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By KEITH NIEBUHR
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 31, 2001
BOCA RATON -- Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger is neither boastful nor modest when assessing his team. Because the program is new, he has no idea what to expect.
"It's like a family having a newborn baby boy," Schnellenberger said. "There's much happiness and enthusiasm and optimism."
And plenty of uncertainty.
FAU kicks off its inaugural season Saturday at home against Division II Slippery Rock, a team that went 8-3 last season and returns 10 starters and 24 lettermen. FAU spent Saturdays last fall playing intrasquad games. The Owls have 50 scholarship players; 25 are freshmen. Every first-year player will have a chance to contribute.
"All the teams we play will outexperience us," Schnellenberger said. "Our average age will be 19 years and 6 months. Our opponents' average age will be 21 years and 6 months. And they'll all have seniors with 30 or more games of experience. We've got two classes and we're playing everybody that's got five."
FAU lacks experience, but its 67-year-old coach certainly doesn't.
Schnellenberger's distinguished 42-year coaching career includes stops in Miami, where he led the Hurricanes to their first national title in 1983, and Louisville, where he produced the most successful decade in school history. In the 1960s, he was the offensive coordinator for three national championship teams at Alabama under legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.
Schnellenberger was last on the sideline in 1995, when he was 5-5-1 during a tumultuous one-year stay at Oklahoma.
"This has been a lot of fun," Schnellenberger said. "I don't have any idea how we'll be, but we better be better on defense. I'll have a whole lot better idea of how we are after the first game."
Quarterback Garrett Jahn, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound redshirt freshman from Tallahassee, will lead an offense that figures to throw the ball as much as Schnellenberger's teams at Miami and Louisville. In redshirt freshmen running backs Dekolan James, Anthony Jackson and Doug Parker, the Owls have a trio that Schnellenberger said is "as good as any I've ever had," no small compliment considering the coach's past. Another redshirt freshman, end Ramon Rickards, is expected to be the headliner on defense.
"I don't have any butterflies because we haven't played yet, but I've always had butterflies in the past," Schnellenberger said. "I had them when I was at Miami and I had them when I was at Louisville, even after I had been there 10 years."
Butterflies might be warranted.
The Owls' schedule includes five teams with seven or more wins last season, including Division I-AA heavyweights Eastern Illinois (8-4 last season) and Bethune-Cookman (9-2). Their opponents were a combined 69-52 last year.
"This is a very ambitious schedule," Schnellenberger said. "It had to be if we're ever going to climb the ladder. What I'll be happy with and very disappointed in if we don't accomplish, is that we're prepared for the opening game and for the whole season, and that we play as well as we can play. Obviously, you want to win every game, but the important thing is that the program builds."