There are a lot of good head coaches who have perfected their craft in the MAC and one of the best-ever is Pete Lembo of Ball State, a former head coach at Lehigh. Click on photo for 5 upsets this week.
5 College Football Upsets This Week
Author Archives: Mike Gibson
UCF’s O’Leary is one of the best
George O’Leary’s time was short at ND.
George O’Leary was the best coach in Notre Dame history who lasted only five days on the job. We’ll never know if he would have been the best who lasted 500 days or 5,000 days, but nothing in his coaching history suggests he would not have been.
When the Irish hired O’Leary, then 55, in December of 2001, I thought they were getting a terrific coach.
I still do.
Heck, if he had not fudged his resume, he might still be there. He’s THAT good of a coach.
Notre Dame had to fire him (technically, he resigned), because that’s what they did in those days to people who got jobs off fake resumes.
To me, though, the guy did not commit a crime. He didn’t stick up a bank, kill or molest someone. Embellishing his resume did not change the fact that he was an accomplished head coach at Georgia Tech and probably would have been an accomplished head coach at Notre Dame.
O’Leary’s downfall came when he said he played at UNH but no one there could remember him.
We’ll never know that, but those Temple fans not sickened to the pit of their stomachs by seeing the numbers 1-8 next to the word Temple in the papers will see at least one well-coached team when the Black Knights come to Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday at noon. Other Temple fans have already checked out.
Can’t blame them. They were hoping for better than the 4-7 Daz gave them last year. Those hopes were dashed a long time ago, buried under the rubble of disgraceful losses to Fordham and Idaho.
O’Leary dots the I’s and crosses the T’s on every game plan. If he’s beaten, it’s because the talent on the other side of the ball is better. He’s not afraid to use the quarterback sneak on fourth-and-inches. He’s probably afraid NOT to, it’s such a high-percentage call. O’Leary watches the film, picks out an opponents’ weakness, and attacks that weakness. If O’Leary was playing, say, a FCS team with a 247-pound-average defensive line, he would probably use his 305-pound-average OL to pound that FCS team into submission via the run game. If O’Leary was playing the 125th-ranked rushing defense in the FBS, dome or no dome, he probably would commit a game plan heavily laden in all kinds of running plays and probably save the eleven overthrown 50-yard bombs for another day.
That’s the kind of advantage a seasoned head coach gives the team he’s coaching and the school he works for.
If you get the feeling that Temple coaches NEVER watch the film of opponents or check their tendencies, this season has provided enough evidence to convict on all counts.
After Al Golden left Temple, I thought the Owls should go after someone who fit the O’Leary profile: A proven success as a head coach, a guy on the rise, not a recycled has-been like Dennis Franchione or Larry Coker.
Golden was perfect for his time because, at THAT time, Temple needed a young guy with the boundless energy to roll up his sleeves and build a program brick by brick.
After Al left, the foundation was already solid.
It did not need to be taken down and rebuilt again and that’s why someone who fit the O’Leary profile, say a MAC head coach who did nothing but win, was just the right person who could take Temple to the next level. For Temple, a perfectly nice brick house has been knocked down for no good reason.
Fortunately for fans in Orlando, O’Leary became available to UCF and he’s done nothing but win down there.
Notre Dame’s loss is Central Florida’s gain and ask any of their fans who make the trip North if they care one wit whether or not he fudged his resume.
All that matters to them is winning. Temple’s administration and fans should demand no less.
TU football should strive for what TU hoops, soccer have done
This is the 1953 Temple men’s soccer team which finished unbeaten and untied and No. 1 in the nation. The untied part is pretty amazing when you consider that 0-0 is the most common score in that sport and there was no overtime back then.
Imagine, if you will, Matt Rhule going through his next six seasons at Temple like this:
Winning four league championships, making bowl games six straight years and winning two of them. Then, in an informal poll of other FBS coaches, Rhule is named the most underrated coach in the country.
Ryan Alderman up for Wueffel Award. Could not happen to a nicer guy. Hope he wins it. Click on photo for details.
Would you sign for that, without the hope of any higher ceiling?
