Editor’s Note: It’s very rare that we get an email with this much thought, no insults, and this on-point about the Temple football program. Since I agree with 99 percent of what this young man says, I will print it unedited in its entirely. (The only part I don’t agree is giving over the keys of the program to untested Fran Brown but that’s his opinion so I left it in. He did not want to use his name so I’m going to keep it out.) The “young lady” he refers to below is Morgyn Siegfield, who now works for the University of Kansas.
By Anonymous
I really haven’t felt a need in a long time to express my dismay about
the Temple football program. But as my sucko-meter has gone off
multiple times this year, I have some things I need to get off my chest.
Look, I wasn’t crazy about Geoff Collins; I always had the sense that he was
learning on the job. But one thing he did well was relate to his
players and the public. I just never realized how important it was
and is until I saw Rod Carey.
Let’s recap the many ways he has sucked so far, shall we:
1) In an early interview with Owl Sports (with a young lady whose name
I forget), he was asked about “Temple Tuff.” It was a softball
question that the interviewer threw at him to let him affirm Temple’s
brand. His answer: something to the effect of, “Where I come from, you
don’t say you’re tough, you just are.” That was the first indication
to me that
this guy was a schmuck.
He had previously said publicly how excited he was to be the new coach
of the Temple football team, going as far as saying that Kraft could
make his buyout sum as much as he wanted. He was expressing his
gratitude and suggesting, ostensibly, that he was going to be here for
a long time. And what does this douchenozzle say in his interview
with Owl Sports? At the first chance he gets to affirm the Temple
brand, a phrase the legendary John Chaney invented, he basically says,
“meh, whatever.”
2) He fires Ed Foley. WTF???? Everyone likes Ed Foley. If anyone is
Temple, it’s Ed Foley. He was here from nearly the beginning with Al
Golden, I think. Did he have a little bit of Matt Foley in him?
Sure. But he was a really good coach. Our special teams under him
were special!!!
So what does Carey do? He fires Foley, which must have been handled
poorly as Foley felt a need to express his disgust via social media,
and then decides they don’t need a special teams coach. Only problem
is they ended up really sucking on special teams!! Then, the
following season, Captain Mayonnaise assigns one of his lackey’s to be
the new special team coach. As if we didn’t notice!
My sense of the matter is that he was probably just jealous and felt
threatened by the relationships Foley had cultivated with the team and
university. A confident man uses that to his advantage, he doesn’t
fire the guy. My guess is it probably impacted player morale and
trust, too.
3) He not only gets rid of Foley, but he gets rid of the “Wildboys”
nickname that had been a holdover from past defensive lines dating
back to the Matt Rhule era. Collins had the smarts to keep it. He
probably realized the players on the defensive line liked it. So here
comes Carey saying, “There’s a new sheriff in town, and we’re getting
rid of that tradition.”
Right move: Getting rid of signs and charts on the sideline
Wrong move: Getting rid of a tradition that was started in the Matt Rhule era
4) He gets into a public spat (at least on social media) with the
Imhotep coach. I think it started with his mishandling of a Tyreek
Rainer situation, and things blew up from there. Hey good luck
recruiting Imhotep after that! This has traditionally been a hard
school to pull a recruit from so maybe you could argue that the damage
was minimal.
But he just strikes me as a yokel with zero ability to politic.
5) Good players start transferring out. Kenny Yeboah, Quincy
Roche and, now, Ray Davis. All three of these guys are very good
players with potential NFL chops. I’m almost certain Roche will be a
second or third rounder, (even with a low sack total this year.)
Losing these guys can’t be a good look for your program. I don’t
recall Temple coaching staffs from the past losing a high caliber
player like Roche. That’s just irresponsible. And guess what? Don’t
be surprised if Ifenyi Maijeh is next! In his last interview, he
mentioned that he has options after this season. He didn’t specify,
but he also seemed a little bothered. This is a subjective
interpretation, but that’s how I saw it.
6) He seems to be very rigid in his protocol for player interviews.
