Author Archives: Mike Gibson

11.06.14
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Jeez(y), This Temple Team Deserves a Big Crowd Friday Night

Another slick, short and sweet video by Temple Athletics pumping up the fans for Temple’s Friday Night Lights’ game and there’s plenty to like about it.

The audio part, though, could use a little work. Imagine Dragons?

You’ve got to be kidding me … Young Jeezy must have some more appropriate lyrics for Temple’s epic showdown with visiting Memphis on Friday night. After all, YJ pumped up the team with a pre-game talk that helped the Owls double up East Carolina, 20-10, last week. Jeez is more than an honorary Temple football fan. He’s a real one. A Jeez phone call might close the deal on a five-star someday. Let that thought marinate for a minute. I prefer Mumford and Sons and the Foo Fighters, but I’m not a five-star so I yield to Jeez. Chances are Jeez’s playlist is on most five-star’s headphones.

Looks like Matt Ioannidis has his game-face on, but Tavon Young and Kenny Harper were politely asking for the students to get on the 4:30 buses that leave the main campus for the “free tailgate.” Having been a Temple student once, I was so broke I knew the word “free” back then evoked a Pavlovian response, like “I’m there.” If some on the main campus cannot make the 4:30 buses, there’s a dedicated subway line right in front of the Liacouras Center that takes all of 10 minutes to get to the game.

Time for the alumni to put away the remote, put on a coat, get in a car, bus or train to the Linc and wear out the vocal chords.

Time for the alumni to put away the remote, get off the couch, put on a coat, get in a car, bus or train to the Linc and wear out the vocal chords. I will be there. Will you?

For all of the bitching and moaning of not having an on-campus stadium, it’s hard to imagine a following without an on-campus stadium having easier transportation options than Temple fans have. Heck, Uconn has its own stadium but it’s 27 miles from the main campus.

More importantly, there’s an epic game to be played and how can a student or alumnus miss it? National TV, winner-take-all for a bowl game and the winner gets a bowl, loser gets to bite their fingernails for one or two more weeks or maybe even the rest of the season.

If those stakes don’t cause the fans to stay standing in their seats and yell “Let’s Go Temple” and “DEE-fense, DEE-fense” (both while the Owls are on defense, of course), nothing will. Make no mistake about it. This will be a tough game. Memphis went toe-to-toe with UCLA and destroyed a good Cincinnati team. For Temple, a win here could be just the momentum-generator the Owls need to make a program-changing win over Penn State next week.

There are 12,500 students who live on campus now and 27,000 additional full-time students who commute home. There are 291,000 living alumni, about 180,000 of them live within an hour’s drive of the stadium. There are 6,000 full-time Temple employees. Even if you get half of the 12.5K and 6K and one-quarter of the 180,000, you have pretty close to a full stadium.

A lot of yelling and cheering for these guys could not hurt and no doubt would help. You can just tell by looking at their faces they would appreciate it. They deserve your support and, for the students especially, it costs nothing more than putting one foot in front of the other and walking two more feet to a bus or a subway. They are, after all, representing you and the Linc is our “Hood.”

11.05.14
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Two-Way Football (Sort of) Returns to TU

If you needed any insight into why Memphis is coming into Lincoln Financial Field a 7-point favorite against a Temple team that just beat No. 23 East Carolina, all you have to do is go straight to the training table at Edberg-Olson Hall. Head coach Matt Rhule calls it the “M*A*S*H unit.”

At least that’s what I got out of watching the latest version of Matt Rhule Weekly. Two-way football, missing since the days of Bill Juzwiak and Bill Cosby, has returned to Temple. (Juzwiak, a former William Tennent coach, used to remind me he played 60 minutes starting for Temple on both the offensive and defensive lines. One of the best high school coaches and funniest guys I’ve ever known when I first started covering high school sports.) Cosby played both fullback and defensive back for Temple in the same games. Juzwiak was just as funny as Cos, just didn’t make any money out of it.

Inquirer's John Mitchell and "Chip K." discuss Temple's new 2-back offense in this morning's chat. I think Chip meant Walker, not Harper.

