No. 21 Temple Readies For Halloween Showdown With No. 9 Notre Dame

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It very well may be the most anticipated game in Temple football history. On Saturday, the 7-0 Owls, now ranked 21st in the nation, welcome #9 Notre Dame to a sold out Linc.

Temple improved to 7-0 this past Thursday night with a very impressive road win. The Owls rallied from a 14-10 fourth quarter deficit with two touchdowns in the game's final four minutes, beating East Carolina, 24-14.

"I couldn't be prouder of them," Temple head coach Matt Rhule tells KYW Newsradio about his team. "They hung in, they battled. Our defense had a second half shutout for the fourth time this year. We blocked a couple punts and in the end, our offense made plays when it needed to. So a real credit to those guys, the fact that they never panicked, they hung together and found a way to win on the road."

Listen to the entire interview with Temple's Matt Rhule

The win also improved the Owls to 4-0 in the American Athletic Conference and that has them alone in first place in the East Division.

Notre Dame is 6-1 this season and the Fighting Irish will be coming off a bye week.

"I just think they are a complete team," Rhule says. "(Junior) Will Fuller from right here in Philadelphia, he's like a video game receiver. He's just dynamic, makes plays all over the field. They have a tremendous running game, a great offensive line. Outstanding drop back quarterback who can also run. So they are complete on offense and then defensively they've got two of the best players in the country in (senior defensive lineman) Sheldon Day and (junior linebacker) Jaylon Smith. So they have great players, they are extremely well coached and they play hard. So it will be quite a challenge."

Fuller, a Roman Catholic High School product, has provided big play after big play for Notre Dame this season. He leads the team with 32 catches for 702 yards and 8 touchdowns. That quarterback for Notre Dame is sophomore DeShone Kizer. He has completed 65.4% of his passes this season for 1,370 yards and ten touchdowns with just four interceptions. He's also rushed for 175 yards and three additional scores.

Notre Dame is averaging 38.3 points per game this season, while Temple allows just 14.6 a game. Rhule talks about trying to slow down the Fighting Irish offense.

"I think we have to stop the run," Rhule says. "At the end of the day, (Notre Dame Head) Coach (Brian) Kelly has always been, they'll throw it all over the field, but they want to establish the run. And they get to it in a lot of different ways. They'll run their quarterback, they'll run their wideouts, they'll run their running backs. So I think we have to make sure we stop the run, try to control the line of scrimmage and make them one-dimensional."

Temple and Notre Dame have only met on the gridiron once before, back in 2013 in South Bend. It was actually Matt Rhule's first game as Temple head coach and the Owls put a scare into the home team before eventually losing, 28-6.

Saturday night's game will kickoff at 8:00pm.