If you go to the Temple website to look at football related videos,
you’ll see that the player interviews are chaperoned, if you will, by
the coaches. In other words, a journalist asks a question, and then
the coach connects the player to the question. My conclusion: It
looks and feels like the coaching staff is paranoid that these kids
are going to say something wrong or bad about them. Again, I don’t
recall this ever being done in the past. Who knows, maybe his
rigidity and paranoia is symptomatic of the reason some of these kids
are transferring out?
7) And look at the product we see today. This team is a shell of
themselves. Yes, injuries and covid cases have impacted them. But
it’s also impacted the teams they’re playing. And the loss of these
three transfers is totally on Carey. The defense is just crap; they
can’t stop anyone. And that’s on Carey, too.
His QB, Russo, who was recruited by Matt Rhule, has looked good. He’s
been able to score the football. And I give Carey a little credit for
his offensive line maneuvers (utilizing lighter players / zone), but
that’s it. This team is blah. They’re just not very good. They
reflect the personality of their coach.
They’re semi-good. They’re quasi-good. They’re the margarine of good.
They’re the Diet Coke of good, just one calorie, not good enough.
Mike, Carey is just not a good fit. I get it; Kraft was under a lot
of pressure to hire someone. And Carey was available. But I tell ya,
I really liked Fran Brown. In my opinion, people made too much of him
not being ready because he hadn’t been a coordinator. Well, you know
what, there was another guy who hadn’t been a coordinator before he
got the job at the University of Minnesota, and his name is PJ Fleck.
How’d that work out for them?
And Fran Brown can recruit! We’d have all of these NJ recruits right
now if Kraft would have made the bold decision to hire Fran Brown.
And I suspect none of those guys would have transferred out with Fran
as the coach. Fran’s strength is his people skills. He was the
perfect choice. He’s young. He’s charismatic. He’s local. This is
his recruiting footprint. It is absolute nonsense, if not racist to
suggest he was too young or needed more seasoning as a coordinator.
Another guy to consider for the job is Kurt Sirocco. He went to
Temple (didn’t play because of injury), got both of his degrees here,
and got his coaching start here. He’s now doing quite well at U of
Minnesota as their Offensive Coordinator. I suspect his name will be
tossed around for head coach openings in the near future.
But going forward, I suspect that Fran Dunphy, being the gentleman
that he is, will give Carey every chance to right the ship. So we
could be stuck with this guy for another two years, at least. Ugh.
Friday: UCF Preview
Temple Football Forever 
I’ve noticed some quirky congruencies between Rutgers and Temple over the years and right now it seems like Golden/Rhule ~ Schiano (program-builders, turned everything around, started taking things up to the next level), Collins ~ Flood (seemed like a good idea at the time considering the circumstances, some good aspects, ultimately more smoke and mirrors and you can see things starting to regress)…and now Carey ~ Ash (cultural ‘fish out of water’ more concerned with putting ‘their stamp’ (being a carbon copy of the previous program they came from) instead of respecting the traditions and climate in which the program exists, which compounds problems instead of solves them).
Joe P.
Kicking myself because I thought Carey was a professional enough coach to assess the talent at hand first and then design a scheme around the talent. Dude is way too stubborn and thinks everything that worked for him there will work for him here. Get your own damn players and try that RPO shit five years from now. Collins should have probably stuck with the triple option at GT for a couple of years before he could work the triple option guys out of that program. Pride goeth before the fall for both of those guys.
Also, I think Gabe Infante (many state championships as a head coach and a proven recruiter from this year) has a better resume than Fran but, at this point, Al Golden’s ceiling is 8 and is basement is 6 and if Temple can be a non-losing program every year and restore the Temple TUFF culture I will take that over Carey’s 1-7 basement any day of the week. Gabe might be hungry enough to be a 10-11 win championship coach.
In my opinion you have no reason to kick yourself Mike; at the time TU hiring Carey made total sense. It’s not like TU hired say a coordinator or an FCS HC from the west coast. The jury is still out on him but it does look like things are trending the wrong way (he reminds of Ash at Rutgers, who on paper also seemed like a solid hire but we fairly quickly found out he was totally out of his element as he got rid of seemingly any positive hallmark we had (Keep Chopping, Trust Belief Accountability (TBA), F.A.M.I.L.Y., etc), got rid of certain team awards, talked about how ‘terrible’ everything was when he came in, installed a generic ‘The Hunt’ catchphrase that never caught on, turned our jerseys into shoddy OSU copies, alienated former and current players, hired a largely disjointed fish out of water staff with no sense of NJ/ the Northeast…you get the idea.)
