Fizzy’s Corner: Follow-Up and Search

 

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

After I sent out my piece, “The Green Flu,” I was contacted by someone very close to the situation at Temple.  He informed me that one of the two Temple players I mentioned as “quitters,” was indeed ill.  So to that player, I offer my sincere apology. As far as the other player who took himself out of the game, I guess it’s your point of view.   You know that my view is you play every game you can with your brothers. Every football player knows there’s a chance of injury whenever you step on the field, but you probably put it out of your mind way back in ninth grade. There were some senior players who had been selected to play in further bowl games didn’t play, and some who did.  Trace McSorley played last night until his leg almost fell off. (Of course, when I finished at Temple, the only organization interested in drafting me was the U.S. Army.)

patenaude

There are two other factors.  The first is the way the situation was handled. No one knew anything until game time.  (At least that’s when I found out the guys weren’t playing.)  If someone was taking himself out of the game, it should have been announced, not camouflaged.   The second factor is that if coaches quit, then players should start looking out for themselves. I have no problem with that. Just tell us.

Selection Committee

Our selection committee has a difficult task.  After five defections, do they go for the best coach they can find, or hire someone who hasn’t yet proven himself but might stay longer?  Just as you never know what high school player is going to succeed in college, you don’t know what assistant is going to make the grade as a head coach.  Of course, even if you select the guy who hasn’t proven himself yet, who says he’s going to stay if he is successful?  How about a pro coach who has already done it all?  It’s a conundrum if there ever was one.

Another way to handle the situation is, at the hiring meeting, have Guido sit in the corner with his hands folded.  (You all know Guido, he’s from South Philly. He looks like Michael Corleone’s guy who dressed in black and went after Hyman Roth.)

patenaudebox

Praise The Lord Department

It has now been confirmed that Dave Patenaude is the offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech.  Therefore, the Broad Street Offense is no more.  It’s now the Peachtree Street Offense. The Georgia Tech fans have been waiting for a new offense, just wait till they get a load of this.  The under/over on reverses for the 2019 season is “2.”  For bootlegs, at the goal line it’s “1.”

The $6.5 Million Windfall

Last, I think Temple should take the $6.5 M, split it up and give it to all us Temple football alums with bad knees, bad backs and concussions.

Saturday: The Slower Pace

 

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10 thoughts on “Fizzy’s Corner: Follow-Up and Search

  1. Are we asking too much? Predictable, consistent, and winning program..,

    Compete for conference championships, win bowl games, and finish in the Top 25, all without the support of the local community, media, student body and faculty.

    Two great seasons under MR have left us with irrational expectations?

    For two weeks we will be on a long winding road with a program defining approaching fork ahead…, my bet is Kraft will not take the road previously taken.

    A dream job for whom?

  2. KJ, my definition of great apparently differs from yours. The 2 ten-win seasons to me would have been great if we had won the bowl games and finished in the top 25 (2 of your 3 hallmarks), but we didn’t. We had chances to break the TU season win record, but we didn’t do it. Yes, we’ve had a taste of success which raised expectations – at least my expectations – but frankly, to me TU is still wallowing in overall mediocrity, better than previous decades of awfulness but still not great. And even within this much better decade of success we’ve had several bad lows thrown in. And now, this coaching debacle has things up in the air, again. I will admit I’m a glass-half-empty kind of person, but i think my assessment is pretty accurate.

    • I’ll take this mediocrity any day because I lived through the 90’s when the Owls won a total of 19 games. That, however, doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with the level of play and especially the coaching because the team could have been so much better the last five years or so and had at least 10-12 more wins.

      • Just one season I’d like to see the Owls beat everybody they are favored to beat and reach up and beat a team or two they are not favored against. Not too much to ask. Even in the two 10-win seasons, that did not happen. It probably did happen in Wayne Hardin’s 10-2 season when the Owls beat everyone they were favored against and reached up and hammered a team (Syracuse) that was favored by 3.5 points, 49-17. I remember people saying before Hardin was hired by Temple “there’s no way Hardin will come here.” Not only did he come here, he stayed 13 years and won 70 percent of his games. Need to make a run now at a similar coaching superstar like Neal Brown and Lance Leipold.

  3. O M G nasty but funny and laced wif sum trooof,- say goodnight
    hic hic

  4. Luke FIckell update(welcome, new Temple coach Neal Brown): https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/college/university-of-cincinnati/2019/01/03/how-e-gordon-gees-influence-affect-luke-fickell-west-virginia-coaching-search/2472775002/

    seriously, though, I see Cincy as a bigger threat to Owls next year in AAC than UCF (especially with Milton missing the year) and using that $6.5 million to outbid Cincy for Neal Brown’s services means a league title as Mike alluded to earlier. Temple has more than double the buyout money to work with than any other AAC school, including Fickell’s $2 million buyoutl

  5. Mike, had TU beaten Nova and Buffalo this season, they would have almost met your standard. Their wins over Cinncy, Maryland, Houston, and USF each could be considered wins over better opponents (at least at the time the games were played), especially Cinncy, which was much better than TU and would have won had they had a competent kicker. BC should also have been a win. Duke was a fluke given the circumstances so that loss can be discounted.

  6. most coaches gone, will new ones leave now ? WE are in freefall now, no doubt, Why Kraft is going soo slow, cheeezee
    .

  7. BTW useless info here but the word KRAFT is Germanic for POWER and FORCE.
    Does he have the power to get something done before everybody bails out ???

  8. JB, agree with your assessments including that the Duke loss can be discounted but not the way the team fell apart and got blown out. I never expected a win but it became embarassing. TU has to stop believing the bs these candidates spew out and then somehow hang on to them for more than 2 years, or 17 days.

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