Monthly Archives: March 2019

03.29.19
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Mark the Calendar: 9/28/2019

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A recent headline in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The guys who write the scripts in Hollywood could not have penned a better outline for at least one game this Temple season.

The Minister of Mayhem vs. Mr. Traditonal Buttoned Down coach.

As boring as the opener versus Bucknell should be (the April 13 practice that takes the place of the Cherry and White game this year will be more competitive), the storyline on 9/28/2019 should represent a season’s worth of drama.

The most interesting part of this script is that it was made possible long before the plot line was established as it was negotiated in September of 2017 by Temple athletic director Pat Kraft. Geoff Collins was just starting his first season at Temple and Rod Carey was in the fifth of is six at Northern Illinois.

Now the guy who is known for “swag” and “money downs” will be replaced by a more traditional coach and it will be a battle of old and new. Cell phones versus landline. Social media versus texting.

Make no mistake about one thing: The more motivated team should be on the home side of this one because the Owls would like nothing better to take down their ex-head coach. The Yellowjackets don’t even know who Rod Carey is. There should also be a sizable group of hometown Temple fans who will be similarly motivated.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution already made note of this fact (see graphic at the top of this post) recently and the accompanying story said this:
“Given the itinerant nature of the profession, it’s not unheard of for a coach to face a former employer. Coach Paul Johnson faced Georgia Southern, which he led to two Division I-AA (now FCS) national championships, in 2014 and 2015, but that was 13 years and two jobs after he had left Statesboro.
“But this a meeting of a different sort. Much of the Owls’ roster will be made up of players who were recruited to Temple by Collins.”

Kraft pulled a coup when he scheduled this game not because of the circumstances that developed, but because of the circumstances that existed. Home and homes between P5 and G5 teams are unusual enough. Home and homes that give the G5 the team the first date are impossible to find. (Usually, this is set up to allow the P5 team to dump the G5 team if something better comes along). Temple returns the favor in 2025, not 2020.

ESPN should give this storyline major play and no one should be surprised if the game (listed as TBA now) be moved off a noon slot to a more appealing 3:30 or night time slot. After all, the television markets involved are four (Philadelphia) and nine (Atlanta) nationally. This has the makings of a higher-than-usual audience for a late September non-conference game.

No one knows if the “money downs” signs will be on the other side of Lincoln Financial Field, but I would not be surprised.

All that matters will be actually turning those money downs into real-time stops and Temple could have the advantage in that regard.

It should be the most fun home date of this or the last several years.

Monday: Glass Houses

03.27.19
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Breaking News: No Spring Game This Year

 

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Turn on one of those 24-hour news channels and chances are we will all see a cryon proclaiming this:

Breaking News.

It used to be in the old days that breaking news meant actually that: a fire here, a holdup there, a tornado farther south.

Now it means something that you knew about yesterday, not today.

So, given those parameters, here’s what we found out through official university channels yesterday: For the first time in 50 or so years, there will not be a spring game. I always thought the game was weird anyway because I never knew to root for the Cherry or the White. It was always the good guys versus the good guys. Instead, there will be an “open practice” mixed in with a “fan fest” and a good time will be had by all.

As Bill Parcells would say, this is good news, not bad news.

The Cherry and White game has pretty much deteriorated into a glorified practice over the last decade or so. If new head coach Rod Carey wants to close out the 15 practices he’s allotted by the  NCAA with No. 15, that should be OK.

All that matters is going 4-0 or, at worst, 3-1 in the first month or so of play so that brings us to the other news out of practice so far: The new offense.

According to a number of ex-players who have seen the Owls practice, the Owls are showing multiple looks. While there is some RPO (run/pass/option), there is also use of the fullback (primarily in goal-line situations), two tight ends and even three wide receivers.

Former Temple head coach Wayne Hardin used to call this his “smorgasbord” offense (“you know, a little of this, a little of that”) and that’s kind of what quarterback Anthony Russo was talking about in an interview with the Temple News earlier this week when he talks about learning a new offense. It’s the kind of offense designed to accentuate the talents of Russo, who has an NFL skill set and probably would have never been allowed to develop it if Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude had been around for another season.

The more looks Temple can show another defense the harder it is to prepare for the Owls on game day. It’s all about beating the bad guys even if there will be no game between the good guys this season.

