Gameday preview: Temple-Howard
Howard (1-0) at Temple (1-0)
Game time: 2 p.m.
Television ESPN+
Location: Lincoln Financial Field
Temple-Howard history: Temple leads the all-time series, 1-0.
Last meeting: Temple beat Howard 40-0 at home in 1990 in the only previous game between the two programs.
Temple’s season opener and the debut of the K.C. Keeler head coaching era went about as well as it could last Saturday in a 42-10 rout of UMass in Amherst. Quarterback Evan Simon tied a single-game program record with six touchdown passes, tight ends Peter Clarke and Ryder Kusch each caught two of those scoring passes, and linebacker Katin Surprenant, safeties Avery Powell and Louis Frye and cornerback Ben Osueke all came up with game-changing plays on defense, complementing a pass rush led by sacks from Cam’Ron Stewart and Khalil Poteat.
Now Temple will look to turn aside FCS program Howard in the Owls’ home opener Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field. The Bison are coming off a 10-9 win over Florida A&M in their season opener last weekend, capped by a 43-yard, game-winning field goal by Matt Conord on the game’s final play.
WHEN TEMPLE IS ON OFFENSE
Simon, who became the first Temple player in seven seasons to win the American Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week award after his six-touchdown performance, could be in line for another big day given the playmakers around him and the line blocking for him.
An offensive line that returned center Grayson Mains, left guard Eric King, right guard Jackson Pruitt and right tackle Diego Barajas and benefitted from the debut of redshirt freshman left tackle Giakoby Hills at left tackle gave Simon and backup Gevani McCoy a clean pocket on 29 of their 32 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. Hills, a 6-foot-5, 295-pound redshirt freshman, practiced with the first-team offense Monday while Kevin Terry worked with the second-team unit as he continues to recover from the MCL injury he sustained in an Aug. 9 scrimmage.
That line will go up against a Howard defense that held Florida A&M to 272 yards of total offense and got sacks from defensive back Kaleb Gallop and defensive linemen Noah Miles and CJ Wesley. Although Temple would hope to coast to another blowout win in Week 2 — this time against an FCS program with fewer resources – and be able to rest some of its starters ahead of a much-tougher Week 3 matchup against No. 18 Oklahoma, the Bison aren’t necessarily a pushover up front. Miles, one of the best defensive linemen in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, collected 11.5 tackles for loss and 8.0 sacks last season.
A steady diet of running back Jay Ducker (128 yards on 19 carries last week) and throws to tight ends Clarke and Kusch (two touchdown catches apiece in the opener) and wideouts JoJo Bermudez and Colin Chase should help Temple keep Howard on its heels. Bermudez, a Delaware transfer and former South Jersey standout who started his career at Cincinnati, caught seven passes for 87 yards week, and Chase could break out Saturday after a quiet, two-catch debut last weekend.
EDGE: Temple
WHEN TEMPLE IS ON DEFENSE
A unit that initially looked shaky at UMass later proved to be aggressive and opportunistic. After the Minutemen drove with relative ease on Temple’s defense and used a nine-play, 75-yard drive to take an early 7-0 lead in the span of 3 minutes, 35 seconds last week, the Owls settled down and held the Minutemen to just three points the rest of the way. Suprenant’s forced fumble and Powell’s ensuing recovery in the second quarter was the turning point of the game, as Temple converted that turnover to points just three plays later on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Simon to wide receiver Kajiya Hollawayne that helped the Owls jump out to a 14-10 lead they never relinquished.
On the ensuing UMass drive, Frye stopped quarterback Brandon Rose a yard short of the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line, Ducker ripped off a 55-yard run on the next play, and Simon capped that drive with a 29-yard scoring strike to Clarke. In the third quarter, with UMass looking a chance to cut an 18-point Temple lead to 11, Osueke picked off Rose in the back of the end zone to keep the game from getting a little too interesting.
So for one week at least, Temple’s defense proved it could be a bend-but-don’t break unit that’s capable of getting some key stops and turnovers.
Howard will bring a familiar face to the Linc at quarterback in FAU transfer Tyriq Starks, who completed 17 of his 28 throws last week for 145 yards, a touchdown and an interception and led the 10-play drive that set up the game-winning field goal. In relief duty of starter Kasen Weisman last November, Starks completed 8 of 13 passes for 71 yards and had 14 yards on six carries in FAU’s 18-15 loss to Temple, which turned out to be Stan Drayton’s final game as the Owls’ head coach. Starks later capped his FAU tenure with his best game as an FBS quarterback, going 18 of 25 for 294 yards, five touchdowns and an interception in FAU’s 63-16 rout of Tulsa in the 2024 season finale, so there’s some ability there for Starks, a Carol City, Florida native who started his career at Independence Community College.
Having said that, Starks and the Howard offense mustered just 195 yards last week against Florida A&M and went 6-for-16 on third down. Starks was the Bison’s leading rusher with 30 yards on 12 carries, and Travis Kerney got just 17 yards on 11 carries. Graduate running back Eden James, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Edgerrin James, was held to eight yards on five carries but was playing through an injury. James, who caught a 14-yard pass on last week’s game-winning drive, tallied 1,449 yards and seven touchdowns in his three previous seasons at FAU, so he can be productive if he’s healthier this week.
If Temple can tackle better earlier in the game than it did a week ago and continue applying pressure with a defensive front that rotated in 11 players at UMass, the Owls should be looking at a 2-0 record after Saturday.
EDGE: Temple
SPECIAL TEAMS
Conord’s 43-yard field goal that won the game last week for Howard represented his career-long kick and his first field goal at the FCS level after he transferred in from Division II Chowan. He also punted once last week, but freshman Liam Allen handled the other six Howard punts and averaged 38 yards on those attempts.
In the return game, freshman Antonio Hunter managed 25 yards on his lone punt return last week. Sophomore Anthony Reagan Jr., a local product out of South Jersey’s Woodbury High School, had 56 yards on three kickoff returns against Florida A&M, including a 23-yarder. Last year, his conference-leading 506 yards on kickoff returns was the 35th-best mark nationally, so Temple’s kick coverage units will have to be mindful of him.
Temple placekicker Carl Hardin’s first college field goal attempt has yet to come after he wasn’t needed in that department last week. He converted all six of his extra points and two of his kickoffs were touchbacks, although one went out of bounds. He displayed range from 50 to 55 yards in spring ball and preseason camp and just needs to knock a kick through the uprights at some point to prove he can do it in a regular season game. Single-digit punter Dante Atton averaged 41.7 yards on his three punts last week, had a long of 49 and dropped one of them inside the 20-yard line.
Wideout Tyler Stewart showed some burst in the return game in the opener. His 24-yard punt return in the second quarter set up Temple at the UMass 48 and put the Owls’ offense in great position for a drive that later ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Simon to Terrez Worthy that spotted Temple a 28-10 halftime lead.
EDGE: Even
