No. 24 Temple Takes On Toledo Tonight In Boca Raton Bowl

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An outstanding 2015 season comes to a close for the Temple University football team tonight as the Owls take on the Toledo Rockets in the Boca Raton Bowl.

Temple is 10-3 and a win tonight would set a program record for victories in a season. Last time out, the Owls lost in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game, falling at Houston back on December 5th, 24-13.

The Owls are playing in a bowl game for the first time since 2011 when they beat Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl, 37-15.

On offense, Temple is being led by junior quarterback P.J. Walker. He has thrown for 2,737 yards and 19 touchdowns this season, while throwing just seven interceptions. Junior running back Jahad Thomas has enjoyed a breakthrough season with 1,257 yards rushing and 17 touchdowns on the ground. Defensively, the headliner for the Owls is senior linebacker Tyler Matakevich, a consensus All-American who has won the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the AAC Defensive Player of the Year Award this season.

Toledo brings a 9-2 record into this one. They went 6-2 in the Mid-American Conference. They lost their regular season finale to Western Michigan back on November 27th, 35-30. They average 35.3 points a game on offense and allow 21.1 a game on defense.

The Rockets are making their fifth bowl appearance in the last six seasons.

Toledo leads the all-time series with the Owls 7-3. Two of the meetings came while Temple was a member of the MAC a few years ago. The teams split those two games as conference rivals.

KYW's Matt Leon spoke with CBS3's Lesley Van Arsdall and the Philadelphia Inquirer's Marc Narducci about tonight's game.