A week ago, we mentioned in this space that you’d have to have a pretty strong pair of Cherry and White-colored glasses to think a 1-6 team transformed itself into a winning one this offseason.
Maybe we were wrong so we went to the mat and went over the 2021 schedule game by game.
If you think by adding a quarterback from Georgia (who is charged with replacing a top four all-time Temple quarterback) and a couple of Power 5 running backs are going to do the trick, those are pretty strong glasses.
There is hope, though.
Five impact players still to be added can move the needle from a two- or four-win 2021 season to a six-win one. What do we mean by impact players? Guys who’ve started and excelled on a Power 5 team. Defensive linemen who have multiple sacks and tackles for losses. Defensive backs with interceptions and multiple starts. Difficult to get those kinds of guys? Yes. Impossible? With over 1,600 and counting players in the portal still, hardly. Unless Temple gets five of those types, I don’t see a significant uptick in wins in 2021.
It’s that simple.
In hopes of eating my words come December (and will only if the 2021 Owls post a WINNING season), here is a sobering look at what will probably happen with this current group of players:
Rutgers 31, Temple 14 _ Rutgers seems to have turned it around under former coach Greg Schiano who, like Al Golden at Temple, is a proven winner at his former place of employment. If Temple loses this one, it will go to show how far Temple has fallen from a team that beat Maryland (20-17) in 2019 to losing to a team that same Maryland team beat (48-7).
Temple 21, Akron 14 _ This could easily be a loss as the Zips closed out last season impressively, with a 31-3 win over Bowling Green, whose head coach in that game was former Temple offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler, but you’ve got to believe the Temple program is better than the Zips and I believe that there is enough holdover talent to get this done.
Boston College 34, Temple 23 _ If Isaiah Graham Mobley and Khris Banks make game-changing plays in this one, that will be a real kick in the nuts.
Temple 38, Wagner 7 _ The last time Wagner played an AAC team it lost “only” 21-14 but that was UConn so it didn’t count.
Cincinnati 38, Temple 0 _ Cincy has had four of the last five top AAC recruiting classes. In the same time frame, the best Temple can do is finishing in the middle of the recruiting pack. It’s not the X’s and O’s, it’s the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s.
ECU 28, Temple 3 _ Temple has only slightly improved from last year’s 28-3 loss but arguably ECU has also improved so it’s a potential wash.
Houston 31, Temple 10 _ The Cougars get revenge for a 59-49 loss to Temple when the Owls had a running back good enough to score six touchdowns in the game (and a commitment to the run that enabled him to do it).
Memphis 41, Temple 29 _ The Owls had Anthony Russo at quarterback when they were able to put up 29 points on Memphis last year. If Duece Mathis is as good as advertised, he will at least be able to match the output.
Navy 34, Temple 31 _ So far, the Temple coaching staff has only faced two triple option teams, Army in the early NIU days and Navy last year. They haven’t figured out a way to stop the triple option in over a decade. Maybe they should have the Air Force, Army and BYU staffs visit the E-O for a chalkboard session. Since Pride Goeth Before the Fall, I don’t anticipate that happening so Navy scores over 30 again.
UCF 38, Temple 17 _ Instead of trying for a touchdown on fourth and goal at the two for a 38-21 loss, Rod Carey goes for the field goal to cover the spread. The boos from the smattering of 4,345 fans at Lincoln Financial Field are palpable.
Tulsa 44, Temple 7 _ The Golden Hurricane prove that a school with 3,764 full-time students can beat a school with 40,000 full-time students if the right ratio of those students are big-time football players.
USF 39, Temple 31 _ USF lost at Temple last year, 39-37, when its quarterback inexplicably put the ball on the carpet at his own five. People usually learn by painful mistakes like that.
There you have it. Unless five impact players walk in the door between now and April, Temple is staring at a 2-10 season. Five impact players can help the Owls pick off the USF, Memphis, Navy and maybe Houston games but the Jimmy’s and Joe’s aren’t there now, nor are the X’s and O’s.
Don’t say the coaching staff hasn’t been warned.
Monday: Back to the Future
Temple Football Forever 
How come Martin and Barber haven’t signed. They are still listed has hard commits
Sent from my iPad
They are not signing, a relatively new development that hasn’t been updated in the data banks.
Akron will beat Temple in Ohio.
We’ve got KJ down for 1-11 then. 🙂
Recent past history says TU can’t beat a Mac team with a winning record. 1-11 could be a real possibility. Tulsa might be a win though because they had a worse recruiting season than Temple did.
It usually takes 3 years before any recruiting class becomes a factor on the field, probably two or maybe less if all the recruits are portals. Akron is anything but a winning team, though. 1-5 in a worse league than the AAC. I do agree with both John and KJ that 1-11 is a real possibility, though. That’s why I put sobering in the headline even though if Temple is 1-11 or 2-10 I’m probably going to be drinking a lot more to drown out my sorrows.
Time for Luke Fickell to make the AAC shine. Back to back to back top recruiting classes, etc.
No excuses for them, tough away games at Indiana and ND. 11-1 and Top 10, finishing w/NY 6 win.
He’s doing it the right way. Not looking for any Power 5 job that comes along, but the right Power 5 job for him. With Miami on probation, that probably wasn’t the right Power 5 job for Golden (although in fairness to Al he didn’t realize how bad the penalties were against Miami when he got there). Baylor was the right job for Matt because it got him an NFL job. Tom Herman=great coach for Houston, not so great for Texas as a whole. Plenty of other AAC head coaches have flopped going P5.
Sobering like a opioid addiction! Carey needs to engage six or seven P5 defensive carats prior to camp at 10th and Diamond, or my crew will be 86 from the Linc for 36 CFR § 2.34.
Hey, received another phone call from Temple Sports/Tickets a few days ago. I welcome the call but honestly, I could hardly understand what the young man was saying. I assume he was Asian by his speech, which is great, but I could hardly understand him .
Listen, but I have worked with people from all over the globe for years and even my parents were foreigners, but .
Bad idea for Temple Tixx to use someone to sell TUFB Tixx as it is, but bad communications too? Not very good.
I was respectful of course, but said what I wanted to say, could not Understand him. ‘ Nicht Verstehen ‘, here.
Can they do anything easy and right over there ?
Gus Bus stopping in Orlando at UCF. Trick plays galore are coming.
How come Navy wasn’t on Modlinski’s list? Hate to say this but Temple’s overall athletics program isn’t any better than being at the G5 level. Except for 1 or 2 sports (fencing) we’re just not competing at the P5 level. I’ve said it before when everyone was all hot to get into a P5 conference that we should be careful what we wish for. We shouldn’t be getting beat by 30-40 points (women’s basketball), having losing records in men’s BB, getting slaughtered in football, losing to small schools like Nova in most contests in many sports or not having a better stadium situation for a 40,000 student school. We’re at the point that we expect to lose those P5 football games anymore. And it all starts with the administration and BOT. It’s kind of sad really.
Truly amazing that we’ve fallen from a team that beat both Georgia Tech and Maryland two years ago to one that probably should have been 0-7 except for maybe a fluke play a year later.
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