A gutsy performance by a veteran quarterback helped Temple coach Matt Rhule fulfill a promise he made four years ago
 
by Dick Weiss
 
ANNAPOLIS-- Navy, Houston and USF gobbled up most of the headlines during the American football season.
 
Temple, which got off to a 3-3 start, was flying under the radar.
 
After the Memphis loss in the road, coach Matt Rhule’s players approached him with tears in their eyes.
 
“We’re not going to let it end this way,’’ they told him.
 
Then they backed it up with actions, winning the rest of their games and seizing the spotlight in the biggest game of the conference season here Saturday, defeating powerful, 19th-ranked Navy, 34-10, to win the American Athletic Conference Championship at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium. The Owls completely neutralized the Midshipmen’s high-scoring option offense with a physical defense that held Navy -- which had scored 75 on SMU the previous week, without a touchdown until 2:18 was left in the third quarter, and limited the Midshipmen -- who had been averaging 52 points per game -- to 168 yards rushing.
 
The victory was Temple’s first conference championship of any kind since 1967 when the Owls won the  lower-level Middle-Atlantic Conference title.
 
In a perfect world, the Owls deserve to be playing in a marquee New Year’s Bowl.
 
But the College Football Playoff selection committee may select Western Michigan (13-0) from the Mid-American Conference as the highest-ranked champion from The American, the MAC, Conference USA, the Mountain West and the Sun Belt, to play in the Cotton Bowl - even though the American is ranked higher than all of those conferences, as well as the Big 12, in the computer rankings.
 
“I’ll never talk down about another team,’’ Rhule said. “I think that any team that goes undefeated, I wish them all the best. But we are the sixth power conference. You win this league you should go to a New Year’s Six bowl with an automatic bid. And I think when you see what our league has done in New Year’s Six bowls, you should want us there.” 
 
Rhule, of course, was referring to UCF’s win against Big 12 champion Baylor in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl and Houston’s victory against ACC colossus Florida State in the 2015 Peach Bowl.
 
 “We beat South Florida and Navy, which are both ranked. And, really, we should be a ranked team now. We had three losses early -- to a bowl bound Army team, a Penn State that is ranked in the top 10 and defeated Ohio State, and to a pretty good Memphis team.” Indeed, the Tigers defeated Houston when the Cougars were ranked, while Houston had wins over Oklahoma and Louisville when those teams were ranked in the top 10.
 
“I would say we are as hot as any team in the country,” said Rhule. We should be playing in one of the New Year’s Six bowls.’’
 
The Owls, who rang up a second consecutive 10-win season for the first time in school history, along with Navy, Houston, USF and Tulsa all have at least nine victories and can all play. But this season, The American may have been too good for its own good, beating up on each other in league play and possibly putting themselves at a disadvantage with the selection committee.
 
Temple senior quarterback Phillip Walker completed 16 of 25 passes for 199 yards and two scores, throwing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Ventell Bryant and a 56-yard touchdown bomb to Keith Kirkland as the Owls jumped out to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter. Walker, who played with an injured foot, was selected the Most Outstanding Player in the game.
“I just ignored (the injury) and went out and played,” he said.
 
When Walker was a freshman in 2013, he was elevated to a starter midway through a two-win season. Now, the Owls are building their own brand in an NFL city with constant improvement. “It means nothing to me, but a lot to the program,” Walker said. “I told Coach Rhule (the championship) was going to happen before I got here. I just trusted the process and kept doing what I’ve been doing -  go out there every day and bring my effort and my energy. Hopefully, everyone else followed.”
 
Temple’s defense has come a long way since it gave up 329 yards in 63 carries during a 28-13 loss to option-style Army the first game of the season. The dark clouds eventually cleared up and the Owls gave up just two touchdowns in their final four games.
 
Navy was never able to kick start its offense against the Owls and were slowed a bit after the Mids’ valuable quarterback Will Worth, who set a school record with 2,595 yards of total offense, went down with a broken foot in the first half. Worth is likely out for the season and is not expected to be able to play in next week’s Army-Navy game in Baltimore.
 
“We practice against the option all week,” Temple defensive back Sean Chandler said. “We knew what the task was going to be. We came out here and played it efficiently. We don’t practice for players; we just run to the ball and dominate each and every play, one single play at a time.”
 
The Midshipmen didn’t know what hit them.
 
“My congratulations to Temple,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “They really got after us. That was just a good old butt kicking. It had nothing to do with schematics. They just played better than we did. It wasn’t a magic wand. They beat the crap out of us and hit us in the mouth. Normally, we’re the ones hitting the other team in the mouth and to Temple’s credit, they hit us in the mouth and we were dazed the whole game.
 
“It was like they hit us with an overhand right with their offense and we could not respond.”
 
Rhule and Niumatalolo are friends and, as a sign of respect, he and the Temple players went over to join the Navy players as they sang the alma mater, “The Navy Blue and Gold.”
 
It was a touch of class for two classy teams.