In Boca Raton Bowl, Lane Kiffin's Unmissable First Year at FAU Ends Where It Began
All month long in the Daily Bowl Digest, we’ll be setting the table for each day of bowl action, with game-by-game previews and a quick look back at what happened last night. After a couple days off following Saturday's openers, bowl season continues Tuesday night when Boca Raton, Fla., takes center stage. Here's what you should know:
Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
Why you should watch: It started with an intentionally halfhearted hype video in which Lane Kiffin encouraged Florida Atlantic fans to buy season tickets with all the authenticity of a hostage reading his captors’ list of demands on tape. It continued with a flurry of summer transfer announcements in which players cast off from Power 5 programs declared that they would finish their college careers as Owls. And then the games kicked off, beginning with a weather-delayed blowout loss to Navy in which Kiffin refused to concede facing a huge late deficit as the game stretched past 1 a.m., and ending with an improbable but impressive Conference USA title.
Given a blank creative slate in his first year as FAU head coach after a tumultuous run as Alabama offensive coordinator, Kiffin has done everything in his power to keep his name in the news, in the process dragging a Group of Five bottom-feeder farther out of irrelevance. Kiffin’s fearless, relentless pursuit of #content comes to a head with a bowl game in FAU’s home stadium—the site of that infamous hype video—against Akron, which somehow scraped out a MAC East title thanks to wins by razor-thin margins over Ohio and Buffalo. On paper, Terry Bowden’s team lacks the firepower to hang with an Owls offense that sits ninth in the nation with 39.8 points per game, and Kiffin’s team lacks the chill to let up if given a national audience to showcase its dominant present and bright future. Expect plenty of points, even if it’s unlikely they’ll be evenly distributed.
• Heading to the game? Here's where to eat and drink in Boca Raton
Most interesting player on the field: Florida Atlantic RB Devin Singletary: The primary beneficiary of Kiffin’s aggressive offense, Singletary is working on a streak of 11 consecutive 100-yard games (including two 200-plus showings) and scored a whopping 30 total touchdowns (29 rushing, one receiving) in the regular season, six more than the next closest player. His 138.2 rushing yards per game landed him fourth in the national rankings.
