The Legend

It's one thing to say outrageous things, quite another to do them.

Howard Schnellenberger's one-of-a-kind career as a football coach will be remembered for both.

"You have to study that, you have to work hard to do it," he said of being quotable. "There's gonna be a damn headline anyway, so it may as well be yours."

Asking him to identify his most ridiculous public statement is like asking Joe Paterno to name a favorite linebacker. But he answers with no hesitation.

"It was when I got to Miami (Fla.) in 1979," he said, "and I said we'd win a national championship in five years."

Which is exactly what the Hurricanes did, of course.

That's still the achievement the 74-year-old Schnellenberger deems his most significant. He's working on one that would blow it away: A national championship at Florida Atlantic University, which did not have a football program 10 years ago.

Beware, Michigan State. Considering what Schnellenberger and the Owls have already done in a short time - and what he's done repeatedly over time - an upset today at Spartan Stadium shouldn't be dismissed as inconceivable.

It would be a "near miracle" in Schnellenberger's words, but consider that FAU debuted as a Division I-AA program in 2001, moved to Division I-A and the Sun Belt in 2005 and last season became the youngest program ever to reach a bowl game.

When he talked national title upon the program's inception, laughter followed. It has quieted.

"I've quit rolling my eyes and being astonished," said Ted Hutton, who has covered the program since 2001 for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "He says a lot of outrageous things, but a lot of them come true."

Schnellenberger has crossed paths with MSU before. Recruiting Joe Namath to Alabama in the early 1960s as Paul "Bear" Bryant's offensive coordinator, after Namath strongly considered Duffy Daugherty's Spartans.

Learning and teaching at Daugherty's national coaching clinics. Helping 'Bama to three national titles, including in 1965 when the polls were split between the Crimson Tide and the Spartans.

MSU is scheduled to be a part of a crowning day for Schnellenberger, the planned opening of a $62 million, on-campus stadium when the two teams meet again on Sept. 11, 2010. The Owls are hoping the Spartans arrive with revenge on their minds.

'A pretty dumb move'

Paterno and Bobby Bowden are sitting at 374 wins apiece in the well-documented race for the all-time record, adding each year to their legacies as two of college football's most cherished treasures.

But two years ago, Bowden said Schnellenberger would have the all-time record if he'd just stayed at Miami. Schnellenberger, who looks like a cross between Mark Twain and Richard Dreyfuss from "Mr. Holland's Opus," agrees he'd be up there.

He's sitting at 142 career wins entering today, which doesn't register among the game's giants. But when you're turning diseased goats into thoroughbreds, you're going to endure losing seasons along the way.

And Schnellenberger made some bad turns, too. After he introduced dropback passing to Alabama, he went to the NFL to coach for George Allen's Los Angeles Rams.

Then it was on to Miami, as Don Shula's offensive coordinator with the Dolphins. The perfect 17-0 season of 1972. A failed shot as head coach of the Baltimore Colts. Back to the Dolphins.

Schnellenberger was swayed to leave for the Miami Hurricanes in 1979, for a pay raise from $50,000 to $75,000 a year. He arrived to find a program on the verge of being scrapped altogether.

"I said, 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I'm in trouble. They've got less confidence out here in their team than some of these guys out diving for pearls,'" he said.

But he quickly took control of recruiting in south Florida, and the 'Canes were the toast of football after beating the Cornhuskers in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1984. They were set up for years of dominance ... and Jimmy Johnson led the way.

That's because Schnellenberger bolted for the lucrative chance to be coach, general manager and part owner of a USFL franchise in Miami. He never coached a game; the franchise moved to Orlando and dropped him. The league folded soon after.

"A pretty dumb move, in hindsight," he said.

'They will write books'

But he landed, back in his hometown of Louisville. The Cardinals football program was considering a move to Division I-AA. They were playing at a minor league baseball stadium, giving away tickets.

Basically, it was Duke.

"This program is on a collision course with the national championship," he announced when he arrived. "The only variable is time."

Schnellenberger had them crushing Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl in year six, laying the foundation for what is now a strong BCS program. Louisville built a stadium and named its football facility after him - long after he was gone.

"That's unheard of," he said, especially considering that he had bailed for a shot at glory with Oklahoma.

"They will write books and make movies about my time here," Schnellenberger declared upon his 1995 move to OU.

But he was gone after one 5-5-1 season. He did not get along with his superiors, and his team appeared to quit on him midway through the year.

He was forced out, and there were whispers that he had a drinking problem that had derailed his performance.

"There wasn't any truth to it, that's for sure," he said, but he also said he quit drinking so it couldn't be used against him in the future.

Then he got out of football, at age 62. Moved back to south Florida and became a bond salesman.

"I looked back on my career and I said to myself, 'What more could I possibly do in football?' "

'Get used to it'

"Winning. Excellence. Great offense. Very sound."

That was MSU coach Mark Dantonio's response Tuesday when asked to describe "Howard Schnellenberger football."

When Florida Atlantic University, nestled in scenic Boca Raton, approached Schnellenberger in 1998, he needed little convincing.

"I feel a higher power put me here for this," he said.

Schnellenberger was to be director of football operations, putting everything together and hiring a top, young coach. But when area high school coaches and big-money boosters insisted that he should coach, he listened.

"This is closer, so much more personal for me than anything I've done," he said. "I was there to conceive, give birth, the baptism, bar mitzvah, confirmation, to now young adulthood. This is my own son, where Miami and Louisville were adopted sons."

Schnellenberger has had to be creative in recruiting, taking some kids who were academic risks. The NCAA took three scholarships away from the program last year for failing to meet the new Academic Progress Rate requirements, but the talent level is rising.

And although Schnellenberger is known first as an offensive mind, he's also a fiery, demanding coach. He refuses to build an indoor practice facility "because he thinks it'll make his players soft," Hutton said.

"He changes you into a man," senior defensive tackle Jervonte Jackson said. "A lot of guys I came with aren't here anymore. It's hard, but I'm up for the ride. When he says something, we believe him. If he says we're gonna outhit someone - we're gonna outhit them."

Jackson believes BCS games are in FAU's future under Schnellenberger. Schnellenberger believes his program can ascend to the level of Florida, Florida State and Miami.

That's what he said at a Tampa press gathering in July, claiming FAU, South Florida, Central Florida and Florida International were just inches behind the "Big Three" and gaining fast.

"And y'all better get used to it," he vowed to a room full of reporters.

He was ripped pretty good for that. No matter.

"I said it because it's true," he said. "We're all eating from the same trough. It's going to happen. It's irreversible."

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?