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AAC CENTER STAGE
Few non-power 5 leagues get such prime-time positioning as the American Athletic Conference will tonight, and the timing couldn’t get any better thanks to Hurricane Joaquin making this a stay-in Friday for much of the East Coast and the circuit’s top two squads on display. As seen in our regular breakdown piece on Temple, the Owls, top dogs in the circuit’s East Division, visit Charlotte for a 7 o’clock kickoff. At the same time, the West Division’s best team, Memphis, squares off with AAC rival South Florida at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. The Tigers are an absolute light show offensively, coming off a scintillating 53-46 victory over preseason conference favorite Cincinnati. QB Paxton Lynch runs the show, and he’s a fascinating study in the passing touch and subtle athleticism that someone standing 6-foot-7 should not possess, but does. Anyone who gets a chance to watch him and the Tigers should do so. Especially Temple fans if they’d like to see what should be the Owls’ toughest AAC competition this season.
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ELIMINATION GAME
Saturday night’s nonconference showdown at Clemson, pitting the 12th-ranked Tigers against fellow unbeaten, but badly beaten-up No. 6 Notre Dame, has been pitched as a “must win” for either team to stay alive for the season-ending, four-team playoff for a national championship. For Clemson, yeah, it probably is. Considering its consistent failings in big games, and ranking outside the top 10, it likely won’t get much leeway should the Irish escape with a victory.
Notre Dame, on the other hand, would if it lost because of its name, its ranking, and the fact it would have two more opportunities to “prove” its worthiness against recognizable powers, Southern Cal and Stanford, and possibly against another ranked team in Temple, should the Owls enter a Halloween bash between the two undefeated.

GREAT PRETENDERS
Neither ND or Clemson seem the pretender type, regardless of who goes down this weekend. However, we have a few candidates that may get pantsed in Week 5 of the 2015 college football season. Chief among them are:
- No. 23 West Virginia and No. 15 Oklahoma, who face each other.
- No. 13 Alabama and No. 8 Georgia, who face each other.
- No. 25 Florida and No. 3 Ole Miss, who face each other.
Notice a trend? Also, be on the lookout for what goes down with No. 16 Northwestern and No. 19 Wisconsin. They’re not entirely on stable ground as “legit” yet, either.

UNI WATCH
Perhaps it was a rush to judgment last night on the commentary regarding Miami’s ICE outfits worn in their 34-23 loss at Cincinnati. The unis, an all-white ensemble that somehow morphed silver-touched ice-like lettering and numerals on the jerseys and logo on the helmet with some orange … worked. Well, in fact. Looked much better live than what was posted by the Hurricanes on social media before the game. Of course, ’Canes fans would really like to “ice” the team’s head coach, Al Golden, but that’s another story.

All-American LB candidate Tyler Matakevich (8) and his Temple Owls teammates have had a lot to raise their hands about this season.

Temple’s What 2 Watch vs. Charlotte
JERRY ROBERTSON STADIUM, 7 P.M., CBSSN, 97.5 FM THE FANATIC

1. Focus and attitude
Off to a 3-0 start and receiving the most attention, locally and nationally, a Temple football team has, well, quite possibly ever, and at least since the 1979 squad finished its season ranked 17th in the country in both the AP and Coaches polls, ahead of, ahem, Penn State in each, the 2015 Owls have to be wary of overlooking their opposition these days. It almost cost them two weeks ago against Massachusetts, where divine intervention seemed to play a major factor in getting them out of New England with a two-point win. This time around, Temple takes on an even lighter weight in Charlotte, which only started playing football in 2013 and just started playing it at the FBS level this season. Though 2-2, the 49ers already have an embarrassing 73-14 loss at the hands of Middle Tennessee on the ledger, and they have the anti-dynamic duo offense that struggles to run and pass. Doesn’t score much, either. But the 49ers are home, and the Owls proved against UMass that they are vulnerable to a lesser foe.

2. The Owls' passing game
Said it two weeks ago, and it proved prophetic – if the Owls are going to get anywhere, you know, anywhere really worth getting, QB P.J. Walker and his receiving corps had to step it up. They did, big time, vs. UMass. Including at crunch time, when Walker marched the Owls 50 yards (to top off a career-best 393-yard effort by him) in little more than a minute to set up the winning FG by Austin Jones. That trend needs to continue as UMass showed that two-game legend Jahad Thomas can, indeed, be stopped. The junior RB, brilliant in victories against Penn State and Cincinnati, was a workhorse two weeks ago, but not exactly an efficient one, gaining just 66 yards on 25 carries. Balance, ultimately, will make the Owls the best they can be. They can’t be as clingy to Thomas as they had become.

3. Pressure on Charlotte QB, whomever he may be
The 49ers have used three guys behind center this season, so it may be pointless for the Owls’ defense to zero in on one guy. They just need to focus on getting some pressure. Not for nothing, but they’ve done next to nothing in that regard since sacking Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg 10 times in the opener. The Owls got one apiece against Cincy and UMass. That isn’t going to cut it if they’re going to continue to give up so much yardage. Eventually, that real estate being chewed up by the opposition is going to yield some serious points … unless Temple can offset the gains by some big plays, such as sacks.

4. Owls LB Tyler Matakevich vs. 49ers RB Kalif Phillips
Matakevich, the NCAA’s active tackles leader, closing in on 400 for his career and chasing a record-tying fourth straight 100-tackle campaign, should get plenty of opportunities to add to his ever-impressive numbers because Charlotte has a Thomas-type feature runner of its own in the 5-10, 205-pound Phillips. Though he didn’t initially explode on the scene as Temple’s standout, he showed flashes from the get-go before unveiling a dominating, 29-carry, 165-yard effort in a losing cause last week. Temple can expect more of the same, especially if Phillips maintains anything close to his season-long 5.4 yards per rushing attempt during the contest.

5. Something more than a "sighting" of Owls TE Colin Thompson
We called for the same with DE Praise Martin-Oguike last time the Owls lined up, and the big fella responded with 2.5 tackles for loss against UMass, not to mention his blocking of the point-after kick that led to Temple’s improbable, and crucial, two-point conversion. Thing is, PMO has “NFL future” written all over him if he just decides to get after it, and, frankly, Thompson at one time did, too. Umm, what happened? This kid came out of suburban Philly powerhouse Archbishop Wood as the top TE recruit in the country, signed with Florida, transferred to Temple and … poof. Yeah, injuries, sure. But he’s healthy. He’s been healthy. It’s time he, and Temple, started to benefit from his talent.

- Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

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