[joepa66]

6) TEMPLE - The Owls come to the MAC for their first full season of conference competition hungry for wins after a 1-11 record in 2006. Their lone win came against MAC East member Bowling Green but they were 0-5 versus MAC members Buffalo, WMU, Kent, NIU and CMU. To compete they'll have to ramp things up and find a running game!
Gone is RB Tim Brown who led the Owls with 795 of the team's 1006 yards rushing last year. The Owls could only manage 53.7ypg on the ground but fared a bit better in the passing department. QB Adam DiMichele threw for 1518 yards and 10TDs and had a completion percentage of 61.4%, but he also had 12 INTs on the season. Their top four receivers also return but accounted for a total of 149 yards but just 7 TDs on the season.
Defensively Temple will have to improve drastically after yielding 243.6pg on the ground and 208.8ypg passing. On average the Owls were out-gained 452.4 ypg to 215.7ypg and out outscored 496-131 for the year......but against MAC squads they were outscored just 177-124. Toning down their schedule without the like of Louisville, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Clemson, and Navy will help even though they still have Penn State on the schedule. They lost their top two tacklers LBs Gore and Mebane but return 7 starters which includes 5 defensive linemen, and have 8 starters back on offense losing 3 linemen.