Florida Atlantic

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Virginia Tech hires Florida Atlantic's Brian White as new athletic directorour readFlorida Atlantic signed a top-78 transfer-portal class — 22 additions headlined by JK Johnson (CB) from Oklahoma State and RJ Garcia II (WR) from Bowling Green.our read

American Athletic · Zach Kittley, year 2 (5-9) · FAU Stadium · 29,419 · 22,273 avg in 2026

The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#101 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #111 (-12.2) · FPI #115
The marketFlorida Atlantic by 7vs Florida International · our model 58% Florida Atlantic · a number, not a pick

LastW 38–30 vs Navy · Sat Sep 12 · Caden Veltkamp 386 pass yds, 5 TD

Nextvs Florida International · Sat Sep 19 · 6 pm ET · FAU Stadium · Florida Atlantic by 7 · series 16-6, last win 2024 · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist statureRegional Program III#175 all-time– holding
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 62-82 12 seasons
Best season 11-3 2019
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'20'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 12 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 3-9 '15 3-9 '16 3-9 '17 11-3 '18 5-7 '19 11-3 '20 — '21 5-7 '22 5-7 '23 4-8 '24 3-9 '25 4-8

Florida Atlantic's 2014–2025 record is 62-82. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.430
Ranked seasons (AP)
0/12
Best AP finish
—

Program outlook

Howard Schnellenberger built FAU from nothing in 2001 and promised it would one day play for championships. Lane Kiffin delivered a ranked, conference-winning season in 2017. Every year since has been the search for what comes after the proof.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

Florida Atlantic is the program built on a genuinely improbable origin story: a Hall of Fame coach came out of retirement to start a football team from scratch on a beach campus in Boca Raton, three miles from the Atlantic, and within six seasons it was winning the New Orleans Bowl. Schnellenberger didn't just build a team — he staked a premise, that 'Winning in Paradise' was a real thing, that a Boca campus and Florida sun could recruit and sustain a program worth caring about.

Lane Kiffin made the premise look true for one perfect year. The 2017 Owls went 11-3, won Conference USA, cracked the AP top 25, and blew out McKneese in the Boca Raton Bowl — everything the founding promised delivered in a single season. Then Kiffin left for Ole Miss, and the carousel started. Zach Kittley arrived in 2025 to bring his high-tempo Air Raid offense to Boca and went 4-8 in year one — the kind of record that reopens every argument about whether location is a reason to build here or just a reason to visit.

Kittley enters 2026 in year two, and the question the season will answer is simple and uncomfortable: is FAU the program Schnellenberger imagined — a destination where coaches stay and build — or the launchpad Owls fans are tired of being told it is? The paradise is real. The program's ability to hold anyone in it is still the open question.

On the field

Kittley's Air Raid: up-tempo, four-wide, vertical distribution built on pre-snap motion and quick reads. The system produces big passing numbers when it has the right quarterback operating it — the scheme is the identity, not the athletes, which makes it replicable year to year and fragile in rebuilding years. FAU's task is finding the quarterback who unlocks what 2017 proved the pieces can do.

program outlook · as of 2026-06-14

All-time record · Florida Atlantic

Florida Atlantic has won 44% of its games since 2002 — 55% at home, 32% on the road.

127-159 all-time · 25 seasons · 2002–2026

Home 67-54
Away 47-100
Neutral 13-5
55% 2000s
40% 2010s
38% 2020s

Coaching Era · Florida Atlantic

Zach Kittley

Zach Kittley in year 2 of the rebuild. The methodology is taking shape.

Era Zach Kittley · 2025–presentPrev: Chad Lunsford (interim) (2024)DC: Brett DewhurstPrev DC: co-Brandon Harris / Roc Bellantoni (2023–2024)
The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →
2 years · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

2007

Schnellenberger's first bowls

FAU wins the New Orleans Bowl just six seasons into existence

The 2017 ranked season

Kiffin's Owls go 11-3, win Conference USA, and crack the AP top 25

2019

Kiffin leaves for Ole Miss

The architect of the peak departs, beginning the post-Kiffin drift

Wound

More in this tab

Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 1-1

Florida Atlantic is 1-1 and unranked in the season's first weeks.

Even or better through the season's first weeks. The resume is still forming.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
ConferenceWhere this team sits in this season's conference standings.

American Athletic standing · 2026

1st in the American Athletic

Florida Atlantic sits at the top of the American Athletic at 1-0. Everyone else is chasing.

#ProgramRecord
1Florida Atlantic1-0
2South Florida1-0
–Charlotte0-0
–East Carolina0-0
–Memphis0-0
–North Texas0-0
–Rice0-0
–Temple0-0
–Tulane0-0
–Tulsa0-0
–UAB0-0
–UTSA0-0
13Army0-1
14Navy0-1
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Zach Kittley2025
  • Hired Chad Lunsford (interim)2024
  • Tom Herman departs6-16, 2 seasons
  • Chad Lunsford departs (interim)1-1, 1 season
  • Hired Tom Herman2023
  • Willie Taggart departs15-18, 3 seasons
  • Hired Willie Taggart2020
  • Lane Kiffin departs27-13, 3 seasons
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

Florida Atlantic’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2015 · Brian Wright2016 · Travis Trickett2017 · Kendal Briles2018–2019 · Charlie Weis Jr.2020 · co-Clint Trickett / co-Drew Mehringer2021 · Mike Johnson2022 · Brent Dearmon2023–2024 · Charlie Frye
Defense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2016 · Roc Bellantoni2017 · Chris Kiffin2018 · Tony Pecoraro2019 · Glenn Spencer2020 · Jim Leavitt2021 · Mike Stoops2022 · Todd Orlando2023–2024 · co-Brandon Harris / Roc Bellantoni2025–2026 · Brett Dewhurst
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Howard Schnellenberger Founding (2001)

since 2001

more

Howard Schnellenberger — Miami national championship-winning coach (1983) — founded the Florida Atlantic football program in 2001 + coached through 2011. The Schnellenberger-as-program-founder narrative + his Hall of Fame coaching career + the rapid ascent (FCS 2001 → FBS 2005 → first bowl 2007) make FAU's institutional story unique.

Lane Kiffin 2017 Run

since 2017

more

Lane Kiffin's 2017 11-3 + Conference USA championship + Boca Raton Bowl championship + #24 final AP — his first year as head coach — was the program's modern peak. The 'Mango Bowl' (Kiffin's nickname for the C-USA title game) + Devin Singletary 32-touchdown season + Lance Taylor as OC made the 2017 era nationally relevant.

Winning In Paradise

since 2017

more

'Winning In Paradise' — Lane Kiffin's recruiting + identity tagline — captures the Boca Raton Florida beach-life-meets-football identity. The phrase appears in tweets + recruiting + alumni events + the South Florida cultural overlap make FAU's identity uniquely beach-paradise-football.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
Canon appearancesMoments that made college football's permanent record.

Featured in The Canon

#44
Trey Hendrickson
The 100 Best Players of the CFP Era
Browse The Canon →
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2017-2020): 2-1

Most recent: 2020 — loss 10-25 (home). Last 5 postseason: 2-1.

202020192017
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