Temple DE Quincy Roche named AAC football defensive player of the week

Temple’s Quincy Roche has been named the American Athletic Conference defensive player of the week after a second consecutive dominating performance.

The 6-foot-4, 235-pound defensive end had 12 tackles, including six for loss, and three sacks, in Saturday’s 29-21 win over Tulane at Lincoln Financial Field. The redshirt junior also forced a fumble and recovered it and added a quarterback hurry. The six tackles for loss was a single-game AAC record.

This came on the heels of a dominating performance the week before, when Roche had six tackles and 3.5 sacks in Temple’s 17-7 win at South Florida. For that effort, he was named to the AAC honor roll.

It is the second time Roche has been named AAC defensive player of the week. Last year, he earned the honor after recording eight tackles, two sacks and two forced fumbles in a 31-17 win over Tulsa.

This season, Roche has 35 tackles, 9.5 sacks, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries for Temple, which is 7-3 overall, 4-2 in the AAC,. Up next for the Owls is Saturday’s showdown at No. 17 Cincinnati (9-1, 6-0).

Temple redshirt sophomore receiver Jadan Blue made the AAC honor roll. Blue had 12 receptions for 131 yards and a score against Tulane.

The AAC has announced a two-year scheduling model for conference football games in 2020 and 2021.

Next year Temple’s home AAC opponents are Cincinnati, East Carolina, South Florida and SMU. The Owls will visit Central Florida, Memphis, Navy and Tulane. The dates of those games is not yet known.

Temple does have its dates set for next year’s non-conference games. The Owls visit Miami on Sept. 5, host Idaho on Sept. 12 and Rutgers on Sept. 19 and visit UMass Oct. 10.

Temple’s 2021 home conference opponents are: Central Florida, Houston, Memphis and Navy. The Owls will travel to: Cincinnati, East Carolina, South Florida and Tulsa. In non-conference play the Owls will host Boston College and play at Rutgers and Akron. There will also be one other non-conference game scheduled.

In addition to Saturday’s 7 p.m. game at Cincinnati, the AAC also announced that Temple’s regular season finale against UConn at Lincoln Financial Field on Nov. 30 will start at 3:30 p.m.