Penn State vs. Temple: Lots Has Happened Since That Day in 2015

If Penn State vs. Temple is any sort of college football measuring stick of time, place and circumstance, let’s look at the trajectory of both schools since the Nittany Lions lost 27-10 to the Owls back on Sept. 5, 2015, at The Linc.

Lots has happened since That Day.

4,025. That’s the days from that loss to this Saturday in The Linc, when Penn State won 27-9. The symmetry, right?

That Day, quarterback Christian Hackenberg was sacked 10 times, a far cry from the last time he played for the Blue & White before that season-opener. That would have been in Yankee Stadium in late December 2014 in the Pinstripe Bowl. He overwhelmed Boston College, completing 34 of 50 passes for 371 yards and four touchdowns, including the game-winner in overtime.

But against Temple That Day, Hack was 11 of 25 for 103 yards, with one pick. Hack never seemed the same, and though he was selected in the second round of the draft by the New York Jets, he never played a down in a regular-season NFL game. 

On Saturday in The Linc, Nittany Lion quarterback and Iowa State transfer Rocco Becht threw for three for TDs, completed 75.5% of his passes and was sacked just once, for 6 yards. On Hack’s bad day That Day, Becht was 11 years old.

That Day, Saquon Barkey ran for 1 yard.

After That Day, James Franklin’s record as Penn State’s head coach was 7-7, as he was working through the impact of NCAA sanctions that affected Penn State football on and off the field.

Sandy Barbour was just one year into her tenure as athletic director at Penn State. The other AD That Day, Pat Kraft, had been promoted from deputy athletic director to Temple’s AD on May 15, just four months before the Penn State game. He stayed there until 2020, when he went to Boston College for 23 months before being hired by Penn State in April 2022. (The BC head football coach these days? Bill O’Brien, Hackenburg’s Obi-Wan Kenobi as a Penn State freshman quarterback.)

The Temple win That Day was the first of a two-year stretch that saw Owls’ head coach Matt Rhule go 10-4 and 10-3, then propel him to Baylor, the NFL and now Nebraska. (Point of reference: Rhule’s Cornhuskers got hammered 37-10 by Penn State, his alma mater.) That win and the season that followed were so big for Temple, the Owls acknowledged the 2015 team on the field during the game on Saturday. Kraft was part of that celebration.

Penn State and Temple played again a year and 12 days after That Day. Penn State won, 34-27, in Beaver Stadium. It was sandwiched between a devastating last-second 42-39 loss at Pitt and a desultory 49-10 defeat to Michigan in the Big House.

Since Rhule left Temple in 2016, the Owls have been 42-66. Since 2016, Penn State has been 96-36, with a Big Ten title, two wins in the College Football Playoff and victories in the Rose, Cotton and Fiesta bowl. Franklin was at the helm for nearly all of that — and was handsomely paid about $90 million for that resurrection — but he was 5-5 in his final 10 games in Happy Valley and was ultimately fired by Kraft. 

Some thought that Kraft would hire Rhule, a good friend of his, to succeed Franklin and thus be the Nittany Lions’ head coach on Saturday, where it would have been reunion of sorts in The Linc — now, that would have been A Day. Alas, that did not happen. Instead, on Saturday Rhule was in Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., where his Cornhuskers defeated Bowling Green, 56-7. (Rhule is 21-19 in Year 4 as Nebraska’s head coach.)

AND MATT CAMPBELL ON THAT DAY?

That Day Penn State lost to Temple, Matt Campbell was a fourth-year head coach at Toledo. The Rockets were pivoting from a cancelled Sept. 3 home game against Stony Brook to a Sept. 12 road game at No. 18 Arkansas, coached by Bret Bielema (who is now head coach at Illinois, a 2027 road game for PSU). Toledo beat the Razorbacks in a huge upset, 18-12.

That victory was the first of a seven-game win streak for the Rockets. The week after defeating Arkansas, Toledo hosted Iowa State. (Read that again, slowly: Matt Campbell’s Toledo hosted Iowa State.) Toledo won 30-23 in double overtime.

Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard certainly liked what he saw that day, the Cyclone’s loss aside. On Nov. 22, Pollard fired Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads less than 24 hours after the Cyclones blew a 35-14 halftime lead to lose 38-35. A week later, Campbell was hired as Iowa State’s head coach. Rhoads was 32-54; after 10 seasons in Ames, Campbell left for Penn State as the winningest head coach in school history with a 72-55 record.

The week after That Day, Penn State played Buffalo in Beaver Stadium. The announced crowd was 93,065, and the Nittany Lions won 27-14. The week after That Day against Buffalo, two games into his college career, Barkley ran for 115 yards and a touchdown. He also executed his first in-game hurdle of his PSU career, leaping over stunned Buffalo safety Ryan Williamson. (Hey, Penn State’s James Peoples hurdled vs. Temple.) Lance Leipold was in his first season as Buffalo’s head coach. The Bulls’ offensive coordinator that day? Andy Kotelnicki.

Penn State’s opponent after Temple in 2026? Same as in 2015: Buffalo.

On That Day, Beaver Stadium was not undergoing a massive three-quarter-of-a billion dollar renovation. There was no Section 409. The awning hanging over the stadium’s south end zone tunnel did not say Success With Honor. And Joe Paterno’s desk was in storage.

Lots has happened since That Day.