The Black Knights got a monster win over Tulane this past weekend at Michie Stadium. That win takes them to 3-2 on the season, 2-1 in the American Conference, and if they’re not quite at the top of the conference standings, they have every opportunity to win their way back. That starts this week with another critical conference contest against the Florida Atlantic Owls.
FAU has a good team this year with an outstanding offense. To get a win this week, the Black Knights will need to hog the ball, score when they get the chance, and play good defense against arguably the best offense they’ll have seen so far this season.
Didn’t Flinch. Saturday’s Victory Reel 🎥 #GoArmy https://t.co/N3sNrQwtLd
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 13, 2026
Florida Atlantic Owls
Head Coach Zach Kittley has the FAU Owls 4-1, 1-0 in the American Conference in his second season with the team. So far, his guys have beaten Navy, Florida International, Louisiana-Monroe, and FCS Texas Southern. His team’s only loss came to SEC powerhouse Florida in the Swamp.
This year’s FAU team features an outstanding quarterback, at least three high-quality receivers, a decent running game, and a ball-hawking defense. Like most of this season’s games, we’re expecting a barnburner this weekend that goes down to the final moments.
Standard set✅ Sights set on @American_Conf play💪 #WIP🏝️ https://t.co/NvEn2cFGxs
— Florida Atlantic Football (@FAUFootball) October 10, 2026
Offense
FAU features a decidedly pass-heavy attack. They’ve attempted 204 passes this season, compared to just 182 runs. Though that kind of thing is not particularly unusual in professional football, it’s quite rare at the collegiate level.
QB Caden Veltkamp leads this offense. He’s gone 128/175 passing this year (73.1%!) for 1,427 yards with 12 touchdowns against just 2 interceptions and 9 sacks. FAU’s running game isn’t bad, and they use it quite a bit to keep from getting into constant third-and-long situations, but they don’t have a back averaging more than 4.6 yards per carry. That makes the Owls about half as efficient on the ground as teams like Temple or especially Tulane. They can get away with that because Veltkamp has such exceptional accuracy.
WRs Kelby Valsin, Easton Messer, and Dominique Henry have 96 catches between them for a whopping 1,220 yards. That’s most of this team’s offense. FAU has gained about 2,000 total yards this season. Those three provide 61% of that total just by catching the football. Bottom line, we should expect to see those three guys plus the occasional handoff this weekend. That’s FAU’s offense.
Unusually for a pass-first team, FAU converts about a respectable 50% of their third downs. That’s good for 20th overall in the FBS. Usually run-first teams do far better with third down conversions overall. With that said, the one time FAU struggled to convert third downs this season — aside from their game at Florida — was against FIU. In that game, FIU stopped FAU’s running game cold, holding the Owls to just 1.8 yards per carry, and as a result, the Owls converted just 6/16 third downs despite Veltkamp completing nearly 68% of his passes.
With that in mind, Army’s defense needs to really get after FAU’s running game this week, keep the downfield passing game in front of them, and play great when FAU gets into the red zone. That’s always been Army’s best chance against pass-happy teams, and it’s gonna be key once again this week.
Putting the Owls up 28-3 in Q1 @crveltkamp 🤝@EastonMesser Drive Summary Presented by Ticket Shield #WIP🏝️ https://t.co/Ok2Xr28CXP
— Florida Atlantic Football (@FAUFootball) October 4, 2026
Defense
FAU’s defense hasn’t been as good as their offense, but they are very good at generating turnovers. Against the run especially, the Owls have given up 166 rushing yards per game on 4.6 yards per carry. Notably, they let the Mids run for 246 yards a few weeks ago on every bit of 6.6 yards per carry. That came in a game in which the Mids got down huge in the first half and had to throw a lot to try to come back from a multi-touchdown deficit.
LBs Joseph Sipp Jr. and Leon Hart Jr. lead the team in tackles with 59 total. They and their team have been very good at knocking down passes and creating turnovers this year. As a unit, this team has 15 passes defended in just five games. They’ve also picked off 6 interceptions, forced 4 fumbles, and made 3 recoveries. With that, the Owls currently sit +5 on turnover margin, having given up just 3 fumbles and 2 interceptions themselves.
To win this week, Army’s offense will need to take good care of the football and hit a few big plays to keep the chains moving. The more the Black Knights can keep their offense on the field, the less Veltkamp can run up the score on them. Army absolutely cannot afford to waste offensive possessions this week.
Mike K. Heit shot maybe my all-time favorite practice photobook yesterday. Find the full gallery on our Patreon page.
Special Teams
PK Collin Rogers has been a perfect 24/24 on extra points this season but is just 6/8 on field goals. He has misses from 40+ and 50+ yards out but has also hit a kick from 60 yards out!
Like a lot of punters Army has seen this season, FAU P Reed Chandley has a big leg. Dude has hit some punts for 50+ yards this season. Just from the stats, though, it doesn’t look like the Owls have a big-time punt or kick returner.
Final Thoughts
Both ESPN’s SP+ and Vegas’s betting lines make this a close game. The betting line opened at Army (-3) but quickly fell to Army (-2.5). As of this writing, it hasn’t moved much since. The Over/Under opened at 59.5 but has since fallen to 55.5. That’s still quite a lot of points for any Army game, though we certainly might see that many.
Notably, we’re expecting cool or even seasonably cold weather this week. We should have sunny skies, but temps will start in the low-to-mid-30s and might rise into the upper-40s by kickoff. The high temperature Saturday won’t go above 50 degrees. That probably won’t bother the Black Knights much, but it’s not impossible that this kind of chilly weather will affect FAU a bit. Those guys won’t have seen anything like that this year, nor will it be that cold on Friday during their walkthrough, so they’ll be coming into fall weather for the first time all season.
High praise for Dave Rimington and @rimingtontrophy Watch List honoree Brady Small from @CoachJeffMonken during This Week in Army Football on Monday night. The Rimington Trophy will be on Black Knights Alley on Saturday prior to our kickoff against FAU at Noon. #GoArmy https://t.co/loHLnreTQ0
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 13, 2026
Kickoff will go at noon. As always, CBS Sports has coverage for Army home games. You can find Rich DeMarco’s radio call on the Varsity app, and if you’re looking to commiserate with fellow Army fans, check out AFF’s Firstie Club via our Patreon page.
We should be in for a good game this weekend. There is no substitute for victory!
Go Army! Beat FAU!!!
