Our New Scheduling Buddies

SteveAddazio_2014_8

Steve Addazio contemplating a choice between running left or running right on first and second downs.

Most Temple fans have a pretty good handle on what to expect in the American Athletic Conference part of the season schedule.

Houston, Memphis and Navy are always solid and UCF and USF have the kind of speed to run away and hide.

There are, though, other variables to consider this year in the league as UCF has a new coach and, as we found out last year with Temple, a new coach does not necessarily get the same results out of pretty much similar talent.

Most Temple fans, though, do not know what to expect of our two new scheduling buddies, Boston College and Maryland. Both schools deserve a lot of credit for giving Temple a home-and-home and both schools should be right up there as the two best foes the Owls face this year.

Boston College

The Steve Addazio-led Eagles should be 2-0 with home games against UMass and Holy Cross to open up, but their Temple game gets stuck smack in the middle of a trip to Purdue (Sept. 22) and an Oct. 6 visit to Wake Forest. The Eagles, though, should make another bowl again and you’ve got to figure they have the home date on Sept. 29 against Temple penciled in as a must-win on the way to the bowl. It’s up to the Owls to get the erasers out but it won’t be easy as the Eagles return almost every key contributor.   Running back A.J. Dillon is one of the best in the AAC, a proven 1,000-yard rusher in a Power 5 league. Other stars are defensive end Zach Allen, wide receiver Kobay White and tight end Tommy Sweeney. Their losses are their two cornerbacks, so the Owls probably would be wide to plan to attack those two with a steady diet of passes to Ventell Bryant and Isaiah Wright.

Chuck Heater

The only DC in recent Temple history to post consecutive shutouts

Maryland

The Terrapins’ 2017 football team was a mirror image to this season’s Temple basketball team, peaking in the first month of the season by beating a Texas team that later beat USC. That alone should get Temple’s attention but D.J. Durkin’s squad should be a handful despite their 4-8 record of a year ago. Former Imhotep wide receiver D.J. Moore declared for the draft, so that leaves a pass-catching void but Taivon Jacobs has received a medical redshirt and will be back. He’s got Bryant-level talent. Quarterback Max Bortenschlager is a mouthful but should also be a handful after throwing for 1,131 yards, 10 touchdowns and five interceptions. The Terps have an all-star coaching staff with offensive coordinator Matt Canada and defensive coordinator (as well as safeties coach) Chuck Heater. If you think the Patenaude vs. Heater matchup is a toss-up, you haven’t been paying attention. Canada and Heater should be able to elevate whatever talent level Maryland has now, but, from a pure athlete standpoint, Boston College should be the more impressive team of the two Power 5 teams on the schedule.

Wednesday: The Bullhorn Lady and Rittenhouse Square

Advertisement

10 thoughts on “Our New Scheduling Buddies

  1. Maryland and BC are just the right level P5 opponents for Temple. They’re not pushovers for sure but are beatable for Temple on the other hand. But Temple needs to win at least one of those games. The AAC schedule is tough enough for Temple – and who knows how good or bad they’ll be?.
    There are a few articles in the paper today about “the stadium and the neighbors” situation. Temple needs to conduct a poll of the neighbors to calculate just how many comparatively are sooo against this project. If it’s really a small percentage, Temple should ignore them. Loud doesn’t equate to a majority. But if it is the majority a new siteing plan should follow. Hard to believe how poorly Temple plans these things ie.: the site for the soccer/field hockey/lax field and spending 22 mil on it, knowing the problems they would face for the fb stadium. Apparently they never look ahead, just do what’s easiest at the moment with no thought for a step by step planning process. What other explanation could there be?

    • It appears that like everything else in America, this has turned into a racial issue. I saw the head of the NAACP on the news this weekend proclaiming that the stadium should be built in Rittenhouse Square implying that white folks should bear the burden of the stadium. I predict that it will not get built because nowhere more than on college campuses, race claims, whether true or not, stop the discussion in its tracks and college administrators quake in their boots when required to make arguments against claims of racism. This stadium is never going to be built in that location.

  2. I suggest that everyone go to the Temple Athletic website and watch the Patenaude press conference. In it, Patenaude appears resigned to the fact that Nutile is the starter and praises him with faint damns. He couldn’t wait to answer questions about Centeio and how he fits the system he ran at Coastal Carolina. He also praises Russo. I am shocked that Russo is still here. Patenaude also discusses the running game last year and conveniently failed to discuss keeping Sharga chained to the bench. I already have a sick feeling about next season and the chances for a 8-4-9-3 year.

    • A 9-3 season is all they’ll need to head down south to Georgia and leave Ed Foley coaching us in the Military Bowl again.

  3. Hey guys, at this point if a 9-3 season unfolds and the coaches leave for greener pastures at least Temple will have another very nice season and another bowl game (and another chance to get a real good coach coming in). We gotta think positive – any way we can! Of course I don’t see 9 or even 8 wins unless Collin’s “ridiculous team” becomes reality.

  4. Somehow 9-3 happens, he leaves and takes Patenaude with him (good) but also a lot of recruits (bad). Leaves the cupboard bare then two recruiting seasons out of three which leads to bad things further out.

    • Golden did not take recruits, Daz could have (he was involved with P.J. Walker until the end) but did not; only Saint Matt took Temple recruits (Hand and Rob Sulin).

  5. Rittenhouse Square……… unreal. I have no words

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s