John O’Donnell leads the Golden Rams against Shippensburg on Homecoming Day at West Chester

Once upon a time when Temple and Rutgers played in a Big East game it likely meant the lone conference win for the victor but in case you didn’t know things have changed for both programs. Greg Schiano took over the Scarlett Knights and built them into a perennially bowl team (six bowls in seven years with five straight wins) but Schiano has gone to the NFL where he can antagonize Tom Coughlin. Kyle Flood has taken over as head coach after serving as assistant head coach the previous four seasons and while bowls wins are nice, he wants championships. So far Flood has the team going in that direction, they’re ranked 19^th in the nation and – at 6-0 – they are one of three Big East teams that are undefeated.

Steve Addazio would like his Owls to follow a similar path. The Temple program was rebuilt by Al Golden before he moved to the University of Miami. The last three years, the Owls have been bowl-eligible; they’ve played in two and won their first bowl game since 1979 last season. This year, the program returned to the Big East after playing the last six in the MAC and so far so good. They’re 3-2 overall and 2-0 in the Big East so when the Owls and Scarlett Knights meet at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday, it will be a battle of first place teams.

“It’ll be a beautiful college football Saturday,” effused Addazio, “it’s a geographical rival and I don’t know what else you could be doing. What an atmosphere.”

“I think we’ve proven that there’s a great foundation here,” Addazio said when asked what the Big East wins mean for a team that was picked in the preseason to finish last in the league.

“You’ve seen the building of a football program that can compete against other like schools. That’s been happening for a couple years. Now, we have to do it on a more week-to-week basis. It doesn’t mean that we’ve arrived and it doesn’t mean there won’t be bitter disappointments along the way but we’re heading on the right path to the right place. It’s just a matter of when exactly we get there.”

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Coming off of an upset of then No. 3 Old Dominion, Villanova (5-2, 3-1 CAA) is back on the road. They travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia State (1-6, 1-3 CAA) in the Georgia Dome at 3:30. Villanova head coach Andy Talley was asked about a possible letdown following a big win and then going on the road to face a team with a bad record but one that has played a tough schedule and is playing better.

“I use Chip Kelly,” said Talley referring to the Oregon head coach, “he’s a wild man and says some crazy stuff and he says, ‘you better play every game like they’re your archrival because if you lose to them shame on you’ and that’s the way I feel because we’re not good enough to look past anybody.”

To win, the Wildcats will need redshirt freshman quarterback John Robertson to continue to play well. For his efforts against Old Dominion, Robertson was the Sports Network National Freshman of the Week and named the CAA Rookie of the Week for the fourth time this season. He ran for 189 yards and three touchdowns and was 10-of-18 passing for 151 yards and a touchdown.

“He’s been sensational,” Talley said about his quarterback. “He’s probably the best freshman quarterback we’ve had. Even better than Chris [Whitney] (the quarterback who led the Wildcats to the National Championship) when he was a freshman. Number one, he’s faster and he’s a better passer. He’s a football player and is one of those guys that looks better in a game than he does in practice.”

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Al Bagnoli is looking for Penn (2-3, 2-0 Ivy) to put together a full game as they travel to Yale (1-4, 0-2 Ivy) on Saturday at Noon. In two Ivy League games, the Quakers needed to hold on in the fourth quarter to beat Dartmouth while last week they need a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to beat Columbia.

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Delaware Valley (4-2, 4-1 MAC) hosts Misericordia University (0-6, 0-5 MAC), a first-year program, on Saturday at 1:00 PM at James Work Memorial Stadium in Doylestown. They’re hosting a “Pink Out” to raise money for breast cancer research in honor of Amadeus Hall, a member of the football team from 2009 to 2011, who passed away over the summer and had lost both his mother and grandmother to the disease.

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Also on Saturday, No. 22 (Division III coaches poll) Rowan (5-1, 4-0 NJAC) is at SUNY Cortland (5-1, 5-0 NJAC). Widener (6-0, 5-0 MAC) and ranked 14th in the coaches poll play at Lycoming (5-1, 5-0 MAC). West Chester (5-2, 3-1 PSAC) hosts Shippensburg (3-3, 2-2 PSAC) on Homecoming at John A. Farrell Stadium.

E-mail Rock Hoffman at RDVSports@yahoo.com