I still think TU was fortunate when Collins moved onto GT and almost can’t believe GT went after him that hard and paid him what they did. As an outsider I thought he was full of crap and even with us struggling with everything under Ash he didn’t really recruit well at all (Rhule was starting to really clean up in recruiting when he left TU and the dropoff when Collins took over was almost immediately noticeable).
Joe P.
Fran Dunphy settles for mediocrity and avoids confrontation. If Carey’s ever fired, it will be 90 seconds after Dunphy is escorted off campus.
As a season ticket holder for several years, I am glad that I am not driving the turnpike before every home game this year. And watching the demise of a once-proud team has me thinking of not renewing my tickets for next year, if there is a 2021 football season. I ‘ve met several coaches at Temple over the years, except Carey. Frankly, I’m glad that I didn’t have the opportunity. Maybe we need to look beyond Northern Illinois for our next coach. Carey must go!!
The thing that really pisses me off (among many) is that these GAMES look more like a regular spring practice than an actual contest. Temple is out there auditioning quarterbacks every other series and the bad guys are actually trying to win the game, which is the whole point of being out there in the first place. We’re turning down penalties, punting down by 20 in the fourth quarter (so not to make the score look worse, I guess), not challenging calls where we’re obviously being screwed. The Temple TUFF culture is turning into a culture of not caring and that starts right at the CEO’s office.
The writer of this Posting by Mike is down on Carey and has no hope of improvement .
Temple vs UCF coming up.
Once again I’m not sure what I want from this game.
No way TU beats UCF, is there ?
Do I want a total beat down ,humiliation, just to help rid us of a certain HC ?
Do I want a closer respectable game to show our team is OK, players are good?
A sudden improvement and hopes for the future is on the horizon here ?
This is about the same as most of our Philly Pro teams, where many just want them to loose , get it over with and hope for a new future with new leaders.
Temple vs UCF coming up, is it ugly (er) time soon
Put it this way: Last year, when we had a much better defense, we allowed 62 to that team. This year our defense can’t stop anybody and UCF’s offense might be better than last year. Does that mean UCF will score 62 or more? No, but the trends aren’t good. As far as hoping, I will always hope for a Temple win because I know Temple doesn’t fire coaches and this guy will most likely be hanging around for five years.
Anonymous is actually all of us. Almost every point has been brought up in prior posts. The most telling factor about Carey’s future will be whether he can keep the kids who already verbally committed. So far he has not done a bad job recruiting. If he can keep those kids, get a spring practice under his belt, and avoid injuries, I don’t think things are as dire as suggested. This year had too many set backs to use it as a harbinger of things to come. Doubt that Rhule or an other coach would be doing much better after losing 8 players to the pros and a third of the remaining team to covid and injuries. No coach can win with 2nd and 3rd teamers regardless of how good the coach is. The only game that another coach might have won this season is Navy and that’s it.
John, I wish i had your optimism, but to say Rhule or any other coach would not be doing that much better this year is candidly absurd. This program has regressed significantly since Carey came on board. Evidence is the dismantling and lack of effort in last year’s bowl game where they candidly gave up. 55-13 is a flat out joke.
38-22, 45-21, 63-21, 38-3, 47-23. They are getting smoked. Whooped. Shellacked.
This year, Navy is not a good football team. Every team deals every year with players going to the next level, Covid is a national issue if I’m correct so all 1-A schools are dealing w/ the same obstacles. I can tell you at least the defensive schemes would be better w/ anyone else and no way anyone else could have a special teams unit that is this bad. Last year special teams was bad, it’s crazy but they are worse. They are dire. They will win 1 game this year. That’s it. How can you say he has not done a bad job recruiting? By what metric are you referring? I’m a win/loss guy and this guy is going to win 1 stinking game in 2020.
