Author Archives: Mike Gibson

04.01.18
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Community, Temple Finally Reach Deal On Stadium

underground

The Apollo of Amazon at Temple will be modeled after Dubai’s 35,000 underground indoor soccer stadium here.

On a scale of 1-to-10, the possibility of Temple building a new football stadium reaching fruition looked like a one.

From the university’s perspective, that’s not a good number.

Until Saturday.

It was learned that Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos stepped in to mediate a deal between the city, community residents and Temple. If the deal is approved by City Council, Amazon will built its H2Q on the site of the stadium and the proposed outdoor stadium will now become a 35,000-seat Carrier Dome-like indoor stadium below the H2Q.

The working name of the stadium will The Apollo of Amazon at Temple and it will be built entirely underground and completely out of site of the community.

“Hey, we want to build our H2Q in Philadelphia, but we didn’t really like any of the sites,” Bezos said.  “They wanted to put us in University City and the Northeast and we just didn’t like those locations for a number of reasons I won’t get into here. Temple puts us in the middle of a dynamic urban university with a ready-made workforce, near one of the nation’s top business schools and a great public transportation system. We want that site for our headquarters, but we also wanted Temple to achieve its dream of a stadium. I’ve been following the story from the newsroom of The Washington Post (where Bezos is publisher).

msg

Amazon’s new H2Q facility at 15th and Norris will look something like Madison Square Garden here.

“At Amazon, we’re all about what is inside the box but for this I wanted to think outside the box to please all parties. Being at Madison Square Garden recently, I saw that that the arena was located ABOVE Penn Station and thought that if we could put the stadium BELOW H2Q, we could solve a lot of issues. I want our headquarters to look exactly like Madison Square Garden and become the Mecca for business that MSG is to sports.”

Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney agreed.

“The stadium was always a no-go because of the community but this solves a lot of the community issues and gets us that H2Q we’ve always wanted in Philadelphia,” Kenney said. “The stadium will be below ground out of site of the community and walking to it will be similar to walking down to take the train in NYC now. That  Temple Stadium is out of sight and out of mind of the community and we get our economic driver in Amazon as a beacon to a prosperous future in Philadelphia.”

Bezos said he approached the solution as he would solving a math problem.

“It was always a number’s game,” he said. “One, the city doesn’t want the stadium. Two, the city wanted us more than it was against the stadium. Three, we could get naming rights for the extra $40 million it would take to put the stadium underground. Shuffle all of those numbers together and this was a deal that added up. If Dubai can have a 35,000 football (soccer) stadium, it’s about time the United States has one and we will make it happen.”

Bezos said that at one end of the field there will be a halogram with a “very realistic” view of the Center City skyline, giving the impression that it is a night time outdoor stadium. At the other end, there will be a state-of-the art 3D video board “much nicer than the HDTV one at Lincoln Financial Field.” During timeouts, Amazon Prime commercials will be aired.

“The ceiling of the stadium will be our floor but it will be painted as if it is a clear night with stars,” Bezos said. “There will be no feeling of  claustrophobia inside the stadium.”

Darrell L. Clarke, City Council president, said the community seemed placated by this deal.

“Not everyone, though,” Clarke said. “I would say most of the community was thrilled by the promise of jobs for community members at the H2Q site. They liked that part. The actual coming to work part, well, not so much.  I had a few of the Stadium Stompers say they are changing the name of the group to the Amazon Adversaries. If the Adversaries convince me they don’t want Amazon in the neighborhood, then I will not support it.”

Happy April Fool’s Day Everyone

Related Stories:

The Sky’s The Limit for 6-11 Walk-On

Big 10 Explores Idea of Adding Temple

Addazio’s First Five-Star Recruit

Prodigal Son Returns

Tuesday: The Rest of the Story

03.30.18
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The Fun Starts When The Winning Begins

practice

There used to be an old Beach Boys’ song about a Thunderbird and one of the lines was:

“She had fun, fun, fun until her Daddy took the T-Bird Away.”

