CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina is in a bowl game for the first time since 2016 in Mack Brown’s first year back at the helm of the program.

The Tar Heels are set to face the Temple Owls in the Military Bowl on Dec. 27. The game will be played in the United States Naval Academy’s Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, MD.

It will mark the first time the programs have met on the football field.

Temple, which is led by first-year coach Rod Carey, finished the season at 8-4 and 5-3 in the American Athletic Conference. Its losses came to Buffalo, SMU, UCF and Cincinnati while its most impressive win came at home in a 30-28 victory over No. 23 Memphis, which ended up finishing the season 12-1 after beating Cincinnati in the conference championship game.

The Owls are led by AAC defensive player of the year Quincy Roche. The junior defensive end finished the season with 44 tackles, 18 of which were for a loss, and an AAC-best 13 sacks.

In total, Temple has seven players on All-AAC teams while Roche, freshman running back Re'Mahn Davis and junior center Matt Hennessey have been voted to several All-America teams.

Currently sitting at No. 4 nationally, the Owls’ red zone defense is one of the best in the country. Their opponents have scored on 65.1 percent of their red zone trips, with only Ohio State, Florida and Louisiana Tech posting better percentages.

For UNC, it finished the season at 6-6 and 4-4 in the ACC. Its losses came to Wake Forest, Appalachian State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Virginia and Pittsburgh. The Tar Heels are coming off a 41-10 victory over rival N.C. State in Raleigh which secured their bowl eligibility after a two-year hiatus.

Here’s what Brown and six key players had to say about Temple ahead of Friday’s game:

On the challenges of preparing for a bowl…

“The biggest challenge is, when they get to the bowl game, there’s activities and the routine is totally different for guys who haven’t done it. So, a lot of guys get tired by the bowl game because they’re practicing, they’re up walking around way too much and they’re not taking care of themselves.

"We’ve always tried to say, ‘get in bed, save your legs.’ And our practices are a little bit different there than they are here because they’re lighter there.”

On Temple in general…

“I was fortunate enough to call one of their games about all three or four years I did Friday night football (for ESPN) so, I watched coach (Geoff) Collins at Temple, I saw him do a great job. And I saw Matt Rhule at Temple and saw ‘Temple TUFF’ was their moto and all the guys with single-digit numbers had to earn it from the coaches and they had to earn it in the offseason by being their toughest and best players.

"And then I actually called one of Rod Carey’s games, I called a championship game for him when at Northern Illinois when he was playing Bowling Green. So, I know quite a bit about Temple and about coach Carey. Coach Carey worked with (N.C. State head coach) Dave Doeren at Northern Illinois and they were all very successful there.

“So, he’s a tremendous coach, they really are good at both lines of scrimmage and that front seven on defense will take your head off and they’ve got Quincy Roche that’s the defensive player of the year in the American Conference.

"He’s a tremendous pass rusher but a great player and they beat Georgia Tech, they beat Memphis and have played Cincinnati down to the end and Cinicinnati and Memphis were the two that played for the championship in that league. So, they’re a great opponent for us.”

On the challenge of facing the Owls’ red zone defense…

“It’s an issue for us and we’re looking at it right now, they’re so physical up front. Their front seven is really good. They’re older at linebacker, they’re big and strong up front and they’re really, really tough. And that has not been our best mindset with goal line, especially running.

"So, we’ve worked so hard the last four weeks on improving our goal line and short yardage stuff just because we’ve got to do it without Sam (Howell) running, so we just went to some different stuff.”

On playing Temple…

“They’re a great team. Defensively, they’re tough, they’re strong, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. But, we’ve been trending upwards and I think we’re firing on all cylinders right now on offense so we need to take this momentum into the bowl game so we can set up the team for next year.”

On the importance of winning a bowl game…

“It’s huge. To where we are right now, you could look at that as a good season but the bowl game is huge. Going out on a winning season, winning a bowl game from where we’ve been the past two years, I think that would mean so much for this program (and) for recruits kind of just showing them where we’re headed right now.”

On preparing for Temple…

“It’s really about us this time of year. We’re kind of treating it like it’s about us. We’re watching film on Temple, they’re a good team, big team, physical, tough team. But, it’s about us, so we’re really emphasizing that it’s about us. We’re just competing against each other and sometimes it gets heated but it’s out of love.”

On Temple’s offense...

“They’re a tough team, like to run the ball, but we’ve got a tough front. I think that’s what it’s going to come down to, whose front is better. So, I think we’re with it.”

On what stands out about the Owls…

“Their o-line is really good and they’re led by their center, I think he was a finalist for the (Rimington Trophy). So, we’re going to have a tough challenge up front. Their quarterback’s pretty good, I’ve known him from high school when I was out at the Elite 11. He’s a pretty good player, big, strong arm. And they’ve got some backs that are pretty good, too, so we’re going to have to play one of our best games to win the game.”

On Temple’s offense...

“They’re a tough team. They’re physical on both sides of the ball, offensively, defensively. Watching film on them, watching their offensive line, they’re really physical as I said. Their center is really good. I think it’s going to be one of the best we’ve faced all year, so I think it’ll be a good challenge for us.

On Temple’s defense…

“I’ve seen a lot of Temple film. They’re really good up front, you can tell they’re well-coached. One thing I’ve noticed about them playing on film is they play hard. They’re really big up front, too, so those guys play hard every single play, they don’t take plays off. And their linebacker core is pretty good, too.”