The Compelling Case for Quincy Patterson

After about five straight years of heading up to the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” show, which had been a fun day trip every summer, I heard a familiar number five minutes after finishing the test.

There were about 200 dreamers there in June of 2011.

The show producer said “we have only two people who passed the test. Number 16 and No. 54.”

Fifty-four, that was me. I raised my hand.

Not shocked because I thought I got every question right on the 30-question grid except the one about rap music.

Then I went through an interview–sitting at a table in the front of the ABC-TV commissary and answering questions– and they said they’d call.

They never did.

I found out the reason much later. On a Reddit board dedicated to the show, someone who said she once “worked for the program” explained the interview process.

“We wanted only overly excited people,” she said. “If you weren’t jumping up and down, basically we never called. You had to show you really loved the game. If you acted like you were there for us to give you a million, we’d pass on that person.”

Patterson beat a North Carolina team that held Temple to just 13 points.

That was me. Not overly excited, just wanted the chance at the million bucks.

I thought about this story the other night after watching D’Wan Mathis play quarterback at Temple for the eighth time.

Eight is enough.

D’Wan Mathis just looks like he’s out there to get a chance at a million bucks if the NFL calls somewhere down the road. Not overly excited about playing the game itself. After Duke took a 7-0 first-quarter lead, Temple had seven second-quarter possessions and Mathis led them to six three-and-outs. Game, set and match.

The hard lesson I learned and I hope Mathis does is that you DO have to be overly excited to even get the chance at a million bucks but that’s just not his personality. Nor mine.

Nothing wrong with that but quarterback is a position where you need a fiery leader, someone who doesn’t settle for three-and-outs. Someone who instead of throwing the ball away on third down with an open lane ahead of him, takes off and runs and buys his teammates three more downs.

Mathis hasn’t been that person at either Georgia or Temple.

Quincy Patterson has been that at both Virginia Tech and North Dakota State. At least more than Mathis has in two places.

That’s one of the reasons Patterson needs to be the starter against Lafayette on Saturday.

If the Duke game were the outlier, that would be one thing. Of Mathis’ eight Temple starts, his one good one last year (Memphis) appears to be the outlier. No Temple starter since Chester Stewart or maybe Vaughn Charlton has started a career with this many three-and-outs. Temple had no other options then.

It does now.

Starting Mathis again on Saturday against Lafayette would be Fool’s Gold. He could look great in that game and lay an egg against Rutgers a week later. To be honest, Mathis did not look all that great against Wagner last year.

Starting Patterson could be doubly beneficial for the Owls. He gets a warmup game for Rutgers and has a chance to rally the team around his personality so it spreads to the rest of the Owls and gives them a better chance at winning the Homecoming game. Right now, the team has taken on Mathis’ lackluster on-field personality and that kind of malaise can be a poison pill.

Wanting to be a millionaire is one thing but you can’t get there if you aren’t jumping up and down for the opportunity. After eight games, we know that much about Mathis. Stan Drayton shouldn’t have to wait for eight more before reaching that same conclusion.

Friday: Lafayette preview

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21 thoughts on “The Compelling Case for Quincy Patterson

  1. Actually neither looked good. I say go with warner

    • Patterson got about three possessions. Mathis got about 20. Patterson didn’t have a large enough sample and, when you are in there with a 30-0 deficit, you are behind the eight ball. Put him in there at 0-0 and you see what he can do.

      • We shall see. There is a reason this is his 3rd team

      • At least one “red flag” from the Drayton post-game press conference. “I thought D’Wan played well in spots,” he said. Huh? As a quarterback you have one job–lead your team to multiple scores. Mathis had a dozen possessions and came up empty each time. If, say, Rory Bell misses a dozen field goals does Drayton say, “I thought Rory kicked well in spots.” No. He has one job, too.

  2. You Lost a House on that Bet!

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

    • au contraire my friend. If you read the preview post, I wrote “don’t bet the house but if you have a spare farm, bet that.” I have neither a spare farm nor a regular farm so I lost nothing. My apologies to Temple fans with two farms who followed my advice.

  3. No Problem! I’m glad you lost nothing! Just thinking it is going to be another rough year!

  4. Mike,
    I missed the game on Friday night, turns out that my wife had other plans then scouring the web to find a free stream of the game. From what I read, not sorry that I did.

    There’s a line in your reasoning about Mathis and “fool’s gold” versus Lafayette which implies that the Owls will be winning this one easy…………after last week’s debacle I don’t think its going out on a limb to suggest that this one is a 50/50 proposition at best.

  5. Let’s hope Drayton sees what we know. Put two tight ends in the game, QB under center and run the ball North/South. Temple is not fast enough to beat teams running East/West.

  6. The trouble here is indicative of an attitude that has frustrated me through many seasons of TU football and basketball- there seems to be this sort of stoic “stay the course” mindset even when it’s obvious the course will lead straight to a wreck. If you’re losing doing things “the way we do them” you have nothing to lose by trying something a little different. We don’t need a gambler’s philosophy, but we need somebody to be honest enough with himself to say “what the hell” and make a move, any move, when the status quo isn’t working.
    This same attitude pervades Temple at almost every level IMHO.

  7. Oh, and we’re back in ESPN’s “Bottom 10”

    • Temple has dropped to 123 on the Athletic Website rankings. Behind the likes of UConn, New Mexico, Bowling Green Louisiana Monroe.
      I guess the good news is that Navy and UMass are ranked worse than us.

      • The bottom line is that after nine months of the era of good feelings you don’t come out with a game plan that reeks back to the era of bad feelings. Not a single deep pass on offense. Sitting back in a base defense and letting a quarterback pick you apart. When you throw a deep ball with AAC refs, at least you get a chance to get a PI call or two on the road. Back to square one in terms of national perception. Every single prediction show about the Duke-Northwestern game is trashing us and we deserve it.

    • “Get back to reality..,” The good news: Drayton is playing so many underclassmen. The bad news is the seniors are not better.

      We should keep an eye on the DC and OC.

      Enough with simulating pressure. How about the plain old blitz?

      And, it is just hard to fathom the offense is that bad.., someone on the roster must be capable of making a first down?

      • This East/West running style is so reminiscent of Carey it’s scary. Scary Carey. Hey, that rhymes. Let’s try going North/South. You learn that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Put Klein at center and have Stoffel and Moore at the tackles. That gives you three uber-experienced and somewhat talented guys along the five-man front. Rub some dirt on DMR’s leg and get him back in there. Put DMR in motion and give the best one-cut runner (we haven’t seen him yet) a chance going forward.

  8. Pingback: E.J. Warner: Temple Underdog – Temple Football Forever

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