Cherry and White are the two most glorious colors in the college football prism but the Cherry and White Day itself has manifested itself into three stages:

For me, it’s pretty much this:

LAST CENTURY–“We look so good we’re going to win a natty.” That might have been fueled by a fuel Rolling Rocks pre-game, but the Owls always looked good against the Owls. Some terrific performances by running back Ventres Stevenson (Bruce Arians’ Era) and a guy named Gibson (no relation, also Bruce Era) got us pumped for the next season. Interestingly enough, Temple’s GOAT (Paul Palmer) never played in a Cherry and White game due to injuries and what they refer to today as “load management.” In all my years of following Temple football, though, this was key: I never saw a 5-9, 190-pound player who was tougher than Paul and pretty much played almost every game of his three seasons when it counted (in the fall).

EARLY PART OF THIS CENTURY–With the arrival of Al Golden, Temple football fans saw a binder (not like Mitt Romney, of women) but a binder of great players up and down the East Coast who were going to take the Owls to prominence. Golden and Matt Rhule, his Lieutenant, followed that plan to a Temple T and did exactly that.

AFTER MATT RHULE–A collection of suspects and wannabes stayed only long enough to keep Temple relevant. Plenty of terrific moments for me at Steve Addazio’s first Cherry and White game when I talked to John Palumbo’s dad and he said: “Mike, my son said it was the difference between night and day between the Al Golden staff and this one because this is pretty much the staff that led Florida to the national championship last year.” Mr. Palumbo (and John) were right. Temple had the OC of the national championship Florida team as HC and the DC of the National Championship team (Chuck Heater) the VERY year after they won it. As a result, those guys took Golden’s recruits to Temple’s first bowl win in 30 years.

TRANSFER PORTAL ERA–Rod Carey was a “my-way-or-the-highway” guy at the very time the most highways were built for the players. That turned out to be a disaster. Stan Drayton was able to plug a few holes in a sinking ship and point the program (“progrim” as pronounced by Bobby Wallace) in the right direction before taking a couple of torpedoes in his second year by hiring a completely incompetent DC (Everett Withers) to take over for a relatively competent one (D.J. Eliot). Loyalty to Withers surfaced its ugly head this season and the Owls handed over a defense that gave up 38.7 ppg to the same guy. If you think that bodes well for the 2024 prospects, Exhibit B was Withers being a worse DC for FIU only three years ago (39.7 ppg).

If Withers takes his buddy Stan down with the ship like he did Butch Davis and FIU in 2021, all that hole-plugging would have been for naught.

Ugh.

The Owls won’t improve as a team until AFTER Cherry and White Day and ONLY if they are able to grab a proven playmaking quarterback in the portal. Plenty will be available but Drayton telling OwlsDaily.com “we have four great quarterbacks” proves that he should take a day off next week and make an appointment with an Optometrist.

So whatever you see tomorrow at Cherry and White, take with a grain of salt.

Make that a bolder.

The good news is that there are enough bodies for a real game for a change.

The bad news is that the Oklahoma game is one day sooner (pun intended) than it should be and the Owls don’t appear to be closer to making that a real competition today than they were at the end of last season.

Advice: Drink a lot of Rolling Rocks or brewski of choice and bring those Cherry and White colored glasses. The Owls added a lot of JUCOs but, if they are going to get better, they need a few more great players once that transfer portal explodes as expected on Monday.

Monday: Cherry and White Recap

Friday (April 19): Five Guys

Monday (April 22): A Possible Hail Mary For Temple

Friday (April 26): Special Qualities