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Temple Readies For AAC Title Showdown With Houston Saturday

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Temple Owls continue to give Philadelphia fans a lot to root for this season.

The Owls, now ranked as high as #20 in the polls, are headed to the American Athletic Conference Championship Game. On Saturday, Temple will visit #17/#18 Houston for the title.

The Owls earned this title game berth by taking care of business in their regular season finale, smacking UConn, 27-3, at the Linc.

"It was a true team effort," Temple head coach Matt Rhule tells KYW Newsradio. "It was fun for us, in probably one of the biggest moments of the season with a lot on the line, to watch our kids go out there and really just kind of follow our plan. Everyone do their job and do their part and play a role and come away with a great team win. Now we'll have a chance to go play in a championship game."

Listen to the entire interview with Temple head coach Matt Rhule:

The win over UConn improved Temple to 10-2, the 10 wins tying a program record (originally set in 1979).

The Owls have really answered the bell the last couple of weeks after a rough loss to South Florida. First it was a big win over Memphis and then Saturday's victory over the Huskies. Rhule is not surprised his team came firing back from that defeat.

"We have really, really high character guys," Rhule says. "We have a great senior class, a really, really strong junior class and those kids weren't going to just lay down and not battle back from adversity. It happens, you lose games that you think you're going to win and the true measure, the true character of a team is how they respond. Whether it's (senior linebacker) Tyler Matakevich or (junior quarterback) P.J. Walker or any of our juniors and seniors, they've responded and come back and played two of the best football games of the year. So I couldn't be more proud of them as people."

This AAC title game should be a great match-up. Houston is 11-1 on the season and last week they earned the right to play for the conference championship by taking it to Navy, 52-31. The Cougars average 42 points a game.

"They're a dynamic, dynamic team," Rhule says. "They are really talented. They're explosive, they're fast, they're athletic, you know they've only lost one game all year. So it's going to be a tremendous, tremendous challenge and it's going to be fun to go there and play on the road, a hostile environment, a great chance for our kids to bring their A game."

Last season Temple lost to Houston, 31-10.

Saturday's game will kickoff at noon.

 

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