Happy to see that K.C. Keeler likes to tell the same story about Wayne Hardin now that I used to 20 years ago.

Keeler recently talked about being recruited by Temple and then being brought into Hardin’s office with Wayne’s first question being: “Son, do you play golf?”

I had to laugh because, as a 17-year-old rookie reporter for The Temple News, I was asked the same question by this most important Temple football Hall of Fame head coach (yes, more important than Pop Warner).

Keeler was 17 at the time and wanted to know if he received a scholarship from Temple. I was 17 only a couple of years before that and was in Hardin’s office and one of the questions Wayne asked was, “Son, do you play golf?”

(I didn’t nor did K.C.)

Didn’t matter.

The larger point was that Hardin, an avid and great golfer, wanted to make a golf analogy to a football question and made it even though I had no idea of the inner workings of golf. Since there was no Google back then, I went back and looked up what he said and how it applied to that sport and everything made sense.

Keeler telling the same story made me laugh because Hardin was trying to make a point about missing the cut and Keeler, who thought he was about to be offered a scholarship, instead heard a story about great golfers missing the cut and applying that to recruits Temple wanted by ran out of scholarships to hand them.

That was Hardin’s way of saying Temple was out of scholarships and Keeler missed the cut.

Didn’t mean Keeler wasn’t a great player and Temple didn’t love him but had no more schollies.

That’s where this month comes into play for Keeler, Temple, and the guys Temple offered.

There is a thread on the Owlsdaily.com site about Temple offers and it only seems like Temple offered 8,134 guys.

Plenty of offers, very few scholarships left.

In many ways in this current high school recruiting environment, Temple–and only a few schools like it–holds all the cards.

Word to the wise (or at least all those being recruited for by the Owls), if you have a scholarship offer from Temple now, accept it immediately. Because, by the end of the month, that scholarship will be gone and so will your opportunity to make any money either from Temple or because of Temple.

That’s because the Owls are near the top of the most high-profile G5 programs in the country. If you succeed at Temple, you will have two choices: 1) Stay with your brothers and continue to win under the next Temple Hall of Fame football coach or 2) Go elsewhere for bigger bucks. Largely, P4s have given up on recruiting high school players so the question is do or don’t.

If you don’t, the opportunities to succeed in college football don’t vaporize but they do diminish. The good players know that and are accepting offers from Temple now.

The others risk the same golf story Hardin told Keeler being told to them by Keeler.

What goes around comes around indeed.

Monday: Big City Guys and Temple