We don’t think that’s on Jeremiah Atoki’s play list today at Temple football practice, but it sums up a lot of what has been going on with Temple football the last two years and something we had not seen for the prior 100 or so years:

  • No depth charts
  • Plenty of swag
  • Endless search for Mayhem
  • Only scholarship D.J. in college football
  • Position flexibility

A lot those topics are all about injecting fun into college football for the other 104 scholarship athletes on the roster. If you do those things and lose, it’s called shtick.  If you do those things and win championships, it’s called innovation.

As a cub reporter for the Temple News, I had a sit down with then Temple football coach Wayne Hardin in his cramped McGonigle Hall office and asked him what was the most “fun” thing about being Temple football coach.

celebration
Winning at UConn on a last-second FG: Doesn’t get much more fun than this celebration

I’ll never forget his answer.

“To me, the only thing that’s fun is winning,” he said.

On his last day as a head coach, he mentioned to me he was quitting at the end of a mediocre 1982 season. Standing in a small room after the last game, I asked why.

“Mediocrity is not my cup of tea,” he said.

That was at what I thought was a pretty young and vital age of 55.


To me, a 7-6 record
is the very definition
of mediocre, bowl win
notwithstanding. Temple
is going to have to do
better this year for it
to be a successful season.
To me, Temple TUFF is
back-to-back 10-win seasons,
not finishing around the
middle of a 126-team FBS pack

Nobody won more and lost less as a Temple football coach, so I consider Hardin, not Geoff Collins, the expert here. I wish coach was alive today so I could ask him about the bullet points above, but he’s not and I don’t think he would look too kindly on the changes.

It wouldn’t have as much to do with being an old foogie as it would be a difference of philosophy on how to get to the end result.

To me, a 7-6 record is the very definition of mediocre, bowl win notwithstanding. Temple is going to have to do better this year for it to be a successful season. To me, Temple TUFF is back-to-back 10-win seasons, not finishing around the middle of a 126-team FBS pack.

Position flexibility is a great thing if you have a pass rusher like Romond Deloatch who also plays wide receiver. I did not see any of the pass-rushing attributes in Keith Kirkwood that I saw in Deloatch, so taking reps from Deloatch on the other side of the ball for the minimum snaps he gave the team as a DE last year was, in my mind, counterproductive.

Now we have the team’s best linebacker, Shaun Bradley, taking reps at a position where the Owls are deep—running back—and you have to question the process.

The Owls did not use Nick Sharga as a fullback last year nearly as much as they did in that championship season two years ago and, in retrospect, they probably should have used him at a position of need, linebacker, if the offensive staff felt he wasn’t going to get reps. Sharga was an impact player on defense at Army, and a forgotten man the rest of the season.

Whatever Collins decides to do is OK with me, as long as the bottom line is achieved—a championship.

If it doesn’t happen this season, his daddy (Pat Kraft) should take the T-Bird away and replace it with a whip. As coach Hardin says, the only fun in football is winning and that should be the eternal measuring stick.

Until proven otherwise, anything else is shtick.

Sunday: Done Deal Part II

Tuesday: The Rest of The Story

Thursday: New Uniforms?

Saturday: Spring Phenoms

03.28.18
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Succession Plan: Never Too Early

fiucollins

FIU was one of many stops for the Minister of Mayhem

There has been a lot of talk on social media, if not the real one, about this supposed succession plan Temple has with basketball coach Fran Dunphy.

It comes down to these choices:

One, Dunphy returns to complete the remaining three years on his contract;

Two, Dunphy is told he has one more year and Aaron McKie will be named coach in waiting;

Three, Dunphy is told he has one more year to get to the NCAAs or he’s out.

Following Temple athletics as closely as I have for the last 40 years, I’ll opt for No. 1 and bet a good $20 on that happening. Temple has the same kind of aversion to eating contracts as Jon Stewart has to eating at Arby’s.