Friday: Mark Your Calendar

Monday: Glass Houses

Wednesday: Another Nickname for the Darkside

03.25.19
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The New AAC Contract and Temple football

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For the last half-century, the halves have enjoyed increasingly more wealth than the have-nots.

College football’s schism between rich and poor is no different.

That’s why the new contract the AAC signed with ESPN should not be surprising.

Sure, the AAC received more money (a reported $1 billion) from ESPN but it pales in comparison to what the Power 5 schools get.

The 12-year deal with ESPN will be worth $1 billion, or an average of $83.3 million per school over the life of the contract. The new deal will run from 2020-21 through the 2031-32 academic year.

For Temple, the new contract will increase its yearly conference media revenue from $2.16 million to $6.94 million.

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The Star Complex is one of the best indoor facilities in the AAC

A significant part of the deal is the absence of a grant-of-rights agreement which would have prevented schools from jumping to a Power Five conference. Such agreements enhance media rights deals because conferences offer TV partners the assurance that the composition of the league will not change.

That means schools like Temple (and notably Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF) can still accept a spot in the Power 5 if offered.
I don’t see that happening as the musical chairs seem to be over. The 64 schools do not want to share the pot of gold with the other 67 schools.

According to the Sports Business Journal, “the majority of basketball games and a significant number of football games will go to ESPN+,” which is a subscription digital streaming service. The contract will include some Saturday football games on ABC, while most football, and men’s and women’s basketball will remain on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU — at least those not on the streaming service or CBS networks. (I don’t know about you, but the $4.99 a month on ESPN+ is among the best investments I have made. For the price of a beer at Xfinity Live, you can get to see an unlimited number of live sporting events.)

Bottom line with this contract is that Temple is in a better position to compete with its G5 partners because of the recent football buyouts and this new contract. The other AAC schools do not enjoy the windfall that the Owls have had with Geoff Collins’ $2.5 million and Manny Diaz’s $4 million.

Still, unless some miracle happens, they (and Cincy, Houston, and UCF) will remain on the outside looking in for a long time.

Wednesday: Tidbits From Spring Practice

Friday: Mark Your Calendar

Monday: Glass Houses

03.23.19
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Temple football: Let’s try stability

 

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Pat Kraft promised the kids stability and he delivered

Just the other day, St. Joseph’s University gave up a whole lot of stability for a future of uncertainty.

Unfortunately, we won’t know if the firing of Phil Martelli as that school’s head basketball coach is a good thing or a bad thing until a couple of years down the line because we don’t know who the new guy is.

When former athletic director Bill Bradshaw turned Temple football from a perennial loser into a perennial winner by hiring Al Golden he said famously: “Let’s try winning.”

Now his successor, Dr. Pat Kraft, seems to be saying, “let’s try adding stability to the winning.”

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Fran Brown procuring players and Rod Carey coaching them should be an unbeatable combo for Temple football. Photo credit: Zamani Feelings

The stability Kraft purchased with $10 million of monopoly money is a whole lot recognizable. Kraft made the buyout of new head coach Rod Carey $10 million partly because that’s exactly the amount that UCF made Josh Heupel’s buyout. UCF went unbeaten during the regular season and, if anyone was the hot young head coach out of the AAC, it was that guy.

None of the Power 5 teams in need of a head coach approached him, partly because the buyout was $6 million higher than the going rate for such things. Even the Board of Trustees for big-time schools have limits.

“I told Pat to make it (the buyout) whatever he wanted,” Carey told the press on the day he was hired. “I wanted to be here.”

The difference between St. Joe basketball and Temple football is this: Temple got a guy who already was a successful head coach on the level Temple football is trying to play and gave that new guy more talent than he had in his last place of employment. Unless St. Joe is able to hire someone like Buffalo coach Nate Oates there is no certainty that it traded stability for excellence. St. Joe is more likely to grab the Swarthmore coach than Oates and that is no slam dunk. Temple fans found out that a guy who was a legend in Division II doesn’t automatically become a legend in Division One.

Temple now has both stability and excellence and the fact that Temple foes can no longer recruit against the Owls using the argument that the coach is likely to leave is going to reap rewards in that area. That, plus the fact that assistant head coach Fran Brown is one of the best recruiters in the business.

Kraft promised a team weary of the revolving door of coaches going through the revolving door E-O stability and he delivered. It should pay dividends, maybe immediately, but certainly over the long haul.

