Clicked through a list of available videos free to Amazon Prime members and landed on a surprisingly good film about the invasion of Iwo Jima on Friday night.

In it, the money quote was from a soldier who said they didn’t try to win the battle for their country but for their fellow soldiers. They didn’t want to let the guy down in their foxhole or the next foxhole.

That, to me, is the No. 1 motivational factor for the Temple football players this fall. A rising tide (Temple wins) lifts all boats (players’ NFL futures) and that would seem to me to be the motivation for the kids, not to win it for dear Old Temple. So they are playing for each other and that’s OK, too.

Whatever floats your boat works for me.

For fans like me, though (and I assume you) it’s been a tough three years.

Temple was 1-6, 3-9, 3-9.

That’s not the Temple football I knew and loved through my school years or the one I got used to from roughly 2007-2018.

So, for me, the motivation is getting back to the old days.

Not winning for Dear Old Temple but getting back to that level of respect Temple had.

While looking for a particular story in the New York Times archives researching Joe Klecko, I came across the gem at the top of this post. Temple was the lead story in the national pre-game preview in the New York Times. Headline: “Temple Picked to Win Again.”

At least two “money quotes” in those few paragraphs.

Here’s one: “They have arrived. They have made great strides toward being No. 1 in the East, definitely think they are on a par with Penn State.” _ Holy Cross head coach Ed Doherty.

The very next quote is from NYT writer Gordon S. White: “Penn State, the long-time power in Eastern football, has been trailing Temple in the weekly vote for the Lambert Trophy this season.”

We might never see a year where Temple leads Penn State for several weeks as the top team in the East again, but it’s certainly possible that the Owls return to the AAC championship game like they did in consecutive seasons less than a decade ago.

In fact, one college football magazine picked the Owls to win the title the same year after they appeared in the championship game. The Owls lost to Houston in 2015 but came back to hammer No. 22-ranked Navy the next, proving that prediction right.

Something like that 2015 year this year and the 2016 the next would be perfect but the overall goal should be at the minimum to return to a bowl.

Regardless of the motivation that gets them there.

Friday: 5 Individual Stats We’d Like to See

Monday: Credit Where Credit is Due