Brendan McGowan has played football the majority of his 23-year-old life.

He has experienced his share of peaks and valleys along the way that began as a youth in Hazleton, expanded at Marian and climaxed at Temple University. The latter, however, easily could be referred to as his zenith of football."It's been great," said the Owls' starting redshirt senior center. "I came into this year healthy and I have felt great. We have a chance to make some school history, and it has been fun. For me, personally, this has been my best year of football."McGowan and his Temple teammates will get a chance to become the first team in school history to record 11 wins in a season when they will meet Wake Forest in the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Maryland, at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. The game will be televised live on ESPN.The Owls (10-3) will look to put the finishing touches on a magical year that saw them win their first conference championship since they won the Middle Atlantic Conference in 1967 with a convincing 34-10 victory over No. 19 Navy in the recent American Athletic Conference championship game. Temple will also bring a seven-game winning streak into the bowl game.For McGowan, it has been a gratifying run that has lasted a bit longer. He became the team's starting center in the ninth game of the 2015 season when starter Kyle Friend suffered an injury. A former guard at Marian as well as in the Owls' system, McGowan made a smooth transition and never looked back."When I look back, it took some work to move to center," recalled the mammoth, 6-4, 300-pounder. "But I had a chance and knew I had to make the most of it. I had a shoulder injury the year before and it was huge for me to get a chance to start."We all began working together better as a unit, and playing with everyone was a real confidence booster for me. I became more comfortable out there and realized I could do this and succeed. I take a lot of pride in what I do, and we all came together as a team and really jelled. We're all brothers out there."McGowan sees himself more a run blocker, but he made the necessary adjustments to quickly emerge as one of the elite centers in the country. He was a semifinalist for the NFF Campbell Award and was named to the watch list of the annual prestigious Rimington Award, named after former Nebraska standout and Cincinnati all-pro center Dave Rimington."I knew I had to work more on my footwork and also spent more time with the weights," he said. "It is also a matter of taking charge out there. Everything worked out for me, but I had great support from my teammates and my coaches this year."We started a little slow, but then we got everything together."McGowan noted the team's 26-25 victory over Central Florida Oct. 15 in game seven as a turning point where they topped the .500 mark at 4-3 after playing overall mediocre football the first six weeks."Once we came back and won, we knew we could play with anybody," McGowan said. "We played well against Penn State and just came up short. We then won two games, but suffered a tough loss against Memphis."But the win over Central Florida really brought us together and we knew we could go from there. It was just a matter of getting a win like that. We were playing better at the time and that put us over the top."Along with his stellar play on the field, McGowan has been active in the community. He has enjoyed working with kids in underprivileged communities in North Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey."I enjoy mentoring kids," McGowan said. "I spent a lot of time in Camden this summer. I enjoy any chance I can to work with kids in communities. Giving them something that I have and they don't have means a lot to me."Former head coach Matt Rhule, who left to take a job at Baylor, realized and appreciated McGowan's transformation."Brendan is a great leader who you can trust and he is a good teammate," Rhule said during the summer about his lineman. "He is a guy that everybody rallies around. We tell our kids that the first job we have is to try to build great men and he is well on his way to being a great man."McGowan, who earned a degree in business and regularly earned college academic honors, plans to stay around the Philadelphia area when his football career is over. Friend, his predecessor, was signed as a free agent by the Jets and is currently on their practice squad.In the meantime, though, he plans to make the most of his stay."It has been a little weird waiting around to play football again," McGowan said about the time off before the bowl game. "But it has been worth the wait. Winning the conference championship was great and now we can finish the year on a good note."I love the game and I don't know what will happen after Temple. I just have to take it day by day."Fortunately for Temple, those days have been good ones.