Temple's Finch ready for third go-around with Notre Dame

Saturday's football opener at Notre Dame will be only the third time that Temple has faced the Irish. Only one player has a chance to appear in all three games for the Owls, redshirt senior defensive end Sharif Finich.

As a freshman in 2013, Finch was traveling to Notre Dame for his first collegiate game. He appeared early in the first quarter as a reserve.

"Being a true freshman and thrown in there in the first quarter, it was a lot at first," Finch recalls. "After a while I settled down and it was just football."

Just football?

Notre Dame might be the most historic college football gathering. Not only do opponents go against the Irish, but the ghosts of Knute Rockne and a program that has earned 11 national championships, although the last came in 1988.

"I remember they had a lot of fans," Finch recalled. "They are a historically great team and being young at first, being my first game, of course there were first-game jitters."

Temple and Finch played admirably, losing that game, 28-6. Notre Dame, coming off a loss in the BCS championship game the previous season, went 9-4 in 2013, while Temple was 2-10.

The next time the teams met, it was under drastically different circumstances.

Both teams were nationally ranked. No. 9 Notre Dame was 6-1, the only loss a 24-22 defeat to Clemson and No. 21 Temple was 7-0.

The 8 p.m. game was played in Lincoln Financial Field before a sellout crowd of 69,280. For one day, Philadelphia, a noted NFL town had become a college football city. ESPN's Game Day broadcast originated that morning in Philadelphia.

Both the game and atmosphere lived up to its hype.

Current redshirt junior receiver Ventell Bryant had to catch his breath before taking the field.

"At first, my heart was racing and once I went out there and made my first catch, everything settled down," said Bryant, who had six receptions for 91 yards. "I loved the energy of the crowd, it kept pumping me up and had me energized."

Finch, who earned a medical redshirt last year, has appeared in 40 games in his Temple career and the Notre Dame game in Philadelphia truly stands out.

"I never saw the Linc lit up like that, especially for a Temple night game," Finch said. "It was an incredible experience, Game Day and everything and it was probably the biggest game I ever played in."

Unlike its first time at Notre Dame, Temple's program is in a different place. The Owls were coming off a 4-7 record in the previous season in 2012.

This Temple team is the defending American Athletic Conference champion, earning its second straight 10-4 mark to tie a single-season school record for wins.

The attitude of the team is much more like the 2015 edition, which expected to beat Notre Dame and was on its way until DeShone Kizer hit Roman Catholic product Will Fuller on a 17-yards scoring pass with 2 minutes, 9 seconds for the game-winning score.

Temple senior safety Sean Chandler had an impactful game against Notre Dame in 2015, which was staged on Halloween. Playing cornerback, he had eight tackles, one pass break-up and one punt return for 13 yards.

"It was a really big game," Chandler recalled. "A lot of my teammates came to the game, they did a special on me on ESPN, we were playing a big team, so it definitely was a big week for me," Chandler said. "I tried to stay grounded and lock in at the task at hand."

Chandler said the older players helped keep him grounded and he will be doing the same with the younger players before Saturday's opener.

He acknowledged that separating the hype will be challenging.

"It is easier said than done," Chandler said. "I feel if you want to be a great team and player, these are the things you have to do."