Monday: The New AAC Contract

Wednesday: Thoughts on Spring Ball So Far

Friday: Mark Your Calendar

Monday: Glass Houses

03.21.19
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Temple pro day confirms suspicions

NJ.com takes a look at Rock Ya-Sin.

In between filling out March Madness brackets and pouring over scouting reports on Belmont, something else important happened on the campus of Temple University on Monday.

Temple Pro Day.

It confirmed a couple of notable suspicions: One, Ryquell Armstead is really that fast and, two, Michael Dogbe got screwed out of an NFL combine invitation.

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Credit: Owlsports.com

Some people (not I) thought Armstead’s 4.45 in the 40-yard dash at the combine might have been a fluke but Armstead was able to duplicate the same exact time on Monday, causing him to have a long talk with Philadelphia Eagles’ running back coach Duce Staley. The Eagles apparently are interested in Armstead and the interest is mutual. Frankly, after pouring over the available free agent backs and the other draft choices and the current roster of the Eagles, I think Armstead would do very well here. I don’t see Josh Adams, the current starter, bringing more explosiveness to the table than Armstead.

It’s already been proven by a neutral clock that Armstead would smoke Adams in a foot race. I think the Eagles should take a chance on Armstead, particularly if he’s available in the 4-5 round area.

With Dogbe, he put up 34 reps on the bench press and came in at 6-3 and 284 pounds. Only one other player at the NFL combine had that many reps at that weight. I see Dogbe as a No. 2 pick, potentially a one.

Rock Ya-Sin, considered by many one of the top five DBs in the draft, could also go as high as the second round and did nothing to diminish those prospects.

Other Owls of note were safety Rodney Williams, who had a 4.46 40 and another safety, Delvon Randall.  It’s nice to know that Nick Sharga is still pursuing his dream and hopefully the New England Patriots were taking notice. He would be the perfect player in that system.

If Temple pro day proved anything, it is that as many as four Owls could be drafted and more added with free agency.

That probably will do a lot more for the school’s image than the end of a basketball season in March Madness.

03.19.19
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Season Tickets: Preaching to the Choir

Three weeks ago, I got my annual season ticket call from the guy who handles my account.

Nice guy and I told him that I would renew before the April deadline.

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Nothing would help Temple more than a stadium full of these people

We engaged in a little small talk and he asked me if I liked the new coach (I did), liked the game-day experience (I did) and what I thought of the game host (I thought she was terrific and reminded me very much of the cupcake girl in the above video). I wish I could remember her name, but I don’t. I think she does a terrific job and oozes charisma just like her doppelganger Camila Cabello. She’s a Temple student on Temple TV and I hope she continues to be a worthy successor to Ryan Rinaldi.

When I hung up the phone, though, I thought a couple of things: One, no amount of great shows on the Jumbotron will put people in the stands like winning and, two, even that might not be enough to impress the people Temple needs to impress.

Temple needs to direct all of its expenditures into becoming a Power 5 school.

Ironically, though, Temple would have been a Power 5 school a long time ago if it was able to duplicate the game-day experience the Owls had in 2015 for home games against Penn State and Notre Dame. In those games, the Owls had more home fans than both ND and PSU in capacity crowds, were much louder and had terrific TV numbers.

The problems have been the other games.

Frankly, Lincoln Financial Field is too big a venue and the Temple Board of Trustees tried to address this in building a campus stadium. Halve the tickets and create a demand that does not exist now. Nothing would impress the P5 more than a sold-out Temple stadium, whether it is a 35K one or 70K one. That seems to have hit a brick wall called the community.

When I hung up the phone it occurred to me, that the guy on the other end was preaching to the choir. People like me who have had season tickets for 40 years (minus one) will keep coming back. It’s the other ones that Temple needs to reach, the bulk of the 275,000 living alumni, the 40,000 full-time students and the 12,500 full-time employees.

If just one-quarter of that number get behind the football Owls consistently on a Saturday afternoon, that’s a Power 5 team that cannot be stopped.

Thursday: Temple Pro Day

 

03.16.19
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Carey: First Impressions Could Not Be Better

Normally, at this time of the spring practice coaches usually bullbleep their way through media sessions and say this guy or that guy looked good.

That happened before with Temple coaches Steve Addazio and Geoff Collins, not so much with Al Golden and Matt Rhule.

Judging from the video posted on Shawn Pastor’s excellent OwlsDaily.com site, Rod Carey has planted his flag very much with the latter group and not the former. In it, he said he got to know the faces and now that the helmets are on, he’s asking which guy was what. When he was pressed for specific players, he didn’t make stuff up just saying that it’s to be determined.

