“Pierce”-ing Running Game Has Owls Bowl Bound
RB helps Temple become bowl eligible for the first time in a generation
By MATTHEW NADU
Updated 5:45 PM EST, Sat, Nov 7, 2009
Temple’s Bernard Pierce is nation's best collegiate athlete you've maybe never heard of.
Seriously, go check out the kid’s stats right now. He's sick. Wait, that's an understatement, like saying SEPTA is just late, he's more than sick he's great.
The true freshman sure didn’t look like one as he scampered for 178 and three touchdowns Thursday night against Miami Ohio at the Linc. Yeah that's right -- he’s a freshman. At this rate it's only a matter of time before he's Chris Berman's favorite "whoop!"
College football's second-leading rusher is piercing the silence that has strangled North Broad Street for nearly two decades. Say adios to the Temple football of old -- no longer are its players the laughing stock of well, the entire nation.
Thursday win put the Owls in the driver’s seat of the Mid Atlantic Conference. They went are 7-2 and undefeated (5-0) in the MAC after stealing a last-minute 34-32 win over Miami.
Not only are the Owls guaranteed a bowl birth but they will also finish with a winning record for the first time since going 7-4 in 1990.
More importantly, though, it could finally guarantee some respect for Temple being a potent football contender. Slow your roll, there's no BCS Bowl in sight, but the Owls are getting national attention because of their gut-busting running back.
The 6-foot, 210-pound freshman had racked up monster numbers with 1,211 yards (134.5 yards per game) and 14 scores.
What’s crazy is how much Pierce has done during Temple’s current seven-game winning streak. In Temple's first two games against Villanova and Penn State, Pierce only had a combined 13 carries for 68 yards.
Then the time bomb went off. In six of his next seven games he ran for more than 116 yards (he left after the first half against Army after breaking off 65 yards and a TD) including twice running breaking off 212-plus-yard games.
Whoop!
Next up fans can catch Pierce’s Owls whoop’s some -- well you know -- against Akron on Friday night.
First Published: Nov 7, 2009 5:30 PM EST
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