Temple defense: The unspoken truth

It’s real bad when South Alabama gives Tulane a better game than Temple does.

How bad is it?

It’s bad.

Really bad.

Even when Anthony Russo gets back to fix the offense, and sadly that’s not this week, the unspoken truth about Temple football is that the defense cannot be fixed.

It’s this bad:

Temple’s defense gave up 37 points to South Florida, a team that scored only 27 on The Citadel, 13 against Tulsa and 24 against East Carolina.

Temple’s defense gave up 38 points to a Tulane team that could score only 27 on South Alabama and 24 on Navy. South Alabama? That noted power which lost to UAB, 42-10?

Yep.

Temple’s defense gave up 31 points to a Navy team that could only score three against BYU and 7 against Air Force.

If Rod Carey falters, looming in the shadows behind him is Gabe Infante

And very little of the above had to do with COVID, because much of the evidence had been there before head coach Rod Carey could pull that excuse.

What did Quincy Roche know and when did he know it?

It would be nice if the AAC Defensive Player of the Year had stayed at Temple to bolster a virtually non-existent pass rush, but he did not and Temple did not get an adequate replacement for him. Did Roche have a problem with Rod Carey? Or Jeff Knowles? Or Walter Stewart?

Carey went into the season shrugging off the personnel departures like Roche, quarterback Toddy Centeio and tight end Kenny Yeboah, saying “we want to go with the guys who want to be here.”

Think about that point and extrapolate it for a second. If the entire starting offense and defense wanted to leave but the scout teams on both sides of the ball want to stay, do you really want to go with the guys who want to be here?

Why do only the good guys want to leave?

Do you think the Owls would have done better than three points if Toddy was still here?

I do.

The evidence is that the offense is an AAC high-quality one when Russo is in the game, scoring 29 against both Navy and Memphis and 32 (one was a defensive score) against USF. That’s on the high end of opponents against those teams.

Three points with two backup quarterbacks against a poor defense like Tulane is inexcusable, but it matters little if the defense cannot keep people off the scoreboard and nothing we’ve seen thus far provides any evidence that will change.

That’s the unspoken truth about this season.

Until maybe now.

Friday: SMU preview

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11 thoughts on “Temple defense: The unspoken truth

  1. players know Jimmy and Joe when they see ’em. Easy to understand Roche and Yeboah now. Which teams have the most game ready players? Miami, ‘Ole Miss, or TU?

    Who can match the efforts of Fran Brown? Long dark days await w/o the arrival of a Godsend recruiter.

    How in the world can you compete at the national level with the last five recruiting classes? All bottom half of the conference. We are witnessing a terrible trifecta: below conference average team talent; lousy scheme for the talent we do have; and another conference bottom half recruiting class coming in next year.

    Roche and Yeboah ARE NOT ALONE, MORE WILL FOLLOW. Carey can’t recruit and he is not a player’s coach.

    Like Dunphy, Carey is just a plain old nice honest man. And again like Dunphy, probably would be a great coach at the FBS level.

  2. Mariah Carey may coach better. Rod smells more like a fish out of water for too long (Bobby Wallace).
    I’m starting to have sweet fantasy about a new coach.

  3. Will Blue follow Davis out the door? What a travesty. Carey has to go NOW before the program is mortally wounded. I hate stupid stubborn people and he fits that bill to a tee. He’s just following the RPO crowd and running what everyone else is running instead of running an offense that fits the skills of the players. Can’t blame Davis for leaving because Carey’s schemes are getting him killed and Yeboah has gotten a ton of press.

    • This is getting to be like the final days of Bobby Wallace where players (guard Chris Harris) were writing letters to the Board of Trustees complaining about him. Instead of doing that, Now the good guys are saying fuck it we’re just leaving. Carey is not a players’ coach. Golden was. Infante would be.

  4. WE are seeing the END of Temple Football at the big boy level, or maybe any at all.
    There ain’t no more money, da dough is done, ‘ my Funds-a-low’.
    The ONLY hope now rests in 3 scenarios :
    1 – Cary gets suddenly smarter, Nope.
    2- Cary quits or leaves on his own for some, Nope
    3- BOT finds that miracle know as a Morals Claus to force him out – What ???

    Players announce leaving in the MIDDLE of the SEASON ? Wow….
    And that’s a wrap, fellow travelers here on the doomed TUFB train to hell ?

    • Good luck selling season tickets next year. Davis should have been running behind a fullback and he should have been the feature of the entire offense. He knows that. I know that. The dopes running this program don’t.

    • You are probably correct. I have not been keeping track but they need to have their own stadium. Without real student interest they are not going to be able to attract the better talents.

  5. The players have to get together and start complaining that Carey is out of his league and is a detriment to the program. Frankly TU football would be better off if the team as a whole opted out for covid reasons. It would prevent the three blowouts in the Cinncy, SMU, and USF games that certainly will happen from occurring and the really bad PR that will follow them. As you know the usual haters of TU football have not disappeared and already have reappeared with their negativity. What is a shame is that we on this site foresaw this years ago and, as usual, the Athletic Department ignored it and continued on their mediocre path that is spelling doom for all TU athletics. Hope Pat Kraft’s incompetence brings BC down although he got lucky that they fired Addazzio before he got the AD job.

    • As ugly as the Tulane game was, the SMU game has a chance of being a 55-12 type beatdown. More to do with the general malaise in the program than any physical sickness.

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