Temple faces well-rested Central Florida next
Temple's next football opponent Central Florida, had last week off because of Hurricane Matthew. UCF's home game, which was supposed to be Friday against Tulane, was postponed until Nov. 5.
Temple's next football opponent Central Florida, had last week off because of Hurricane Matthew.
UCF's home game, which was supposed to be Friday against Tulane, was postponed until Nov. 5.
Temple (3-3, 1-1 American Athletic Conference) will play Central Florida (3-2, 1-0) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Orlando.
On the positive side, Knights coach Scott Frost said the city of Orlando was not hit as hard by the hurricane as originally forecast.
"Orlando I think was lucky and missed the brunt of it," Frost said Monday in a conference call with the media. "People on the coast suffered the worst and our thoughts are with them."
Frost agreed with the AAC's decision to postpone the game. "The conference made the right decision," he said. "Any time people's lives are potentially at risk, football should be the last thing on your mind."
Last year, Temple beat the Knights, 30-16 at Lincoln Financial Field. Now, Temple is looking to bounce back from a 34-27 loss at Memphis on Thursday.
"I am very disappointed in the outcome of the Memphis game," Temple coach Matt Rhule said during the conference call. The Owls led, 13-0, before surrendering 27 straight points.
"There were a lot of kids who played good football and gave us a chance to win, but we had too many penalties, we didn't run the ball nearly enough and had too many turnovers," Rhule said.
The Owls were penalized seven times for 61 yards, rushed for 86 yards on 29 carries (3.0 average) and turned the ball over three times.
Temple would not say for sure whether placekicker Austin Jones would be out for the season with a knee injury, but Rhule is leaning in that direction.
Jones hurt his knee in the fourth quarter during a 95-yard kick return by Memphis' Tony Pollard.
When asked if Jones would be out for the season, Rhule replied, "We believe so. He is getting some other opinions medically, but it looks as if that hit on the kickoff return ended his season."
@sjnard