02.06.16
by

The Impact of Karamo Dioubate

Matt Rhule gets the phone call from Karamo at the 2:15 mark.

 

According to a name origin website, Karamo denotes an extravagant, ambitious nature with the desire for financial prominence.

If those qualities come through at Temple for the next three years, Karamo Dioubate will use a lot of the former to get to the goal of the latter and we will all be richer for it.  One day Temple recruiting will reach the level where there will be no under-the-radar guys and a lot of ICBMs coming in with nuclear-tipped warheads every signing day.

Until then, Temple will have to settle for rolling out an occasional Atom Bomb to drop on the bad guys.

dioubate

Karamo at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Temple got a couple of those weapons and, for purposes of this story, we will concentrate on the Hydrogen Bomb called Dioubate. This is just the kind of weapon along the defensive front line that the Owls need to unleash on Penn State as soon as possible and that could be as early as the second game.

He’s that good.

It’s one thing to “trust the film” but it’s quite another when the film is trusted not only by the staff at Temple, but the more highly-paid ones at Alabama, Penn State,  Michigan State and South Carolina. When it comes to Dioubate, they see what you see, a pretty polished and unstoppable lineman far advanced beyond his years. Now Dioubate will have to cram a lot of learning into a short summer camp, but he certainly has the physical tools to do it.



Imagine using Sharif
Finch and Michael
Dogbe—forced to play
out of position
last year as a
tackle—at the ends,
using the gap
leverage skills
of two-time
Pennsylvania state
heavyweight wrestling
champion Averee
Robinson as nose
guard and flanking
Arob with Greg Webb
and Dioubate at tackle

They say great coaches are the guys who build a scheme around their talent and Phil Snow is a smart enough guy to know that he’s got the physical talent to run a 5-2 scheme as opposed to last year’s 4-3.

Imagine using Sharif Finch and Michael Dogbe—forced to play out of position last year as a tackle—at the ends, using the gap leverage skills of two-time Pennsylvania state heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson as nose guard and flanking Arob with Greg Webb and Dioubate at tackle. That’s a defensive line that is not only going to stop the run, but make quite a few visits to the quarterback, and make plays in the flat, ala Finch against Penn State last year. That’s not even mentioning other potential DL starters like Haason Reddick, Freddie Booth-Lloyd, Josiah Bronson and Jacob Martin (who was one of the 39,000 Temple students who had a sack against Christian Hackenberg last year).

With that accomplished, the Owls could return two starters at linebacker, Avery Williams and Stephaun Marshall, and have another LB starter, Jared Alwan, to rotate in for plays. Williams and Marshall are so tough they earned single-digit numbers and probably will do so again.  I like having two proven single-digit guys playing both linebacker positions in a 5-2.

The safeties could be a couple of guys, Delvon Randall and Nate L. Smith, who saw plenty of playing time a year ago and the corners will be Sean Chandler—the only player in the nation to return two pick 6’’s last year—and Kareem Ali Jr. (Or Artrel Foster or Nate Hairston.)

With that line making things relatively easy for the six guys behind them, it is not a huge stretch to conclude that this could be a record-setting defense next season. Every year, there are true freshmen who step onto the field and make big-time plays all over the place. Those true freshmen usually are in the SEC.

Now, with Dioubate, Temple finally has one and it opens up an extravagant, ambitious world with a rich future and a whole lot of post-game tailgates where the beer will taste like champagne.

Love to see the PSU analysts drool over a Temple recruit and the arrogance they had at the time that none of their players would decommit.

13 thoughts on “The Impact of Karamo Dioubate”

  1. Mike love your analysis. If only they adopt it along with Thomas in the slot.

    Reply

    • Thanks, John. Phil Snow is a smart guy. Our high-end talent is now along the front and the best way to utilize that is a 5-2. It’s all about disruption at the point of attack. If we get in there before these dual threat qbs are able to turn the corner, all sorts of good things will happen like backfield sacks and recovered fumbles. Great coaches scheme around the talent at hand, not the other way around. (This is assuming Webb gets eligible, but it works with FBL, too.)

