Florida Atlantic still Conference USA favorite even with star quarterback Chris Robison off team

The Florida Atlantic football program already had a big challenge this season in replacing highly successful head coach Lane Kiffin, who left for Ole Miss, but now the Owls also must replace starting quarterback Chris Robison after he reportedly was dismissed from the team for undisclosed reasons. Despite those two big losses, FAU is the +280 favorite on the William Hill moneyline odds to repeat as the Conference USA champion.

Kiffin was 27-13 in his three seasons at FAU, leading the team to Conference USA championship in both 2017 and last year when the Owls spanked UAB in the title game. Hard to blame Kiffin for jumping at the chance to coach in the SEC again with the Rebs. He has been replaced by Willie Taggart, who was fired last season at Florida State but is a quality coach.

As for Robison, he was not on the team's preseason roster that was released Tuesday and no reason was given. Last year, the Texas native completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 3,701 yards and 28 touchdowns to just six picks in starting all 14 games. He was named first-team Conference USA. Robison had been on the 2020 watch lists for the Maxwell Award and Davey O'Brien Award.

Robison has had some trouble off the field. He originally committed to Oklahoma out of high school but was dismissed before the 2017 season for a violation of team rules. Robison sat out 2017 at FAU after transferring there and was suspended at the start of spring practice in 2018 for missing a tutoring session. He also was suspended for spring practice last year due to an investigation for sexual battery, although Robison was never charged.

There are now four quarterbacks on the FAU roster: juniors Nick Tronti and Justin Agner, redshirt freshman Javion Posey and true freshman Willie Taggart Jr., the son of the new head coach. Tronti, the 2016 Florida Mr. Football, got into a handful of games last year and was 17-for-22 for 180 yards with two TDs and one pick. Agner saw very limited action, going 3-for-5 for 30 yards with a pick.

Tronti figures to be the front-runner to start when FAU opens the season TBA. Like every other league, Conference USA is being forced to make major scheduling changes, but C-USA hasn't announced anything official yet. There are reports it plans to keep the eight-game league schedule and allow schools to play as many non-conference games as they want/can, even against other C-USA schools. 

FAU was to open Sept. 3 at Minnesota, but that's off with the Big Ten going league-only. 

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