I would ditch the Owl logo for a Temple ‘][‘

When I heard the old league Temple was going to participate in was getting a new name, I was disappointed.
Temple joined the Big East.
Villanova and the Catholic schools left the Big East.
For the schools with Temple to give up that name was/is a big mistake.
If Temple, Cincinnati, UConn and USF left to form a new league, I would be all for a new name.
Simple logic.

This map suggests schools could have kept Big East name.

So much for simple logic.
Damn.
The new name is the American Athletic Conference. The powers-that-be decided you’ve got to crawl before you can walk.
Literally.
That is, a position first on the ESPN crawl was worth more than a specific or even more spify name. Since ESPN places its scores based on alphabet, you’ll see the AAC scores first, then the ACC and so-on and so-forth.
That’s really the only good thing about the new name.
It’s going to take awhile for this new brand to build. For however the Big East was slammed, it was a known brand.
Temple, Cincinnati, UConn and USF sold its Big East soul for 30 pieces of silver or, in this case, a reported $8 million to the first school and $22 million to the other three with the balance going to the newer schools.
Big-time athletics is all about the Benjamins these days.
Now about the new name.
My thought, also based on logic, was that the name of the new conference be called “Metro America” as an acknowledgement to the large markets almost all of the schools have locked up.
To me, that’s part of the genius of this new conference. Since the conference is in large markets, it is bound to get good TV ratings. Temple football, even in the MAC, got great TV ratings. The Owls vs.  UCLA remains the second-highest-rated bowl game ever on ESPN in the coveted Philadelphia market (second only to Penn State’s 2007 appearance in the Alamo Bowl).
People didn’t tune in to watch UCLA.
There is a latent interest out there in Temple football. The challenge for CEO Matt Rhule and the people who  are charged with moving Temple football forward is getting those fannies off their couches and away from their potato chips and interested enough in the Owls to get on a car or a subway to a game.
Winning will do that.
Not regular winning, but championship-level winning.
Fortunately, with this group of schools, the road to a championship is wider than a six-lane highway.

Tomorrow: The Open Quarterback Competition

This is the fake front page I rejected as too gaudy.

A good April’s Fool’s Joke is like a good cake.
You have to have a lot of the right ingredients.
Last year, I did not find the right ingredients so I bagged our annual April Fool’s post.
It was back yesterday.

Err, one person fell for it, hook, line and stinker.

Mix a little basketball in with a little football, some science sport stuff I’ve been wondering about for years, Matt Rhule’s penchant for secrecy and a great Fran Dunphy quote post-game Indiana and I had my cake.
If it wasn’t for Dunphy, who I hold in the highest regard, I would not have my idea. To me, Fran Dunphy is every bit the equal of the Temple coaching Holy Trinity of Wayne Hardin, John Chaney and Skip Wilson.
I have that much respect for the man.
I watched Dunph post-game come up with one of the greatest quotes I ever saw any coach say:
“We’re all about giving our student-athletes a terrific college experience and these are the kind of experiences they will always remember.”
Wow. Great quote, Fran, and thanks.

Fran Dunphy’s outstanding post-game remarks were inspiring.

That was the final icing on the cake.
I thought about how Deon Miller, at 6-foot-5, blocked three critical field goals last year for Temple’s football team and wondered  if I could borrow Dunphy’s tallest player, 6-foot-11 Devonte Watson, and project him into that Miller role. Would six extra inches make him twice as effective as Miller blocking field goals? Ten times? A hundred times?
So I went for the fake story.
In the past, we’ve sold SOME of the public on Steve Addazio hiring Urban Meyer to be his first assistant coach at Temple and had Temple accepting an invitation to the Big 10 conference.
Because so many ingredients were ripe for this one, though, it might have been our best.
I thought about going the British tabloid route (see above) but then I thought that front page was too gaudy and a dead giveaway. So I gave The Temple Times credit and created a fake Temple Times page.
I could just picture Dunphy saying the same thing about Watson if somehow he went out for the football team and started blocking field goals like Bernie Parent blocked shots in goal for the Flyers.
If one person fell for it, and at least one did, it was worth doing.