That is the best first impression of all.

Fortunately, we are not alone.


“Excited to see what a real
coach with good talent can
do here, been a few years
since we’ve had someone in
charge I am excited about.”
_ former Temple linebacker
Matt Powell

Matt Powell, a former walk-on linebacker who earned a scholarship under Al Golden, sent us a note yesterday with this remarkably perceptive remark: “Excited to see what a real coach with good talent can do here, been a few years since we’ve had someone in charge I am excited about.”

Me, too.

The video didn’t prove that there is no bullbleep with the new coach, but it was at least Exhibit A in a case that will be proven over time.

Each coach Temple has hired has brought something to the table. Al Golden brought organization and terrific recruiting skills, Steve Addazio hired a staff that was a Power 5 one, not a G5 one. Matt Rhule contributed concepts learned from Tom Coughlin and was able to bake a delicious recipe from ingredients in the Golden and Daz cookbooks.

Collins?

I’m thinking. Guy was enthusiastic, I’ll give him that, but so were the others.

Carey brings in 52-30 record in a league Temple did not dominate, beat a team last year Temple could not beat (with lesser talent than Temple) and those credentials represent an improvement on the past.

Being brutally honest on opening day is just icing a cake which should be tasty.

Tuesday: Call To Season Tickets

Thursday: Pro Day Thoughts

Saturday: A Whole Lot of Stability

Monday (3/25): Return to Mon/Wed/Fri pub schedule until C and W Day

 

03.14.19
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Just a guess on number’s games

Only two players on the current Temple roster return inheriting their single-digit roster numbers.

One of the byproducts of the next month will be to find seven other guys to join Chapelle Russell (3) and Shaun Bradley (5) as the toughest non-offensive linemen on the squad.

Taking a guess at the other spots is a little like filling out the March Madness brackets next week: A fun endeavor but probably not 100 percent foolproof.

The good news is that there are probably about 20 deserving tough guy candidates out there. Before the players even vote, we’ll take a guess at these seven with the assigned number in parenthesis:

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Dan Archibong (photo by Zamani Feelings) is a good bet to earn a single digit.

Dan Archibong (9) _ For my money, the toughest and most talented player along the defensive line and ready to take the mantle from Michael Dogbe as the leader on the defensive interior.

Zack Mesday (4) _ Granted a fifth year of eligibility (see above video), this tough guy worked his way from walk-on to starter following the same path of fellow walk-ons to starters Nick Sharga and Rob Ritrovato so we will give him the same number.

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Anthony Russo (8) _ Probably deserves P.J. Walker’s former number due to having to deal with the punishment of working with former offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude, whose concept of max protect was telling Russo to slide. Russo should thrive under a system with a little less RPO and a little more emphasis on the run game and play-action.

Isaiah Wright (1) _ Anyone who makes first-team All-American as a special teams’ performer is a tough guy. For the first three years of his time at Temple, two coaches have talked about getting the ball “more” in Wright’s hands but there’s only so many plays a wide receiver or wildcat quarterback can get. If Wright moves to tailback, he’s going to get the ball 15-20 times a game more and Temple’s offense should be 15-20x as effective.

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Sam Franklin (7) _ Franklin has been a “jack-of-all-trades” for the Owls, playing safety, defensive end and linebacker and effective in all three spots. It takes a tough and smart guy to learn three positions at the same time. He’s been a great leader who will probably slot into a starter’s spot wherever he’s needed.

Branden Mack (6) _ Nobody made more clutch catches in traffic than this former Cheltenham High star, including the catch that tied Cincinnati with 22 seconds left in regulation. Mack rips the ball out of defensive backs’ hands. That’s a tough guy.

William Kwenkeu (2) _ Wearing No. 35, Kwenkeu was the defensive star of the Gasparilla Bowl, a game he registered his first career start and had a pair of sacks. Due to a change in coordinators last year, he did not play as much as he should have but he has both the talent and toughness to reclaim his spot in the lineup.

Saturday: First Impressions

 

03.12.19
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5 Priorities for Temple spring ball

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At the start of every spring practice, Bruce Arians used to give a little speech to the Temple players.

It always closed with, in a strange Southern accent for a York, Pa. boy: “Get your work done.”

