Temple Football: Can the Owls Take Advantage of Opportunities in Front of Them?

There's a huge football game being played in Philadelphia Tuesday night.

Yes, it will be at Lincoln Financial Field and yes it will feature a winged mascot, but it's not the Philadelphia Eagles.

It's the Temple Owls.

Yes, Temple. For the second straight year Temple will enter the Ohio game with a chance to continue of the road to the MAC Championship game. I say continue because Temple, Ohio, and Miami (OH) are currently each sitting at 5-1 in the MAC east standings. Temple's final two games are home against Ohio and then away at Miami.

Both games will be televised on ESPN2.

Will the Owls seize the chance to forward their program's progress both on the field and possibly in the eyes of many more people that would usually pay attention to Temple football?

What Al Golden has done at Temple is pretty amazing. He not only got Temple over the hump last season and snagged a bowl bid for the Owls, but he has sustained the success with this campaign and set up the chance for Temple to really make this a special year.

Vengeance may play a small roll in Tuesday night's match up. Last season Temple was 7-0 in conference play and need a final victory in Athens against the Bobcats, but Ohio took them down 35-17.

It's had to believe that just 5 years ago Temple went 0-11 and then a year later went 1-11. The entire image and mentality of the program has been changed, revitalized, and focused under Al Golden. This is a feat that I don't think anyone thought would be possible at a program that was banished from the Big East. I wonder, do you think that BCS conference wishes Temple was still around?

I am excited to see what happens Tuesday night in Philadelphia. What will the crowd be like? Will this Temple team rise up to the challenge and set the stage for an even bigger game next week against Miami? It's rare for a game with this much weight to involve the Temple Owls, but here it is. All of Philadelphia needs to embrace this team and get behind them.

Yes, Philly has always been a pro sports town with spurts of college basketball greatness in between, but it's time for the city of brotherly love to extend a hand to it's college football squads, because along with Villanova, the Eagles aren't the only game in town.