An early vote for the best coaching hire of the offseason might go to Florida Atlantic. After all, not a lot of candidates were floating around with a 54-22 career record and an unblemished mark in bowl games, with a win over Kirby Smart's Georgia included as one of a pair of New Year's Six successes. Tom Herman, however, was obviously picking his spots after an unceremonious dumping by Texas following the 2020 pandemic season (a move hardly endorsed by all Texas brass, and looking more dubious all of the time as Steve Sarkisian has struggled to gain traction as Herman's successor). 

A decorated offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer at Ohio State, Herman earlier hit the ground running at Houston in 2015 and seemed to be on his way with the Longhorns before a couple of speed bumps, including in the Covid campaign, which convinced some of those cigars in Austin that they could do better.  The Texas batting average with such changes (David McWilliams for Fred Akers, John Mackovic in for McWilliams, Charlie Strong after Mack Brown) has not been that great, however, and might soon add another to the collection...

Bruce Marshall's full breakdown of Florida Atlantic's 2023 outlook, which includes how he's playing their win total, can be found below as part of SportsLine's preview of the AAC season.

AAC preview: Conference winner | Charlotte | East Carolina | Florida Atlantic | Memphis | Navy | North Texas | Rice | SMU | South Florida | Temple | Tulane | Tulsa | UAB | UTSA

2023 Florida Atlantic at a glance

• Last Year: 5-7 SU, 6-6 ATS, 5-7 O/U
• Returning starters: Offense 7; Defense 9
• Win total: 7.5 (Over +110, Under -120)

What do you need to know about Florida Atlantic before locking in your AAC futures bets? And which side of their win total makes for the best play? ... Join SportsLine right now to see AAC futures betting strategy from a veteran college football expert!