Recruit Edition, Where Are They Now?

Some Sean Ryan highlights from last year are here. 

Most Philadelphia 76ers’ fans of a certain age will remember Brooklyn’s Erasmus Hall as the place where one of that high school’s greats, Billy Cunningham, put the organization on top of the basketball world twice.

Once, as a player for arguably the greatest NBA team ever, the 1967 Sixers, and once as the coach of the 1983 champs.

Now the City of Philadelphia has dipped into “The Hall” to pluck another great athlete, Sean Ryan, and if he has the same effect on the Temple football organization as Cunningham did on the Philadelphia basketball one, it will be a great ride.

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Ryan, a wide receiver, already has had an impact on the recruiting rankings. He is Temple’s 19th verbal to date and, so far, the highest-ranked player, period, of any position, head coach Geoff Collins has been able to reel in with his first full recruiting class.

More importantly, the class is ranked No. 47 overall in the country by Rivals.com and No. 1 in the AAC. If the Owls are able to hold it together until the early signing date of December 20th, they stand a very good chance of bettering their highest-ranked recruiting class in the last 10 years.

Amazingly, that mark was not set by Al Golden or Matt Rhule, solid recruiters in their own right, but by Steve Addazio (54, also in his first recruiting year). No. 54 was the highest-rated national recruiting class we could find and that was by Scout.com. In his five years, Golden had the No. 1-ranked recruiting class in the MAC three of those years and he sold that ranking every recruiting night.

Why are recruiting rankings so important?

Trust, but verify. If your coach, like Rhule, is identifying the two-star kids and hitting on them, that’s fine. It’s even better if your coach is getting the kids other highly-paid coaching staffs want.

That’s true with most of Collins’ haul and that’s the main reason why Owl fans should be so excited. Another is that he is out-recruiting the Power 5 teams he will face in 2020, like Rutgers and Maryland. This is a guy who is recruiting like he plans to be around for awhile and not live off the Rhule recruits and exit stage right.

That’s a great sign.

Another player, Rondell Bothroyd, out of Connecticut, turned down his hometown school, Yale, and his home state school, UConn, along with Boston College, for the Owls. He projects as a DE and a really good one because he had 13 sacks as a junior.

The Owls need Bothroyd but might need Ryan more.

Ryan is just the player Temple needs now. While the Owls are deep at receiver, Ventell Bryant, Keith Kirkwood and Adonis Jennings will soon be gone and no one would be surprised if it’s to the NFL. Isaiah Wright is ticketed for stardom, but more in the slot than as a prototypical wide out.

Ryan is that prototypical wide out and, by the time he gets here, there will be plenty of opportunity for him to shine.

Just like another Erasmus Hall guy who made it to Philly.

Monday: Double-Jointed

Collins Brings The Juice to Media Day

Marc Narducci talks Sean Chandler in this Media Day report.

Sometimes the most revealing answers come from the most innocuous questions.

Someone asked Geoff Collins a Media Day query about how Frank Nutile got his nickname and Collins all but named him the starting quarterback for the Sept 2. Opener at Notre Dame.

After Collins went to great lengths to NOT name a starter, even mentioning that all four quarterbacks will get simultaneous snaps in practice Tuesday, his answer gave at least a clue in what direction he was headed:

juice

“The offense kind of moves and plays better with him out there,” Collins said of “Frankie Juice” Nutile. “If you are just standing in a room, Frankie Nutile is just standing in a room with this group of guys and that group of guys and he’s just a guy that people gravitate to and one day I was out there and said it (Frankie Juice) and I can’t stop saying it, obviously.”

Collins did not single out any of the other three quarterbacks for praise, in all fairness he was only asked about Nutile. OC Dave Patenaude will have a say in this all-important decision, Collins will be the guy who pulls the trigger and, on Media Day at least, he was thinking Nutile.

There are a couple of reasons why Nutile might be considered a “safe” pick over, say, the other three. One, Patenaude made the comment about Todd Centeio questioning whether he would perform before “72,000 people” on opening day. (Does Patenaude expect 8,000 no-shows in the 80,000-seat stadium?) Two, if Nutile has less-than-stellar performance, it’s easier to go to Anthony Russo or Logan Marchi for the Villanova game. Then there is a third option. Nutile can go 24-33 with three touchdowns and no interceptions in a 35-21 win, but he showed no signs of that kind of performance in the Cherry and White game.

