Real Temple football (Kinda sorta)

 

In the movie Westerns, the good guys always won.

The robbers would come into town on their horses, rob the banks, get away and then the sheriffs would hunt them down and either shoot them or send them to trial for a hanging. In those days, the trials would last a couple of weeks and there were be no appeals.

Nowadays, in college football, the bad guys almost always win.

billboard

These days the robber barrons are the larger schools who get the best recruits, steal the small town coaches and now–with the transfer portal–steal the small town best players for the big schools down the road.


Still, the portal facts
are that Miami got
Houston’s best player
in the 2018 season and
Miami got Temple’s best
player from the 2019
season and Temple got
nobody’s best player
from any season.
It’s got to have an
impact in a real game,
not just a video one, right?

We don’t know if we’re going to see things play out that way this season but, on Friday night, we got a preview in the way of a “simulated game” between Temple and Miami on a Miami fan website called “Coach Copp.”

The good guys lost, 64-17.

Now let’s just say this is a video game and video games in the past have been proven to be wrong. This was CPU vs. CPU with 2020 rosters for each team but, from the Temple standpoint, there were a couple of red flags. One, “Mike Mitchell” (a scout team player) was the Temple leading rusher despite the fact that Ray Davis played. Two, Jadan Blue–in my mind a potential first-team All-American wide receiver–had only one catch for seven yards. Anthony Russo was pulled for Toddy Centeio but the computer forgot Toddy was at Colorado State, not Temple. Temple even had a fullback in the game on goal line offense with 29 seconds left in the first quarter and we know that’s not going to happen under Rod Carey.

So there.

Beyond that, without any real sports to watch, it was at least something and Miami fans were all happy. Let’s hope the Temple players watch this and use it as bulletin board material and reaffirm themselves to proving that video wrong. Still, the portal facts are that Miami got Houston’s best player in the 2018 season and Miami got Temple’s best player from the 2019 season and Temple got nobody’s best player from any season. It’s got to have an impact in a real game, not just a video one, right?

Maybe not.

Friday night’s simulation small reminder that the good guys don’t always win and, in college football, the good guys are falling behind the bad ones each and every passing day.

Hopefully, the Temple players are determined to watch this video simulation every day before lifting and running and it will light a fire under them to prove games are decided on the field and not by computers.

Monday: The Pandemic Fallacy

Friday: The Case for Grooming

Monday (4/20): Smoking Out the Winner

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10 thoughts on “Real Temple football (Kinda sorta)

  1. If you compare the averages of both schools’ recruiting rankings the last 4 years, the difference between the two averages would be even greater than the simulation. Even Diaz can’t repeat the mistakes he made last year. An average coach would have at least six wins with that talent on that team.

    • Strange they lost to Georgia tech with that talent. Seems Manny both upgraded the talent and improved his staff in one year.

      • The way last season developed we might have lost to GT toward the end of the season. Those 3 blowout losses and no coaching changes are hard to digest looking forward.

      • Plus we didn’t do didly squat in the portal compared to Miami. Thinking we could have had the Rutgers center, the Miami de and the psu rb if we really tried.

  2. Had GT’s ball carrier not fumbled a step before the goal line I think it would have been a much closer game. GT made strides as the season progressed and if there is a season, that game could be embarrassing because GT has a very good incoming class.

  3. Does anyone really think someone in the transfer portal would be excited in coming to play for Rod (0-7 in Bowl Games) Carey. No energy, a program that unfortunately heading in the wrong direction is a recipe for players leaving the program and a lack of incoming transfers. Ricky Slade from PSU would be a strong addition, but he would rather look at JMU or Old Dominion, JMU is 1-AA but could probably give the Owls a run next year. Rutgers Center Maietti apparently doesn’t have Temple on his radar (no shocker). You need to find the next Rhule or Golden to get people energized about the program. This guy you just watch him coach doesn’t have it. X’s and O’s were weak, but at Temple you have to have a personality to infuse enthusiasm in recruits/transfers to give the program a shot. How does a guy that gets crushed by UNC in a bowl game give you any hope that he can infuse enthusiasm in this program.

    I’m not a grad. I’m an Eagles season ticket holder and I’m a long time TU fan. A competitive Temple football team is good for the University, the city, local college football fans, and even local high school football. Getting drubbed the way they did in some games in 2019 is a really bad sign.

    I don’t know what will happen with football this fall, I try to stay positive and hope we will be watching in person, but I really feel that Carey was a very bad hire for this program. I hope I’m wrong, but early indications are not good.

    C E Speed

    • Maybe but Miami DE Scott Patchan had 19 ACC starts (19 more than the DE from Wake the Owls picked up in the portal) and he remained in the portal from Jan. 11 to March 15 until Colorado State took a flyer on him. Got to think he would have been salivating at the prospect to outperforrm Quincy Roche (who Miami tabbed to replace him) on Sept. 5, regardless of Carey’s personality. Don’t think the Owls even tried.

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