Author Archives: Mike Gibson

01.31.15
by

Temple Finally Joins the Big Time

It’s never too late for Young Jeezy to put in a good word for Temple.

Usually, the only thing on TV in the middle of the afternoon on a mid-week day is a soap opera.

That and work is why I do not watch television on a week day afternoon. One soap opera on Wednesday, though, is must-see TV and that’s when Temple football finally hits the big-time on ESPNU. Every year, ESPNU reserves about a dozen spots for players who wait until signing day to make their announcements on live television. ESPNU’s only requirement is that the player must not have made his intentions known prior to the live announcement and he must be at least a four-star recruit as named by one of the two major recruiting websites, Rivals or Scout.

Usually, it is involves a guy who is about to pick between, say, a Florida or an Auburn. He looks at one hat, lifts it up, puts it down, and then finally puts the hat on of the school he where he chooses to spend the next four years playing football and getting an education. Since ESPNU started this charade a few years ago, I wanted Temple to be part of the show.

Now I have my wish.  That’s where Temple, Marshall and T.J. Simmons come into play.

Julu Smith’s signing day last year.

This will perhaps be the last time either school will have this opportunity because I believe the Power 5 schools will be paying players by the next show and, unless Temple can  find a route to the Power 5 capital, we won’t see this kind of drama again.

I hope I’m wrong, but I do not see this ending well for Temple because Simmons’ primary Marshall recruiter is Sean Cronin and Cronin is not the biggest Matt Rhule fan. I can see a lot of “negative recruiting” involved with Cronin’s knowledge of Temple and Rhule and, if negativity did  not work in getting someone’s vote, we would never see a negative political campaign ad (and that’s all we see).

Either way, tune in between 3:30 and 4 on ESPNU. For the first–and maybe last–time, it’s must-see afternoon TV.

Related:

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x984739541/Simmons-visiting-MU-this-weekend

01.09.15
by

Matakevich Winning Butkus Award Would Be Big Boost for Temple Football

Football fans of Temple can give their fingernails a rest. From standout linebacker Tyler Matakevich‘s twitter feed in December, it looked  like he would return for his senior season with the Owls in 2015.

Now that the deadline for declaring is about to pass, it’s all but official.

That’s no small commitment because, according to most mock drafts, Matakevich would be one of the top 10 linebackers selected in the NFL Draft if he decided to come out. Now that Matakevich has decided to do something for the Owls, Temple must decide to do something for him in promoting him for the Bednarik Award that goes to the nation’s best defender and Butkus Award that goes to the nation’s best linebacker.

I think he has a decent chance of winning the Butkus Award and that would be a big feather in the cap of Temple football. He doesn’t need to do anything superhuman to win it, either. Just keep doing what he’s been doing and help the Owls win two or more additional games in 2015 than they did in 2014. With Notre Dame and Penn State on the schedule and both figure to be highly rated TV games, his name is fast-tracked to the head of the LB class.

Temple did the same in 1986 for running back Paul Palmer, when the school came up with a clever comic book idea that promoted him for the Heisman Trophy. He did not win it, coming as close as possible — losing to Miami’s Vinny Testaverde and ahead of such luminaries as Oklahoma’s Brian Bosworth and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.

Matakevich is driven by a desire to get Temple to a bowl and sitting and watching others play seems to fuel the flames for next season.

Matakevich is one of the few players to earn all-conference honors in two conferences, the now-defunct Big East and current successor AAC. He also currently is the NCAA’s leading active leaders in tackles among all five divisions (FBS, FCS, and Divisions I through III). For his entire time at Temple, he has given the Owls his best.

Promoting him heavily for the Bednarik and Butkus is the least the Owls can do for him now.

01.05.15
by

Temple is Bluffing with Football Stadium Talk

One artist's mock rendering of what a future 30K stadium would look like at Temple (don't know where he expects to get that parking space from).

What an on-campus stadium might look like, without the parking lot surrounding it.

Comparatively speaking, there are so few major supporters of athletics at Temple that the word of someone who is should mean a lot. Temple is not like Oregon, where you can see a billionaire like Phil Knight on the sideline of every football game.

