The CMU football team brings a winning Homecoming tradition into this weekend’s festivities.

It carries a 53-27-1 all-time Homecoming record and draws bigger crowds of students and alumni into Kelly/Shorts Stadium each year.

But junior linebacker Tim Brazzel simply prefers to look at CMU’s 4 p.m. matchup against Temple as the next game on the schedule.

“I’m excited every week,” he said. “I learned that in high school, Homecoming week is Homecoming week. Don’t buy into any of the hype that’s going on, you just wait for the game.”

Although the Owls (2-4 overall, 1-2 Mid-American Conference) have lost four of their last five games, their defense stands out as among the best in the conference.

Temple surrenders the MAC’s third-lowest point total per game – 18.5 – and scores 71.4 percent of the time inside the 20-yard line, which ranks second.

Opponents convert just 35.2 percent of their third downs against the Owls, second-best in the MAC.

“If I had to rank defenses this year, it’d be Georgia, Purdue, then Temple,” Hartline said. “They’re pretty stout up front – their edge guys have a lot of shake-and-bake, and their interior guys are stocky and tough to move.”

Defensive end Junior Galette leads the Owls with 2.5 sacks and five tackles for losses this season. In the secondary, defensive backs Jamal Schulters (four pass breakups, two interceptions) and Dominique Harris (three pass breakups, two interceptions) are among MAC leaders in passes defended.

While the offense musters just 17.7 points per game, second-lowest in the MAC, quarterback Chester Stewart was critical last week in the team’s 28-10 win against Miami (Ohio).

Stewart, who replaced injured starter Adam DiMichele earlier this season, threw for 179 yards and three touchdowns.

“Stewart made some plays for them last week,” said CMU coach Butch Jones. “(Temple) is very athletic, they can run on the perimeter at wide receiver and their offensive line is big. They’re a very physical football team at all three phases.”

Despite Stewart’s success, the Owls have yet to get their running game going, averaging 97.3 yards per game and just three yards per carry. Tailback Joe Jones leads the team with 157 rushing yards, but averages 2.7 per rush.

CMU and Temple met only once, when Temple joined the MAC in 2006. The Chippewas won 42-26 en route to a conference championship.

A win Saturday would give CMU its longest Homecoming winning streak since it won 17 straight from 1966-82.

Hartline said he and the rest of the offensive line looks to impress former linemen with their performance at Homecoming not only this year, but every year.

“I take a lot of pride in representing a lot of guys that played here before,” he said. “Brock Guiterrez, Adam Kieft, Eric Ghiaciuc, Scott Rehberg … Those are all guys that I knew were war daddies.

“I think trying to show them that CMU offensive linemen are still five war daddies on the field is just a great honor.”

bmanzullo@cm-life.com

E-mail the author: Brian Manzullo