Give me the papers right now. I’ve got the pen ready.
Well, the Temple men’s basketball season opens today and that’s just what Fran Dunphy has done. I’ve never understood the criticism of Fran because he’s done for basketball what I’ve always wanted for football. Substitute NCAA appearances for bowl games and there you have it. He was also named the most underrated coach in the country in a poll of his peers last year.
Temple fans freezing their arses off in the parking lot at JFK.
After a first year of adjusting to Temple from a Hall of Fame career as a Penn head coach, Dunphy won three straight post-season tournament A-10 playoff titles and followed that up with a regular-season A10 League championship the next.
Let’s hope these crater-sized potholes in the road for Matt Rhule this year are part of the adjustment process.
Fran Dunphy is 2-4 in NCAA tournament games with the Owls, but would you consider a 2-4 bowl record by Rhule a success? I know I would because, in football like basketball, getting there is the hardest part.
Now consider what coach Dave MacWilliams has done with this current edition of the men’s soccer team. Picked to finish last in the American Athletic Conference, the Owls finished first during the regular season. Anything after this is gravy. If Rhule does the same thing with the football team, which no doubt will be picked to finish last or near-last next year, he will be doing the same kind of job MacWilliams has done this season.
MacWilliams and Dunphy are two coaches Temple fans do not have to make excuses for and two standards of excellence that Temple should strive for in any sport.
It’s not much to ask for football, either.
An Owl-less Saturday, put plenty of good games
Five games we’re taking an interest in this weekend, including a future AAC foe. Click on fans for the story.
Photo Essay: Owls at RU
Logic fails TU braintrust once again
When this young person saw the Owls line up in a shotgun five yards back when they needed an inch, the fan wigged out. All the fans watching in Philly were screaming at the TV for the QB sneak, too. Can’t blame them.
Every fifth grade student learns this basic tenant in Geometry class: The shortest distance between two points in a straight line.
Either way, with Walker taking
the snap behind Friend,
you are giving it to either your
first- or second-best player following
either your first- or second-best player
Little Matty Rhule must have called in sick that day in 1985 because on Saturday, facing a fourth-and-inches from the Rutgers’ 15 with less than two minutes remaining, the Temple head football coach elected to run a play to the halfback, Kenny Harper, out of a shotgun formation instead of sneaking his 6-1 quarterback, P.J. Walker, straight ahead for the three or four inches needed for a first down.
Since Rutgers was out of time outs, had the Owls secured that first down, all that was left was three kneel downs for what would have been Temple’s first-ever AAC win. Instead, Rutgers stopped a slow developing play two yards into the backfield, got the ball back and quarterback Gary Nova executed an effective drive that resulted in a 23-20 win for the Scarlet Knights.
What made the curious play call all the more egregious was the fact that Temple has one of the best centers in the country in sophomore Kyle Friend, a 6-2, 305-pound behemoth who neutralized Notre Dame All-American Louis Nix III in the Owls’ opener. Arguably, Friend is the Owls’ best player. Before the season, Rhule said that the team gave out single-digit numbers to the nine “toughest” guys on the team but that the only reason Friend did not get No. 1 was because offensive linemen are not allowed to wear single digits. He might not be the best player only because of what has happened over the last few weeks, but certainly is the toughest.
Arguably, because the team’s best player over the last few weeks has turned out to be Walker, his true freshman quarterback. Either way, with Walker taking the snap over Friend, you are giving the ball to either your first- or second-best player followed through the hole by either your first- or second-best player.
For a head coach, failing geometry is one thing but failing logic is far worse.
Related:
Temple’s biggest rivalry comes to an end
Click on the stadium for my story on the TU-RU rivalry that led the national Rantsports.com college football page. Any Facebook shares or tweets would be much appreciated. Go Owls.
Five Upsets this week
Click on the Wake Forest guys for five upsets this week.
Photo essay Temple-SMU
Rocket scientists, they are not
How this guy didn’t get the ball 25 times against that defense with a 28-7 lead, I’ll never understand.
