Florida Atlantic Owls football

Howard Schnellenberger era (2001–2011)

Florida Atlantic University football began play in 2001 with legendary coach Howard Schnellenberger serving as head coach until 2011. Schnellenberger was a former offensive coordinator with the NFL's Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins who, as a head coach, turned around a moribund Miami football program and won a national championship in his fifth season in 1983 after back to back nine win seasons in 1980 and 1981. Schnellenberger also turned around a downtrodden Louisville football program, winning the Fiesta Bowl in 1990.

After competing their first four years as an NCAA Division I-AA independent, the Owls moved to Division I-A and the Sun Belt Conference. Starting with the 2013–14 school year, FAU athletics have competed in Conference USA.

In 1998, Florida Atlantic University announced it was pursuing the creation of an NCAA football program and that Howard Schnellenberger was going to lead the charge, as director of football operations and head coach. After his success in rebuilding programs at Miami and Louisville, Coach Schnellenberger now undertook the role of building a program from scratch. Much like his time at Miami and Louisville, Coach Schnellenberger did not shy from placing lofty expectations and high goals on his newly created program. Even before FAU would play an intercollegiate game, Coach Schnellenberger explained the goal of FAU football would be to play the best teams it can schedule, in order for the program to aim for a National Championship in Division I-A football. These extreme goals were not unusual from a man like Coach Schnellenberger. At Louisville, facing threats from the administration that the football team would be terminated, Schnellenberger made the bold (and now famous) prediction, "[We are] on a collision course with the national championship. The only variable is time.”

On August 29, 2000, the first practice was held at the Boca Raton campus of FAU, and 164 students showed up to try out for the team. During the August 29, 2000 first practice, dubbed the inaugural scrimmage game, FAU continued the tradition of Homecoming King, this time including the crowning ceremony of the King as part of the half time festivities. The Homecoming King crown was bestowed upon Wayne Burns, having been voted in by the majority of student population from across all the campuses at the time, which totaled five, then running a Q&A gauntlet alongside the top three candidates, conducted by a committee of students and faculty, who then voted to determine if Mr. Burns would move to the winners circle or if the next candidate would get the crown. Mr. Burns, was driven around the scrimmage game field in a convertible Rolls Royce to wave to the 164 students in the stands, many of whom voted for him. Wayne Burns was and is the oldest Homecoming King to ever receive the honor at FAU. Florida Atlantic joined the NCAA Division I-AA as an Independent team for the 2001 season. Its first-ever intercollegiate competition was against Slippery Rock University, which the Owls lost 40–7 in front of 25,632 fans at Joe Robbie Stadium.

The team finished its inaugural season at 4–6 and followed the next season at 2–9. Major accomplishments in its first two seasons include the program's first win, which came in its second game, against Bethune Cookman, 31–28, and won in the first meeting with newly created South Florida rival, Florida International University, 31–21.

On September 15, 2007 FAU defeated its first Big Ten opponent with a 42–39 victory over the University of Minnesota. Led by Rusty Smith, FAU beat Troy University in the final game of the 2007 season to become Sun Belt Conference champions and received an invitation to the 2007 New Orleans Bowl, its first ever bowl bid. As a result, in just the seventh year of the football program's history, and the third year playing in Division I, Florida Atlantic set an NCAA record by becoming the youngest program ever to receive an invitation to a bowl game.

On August 11, 2011, Howard Schnellenberger announced he would retire at the end of the season.

Carl Pelini era (2012–2013)

On December 1, 2011 FAU hired Carl Pelini, the Nebraska Cornhuskers defensive coordinator to become their new head coach, to succeed Schnellenberger.

On October 30, 2013, Pelini resigned from his position after admitting to school officials he was using illegal drugs, specifically marijuana and cocaine. He, along with defensive coordinator Pete Rekstis, officially stepped down from their positions only three days before the school's homecoming game, which they won 34–17, under the direction of interim head coach Brian Wright. Under Pelini, the Owls compiled a 5–14 record.

Wright finished the 2012–13 season as the interim head coach, winning the team's last four games and led the Owls to its first bowl-eligible season since 2008–09.

Charlie Partridge era (2014–2016)

On December 16, 2013, FAU announced it had hired Charlie Partridge as head coach. Prior to accepting the job at FAU, Partridge was the defensive line coach at Arkansas. On November 27, 2016 FAU fired Partridge after 3 consecutive 3–9 seasons.

Lane Kiffin era (2017–present)

On December 12, 2016, it was announced that former USC and Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin would become the Owls' next head coach. Kiffin has been the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at the University of Alabama since 2014 and also was previously the head coach of the NFL's Oakland Raiders from 2008–2009.

Program achievements

Since the first season of the program in 2001, Florida Atlantic has only been in two conferences, the Sun Belt Conference (2005–2012) and the teams current conference, Conference USA which joined in 2013. Before 2005 the Owls were independent in both NCAA Division I-AA (2001–2003) and I-A (2004).

Conference championships

The 2007 Florida Atlantic Owls finished the year with an 8–5 overall record and a 7–1 in conference, and shared the Sun Belt Conference champions title with Troy. The season included wins over FIU, Troy, and Minnesota. The Owls were defeated by Louisiana–Monroe in three overtimes.

Bowl games

Florida Atlantic has played in 2 bowl games, compiling a record of 2–0.

Florida International

The Battle for the Don Shula Award, also known as the Shula Bowl, is the FIU-Florida Atlantic rivalry. It was first played in 2002 and has been played every year since then. The game and trophy are named after former Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula. Primarily nowadays the game is either in Boca Raton or Miami; there have been a few meetings in other locations in the Miami metropolitan area. In total the two squads have met on the gridiron 15 times with Florida Atlantic holding a 10–5 lead in the series.

All-time record vs. CUSA teams

Official record (including any NCAA imposed vacates and forfeits) against all current CUSA opponents:

Future non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of December 14, 2016