Temple Readies For Home Opener With Villanova

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Temple Owls will look to bounce back from that season-opening loss to Notre Dame when they host Villanova in their home opener on Saturday at the Linc.

Temple lost to the Fighting Irish in South Bend this past Saturday, 49-16. Notre Dame jumped out to a 28-3 lead in this one and never looked back.

"First quarter got away from us," Temple head coach Geoff Collins tells KYW Newsradio. "It was a big environment for a lot of our first-time starters that had never been in a college football game or one at a legendary place like that against the Irish. Some things happen to us early, got them settled down, second and third quarters, I thought we played really, really well on both sides of the ball."

Collins played his cards close to the vest as far as the quarterback situation was concerned heading into the Notre Dame game. It ended up that redshirt freshman Logan Marchi started and went the distance for the Owls, completing 19 of 35 passes for 245 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He did not throw an interception.

"One of my favorite things about Logan on Saturday was how composed he was," Collins says. "It was his first start and he kind of handled it like a veteran. He was changing the tempo, he was changing the cadence and the rhythm of the plays, making everybody around him better, which is something that is a must for a quarterback."

So now the Owls focus on the FCS Wildcats, who beat Lehigh this past Saturday in their first game under new head coach Mark Ferrante, 38-31.

"They've got a lot of players back on offense," Collins says. "They've got an exciting offense. They do a lot of different things, a lot of formations, a lot of different schemes and they have really, really good players on the offensive side of the ball. Then defensively, their secondary is really, really good. Some big guys up front and athletic linebackers and a scheme that's a unique scheme, that a lot of teams don't run that makes you have to do some different things in the run game and protections to stay clean."

Temple and Villanova will get underway on Saturday at 3:30pm.