They are fortunate they didn’t have Villanova on the schedule. Another L.
I don’t blame the kids, if a guy w/ Carey’s personality (I’ve met him), he is a mummy, was coaching me and I had talent. Hello transfer portal. Did Kraft even interview this guy? Seriously he is a mummy. No personality. No charisma–great fit for D 2 or D 3. Guy hit jackpot making $2 million a year.
C E SPEED (Temple needs some speed)
Temple’s HC is one of the highest paid state employees in PA. Seems like that person should have some expectations attached to the contract, like most other jobs have. And if that person can’t match the expectations they should be let go without penalty to the school. So, why do college HCs hold all the marbles? Especially when in Temple’s case it’s almost always a crap shoot as to how well a new coach will do. Rhule sucked his first year but improved his second. Carey is in reverse. So what kind of a lame brain contract di TU sign with him? J Belli may be right but things are definitely not going in the right direction especially compared to other AAC programs. It’s not as if he was such a hot shot coming from NIU to begin with and If he really didn’t care about his buyout clause Temple should have taken advantage by not offering such and including expectations or else, in the contract. But gee, I guess I’m not being realistic and expecting too much.
I’m an onymous contrarian. Player turnover is a bad omen, but they’re not his “guys”. Losing 2020 isn’t scaring me because of Covid, and third-stringers and walk-ons are seeing the field. The Owls will be getting clobbered, but a good ass-whipping can be motivational. In 2021, we may be able to see 20/20. Rod Carey may not be our guy, but he’s probably not a total Jim Carrey. Conclusion: Sell short.
He’s closer to Mariah Carey than Jim Carrey
All I’m saying is that this is not the year to judge Carey because of the loss of so many starters. Everyone on this site has real short memories. Rhule lost at least 10 plus games he should have won including the Toledo and USF games with his best team which was in 2015. Collins similarly lost at least five or six, including games against Nova and a putrid UConn team, and Golden got the team respectable but could not beat a winning MAC team. Addazio went 4-8 his last year. If TU had a full team this season and had most of its starters playing and the Owls were playing this poorly I’d fully agree that Carey is wholly underachieving.
Any analysis has to include all facts not just ones that support your side.
Also, “It’s not the X’s and O’s, it’s the Jimmys and Joes”. Recruiting rankings are as follows: 2016-59, 2017- 119; 2018-84, 2019-104, and 2020-101. SB sports gave them a weighted average for the years 2016-2019 of 93 out of 130. Please tell me how much better any coach would do with talent rated in bottom 30 percent against the teams Temple plays.
Any analysis has to include all facts not just ones that support your side.
I can’t believe Temple is the only team dealing with injuries and COVID and I do believe there are teams with more losses in those areas doing better than us. Not getting ready for Navy with so much time is inexcusable and I really believe had we won that game, the players belief system would have been bolstered and we might have taken down Memphis in addition to Navy and USF. First loss was really deflating considering a middling Air Force team did so well against them. It ain’t getting any better next year. The person who texted me from inside the EO who told me Yeboah and Roche were headed out a week before it was made public told me Mack and Blue said they are not coming back. Maijeh told OwlsDaily he was “exploring other options” for next year. That’s two NFL wide receivers and an AAC first-team DT. We CANNOT afford for this kind of talent to be leaving the building next year. We’re going to be 1-7 this year and if we’re 2-10 next year with this kind of exodus, it will be a miracle.
In the end it’s still Temple University, a school still considered to be located in a ghetto. Had there been a transfer portal back in the day, star players would have left for greener pastures and other than paying players, what could the coaches done about it. Klecko left for a day his freshman year. Why play in front of a third filled stadium when you can do so in packed stadiums on teams playing better opponents all the while receiving a ton more publicity and attention at schools on far better campuses when you don’t have to. Mike, you keep bringing up the Navy game, but all the media I read indicated that practices were really restricted and the whole team couldn’t practice together until just before the game. The Navy coach blamed the lack of practice on his team’s poor showing in two games and no one pushed back. Why doesn’t Carey get the same treatment? Frankly, TU’s games should have been canceled instead of played given how many players couldn’t play.