The Open Thread: UConn vs. Temple

This game is many things, but if nothing else it's probably two things in particular: An affront to the great sport of football, and a winless UConn team's last best chance to pick up a win in 2013.

Coming into this one, UConn remains winless at 0-9, while Temple is a much more impressive 1-9, with their lone win a 33-14 homecoming victory over Army back on Oct. 19. Despite being objectively terrible by every possible measure, Temple is still favored by a touchdown over UConn, and their surprising near upset of No. 18 Central Florida last week is the main reason why.

Temple played an excellent game against UCF, hanging tough through 10 lead changes before losing on a 23-yard field goal as time expired. Temple actually had a 36-29 lead with under two minutes to play, but UCF tied the game on a ridiculous, one-handed 30-yard touchdown grab by wide receiver J.J. Worton. The Knights quickly got the ball back, drove down the length of the field and kicked the chip shot field goal to secure the 39-36 win, providing the latest gut punch loss to a program that's had a lot of them recently.

Seriously though, Temple has had a ton of really bad losses this year where they've played their opponents close before falling just short every single time. The Owls gave up a game-winning touchdown to Fordham (an FCS school) with just four seconds left, gave up the lead to Rutgers with 35 seconds left, lost on a last second field goal to UCF, lost by two points to a 1-10 Idaho team, and were within one score of both Houston and SMU late in the fourth quarter before losing.

I'm not going to lie, that's pretty rough, even by Temple's standards. Regardless, if Grantland did a "Fate Worse Than Death" series for college football, this would absolutely be the game of the week. This is your open thread, let the dumpster fire commence!