LINCOLN — Satisfaction oozes from that familiar deep and never-changing voice of Howard Schnellenberger, and why shouldn't it?

Schnellenberger started a football program from scratch at Florida Atlantic and the Owls have been picking off milestones at an incredible pace ever since.

A win over NCAA Division I-AA No. 22 Bethune-Cookman in their second game in 2001. A win over a Division I-A program, Middle Tennessee, by the end of their second season. A trip to the I-AA playoff semifinals by year three. Elevation to I-A status by 2005 and affiliation with the Sun Belt Conference. Bowl bids and wins after both the 2007 and '08 seasons.

Schnellenberger can recite those and other accomplishments not only out of practice but the pride involved. And this was the man who revived programs at the University of Miami and Louisville that were about to be wheeled into the operating room.

“Even I didn't think we could move that fast,'' Schnellenberger said. “It's hard to keep pace and it's hard to set goals for the next year, because you've done things. If it was a team playing for 25 years and you come in as a new coach in this situation it wouldn't be nearly as spectacular.''

The next step for Florida Atlantic might be to claim one of these major-college pelts to hang back in Boca Raton. The Owls open their ninth season Saturday night at Nos. 22 and 24 Nebraska after playing the likes of Texas, Florida, Michigan State, Clemson and Oklahoma State in recent seasons.

“Part of our growth and development has to be playing teams like Nebraska,'' Schnellenberger said. “When we first started playing those games we called them ‘advanced training games.' Starting last year, we felt it was time to drop that connotation and just make it another game.''

Which is to say Schnellenberger no longer believes it's about experience, exposure and money but getting closer to winning against BCS opponents, which it did vs. Minnesota in 2007.

That's the challenge Schnellenberger, 75, took when he went to Miami in 1979 and Louisville in 1985. But after building the Hurricanes into a national champion — upsetting Nebraska 31-30 in the Orange Bowl after the 1983 season — and the Cardinals into a Top 10 team, he inexplicably left comfort and success for uncertainty and potential failure.

Why?

“It's got to be some kind of character defect,'' he said.

Or just bad decisions, of which Schnellenberger said he has made three.

The last of those was going from Louisville to Oklahoma in 1995, where Schnellenberger never fit and was gone shortly after a 37-0 loss at Nebraska completed a 5-5-1 season.

After a brief time out of football — as a bonds salesman — Florida Atlantic asked him in 1998 to consider spearheading its push to start a football program. Armed with the $13 million he helped raise and his credibility in south Florida — from time with both the Miami Hurricanes and Dolphins — Schnellenberger not only got the project started but was encouraged to coach the team.

“I did see him not long after he did that and he said he had a tiger by the tail down there,'' said Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne. “I think he knew there was good potential down there, and for a start-up situation it gave him a pretty good opportunity.''

Schnellenberger said it started with location, with the fertile grounds of Miami, Orlando and Tampa all nearby to feed FAU high school players. The university had room to expand and was just over a mile from the ocean.

In recent years, Florida Atlantic has gone from predominantly being a commuter school to expanding its on-campus housing. A 30,000-seat stadium will open in 2011 that will have the ability to grow to 40,000.

“With all those things in mind, it was very reasonable to believe we could become a Division I team faster than anybody that's tried it lately,'' Schnellenberger said. “This is the place.

“When I first started here, I'd stand up and tell crowds, ‘If I had the whole nation to start a football team, I wouldn't start it in Norman or Lincoln or Happy Valley or any other place. I'd start it in Boca Raton, Fla.' I'm convinced that's true and not hyperbole.''

Schnellenberger can sell a program as well as coach it, that's for sure. Nebraska got a taste of that in the time leading up to the 1984 Orange Bowl, complete with his arrival at a press conference in a helicopter.

Osborne recalls Schnellenberger mobilizing the south Florida community as the heavily-favored Huskers came down.

“I think Howard did what he felt he needed to do,'' Osborne said. “With the Dolphins there and being the main focal point, at that point the University of Miami was fighting still to get recognition.

“Renting the helicopter and flying around, kind of like a political campaign, you'd certainly have to say he was successful in what he did.''

With the Owls coming to Lincoln, Schnellenberger will again see Nebraska from a different perspective. Miami was breaking through in 1983, Oklahoma was in the second season of a five-year tailspin in 1995 and Florida Atlantic is the no-name program trying for respect.

Each time, Schnellenberger said, the Huskers have been the same.

“I was looking up the loss at Oklahoma, and that was the year they won the national championship,'' he said. “The year we beat them (at Miami) they would have won the national championship. And now they're back to where they're ready to win one again.''

He would put them there?

“Why not?'' Schnellenberger said.

And Schnellenberger? Well, he's building again. He said he learned from builders. Blanton Collier, Bear Bryant, Don Shula and George Allen.

He no longer drinks or smokes his trademark pipe. His life changed profoundly after a stretch in which he and his wife Beverlee cared for their adult son, Stephen, who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer as a child, left in poor health after a 2003 surgery and died almost 18 months ago.

But he's younger than Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden, and he might just see this FAU project through a little longer.

“Once I decided to do this and things started going all right,'' he said, “it seemed the natural thing to do is continue on until the university doesn't think I'm the best guy for the job or I get called by my creator to a better place.''

Contact the writer:

444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com

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