The Owls concluded their flock to Arlington at the AAC Media days, but not before Coach Tom Herman, LB Jackson Ambush, and OL Federico Maranges spoke with various members of the media and gave an outlook on the team prior to training camp.
But before all of that, the day started with the release of the 2024 AAC Preseason poll which placed FAU at 6, one place lower than last season’s 5th place projection, and 4 higher than their 10th place finish. After a 4-8 season which was a building block season for the Owls, it wasn’t expected for FAU to be a preseason favorite, but what could have been expected is that the 6th place projection wasn’t going to be good enough for Maranges & Ambush.
“Actions speak louder than words, you can say what you want to say, but we’ll see about that this fall,” Ambush said in an interview with the AAC on ESPN.
“It’s definitely disappointing to see the ranking, but you have to take it how it is, and it just lights a fire beneath us. It pushes us to be even better than we were before, I’m trying to take it from anger and turn it into a drive instead of pouting about it,” Maranages said in an exclusive interview with FAU Owl’s Nest.
Following the release of the AAC preseason poll FAU Coach Tom Herman took the podium where in his words he wanted to “keep it brief” and started off his opening statement by thanking the FAU “championship administration” which he mentioned was a big factor in him taking the Owls job a year ago.
Following his opening statement he was asked to describe his 2 players in attendance, to which he described both as “Marry your Daughter kind of guys” and added that Maranges was the FAU student athlete of the year across all sports, not just football, and that Jackson Ambush was challenging him for that award.
Leadership on the Owls squad has never been a question with Maranges, Ambush, and many others all taking on the leader role for the Owls. What has been a question however, is what this offense is going to look like with practically a brand new squad out there, and Coach Herman acknowledged that the offense’s talent level has increased, while also being excited about the depth at a couple of offensive position groups.
“We’re going to be, as a whole, more talented on offense. I think the dynamism of our running back room was on display in the spring, the Quarterback has 2 very very capable guys, one of which has started and won games at a very high level. The receiver room is one that will certainly be deeper and not nearly as top heavy, 2 of my last 3 years as a head coach we have had the leading receiver in the country, and Devin Duvernay in 2019 as well. When you lose a guy like La’Johntay, you are not going to replace him with 1 guy, we feel a lot better in the depth in that room and the ability to spread the ball around. I think the key on that side of the ball, we are going to be more talented up front, but experience is lacking so we need to gel very quickly there,” Herman (pictured below) said.
In terms of the Quarterback room, Coach Herman is referring to Cam Fancher and Tyriq Starks who will enter fall camp in the midst of a brewing quarterback battle, between 2 QBs who bring different skill sets to the table. Fancher brings experience having started games in 2 of the past 3 seasons, and with that he brings a mobile skill set that is also capable of being a solid presence in the pocket. Starks brings experience inside Tom Herman’s offense, and also has been a consistent improver during his time with the Owls, having taken a serious jump this past offseason adding a ton of muscle and showing a calm command of the offense in the spring.
Owls center Federico Maranges has worked with both quarterbacks in the spring, and according to him the QB battle is wide open, noting that he believes both quarterbacks have put in a ton of work and he would be open to either as the starter.
“The battle for the #1 QB is extremely close right now, and it all depends how they do in fall camp. I’m comfortable with whichever one is behind me catching the snap, it’s going down to the wire right now. Whenever we finish that second week of camp and the roster is set to the starters, I’m going to be comfortable because I already know those guys attended their behinds off,” Maranges said.
Maranges also commented on the offensive line room, as Tom Herman was saying that the room was needing to gel prior to the season, Federico believes that the group has depth and is coming together well and he’s looking forward to blocking for a revamped running back room as well.
“Right now we have an amazing amount of depth, that I haven’t seen in a long time, we have Malcolm Lamar and Alex Actavage, Andre Lamas, Daughtry Richardson, Jordan Church, Okino King and Woody Jean, and I could name even more, I’m not worried about any of these guys going into the game, there isn’t going to be any drop off. I’m really excited about our running back room, we have Cj Campbell, Zuberi Mobley and Germani Sands, so it’s on us right now, I like our depth and I’m excited to see what we are going to do,” Maranges said.\
In terms of the defensive side of the ball, Coach Herman mentioned that the defensive unit has the potential to be an Anchor for this team, similar to how they were last year, as there has been an influx of talent during the offseason to replace what was lost.
“The defense anchored us last year, I would argue that we played good enough defense to win a lot of those games. I think we held 7 out of 8 of our conference opponents below their season average in points and yards. Losing Evan Anderson will hurt, as impactful of a Nose Guard as I’ve been around, probably not going to fill his shoes with one guy, might be a couple of guys there. Really excited about the defense, I think we can continue to improve and I think we’re going to replace the pieces that we lost, maybe other than Evan, with better pieces ,” Herman said,” Herman said.
With Fall Camp set to begin in just a few days, there will be plenty of chances for a variety of Owls players to make their impact, catch the eyes of FAU coaches and potentially earn playing time, and when asked about his philosophy of promoting from within, Coach Herman acknowledged that if a player does their job they will be rewarded within due time.
“When you find good people, especially at a place like FAU that really have an ability to impact whether you win championships or not, you want to reward those people and keep them around your program as long as you can. I hope our players do see that in our program, you get rewarded, you do the right thing, you do your job and really good things happen,” Coach Herman said.
We shall see who gets rewarded in just a couple of days, as the Owls are set to begin Training Camps on Wednesday, which will mark the official beginning of year 2 of the Herman era and decide the positional battles that are still up in the air.
