From the Desk of Temple Director of Athletics Pat Kraft

With the New Year just starting and the student body back on campus, this is a great time to look back on a record-setting fall semester for Temple Athletics.

Football led the way with its best start ever, winning its first seven games including a 27-10 victory over Penn State to mark the program's first win over the Nittany Lions in 74 years. The team's historic start led to the Owls' first national ranking with the team remaining among the nation's Top 25 for a record seven weeks. The Owls tied the school record for wins with 10, captured the AAC's East Division Title, and reached a Bowl Game for the fifth time in program history. Notably, Temple Football had 26 players that had already graduated participating in the Bowl game. This was the second season in a row defeating a team from the Power 5 and defeating a Top 25 opponent.

Named the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association Team of the Year, Temple Football captured the hearts of the city of Philadelphia as well as the nation with more than six million people watching the team play Notre Dame at Lincoln Financial Field, including an ABC record audience for a regular season college football game. The team's amazing start helped lure ESPN GameDay to Philadelphia with Temple being prominently featured on the popular three-hour college football show.

Senior All-American Tyler Matakevich became one of the most decorated players in program history, winning the Bednarik and Nagurski Awards as the nation's Defensive Player of the Year while earning consensus All-American accolades.   Matakevich was not the only Temple player to be honored as a record seven Owls (the most in the conference) were named to first team all-league.

Football's success helped shine a spotlight on the amazing achievements of our student-athletes in the classroom. The recent graduation success rate released in November showed that for the sixth straight year, Temple had set a record.   There were only 12 higher GSR scores, achieved by 39 institutions, than Temple's 85 percent rate. Football, women's tennis, men's tennis, women's fencing, women's lacrosse, men's golf, men's soccer and men's basketball all set new program marks.

Temple student-athletes also set a new fall semester record with a 3.12 cumulative GPA. Individually, 63 percent of the student-athletes earned a 3.0+ GPA during the fall semester, making it the highest fall percentage on record. Nine teams had 70 percent or more of their rosters earn 3.0 GPAs during the semester and 14 out of 19 sports earned a semester GPA greater than 3.0. It also marked eight consecutive semesters that our student-athletes combined for a GPA over 3.0.

Like football, men's soccer had its best start since 1985 and was nationally-ranked during part of the season before ending the year with 10 wins. Women's soccer posted a school-record 12-win campaign while field hockey used a late-season run to advance to the conference championship game. Women's volleyball posted its second straight 20-win campaign, ending the year at 24-8 and in second place in the conference standings.

Graduate student Blanca Fernandez won her first six races, including the American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championship and the NCAA Regional title, and finished 29th at the NCAA Championships to become the program's first All-American.     Seniors Matt Kacyon and Alex Izewski each earned all-conference honors in leading men's cross country to its best finish at the American Athletic Conference Championship.

Community service, also a staple for our student-athletes, set new records for participation in the fall. More than 140 student-athletes volunteered with the Special Olympics the first weekend of November in the signature event of the semester, and our teams combined for over 1600 community service hours.

None of this could happen without the support of YOU, our extended family. I want to thank you for your generosity and support in helping our student-athletes achieve this success, on the field and in the classroom.

As we turn the page to winter season, please come out and support our men's and women's basketball programs as well as our fencing, women's gymnastics and indoor track teams. I know we will continue to build upon the success of the fall and keep the Cherry momentum moving forward.

Go Owls!!

Dr. Patrick Kraft
Director of Athletics
Temple University

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From the Desk of Temple Director of Athletics Pat Kraft

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