Here comes Oklahoma. Red-hot Temple is wary, ready, and confident. ‘I like our chances to be right there.’

Temple is flying high through two weeks in coach K.C. Keeler’s first season. The Owls are undefeated, both sides of the ball are clicking, and the locker room has bought in.

But its next game presents a whole new challenge.

No. 13 Oklahoma comes to Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday (noon, ESPN2) as a significantly tougher test after games against Massachusetts and Howard.

While the first two games have been nearly perfect, Keeler sees things Temple has gotten away with so far, but won’t against the Sooners.

“When we looked at the tape, there was definitely like, ‘OK, we did some really good things, but these things aren’t going to fly against Oklahoma,’” Keeler said. “We have to do all the little things. Because they’re full-grown men. And they’re very talented. They put together a great roster.”

» READ MORE: A dominant run game fuels a win against FCS foe Howard in Temple’s home opener

The Owls’ success this season has been keyed by quarterback Evan Simon, a redshirt senior who has thrown nine touchdown passes without an interception after competing with Gevani McCoy during camp.

Simon and McCoy have both played, which Keeler had made clear was planned. However, Keeler’s tone surrounding the two quarterbacks was slightly different on Monday.

The clear starter is now slated to be Simon. McCoy could still see the field, but those snaps are set to be situational, Keeler says.

“I think we all feel like what Evan has done the last two weeks, he needs to go out there and be our starter, knowing that in some situational stuff, we have an opportunity to get Gevani in there,” Keeler said. “Especially a physical game like this, where you might want to do some different things to take some pressure off of Evan. But Evan’s a big reason why we’re ranked so high nationally in a lot of categories offensively. He’s had just a terrific season so far.”

Oklahoma’s signal caller opposite of Simon is John Mateer, a Washington State transfer who can do it all on the field.

Mateer can hurt a defense with his legs and his arm and will be a focal point of Temple’s defensive game plan. Mateer carried the ball 19 times for 74 yards last week in Oklahoma’s 24-13 victory over No. 15 Michigan while displaying explosive arm strength.

“He’s really super-talented, he really is,” Keeler said. “It’s going to be important for us to get as many hits on him as possible.”

Slowing down Mateer is just one avenue for Temple to pull off the upset. A lot more will have to go right for the Owls to play spoiler, and Keeler highlighted two specific areas: execution and winning the turnover battle.

The Owls have won the turnover battle in both games this season and Keeler believes the execution improved from Week 1 to Week 2. The defense had another strong practice on Monday in its first day implementing the Oklahoma game plan, he said.

“This is going to be a great test for us,” Keeler said. “I saw it out there today, where we were talking to our defense about communication and they were getting better. They took a huge jump today. You just need a game like this if you put it in your lap, because they know that we can get embarrassed if we don’t execute. Now, we win the turnover battle and we execute, we’ll be right there. I like our chances to be right there.”