The coaching carousel is in full spin. While everyone focuses on Oregon and the LSU offensive coordinator position and waits for other schools to fire coaches after the conclusion of play this next weekend, some lower-profile jobs have opened up. Florida Atlantic in Conference USA is one of them.
Florida Atlantic is fresh off a tumultuous season. They finished the year 3-9 overall and were 2-6 in conference play. That tied them for the worst record in Conference USA along with Marshall and Rice. They did win three times on the season but those victories came at the hands of Rice, who was equally as bad, UTEP, who had one more win, and Southern Illinois, who is an FCS school. In terms of non-conference play, they were drilled by Miami (Florida) 38-10 and crushed by Kansas State 63-7. What likely sealed the fate of this coaching staff was how they finished the season. They gave up 119 points in back-to-back losses to Middle Tennessee (77-56) and Old Dominion (42-24). That had to be a concern. It was the fourth time this season that the Owls had allowed at least 42 points in a contest. That’s why they had to make some immediate changes. At any rate, here is a look at the head coaches who are in the running to be the next bench boss at Florida Atlantic.
Randy Shannon
The former University of Miami Hurricanes head coach is very much in the mix at this point. The co-defensive coordinator for the Florida Gators, Shannon is extremely familiar with the recruiting challenges which exist in Florida. Shannon has extensive contacts within the state and is a respected figure, making him a natural target for FAU. The big key is that Shannon would need to hire a strong and proven offensive coordinator. If FAU interviews Shannon, it would need to get good answers on this point before hiring him. Nevertheless, Shannon – whose tenure at Miami never did pan out and become something better – might be hungry to become a head coach again, and own the experience needed to make this project work. He’s a very intriguing candidate on the short list.
Jovan DeWitt
This is the quiet or stealth candidate, if you will. DeWitt’s name doesn’t jump off the page the way other candidates do. He is a linebackers coach at the University of Central Florida. He was a position coach at FAU a few years ago, meaning that his advantage is familiarity with the program. That’s his main advantage, and so if the Owls want to regroup with someone who understands the challenges of coaching in Fort Lauderdale, this is the man the school could credibly seek. This also might be the man the Owls will hire if the other more high-profile candidates say no.
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Luke Fickell
When FAU considers Luke Fickell, it will evaluate a candidate which doesn’t quite exist on the same plane as Shannon. Fickell was very briefly an interim head coach at Ohio State. He briefly tasted the responsibility a person is entrusted with in such a position, but he never had a permanent job, which profoundly affects how that situation is dealt with. Moreover, Fickell, who is currently the defensive coordinator at Ohio State, shares that duty with co-coordinator Greg Schiano. He has help on a large staff at Ohio State, and so for that reason FAU officials might wonder if Fickell is positioned to take hold of this job the way Shannon is. This is the cloud of uncertainty which hangs over Fickell in the FAU job search.
Mario Cristobal
This is the candidate which simultaneously makes sense and yet carries the most mystery. Cristobal turned Florida International into a winner, but he was let go by the Panthers in a move which remains hard to understand today. There is a sense that Cristobal carries baggage and limitations, but no one seems willing to publicly state what those limitations are. FAU must do its due diligence to make sure Cristobal doesn’t carry any red flags, any faults which demand vetting and perhaps exclusion from this job search. However, if FAU is comfortable with any investigation and finds Cristobal to be innocent of any wrongdoing in his past, he would make a natural candidate.
