Whatever happens in the summer camp when Gevani McCoy arrives to do battle with Evan Simon, Temple appears headed for a quarterback controversy.

While this happened a half-century of so ago at Temple, new head coach K.C. Keeler might need to pull out a more ancient solution, about 2,900 years earlier. When two women claimed to be the mother of a baby and wanted custody, they went to King Solomon. When Solomon suggested they split the baby and give one half to each, the real mother said give to the other one.

Solomon, in his wisdom, figured that gesture indicated who the real mother was and awarded the baby to the one who didn’t want it killed.

Or at least that’s the story.

Splitting the baby in the Simon/McCoy battle could be the way to go considering what happened a year ago.

Through summer practices, then head coach Stan Drayton screamed up and down that the battle was even and he would announce the starter on the day of the Oklahoma opener. Drayton (wrongly) went with Forrest Brock, who must have been the greatest practice quarterback of all time because when he appeared in actual games, he looked like the worst QB in college football history.

On the other hand, in real games, Simon was pretty good–hitting his high-water mark in an 45-29 win over Utah State. Simon threw four touchdown passes in that one–all under pressure and into tight windows–while adding another one on the ground.

In hindsight, Drayton, if he was really torn, would have been better served by the King Solomon solution. Play each quarterback a few series in real games under real fire and then go with the hot hand.

Temple fans of a certain age might remember this kind of approach served the Owls well a half-century ago when another Hall of Fame coach, Wayne Hardin, welcomed a big-time transfer in from Penn State (Steve Joachim) to battle with a fairly good Simon-like holdover in Marty Ginestra.

Ginestra was the fan favorite in 1973, throwing nine touchdown passes, while Joachim tossed 10 TDs that same year. Temple wasn’t hurt by the shuffling as the Owls won eight games.

The real benefit wasn’t felt until a year later when Joachim tossed 20 touchdown passes and won the Maxwell Award as the best college football player in the nation for the 1974 Owls, who finished 9-1.

If the Owls get an eight-win season in a two-quarterback system and a Maxwell winner and 9-1 or better next year, Keeler would probably sign for that now.

This King Solomon guy evidently had a lot of wisdom. So did King Hardin.