Other revealing Media Day answers:

Leon Johnson Taking Snaps on Defense

This is a little surprising in the sense that the Owls have plenty of high-end talent on the defensive line and they probably need Johnson to prop up an area of weakness in the offensive line.

Nick Sharga At Defensive End

Collins said that the holdover coaches said Sharga would “give Dion (Dawkins) fits” as a one-on-one scout team rusher at defensive end. I hope those same coaches told him about Sharga being the best linebacker on the field, Tyler Matakevich included, in a “real” game, a 34-12 win over a Memphis team that beat Ole Miss in 2015.

Shaun Bradley at Fullback

If the above clue about Nutile potentially starting was not enough, Collins offered that he made the switch of Shaun Bradley’s jersey number from 18 to 23 because Bradley, one of the team’s best linebackers, is also working at fullback and “he and Frankie Nutile have the same number and can’t be on the field at the same time.” If Bradley and Nutile were fourth-team fullback and quarterback, this would not be a big issue. If they are pushing for first-team time, it is.

Friday: Where Are They Now, Recruit Edition

Media Day Primer For Coach Collins

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Some questions need to be answered

There have been a lot of firsts for Geoff Collins in his short tenure as Temple football head coach and today marks another one.

His first Summer Camp Media Day.

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While he has had other significant days with the media before, like the day he was signed as head coach and a post-mortem on a rainy Cherry and White Day, this one in the most special because he has an intimate knowledge of the personnel available to him.

This one also has a little more urgency in the sense that it will be month or so until kickoff. While Collins has pretty much winged these things in the past, here’s a primer offered to the coach for free on how he should answer some of the questions posed:

Are You Any Closer to Naming The Starting Quarterback?

What GC will probably say: “We’re going to let the process play itself out over the next couple of weeks and then make a decision.”

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What GC SHOULD say: “I could pick Russo, I could pick Centeio, I could pick Frankie Juice or Logan. I’m waiting for one guy to create enough separation so he makes the decision for me. If not, we’re going to throw four names into a hat, throw the hat up into the air and the first slip of paper that hits the ground will be the guy who starts.”

What Are the Chances of Switching to a 5-2 Defense?

What GC will probably say: “We went to a 4-3 in the spring and we’re comfortable with that going forward.”

What GC SHOULD say: “When I took the job here, I said the No. 1 thing I’ve learned as a coach is to use a system tailored to the talent you have, not try to fit the talent into a system. What I learned in the spring is that we have eight great defensive linemen and a lot of inexperienced guys at linebacker. To get another great player on the field and create the kind of Mayhem I want in the bad guys’ offensive backfield, I think we will go to a 5-2.”

What Will  Mayhem Look Like?

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What GC will probably say: “You wait and see. You’ll be pleased.”

What GC SHOULD say: “A lot of sacks, a lot of fumbles and interceptions and maybe a pick in the flat by Sharif Finch. We want to do something with those interceptions and fumbles, like return them for touchdowns.”

 

Why Has Recruiting Gone So Well?

What GC will probably say: “I can’t talk about recruiting until Signing Day.”

What GC SHOULD say: “I learned a lot of tricks as recruiting coordinator at Georgia Tech and Alabama. I’m applying them here, but can’t tell you what they are because some of our competitors might be listening.”

What Do You Tell Recruits Who Ask You If You’ll Be Around in Five Years?

What GC will probably say: “I tell them to not think about that, but to concentrate on the here and now.”

What GC SHOULD say: “I’m absolutely going to be around in five years, hopefully a lot more if they will have me. I read a great quote the other day on Temple Football Forever from coach Wayne Hardin that he made when he was head coach at Temple where he said he was happy to be here today and expected to be happy to be here tomorrow and that he had nothing to prove and no hills to climb and that winning was the most important thing to him. I feel the same way. These kids have had enough turmoil. They need a coach who is going to be around for a long time and I plan to be that guy. This fan base has enough with the revolving door of coaches here and I plan on ending that.”

Wednesday: Analyzing the Real Answers

 

 

 

 

5 Questions That Must Be Answered

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Can Taver and Dave do the job as coordinators? We should find out soon.

