Kevin Kroboth hopes to bring home a bowl win for Temple University

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Kevin Kroboth's first trip west of Illinois has presented the Temple University senior safety and Nazareth Area High School graduate with a different view of the world.

"We flew in over the mountains but around where our hotel is it's all flat and then you look and see these big mountains rising up," said Kroboth in a phone interview Wednesday night. "It's not what you're used to in Philadelphia."

Kroboth and the Owls aren't in North Philadelphia any more; they are in Albuquerque, N.M., for Saturday's New Mexico Bowl against Wyoming (2 p.m., ESPN). As different as the Southwest looks to an Easterner such as Kroboth, it feels very familiar in another respect.

"We thought going to a place that's this far west and this far south that it would be warm," Kroboth said. "Instead, it feels just like the weather at home."

Just being at a bowl brings a warmer feeling to the Owls than last season's bowl-less December. Temple went to the EagleBank Bowl in Washington D.C., two seasons ago and lost to UCLA in the Owls' first bowl trip since 1979. Last season, Temple went 8-4 and was not invited to a bowl. This season's 8-4 earned the Owls the trip to New Mexico.

"I think the hardest part of not going to a bowl game last season was that our seniors didn't get to play," Kroboth said. "We were participating in practices all along and then we weren't invited. I think back to what a great group of seniors we had last season and it would have been nice to get them one last game."

Kroboth and his class will get that game against the 8-4 Cowboys of the Mountain West Conference on Saturday at the University of New Mexico's University Stadium.

"We're excited to play a team that's so new to us, coming from the northeast and doing something different," he said. "Mostly, we've never been in this part of the country and we'd rather a play a team we don't know that much about than one we are familiar with."

Wyoming, which won the 2009 New Mexico Bowl over Fresno State, features freshman quarterback Brett Smith, the MWC Freshman of the Year, who completed 233 of 385 passes for 2,495 yards and 18 touchdowns to challenge Kroboth and his secondary mates.

Kroboth finished second on the Owls with 71 tackles (51 solo) and leads Temple in passes broken up (six) and defended (eight) and tied for second on the team with two interceptions on a defense ranked No. 15 in the nation in total defense. Kroboth was selected to the All-Mid-American Conference third team at safety.

Kroboth and his teammates, which include starting sophomore nose tackle Levi Brown and backup weakside linebacker Ahkeem Smith of Liberty, have been enjoying the bowl's hospitality and activities but have not lost track of why they have come to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

"We want to make the end of our season by winning a bowl," Kroboth said. "People say. 'You're Temple, you're going to lose the bowl game.' This one, we're going to go out and win."

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