Injuries flattening young Owls

The Florida Atlantic University football trainers are earning their keep this season.

Injuries have plagued the Owls already, well before today’s season opener against Kansas University at Memorial Stadium. It’s bad news for a team with minimal seniors, minimal experience and faced with the monstrous task of challenging Division I-A football as the runt of the 119-team litter.

“Their steps are not nearly as spry and enthusiastic as we’d like them,” coach Howard Schnellenberger said earlier this week of his battered team. “I’m hopeful that we get a lot more that as we prepare for our opening game.”

The Owls are nothing like the team that went 9-3 and beat four Division I-A teams as a transition program a season ago. Now, they have just four starters returning, have lost 28 seniors from last year’s team and will have an astonishing 53 freshmen on this season’s roster.

“If I had some senior players, I think we’d have a lot of spring in our steps,” Schnellenberger said.

He has some – 16 seniors dot the roster – but the point’s well taken. Florida Atlantic is young, laced with inexperience, and banged up to boot.

One of the top threats on offense, fullback Aaron Sanchez, is questionable for today’s game because of injuries to his ankle and quadricep. Wide receiver Thomas Parker was granted his sixth year of eligibility just this week, making him the only receiver on the team who has caught a pass in a varsity football game.

FAU’s quarterback, Danny Embick, has 27 games of experience, including five in his freshman year at West Virginia. But it’s mostly in mop-up minutes, and he’s averaged only about five pass attempts per game played.

Nevertheless, Embick may be the key on offense if FAU wants to get much accomplished. As a backup his sophomore year, he had 30 completions in 37 attempts – an 81-percent clip.

He certainly made a nice first impression on KU coach Mark Mangino.

“He’s a very talented young man,” Mangino said. “He’s a threat from anywhere on the field and anytime he has the ball in his hands.”

Defensively, the Owls return just two starters, but one is middle linebacker Shomari Earls, a 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior, who may be the team’s best athlete. He led FAU with 81 tackles last season, including 10 for a loss and four sacks.

Schnellenberger also is high on his two cornerbacks – Lawrence Gordon and Willie Hughley. Gordon started every game last season, compiling 63 tackles and an interception. Hughley, meanwhile, led last year’s team with six interceptions, garnering 116 return yards out of them.

Both the corners are seniors and were key components in FAU’s recent success, making them valuable.

“I’m very impressed with them,” Mangino said. “They’re good cover guys.”

Schnellenberger’s problem, though, is that there aren’t enough players with the resume of the select few – and that might cost them dearly today.

Schnellenberger went on about his team’s woes – too injured, too young, too green, too small at some positions, and about to be too overmatched in their non-conference schedule, which includes games with KU, Oklahoma State, Minnesota and Louisville.

Schnellenberger’s not all pessimism, though. He said he’s seeing improvement, little by little, in his squad leading up to today’s game.

He’s hinging on it for hope.

“The last scrimmage we had last week, I thought the team was getting close,” Schnellenberger said.

“We look forward to going out to Kansas. It’s a great opener for us.”