Dec. 1, 2012 wasn’t a good day for the Pelini brothers. First, FAU Coach Carl Pelini saw his team commit key turnovers as his Owls lost their finale 35-21 to the Louisiana Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns. FAU’s home loss saw the Owls drop to 3-9, 2-6 in the Sun Belt Conference. Louisiana improved to 8-4 and 6-2.
Hours later, Bo Pelini’s Nebraska Cornhuskers had a chance to win the Big Ten Conference.
But the Wisconsin Badgers (8-5) had other ideas … crushing the Cornhuskers 70-31 at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Wisconsin got the automatic bid to the BCS Championship Series and they’ll face Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Nebraska (10-3) will play Georgia (11-2) in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando.
During the Louisiana game, FAU trailed 21-14 at halftime and amassed 528 yards in total offense. At one point, FAU led 14-7.
The key turnovers halted scoring drives, as FAU had three turnovers with one fumble and two interceptions by senior QB Graham Wilbert, who played in his last game. Wilbert finished the 2012 season with 2,814 yards and only six interceptions.
He’ll spend the rest of the winter and beginning of the spring getting ready for FAU’s Pro Day.
Junior William Dukes had a career day against Louisiana catching nine passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns. He led FAU receivers with 979 yards.
Next on Pelini’s agenda is the recruiting trail as he prepares to improve on this season.
Now that football is over, the shift is to Men’s Basketball. On Sunday, FAU faced the Warner Royals, who were 6-4. The Warner Royals public relations staff never brought any game notes for the media, nor did they bring their “A” game, as FAU cruised to an 83-50 win at “The Burrow” in a contest that started at 3 p.m.
Before the game, I wondered how many people would show up since there was a full slate of NFL games. Believe it or not, there were plenty of fans and it was a half way decent atmosphere. FAU improved to 5-4.
Greg Gantt led FAU with 19 points and Stefan Moody had 18. One notable newcomer to the FAU roster is 7 ft. center Dragen Sekelja, from Zagreb, Croatia, who transferred from Baylor. His presence was felt as he grabbed 11 rebounds against Warner.
OWLS NOTES: Former FAU Athletic Director Craig Angelos is the new Associate Director of Athletics/Compliance Services for my alma-mater, the University of South Florida Bulls in Tampa.
Finally, the 2013 season will be the last in the Sun Belt Conference for FAU and Middle Tennessee, as both are headed to Conference USA in 2014. They’ll join FIU and North Texas, who are expected to be members of Conference USA in 2013.
The FAU/FIU rivalry will resume in 2014, after taking a oneyear hiatus in 2013.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at www.scottsports33.com.
