Florida Atlantic Preview-This Team Could Pull an Upset (not really)

Let's kill some owls.


Florida Atlantic comes in with a 2-5 record with wins over UAB and South Florida. FAU could easily be 5-2 if they had not turned the ball over in three close losses. So they pose a significant threat to an Auburn team still trying to re-establish themselves as a national...

I can't do it. I cannot sit here and tell you that I am the least bit concerned about Florida Atlantic. They are coached by a Pellini for goodness sake. The only wins for the Owls this year are against UAB (terrible) and South Florida (worse).

In other years, maybe. But not this Auburn team. Not a team that shocked everyone in the college football world last Saturday. Gus Malzahn has done the best coaching job I can remember at Auburn, and he has a team on the precipice of a very special season. He won't allow a letdown.

This staff has taken a group with a wounded psyche and turned them into a contender seemingly overnight. Auburn fans were cautiously optimistic about Auburn coming into the season. We figured we maybe could win 8 games if things fell our way. The rest of the college football world scoffed. Sports Illustrated picked Auburn last in the west.

Somewhere in between the debacle that was 2012 and the start of 2013, college football forgot that Auburn is among the best programs in college football over the last 30 years. They forgot about the two undefeated teams in the last 10 years and 3 in the last 20. They forgot this team was talent-laden with untapped potential.

Most importantly they forgot that it was Gus Malzahn who made 2010 happen, not Gene Chizik. I would argue today that Gus made 2010 happen in spite of Chizik. And if Gus made that happen in 2010 as a coordinator, why couldn't he turn things around as a head coach in 2013?

Auburn won't lose Saturday. Auburn may not lose again this year. They are a team who grows more confident with every weekend. They do it with big boy power running and sheer toughness. They have something that they didn't have last year- guts, and they are not done putting the rest of college football on notice.



Auburn 49
Hootie Who? 14