Owls’ new coach will work to plug key holes
Orlando Sentinel college insider Matt Murschel ranked all 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in the country entering the 2017 season. The Sentinel staff takes a closer look at a new team daily, counting backward from No. 130 to our projected No. 1 team.
5 Temple
Geoff Collins (0-0, entering first season; 0-0 overall)
10-4, 7-1 in American Athletic Conference, finished first in East Division
Temple established itself as a conference power, recording back-to-back 10-win seasons and claiming the league championship during a 34-10 rout over thenNo. 19 Navy. It was just the second conference championship in the program’s history, with the Owls previously winning the Mid-Atlantic Conference title in 1967. After a successful run reviving Temple, Owls coach Matt Rhule was named the new head coach at Baylor on Dec. 6. his last from 2015-16.
While the Owls will need to replace several starters on defense, including the entire starting linebackers unit, the secondary will remain strong. Temple returns two of the top safeties in the conference in Sean Chandler and Delvon Randall. Chandler and Randall are on the Jim Thorpe preseason watch list and expected to play key roles in helping the Owls’ defense remain one of the nation’s top defenses. Last season, Temple finished as the No. 3 defensive unit in the country.
“I inherited a great group of kids. They work hard, they’re physical, they’re tough, they’re disciplined,” Collins said. “We’ve had a really physical spring practice, we worked a lot of situations, got in some schemes both offensively and defensively and we sprinkled some stuff in from our other stops.
“... We’ve done a good job blending in with these kids, getting them dialed in on the philosophy changes and enhancing the stuff that was already there that was really, really good for this program.”
four-year Losing starting quarterback Phillip Walker to graduation and introducing new schemes under Collins likely means the offense will lag behind the defense. There was a four-man race to replace Walker this spring and no one outright won the job, with junior Frank Nutile, sophomore Logan Marchi, redshirt freshman Anthony Russo and true freshman Todd Centeio competing for snaps.
With USF and UCF pushing to win the AAC East title, a Temple team adapting to new personnel on and off the field faces challenges repeating as conference champions. Collins’ philosophies are similar to Rhule’s, so don’t expect a huge dropoff in production.