UCLA Tops Temple
Posted by BMT on December 30th, 2009
It’s odd when we’re talking about local college football well into the month of December. We had Villanova winning the FBS national title last week and that was followed by an even more unlikely scenario last night: Temple playing in a bowl game. Lo and behold, the Owls took an 11-point halftime lead into the lockeroom only to be blanked in the second half by UCLA for a 31-20 final in the EagleBank Bowl.
This is only the third time in school history that Temple has played in a bowl game (the others being in 1935 and 1979) and they managed to make it very competitive against a legitimate big-name program. Give the Owls a ton of credit: when coach Al Golden took over the team in 2006, they had just come off a winless season. Four years later they go 9-4, finish first in the MAC (the conference that accepted them after the Big East dumped ‘em) and almost cap the season with a win over a marquee team.
And now the downside. For as many cigars as Bill Cosby buys him, Al Golden will not be the coach at Temple much longer. The trend in college coaching these days is to jump at coaches who have worked their ways up by turning-around dormant or smaller programs. See Turner Gill, Brian Kelly and Urban Meyer. Golden will be a hot commodity and the allure of making less money and playing to an inferior fan base will not be sufficient to keep him from jumping ship and coaching a program with a higher profile than Temple.
But for now, revel in the snowy, December success of Big Five football. And give Temple plenty of credit for a great season.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I thought it was a 30-21 Final score. I think there was a safety or something near the end of the game following an interception returned for a TD from the 5yd line. I picked Temple to win, so I was disappointed the way they crapped the game away at the end.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Yep, that’s right. I guess looking at the box score when I wrote this wasn’t enough for me to get it right.
December 30th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Also give credit for Temple drawing a crowd. The announced crowd was 23,000 and change, and I would guess (I was there) that more than 15,000 of that were Temple fans. A good sign for them when they make a bowl next year, and they should.
December 30th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
No offense to Golden, but Temple football=Bernard Pierce. Golden is obviously a great recruiter to score a guy like Pierce, but when their running back was knocked out of the game, they looked like the Temple Owls of old. If Bernard stays at Temple for a couple more years before going pro, they will go to more bowl games, whether the coach is Al Golden or Al Yankovic.