From the way things look at the Edberg-Olson Complex, summer football practice began a long time ago.

Still, new head coach Geoff Collins has set the “official” start of practice for Monday, which coincides with Media Day. There are still some unresolved questions left over from spring practice and among them are these:

  1. Can The Coordinators Do The Job?

This is a question that the fans will not know for sure until September, but one that Geoff Collins should know by now. Taver Johnson has never been given these kind of reins at the FBS level, where he has been a position coach exclusively. However, Temple fans can take some solace in the fact that they have the best DC in the SEC as their head coach. Collins will be able to find the right buttons to push should Johnson’s hands stray. Dave Patenaude is a proven FCS product, but sometimes that does not translate to this level. He will get more benefit of the doubt than Johnson, though, simply because he has produced points in bundles.

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  1. Will the OL be Temple TUFF?

A lot of things went wrong in a 34-26 loss to Wake Forest in the Military Bowl, but the most alarming thing might have been the way the Temple offensive line was pushed around. They did not get any help from a defensive coaching staff that missed eight practices to recruit for Baylor and put them in a 31-6 hole. That meant a lot of pass blocking and very little run-blocking and WF head coach Dave Clawson saw that flaw and exploited it. Still, they have to become a lot tougher by the Notre Dame game.

  1. What role will Jager Gardner play?

Everyone knows that Ryquell Armstead will be one of, if not THE, best backs in the AAC but the Owls have a Diamond in the rough in Gardner, who has a world of talent. Will he slide into the role that Jahad Thomas played or will that role fall to Tyliek Raynor? This is a position worth watching, especially if Nick Sharga is back there for his minimum 15 plays to block for those guys again.

  1. Who Will Emerge at Linebacker?

The Owls have an overabundance of good-to-great defensive linemen (really, two-deep at every position) and are set at the four secondary positions with some high-end talent. At linebacker, however, they have lost all three starters. One of the solutions for Collins and Johnson would be to switch from a 4-3 to a 5-2 to get another great player on the field and mitigate losses at linebacker. Another would be for three players to emerge as suitable replacements for Avery Williams, Steph Marshall and Jared Alwan. Since Jared Folks split time with Alwan at the end of the season, he’s the logical top choice. The other two spots are wide open. I vote for Sharga being the Owls’ 2017 version of Holy Cross’ Gordie Lockbaum, playing 15 plays on offense and 15 plays on defense. The best fullback in the country probably is also the best linebacker on the team and by a good bit.

  1. Who Will Be Under Center?

We all know the center will be Matt Hennessy, but under center is the top question of camp. The first two guys on the field to celebrate the AAC championship were Anthony Russo and Frank Nutile, but Todd Centeio and Logan Marchi have an equal shot. Centeio would really benefit from a redshirt year, as Collins would be wise to study what happened to the last true freshman Temple threw on the field at Notre Dame, kicker Jim Cooper, Jr. Coop was spooked by what happened when he missed two chip shot field goals and an extra point—after kicking great all summer—and Collins would not want to be responsible for ruining Centeio’s career by throwing him to the wolves that early.

Monday: Media Day Primer for Coach Collins

Wednesday: Analyzing Media Day Answers

Friday: Where Are They Now, Recruit Edition

Beginner’s Luck

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If Collins’ first year ends the same way Daz’s did, Temple fans would probably sign for that Beginner’s Luck now.

When it comes to speculating on the kind of Beginner’s Luck Geoff Collins might have compared to, say, Matt Rhule, Steve Addazio or Al Golden, the old Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Branch Rickey quote comes to mind:

“Luck is the residue of design.”

Arguably, Golden, Rhule and Addazio all had a good design going into their first seasons but there is something about this Collins guy that stands out—at least in my mind.

Golden had a 32-page binder on how to build a football program from the ground up, everything from recruiting to dealing with the press and parents and hiring a coaching staff. He started behind the eight-ball, though, as he was following an 0-11 season by Bobby Wallace and had a lot of leftover JUCOs in program.

So Al gets a pass.

Addazio succeeded Golden and Collins reminds me more of Daz than Rhule or Golden in the sense that he seems to have a workable plan that would lead to success in the first year. Addazio wanted to run the ball and had a big offensive line and a high NFL draft pick in Bernard Pierce. With that, and with Chris Coyer at quarterback, the Owls won their first bowl game in 30 years.

