Tulsa focused on notching road win at Florida Atlantic

To say that Kai-Leon Herbert is highly anticipating Tulsa's game at Florida Atlantic would be an understatement.

Tulsa's game at FAU at 5 p.m. Saturday in Boca Raton is really important from a team aspect, but also personally for Herbert, who grew up about 15 minutes away from the FAU campus.

"When I was younger, I used to work out at FAU, sometimes at their track," Herbert said. "A win this week would be amazing, especially back home seeing my family. That would mean a lot. Going into a bye week, it would really boost our momentum and our confidence."

Besides having his family present to watch him play, just getting to play college football as a starter is something in which Herbert has been waiting for a long, long time.

Try seven years.

"This season has meant a lot to me," Herbert said. "I'm just trying to take it in as much as I can."

Herbert, a 6-foot-5, 302-pound starter at left tackle, is a 7th-year senior for the Golden Hurricane. But this is the first time in college that he has seen any extended playing time.

As a 4-star recruit out of American Heritage HS, expectations were high for Herbert when he signed with the nearby Miami Hurricanes. But injuries, combined with not getting enough of an opportunity to play, led to Herbert going into the transfer portal after 5 years at Miami.

Herbert didn't play at all in 2021 or 2020. He played 10 games in 2019, mostly on special teams, but did get playing time in the season finale that year. He played in one game each in 2018 and 2017.

After transferring to Tulsa, last year seemed like it would be the year.

But after playing the first 15 plays on offense in the season opener in 2022 at Wyoming while starting at right tackle, Herbert went down with a leg injury that sidelined him for the season. He had to undergo his third surgery in college.

So, after 6 years of college, Herbert had basically only gotten any significant playing time on the offensive line in parts of 2 games.

"Not trying to speed it up or look too far ahead," Herbert said. "Just trying to take everything in for the moment, because I've been at this a while. This season has been something special so far."

Tulsa (3-2, 1-0 AAC) has benefitted from Herbert's and the offensive line's play this season, especially last week in a 48-26 win over Temple when TU rushed for 289 yards, and quarterback Cardell Williams was awarded the AAC Offensive Player of the Week.

Willliams is coming off an incredibly efficient game where he completed 14 of 17 passes for 244 yards and 3 TD's, while rushing for 90 yards on 10 carries.

As first-year Tulsa coach Kevin Wilson likes to point out, his tight ends are a big part of blocking as well as the offensive line.

"Those two tight ends are playing really, really well," Wilson said of Luke McGary and Ethan Hall. "Luke McGary is a freshman - he's outstanding. The line is really starting to come on. It's a good group."

Florida Atlantic (1-3, 0-0) is coming off a 5-7 season as a member of Conference USA. FAU, which is located about 45 miles north of Miami, made the conference move up to the AAC, which has been accompanied by the hiring of Tom Herman, the former Texas and Houston head coach.

For those not that familiar with FAU, it is the football program that late, legendary former Miami, Louisville, and OU coach Howard Schnellenberger founded in 2001 and coached through 2011.

Herman was Ohio State's Offensive Coordinator from 2012-2014, just 3 years before Wilson arrived at Ohio State to be the OC there. Herman then went to Houston (2015-16), and then to Texas (2017-2020), before getting fired there after a 7-3 season. His career head coaching record coming into this season was 55-25.

Under Herman, FAU has shown signs of decency, but hasn't done anything yet to impress. An opening season 42-20 home win over a mediocre FCS team in Monmouth (2-3) was followed by a 17-10 home loss to Ohio (4-1). Then the Owls lost consecutive road games to unranked Clemson (3-2) 48-14, and 23-17 to Illinois (2-3).

Quarterback Daniel Richardson's first start of the season came in FAU's last game at Illinois, where he went 28 of 49 for 256 yards with 2 TD's and an interception. He was 18 of 32 for 120 yards and an interception the previous week against Clemson.

Richardson took over for previous starter Casey Thompson - a 5th year quarterback who previously had been the starter at Texas in 2021 and Nebraska in 2022. Thompson is out for the season with a torn ACL.

The 5-10, 205-pound Richardson spent his previous four seasons at Central Michigan, where he proved to be a decent quarterback in the MAC.

Richardson averaged 203 yards passing with 24 TD passes and 6 interceptions at a 60.4 percent completion rate in 2021 while leading the Chippewas to a 9-4 record. He averaged 166 yards passing in 2022 with 15 TD's and 5 INT’s with a 56.3 completion percentage while Central Michigan went 4-8.

And importantly for Tulsa's hopes of stopping Richardson, he is not much of a running threat. Richardson has minus 117 career yards rushing, including 5 attempts for minus 13 yards this season.

The Owls leading receiver, LaJohntay Webster, has caught 43 passes to lead the nation in catches so far this season. That's the good news for FAU. The bad news is that he has only 401 yards on those catches for a meager 9.3 yards per catch and 2 TD's. The 5-11, 163-pound Webster is a proven possession receiver who caught 62 passes for 719 yards (11.6 ypc) and 8 TD's in 2022.

Next best for FAU is Tony Johnson's 14 catches for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns.

For a coach of Herman's significant passing pedigree, FAU's passing offense hasn't been scary to face in the least this season.

As for stopping FAU's running attack, Larry McCammon is a quality back. The 5-11, 204-pound fifth-year FAU player has 237 yards rushing this season at 6.4 yards per carry. He rushed for 1,001 yards at 5.2 ypc last season. McCammon is the only Florida Atlantic runner who has had any success this season.

McCammon had 89 yards on 17 carries against Illinois. He missed the Clemson game.

On defense, FAU is giving up 158.3 yards per game on the ground, and 239.8 through the air. Not horrid numbers. But nothing to write home about.

With Anthony Watkins emerging as a go-to back among a rotation of four backs including Jordan Ford, Bill Jackson, and Tahj Gary, Tulsa's offense seems to be finally coming into shape. Watkins, who had 77 yards a TD last week on 20 carries, leads TU in rushing with 320 yards (4.1 ypc).

Marquis Shoulders and Devan Williams are emerging as a good 1-2 punch at receiver for the Golden Hurricane. Shoulders has 16 catches for 283 yards (17.7 ypc) and 5 TD's, while Williams has 18 catches for 265 yards (14.7 ypc) and 2 TD's.

An interesting dilemma is presented to Wilson at quarterback. With Williams coming off two consecutive wins, including an outstanding game last week, does Wilson replace him with Braylon Braxton when Braxton becomes completely healthy?

Braxton is still considered to be the starter by Wilson, but Wilson was non-committal as to what quarterback will start this week. And about whether both will play.

Wilson said it depends a lot on how they both practice. But considering the fact that Braxton has hardly played this season, and isn't the most experienced quarterback anyway, the guess is that Williams will start, but Braxton, if Wilson feels he is healthy enough to play, will be ready to play sometime during the game, if needed.

Braxton's ankle injury suffered in the first quarter of the first game seems to be almost completely healed. Wilson had talked about seeing both Braxton and Williams in the game at the same time, as both are running threats in addition to their passing.

With the season still young, this game will tell a lot about where Tulsa and FAU are so far.

Amazingly, FAU is a 3-point favorite. But consider Northern Illinois was favored by about the same at home against Tulsa two weeks ago.

Maybe another road win this week and a three-game winning streak would allow Tulsa to finally earn some respect.