Tomorrow: Watson decides story was a good idea and does indeed go out for the team (just kidding)

Devonte Watson’s unannounced arrival at the E-O is the biggest sensation of camp so far.

For the rest of his football coaching life, new Temple University football head coach Matt Rhule will probably do a lot of the same things old Temple coach Al Golden did.
Why not?
Look where it got both Temple and Al.

Devonte Watson’s Temple ‘][‘ gloves had to be specially ordered and reinforced with extra padding so that he doesn’t sustain a hand injury from blocking so many field goals.

So I was only amused and not surprised when I heard that Rhule is making folks visiting the Edberg-Olson Football Complex to sign a sheet asking “not to report anything football-related” they see at practice.
Golden used to do the same thing.

“What’s he doing there, enriching uranium?” I asked when someone told me that Rhule adopted the Golden Rhule regarding secrecy.
Enriching uranium  at football facilities is not a new thing.
Enrico Fermi did the same at the University of Chicago in the early days of World War II.
Well, it turns out that Rhule is enriching uranium (in a football-science way) and the result could be of nuclear proportions in the college football world this fall.
At least in the science of sport according to a report in this morning’s Temple Times.
About 150 years ago, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell created a sensation in science with these few words:
“Watson, come here, I need you!”
Thomas Watson was his assistant and Bell had just spilled acid while inventing the phone.
The moment changed the science of communication forever.
Another Watson, this one named Devonte, may have helped change the science of football last week at Temple University’s football practice.

This morning’s Temple Times broke the news.

A freshman on a basketball scholarship, Watson showed up unannounced at Edberg-Olson Hall, the school’s football practice complex, the day after the basketball Owls were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by top-seeded Indiana.
“All I could see was this tall guy ducking under the door,” Rhule told The Times. “He shook my hand and said, ‘Coach, I’m Devonte Watson, I want to come out for the football team.’
“I mean, he’s 6-foot-11, I thought he was a basketball player and I asked him flat out: Are you on a basketball scholarship?’ He said he got permission from coach (Fran) Dunphy. So we got him in the biggest uniform we could and told him to get out there.”
First off, Rhule said, they tried him at wide receiver.
“He was OK there,” Rhule said. “You see he could catch the ball but he wasn’t comfortable running routes. He’s 6-11, got a wingspan of 97 inches, and we figured we could use him on red zone offense but then some of our other coaches had other ideas.”

Special teams coach Allen Mogridge had the best suggestion, Rhule said.
“Allen asked Devonte what he was known for best as a high school player,” Rhule said. “Devonte said, “Blocking field goals.’
“That’s it, Allen said. Allen suggested that we put Devonte on the special teams, blocking field goals.”
For the better part of all last week, that’s what Watson did.
Block field goals.
Boy, did he ever.
When one of the Temple kickers launched a field goal attempt, the freshman with a vertical leap of 39 inches stuck his big paw out and blocked it almost every time. Kick thud, followed by block thud.
“He’s amazing,” Rhule said. “Nothing gets by him. He’s not only 6-11 but he’s got these incredible instincts to block field goals. He just stands there behind the nose guard and jumps up and the kicker has got no chance. Think about it. In basketball, all of these great athletes are driving in a full speed and he still blocks their shots. In football, all he’s got to do is stand behind the nose guard and time a kick. It’s easy by comparison.
“We tried all three of our kickers and he must have blocked 10, 11, 12 field goals in a row. He’s like Bernie Parent was with the Flyers. Nothing gets by this guy. I don’t want to jinx him, but it’s really going to be hard to kick field goals against Temple this season.”
When asked about Watson going out for the football team, Temple basketball coach Fran Dunphy told the Temple Times he gave his OK.
“We’re all about giving youngsters college experiences they’ll never forget and Devonte won’t forget this,” Dunphy said. “Look, I didn’t bring him here with the intention of blocking field goals for our football team but that’s where his road led. He obviously has a gift. All I asked Matt was not to get him hurt and Matt said he’d do his best. Matt won’t let him catch passes. He won’t allow him on the kickoff return or receiving teams. He just wants Devonte to block field goals. That’s good enough for me.”
Err, one more thing.
Happy April Fool’s Day everyone.

