Temple football: Same problem on Halloween as New Year’s

UAB did what Temple wasn’t able to do–rally from a 17-9 deficit–because it had someone who could complete the easy passes.

Being a Temple football fan in 2026 is finding out that once you solve one problem, another pops up.

Yet the latest one has been a problem since the beginning of the season cited by this site no later than New Year’s Day 2026.

It was the same problem on New Year’s, the same problem on April’s Fool’s Day, the same problem on July 4th and the same problem on Labor Day and the bill came due on Halloween in a 17-9 loss at East Carolina.

That’s why this season has been no Holiday for Temple fans.

Back then, we wrote that Temple’s No. 1 priority should be to find an experienced starting quarterback with a history of winning as a proven starter and we did not care whether it was the P4, FBS, FCS or Division II level.

Hell, we said that if you could find a D3 starter with 25 touchdown passes against two interceptions go get that guy.

Because that’s the kind of guy you had to replace.

I wrote this a couple of weeks before Christmas 18 years ago. Since then, we have seen pretty good quarterbacks in Chris Coyer, P.J. Walker, Anthony Russo, Frankie Juice, E.J. Warner and Evan Simon. Coyer and Frankie Juice were bowl winning QBs. If we had one of similar ability this year, Temple might be sitting at 6-2 instead of 2-6.

Temple went into the season knowing it had to replace not only Evan Simon, who put up those numbers, but also get a backup as good as Gevani McCoy who won the Jerry Rice Award in FCS football at Idaho and spent his year before Temple as Oregon State’s starting quarterback.

It got neither.

Nobody close.

Just don’t go into the season with someone who never started a game anywhere. FBS football is no place for someone to learn how to play quarterback while on the job.

After a 2-6 start, only one thing is painfully clear to Temple football fans. Every other freaking team that plays Temple can complete the simple short and intermediate passes on a fairly routine basis.

Temple cannot.

For a while, we were stoked about the development of Ajani Sheppard as the Owls quarterback. He can run and throw the deep ball relatively well, but it has become apparent he can’t throw the short and intermediate passes well enough to win at this level.

Nine points is an abomination in college football.

Temple was 12 for 22 for 128 yards and three interceptions. That level of QB play is unacceptable.

Unacceptable and the responsibility for that rests with quarterback, offensive coordinator and head coach who keeps running him out there.

Not that they have a choice because the guy who backs him up comes with the same resume of never having been a college football starter anywhere.

Ask yourself this question: Would you kill (figuratively, not literally) for the Toledo quarterback, the Army quarterback, the Penn State quarterback, the Charlotte quarterback and even the ECU quarterback?

I would.

Between the end of the Bruce Arians Era and the beginning of the Al Golden Era, I sat in my seat and always asked this question:

“Why does every other team Temple plays have a better quarterback than Temple?”

Once Adam DiMichele arrived on the scene, I didn’t have to ask that question and, with few exceptions, haven’t had to ask it for the last 20 years or so.

This year I have and it’s especially maddening because I didn’t need to. We are one year away from a canceled Friday press conference introducing Trinidad Chambliss as the next Temple starting quarterback because Ole Miss doubled his $300,000 Temple offer to $600,000 to ostensibly play backup there. Chambliss proved himself at Ferris State.

Temple went into the season with no proven quarterback. Let that be a lesson for all future Temple football seasons because it’s a hard one to stomach now.

Kinda thought Sheppard would take a step forward after scoring 31 points against Charlotte but he took a huge step backward on Saturday. Temple spent the last two weeks fixing the defense and once the defense got fixed, learned it had to tinker with the offense again. It’s too late in the season to plug all the holes that pop up.

Head coach K.C. Keeler addressed our criticism about a month ago when he said he heard the “social media” comments that we should have gotten an experienced quarterback. “You tell me who that guy is?” Keeler said.

There are guys all over the place starting for G5/G6 schools with better records than Temple who also had success at lower levels. It’s not just one guy. It’s plenty of guys. Temple didn’t get a single one of those guys.

That’s probably why Temple football fans will be tasting a lousy turkey on Thanksgiving and finding coal in their stockings on Christmas after a very scary Halloween.

Monday: Backs Against The Wall

3 thoughts on “Temple football: Same problem on Halloween as New Year’s”

  1. Question is since I think both Shepard and Smolik are back next year, do keep rolling out Shepard this year, give Smolik another shot or give one of the freshman QBs playing time the rest of this season. My feeling is if none of the freshman look like they’ll be ready to step up to the starting job for the ‘27 season it’s back to the portal. I just don’t see either Shepard or Smolik getting any better next season.

    • If you lose to Navy, it’s time to roll out Lamar Best and see if he can duplicate his state championship magic at this level so you don’t have to find another $300,000 for whomever is starting at Ferris State this year. 🙂

    • I don’t necessarily agree with the “none of the freshman” comment. Best is running the scout team and they routinely have success against the starters in practice I’m told by several people who watch practice. I don’t want to wait until Cherry and White Day to see Lamar succeed. I want him to have a solid last three or so games under his belt. Now it’s quite possible that Ajani can put 48 points on the board at Navy and, if he does that, he gets to finish out the year. I’m afraid he’s one of these “hot/cold” quarterbacks who you don’t know what you can get out of him every week. That said, Best had a legendary high school career at the current New Jersey powerhouse and Sheppard’s career at Iona Prep paled in comparison.

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