Not many people were at Veterans Stadium in 2002 when the Boston College Eagles absolutely dismantled the Temple Owls, 36-14. It was the last game for BC at the hallowed "Vet".
This Saturday, Tom O’Brien’s squad returns to Philadelphia, but this time to a new venue: newly christened Lincoln Financial Field.
Saturday’s contest will be the 36th meeting between the two teams, with BC holding a 26-7-2 record. To find Temple’s last victory over the Eagles, one would have to travel back to 1999, when the Owls came up big with a 24-14 victory in Philadelphia. Coincidentally, the defeat came during the same time of the month when the Yankees and Red Sox last met in the American League Championship Series; let all BC fans hope this does not turn out to be an ominous sign.
For Boston College, wins against Penn State and UConn, as well as last week’s 53-29 rout of Ball State, have put them in an excellent position to make a winning run in October.
Currently, senior running back Derrick Knight has accumulated 728 total rushing yards, ranking him third in the nation, and Quinton Porter has garnered a 116.3 quarterback efficiency rating on the season. With an offense the averages 29 points per game, things look promising for the Eagles entering Saturday’s contest.
Temple, on the other hand, is a different story. While they come into the weekend off of a 44-36 win at Middle Tennessee State, Bobby Wallace’s crew has averaged just 22 points per game, with their rushing game averaging no more than 4.5 yards per run. In terms of their strengths, Boston College’s secondary will be on the watch for senior Zamir Cobb, who has totaled 533 yards receiving.
Yet, despite the focus on passing, the Owls need to find ways to generate momentum after a disappointing 1-4 start. Could their new home field be a crucial factor?
In September, playing their first game at the new stadium, the Owls were thoroughly embarrassed, as they fell to I-AA Villanova in front of 30,000 fans. Sure it was the second game of the season. Sure it was to a very hungry rival Wildcat team. Sure the game went into double overtime. But even though the Wildcats have an outstanding reputation in their league, for a team like Temple that competes with top ranked teams regularly, there was no excuse to drop this one to a 1-AA team.
It’s doubtful on Saturday that attendance will be much higher than it was in the home opener for the Owls. In fact, the Eagles can look forward to nothing more than a decent crowd. The intensity will not rival that of a Saturday night Miami contest, a game in the Carrier Dome, or the “rivalry” in South Bend. Any emotion generated by the players will come from the locker room or the sideline - certainly not the plethora of empty seats at the “Linc.”
In August, Temple traveled to Penn State and fell 23-10 in front a packed house of 107,000 at Beaver Stadium. Seven days later, Tom O’Brien and the Eagles made the same trek and came up with perhaps their biggest win of the season so far 27-14.
In that game, the Eagles showed that playing in front of wild, crazy, anti-Boston College fans could not dictate how they played or how much success they had. Is it possible that by using reverse psychology at Lincoln Financial Field, the Owls could receive an edge on Saturday?
Probably not. The way BC has played of late, especially two weeks ago, the only thing that Temple could take advantage of is possibly a botched punt snap or two, even though Chris Miller has been replaced by David Kashetta in that regard.
This game should be a great start to a seven week stretch that features six Big East contests and Notre Dame. A win in Philadelphia on Saturday will bring the Eagles to 1-1 in conference for the season and put them in a great position to head to Syracuse, New York for Big East game number three in less than two weeks.