Temple Owls

The Temple Owls represent North Philadelphia's Big 5 school on the gridiron, playing home games at Lincoln Financial Field alongside the NFL's Eagles. A perennial scrapper in the American Athletic Conference, Temple has built its identity on tough, physical football and the occasional statement upset over a Power 5 opponent. Owls football is a blue-collar program in a blue-collar city.

Temple has fielded football since 1894, with its high-water mark coming under coach Matt Rhule in the mid-2010s, when the Owls won back-to-back AAC East titles and reached the 2016 AAC Championship Game. The program has cycled through multiple conference homes — including a stint in the old Big East — before settling into the American Athletic. Temple's history is defined more by gritty, overachieving stretches than by championship hardware.