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Temple Now Focusing On Conference Opener Saturday At UConn

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The Temple Owls will head into their American Athletic Conference opener on Saturday at Connecticut with some momentum.

The Owls took care of business this past weekend at the Linc, rolling over Delaware State, 59-0. Temple outgained the Hornets 351-93 and held Delaware State to just 7 first downs.

"It was a fun day for our kids, you know they've worked really hard," Temple head coach Matt Rhule tells KYW Newsradio. "They scored on offense, they scored on defense and they scored on special teams, so it was a good day for everybody. Everybody on the team got a chance to play, so morale around here is pretty high."

The win over Delaware State improved the Owls to 2-1 on the season as they head into conference play. All in all, Rhule likes the direction of his team.

"They are really coming on and doing what we ask," Rhule says. "It was a disappointing loss to Navy (on 9/6), but at the same time, we rebounded, we're getting better. As I told the team (Monday), they've won three of their last four games, if you go back to last year. So they're learning how to do things right, they're learning how to win football games, and now we just have to keep getting better as the season goes on."

The Owls will face a Connecticut team on Saturday that is 1-3 this season.

"They are a big, strong physical team," Rhule says. "They've had to play BYU (35-10 loss), who's a top-25 team, Boise State (38-21 loss), who is a perennial power and they lost a heartbreaker in a monsoon down in Tampa on Friday night to South Florida (17-14). So they've lost to three really good teams and we know that it'll be a four-quarter battle. The last five years we've played them, we've gone to overtime with them twice. So it's a great rivalry for us."

The Huskies have a top flight wide receiver in senior Geremy Davis. He leads the teams with 17 catches in four games, for 288 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Last season, Connecticut beat the Owls at the Linc 28-21. Temple lead 21-0 at the break, but the Huskies scored 4 unanswered touchdowns in the second half to grab the victory.

Temple and Connecticut will kick-off at 4:00pm on Saturday.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.

 

Matt Rhule

 

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