Week 9: Owls vs. Midshipmen Preview/Pick

October 31, 2009 by KC

NCAA Football’s 2 Most Under-rated teams: Temple vs Navy

Temple Owls (5-2 SU, 5-1 ATS) at Navy Midshipmen (5-2 SU, 3-2-2 ATS)
Saturday, October 31: 3:30 p.m.
BetUS.com Football Betting Odds: Navy -6 ½

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Here are some BetUS.com Betting Trends Which May Impact This Game:

Temple: 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games
Temple: 4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games
Temple: 5-20 SU in their last 25 road games

Navy: 1-3-2 ATS in their last 6 games
Navy: 1-3-2 ATS in their last 6 home games
Navy: 6-1 SU in their last 7 home games

Two of college football’s most underrated teams will square off Saturday in Annapolis, MD, when the Navy Midshipmen host the Temple Owls.

For Temple Owls, a season that started out so poorly has turned around in a wonderful way under fourth year head coach Al Golden. After losing in Week 1 to FCS opponent Villanova, the Owls have won five of six games, their one loss coming at Penn State. The Owls five wins already matches last year’s total, and are aiming for seven wins, which the program has not reached since 1990.

Offensively, the Owls aren’t the prettiest team, but have been finding ways to win. Ranked just 105 th in college football in total offense, they are led by first year starting quarterback Vaughn Charlton. Charlton has thrown for 1100 yards and nine touchdowns on the season. Running back Bernard Pierce carries a heavy workload, with 766 yards on the season, including 100+ yard performances in four of the Owls last five games.

Defensively is where this group has made their trademark under Golden, a former defensive coordinator at Virginia. On the season they are giving up just 19 points and 319 yards per game, both ranked in the top 35 in college football. And since the Penn State game, the Temple defense has only given up 20 points once, last weekend against Toledo.

As for Navy Midshipmen, for the second straight week in a row, they will have to run their triple-option offense without quarterback Ricky Dobbs, who is not only the Midshipmen’s leading passer, but rusher too. In his place last week Kriss Proctor stepped in, and he responded in his first career start, leading Navy to a 13-10 home victory over Wake Forest. Shockingly, the Midshipmen did thrown one single pass the entire game. Hard to believe, but true. Regardless of who’s under center, Navy always seems to run the ball well, as they are ranked third in all of college football, averaging 286 yards on the ground per game.

This game will be an interesting one, as each team is clawing and fighting to get into bowl eligibility. The question becomes this: Temple knows that Navy is going to run the ball, but can they stop it?

I think they do. Golden has done a phenomenal job of not only getting the most out of his players at Temple, but changing the culture around the program as well. He will have them ready for Navy’s triple option attack. And without Dobbs, I expect the Midshipmen to struggle, even though they do have a rather strong record at home these past few years.

Temple is 5-1 against the spread this year, and it’s for a reason. They are simply better then people think.

Our Pick: Temple +6 ½