Spaced out: Owls routed at UCF, 70-13
ORLANDO, Fla. — When you give up 70 points and a program-record 728 total yards, it's hard to identify any one person as "the" problem.
"Everybody messed up," linebacker Jordan Magee said Thursday night.
The Temple Owls (2-4, 0-2) surrendered 56 unanswered points on Thursday night in a 70-13 loss to the UCF Citronauts (5-1, 2-0) on Space Night at Bounce House.
UCF's 70 points are the most Temple has allowed in a game since 2004 and 2005, when Bowling Green matched that total in back-to-back seasons. Worse still, UCF’s 737 total yards were the most ever by a Temple opponent, surpassing SMU’s then-record 728 in 2013.
Believe it or not, Thursday night’s blowout was briefly competitive. Temple trailed 14-13 with 8:43 to play in the second quarter following a 49-yard field goal from Camden Price. That was fun while it lasted, as UCF ripped off three quick scores, including a last-second Plumlee rushing touchdown before the half, to go into the locker room with a 35-13 lead.
“Even when it was close, we were putting ourselves in tough situations [with penalties],” Temple coach Stan Drayton said. “A lot of mistakes were happening in that game from start to finish, things we have to address. We have to look at that and wonder why that is happening - the missed assignment after missed assignment after missed assignment - across the board.”
Playing for style points, Plumlee came out of the locker room to throw touchdown passes of 11, 68 and 64 yards before mercifully exiting the game in the third quarter. The Ole Miss transfer finished with 410 total yards and seven touchdowns, with four through the air and three on the ground. He now sits tied in the UCF record book with Darin Slack (vs. West Georgia in 1987) and Daunte Culpepper (vs. Eastern Illinois in 1998) for most touchdowns in a single game.
Once Plumlee had his fill, freshman Thomas Castellanos came on in relief, engineering two scoring drives of his own.
Under center for the Owls, freshman quarterback E.J. Warner completed 24 of a career-high 43 passing attempts, throwing for 234 yards and a touchdown behind a revamped offensive line. With James Faminu and Bryce Thoman not making the trip to Orlando, Temple started an offensive line of Isaac Moore at left tackle, Wisdom Quarshie at left guard, Adam Klein at center, Richard Rodriguez at right guard and Victor Stoffel at right tackle.
Warner wasn’t sacked, but the offense that had early success was held scoreless for the final 38 minutes and 43 seconds of game time. Drayton and offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf tried once again unsuccessfully to use backup quarterback Quincy Patterson to spark the run game, but he was held to 16 yards on seven carries. That was, unfortunately, par for the course on an evening when Temple ran the ball 27 times for a grand total of 59 yards - 2.2 per per carry.
Without overselling it, this was a literally historic loss for a program that’s once again in a rebuild. For his part, Drayton will now look to how his team bounces back over the second half of the season.
“Like all experiences, win or lose, we have to learn and grow from this one,” he said. “We have an opportunity to learn who we are as a football team right now. What are we going to do as a result of this loss? Are we going to rally the troops? Are we going to hold ourselves accountable? Are we going to invest more?
“I told the team, I need to see how they’re going to respond to this one.”
With wins over UMass and FCS Lafayette behind them, Temple now turns to dates with Tulsa, Navy, USF, Houston, Cincinnati and East Carolina. At 2-4, coming off a 57-point loss, it’s hard to identify potential wins in that stretch.
However this season turns out, Drayton made it clear Thursday night that he’s building for the future.
“I am trying to create a mindset,” he said. “This is Temple University. We need to learn to overcome adversity. We need to be able to deal with the hand that’s dealt to us at all times and not find excuses.
“Once we get to the point where this program is winning on a consistent basis, everyone is going to appreciate that mindset. But we have to grow and become that. It’s going to take some work and it’s going to take some time.“
Listen to the postgame interviews here: