They are not going to expand. Could be bad news for the aac. The big 12 will most likely take Cincinnati ucf memphis and boise st. May houston but they had a problem with them before.

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Immediate takeaways:

Justin Lynch listed as the No. 2 QB.
Trey Blair listed as the No. 2 RB.
Kentucky transfer Jerquavion Mahone listed as the starting NT.
De'von Fox as the starting KOR.

In case you missed it out on the front page, I talked to Temple running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Gabe Infante recently. You can read the story and listen to our full conversation here.


Gabe talked a lot about refining Temple's recruiting philosophy and getting back to a lot of what Al Golden did, and he talked about what drives him to coach and recruit.

Season opener is tonight at home versus Rutgers at 7. Temple played defending national champion Maryland tough in an exhibition game losing 3-2. We're projected to be around middle of the pack in the conference. Probably a year or two away from competing for conference championships.

Go Owls!

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Some notes:

Ifeanyi Maijeh has been banged up all camp and is listed as the backup to Minnesota transfer Mayan Ahanotu. I'd still expect Maijeh to play on Thursday, just probably not as much as he expected when he transfer to Rutgers.

David Nwaogwugwu is the backup RG. Schiano did mention today that some backup OL could rotate through against Temple.

Arguably the biggest development is that North Carolina transfer CB Patrice Rene is out for Thursday's game. That's a significant blow, as Rene can really play.

You'll also notice some familiar names, as Robert Longerbeam (Backup CB) was originally committed to Temple, as was Kansas State transfer Joshua Youngblood (backup WR).

I've just got to put my two cents in, but I'm really glad that Corny Collins and Rod Carey were smart enough not to utilize Kenny Yeboah, it would have made so many other players look bad in comparison and possibly demoralized the whole team.

ESPN's Ryan McGee included Temple in the waiting list for his weekly Bottom 10 list. I know the Owls aren't exactly a favorite this year, but this strikes me as much as a trope as the old throwing snowballs at Santa Claus. Need to fill out a list of bad college football teams? Sure, let's put Temple on there! Never mind the fact in previous 10 seasons they've only had two years with losing records and have been to seven bowl games.

Maybe I'm being sensitive, but I find it insulting.

We're taking a week off from recording The Scoop this week, and we'll be back next week with plenty of football talk and a full preview of Temple's season opener at Rutgers. @Dante Collinelli will be up at SHI Stadium covering the game for us. If you're not already, give him a follow on Twitter @DanteCollinelli.

If you're looking for some Temple football talk in the meantime, I was a guest on Sean McGady's Owl Be Back podcast yesterday, and that episode is out now. Both Sams (Neumann and Cohn) have been on his show in the past, and Kyle was on last month and did a great job. An informative and funny episode if you haven't heard it.

TU listed as 14 point underdogs. What was the line when the Owls beat Vandy 37-7 to open the season?

Justin Lynch, am I right?

If Mathis is legit, there's no way the kid is here for 4 years if he's good enough to be the backup as a true freshman or even be in the conversation as a true freshman. No sense redshirting him and preserving his eligibility.

Unless Mathis is SO good that he leaves in 2 years for the NFL? But Lynch is not going to sit for 4 years and watch Mathis play.

Figure I can start a thread for these....

1. How many wins this year ?
2. is Mathis going to be great , mediocre or well below average ?
3. will Temple be a good running football team ?
4. will the offensive line be a strength ?
5. how many points a game will we average offensively ?
6. How many points a game will we give up defensively ?
7. Name the best five players on the team at the end of the year ?
8. will the coach and his staff be on the hot seat by the end of the year ?

Temple allowed the media to observe the first hour of practice this morning. Here are some observations:

- D'Wan Mathis looks as advertised. The ball comes out of his hand nicely.
- Justin Lynch took all of the quarterback two snaps and Mariano Valenti took all the quarterback three snaps.
- Nick Bags appears to be on the starting defensive line.
- Freshman center Bryce Thoman spent some time working with the starters.
- Isaac Moore is working as the starting left tackle.
- Appeared as though Tayvon Ruley and Edward Saydee were splitting first team reps at running back.
- Some other starters on defense: DaeSean Winston, Cameron Ruiz, Freddie Johnson.
- Randle Jones caught a long touchdown pass from D'Wan Mathis during team work.

Are any more single digits about to be awarded? It would be cool if "Deuce" actually got to wear that number.

When is his NFL HOF induction?

Here we go... Fordham isn't a huge deal but it's an A10 program. That's big enough to cause waves. Mandatory vaccinations to enter their campus facilities. No exceptions. I'd guess Fordham will not be the last.

Our latest podcast is out, and includes an excerpt from our exclusive interview with Temple running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Gabe Infante. Gabe and I talked about the program's recruiting philosophy, and it's part of a larger interview that will be available for OwlScoop.com subscribers in the coming days.

Kyle Gauss, Dante Collinelli, Sam Cohn and I also talked about the position battles at tight end, running back, BUBO and the specialists, and we answered your mailbag questions, too.

Hope you all enjoy it.

We're recording The Scoop, our OwlScoop.com podcast, tomorrow and taking mailbag questions up until 3:30 p.m. tomorrow. As I said last week, although we're in the middle of preseason camp for football, we're happy to talk basketball as well and answer your mailbag questions if you have them.

Thanks so much for listening and for your support of the site! We appreciate it!

We're recording The Scoop, our OwlScoop.com podcast, tomorrow and taking mailbag questions up until 3:30 p.m. tomorrow. We'll talk about what we've heard from the players and coaches this week, including Mike Uremovich and the tight ends, running backs and specialists. We'll also play some audio from my conversation with Gabe Infante, separate and exclusive from his session with reporters earlier this week. We dived more into his role as the recruiting coordinator, the program's recruiting philosophy and much more. And I'll have that full interview available for all of you as subscribers later this week.

So if you have mailbag questions, please drop them in here and we'll answer them on the podcast. Thanks so much!

Running backs coach Gabe Infante and Edward Saydee, Kyle Dobbins and Trey Blair will talk to reporters today. We'll have updates on Twitter and a full story later.

We'll have a story up on the site soon from @Dante Collinelli. In the meantime, here are a few excerpts from this afternoon's press conference.

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Temple returns home today from the Bronx to finish out preseason camp in North Philly. Here's some of what we've learned so far about the Owls through 12 days of preseason camp.

For those of you with ESPN+, Temple has TWO on the list. And boy, are you not going to believe who they chose.