Instant Analysis: Akron-Temple

A trying, teasing and severely frustrating football season didn’t prevent the Temple Owls from playing hard to the very end of the line. Unable to make a bowl game or achieve a .500 season, coach Al Golden’s team—always resilient and never one to pout—came on strong in the fourth quarter to turn back Akron on Friday afternoon in Philadelphia.

Temple got hit hard this season by daggers of many kinds. For one thing, the Owls lost their fine quarterback, Adam DiMichele, for three full games and most of a fourth against Penn State. The absence of their superb signal caller led to two losses in low-scoring games that, with DiMichele at the helm, could have turned out differently. Aside of the infirmary, the Owls were also hurt by two incredible events that led to crushing stomach-punch setbacks. A Hail Mary on the game’s final play led to an agonizing loss at Buffalo, and a last-minute fumble—when Temple could have knelt down and avoided drama—led to a Navy comeback and a 33-27 overtime loss against the Midshipmen. Temple played like a winning team in 2008, only for outrageous occurrences to put them below the .500 mark. With this as background, it would have been easy for Temple to fold the tent against Akron and go through the motions in a season finale tinged with a sense of disappointment.

It’s to the Owls’ great credit—players and coaches alike—that after three difficult quarters in which the season seemed to weigh on their minds, the home team flexed its muscles in Philly over the final 15 minutes of play. Temple had to stare down the possibility of a fourth-quarter deficit, but the Owls summoned up an uncommon amount of determination to get a goal-line stand and force an 18-yard field goal from Akron. Tied at 6-all instead of being down by four, the home team found a new degree of confidence, as Temple buried the Zips with a 21-0 run in the final 10 minutes. Running back Marcellous Grigsby ran for two of the Owls’ three scores in that late surge to turn an even-steven affair into a runaway.

With the win, Temple managed to finish at 4-4 in the MAC East, good for at least a share of second place, pending Bowling Green’s game against Toledo. At 5-7, Al Golden’s group can know that it never stopped battling to achieve greater goals this year, even though the football fates plainly frustrated their foremost hopes.