Today was the first time I’ve ever NOT been excited to have a 28-7 lead late in the first half.
“You watch,” I said to the people I was watching the game with, “with the rocket scientists we have running this team, we’ll lose.”
I never hated being right so much before, either.
Given the gift of 28-7,
you pound and ground so much
you make Steve Addazio
look like Air Coryell
Football is not rocket science. You have a 28-7 lead, you run Kenny Harper inside behind a 305-pound (average) offensive line against a defense that had trouble stopping people all year. Just to mix things up, you run the “read option” and pitch the ball out to Zaire Williams, who rarely fails to get around the end or, if nothing is there, have your talented quarterback turn the ball up inside. If you HAVE to throw, allow P.J. Walker to drop deep, draw the rush to him, and dump off safe screen passes to Williams, who is unstoppable on that play.
You accomplish two things by that strategy: Move the ball, score points, and keep the ball away from an uber-talented quarterback, Garrett Gilbert. Score points, chew some clock. Given the gift of 28-7, you pound and ground so much you make Steve Addazio look like Air Coryell.
Click on Dave Clawson for a blueprint on how to build three winning programs.
Score points, chew some clock, move the ball. Fortunate enough to get a 28-7 lead, that should have been the mantra. You might not get seven every time, but I saw no indication that the SMU defense was able to stop Williams the (too) few times he had the ball.
It should not take a rocket scientist to figure that out, but there is not an accomplished head coach on the staff among the rocket scientists running this program.
Heck, the only guy with head-coaching experience on the Temple staff, Ed Foley, was a failed head coach at Fordham. Dave Clawson was a much better coach there before him and Joe Moorhead a much better one after him (see inset story on Clawson).
I wish Clawson (my choice at the end of last season) would come here to fix things, but that’s water under the dam.
Damn.
Matt Rhule’s not getting fired. Temple’s got no money. No money. Fans who want to fire coaches have to understand the financial reality involved in hiring one. That’s a big commitment. When you make a decision to hire a coach, you stick with him until the contract runs out because this is a state-related school and Bill Cosby doesn’t pick up the tab for head coaches anymore (like he did with Ron Dickerson). Hopefully, it’s a year-to-year, but I doubt it.
Make that 9 carries a 25 and Temple wins going away.
The reality is that Temple has lost to two teams it should not have lost to (Fordham and Idaho), beat a team it was supposed to beat, Army, and had 59 points scored on it by a two-win team.
Unacceptable, even for a first-year head coach.
When are we going to beat someone we’re NOT supposed to beat?
I’m not holding my breath.
Phil Snow’s not getting fired, either. I think Matt Rhule is “too nice a guy” to make the hard decisions he has to make at the end of this season and that’s not a hard decision for us, but it is for him.
A lot of that has to do with lack of talent on defense and poorer coaching schemes (geez, if the guy is going to throw 600 yards on you, might help by sending the best tackler in the nation straight ahead on blitzes instead of having him cover Deion Sanders’ kid … just a thought). People who preach patience have got to know that this team returned eight starters on offense and nine on defense, won four games last year, and was expected at minimum … minimum … to either match or improve that.
It’s not going to happen and I don’t think it’s Steve Addazio’s fault. That’s a damn shame because as good as P.J. Walker is, I see his career developing along the same lines as Henry Burris’ career did under Ron Dickerson: Plenty of yards and TDs, but plenty of losses. A 1-11 record is going to lose a lot of recruits and Temple is going to get caught up in the same losing spin cycle Burris did under Dickerson and players like Dan Klecko and Walter Washington did with Bobby Wallace. It’s a vicious cycle and I see no way of avoiding it other than getting someone in here who knows what he’s doing and that, sadly, is above Temple’s pay scale given they already have to pay this guy.
More reality: Temple was outscored, 45-21, in the second half. In three other games (Houston, Notre Dame and Cincinnati), Temple had zero points in the second half. If you get the idea that not much work is getting done at halftime, you get the right idea.
Good work before halftime, though.
Too bad college football doesn’t have a 14-point Mercy Rule.
Related:
Temple Football Forever 