A high-profile Philadelphia college football matchup will be taking place during today’s Week 2 Saturday slate between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the Temple Owls. This marks the first season of the Matt Campbell era for Penn State, while Temple has some momentum in the second year with head coach K.C. Keeler running the show. Both teams enter this Week 2 matchup with a 1-0 record.
Looking at the odds, Penn State enters as a 24.5-point favorite with -2400 moneyline odds on DraftKings Sportsbook. Temple holds +1200 to pull off the upset, with the game total set at 50.5 points.
This article previews both teams and offers a pick for the Week 2 matchup.
Penn State Nittany Lions vs. Temple Owls
Penn State Nittany Lions
It was a frustrating season for Penn State last year. After entering with National Championship aspirations, a pair of upsets as 20+ point favorites against UCLA and Northwestern forced an early end to the James Franklin era. The program limped to a 7-6 record, their worst since 2021, and kicked off this year with a clean slate. With more moving parts in the college football landscape than ever, Penn State did a nice job landing Matt Campbell as their new head coach. They missed out on some top names and were late to the decision-making process, but Campbell brought some key names with him from Iowa State and made quick work of the transition.
The Nittany Lions leaped out to a 1-0 start to the season, defeating Marshall 45-0. Penn State dominated on both sides of the ball in the victory. They tallied 487 total yards of offense, including 163 rushing yards, and limited Marshall to 147 total yards in the matchup. Penn State tallied two sacks, nine tackles for a loss, and forced two interceptions.
Rocco Becht impressed in his debut game, completing 13 of his 18 pass attempts for 271 passing yards and four touchdowns. Koby Howard led the wide receiver production with 161 yards through the air and one touchdown, while Penn State leaned on a balanced rushing attack with three players receiving 10+ rush attempts and seven players taking carries overall. The efficiency was not great on the ground, with the 3.6 yards per carry leaving plenty to be desired and the longest gain being only 16 yards.
Temple Owls
2019 was the last time that the Temple football program finished a season with a winning record. But there is some legitimate buzz in the program after their 5-7 record last season snapped four consecutive years of finishing 3-9. K.C. Keeler remains in place as head coach and has an impressive track record for turning around programs. During his second season as the head coach of Delaware, they won an FCS championship. In Keeler’s second season representing Sam Houston, they were ranked in the FCS top-five and won 11 games. He showed some signs of organizational growth last year and will be focused on the building upon it this season.
The Owls kicked off season two of the Keeler era with a 38-14 victory over the University of Rhode Island. It was a competitive battle that was cut to a 17-14 lead with 6:58 remaining in the second quarter before Temple fully found their gear and built toward the comfortable win. They produced a massive advantage in the rushing attack, out gaining Rhode Island 227-97 on the ground. The Owls forced three turnovers in the victory.
Quarterback is one of the biggest positions of uncertainty, and Temple is leaning on a two-quarterback system for at least the time being. Ajani Sheppard completed five of his 10 pass attempts for 85 yards while adding 23 rushing yards, while Penn State transfer Jaxson Smolik completed four of his six pass opportunities for 57 yards and a touchdown. While this will be a battle to continue monitoring, it is evident that Temple is leaning on more of a rush-oriented approach this season. Keveun Mason will remain their most important offensive player, and he will be eager to build off his 158 rushing yards and two touchdowns in the opener. Mason also recorded 35 receiving yards out of the backfield, which ranked third on the team.
Penn State vs. Temple Pick
Penn State owns a collective 40-4-1 series advantage over Temple when these two have faced off, but they last played in 2016. There is still a level of uneasiness regarding the outlook for the Nittany Lions as they attempt to climb back into the National Championship-contending conversation after changing coaches for the first time in over a decade. There should not be much more debate that they are the better team, but the 24.5-point spread is a sizable number to cover.
My lean is toward Penn State getting the job done and producing a full blowout. However, my best bet for this matchup is for the game total to remain under 50.5. Temple will be looking to make it a clear priority to slow the pace of play and keep this game close for as long as possible. They lack the passing production to score at the level that Penn State is capable of, and they will need to get creative in the rushing game against the superior opponent.
But expect life to be easier said than done against a strong Nittany Lions defensive front. Marshall was limited to just 42 rushing yards in the season opener. Given Temple’s questions at quarterback and desire to lean on the running game, expect them to sell out at the line of scrimmage and for running lanes to be hard to find. The saying goes that when you have two quarterbacks, you have none – this is the situation Temple finds themselves in. Penn State may not quite pitch a shutout for the second consecutive week, but the outlook for Temple scoring points is minimal.
On the other side of the matchup, expect Temple to put up more defensive resistance than Marshall was able. The Owls are not quite a lockdown unit, but Marshall conceded over 30 points per game last year and had no answer for the size and athleticism of Penn State last week. Temple limited Rhode Island to 3.2 yards per carry and has some players that are the caliber of athlete to go toe-to-toe with Penn State. Both these teams are still finding their identity, and I expect the feeling-out process to extend deeper than usual in this game. Expect plenty of rushing attempts on both sides and for the 50.5 game total to be too high for this Pennsylvania school battle.
