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Bowl possibilities are numerous for Temple football

The Military Bowl and Gasparilla Bowl are considered the favorites, but there are many other possibilities.

Temple quarterback Todd Centeio looks back at UConn's Messiah Turner as he runs for a big gain in the second quarter Saturday.
Temple quarterback Todd Centeio looks back at UConn's Messiah Turner as he runs for a big gain in the second quarter Saturday.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer

Now that Temple has finished its regular season with an 8-4 record (5-3 in the American Athletic Conference), the next step is finding out the Owls’ bowl destination.

According to a Temple source, the possibilities are numerous. The source suggested the Military Bowl, Dec. 27 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Md., and The Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, Dec. 23 in Tampa as two of the early favorites. The source cautioned, however, that several others could be in play.

The Military Bowl features the AAC against the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Gasparilla Bowl has the AAC against Conference USA.

Temple has been to both bowls recently. The Owls lost to Wake Forest, 34-26, in the 2016 Military Bowl and the next season they beat Florida International University, 31-3, in the Gasparilla Bowl.

The AAC has seven primary bowl affiliations, where the conference is responsible for sending a team to those bowls, although sometimes that could change.

The other bowls the AAC has affiliations with are as follows:

Frisco Bowl: Dec. 20, AAC vs. at-large

Boca Raton Bowl: Dec. 21, AAC vs. Mid-American Conference

Cure Bowl (in Orlando): Dec. 21, AAC vs. Sun Belt

Hawaii Bowl: Dec. 24, AAC vs. BYU or Mountain West

Birmingham Bowl: Jan. 2, AAC vs. SEC

In addition, the AAC holds secondary partnerships with the Liberty Bowl in Memphis and the Independence Ball in Shreveport, La., where Temple played last year.

There will be a lot of speculation about Temple and all teams until the bowl bids are announced on Dec. 8.

Roche ties school record

With two sacks in Saturday’s 49-17 win over UConn, Temple redshirt junior defensive end Quincy Roche tied the school single-season record for sacks with 13. He tied Adrian Robinson, who recorded 13 in 2009.

“It is an honor and a blessing,” Roche said. “... My job is to keep playing football and I love it.”

Roche continues to be on a roll. He has had at least 1.5 sacks in each of the past four games, with 10 over that span.

He is now tied with Dan Klecko for second in career sacks with 26. Guy Peters, who played from 1979-82, owns the Temple career mark with 32 sacks.