No defense for keeping Brian L. Smith through bye week

No better time to get rid of Brian L. Smith than before the bye week.
Nick Rapone’s daughter went to Temple and he loves Temple football and Temple players through the years love him.

Pretty tempting to say the season is over for Temple football.

It might be true if inaction is the reaction to the abysmal performance of the defense in a 38-31 loss to winless Charlotte. It might be true anyway.

The defense has shown signs of being poorly coached all year and that reached a culmination on Saturday when it couldn’t stop the worst team in (FBS) college football.

Brian L. Smith has to take responsibility for that. Or head coach K.C. Keeler himself has to make him.

No more Mr. Nice Guy. At least one head needs to roll.

Someone like Nick Rapone is available and, if anyone can get the former Temple DC to come out of retirement, it is head coach K.C. Keeler, who was head coach at Delaware when Rapone was the best DC in FCS football.

Even if they can’t get Rapone now, they can get him in the offseason but the immediate move to send a message to the team that Keeler is serious is to get rid of Smith now.

Who can replace him even on a temporary basis?

Well, Keeler himself might have to do it if there is no option inside the staff. Keeler himself mentioned that he watched film all last week and had “walk down to the DC’s office” every time he saw an Owl out of his gap. Keeler must have gotten a lot of steps in because it was apparent that happened on almost every play against UConn. Keeler’s specialty is defense (he almost made the Eagles as a linebacker) so he sees things Smith doesn’t.

Had to wonder if Smith’s response was “good point, I didn’t know that” or “yeah, I bleeped up” or, worse, “I don’t know where to put them.”

With the Huskies being a better team, some of that can be excused.

It can’t be excused against a team that lost to The Citadel.

Keeler can save a lot of walking from his office to the DC’s office by replacing the DC tonight with someone he trusts more.

Keeler himself said before the season that his defensive line was going to be the “story of the year” in the league so Keeler knows talent is not the reason for the poor performance.

The scheme is.

The story of the year is that Brian L. Smith makes Everett Withers look like Buddy Ryan and that’s not a good story. A better story would be getting rid of him.

That story needs to be written and written soon.

Monday: Just how good is Temple?

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