Both Temple and Houston managed to shock college football this season as both dominated the American Athletic Conference. Houston appeared to be favorites to make it into the College Football Playoff, but one loss ended that talk. Meanwhile, the Owls went from bottomfeeders in college football to potential conference champions as the two teams face off to win the American Athletic.
The Owls fighting for a conference title is a shock considering just three years ago the team was sitting at the bottom of the group of teams. New head coach Matt Rhule guided the team to a 10-2 finish with the opportunity for the school's first conference title. A big reason for that has been their defense which has given up 370 total yards in the past two games. Quarterback PJ Walker could be the x-factor as he is in need of a better performance than in recent weeks. Last year facing Houston, he went just 12 of 29 for 259 yards and three interceptions. He will rely on Jahad Thomas who has 1,188 yards on the ground and 18 touchdowns on the season.
The Temple offense will try and match the dynamic abilities of Houston and quarterback Greg Ward Jr who has completed 69.3 percent of his passes while rushing for 893 yards on the ground this season. He is one of the best in the NCAAA, but has been dealing with a lingering ankle injury over the past two weeks. He was quiet but efficient against Navy as Houston hopes he can pull it together against Temple.
Ward will target Demarcus Ayers as much as he possibly can in order to stretch out the Temple defense. The wide receiver is the go-to target of the unit as he has 89 catches for 1140 yards on the year for six touchdowns. He has been on fire over the past three games with 371 yards and one touchdown. The Temple secondary will have their hands full trying to stop the connection between Ward and Ayers.
"We are all going for one goal," Ward said, via ESPN.com. "We told each other that we are going to give each other all that we have, and that we are going to play for our brothers."
Houston is out of the playoff running, but they can get themselves a favorable bowl game with a win. For Temple it is all about getting a win for school history.
