Notice how Delaware bunches up five players near the line of scrimmage, a 3-3-5 configuration and one LB two yards behind the center to take away the fullback. Every subsequent game Delaware changed back to its normal 4-3. Temple chief of staff Everett Withers has said the Owls won’t change their base defense to counter what Navy does and that’s not a good sign.

Manny Rojas would have been a good guy for the Temple coaching brain trust to consult on a professional level this week.

Rojas is the defensive coordinator at the University of Delaware, who not only beat Navy, but held them to seven points in a 14-7 win earlier this year. It might have been nice to pick his brain and ask how the Blue Hens held Navy’s potent rushing attack to less than 200 yards that day. (Or they could watch the film and see where Rojas played six defenders near the line of scrimmage, put his best down linebacker over the center and took away the fullback, and made Navy go sideline to sideline.)

Doubt it because coaches like to think they know everything and the game plan Temple will bring to Annapolis will probably be the one formulated in the coaching offices at the Edberg Olson Football Complex. Those game plans have been dreadful so far.

Judging by that approach and also comparative scores, this could get ugly.

Fortunately, transitive property rarely is a thing in college football where each game is different and the odd shaped ball bounces in strange ways.

However, humor us here just in case.

The way it goes for Temple at Navy (3:30 p.m., CBS Sports) is simply this: UCF beat Temple, 70-13; East Carolina beat UCF, 34-13 and Navy beat ECU, 23-20.

By that logic, Navy should come away with a historic 81-point victory over Temple by about 6:30 tomorrow night.

That won’t happen since college football has seldom proved the theory of transitive property and the way that Navy approaches the game–taking huge chunks off the clock with long scoring drives–does not lend itself to 81-point wins.

Still, there are plenty of reasons for Temple fans to worry about this particular game.

One, head coach Stan Drayton has been sick all week and Chief of Staff Everett Withers is the next logical choice to step in for him should Drayton not be able to make the game. Withers sat in for Drayton in Monday’s press conference and on Wednesday night’s Stan Drayton Radio show. Both times Withers said Temple will not change its base defense to counter what Navy does. That kind of stubbornness is what got ECU beat in a shocking home loss to Navy. Withers didn’t wither, though.

On both occasions, Withers referred to his role at Temple as the “coach of the coaches” and, if true, Drayton will probably delegate the ultimate authority to someone who has been head coach at places like North Carolina, James Madison and Texas State if he can’t make it. If Withers steps in and becomes Temple head coach for a day, he will be the first person to hold that job having been fired at three other places previously holding the same top job.

And Temple has played football since 1884.

Wonderful.

Get well quick, Stan.

Another reason for fans of the Owls to be concerned is that the same Navy defense Temple will play tomorrow held Tulsa to just 25 yards rushing. Temple, err, “held” Tulsa to 300 rushing yards.

That could mean a couple of things.

Temple’s defense could have a whole lot more trouble with Navy’s rushing game than Tulsa’s or, two, Temple–which had 89 rushing yards AGAINST Tulsa–could struggle even more getting yards against Navy.

A third reason to worry is that this same Navy team beat Temple, 38-14, last year, and Temple has fared worse in two of its three AAC games this season than last year (falling to a UCF team by 57 that it lost to by 42 last year and losing to Memphis team by 21 that it beat last year). To be fair, the 27-16 loss to Tulsa this year was better than the 44-10 loss to Tulsa last year.

You read that right. Rod Freaking Carey has outperformed Stan Drayton in two of the league three comparisons we have to go on. It would be nice for the Drayton staff to use the next five games to jump over that ridiculously low bar.

Maybe this is the day Drayton turns things around.

Or the day he hands the reins over to Withers, who does it for him.

Either way, Rojas probably could have made a significant contribution if asked. His email is rojasm@udel.com

Or he’s just one phone call away and there are still a few hours to place it.

Picks. Like ECU to cover the 3 at BYU and former Temple assistant Mike McIntryre, now the FIU head coach, covering the 6 against visiting La Tech tonight. Also laying the 8 with BC at UConn due to the fact that BC will probably bring more fans to the game than the Huskies will.

Record: Last week: 5-5. Season: 22-17

Update: Former Temple assistant Mike McIntryre inherited a 1-11 FIU team (part of that record thanks to Everett Withers) and now has them at 4-4. Coach of the year material. So we won on FIU and ECU and lost on UConn (as first-year coach Jim Mora Jr. also has done a better job than Drayton with less to work with). Neither of those two guys worked with Arthur Johnson so they are there and Drayton is here. Record for the season: 24-18.

Late Saturday: Game Analysis