About a third of the way through a 55-0 beating at the hands of visiting SMU a few short weeks ago, Temple football was trending for a very bad four-letter word.

Mess.

Other four-letter words were worse.

Now, after a 32-18 win over a representative Navy team, Temple defensive lineman Jerquavion Mahone went on radio and associated Temple football with another four-letter word:

Bowl.

“All we’re thinking about is winning this season out and getting into a bowl game,” Mahone said on Wednesday night’s Stan Drayton Radio Show (97.5 FM). “We want to do it for all the guys who have been here through all of what we’ve been through for the last three years and we want to do it for coach Drayton.”

When someone is 6-4, 290 pounds, you tend to listen to what he has to say.

My guess is Mahone won’t pull a Quincy Roche and opt out of a bowl if he gets his way.

First things first, though, and tomorrow’s game is at USF (noon, ESPN+).

If the Owls win that one, they can think about beating UAB.

IF .. and that’s a big IF .. they beat UAB, it sets up a home finale the day after Thanksgiving where they can beat Memphis for a bowl game.

Temple is an absolute mess, holy cow.

— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) October 21, 2023

Whoa, Nellie.

If that happens, chances are that E.J. Warner will be the first Temple player in my lifetime carried off the field after a victory because they will need a Herculean three games from Warner to complete the trifecta. The team gave a preview of that by carrying Warner around the locker room after the win over Navy.

Beating USF is a hard-enough task but by no means is it impossible.

Temple fans even in this season like to look down on one-win UConn, a former rival, and say that this three-win Owl team is better and I think it is. Yet UConn “only” lost, 24-21, to USF and even with all the Owls’ problems, I think any team with E.J. Warner on it beats UConn by double-digits.

Now go ahead and prove me right with a touchdown win at USF tomorrow.

There is both good news and bad news here because the good news is that USF can’t stop anybody.

The bad news is neither can Temple.

Now the Owls showed some defensive fiersness against Navy, holding a triple-option team to zero first-half points. That really was the only reason Temple won the game because everybody knows that a triple option team no matter how good it is doesn’t come back from 17-0 deficits.

The Owls played a flawless first-half of defense by putting their best players in position to make plays. They had effective run- and pass blitzes and they need to do that going forward because they can’t get a rush from their base three.

If they do that against USF, they can cause havoc in the backfield and make a running quarterback put the ball up.

When that happens, guys like Magee, Layton Jordan and Jalen McMurray have to use their talents to go get it and take it the other way.

Mahone will have to do his part by occupying blockers and getting a push up the middle.

The rest will be up to an offense that needs to utilize its most talented players–Warner and tight ends DMR and Jordan Smith–in mismatches against the USF defense. That doesn’t even include the guy who got USF head coach Jeff Scott fired last year, Edward Saydee. Weapons galore for Temple.

UConn didn’t have that kind of offensive explosiveness against USF.

Temple does.

If the Owls use it effectively, you can start saying a four-letter word about them and, for the first time in months, it can be said in polite company.

Late Saturday Night: USF Analysis