Tomorrow marks two weeks until Temple kicks off the season at home against Akron.

Those two weeks are important in the micro sense because I really believe that the key to winning the opener is new defensive coordinator Everett Withers charting and having his guys ready for every possible play that Akron ran during last season.

When guys like Jordan Magee and Layton Jordan recognize what’s coming and start pointing to who might have the ball on pre-snap reads and tackle the guy you know Withers will have done the requisite film room study.

What I don’t want to hear is the things we’ve heard before Temple opening day losses to teams like Duke and Army in the past.

“We’re not concerned about what anyone else does. We’re concerned about what Temple does.”

All that gets you is a big fat L.

The Zips aren’t a mystery. They are on film and it’s Temple’s job to know what’s coming.

That’s the micro picture.

The macro one is five stats we think are the difference between Temple going 6-6 and 8-4 this year.

1-E.J. Warner _ Not too much to ask Warner to up his touchdown passes from 18 to 30 this year. The guy is a film room freak and he will not suffer a sophomore slump. But if he only improves from 18 to 23 or 25 touchdown passes, the Owls will only improve 1-2-3 wins and that’s not enough in my mind.

2- Edward Saydee _ Somewhat shocked to hear that Saydee–who only gained 629 yards last year–has looked good enough to earn a single digit. If he hits the magical 1,000-yard mark, the Owls are in business. Saydee gained 257 yards in a 54-28 win over USF but did not gain more than 70 yards in any other game. We would gladly trade that one 200-plus game for six 100-plus games and, if he gets that, the sky’s the limit for this team.

3-Double Tight Ends _ If the Owls employ double tight ends (and by that we mean Jordan Smith and David Martin-Robinson), watch out. Those two are as good as any pair of tight ends that ever played at Temple and having both in the game at the same time poses double trouble for any defense. One, it gives the running game at extra blocker and, two, playmakers at positions where playmakers don’t usually line up. If DMR and Smith combine for 10 TDs, and we think they will, the Owls are in good shape. When the Owls went to double TEs at Maryland (2018) and put one in motion as essentially a blocking fullback, they came away with a 35-14 win over a Big 10 team.

4- Tackles for losses _ Layton Jordan had 13 TFLs, including a strip and falling on the ball in the end zone at Navy. If he and Jordan Magee combine for 20TFLs, the Owls will have a winning season.

5- Jalen McMurray interceptions _ McMurray, who had the most pass breakups on the team last year, had only one INT. He’s quick enough and confident enough as a sophomore to pick off a few of those passes. We’re only asking for five and we think he can do that.

Micro, lock everything down from on the defensive end in Game One.

Macro, improved stats for the key players.

Those are the ingredients for success once the Owls come out of the tunnel in a couple of weeks.

Monday: Credit Where It’s Due