Mike Jarvis Takes the Helm

FAU mens basketball's new head coach, Mike Jarvis, wasn't as big as I expected him to be. I see him next to all these huge basketball players on TV, and he looks near their size, but when I went to interview him, I almost passed him in the hallway.

He looks big and mean when he's roaming the sidelines, but in real life he's a couple inches shorter and probably about 30 pounds less than me, and I'm just under 6 feet tall and weigh about 205 lbs!

His softer side shows when you talk to him. He's very religious and is always involved in his local church. Right now he attends Boca Raton's Spanish River Church and lives about ten minutes away form the campus.

If it weren't for him, Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing would have never started playing basketball. He persuaded Ewing into playing in high school.

Besides coach him, Jarvis also taught Ben Affleck and Matt Damon at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High.

You got an event you want to post online? Go to his website http://www.jarvistv.com/.

FAU basketball has had high profile basketball coaches before, but they weren't around very long. Jarvis says he's here to stay. It's time to get excited for another coaching legend at FAU.

To add to Jarvis, FAU also have a newly renovated basketball arena. The season starts in less than a month.

Men's Soccer Struggling For Some Wins

The Owls men's soccer team (2-8) will need a win in their Saturday, Oct. 11 home game against conference opponent Hartwick, to keep any hope in a winning season.

They have struggled this year, but have some promising players. Junior defense man Jordan Kelly (above right) is a left footed star who has been asked to play for the Jamaican National Soccer Team.

Head Coach Kos Donev is another one of those long tenured FAU coaches. But, for whatever reason, men's soccer is another sport FAU has been struggling in this year.

Even with an on campus field not many students are attending soccer games, or for that matter really anything other than American football. The easiest way to create some interest is with winning, something these guys haven't accomplished in the last six games on their schedule.

Eight Strait Years of Winning Seasons in Owls Women's Soccer Snapped

The eight year streak of winning seasons for the FAU Owls women's soccer team has been snapped. They have one win, eight losses, and one tie on the season.

Such a terrible start would usually call for the coach's head to roll, but not with this team. Their head coach, Brian Dooley, has a nearly flawless coaching resume with this season really being the only blemish.

Dooley's teams are known for their defense. Even just last year the Lady Owls only let up only 15 goals throughout the whole season, ending as one of the top defenses in the nation.

So what's happened? Well, for starters the defense has already let up 16 goals this year and it's only half way through the Lady Owls season. When you add that they only have scored five goals, you realize it's really been a dreadful overall performance.

They lost in overtime to UF, who was ranked 20th in the nation at that time, lost to USF in overtime, who was 4-2-2 at that time, and tied Western Kentucky, who was 6-0 at that time.

So, they have played well against the good teams, well, that is until their last game when they lost to Denver 4-0. Denver is 11-1-1 on the season.

On the bright side, the Owls (0-4 in conference games) have seven more coference games to try to salvage their season. And their is a chance at that because they have Dooley at the helm, who has proven he knows how to win.

Men's and Women's Opening Golf Tournaments

The golf season is in full swing at FAU. Both the men's and women's teams completed their first tournaments of the year in the first week of October.

Since I'm a gentlement, lady's first. They played in the Waterlefe Invitational in Bradenton, Florida. Five from each school's roster could take place in the event, and one of our five finished in second place. Senior Kimberly D' Andrea (above right) finished one under par. Her experience and improved play is something to watch for throughout the season.

The men's team played at the Mission Inn Intercollegiate Classic in Howie In The Hills, Florida. The five man roster they selected consisted of four sophmores and one freshman.

Angelo Sands, in his thrid year as the men's head coach, has one of the most perfect golf names in my opinion. Hopefully the golfers can stay out of the sands, aka bunkers, so they can have a successful season.

Owls are Over Hyped, And it's Not Even Debatable

I noticed myself watching the debate and waiting until the commercial to see what was going on as the the game went on. It started vice versa, but as we went down 27-10, I felt the debate was more important.

There's no debate about it, FAU football is disappointing and this year was more over hyped than Kimbo Slice. But, why wouldn't you believe Howard's words? He's so good at seeing talent. What happened? Help me Howard!

Lockhart, where the Owls play, is right down the street from my house, but after leaving my wine class early (hopefully the professor isn't reading this right now) I still couldn't bring myself to show up in person to watch these guys. It was for the same reason as why I didn't go to that Kimbo fight at the Bank Atlantic Center- there was something else more worth watching. During the Kimbo fight, it was Rampage Jackson fighting Forrest Griffin.

Something interesting with the Owls, though, is how the defense has improved. Problem is the offense and special teams look like my Northeast High Hurricanes when we went 0-10 one year.

I'll tell you, it's going to be hard to fill that new stadium up when the team playing in it is no good. And I'm sure Howard would like to leave his legacy of building programs from scratch into nationally recognized powerhouses untarnished.

Destroy Troy!

As the Troy Trojans come to town, Owl fans are wondering if we can wrap them up. Will we be able to keep them from busting through the middle? Can we stop them from hitting on all cylinders from every side and every angle? Can we seal them in, and keep them from a big day of (re)production?

Okay, that's enough with the jokes, but seriously, the Owls need a win here today to keep this season from being a lost cause. A conference title is still reachable with one loss, but two losses isn't very feasible. And anything other than a conference title is a step backwards for the program.

To compare the teams, the Trojans were the conference champions two years ago, and we are defending the Sun-Belt Conference title. We beat them last year, but they beat the MTSU Blue Raiders this year, and we are coming off a heart breaker against them.

It's time to lock the Trojans up in Lockhart. We must "Destroy Troy", as Student Government's slogan put it. We must, okay I'm done with the cliches, too.

Bottom line is we better shape up or ship out (sorry I lied about the cliches) because I know I won't be excited to watch this team play anymore with another loss. Rusty needs to return to last years form and the defense needs to keep going with it's improvement. If the football team wants to have their continued Owls supporters, they need to give us something worth supporting, because so far this year it's been embarrassing.

Oh, Hail No!

The whole black out thing didn't make any sense to me. Middle Tennessee State is called the Blue Raiders, so what was the purpose in the fans and team wearing black? Shouldn't they be wearing blue? I guess black looks cool when everyone is wearing it, but wouldn't blue look just as cool? Plus, looks don't win football games, just look at the Georgia v. Alabama blackout game.

Anyway, even with the Owls up 10-0 going into the fourth quarter I still had that uncomfortable feeling that our guys could pull it out. After all, we were on the road in a conference game so no matter who you are playing, or what the score is, the wackiest things seem to always happen.

And then it happened, in the last play of the game. With FAU up 13-7 the Blue Raiders had a Hail Mary's chance in winning. Then, from 45 yards out, up it went, I could remember my self yelling, "Just knock it down, just knock it down!" and down it came, in the Blue Raiders hands for the game tying touchdown. "Oh, hell no!... Oh, haaaaiil no!" Then, the extra point sealed it, a 14-13 loss.

A no TD pass game for Rusty plus only one TD scored for the Owls in the hole game is going to equal another tally in the loss column almost every time.