After 259 days without it, we now have Temple football

Thirteen days passed between the Temple football Owls “winning the second half” against North Texas and New Year’s Eve.

Since then, as of today, 253 days have passed in this calendar year.

Six more to go means 259 without Temple football.

About damn time we get it back.

After trying to get a Lot K pass for the Penn State game two weeks ago (and failing), I’m going to roll up like Ice Cube five hours before Saturday’s 2 p.m. home opener with Rhode Island and say, “this is going to be a very good day” and thank the attendant and pay my $25 or $30 or whatever for parking. No need to get a pass in advance.

In a way, kind of wish it was as hard to get parking for Rhode Island as it was for me to get parking for Penn State because that would mean the crowd would be closer to 60,000 than the 20,000 I expect. There are other factors to consider. Temple finished 3-9 for five straight seasons before new head coach K.C. Keeler infused life into the program.

One 5-7 season isn’t going to get back the fans to the 30K level the Owls had in consecutive double-digit win seasons.

There is, though, a beginning and it might have been beating the North Texas guys, 18-17, in the second half. North Texas was a damn good college football team last year. Those North Texas guys are pretty much now at Oklahoma State while the USF guys are at Auburn and the Tulane guys are at Florida, only the good ones following their head coach to so-called greener pastures.

At Temple, the “good guys” remained which gives the Owls a leg up on the American Conference competition. One of Walt Disney’s famous quotes is “the difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting.” Since nobody quit Temple, it only follows there should be a lot of winning.

Right now, though, that doesn’t matter.

All that matters is finding a starting quarterback with the moxie and the “it” factor to not only beat Rhode Island but give the Owls a fighting chance against the rest of the schedule.

So the intrigue on Saturday probably will consist of two “starting” quarterbacks facing live bullets (a pass rush and hitting) for the first time at Temple and finding out which guy dodges those bullets the best. Fortunately, the game that decides that will be Rhode Island and not Penn State. Pretty similar to a year ago when both Evan Simon and Gevani McCoy were locked in a struggle for the starting job and Simon got on the field first and kept throwing touchdown passes until they couldn’t take him off the field.

This year, it’s between Penn State transfer Jaxon Smolik and Washington State transfer Ajani Sheppard and there is as much space between them as there was between Simon and McCoy a year ago.

These things have a tendency to work to work out but, at least at Temple, it’s the first time we’ve seen this since Frank Nutile won the job outright in the 2017 season. That year, Nutile–who never started a college football game before–threw for 1,600 yards and 12 touchdowns and was the MVP in a bowl win for the Owls.

Should the same thing happen with both the position and the team this year, Owl fans will take it.

At least this one will. The wait has been long enough, both for this season and a bowl win.

Friday: Rhode Island Preview

Late Saturday Night (pushing midnight due to tailgating): Game Analysis

8 thoughts on “After 259 days without it, we now have Temple football

  1. The URI defense will be better than the UMass defense was last year. Probability is high we’ll see both QBs play. A bullet always tells the truth.

    Go Owls, beat Rhode Island.

    • I’m getting the strong vibe here that Smolik was way ahead from the spring until now and Sheppard has caught up to him and now it’s a photo finish. The photo will be not practice, but a game. Don’t know how you do that. One series Smolik, one series Sheppard? The other way around? First half Sheppard, second half Smolik? I’ll tell you one thing. If the first guy comes in and gets a TD on the first series, keep him in until he messes up (which hopefully he won’t).

    • just got tix for this weekend.$20 each for 2 tix in club house level near 50 yard line on temple side of field. Can’t beat that. I wish Penn state would play us more at home. Glut of tix on sale for every other game of the season.

  2. tix purchased on ticketmaster

    • Misspoke there, tix were from stubhub. i just checked availability and there is a ton left. Right next to my tix are more for $18 as of tuesday Noon

  3. What is the benefit of waiting until gameday to name your starting QB? It complicates URI’s defensive preparations, and gives the Temple offense a strategic advantage.

    On the other hand, this is FCS URI. No need for gimmicks, just line up and out play them on the line of scrimmage.

    The coaching staff has had 8 months to figure this out and pick a starter. Be bold and name your starter. If he fails put the other guy in, that’s just how football works.

    • Not exactly five-dimensional chess to hold this out against an FCS team, even one as good as Rhode Island. Give Keeler credit for playing checkers, though, as any kind of advantage helps. First of all, R.I. hasn’t seen us and we’ve seen them. Second, they could prep for a running QB (Sheppard) or a Simon type (Smolik) so making them split their reps instead of concentrating on one style can’t hurt. Excited to see both QBs dodge live bullets out there for the first time. Didn’t happen in spring ball. Didn’t happen in “fall” (really summer) camp. Will happen Saturday. Perfect result for me would be 41-7 good guys. 27-17 or less and my stomach will need an acid reducer.

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