College football season is in full swing now, as we enter the third week of action, and the Temple Owls take on the Massachusetts Minutemen in Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium.
Temple has been making waves across the college football nation, starting off the season 2-0 with wins over the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Cincinnati Bearcats. Their two wins have caught the attention of poll voters. The Owls are currently 26th overall in the AP Top 25, only ten votes behind 25th ranked Oklahoma State. In VAVEL USA’s Week 3 Poll, the Temple Owls are ranked 24th overall, making this their first appearance in our poll.
UMass, however, has only played in one game this year against the Colorado Buffaloes and lost 48-14. This is their second game of the year against a tough opponent in Temple and look to try and move to 1-1 on the year.
For the Owls, the two keys to their success this season have been Jahad Thomas and their defense. Thomas, the Owls running back, has already rushed for 328 yards this year, more than his total from last season, and has found the end zone three times. Thomas and the run game have been responsible for most of their offense this season. The Owls are currently averaging 180 rushing yards a game this year and quarterback P.J. Walker has led the Owls to 124 passing yards per game.
Temple’s defense, headed by LB Tyler Matakevich, has also been a key part to their successful start to 2015. The Owls’ defense accumulated ten sacks against Penn State, which is rarely heard of, and picked off Cincinnati’s quarterback Gunner Kiel four times in their matchup. The Owls’ defense had helped preserve the leads their offense has built, whether big or small, and kept them in both games this year and may help them make it to a New Year’s Day bowl game.
In their only game of the year, UMass relied a lot off of their passing game and quarterback Blake Frohnapel. Frohnapel threw for 225 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. The Minutemen’s running game, however, was far from good. No running back got over 65 rushing yards, and seven players combined for only 147 yards and one touchdown.
Looking at the Minutemen’s defense, well, let’s start with the one positive area. They held Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau to only 168 passing yards. However, they gave up 390 yards on the ground and five rushing touchdowns.
The most interesting matchup to watch in this game will be UMass’ run defense against Thomas and how many yards Thomas can rack up on the UMass defense.
The spread for this game is very one sided. Temple is the favorite in the spread with a -10.5 spread, the first time they have been favored in a game all season. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:00 PM ET and coverage is on ESPN 3.