List of Florida Atlantic Owls head football coaches

Tom Herman, Florida Atlantic's head coach since 2023

The Florida Atlantic Owls football team represents Florida Atlantic University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level as a member of the American Athletic Conference (AAC). The program has had six head coaches, and two interim head coaches, since it began play during the 2001 season. The current head coach of the Owls is Tom Herman, who was hired in December 2022. ^[1]

Through the 2021 season, Florida Atlantic has played 254 games over 21 seasons. Four head coaches have led the Owls in postseason bowl games: Howard Schnellenberger, Lane Kiffin, Glenn Spencer, and Taggart. Florida Atlantic has a 4–1 record in bowl games. The Owls have won three conference championships. Schellenberger's 2007 team shared the Sun Belt Conference titles. ^[2] Kiffin's 2017 team and 2019 team won C-USA titles.

Schellenberger spent the most seasons (11) as the Owl's head coach and has the most wins (58) and most losses (74) in program history. Kiffin, who led the Florida Atlantic to a record of 27–13 from 2017 to 2019, has the highest winning percentage (.675) of any non-interim coach. The lowest winning percentage for any Florida Atlantic coach is Charlie Partridge, who compiled a record of 9–27 (.250) from 2014 to 2016.

Kiffin led the Owls to two bowl appearances, the first a 50–3 win over Arkon in the 2017 Boca Raton Bowl. Kiffin's 2019 team was invited to the 2019 Boca Raton Bowl. Led by interim head coach Glenn Spencer, the Owls won 52–28 win over SMU. Kiffin left to become the head coach of Ole Miss before the 2019 bowl game.

Head coaches

Key

Key to symbols in coaches list

General		Overall		Conference		Postseason [A 1]
No.	Order of coaches [A 2]	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties [A 3]	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage [A 4]

List of head coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards ^{[A 5]}

No.	Name	Term	GC	OW	OL	O%	CW	CL	C%	PW	PL	DC [A 6]	CC	NC
1	Howard Schnellenberger	2001–2011	132	58	74	0.439	22	23	0.488	2	0	—	1	0
2	Carl Pelini	2012–2013	20	5	15	0.250	3	10	0.230	0	0	0	0	0
Int.	Brian Wright	2013	4	4	0	1.000	3	0	1.000	0	0	0	0	0
3	Charlie Partridge	2014–2016	36	9	27	0.250	7	17	0.292	0	0	0	0	0
4	Lane Kiffin	2017–2019	40	27	13	0.675	18	6	0.750	1	0	2	2	0
Int.	Glenn Spencer	2019	1	1	0	1.000	0	0	.000	1	0	0	0	0
5	Willie Taggart	2020–2022	33	15	18	0.455	11	11	0.500	0	1	0	0	0
6	Tom Herman	2023–present	12	4	8	0.333	3	5	0.375	0	0	0	0	0

^[6]

Notes

1. Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played. ^[3]
2. A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
3. Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since. ^[4]
4. When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss. ^[5]
5. Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
6. Florida Atlantic has competed as a member of the East Division of the CUSA.

References

1. Baumgartner, Blake (December 1, 2022). "Ex-Texas coach Tom Herman accepts Florida Atlantic job". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
2. "2007 Florida Atlantic Owls Stats". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 11, 2016.
3. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
4. Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
5. Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
6. "Florida Atlantic Owl coaches". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 1, 2021.