At some point, both Temple fans and the ones of the outside are going to have to come to some sort of conclusion on the way the 2026 season is going to play out.

Today is not that day.

Soon, but not today.

Today is the day to look at the schedule released on Thursday and decide whether it is a favorable one or not.

It is only if one priority is set today: The Army game.

Yeah, I know take it one game at a time and take care of Rhode Island first but put that aside for now because Rhode Island beat Hampton, 38-10, in 2025 and that was almost the same exact score (34-7) Howard beat Hampton by two weeks after Howard lost to Temple.

Freaking 55-7. That doesn’t mean Temple should beat Rhode Island by 38 more points than 55 (that’s 93) but it will be closer to 55-7 than anything else.

Rhode Island and Temple aren’t in the same stratosphere, so I think that’s something we can all agree on and move forward with a more realistic evaluation of the schedule.

Why is Army so important?

The Owls host Penn State the week between those two games. Everyone who follows college football would say that is a so-called “trap” game because beating Penn State is so important to Temple fans.

From the Temple football perspective, it shouldn’t be. While it would be great to have a 2015 redux, the reality of the college football world is that Penn State has 200x the money to build a roster than Temple does. Back in 2015, it was way closer to 2-1.

Winning the AAC championship is the only goal.

Because the Army preparation is only a week–ideally playing a service academy should be two weeks–a lot of the prep time for the triple option should be imbedded not only into summer camp but into spring football that begins in a couple of weeks.

That usually means Brian L. Smith’s defense but Smith did fine against Army last year (limiting them to just 14 points) so the offense should be involved as well. Two weeks after Temple lost, 14-13, to Army, Tulsa (which lost to Temple) was able to score 26 points in a 26-25 win at West Point.

So Tyler Walker’s offense was unacceptable against a team vulnerable to the pass. So, I don’t know, maybe put in a game plan that throws the ball more, stopping the clock on (hopefully) rare incompletions and attacking the most vulnerable part of the Army defense (defending more athletic receivers like JoJo Bermudez and Colin Chase). Last year’s game plan was Jay Ducker right, Jay Ducker up the middle and Jay Ducker left.

That’s a great game plan against the 11th-ranked RUN defense in the AAC (North Texas) but a terrible game plan against (let’s be honest) slow white cornerbacks. Giving the ball to Ducker last year (or even my favorite player this year, Hunter Smith) is not the answer.

The good news is that the Owls have nine months to work on that. The better news is that the current winningest active college football head coach of all time is on the case and probably sees the same things I do.

Monday: That’s the kicker

Friday: Now’s The Time

Monday: 5 Things We’d Like to See in Spring Practice