Miami Hurricanes vs Florida Atlantic Owls: Four Players to Watch For

The Miami Hurricanes had a pretty dominant performance during their season opener against Bethune-Cookman last week. Now, the Canes go on the “road” to Boca Raton to play a pesky Florida Atlantic team.

The FAU football team is coming off a tough loss to Tulsa in overtime, but they displayed a high-powered offense during their season-opening loss. Coach Charlie Partridge has done a really good job recruiting kids to FAU and keeping them competitive, even though their win-loss record might not indicate that.

Miami has more talent than the Owls, and should win this game rather easy, but it’ll be a good test for the Hurricanes this early in the season. If they dominate the Owls like they did Bethune-Cookman, it’ll be a really impressive performance.

Now, let’s get familiar with some players that Miami will have to have their eyes on Friday night.

Jaquez Johnson – Quarterback

We obviously have to start with the Owls quarterback for this one. The dual-threat quarterback has had a lot of success during his tenure with the Owls. Johnson threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns against Tulsa, all while running for 97 yards. Johnson is one of the best quarterbacks in Conference USA and the offense runs through him. If Miami wants to avoid a shootout, this is the guy to really focus on come Friday night.

Johnson threw for 17 touchdowns last season and ran in 7 touchdowns in 2014.

Greg Howell – Running Back

Recruiting is one thing that Coach Partridge has done well at FAU — especially in south Florida. FAU wants to go vertical, but they also want to establish a good ground game and Coral Gables standout Greg Howell is their go-to guy. Howell had a good opener against Tulsa, rushing for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Howell runs hard at 6’1 205 and the Canes need to be ready to bring him down. Miami’s defensive line should do work against FAU’s offensive line, so they need to limit the damage on the ground and force FAU to abandon the run game.

Howell rushed for 253 yards on 50 carries last year as a freshman.

Trevon Coley – Defensive Tackle

Trevon Coley is the man on defense for the Owls. Coley is a preseason first-team all-conference player and he’s really good. Miami’s offensive line is probably considered the weakness of this team and they’ll have to account for Coley on every down he’s out on the field. The Miramar high school standout had three sacks and two forced fumbles last Saturday against Tulsa, and while he probably won’t do that against a more talented Miami team, he can still make some plays for FAU.

Coley had four sacks last season for the Owls, and he’s well on his own to surpassing that number in 2015.

Cre’von LeBlanc – Defensive Back

While Coley is the guy to watch for on the defensive line for the Owls, LeBlanc is the guy to focus on in the secondary. LeBlanc is the best defensive back FAU has. The senior from Glades Central high school didn’t have his best game last week against Tulsa (when you give up 47 points, everyone had a bad day), but he’s still the best cover guy the Owls have. Miami will have to get creative offensively, especially after Braxton Berrios and Stacy Coley were ruled out for the game by Al Golden.

Despite the defense playing poorly last week, LeBlanc was able to collect his first interception of the season. The senior had two interceptions in 2014 for FAU.