Things fell apart for Daz in Year Two when the Owls graduated to the Big East and he stubbornly stuck with the run against better personnel groups that were geared to stop it.

Rhule was all over the map in his first year, and probably went against logic by promoting Connor Reilly over the bowl-winning quarterback he still had on the roster. Many of us felt Rhule had six-win talent his first year and his head-scratching decisions both with personnel and in-game were learning on the job and the 2013 Owls were the Guinea Pigs.

Now Collins has come in with perhaps the best and deepest receiving corps in Temple history, a fine defensive line and secondary and a four quarterbacks who should not be THAT much of a dropoff from P.J. Walker. The receivers will help this new quarterback, whoever he might be. The lead running back, Ryquell Armstead, is outstanding, and that should help as well. The only question marks are the offensive line and linebackers, but they were quite good in the spring. What the OL lacks in talent, it makes up in experience and what the LBs lack in experience, they make up in talent.

Collins has a formula for success and a lot of pathways to it.  He has closely studied past Temple game film in a way other Temple coaches have not. Just last week, Collins said Sharif Finch was the best player on the field in a 2015 win over Penn State. If he’s going back and watching 2015 game film, his preparation and design is probably outstanding and comparable to what Daz’s staff—which had several key members of a national championship Florida team—did his first season.

As Temple center John Palumbo told his dad during Addazio’s first season, “Dad, it’s night and day between these guys and Golden. These are SEC coaches. They know what they are doing.”

Collins, a SEC coach, probably knows what he’s doing, too.

That’s why my gut tells me.

It could be indigestion, but I doubt it.

 

The Gold Standard: Wayne Hardin

elbow

Steve Conjar talks to Wayne Hardin with my elbow and Mark Bresani’s back not being far away.

A few years ago, Eagles’ owner Jeffery Lurie stepped into some deep dog poop when he said his team was “the Gold Standard” of the NFL. “When I’m talking to other owners or other GMs in the league, we’re kind of the gold standard,” Lurie said on Aug. 8, 2003.

Hmm.

That was a year BEFORE an Eagles’ team he was owner of appeared in the Super Bowl.

belichick

Bill Belichick sent this note to coach Hardin with the game ball from Super Bowl 49.

Since the Eagles had not won the Super Bowl yet, that got some fans to thinking that there was some higher standard, like Platinum or Uranium.

The Eagles are claiming they are something they never were, or what the New England Patriots are right now.

hardinsnip

That’s why it was fitting that the real gold standard of the NFL coaches, maybe forever (sorry, Vince Lombardi), took time out of his precious summer vacation on Friday to say a few nice words at The Union League about someone most of us knew and loved, Wayne Hardin. (Owls’ TV really needs to put that celebration of life on YouTube so that it can reach a much wider audience.)

As much as Bill Belichick is the Gold Standard of NFL head coaches, that what Temple was lucky enough to have in Wayne Hardin. Belichick studied Hardin closely as a kid, then more as an adult and took copious notes on how Hardin attacked opponents. When Belichick was an assistant coach with the New York Giants, he sat in the stands of the Garden State Bowl and marveled how Hardin attacked California in a 28-17 win.

Those who watch Belichick’s teams can see a lot of Hardin in Belichick and it is a beautiful living tribute to the greatest head coach in Temple history.

Hardin will forever be The Gold Standard as far as Temple head coaches are concerned. He was not only the most successful, but also the most loyal. Despite being the only coach to ever have Temple FINISH in the Top 20, he remained for 13 years.  Think about it: Two great schools, Navy and Temple, have only finished in the Top 20 under one head coach. Those were both schools that coaches have to overcome significant hardships to achieve. For Hardin at Navy, it was no scholarships and a five-year military commitment. For Hardin at Temple, it was moving from one level to another despite not having the facilities of the major Eastern powers he faced. There was also the issue of loyalty. How many future Temple coaches will turn down a higher paying job as a football coach in Texas to remain at Temple? Hardin did when Tom Landry offered him the offensive coordinator job with the Dallas Cowboys.

If Lurie wanted to see what a real Gold Standard was all about, living or passed, all he needed to do was venture out of his office and make his way a couple miles North up to the Union League on Friday.

