09.12.24
by

Temple-Coastal: Hope is never a good plan

We’ve gone from national laughing stock to nationally respected and back to national laughing stock.

Having planned most of my fall Saturdays over the last 40 or so years around Temple football, the last couple of years opened my eyes to the big wide world out there.

My first moneyline picks for the year. I hope I lose just on the Temple game but I doubt it.

So, too, apparently for most Temple fans.

Several of the last few games my usual crew was hit or miss with tailgating. After walking to the end of Lot K and learning a couple of times we weren’t setting up, decision time.

Do I really need to go to every game or does the team need to earn my trust?

I chose the latter.

The plan now is this: Temple wins, I go to the next game. Temple loses, I split the baby and eliminate the travel time, watch the game on TV and hope.

Hope is never a good plan.

My gut feeling on Temple hosting Coastal Carolina (2 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+) is Temple puts up a fight early, then starts doing “Temple-like” things like fumbling, throwing interceptions, getting called for illegal shifts and illegal formations and eventually loses, 37-17.

What do is the BEST I can HOPE for?

A Maddox Trujillo 43-yard field goal as time expires for a 20-17 win.

Coastal Carolina, which didn’t have a FBS program in 2016 when the Owls won their last championship, is 2-0 and Temple is 0-2.

Coastal fans visit the best stadium in the AAC Saturday while Temple fans get to return the favor in this 21,000-seat stadium next year.

Among those wins was a spanking of a well-coached (Rich Rodriguez) Jacksonville State team. Jacksonville State had no illegal formations and illegal shifts in that loss. Temple had plenty of both in a 38-11 loss at Navy.

Stan Drayton apologists will be the first to point out that NIL and the transfer portal have worked against him but there have been other factors that have caused Temple to lose that cannot be ignored.

Illegal shifts, illegal formations, personal fouls on offensive linemen have nothing to do with the NIL and transfer portal. Nor does sticking with a starting quarterback who keeps giving the ball to another team. For some reason, those things have hurt Temple more than they have hurt the bad guys and that is something the administration should investigate sooner than later.

An “X-factor” type situation in Temple’s favor this week could be a quarterback change. Forrest Brock has been a turnover machine in the two losses and could be replaced by Evan Simon, who is more of a game manager. Brock is in “concussion protocol” and is a game-time decision. My vote is to give him a long rest and give Simon a chance to be Lou Gehrig to Brock’s Wally Pipp.

There’s a chance that if Simon does start, eliminates the turnovers and moves the team, Trujillo gets his chance to be a hero.

If so, I HOPE so see everyone next week against Utah State.

That’s the plan.

Watch the game on TV between 2-5, win, then go on a bike ride between 5:30 and 7 blaring “T For Temple U” from my bluetooth speakers. Then I put aside next Saturday for Utah State and good Temple friends.

With a Stan Drayton-coached team, that’s not worked quite the way I had hoped the last two seasons. He only has a couple of games to change this dynamic around.

For my sake and, more importantly, his.

Late Saturday Night: Coastal-Temple Game Analysis

5 thoughts on “Temple-Coastal: Hope is never a good plan”

  1. Watching Tua’s concussion vs Bills was sobering.

    Listening to Drayton in the presser (ref Brock) say “we took care of him today” told me two things. One, it was a basic admission that he failed to take of EJ. Two, Brock shouldn’t play again, anytime soon. I can’t remember the last time a TU QB got hit so hard. Losing two QBs in back to back years due to head injuries now becomes a safety issue. Head Coaching malpractice.

    Drayton also said he was Tim Beck’s RB coach when Beck was an OC. Drayton goes back to work for Beck again on Saturday. He’ll help Beck raise the stature of Coastal’s program.

    Where is the light?

    Reply

  2. The light didn’t get turned off against Oklahoma because I expected 66-7 and got 51-3. I didn’t expect 38-11, though, and with that, the candle might have blown out on the season. Do you see a team rallying around a coach who said he “didn’t like the look in their eyes” … and “I’m going to have to find the right guys to put out there.” Man, that’s the kind of stuff you figure out in spring ball and not after the second game of the season. I wrote on this site BEFORE he got hired that it’s never a good idea to hire a RB coach for a head coaching position. I said it was like hiring a cashier to be manager of a grocery store. If you aren’t going to hire a successful manager of another store, then at least hire a promising assistant manager. Don’t reach down and get a cashier. Temple didn’t listen.

    Reply

    • Interesting going back and reading that post with the mentions of the now Syracuse starting QB. I don’t know what their NIL situation is but Brown sure seems to be able to recruit a higher level of talent than Drayton. Are we basically stuck with Drayton for another 2 years ?

      Reply

      • If we’re stuck with Johnson, we’re stuck with Drayton. I think Fry comes in on Nov. 1 and cleans house, and gets his own AD. Hopefully, it’s a guy with Philly connections who hires another guy with Philly connections.

Leave a reply to Mike Gibson Cancel reply