Blue White Illustrated

Temple Pregame - 09/19/2012

Penn State Sports Magazine

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PREGAME REPORT T E M P L E @ P E N N S T A T E 3 : 3 0 p m , S E P T . 2 2 A B C / E S P N 2 TEMPLE FACTS COACH Steve Addazio (Central Connecti- cut State, '81) COACH'S RECORD 10-5 in two seasons at Temple, the only stop of his head coach- ing career. TEAM'S RECORD 1-1 (0-0 Big East) RECORD VS. PENN STATE The Nittany Lions lead the series, 30-3-1. PREVIOUS MEETING Michael Zordich scored on a 1-yard fullback dive to put the Lions ahead of the Owls, 14-10, with just 2:42 remaining on Sept. 17, 2011. The Lions held on, but their victory, along with six others over Temple since 2003, have since been vacated by the NCAA. THE GOOD RETURN DANGER Matt Brown had a ca- reer-high 84 punt-return yards in the opener. In the second game, he had a ca- reer-high 123 kickoff-return yards. In each game he had a 45-yard return – one on a punt, the other on a kickoff. He's returned one for a touchdown in his career. THE BAD SHALL NOT PASS Ranked 118th in the NCAA, Temple has one of the worst passing offenses through two games, with an aver- age of 119.5 yards per game. THE UGLY 71-YEAR DROUGHT Temple hasn't beaten Penn State since Franklin Delano Roosevelt held office in 1941. More than 70 years later, can the Owls snap the 36-game streak and get their first win at Beaver Sta- dium? DID YOU KNOW? Penn State quarterbacks coach Charlie Fisher served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Temple in 2000 and '01. Hard-nosed Steve Addazio develops his young Temple squad IRON-FISTED TIM OWEN | OWE N . T I M . B WI@G M A I L . C O M Following a string of preseason injuries – "an Achilles heel for us," Steve Addazio said – the second-year Temple head coach de- cided to scale back on the intensity of his practices. It wasn't necessar- ily an easy thing for the high-strung coach to do, but if it meant avoiding further injury and preserv- ing the health of his starters, then he could at least give it a try. It lasted all of two weeks. After a late come- back attempt fell short on his home turf against Maryland, Addazio decided to go S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 1 2 1 back to his tested ways. His team, he said, was too young. It had too many new starters. They weren't meshing like they should. So with a bye week following the 36-27 loss to the Terrapins Sept. 8, Addazio, who not only takes a passionate approach to his interviews but also to his coaching, put his squad to work. "With the lack of depth and in- juries from training camp, I backed off and I tried to preserve the team and keep them healthy," he ex- plained. "And that didn't work out so well. B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M FULL GO Addazio said Temple had "a real tough week of practice" during its bye week, practicing in full pads each day. Mitchell Leff

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