Plenty of people who make millions on college football had Temple pegged for two wins before the first projection of the college football season in May.

Somewhere, a few months later, that was adjusted to 2.5 due to a lot of Temple money coming into the betting parlors.

Still, the thought was this:

Temple would beat both Akron and Wagner and the .5 covered the books in the event of a win over, say, USF.

With Temple’s 45-24 win over Akron yesterday, the conventional thinking is “now comes the hard part.”

Maybe.

But, really, how hard?

Boston College had a similar win over UMass, which Vegas generally considers is a team not even as good as Akron.

If the Owls can beat Boston College on Saturday, the entire vibe changes inside the $17 million dollar Edberg-Olson Complex.

Maybe the vibe has already changed.

Consider this: Justin Lynch is the FIRST quarterback we’ve found in the entire history of Temple football (playing the sport since 1884) who WON a game as a true freshman starting his first game. (Hell, for MOST of those years, true freshmen were ineligible to even play but what Lynch did was impressive nonetheless.)

He was much more than a game manager. A lot of pretty good “veteran” quarterbacks (Lee Saltz for one) never had a day this good: 19 for 23, 245 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

If the Akron game becomes a confidence-builder and a building block for Lynch, he becomes a much more relaxed quarterback against Boston College and that can only bode well for the Owls’ chances in their home opener.

Another positive sign is that the team’s stars on both sides of the ball took over when they needed to on Saturday. Down, 14-0, Randle Jones took a jet sweep to the house. Two years ago, Carey called Jones a “flat-out stud” but he really wasn’t able to show it except on the opening play of the SMU game last year. Jones has been hampered by injuries.

Now healthy, Jones is a difference-maker.

So is William Kwenkeu on the other side of the ball.

Only the die-hard Owl fans know that William was the “defensive MVP’ in the Owls 28-3 win over FIU in the Gasparilla Bowl way back in 2017 and he’s still here four years later.

Thank God.

His scoop and score was the other key play in the game.

With the announcers talking about Temple in a “malaise” those two plays took Temple right out of it and back into a Temple TUFF mode.

Does it last?

A win on Saturday will be hard, but nothing worth achieving ever is easy.

Maybe the home crowd makes a difference. If so, a lot of Temple football haters can rip up their betting slips.

Monday: Not Like That