Saturday, Sept. 5 marked 74 years since Temple beat Penn State. 1941 was the last time that Temple walked away with the upper-hand.
The win drought for Temple against Penn State is finally over. The Lincoln Financial Field is where the Owls pulled a 27-10 victory over the Nittany Lions. This game will go down in history as one of Penn State’s big- gest upsets.
The stadium was sold out with 69,176 people in attendance and those fans who colored the stadium in cherry and white were given a game they would never forget.
It was a true home field advantage. The Owls who are used to almost empty stands, had fans struggling to find open parking lot hours before the game and waiting in excruciating long lines to enter the Linc.
Temple scored 27 unanswered points, after letting Penn State score 10 points on the first two possessions. Letting Temple take the lead in the third quarter, keeping Penn State out of the lead for the remainder of the game.
“David being Temple and Goliath being Penn State showed that Penn State and fans were full of them- selves,” Joseph Simpson, sophomore said. “Temple was more prepared and being the underdog, this shows that anything can happen.”
This was the first time that Temple had beaten a Big Ten opponent since 1990 against Wisconsin. This was the second time that Temple sold-out the stadium and the last time was against Penn State in 2007.
“Temple is a small market team and Penn State is a large market team,” Anthony Molettiere, junior at York College, said. “This win will help boost their recruiting prowess in the near future.”
At one point, Temple was one of the worst teams in college football, winning two or less games in a sea- son 13 times since 1991. They were kicked out of the Big East, switched to the Mid-Atlantic Conference and our now back trying to win the American Athletic Conference Championship this year.
Matt Ruhl, a third-year coach at Temple, said in an interview with ESPN, “This is huge for recruiting. I’m getting on the phone tonight and say- ing, look at what our kids are doing.”
This was a milestone win under Ruhl and there is only one way out from here and that is to continue this winning-streak.
Temple has since won games at Cincinatti and at Massachusetts. They will visit Charlotte on Friday, Oct. 2.
