2017 Notre Dame Football Opponent Spring Review: Temple

Temple (Sept. 2)

Series Record: Notre Dame leads 2-0

Last Meeting: Notre Dame won 24-20 in Philadelphia on Oct. 31, 2015, when quarterback DeShone Kizer connected with wide receiver Will Fuller on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 2:09 remaining in the game.

2016 Record: 10-4

Temple’s Rivals Class Rankings 2013-17: No. 84 (2013), No. 59 (2014), No. 73 (2015), No. 60 (2016) and not in top 100 in 2017

Notre Dame’s Rivals Class Rankings 2013-17: No. 3 (2013), No. 11 (2014), No. 11 (2015), No. 13 (2016) and No. 13 (2017)

Projected Starters Returning: 10 (six on offense and four on defense)

Quarterback Battle: The Owls are replacing four-year starting quarterback Phillip Walker, who won a school-record 28 games during his career. Interestingly, Temple has four candidates to replace him: redshirt junior Frank Nutile, redshirt sophomore Logan Marchi, redshirt freshman Anthony Russo and true freshman Todd Centeio, who enrolled early and competed in spring practice.

Nutile and Russo are considered pocket passer types, while March and Centeio are more dual threats. New offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude — who was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach the last five seasons at Coastal Carolina — has run a spread offense during his career, but will likely tailor his offense to Temple’s power run personnel.

Russo is considered by many to be the likely Game 1 starter. He was verbally committed to Rutgers, then de-committed and got interest from LSU. The 6-foot-4, 220-pounder was 7 for 11 passing for 70 yards in the spring game, but has all the tools.

Quarterback shouldn’t be a worry for Temple fans, Patenaude said.

“I have watched all of the preseason stuff of the quarterbacks,” Patenaude told Philly Football Talk. “I watched a lot of the bowl practices where they all had some opportunities to get some work. They all can play. Our fans should not be worried about if we will get good production out of the quarterback position. We definitely will. It just might not be as traditional as they have seen with Phillip Walker over the last three or four years.”

New Face: Matt Rhule is gone, Geoff Collins is in. After leading the Owls to a 28-23 record over four seasons, Rhule left to become the head coach at Baylor. Replacing him is 46-year-old Geoff Collins, who was most recently the defensive coordinator at Florida.

Collins has coached under Nick Saban, George O'Leary, Dan Mullen, Mario Cristobal and Jim McElwain.

"All I ever wanted to do was be a head coach, and this is something that I don't feel out of place," Collins told Philly.com.