College Football | TEMPLE GAMEDAY

AROUND THE NATION

SARK NO SHARK: Going beyond his apparent drinking problem, Steve Sarkisian so far is shaping up to be a “whiff” as the head coach at Southern Cal. The hire two years ago always seemed a bit odd anyway, considering Sark just went 34-29 in five years at Washington. But, now, following Thursday’s lifeless 17-12 loss at home to his former team, he stands at 3-2 this season (12-6 overall) with a squad widely recognized as having top-5 talent. That, ahem, effort was enough to put USC as the current leader in the clubhouse of the “Where will Chip Kelly wind up” tournament.
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TURTLE TALK: Not to be outdone, Maryland already has put Randy Edsall’s exit in motion, leaving only the final details on how things are to go down to be worked out as the Terps get set to take on No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. Yeah, nice timing by the administration. Then again, everyone has to get their sales pitches together for Kelly before he gets bounced from the NFL. Why, again, is he such a hot commodity?

MONEY MATTERS: UCLA’s Myles Jack withdrew from school due so he could concentrate on prepping for the NFL Draft and playing for pay as he rehabs from tearing the meniscus in a knee that derailed his junior season. Got no problem with that, and am not really buying that Bruins coach Jim Mora is truly concerned with the youngster’s decision as though it could hurt his professional chances. Really, coach? Nice touch in referencing your NFL background, too.

POWER CONFERENCE: As of games played entering Friday, three conference could boast four unbeaten teams – the Big 12, the Big Ten and the American Athletic. Obviously, we’re all aware of the history and prestige (earned or not) of the first two, but the AAC? Frankly, it’s been an amazing salvage job by forces linked to the former Big East to keep things going and produce a pretty damn good grid league. The AAC’s Fab 4 for 2015 – Memphis, Temple, Navy and Houston – are all potential top-25 teams this season.

UPSET WATCH: A week after upsetting then-No. 6 Notre Dame despite leaking oil worse than a drip tray at a greasy spoon down the stretch, now-No. 6 Clemson hosts Georgia Tech. Yeah, yeah, the same Tech that got tripped up at the same ND earlier this season. That being said, the same Tech still runs the triple-option attack that trounced the Tigers by 22 points last season.

Temple's Jahad Thomas (34) had two catches for 94 yards in last season's 10-3 Owls win at Tulane. This season he is the team's workhorse ballcarrier.

Temple’s What 2 Watch vs. Tulane
LINCOLN FINANCIAL FIELD, SATURDAY, NOON, ESPNU, 97.5 FM THE FANATIC

1. Focus and attitude
​This is gonna be the battle cry for the concerned (myself and others) who continue to see this Owls squad come out a little slow, or back off the accelerator, or some combo of both, each game since topping Penn State in the opener. Yeah, it’s wonderful that Temple is 4-0 for the first time in 41 years. That’s quite an achievement. An even better one would be to maintain the focus and attitude it will take to keep that unbeaten run rolling along each week, because, frankly, talent wise, the Owls are good enough to do so. They are not perfect. No team is, no matter how many potential first-round picks are on the roster or how much a coach boasts about his current team being better than any other he’s ever had. But they do have enough skill and experience now to compete with anyone at the highest level of college football … and win. Now American Athletic Conference rival Tulane is not Notre Dame, nor is it quite the caliber of fellow AAC member Memphis, both of whom await on the Owls’ schedule, but it is coming off two straight wins and, not for nothing, it only lost this matchup last season by a 10-3 score.

2. Keeping the Green Wave grounded
That means forcing the visitors to throw as much as possible AND then shutting down their rushing attack. While Tulane averages a healthy 235 yards passing per game, it has struggled on the ground … with one caveat: last week in a 45-31 victory against Central Florida, sophomore Josh Rounds racked up 93 yards on 14 carries, including a 46-yard jaunt. Currently, he ranks fourth among the team’s rushers, but that effort likely gave him first-string status on a unit in search of a feature back. Sherman Badie and Dontrell Hilliard give the Wave a trio of home-run hitters to utilize at the RB position, ironically all them being in the 6-foot, 195-pound range, too. Lazedrick Thompson (6-1, 220) is the only bruiser of the bunch. None of those mentioned, though, is the workhorse/threat that Charlotte’s Kalif Phillips posed last week.

3. Pressure on Tulane QB Tanner Lee
OK, it’s been more than a month since the Owls unloaded on Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg for 10 sacks. Since then, they’ve posted two … and, frankly, they haven’t exactly been putting the pressure on QBs on many pass plays aside from them. That has to change because the defense, at some point, just isn’t going to hold up with the “bend-bend-bend, but don’t break” dealio that has pockmarked each of its last three victories. After holding Penn State to just 183 yards back on Sept. 4, the Owls have been blistered for an average of 450 yards per game. That’s alarming, no matter how you slice it, and will start to dismantle that nifty 15.5 points per game yielded that puts the Owls among the top 20 in the country. .

4. Continued use of backup RB Ryquell Armstead
Not for nothing, but the overuse of starter Jahad Thomas was starting to get out of hand the first four games of the season – so much so that he seemed gassed in the third against Massachusetts. Armstead saw far more snaps last week, and not only did it show he could produce but it allowed Thomas to catch his breath and display the type of explosiveness he did against PSU and Cincinnati. Armstead more than doubled his season rushing attempts output last week with 11 carries. Another 20 then went to Thomas, with the two of them combining for 152 yards. That’s solid from the RBs, especially when you factor in the three catches for 48 yards by Thomas, too.

5. Big game from someone other than Thomas, T-Mat or Walker
The exploits of Thomas this season have been well-documented here and elsewhere, and senior LB Tyler Matakevich is known commodity currently sitting atop the NCAA’s active tacklers chart while QB P.J. Walker is a titillating talent who already posted a career-high passing effort this season. It is time for someone other than them, or, even better, in addition to them, to step up and lead the way. We’re not talking about an individual posting an INT or a sack or a blocked punt or a long kick return. We’re talking about a dominating performance that impacts the entire ebb-and-flow of a game. The list of possible candidates is lengthy. The list of likely is non-existent because no one aside from those three mentioned have performed in that manner this season.

- Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

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