Temple eager to return to action after second bye

Temple is way behind South Florida in terms of on-the-field experience.

The Owls (1-2) are coming off their second bye in three weeks. Saturday's Big East matchup at Lincoln Financial Field will mark South Florida's sixth game of the season. The Bulls are 2-3.

But Temple coach Steve Addazio doesn't view playing just one game since Sept. 8 as a bad thing.

"Honestly, that first bye that we had is the best thing for us," he said. "We literally couldn't field an appropriate team the next week.

"That's not an exaggeration. That's the facts."

The Owls, however, wanted to play last weekend after losing to Penn State, 24-13, on Sept. 22.

The second bye week gave Temple the chance to develop its young players in practice, Addazio said.

"I looked on the field today. There were four freshmen, two redshirt freshmen, starting on the offense," he said.

Actually Temple had four freshmen, two sophomores, and a redshirt freshman getting repetitions with the first unit Tuesday.

The redshirt freshman was left tackle Zach Hooks. Wideouts Khalif Herbin, Sam Benjamin, and Romond Deloatch and right guard Kyle Friend were the true freshmen.

The sophomore starters are fullback Kenny Harper and wideout Jalen Fitzpatrick.

In need of gamelike situations, the Owls scrimmaged Tuesday, four days before facing South Florida.

"You are rolling the dice with that," Addazio said. "But I don't know what else to do. For me to sit and think with a young team that we can [play against the] scout team, the speed of the game will hit us like a freight train on Saturday."

Temple will play its first Big East game since being kicked out of the conference in 2004. It will be the Owls' homecoming game.

Harris on watch list. Montel Harris has been added to the Senior Bowl watch list.

The Jan. 26 all-star game in Mobile, Ala., showcases many of the top college seniors.

The Owls tailback, who missed two games with a sore hamstring, has 35 rushing yards on 15 carries this season. The Boston College transfer also has four receptions for 50 yards.

The 5-foot-9, 207-pounder rushed for a school record 3,735 career yards at B.C.

Saturday at noon

Owls linebacker Nate D. Smith talks about facing South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels.

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