From Owl Access...
Golden Hurricane Watch
With fall camp officially concluded, FAU began preparation for Tulsa while keeping an eye on Erika.
Originally published on 8/27/2015
by Chuck King
BOCA RATON – Under gray skies that provided welcomed relief from, prior to Thursday, what had been a blazing, steamy week of practice, FAU began preparation for the Golden Hurricane while simultaneously tracking a second hurricane approaching Boca Raton.
After officially closing fall camp on Wednesday, FAU pivoted Thursday's focus to opening-week opponent Tulsa, knowing that many of the practices leading up to the first game may have to be adjusted if what could be upgraded to Hurricane Erika continues its trek toward South Florida.
“We've got several different possibilities,” FAU coach Charlie Partridge said. “At the end of the day it's, Do we have to evacuate? We have a plan to keep our kids safe. If we don't have to evacuate and it's going to be hard to practice, then we need a plan for that and everything in between.”
Earlier predictions showed Erika, which is currently tropical storm, making landfall in South Florida, but as of Thursday morning the National Hurricane Center projected that Erika would reach hurricane status and the center of the storm would pass to the east of Palm Beach County on Monday - though the area is still within the projected storm path's cone of deviation.
Partridge said members of his staff are closely monitoring the path updates.
“The word I heard for this weekend is that wind sheer has weakened Miss Erika,” Partridge said.
Partridge said FAU administrators have started scouting potential practice locations should Erika force the Owls out of Boca Raton for a significant amount of time. He declined to name which cities or facilities are being considered.
“That discussion is being held right now,” Partridge said.
FAU opens its season at Tulsa on Sept. 5.
Erika may eventually make a negligible impact on South Florida, but the weather did prompt some small changes in FAU's Thursday practice.
Partridge chose to invert the order of practice sessions, making sure that the first and second teams were able to work against the scout teams first, ensuring that the game plan portions of practice wouldn't be washed away by rains, which it turns out never arrived.
Unlike fall camp, where players learn the basic themes of FAU's offensive and defensive schemes, practices will now focus on implementing gameplans specific to each week's opponent.
“We've got kids learning how a scout team practice goes because it's the first time we've done it, so it was good,” Partridge said.
Overall, Partridge seemed pretty pleased the growth of his Owls in their second fall camp under his tutelage.
“We still have a lot of work to do, some mistakes that we have to get cleaned up,” Partridge said. “If we can do that we can be a pretty good football team.”
Noteworthy: Second string wide receiver Derek Moise appeared to injure his knee after his feet slid out from underneath him while making a catch. Partridge said Moise would undergo further evaluation later in the day.
Golden Hurricane Watch
With fall camp officially concluded, FAU began preparation for Tulsa while keeping an eye on Erika.
Originally published on 8/27/2015
by Chuck King
BOCA RATON – Under gray skies that provided welcomed relief from, prior to Thursday, what had been a blazing, steamy week of practice, FAU began preparation for the Golden Hurricane while simultaneously tracking a second hurricane approaching Boca Raton.
After officially closing fall camp on Wednesday, FAU pivoted Thursday's focus to opening-week opponent Tulsa, knowing that many of the practices leading up to the first game may have to be adjusted if what could be upgraded to Hurricane Erika continues its trek toward South Florida.
“We've got several different possibilities,” FAU coach Charlie Partridge said. “At the end of the day it's, Do we have to evacuate? We have a plan to keep our kids safe. If we don't have to evacuate and it's going to be hard to practice, then we need a plan for that and everything in between.”
Earlier predictions showed Erika, which is currently tropical storm, making landfall in South Florida, but as of Thursday morning the National Hurricane Center projected that Erika would reach hurricane status and the center of the storm would pass to the east of Palm Beach County on Monday - though the area is still within the projected storm path's cone of deviation.
Partridge said members of his staff are closely monitoring the path updates.
“The word I heard for this weekend is that wind sheer has weakened Miss Erika,” Partridge said.
Partridge said FAU administrators have started scouting potential practice locations should Erika force the Owls out of Boca Raton for a significant amount of time. He declined to name which cities or facilities are being considered.
“That discussion is being held right now,” Partridge said.
FAU opens its season at Tulsa on Sept. 5.
Erika may eventually make a negligible impact on South Florida, but the weather did prompt some small changes in FAU's Thursday practice.
Partridge chose to invert the order of practice sessions, making sure that the first and second teams were able to work against the scout teams first, ensuring that the game plan portions of practice wouldn't be washed away by rains, which it turns out never arrived.
Unlike fall camp, where players learn the basic themes of FAU's offensive and defensive schemes, practices will now focus on implementing gameplans specific to each week's opponent.
“We've got kids learning how a scout team practice goes because it's the first time we've done it, so it was good,” Partridge said.
Overall, Partridge seemed pretty pleased the growth of his Owls in their second fall camp under his tutelage.
“We still have a lot of work to do, some mistakes that we have to get cleaned up,” Partridge said. “If we can do that we can be a pretty good football team.”
Noteworthy: Second string wide receiver Derek Moise appeared to injure his knee after his feet slid out from underneath him while making a catch. Partridge said Moise would undergo further evaluation later in the day.
