Penn State Travels to Temple
By: Mark McConnell

The 7 – 3 Nittany Lions will play at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday against a 3 - 6 Temple squad.  The game is sold out in Philadelphia with Lincoln Financial Field holding 68,532, but may be more of a home game for Penn State as Temple has only been drawing crowds of around 24,000 fans.

Temple Coach, Al Golden, said that the situation is win-win for Temple when games like Penn State are scheduled, because it draws a good crowd and provides good atmosphere for the university.

“’Win win?’ if we lose it won't be a ‘win win,’” said head coach Joe Paterno in his Tuesday press conference.

“You get caught up in playing some of the Big Ten teams you have to play, and then all of the sudden you're playing a team that is a lot better than maybe a lot of people think they are and is as well coached as Temple is,” he continued “You get careless and the first thing you know, you get licked.”

Golden is on the verge of turning the Temple football team around. The Owls won just one game last year, giving Golden an overall record of 4 – 17 in his second year coaching the school.

“We’ve had a lot of great players over the years,” Golden said in his weekly teleconference. “But sometimes the best players don’t make the best teams, the best teams always win.”

Golden played as a tight end for Penn State as well as the New England Patriots.  He was a team captain for the Nittany Lions in 1991, when the No. 12 Lions faced the Owls at Veterans Stadium in front of a crowd of almost 44,000. 

Now, with one conference game remaining after this weekend’s match with Temple, the Nittany Lions are trying to position themselves for their best bowl game possible.

”We can only do what we can do,” said senior quarterback Anthony Morelli of Penn States potential bowl bid.

They’ll be looking to dominate Temple defensively as Dan Connor looks to distance himself further from Paul Posluszny’s record of 379 career tackles.  Connor comes into the game with 105 tackles this season, racking up eleven against Purdue last week.

Sean Lee follows Connor closely with 104 total tackles this season, putting up twelve against Purdue.

“I think Sean Lee is a fine linebacker. Thank God we have him for another year,” said Paterno.

Offensively, Morelli comes into the game completing 181 of 303 for 2,060-yards, 14 touchdowns and eight interceptions. 

He hasn’t really developed a favorite receiver tending to throw to whoever is open and throwing the ball away more often when under pressure.  He’s been sacked 19 times this season for a loss of 125-yards. Purdue was only able to get to him once for a seven yard loss last weekend.

Derrick Williams leads the receivers with 40 catches for 366-yards and three touchdowns.  Jordan Norwood follows with 38 receptions for 447-yards and three touchdowns.  Deon Butler has 35 catches for 463-yards and one touchdown.  Co-captain, Terrell Golden has caught 23 for 255-yards and three touchdowns.

On the ground, Rodney Kinlaw has run 167 times for 893-yards and seven touchdowns. Evan Royster backs him up with 70 attempts for 435-yards and four touchdowns.

For Temple, sophomore quarterback Vaughn Charlton has stepped in for an injured Adam DiMichele, who was knocked out of the Miami (OH) game earlier this season.  Chartlon has compelted 28 of 42 passes for 287-yards, two touchdowns and one interception, since taking the helm.

Before DiMichele got injured, he had completed 138 of 223 passes for 1,595-yards, twelve touchdowns and ten interceptions.

Defensively, Temple is lead by Dominique Harris with 60 total tackles and two interceptions.  Amara Kamara has 55 total tackles with 1.5-tackles-for-loss and Alex Joseph has 53 tackles with four-tackles-for-loss.

Kickoff is set for noon Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field, check your ticket stub if you’re going to the game, some may have been printed with a 1 PM kickoff time in error.