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You have to hand it to Howard Schnellenberger -- he may be really, really old but he also is really, really good at winning bowl games. We're talking historic good. In defeating Central Michigan to capture the bailout-free Motor City Bowl, the wannabe Captain Kangaroo pushed his bowl record to 6-0.No, it didn't come with a national championship as happened with Miami in the 1983 Orange Bowl, a 31-30 classic over Nebraska. However, it did come with the sweet feeling of restoration as this moustachioed legend guided awkward sounding football novice Florida Atlantic to its second bowl victory in four years of D-I play. For reference, Notre Dame's second most recent bowl victory prior to this week's triumph over Hawaii was in January 1993.
Last night's victory came about with a little good luck and some questionable decisions by CMU.
An evenly played game turned FAU's way early in the third quarter. After taking the ball at their two yard line, FAU worked its way towards midfield. After a personal foul penalty negated what would have been a stalled third down play and likely punt, FAU quarterback Rusty Smith scrambled and found a streaking Chris Bonner deep downfield. Bonner was not the intended target, rather a sliding teammate but he was in the right place and the right time and the teammate helped create traffic that helped free Bonner for the final few yards of the score.
Central Michigan never really recovered after the shocking 98-yard drive. They did inch back at 17-13, but FAU then put together a coldly efficient drive early in the fourth quarter capped by an 18-yard pass to receiver Cortez Gent to go ahead 24-13.
From there they let CMU create their own undoing. On a too-long five-minute drive, CMU found itself inside the red zone and facing fourth down and about seven minutes to go. Ditching a gimme field goal that would have made it a one-score game at 24-16, the Chippewas failed to make a first down and wasted a great deal of time. Their defense managed to make a stop and a bad FAU punt gave them the ball inside midfield. This time they found the end zone and converted the two point try to get to within three at 24-21 with 3:09 left.
FAU woke up after that, recovering the onside kick and converting several first downs with their run game to kill the clock and game deep in CMU territory, never requiring a field goal attempt or punt. It was an impressive showing of late-game confidence and dominance against a desperate foe.
For his success, Schnellenberger was doused with a water bath and was briefly carried by his players.
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