Sometimes fans are too close to the forest to see the trees.

As far as Temple football is concerned, I’m right in the middle of the trees so I examined the roster, expressed my concerns about an inexperienced new quarterback, mixed the recipe and baked a conclusion:

6-6.

An improvement on the 5-7 we saw last year but, at least for me, a potential disappointment.

As far as a second year for a coach with the resume of K.C. Keeler, not as impressive as I wanted the second season to be. Kinda thought at the end of last year that the Owls would be able to grab a superstar FCS starter or a competent lower-level FBS starter.

Instead, they grabbed the third-string quarterback from Penn State.

It might work out. It might not.

Might doesn’t get me to a bowl game. Love the way this roster is constructed with the exception of the most important of the 22 starting positions.

Sometimes, though, it’s good to look at things from 40,000 feet and that’s exactly what the guys from The College Football Experience did with their season preview of the Owls dropped yesterday.

Colby Dant and Ryan “Moneyline Mac” McIntyre know their college football and both agreed that the Owls would finish 8-4.

That’s not the biggest news.

“Moneyline Mac” predicted the Owls would beat Penn State in the second game, noting that K.C. Keeler is in his second year and Matt Campbell is a Penn State rookie still putting the pieces together.

He also correctly asserts that if the Owls do the impossible and beat Penn State, they are losing to Toledo the next week. (I’m not as sure about that because Matt Rhule beat PSU and I wrote two days after that the tougher came would be the next week at Cincinnati. It was but the Owls still managed to win. I think Keeler is a better head coach than Rhule so we will see.)

Crazy or not, there is some logic to Mac’s assertion in that there are rookie mistakes for every first-year coach in a new spot. (Even K.C. had his rookie mistake in the Navy game, not falling on the ball and kicking the winning field goal with no or little time left after getting a first-and-goal at the 1 with 1:16 left on the clock.) Hell, if Colby and Ryan are right and the Owls finish 8-4 all will be forgiven.

First, because they have noted quite correctly that Temple has drawn the toughest schedule in the American Conference.

They aren’t the only ones who have noticed.

Phil Steele’s college football magazine was named No. 1 in a survey for this summer and that’s confirmed my personal bias for a number of years and even Phil has said “Temple’s schedule is by far the toughest in the American Conference.”

That, and an injury-prone inexperienced quarterback fueled my lower expectations.

If I had to choose between me being right and Colby and Ryan, I give the nod to the latter two guys and will gladly write the apology post in December.

Sometimes you need to get above those trees and out of the woods to see the forest below and let’s hope this is one of those times.

Monday: Swimming Upstream

Friday: Real Estate Deal