What does this have to do with football?

The Owls, at least in football, have to have a succession plan for reasons probably not to their liking. This may not be the topic to talk about during spring practice, but this is the kind of thing Dr. Pat Kraft should be at least thinking about and it’s never too early.

burn

My five-point criteria is specific: 1) Proven winner; 2) Proven ability to win as a FBS head coach; 3) ability to recruit; 4) ability to CEO and hire a solid staff; 5) ability to win at Temple

 

Since Al Golden left in at the end of the 2010 season, Steve Addazio and Matt Rhule have left and, the way I read Geoff Collins, he would probably be gone after eight or nine wins this year. It has nothing to do with Collins himself, just that it’s a nomadic profession that lends to stops at places like Albright, Western Carolina, Georgia Tech, UCF, Mississippi State, FIU,  Florida and Temple. He’s probably used to moving and not adverse to it. Think about it: Is something so special about 10th and Diamond that would make Collins want to plant roots in the concrete and build something here like Joe Paterno did at Penn State?

I didn’t think so.

Kraft, who probably isn’t going anywhere, has to have a few names on the piece of paper in his pocket should he get that 3 a.m. call from Collins in December.

If he does, it probably means the Owls have done something special, like win another AAC championship and that would probably be an acceptable trade-off.

To me, the next head coach at Temple is a no-brainer. My five-point criteria is specific: 1) Proven winner; 2) ability to win as a FBS head coach; 3) ability to recruit; 4) ability to CEO and hire a solid staff; 5) ability to win at Temple.

Since someone is out there who has proven all of those qualities (Al Golden) and is probably not going to get a better offer than head coach at Temple over the next couple of years, it would be wise for Kraft to keep that name and phone number on a scrap of paper in his pocket.

Otherwise, work on a guy who has at least four of those qualities.

Churning the coordinator pile is like walking through a mine field. If you get through three or four mines, there is always that fifth one up ahead. That’s the one that could blow up this program.

With a $17 million practice facility and a (possible, not probable), $130 million stadium to gamble, you do not want to roll the dice on another unproven coordinator.

Friday: Spring Practice Position Flexibility

Sunday: Done Deal II

03.26.18
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Blessed Are The Meek

foleymeek

They say politics and sports do not mix but, maybe in one small way, politics helped Temple football on the evening of St. Patrick’s Day.

Joe Tacopina, a postgrad kicker from Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, committed to Temple that night. Tacopina is a preferred walk-on but so was Aaron Boumerhi and indications are he has the same kind of leg that Boomer has and might be able to do the same thing: Earn a scholarship.

If not, though, he will not be hurting for lunch money as his dad is Meek Mill’s attorney and that’s where the mixing of politics and sports comes into play.

Tacopina’s future coach–either head or special teams–is a big fan of his dad’s client and, in recruiting, every little advantage helps. Hell, Foley is about the same age as Tacopina’s dad, also named Joe.

Funny, I don’t picture the 50-year-old Foley for having Mill on his playlist. When Foley was 17, the top songs on the top 40 chart were Footloose by Kenny Loggins and Jump by Van Halen.  Somehow that evolved into “So Fly” or “Funk or Die” and “I’ve Got The Juice.” (Although that last track should be played when Frank Nutile throws a touchdown pass.)

When Foley is not rocking the Temple gear, he rocks the free Meek Mill wear.

Tacopina chose Temple over a similar offer from Scott Frost’s Nebraska program. Surely, Tacopina would probably be on national TV more with the Huskers, but there are other advantages of a four-year career in Philadelphia. Temple has a great law school should son chose to follow in dad’s footsteps and there are plenty of internship opportunities that exist here that do not exist the cornfields of the Midwest.

Temple will need a kicker after Boomer’s gone and apparently this young man has a chance to be just as good as Boomer. For Temple fans, that’s the kind of insurance policy they have been looking for and now have.

If it mixing sports and politics helped, the end result is all that matters.

