01.13.16
by

Unfinished Business: Perfect Slogan for 2016

unfinished

 

Of all the Vince Vaughn movie titles the Temple football team could have used for a 2016 slogan, the final choice was Unfinished Business.

Since Swingers and Return to Paradise did not seem like appropriate themes for a college football season, it was probably the best choice for a couple of reasons. Unfinished is a nod to the notion that the 3-4 finish of 2015 was unacceptable and admitting the problem is the first step to solving it. A lot of the problem was the result of a knock-down, drag-out, game against Notre Dame but a team  that trains as hard as Temple should have been able to physically respond from a physical game and that is something the Owls have to fix going forward.

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There were other issues that caused the 3-4 that need to be fixed, preferably by the mid-April spring game. The team needs to find a better method to contain dual-threat quarterbacks. Nobody contained Houston quarterback Greg Ward, but even a mediocre Maryland team contained South Florida’s Quinton Flowers and Temple will have to study what Maryland did in a 35-17 win and try to copy that against all other dual-threat quarterbacks. More unfinished work is fixing an inefficient offense. Having to look to the sideline in the final quarter of the Houston game for the AAC championship robbed them of the chance of making that game competitive. It has to be ditched for a more streamlined approach when trailing in the final quarter of games.

The business part of the slogan is a reminder that bowl games are going to have to be business trips. The fun in bowl games is lifting that trophy at the end of the game, not bowling, kayaking or beach volleyball that the Owls overdosed on at the Boca Raton Bowl.A little birdie (Owl) told us that there was open curfew the night before the first practice and that many of the players got into their hotel rooms at 3 a.m.  They had to practice at 8 a.m. and there was throwing up on the field and much joking about it. That, in my mind, was a wasted practice. Judging from what happened on the field against Toledo, it may not have been the only one. Temple fans who stayed at the Toledo hotel were reporting fewer such side trips and late night curfew busting the Rockets. Perhaps not coincidentally, Toledo won the game, 32-17.

The 2015 slogan “Leave No Doubt” served this past team well because it was an original slogan born out of a heartfelt speech by departing senior Kenny Harper a year ago when the team wasn’t picked for a bowl despite qualifying. Harper’s message to his teammates was “leave no doubt” by finishing with such a good record that bowls would have to choose the team. That part of Harper’s speech stuck and was the 2015 rallying cry.

This year’s “Unfinished Business” is a recycled one done by a number of teams before. Recycling saves energy, though, and the Owls certainly ran out of that commodity at the end of the season so maybe this slogan will help sustain them through what they hope will be a longer season in 2016.

 

 

11 thoughts on “Unfinished Business: Perfect Slogan for 2016”

  1. slogans starting with a negative carry unnecessary baggage, and “unfinished business” forces you to look back before looking forward…,

    how about just simply, “Finish”?

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  2. How about Beat Toledo the next time we play them. Not as pithy but more important.

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  3. I could see that loss coming a mile away. It did not help when one of the fathers of the players told me the kids had no curfew before the first practice and came straggling in at 3, then had to practice at 8. Much throwing up at practice that morning from being sick. He said kids given that much freedom would take it, so why not lock things down? Stay in, go play the game and win it. I wrote on the day of the game that the Owls were walking into an ambush, but things like this certainly did not help their cause. Losing to Toledo is just another talking point the MAC has over us. It was a lose-lose proposition taking that game. Win, the AAC runner-up is supposed to beat a MAC school. Lose, we get laughed at forever. That was a “better win” game and we did not get it done.

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  4. Oh, so they have new T-shirts admitting that the coaches screwed things up (again)? Think about it, “unfinished business” really means something wasn’t carried out as it could have been. It really did have the feel that they got satisfied before the season was over and assumed the attitude that they didn’t need to try as hard after a certain point in what, to that point, was a great season. And that’s why some of us have a bad taste in our mouths even though it was one of the very best seasons in Temple football history. But it could have better….hell, maybe the coaches ran out of energy… This seems to be the storyline with these guys – the first 2 seasons each could and should have been better and so was this season. It just again makes me think “what can we reasonably expect at Temple?”

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  5. league championships should be a reasonable expectation. Not expecting national titles, but league ones in this league against this competition should be the bar set by the administration, if not the coaching staff.

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    • the four losses in the last seven games
      1. ND – they were the better team, we played our best game and lost, no issues
      2. USF – we got hit in the mouth, the game exposed our weaknesses., USF was the better team
      3. Houston – a sideline loss, team was distracted leading up to the game, came out flat, then woke up but couldn’t execute the 2 minute drill
      4. Toledo – a sideline loss, a happy to be there Temple team put pleasure before business, got out-played and out-coached

      should have finished 12-2 and ranked in the Top 25.., this team had more talent than the 2011 team

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      • Too much learning on the job. That’s why I would have loved Tom Coughlin spending a year here telling Matt, “this is how you fix things on the fly” instead of Thomas saying, “Yeah, Matt, I agree. We’re down 11 with seven minutes left, but we really need to take 20 seconds off the clock before every snap.”

  6. “Business Before Pleasure” worked well for me for 40 years.

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    • Business trip. Temple’s image depends on winning bowl games consistently and that was not a good start. We should not have treated it like a trip to Disney World. Those are for after winning the Super Bowl, not before it.

      Reply

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