Matt Rhule and the Temple Owls looking for a win at Tulane

The Temple Owls have at least two and as many as four games left in the 2016 season. Despite three losses, they still have a chance to accomplish all the goals they set for themselves at the start of the season such as another American Athletic Conference East Division championship, a win in the AAC title game and a bowl game victory. As much as the 2015 Owls did, they achieved just one of those three goals in an historic season.

“We want to be the greatest Temple team ever,” said linebacker Avery Williams, “and what we have to do to do that is win all of these last games. Last year, we were 10-4. This year, we’re trying to be 11-3.”

A lofty goal but it would certainly separate this year’s team from the team that started 7-0, beat Penn State and brought ESPN’s College GameDay to town last year.

“Coming into the season, I knew last year was over and this is a different team,” said running back Jahad Thomas. “We started off hot last year, [this year] we started off really slow but now we’re peaking at the right moment. We just have to continue what we’ve been doing, hopefully we can get back to where we were last year and come out winners.”

Quarterback Phillip Walker said the team doesn’t mind not receiving the same amount attention that the 2015 Owls got.

“I think it’s good for us,” said the senior, who is the all-time winningest quarterback at Temple with 25 victories, “we’re just having fun and enjoying the fact that we have another opportunity to play football. The hype last year was cool but we’re getting better each day here and we’ve become a better team since the season started.”

The 2015 Owls needed to win their final two games to win the division which they did but the lost to Houston in the conference championship game and then lost in the Boca Raton Bowl to Toledo. This year, they’re in a similar situation, wins over Tulane and East Carolina will put the Owls in the title game against Navy. After that they hope to flip the script and win both postseason games.

“I think it was a bad finish overall as a team,” said Walker talking about last season. “That’s the focus now, we have to be better than we were last year.”

The road starts on Saturday afternoon in New Orleans against Tulane. The Green Wave is 3-7 but Temple head coach Matt Rhule is concerned because Tulane is 18th in the country running the ball and 23rd in total defense.

“I’ve had to repeat that to our guys over and over again,” Rhule said, “because that’s the recipe for winning.”

The Owls have won four in a row and are coming off of their bye week. They finish the regular season on the Saturday after Thanksgiving at Lincoln Financial Field.

Email Rock Hoffman at Rock@footballstories.com