Temple seniors likely facing final game when they meet Syracuse

WHEN BRANDON McManus was being recruited by Al Golden in 2008, Temple hadn't experienced a winning season in close to two decades. But the third-year coach had a vision. And he was pretty good at selling it to potential Owls.

Golden's team would go 5-7 that year. McManus played his high school ball for the ultra-successful program at North Penn, which didn't lose until the PIAA Class AAAA state semifinals.

But it doesn't always matter where you've been, as much as where you're headed.

"Coach Golden certainly projected what Temple was going to be," McManus recalled. "I think we're exactly where he was saying we'd be."

Which is back in a BCS conference for the first time since 2004, after winning 26 times the last three seasons in the MAC. These Owls are 4-6, 2-4 in the Big East, going into Black Friday morning's regular-season finale against Syracuse (6-5, 4-2) at the Linc.

There's still a chance the Owls can go back to a bowl, if they win and there are not enough eligible teams to fill all 70 available slots, because they lost a game due to the late switch of neighborhoods. But first they have to get another victory, or this transitionary season is history.

And for the seniors who helped make the recent run possible, so is their careers.

"It's obviously going to be emotional before the game," said McManus, the punter/placekicker who last week became the all-time leading scorer on North Broad Street. "But once you're out there playing, the competitive juices come out and you don't think about that as much. It's bittersweet, you know. I just want to get the win. That's what's important. It's been a great 4 years. We just want to go out on a good note.

"It's still possible, if everything shakes out, that we could even have another game. So we definitely want to win, to at least give us a shot. At this point that's all we can really ask for."

The Owls broke a four-game losing streak last week at Army, 63-32. They were trying to schedule a 12th game against Hawaii (1-9), which is allowed to play 13 if it chooses, but UH eventually decided it wasn't going to make financial sense at its end. So be it. If the Owls get to 5-6 and don't get to a bowl, it would still be the second time they've ever finished with three Big East wins. The other was 1997. They lost at Syracuse that year, 60-7. Obviously, the landscape has changed. The last time they played, in the next-to-last game of 2004, the Owls won here, 34-24. This will be the last time they'll play for the foreseeable future, as the Orange is moving along with Pitt to the ACC next year. When Rutgers leaves for the Big Ten in 2014, the only team remaining from the league Temple was forced to leave will be Connecticut. And if Connecticut ever goes, as many have speculated, for the ACC to replace Maryland, Temple will be the only eastern team left. That's either progress or survival.

None of that will matter Friday. They're still better off now than they were.

"I didn't know we'd win nine games my freshman year, but I knew that Temple was definitely on the upswing," McManus said. "One of the main reasons I wanted to come here was they were taking the next step to become a better team.

"I always wanted to play in a big conference. We're the last class that was really here when we were still trying to figure everything out. You see where we are today, players from the past have really expressed their gratitude to us as well. Now we'll see where it can go from here."

AGENDA

Who: Syracuse (6-5, 4-2 Big East) at Temple (4-6, 2-4)

When: Friday, 11 a.m.

Where: Lincoln Financial Field

TV: ESPN2

Radio: WPHT (1210-AM)

History: Syracuse leads, 25-10-1. This is the first meeting since 2004. Temple won that, 34-24, in South Philly.

About Syracuse: This is last Big East game for the Orange, who are moving to the ACC next season . . . They won last week at Missouri, 31-27, after trailing 17-3. They scored the winning TD with 20 seconds to go . . . Alec Lemon had 12 catches for 244 yards and two scores. He had all 81 yards on the winning drive . . .

Ryan Nassib, out of Malvern Prep, is one of the top QBs in the nation . . . Two weeks ago they routed then-unbeaten Louisville at home . . . They've won four of their last five.

About Temple: The Owls broke a four-game losing streak at Army, 63-32 . . . Montel Harris rushed for 351 yards on 36 carries and scored seven times . . . Brandon McManus became the program's all-time leading scorer . . . RB Matt Brown is day-to-day with a hamstring injury . . . They're thin along both lines, and playing a lot of young guys . . . Quarterback Juice Granger, in his first start, rushed for 81 yards on nine carries at Army . . . They threw only four passes, completing two.