      Reply

    • nice piece, thanks for the videos..

      PSU is not who they think they are..,

      they get way above average kids every year, in the Top 10-20, but have enjoyed only average results…, all big hoopla during the recruiting season but you never hear about those guys during the games, something bad beyond young boys is going on up there…,

      getting slammed on Pravda for bringing this up – Franklin is gone w/a loss to Temple this year, and MR will probably be a leading candidate to take his job.., not saying he will, only surfacing a potential reality…, head in the sand and hands over the ears is not in the best long term interest of Temple football…,

      not sure Webb will get there, he is doing the Jenny Craig and Kaplan combo right not…, think we also should consider the 3-4 D…., we don’t have depth at DT like we did last year and you need the kids running w/the 2s and 3s to stay on the field at DT..,

      between the tackles may be a weakness.., on the other hand if Finch and Praise can stay healthy then the DE rotation is way beyond strong..,

      a DE rotation of Finch, Praise, Dogbe, Reddick and Martin is an all-conference rotation at that position.

      LBs and DBs have talent, depth and will play well…, overall with the added speed, we should expect the D to be one of the best in the conference

      this 2016 team has the Jimmys and Joes, the Xs and Os have to nail one or more of the Big 3 – Conference Championship, Bowl Win, and Top 25 finish

      Reply

      • *now

      • agreed. I had to laugh when I read a typical Pravda post by one of the many Stepfords (sorry, Brian) the first post in a thread entitled “Temple-PSU” that said something to the effect, “I just watched the tape of the Penn State game again and I got so emotional I cried.” I almost chimed in with: “That’s the same reaction I get when I pop in the Toledo tape” but I know the Pravda Zombies would be in attack mode so I resisted the temptation.

  2. nice :), you should have posted…, will keep fighting those guys to open their wide shut eyes.., they are Temple fans although intoxicated from the cool-aide..,

    Reply

    • I don’t see any outrage there over finishing 3-4. Just a whole lot of patting each other and the editors over there on the backs. Those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it. Over here, we talk about all of the past, the good and the bad. This week was a very good week for Temple football and hopefully a week like this means the Toledos and USFs get in our rear view mirror and stay there. Hopefully.

      Reply

  3. Matt could be hired by PSU right after TU beats them especially if PSU loses to Pitt the week before it loses to TU. It would be phenomenal if PSU loses to both teams.

    Reply

  4. At the risk of bringing up a touchy subject on some sights…..if the owls lose to Army and subsequently drop the PSU game, in which the Nits will likely be favored, some of the shine might come off Matt rather quickly. I like where he’s going with the team and love his progress as HC but in reality his first season was a disaster, his second season showed progress and last year ended a bit soft. PSU is really the only marquee game on the schedule so there’s no make-good by beating another P5 program.

    That said, if the Owls takeout PSU and win the east AAC again he will only become a hotter commodity. Im a big fan of MR I’m simply making the point he has one good season behind him.

    Reply

    • Agree that this is a pivotal year for Rhule, who has to show that last year was not a fluke. I can say pretty confidently though that TU will be undefeated when they play PSU. Army was ranked 102 in recruiting this year. Can’t imagine that they’ll improve all that much from last season while the Owls will be able to replace their seniors without much difficulty,

      Reply

    • the Owls are not going to lose to Army. Snow has a whole year to prepare against the triple option; it’s not like the week that PSU had to prepare for them a year ago.

      Reply

  5. TU hired George DeLeone as the running game coach. He did a good job under Golden and should help the Owls. Let’s hope he has enough sense to use Jahad Thomas at slot or h back to take advantage of his elusiveness.

    Reply

  6. Does Wade Phillips use Buddy Ryan’s 5-2? Whatever Denver does, let’s do that.

    Reply

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