After Loss To PSU, Temple Savors Final Bye Week
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's a bye week for the Temple Owls as they recover from last week's 30-13 loss on the road to Penn State.
The Owls and Nittany Lions were tied at 6-6 in the third quarter, but from that point on Temple turned the ball over five times and that was too much to overcome.
"It was a really good college football game," Temple head coach Matt Rhule tells KYW Newsradio. "Two tough, physical, defenses going back and forth. Then, unfortunately for us, in the second half, after we tied it up, the wheels kind of came off and credit to Penn State."
LISTEN: KYW's Matt Leon talks with Matt Rhule to review Temple's loss to Penn State
This is the third bye week of the season for Temple, the first two came before they played their fifth game. So Rhule says this one later in the season is welcomed.
"Next week is (Thanksgiving) break, so this is a really crucial academic week," Rhule says. "So our kids can concentrate on school, get their bodies healthy, get their minds adjusted to the fact that, hey, we're 5-5, it's significant progress from last year and what we need to do now is we need to really finish strong and play Temple football down the stretch in these last two conference games. So I think the bye came at a good time for us, both physically and mentally."
Temple now sits at 5-5 with those two games left in the regular season. They need at least one more win to become bowl eligible. Rhule says getting to a postseason bowl game would be huge.
"We only have a couple of seniors," Rhule says. "Number one, they've been great kids, they've been loyal to the program. Some of them have had three head coaches, they deserve to go out by going to a bowl. And more importantly, for the team, for that great junior class that we have that has really done a lot of things to get us moving in the right direction, if they want to be a great team next year, they need to know how to finish this year. They need to know what it feels like to go to a bowl and end on the right note. So we're one win away, we have to find a way to get that win and make sure we go out as a bowl team."
Temple's next chance to get that sixth win to become bowl eligible will be Saturday, November 29th, as they host Cincinnati at the Linc at noon.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
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