Inquirer’s John Mitchell and “Chip K.” discuss Temple’s new 2-back offense in this morning’s chat. I think Chip meant Walker, not Harper.

Brian Carter, a starter at defensive tackle—and in the preseason a lot of starters at DT were in the preseason mix and Carter was not one of them—against UCF, will be a starter on the offensive line against Memphis.

Ouch.

Double ouch since Shabazz Ahmed—last year’s starter at DE—was forced to the offensive side of the ball before the season. He now appears out.

Also, playing in that Temple game last year were stars like Robbie Anderson and Chris Coyer and some under-rated lunch pail guys like Cody Booth and Evan Regas and they are no longer here.

I guess the loss of Anderson, who scored three touchdowns in that 41-21 Temple win, and Coyer, who scored one, is the reason why Temple has gone from a 20-point winner to a 7-point loser against this same Memphis team. Still, I think Temple has improved the entire team is so many other areas that this one should go down to the wire. Another interesting point: Temple beat Vandy by about the same score ole miss did and ole miss hammered Memphis, 24-3. Best case scenario is Temple wins by the same score. Worse case is Memphis covers the seven. Good reason for all 250,000 TU alumni and 39K full-time TU students to cram into every nook and cranny of LFF Friday night.

But pleading and hoping and praying for Temple fans to make a difference has worked rarely in the past (Eagle Bank Bowl being a notable exception) so this is going to have to be on the players and coaches. If you decide to pray for anything, please pray that the Owls don’t fall back into their three-wides, no-blocking-back for P.J. Walker approach they had against Houston and UCF. In that scheme, Walker had no time–none–to throw and receivers could get zero separation. So happy to see the Owls get away from that last Saturday.

If the Owls can continue with what they did on offense against ECU—using a fullback and play-action passing to buy time for P.J. Walker and spring Jahad Thomas and Kenny Harper at the point of attack—they can run enough minutes off the clock and make enough plays to keep Memphis’ offense off the field.

At least that should be the plan.

Watch coach Fran Dunphy’s message here (so proud that this great man is representing our school):

11.01.14
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The Perfect Owl Storm

People of a certain age will remember a commercial by Julius Erving after the Sixers imploded and lost a playoff series they were favored in and, in an attempt to win fans back the next season,  Erving said: “We Owe You One.”

Well, for those of us who have sit in many Gosh-awful storms—and one documented Hurricane–to watch the Temple University’s football team lose heartbreakers, another storm, this time unnamed, came through with big-time payback on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.

Watching looks of happiness on the faces of long-time great Owls like Steve Conjar and Mark Bresani made this win even more worthwhile.

Pure post-game happiness by the Mulvihills surrounding two of the greatest ex-Owls, Mark Bresani and Steve Conjar, who is putting up the No. 1.

Pure post-game happiness by the Mulvihills surrounding two of the greatest ex-Owls, Mark Bresani and Steve Conjar, who is putting up the No. 1. I think Steve is saying he’s got the No. 1 tailgate in Lot K.

I don’t think the Owls win this game without the storm, but who cares? They won and that’s the bottom line. Nobody cared when Uconn got several calls at the end of regulation and OT that won a 12-6 game during Hurricane Hanna and years down the line no one will care that East Carolina was a team built for a fast track and a dry ball this year.

What’s important now is that the Owls take this ball and run with it–with the emphasis on the key word “run.”



“We made a decision to get back
to who and what Temple is.
We tried to play good defense
and special teams and
run the football.”
_ Matt Rhule

They know they can beat Memphis on Friday night to become bowl-eligible. Heck, they beat Memphis last year by 20 points with essentially the same offensive players, sans Robbie Anderson and Chris Coyer. Colin Thompson has shown he can become a Coyer; someone is going to have to step up and become a Robbie Anderson. Maybe Keith Kirkwood can. Memphis is better than it was last year, but so, too, is Temple. I don’t think Memphis has improved more than Temple, but that’s something Temple must prove on Friday night.

