Missing Cherry and White today

Cherry and White Day primer

When the football season starts, and I’m inclined to think it will, taking the one step back approach to take two steps forward probably will be at least one reason for it.

Unfortunately, the step back is tomorrow when the realization hits that there will be no Cherry and White Day.

Mitigation of crowds now is just one thing that hopefully will be able to allow such gatherings in September. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, among others, said team activities will have to start by July 1 in order to have a season. I’m not buying it. For years, the Ivy League didn’t allow team activities until August (not even spring football) and they were able to field football teams in the fall. It might be sloppy football, but I still think there will be football. Instead of hugs and handshakes in Lot K, there might be a lot more fistbumps and that’s OK. As long as my beloved Owls are on the field, that’s the most important thing.

Temple football spring game, Cherry and White game, Temple football,

Nothing newsworthy has come out of a spring game since Jadan Blue caught three touchdown passes in 2017.

There hasn’t been a Cherry and White game for a long time, but I do miss the day itself.  Aside from the commaderie with people you’ve gotten to know for years, the surrounding festivities have been well worth the trip itself.  For one, there is no better place to be Temple gear. Much of it will remain on the shelf like the $33 “Mayhem is Coming” T-Shirt purchased before Geoff Collins’ first game.

No need to wear that now since Mayhem never came and it sure has left.

Others are keepers, though. At one of the Al Golden “games” I was able to purchase a game-worn Temple football jersey from the Big East days and another Temple sweatshirt for more than reasonable prices–even lower than the Mayhem shirt–and support the program at the same time.

Last year, at the Olympic facility, there were a number of tables set up with a lot of interesting items. The “football” itself? Err, not so interesting. I left after a punt return drill early in what would have been the “second half” when the “tacklers” waved at the ball carrier with tackling dummies. No wonder we sucked at punt returns in the fall. Still, though, it was a must-see day for festivities, if not for the football portion. I really haven’t seen a good Temple spring game since Al Golden was here and he was trying to establish a culture of toughness that would carry over to the fall.

We’ll have to wait until next year for that, though, and that’s a small price to pay if we’re going to see real games come September.

Monday: An ex-Temple player to root for

Saturday: A Look Ahead at Miami

 

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8 thoughts on “Missing Cherry and White today

  1. Yeah, that first Collins’ “mayhem” game against Nova. By halftime I was saying out loud surrounded by people I didn’t even know, “where’s the mayhem?” We squeaked out a win and won a bowl game that year so it could have been worse – and the next season was!

    It’ll be tough to wait longer till FB starts again, assuming it does, cause it’s hard to tell if things will clear up or get a lot worse by fall.

    • Dr. Falci says it could ebb in the summer and pick up in the fall but nothing is certain. If we’re hearing this recurrs in the fall, I can’t envision a scenario where we have football. They may wait until then though.

  2. When prominent people like Kirk Herbstreit, Kelly at ND, and the PSU AD say the season likely won’t occur, I take notice. Without a viable vaccine or medical cure, it’s a certainty that there will be no season. One good thing for the Owls is that at most games social distancing is possible at the Linc. LOL.

    • As was mentioned before everything was shut down, games without crowds is a possible scenario especially since the games would (hopefully) be on TV, where for most schools and conferences (mid-major in particular) a good portion of their money comes from anyway. It will be tough if there’s no season we’ll survive – hopefully at worse, the season will be pushed back.

      • I would rather have games without crowds to watch on TV than no games at all. That way, nobody has a home-field advantage and the better teams always win. 🙂

  3. USA Today columnist Dan Wolken has an article about the effects of the virus on colleges, specifically the huge salaries of football and basketball coaches. The article mentions that the men’s head coaches at Iowa State have agreed to small reductions in pay. Also mentioned is that due to the cancellation of conference basketball tournaments and March Madness, some programs are in deep trouble for lack of funds. Link below.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/dan-wolken/2020/04/02/coronavirus-cutting-college-coaches-pay-crisis-right-call-iowa-state/5116446002/

  4. Saw in the NY Post that despite the virus, Pitino has a good recruiting class as our BB team implodes. I know it’s early in McKie’s head coaching career, but what has occurred since the end of the season is a reflection of what the players think of McKie. Watching what has happened since the end of the season one would think that the program is the Titanic after it hit the iceberg given how many kids have decided to leave. The players know it when a coach is not prepared to be a head coach. As I said when he was hired, TU should have done a national coaching search and also considered hiring Pitino who they could have gotten at a discount price because he was desperate to leave his Europe coaching job. It will be a long time before TU BB is back to where it should be and where it has been through the years. Unfortunately, there is no Peter Liacouras on the horizon. Our current president is useless.

  5. No games will take place without crowds. Just playing games without crowds result in a couple of hundred people being exposed to the virus. Factor in practices and that number expands. Unless there’s a vaccine or cure, there will be no games.

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