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Week 5 Gameday Discussion Thread: Temple at UConn

Catch the action at 4pm on ESPN, and join the conversation with your fellow fan!

By Aman Kidwai
Temple head coach Mark Rhule
Temple head coach Mark Rhule
Derik Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Connecticut native Tyler Matakevich was overlooked by the UConn coaching staff coming out of St. Josephs in 2011, and again after a post-grad year at Milford Prep in 2012. He always wanted to play for UConn, but it just never worked out. Instead he went to Temple, where he has been a tackling machine since winning the starting linebacker job as a freshman.

Today, as a junior co-captain, Matakevich will lead the visiting team into Rentschler Field hoping to notch a win for an improving Temple team. He leads a strong Temple defense which looks to take advantage of UConn's offensive line challenges.

Offensively, UConn needs to get Geremy Davis involved early and often. Temple will be loading up the box early, so keeping them off balance with a quick-hit passing game would be a good way to get started and may even open up some running lanes if they can do it successfully. I'd love to see a play-action call early and see if we can actually take some shots down the field.

I'll also be interested to see how much Tim Boyle we see today. Last week there was some contradiction between what ESPN was reporting and what Bob Diaco said after the game. Boyle didn't play at all last week, which was probably for the best. I don't want to see him out there if he has to run for his life behind the offensive line, but it would be nice for the future of this program under center to get some action.

In other news, today is Military Appreciation Day at Rentschler Field. The bands appear to have something spectacular in the works. You'll be sorry you missed it!

Also, a Temple fan felt compelled to offer up this LOL'er earlier today:

Even if Temple wins today, this is a hilariously misguided statement. Temple was kicked out of the Big East in 2004 for sucking. They won fewer games last season than UConn. I can't think of a single measurement whereby someone could state that Temple is currently a better football program than UConn, and no reason to believe either school's fortune's will shift dramatically in any direction. This guy must know something that we don't. Or still hasn't realized that Temple's Week 1 win at Vanderbilt is becoming less impressive with every passing week.

This is the Open Thread folks, let's have some fun.

GO HUSKIES!!!

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