Report: Ray Lewis emerges as head coach candidate for Florida Atlantic

Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis emerged as a candidate for the Florida Atlantic opening, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

“Following the Deion Sanders-to-Colorado model, Hall-of-Fame linebacker Ray Lewis has emerged as a candidate to become the next head coach at Florida Atlantic University, sources tell ESPN,” Schefter wrote on Twitter.

Lewis, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Baltimore Ravens, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018. Despite not having prior college coaching experience, FAU has him on their list following the dismissal of Tom Herman.

On3’s Pete Nakos recently revealed the top candidates for FAU and now added Lewis to the hot board.

Lewis played in the NFL from 1996-2012, all with the Ravens, winning two championships and was a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He played his college football at Miami, so he’s at least familiar with the Sunshine State.

Ray Lewis to replace Tom Herman at FAU?

FAU would be paying a buyout of $4.1 million to move on from Herman. One has to wonder what kind of contract Lewis would command as a first-time head coach.

This comes after Herman had recently been in search of an offensive coordinator job somewhere in the Power Four per Nakos.

Through two seasons in Boca Raton, Herman posted a record of 6-16 with a 3-11 mark in the AAC. That includes a current mark this season of 2-8 while being winless through six games and dead-last because of that during conference play in the American.

Herman was previously a head coach for two seasons at Houston and four at Texas over the final half-decade in the 2020s. He went 54-22 in those other two stints to post a total record of 60-38 (.612) in leading those three programs.

All of his teams with the Cougars and Longhorns were ranked at some point in the AP Poll and each of them went to a bowl game where they had a postseason record of 5-1. However, that didn’t happen at Florida Atlantic with them having just the six wins total through not even two full years.