BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Florida Atlantic fired coach Tom Herman on Monday with two games left in his second season at the school, neither of which resulted in a winning record.
The Owls were 4-8 last season and are 2-8 this season. Special teams coordinator Chad Lunsford will lead the Owls in their final two games and a search for the next head coach is already underway, the school said.
“I extend my appreciation to Tom Herman for his dedication to our university and our student-athletes,” athletic director Brian White said Monday. “I informed Tom of my decision this morning and then met with the staff and team. We firmly believe in our ability to win championships and compete for bowl games, and that remains our standard.”
This will be the fourth consecutive losing season for the Owls, who won 27 games in three years under Lane Kiffin from 2017 through 2019 — and went 21-34 under Willie Taggart and Herman since Kiffin left for Mississippi.
The Owls have gone 3-11 in conference games since starting play in the American Athletic Conference last year, falling to 0-6 this season after a loss this past weekend to Temple — which fired Stan Drayton, the winning coach in that game, on Sunday.
It’s the second consecutive week in which there has been a coaching shakeup at FAU. Last week, Herman fired defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni and associate head coach Ed Warinner — both of whom were on contracts that were set to expire when the season ends. Bellantoni, in a social media post-Monday after FAU announced Herman’s firing, indicated that he is returning to the staff, which would presumably be for the final two games that he was under contract for.
Herman was under contract through the 2027 season.
His hiring was touted as a big win for FAU two years ago; Herman went 22-4 in his first two seasons as a head coach at Houston, then 32-18 in four seasons at Texas. He posted a 5-0 record in bowl games at those schools, never had a losing season, was an assistant on an Ohio State team that won the national championship, and is a past winner of the Broyles Award given to the nation’s top assistant coach.
The Owls started 4-4 under Herman, then went 2-12 in his final 14 games. FAU hosts Charlotte on Saturday and ends the season Nov. 30 at Tulsa.
