Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/727005
ning back [as] I've ever seen. I mean, he
is – I haven't seen anybody tackle him on
the first hit. Some of the things he's done
are just absolutely fantastic. They've got
a great group of wideouts. [Chris] God-
win is a special kid. [DeAndre] Thomp-
kins is making big plays. All the rest of
them, they have several other [wide re-
ceivers] who are playing. DaeSean
Hamilton has made a bunch of plays.
[Mike] Gesicki, the tight end, is really
athletic. He can block and he can run
routes. The offensive line, they just look
really well-coached. They all have the
same technique. The quarterback, you
can tell – as Coach [Joe] Paterno
would've said – he has a lot of moxie. He
has some spirt and some fight. They have
an offense that scored 39 points last
week. On defense I start with St. Joe's
product John Reid. He's returning
[punts]. He's the boundary corner and he
does a great job. They're a veteran de-
fense [with] veteran linebackers, veteran
safeties, so they know what they're
doing. They have an intense blitz pack-
age. They're playing well on special
teams, so we have a lot of work cut out
for us."
Penn State's receivers especially have
Rhule's attention, as a new cast of cor-
nerbacks man his defensive backfield.
Senior Nate Hairston is only one of Tem-
ple's top four CBs who saw action against
the Nittany Lions a year ago. That game
Temple held PSU to 103 yards through
the air, a low total thanks largely to a pass
rush that resulted in 10 sacks.
All four starters on Temple's defensive
line this year as well saw action in the
2015 opener, during which Temple beat
PSU, 27-10, for the first time in 74 years.
That group is led by senior defensive end
Haason Reddick, who finished last sea-
son with five sacks, including 1.5 against
PSU that went for a loss of 10 yards.
Last year's result, as Rhule lamented in
his pregame comments, no longer holds
weight. And although Temple returns
experience on the DL it is missing more
than half of their full-time contributors
from that 10-win team.
"It's just a different year," Rhule said. "I
think last year we had played them like
five games before, so you're taking [Matt]
Ioannidis and [Tyler] Matakevich and
those older kids [who are now graduated]
back out there and saying, 'Hey, OK. We
just lost to them, but let's learn from our
mistakes and replay the game.'
"This year, it's a new team, a new
everything at a lot of positions. So, do I
think we're confident? We have a confi-
dent team, like, they know how to play
football. Our kids understand all we can
control is how play. We can't control how
good our opponents are, so control how
we play. I think that's where true confi-
dence comes from. I think our kids have
been very honest with themselves about
the mistakes we made in the first two
games. If we don't get those corrected, it
doesn't matter who we're playing, we
won't win the game."
Temple lost its opener two weeks ago
against Army, 28-13, allowing 329 yards
on the ground and four touchdowns.
Army passed the ball five times, com-
pleting it only twice.
The Owls rebounded with a 38-0 win
the following weekend against Stony
Brook, and only gave up 49 yards on the
ground. Temple held the lead for all but
the opening six minutes of the game.
Both games were played at Lincoln Fi-
nancial Field. Now Rhule gears up to re-
turn to his native State College. The last
time he was home he battled PSU to a 6-
6 tie until late in the third quarter. That's
when the Lions used four turnovers on
four consecutive possessions, including a
pick-six from then-freshman cornerback
Grant Haley, to uncap a 30-13 win in 2014.
Rhule is relying on that past experience
to ready his squad this time. "We want to
not allow as best we can the crowd and
atmosphere to affect us," Rhule said.
Which, considering how it is his home-
coming, must be a little difficult. So,
even though he enjoys getting back every
now and then, there's a reason why he'll
stay holed-up until the game is ready to
begin.
"It's always fun for us to go back and be
there," Rhule said. "My wife does more
things. She'll go to dinner somewhere
with friends. I'll just be in the hotel. I
think it's a special place, a place that's
part of my youth and my college times.
So that's fun to go back there. ... At the
game I'll see a lot of people on the side-
lines that I knew when I was 18 years old,
so that part for me is fun. A