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?

6 thoughts on “No defense for keeping Brian L. Smith through bye week”

  1. Hey love the column,
    Temple grad 77, season ticket holder of 7 seats, utterly disgusted, extremely embarrassed, fooled by promises again, miffed by the game and clock management all season, puzzled by the constant inept play calling (especially at the 1st and goal from the 2 yard line), extremely upset with the defensive schemes and performance, wondering about if the saying “next man up” is in the Temple vernacular ( if a player is consistently bad, inept and out of position, do we not look up and down the bench for a solution for a possible solution.), calling for a overhaul of players, coaches,staff (meaning the AD).
    Nothing changes, have become accustomed to speaking to empty seats at the games.

    • That series at the end of the first half was a disgrace. You don’t have an inside running back specialist like Jay Ducker anymore and you try to get a touchdown with off-tackle runs. The call in that case was for your 6-2, 235-pound QB to either sneak it in from a yard out or fake the handoff and roll out. If an LB is coming up to hit him, dump it over his head to the receiver he was assigned to cover. Can’t believe we’re pounding our heads against the wall when the solutions are so simple.

  2. Even I could tell and said it here, that a new DC was in order. I also said that maybe Keeler isn’t up to the task at this level or is just floating into retirement. At any rate this is turning into a fiasco….

    • Starting to think the same way regarding Keeler, is he basically “retiring in place” here at Temple

      • To my knowledge there’s nothing wrong with a HC jumping all over his coordinators on game day. Keeler hasn’t done that. Also at a couple million per year and 77 years old, retirement thoughts are not out of the question.

      • 77? More like 67. He’s a baby compared to a lot of FBS head coaches.

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