Food for thought.............................
Athlon Sports predicts the Owls will finish in 8th place in the newly expanded 14 team AAC
The Owls won only three games in coach Stan Drayton's debut, but there were signs of progress by the end of November. Led by the rise of quarterback E.J. Warner in his first year on campus, Temple defeated USF 54-28 in early November and later lost to Houston and East Carolina by one score. With a full offseason to work as the starter, look for Warner to emerge as one of the top quarterbacks in the AAC, especially with a loaded receiving corps that features Amad Anderson and tight ends David Martin-Robinson and Jordan Smith. The defense allowed too many points in league play (36.4 in the AAC) and struggled versus the run (192.6 yards a game). With seven starters back, this unit should take a step forward on the stat sheet. However, standout edge rusher Layton Jordan (18.5 TFL in '22) transferred to Wisconsin. Athlon has not published an Akron game score prediction.
College Football Network predicts the Owls finish 6-6 overall , 9th in the AAC, and a 30-19 winner over Akron.
The Akron Zips bring a unique brand of football to town against Temple. DJ Irons at quarterback and the talented offense from head coach Joe Moorhead will certainly present issues for Temple’s defense. However, Akron’s biggest discrepancy will be depth in the secondary and Warner and Co. should be able to fly high over the Zips.
247 Sports predicts the Temple Owls finish 11th in the AAC behind both the Rice Owls and the Florida Atlantic Owls.
Key Returners: QB E.J. Warner, RB Edward Saydee, WR Jose Barbon, WR Amad Anderson Jr., LB Yvandy Ridby.
Key Losses: LB Darian Varner, LB Kobe Wilson
The second 3-9 season in a row for the Owls of Philadelphia hurts even more as Temple completes another losing season with very little to show for, though there was some progress at times under first-year coach Stan Drayton. Temple competed in four separate one-score games, all of which they lost, and played competitively in very few of the rest of the games their season had to hold. Three thousand-yard passer, QB E.J. Warner, will return to Temple next season, but the Owls lost a whopping 15 players to the transfer portal. My first take is that Temple has had no consistent culture since arguably the Matt Rhule era of the early 2010s. Establishing a good culture can do amazing things for not only a team, but now with NIL and the transfer portal, that sometimes is the most important thing a team needs. Lots of solid defensive talent will leave Temple, including defensive end Darian Varner, who recorded 35 total tackles and nearly double-digit sacks. He’s since transferred to a Luke Fickell-run Wisconsin Badgers team. I see Temple taking a few more years to establish any sort of fandom back in Lincoln Financial Field and hope they don’t finish bottom of the new conference once more with potentially another head coach in the hot seat.