Last Chance for Bowl: A win at Army

Temple was down 28-3 and still spoiled Army’s Homecoming 15 years ago (wearing Cherry helmets).

The schedule says Temple has three shots at gaining bowl eligibility.

Reality suggests only one.

This week at Army (noon, CBS Sports Network).

Head coach K.C. Keeler pretty much said so during his post-game press conference on Saturday when he said “we’re not there yet” when talking about the physical gap between his team and East Carolina.

Temple’s Montel Harris is all smiles after getting congratulated by Army captain Nate Coombs for gaining 351 yards and scoring 7 touchdowns in Temple’s 63-32 win in 2012, the last victory for the Owls at Army.

Leading up to Saturday’s 45-14 loss, he said it was a “50-50” game like so many in the league.

It wasn’t.

What happened?

Well, the Owls didn’t play as well as they did in the loss to Navy or the wins at Charlotte and Tulsa. East Carolina is closer in ability to Tulane and North Texas–Temple’s final two opponents–than Army is so this could very well be Temple’s last chance at bowl eligibility.

Army is probably closer in ability to Navy or Tulsa than it is to Charlotte, so this could be the last so-called “50-50” game on the schedule.

The Owls would probably be wise to look at it that way.

The Army team honors Temple by hanging around for “T for Temple U” after the 2012 win.

Army opened as a 5.5-point favorite over Temple at 2 on Sunday and the “public” bet enough money on the home side to push that up to 6.5.

Still, both Tulane and North Texas will probably be double-digit favorites over the Owls.

Can the Owls beat Army?

Sure, because Tarleton State, a FCS team that lost to Abilene Christian, beat Army. Abilene Christian lost at Tulsa, 35-7, who the Owls beat two weeks ago.

Transitive property means only so much because the Owls beating UTSA suggested that the game against East Carolina would be similar talent vs. similar talent.

The problem for Temple is does the Temple that showed up vs. Navy and Charlotte show up at Army or do the Owls who showed up–or didn’t show up–last Saturday show up next Saturday?

A lot will be determined by how much the injury factor played into the ECU loss and how much that factor lingers over into the Army game.

Can Jay Ducker duplicate or even come close to the 351 yards Montel Harris had in 2012 or even the 228 yards the 5-foot-5 Matty Brown had in 2010?

I’ll settle for 100, which would set up a lot of play/action passing from Evan Simon.

Or that long-awaited throwback pass from former UCLA quarterback Kajiya Hollawayne to JoJo Bermudez for six we’ve been talking about for nine weeks.

To get to a bowl, it’s time to pull out all of the stops because this could be the last one on a bowl-eligible train that might bypass the Tulane and North Texas stations.

Friday: Army Preview

9 thoughts on “Last Chance for Bowl: A win at Army

  1. Pull all the stops. Even if it means pulling Simon if he starts poorly.

    Call the medicine man for the Temple D. Army is coming at a bad time in the schedule. Temple needs a bye week.., so be it. Play the healthy 3rd team dudes, their experience this year will pay dividends next year.

    All may not be lost. We may catch Tulane with Sumrall on the cusp of his new job.

    • Yeah, ECU had a fake punt with a 600-pound lineman and also got a first down on a muddle formation. We never try shit. When asked about trick plays four weeks ago, Keeler said he doesn’t want to resort to trick plays “when we are not playing well.” OK, then do it on the first play from scrimmage.

  2. Temple needs to start out with a bang – not a 3-and-out. Simon needs to get back into his earlier play, then we can win. 6-6 and a bowl, c’mon guys, you can do it. Otherwise the end of this season will leave a bad taste. Go Owls!

    • Bad taste is already in my mouth. I can accept a 45-24 loss to Georgia Tech and a 42-3 loss to Oklahoma. I can’t accept a 45-14 loss to a conference foe. They went off the rails in a bad way and only have six days to put this train back on the tracks.

      • Thoughts after KCK Monday presser:

        1. He tells the same stories over, and over, and over again.
        2. Temple is pretty banged up, and clearly looking forward to the bye week.
        3. Bowl eligibility win is now more probable vs Tulane or N. Texas than against Army.
        4. Defense was clearly ahead of the offense during last Spring and Fall camps. Now the offense must carry the team.
        5. N. Texas is the team KCK would enjoy beating more than Army or Tulane.
      • why NT?

  3. Just a hunch…, Keelerʻs defensive staff at Sam Houston is now at NT, to include his former DC.

    Keeler beat Eric Morris two out of three times when Morris was at Incarnate Word. Morris will probably leave N. Texas this year for a P4 job and take Keelerʻs old staff with him.

  4. ECU the only game I have been able to attend this season…pretty disappointing….owls mauled on the front lines as in past seasons…I was hoping for better student support, but alas , that was not the case…Army seems to be getting better…hoping that Tulane at home after a bye week will be a better showing…

Leave a reply to Mike Gibson Cancel reply