Temple Welcomes Navy To Town Thursday Night

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Temple will return from a bye on Thursday night when the Owls welcome Navy to the Linc for an American Athletic Conference match-up.

The Owls last played on October 21st when they lost in overtime to Army on the road, 31-28.

In that game, redshirt junior Frank Nutile started at quarterback for an injured Logan Marchi and threw for 290 yards and a touchdown. Head coach Geoff Collins says Nutile will start again against the Midshipmen.

"Logan's still not 100% so it will be Frank's show," Collins tells KYW Newsradio. "He did a really good job for us. We had seven starters out in that game and Frank stood up, four brand new o-linemen in that game, and they still moved the ball very well."

Some teams can go years without facing an offense that runs the triple-option. But the Owls will now have to defend against it in back-to-back games, although Collins says Navy's version is different from Army's.

"Army very rarely threw the football," Collins says. "Navy does a great job of getting perimeter runs. A lot of misdirection and then they do a good job of throwing a pass in there when you least expect it and they've been airing it out a lot more than Army was. The quarterback has a strong arm, the receivers can block and catch and their slot backs actually do a nice job catching the ball as well.

"They've got some unique formations comparative to Army," he continues. "Army would kind of tell you by personnel when they were going to do certain formations. Navy keeps the same personnel, two recievers, two slot backs and a fullback in and they create those same formations out of that same personnel group which makes it difficult on a defense."

These two teams last met in last year's American Athletic Conference Championship Game which the Owls won easily in Annapolis, 34-10.

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