Not surprisingly, Lurie–ironically from Boston–declined the educational experience. His loss, but he must be used to that four-letter word by now.

Wednesday: Beginner’s Luck

The Big Uglies Have A Lot to Prove

nick

Any team that utilizes a fullback like Nick Sharga has an extra blocker for the run game.

When you win a championship and have a group of guys who contributed much to that championship, the conventional thinking is that there is not much to prove.

For the Temple offensive line, though, there’s plenty.

You are only as good as your last game and, for the Owls, that wasn’t very good. True, much of what the offensive line did or did not do in a 34-26 loss to Wake Forest was due to an ill-advised offensive game plan. (The Owls ran a grand total of 16 running plays and 14 were to the right side. Meanwhile, on the left side, NFL second-rounder Dion Dawkins was holding up his hands and saying, “Hey, guys, I’m over here.”)

Dick_Beck_Temple

When all is said and done, Matt Hennessy could have as good a career at center as Dick Beck (above), Alex Derenthal or Kyle Friend and that’s high praise indeed.

Still, would have liked to watch Jahad Thomas put his hand on Nick Sharga’s back as Sharga wiped out any Wake defender lead blocker Dawkins was not able to mow down.

That’s water under the bridge now, though.

At that point you did not wonder why Ed Foley went 7-15 sandwiched between two of the most successful head coaches in Fordham history, one the guy, Dave Clawson, who coached the pants off him that night.

Still, the right side of the line getting dominated by Wake physically has to be the biggest concern going into the season.

The only key departures are Dawkins and center Brendan McGowan.

The starting lineup, like with quarterbacks, is a work in progress but it appears that redshirt freshman Matt Hennessy is a future star at center and Leon Johnson will be a fixture at tackle.  I had one ex-Temple offensive lineman tell me that Hennessy already reminds him of Dick Beck in the way he played and said that he is the Owls’ next great center.

Brian Carter, who started the 2014 game against UCF at DEFENSIVE tackle, is in the mix for one of the guard spots and Cole Boozer, a redshirt senior, could be the other tackle depending upon whether head coach Geoff Collins is more comfortable with the more experienced Johnson at LT to protect, say, Logan Marchi’s blindside.

Collins set the spring as an opportunity for what he calls “position flexibility” so just about every offensive lineman can be counted on as a backup or starter at every other OL position. In addition to those just mentioned, Adrian Sullivan, a redshirt senior, is in the mix as well as redshirt sophomores Benson Israel and Jovahn Fair. Darian Bryant, a redshirt freshman from Chestnut Hill Academy, should see his first significant time. Another highly regarded recruit, Aaron Ruff, has been an enigma so far but could turn into a  factor down the line. There are others down the depth chart who may be above or below the line.

The bottom line is that the starters will be a pretty experienced group but there is work to be done filling in the backup spots.

Whatever happens, that last ugly game has to be washed out of the Big Uglies’ mouths and the sooner the better.

Monday: The Gold Standard

Wednesday: Beginner’s Luck

Friday: 5 Training Camp Questions

Media Day: Sign Season Not Far Away

When I used to vacation in the Poconos, there was no more significant sign the summer was coming to an end than ads along the side of Route 209 promoting the West End Fair or the Carbon County Fair.

Since I wasn’t interested in county fairs but was very interested in an endless summer, those were always signs of trouble up ahead like, you know, the  end of vacations and the beginning of a long, cold winter.

preseason

The last time TU was picked to finish third in the East, it won the division.

I always had Temple football to fall back on, which was nothing to write home about—or even blog about—during the Dark Ages of 1991 through 2005. Now, that’s much different.

College football’s way of telling you the summer is coming to an end are the various Media Days.

The American Athletic Conference held two of them the last two days so as one door closes another opens and it was the AAC’s way of telling you that before the long, cold, winter comes is some exciting football ahead.

Players on the way into the facility at Newport (R.I.) were greeted with the photo of the P6 helmet. The AAC likes to market itself as a P6 Conference. That’s a little silly. While it is the best of the rest, it is still a G5 Conference. What is the Power 5 to do? “Oh, yeah, that helmet reminds us that you are just as  good as us, so here is your invite to join us.” Not happening. As George Carlin says, “it’s a big club and you ain’t in it.”

