30 Games in 30 Days: #18 Temple at Penn State

Temple	@ Penn State

When: September 19th

Where: State College Pennsylvania

All Time Series: Penn State 34-3-1

Last Ten Games:

Date	Temple	PSU
September 20, 2008	3	45
November 10, 2007	0	31
November 11, 2006	0	47
August 30, 2003	10	23
September 13, 1997	10	52
September 21, 1996	0	41
September 16, 1995	14	66
October 1, 1994	21	48
September 12, 1992	8	49
October 5, 1991	7	24

While its usually not at the top of the list Al Golden's name seems to end up somewhere in almost any conversation about possible coaches for Penn State when and if Joe Pa finally steps down (I swear the guy is Bionic). Golden has a nice collection of requisites for the Penn State job, Before being the youngest DC in division one while at Virginia he was a linebackers coach for Penn State, He was the captain of the 1991 squad and a Ridge Riley Award winner. Al Golden has deep recruiting roots in PA and has shown he can develop great football players (James Farrior, Jamie Sharper, Frank Chamberlin and Erik Storz). The only thing Al Golden does not have is a winning season(s) as a head coach.

There is no denying that what he has done at Temple is impressive, 2008 represented the best Owls season since 1990, his teams are winning civic awards, and the recruits are getting better every year. Still while finishing 3rd in the MAC East and going 1-3 out of conference was not bad enough to keep him off of the Syracuse radar a team like the Nittany Lions are going to have a higher standard.

Temple has not won a game in this series since before World War II and last season PSU cleaned Temple's clock when they blew up for 31 second quarter points en route to a 45-3 victory. Some of this is due to DiMichele going down so early in the first but the complete lack of a running game did not help backup Chester Stweart against a Nittany Lion defense picked him off three times and held the Owls to 138 offensive yards.

Temple will be a better team this year, I have them edging out Buffalo in the East but I don't envision a scenario in which they win this game. They should, however, keep it far more interesting than it has been in previous years (not that it would be particularly hard to do so, the filed goal last year were the first points in the last three meetings which were scores 123 to 3 in favor of PSU).

You can Tune Into the Big-10 network to watch the game, but really, do you want to watch this game on TV? If Temple ever gets its program going like it has the potential to this can someday be a true must see rivalry game, at the very least you can get a live look at Al Golden on the sideline of Beaver Stadium if you make the three hour drive.