Temple will try to stop a four-game losing streak on Saturday, Nov. 14, when it hosts UAB at 1 p.m. and marks Senior Day. The Owls enter at 2-5 overall and 1-4 in the American, while UAB arrives at 5-4 and 3-2, a split that leaves both teams still navigating the middle of the league race.
The search around UAB vs Temple is really about Ajani Sheppard. Temple’s quarterback missed last week because of injury after putting together 1,245 passing yards and eight touchdowns on 85 completions, and his availability matters because the Owls have been leaning on both his arm and his legs, where he has added 476 positive rushing yards and five scores. If he cannot go, Jaxon Smolik, who has 302 passing yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions on 28 completions, would again be asked to steady an offense averaging 24.9 points per game.
Temple’s home number makes the matchup harder to dismiss. The Owls are a comfortable favorite by the spread, and simulations give them a 68 percent chance to win, even though the season has been uneven and the quarterback situation remains unsettled. UAB’s offense has not been explosive, at 21.8 points per game, but the Blazers have stayed afloat because the defense keeps squeezing possessions and limiting space.
That defense has been UAB’s calling card. It is allowing less than 300 offensive yards per game, including 176 on the ground and 122 through the air, while opponents are averaging 5.84 yards per pass attempt and 4.2 yards per carry. The Blazers are also producing just over five tackles for loss, two sacks and a turnover forced per game, the kind of weekly pressure that can make a road favorite’s life uncomfortable, especially against a Temple team that has given up 188 rushing yards per game and 8.4 passing yards per attempt.
Temple still has two home games left, and the one on Saturday carries a little more weight because Senior Day usually asks a team to turn emotion into a clean finish. The bigger question is whether Sheppard is back in time to give the Owls that chance, because if he is not, Temple will have to solve a top-20 level defense with a quarterback room that has already been stretched once by injury.
