BOCA RATON – This one was easy.
In FAU’s 41-17 beatdown of North Texas on Saturday (Dec. 2), Devin ‘Motor’ Singletary powered the running game as he racked up 164 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. This has been a truly outstanding season for the Owls sophomore, as he now has an eye-opening 1,796 rush yards and 29 touchdowns.
Singletary’s first of three touchdowns came off a 3-yard run to the end zone with 14:55 left in the second quarter. With an extra point by kicker and graduate senior Greg Joseph, FAU (10-3) took a 17-0 lead and effectively started finishing off North Texas in the Conference USA title game.
After Joseph’s 22-yard field goal extended the lead to 20-0 for FAU at the 9:53 mark, the Owls defense made a statement to remember. Junior safety Jalen Young caught one of his two interceptions right near the end zone and raced to the 50-yard line, which helped to set up FAU’s next score.
With 4:43 left in the first half, Singletary punched in a 9-yard run to the end zone. The Owls extended the lead to 27-0 over the Mean Green when Joseph nailed the extra point.
The scoring party was far from over for FAU, as its 27-0 halftime lead grew even larger by a 54-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jason Driskel to wide receiver and Conference USA title game MVP Kalib Woods (6 catches, 208 yards, 1 touchdown. The extra point by Joseph made the FAU lead stand at 34-0 with 12:21 left in the third quarter.
But North Texas (9-4) would go on to score 17 unanswered points and cut FAU’s lead in half later in the final two quarters. Mean Green wideout Turner Smiley’s 77-yard touchdown reception with 4:47 left in the third (Conference USA title game record) & running back Evan Johnson’s touchdown run (10:32 in the fourth) recorded their teams’s only two scores in the title game.
The exclamation point for FAU came when Singletary took the ball home for his third and final touchdown run with 5:27 left. With an extra point by Joseph, the 41-17 lead would stand until the final buzzer.
“It was all about the players,” FAU head coach Lane Kiffin said in a postgame press conference with media members. “A lot of people thought it was going to be easy because of the last time we played. That’s a really good team. Since we last played them (North Texas), they won every game. But our kids played really good football these last nine games and finished them off well.”
FAU, which won its first Conference USA title, has completed a remarkable turnaround by improving at least seven wins from last year’s 3-9 campaign. The Owls will find out about their bowl destination during today’s College Football Playoff Selection Show, which will start to air at noon on ESPN.
PHOTO CREDITS: Keith Forde
