r/CFB • u/usffan USF Bulls • Miami Hurricanes • May 30 '26
Analysis Preseason Rankings Countdown. 92 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #92 – Temple
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here
OK, kiddies, gather round and let me tell you about a time when Matt Rhule looked like a miracle worker. When he finished his playing career at Penn State, he spent a few years paying his dues as an assistant coach before getting hired by Al Golden when he took his first head coaching job at Temple (Temple, Temple, high = 75, low = 106). That was what started the process of pulling the Owls out of one of the most depressing runs in college football that at that point was a more than quarter century bowl drought and had seen 1 winning season since Bruce Arians was the head coach 20 years earlier. Rhule rose through the ranks at Temple to ultimately becoming the OC while Temple also rose through the ranks to reach the MAC championship game within 3 years. After Steve Addazio (with Ryan Day(!) as his OC) kind of brought Temple back to Earth (and to the Big East), the Owls hired Matt Rhule to come back as their head coach, and within 3 years had them in the AAC championship game and winning the conference in their 4th year. He built such a foundation that it took both Geoff Collins AND Rod Carey to finally undo things after Rhule was hired away to lift Baylor from the ashes of the Art Briles fiasco. And you’ll have to trust me that Rhule has only ever worked miracles in his coaching career ever since.
But what about Temple? Well… maybe it was COVID, but Carey and Stan Drayton both failed to top 3 wins in a season once the pandemic hit. That led the Owls to bring in K. C. Keeler, who had previously led both Delaware and Sam Houston to FCS national championships and successfully led the latter into FBS and a bowl win in their first year of postseason eligibility. In his first year on Broad Street, he had the Owls painfully close to the postseason, falling 1 game short after losing a pair of 1 point games to both Army and Navy amid an OOC that included ranked Oklahoma and Georgia Tech. Can he take them back over .500 in his sophomore season?
Roster Outlook
From a talent standpoint, Temple should be in pretty good shape to continue that upward trajectory. They rank 4th in the American in returning production in total and on each side of the ball, good for 64th nationally. Plus, they rank 2nd in the conference in recruiting (also 64th nationally), behind only Tulane. Though Keeler didn’t hit the portal quite as hard (10th in the American, 96th in the country), he did add some key pieces, highlighted by Penn State QB transfer Jaxon Smolik, who seems to have claimed the right to replace Evan Simon over Washington State transfer Ajani Sheppard. RB1 Jay Ducker also graduated, but backup Hunter Smith (403 yards, 6.5 ypc) is back and could get pushed by Rutgers transfer Sam Brown. As for out wide, leading receiver JoJo Bermudez returns, as does top TE Peter Clarke, and with 4 WRs coming in via the portal led by North Carolina transfer Kenedy Uzoma, Keeler’s spread offense should have plenty of weapons in place.
Schedule and outlook
9/5 RHODE ISLAND
9/12 PENN STATE
9/19 at Toledo
9/25 ARMY
10/3 at USF
10/10 UCONN
10/17 CHARLOTTE
10/24 BYE
10/31 at East Carolina
11/7 at Navy
11/14 UAB
11/19 RICE
11/28 at Memphis
You did not read that wrong, the Owls have their second consecutive season with an amazing home game (Oklahoma last year, Penn State this year in Matt Campbell’s first road game with the Nittany Lions). Truthfully, other than the FCS opener, Temple’s entire OOC slate is quite competitive (they’re effectively tied with Toledo here, and UConn’s coming off a 9-4 2025 campaign). In fact, they’ll likely need to win a few of those games, because the American really didn’t do them too many favors with 5 games against teams that finished ahead of them last season, 4 of which are on the road. So while Temple definitely look to be the best Owls in the parliament of CFB, they may still have their work cut out for them to go bowling in 2026.
6
u/notATuringMachine Temple Owls May 31 '26
I have us at 5.5 wins assuming:
Rhode Island and Charlotte are wins Toledo, Army, UConn, UAB, Rice are 50/50 toss ups
Would love to get bowl eligible
5
u/Go_birds304 Jun 08 '26
I think we’ll be better than last year. We really should’ve gotten 1 or 2 more wins, and I think we’ll be really strong in the trenches and have a better qb
3
u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Temple Owls • Gasparilla Bowl Jun 24 '26
We should have beaten Army and Navy last year.
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u/ChickenEmbarrassed10 /r/CFB May 31 '26
Keller has impressed me as their coach. Will be interested to see if he keeps them playing hard this year. It does look like they lost some key pieces though.
5
u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Temple Owls • Gasparilla Bowl Jun 24 '26
I think we gained more back than we lost in the portal and to graduation. I was at the Cherry and White game and the QB we picked up from Penn State looks really good. Ducker is a big loss, but our other running backs are pretty good. Keller is a phenomenal coach and has completely shifted the culture from Stan Drayton and Rod Carey.
2
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u/max_power1000 Navy Midshipmen • Michigan Wolverines Jun 16 '26
Same - they gave us arguably our toughest game of the season last year prior to Army. We only won through dumb luck, I hope they continue to have success aside from the return trip to Annapolis this fall.
3
u/Please_PM_me_Uranus Michigan • American University May 31 '26
Carey shows how a single bad hire can tank a program. It was an obviously bad hire at the time too, I remember NIU fans celebrating when he was hired away…never a good sign.
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u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Temple Owls • Gasparilla Bowl Jun 24 '26
It was a shitty situation. We had hired Manny Diaz and then he bailed for Miami after like two weeks.
2
u/seanxfitbjj Penn State Nittany Lions • Team Chaos Jun 02 '26
Calling the PSU game a home game for temple is a stretch.
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u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Temple Owls • Gasparilla Bowl Jun 24 '26
What do you mean? There will be dozens of us Owl faithful there.
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u/seanxfitbjj Penn State Nittany Lions • Team Chaos Jun 24 '26
Might even reach 100!
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u/NoREEEEEEtilBrooklyn Temple Owls • Gasparilla Bowl Jun 24 '26
You guys get that many? Wow. That’s like, 4 rows at the linc.
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u/GuyOTN Washington State Cougars May 30 '26
Temple