No Harvey Could Give Temple Advantage

When the Temple Owls fell to the Villanova Wildcats 27-24 at Lincoln Financial Field, there was one individual who completely, shall I say it, destroyed the cherry and white in every possible way. His name "was" Brandyn Harvey (notice the past tense, which signifies that he has moved onto the NFL, and thus making him a non-factor in the upcoming game).

In that opening game, Harvey broke out onto the scene, finishing with 142 receiving yards on 9 receptions, and reached the endzone with 1:42 left in the game, tying the game up at that moment. The 142 yards was a season-high for the California native, and in fact, it took him about four complete games to total 142 receiving yards. Following the Temple game, he mustered up a not-so-impressive 12 receiving yards against Lehigh, five yards against Pennsylvania, and then 102 yards against Northeastern (his final 100+ yard game of the season). Even with those three games combined, he still fell short of his total against the Owls.

Maybe we should just consider Harvey a "Temple-Killer" because his greatest game occurred against the Owls, or maybe he was just having a REALLY good day that day. Whatever way you look at it is up to you, but the fact that he is no longer on the Wildcats roster should give Temple a boost of confidence, knowing that the individual who torched them in 2009 is no longer in uniform.

So who will be replacing Harvey? Junior Matt Szczur will now handle the duties of the departed Harvey. When he suited up against Temple last season, he did nothing special, recording 31 yards on four catches, but also saw some time in a Wildcat-type offense, rushing for five yards on three attempts.

Don't be surprised to see Szczur taking anywheres from 5-10 snaps in the Wildcat offense. With Harvey no longer on the team, the 5-foot-11 receiver is the team's biggest weapon. The entire Temple defense will need to keep this guy under watch at all times because of his ability to break a big play off at any moment.

For Temple fans, the only thing we can pray for is that Szczur has no where near the type of game that Harvey was able to muster up. If the Owls can contain Szczur, they will be in a good position to come out with the 'W' this Friday.