FAU has their guy. Owls Coach Tom Herman named Marshall transfer Cam Fancher a team captain and the starting Quarterback after a fierce QB battle with Tyriq Starks, one that stretched from the spring to the very end of fall camp.
“I don’t see that changing (Fancher starting) between now and next Friday. Tyriq has had a really good three weeks, and it’s certainly no knock on on him and his performance, just Cam has had a really good spring, had a really good summer, and has had a really good three weeks of three weeks of camp, and he just hasn’t done anything really to let go of that spot,” Herman said.
The Huber Heights, Ohio native spent 3 seasons at Marshall, starting in 2 of them. Fancher saw a solid amount of success during those years, reaching 2 Bowl games and winning 1.
A dual threat QB, Fancher threw for 3,766 yards 21 TDs and across 17 starts and 25 total appearances, completing 60% of his passes. On the ground, he carried it 232 times for 757 yards and 5 TDs.
During his time at FAU Fancher has immediately been able to form a connection with his teammates, establishing himself as a leader on this squad. Numerous players have noticed Fancher’s leadership, and leadership is something FAU Coach Tom Herman has noticed is a strong trait of Cam’s through the little things he does off the field.
“Cam’s a pretty soft spoken guy. I knew that. You know, he’s a do everything right guy, so he certainly leads by example, so much so I asked our Strength Coach ‘What am I Missing’, I love the kid. I’m excited to go do battle with him, but I just didn’t think he had that so quickly. And Joey (FAU strength Coach) said coach, ‘There’s a lot of stuff he does that that you don’t see’, and that’s a big compliment to him, to surprise me, that means he’s doing a lot behind the scenes that has really captured, the hearts and minds of a lot of this team,” Herman said.
Stretching the field has been inconsistent at times, however Fancher has been able to get a solid deep ball connection with EJ Horton and Caleb Coombs, 2 of his former Marshall teammates. Fancher has been able to shine in the RPO and option side of the Owls scheme, showing an ability to advance the offense through the short game at a high level, and the shorter passing game is something which Tom Herman has used to be successful in the past.
“I was part of a team that won 10 games in 2018 and we were one of only two teams in the entire country in division one to not have an offensive play over 50 yards, and we won 10 games, the other team that did it won two, so you don’t want to live like that,” Herman said. “But if you protect the ball and you are great at all the other stuff, you have to capitalize on those because they’re harder to manufacture when you don’t quite have the 4.3 guys on the outside, to really push that ball down the field. I think you will see a bit of a different feeling when we take that black jersey off Cam, and defenses have to defend against him tucking the ball down and running around a little bit,” Herman said.
The Owls will have a chance to have a really diverse offense with Fancher at the helm. Last season the Owls ran a package for Michael Johnson Jr which featured designed run plays, this package can be morphed into the regular offense with Fancher at the helm.
The offense’s consistent dual-threat ability will leave defenses guessing a lot of times. Even though the Owls deep threat won’t be as great as last season, the addition of Fancher’s run game should help the FAU move the ball at a consistent rate.
FAU will look to finalize Fancher’s counterparts at WR over the next week and let him gel with the offense as a whole, now officially as the starter. But now with an official starting QB, the Owls can officially turn all heads towards Michigan State and look to upset a P4 team to start off their year.
