Temple routs Howard, 55-7, in home opener
Two weeks into the season, the Temple Owls have done precisely what they needed to do in K.C. Keeler’s first year as the program’s head coach – beat the teams they needed to beat.
After rolling past UMass on the road in last weekend’s season opener, the Owls shrugged off a 32-minute lightning delay prior to kickoff and blew out Howard 55-7 Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in their home opener. Temple (2-0) scored touchdowns on four of its first five drives, and quarterback Evan Simon has more touchdown passes (nine) than incompletions (eight) through the first two weeks of the season after he went 8-of-10 for 174 yards and three scores Saturday before ceding duties to backup Gevani McCoy in the third quarter.
The Owls, who scored on their first nine possessions and tallied 560 yards of total offense against an FCS opponent, will have a much tougher text in a week when No. 18 Oklahoma visits Lincoln Financial Field in a noon game that will be televised on ESPN2. The 1-0 Sooners host No. 15 Michigan Saturday night in Norman.
For now, Temple can take comfort in knowing it has looked very sharp, stayed healthy and built some confidence with a new staff after four consecutive 3-9 seasons.
“We know we have some tough games in front of us,” Keeler said, “but the first two weeks, to handle our business like we’ve handled it, I think it’s really positive.”
And if there was ever a possibility of Saturday becoming a proverbial trap game with a ranked opponent coming in the following week, the Owls didn’t let that happen.
“I tried to keep the team all focused in because I didn’t want them to have it in their mind that we’re playing Howard or we’re going to let up,” said redshirt-senior safety Javier Morton, who led Temple with five total tackles, including four solo stops 1.5 tackles for loss. “Because it, honestly, it ain’t about Howard, or Oklahoma. It’s about us and what we put on film and how we play, the brand that we’re building at Temple. That was the focus.”
The Owls rolled up an impressive 329 yards on the ground in the program’s first 300-yard rushing game since 2018. Jay Ducker (10 carries, 87 yards) and Terrez Worthy (58 yards on six carries) both found the end zone, as did Louisiana-Monroe transfer Hunter Smith, who ripped off a 65-yard touchdown run at the 7:17 mark of the fourth quarter. Worthy’s 13-yard touchdown run kicked off the scoring with 10:04 left in the first quarter, and Simon followed that with touchdown passes of 24 and eight yards to JoJo Bermudez and Colin Chase, respectively.
Edge rusher Cam’Ron Stewart’s two sacks paced a Temple defense that kept Howard quarterback Tyriq Starks in check. Starks, an FAU transfer who threw for five touchdowns in last season’s finale and played against Temple at the Linc last November, went 7 of 14 passing for just 34 yards and accounted for the Bison’s lone touchdown on a 1-yard scoring toss in the second quarter.
Temple held Howard (1-1) to just 121 yards of total offense and limited the Bison to a meager 2.5 yards per play.
Listen to Saturday’s postgame interviews here
Turning point
Howard won the toss and deferred, and Temple scored on its opening possession and never looked back. But Stewart’s ability to wreck Howard’s last possession of the first half helped Temple put the game out of reach. Stewart, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound redshirt senior and former all-state player at Governor Mifflin High School who played his first three seasons at Rutgers, dropped Bison running back Travis Kerney for a 2-yard loss on first down and then sacke Starks on second down for a 6-yard setback to put the Bison in a third-and-18 situation they couldn’t convert.
After a 35-yard punt and a 5-yard return by Bermudez, who picked up return duties from Tyler Stewart, Temple took over at its own 47 with 1:48 left in the second quarter. Noah Miles got past Owls right tackle Diego Barajas on first down for a sack before Bermudez couldn’t bring in a Simon pass on second-and-13. From there, however, Simon hit wideout Xavier Irvin on a quick screen to the left, and Irvin cut inside for a 46-yard catch-and-run down to the Howard 10.
Two plays later, Simon hit an open Kajia Hollawayne in the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown pass, and Carl Hardin’s extra point gave Temple the 31-7 lead it took into halftime.
While things weren’t necessarily in an urgent place for the Owls up 17 late in the first half, Howard had a little bit of momentum at that point. Starks’ 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end to backup tight end K.D. Mosley got the Bison on the board, and Howard held Temple to a 45-yard Hardin field goal on the ensuing series.
Lining up
Temple’s entire offensive line earned the player of the game award. Temple football spokesperson Rich Burg said the starting offensive line wouldn’t do postgame interviews if it couldn’t bring the whole room with them, so the entire group met the media and crammed onto the dais.
While Barajas and redshirt-freshman Giakoby Hills got beat on sacks Saturday after a clean sheet last week, the offensive line has helped pave the way for 97 points and 1,027 yards of total offense through two games.
The coaches, both Keeler and new offensive line coach Al Johnson seemed impressed with what they saw from the group in spring ball and preseason camp, but they hadn’t proven it yet against another team. The unit has passed its first two tests – with a huge one to come, for sure, in Oklahoma – and has benefitted from a simplified coaching approach from Johnson, Keeler said.
“We’ve all been together, at least for a year or two together, so we know each other, we love each other, so we’re just buying into what coach is telling us,” right guard Jackson Pruitt said of Johnson, who came to Temple from Montana State with offensive coordinator Tyler Walker and previously played six seasons in the NFL. “He had a long NFL career. We want to go where he where he was, so we’re buying into what he’s coaching us, and let’s go out and try to execute that every day.”
And now comes Oklahoma
Forrest Brock beat out Simon for the starting quarterback job last season, so Simon did not play in Temple’s 51-3 loss at Oklahoma in last year’s season opener. He played against two ranked Big Ten opponents while at Rutgers during the 2022 season – at No. 3 Ohio State in a 49-10 loss and at No. 11 Penn State in a 55-10 loss – and played spot duty in 2021 against three ranked teams in Ohio State, Wisconsin and Wake Forest.
Simon is playing his best and most confident football of his career this time around. Staying process-oriented, he said, will be key for the Owls in a game in which they will likely be double-digit underdogs.
“We’ve got 24 hours until we flip the switch,” Simon said of moving past Saturday’s win. “And [Oklahoma is] a very good team. We’re well aware, and they’ve got a big game tonight. Hoping Michigan whoops up on them a little bit. We’re just going to keep doing the same thing, but we’ve got to double down. This Oklahoma Sooner team, no joke. So we’re going to come in ready to roll. They come to us, and we’re excited.”
