Tell Me There’s a Chance

This is pretty much how I feel about the Cotton Bowl right now.

There’s a scene in the 2004 movie “Dumb and Dumber” where Jim Carrey asks a pretty girl to level straight with him and tell him if a guy like him and a girl like her can ever get together.

“Not good,” she says.

“Not good, like one out of a hundred?”

“I’d say, more like one in a million.”

“So you’re telling me there’s a chance?”

That’s kind of how I feel about Temple football’s chances of securing the G5 slot in the NY6 today.

tulaneweather

                                                It will be 70 in Philly on Saturday, but only 63 and windy in The Big Easy.

It’s a chance, not one in a million, but maybe one in 200 or 300, and that’s what I’m going to want to achieve first. We’re going to have to talk about “settling” later, but I’m not one of those people who say “don’t look past Tulane.” I’m looking past Tulane because the job of the kids and the coaches is not to look past Tulane.

Look past Tulane, and there’s East Carolina, the same ECU team that lost at home, 55-31, to SMU. That was the same SMU team that got smoked by Temple, 45-20 (and the Owls led, 35-0, at the half). So, yeah, I’m looking past ECU because it’s the kids’ job and the coaches’ job not to look past ECU and I am pretty confident that they are  as laser-focused on doing that job that they were on the Unfinished Business trip to New Orleans.

That brings us to the AAC title game against a more beatable foe, where it’s Navy or Tulsa, than the Houston team the Owls had to face a year ago.

Win there, and even then the Owls will need help but if Western Michigan or San Diego State falter, which is possible (look at the MAC championship game upsets over the last decade or so), and the Owls’ seven-game winning streak in essentially a Power 6 league, is as strong an argument for a high ranking as any other G5 team.

That would put the Owls in an extremely attractive bowl, the Cotton, against a marquee opponent. One of the possible opponents is LSU, another is Penn State. Since PSU-Temple will not be on the schedule for a long, long time (possibly ever), I vote for that game as the best-case end to the Temple season. (For those of you who say they try to avoid regular-season rematches in bowl games, Temple-Army is one of the projected games by a major news website so you can have that rematch, I want this one.)

While a game against someone like Wake Forest in Annapolis or Georgia in Birmingham is more likely and not all that unappealing, as long as there’s a chance to get a date the best-looking girl in the room, that’s what I’m going for now. That would give the Owls a league title, a top 25 ranking, and a chance to end the Penn State series with a win if that’s how the game falls.

That’s a pretty smoking-hot date.

Just do not give me Rosie O’Donnell (a MAC team) or Amy Schumer (a CUSA team) when you are telling me there’s a shot at Jessica Alba (NY6).

One in a million maybe not, but as long as there is a chance we can float that out there as a nice dream scenario. OK, now back to thinking about Tulane.

Friday: Trap Game My Butt

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20 thoughts on “Tell Me There’s a Chance

  1. Nothing wrong with dreaming! The Owls would also need Boise State to lose. Basically, they need Wyoming to win Mountain West and somebody other than Western Michigan to win the MAC.

    • I think they need New Mexico to win the MWC. If Wyoming wins, they’ll have a lot of buzz as the I-A version of NDSU.

    • Boise State already lost (to Wyoming) but you are right, another loss would be helpful. Also, San Diego’s State’s loss to South Alabama is much worse than our loss to Army. Troy is a possibility, but the Sun Belt is historically the worst league in the G5 group. Don’t think a Sun Belt team will ever make the playoff.

  2. Assuming the Cotton Bowl doesn’t happen, here’s a slightly less long shot for a higher profile bowl. The Pinstripe Bowl might be a possibility. One major CFB blog suggests Big 10 gets 4 and possibly 5 teams in New Years bowls. With that scenario, Northwestern projected at 5-5 plays Miami Fla. Both teams are among the lesser travel support teams in their conferences. And tx aren’t cheap for that game. Can Pinstripe Bowl go outside their conference tie-ins for a 9 or 10 win team that can bring fans (6,000 to 10,000?) from only 100 miles or so away?

    • I doubt they will go outside unless there is not enough bowl eligible teams in the tie-in conferences. Everybody on ESPN has Temple in the Military Bowl. I think that is a good landing spot for us, but not against GA Tech. They would kill us. Snow’s defense was re-built for the spread. It has been pretty goood against that offense. Unfortunately, this could be a year where we play 3 triple option teams. What are the Odds?

    • They can only break conference tie ins if said conferences don’t have enough bowl eligible teams. The tie ins are contracts. So they can’t ditch a bowl eligible team from the ACC or B1G for any reasons.

  3. How about the battle of PA? Pitt/Temple in the Military Bowl? That is actually possible.

  4. Let’s all go for the Ariana Grande Bowl and deal with the possible morning-after rejection on January 2nd.

  5. smh…, cold weather Bowl Games suck.., runs contrary to Bowl Game history and is certainly not pleasurably for fans and players.., it is like playing the Super Bowl in Minnesota.., why is that the best choice?

    • It’s about opponent and visibility. They chose weather last year and it was definitely a lose-lose selection. This isn’t a heavy travel fanbase anyway. So they need to worry about the best TV slot against a name brand opponent and not the best “game” possible.

  6. Unfinished business; TUFB started the season w/three goals: win the conference championship, win a bowl game, and finish in the Top 25., after an horrendous start we now find ourselves on the doorstep of historic achievement…, the UCF night game tipped the scale towards Stella and continued success.., no small coincidence the season has been defined by the back-to-back wins at night over Florida athletes.., we should play all Home games at night in Temple Stadium, North Broad

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