Halfway through the season is about as good a time to gauge how the rest of the season is going to go.

The sample is not small anymore and few can accuse analysts of jumping to conclusions too soon.

Too early to declare the patient dead but early enough to take the temperature and it doesn’t look like this fever is going to break in the next two months. Maybe a miracle will happen and head coach Stan Drayton will say enough is enough on defense, make a coaching change and start turning things around.

Here’s what we know about the first six games of the Temple season:

Temple 24, Akron 21 _ The Owls entered that game double-digit favorites and were lucky to escape Lincoln Financial Field by the skin of their teeth. It was easily their best defensive effort of the season, shutting out the Zips in the second half. Really, though, in light of what’s happened to Akron, how impressive was it? NIU, not exactly a powerhouse (it lost to Southern Illinois) just put up 55 points on Akron, one week after Akron lost to an 0-4 Buffalo team. Verdict: About as unimpressive a win as there is on a FBS team resume.

Rutgers 36, Temple 7 _ Owls hung in there as late as the fourth quarter, scoring a touchdown early to make it 13-7 but a huge red flag was that they allowed the nation’s current 110th-ranked offense to run all over them in the final dozen minutes of the game. Another one was the slow start of their own offense, as the coaching staff allowed a quarterback who produced zero points at halftime to take the keys to the offense in the second half. The third quarter fared no better for the Owls’ offense. Verdict: After playing this same team to a 16-14 loss a year ago, improvement to a win was not asking for much considering that head coach Stan Drayton himself said the 2023 version of Temple would be better than the 2022 one.

Temple 41, Norfolk State 9 _ The Owls entered the game as a 32-point favorite and won by that exact amount. Nothing to brag about because Norfolk State had lost to a Division II (not even FCS) team, Virginia State, earlier. Since then, Norfolk State allowed North Carolina A&T to get its first win of the season. Verdict: Owls should never have scheduled this team.

Miami 41, Temple 7 _ The Hurricanes’ recruiting pedigree was on display in this game as their lines overwhelmed the Owls on both sides of the ball. After the game, Drayton said “we hope to one day recruit players like them.” Yet this same Hurricane team lost on Saturday to a Georgia Tech team that lost to Bowling Green and former Owls’ OC Scot Loeffler. After beating Georgia Tech, Loeffler didn’t say “we hope one day to recruit people like them.” He just figured out a way to get his guys to beat those guys. After that game, Georgia Tech coach Brent Key fired his defensive coordinator and was rewarded with a win at Miami. Maybe Drayton will pick up on that clue. All over college football there are examples of less talented teams beating more talented teams. Why hasn’t that happened with Temple since Geoff Collins beat No. 17 Cincinnati? Verdict: Even as 24-point underdogs, the Owls underperformed.

Tulsa 48, Temple 26 _ It’s one thing to allow 48 points to a Tulsa team that scored only 10 against Washington and 17 against Oklahoma. It’s another thing to allow 48 points to a Tulsa team that was only able to score 22 on NIU. Hell, even Arkansas Pine-Bluff’s defense allowed fewer points to Tulsa than Temple’s defense. Not “regular Arkansas” or even Arkansas State but Arkansas Freaking Pine-Bluff. Verdict: A complete and utter embarrassment.

UTSA 49, Temple 34 _ The offense for a change played well except for two fumbles that turned into 14 points the other way, but when you put up 34 in a college football game a normal team should expect to win that game. You shouldn’t have to play perfect offensive football to have a chance to win a game but, with Everett Withers in charge, that’s what this season has been reduced to unfortunately. Verdict: Expect more games to come unless a change is made at the top of Temple’s defense.

After a year where the Owls’ defense played like mad crazed dogs in losses to Rutgers and at Navy, there are no mad crazed dogs in sight on defense. Strange, because the same players are out there and the only difference is the defensive leadership.

Friday: North Texas Preview