Temple Drops Senior Day Contest to #24 Tulane

Saturday, November 22

3:45 p.m.

Temple University

5-6 , 3-4

Tulane

9-2 , 6-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Tulane

Temple

Temple Drops Senior Day Contest to #24 Tulane

11.22.25 | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

PHILADELPHIA -- The Temple Owls (5-6, 3-4 AMER) fell to the #24 Tulane Green Wave (9-2, 6-1 AMER) 37-13 in front of a crowd of 13,366 at Lincoln Financial Field.

How It Happened

The Owls started the day with the ball on offense. Temple got it to a third-and-short, but a pre-snap penalty pushed the Owls back and would result in a punt for the offense. Tulane did not waste time scoring once it got the ball on offense. On a second-and-three, quarterback Jake Retzlaff launched the ball downfield and completed it to Shazz Preston, who took it in for a 69-yard touchdown. Tulane held an early 7-0 with 12:33 remaining in the first. After brief movement by the Temple offense, the drive stalled on third down on a broken-down scramble play by quarterback Evan Simon. The Green Wave remained aggressive on its second offensive possession. Retzlaff took another shot deep down the field, but cornerback Jaylen Castleberry played the ball perfectly to force the incompletion. On a third-and-eight from the Temple 32-yard line, Ben Osueke would break up the completion forcing a fourth down. Kicker Patrick Durkin attempted a 50-yard field goal to extend the Tulane lead further, and he connected. Temple had its most successful offensive drive of the day on the following possession. Big plays from Peter Clarke and Colin Chase allowed the Owls to march right down the field to the Tulane three-yard line. Clarke caught a 22-yard pass from Simon and later in the drive Chase caught one for 30-yards. On third-and-goal, some misdirection from the Owls allowed Clarke to cash in on his big drive. He hauled in a ball over his defender for the touchdown making it 10-7 with 27 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
On a fourth-and-one early in the second quarter, the Green Wave attempted to go for it on a play famous in Lincoln Financial Field. The attempted 'Tush Push', however, was unsuccessful due to a false start on the right side of the line. A sack by the Tulane defense on third down would force the Owls to punt the ball back to the Green Wave offense on the following drive. Tulane utilized penalties from the Temple defense to move the ball on its next offensive drive. A pass interference that occured in the end zone set up the Green Wave at the one-yard line. Retzlaff used his legs to punch it in and get the lead back up to 10 points for the road squad. After another Temple three-and-out on offense, the defense did its job to slow down the Green Wave offense. On third-and-eight, Cam'Ron Stewart secured his first sack on senior day to force Tulane to punt the ball. Temple would not have any success moving the ball on the following drive and would give it back to the Green Wave with just over two minutes remaining in the half. Tulane would move the ball, but the drive would come up short of a touchdown, allowing Durkin to attempt a 36-yard field goal. The redshirt freshman knocked it through and made it a 20-7 game with 21 seconds left. The Temple offense attempted to score prior to the expiration of the half, but it was unsuccessful. Tulane held a 20-7 lead at the break.
The Green Wave held the ball to start the second half of the contest. Tulane was able to move the ball effectively on the opening drive of the second half and converted a fourth-and-one to extend the drive in Temple territory. When presented with another fourth down and short, Tulane decided to take the points by way of a 38-yard field goal. The first drive on offense in the second half for Temple was much of a continuation of the first half. The Owls got behind the sticks early in the drive and would be unable to recover. Dante Atton came out on the field for his sixth punt of the evening, this one being for 35 yards to bring his total punt yardage up to 246 yards. The Temple defense bent, but didn't break, once again forcing the Green Wave to attempt a field goal instead of scoring seven. Tulane held a 26-7 lead towards the end of the third quarter.
Temple began the final frame with the ball on offense. After getting into Tulane territory the Owls faced a fourth-and-11 and thanks to the scrambling ability of Simon and Jojo Bermudez. The drive continued and thanks to another defensive penalty by the Green Wave, the Owls were set up at the Tulane two-yard line. Simon found Chase in the back of the end zone for the score to make it 26-13 after a failed two-point attempt. A 62-yard kickoff by TJ Smith set Tulane up with outstanding field position to start the next drive, and they capitalized on it. Five plays and 38-yards later Retzlaff found Justyn Reid wide open for the score. Tulane would attempt a two-point conversion and succeed making it 34-13 with 9:55 remaining. Temple's offense would have no success on the following drive, punting it back to Tulane just three plays after receiving the ball. Another field goal made at the end of the Tulane drive would bring Durkin up to five made field goals on the day, this one being from 52-yards out.

Statistically Speaking

Temple defensive end Cameron Jones made the first start in his collegiate career in today's game.
Towards the end of the first quarter, Evan Simon tied the single-season passing touchdown record with his passing score to Peter Clarke. Simon tied EJ Warner with his 23rd score through the air this season.
Simon would not be tied with Warner for long. With 12:56 remaining in the fourth quarter, the redshirt-senior found Colin Chase for a two yard passing score. This marked the 24th passing touchdown of the season for Simon which broke the single-season record for Temple University. Warned had 23 passing scores back in 2023.
Safety Javier Morton finished the day with a team-leading eight total tackles, seven of which were solo tackles.
Punter Dante Atton finished the day with eight punts for a total of 342 yards. One of those punts went for 62-yards and pinned the Green Wave inside its own 10-yard line.

Up Next

The Owls will head on the road for the final game of the 2025 regular season to face the North Texas Mean Green in Denton, Texas. The Black Friday contest will be on Friday, Nov. 28 and will kickoff at 3:30 pm ET on ESPN.