Young Owls gaining experience, if not wins

A SECOND STRAIGHT blowout, this time a 45-17 defeat at the hands of the ninth-ranked Louisville Cardinals, has Temple coach Steve Addazio defending starting quarterback Chris Coyer.

"We've been playing Juice [Granger], we put Kevin Newsome in there, but I'm trying to look at the body of work," Addazio said during his weekly Big East conference call. "Chris played quite well in that game until he turned it over. But up to that point, I think he had played one of his very best games; he was quite accurate with the football, he had some really great throws that were dropped, but I liked his leadership and his energy. I'm looking at the body of work and I can't stand turnovers, and certainly they creeped up, but I've got to look at the body of work and what gives our team the best opportunity to win.

"At this point, I still think we're in a situation where we're working everyday and Chris is developing and so are Juice and Kevin. We'll see how it develops on Saturday."

With the rushing attack successful early in the game, Coyer was limited to two completions on eight attempts for 20 yards, adding 10 rushes for 56 yards and three fumbles. Backup quarterback Clinton "Juice" Granger has played in the last two games and third-stringer Kevin Newsome saw time in the fourth quarter against Louisville.

In addition to the backup quarterbacks getting on the field in the fourth quarter due to out-of-reach games against Pittsburgh (which beat the Owls, 47-17, Oct. 27) and Louisville, Addazio has been using younger players to give them game experience moving forward in their collegiate careers.

"What I've done in the last couple of weeks is, in the third and fourth quarter, I've gone ahead and put in some young guys in there and continue to play young guys," Addazio said. "But I'm not really concerned at that point if we can't win that game. We want to get more experience, but I thought those guys came out with a lot of energy, came out really strong and physical, and I was quite happy to see that. I told our team after the game, I didn't think we played the week before with that kind of passion, I didn't feel we played with that kind of energy, but I thought we came back."

The other news circling around Temple football is the possibility of a 12th game. Because of the move to the Big East and the scheduled UConn game switching from a nonconference to a conference game, the Owls were left with an open week on their slate. Hawaii and Temple reportedly have been trying to schedule a game for Dec. 7.

"I think it would be tremendous to have another game at the end," Addazio said. "I don't know if we will or won't, but everyone in America has 12 games, we've got 11. That threw us into a tailspin with our bye weeks being early and everything else, but we'd love another chance. It means more practice, another game for a young football team, it means another opportunity to fight for a win. That would be a great opportunity if something could happen, I'd certainly be all for it and I know our team would embrace that."