Hey, babe. Kaia Brightwater here, sunglasses on, wax on the board, coming to you from Boca Raton, where the sand is soft, the sun is loyal and the Owls' passing game is the cleanest set of waves on the Atlantic coast. I read offenses like swell reports. Clean, choppy or closeout. And last Saturday, at West Point, the surf report was not great.
So this week we're doing two things. First, an honest wipeout review, because a surfer who won't watch her own tape stays a beginner forever. Then we paddle back out at home against the other Owls. Yes, babe. It's Owls vs. Owls. Only one flock gets to fly.
Part 1: The Wipeout Review, Army 56, Florida Atlantic 24
Let's be real. Army beat FAU 56-24 on Oct. 17 at Michie Stadium, and the Black Knights scored touchdowns on their first seven possessions. Seven. I've seen gentler sets during hurricane season.
It started with a closeout. On the very first snap, Army's Elijah Walton intercepted Caden Veltkamp. On the next snap, Samari Howard ran 30 yards for a touchdown. Then Cale Hellums went 58 yards for another. Army ran 60 times for 479 yards, and Hellums alone had 25 carries, 195 yards and five touchdowns. The Black Knights threw two passes. Two. That's not an offense, babe. That's a riptide. You just get pulled out.
But here's the thing about surfers: we find the good waves even on a bad day. Veltkamp answered both early Army scores. He hit Easton Messer for a 24-yard touchdown and Kelby Valsin for a 34-yarder, and it was 14-14 in the first quarter. Veltkamp finished 33 of 48 for 318 yards and three touchdowns, with a late 19-yard score to Tucker Holloway. Messer caught 14 passes for 102 yards. Valsin had seven for 89. Collin Rogers hit a 41-yard field goal. FAU went 10-for-14 on third down and 2-for-2 on fourth.
The honest part: three turnovers, two lost fumbles and that first-snap interception, against a team that doesn't give you the ball back. And Army ran for eight yards a carry. That's the stuff we fix before we paddle out, not the stuff we cry about on the beach.
FAU is 4-2 and 1-1 in the American. The season so far: a 66-21 loss at Florida, then wins over Navy 38-30, Florida International 16-10, at UL Monroe 45-17 and over Texas Southern 66-10. Then the Army wave. Paddle back out.
Part 2: Rice at Florida Atlantic
Saturday at noon Eastern on ESPNU, at Flagler Credit Union Stadium. Owls (1-6, 0-3 American) at Owls (4-2, 1-1). Bring sunscreen. It's a noon kickoff in Boca in October, and I don't make the rules.
Our Swell Report
The FAU passing game is clean, glassy and well-formed. FAU throws for 307.3 yards per game, ninth in FBS, and scores 35.0 points per game. On third down, the Owls convert 53.1 percent, ninth in the country. Veltkamp has 1,743 yards, 15 touchdowns and three interceptions, and he completes 72.1 percent of his throws. Valsin leads the receivers with 47 catches for 601 yards and six touchdowns, and Ethan Ervin leads the run game with 361 yards.
My honest notes, because I don't post filtered photos of my stats. The FAU defense allows 416.5 yards per game, 120th in FBS, and 218.2 rushing yards per game, 134th. Army found that out. Rice will try to find it, too.
The Other Owls' Swell Report
Rice runs the ball. A lot. The Rice offense averages 238.9 rushing yards per game, seventh in FBS, and Jacurri Brown is the whole break: 668 rushing yards and six touchdowns. Last week at home against Tulsa he ran for 154 yards, with touchdown runs of 50 and 78 yards. That's a real wave, babe. Respect.
Now look at the rest of the forecast. Rice throws for 79.7 yards per game, 136th in FBS. Brown completed two of six passes against Tulsa for 47 yards, and he's at 48.2 percent for the season. Rice scores 17.0 points per game, 131st, and 318.6 yards per game, 124th. After its two long touchdown runs last week, Rice did not score for the final 40 minutes and 59 seconds. That's not a swell. That's flat water. You can't surf flat water, babe. You can only float.
And the Rice turnover margin is minus-6, 126th in FBS. FAU is plus-2.
The Matchup in Surf Terms
This game is about one thing: can our run defense stand up on Rice's one big wave? If FAU stops Brown, Rice has to throw, and Rice throwing is a closeout at low tide. If Brown breaks contain, it gets choppy.
On the other side, Rice's pass defense is decent, allowing 188.7 yards per game, 36th, but it gives up 42.6 percent on third down, 108th. Veltkamp on third down has been our best set all year. Keep the chains moving, babe.
The Series
CollegeFootballData.com has this one even at 3-3. FAU won 17-14 at home in 2022, Rice won 24-21 in Houston in 2023, and FAU won 27-21 at Rice last year. Even series. Home water. Our tide.
Postcard From Paradise: Boca Raton vs. Houston
Boca Raton. We're a beach city of 97,422 at the 2020 census, 45 miles north of Miami. Boca is, in its present form, mostly the creation of architect Addison Mizner, who started in the 1920s and gave the city its Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival look. In 1925 he announced Boca would be "the foremost resort city on the North American continent." Big talk. We've been living up to it ever since. Boca is also the birthplace of IBM's first personal computer, back in the 1980s, so yes, babe, the beach town invented your laptop's great-grandpa.
The name comes from old maritime language: "boca" meant mouth, as in an inlet on a sailor's map. Our stadium, Flagler Credit Union Stadium, opened in 2011 and hosts the Boca Raton Bowl every December. The playing surface is Howard Schnellenberger Field, named for the founding coach who built FAU football from scratch starting in 2001.
Houston. Houston is huge, babe. It's the fourth-most populous city in the country, 2.3 million at the 2020 census, and the city sprawls over 640.4 square miles. That's not a city. That's a weather system. It's also the largest city in America without formal zoning, which explains a lot about the drive from the airport.
Its climate is humid subtropical, and Wikipedia says summer mornings average over 90 percent relative humidity. Babe, in Boca we call humidity "the ocean breeze." In Houston, they call it the air.
And the other Owls' band, the Marching Owl Band, also known as the MOB, is a scatter band. Wikipedia says its members do not march. A marching band that doesn't march. That's a surfer who doesn't get wet, and I love them for it, but it's a choice.
Dropping In
Here's the plan. Stop Brown, and the Rice offense goes flat. Keep Veltkamp upright, keep the ball out of the other Owls' talons and let Valsin and Messer ride the clean water on third down. Home crowd. Noon sun. One flock flies.
Surf's up on tempo, babe.
My call: Florida Atlantic Owls 33, Rice Owls 24.