With the second bye period of 2025 now in motion the Owls won’t be battling any opponents this week. Instead they will be battling themselves and the continued exercise of removing the mistakes which have been an underlying theme at times during the first year of Coach Zach Kittley’s tutelage.
Needing to pull off the first of a number of “upsets” to return to bowl eligibility, this past weekend saw some advances and some regression with Florida Atlantic dropping an opportunity to pick up pne against undefeated Navy on the road.
“We do some really good stuff, and then we shoot ourselves in the foot”, said Kittley following the 42-32 loss in Annapolis. “And we do some really good stuff, and we shoot ourselves in the foot”, he said again repeating for emphasis.
Kittley will continue to pull out his motivational tactics to keep his unit grounded and focused, one of which might include a new acronym for the first year skipper.
After introducing ATFA earlier in the cycle, which stands for All Together Florida Atlantic, he recently tagged a social media post with CTC.
But what exactly does exactly does this one translate into? Eager to share when asked on early Tuesday afternoon during his weekly presser here is what he had to offer:
#FAU Coach @ZKittley has now launched 2⃣ acronyms. The first was #ATFA which stands for "All Together Florida Atlantic". The for those with keen 👀last week he posted #CTC . But what does that mean? Glad you asked 🔽🔽🔽 pic.twitter.com/UwuvFDTPQv
— FAU Owls Nest (@FAU_Owls_Nest) October 28, 2025
Kittley also spoke on a variety of topics including the team’s plans to recover physically, continue to focus on improvements, and handed out some player recognition.
Below is a summary of select excerpts chosen from our time together in the Flagler Credit Union Stadium Media Room.
What is Ailing the Team
“I don’t feel like we’re getting beat necessarily, because we’re just not as good, or lack of scheme or anything like that. I just feel like we’re hurting ourselves in areas that just you can’t hurt yourself in. Our Achilles heel right now is turnover margin. We’re dead last in the country, and we’re still three and five…cut our turnovers in half I think you’re looking at a possibility of having a six and two football team right now. We’re shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties huge on in the red zone on offense. Just stuff like that.”
On the Team Player Mindset of the Team
“The first thing I talked about when I got this job, and I talked about it million times since, we’re going to be a family here, Because I’m a believer in it, you have to have genuine love – genuine love for each other. If you’re a selfish player or all you care about yourself and doing your own thing and you don’t care about the guy to your right and your left, you’re not going to make it here in this football program.
“That’s not the program I’m here to build. I’m here to build a program that is genuine, that has a group of young men care about each other. care about their staff, care about anybody and everybody that touches this football program. That’s what we’re here for. And I think that when you have that it just goes a long, long way.”
Jayshon Platt’s Continued Success
‘I don’t know everything that happened with him before the last few years, but I think just with the change in scheme, the change in energy, and some of the change in just how we approach certain things he resonates with it and clicks with him. Because we heard when I first got this job he is gets super talented he’s just never been able to put it together. I think he just needed an opportunity to showcase who he is. And I think that he’s done a really good job this year.”
“Still, again, think he’s a guy that has a lot of room to still improve, too. And, you know, and I think if he sat here right now, he would tell you this exact same thing. So I think the sky’s limit for that young man.”
What the Bye Week Will Entail
“I talked to them this morning, rest recovery and self-evaluation, and that’s everybody within our program. From the equipment manager, to the trainers, to the strength staff, to me, to my staff, to every player. We have got to really take a good look at ourselves all in the mirror. Let’s look at what have we done really well so far, and what have we done, what have we been poor at. And we’ve got to really find a way to hammer away at those things that we’ve been poor act, and that’s something that we’re just, you know, extremely focused on this week.”
“But the biggest thing is, and we’ve got guys playing through a lot of stuff right now too, and these guys have played a ton of snaps for us. Basically we are giving them almost like a maintenance week where we are going to really try to get them back to as close to 100% as you can get. You’ll never be there at this point in the season, but getting these guys back to 100% to go finish these last four games the way we need to go finish them.”
What Will the Owls Work on Besides Resting
“I hit three major statistics where we’re lacking…we’re bad in that area. Number two is rushing offense and, number three rush defense. We’re at a pretty low in the country in both those two categories too. So we’ve got to be able offensively to run the football, take a little bit of pressure off the quarterback, and then get these good football players out there on the perimeter, more on islands.”
“We’re going to tweak some stuff. And so it is going to be personnel base, and it is going to be schematic base, but we’ve got to get better there offensively. Defensively… for me it reverts back to what are you doing Tuesday, Wednesday, when we’re in pads in practice? You’ve got to stop the ball. You have got to hug the ball. You can’t just go in and throw your shoulder off on the on the ball carry. You got to wrap up and get that ball down.”
Florida Atlantic will continue to mend some scrapes, nicks, and wounds before beginning to dive head first in Tulsa prep. The Owls will be back on Schnellenberger Field for Homecoming Weekend when they host the Golden Hurricane. And the game will be the first afternoon contest played at home this season with a 3:00 PM kick. As always, we will be on hand. So make sure to follow along with us.