Schnellenberger, Owls dominated by UAB offense

In 24-plus years as a head football coach, Howard Schnellenberger has coached 150 winning football games and been on the losing end of 131, but in all his years Schnellenberger had seldom seen anything like he watched at Legion Field Saturday when UAB scored touchdowns on its first eight possessions and beat his Florida Atlantic team 56-29.

“This is a very tough defeat for us to endure,” Schnellenberger said. “But it was so complete on the defensive side that we have to endure it. That was about as complete an offensive show against us as we’ve had since … maybe the beginning.

“They didn’t give up the ball with a fumble. They didn’t give up the ball with any interceptions. They didn’t give up the ball but twice with a punt, so there if there were 12 series like there usually are they scored on all but two of them.

“That’s a defeat,” he said.

UAB torched the FAU defense for 622 yards, 330 on the ground and 292 yards through the air.

But the thing that had everybody on the Florida Atlantic sideline scratching their heads was giving up the touchdowns on eight consecutive possessions.

“I’ve said it once, this was the worst beating of the year and the worst beating in a long time,” Schnellenberger said.

FAU linebacker Michael Lockley was asked about giving up touchdowns on the first eight possessions by the UAB offense.

“That’s unacceptable, it’s ridiculous on our part,” Lockley said. “That’s all I can say about that. They dominated us. They did anything they wanted to.”