by Mike Gibson

Perspective: They’re Back!

Incoming freshman first days have come a long way from the days when they piled all of the football players into the basement at Peabody Hall.

Now the freshmen come into Morgan Hall, which is about as upscale an experience for a perspective recruit as there is in the country. Instead of keys, the players are given swipe cards. Instead of a view of an alley, they get to see perhaps one of the best views of Center City Philadelphia anywhere. They will go to school in an exciting, vibrant, city, playing for a name that is now respected nationally.

Workout this morning at The Art Museum

This past weekend was the first for the 2017 true freshmen, many of whom will be redshirted. The “jewel” of the class has already been here for awhile, Dwyer (Fla.) High Toddy Centeio, who was a mid-year enrollee. It would only be a mild surprise to see Todd play a lot this year, not a major one. He performed pretty much as well as the other three quarterbacks vying for the job.

Some things change, some remain the same.

The parents still come and go and there are bags of stuff to haul through the dorms and hugs and goodbyes.

Other than that, though, it’s a whole different ballgame.

Temple players live in a state-of-the-art high rise and practice in a state-of-the-art $17 million practice facility.

It’s a long way from the days of Peabody Hall and the “largest Astroturf field in the world” (Geasey Field) in which to practice or the days when the “weight room” was located in the basement of McGonigle Hall next to the bowling alley.

Somehow, the kids of Wayne Hardin’s and Bruce Arians’ days overcame facilities and brutal schedules and won a “fair share” of games.

The kids today have it a little better, both facility wise and schedule wise.

When it comes to perspective and how they have done and how they are expected to do, it’s important to have those two items in mind.

Friday: The New Slogan

6 thoughts on “Perspective: They’re Back!”

John Belli
June 28, 2017
8:28 am

Mike, you don’t go back far enough. Before the complex was astroturfed, Geasey Field was grass (but in reality mostly dirt after a couple of weeks of practice). Every now and then one of the graves over which the field was built would collapse and cause someone to get hurt. (maybe practicing over graves cursed the team-it seemed like it at times). There was no weight room at all and twice a week in the Spring they’d close the Pearson Hall weight room for two hours-an hour each for the offense and defense to work out. There was no in-season weight lifting as is the rule today. If Wayne Hardin (if he dropped the myth that weight lifting was bad, a belief that many of his age held, including Paterno) or Bruce Arians had the benefit of the amenities the team now enjoy, maybe today TU football would be spoken in the same breath as other football powers. What they were able to do with what they had to work with is simply amazing.

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L Blaze
June 28, 2017
9:21 am

I recall a story about cultivating crab grass on the practice field because it would stand up to the pounding and ripping from 85 sets of cleats through the fall until a frost would kill it.

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joninohio
June 28, 2017
9:37 am

I go back to the old South Hall days – an old building where they had basketball games and gymnastics meets. They did have a weight room, albeit quite small and mostly for the football players where benching 300 was considered awesome – this was before Hardin and before McGonigle Hall (where that wonderful athletic statue resides out front) and when Temple played home games in Temple Stadium off Cheltenham Ave. and where we had our track meets, baseball games and tennis matches.
Mike, forgive me for being nitpicky, but shouldn’t it be “prospective” recruit, not perspective? I just couldn’t help it……

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kj
June 28, 2017
12:33 pm

meanwhile, back at the ranch…,https://www.underdogdynasty.com/houston-cougars/2017/6/27/15880568/houston-lands-commitment-from-stand-out-quarterback-chance-amie-tyler-lee-john-2018-greg-ward-jr

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- John Belli
  June 28, 2017
  7:28 pm
  
  Rivals has Houston 22nd and TU 49th. Will take being in the top 50.
  
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Easy Owl
June 28, 2017
8:36 pm

One can only wonder what things would be like at TU had the stadium and the university hospital been built on or near the main campus. I know those decisions were made a long time ago. And a lot transpired over that time frame. Just the same, that whole area might have been better able to withstand the urban blight that followed for about 4 decades after the mid-60’s. Anyway, good for UH. I hope they get a shot to play every P5 Texas school. And we get a shot at Baylor.

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