An occasional series looking ahead to what USF will face in its American Conference schedule
USF vs. Temple,, October 3, at Raymond James Stadium. Kickoff time TBA
The Temple Owls are emerging after five seasons of being stuck in a quagmire.
A 5-7 finish last season might not sound like much, but the previous five seasons before that the Owls were a combined 13-42, including four straight 3-9 finishes.
Notably, one of their wins in 2022 was a 54-28 rout of USF on November 5. That was the last straw for Bulls' head coach Jeff Scott. He was fired the next day.
This will be USF head coach Brian Hartline's first American Conference home game after opening at Army in the second week of the season. If the Bulls were successful at Army, this will be a chance to build on that game against an opponent they should beat.
If USF was not successful at Army, that will add a dash of desperation against an opponent that's difficult to get a handle on this early.
Why Temple could be really good: It starts with head coach KC Keeler. He is the only coach in FCS history to win national titles at two different schools -- Delaware in 2003 and Sam Houston in 2020. He had the Owls pointed in the right direction last season, which was his first at Temple.
They were 5-3 overall and 3-1 in the conference before they ran into a killer schedule down the stretch, losing their final four games against East Carolina, Army, Tulane, and North Texas. Only the Army game, a 14-13 loss, was close.
The nosedive cost the Owls a chance to play in their first bowl game since 2019, but the expectation heading into this season is that they will be headed somewhere for the post-season.
Temple returns four starting linemen, along with running backs Hunter Smith (who averaged 6.5 yards per carry last year) and Keveun Mason. There are experienced wideouts andJoJo Bermude) and the Bulls will have to pay attention to tight end Peter Clarke.
The Bulls will have an opportunity to judge the Owls for themselves. Temple hosts Army the Friday before it travels to Tampa. Kickoff for the Owls against the Black Knights is the odd time of 4 p.m. on a weekday, to serve as the first game of a college football tripleheader on ESPN.
USF, by the way, will be at Bowling Green the next day.
Why Temple might struggle: Keeler brought in a pair of transfer quarterbacks to compete for the starting job -- Jaxon Smolik from Penn State and Ajani Sheppard from Rutgers/Washington State. Neither player has much experience.
Sheppard has a total of two pass attempts in two seasons and Rutgers and didn't see the field in his one season at Washington State.
Still, that's two more pass attempts than Smolik had at Penn State. He was red-shirted in 2023 and missed the 2024 season with an injury.
Keeler must have seen something he liked to pin his 2026 season to one of these guys, but the Owls could struggle until at least one of those quarterbacks shows they can be the winner for this team.
The defense also is a question mark, although linebacker Curly Ordonez is a force to be reckoned with. Fun stat from last season: Temple was 0-6 when giving up 200 or more yards rushing. Since USF figures to have a solid ground game, this could be an area of concern for the Owls, who are generally under-sized on that side of the ball.
X-factors: The atmosphere at Ray-Jay for this game should be rocking, given that it's the first conference home game of the year. The Bulls are 9-2 at home in the American over the last three years, including 4-0 last season.
Add in the Keeler factor: This looks like the kind of game that Keeler will have his underdog team convinced it can make a program-defining statement with a win. With the roster Hartline established largely through the Transfer Portal -- 24 players with power conference experience -- the Bulls on paper are the superior team.
Of course, the game is not played on paper.
Previously in this series: USF at Army
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