Monthly Archives: November 2020

11.09.20
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Fizzy: Once again, TU comes up short

This is when there was a lot of hitting in practice and pride six days a week leading up to game day where it was shown on the field and it was Temple handing out the 47-23 beatings.

Editor’s Note: Former Temple football player Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub brings the perspective not only of a player but a lifetime of coaching football, teaching and writing. He breaks down the SMU game here.

 

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

Once again, the collapse began at the last possession before the half. The ball was at the 40, and Temple faced a first and 25, with about 1:43 left on the clock. There was plenty of time to throw a few passes downfield and attempt to score. Maybe you’d get a penalty or a big gain. Inexplicably, Temple tried to run out the clock (they failed) and gave momentum over to SMU.

      Once again, a team destroyed Temple in the second half. It’s the seventh time since the arrival of coach Rod Carey that Temple collapsed after intermission. It seems the only thing the Temple coaches adjust at half-time is their shorts.

     Once again, Temple had a first and goal, and a chance to gain the lead. This time it was in the third quarter. They ran on first down. They ran on second down. They ran on third down and had to kick a field goal. Not even Woody Hayes at Ohio State would have run three times. The coaches still haven’t learned that first down is when you innovate. 

     You’ll notice each of the above paragraphs began with, “once again.” I’m so tired of making the same comments over and over. 

Somewhere the sun is shining,

somewhere the skies are blue

But not with the Temple football group,

because our team is knee-deep in poop

Friday: UCF

11.07.20
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Temple: No incentive to win

After the first play, it was all downhill for Temple.

There are 127 FBS teams who opted into playing this season despite a global pandemic.

Just about every coaching staff is taking this season seriously.

Then there’s Temple.

“I know your right shoulder is hurt but can you throw with your left hand?.“

In a 47-23 loss to SMU on Saturday, the latest in a growing number of embarrassments for a once-proud football program, we saw this:

  • A quarterback (Trad Beatty) who arguably slid past the yard marker (you could make a case either way) for a first down in the first half, was ruled short, and Temple did nothing to challenge. The ESPN+ announcers said it was worth a challenge and it probably was.
  • A shotgun formation on fourth and 1 yard and a predictable loss with the ball snapped so deep. (Every fifth grade Geometry student can tell you the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.)
  • A kicking game that hasn’t even been addressed (missing an extra point and getting two more kickoffs hit out of bounds) despite it being an ongoing problem;
  • No quarterback holding on any kicks, eliminating even the chance of a fake.
  • Punts on fourth down late in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach when those could have been used as a teaching down for the offense.
  • Quarterback auditions during a game for the second straight week that should have been done during practice.

What does all of the above prove?

Temple is playing this entire 2020 season like it’s an extension of spring practice and not a meaningful business enterprise which, when you boil it down to basics, college football is a business and the business is winning.

Like many businesses that serve the public this terrible year, Temple is about to go bankrupt with that approach.

The Owls had more time to prepare for a triple option than both BYU and Air Force did and crapped the bed in that game. They could have invited the best minds in college football known for stopping triple options (say, the Air Force and BYU coaching staffs) but decided, “well, we can stop them doing things our way.”

Err, no. BYU and Air Force held Navy to 3 and 7 points, respectively. It would have been nice to at least review the film of those games and apply the same approach. Instead, Temple did the opposite of those schools and “held” Navy to 31.

Very little of this is attributable to COVID, the City of Philadelphia or injuries. Most of it has to do with the incompetence of the coaching staff and, frankly, a lackadaisical attitude. When you are making $2 million a year for three more years with a $10 million buyout, there is a decreased sense of urgency and that’s what we’re seeing now.

Schools that don’t produce as many NFL players as Temple does have the same problems with COVID but have found a way to succeed. Forget about the teams Temple is looking up at in its own conference (err, everyone). Liberty is 7-0. Coastal Carolina is 6-0. Marshall is 6-0. Hell, even Nevada and San Jose State are 3-0.

Can we get one of those coaching staffs?

The business of college football is flourishing everywhere but Philadelphia largely because winning is no longer a priority here. It’s a sad thing to see.