The Temple defense is light years ahead of last year and, if there is a better linebacker in the country than Tyler Matakevich, I have not seen him. This was Matakevich’s best game yet. We need a nickname for him. Maybe Pac-Man because of the way he eats up ballcarriers but I’m sure someone can come up with something better.



Temple Fun Fact:
Owls held ECU
to 60 fewer points
than North Carolina
did–despite having
to go to class
during the week

The Owls won because they did a better job taking care of the ball and a better job at committing to the run. It was heartening to see the post-game comments by head coach Matt Rhule that Temple had to get back to being Temple—which is running the football. Seeing Marc Tyson back there as a blocking fullback in a two-back set was a big step forward for the Temple run game and, hopefully, Kenny Harper can get some fullback time in, too. Harper’s spin move on one touchdown was a thing of beauty, as was his hesitation to pick up Dion Dawkins’ block on another TD. He’s both smart and tough, though he doesn’t possess high-end tailback speed.

The defense is playing at a big-time level and it’s high time the offense played up to their capabilities. If that happens, this could be the start of a long winning streak. If not, it will be a struggle to get to six. Maybe the renewed commitment to the run will help jump-start the play-action passing game.

Let’s hope so. They owe the defense one.

11.01.14
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Good Day for Some Old-Fashioned TU Plays

Feet on the floor and butts out of bed. It's game day.

Feet on the floor and butts out of bed. It’s game day.

Sometimes I wonder if these spread offense guys ever plan for a rainy, windy, muddy day.

We shall find out today. In any endeavor, there should be a Plan A and a Plan B and this is one of those days to go with the Plan B.

Time to get out those old Temple football movies and put some current actors in those roles.

huge

A good organization, like the Diamond Marching Band, has a Plan B. Photo taken this morning.

This would be a good time for some smash-mouth, old-time, Temple plays from way back, say, earlier this decade. Bernard Pierce (played by Jahad Thomas) behind Wyatt Benson (played by Kenny Harper) behind Steve Manieri (played by Colin Thompson).

Grind out those 3, 4, 6-yard runs and put a premium on protecting the football and killing as much of the clock as possible to keep the ball out of the hands of the high-octane East Carolina offense.

Another great ex-Temple play that could work today is the short rollout by Chester Stewart (played by P.J. Walker)  where he throws no more than a 5-yard pass to Evan Rodriguez (played by Thompson) and he turns it into a big gain. That play helped even a historically inaccurate quarterback like Stewart go 9 for 9 in a 38-7 win at Maryland in 2011 and could help jump-start the confidence of the way-more-talented Walker today.

In a few hours, we will find out if this Temple coaching staff is capable of improvising and adjusting.

10.30.14
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Shaken, But Hopefully Not Stirred

A long time ago a former Temple football father started a music craze with these three simple words:

Shake, rattle and roll.

Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” is widely credited with getting the rock and roll genre started in the 1950s and his son, Scott Haley, was an outstanding tight end for the Owls when the Owls used to throw to tight ends way back in the football stone age of the 1980s.

Scott Haley's dad. He rarely tailgated.

Scott Haley’s dad. He rarely tailgated.

Now at least a derivative of  those three words have entered the Temple football dictionary again as Matt Rhule mentioned his team appeared “shaken” in practice this week.  A report in the Philadelphia Daily News about this press conference (above) noted Rhule used the word “fast” three times but his use of shaken has got me rattled and rolled.

Under Al Golden, even when Temple was playing very good BCS-level teams (Uconn, Navy and UCLA come to mind immediately), the Owls always played with a “Temple TUFF” swagger. Golden even noted that coming off the field at halftime in the UCLA game before a national TV audience: “We always play Temple tough,” Golden said, adding, “that’s spelled T-U-F-F.”

Shaken never entered the Temple football vocabulary back then.

It has now. Sure, the Houston and UCF teams the Owls played the last couple of weeks were very good but they were no better than Uconn, Navy and UCLA back then and back then Temple was playing with MAC-level recruits.

High winds: Hopefully, the Owls can move out of the spread and go 2 backs and power football. Failing that, maybe some of those Shane Carden passes will blow into the waiting arms of Tavon Young.

