The Other Guys

Meri Mercifully FAU has a bye week this upcoming week until we travel to the defending national champion Auburn. I wanted to look at the in state matchup that will fly under the radar this week with UCF and FIU. Similar to FAU these three schools make up the only 3 non-automatic qualifiers for the BCS. We will be comparing how the first two weeks went for these teams compared to FAU.
Last week all three teams play a team for an AQ conference respectively. UCF dominated a game against Boston College and FIU jumped out early to a big lead and held on to beat Louisville. We of course know the story of what happened to FAU against Michigan St. FIU and UCF will faceoff down in Miami come off of all time big wins for the programs. While these two teams were pulling upsets this past weekend we watch FAU put up one first down and 48 total yards offense against Michigan St.
UCF is averaging in their first two games 46.5 points per game and FIU is right behind them at 32.5. You can compare that two FAU’s 1.5 points per game. FAU also stands 120 in passing and rushing yards.
Looking at these numbers is quite astonishing when you consider these programs are all very similar in many ways. Even with FAU moving into their new stadium in just over a month you have to ask the question are UCF and FIU leaving us in their dust. If you are wondering how has this happened when just a few years ago FAU went to back to back bowl games while FIU and UCF were sitting at home? FAU didn’t build off that success and struggled mightily to recruit while the other two programs were flourishing in that aspect.
The final question you want ask yourself is their hope for FAU? Possibly. There is a good chance FAU will bring in a big name coach who can recruit. Also FIU and UCF were able to recruit much better athletes when they moved into their respective stadiums. If FAU can pull the same model you might be able to see FAU make jump like these two programs have in the past couple of years.