Victory leaves Temple's high hopes intact

The familiar sounds of a victorious team belting out "High Hopes" wafted through the ceiling vents from Temple's locker room next door.

Where did that song come from?

"I have no idea," Owls tailback Jahad Thomas admitted during a news conference, and that's no great surprise. Harry Kalas and the Phillies themselves singing the old tune favored by Kalas in celebratory moments is from a different era in this city's sports history.

Hard to believe that Temple's 31-12 blasting of Memphis on Saturday could confirm that this Owls season has its own smaller place in local sports history. Remember that year when Temple beat Penn State and started 7-0 and almost took out Notre Dame? Saturday's game may rise even above those as the signature moment of 2015 and this Owls era.

"I don't know if I'm able to explain it - we'd never been able to win this game," said Owls head coach Matt Rhule, who had mentioned earlier: "This is one of those moments for me - are we going to do it or not?"

A defeat and Temple would have lost its driver's seat for the American Athletic Conference East Division title and a spot in the championship game. The 9-2 Owls, now 6-1 in the AAC, still probably have to beat Connecticut on Saturday night at Lincoln Financial Field, but South Florida, which had beaten up Temple last week, didn't catch up in the standings.

The Owls were slight underdogs against a Memphis team that had experienced a similar season and came in averaging 43.7 points a game, best in the AAC.

"That's the Temple defense, right there," star linebacker Tyler Matakevich said afterward.

"You tell me a team that bounces back from adversity better than these guys," Rhule said.

Defensive coordinator Phil Snow - who mentioned that Temple missed precisely 38 tackles last week at USF - didn't hesitate when asked where this one started: "Oh, the D-line dominated the football game."

"I wouldn't credit any one guy," Rhule said, although Snow mentioned that the defensive lapses of the last couple of weeks allowed him to decide to use more people who were ready to play, that he had been hesitant to do that as long as the Owls had been winning.

"No big plays," Rhule pointed out about the defense after his team overcame a couple of early turnovers, committed just one penalty, and doubled the Tigers' total yardage. Fourth-down conversions weren't very good to Temple - Rhule blamed himself that he kept trying - but the Owls converted 10 of 16 third downs and six of those required at least 6 yards.

There were stories within this one. The touchdown that gave Temple some breathing room, after the Owls were up by 14-12 going into the fourth quarter, was a kind of inside reverse jet sweep to tight end Kip Patton, the redshirt freshman tight end from Norristown who hadn't made the Southern Methodist trip and sat out the South Florida game after "waking up" issues, as described by his coach.

"Just a learning experience," Patton said. "It's great to get back out there."

Asked what was going through his head when Patton came in for just his third snap and that play was called, quarterback P.J. Walker said: "Touchdown. Just give Kip the ball, something good is going to happen."

A sign for how this Temple team has gotten to this place is the fact that Thomas saw limited time because of a rib injury and injured backup Ryquell Armstead didn't get any carries, yet redshirt freshman David Hood and true freshman Jager Gardner combined for 104 yards.

Hood made a huge impression with a 14-yard scoring run in the second quarter that included a juke and a spin to avoid tackles. That may not even have been Hood's best play. His block of a blitzer who was taking aim on Walker allowed the quarterback to scramble for a crucial 16 yards on third and 10 early in the eight-minute drive that eventually resulted in Patton's touchdown.

During Rhule's news conference, the sounds of "High Hopes" had been replaced by much louder music from the locker room, the bass line wafting through those vents. Rhule asked a Temple staffer to go next door and turn it down a bit.

"That music is going to be on for a while," Rhule said.

mjensen@phillynews.com

@jensenoffcampus