Wednesday: Succession Plan

Sunday: Done Deal Part II

 

 

03.23.18
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Patenaude: Watch What He Does, Not Says

performance

Spring practice is fully underway and Dave Patenaude handled the first questions thrown his way like Freddy Galvis used to handle hard hit balls to his right.

Flawlessly.

Galvis isn’t around town anymore, but Patenaude is and he said all of the right things about the quarterback position in a recent Temple News story—that Frank Nutile, despite being a bowl-winning quarterback, has to win his job and that Anthony Russo and Todd Centeio are both significantly better than they were at this time last year.

To get a better perspective, though, of what was said this year by the Temple football offensive coordinator, it helps to dig deep to find out what he said a year ago at this time. Patenaude was enthralled with the running ability of Logan Marchi—a player he tried to recruit for Coastal Carolina—and seemingly gave Marchi the benefit of the doubt despite a subpar performance in the Cherry and White game. To the fans watching under umbrellas on that rainy day, Marchi was easily the fourth-best quarterback behind, in no particular order, Nutile, Russo and Centeio.

russo

 

Will Russo get the chance that Nutile did a year ago in a “real” game—not a practice—and prove to be even a juicier upgrade?

 

That benefit turned out to be a detriment for the Owls as Marchi went way too deep into the season, starting seven games, and the Owls almost did not recover.

Pardon me if I don’t trust Patenaude as far as I can throw him. I’m from Missouri this year. He’s going to have to show me he’s playing no favorites and gives everyone a chance to move the team in a game. I didn’t see that last year until the eighth game.

When Nutile finally got his chance in a real game—not a practice, but a game, as Allen Iverson would say—fans saw the kind of difference they saw on Cherry and White Day.

It was obvious to anyone who watched the Army game last year that Nutile was the far better leader and winner than Marchi ever was.

That was probably just as obvious to Marchi, too, who saw the handwriting on the wall and got out of here.

Will Nutile be last year’s Nutile or this year’s Marchi? Certainly, Nutile deserves first dibs on defending his job. He does not deserve to play seven unimpressive games before another guy gets a shot.

Will Russo get the chance that Nutile did a year ago in a “real” game—not a practice—and prove to be even a juicier upgrade? Will Centeio’s “packages” result in real gains in terms of yardage or will they be blown up by defenses like they were last year? Will Trad Beatty get the benefit of a redshirt year that Nutile, Russo and Centeio enjoyed? They all benefited from the extra year of film study and in the weight room and if Beatty is headed to the pros, he deserves the same advantage, too.

Those are the questions that can only answered by deeds, not words but trusting what everyone sees in the upcoming  Cherry and White game might be a good place to start.

 

03.21.18
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The Bullhorn Lady and Rittenhouse Square

square

The NAACP wants Temple to put a stadium here, in half the space they already own on campus

Imagine, for instance, if you wanted to build a deck on your property and several of your neighbors came over and said:  “We don’t think that’s a good idea and we’re going to the City Council to fight it.”

The deck is on your property, not theirs, yet they succeed at getting the city to deny you the opportunity to improve your property.

That’s the level of ridiculousness we’ve reached with Temple University attempting to build a stadium on its own property.

bullhorn

“IF TEMPLE UNIVERSITY CAN COME UP WITH THE MONEY TO BUILD A STADIUM, THEY CAN INSTEAD GIVE IT TO THE COMMUNITY OR INVEST IT IN RAISES FOR TEACHERS.”

 

The sad thing is that the neighbors do not realize how ridiculous they look or sound and probably never will.

I got a taste of this walking into Mitten Hall for the March 6 “community Town Hall” that was drowned out by protesters 13 minutes into the festivities.

On the way in, I was greeted by this sound by a woman with a bullhorn shouting from the seat of a small red car:

“IF TEMPLE UNIVERSITY CAN COME UP WITH THE MONEY TO BUILD A STADIUM, THEY CAN INSTEAD GIVE IT TO THE COMMUNITY OR INVEST IT IN RAISES FOR TEACHERS.”

