Temple hasn't had a winning football season since 1990. They haven't been to a bowl game since they beat California in the Garden State Bowl in 1979.

I've been a longtime defender of Temple's program even though many pundits, students, faculty members and the public repeatedly urged Temple to drop its program or go down to the 1-AA level with the likes of Villanova, Delaware and New Hampshire. WIP hosts and callers either ridiculed Temple or totally ignored them.

When Golden took over four years ago, the team was arguably one of the worst in the history of college football. The Owls had gone 0-11 the year before. Their long-suffering program took a huge hit when the Big East kicked them out of the conference for poor attendance and lack of competitiveness.

The Golden era has changed everything. Temple has shown progress every year. They went from 1-11 in his first year, to 4-8 and then 5-7 last year. Things looked bleak at the beginning of the season when they lost to Villanova on a last-second field goal. It looked like the same old Temple, finding a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

But that's when Bernard Pierce stepped in.

Pierce, a freshman running back from Glen Mills, had a breakout game against Buffalo, when he rushed for more than 100 yards. He's gotten more productive each game, to the point where he's gained more than 1,000 yards for the season, which puts him among the nation's leading running backs. Two weeks ago, he exploded for 267 yards and two TDs against a strong Navy team that beat Wake Forest the week before (and went on to beat Notre Dame, 23-21!) and gave Ohio State all it could handle earlier in the season.

This recent success has brought much praise and attention from the national media. The New York Times' sports page recently ran a feature on Temple football. They've gotten praise on ESPN. Pierce was a finalist for national player of the week. They even received votes in several Top 25 polls.

This season has been sweet vindication for the die-hard Temple fans like me who've stuck with the Owls through the gloomiest of years. We lived through blowout losses (in Golden's first year, they lost two straight games 62-0), heartbreaking last-second losses (last season, with Buffalo's last second Hail Mary touchdown and Navy's fumble recovery TD in the last minute of the game), movie-theater-size crowds at the Vet and Lincoln Financial Field, and the embarrassing ouster from the Big East. For the last 25 years or so, I've gone to at least two or three home games a season and listened to every other game on radio. While being a Temple fan has meant great seats in a near-empty stadium, I'd much rather see a packed Lincoln Financial.

Granted, it's early to be hooting too loudly at this point. While Temple is officially bowl-eligible with its seven wins, the MAC Conference only has three certain bowl slots, so the Owls aren't guaranteed a bowl at this point. Critics will point out that they couldn't even beat Villanova, that MAC is a weak conference and that Temple's success is bound to be short-lived because Golden is likely to move on to a higher-paying coaching job in a BCS conference like the Big East, ACC or Big 10.

THE CRITICISM doesn't matter. For the first time in decades, Temple fans have reason to hope. As weak as MAC is, it's still Division 1 football and has three bowl slots and an ESPN contract. I hope Golden decides to stay to build Temple into a non-BCS power like Boise State, Utah or TCU. But even if he leaves, he's proved that Temple can be a winner.

It's easy to jump on the bandwagon for successful teams. But there's nothing better than being a loyal fan of a long downtrodden team that finally turns things around. After years of suffering, it's reassuring to know that we're no longer the Temple of Doom.

Larry Atkins teaches journalism at Temple and at Arcadia University. His e-mail address is larryLTatkins@aol.com.