Temple University Athletics
OWLS TAKE FLIGHT TO MEET NATIONALLY-RANKED MOUNTAINEERS
11.1.04 | Football
Temple (1-7, 0-3), under the direction of seventh-year head coach Bobby Wallace, and West Virginia (7-1, 3-0), under the leadership of fourth-year head coach Rich Rodriguez, meet Saturday at 1:00 p.m on the AstroPlay surface of 60,000-seat Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. WVU is ranked No. 12 by the coaches and No. 15 by the AP in the latest polls. The Owls and Mountaineers are meeting for the 36th time in a series that dates back to 1932, with WVU holding a 23-12 advantage. The two main campuses are separated by a 314-mile, five hour and 25-minute drive from Philadelphia to Morgantown, W.Va. Temple utilizes a spread offense and a 4-2-5 defense. WVU operates a spread offense and a 3-3 stack defense. Saturday's game will not be televised.
The Owls are coming off a bye week after a 45-31 loss at Connecticut on Oct. 23, a game in which Temple held the advantage in first downs (23-20), passing yards (276-260), total plays (85-63) and time of possession (33:46-26:14). Temple's 85 total plays marked the third straight game the team posted 80 or more and was its most since having 88 plays at Rutgers in 2002.
QB Walter Washington had two rushing TDs for the fifth time this season en route to 360 yards of total offense (276 passing, 84 rushing). The junior completed 21 of a career-high tying 44 pass attempts while hitting eight different receivers for a third consecutive week. Washington leads the Big East with 10 rushing TDs and is five shy of the Temple single season record of 15 set by Paul Palmer in 1986. He also engineered scoring drives of 78, 76, 48 (twice) and 42 yards. The Daytona Beach, Fla. native has 2,102 yards of total offense this season (1,588 passing; 514 rushing), which ranks fifth in the Temple single-season record books behind Henry Burris' school-record of 2,577 total yards set in 1994. In just two seasons, Washington is already in seventh place on the Temple career total offense chart with 3,946 yards.
West Virginia is coming off a 35-30 win at Rutgers last Saturday, its ninth straight conference victory. QB Rasheed Marshall threw for two TDs and ran for another score as the Mountaineers held a 35-17 fourth quarter lead before RU scored two late TDs. WVU leads the Big East and is among the top 20 nationally in rushing (5th; 263.50), pass efficiency (7th; 160.46), scoring offense (19th; 33.88), punt return yards (13th; 15.21), interceptions (t-9th; 12) and turnover margin (t-9th; 1.13).
