Temple welcomes 'dog day afternoon at Notre Dame

THERE WERE 45 college football games with a betting line this opening weekend. In only three of them was anyone favored by more than the 30 points that Notre Dame is laying against Temple. So you think the Owls would have been better off starting their season for the fifth straight time against FCS Villanova at the Linc?

Locally, maybe. But from a national perspective, you know how many programs would want to be in South Bend and on NBC? Maybe the difference between playing Villanova and Notre Dame is the difference between Temple getting bowl eligible or not. Or perhaps it isn't. But the chance to go to that venue, and then have the Fighting Irish come to South Philly in 2015, is a classic no-brainer.

Especially for a place like North Broad Street, where you can never make enough impressions.

In the last 4 decades the Owls have played 77 ranked opponents. They've beaten two. Both were on the road. The last time it happened was 1998, 28-24 at Virginia Tech, which gave coach Bobby Wallace his first win in his seventh game. They were five-touchdown underdogs that day. Now new coach Matt Rhule, a popular former assistant, will try to pull off a similar magic trick. Did we mention that his starting quarterback, junior Connor Reilly, will be taking his first snaps at this level?

"I want our players to understand this is why they came to Temple," Rhule said. "To play the very best of the best . . .

"The game comes down to, at the end of the day, winning your 1-on-1 [matchups]. Bad things are going to happen. What you don't want is, all of a sudden, is [for your players to say] 'Here we go' the first time [it does]. That's the first thing you have to get rid of. The environment, if you're not prepared for it, will shake your confidence, so that you won't do what you've been doing all through training camp. We're trying to get guys to just play. Hopefully they'll learn to block out the distractions."

Next week the Owls will get new member Houston at home in the first American Athletic Conference game. It promises to tell us more about them than this one. But Notre Dame is still Notre Dame. The Owls do have a bunch of guys, albeit some of them still young, who've played. And the last two times they went to Penn State, in 2010 and last season, they could've won. They also came real close to beating the Nits here 2 years ago, for what that's worth. But Touchdown Jesus is probably a different variable.

"It's definitely something you always dream about," said linebacker/captain Tyler Matakevich, who was the Big East's Newcomer of the Year. "We're fortunate. It gives us a chance to do something special, something we haven't done in a while.

"It's obviously a challenge. But we're definitely up for it. Yeah, the odds aren't in our favor. But we know what have to do once you cross the white lines . . . If you're not nervous, you're not human. You've got to get those jitters out right away. It's big, but it's no different than the Houston game, or playing right out here [at their practice facility]. I have no clue what [Notre Dame's] doing [for us]. All I know is how we're preparing for them. We'll give it everything we have."

A lot of folks would suggest that still won't be nearly enough. And they might be correct. But it's a journey. This is merely the starting point. Whatever goes down tomorrow afternoon, Rhule can only hope that his team is somehow better off for the experience at some juncture further along the calendar.

"We've been in intense situations before," said fifth-year senior Chris Coyer, a former quarterback who has been moved to H-back. "It's not going to shock us. It juices you up a little bit, I guess. It is such an historic environment, one of the grandest stages you could possibly ask for. It's going to be loud. But for us, we're both 0-0. Let's go play a game."

Added Reilly, who will be asked to throw the ball more than his recent predecessors: "It'll be a first for a lot of us. Hopefully it won't be overwhelming. We have to treat it like one game, the first game, go in there and do our thing.

"It'll be a great memory to hold onto."

Wasn't that what Notre Dame was saying before last January's national title game?