01.12.26
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Lamar Best’s chances to start just skyrocketed

Lamar Best’s high school film is clearly superior to the high school film of Smolik and Sheppard.

Back when Tiger Woods was winning just about every major golf tournament that there was, sports books had a standard bet before majors: Woods against the field.

Jaxon Smolik played third string QB at Penn State but an interesting tidbit is that he played QB at Dowling Catholic in Iowa which is the high school that produced Caitlin Clark.

Woods won just enough to make the bet–appealing on its face–a moneymaker for the house.

K.C. Keeler went into Temple’s offseason promising to get an experienced QB or two and some Owl fans, me included, weren’t expecting a Woods but certainly hoping for someone who reached the leaderboard of some quarterback competition on the field somewhere.

Instead, they got a couple of guys–third stringers at Penn State and Washington State–who now have a 50/50 chance to win the starting job at some point before the Sept. 5 opener.

Or at least a significant shot against a field that includes three true freshmen.

Say, those three–Brody Norman, Brady Palmer and Lamar Best–are roughly the field and the two transfer portal acquisitions, Ajani Sheppard and Jaxon Smolik–are “Tiger Woods.”

I’ll take the field, specifically Temple’s “secret weapon” in Best, whose film is off the charts. Best is every bit the passer P.J. Walker was and a far better runner. All Walker did was break every career passing mark at Temple.

Ajani Sheppard was third string at Rutgers behind Gavin Wimsatt and Evan Simon.

He might not be the starter but Temple’s failure to get a high achieving starter in its two transfer portal acquisitions raises significant concerns.

Among them, this: Smolik got on the field in a real game and did virtually nothing for Penn State. Same with Sheppard in stints and Rutgers and Washington State.

When you have a chance to get on the field in an actual game, you’ve got to do something. Neither of them did. Sheppard, like former Temple quarterback Evan Simon, is a one-time Rutgers’ backup but Simon threw for over 300 yards in a Big 10 game at Iowa so you knew he came with receipts.

Neither of these guys are coming with receipts.

Both, like Best, Norman, and Palmer, have good high school film but at least in the two transfer portal cases, that film has not translated into actual results in real college football games.

Maybe they will at Temple and maybe they won’t, but they haven’t so far, and the best predictor of future success is past success. I was hoping Temple would land the Saginaw Valley or Western Carolina quarterbacks, but apparently the staff whiffed on those two high-achievers.

This seems like settling to me and far from the dynamic duo of Simon and Gevani McCoy, but we will see.

Back to the drawing board.

BYU’s Bear Bachmeier showed a “true freshman” can go 11-1 on a college football field so that’s why I’m taking the freshman field against the two transfer portal pickups. He had to come from a long way in summer camp to beat more experienced quarterbacks who had a full spring and maybe that’s what will happen here.

May the Best man win.

Or at least the most talented one.

Friday: Best Available

8 thoughts on “Lamar Best’s chances to start just skyrocketed”

  1. Be the Best.

    Temple underappreciated just how much Chambliss moved the market $$$$$ for top FCS and Div II QBs.

    P4 schools are less hesitant to offer. What they see on tape is real.

    Letʻs hope Templeʻs page 3 choices, Smolik and Sheppard, surprise to the upside. IMHO, Best canʻt win the starting job w/o the benefit of Spring ball.

    PJ didnʻt start until after the first few games, look for Best to do the same if his torn labrum is healed.

    Reply

    • the difference between BYU’s situation ad Temple’s is BYU had to kick out retzlaff for a discipline problem leaving summer camp as sprig ball from a QB perspective. (for some reaso my letter “n” is stuck. Ugh.

      Reply

    • Great story. Interesting that Temple’s last football champion was 1 year before that and it hasn’t done squat after that. Then they had a coach who was the poster boy for enticing players to leave (Rod “My-Way-Or-The-Highway” Carey) followed by a coach who had no idea how to navigate the system (Stan).

      Reply

  3. The irony of it all.

    Temple was arguably the first to recognize Chamblissʻ talent. He then proceeds to forever change the market.

    Now Temple canʻt compete for top FCS/Div II QBs in the new marketplace.

    Reply

    • That’s the most disappointing thing. The fact that they identified this diamond led me to believe that they would look at every DII/FCS film and come up with the Chambliss of this year. I saw it in McKenzie Mason–and they did, too–but the allure of playing in the P4 won him over the same way it did Chambliss. Then I thought they would move on to the next small school sensation but this P4 3d string thing seems like settling. Look what they did after whiffing on Chambliss. They got the Oregon State starter.

      Reply

  4. The combination of the portal and NIL is the game changer, not the portal itself. Paying the athletes above (way above) their tuition and room /board with moderate expense payments just gives the big boys even more of an advantage then they had before – the NCAA knew it, changing things to help the already rich programs. Equity was never part of the plan and never will be. If Temple can’t find big-time donors for this NIL crap it will be lucky to wallow in mediocrity.

    Reply

    • A little off the topic, sorry. please see an article posted yesterday from NJ dot com by Keith Sargeant. Rutgers athletics deficit hit record $78 million in 2024-25.

      RU since joining the Big 10 in 2014-15 has recorded an athletics deficit of $516.9 million.

      Reply

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