Oklahoma Dominates Temple 42 – 3
PHILADELPHIA, PA 9/13/2025 –
Taking a step up in competition the Temple Owls could see where they measured in the world of college football. The result? We will call it too early to tell. After getting wins over UMass and Howard the Owls fell as the #13 Oklahoma Sooners of the SEC took home a 42 – 3 win at The Linc. The Temple team in the words of coach K.C. Keeler “a work in progress.”
Keeler told his team that they needed to get off to a good start, and execute against this opponent. Unfortunately, they could do neither while the Sooners did.
“The whole week I talked about getting a fast start. That was really important for us,” said Temple Coach K.C. Keeler. “Playing an SEC team you want to make sure you believe and we put ourselves in a hole early.”
It was Oklahoma who got off to the good start scoring on their first four possessions to take a 25 – 0 lead. All three touchdowns were on the ground as Jevontae Barnes scored from 3 yads out. Tory Blalock had scoring runs of 6 and 18-yards for the visitors.
Meanwhile, Temple could not generate any offense, a trend that continued for the game. The Cherry and White went three-and-out on four of their first five possessions.
The Owls running game was a big factor this season. The Sooners defense gave up just 26 yards on the ground (14 yards on sacks and team rush). The Oklahoma pass defense surrendered 78 yards through the air. Temple punted 12 times with Dante Atton averaging 38.2 yards per kick.
Why? The nationally ranked visitors were too fast for the hosts.
“That’s a legitimate SEC defense,” Keeler said about Oklahoma. “They run the ball. Their coach does a great job in how aggressive they are. I felt like Evan (Owls quarterback Evan Simon) was always under pressure. We tried to play a game where we methodically chipped away, get first downs, But we didn’t do that.”
“You look for consistency, there was really none in what they did,” said Temple quarterback Evan Simon. “They did what they wanted, whether that was bring the house or play coverage. Respect for that.”
The Cherry and White did not help themselves with key errors on both sides of the ball and on special teams. The key plays that Temple failed to properly execute were in giving up a long third down conversion and and stepping out of bounds on a punt return. On their first possession the Sooners found themselves with a 3rd and 19 at the Owls 32-yard line. Quarterback John Mateer completed a short pass to Jaren Kanak who turned it into a 23-yard gain to the nine yard line. The first touchdown came two plays later.
“That was on me,” said Temple defensive end Sekou Kromah. “I took a bad angle. I took an angle that I wasn’t supposed to take, but I’m going to get that fixed for sure.”
In the second quarter Oklahoma punted. Temple returner Tyler Stewart fielded the punt, but stepped on the out of bounds line at the 1-yard line.
Temple Gets on the Scoreboard
Late on the second quarter Temple linebacker Ty Davis made his first interception as an Owl setting up his team at the Oklahoma 13-yard line. The Owls got a 34-yard field goal by Carl Hardin as a result.
End of the Scoring
The Sooners closed the scoring by Mateer throwing a 6-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Robinson. Mateer later scored on a 51-yard touchdown run.
Temple defensive end Sekou Kromah recorded 2.5 tackles for a loss, a career-high at this level.
Temple’s task does not get easier as they travel to Georgia Tech next week. Keeler hopes that lessons learned will help, and not make the critical errors against another higher level opponent.
“The moment got too big for us,” said Keeler.
The evaluation continues. The conference schedule is not far away.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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