Temple finally finishes, knocks off unbeaten South Florida 17-13 in Tampa

Tagged under: Gameday Hub, News, Pennsylvania Colleges, Temple

Mike Livingston | October 3, 2026

TAMPA, Fla. — For two straight weeks, Temple had been close enough to see a win and still watched it disappear.

The Owls blew a late two-touchdown lead at Toledo, then watched Army march 75 yards for a game-winning touchdown a week later. Head coach K.C. Keeler spent the days leading into Saturday’s trip to South Florida preaching the same message: stop waiting for a break and make one.

This time, Temple did.

The Owls knocked off previously unbeaten South Florida, 17-13, at Raymond James Stadium, surviving a late turnover, responding with a 96-yard go-ahead drive and asking their defense to close out the game twice in the final two minutes.

Temple improved to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the American Conference while handing the Bulls their first loss of the Brian Hartline era. 

“You need some proof for the fellas,” Keeler said. “It’s one thing to say, ‘Hey, this is a good team.’ Good teams win. You have to find a way to win.”

For much of the night, that way wasn’t obvious.

Temple’s offense opened with consecutive three-and-outs and had only four total yards through its first two possessions. South Florida took an early 3-0 lead, and the Owls spent much of the first half asking their defense to keep them within striking distance.

It did.

South Florida finished with 319 total yards but managed just 13 points. The Bulls averaged 3.4 yards per carry, rushed for 114 yards, and failed to throw a touchdown despite Michael Van Buren Jr. attempting 32 passes. Temple, meanwhile, was outgained 319-274 but committed only three penalties for 15 yards compared with eight for 60 by USF. 

“The last two weeks, our eyes were in the wrong place,” linebacker Curly Ordonez said. “We had to fix the small things.”

Those small things had become the defining frustration of Temple’s losing streak.

Against Toledo, the Owls couldn’t protect a 14-point fourth-quarter advantage. Against Army, the defense had a chance to close the game and surrendered a 12-play touchdown drive instead.

Saturday presented the same kind of test.

Temple’s offense eventually stabilized enough to give the defense something to protect. Carl Hardin’s 34-yard field goal tied the game early in the second quarter, and quarterback Ajani Sheppard found JoJo Bermudez for a 24-yard touchdown with 45 seconds remaining in the half to send the Owls into the locker room ahead 10-3. 

The lead didn’t last long.

South Florida opened the third quarter with a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that consumed 6:27 and ended with D.J. Crowther scoring from one yard out. Later in the quarter, Temple seemed ready to answer when Hunter Smith broke a 34-yard run to put the Owls deep in Bulls territory.

Then Sheppard nearly authored another painful chapter.

The quarterback took off toward the goal line and was hit just shy of the end zone. The ball came loose, South Florida recovered for a touchback, and the Bulls followed with a 49-yard Nico Gramatica field goal to take a 13-10 lead early in the fourth quarter. 

“I just have to hold onto the ball,” Sheppard said. “I have to hold onto it, and that’s a touchdown.”

The mistake carried the ingredients of Temple’s previous two losses: a missed opportunity, a momentum swing, and an opponent taking advantage.

The response was different.

“I put the fumble on my back,” Sheppard said. “The defense came over and said, ‘I got your back.’ So I just had to go back out there and play.”

Temple’s next possession went nowhere, but its defense forced another punt and pinned the offense with perhaps its most difficult assignment of the night.

The Owls took over at their own 4-yard line with 8:32 remaining.

Ninety-six yards later, they had the lead.

Temple pieced together a 10-play drive that lasted more than five minutes. Sheppard used both his arm and legs; the Owls benefited from a pass-interference penalty that moved them away from their own goal line, and the offense continued attacking a South Florida defense that had controlled long stretches of the night.

Then, on third down from the Bulls’ 34, the middle opened.

Sheppard kept the ball, burst through the line untouched and ran 34 yards for the touchdown that put Temple ahead 17-13 with 3:08 remaining. 

“The first time we ran it, I missed the hole,” Sheppard said. “It should have been a touchdown the first time.”

He said Eric King and members of Temple’s offensive line told him to trust the crease if the opportunity came again.

“That was all O-line,” Sheppard said. “If you go back and see the gap they made, it was amazing.”

Sheppard finished 9-of-14 passing for 92 yards and a touchdown while leading Temple with 87 rushing yards on 14 carries. Smith, pressed into a larger role with Sam Brown unavailable and Keveun Mason limited, added 69 yards on 11 attempts. Temple rushed for 182 yards and averaged 5.1 yards per carry. 

Smith learned earlier Saturday that Brown would not play. He had entered the night buried behind Brown and Mason in the backfield rotation, but said practice repetitions prepared him for the unexpected workload.

“One thing Coach always preaches is that if you’re not in, you still need to stay ready,” Smith said. “Mental reps are one thing that has kept me on my game when I’m not out there.”

The game still wasn’t finished.

South Florida got the ball with 3:08 remaining and reached its own 42 before Temple forced an incompletion on fourth down with 1:47 left.

It looked like the stop that would seal it.

Temple couldn’t pick up the first down it needed to completely drain the clock, though, and Dante Atton punted the ball back to the Bulls with 51 seconds remaining.

So the defense had to do it again.

“As a defense, we look forward to those situations,” Ordonez said. “We were like, ‘Let’s go do it again.’ We had already stopped them once, so let’s go stop them again.”

Van Buren moved USF from its own 10 to Temple’s 40 in the final seconds, keeping the threat alive until the game’s last snap. His completion to Mudia Reuben moved the Bulls across midfield, but Reuben fumbled as the clock expired and Asa Locks recovered for Temple. 

There would be no late collapse this time.

Ordonez finished with a team-high 10 tackles. Saboor Karriem added eight tackles and two tackles for loss, one week after Temple’s defense walked off the field knowing it had failed to make the stop it needed against Army. 

“We kept believing we could do this,” Ordonez said. “We kept believing we could win.”

Keeler had spent the week telling his players they could compete with good teams. He also knew belief eventually required evidence.

Saturday supplied it.

“There’s some proof of concept now,” Keeler said. “We went on the road and beat an undefeated team that everyone was talking about. We took them down at their place.”

After two weeks of wondering whether the same ending would keep repeating itself, Temple finally changed it.