2013 Outlook - Temple

Temple was another program who used the considerable amount of realignment that has been happening to put themselves in a better place.  The Owls will begin play in their new home (which also happens to be their old home), the Big East, this season, but I am not so sure that Steve Addazio and company will find the Big East to be as favorable as the MAC which they are leaving.



There will be some competition for the starting QB position.  JR Chris Coyer seems to have the inside track right now, considering he has some experience in Addazio's system, but Penn State transfer, Kevin Newsome is now eligible to play, and he has considerably better upside.  Regardless of who is under center, they are going to have their work cut out for them.  SR Matt Brown will become Temple's primary ball carrier now that Bernard Pierce has moved on to play on Sunday's.  Brown is quick, but his 5'5" 165lb frame will prevent him from being an every down back.  This will mean that someone else will need to pick up some carries, most likely SO Jalen Fitzpatrick.  At receiver, this team has almost no one with experience. The guy with the most yards under his belt who is returning to the team is JR Deon Miller, but he only had 253 yds all of last year.  Up front, the team is also very inexperienced, with the only featured starter being SR OT Martin Wallace.

On the defensive side of the ball, things are not looking much better.  The pair of SRs and pair of JRs who will line up up front are physically strong, and should hold up well against the run, but they are both as a group, and as individuals, highly unaccomplished in their collegiate careers thus far.  This makes it hard for me to be too high on them.  At linebacker, this is another inexperienced unit which is a big question mark going into the season.  SR OLB Akeem Smith is the most prolific tackler in this unit returning, and he only had 43 a season ago.  The secondary will likely be the defense's strongest unit, but they are not particularly deep, and they lack any star power from the projected starters.  Star power is not a necessity to have a highly performing unit, but not having that guy who you can rely on certainly does make it more difficult on game days.

The Big East is the weakest of the nation's power conferences.  But Temple is still taking a step up in competition, and frankly I'm not sure that they would have even been in the upper half of the MAC this season.  Steve Addazio will have to have some recruiting success, and soon, otherwise this program may be a doormat for the conference for the next few years.