Entering the 2006 season, Temple football was desperate for a turnaround. They had a new coach, Al Golden, and new hope after a disastrous 19-71 record in eight years under former coach Bobby Wallace.

In the second game with their new coach, however, the Owls were blanked by Louisville, 62-0. Not to be outdone, they went all the way out to Minnesota the following week and lost by the exact same score.

But Temple’s athletic director, Bill Bradshaw, wouldn’t let that feeling of hope succumb to the sobriety that had swept across campus in the first three weeks of the new coaching regime.

So Bradshaw started taking down numbers and e-mail addresses of people who disagreed with him.

‘A lot of people were snake bit, if you will,’ Bradshaw said. ‘We heard words like ‘never.’ But I never actually felt that way. I believed and told anyone who would listen. I took people’s names down and put them in my calendar book.’

Three seasons removed from that catastrophic 1-11 inaugural season under Golden, Temple is bowl-bound in 2009. They are headed to the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 29, where they will play either UCLA or Army.

The EagleBank Bowl is Temple’s first bowl appearance since the 1979 Garden State Bowl, a bowl that was eventually terminated in 1981. Along with Southern Methodist, the two schools have both become bowl-eligible this season to end the third and fourth longest active bowl droughts in NCAA football, respectively – 55 years of combined futility.

While annual powerhouses such as Florida and Southern California may be lamenting their bowl statuses this year, Temple and SMU are savoring each ounce of joy that comes with the bowl appearance.

‘How many ‘ex’s’ can I use?’ Bradshaw said. ‘It’s exceptional. Exciting. Extraordinary. Exhilarating.’

Behind New Mexico State and Kent State, no school had a longer active bowl drought than Temple heading into the 2009 season. And no school was coming off quite as much of a heartbreak season.

Temple had the chance to get to a bowl last year. After a 4-8 season in 2007, a year of improvement, the school and program’s attitudes were budding with the hope of a postseason.

But the Owls missed out yet again in 2008, and did so in gut-wrenching fashion.

They lost twice in overtime and two more times by four points or less. That included a 30-28 loss at Buffalo in which they were the victims of a last-second Hail Mary pass. Knock that pass down or win just one other game, and Temple would’ve been bowl-eligible.

‘That play was devastating,’ Bradshaw said of Buffalo quarterback Drew Willy’s last second heave. ‘It cost us a chance to get back to .500, the (MAC) Eastern Division championship and a bowl game. And all on one play.’

But the road traveled to the EagleBank Bowl was relatively easy for the Owls this season. After slipping up its first two games, Temple won nine in a row to finally experience the thrill of a bowl game.

‘It was great just watching our name come up,’ said tight end Steve Maneri after the bowl results were announced Sunday night. ‘It’s nice to have a destination and a goal.’

Southern Methodist didn’t have a destination or a goal for nearly as long as the Owls.

Snapping their bowl-less season streak at 25, the Mustangs will head to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on Dec. 24 to take on Nevada.

Unlike Temple, SMU wasn’t reviving its programs from the depths of the football landscape. It was, quite literally, bringing its program back from death. And it only took two and a half decades.

Behind the legs of future NFL Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson, SMU finished the 1982 season ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll. But just a few years later, a scandal sent shockwaves through the program, and the NCAA convicted SMU of paying 13 players a total of $61,000 monthly from 1985-86.

The scandal culminated in the NCAA handing down the so-called ‘death penalty,’ canceling the team’s entire 1987 schedule.

‘We’ve proven that there is life after death,’ said Steve Orsini, SMU’s athletic director.

The Mustangs were slow to recover from the scandal – 2009 was just their second winning season since the ‘death penalty,’ and their first bowl appearance.

If SMU was dead after the penalty, it was just as lifeless more than two decades after, as it finished the 2008 season at 1-11.

Then came the quick turnaround. The Mustangs went 7-5 in 2009, even holding their own against BCS bowl-bound TCU for a half.

‘We all just wanted to experience a bowl game,’ senior wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders said. ‘I’m really excited to do this before I graduated. I can’t wait.’

Both Temple and SMU bring storylines to two bowls that have lost their national luster in the midst of New Year’s Day and BCS bowls.

And they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

Bradshaw still has that address book of names. Now that Temple has ended 30 years of frustration, it’s time to start making true on his promise.

‘I haven’t gotten to everyone yet,’ Bradshaw said. ‘But it’s a long list. And I’m going to enjoy writing to every last name.’

Game to Watch: Appalachian State at Montana

Saturday, 4 p.m., ESPN

Army-Navy? Why not get a playoff feel instead?

While most of the United States is yearning for a BCS playoff system that pits the many deserving teams against each other, there’s at least one division that’s doing it right.

Appalachian State will take on Montana in the semifinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs Saturday at 4 p.m.

The Mountaineers knocked off defending champion Richmond in last Saturday’s quarterfinals in dramatic fashion, coming back from 24-14 and 31-28 fourth quarter deficits to pull off a 35-31 victory.

All-Southern Conference quarterback Armanti Edwards threw a strike to senior wide receiver Matt Cline with 10 seconds left to secure the victory.

The Mountaineers’ reward? Facing the top-seeded, 13-0 Grizzlies.

‘We play every game to the last minute,’ senior linebacker Jacque Roman said after the game.

If that’s the case again Saturday, it could leave fans yearning for the same feel at a higher level.

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on December 7, 2009 at 12:00 pm