Florida Atlantic Football bounced back in a big way from their week one struggles in the home opener against FAMU Saturday evening, showing a glimpse of what a Zach Kittley led team hopes to do when firing on all cylinders.
The Owls took the lead with 11:15 to play in the first quarter on a 24 yard pass from Caden Veltkamp to Dom Henry and they never looked back from there, jumping out to a 39-0 lead at halftime and ultimately knocking off the Rattlers 56-14.
After week one saw FAU set a program record with 6 interceptions, Caden Veltkamp and the FAU offense looked like a well oiled machine against FAMU, accounting for 553 total yards of offense and no turnovers.
Veltkamp finished his day 27 of 39 for 309 yards, tying a program record with 5 touchdowns, while spreading the ball around to 8 different receivers.
While Veltkamp’s performance stole the show, it was the run game that opened up the passing lanes, with the Owls rushing for 193 yards on 34 carries, led by Gemari Sands who carried it 10 times for 83 yards.
Defensively, the Owls were able to frustrate the FAMU offense with 2 sacks, 4 tackles for loss, and 5 PBUs, and they held Rattlers to just 69 yards rushing on 30 carries which made FAMU lean on Quarterbacks RJ Johnson and Jett Peddy.
It wasn’t just the offense and defense making plays for FAU, as with 7:09 to play in the first quarter FAU got a blocked punt from freshman edge rusher Josh Roberts which was recovered in the endzone by Lawrence Johnson to give the Owls a 15-0 lead.
Although week one didn’t go as planned, the Owls looked like a new team in week 2, getting contributions all over the field and according to Zach Kittley that was because everyone was willing to do what needed to be done to get the win.
“Just our details and everyone doing their job. We had some guys really try to do a little bit too much last week, they were trying to make the big play instead of just doing their job and let the other 10 guys make the play. And that’s something I worked on all week. I actually told them at the pregame meal, sometimes it’s your job to set the edge of the defense and let somebody else make the tackle, sometimes your job as a wide receiver is to run your route the perfect way so it can get somebody else open. It’s not always your turn to make the play. And so our guys used to detail that up and do your job. I should watch all the film, sit down, not on the iPad, and see how we did there. I think it’s going to be a dramatic improvement,” Kittley said.
Veltkamp looked much more comfortable in game 2 in the Kittley offense, finishing with an average depth of target of 9.2 and that was in large part due to an offensive line which allowed only 6 pressures on the evening.
Although the Owls were firing on all cylinders, FAMU did score their first touchdown of the game in the early third quarter, while the Owls saw their only two drives of the quarter end in punts.
FAU was able to hold Maryland to just 6 points in the second half in week one and here in week two FAMU was looking for a similar performance against the Owls, which could have been detrimental to an FAU squad looking to build momentum into week 3.
The Owls were able to force a FAMU turnover on downs late in the third quarter and the offense turned that into a 12 play 86 yard drive, capping it off with Veltkamp’s 5th passing touchdown of the day and second to Asaad Waseem.
It was ultimately a strong finish for FAU, as they outscored the Rattlers 17-7 to close the game, building momentum heading into the Shula Bowl in week 3, however the start to the third quarter is something that frustrated Kittley and they will look to clean up in preparation for FIU.
“That was probably my biggest frustration from the game, is how we started the third quarter. I wanted to go in there and put the dagger in, I wanted to go, put the one offense back out there for one more drive and go score. And unfortunately we did not execute at the highest enough level those first two drives there. That led to us having to keep those guys in a little bit more. That’s my biggest frustration, we played a ton of guys tonight, and it’s awesome to see that, that’s what you want. You want to have everybody that that suited out, go and get some snaps on the field. Defensively there, we just had a couple MA’s (missed assignments) in coverage, just bottom line cannot happen. So we’ve got to communicate better between the corner and the safety on both plays. It’s actually, I want to say, the same coverage call. We’re just not, we’re not there, we gotta clean that up. And offensively, again, we gotta stay ahead of the chains, we went reverse first play right there, and then we went minus one. We’ve gotta stay ahead of the chains. Second 11 makes it tough, and we gotta be better there. So I think that’s kind of that, that low we hit a little bit. But late third, early fourth we were able to put the foot on the gas a little bit more and finish the game off the right way,” Kittley said.
Now FAU will turn their attention to Florida International and the annual Shula Bowl, as the Owls will ship down to Miami for a battle with the Panthers next Saturday.
FAU has dominated the Shula Bowl in its history with a 17-4 record all time in its history, however the Panthers have looked much better under Willie Simmons, throttling Bethune Cookman in week one, and staying within 2 scores of Penn State for 2 and a half quarters in week 2.
Caden Veltkamp will be partaking in the Shula Bowl for the first time in his collegiate career next Saturday and although it is new to him, he understands the magnitude of the game and will be putting the win behind him quickly to prepare for it.
“We gotta come back tomorrow and have a good run through practice. You get 24 hours to celebrate. Really, you get less than that, because we’ll be back at noon tomorrow for our lift, and so we’re gonna have fun tonight and celebrate it as a team, but the focus has to be on FIU. And obviously it’s a big rivalry. It means a lot to a lot of people around here. I’m excited to go down there and go toe to toe to toe with those guys,” Veltkamp said.
The Owls will take on FIU next week at 6 PM EST from Pitbull Stadium, as Kittley, Veltkamp and Co. look to win their first Shula Bowl together.
Author: Robbie Lastella
Photographer: Christian Proscia
