With the clock gone in Tampa, South Florida receiver Mudia Reuben fumbled after completing a 22-yard catch, and Temple recovered to finish a 17-13 road win. Minutes earlier, trailing 13-10, Temple had taken the lead for good on Ajani Sheppard's touchdown run with 3:08 remaining. They did it at a stadium where the Bulls had won nine straight, the second-longest home streak in program history, with 36,349 fans attending. That is the best thing this team has done in two seasons.
The finish deserves one caveat. Temple reacted to a mistake. Temple did not force it.
The split in the box score
Temple held USF to 114 rushing yards on 34 carries, 3.4 a pop, from a front that was gashed for 197.3 yards per game a year ago. It tracks with the Army game, when Temple held the Black Knights to 279 rushing yards, forcing three straight punts after Army's opening touchdown drive. Before Army's ground game ground out the go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter with Carson Smith touching the ball six times.
One sack is the problem, and it is not new. Linebacker Eric Stuart said after Army that the defense was "100%" more cohesive than it had been the week before at Toledo, and the tackling and gap discipline back that up. Quarterbacks are still comfortable.
This is a unit built to be better at this. Keeler kept his coordinators, offensive coordinator Tyler Walker and defensive coordinator Brian L. Smith both returned in the same roles they were given in 2025, so nobody is learning a new front or new blitz language. The scheme is the same one that produced 20 sacks all of last season. If pressure shows up Saturday, it is because the new linemen have caught up inside a system they have had all year to learn, not because somebody changed the plan.
What UConn asks of the front
Nothing else on the national board moves Temple's season this week, so the full afternoon belongs to this one. UConn comes to Philadelphia on ESPNU as close to a coin flip as a game gets, the most winnable thing left on the board until Charlotte.
Temple fans do not need reminding of how the last one went. In East Hartford in October 2024, UConn's Jordan Wright recovered a Temple fumble on fourth-and-goal with three seconds left and returned it 96 yards for the winning touchdown in a 29-20 game that dropped the Owls to 1-5.
The offense should hold up either way. Sheppard went 9-of-14 for 92 yards with a 24-yard touchdown to JoJo Bermudez and carried 14 times for 87 yards and the winning score, his third straight start at quarterback, continuing to fill in for Jaxon Smolik. Sam Brown did not dress at USF, his third missed game of the season with an undisclosed injury; Hunter Smith took 11 carries for 69 yards, including a 34-yard run, inside Temple's 182 yards on 36 attempts.
So watch the pass rush. Specifically, watch what happens on third down when UConn has to throw and Temple cannot blitz its way out of trouble. Keeler has framed this team's progress around eventually reaching a bowl game, and the schedule gives them Charlotte next and then a bye before road trips to East Carolina and Navy, home games against UAB and Rice, and a trip to Memphis. The front has stopped the run. The last thing it owes this season is a quarterback on the ground.
Full win-probability detail is in the interactive guide, and the simulation approach is explained in the methodology.