BOWL-BOUND OWLS TO HAVE A DAY FOR THE FANS
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ALEX JOSEPH
BY ROCK HOFFMAN
Sunday figures to be a big day for Temple University athletics, the Owls basketball team will host their Big 5 rival Villanova and prior to that game the toast of North Broad – the bowl-bound football team – will have an open practice session for fans at the Edberg-Olson Complex located on campus at 11th and Diamond Streets. The session will start at Noon and run for an hour and 45-minutes after which members of the football team will sign autographs on the concourse of the Liacouras Center before tip-off of the basketball game between the Owls and the third-ranked Wildcats which gets started at 3.
The football team is in preparation for the Cherry and White’s first bowl appearance in 30 years.
“It’s a great feeling for the seniors especially,” said linebacker Alex Joseph, a senior. “[We] came from the very bottom to one of the top programs in our conference.”
“I remember when we had a one-game win streak,” added Owls head coach Al Golden, the 2009 MAC Coach of the Year, “and that was the longest in two years. This year, we won nine games and we are going to a bowl game. Obviously, the next step is to do this every year.”
By Sunday, they will know their opponent for the Dec. 29 Eagle Bank Bowl. If Army wins their game with Navy on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field then the Black Knights will face the Owls in the game in Washington D.C. Should the Midshipmen beat Army then the Owls play UCLA in the second Eagle Bank Bowl which will take place at RFK Stadium.
“This is an awesome feeling,” said senior defensive back Dominique Harris about the prospect of playing his final college game in his hometown. “All my family and friends can come to the bowl game and see us play.”
The Owls break a 30-year bowl absence, their last bowl was the 1979 Garden State Bowl when they beat California 28-17.
E-mail Rock Hoffman at Rdvsports@yahoo.com
