In something unseen since 2016, Florida Atlantic football walked away from the 2025 Shula Bowl without the Trophy Saturday evening.
The Owls came into the game as 2.5 point underdogs, and despite somewhat of a strong 1st half which saw them take a lead into the break, FIU dominated the 3rd quarter with a 21-0 onslaught, going on to win 38-28.
It was an overall sloppy performance for FAU, as they turned the ball over 3 times, had over 90 yards in penalties and were dominated in the trenches by the Panthers, getting outrushed 224 to 135.
Although the FAU offense finished with strong totals, as Caden Veltkamp completed 33 of 51 passes for 343 yards and Gemari Sands rushed 14 times for 105 yards, the offense was inconsistent, finishing 8 of 18 on 3rd down, and 2 of 6 on 4th down, which set up the FIU offense in situations that they capitalized upon.
3 out of FIU’s 5 touchdowns on the day came within 5 yards of midfield and after the game, Kittley credited the Panthers second half domination to their high octane offense, while FAU was littered with offensive inconsistencies.
“They came out firing and then we gotta answer on offense, and we just didn’t, we got into second and third and long too much, that was one of our keys to victory this week, to stay ahead of the sticks. And we weren’t ahead of the sticks. So again, it starts with me getting us into a better first down play call, and then our guys executing the first down calls to stay in those second and third and manageables versus the third and 12, we felt like we found ourselves in a lot in that third quarter. ” Kittley said.
FIU was able to beat FAU by capitalizing on their mistakes, as the aforementioned penalties and turnovers hurt, but 12 missed tackles, as well as a pair of drops offensively hurt the Owls as well.
FAU was very nonchalant about the rivalry itself in the weeks leading up to it, however it was the Owls who were the ones making uncharacteristic mistakes in a way a team who was putting too much stock in a rivalry would.
According to Kittley, the mistakes will be ironed out over the next few weeks, however in terms of the penalties he notes his team can’t retaliate in certain situations like they did tonight which cost them.
“We just got to be more disciplined. That’s the frustrating part. We were really good the first two weeks out, and the first one on T Reid, you know, I don’t know if he thought the receiver slung the ball or not when he kind of slung him down late, because that was a weird one. And the other one late is kind of the normal deal. Someone gets a quick shove in as the whistle blows, then you retaliate. So we can’t retaliate. That’s something we talked about all week, and that’swhat’s frustrating there on the special teams. But bottom line, we got to play better techniques. Most of those holding calls, false starts, that stuff. We got to play with better technique, what we’re coaching to do, the holdings, the false starts, all that stuff’s going to go away.” Kittley said.
Zach Kittley is the first Owls coach to lose to FIU since Charlie Partridge in 2016, marking 2 generations of FAU students who have come and gone since a loss to the Panthers.
Although FIU was favored in this matchup, it has become an expectation around the program that FAU would win the Shula Bowl each year, especially with the move to the American conference.
FIU is a talented program, with a Coach in Willie Simmons who has a vision and is executing it, however this is a loss which the Owls and Kittley will need to bounce back from and his hope is the fanbase hasn’t lost hope yet.
“”Stick with us, it’s early year. We still have 9 more games, conference plays starts in two week at home in Boca. Stick with us, we have a good football team, we got great kids. We’ll come ready to go here in two weeks,” Kittley said.
