WATCH: Temple Got Hosed By the Referees Last Night
Temple coach Matt Rhule argues an onside kick recovery call with the referee during the second half of the Boca Raton Bowl NCAA college football game against Toledo, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015, in Boca Raton, Fla. Toledo defeated Temple 32-17.
Temple’s dream season ended with a thud last night. But it wasn’t all the team’s fault.
The Owls fell to the Toledo Rockets last night, 32-17, in the Boca Raton Bowl. Temple finishes the season 10-4, tied for the most wins in school history. But the Owls end the year with consecutive losses, and won’t finish the year in the Associated Press Top 25. It was a good year, but the end is kind of a downer.
But! The Owls should’ve had a chance to drive for the tying score. Temple couldn’t get into the end zone for much of the game, but Kip Patton finally scored with 2:50 to go. A 2-point conversion pass from P.J. Walker to Robby Anderson made it 25-17. Temple went for an onside kick. If they recovered it, they’d have a chance to tie it.
And they appeared to recover it! Only the referees decided it was Toledo’s ball instead.
A replay shows that it appears Temple kicker Tyler Mayes dove on the ball once it went the required 10 yards. After a long pile-up, Temple also comes out of the pile with the ball, too. But after initially starting to signal Temple ball, a referee turns around and awards the ball to Toledo.
Mayes’ recovery isn’t completely clean, but it really looks like he was the one who came up with the ball on replay. Temple gave up another touchdown two plays later, and didn’t score when they got the ball back down two scores, so it’s probably a moot point. But who knows what could have happened?
#TempleMade pic.twitter.com/gDG5hd7J5f
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) December 23, 2015
Aw, don’t feel too bad, Temple fans. You still had a good year. Who would’ve thought you’d win 10 games, the most of any school in Pennsylvania Division I FBS! You get to gloat to Penn State and Pitt fans all offseason.
Follow @dhm on Twitter.
