The Duke Blue Devils and the Temple Owls have traveled down to Shreveport, Louisiana for the 2018 Independence Bowl. Here’s everything you need to know about the game.
The Temple Owls (8-4) are headed over to Shreveport, Louisiana for the 2018 Independence Bowl. Well, almost all of the Temple Owls are headed to Shreveport. Temple’s head coach Geoff Collins packed his bags and left for Atlanta to coach the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets earlier this month, so that means he won’t be leading the Owls in their bowl game. However, Special teams coach Ed Foley has stepped in and is ready to lead Temple against the Duke Blue Devils (7-5).
Foley and the Owls will have to be ready as Duke looks to claim a bowl win in back to back years for the first time. The Blue Devils looked a lot better during the first month of the season than they did at any other part of the year, but they’re still a team that can be somewhat tricky to play. Given that Temple lost its head coach, the Owls must be focused if they’re going to come out on top.
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Neither team is overly impressive this year, but Temple’s defense has been pretty good. The Owls hold teams to 358.8 yards per game and 24.7 points per game. Duke quarterback Daniel Jones will need to step up to overcome the Owls’ defense. He’s only thrown for 2,251 yards and 17 touchdowns this year, but he’s the Blue Devils’ best hope on offense.
How to watch and bet on the Independence Bowl
- Date: Thursday, Dec. 27
- Start time: 1:30 p.m. ET
- Location: Shreveport, LA
- Stadium: Independence Stadium
- Spread: Duke -3
- Channel: ESPN
- Stream: WatchESPN
Prediction: Duke experienced a pretty rough slide down the stretch of the season. Even though Temple will be playing without their head coach, interim head coach Ed Foley has plenty of experience in this sort of situation before. When former Temple head coach Matt Rhule (the dude before Geoff Collins) left to take over the Baylor Bears, Foley stepped in and led the Owls against Wake Forest in 2016. The Owls lost to the Demon Deacons, but they’ve almost certainly learned from that situation. Expect Temple to eek out a close win in what will be an emotional game for them.