AAC champ Temple meets Wake Forest in Military Bowl

“I told Coach Rhule that this is what was going to happen before I got here”, said Walker, who went to treatment four times a day this week for a balky right ankle.

Worth suffered what turned out to be a season-ending foot injury in the second quarter of the Midshipmen’s 34-10 loss to Temple in the American Athletic Conference championship on December 3. Once again, Temple is going to need everything it can get out of Thomas, because Armstead is expected to be out of Saturday’s game with an undisclosed injury – The first game he could potentially miss this season. Furthermore, they are tops among five-win teams, thus guaranteeing a slot. With a win on Saturday, Navy will post its third 10-win season since coach Ken Niumatalolo took over the program full-time in 2008. North Texas and Mississippi State are in line to get bowl bids with sub-.500 records due to their Academic Progress Rate scores, but they will have to wait until all the teams that qualified with six victories are accommodated. “That’s something we pride ourselves on”.

Samaje Perine rambled for 239 yards on 37 carries for the Sooners (10-2, 9-0 Big 12, No. 9 College Football Playoff), who won their 10th Big 12 title under coach Bob Stoops.

“I give a lot of credit to the quarterback. He’s a physical, competitive kid”. The Midshipmen will be looking for their 15th straight win in the series. Temple led the AAC in scoring defense (17.8 points) and total defense (273.4 yards, which is third in the country), while Navy ranked second in the conference in scoring (41.7) behind the nation’s second-ranked rushing attack (342 yards).

ESPN owns and operates 11 bowls, all of which involve Group of Five schools, and it will be involved in putting the postseason puzzle together, too.

At Temple, Walker has gone from 2-10 to 6-6 to 10-4, with this year’s 9-3 mark on the line with yet another championship there for the taking in his last hurrah. With Western Michigan in action on Friday night, we’ll have a better sense of whether or not Navy or Temple can crash the party. “It’s nice for us to play a regional game”. Navy did what it could over the final three quarters, but never pulled closer than within 14 points, and Temple had time to reflect on just how far it has come under Rhule.

The Midshipmen came out on the short end of a shootout with the Bulls, losing 52-45 in Tampa on October 28. Temple was the only AAC member to slow down the league’s most potent offense, beating USF 46-30 in Philadelphia just one week earlier.

Navy registered a relatively comfortable 42-28 victory over Memphis in Annapolis.

The other tie-in belongs to the #7 team from the Big XII, but they will not have seven bowl eligible teams this season.

Temple is led by a pair of talented defensive linemen: redshirt sophomore Haason Reddick and senior Praise Martin-Oguike.

Before the injury, Worth set the Navy single-season record for total yards (2,595), surpassing Keenan Reynolds. The game will also be broadcast on WBAL NewsRadio 1090.

USC’s solid defense must face a Penn State offense that has scored at least 38 points in six consecutive games. “We don’t throw the ball a ton”. Instead, Temple controlled things from the start.