Temple schedule 2011: A return to normalcy

Team exhales after holding their breaths for 60 minutes. This year, they should breathe easier.

Last year when the Temple football schedule was announced, I said I thought I never saw a physically and more psychologically challenging schedule.
The reason was that, right off the bat, the Owls faced a potentially season-ruining game in the first outing, the Mayor’s Cup against Villanova. Then they had to establish credibility in the MAC with a win over Central Michigan, then they had a revenge game against UConn and then the Holy Grail game (potentially program-defining win) against Penn State.

Temple 2011 Schedule
Date Opponent

Thur., Sept. 1 VILLANOVA, 7 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 10 *at Akron
Sat., Sept. 17 PENN STATE
Sat., Sept. 24 at Maryland
Sat., Oct. 1 *TOLEDO
Sat., Oct. 8 *at Ball State
Sat., Oct. 15 *BUFFALO [HC]
Sat., Oct. 22 *at Bowling Green
Sat., Oct. 29 BYE
Wed., Nov. 2 *at Ohio
Wed., Nov. 9 *MIAMI (Ohio)
Sat., Nov. 19 ARMY
Fri., Nov. 25 *KENT STATE
Fri., Dec. 2: MAC Championship Detroit, Mich

What a gauntlet 2010 was, starting with the pressure-cooker game with Villanova.
Lose that, like in 2009, and you lose the fan base for the entire season.
I must have had 200 Temple fans come up to me in the parking lot after that last-second loss to Villanova saying essentially the same thing:
“I’m not coming back. .. Al Golden is a fraud… …talks a big game but doesn’t deliver … same old Temple …”
Well, Al Golden wasn’t a fraud but about 199 of those Temple fans kept their word.
The only guy who came back was my friend, Tom, who kicked a car so hard cursing at Golden that he nearly broke his foot.
The others I never saw again.
I wrote at the time that I couldn’t blame them because to lose to Villanova, no matter how good the Wildcats were in 2009, was losing credibility in your hometown.
I’ve always said that Temple has a “hardcore” fan base of about 20K, who will be there through thick and thin. I’ve always said that Temple has a “soft core” fan base of about 20K more waiting for a reason to believe. So many of them lost that reason to believe that night.
They gained a measure of it back in the win last season, but I had a sense that the team and their fans were biting their fingernails the whole night fretting about the outcome.
Instead of punching Villanova silly and enjoying their physical superiority, the team played like it was walking on eggshells.
I want to see the Temple swagger back against Villanova this year.
That’s what it will take to get the Temple fan base back.
Beat the crap out of Villanova, then beat the crap out of Akron and then have a confident swagger going into Maryland and Penn State games.
It will take a lot to get the softcore fans back, like a win over both Villanova and Penn State.
That’s why I like this schedule.
There’s a return to normalcy.
That’s why the opener meant everything last year.
Don’t get me wrong. The opener means a lot this year, too but I don’t see the same kind of pressure.
Last year, Villanova had 16 starters returning from a national championship team and, unlike Temple, a championship quarterback.
Villanova loses that quarterback, plus its greatest playmaker since Brian Westbrook. Villanova also loses 16 starters.
Temple returns 13 starters and a lot of the replacements look more talented than some of the losses (Big Mo notwithstanding).
I see the Villanova game this year not as a pressure-cooker, but as a jumping off point to a great season.
I see a big win, a confidence builder, that could lead to bigger wins down the line.
At least that is the way it should play out..

5 thoughts on “Temple schedule 2011: A return to normalcy

  1. TFF- 2009 was senior year at Temple and I was at the Nova game. It wasn’t so much that they lost to a good Nova team, which eventually would go on to win the fcs national championship game, It was how they lost it. Coming off a 5 and 6 season which easily and honestly should have been a nine win season, with two OT losses and another 3 by 4 points or less including a game losing hail marry against buffalo. I don’t want to go on a tangent about the 2008 season but it’s important to realize where the program was coming into the Villanova game. Even with all the heartbreak that was the 2008 season it was the first glimpse that Al Golden had started to get Temple football relevant again after so many pitifully awful seasons. This brings us back to the 2009 Nova game, a game with the hopes for the whole 2009 season riding on it. Established as a game for the pride of the city (mayor’s cup) we were against a team that was an fcs team that had not beaten a fbs team since 2003. I thought it might be a good game for a while but never thought we would lose and with Temple that was one of the few times that I was confident. Then Temple goes on to blow a 10 point 4th quarter lead, ending with Nova kicking a game winning field goal with time expiring that was the result of another awful interception by Vaugh Charlton. (On a side note as much as Chester Stewart did not perform at times I would never root for Charlton as our QB that was the final straw.) So here we go another moment where Temple football builds you up just to let you down, gives you hope just to crush it in an excruciating fashion. Same old Temple team why even Care? Additionally, that year’s schedule played into it as well. After the heartbreaking Nova loss we get a bye week and follow it up with our traditional pounding by @PSU. So at 0-2 we come home to play buffalo, the team that the year before crushed us with a hail marry, and if I recall correctly it was raining, and I admit that I skipped that game. (Buffalo in the rain at 0-2 kinda depressed me.) By this point the fan base was obliterated. With the win at Buffalo and then @Eastern Michigan, I once again saw the potential for that team and went to the rest of the games that I could get to that season. They went on to win the next 9 games and go to the first bowl game in 30 years. However, throughout the season the Linc remained practically empty. If we had gone on to win the Nova game it would have been a 10 win season but more importantly it would have set the tone for the season and maintained the fan base that was excited and at it largest for that disappointing game. I understand why you see the Nova game as the measuring stick for SA. Because the first game of the season is always the measuring stick for teams especially when it’s a team like Temple who’s devout fans know how good we can be yet has seen the team underwhelm before. Nova is a must win this year and Akron should be a good second game with a good Mac team and with our talent we should win and set up the PSU game to see where we stand on the national scale.

  2. Last year's team never got a chance to build a head of steam.This year, I see a couple of games that build some steam.I think the Nova/Akron tandem should have about the same result of the Buffalo/Kent State back-to-back games.One should be 42-0 and one should be 28-10, like last year.I think that would be the best-case-scenario going into a tough 3-4 stretch and a luxury that last year's team didn't enjoy.

  3. also, very good points about Villanova.The game cannot be underestimated in terms of what it means to the fan base.Ultimately, you are never going to see the "softcore" turn into a "hardcore" fan base unless you provide them with a 1-2 punch like wins over Villanova and Penn State can provide.Then watch the "Cherry and White portion" of the crowds for the rest the year jump up from 20K to a solid flat-line base of 30K, even for the MAC games.That's the kind of buzz those two wins can generate and the only way I see to reunite the hard and soft core TEMPLE fan bases.

  4. Having seven home games should preclude a five loss season…, PSU and MD back to back doesn't help at all….., who does PSU play before and after they play us?…., new offense or not, everything we do on "O" revolves around our most talented player – BP! imagine the possibilities if he plays in all 12 games….., anything less than 3-1 against Maryland, Toledo, Miami, Ohio and Army and it will be two consecutive years and no bowl game, unless we beat PSU along the way…., can't wait!

  5. I'd love to see what BP can do if he plays every game healthy. Then I will shake his hand and wish him good luck in the NFL because he's not coming back for his senior season. If he only plays sporadically as a junior, he will be back at Temple in 2012 because no NFL team will take the injury risk. Look for BP to gut out the small injuries, for his sake primarily, and let's keep our fingers crossed he doesn't get any big ones.

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