Amazing to me how much Vegas nails the line exactly and probably oddmakers’ best performance came on Saturday in a game it should have known little about.

The line for the Norfolk State at Temple game was not set until Friday when Temple was made a 30.5-point favorite.

By kickoff, the public moved that line up to 32 and that’s where it rested.

Thirty-freaking-two.

Temple won, 41-9.

That’s 32.

Good news and bad news because by Sunday No. 22-ranked Miami should be a 30-point favorite over Temple before a much larger crowd. (Temple grad and Miami fan Howard Eskin will probably be there wearing Miami swag, sadly.)

The Owls have some work to do to bring that line down.

Or Miami will probably win 30-0, 40-10 or 50-20.

Maybe too much work.

The 41-9 win over Norfolk State exposed a lot of warts, mostly among the coaching staff.

Put it this way: The other home team that plays in that stadium, the Philadelphia Eagles, opened the season with a heavy dose of Kenny Gainwell on the first series of the year. Since he wasn’t stopped, they kept going to the (Gain)well and ended up with a touchdown.

Temple opened with a similar heavy dose of Florida’s top high school running back last year, Joquez Smith, on Saturday.

He was never stopped and the Owls had a 7-0 lead.

Correctly, head coach Stan Drayton went back to a diet of Joquez on the next drive. When they got down to the Norfolk State 20 or so, Drayton got the “great idea” of putting Edward Saydee back in the game.

Substituting the best high school running back in Florida with someone who wasn’t even the best high school running back in Roxborough is never a good idea and Drayton had to be kicking himself after Saydee fumbled.

Temple could have gone up 14-0 there and 21-0 after Quincy Patterson’s first touchdown. Halftime should have been 35-7, not 28-7.

Football is not rocket science.

If someone is doing the job for you that Joquez was doing for Temple (15 carries, 142 yards), feed the beast. Don’t bring in a pacifist to replace the beast.

No reason to put the failed running backs of the past back into the game.

That’s not the only coaching mistakes Temple made.

The kickoff guy they recruited from Purdue is not working out. He had one kickoff out of bounds against Rutgers last week and two more against Norfolk State. He either has a sore leg or a sore head. Either way, he needs to sit.

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me three times shame on everyone. There should be no fooling around next week and field goal kicker Camden Price should get those kickoff duties against Miami.

It’s one thing to be giving short fields to Norfolk State. It’s football suicide to be giving those same short fields to Miami.

The Temple kids–which the exception of stupid penalties–mostly did their jobs well.

The Temple coaching staff not so much.

Football isn’t rocket science. Temple has the best colors in the country (Cherry home, White away) and whoever picked black is a dufus.

It all goes back to decision-making.

If that end doesn’t improve, we will probably be writing about how amazing Vegas is again in this space next week.

It’s up to the coaching meeting room at Temple to change that dynamic. Playing Joquez and getting a new kickoff guy should be priority A and 1A. Not using Saturday to hone Quincy Patterson’s passing skills was also a coaching mistake. Patterson should have been given the opportunity to pass the ball at game speed now because, judging by the number of hits the offensive line is allowing E.J. Warner to take, he will need to do so later.

Even that might not be enough but the kids deserve the coaching staff’s best effort.

Vegas needs to be wrong sometime and next week would be a good place to start.

Monday: Similarities between Temple and Miami