High winds: Hopefully, the Owls can move out of the spread and go 2 backs and power football. Failing that, maybe some of those Shane Carden passes will blow into the waiting arms of Tavon Young.

Got to wonder if at least a little part of the shakes has to do with a loss of confidence in the leadership above the captain’s level and reaching to the very  top of the program. At least Golden had the good sense to use his breakaway 5-5, 150-pound back  from New Jersey, Matty Brown, as a change-of-pace running back and not a slot receiver. At least  Golden had the good sense to know if he found a tailback with Jahad Thomas’ elusiveness and explosiveness, he would use him like he used Bernard Pierce, behind a great blocking fullback,  to maximize his skills and not as a decoy in a spread offense. Golden never had a five-star tight end recruit transfer in from Florida but my guess is that he would have down something radical  like THROWN HIM THE BALL. Just a hunch. Then again Golden never hired an offensive coordinator from Tennessee-Chattanooga.  Probably because Golden never had any friends from Tennessee-Chattanooga.

Rhule’s right about one thing: The Owls appear shaken. What he could be wrong about are the reasons for the shakes.

10.28.14
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Same S*it, Different Saturday

Phil Snow

Phil Snow

If anyone spent some time listening to the AAC coaches conference call on Monday, it’s pretty safe to sum up the Temple game plan against East Carolina in four simple words:

Same S*it, Different Saturday.

That’s because Temple head coach Matt Rhule included in his summary this sentence: “I think we always have to take a step back, catch our breath (and) not listen to anyone on the outside tell us what’s wrong.”
Anyone on the outside …. Temple football should have such problems.

Looks like Kenny Harper will be spending more time on the sidelines watching scenes like this than being P.J.'s protection as a blocking fullback.

Looks like Kenny Harper will be spending more time on the sidelines watching scenes like this than being P.J.’s protection as a blocking fullback.

Thanks largely to two-straight deflating losses coming off a 2-10 season, there is no “outside” when it comes to Temple football. Despite having three 24-hour sports talk stations, there has not been a single call taken on the air to talk about Temple football this season and probably few ever. Meanwhile, the town dissects every play in every Eagles’ game like it’s a frog in biology class.

The newspapers and internet are not any better. There is no critical coverage of Temple football in the Philadelphia Daily News or Philadelphia Inquirer, no columnist suggesting opinions on why the team was blown out in two-straight games. The coverage is pretty much straight forward game stories and an occasional feature.

The internet sites who follow Temple football, Owlscoop and Owlsdaily, range from being lapdogs for Rhule (Owlscoop) or right down the middle (Owlsdaily). The message boards on both sites seem to clamor for four more years of “patience” even if those four years are all losing ones.



“I think we always have to take
a step back, catch our breath
(and) not listen to anyone on
the outside tell us what’s wrong.”
_ Matt Rhule

Temple football has lapsed into irrelevance in its own city, quickly to be followed by apathy unless something big happens soon like a win over ECU or Penn State—with the emphasis on soon.
“Not to listen to anyone on the outside,” Rhule said.

What outside? There is no “outside” unless he’s talking about this site. If he is, we can assume Temple will be doing the same things this weekend that got it blown out in the last two.
So, as a favor to the fans who cannot bear to watch this train wreck anymore and are skipping the ECU game, we will give you a few of the offensive highlights now:

• Temple will give a half-hearted attempt to establish the run game with Jahad Thomas in the pistol behind P.J. Walker. When he gains one and two yards on his first two carries, it will abandon the run game and blame the blockers. “We have to do a better job blocking,” Rhule will say. “I will talk to them on Monday about it.” Nobody will remind Rhule he said the same thing after the prior two games.

• Temple will throw no less than five (5) two-yard passes on third-and-eight to a slow possession receiver, hoping he can break five tackles before getting to the sticks. None of them will work.

