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Temple May Have Saved Their Season with the Best Win of the K.C. Keeler Era (Plus, a Response to Kevin Negandhi)
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The Temple Owls were 1-3 after a horrific choke job in Toledo and ensuing home loss to Army.
Then they went down to Tampa and beat a 4-0 USF team:
The last three Temple games have been decided by four points or less. Shades of last season, honestly, when they lost by one point to Navy and one point to Army. If they had finished off either of those games, they would have gone bowling.
It looked like it was going to be the same story this year, a team that’s good enough but doesn’t know how to finish the job. The Toledo loss was one of the worst losses of this college football season. The Army game was winnable. Then they traveled south and held USF to 13 points on their home turf. They limited the Bulls to 17 first downs and forced a 7-15 mark on third. They forced three punts and got a number of key stops, forcing three field goal attempts (one missed) and then ending the game with a fourth down stop and a fumble. South Florida ran the ball for only 114 yards and Michael Van Buren Jr. completed a season-low 53% of his passes.
That was the story, Temple’s defense, along with Ajani Sheppard making just enough plays with his arm and his legs to get the Owls over the finish line. He threw for 92 yards and a score and ran for 87 and a score, as the Owls went for 182 on the ground at a 5.1 YPC clip.
The story now is that Temple may have saved their season. At 1-4 they would have been cooked, but 2-3 can spark a turnaround. They have two home games coming up, first against 2-3 UConn and then against a terrible 0-5 Charlotte team. If they can get back to 4-3, they’d have to win two against ECU, Navy, UAB, Rice, and Memphis to get to a bowl game and improve upon last year’s total.
Now, let me explain this tweet:
Temple fans weren’t happy with me for giving them a downward arrow. Kevin Negandhi was blowing up the mentions and seemed legitimately annoyed?
My opinion is that the Owls are behind schedule at 2-3. They should not be a 2-3 football team at this point in the season. They should be 3-2 at minimum, even 4-1, but that Toledo loss was one of the worst college football losses I’ve ever seen. My god was it hideous. It will be a top-2 or top-3 loss in college football when this season concludes. They were up 14 points with less than two minutes remaining and lost in overtime. Then they came out the following week and scored 17 points at home against an Army team that isn’t anything special. The putrid stink from those two losses is so offensive that I personally believe the aroma is still noticeable now, and was worth 9-10 downward arrows last week. Essentially, the Owls have erased most of those downward arrows, but I can’t honestly say they are trending upward at 2-3. They’ve essentially battled back to the middle.
Furthermore, people keep saying – USF was unbeaten! USF was unbeaten! Yeah? Do you know which teams they beat to get to 4-0? They beat Florida International, Army, Delaware State, and Bowling Green. They didn’t beat anybody truly worth a shit. They beat bang-average Conference USA, MAC, and American teams and beat DeSean Jackson’s DSU Hornets. Some people are out here acting like USF is Alabama.
I’m not trying to poo-poo the Temple win. I’m legitimately still mad at the way they collapsed in Toledo, followed by the lame response the following week. This team is so much better than 2-3. Ajani Sheppard is a good dual-threat quarterback. They are good enough to win 6 or 7 games and play in their first bowl game since 2019. I know that expectations for this program are so low that the figurative bar is just laying on the floor, which is why Owls fans are being crybabies in the mentions and claiming “bias” and all of this nonsense, which is ridiculous since Crossing Broad is one of maybe three local outlets that even acknowledges the existence of Temple football.
But you know this and I know this to be true: If you’ve watched all five Temple games this season, like I have, you know they are better than 2-3. Much better. This team should be further ahead at this point.
Hopefully the USF win, the best win of the K.C. Keeler era, is the catalyst for a run. They CAN and SHOULD beat UConn and Charlotte at home. ECU and Navy do not appear to be world beaters this season. Rice is whatever. UAB looks decent and Memphis is good. The Owls can play with all of these teams. Raise your expectation level accordingly.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com