… “We punched them in the mouth and they quit.”
_ Buffalo defensive back Kendric Hawkins after a 42-7 win over Temple in 2007 …

The schedule says that Saturday’s noon showdown at Buffalo is just the opening game of the Mid-American Conference season for the Owls.
For all intents and purposes, though, it might as well be a bowl game.
The winner of this game has an inside edge on the MAC East title and a bowl game that would undoubtedly come with such a title.
So what to call it?
Hmm.

Kendric Hawkins
Call it The Kendric Hawkins Bowl.
Not content to let sleeping dogs lie, Hawkins got one cutting turn of the knife in after leaving Philadelphia with a 42-7 win last year.
“We punched them in the mouth and they quit,” Hawkins said of the Owls.
That quote might speak to the “old” Temple, the Bobby Wallace Temple, but certainly doesn’t apply to the “new” Temple, the Al Golden Temple.
Golden does not like to speak about motivational tools, so I will just say this:
He was a sports psychology major at Penn State and a very good student.
There’s nothing like a good challenge to one’s manhood, especially in a manhood sport like football, to get someone fired up.
“Quit, huh?” a lot of the Owls must be thinking this week. “I’ll show you quit.”
Expect a lot of sweeps to be run in Hawkins’ direction on Saturday afternoon if, as expected, Hawkins plays after missing the first two games with an injury. He’s listed No. 2 on the depth chart at cornerback.
He’s No. 12 in your program and but it might as well be a bullseye instead of a No. 1 and 2 on his back this Saturday.
What Hawkins said last year should help the Owls focus on every down for three hours on Saturday afternoon more than anything Golden can tell them.
No punch in the mouth would hurt Hawkins more than knowing he might have been at least partly responsible for a big Owls’ win.