• Temple will not attempt a single toss sweep with Jahad Thomas running behind dynamic blockers in fullback Kenny Harper and tight end Colin Thompson. “I suggested to Marcus that was something we tried and worked to the tune of 268 yards and two touchdowns for Bernard Pierce behind Wyatt Benson and Steve Manieri at Navy,” Rhule would say after the game. “Marcus told me he never ran those kind of plays at Tennessee-Chattanooga and he’s not comfortable calling them and we left it at that.”

• Temple will line up three wides most of the time, but ECU will pick up all three in its nickel package and P.J. Walker will have no blocking back to protect him and one-half second to pick from three well-covered receivers. “P.J. is just going to have to thread the needle better,” Rhule will say afterward.

• The best blocking fullback in the AAC, Kenny Harper, will spend most of the day on the sidelines Saturday, waving a towel and cheering his teammates on as a backup tailback. “I thought Kenny showed great leadership on the sidelines,” Rhule will say afterward. “Even when it got to be 70-21, he was waving that towel higher than ever.”

  • Lincoln Financial Field security will mistake Temple defensive coordinator Phil Snow for a homeless man and attempt to remove him from the sidelines before Temple coaches intervene. Meanwhile, the Temple coaches will miss an ECU touchdown.

• Temple will fair catch five punts and start all of its possessions from inside the 20 because Rhule forgets that Temple once had dynamic tackle-avoiding and ankle-breaking punt returners like Delano Green who made that an offensive play.

Yes, keep doing what you are doing. That sounds like a plan. Not a good one, but a plan nonetheless and, when Temple fans begin the long and too familiar death march up the steps at the end of the third quarter, they will be mumbling one thing over and over again:

“Same S*it, Different Saturday.” This time without the asterisk.

10.26.14
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Not P.J.’s Fault

All you have to do to determine the problem with the Temple offense is look at the last 43 incompletions P.J. Walker has thrown.

I have just finished watching them and there has been exactly one (1) Temple receiver open in the last 43 pass attempts that P.J. has missed. Granted, that was a bad overthrow but all of the other throws were tightly-contested ones with Temple’s receivers getting no separation. There is nobody open an alarming number of times in this ill-conceived offense. Nobody.

Would I pull a talented young quarterback for missing one pass?

No. This monstrosity is definitely not his fault.

Would I pull the scheme that created this mess?

Yes.



“We have to go back and look at
everything we’re doing ….”
_ Matt Rhule, Inquirer, Oct. 26, 2014

Really, you could see this train wreck coming three weeks ago in the Tulsa game. Tulsa is a terrible team and Temple’s receivers could get very little separation on even that porous defensive backfield. Walker had to thread the needle before getting pounded on a blitz to Jalen Fitzpatrick for a big touchdown in that one.

The problem is a solvable one and it’s a formula that has been outlined here before. Two backs, with Kenny Harper as a fullback leading the way for Jahad Thomas. The offensive line has not been blocking well but both tight end Colin Thompson and Harper are accomplished and effective blockers—even Rhule has said that—so sweeps to that side of the field probably would work a whole lot better than the head-scratching plays Temple is calling now.

Running Thomas behind Harper is like giving Thomas an extra pulling guard and, Lord knows, this offensive line could use that. Create shorter down-and-distance situations for Walker and have him throw when there is a tangible threat of a run. That way, Walker fakes to Thomas, freezes the linebackers and safeties, and opens those closed passing windows for guys like Fitzpatrick, John Christopher, Romond Deloatch, Keith Kirkwood and Thompson. More play-action and rolling the pocket could not hurt.

That’s the only way this Temple offense would ever work and it would be nice to see it at least tried before this season, like last one, goes right down the tubes.

10.24.14
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TU-UCF: Too Many Ifs and Buts

If Temple rolls the pocket and throws off play action, it will win. If it keeps asking P.J. to throw into tight windows, it will lose. Simple as that.

If Temple rolls the pocket and throws off play action, it will win. If it keeps asking P.J. to throw into tight windows, it will lose. Simple as that.

In one of my several side jobs, I write prediction stories for Rantsports.com on college football.

This week, I got a call from my editor asking for a prediction story for the UCF-Temple game.

“Can’t do it,” I said. “Too many ifs and buts.”