Spring ball at Temple, which begins today, has changed a lot since Arians. The rock-strewn practice field is now the Pavilion. Geasey Field is waiting for a stadium that will probably never arrive.

Back then, the work pretty much started on the first day of spring ball. Today, it’s just a continuation of a 365-day deal. Just because the NCAA insists on a spring ball structure that includes 15 organized practices, that doesn’t mean nothing gets done on the other days. The work continues, not starts, today, but should be at least five points of emphasis near the top of new head coach Rod Carey’s list (in no particular order):

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Return to Normalcy 

That means structured depth charts, not vague “above-the-line’ concepts. Since Carey is starting with a clean slate, everybody else does, too, so don’t expect a full depth chart until after the spring game. It also probably means less D.J. playing and band participation while the work is getting done.

Restoring Depth 

Carey has said the difference between being a new coach at Temple and elsewhere is that a new coach elsewhere has to start from scratch with a bad football team. At Temple, this new coach inherits a good football team across those two first-team depth charts. One of the challenges this year, is finding depth, particularly on the offensive and defensive lines. It’s great to have players like Zack Mesday, Karamo Dioubate, Dan Archibong and Dana Levine returning along the defensive line, but it’s time to identify their replacements. The same can be said for the offensive line.

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Finding a Running Back 

Unless you count current wide receiver Isaiah Wright, a one-time running back No. 3 on the depth chart under Matt Rhule, there is no Ryquell Armstead, Jahad Thomas or Bernard Pierce-level talent on this roster. That’s why you have you have to count Wright since the Owls did not go out and get a big-time JUCO or grad transfer there. Will Carey have the courage to experiment with Wright back there? Having an embarrassment of riches at wide receiver (Sean Ryan, Branden Mack, Jadan Blue, Freddie Johnson, and Randall Jones) should buy a lot of courage. Blue is particularly interesting because he was by far the star of the spring game last year and had to sit out the fall.

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Fixing the Offense 

Right at the top of winning football is protecting your quarterback and getting to the bad guy’s quarterback. Offensively, Dave Patenaude thought the best way to protect a quarterback with an NFL-level skill set was telling Anthony Russo to slide. The Owls will have to do much better than that this year and take a page out of Bill Belichick’s book and abandon the RPO offense. Belichick won a championship by keeping his prototypical NFL skill set quarterback upright with an effective running game that set up all sorts of interesting play-action options downfield and that is the way the Temple personnel is set up.

Sound Defensive Concepts

Mayhem was promised by the last coaching staff but rarely delivered. Geoff Collins’ schemes often gambled and produced some effective takeaway stats, but also factored into games where the Owls gave up 57, 52 and 45 points–all losses. In a halftime basketball interview with Harry Donahue, Carey said he puts a premium on a defense that keeps the bad guys out of the end zone even if that means fewer turnovers.

That sounds like a plan. The work doesn’t begin today but continues in a more structured environment.

Bruce Arians would probably approve of the approach.

Thursday: Numbers Guessing

 

03.09.19
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Armstead’s 4.45 makes him intriguing for Eagles

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Forget the over 1,000 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns last year.

Temple running back Ryquell Armstead made a lot of money at the NFL combine with a 4.45 40-yard dash, the second-fastest among the running backs invited.

Armstead came into the combine listed as a “potential seventh-rounder or undrafted free agent” but moved up at least a couple of rounds with that eye-opening time.

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Maybe even with the Philadelphia Eagles, who need a running back. The Eagles have been reluctant about drafting Temple players in the past and leaked a story to the Philly media about their interest in Florida Atlantic running back Devin Singletary. The FAU back bombed in this speed time at the combine, clocking a 4.73. They have also shown interest in Memphis’ Darrell Henderson even though a number of AAC coaches (including former Houston coach Major Applewhite) called Armstead “by far the toughest running back in our league.”

Armstead has always put up the numbers on the field, the only question was about his durability and how he would fare in the combine. The fact that he fared much better in the combine than a couple of other Eagle targets has to at least put him in the conversation because of the Eagles’ emphasis on combine numbers in the past.

For a team that sorely missed Jay Ajay last year, Rock would be a significant upgrade in that area and probably can be grabbed in the fourth or fifth round, enabling the Eagles to address other needs in the first few rounds.

Let’s hope Howie Roseman and company in thinking about that because whatever team adds Armstead is getting a potential starter who has the speed to be an explosive cog in the running game.