Only 10 days until Vanderbilt and coach Rhule talks about the tight ends and the defensive backs.
Looks like things are looking up for the Owls in the secondary and tight end.
Hopefully, that translates to more points for the good guys and fewer for the bad guys. We will not really know until 9:15 p.m. on Aug. 28.
Click on the photo to find out who ….
Coach Rhule gives good news on Jabo Lee and makes other comments after 11th practice.
One of the many reasons why I love John Chaney because he refused to back down.
He’d take Temple on the road against the best teams and he’d win a lot of those battles. He instilled the mantra “Winning is an Attitude.”
I’ve got to like what I’m hearing out of the E-O so far this season. Khalif Herbin’s tweet was my favorite: “Temple University will not lose a football game.”
Temple University will not lose a football game.
— Khalif Herbin (@KhalifGO7) July 26, 2014
Matt Rhule also said he expects to go to a bowl “this season.”
I expect all 85 players on scholarship and a few more not on scholarship would consider this season a failure if the team does not make a bowl game.
Our fans should take the same attitude.
Anything less is a losing attitude and not reaching that minimum goal of a bowl game should deem this season a failure to every fan living in reality. The “reality” is that this league is more New Conference USA than Old Big East and that Temple’s last seven recruiting classes would have been ranked in the top half of CUSA and one, the 2012 class, would have been the top class in CUSA. Temple should be able to beat teams like Tulane, Tulsa, Memphis and East Carolina right now. The Owls already have proven they can beat teams like Navy and Uconn in the not-too-distant past. That’s the reality.
Winning is an attitude and so is losing. Maybe John Chaney can come down and say a few words before Vanderbilt.
Amazing how all of Philadelphia is buzzing about a “fake” game involving the Eagles when we are only 19 days away from the first college or pro football game involving a “real” Philadelphia team.
Temple is that team and there are 19 days remaining to shocking the world and getting its chance to beat an SEC team. Has Temple really ever beaten an SEC team? I cannot recall one, maybe Doc Chodoff can.
24 days. #CountdownContinues “@ESPNCFB: #CFBLIVE Plan accordingly! 4 weeks from today we kick off the CFB season: pic.twitter.com/8RSieUr0OA”
— Temple Football (@Temple_FB) August 4, 2014
Temple never beat an ACC team before 2011 when the Owls went down to Maryland and won, 38-7, so great things can be done. Temple beat a Big 10 team, Wisconsin, on the road in 1990. Temple beat a PAC-10 team in California in a 1979 bowl game. SEC? Don’t remember. MAC winning teams? Bruce Arians was 5-0 against them.
So here we are 19 days away from showtime and a lot of wide receivers are banged up. Coach Rhule talks about “Matty” and that is Matt Eaton, the true freshman, who seems to be rising above the other true freshman wideouts. Looks like another true freshman, Sean Chandler, has a chance to start at one corner.
Today’s “oh no” moment was to hear that the kicking game was not up to par and that one of the kicks was blocked. Unless 7-footer Devonte Watson has joined the team and is doing the kick blocking, that cannot be good news.
Sad to hear that Jabo Lee is injured again. Would like to see Khalif Herbin now get some snaps at running back. Vanderbilt has no tape on Khalif Herbin and would likely be stunned how elusive he is in the open field. Getting a 5-7 slot receiver the ball in the open field could be more problematic than just handing off to this terrific talent. So scared Herbin is going to be this year’s underused nuclear weapon. Hope coach Rhule proves me wrong.
Temple beating Vanderbilt would finally open some eyes in Philadelphia and at least shed a little bit of the spotlight on 10th and Diamond. Right now, it’s all on the Nova Care Complex.
Hit “mute” before watching this … I can easily envision No. 7 of Temple being Khalif Herbin and doing to Vanderbilt what Tim Brown does here (hopefully, not with the Owls behind 24-0):
When it comes to talking about practice, I’m a lot like Allen Iverson. Fast-forward me to Aug. 28 as soon as possible.
You will not find me at the E-O at any of the practices because I’m just not that interested in them. I realize they are a necessary evil to be able to get the job done in the real games and the real games is where they matter.
Still, occasionally it’s interesting to hear some of the developments in the early practices.
Shabazz Ahmed, last year’s starter at defensive end, has been moved to the offensive side of the ball to bolster the OL depth.
There very well could be two Nate Smiths starting on defensive as old dependable Nate D. Smith will hold down his LB spot but Nate L. Smith–who led the state of Pennsylvania in interceptions in 2011–could be moving into a starting spot, according to Matt Rhule.
Khalif Herbin has been very good and I believe the key to the success of the offense will be lining him up on more than one spot on the field. I hope they are able to get the ball into his hands more than the typical 5-7 times a slot receiver is “targeted” (let alone hit) with a pass per game. To accomplish that goal, I hope Khalif handles punts and kickoffs and is the kind of third-down, change-of-pace, back that got Matty Brown significant playing time as a true freshman.
Other than that, as Jose from Norristown would say, no word on which of the incoming freshman emerges as the speedy and tall target that Robbie Anderson was last season. I hope that development is on the next Matt Rhule tape.
Looks like recruiting is going to a new level. Read this Newark Star-Ledger story on an Owl standing Saturday.
Click on photo of Brandon McManus to see why the Eagles need to get him or Josh Brown once the final New York Giants’ cuts are made.
A few things to take from this interview, one that means nothing, the others that mean everything.
First, the nothing part. Nothing ages a man like being either a President of the United States or a Temple head football coach.
I did not notice a single gray hair on the head of Mr. Obama or Mr. Rhule before they took either job. Now there are plenty of both. Al Golden addressed that problem with Grecian Formula.
Now onto the meaningful observations:
Coach Rhule is a very good guy and I would like nothing more than to see him succeed on the job, despite my documented and numerous reservations in the past. He’s a good representative of Temple University.
Rhule seems to have a handle on the team’s problems, the pass rush coming immediately to mind. Moving faster linebackers to ends, where they can use that speed to seek out and destroy enemy quarterbacks, is the key to the defense.
Kiser Terry is now a 285-pound tackle. He used to be a 240-pound end.
The offense will try to spread the ball all over the field and get the ball in numerous guy’s hands. That’s a good thing, if Khalif Herbin is used both as a halfback and a slot back.
Of all the “outside” interviewers, this guy Mark Rogers came into this short interview well-prepared. If only the Temple football beat writer for the Inquirer, John Mitchell, knew as much about Temple football as this guy.
Wonder what coach was looking at in the beginning of the interview? Must have been something distracting him.
The best part of this great video is the reaction of the players.
It’s apparent that these are a good group of young men representing Temple University this year and that they are sincere in their appreciation for what they have.
Nothing would please me more than to see these guys transform 2-10 into 10-2.
Hopefully, that happens.
Either way, great job by Temple football in getting this done and to all those who made it happen.
One of these position switches has already been made. Hopefully, the other four will be at least considered. Click on the photo of the flying Khalif Herbin to read.
Temple Football Forever 