PHILADELPHIA _ It was a decision that could be the turning point in Temple's football season. It certainly was in the Owls wild back-and-forth game with Memphis.
Trailing Temple by two points with a fourth-and-9 at the Owls' 43-yard line, Memphis quarterback Brady White scrambled and hit tight end Joey Magnifico with pass that was initially ruled a 13-yard reception with 1 minute, 50 seconds left in the game.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Magnifico, who gave Temple fits all day, had to dive low to make the catch.
The play, however, was overturned, and Temple survived the comeback effort to defeating No. 23 Memphis, 30-28, in Saturday's American Athletic Conference homecoming game at Lincoln Financial Field.
Temple (5-1, 2-0 AAC) has beaten two ranked teams, the other a 20-17 win over then-No. 21 Maryland in the second game of the season.
The Owls will face another ranked team on Saturday when they visit No. 21 SMU, which was idle this week.
Can Temple find its way to the Top 25 as well?
That will be answered on Sunday when the new polls come out. The answer to the overturned catch came from the AAC.
In a statement to The Inquirer, which acted as the pool reporter, Chuck Sullivan, the assistant commissioner for communications for the AAC said, "This falls in line of a judgment call, and we wouldn't make the replay official available for that by the conference policy. The ruling was that the Memphis player didn't have control of the ball as it hit the ground and that there was enough video evidence to confirm it."
That ended a tense game in which Temple led early and hung on late against a Memphis team that is now 5-1, 1-1 in the AAC and entered the game averaging 39.8 points per game.
"To the naked eye, I thought it was a completion. But then you saw the replay, and I thought it was clear as day that it was incomplete, and they made the right call," Temple coach Rod Carey said.
Not surprisingly, White, the Memphis quarterback who began his career at Arizona State, said otherwise.
"It looked like (Magnifico) was able to get under it and make a catch, and obviously they reviewed it and overturned it, but I can't control that stuff," White said.
What the Tigers could have controlled better were turnovers. Four of them came via three fumbles and one interception.
Temple committed two turnovers, both fumbles. The Owls scored 16 points off the Memphis turnovers, while Memphis scored seven off Temple.
The Owls were in control early when Isaiah Wright jumped over a defender to complete a 12-yard scoring pass, increasing Temple's lead to 23-7 with just 2:21 left in the first half.
Memphis, to its credit, kept fighting back.
In a game with so many turnovers, a true standout was Temple junior cornerback Harrison Hand, the Baylor transfer.
Hand finished with nine tackles, including two tackles for loss, one interception, one pass breakup and a forced fumble.
His first-quarter interception led to a field goal. He also stopped Memphis for no gain on a 4th-and-1 from its 49 in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Hand forced a fumble that was recovered by teammate Amir Tyler on the Temple 45. The Owls then scored on that drive, ending with Anthony Russo's back-shoulder throw in the end zone to Branden Mack. That made it, 30-21, Owls with 12:48 left.
"I think this was my best game," said Hand, which is saying something because he has enjoyed several big ones in his first season with the Owls.
For the second game in a row, Temple used backup quarterback Todd Centeio for two series in place of Russo, one in each half. And for the second straight week, Centeio led the Owls to a field goal on his first series. In his two series, the redshirt sophomore completed all three passes for 32 yards and rushed seven times for 44 yards.
Russo completed 20 of 33 passes for 224 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
After Russo connected on the scoring pass to Mack (9 receptions, 125 yards, one TD), Memphis came right back on Daniel Tyce's 3-yard touchdown reception, making it 30-28 with 9:58 left.
On the next series Temple's Re'Mahn Davis was stopped one yard short on a fourth-down run. Memphis took over on its 30-yard line, and that drive concluded with the overturned ruling.
The Tigers got the ball back on their own 16 with 48 seconds left but never threatened.
