Our predictions the last 2 years: One off, both ways

They should be breaking out the balls for winter workouts very soon.

One year we sold the Owls short. The next we oversold them.

By one game each year.

So close but so far away.

That’s the prediction business in a nutshell.

Having watched the final preseason of Stan Drayton’s Temple career, we wrote in this space that the Owls would finish 2-10 in May of 2024. We based that on Forrest Brock winning the job. When Evan Simon took over, the Owls got better but still not good enough.

They finished 3-9.

On May 23, 2025 we mapped out how each game would go and this was shockingly close to how the first few games turned out.

This year we saw what new head coach K.C. Keeler was doing (upgraded key areas like the DL, RB and backup QB), and upped that win total to six. The justification not only was the roster upgrade, but the fact that an established head coach and coordinators would eliminate the pre-snap penalties that killed Drayton, OC Danny Langsdorf and DC Everett Withers.

That largely happened and two single-point losses to the academies ruined the Owls’ chances of finishing 7-5.

On Memorial Day Weekend, we wrote the Owls would finish 6-6.

They finished 5-7.

We predicted a 24-10 win at UMass (it was 42-10) and a 48-7 win over Howard (it was 55-7). We also predicted a 34-14 loss to Oklahoma (42-3) and a 38-7 loss to Georgia Tech (it was 42-24).

Geoff Collins had the Owls practicing in the snow (2017). Fortunately, Keeler has a state-of-the-art indoor facility at 15th and Montgomery to weather any storms.

We predicted Temple would beat UTSA, 24-21 (remarkably close because the Owls won, 27-21), a 31-21 loss to Navy (Owls lost a game that will live in ignominy, 32-31).

We predicted Temple would beat Tulsa, 34-21 (Owls won, 31-30) and Charlotte, 28-14 (it was 48-14).

The one game we got really wrong was the East Carolina game. We thought the Owls would win that one, 28-20, but they lost, 45-14.

We predicted Army would beat Temple by three (it was by one), Tulane would beat Temple by 11 (it was 23) and North Texas would beat Temple by 14 (it was 27).

Not bad, except for a couple of outliers, Keeler and his staff outperformed the scores we expected. The bottom line is the number of wins.

We will be watching the offseason acquisitions, then attending Cherry and White and coming up with game-by-game predictions around Memorial Day. They need to find a proven starting quarterback in the transfer portal and then slowly work the future (Lamar Best) into the lineup as the season goes along.

By then, we should have a good handle on how things should play out.

Friday: Is it sustainable?

Monday: Temple’s Secret Weapon

Friday (1/15): Best Available

Leave a comment