I took the Rutgers-Nebraska, Marshall-FAU and Penn State-Ohio State assignments instead.

CBS Sports Network is on Channel 854 Comcast.

CBS Sports Network is on Channel 854 Comcast.

If I had a better feel for Temple’s approach to the game, this would be an easy assignment. For example, the first play of the Houston game, I thought would be a perfect time for the reverse Jalen Fitzpatrick pass to Robbie, err, Keith Kirkwood. Hit Houston before it had a chance to get settled. Houston doesn’t know Temple’s top wide receiver was a Big 33 quarterback. There’s no law limiting trick plays to one a game, let alone one a year. Heck, Bruce Arians can tell you they work multiple times in a game. Two trick  plays—flea-flickers from Matty Baker to Mike Palys—both resulted in touchdowns for the Owls in a 45-28 win over Boston College in the 1988 season. They do work if you have the gonads to call them. Arians had the gonads.

To me, this is a game Temple can either a) win by blowout; b) win close; c) lose by blowout d) lose close.

That pretty much covers all the bases and why I would stay away from this game if I was a betting man.

  1. Win by blowout: Temple beat a Uconn team, 36-10, that Tulane could only beat 12-3 (7-3 for much of the game). Tulane hung with UCF most of the way in a 20-13 loss.
  2. Lose by blowout: Temple looked pretty clueless on offense in a 31-10 loss to Houston. UCF beat Houston, 17-12.
  3. Win close: If Temple can hang with Penn State Nov. 15 (and I think this year’s version of the Owls can), it can steal a win at the end of the game with UCF on a field goal just like Penn State did. How delicious would it be if freshman kicker Austin Jones, from Orlando, kicks the game-winning field goal in a stadium where he’s kicked many times? I’ll take it, though I’d prefer scenario No. 1.
  4. Lose close: With P.J. Walker being asked to throw into so many tight windows, that is the most likely path to not getting the most out of this talented kid’s ability. Hopefully, the Temple coaches will finally devise a system where he’s throwing most of his passes out of play-action and others on the roll, forcing LBs and safeties to honor the threat of the run and opening those passing windows. I really think the Temple coaches believe in “the process” and the only process I’ve seen so far is a lot of passes that call for P.J. to thread the needle. Not a good process.

Related:

http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2014/10/23/predicting-the-final-score-of-florida-atlantic-vs-marshall/

http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2014/10/23/predicting-the-final-score-of-rutgers-vs-nebraska/

http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2014/10/21/predicting-the-final-score-of-ohio-state-vs-penn-state/

10.22.14
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Words of Wisdom

If you do not have time to watch, just advance to the 28-minute mark for some words of wisdom.

Part of the King James Bible, loosely defined, is credited for the phrase “out of the mouths of babes come words of wisdom.”
That phrase rang true for me while watching the latest version of Matt Rhule Weekly on Temple TV above.
Two young men—not exactly babes, but at least young–who work for the TV station, Zack Gelb and Chase Senior, showed an understanding of the Temple personnel that coaches twice their age who are 18 for 77 in third-down situations and 3 for 23 in their last 26 do not seem to understand.



People wonder why Temple is 18 for 77
and 3 for 23 on third down and the answer
is pretty obvious to everyone but the guys
presiding over the 18 for 77 and 3 for 23

“They have to show more commitment to the running game, particularly in the red zone,” Gelb said.
“Once Temple gets into the red zone, they get a little too cute with the play-calling,” Senior said. “Yesterday, you said you’d love to see Kenny Harper and Colin Thompson in the I formation and just pound the rock in the end zone. How about an I formation with Colin Thompson and Kenny Harper where Thompson runs it out into the flat and P.J. Walker can just dump it to him?”

Or why not Jahad Thomas behind Kenny Harper AND Colin Thompson?

People wonder why Temple is 18 for 77 and 3 for 23 on third down and the answer is pretty obvious to everyone but the guys presiding over the 18 for 77 and 3 for 23.

The solution is right in front of their eyes, heck even on their own Temple TV station, but they could be too stubborn to implement it. Good job by Gelb and Senior breaking it down this week.