FAU sources respond to Ray Lewis report from ESPN

Yahoo Sports‘ Ross Dellenger reported the Ray Lewis–FAU coaching partnership is not happening, according to intel he obtained from the coaching search.

“Pretty blunt intel from the folks involved in the coaching search at FAU about the ESPN report that Ray Lewis is a candidate for coach: ‘It is not happening,'” Dellenger wrote on Twitter.

Originally, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Lewis emerged as a candidate for the job, after FAU fired Tom Herman. However, Schefter didn’t specify if Lewis had contact with the school nor if he was the favorite for the gig.

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.

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.