This weekend the Bearcats (8-2, 5-1 AAC) will travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to take on Temple (3-7, 1-5 AAC) as they look to keep momentum going as they head down the final stretch enroute to a third straight AAC Championship. The Bearcats are coming off a huge 27-25 victory over ECU on Friday night, where they made it 32 consecutive wins at Nippert Stadium as they hold the second longest home win streak in all of college football behind Clemson.
The Bearcats escaped a close one last week vs ECU, but Temple is one of those games on the schedule that has always been an interesting one over the past few seasons, as the two teams didn’t meet in the 2020 season, but the Bearcats dominated the Owls last season in a 52-3 blowout. However, Temple has had a huge change of momentum after making the change at Quarterback to true freshman EJ Warner.
For those who didn’t know, Warner is the son of NFL Hall of Famer Kurt Warner. The Owls offense has seen new strides since Warner has taken over at quarterback back in week two. Warner is coming off two straight games of leading the team to 500 plus yards of offense in the team’s last two games. Warner also leads the nation in passing yards in the month of November, where he has thrown for 830 yards, becoming just one of six college quarterbacks to throw for more than 300 yards multiple times this month.
Senior wide receiver Jose Barbon leads the Owls on the outside as Barbon has recorded 54 receptions for 727 yards and two touchdowns. Barbon averages nearly 13.5 yards per play and is coming off back-to-back weeks with 100 or more receiving yards. Barbon can really do some damage in the open space and will be someone to keep an eye on for the Owls, as Barbon seems to be Warner’s favorite target.
The Owl’s rushing attack is led by Edward Saydee, who has 126 carries on the season for 575 yards and five touchdowns. Saydee averages nearly 4.5 yards per carry and played a key role in the Owls 54-28 victory over USF back on November 5th where Saydee, had 24 carries for 264 yards and three touchdowns. Saydee is coming off a very slow performance vs Houston last week where the Cougars held him to just 20 yards on the ground on 17 carries, averaging a little more than one yard per carry.