If it reminds you of a bygone time of nearly 20 years ago, it should. I don’t want to go back to it. Neither should you and, more importantly, the powers-that-be at Temple who were around then.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

11.05.20
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SMU hit the jackpot with Dykes

A competent coach would have given this guy a lead blocking fullback and designed a play-action passing game off fakes to him after establishing the run. But no, Rod Carey wants to do the same RPO stuff at Temple he did at NIU. It’s not working, Rod.

While the jury is still out on Rod Carey’s tenure at Temple (although the deliberation room is hostile), they’ve reached a verdict about SMU’s Sonny Dykes in Dallas.

Innocent of any charges he cannot coach after mixed reviews at a brief stint of head coach at California of the PAC-12.

Carey, on the other hand, is not facing a friendly jury after turning an eight-win Temple team into a likely 1-7 squad this season.

When Temple wanted to rebuild its program, it went with an up-and-coming coordinator, Al Golden, who was a top recruiter at Boston College, Penn State and Virginia. When it wanted stability after Steve Addazio, it went with a Golden disciple in Matt Rhule. It went somewhat back to the prior model with Geoff Collins, the difference being his recruiting chops were in the South. With Carey, the Owls went for a G5 head coach.

SMU did it differently, grabbing a Power 5 head coach who had some success at a higher level than the AAC and what Dykes has done at SMU is certainly more impressive than what Carey has done here.

The two coaching styles compare and contrast this Saturday (noon, ESPN+) at Lincoln Financial Field before a “capacity” crowd of 7,500 fans. (Capacity in that the City of Philadelphia will only allow that many Temple fans to enter the stadium due to COVID protocols.)

Dykes has a 21-12 record at SMU (including 6-1 this season and ranked No. 18 in the USA Today Coaches poll) and that includes getting his feet wet with a 5-7 opening season. Dykes has done it a little differently from Carey, turning last year into a 10-2 record season by grabbing 15 starters, mostly high-level Power 5 recruits, out of the transfer portal.

Dykes did it by offering guys an immediate chance to play and no one benefited from that more than starting quarterback Shane Buechele. While at Texas, he led the Longhorns to a win over Iowa State but lost his job to current starter Sam Ehlinger and transferred to SMU.

Dykes is a players’ coach who is able to keep his star players happy.

This is a Ray Davis’ retweet from Halloween

Contrast this to the gruff style of Carey, who is hemorrhaging good players at a level Temple fans have never seen. Last year, the Owls lost quarterback Toddy Centeio in the portal to Colorado State, as well as AAC Defensive Player of the Year Quincy Roche (Miami) and tight end Kenny Yeboah (Ole Miss). No one knows where Ray Davis is headed but losing a player who gained over 900 yards from scrimmage as the Owls’ best running back is a continuation of the bleeding.

Compare that to the places Carey was able to attract players from: Wake Forest (Manny Walker), NIU (C.J. Perez) and Dayton (Michael Niese.)

Usually, opposing coaches gush over Temple prior to the game but not this time. When asked about Temple, this is the only thing he had to say about the Owls: “We just have to worry about ourselves more than we have to worry about Temple.”

No one can blame him because he has a happy group of players and evidence points to that we cannot same the same about Carey’s Temple group right now.

The jury has reached a favorable verdict about Dykes and, while the foreman hasn’t announced anything yet, it’s hard to find anyone giving Carey a thumbs up right now.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

11.03.20
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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

11.02.20
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Loss leaves Fizzy speechless

The difference between Midwestern nice and Philly fans is this NIU fan apologizes.

Editor’s Note: Like many of us, a 38-3 loss to a Tulane team that barely beat South Alabama left a lot of Temple fans speechless and Fizzy was one of them. He could understandably muster up only a few words in the form of this poem

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

I watched the game in disbelief,

as our football program crashed on a reef

Yes, there were injuries and infections galore,

but I couldn’t help shuddering at the final score

We couldn’t tally on the air or ground,

and somewhere an offense needs to be found

A freshman quarterback killed us with passes,

our coverages and strategies stuck in molasses.

I’ve watched Temple football for over sixty years,

and this downward spiral has me literally in tears

The many excuses simply won’t float,

All I can say is make sure you vote.

Tuesday: How bad is it?

Friday: SMU