Last on Keeler’s to-do list: Film Study

Temple is blessed to have a great returning quarterback in Evan Simon.

Every new head coach has to have “to-do list” and, frankly I’m surprised by one thing new Temple head coach K.C. Keeler admitted he has not done.

Study game tape on the current Temple team.

The answer I was looking for here was: “Yeah, Shawn, I saw all those against Utah State and Evan Simon is a pretty special QB.

Not being a College Football Hall of Fame head coach but someone with a solid grasp of Temple football history and a graduate degree in Wayne Hardin University, that’s the first thing I would have done had I gotten the job.

Color me surprised that he told OwlsDaily.com editor-in-chief Shawn Pastor that he had not reviewed any film of the current Temple holdovers.

Some pretty good Torrez Worthy highlights here. Kinda reminds me “a little” of Saquon Barkley.

It’s not too late for Keeler to put the projector in the team meeting room and take a look at a few players he now has under his control.

My first duty as a new Temple head coach would have been to study game film on every single Temple football player.

There is a simple reason for that.

I want to know who I want to keep as a starter and who I want to replace.

Don’t know how Keeler could move forward without that information but it’s not too late to do soon.

I will offer this current bit of advice: Please study the game film of two players in two games against teams that would have fared pretty well against any G5 team, Utah State and UConn.

The first player is Evan Simon. The second is Torrez Worthy.

Simon made five great throws under pressure for touchdowns in a 45-29 win over Utah State.

Torrez Worthy had 95 yards on 12 carries, including a 35-yard run that set up the Owls on the UConn 1 to win the game against a bowl-bound team. Instead of going with the leaping handoff to Worthy on a 4th-and-goal (think “Sam Bam Cunningham” here), the Owls went with a tush push to a 160-pound backup quarterback.

Instead of a 26-23 Temple win (which 99.9 percent of the CBS Sports audience thought they would see), the soaking wet 160-pound QB fumbled the football and it went the other way for a 29-20 loss.

Not the No. 1 reason the old staff got fired, but certainly near the top.

If Keeler is the coach I think he is, he will find out the film doesn’t lie about two of his players.

Both Simon and Worthy are special talents.

Temple can win big with both.

The Owls need to upgrade most of the other 20 positions. (Really, not many because the Owls have a lot of good returning players, particularly on defense.)

Keeler has crossed everything else off his to-do list before the start of spring practice on March 11.

This one last thing should be at the top of his list. Get that damn projector and walk a couple of feet outside of his Temple football coaching office to the film room and take some notes on Simon and Worthy and maybe four or five other returning Temple loyalists.

Then we can move forward to fill his other needs.

3 thoughts on “Last on Keeler’s to-do list: Film Study

  1. The continuing sports news speculation about poaching the AAC is very disheartening. I see no way the ACC can continue as a respected league if this continues. We will slowly morph and shrink into the Sunbelt status. Sad, maybe something can address this bloodlust feed frenzy by the big boys. For me i think itstarted around the time where the once wonderful South West Conference dissolved, split apart.

    • Sun Belt football might be better than AAC football at this point. To me, the only reason Temple has to continue with football is to bridge the gap between the craziness that is now to getting the NIL back under university control. In other words, Temple should pay $2 million for a head coach and at least $1 million for players and stop asking fans for money to pay players. Fans paying for tickets should be enough.

    • An argument could be made for TUFB being the bane of the AAC’s current and future woes.

      Imagine a world in which TUFB, along with the Philly media market, being a perennial Top 20 team. The AAC in such a world would bring more revenue than the emerging PAC-12, and would be competitive with both the BIG 12 and ACC.

      The AAC should have put more pressure on Temple years ago to step up.

      The future success of the AAC runs through Philly, and its media market. The AAC and Temple will remain stupid until a rendezvous with destiny.

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