troy University will then travel to Florida for the first time in four meetings, Nov. 4. Troy holds a 3-0 advantage, and will be an opportunity for the Owls to match-up with a program they have attempted to replicate.
Redemption will be on the minds of the University of North Texas which host FAU Nov. 18. FAU holds a 2-0 record against UNT, including a 2004 victory in Denton as part of the Owls unprecedented five-game season opening win streak. FAU was the only Sun Belt team to notch a victory over the Mean Green in 2004, a game that did not count in the overall conference rank as part of the provisional period. The 2005 victory at Lockhart gave FAU the conference standing tiebreaker.
Young tradition will continue Thanksgiving weekend as the Owls play host to Florida International Nov. 25 at Dolphins Stadium. FAU holds a 3-1 advantage and has yet to be defeated by FIU in Dolphins Stadium, a home game for the Owls.
2006 Schedule
Sept. 2 at Clemson
Sept. 9 at Kansas State
Sept. 16 at Oklahoma State
Sept. 23 at South Carolina
Sept. 30 at Louisiana-Monroe
Oct. 7 OPEN
Oct. 14 open
Oct. 18 LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE
Oct. 28 ARKANSAS STATE
Nov. 4 at Middle Tennessee
Nov. 11 TROY
Nov. 18 at North Texas
Nov. 25 FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL
Despite the program's youth, playing just its sixth season, Florida Atlantic has boasted one of the most experience coach staff's in the country. Until recently, FAU was one of just two programs that had two members on its staff that had served as NFL head coaches. Hawaii was the second.
Head Coach Howard Schnellenberger was a head coach with the Baltimore Colts, now the Indianapolis Colts and special assistant Fred O'Connor was an Interim Head Coach with the San Francisco 49ers. Coach O'Connor has retired giving way to Hawaii as the only school to have two coaches to serve as NFL head coaches.
Joe Corozza, who has been with the FAU football program in various facets since 2001, most recently as a graduate assistant tight end coach, has been named the Owls coaching staff as an assistant coach and will remain working with the tight ends.
"As a continuation of our scheduling policy which is to schedule the best non-conference opponents that we can early in the year, we have put together four great attractions," said FAU head coach Howard Schnellenberger. "Our team responded well to our challenge last year and gained great experience that will better prepare us for the similar challenge this year."
For a complete Joe Corozza bio please visit www.fausports.com.
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