One of the things Temple head coach K.C. Keeler brought up at the American Conference Media Day was that he doesn’t want his team to be “realistic” (his word) about achieving incremental goals, like one or two more wins than last year.

What he does want is the team to be talking about getting to bowl games and winning them and even doing the same when talking about getting to the conference championship game and winning it.

What would that look like?

Temple would have to win at least six more games this year than it did last to even entertain getting to the championship game.

While that might seem impossible, it has been done before.

At Temple.

Back in 1990, another coach with local ties who won at Penn–Jerry Berndt–was able to turn the Owls around from a 1-10 season in 1989 to a seven-win season in 1990. In that season, the Owls won on the road against Barry Alvarez’s Wisconsin team and won at Pitt’s on-campus stadium, 28-18. (Temple led 28-10 before Pitt added a cosmetic touchdown with 0:08 left on the fourth-quarter clock.)

Berndt then, like Keeler now, said the same thing before the season that Keeler is saying now. “Our 1-10 season is in the past,” Berndt said. “I know we have winners on this team and we want to have a winning season. That’s all we’re talking about right now.”

Because there weren’t nearly as many bowl games back then, Maryland beat out Temple for an Independence Bowl bid when both teams were being considered as the “Eastern” representative.

Still, Berndt proved then what Keeler hopes to prove now–that a dramatic turnaround is possible at Temple.

In reality, it should be easier now than it was then because the Temple football of 1990 didn’t have a transfer portal to add key “ready to play” pieces like Keeler already has done. Keeler already improved the quarterback position with the addition of Gevani McCoy, meaning at the very least if Evan Simon goes down, the team won’t look as lost as it did in the years that E.J. Warner was injured.

Also, they upgraded the running back room by not only keeping Terrez Worthy but by adding the leading rusher from Sam Houston, Jay Ducker, and the leader rusher two years ago from Louisiana Monroe, Hunter Smith.

Those are just a few examples, although you can say key pieces were added for both lines and especially linebacker and defensive back.

None of those resources were available to the 1990 Owls but they still found a way to get it done.

Knowing that the 1990 Owls refused to be defined by their 1989 season should give the 2025 Owls a valuable point of reference.

Friday: Misconceptions