Temple will host a Coastal Carolina team Saturday in its home opener that utilizes some triple-option aspects in its offense.
Considering how the Owls struggled last week in their 38-11 loss at Navy, a team that still leans heavily on a triple-option approach in what it calls its new hybrid Wing-T offense, that’s not exactly the best matchup for an 0-2 team that has consistently leaned on talking points pertaining to self-inflicted mistakes and things that can be fixed and corrected.
But those things – poor eye discipline, bad run fits and losing track of the quarterback, to name a few - haven’t been fixed or corrected yet. And if that trend continues, Temple could soon be staring at an 0-3 record.
In posting a 40-21 over a nationally-ranked FCS opponent in William & Mary last week and improving to 2-0, Coastal ran for 277 yards and two touchdowns, with those two scores and 100 of those yards coming from running back Christian Washington, who racked up 100 yards on 16 carries. The successful ground game helped carry the weight on a day when quarterback Ethan Vasko, a former Kansas recruit, went just 8 of 23 passing for 160 yards.
But Vasko himself rushed for 59 yards on six carries, which means Temple will once again be spying a quarterback who can run the ball.
They didn’t do it well last week and allowed Navy quarterback Blake Horvath to gash them for 122 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries.
Three members of Temple’s defensive backfield – safeties Andreas Keaton and Louis Frye and cornerback Ben Osueke – spoke with reporters Tuesday and were asked about some of the similarities between what Navy does and what Coastal Carolina does on offense.
Osueke expects Coastal to utilize a similar approach after watching what the Owls put on tape last week at Navy.
“Yeah, we definitely see some similarities,” said Osueke, who has four tackles and a pass breakup through two games. “And obviously they're watching tape, too, because obviously every team watches the game previous game. So I feel like we're going to see more of that triple option similarity come out because from their eyes, we kind of struggled defending it (at Navy.) But like AK (Keaton) said, it was kind of like a self-sabotage thing. But we plan to see them get more into a triple option and kind of see where our eyes are following what happened last week.
“So we definitely see a little bit of similarity. They kind of mix it up. They kind of mix it up, and their main goal is just to win the ball and get their playmakers in space.”
You can listen to this week’s interviews with Keaton, Frye and Osueke, along with a conversation with tight end James Della Pesca, here.
