Everything is virtual these days.

Virtual graduations.

Virtual games.

Even a virtual Kentucky Derby showdown between Seattle Slew, Affirmed and Secretariat (spoiler alert: Secretariat won).

There are even actual newscasts seeming virtual with reporters and weather people working from home.

Temple head coach Rod Carey gave his thoughts on the NFL draft from home via Skype to reporters from Jeff Skversky to Fran Duffy, two guys with deep Temple connections.

Maybe it’s time for a Carey press conference on the state of the program where no reporters have to show up and the folding chairs for the press don’t have to be six feet apart.

Scott Patchan could have filled an area of need for Temple.

If there was one, these would be the five questions I’d ask Rod:

You brought the RPO offense from NIU but Temple has used play-action and a power running game to post consecutive 10-win seasons and recruited that type of personnel. What was your thinking behind that?

What Rod would probably say: “Really, that’s the only offense we were comfortable running at NIU and Mike (Uremovich) doesn’t know how to run anything else.”

What we hope he would say: “Yeah, that was a mistake. We took a long look at the film and we’re going do try to establish the run first and have explosive plays in the passing game of play fakes. When you have a guy with a great arm like Anthony, you can’t be exposing him to decisions on whether or not to run the ball. Plus, Ray Davis and our OL gives us a chance to establish the run. Once that happens, I can see a lot of success off play-action to guys like Jadan and Branden.”

What did Quincy Roche say to you when he transferred to Miami and what did you say to him? 

What Rod would probably say: “We have a rule that once you are in the portal, you are off the team. We wished him good luck.”

What we hope he would say: “We pointed out that Haasan and Muhammad were first-round defensive linemen picks out of Temple and told him there was no reason he couldn’t follow in their footsteps. Plus, we showed him how much progress he made in one year under Walter (Stewart) and if that was repeated next year, the sky would be the limit.”

Temple fans haven’t watched their team beaten 55-13, 63-21, and 45-21 in the same season in a long time. What do you attribute those lopsided games to?

What Rod would probably say: “We had a lot of bad luck, turnovers, missed assignments, things like that. We just let those games get away from us. Matt (Hennessy) didn’t play in the UCF game and that hurt us.”

What we hope he would say: “That kind of alludes to what I said above. Temple has been known in the past as a tough team that runs the ball, controls the clock, shortens the game, and wins it in the fourth quarter. That’s what we have to get back to and that’s where we hope to be in 2020. I’m still kicking myself for throwing the ball 26 times in the first 34 plays at Cincinnati. If we had flipped that, like we started to do in the second half, we would have won that game.”

Did you show any interest in available portal players Scott Patchan (Miami DE who ended up at Colorado State) or Ricky Slade (Penn State running back who is still in the portal)?

What Rod will probably say: “We were only interested in guys who wanted to be here. Manny Walker, for example, wanted to be here.”

What we hope he would say: “We know we had holes at DE and RB and looked at every available guy. We tried to sell Scott on proving to Miami they gave up on him too soon but he wanted to go play for Steve Addazio.”

You mentioned after the NFL draft that Temple is already cashing in on the NFL success with potential recruits? Which recruits with Power 5 offers have committed since the NFL draft?

What Rod will probably say: “I can’t tell you names but I can say we got a few guys who MAC schools offered and we hope to get more.”

What we hope Rod would say: “We got a few guys who saw the NFL stuff, want to play in the NFL, and said Temple was a proven place to achieve that dream. We convinced Muhammad and Haason to make those calls and that really helped us with recruits. We got one guy with an offer from the SEC, one from the Big 10 and one from the Big 12. We’re going to release those names soon.”

Friday (5/15): Advantages of a shortened season

Monday (5/18): Recruiting Patterns

Friday (5/22): Suspending Campaigns