A first road trip with an old bruise attached
Penn State have not played at Temple since 2015. That afternoon the Owls won 27-10 and took the series for the first time since 1941. The photograph from that game still hangs where the Temple squad walk past it every day, and their coach says they will lean on it.
The 16th-ranked Nittany Lions arrive in Philadelphia on Saturday at 1-0, and their opener told them very little. They beat Marshall 45-0 and outgained the Thundering Herd 487-147. Rocco Becht threw for 271 yards and four touchdowns to hand Matt Campbell a win in his first game in charge. Koby Howard caught six passes for 161 yards and a score.
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The number Campbell keeps coming back to
The defence did the quieter work. Marshall converted one of eleven third downs and averaged 1.7 yards a carry. Caleb Bacon finished with five tackles and a sack, then refused to make anything of it. “It’s game one,” the defensive end said. “We’ve got a game next week. You can’t let your highs get too high. You can’t let your lows get too low.”
The run game is the piece that did not work. Penn State carried 45 times for 3.6 yards an attempt and never broke one longer than 16 yards. Four penalties, no turnovers, and no explosive runs at all against a Group of Five defence.
“If there is one mantra, we would like to be, we’d like to be tough, we’d like to be disciplined and we’d like to be together as a football program,” Campbell said. “I think you want to turn the videotape on and you want to be able to see that.”
Temple have a quarterback question and a full stadium
The Owls are 1-0 as well after putting 38 on Rhode Island. Keveun Mason ran for 158 yards and two touchdowns, and two pick-sixes finished the job. What the tape did not show was a settled quarterback. Ajani Sheppard and Jaxon Smolik went a combined 9-of-16 for 142 yards.
K.C. Keeler is not pretending otherwise. “It’s an ongoing competition,” the Temple coach said. “Ideally, we’d prefer to not play two equally, but we won’t live by any creed. If we play them both 50-50, I’m good with that.”
He is already managing the occasion too. “Let’s enjoy it for about 15-20 seconds, and then let’s worry about playing the football game.”
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