Entering his eighth season at the helm of the Temple football program, veteran head coach Bobby Wallace has to feel like he is living an odyssey. Wallace has played the role of the leader of a band of football nomads, as his team and program have journeyed from stadium to stadium and conference to conference.

Though the Owls still competed in the Big East through last season, the conference’s other schools decided that Temple was not a worthy member in 2001 and made the decision to rid themselves of the struggling team. In 14 seasons of Big East play, the Owls totaled just 14 conference wins, failing to win a game in league play in six different seasons.

“When we were in the Big East conference, that was great and everything, but we didn’t have a practice facility. We didn’t have a home stadium,” said Wallace, whose teams played home games at both Veterans Stadium and Franklin Field until 2003. “We played half of our games at one stadium, half of them at the other. The campus was a commuter school. It was almost probably a negative being in the Big East because we didn’t have the [same] things as the other Big East schools.”

Not surprisingly, bringing fresh talent to the program became a major challenge for Wallace and his coaching staff.

“I’ve been here — this will be the eighth season — we’ve gone through getting kicked out the of the Big East, not having a home stadium, trying to get a facility to practice at,” Wallace said. “We’ve gotten all of those things accomplished, and then we had the task force last year to decide what level of football [to play at] or if we were even going to play football. And, of course, obviously those are not recruiting plusses. That will hurt you a little bit as you try to recruit.”

Wallace’s team has a new lease on life of sorts, after surviving an investigation by the university’s task force to determine the fate of the program in the off-season. Now, armed with a stadium lease at Lincoln Financial Field, home to the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, that took effect two seasons ago, the Owls believe they have finally found a long term nesting place in the MAC conference. Interestingly enough, this weekend’s road trip to Madison for a matchup with Wisconsin played a large part in Temple’s move to the mid-major conference.

Originally, Wallace’s team was slated to host North Carolina State on Saturday, but to complete the conference change, needed to shift a pair of games around in order to schedule a fourth MAC game against Western Michigan (as a current affiliate member of the conference, the Owls are slotted to play a quartet of MAC games). Now, rather than playing Middle Tennessee State in two weeks, Temple will host Western Michigan.

“I really don’t know exactly how it went, but if this meant us getting into the MAC conference I didn’t care about changing the schedule,” Wallace said. “We put North Carolina State off … they’re not bad. But it was a home game, and instead [we are] going to Wisconsin, but it ought to be a good experience for our kids to play in Madison. I’ve always heard great things about it. I’ve never been there, so I’m looking forward to going.”

Western Michigan’s Broncos were scheduled to travel to Camp Randall, but Wisconsin was more than willing to play host to the Owls instead, aiding the MAC conference in its efforts.

“We want to do some things with (commissioner) Rick (Chryst) and with the MAC as far as some scheduling in the future, and I just thought this would be a good gesture if we did do it,” said UW head coach and Athletic Director Barry Alvarez.

However, Wallace and the Owls are now dealing with a new hurdle, losing five players slated to start this year due to academic ineligibility. Even worse, the suspensions came just four days before last Thursday’s season opener at Arizona State, which turned into a 63-16 drubbing at the hands of the Sun Devils. Still, Wallace and the Owls are prepared to ride out the troubles this season after finally finding some program stability.

“It hurts to lose players, and I think we had a lot of chemistry with our team as far as closeness,” Wallace said. “I’m sure a lot of players are hurting for the guys that aren’t playing, but we’ve got to go on and, hopefully, in time, we can concentrate on exactly what we need to do and not be worrying about that.”