No Reversal of Owls Fortune

September 18, 2007 | By Aaron Hertzog | Discuss

If there ever was a team in need of a referee’s review to end up in their favor it was Temple on Saturday afternoon.

It didn’t: and as many of us are used to, the Owls left Saturday’s game defeated.

The Owls came within a referee’s reversal of taking the lead against UConn with 40 seconds left to play. On a dramatic fourth and 11, Temple ran a reverse that ended up in the hands of WR Dy’Onne Crudup, who threw the ball into the end zone towards QB Adam DiMichele. The ball was deflected, but ended up in the hands of junior WR Bruce Francis. The Owls celebration of what appeared to be a go-ahead touchdown was cut short as the referee signaled no catch. The call on the field was held up upon review. While it is true that anything can happen in football, especially with the Murphy’s Law Owls, it looks as if Temple would have been on their way to their first victory of the season.

Oh yeah, one more thing. They got the call wrong!

If you haven’t already seen the play, you can check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG8Foe1-HoE (in a perfect example of everything going against the Owls, pay close attention at around 2:05, when the definitive “this will clear everything up” view is obstructed by an old guy with incredible concentration guarding the goal post.)

It looks pretty clear that Francis had possession of the ball with one foot in bounds in the back of the end zone. Isn’t that why college football uses replay, to make sure that the calls on the field are correct? I am a student at Temple, and honestly this outrages me more as a fan of football than as a student of the team that was wronged.

It’s easy to make fun of Temple’s football program. In fact, it’s too easy. For years they have been the butt of jokes, kicked around by the Big East and languishing at the bottom of rankings. Temple needed this win, and earned this win, but they didn’t get this win.

The attitude on Temple’s campus is slowly changing about football. You can see the school start to push the program more to students, especially the new ones. Speaking as a fifth-year senior at Temple, it would take a lot to get the upperclassmen excited about football, but for the new kids still living on campus, a football game is something to do on a Saturday afternoon. Having a good team to cheer for makes it more exciting, but there is also something appealing about the underdog on the rise. Billboards on local highways advertise the team with pride. Their new coaching staff is starting to infuse the team with better talent then they’ve had in the past. There are signs of life all around Temple football, all they need is a win to spark the fire.

Or maybe this near-win can ignite interest in Temple football. It has in me anyway. I now have something to cheer for: a wronged team looking to exact revenge and right what has been split asunder. An underdog looking for an upset week in and week out: the Little Owls that Could. Maybe they can.