Howard Schnellenberger’s been around the block a few times, to say the least, and he’s done a great job in building the Florida Atlantic program from a gleam in some administrators’ eyes to the top program in the Sun Belt. Of course the top program in the Sun Belt is like saying that you have the best pulled pork barbecue in Northern Minnesota, but still, FAU isn’t half-bad, whipping Memphis in a bowl game last year, hanging around with USF, etc.

But while the Owls have a lot of talent back (relatively speaking), there is still a huge class difference between FAU and the major powers in college football. Their best chance is to catch their major conference opponents not taking them seriously.

So if you were thinking of taking 22.5 with FAU at Texas next Saturday, you should be aware of comments that Coach Schnellenberger made to the FAU student newspaper. Schnellenberger said that Texas “has great talent, but they aren’t tough, they aren’t a physically tough football team.”

Why would you fire up your opponent by calling them out on their toughness? I have no idea. But I’d hate to be a FAU wide receiver going over the middle of the field in this ballgame.

And if part of your handicap was that that Mack Brown might be gentlemanly by not scoring late in the game, you might want to rethink how juicy those 22.5 points actually appear in that ballgame.