A 30-year bowl wait almost over for Temple

[December 29, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- When a school waits 30 years to get back to a bowl game, things such as name, history, prestige and location don't matter much. All that matters is that the word "Bowl" appears somewhere in the title.

Such is the case for Temple, which this year emerged from three decades of college football wilderness to post a 9-3 record under coach Al Golden. From famous alum Bill Cosby on down, Philadelphia can cheer another feel-good story when the Owls play UCLA on Tuesday in the second annual EagleBank Bowl.

"Not only has it been 30 years, but it's been tough for these guys," Golden said. "It's been a building process, and it's a privilege to be here."

The EagleBank Bowl is trying to find some footing on a crowded bowl scene. Last year's game between Navy and Wake Forest drew only 28,777 to RFK Stadium. Original plans this year called for Army to play an Atlantic Coast Conference team, but organizers had to look elsewhere when Army finished with a losing record and the ACC lacked enough bowl-eligible schools.

But Temple is just up the road and pumped with excitement, while UCLA is a brand name that always attracts a following -- even with a 6-6 record. The trick for the Owls is to put on a good show and not look as if they've been content to soak up the atmosphere and tour the monuments.

"When we got to that eight- or nine-win mark, that's what we started to hear, that everything else now is gravy," Golden said. "We've been fighting that a little bit. We try to keep it out of our building and out of our program. But I think that our guys are refocused now and are ready to go. This is an incredible opportunity for us, and their minds are focused on nothing but winning right now."

Temple's last bowl game was a 28-17 win over California in the 1979 Garden State Bowl, played in the New Jersey Meadowlands. Since then, the Owls' only winning seasons came in 1984 (6-5) and 1990 (7-4). They eventually were sent packing from the Big East and went 0-11 in 2005.

Golden took over and posted records of 1-11 in 2006 and 4-8 in 2007, showing enough promise that the coach interviewed twice for the UCLA job that eventually went to Rick Neuheisel.

Then came a 5-7 mark last year and this year's breakout campaign that included a nine-game winning streak, a run that ended with a 35-17 loss to Ohio that kept Temple out of the Mid-American Conference championship game. No one will look at the list of opponents and declare the Owls a superpower, but at least the final scores looked good for a change.

"When we got here, there wasn't really a lot of history, recent history," tight end Steve Maneri said. "But we saw that there was a vision. And we've been able to play towards that vision."

As for UCLA, the Bruins have played in 20 -- yes, 20 -- bowl games since Temple's Garden State party 30 years ago, but the destinations in recent years have become middle-of-the-pack: Las Vegas Bowl, Emerald Bowl, Sun Bowl. Last year there was no bowl at all, and this year the Bruins are barely bowl-eligible.

"When I got recruited here, UCLA was kind of below the rope a little bit, and obviously I wanted to help UCLA get back to the dominance it had in the '80s and the '90s," senior tight end Logan Paulsen said. "And we started off my freshman year very well at 10-2, and then kind of petered off. Then obviously we had a coaching change and struggled with coach Neuheisel last year. So basically to kind of get the program on an upswing and finish on somewhat of a high note with a good bowl in a big city, that's just going to leave the young guys hungry and foster that 'we belong in a bowl' culture here at UCLA."

This is the first bowl game UCLA has ever played on the East Coast. The Bruins were courted by other bowls, but Neuheisel liked the idea of taking his players to the nation's capital.

Both teams have made the sightseeing rounds, and they posed for team photos on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Monday. Not on the planned itinerary was the pre-Christmas snowstorm that forced organizers to scramble for available practice fields. Bruins players had a snowball fight after practice Saturday, hardly the usual workout regimen in southern California.

"We are trying to rebuild to where we can be back in a place where we are in the national scene," Neuheisel said. "UCLA has enjoyed that in the past. I was part of those teams as a player and as an assistant coach, and now to have the opportunity to do that as the head coach is a thrill for me. With winning a bowl game in a nationally televised game against a quality opponent like Temple, I think that would be a huge step in that direction."

[Associated Press; By JOSEPH WHITE]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.