2022 UCF Versus Temple Preview
The Temple Owls are a struggling college football program. In fact, they are bad. Very bad. The Owls won three games last season (and finished dead last in the AAC). Even that was probably overperforming after looking at their roster makeup and stats. Those three wins came against Wagner, Akron, and lastly Memphis, a game Temple followed up with seven consecutive losses to close out the year (by an average margin of 34 points per loss).
If there is any good news for Temple, it is that they will welcome in a brand new Head Coach, Stan Drayton for this upcoming season. He had worked as an Associate Head Coach at the University of Texas for a few years prior under the likes of Steve Sarkisian and Tom Herman, as well as working in the NFL (Green Bay, 2001-2003), and even as the Florida Running Backs Coach (2005-2007). He’s an experienced coach overall, but he’s entering his first season as the leader of a college football program. Drayton has a major challenge before him.
There’s not much positive for Drayton and the Owls to look back on from 2021. So, in 2022, it’s time to start anew. Still, that’s difficult right now. 247 has Temple ranked as having the 96th best recruiting class coming into the year, which is marginally better than it has been in the previous few seasons, but likely will not do much to improve their standing in the AAC.
The Transfer Portal did not do too much for the program this offseason either. Looking at the matchup between the Knights and Owls last year, it was completely one sided.
Last season’s matchup between UCF and Temple was decided by halftime, with UCF coming out on top 49-7. Temple scored a touchdown with 28 seconds remaining in the game to avoid a shutout. On the other side, the Knights punted on the first drive of the game, and did not do so again until well after the starters had already been warming the bench for a while.
UCF quarterback Mikey Keene threw for a career-high 229 yards and five touchdowns, and he did not even touch the field in the fourth quarter. The Knights totaled 428 yards on the day. There is not much else to say about the game, as Temple had zero answers for anything UCF was throwing at them on either side of the ball.
To make matters worse (somehow) for Temple, that game was in Philadelphia, and the 2022 game between these two teams will be in Orlando, a place where UCF does not lose very often (30-2 at home since 2017). It was also UCF’s only road win of the season, and it was by 42 points. Yikes.
Moving on to Temple’s 2021 stats, the Owls ranked 125th out of 130 FBS teams in total offense. They were one of seven FBS teams to average less than 300 yards per game offensively. Their total defense, in terms of yards allowed, actually was not too terrible, at 83rd in the country, but their scoring defense was ranked at 122, allowing a whopping 37.5 points per contest.
Individually, they did not have a player in the top 100 in the country for passing yards, passing touchdowns, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, receiving yards, or receiving touchdowns.
To close the book on Temple, it is important to remember that nothing is impossible, but some things are pretty close. Temple winning this football game is about as close to impossible as it can get, with UCF loading up with a strong recruiting class as well as transfer class, and Gus Malzahn having a full season with the team under his belt. UCF will, assumedly, use this as a game to get some key players valuable rest if the lead gets comfortable enough.
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