Huh?

I wanted to saunter over there and disabuse the nice lady of this ill-conceived notion but for my own personal safety let it go. I’ll just explain how “Temple came up with the money”  here.

The stadium will cost at least $130 million and the university is well on its way to reaching its goal of $100 million in private contributions and expects to surpass that by groundbreaking. The rest of the money will be transferring funds already earmarked for Lincoln Financial Field to play in the new stadium.

If the stadium isn’t built, the money goes right back to the donors. It does not go to “the community” nor will it be used for “raising teacher salaries.” The money is for a stadium, or there is no money at all. That’s how that works. Hypothetically, when the university fund-raisers call you on the phone and ask for a stadium donation, they don’t say: “Hey, Sparky, just a heads up. If we run into problems building the stadium, can we get your OK to divert your million bucks to the community or pay raises for teachers?”

Err, no.

Just when you think the level of ridiculousness could not get any more bizarre, the NAACP said Temple University should consider building its stadium in Rittenhouse Square. Three problems with that: One, Temple does not own Rittenhouse Square; two, it’s not a large enough area to build a 35,000-seat stadium on (Geasey Field alone is larger than Rittenhouse Square) and, three, Temple would have to move its campus to Rittenhouse Square for it to be cost effective and Temple simply is not going to do that. Rittenhouse Square is a total of seven acres. Just the “Geasey Field” part of the proposed on-campus stadium site is eight acres, half of what the university has allocated for the entire project.

That would be like your neighbors coming over to you and telling you no deck on your property, but they would support you if you wanted to build your deck five miles down the road in the dog park.

Doesn’t make sense, does it?

Very few things in Provincial “Not In My Backyard” Philadelphia ever do.

 

03.19.18
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Our New Scheduling Buddies

SteveAddazio_2014_8

Steve Addazio contemplating a choice between running left or running right on first and second downs.

Most Temple fans have a pretty good handle on what to expect in the American Athletic Conference part of the season schedule.

Houston, Memphis and Navy are always solid and UCF and USF have the kind of speed to run away and hide.

There are, though, other variables to consider this year in the league as UCF has a new coach and, as we found out last year with Temple, a new coach does not necessarily get the same results out of pretty much similar talent.

Most Temple fans, though, do not know what to expect of our two new scheduling buddies, Boston College and Maryland. Both schools deserve a lot of credit for giving Temple a home-and-home and both schools should be right up there as the two best foes the Owls face this year.

Boston College

The Steve Addazio-led Eagles should be 2-0 with home games against UMass and Holy Cross to open up, but their Temple game gets stuck smack in the middle of a trip to Purdue (Sept. 22) and an Oct. 6 visit to Wake Forest. The Eagles, though, should make another bowl again and you’ve got to figure they have the home date on Sept. 29 against Temple penciled in as a must-win on the way to the bowl. It’s up to the Owls to get the erasers out but it won’t be easy as the Eagles return almost every key contributor.   Running back A.J. Dillon is one of the best in the AAC, a proven 1,000-yard rusher in a Power 5 league. Other stars are defensive end Zach Allen, wide receiver Kobay White and tight end Tommy Sweeney. Their losses are their two cornerbacks, so the Owls probably would be wide to plan to attack those two with a steady diet of passes to Ventell Bryant and Isaiah Wright.

