Temple can expect a physical matchup with Rutgers on Saturday, Owls coach Stan Drayton says

Stan Drayton’s Temple Owls suffered a 16-14 loss to Rutgers at Lincoln Financial Field a year ago, so the coach says he knows what to expect from the Scarlet Knights in the rematch on Saturday night.

“They’re a physical football team,” Drayton said. ”They have a lot of guys on that offensive side of the ball that were playmakers that are returning. Number 21 [tight end Johnny Langan] is the real deal. Quarterback [Gavin Wimsatt] is going to be a handful. They’re a physical football team, so the one thing I do know is that shouldn’t shock us. We’ve got to be prepared for them to play a physical style of play and we need to try to match their physicality if we’re going to be competitive.”

Drayton spoke to the media on Monday afternoon after reviewing the film from Saturday’s opening 24-21 win over Akron.

Rutgers began its season on Sunday with a 24-7 victory over Big Ten foe Northwestern. Wimsatt passed for 163 yards, throwing for a touchdown and running for another. Langan had four catches for 27 yards for Rutgers, but he was a major factor in the win over Temple last year when he led the Scarlet Knights with 79 rushing yards. Langan was recruited to Rutgers as a quarterback.

The Scarlet Knights’ defense allowed only 12 rushing yards on 22 carries to Northwestern. Temple is coming off an opener in which it rushed for only 61 yards against Akron, so Drayton sees room for improvement.

“Not as bad as I thought. I think our running backs need to run heavy,” the coach said. “There’s some opportunity to get some yards and some situations where it may be cloudy, little dirty runs here and there. You know, it’s not going to be perfect. They can’t sit there and wait for a bunch of space and they can’t expect to get a bunch of space against Rutgers’ defense, either.”

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The Scarlet Knights, on the other hand, rushed for 122 yards on Sunday.

“Rutgers on the offensive side of the ball does a great job of running the ball,” Drayton said. “So if their defense is seeing that every day in practice leading up to this football game, you expect them to be good in stopping the run on defense. So complementary football on their part, just have to be ready for them.”

Temple wide receiver Amad Anderson and offensive lineman Diego Barajas were injured in the opener, but Drayton said both are good to go this week.

The coach added that redshirt sophomore receiver Ian Stewart is expected to make his season debut at Rutgers. Stewart missed the last seven games last season with foot injury and sat out the opener.