Tonight the Temple Owls and Houston Cougars will face off against one another in a match-up of two schools from the American Athletic Conference.
The Temple Owls have their eyes set on the American Athletic Conference title and hope to improve to 3-0 on the road. Temple is a defensive team first, as it’s allowing just 14.4 points, 326.6 yards, and has forced 17 turnovers and 10 sacks.
Temple has won six of its last seven games when allowing 24 or less points. Tyler Matakevich leads Temple with 40 tackles and Tavon Young has three interceptions. Offensively, things have been a struggle for the Temple Owls, but P.J. Walker is completing 61.8 percent of his passes for nine touchdowns and four interceptions. Walker also has 92 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. Jalen Fitzpatrick leads Temple with 24 receptions and has caught a touchdown in every game this season. Jahad Thomas is coming off a 152-rushing-yard performance, and Temple is averaging a decent four yards per carry.
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Scouting Temple
Off to their first 4-1 start since 2010 — Al Golden’s final season at Temple — the Owls escaped with a 35-24 win over Tulsa last Saturday for their third straight win. Temple may have found its running back, as defensive back-turned-running back Jahad Thomas broke out against Tulsa. Thomas, a sophomore who also played with quarterback P.J. Walker at Elizabeth High School in New Jersey, gashed Tulsa for 152 yards on 14 carries, including a 68-yarder on Temple’s first drive that set up a Kenneth Harper TD run for a 7-0 lead 57 seconds into the game. The converted DB also took a screen pass 20 yards to seal the win late in the fourth quarter. Entering Friday, Temple is fourth in the nation in scoring defense (14.4 ppg), fifth in pass defense (151.0 ypg) and 22nd in total defense (327.0 ypg). Offensively, the Owls are second in the AAC in scoring (38.2 ppg, 23rd in the country), fifth in pass offense (230.2 ypg) and fifth in run offense (143.2 ypg).
Scouting Houston
Houston hosts Temple coming off a four-point road win over Memphis last Saturday in which quarterback Greg Ward Jr. helped the program win its 400th career game in his first start. The Cougars benched QB John O’Korn after a 2-3 start for the much more versatile Ward. In his first start, Ward completed 17 of 28 passes for 188 yards, one touchdown and an interception. But he also gained 95 yards on the ground on 17 rushes with a 64-yard rushing TD. Houston’s run game has been strong this season, as it ranks fourth in the AAC with 156.7 yards per game. Kenneth Farrow leads the way on the ground, with 385 yards on 58 carries and three scores, while Ryan Jackson also has three TDs and a 6.0 yard per carry average. Despite being 3-3, the Cougars have outscored opponents, 166-115.
Storyline to watch
Only twice has Temple allowed more than 10 points this season, last week against Tulsa and in its 31-24 loss to Navy. The Tulsa game is the only one this season the defense failed to score a touchdown, but the special teams unit contributed its fourth TD of the season with Connor Reilly’s second-quarter TD run on a fake field goal. Will the Owls be aided by another defensive or special teams touchdown Friday night against Houston? It’s something to watch.
What’s at stake?
Temple’s best start since 1979 when College Football Hall of Fame head coach Wayne Hardin led the Owls to a 5-1 start, a 10-2 season and a Garden State Bowl victory over California. The Owls’ only other bowl win came in 2011, a 37-15 win over Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl.
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