Last three games: Have fun and play loose

One of the greatest plays in Temple football history, courtesy of Al Golden and Matt Rhule

One day, if it’s not too late, Stan Drayton will stand up and tell his players to have fun and play loose and hard on both sides of the ball.

Maybe he already has.

The Temple football Owls seemed to be playing very tight for the five-straight games they were dominated but, for some reason, they swarmed to the football–particularly on defense–and seemed to have a whole lot of fun in a 32-18 win over Navy on Saturday.

That was fun to see.

Playing tight never seems to work so maybe the attitude will carry over into how the coaches approach the game as well.

I don’t think Temple can finish 6-6–a Memphis team that beat Boise State and hung right at the end with Missouri looks like it is going to come to Philadelphia bent on revenge for losing to both Rod Carey and Geoff Collins in its last two trips to Philadelphia. Beating the Tigers might be a bridge too far for this talent grouping.

I think, though, if Temple can play fast and loose the rest of this season that UAB and USF are beatable. USF and the Owls both beat Navy by two touchdowns and, virtually this same Temple team beat USF, 54-28 a year ago. I’m not taking about being loose with the football as the Owls have to do a much better job with ball security but some imagination in the play calling would not hurt.

That means more “imaginative” plays on offense and more run and pass blitzing on defense.

This season can remotely resemble the 2008 season when the Owls won two of their last three to finish 5-7. In that season, the Owls often showed imagination on offense as a young OC named Matt Rhule would toss in five-to-seven trick plays to keep the Owls interested in practice and the bad guys on their toes.

Maybe a fake kneel down like Adam DiMichele pulled off (top video) would work. Certainly, it would work better than the Owls wasting their offensive timeouts at the end of each half in so many of their games this year.

Speaking of DiMichele, E.J. Warner passed the former Temple and current Nebraska assistant on the all-time yardage list on Saturday. Warner’s flea-flicker touchdown to John Adams against UTSA was this year’s most imaginative Temple play.

More of that please.

If the coaches inserted a few fun plays into every game plan, who knows? Maybe the so-called trick plays open up a run game that had been under lockdown all year.

Anything to keep the bad guys honest and watching the good guys making plays and having fun would be the perfect way to close out the year.

Friday: USF Preview

6 thoughts on “Last three games: Have fun and play loose

  1. Hi, It’s FUN to WIN! Makes the Week so much better!

  2. We attended that wild and fun Temple vs Navy game.
    No one expected a win and performances like what we saw.

    It was a game as Navy came back and came close to a possible win.
    Luckily the Owls woke up in the 4 qtr to insure that win.

    AS I saw it, in the middle of the 2nd, with TU in a 3rd and 2, they did a ( stupid ?) play; a half back option, which was crushed for a loss by Navy.
    After that TU couldn’t do about anything right for the many next possessions. The made nothing but bad mistakes and turnovers.
    Now that was a scare again.
    Finally something woke them up in the 4th and they performed well again.

    What was up with Navy as they were very poor the first half, then, their Offense took charge in the 2nd half to give Temple some problems.

    However in the end our D look like champs, unexpected as that was.

    Also, ran into some die hard Temple fans in the lot pre-game, where Wyoming was a topic of interest..
    Turns out we were at a Wyoming vs Utah game out there once.

    • Why was Wyoming a topic of interest at a Temple tailgate? Temple played Wyoming twice in my lifetime, a 35-14 win in the New Mexico Bowl (2011) and a 28-24 loss in 1990. Also Wyoming having a very good season this year. Beat Texas Tech. They have zero NIL money, like Temple, so I don’t buy this claim that Temple needs a huge infusion of NIL cash to field a competitive team.

  3. Why Wyoming ? Our new tail gate friends were saying they’ld like to see a game in Wyoming, he was fascinated with Wy since New Mexico Bowl, which he attended also ( so did we ). Then I mentioned we had been in Wyoming and to a game at their ‘Cowboy Joe stadium. What I’ve learned in life is that before long we meet people with cross-over stories and lots of common things….
    BTW, if weather is OK we might go to the last game – Memphis.

    • You don’t buy that Temple needs a huge infusion of cash to be competitive? You must be joking- even Wyoming’s hoops coach realizes it is a necessity- “LARAMIE — Jeff Linder said back in May if you want to retain players and compete for championships, the formation of a collective was imperative.”

      Mike, I know you think you can make it work without NIL $ and I wish that were true, but let’s be candid- it won’t work without the $. why? Your best players will leave
      You can’t recruit quality in the transfer portal. We’d all like to think loyalty and someone’s word matters, but it is about the $. Plain and simple. Frustrating- yes, but if Syracuse can NIL a kid 25k a year and Temple says “we don’t have that type of $, where do you think the kid goes?

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