5 Takeaways From Opening Day

Watched the complete post-game press conference from Stan Drayton and will say one thing about the guy.

He was a lot happier with a 24-21 win than I would have been if I was a head coach.

Pretty hard for me to stomach that freaking Rod Carey, with inferior talent, can beat Akron, 45-24, and Drayton can’t.

Win and advance, I guess that’s the philosophy but I will say this: IF I’m Rutgers (and thank God I’ve never been Rutgers), I would not be concerned with Temple right now.

Hell, if I’m Temple–and I’ve been Temple all my life–I am so unconvinced that Temple will win this next game that I’ve canceled my trip to Piscataway next week.

Prove me wrong, Stan and the Owls.

The logic simply is this: If you can only beat a 2-10 MAC team, 24-21, you are not going to beat a Big 10 team no matter what kind of Big 10 team that is.

Five other takeaways:

The Edward Saydee wearing No. 2 looked a lot like the Edward Saydee wearing No. 23.

One, where was Edward Saydee? All offseason, we heard that Saydee improved so much that he could be a dominant back for the Owls. What we saw was what we saw last year. He had a hard time getting past the first guy who hit him. Darvon Hubbard did just a little better. Let’s see what No. 24 (Joquez Smith) can do next game. The kid deserves a shot.

Two, E.J. Warner was the Lafayette Warner not the ECU one . If you thought Warner was going to resume what he did in the last game (574 yards, 5TDs) against East Carolina, think again. He was closer to the game manager he turned out to be in his first extended duty against Lafayette and not the confident difference-maker he was against ECU. He needs to be that difference-maker at RU, throwing the ball deep to set up the intermediate stuff. He did not throw it deep nearly enough. The way to fix E.J.? Throw the bomb. Put some fear in the defense. Temple tried zero bombs against Akron.

Three, the longest line since Notre Dame turned into a dud. _ Plenty of Temple fans in the parking lot but my friend Mark correctly said: “They aren’t going into the game.” Must have been only one open window because I remarked to former Temple bowl-winning quarterback Chris Coyer “this is the longest line I’ve seen going into the game since Notre Dame.” Disgraceful crowd of 12,456. Winning cures everything and one win over Akron isn’t going to hit that sweet spot.

A win is a win but the Owls need to throw some bombs to open up the offense enough to beat Rutgers. There will be no short passing game without that threat.

Four, Layton Jordan showed up when he needed to _ Jordan, who in my mind is the best football player on the team, got the key sack of a 14-0 Temple second half. Shocked he didn’t get a single digit. If he makes plays to beat Rutgers, he deserves one.

Five, nobody expected to beat Akron by 30 _ One of my comments pre-game was that “I’d settle for a 30-24 win.” Why? Like Temple, the light turned on for Akron in the last two games of 2022. One was a 44-12 win over perennial MAC power Northern Illinois. The other was a one-point loss to a bowl team, Buffalo, 23-22.

This wasn’t Wagner or Bucknell or Delaware State or Stony Brook. This was a real team with a great head coach and the good guys won while, at the same time, lowering the expectations for Temple fans down the road.

Rutgers will walk into next week expecting an easy win. If what the Owls did today sets the trap better than a 55-13 win over Akron would have, I will sign for it.

Not expecting it, but someone hand me a pen.

Monday: Know Your Foe

    13 thoughts on “5 Takeaways From Opening Day

    1. Owls have no ground game! You don’t go very far having to rely almost 100% on your passing game. The enemy knows you are likely to pass on nine out of ten plays. Also, when you have first and ten on the opponent’s two yard, you mix it up a bit – QB fakes a handoff and skoots around the end for a score. I’ve seen it done hundreds of times. Jury’s still out on Stan Drayton. But he needs to be given a chance. But oh how we miss the current HC of those lucky Cornhuskers!

      • Not a fan of Saydee. Must be the greatest practice player in the history of the game. Other than USF, he has shown me zero. Every other big-time Temple back (Paul Palmer, Ryquell, Jahad, Bernard, etc.) bounces off that first hit. That first guy that touches Saydee he goes down. Not good.

    2. Of the RBs that played yesterday I thought Wilson looked quickest to the hole of the 3. Granted small sample. Part of the problem with running game is a OL that just wasn’t get much push against Akron, did a good job in pass protection though. All in all an ugly win but as you said Mike this opponent was a real team with a good HC so I would rather have our first game a tough comeback win than a blow out of an undermanned FCS team

    3. Mike.
      — work needed on the OL and secondary — too many wide open Akron receivers that Irons missed.
      — work needed on the run game; run plays were only up the middle and took long to develop.
      — excited about the possibilities with the WR’s, especially Anderson and Wright; but also the TE’s. We’ll run up a lot of passing yardage this year.
      — I’m optimistic. (But then again, I am at the start of every year)

      • I can tell the goal for the offense and defense was to put as little as possible on film for Rutgers and still win.

        • Hmm. I would believe that if the final was 35-21 or somewhere along those lines but down 21-10 you say “screw the playbook; we’ve got to pull everything out to beat this team” and that would be the right approach. Beating Rutgers means little if you can’t beat Akron.

      • You were the only optimistic guy on here during the Rod Carey Era (err, Error), I will give you that. I soured on Carey after the Military Bowl with the laughing and carrying on by Temple players behind his back down 55-13. Huge red flag. Fortunately, the discipline you need to win returned under Drayton.

    4. Whew!!!!! Akron helped us a lot with many penalties at key moments in the game and we played quite a clean game penalty-wise. The D did better than most expected (with some big plays at key points) I’d say but we had few pressures on Irons – their O-line did a good job. Our O-line (and what’s up with so many key injuries already?) allowed too many guys in our backfield. We need to be a whole game played, not just the second half if we going to have a chance to beat Rutgers. A win is a win, but damnnnnn…..

      • No oversight whatsoever. I don’t know of a single body that acts with the impunity of a major college BOT and Temple is one of the biggest offenders. Who oversees the Temple BOT? The Commonwealth? Congress? No.

      • The Temple controversy article is quite revealing. Seems like football/uni athletics in general is a microcosm of the school problems which is a reflection of the cities problems and really, American society. Crap rolls downhill…. Wingard verbally put an end to the stadium possibilities – his idea or the boards? Morgan (a multi billionaire?) could easily bring it back to life – hell, he could finance the whole project, would be pocket change for him and why hasn’t he dealt with Lurie on a better rent deal since they’re both super rich or pushed the OCS forward – that’s one of the things trustees are for, rubbing elbows with the elites and politicians. And btw, universities should not be shills for the Milton Freidman capitalist disciples. Will be interesting to see whether Morgan sticks to what he’s preaching and if so, upgrades to the athletic dept. (among other things) should follow.

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