Chuck Heater

The only DC in recent Temple history to post consecutive shutouts

Maryland

The Terrapins’ 2017 football team was a mirror image to this season’s Temple basketball team, peaking in the first month of the season by beating a Texas team that later beat USC. That alone should get Temple’s attention but D.J. Durkin’s squad should be a handful despite their 4-8 record of a year ago. Former Imhotep wide receiver D.J. Moore declared for the draft, so that leaves a pass-catching void but Taivon Jacobs has received a medical redshirt and will be back. He’s got Bryant-level talent. Quarterback Max Bortenschlager is a mouthful but should also be a handful after throwing for 1,131 yards, 10 touchdowns and five interceptions. The Terps have an all-star coaching staff with offensive coordinator Matt Canada and defensive coordinator (as well as safeties coach) Chuck Heater. If you think the Patenaude vs. Heater matchup is a toss-up, you haven’t been paying attention. Canada and Heater should be able to elevate whatever talent level Maryland has now, but, from a pure athlete standpoint, Boston College should be the more impressive team of the two Power 5 teams on the schedule.

Wednesday: The Bullhorn Lady and Rittenhouse Square

03.16.18
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Stadium: Rock and Hard Place

abstract

Abstract cell art from our tailgate bud Darin Bartholomew

Depending upon who is consulted, there are two schools of thought regarding this too-long and drawn-out process called building a new football stadium:

  1. Relax. Everything has been taken care of behind the scenes. Everything you see now is for show.
  2. City Council will see a whole lot of protesters in its chambers come crunch time and vote against closing 15th Street, effectively killing the project.

Maybe it’s because I’ve lived inside the city limits all of my life and am all-too-familiar with the way this City Government works, and people in school of thought one live in far-flung places like Long Island and Virginia, but Temple is officially between a rock and a hard place if it does not get permission to close 15th Street.

Guess what?

It’s not coming.

rockhard

In my mind, just enough space to build if you move the Amos Rec across the street but the Star Complex replaced most of the track and football field here.

Darrell Clarke is dead set against it and the “community” seems dead set against it.

Temple could have built on that site if the Star Complex wasn’t built because it would not require the permanent closing—actually rerouting—of 15th Street. You could probably relocate Amos Recreation Center across 15th to the old student Pavilion and squeeze a 35K stadium into the spot occupied by both Geasey and Star.

Now, with Star built, that limits Temple’s options to this:

Extend the Linc Deal

This will require holding the nose, taking the medicine and swallowing because the “lease” is one of the reasons why the university wanted to build a stadium in the first place.

Go to Franklin Field

Not an option because the AAC requires member schools to have stadium control at least on Saturdays. AAC tolerates the Linc because it gives Temple that control. It will not tolerate Penn having control over AAC TV schedule.

Knock Down The Temple Sports Complex

Move the soccer, field hockey and lax teams back to Geasey and knock down a facility Temple just spent $22 million to build and replace it with a football stadium. If you really want to build a stadium on campus, that’s Temple’s only option. It would not require closing any street and because the “community” did not oppose building the stadiums already on that location, they would not have much of an argument against building a football stadium there.

Monday: Our New Scheduling Buddies

03.14.18
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Best Cherry and White Day Ever?

proof

Proof that a stadium or two can be built at TU without community opposition

Back in the day, they built a $22 million on-campus stadium right in the heart of Temple University’s footprint with nary a peep of protest from the surrounding community or student “Stadium Stompers.”

That day was two years ago and it is now the permanent home of Temple soccer, field hockey and lacrosse.

It will also be the temporary home of the Temple football Owls for what could be the best Cherry and White Day ever. The game will be moved to the soccer home of the Owls a few blocks south of 10th and Diamond this year, better know as the “Temple Sports Complex” or, more specifically, Howarth Field.

logical

We called for this a year ago and the university listened

We’ve called for the Temple spring football game to be moved here last year (see inset to the right) and finally the university listened. Meanwhile, we had a lot of the status quo apologists on social media pooh-pooh the idea saying “you can’t do it because of recruits” and “you can’t do it because of logistics.”

Well, Temple is doing what the naysayers said cannot be done and the powers-that-be (Pat Kraft and company) need to be applauded for that, moving the football game from an overly cramped facility to a more roomy location with plenty of seating.

nexttwo

The discussion last year centered on just why the university was intent on squeezing 5,000 pounds of fans into a 100-pound bag when a 2,000-pound bag became available.  Bringing portable seats for 500 people when, on a nice day, you can get 5,000 people into a little over 100-yard square area made sense when you had no place else to go.

