Owls hope their "get better" week will lead to better health and bowl eligibility Saturday against Tulane
Temple calls their bye weeks “get better” weeks.
If that terminology applies to getting injured players back on the field in time for this weekend’s home American Conference game against No. 24 Tulane, then the bye week was indeed good medicine for a team that will need all the help it can get in trying to knock off the Green Wave.
Saturday’s game, which is set for a 3:45 p.m. kickoff on ESPNU, is one of two remaining opportunities for the 5-5 Owls to gain their sixth win and become bowl-eligible for the first time in six seasons. Beyond what should be a healthier defensive back and linebacking corps, head coach K.C. Keeler said his team will welcome the return of defensive tackle Demerick Morris, who missed the 14-13 Nov. 8 loss at Army with a calf injury, and could get defensive lineman Sekou Kromah back.
Kromah, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound senior, is second on the team in sacks with three, with two of his sacks coming against Oklahoma’s John Mateer and Georgia Tech’s Haynes King. He has battled injuries to both shoulders, as well as an oblique injury, and tried giving it a go against East Carolina before not being able to finish the game. The coaching staff held him out of the Army game with the hope that he would be healthy enough to play against Tulane.
Keeler said during his weekly Monday press conference that Kromah would be a “game-time” decision.
“I feel just so disappointed for him,” Keeler said of Kromah, “because he showed some flashes of greatness there, like, all-conference type of player, those kind of things. And then he’s just been really slowed down with a couple shoulders. It’s kind of mainly the right one right now. … I know how badly he wants to play, and I think it’s going to be kind of a day-by-day (situation). And both he and Demerick warmed up at West Point against Army, and they just couldn’t go.”
There were a few other notable absences at Monday’s practice. Wide receiver Kajiya Hollawayne did not participate due to an illness, the result of a flu bug Keeler said his team dealt with during their bye week. Kevin Terry and Luke Watson split some first-team reps at right tackle with starter Diego Barajas not participating, and safety Dontae Pollard did not practice but was on the field working with a member of the team’s training staff.
Keeler talked Monday about how a play here and a play there in one-point losses to Navy and Army have separated Temple from being a 7-2 team that would also be 5-1 and tied for first in the conference standings. While that ship has sailed, the possibility of bowl eligibility remains.
The thought of needing to beat No. 22 North Texas on Nov. 28 on six days’ rest to get that sixth win seems daunting. The thought of pulling it off this Saturday against the 8-2 Green Wave seems similarly challenging – but not impossible.
Tulane, which is coming off a 35-24 win over FAU, has one of the better dual-threat quarterbacks in the country in BYU transfer Jake Retzlaff, who has thrown for 2,195 yards and 12 touchdowns to go with 557 rushing yards and 11 more scores on the ground.
But Retzlaff and his teammates aren’t infallible.
A little more than two weeks prior to their win over FAU, Tulane took a 48-26 beating at the hands of UTSA, a team Temple beat 27-21 in their Oct. 4 conference opener. While Retzlaff threw for 194 yards and a touchdown and produced 63 rushing yards and a touchdown on seven carries against UTSA, he also threw two interceptions before Green Wave head coach Jon Sumrall benched him.
Tulane is ninth in the American in scoring offense, one spot behind Temple, at 28 points per game, while its defense is sixth – one spot ahead of the Owls – in points allowed at 26 per contest.
After that 22-point loss to UTSA, Tulane responded the next week by knocking off No. 22 Memphis on the road.
“There’s always been a toughness about them,” Keeler said Monday. “And I think, because they’ve had a recent history here of success, I think they’re a team that if you get them down, they’re going to fight their way back.
“I think they’ve been a little erratic,” Keeler added, “and I think that frustrates the coaching staff. But when they put it together, they’re as good as anyone in the league when they put it all together. I’s just some of that consistency they’ve lacked.”
