Temple University Athletics
Saturday, October 25
Orlando, FL
5:00 p.m.
Temple University
at
UCF
Photo by: Thomas Shea
Football Looks to Bounce Back Against UCF
10.22.14 | Football
PHILADELPHIA -Â After a 31-10 loss to Houston under the Friday Night Lights, head coach Matt Rhule held his weekly press conference and discussed the team's upcoming game against the UCF Knights. The October 25 contest will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network at 5 p.m. Those in the Philadelphia area can listen to the game on 1210 AM WPHT with Harry Donahue (play-by-play), Paul Palmer (analyst) and Harry Mayes (sidelines).
Below is Coach Rhule's opening statement:
"I appreciate everyone coming today, thank you for coming to cover us. It was good to get out on the field again today and kind of still try to get the taste of Friday night out of our mouths to prepare for a good UCF team. I think everyone in the building is mad and disappointed with the way they we performed on Friday night, I don't think we can say anyone coached well or played well. At the end of the day, it starts with me, that's my job. Obviously we didn't get it done and we didn't play our brand of football. It's one thing to lose, but the way we lost was not the way we want to play. We're moving forward from that, but remembering that and we're very resolute in making sure that doesn't happen again this week.
As I told our team, we've gone from early on, not even competing in the beginning of the games, to competing for most of the game, and then last year not being able to finish the game, to this year, winning some games and finishing games, and then last week at Tulsa, to come from behind. Friday night was the first time in a long while, at least since Steve was here, that there was a game with something on the line; it was on national TV, it was two teams that people have expectations for, and there were some expectations on the line. And that was a new challenge for us and we stumbled a little bit; we didn't handle that moment the way we all thought we would. So there's nothing else to do but grow from it, keep building on that process of building the program and taking advantage of the opportunity this week because we get the same challenge again; it's two 4-2 teams playing on national TV, a team we obviously have history with from last year. Are we going to be the same team we saw Friday night or are we going to be that we've seen at other times? I think our teams is hopefully going to be ready to play this week and not let Friday happen.
We have some injuries to deal with, we have a lot of guys banged up. Dion Dawkins, he played on Friday night but I don't know if he played great because of his ankle, he's not practicing this week so I'm not sure if he'll play. Kenny Harper, same thing with him, I don't know if he'll play. And we lost Avery Williams for an extended amount of time in that game, maybe four to six weeks. Avery's one of the toughest kids I've ever coached, I'm sure he'll find a way to get back, but Avery will out this week. I don't know that Jarred Alwan will be back, I doubt he'll be back for this week, and Nate D. Smith is questionable at best for this week. So our linebacker position was kind of, in one game, decimated a little bit. But we'll move some guys around, we'll put some guys out there that will play, and we'll expect that they play at a high level."
Game Notes | Conference Notes | Video
Below is Coach Rhule's opening statement:
"I appreciate everyone coming today, thank you for coming to cover us. It was good to get out on the field again today and kind of still try to get the taste of Friday night out of our mouths to prepare for a good UCF team. I think everyone in the building is mad and disappointed with the way they we performed on Friday night, I don't think we can say anyone coached well or played well. At the end of the day, it starts with me, that's my job. Obviously we didn't get it done and we didn't play our brand of football. It's one thing to lose, but the way we lost was not the way we want to play. We're moving forward from that, but remembering that and we're very resolute in making sure that doesn't happen again this week.
As I told our team, we've gone from early on, not even competing in the beginning of the games, to competing for most of the game, and then last year not being able to finish the game, to this year, winning some games and finishing games, and then last week at Tulsa, to come from behind. Friday night was the first time in a long while, at least since Steve was here, that there was a game with something on the line; it was on national TV, it was two teams that people have expectations for, and there were some expectations on the line. And that was a new challenge for us and we stumbled a little bit; we didn't handle that moment the way we all thought we would. So there's nothing else to do but grow from it, keep building on that process of building the program and taking advantage of the opportunity this week because we get the same challenge again; it's two 4-2 teams playing on national TV, a team we obviously have history with from last year. Are we going to be the same team we saw Friday night or are we going to be that we've seen at other times? I think our teams is hopefully going to be ready to play this week and not let Friday happen.
We have some injuries to deal with, we have a lot of guys banged up. Dion Dawkins, he played on Friday night but I don't know if he played great because of his ankle, he's not practicing this week so I'm not sure if he'll play. Kenny Harper, same thing with him, I don't know if he'll play. And we lost Avery Williams for an extended amount of time in that game, maybe four to six weeks. Avery's one of the toughest kids I've ever coached, I'm sure he'll find a way to get back, but Avery will out this week. I don't know that Jarred Alwan will be back, I doubt he'll be back for this week, and Nate D. Smith is questionable at best for this week. So our linebacker position was kind of, in one game, decimated a little bit. But we'll move some guys around, we'll put some guys out there that will play, and we'll expect that they play at a high level."
Game Notes | Conference Notes | Video
Players Mentioned
LB
/ Football
OL
/ Football
LB
/ Football
LB
/ FootballEp. 14: Temple Athletics Recap & Basketball Preview!
Tuesday, October 21
Allen Haye, 10/20/25
Monday, October 20
Diego Barajas, 10/20/25
Monday, October 20
K.C. Keeler, 10/20/25
Monday, October 20
