Temple Owls

[cooldude]

A new day has arrived for the team that nobody seems to want. Temple University's woeful football program suffered the unkind fate of having to be removed from the Big East Confrence because they failed to meet several of the conference's rules for admission, most notably was the failure to field a competitive team.

The Owls, now an independant continued their off season of change by hiring a new Head Coach to lead them in a new direction. Andrew Martin is a 33 year old father of one child who was born and raised in Philadelphia. He attended Temple for four years and now realises the dream of getting to coach his Alma Matter. There's one catch, though: Martin has never played football in his life.

The decision to hire this unknown, one with no football experience, came as a shock to many, but quickly they all realised "Hey we can't do much worse, let's give it a shot!"

[TheEnglishHombre]

Re: Temple Owls

Wow. I mean, I know its fun to try and rebuild a program, but damn. Not messing around, are you?

I'll be praying for you, you might need it.

[cooldude]

Re: Temple Owls

Note: In this dynasty, Temple's player names ARE fake as I could not find a set of rosters.

Owls Come Up Short Against Heavily Favoured Sun Devils

At least for a little while, fans of the Temple Owls had reason to be optimistic that they may just pull off the upset heavily favoured and #19 ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. And for a while, about two and a half quarters, they had reason to be.

The Owls lead 30-27 mid way through the third quarter but then the Sun Devils broke the game wide open, scoring 21 unanswered points to take the win 48-31.

"Those are the tough ones," Temple head coach Andrew Martin said following the game, "You play so well for three quarters of the game and then the other team just rips the game from your hands. That's going to be a really tough pill for these guys to swallow, but we'll work on it in practise next week and I'm sure we'll improve in our next game."

Temple Quarterback Loren Bass had a decent outing for such a tough test. The senior went 20-43 for 306 yards with two touchdowns but also three interceptions before leaving the game mid-way through the third quarter with an injury.

Temple also had a decent game on the ground. Running back Corneilius Rohen had eight carries for 111 yards including two scampers over 20 yards, his longest was a 40 yard touchdown run.

"We had a lot of things that worked tonight," Martin said, "We also had some things that didn't. I think that when we come out for our next game you are going to see more things that work than those that do not, and we WILL win."

A bold prediction by new Head Coach Martin to say the least. It may be just what Temple fans and alum could be needing though. The question on everyone's mind is: "Will the coach be able to back up his prediction?" We will all find out in two weeks time when the Owls will travel to Madison, Wisconsin to take on the University of Wisconsin Badgers.

[cooldude]

Re: Temple Owls

Heisman Watch After Week 1

Name Pos. School Matt Leinart QB USC Adrian Peterson HB Oklahoma Reggie Bush HB USC Vince Young QB Texas Teddy Ginn Jr. WR Ohio State

[cooldude]

Re: Temple Owls

Temple Makes Late Charge, Still Get Embarassed

On the scoreboard a 62-35 scoreline looks like a blowout, and in this case it was. Sometimes, you've just got to look at the stories behind the stats to get the real scoop on what happened. Yesterday's Temple vs. Wisconsin football game is one of those situations.

The Owls trailed by a score of 62-7 after Wisconsin scored another touchdown late in the third quarter of play. Yes, 62-7. For most teams, their coaches would just tell them to pack it in and take the loss and get ready for the week from hell at pratise starting on Monday. Temple Head Coach Andrew Martin had a different philosophy in that situation.

"I gathered the team up before we returned the kickoff after that touchdown and I told them 'Don't you dare quit on me. If you want to quit then you may as well take you sh*t off right now and hand it in because you're off the team'"

The Owls listened to Martin's speech and paid heed to his words. Reeling off 28 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, but in the end it was not enough as they Wisconsin Badgers proved to be way too much on this day, picking up a 62-35 victory on home turf.

"I'm very proud of the boys right now," Martin said, "I told them not to quit and to believe in themselves and in that fourth quarter they did just that. Yeah it's disappointing that we lost, especially with the scoreline the way that it was, but there was a lot of good things that we can take from that game, especially in those final few minutes."

Although the Owls are a disappointing 0-2 on the season so far, it is clear that there was a vast improvement late in the game. Quarterback Loren Bass as well as Tailback Cornelius Rhoden got off to rough starts in the game but were able to finish strong. Bass finished the game 23/37 for 351 yards with three touchdowns, while Rhoden didn't have quite as good a game, getting 13 carries for a grand total of 32 yards, but did show improvement late in the game by scoring the final touchdown of the game, a 14 yard run.

The Owls will be hoping that home will treat them much better than the road did, when they hold their home opener at Lincoln Financial Field next week as the take on the Mid-American Conference's Toledo Rockets.

[cooldude]

Re: Temple Owls

Heisman Watch After Week 3

Name Pos. School Matt Leinart QB USC Adrian Peterson HB Oklahoma Selvin Young HB Texas Lorenzo Booker WR Florida St. Ed Hinkel WR Iowa

[cooldude]

Re: Temple Owls

TEMPLE WINS! TEMPLE WINS!

It was a defensive battle from the get go as the Toledo Rockets took an early 7-0 lead and held it until late in the third quarter. Temple tied it up mid way through the fourth and then with 14 seconds remaining in regulation came this:

"Third and goal now from the three, clock running down under 20 seconds to play in regulation. Bass snaps the ball and hands it off to Noa. He looks like he's stopped in the backfield but NO! Noa just broke free from the tackle, TOUCHDOWN TEMPLE! With 14 seconds to go, Temple has taken the 14-7 lead over Toledo here at home, and it looks like Coach Martin is finally going to get the first win of his career.!"

The Owls sealed the deal when Defensive End Brian Newsome picked up his school record setting fifth sack of the ball game to end it. This was followed by a wave of emotion from everyone in attendance. Fans and players alike rushed to center field, Coach Martin received the traditional gator-ade shower as players and fans alike cheered and screamed around him.

"I'm so proud of my guys right now," Head Coach Andrew Martin said, "They showed that they can come from behind and take any team in the nation if the only believe in themselves. People don't realise how big it is to believe, well I'm not a religious man but I d*mn sure found out about believing over these past two weeks. These guys have got so much heart, and so much desire to win that it's just so great for them to finally get one, especially in front of their home town crowd."

Star running back Corneilius Rhoden had a great day running the ball, getting 29 carries for a total of 180 yards including the 45 yard run that set up the two yard touchdown plunge from Noa.

"I'm just happy we were able to win," Rhoden said, "I don't care who gets in the endzone as long as we're putting points under our names on that scoreboard, it's a team game, you got to play and believe as one."

The Owls will be looking for their second straight victory, getting them back to the five hundred mark when they host the Western Michigan Mustangs at Lincoln Financial Field next weekend.

[cooldude]

Re: Temple Owls

Heisman Watch After Week 4

Name Pos. School Matt Leinart QB USC AJ White HB Georgia DJ Shockley QB Georgia Drew Tate QB Iowa Demarius Bilbo WR Georgia Tech