ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Deep in the underbelly of Navy-Marine Corps Stadium on Tuesday night, the words of disappointment kept reverberating off the walls outside the locker room as Temple seniors, most trying to keep their emotions in check, kept talking about the bitter end they just experienced.
“This loss definitely hurts,” running back Jahad Thomas said.
“This hurts right now,” offensive tackle Dion Dawkins said, just moments removed from dropping on a knee and sobbing on the field.
“This is a lot, man,” quarterback Phillip Walker said. “You don’t know if that could be your last football game or not. It’s just crazy right now.”
After publicly thanking his coaches and Temple fans, defensive end Haason Reddick, clearly sullen and distraught, declined an interview and headed back into the locker room to pick up the pieces of what had just happened.
Just minutes earlier, those players saw their collegiate careers end with an empty thud as No. 24 Temple, which came in a 10.5-point favorite, couldn’t climb from the 24-point hole it dug for itself in the first half and fell to Wake Forest, 34-26, in the Military Bowl (see Instant Replay).
The AAC champ Owls fell to 10-4 on the season and failed to become the first team in school history to win 11 games.
While they knew the end was coming, the harsh reality of the way it did is what stings.
After sprinting out to a 7-0 lead on their first play of the game when Walker hit wideout Adonis Jennings for a 48-yard touchdown down the sideline, the Owls’ offense stalled while the Demon Deacons’ offense picked up, literally.
At that point, Wake Forest began to utilize a no-huddle attack that senior linebacker Avery Williams said caught the Owls off-guard. Williams said the tape showed that Wake Forest was more of a slower-paced team and that the fast-paced attack wasn’t something the Owls had practiced much for leading up to the game.
And that showed.
Wake used 41- and 20-yard touchdown passes from quarterback John Wolford, an 11-yard TD rush by Cade Carney and a three-yard TD rush by Matt Colborne, mixed with a muffed punt by Temple’s Sean Chandler and a pick by Walker that was tipped at the line of scrimmage to reel off 31 unanswered points and head into the break with a 31-10 lead.
“Credit to them and credit [Wake Forest head coach Dave] Clawson because their defensive game plan was well-executed,” said Temple interim head coach Ed Foley, who filled in for former head coach Matt Rhule Tuesday while keeping the seat warm for incoming head coach Geoff Collins.
“It was really just Wake Forest controlling the line of scrimmage. And we did not take care of the football in the first half and that put us in a big hole.
“We definitely did not play Temple defense in the first half, but I think it was more of [Wake Forest’s] scheme by the way they were physical up front and us just sitting back and playing a bit nervous.”
Many Temple players said Wake Forest’s heavy blitz pressure was a main reason for the offense’s struggles in the first half.
“They blitzed a lot and they slanted well on the D-line,” said Walker, who noted he heard boos from the Temple-heavy crowd as the Owls jogged off for halftime while down by 21.
“They were just a good, physical group. But we knew they were a good defense, too.”
Of course it was Walker who led a furious charge back into the game in the second half. That rally began with a 58-yard touchdown pass to Jennings at the start of the half. And Walker had to keep leading the charge with his arm as Temple’s vaunted rushing attack, which came in averaging 151.3 yards per game, was stopped dead in its tracks for just 34 yards, not counting the minus-54 Walker took in sack yardage. Thomas came in averaging 83.5 yards rushing while Ryquell Armstead came in averaging 76.5 yards rushing. Thomas finished the day 35 yards on the ground while Armstead finished the day with just a single yard.
Walker more than picked up the slack, though, as he went 28 for 49 for 396 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. And he did so after dislocating the knuckle on his right ring finger (his throwing hand) in the first quarter. While Walker thinks his entire ring finger is broken, Foley said Walker popped the dislocation back into place on the field, taped it up on the sideline quickly and went right back into the game.
“Phillip Walker is one of the toughest players that you will ever see in your life,” Foley said. “He takes so may bone-on-bone hits just to deliver the football than any other player I have seen and he is tougher than tough.”
In the meantime, Wolford left the game early in the third with a neck strain and did not return. Redshirt freshman Kyle Kearns came in and Wake’s offense subsequently stalled. But Temple could only muster three more field goals to make it a 31-26 game with 3:39 left.
After the last of those field goals, Wake returner John Armstrong took the ensuing kickoff 80 yards, down to the Temple 15-yard line. The Demon Deacons tacked on a field goal to make the score 34-26 with 1:57 left.
Temple’s vaunted defense, which entered the game third in the nation behind only Alabama and Michigan in total defense with 275.9 yards allowed per game, had been gashed for 368 yards by the Demon Deacons.
Walker, with no timeouts, led his Owls into Wake territory on his final drive in cherry and white. But what could have been a storybook ending wasn’t to be as Walker’s fourth-down pass to Jennings fell incomplete with 57 seconds left.
The moment the ball hit the turf for the incompletion, finality began to set in, at all places, the site of these Owls’ greatest achievement – the same stadium where they won the AAC title in early December when they rolled over Navy for the program’s first conference title since 1967.
“At the end of the day, we’re still champions,” said Thomas, whose 2,564 rushing yards place him sixth on Temple’s all-time rushing list – quite the feat considering he wasn’t a full-time running back until training camp in 2015 and was previously a defensive back. “We wanted to win this game just as bad as the other side, but being a champion, that’s something no one can ever take from us. That’s something, as freshmen, we came in and said we would do. And we got that done.”
“We won a damn championship,” said Williams, who finished his Temple career with 147 total tackles. “We’re a championship team and we’re going to have a big ring on our fingers in the spring. That’s what I like. We won a championship, got back to a bowl game and had another 10-win season, which we’ve never done before here.”
“All I know is we brought a championship into this program at the end of the day,” said Walker, who redefined the QB position at Temple and leaves as the program leader in completions (831), passing yards (10,669) and touchdowns passes (74). “I’m very proud of that and I’m very proud of the guys that were here with me making this happen.”
Four years, 28 wins, two bowl appearances, a conference title and numerous broken records later, the ink is now dry on the final chapter for this group of Temple seniors, the most decorated in school history.
While the ending wasn’t as sweet as they had imagined, not bad for a group that started out as a 2-10 afterthought.