Week 1: Temple at Army

The Stan Brock era begins at Army, where he served as the offensive line coach for the past three seasons under the now retired Bobby Ross. While he may tinker with the playbook a bit, Brock, a veteran of 16 seasons as a lineman in the NFL, will likely look at his stable of horses and decide the Black Knights will make their fortune running the football.

Brock will send third-year starter Carson Williams out at quarterback against Temple, and hope that Williams improves on his passing success from last year when he threw for 11 touchdowns but had 12 interceptions. The Knights spread the carries around, and behind a veteran line they will have with the top four rushers from last season back, led by senior Tony Dace who had 330 yards rushing in 2007.

Against a Temple offense that returns 10 starters, Army fields a defense that is experienced up front, but very young elsewhere. They will face an Owls attack led by senior quarterback Adam DiMichele and backup Vaughn Charlton, and one that is expected to improve significantly on the meager 16.4 points per game it averaged a year ago.

Temple, one of the youngest teams in the country last year, returns all its starters on defense after allowing just over 26 ppg. in 2007. The Owls gave up 37 points to Army a year ago, and strong safety Dominique and defensive end Junior Galette lead the charge to prevent a repeat of that.

Notes:

Temple returns 55 lettermen from the team that started 0-5 in 2007, then went 4-3 the rest of the way.

Army owns an outstanding 91-24-3 record in season-openers, but has lost 11 straight opening day games, dating back to the 1997 season.

The Owls are one of four MAC opponents on the 2008 Army schedule. The Knights also face Akron, Eastern Michigan and Buffalo.

Army’s Brock played 13 of his NFL seasons with the New Orleans Saints at offensive tackle, playing in 186 games, No. 4 all-time on the team. The Saints went 66-32 in his final six seasons.

Key Player (Owls) – Bruce Francis, WR

In order to keep the heat off the running game, Temple needs Francis to again be the go-to guy outside, where he snagged 47 passes for 731 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games last season.

Key Player (Black Knights) – Frank Scappaticci, LB

After ranking third on the team with 89 stops in 2007 from his outside position, Scappaticci moves to the middle to anchor an otherwise unproven line backing corps.

Temple by 7