Now we’ll find out how bad Carey really was…

As the losses piled up and the exorbitant margins added to the pain of losing, one truth was more apparent last year than even the year before.

Rod Carey is a really bad coach.

At least he was for Temple. How he went 52-30 at NIU is a question for another day.

The answer to how bad could come in about seven months when the Owls are finishing up what could be a 3-1 September.

After that, it will be tough to find three wins on the schedule in the last eight because of the way the 2021 Owls got handled by most of the same teams.

Three wins in those eight will be hard but doable.

There are two keys to a successful season:

No. 1, the Owls have to do what Charlotte did last season: Open with a win at Duke.

No. 2, find three wins in the last eight games.

It should not be too much to ask Temple to do what a lower level CUSA team did. If Temple can’t do better than a team that allowed 56 points to Old Dominion, 38 points to Florida Atlantic, 45 points to Western Kentucky and 49 points to Marshall, maybe the Owls should get out of the football-playing business.

The team that gave all of those points away beat Duke.

Temple should be able to as well.

Then the Owls must take care of business in two of three next three games against overmatched foes like Lafayette and UMass.

Beating a Rutgers team that beat them, 61-14, might be a bridge too far but what the Owls do with the momentum of 3-1 behind them might be enough to get three wins in their next eight games.

That (6-6) would be a successful season, especially after 1-6 and 3-9.

Anything less?

That would probably raise serious questions about the future and would not meet even the minimal expectations of success.

The 3-9 probably was worse than the 1-6 because of how the Owls lost those nine games. They weren’t in any of them and probably shouldn’t have been because of the way they were pushed around. They had one historically bad strength coach. Now they have three new strength coaches and 12 months to lift weights and that should show on the field.

They always say the biggest game is your next one and, for this year’s Owls, that’s never been more true. It’s probably the difference between making a bowl or having a third-straight losing season.

If Carey is as bad as we think he was, six wins should be attainable.

Friday: Finding Those Three Wins

Monday: Benchmarks

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10 thoughts on “Now we’ll find out how bad Carey really was…

  1. I really do think after Carey landed that plum of a contract (3 times better than at NIU) he just didn’t care at all, knowing that no matter how good or bad he did he’d walk away with millions and selfishly didn’t give a crap about Temple, it’s fans, the players or the FB program. BTW, has he landed anywhere else yet, even as just an coordinator or position coach? Which leads to another idea presently. Hopefully our new HC (formerly position) coach will be trying to really prove something for himself and do a bang up job. We’ll see……

    • He thought he was on Easy Street and probably knew that Temple never fired head coaches. I really think he thought he’d be here until the end of the five years. At least until the midway point of 2021. That probably had something to do with his laissez-faire attitude. Then a new Sheriff came to town and changed that dynamic.

  2. Where is Carey now? Surely his future as a HC (or even an assistant coach) is unlikely! He was probably the worst football coach in our 128 year history! Maybe NIU wants him back.

    • He’d probably be a good offensive line coach as long as he doesn’t have to recruit, maybe for Uremovich at Butler.

    • He did pretty well at NIU but it sure didn’t translate to TU. Similarly, Bobby Wallace did well in AL but stunk it up here – and BTW, Carey was drfinitely one of the very worst but I think Wallace was the worst ever at TU (even if he did beat top-10 VT) and it didn’t help that TU kept him around far too long which aided in adding to his dreadful record here.

  3. Not so sure that I would count Duke as a sure win Mike.

  4. If Temple isn’t going to try to put a winner on the field, they should get out of the football playing business. I don’t expect Nick Saban to coach here, and they probably got lucky with Golden and Rhule, but the coaching hires have been head scratchers. Like you’ve said many times, they would have a great chance at winning with someone with SJ/Philly connections. However, they refuse to go that route. Also, stop playing football if you can’t build a stadium. We don’t need the Big House, we need a nice stadium that holds some fans and some students. I’m tired of hearing they can’t because of the surrounding neighborhoods. When dedicated corporations want something, and yes, universities are just big businesses they figure out a way. Temple wants to be winner on the field, they want revenue sharing from a conference, but they don’t want to put in any effort. I’m tired of it. Rutgers and Maryland jump to the Big 10 because of their locations and tv revenue…what’s Philly? A small market? If Temple put out a half decent product, who knows? Maybe the Big 12 comes calling. It’s all so frustrating. Bring back the baseball and wrestling teams (SJ and PA wrestling is amazing) and get rid of the half hearted attempt at a football team.

    • Agree wholeheartedly Jason. And BTW, also bring back mens gymnastics, mens track & field, swimming/diving and whatever others they dropped thru the years, with or without football. Much smaller schools right in the Philly area make it happen, why can’t TU? Yes, football coaching hires have been half assed for the most part, seems like on purpose.

    • I am appalled at the rapid decline of this program, coming from a long overdue win over Penn State and a near win over Notre Dame six short years ago, both in front of Linc sellouts and thousands of cheering students, to the pathetic and humiliating last two seasons under one of the worst head coaches in the game! But I remain hopeful for a major turnaround, beginning this year. The program has been around for 128 years, having had its share of major setbacks. But, all that aside, I believe the terrible decision by the NCAA to implement the player transfer portal may very well spell the end of more than a few college football programs playing at FBS level. Let’s give the new head coach a chance to prove he can bring Owl football back to respectability.

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