A marvelous day ends in a heartbreaking loss for Temple

The longest and easily most momentous day in Temple football history - starting before dawn, when students on North Broad boarded buses for East Market Street and their ESPN College GameDay cameos - stayed marvelous and almost mystical deep into Saturday night, until it ended in something close to misery.

If Lincoln Financial Field didn't always sound frenzied, maybe it was because nobody could breathe, even after the Temple Owls, ranked 21st in the nation, saw a field goal split the uprights and the scoreboard show, "Temple 20, Notre Dame 17," with 4 minutes, 45 seconds left to play.

By then, security had lined the end zone in front of the Owls' student section, trying to protect the goalposts, just as they had against Penn State. Philadelphia's finest soon joined them.

Right then, though, a huge third-down pass to Notre Dame's Will Fuller, who went to high school on Broad Street himself, kept the No. 9 Fighting Irish alive. Another big pass pushed the Irish into field goal territory at the other end. And then Fuller broke the Owls' hearts in the end zone, his catch in the right corner of the north end zone putting Notre Dame back ahead for good, 24-20, with just over two minutes left. The Roman Catholic High graduate will remember it for the rest of his life, how he broke the heart of his hometown team. The last guy off the field, Fuller blew a kiss just before he hit the tunnel. He now has two game-winning TD catches this season.

There was still a last chance for the Owls. Their quarterback, P.J. Walker, right away ran for 15 yards. Then a third and long, a scramble for Walker, and a pass.

And an Irish interception. Game over.

"I think we proved we're a really good football team, one of the best teams in the country," said Owls coach Matt Rhule. He also said, "Too many big plays."

Of his own players, he said: "If they're not sure how good they are, now they know. It's not like they played at 11 o'clock in the morning in front of 12,000 people."

There still were memories Temple and its fans will keep forever. Like when the Owls tried to get into Notre Dame's end zone in the fourth quarter to tie the game - coming so close that someone thought a pass was completed in that end zone and fireworks were set off above the stadium. Twice.

Things got to this: Temple at Notre Dame's 1-yard line, fourth down. The Owls called timeout. They came out with tailback Jahad Thomas as a single back. He took a pitch from his old high school teammate, Walker, and when it looked as if Thomas was going to be stopped in the backfield, he put a cut on an Irish linebacker and reached the end zone. The facts on the scoreboard wee true: 17-17, just over 10 minutes left. The fireworks went off again.

As the night wore on, the idea of this whole thing, that Temple could be undefeated hosting a top-10 team on national network television on Halloween night, still seemed so implausible that staying with ninth-ranked Notre Dame began to seem no more ludicrous.

This whole day took stamina on the part of Temple's students, football players included. Notre Dame's national title hopes couldn't withstand a loss and didn't really need even a close win.

The Irish overcame penalties that seemed taken from an old Temple playbook. Targeting in the end zone. A late hit coming into a Notre Dame pile - by an Irish offensive lineman. Strange things happened.

The Owls, 7-0 on arrival, were playing their first ranked opponent in 2015. But they found in the first half, that for all of Notre Dame's considerable talent, Owls linebacker Tyler Matakevich still could cause havoc. Temple's defensive line could pressure Irish QB DeShone Kizer into mistakes; one of those mistakes resulted in an interception keeping Notre Dame points off the board. The Owls could go downfield right after with big plays, going 94 yards, taking their first lead with six minutes left in the second quarter.

But three plays later, the Irish were back ahead, after Kizer got half the place watching Notre Dame's tailback going into the line and the rest marveling at how quickly Kizer took off for the end zone. It was that kind of back-and-forth, tantalizing night.

Of the whole televised day, Temple athletic director Pat Kraft said: "It is a seven-hour commercial for us."

It wasn't just GameDay. National reporters were also here. One of them said, "What, am I going to go to Florida-Georgia?"

Think about that statement. The idea of spurning this Temple game for Florida-Georgia was being mocked, even just for one evening.

If the crowd was pretty fairly split, Kraft probably had it right before the game when he said: "Our fans are going to be louder." He also said something kind of fascinating: "This will be most physical team they play this year."

"They" wasn't referring to Temple. He was talking about Notre Dame. He meant it would be a ball game, deep into the night.

Just before midnight, Rhule said: "I said before the game, this better not be the high point of our season."

mjensen@phillynews.com

@jensenoffcampus

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