Some notable Homecoming Games for Temple:

Except for the annoying voice at the opening, this looks like fun.

Life would be a whole lot easier if things always are as they seem to be.
They aren’t and today’s Exhibit A is the Temple University football depth chart.
The chart was updated two weeks ago and it hasn’t been since yet we all know that the starting tight end on that chart, Cody Booth, is now a left tackle.
I’m not too excited about that since I thought Booth is more valuable as a tight end than he is as a tackle.
Put it this way: Not too many guys could catch the ball last year but Booth was a reliable pass receiver.
I don’t like to subtract from an area of weakness.
Hopefully, guys like Chris Parthemore and Alex Jackson have shown enough to give new head coach Matt Rhule confidence to try Booth as a tackle.

The Owls were off today but they are back at it tomorrow.

While there are some head-scratching moves (Nate D. Smith a third-team linebacker, really?) and Wyatt Benson from best blocking fullback in Temple history to starting linebacker (without really hitting anybody), what really intrigues me is to see guys appearing on the chart who I really don’t know all that much about.
Who are these guys?
NATHAN HAIRSTON, WR _ A 6-foot, 176-pound freshman, Hairston is listed as the second-team X wide receiver to Deon Miller and ahead of more heralded recruits like Romond Deloatch, James Whitfield and Tyron Harris. This is how anonymous Hairston is: I could not find a single story online about   any of his football exploits at Governor Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick, Md. and found hundreds of stories on Deloatch, Whitfield and Harris. That doesn’t mean he’s not any good, it just means he didn’t get any ink. Maybe that makes him hungrier.
THOMAS RUMER, QB _ Listed as the “sixth-team” quarterback (I’ve never seen a Temple QB depth chart that went lower than four), Rumer had some success as a championship quarterback at Malvern Prep.
JOHN RIZZO, FB _ Rizzo is a pretty well-known recruit who comes into Temple with strong credentials. What is interesting, though, is that he currently is the ONLY fullback on the depth chart. Last year’s second-team fullback, Kenny Harper, is listed as No. 1 on the tailback depth chart and you already know about Benson. I expect one or both back at fullback once the season starts. I really like Rizzo, though, because he’s a bruising runner, a great blocker and a two-time state champion in wrestling.
JAIMEN NEWMAN _ A former part-time starter on the offensive line, Newman is back in his comfort zone as a pass-rushing defensive end. He’s 6-4, 290. As a senior in high school, he had 14 sacks. Temple needs some sacks out of its defensive ends this year and Newman is now at the top of the DE depth chart along with Sean Daniels on the other side.

Bret Niederreiter

BRET NIEDERREITER _ The redshirt freshman has moved ahead of last year’s pre-season All Big East nose tackle, Levi Brown, on the depth chart. Niederreiter is 6-3, 265. Brown is 6-2, 300. Got to think part of that is designed to light a fire under the talented Brown.
STEPHAUN MARSHALL _ Shot himself right up the free safety depth chart behind first-teamer Abdul Smith, a former Rutgers’ recruit and backup cornerback. Interesting that Nate L. Smith, probably the most heralded recruit of the 2012 signing class and a former first-team all-state safety at Archbishop Wood, is fourth string. Marshall is a former teammate of Khalif Herbin at Montclair (N.J.).

HASSAN DIXON _ Listed as the SIXTH team tailback. As a senior in high school at Germantown (Md.), he had 1,019 yards and 19 touchdowns.
Fourth-team tailback is Spencer Reid out of Harriton. Dixon’s dad is former all-time Temple running back great Zach Dixon. His brother is former Owl great tight end and defensive end Raheem Brock. Reid’s dad is former BYU great offensive lineman Andy Reid.  Sorry, Andy, I like Hassan’s bloodlines better.