On Saturday Oct. 31, an undefeated No.21 ranked Temple Owls squad fell short against national powerhouse Notre Dame 24-20 thanks to a late touchdown throw by Fighting Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer, but for many this still felt like a win. 69,280 fans roared for the Owls in a sold out Lincoln Financial Field and a wave of cherry red overflowed parking lots from sunrise to sun down in perhaps the largest showing in Temple Owls football history.
Both teams were ranked inside the Top 25 and have been playing at a high level all season. ESPN’s lead pregame show “College Gameday” was aired in front of Independence Hall with fans flooding the streets and the game was televised in the premiere time slot for college football — 8 p.m. on ABC.
For what may have seemed like the first time ever, the Owls were playing in a football game with actual significance. Temple students and Philadelphia alike are ecstatic with the newly found attention and success of the team. But will they soon fall back to mediocracy as they did in 2006?
For a program that has seen just six winning seasons since 1979 it would be easy to say that this moment was the peak of Temple football history, while others believe that this is just the beginning of a great resurgence for both the team and the program in general.
Cody Sterner, 19, business administration major from Quakertown says, “I think this team has established a winning culture that will last. Rather than a one-year wonder.”
Critics who believe that Temple has reached their peak of success will be quick to point to the short-lived success of former head coach Al Golden. Golden took the job in 2006 and after enduring three consecutive losing seasons he was able to lead the Owls to a 9-3 record and their first postseason game since 1979. A similar hysteria rose around the program then as there is now.
After going 8-4 the following season Golden accepted a new job at the University of Miami and Temple quickly returned to their losing form. From 2012-2014 the team failed to achieve a winning record and once again became an afterthought in the minds of many fans. Naturally, some students draw comparisons between that situation and the current one.
Nathan Weaver, 19, business management major from Quakertown says, “I think it’s awesome that they can play with the top teams, but soon their coach [Matt Rhule] will leave and it’ll be same old Temple.”
Due to their past experiences of head coaches leaving town for better jobs, Temple fans have tempered their expectations. But is there reason to believe that the success of this Temple football team can be sustained?
Anthony Direnzo, 19, business administration major from Sellersville notes that there a lot of differences between this year’s team and teams of the past, he explains
“One difference would be the change in conferences. In 2009 – the peak of Golden’s success – Temple came in third in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). They now play in the highly competitive American Athletic Conference (The American). The American is considered to be the best conference for teams that are not traditional powers; this is evident in the fact that they have three teams nationally ranked inside the Top 25.”
Another clear cut difference between the two situations is the quality of competition that Temple faced in 2009 compared to now. During the team’s previous stint of success they would have never even thought of competing on the same field as Notre Dame or Penn State – who they defeated earlier this season for the first time since 1941. In contrast, it could be argued that Temple’s biggest win in 2009 was against Toledo, a vastly inferior team to both Penn State and Notre Dame.
“I think Temple football can be relevant every year, just like their basketball [program] is,” says Kyle Chubb, 19, pre-allied health major from Quakertown. “I think this current team has done too much for the program to [regress] like it has in the past.”
The success that this Temple team has already achieved is arguably greater than that of the 2009 team. Six years ago, despite their success at the time, the team barely filled half the stadium for their home games. Fast forward to 2015 and this team has already sold out two of their home games while shattering attendance records.
The 2015 Temple Owls football team is competing at a level that it has never reached before. It’s easy to point to the team’s recent history and argue that this is the apex of success for Temple football. While that may be true, for the first time in the modern era of this program, Owl fans can open their mind to the possibility that this is beginning of a resurgence for Temple football.