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Duke Football: Temple Owls will rely on running game against Blue Devils

By Kevin Connelly

PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 17: Ryquell Armstead #7 of the Temple Owls reacts in front of Mazzi Wilkins #23 and Juwuan Brown #56 of the South Florida Bulls after scoring a touchdown in the third quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on November 17, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Owls defeated the Bulls 27-17. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 17: Ryquell Armstead #7 of the Temple Owls reacts in front of Mazzi Wilkins #23 and Juwuan Brown #56 of the South Florida Bulls after scoring a touchdown in the third quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on November 17, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Owls defeated the Bulls 27-17. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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The Duke Football team is getting set to take on the Temple Owls and its powerful rushing attack in the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl.

The Temple Owls come into the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl out of the American Athletic Conference and the Owls are 8-4 on the season, which was good enough for second place in the Eastern Division of the AAC.

It was a rather tough start to the year for Temple, losing to Villanova and Buffalo at home, but the Owls quickly gained its footing defeating Maryland on the road and then beating Tulsa.

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The Owls were then beaten on the road against Boston College, but won six of its last seven games, the only loss coming on the road to then No. 12 UCF, 52-40.

In that winning streak Temple beat then No. 20 Cincinnati in overtime, 24-17.

Perhaps the most impressive victory for Temple came the week after the loss to UCF where the Owls went on the road to Houston to face the Cougars and running back Ryquell Armstead rushed for 210 yards and six touchdowns.

Armstead has been the most dominant and consistent player on this Temple team as he has rushed for 1,098 yards and 13 touchdowns this season. However, Armstead isn’t much of a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield, only catching eight passes for 52 yards this year.

At the helm of the Owls offense is Anthony Russo, however he was injured in the season finale against Connecticut and is questionable for this game, despite saying he will play. Russo completed 57.9% of his passes for a total of 2,335 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.

Russo’s replacement would be Frank Nutile who has seen a reasonable amount of action this season, completing 42 of 75 passes for 585 yards, four touchdowns and five interceptions.

The Owls have two stars on the outside, Ventell Bryant and Branden Mack.

Bryant leads the team in receptions and yards with 47 caught passes for 659 yards and three touchdowns. However, Mack leads the team in touchdown receptions with five, and is second on the team in catches and yards with 41 and 556 respectively.

Regardless of who plays quarterback for Temple, expect the Owls to try and establish its ground game against a Blue Devils defense that allowed 340 rushing yards in the season finale against Wake Forest.

The Blue Devils and Owls will kick off from Shreveport, Louisiana in the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl at 1:30 pm ET on ESPN on December 27.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham at our Twitter, @Ball_Durham, and here at our website, balldurham.com, for complete coverage of the Duke Blue Devils vs. the Temple Owls from the Walk-On’s Independence Bowl. 

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