12.16.24
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TFF and Temple football: Back in business

Brian Smith’s loss was felt by every Rice fan, unlike Everett Withers’ loss at TU (felt by only one).

Every once in a while, you get an unexpected expense.

Today’s was $145.44 because a bad Acer adapter sucked all of the life out of my battery, putting the laptop out of commission.

I only found out because I went to write Monday’s regular post and no numbers or punctuation marks were showing and then the screen went black.

Brian Smith’s defense held Navy’s Blake Horvath to 10-for-21, 121 yards and two interceptions in a 24-10 win this year. Everett Withers’ defense held Horvath and company to 38 points.

Having zero technical skills, I took it to an expert and he figured it out.

New charger and new battery put us back in business.

So, too, can the same be said of Temple football.

Having zero football skills, both new President John Fry and old AD Arthur Johnson found an expert who already is showing signs of recharging the program.

Unlike the last time, they got a pro and not some apprentice learning from another pro.

This pro, K.C. Keeler, already is making an impact with the Owls by hiring defensive coordinator Brian Smith from the Rice Owls.

Go to the Rice message boards and there is much gnashing of teeth over Smith’s loss. Smith, unlike the last Temple defensive coordinator, Everett Withers, is a proven point-stopper. We only know one Temple fan who felt the loss of Withers, OwlsDaily editor Shawn Pastor, who called him “a great asset to the program.”

The “trade” of Brian Smith for Everett Withers could go down as the second-best football swap in Philadelphia this year (the Eagles letting D’Andre Swift go to the Bears and acquiring Saquon Barkley was probably the best).

Since Withers’ primary job was a DC, and since Withers gave up 39.7 ppgs per game as a DC at FIU in 2021 and 38.7 and 35.7 the last two years at Temple, I’ll pass on that so-called asset.

Basically, he got both Butch Davis and Stan Drayton fired. (Drayton probably deserved more blame than Davis because he hired Withers after the FIU disaster.)

“You had one job!”

Some asset.

Keeler went for the best guy available, not the best friend he felt more comfortable with and Smith has the numbers to back it up.

Smith’s defense finished ninth in the nation in passing defense, 36th in total defense and held opponents to just 25.4 points per game, more than 10 points per game lower than Withers’ best figure this decade. Smith, unlike Withers, was nominated for the Frank Broyles Award as best assistant coach in the nation.

Smith held a very good Navy offense to just 10 points in a 24-10 Rice victory and his 3-4 defense is particularly effective against triple-option teams like Army and Navy because it puts a nose guard over the A gap (to stop the fullback) and emphasizes speed from sideline to string out the option.

An additional benefit of that scheme is that it’s harder to recruit big interior linemen like defensive tackles and nose guards and easier to find linebackers and that’s probably why Keeler is going to keep what he did at Sam Houston State.

When your football team is broken, got to put it a bag and take to an expert and then plug it back in the AAC outlet.

So far, the additional expense of buying out Drayton and Keeler (at SHS) and paying Keeler on top of that portends that the Owls will be back in the business of winning sooner than later.

Friday: The Letter

10 thoughts on “TFF and Temple football: Back in business”

  1. The hiring of K.C. Keeler as Head Coach and subsequently Brian Smith as DC is like waking from a bad dream. The future looks bright! Go Owls! 🦉

    Reply

    • I’d love for a whole bunch of NIL money to drop from Heaven, but this is the next-best thing.

      Reply

      • And as you yourself Mike, have said, Keeler has a track record of winning without NIL money. But we’ll see how that works out in the AAC. You got me all excited now – let’s go bowling in ’25!

      • This whole NIL and transfer portal is a complete joke. I have no love lost for Penn State but for them to lose a backup quarterback who played and won a full game at Minny is a travesty. Marshall giving up a bowl game against Army the same. No portal until after the bowl game season is complete. Don’t really care about semesters starting. Franklin seemed to indicate that a G5 team told him they would start him but only if he skipped the playoff game because that team had other options. Now watch him end up at Temple. Still wouldn’t change my mind about the portal.

  2. Here is an invitation to jump all the way to stage five, acceptance.

    College athletes are professional, they get paid. UNC hired Belichick. The very first thing he did was to hire a GM to manage NIL and payouts.

    The transfer portal is analogous to free agency.

    America is a capitalistic society, first and foremost, at the expense of fairness. Don’t expect government to right wrongs and save the day. Things will get worse in the next four years.

    Money, money, and more money for me, me, and me. Just look at who is setting the tone.

    Reply

  3. Please, Please, College Football Portal and NIL are in no way a function of Capitalism These are over reaction distortions of Free Market where Colleges have gotten away with ‘ murder ‘ for years.

    Reply

  4. Agree to disagree. When Alabama feels threaten, and decides to pour more money into the free market called college football…,

    https://www.si.com/college/alabama/all-things-bama/greg-byrne-urges-fans-to-donate-to-alabama-s-nil-fund-01jfe3vz8e43

    “Capitalism refers to an economic system in which a society’s means of production are held by private individuals or organizations, not the government, and where products, prices, and the distribution of goods are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”

    Reply

    • Costs mucho dinero to play with the biggest of the bigs these days. Alabama doesn’t have a sugar daddy like Phil Knight (Oregon) or Yella Wood (Auburn) or oil millionaires like Texas and A&M to write checks. And if they did, there would be reluctance to reach out to them because maybe one day that donor might think he knows who would be a better coach (ask Auburn fans).

      https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GfKieKDWwAAmdDV?format=jpg&name=small

      Ole Miss reached out to a Tide player this week about coming over (guaranteeing playing time and position preference). He announced then he’d be in the portal but after a session with one of his teammates, the portal move was cancelled and he’s staying. Agents are contacting players unsolicited to get them to jump for more money. Without the big donors, Byrne has no choice but soliciting funds to augment the war chest.

      Then there’s Stanford: Lots of billionaires but they don’t give a rat’s about football.

      Reply

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