Opponent Preview - Temple
Temple Facts:
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Stadium: Lincoln Financial Field
Field Type: Grass
Capacity: 67,594
Enrollment: 29,484
2024 Record: 3-9 (1-7 AAC)
Last Bowl: 2019 Military Bowl (55-13 L North Carolina)
All-Time Bowl Record: 3-6
2023 Attendance: 13,446 (122nd nationally)
All-Time Series: 6-14
Last Meeting: 49-17 L 2019
Returning Starters: 5 Off, 5 Def
Lettermen: 22 Returning, 34 Lost
Schedule:
8/30- at Oklahoma
9/7- at Navy
9/14- Coastal Carolina
9/21- Utah State
9/26- Army
10/5- at UConn
10/19- Tulsa
10/26- at East Carolina
11/9- at Tulane
11/16- FAU
11/22- at UTSA
11/30- North Texas
Last Time Here:
If you were at this game, you may be entitled to compensation. A gloomy mid-afternoon November game, the Huskies were limping to a winless season in their second to last season in the American Athletic Conference. Temple entered at 7-4, and were on their way to their fourth consecutive bowl game, showing the disparity between the two northeast programs. The Owls were led by WR Isaiah Wright, a Waterbury native, who went to Kingswood-Oxford. He would get Temple on the board first, but the Huskies would respond with a Keyion Dixon TD catch from David Pindell. Wright would then return the kick 99 yards for a score, and that was largely the end of this one.
The Huskies would not score again, an unceremonious end to a great individual season by Pindell. The Owls just kept scoring, and racking up yards, ultimately finishing with 535 yards, including 312 on the ground. The Owls platooned QBs with Frank Nutile and Todd Centeio, and spread the ball around on the ground to whomever had a pulse it seemed, with nine different players getting carries. The Huskies on the other hand, had 238 yards on the day, not even getting a ton of yards in the significant amount of garbage time, a pretty damning indictment of the Randy Edsall 2.0 era. Positives? With a combined 87 rushes, this game moved along relatively quickly!
Last meeting:
As someone who likes to think they have integrity, I won’t simply copy and paste the first paragraph from the previous section, but not much changed from 2018 to 2019 for these two programs. Temple entered this game at 7-4, and UConn entered 2-9, staring at a second consecutive winless season in their final season in the AAC. Unlike the 2018 meeting, the Huskies showed fight in the first half, taking a 17-14 lead going into the half, on the backs of a 51 yard TD pass from Jack Zergiotis to Ardell Brown, and a two yard Steven Kraewski TD run. The Huskies were up 14-0 halfway through the 1st quarter, but only mustered a FG the rest of the half.
The second half went the way most thought this game would go, with UConn not scoring the rest of the way, and the Owls scoring in bunches, outscoring the Huskies 35-0, ending UConn’s tenure in the AAC with a 49-17 loss. Zergiotis finished with 250 yards through the air, but the Huskies rushed 31 times for just 76 yards, which will not get the job done.
Since 2019, the Owls have struggled greatly, going 1-6 in 2020, and have had three consecutive 3-9 seasons. The Huskies were headed to the great unknown of independence, and with a head coach that would essentially say “trust me, bro” when asked about the future of the program. Edsall reportedly did not like the move to the Big East in all sports, and independence in football, an understandable position, but he also didn’t care for ways to improve the program quickly like the transfer portal. In any event, the Owls had far surpassed the Huskies, and there wasn’t much hope in Storrs that things would get better.
2024 Temple:
A third consecutive 3-9 season awaited the Owls in 2023, but they had a bright spot in QB EJ Warner, the son of former NFL star, Kurt. Warner threw for 3,076 yards with a completion percentage of 57.5%, and TD:INT ratio of 23:12. Warner spread the ball around too, with the leading receiver getting “only” 647 yards, and four receivers had over 35 catches. Warner departs for a different set of Owls, Rice, who UConn will be playing a few weeks after this contest. The only returning QB with experience for Temple is Forrest Brock, QB3 who threw for 60 yards on 7-15 passing. He will battle Rutgers transfer Evan Simon for the top spot. Simon started two games for the Scarlet Knights in 2022, throwing for 777 yards. Temple also has redshirt freshman Tyler Douglas, who could see some action in a Wildcat formation. This unit is inexperienced, and is a big question mark. They do have five games to get in a rhythm before heading to East Hartford.
