Temple sits at 1-5 at the halfway mark of the season and returns from its bye week with a winnable homecoming game on the schedule Saturday against Tulsa at Lincoln Financial Field. It will have to put a 29-20 loss to UConn in the rearview mirror, one that saw the Owls have a chance to win on fourth down at the goal line with three seconds left, only to see a fumble returned 96 yards the other way for a touchdown.
What can we make of Temple’s defense at the midway mark?
Statistically speaking, the Owls are ranked 12th out of 14 teams in the American Athletic Conference, as teams have scored an average of 36.2 points per game against Temple this season. Of the 217 points the Owls have surrendered, seven came on a punt return fumble at Oklahoma that was returned for a touchdown, and seven came on the last play of the UConn loss. Subtracting those 14 points means the defense has allowed an average of 33.8 points per game, which is still of course not great.
But as bad as that number seems, defensive coordinator Everett Withers’ defense has responded on some occasions and provided some evidence that the things head coach Stan Drayton says are fixable really are.
THE GOOD
At linebacker, a position where Temple lost future pros in Jordan Magee and Yvandy Rigby, D.J. Woodbury Sr. has been everything Drayton and Withers could have hoped for, and ECU transfer Tyquan King fits that description as well.
Woodbury, a 6-foot-2, 235-pound local product out of South Jersey’s Burlington City High School, has been the leader the Temple defense desperately needed. He’s second in the American in total tackles with 55, including 33 solo stops. King, who played two seasons at North Carolina A&T before spending last season at ECU, stepped into the starting lineup when Eric Stuart got hurt, and the defense hasn’t missed a beat there. The 6-2, 235-pound King is just behind Woodbury at third in the AAC in tackles with 53 and also has two sacks.
“I was a little concerned about that position early on,” Drayton said of the linebackers, referring to the losses of Magee and Rigby and Stuart’s injury. “[It was] a huge learning curve. We got hurt at that position, and [King’s] number was called and he's been a steady climb in the right direction that way.”
On the defensive line, FAU transfer Latrell Jean has made a difference as a portal addition. He earned a single digit before playing his first game with the Owls and has compiled two sacks, including one at No. 16 Oklahoma that came well before the game got out of reach.
In the UConn loss, the Owls held the nation’s 11th-best rushing offense to just 99 yards and 2.4 yards per carry. Jean and the line helped clog up run lanes and allowed the linebackers to be able to break through and clean up plays. This is where King was able to excel with a season-high 15 tackles and help lead the Owls defense to a solid bounce-back performance that would have otherwise been good enough to win had it not been for the late-game theatrics on the goal-line fumble.
Want another bright spot in a season that hasn’t had all that many? Temple’s secondary is much better than it was a year ago, when the defensive backs and coaches spoke often about communication issues and missed assignments. After allowing an average of 243.3 yards per game last year through the air, a mark that placed the Owls 10th in that statistical category in the American, Temple is now allowing just 168.8 yards per contest through six games, good for third in the league.
Charleston Southern transfer Jamel Johnson and Arkansas transfer Jaylen Lewis have made a tangible difference at cornerback, and fellow corner Ben Osueke has been much better in coverage than he was last fall. Safety Javier Morton, a Nebraska transfer, should return Saturday after missing the UConn game with an injury.
In assessing some of the positives at the midway mark of the season, Drayton pointed Monday to his secondary as one that has “settled in with consistent play.”
“Not a whole lot gets behind them,” Drayton said. “They tackle well in space. Those are things that were absent from our execution a year ago. So to see that unit play well is promising.”
THE BAD
Before it played much better against the run at UConn, Temple’s defense had been eaten up against the run.
The Owls take the conference’s second-worst rushing defense into Saturday’s game against Tulsa, having allowed an average of 233.3 yards per game and 15 touchdowns. Only UAB has been worse.
The bulk of the damage has come against triple-option teams. Navy put up 297 yards on the ground in a 38-11 win over Temple back on Sept. 7, Coastal Carolina got 184 yards against the Owls a week later, and Army ran with ease to the tune of 417 yards in a 42-14 rout of Temple back on Sept. 26. Army and Navy are both undefeated and ranked 23rd and 25th, respectively, in the latest AP Top 25 poll, and triple-option teams will typically get their yards due to the sheer volume of rushing plays they run. But the Owls’ inability to tackle and even track the ball carrier left a lot to be desired in those games, to say the least.
Leading up to the Navy game, Withers’ defense spoke about the importance of staying disciplined with their eyes in trying to stop a Midshipmen offense that had switched to more of a hybrid, Wing-T attack. It just didn’t happen. And against Coastal Carolina, quarterback Ethan Vasko tallied 103 yards on the ground, with 90 additional yards coming from running back pair Christian Washington and Simeon Price. In the Army loss, Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily and running back Kanye Udoh went for 165 and 128 yards on the ground, respectively, and Temple looked lost in defending the triple option from the opening series, when slotback Noah Short ripped off a 61-yard touchdown run.
Even against an offense that didn’t run the triple option, Temple surrendered 186 yards on the ground in a win over Utah State, with 148 coming from Pottstown native Rahsul Faison.
Tulsa, which has the American’s fourth-best rushing offense at 182.5 yards per game, will be a bit of a test for the Owls Saturday.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Maybe - just maybe -Temple’s defense is starting to learn how to take the football away again. It’s just that they have a long, long way to go in that department.
It took the Owls four weeks to create their first turnover, one that came when Torey Richardson stepped in front of Utah State quarterback Spencer Petras’ throw. Then Elijah Deravil and Lewis picked off UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano two weeks ago.
But if the Owls want to start reeling off wins against what is clearly an easier back half of their schedule, they have to be able to take the ball away and create turnovers, and it’s not just about interceptions. Temple is dead last among all FBS programs - along with Auburn, Southern Miss and UAB - in turnover margin.
The return of defensive end Diwun Black after a four-game absence at the start of the season due to academics could make a difference for Temple and already has. There’s a reason why the former 4-star recruit was initially good enough to play at Florida. He’s very quick and aggressive off the edge as the Owls’ best pure pass rusher, even if he doesn’t have a sack yet to show for it in his first two games back on the field.
Against a triple-option team in Army, Black wasn’t able to pin his ears back and run at the quarterback. At UConn, he posted eight tackles and was credited with three quarterback pressures.
