Are the Temple coaches playing five-dimensional chess while the rest of the AAC plays checkers?

Geez, you’ve got to hope so.

Masterman, a Public League magnet school located only a few blocks south of Temple, fields a perennial national chess powerhouse but a lot of those kids would be hard-pressed to figure out Temple’s next move on the AAC recruiting board.

On the surface, it looks like Stan Drayton’s “plan” was to recruit a lot of JUCOs to fill holes–namely on both sides of the line–and sprinkle a P5 transfer here and there.

Meanwhile, the rest of the AAC is filling their holes with accomplished P5 and FCS transfers and, in the case of Rice, stealing a big-time quarterback from a fellow league member.

It appears Temple has replaced that big-time quarterback with a game manager.

Looks like the rest of the AAC has their strategy in a row and Temple is all over the map but maybe, just maybe, this unusual plan works.

If it does, it will look something like this:

Antwain Littleton, the sprinkle P5 transfer, will have a breakout year behind a lot of accomplished JUCO transfers and Temple holdovers looking to prove people wrong.

With a running game for the first time since NFL draft pick Ray Davis was here, Rutgers’ transfer QB Evan Simon becomes a game-manager and hits an explosive downfield play-action pass here and there to keep the defense on their heels. Maybe Simon is tall enough to see over defenses and avoid those pesky Pick 6s that caused the Owls losses at USF and at home to Rutgers in recent years.

He certainly doesn’t have the high ceiling E.J. Warner had here but he might not have to if Littleton runs over the AAC.

On defense, the Owls’ go two-deep on the line for the first time since D.J. Eliot was here and get after the passer enough to cause turnovers. Temple was last in the nation in turnover ratio last year and moving up just to the middle of the pack will make the defense twice as good.

Nobody expects Temple to go from a three-win season to a nine-win season but going from three to six should be doable no matter how risky the strategy looks now.

Stan Drayton, it’s your move.

Friday: Historical Perspective