The supporter, who makes several billion less than Knight, said he was told at halftime during the Temple vs. North Carolina State March Madness basketball game that a stadium for football was a “done deal.” The Temple vs. North Carolina State game—won by the Owls, 76-72—was March 22, 2013. In a little over three months, that game will be two full years in the rear-view mirror.

No one has seen a shovel yet and that’s why football stadium talk at Temple is just that. Right now, Temple plays its football games in the $521 million Lincoln Financial Field, home to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles want triple the current annual rent Temple pays from $1 million to $3 million.

It’s a steep price, but the Owls should pay it for a number of good reasons. First, it would cost over $300 million to build their own and you to not have to be a bargain-hunter to know that something that costs $3 is a better buy than $300 .

Also, the Owls currently have a beautiful on-campus stadium and it is called The Liacouras Center. After Temple beat No. 10 Kansas and defending national champion Uconn, it was less than half-full yesterday for a conference game against UCF. The LC is a 15-year lab experiment that predicts how life will be in a future on-campus football stadium.

Plenty of seats available at Temple's beautiful on-campus stadium yesterday.

Plenty of seats available at Temple’s beautiful on-campus stadium yesterday.

There is a much more important reason the Owls should continue to play football at the Linc, though, and that’s to make them a much more attractive option for a Power 5 conference somewhere down the road. Although Houston, North Texas, Tulane and Akron have built nice 30,000-type seat stadiums in the last five years, none of them are options for a Power 5 invite any time soon. Very few Power 5 teams not grandfathered in (like Wake Forest) have stadiums with 30,000 seats.

Temple, with the fourth-largest media market and a 70,000-seat stadium and a great basketball program, would be a candidate down the road if it is ever able to figure out a way to just fill more than half of it. Temple has to figure out a way to do that and its money would be better spent supporting football head coach Matt Rhule’s efforts to do that, not chasing some on-campus stadium pipe dream. If Rhule is not able to do the job, Temple would still be better off spending money on a big-time coach who is and not a small-time stadium.

An on-campus stadium jeopardizes any chance Temple has of putting on big-boy pants. A stadium is a nice dream for many Temple fans who want to camouflage a paltry lack of support, but winning and winning big in football is the larger issue that needs to be addressed first.

Spending $300 million on winning is a much more cost-effective option than bricks and mortar.

12.30.14
by

Ted’s Excellent Temple Adventure

Ted's own photos from the more recent past, including these from the New Mexico Bowl. Hopefully, the current coaching staff delivers with several of these bowl experiences starting next year.

Ted’s own photos from the more recent past, including these from the New Mexico Bowl. Hopefully, the current coaching staff delivers with several of these bowl experiences starting next year. Note spelling is not a strongpoint of the New Mexico Bowl scoreboard operator.

There is a great Temple fan named Ted DeLapp out there who went searching for Temple football history like one of those guys with metal detectors you see on beaches.

To say Ted is a great fan really is a misnomer. He’s The Greatest Fan, until I stumble upon another with his credentials of investing in the program by purchasing way more season tickets than he really needs for a 30-plus year period.

He hit on gold with some nuggets this week that we think deserve a wider audience than his own personal facebook page.

The first one involves a challenge game between the New York Giants of the National Football League and the Temple Owls. Turns out both the Owls and the Giants had an open weekend and Giants’ owner John Mara, eager to gain some credibility for his team, challenged the Temple Owls to a game in 1935. That year the Owls were 7-3 with wins over Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Here’s what Ted found:

giants

Another was Temple luring Pop Warner from Stanford. Love the way sports pages used cartoons back in those days:

pop

Not often you find one coach with two nicknames “Pop” and “Scobey.”

Temple lured him for the princely sum of $18,000 after Stanford refused to match the offer. Temple’s BOT in those days was forward-thinking, learning that the only way to make money is to spend money and go after the top head coaches available. Unfortunately, due to an arm’s race that would make the Cold War look like Kid’s Play, Temple is now out of that high-stakes poker game.

pophead

Interesting that a clause in Warner’s Temple contract allowed him to hold a job at a bank on the west coast during the six months between Jan. and June. Bobby Wallace had no such clause, but was away for much of the time of his eight-year contract, maintaining a home in Gulph Shores, Ala.

Temple TUFF about 100 years ago.

Temple TUFF about 100 years ago.