Since I’m on a fixed income now and not receiving too much money from operating this side hustle called Temple Football Forever, my bets on sports these days are few and far between.

Was really confident the Philadelphia Eagles would beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl and plucked down $50 bucks on the Birds.

That was my last bet.

Today we’re talking about my next one.

As confident as I was in the Eagles then, I’m more confident in the Temple football Owls now.

In a vacuum, meaning had new Temple football head coach K.C. Keeler done nothing with the roster, even with him being the HC, I wouldn’t have made that bet.

Keeler aggressively upgraded the roster on the front end and spent the month of June upgrading the roster on the back end.

Plenty of examples to choose from but we’re just going to touch on a couple today.

This Jo Jo Bermudez kid (WR) is interesting. Not only was he the best receiver on a Delaware team that didn’t have a quarterback nearly as good as Evan Simon, but his high school coach also called him “the best player in the state of New Jersey, regardless of position” as a high school senior. He signed a P4 deal at Cincy before transferring to Delaware.

Maybe he’ll excel at the AAC level.

Jay Ducker was the leading rusher at NIU (and in the entire MAC) as a true freshman, then transferred to Memphis (where he was the leading rusher there), then to Sam Houston (where he was the leading rusher there). We don’t need to know if he’ll excel at the AAC level. He’s already proven to be good at the AAC level.

Keeler signed a DT starter at UMass who will (probably) be a backup to Miles, Morris and Haye here. He signed the best linebacker UMass had, yet some believe UMass has a chance against Temple. I don’t. That’s going to be more of a 24-10 final than the 27-25 score we saw in 2015.

Simon and McCoy give Temple two good quarterbacks. The last six years the Owls have had one.

Do I think they are going to challenge for the AAC title?

No.

Do I think they win between 4-6?

Yes.

Shawn Pastor pointed out one critical fact on his Owlsdaily.com website earlier this week. He noted that in each one of his head coaching jobs (Rowan, Delaware, Sam Houston State), Keeler exceeded the win total of the guy he succeeded. …. IN HIS FIRST YEAR on the new job.

Not a five-year plan, a six-month one.

That alone would have been enough for me to believe he would exceed Drayton’s three wins but there is too much other evidence to support that assumption now, three weeks before they put on the pads.

If I had an expendable $100,000 I would have bet that. Going through both my downstairs and upstairs couches, I found $50 so I called that in today.

There is a national perception about Temple football that works against the university in general but is a friend of those who have a keen knowledge of college football, coaching staffs and rosters.

That’s why the line is 3.5 wins.

It’s a line based on perception and not reality. For those who deal in reality, that’s why Temple football is the safest bet in sports.

Only wish I had that $100k so I could turn it into $200K.

Monday: The Kids Are Back in Town