FAU's "Old Warrior" still undefeated

Howard Schnellenberger, the Phoenix of college football, once again resurrected in a bowl game last night orchestrating a bowl victory with fledgling Florida Atlantic University football team, and stayed undefeated in post-season bowl games by completely dominating Memphis in the R+L Carriers New Orleans bowl.

In Boca Raton, they very affectionately refer to Schnellenberger as the "Old Warrior". And it aptly applies.

FAU, with a coaching staff HEAVY of assistants from the University of Louisville, plays a very tough, physical brand of football, which for 10 years we UL fans saw and loved. An NFL pro-style offense, using 2-back sets and an attacking passing attack, with a very physical running style; and a base 4-3 defense with huge fundamental emphasis on TACKLING as opposed to hard-hits. And if FAU's practices are anything like they were at UL, you can bet that game performance is the "EASY" part of a players week.

Schnellenberger has proven that pro-style offense with a physical defense can win at EVERY level of collegiate competition. From winning national championships at Miami University and playing on the biggest stages in college football, to selling just the CONCEPT of football with zero players to recruits at FAU. Not too mention what all UL fans know he accomplished at UL.

But Schnellenberger is more than just a throwback style brand of football. The man himself is a complete anathema to EVERY college coach in the nation. Schnellenberger THRIVES on challenge. It is literally the lifeblood of his heart. This is a man that LEFT Miami University AFTER winning a national championship there to come to UL to try and build a program that was all but dropped from competitive play back in 1994. And then, decided, (after a disastrous stint at Oklahoma where the fans and alumni there NEVER understood him), to build from literally NOTHING a football program in the heart and on the figurative doorsteps of the university where he won a national championship many years ago.

In an era of college football where we see coach's changing jobs every other year for ever increasing exhorbitant amounts of cash, where "loyalty" and "support of the coach" is DEMANDED of the fan base to support a head coach, REGARDLESS of the product they put on the field or their ever-wandering eye, here you have a coach that has a longer tenure at the schools he has been affiliated with than 90% of all the coaching staffs out there, but at the same time has taken positions that most former HC's would consider an INSULT, or a joke, if even mentioned as a job opportunity!

We praise HC's like Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno for staying with their respective universities so long; but would either of even THOSE guys have walked away from Miami after winning a national championship, NOT to take higher paying job, or a more prestigious job, but to breath life into a program at UL that had barely seen any success playing at the top level of college football? And NOT for money! Let's face it, had it been about money, Schnellenberger might even have been MICHIGAN'S number 1 pick at this point in his career, and even at his age. Because Schnellenberger could have stayed at Miami and won at least several MORE national championships there. And would be making a ton more dollars than he is right now at FAU.

As UL fans we owe a lot to Schnellenberger, and through that I was cheering as loud as I could last night for the FAU Owls to bring home their first bowl victory in their first bowl game ever, for a HC that I think deserves to at least be considered for nomination into the college football HOF.