The rushing game struggled last season, a far cry from the strong rushing games of the 2010s. Leading rusher Darvon Hubbard departs, after just 412 yards and three TDs. Second leading rusher Joquez Smith returns after rushing for 325 yards with an average yards per carry of 4.6 in his freshman season. Like at QB, they add several new faces in former Maryland RB (and former 288 lb RB in 2021!) Antwain Littleton, who has slimmed down to 235 lbs. He had 255 yards rushing for the Terps last year. The Owls also add FIU transfer EJ Wilson, and JUCO transfers Tyrei Washington and Terrez Worthy. It remains to be seen what this unit can do, but the Owls are hoping to at least be better than last season.
As mentioned, the receiving corps was an equal opportunity room last season, but they lose a lot of production, including their top two receivers, who combined for 1,184 yards. 3rd and 4th leading receivers Dante Wright, and Zae Baines, return and will lead the unit. Walk-on John Adams, who had ten catches for 127 yards against UTSA, but just five catches in the other games, is another who looks to get some playing time. Peter Clarke looks to take the vacant TE job, after 18 receiving yards in his true freshman season. It’s a unit that has some experience, but much hinges on who will be behind center.
Like the rest of the offense, the offensive line needs to be rebuilt, returning two starters in Wisdom Quarshie, and Luke Watson. They lose two guards, and 1st team All-AAC Victor Stoffel. South Carolina transfer Grayson Mains should take over at center after playing in nine games last season for the Gamecocks. JUCO transfer Diego Barajas, who started two games last season, and Houston transfer James Faminu round out the unit. Another work in progress, and UConn’s strong defensive line needs to take advantage.
Switching over to the defensive side of the ball, the Owls do have a veteran group returning on the defensive line. Tra Thomas returns after recording 30 tackles and three sacks last season, as does Allan Haye, who notched 12 tackles and one sack in five starts. They return Demerick Morris, who was out all of last season but started ten games in 2022. They add FAU transfer Latrell Jean as well as Florida transfer Diwun Black, who was the top rated JUCO transfer in class of 2021 according to 247Sports. This group had 38 sacks in 2022, but decreased significantly last year to 22, so this group needs to get those numbers up because the rest of the defense is a much bigger question mark.
At LB, the Owls lose 2nd team All-AAC performer Jordan Magee, who led the team in tackles with 80, to go along with 10.5 TFLs and 3.5 sacks. Additionally, the lose the third leading tackler, Yvandy Rigby, who had 68 tackles, and the fourth leading tackler in Jacob Hollins so this is a unit that needs to rebuild. The big add in the offseason was NC State transfer Torren Wright, and they also add JUCO transfer Eric Stuart, and East Carolina/NC A&T trasnfer TyQuan King. Time will tell if this unit improved.
The secondary struggled big time last season, allowing 243 passing yards per game with a completion percentage of 64.3% (not as bad as UConn’s 259 yards and 67.7%), and this unit loses a lot. Is that a bad thing? Not always, but they lose second leading tackler in Tywan Francis, fifth leading tackler in Alex Odum, as well as Jalen McMurray, and Elijah Clark. They do add seven transfers, including Andreas Keaton (Western Carolina), Torey Richardson (UTEP), and Javier Morton (Nebraska). So this unit is brand new, with the exception of returnee Elijah Deravil.
Special Teams struggled last season as well, as K Camden Price was 7-12 on FGs, after going 13-14 in 2022. Field position was a battle, and their punter, true freshman Aussie Dante Atton, had a net of 36.3 yards per punt. Price departs, and they added Austin Peay transfer Maadux Trujillo, who was 13-15 with a long of 45 last season, and was 38-53 with a long of 55 in his career. Both returners are back, with Dante Wright returning punts (4.8 yards per return), and Sam Martin returning kicks (20.3 yards per return). They’ll need to boost those numbers to help with field position.
Prediction:
It is year 3 for Stan Drayton, and year 3 is usually make or break time for coaches. Most coaches would be on the hot seat after consecutive 3-9 seasons, but Temple has gone through many head coaches in the past decade or so, so it’s feasible that they’re looking for some stability. However, they really need to improve this season. Their OOC schedule isn’t the easiest, with no FCS game, and an opening game at Oklahoma. Similarly to the Buffalo game, this is a game for UConn that they need to win to show they are making progress as a program. Temple has not been good, and there are only so many teams that the Huskies can say they’re better than, or equal to. So much hinges on the Owls’ ability to gel and build chemistry with so many new players, but I think UConn wins this one.
UConn 24 Temple 20
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