Now they do and I hope this is the temporary spot for the game going forward, at least until a larger stadium can be built. The soccer facility opened in the fall of 2016 and the place has 2,000 permanent seats and they can still move those portable E-O seats to that location.

South Florida, which also plays in a NFL stadium, moved its spring game from its football complex to its soccer complex in 2016 and it was an unqualified success. All the Bulls had to do was line the soccer field with football yard lines, put a couple of goal posts in and away then went.

April 14th’s Cherry and White game figures to be the best ever for a couple of reasons, a celebration of the school’s third bowl win and Paul Palmer being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Bruce Arians can’t come this year due to a prior commitment, but has promised to catch a Cherry and White game in the future.

The people have been the ones who have made Cherry and White great in the past. Now that they get to enjoy it in a place slightly larger than a phone booth, the location just adds to the usual great time.

Friday: Rock and Hard Place

Monday: Scheduling Buddies

Wednesday: The Bullhorn Lady

03.12.18
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Spring (Practice) Is In the Air

mondayeve

This is what will be on the ground for the first day of spring practice

Like last year’s Temple football team for instance, the last month of weather has been a tease. Those back-to-back 77-degree days of late February have been replaced by some brutal cold since. Since last year ended OK (not great), we’ll say by Cherry and White Day it will be nice and warm.

We think.

The calendar says the Owls start spring practice tomorrow, but it won’t look that way. Spring practice is in the air. Spring, on the other hand, seems a long way away.

aramark

At least the new indoor facility is the equal to anything a P5 team has.

Either way, the Temple Owls’ football team will have to deal with the 1-3 inches on the ground or move the first practices of the “spring” a couple of blocks away to the spectacular new $50 million Aramark Star Facility at 15th and Montgomery.

That’s a call for head coach Geoff Collins to make, though.

Bruce Arians used to come to Geasey Field on spring practice days—there was no indoor facility back then—and open with “get your work done” in that Southern accent he developed while a player at Virginia Tech, even though he was from York, Pa.

Either in rain, sleet or snow, the Owls have a lot of work to do to address these questions (in no particular order):

What will Trad Beatty’s role be?

The super quarterback recruit from South Carolina obviously is a Dave Patenaude favorite but, in the entire history of Group of Five football, no true freshman starter has led his team to a G5 league championship. That factor has to be weighed in the development of Beatty and the goal of the Owls to win the 2018 AAC title, just like they did the 2016 one. In Frank Nutile, they have a bowl-winning quarterback and a guy who has the best passing stats in the nation against a rush. Juice will be awfully tough to beat out.

Who are the defensive backfield replacements?

The Owls lose three of their four starters at the key positions of cornerback and safety. The only returner is first-team AAC safety Delvon Randall. They will have to plug around the edges. The speedy Linwood Crump Jr. has the inside track on the left corner spot, while the right corner spot will probably be occupied by Rock Ya-Sin, a first-team All Big South performer who had more interceptions against Wake Forest (one) in 2016 than the whole Temple AAC championship team did.

Other than Ya-Sin, who starts immediately?

My money is on Nickolas Madourie, an incoming junior college transfer from Dakota College at Bottineau in North Dakota. Shortly after former Central Florida coach Scott Frost took the same position at the University of Nebraska earlier this month, Madourie rescinded his verbal commitment from the Knights. Madourie had 45 tackles during his recently completed sophomore season, including 17.5 sacks. If the Owls go three wides on offense, look for true freshman Sean Ryan from NYC to join Isaiah Wright and Ventell Bryant. Me, I hope they scrap the three wides, use a tight end (Kenny Yeboah) and a fullback (Rob “Nitro” Ritrovato).

We should find out the answers to those questions by April 14.

Hopefully, by then, spring will have already arrived.

Wednesday: The Greatest Cherry and White Ever