Commissioner Mike Aresco inadvertently made news when he said that Temple and Miami have signed a home-and-home and Temple quickly denied that a contract had been signed. Temple needs to add more ACC schools to its schedule and Miami would be a nice addition with Duke and Boston College. Maybe Aresco misspoke; maybe he jumped the gun. Hopefully, Miami replaces Bucknell or Idaho.

Even Cincinnati, Temple, Houston and UConn—the four most likely future P5 schools—are stuck in this conference for a long time and they might as well make the most of it.

From Temple’s perspective, even after a championship, there is still a lot left to accomplish and those were basically the answers the players provided on Tuesday morning. There is a great opportunity to beat Notre Dame on Opening Day, and a chance to beat even a more hated rival the next week. There’s a chance to prove to the people picking South Florida and Navy to win the AAC that, not so fast, Temple is really the Gold Standard of this league.

Then there is the challenge of going to a bowl and winning one for a change, a reminder that all this could be accomplished before the real cold part of winter.

Friday: The Big Uglies

Monday: The Gold Standard

The Magnificent Obsession

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Recently, we’ve been accused of “obsessing” with the Notre Dame game.

I plead guilty of this so-called obsession, but I don’t think too much emphasis can be placed upon this one moment in Temple football history.

There are a few reasons:

  • It’s the next game and you take them one at a time. (We’ll probably obsess about Villanova the week before that game.)
  • Most people think Temple will “take a step back” this season. A win over ND would do a lot to debunk that notion.
  • Eyeballs. This game will be on the bar in every tavern in the country.
  • It’s a long walk through the scheduling desert to get to 2024 and that is the next “national” name opponent on the Temple schedule: Oklahoma. While there are some interesting regional opponents, like Boston College and Maryland and Rutgers, none hold the cache of Notre Dame or Oklahoma and probably none will for another seven years.
  • Seven years. That’s a long time. Does Pat Kraft strike you as a person who is seeking rid the Owls of the Bucknells and the Idahos and schedule more national games? I didn’t think so.
  • Nothing would give the Owls credibility with the Joe Philadelphia Subway Alumni fan as beating Notre Dame and this is likely their last shot to do so.

The Owls have done a lot since Al Golden took the job over a decade ago. They have soundly beaten an ACC team (Maryland) and a SEC team (Vanderbilt) and a Big 10 team (Penn State). They’ve been to two AAC title games, winning one. They have not beaten Notre Dame. Beating Notre Dame on NBC National television during the first week of the season and that’s the kind of promotion that money cannot buy—especially if Notre Dame goes on to have a decent season and beat Georgia the next week after losing to the Owls.

Win this one, and a lot of good can come out of it.

So, yeah, it’s a big game.

Obsessing over this game does not mean the other games are unimportant.

So consider this a Magnificent Obsession.

Wednesday: Owls at Media Day

Friday: The Big Uglies

The Mildcat Offense

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In a very strange way, Matt Rhule’s introduction of a wildcat offense a year ago might be a nice starting point for new head coach Geoff Collins.

While the biggest question going into the Notre Dame game could be who is going to start at quarterback, the prospect of Isaiah Wright coming out in the first series under center could probably throw off the Irish defense.

Last year, Wright ran a rather muffled version of the Wildcat offense for a couple of series each game. We’ll call it The Mildcat. When the very talented runner came in the game, you could bet that he would carry the ball.

If, though, Collins could jazz up the package with a pass or two–creating an equal threat and keeping the defense on its toes–that might work better for the Owls. People who watched in practice a year ago have related stories that Wright can throw the ball 65 plus yards on a dime.

Unfortunately, we’ve never seen that in a real game.

Maybe this year.

Maybe even on the first series.

One thing is certain: The Owls are going to have to find a way to get the ball into Wright’s hands, either as a slot receiver, running back or Wildcat quarterback. They have an abundance of good receivers, so creating some package which has him throwing the ball more often might make the offense harder to stop and give him more holes to dart through in the running game.

It could not hurt.

We’ve waited this long to find out who the starting quarterback will be. If Owl fans have to wait until the second series of the first game to find out the “true” starter, they would probably understand.

Monday: The Magnificent Obsession