Tulsa runs past Temple, 27-16
Temple is obviously a rebuilding football program. There’s little question about that. The losses are going to come.
But for the first time this season, after the Owls’ 27-16 loss to Tulsa Friday night at Lincoln Financial Field that dropped their record to 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the American Athletic Conference, the program’s first year-head coach seemed deflated in a different sort of way.
It’s not to say Stan Drayton has been accepting of the losing, but he seemed to have more of a silver-lining vibe after the previous four losses, even after his team lost by 57 points last Thursday at UCF on national television.
This time, Drayton walked into the postgame media room with glazed eyes. His arms were folded. He was fidgeting in his chair as he formulated his answers and chose his words.
“This one burns a little bit,” Drayton began, “because I know the investment our guys have been putting in. We had a tough one against UCF a week ago, and they came in and prepared their tails off, did a great job of responding, practiced their tails off. Leadership started emerging, really pushed each other, pulling on each other, whatever it takes. Guys were stepping up.”
Drayton went on to talk about how linebacker Jordan Magee stepped out of his comfort zone this week to be more of a vocal leader. He said he knows the game of football is starting to become important to them when they start getting comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
“For that, this is a little disappointing for them,” Drayton said.
He still sees some good things for the future, but this loss seemed to hit him differently.
Rebuilding programs are going to step in ways to lose until they have the talent and the experience to avoid those landmines and pitfalls, and Friday was another example of that for the Owls.
Although it sacked Tulsa quarterback Davis Brin seven times and finally started to get running back Edward Saydee going (20 carries for a career-high 69 yards), Temple allowed a team that was averaging a little more than 109 yards per game on the ground to rush for 299 yards.
That, more than anything, is why the Owls lost.
Deneric Prince got 231 of those yards on 20 carries, including an 84-yard touchdown run that saw him go untouched to the end zone and help Tulsa grab a 24-10 lead with 10 minutes, 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter. And after Temple jumped out to a 10-0 lead courtesy of Layton Jordan’s 35-yard interception return for a touchdown and Camden Price’s 32-yard field goal in the first quarter, Prince was the driving factor when Tulsa finally punched back and cut the Owls’ lead to 10-7 on a nine-play, 94-yard drive in the second quarter that culminated with his 18-yard touchdown reception. He also had 38 yards on three carries on that scoring drive.
Defensive lineman Darian Varner, who would have otherwise been enjoying a great individual performance with five tackles and 3.5 sacks, didn’t have too much to say about why Temple couldn’t stop the run Friday night.
“I would just say that they were playing harder than we were at that moment,” said Varner, who is now tied with Jordan for the team lead in sacks this season with 6.5. “We played hard, but they executed a little more.”
Turning point
Despite the fact that the Owls were getting little going offensively, they were still holding a 10-0 lead with 12:57 left in the second quarter thanks to Jordan’s pick-six and Price’s field goal, and a Mackenzie Morgan punt had just pinned the Golden Hurricane down at their 6-yard line.
But Tulsa responded with the aforementioned nine-play, 94-yard drive capped by the 18-yard touchdown pass from Brin to Prince that helped close the gap to 10-7 with 9:40 to go before halftime.
That was the sign of things to come and started a run of 24 unanswered points. Tulsa eventually took the lead for good – again after Temple had pinned the Golden Hurricane deep in their own territory – with a 10-play, 86-yard drive capped by Brin’s three-yard touchdown pass to tight end Ethan Hall.
Yet another offensive line combination
Temple has played seven games this season and started a different offensive line each time.
Friday night, it was Isaac Moore at left tackle, Richard Rodriguez at left guard, Adam Klein at center, James Faminu at right guard and Victor Stoffel at right tackle. Klein left the game in the third quarter and did not return, which forced Drayton and offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan to move Rodriguez to center – where he started the season at Duke – and bring in Bryce Thoman at left guard. And when Faminu left the game with an injury, Wisdom Quarshie came on to relieve him.
Drayton didn’t elaborate on Klein’s injury but said after the game that he believed Klein would be just fine and was “agitated” that he wasn’t allowed to finish the game.
Between the injuries and developing a line that’s largely inexperienced aside from Klein and Moore, it’s been challenging for a team that has the 128th-worst run game in the nation and a true freshman quarterback.
“Anytime you have injuries, it's hard to kind of plug different guys in and try to get a chemistry that way,” Temple quarterback E.J. Warner said. “But my job is just to focus on what I can control, and if I can control in the pass game, watching film, do whatever I need to do to control that and just stand back there and trust those guys, no matter who it is in front of me.”
Warner struggles
Speaking of Warner, he finished 23 of 48 passing for 196 yards and a 23-yard touchdown pass to Amad Anderson that made it a 24-16 game with 6:08 left to play. Once again, he rarely threw from a clean pocket, and this time it came against a team that had a conference-worst seven sacks entering Friday night’s game.
Temple didn’t allow a sack, but Warner squirmed away from pressure several times and never got into a rhythm.
“We prepare for anything we've seen on film, and they can pressure and they can bring those guys,” Warner said when he was asked if he was surprised by how many times Tulsa tried pressuring him. “And (against) teams earlier in the season, I've done that as well. So we're just really ready for anything. We just have to execute better when they do that to expose them downfield.”
But that didn’t happen enough. Adonicas Sanders started the game but didn’t finish it, and Drayton implied that the Georgia Tech transfer has been fighting through an injury. Anderson responded with eight catches for 112 yards and the late touchdown, and Jose Barbon added six catches for 56 yards.
Other than that, Warner and the passing game struggled. Ian Stewart is still out with an injury, and Zae Baines saw plenty of time Friday night. Although he was targeted 10 times, he and Warner didn’t connect on a single throw.
At the end of the day, Temple tallied just 280 yards of total offense and gained an average of just 3.8 yards per play.
Extra points
A Temple spokesperson confirmed that running back Jakari Norwood, who had transferred to Temple from Illinois over the summer, is no longer on the roster. Drayton was often upbeat in talking about Norwood during the preseason, but the 5-foot-10 Florida native tallied just 62 yards on 27 carries this season in a backfield that has struggled as a whole. When asked about Norwood after the game, Drayton said, "He's got some personal things he's dealing with," and did not elaborate further. ... Sophomore linebacker Yvandy Rigby has quietly put together a very solid season and continued to build upon it Friday night with a team-high 12 tackles, 3.0 tackles for a loss and a sack. The South Jersey native who played his senior season at Egg Harbor Township High School before taking a prep season at Milford Academy is second on the team in total tackles with 43, to go with 4.5 TFLs and two sacks. ... Placekicker Camden Price missed his first field goal as an Owl Friday night, sending a 49-yard third-quarter attempt low and wide left.
Up next
Temple will play at Navy next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. The Midshipmen handed Tulsa a 53-21 loss back on Oct. 8 and lost to SMU 40-34 last Friday. They host Houston Saturday.
Listen to Friday’s postgame interviews here.