Owls’ celebration in 2011 after seventh win looked remarkably similar to the same celebrating after win No. 7 seven years later (below).

Adventures in Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Land

                                            By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Dear Football Gods,

I’ve been writing about the Temple football team all year and I’ve come to the conclusion I must not know very much.  Take this week’s game against South Florida (SF), for example.  I went nuts over the following:

1. Continually running up-the-gut from six yards deep on short yardage plays.
2. Not throwing (deep) from play-action on first down.
3. Not ever running a bootleg against an aggressive, blitzing gap defense.
4. Not ever throwing a screen pass against an aggressive gap defense.
5. Sending in a split/wildcat offensive play to interrupt the flow of the offense.
6. Trying a field goal from a difficult angle on fourth and two, instead of a play.

Football Gods, I know I must have been wrong for jumping up in the aisle and screaming, “stupid” when we punted the ball on fourth and two, from the SF thirty-two yard line, with two minutes left in the game.  I erroneously thought we should have tried for a first down to clinch the game as SF had used all their timeouts.  (After all, most of the time those type of punts would go to the end zone.)  To prove my insanity, the strategy worked beautifully when we forced a fumble which resulted in a touchdown to seal the win.

Overall, I must be unbalanced when I criticize this vanilla (with no Jimmies) play calling which SF’s defense was well-coached to stop.  After all, Temple won the game even though our Broad Street Offense only scored 13 points.  Furthermore, this team has won seven of its last eight games, and is now 7 – 4.

So it must be me, Football Gods.  Please accept this letter as my confession.

P.S.  I’m trying to get NCAA approval for the “Keystone Bowl.”  This will be played in the warm south, South Philly that is, and feature Temple vs. Penn State in our perfect bowl game. 

Thanksgiving Day: Back By Popular Demand

Friday: Opposing Fans 

Sunday: Game Analysis