TU Football: How Others See Us

 

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Bill Connelly not only nailed this prediction in 2018, he got the exact regular-season record right (8-4) and predicted the Owls would finish second to UCF

There are certain truisms when it comes to Temple football.

Rutgers fans will always see their program as better than us, despite evidence to the contrary. You even had one RU fan on their website deny after losing to Maryland, 48-7, (and Temple beating the Terps, 20-17, three weeks prior) that RU was still better than Temple.

I know.

Shaking my head.

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Connelly’s conference breakdown. The single digits rates his conference rankings for 2020; the second single-digit number represents his final rankings for 2019.

On the other hand, UConn fans went through the entire pyramid of stages of grief, from saying that they were a much better candidate for the P5 than Temple seven years ago, to (mostly) posts now there on their website: “Why can’t we be like Temple?”

Different strokes for different folks.

Then there’s Bill Connelly.

I always try to give credit where it’s due and this guy is uncanny.

The former Sports Nation writer now working for ESPN of all of the outsiders has one of the best handles on Temple football prognostication out there of all the outsiders. In 2018, he predicted in August that the Owls would finish the regular season 8-4 and they did just that. In 2019, he predicted the Owls would finish 7-5 and they did just one game better.

Pretty good for a guy who doesn’t follow the team like we do.

Connelly can best be described as an analytics guy and has numbers for offensive and defensive efficiency and even throws in some special teams numbers.

Connelly has not come up with a record prediction for the Owls but currently ranks the Owls as No. 72 nationally. Only 80 teams make bowl games so, while Connelly has yet to set a record, it’s pretty clear that he will have the 2020 Owls as 6-6 come August.

That might make the players, fans and coaches of this team mad, but it’s hard to argue with his past record and it’s up to them to prove him wrong.

Friday: Why 2020 Could Be a Step Back

Monday (3/2): Why 2020 Could Be a Step Forward

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7 thoughts on “TU Football: How Others See Us

    • The rules should be the same for everyone, coaches and players.

      New Rhule is not good for Temple. But why should coaches be allowed to “transfer” w/o penalty?

      The NCAA is a big mess and going in the wrong direction.

      But, this is the America we live in today: “How can I exploit the system for my own personal gain?” Everyone is taking clues and following the person at the top.

      • Sorry KJ but this is TOOOOO Much, Blame Trump for this also? Nonsense, admit it. Geezee ohhh.
        Politics is ruining too much so we add /but Castro taught Football players how to read , I bet will be next.
        Chuckle chuckle

  1. And why Not – it IS the modern world and most everything has become rotten. Many of the very ‘sacred’ traditions we grew up with are ‘Gone with the Wind’.
    I blame the avarice, greed of college sports system like the NCAA group, as an example.

    NCAA is like various Turnpike and Bridge Commissions which are pure graft and greed and payoff legal criminal orgs.

    And so when I go to a PSU game why must I spend $65 on a seat which is not even prime ? Lets see, $65 X 105,000 seats = ?????

    It is a sad shame, yes

    • Money is the scourge that’s driving this. When you get more money you need more money to keep up with the new toys and amenities the other “children” have acquired. Weight rooms beget saunas, beget locker rooms fit for a king, and anything else they can think of to keep the players happy. There is no chance that this will ever get better. The problem is that it’s not enough to boycott the teams either live or on tv because the money driving this comes from TV advertisements. Most of the people in this country are not sports fans and don’t even realize that they’re funding the beast. The way to kill this is to get people from buying the products advertised during sports events and also either cut the cable or go to a la carte cable. The latter two have put the fear of god in ESPN and they are doing everything to fight it. In any event, I;m becoming more and more disillusioned with the whole sports mega machine due to the in your face avarice and greed. It should not cost an average weekly wage to take a family of 4 to a baseball game when one considers the cost of tickets, concessions, and parking.

      • I wish I could cut cable for real. BTW ESPN is suffering these days I think, not like 20 years ago when all young man watched sports recap every morning.

        Hey out there – can anyone provide example of good cheaper products and services to replace my Comcast?

  2. OH yes, the other real Devil in all this for Temple is Thatgreadybassturdwho was given$$$$tohaveLincolnfinancialfield and has no desiretoshareanything for the publicgood Jeff M’boy Laurie. One more greedy Bass Turd.

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