Season finale last chance for Florida Atlantic to become bowl eligible
It’s come down to this – Florida Atlantic has to win its final regular-season home game to become bowl eligible.
FAU hosts Charlotte Saturday in an effort to get to six wins – against six losses. 
Owls’ coach Lane Kiffin hopes a chance to earn a second straight bowl bid is enough incentive for his team.
“Like I have said before, if that is motivation for them (the players) then great,” Kiffin said Sunday. “But obviously, we want to go to a bowl. It is more practices for your team, developing young players, (and) excitement for the fans.
“When we got here, if you had said, ‘hey we are going to go to two bowls in the first two years after not going to a bowl in nine years’ that’s good.”
Unfortunately, the season has not gone quite like FAU had hoped.
Road losses at highly-ranked Oklahoma (63-14) and Central Florida (56-36) were expected.
But a home loss to Louisiana Tech (21-13) – where FAU self-imploded in the fourth quarter – and a last-second road setback at Middle Tennessee (25-24) have put the Owls in this must-win situation. Road losses at Marshall (31-7) and North Texas (41-38) were toss-up games from the start.
“It is frustrating,” Kiffin said of poor mid-season performances by his Owls. “There is a good and bad to everything, like you have heard me say before. The good thing is that we are right there in the games and we are ahead in all these games. It shows that we are really good when we play well.
“The bad thing is, it was one play in all those games that makes the difference. Those are very tough to deal with.”
FAU is coming off a solid offensive performance against a good (8-3) North Texas team, as the Owls gained 195 yards on the ground (running backs Devin Singletary 23-91, Kerrith Whyte (18-76) and 294 more through the air (quarterback Chris Robison 21-35 for 294 yards, 2 TD, 2 interceptions).
However, the FAU defense – which has struggled to get off the field all season long – yielded 511 yards of offense to North Texas, with the kicker being a 92-yard run by Mean Green running back DeAndre Torrey with 4:06 to play. That TD run turned out to be the difference.
This could be the final game for FAU junior running back Devin Singletary, as he could skip his senior season to enter the NFL draft.
In his last two season, Singletary is the No. 1 FBS running back with 54 rushing touchdowns. Singletary is trying to become the first FBS running back to lead the nation in rushing touchdowns in back-to-back years since Oklahoma’s Billy Sims in 1978 and 1979.
Kickoff Saturday is set for 6 p.m.
GAME CAPSULE
WHO: Charlotte (4-7, 3-4) at Florida Atlantic (5-6, 4-4)
WHEN: 6 p.m. Saturday
WHERE/RADIO: Howard Schnellenberger Field at FAU Stadium – Boca Raton; ESPN 106.3 FM
LINE: Florida Atlantic is a 18-point favorite
DID YOU KNOW: The Florida Atlantic-Charlotte series is only three games old with the Owls holding a 2-1 advantage. Charlotte won in 2015 (17-7), while FAU has won the last two (28-23 in 2016 and 31-12 in 2017).
won 31-12.
won 31-12.
PHOTOS contributed by: Bob Markey / www.MarkeySportsPhoto.com Courtesy of www.FAUOwlsNest.com
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