The UCF Knights will travel to Philadelphia to take on the Temple Owls and their star quarterback PJ Walker this Saturday night at Lincoln Financial Field.
Temple enters the contest undefeated and just barely missed making the Associated Press’ top 25 ranking in college football this past week. The Knights have yet to grab a win in their first six games of the season and there is no reason to think that that may change on Saturday. However, if the Knights can limit mistakes and convert their third down opportunities they will stand a chance against this staunch conference opponent.
“As far as Temple is concerned, they are undefeated, they are a very good football team and we’ll have our work cut out for us,” Head Coach George O’Leary said.
Junior quarterback PJ Walker will be a familiar face for Knights fans as this will be his third game starting against UCF and he was the quarterback for the Owls as a freshman two years ago when JJ Worton hauled in the catch that made him so famous. This PJ Walker is a different monster than those first two seasons though; his development has seen him become incredibly efficient and effective.
Those developments in Walker’s game have been widely credited to Temple’s QB coach Glenn Thomas who spent the previous three seasons in the same position for the Atlanta Falcons and their starting QB Matt Ryan. The junior quarterback has not only decreased his TD/INT ratio significantly from last season, but he has increased his completions percentage by nearly 10 percent.
Temple is at its most dominant when their defense has the opportunity to take full advantage of the opposing team’s mistakes. Defensively, Temple ranks in the top 30 teams in the nation and has been a turnover-producing machine throughout the first half of the season. Led by senior linebacker Tyler Matakevich and defensive end Nate Smith, the self-proclaimed ‘Bash Brothers’ have brought the Temple Owls defense to new heights.
Matakevich has 399 career tackles and is on pace to become the seventh player in FBS history to record 100+ tackles in four consecutive seasons. His fellow ‘Bash Brother’ Nate Smith is ranked ninth in the NCAA in sacks with 5.5 this season after converting to defensive end from linebacker. Collectively, the Temple defense will prove to be a lot for Justin Holman to handle in his second game back from injury as they’ve held opposing quarterbacks to just 6 touchdowns while forcing 9 interceptions.
The Owls also excel in an area that has proven to be a weakness for the Knights: second half scoring.
Temple has outscored their opponents 107-26 in the second half this season which could mean trouble for a Knights team that has been outscored by 62 points in the second half. This is the third meeting between both teams and the second time that the Knights will travel to Lincoln Financial Field. UCF has not lost to Temple since they became regular opponents in 2013, but these are two entirely different teams then they have been the past two seasons and that does not bode well for the win-less Knights.
Photo Credit: Aileen Perilla
