Author Archives: Mike Gibson

11.23.12
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Game Day Preview: At least the weather is good

The weather at UConn on Oct. 13 (above) was colder than is forecast for today.
The weather (above) for Philadelphia on Nov. 23.

“Having 500 yards of rushing for Coach Daz is like giving an addict another baggie of crack. We may never see another forward pass.”
_ Fan post on Scout.com

Steve Addazio’s affinity for the running game reminds me of my obsession with the lottery.
It never does me any good, but I keep going back to it every Saturday.
If 1-3-13-19-20 and 6 come up this Saturday, I will be writing my next posts from Clearwater Beach and waiting down there for the six weeks it will take for some of the early pitchers and catchers to report.
Before I hitch my brand new Chevy Volt to a chartered Auto Train in Lorton (Va.), I will donate $200 million to Temple to start its own stadium fund. I think I can scrape by on the remaining $156 mil. (I’ll stop by the house of the lone TFF donor from Lorton beforehand and give him a $1 million check for believing in me when I was poor.)
Otherwise, I still will be up here pounding the payment.
If the numbers 351 and 7, as in yards and touchdowns for Montel Harris, comes up Friday, Addazio and his Temple Owls will probably be going bowling. (Yeah, I know the Owls will be a five-win team, but they will be the only five-win team with just six losses and the hottest running back in the country.)
Neither my winning the lotto or those numbers coming up for Daz will happen, but I know I’m willing to lay odds against either of us trying.
The Army game was, as Jeffrey Lurie might say, Fool’s Gold.  Army was ranked 118th in rushing defense. Syracuse is ranked 43d in the same category. Big difference. If Temple approaches Syracuse with the same game plan it took to West Point, the Owls will be the team losing, 63-32.
Somebody had a great line on Scout.com the other day about that and I wish I could give him credit but I’m afraid he’d get in trouble so here’s the perceptive fan post of the year:

“Having 500 yards of rushing for Coach Daz is like giving an addict another baggie of crack. We may never see another forward pass.”

Why do I get the feeling that the first three plays Friday morning will be Harris off-tackle right, followed by Harris off-tackle left and a read option that goes for no gain?

To me, that’s the wrong way to go but I’ve been saying that all year and I now know Daz doesn’t give a wit what I think.
Temple’s best chance of  moving the ball and keeping it out of Ryan Nassib’s hand is to deftly fake it to Montel Harris on A LOT of first downs, then make “explosive plays in the passing game downfield” to spread the defense and get the eight out of the box.
With Harris’ history established as the Owls’ chief offensive weapon, a play-fake to him is likely to freeze the defense long enough that Jalen Fitzpatrick and Ryan Alderman and company will be so open in the seams that both will probably be frantically waving their hands above their heads.
That way, the Owls can go back to Harris and the running game a lot more effectively, chew up large chunks of each quarter and salt away an important victory over the Saltine Warriors.
Why do I get the feeling that the first three plays Friday morning will be Harris off-tackle right, followed by Harris off-tackle left and a read option that goes for no gain?
If Daz proves me wrong for the first time all year, that will be a little like winning the lottery without the monetary reward.
If not, I will still always have Saturdays to look forward to at about 11 p.m.

Tomorrow: Complete game analysis and Saturday football picks

11.22.12
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Throwback Thursday: The last time vs. SU

A week ago, Temple had a one-man show putting up 63 points in a win at Army, courtesy of Montel Harris.
Funny, because the last time Temple played Syracuse at Lincoln Financial Field was also a one-man show.

Trust me, at 6-3, 240, you did not
want to tackle this guy in open field.

The man was quarterback Walter Washington.
The show was 185 yards rushing, 130 more yards passing that accounted for all of Temple’s touchdowns in a 34-24 win over visiting Syracuse.
The Orange, coached by Paul Pasqualoni, went on to a winning season.
The game was the highlight for Temple and its second win in a two-win season.
Despite winning only two games, Washington, an All-American JUCO out of Dodge City (Kan.), was named the Big East Offensive Player of the Year.
Ironically enough, this TU-SU game, also at Lincoln Financial Field, will feature a JUCO All-American quarterback playing for Temple in Juice Granger (Pierce Junior College, Calif.).
Washington was an unstoppable force in 2004, often carrying multiple defenders as many as 15 yards downfield to get his yardage.

Another great day in the TU-SU series, the 1982 game.

He turned down his final year of eligibility at Temple in order to go to pro football. That didn’t work out too well, since he spent the 2005 season in the stands with Temple fans lamenting his decision.
But he gave Temple fans a terrific memory in 2004 and the Owls their second-straight win over Syracuse in Philadelphia.
Two years earlier than that, Mike McGann and Tarnardo Sharps led the Owls to a 17-16 win over the Orange in a game played at Veterans Stadium.
This year’s memories and principal players are yet-to-be-determined but, if Granger and Harris can pick up where Washington, McGann and Sharps left off, the Owls could be in pretty good shape.

Friday: Game Day Preview

11.21.12
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A tribute to the seniors

Brandon McManus was the reason the Owls opened 2-0 in the Big East.

One of the constants of being a Temple football fan is change.
As long as I’m living, and hopefully that will be a long, long time, I will be in the stadium six times a year.
Have been for the last 30 years and, God-willing, will be for the next 30 years.
I also understand a lot of great people I’ve met along the way, parents and players, won’t.
(I’ve only seen parents of two players who’ve graduated come back and those were Mr. John Haley and Mr. Elliot Seifert whose only connection with Temple was that their kids were Owls and then they became great fans afterward.)
A lot of the players come back, but a lot of them don’t.
So it is with great sadness every year that this day comes, Senior Day, as it will again on Friday. I may never see some of these guys again, but the memories will always remain.
A few words about some of these guys are appropriate now:

Matt Brown: Toughest Owl ever

MATT BROWN _ Everybody remembers the 226-yard, four-touchdown, performance at Army two years ago year but I have a couple of other favorite memories about this unparalleled Warrior. Last year, during the Kent State game he limped off the field. I turned to my seat neighbors and I said, “You know, I’ve never seen him get hurt.” Pretty much the most durable player I’ve ever seen play at Temple and, pound-for-pound, the toughest. Another memory was Brown scoring the TU third touchdown of the Eagle Bank Bowl to give Temple a 21-7 lead over UCLA. Before he squirted through the hole and into the end zone, 23,000 people rose to their feet with the loudest “Let’s Go Temple!” cheer I’ve ever heard, in or out of Philadelphia. People were pounding on the RFK Stadium frozen seats and going crazy and Brown did not let them down. Last year’s enduring memory was head coach Steve Addazio putting his arm around Brown and walking him down the sideline with some encouraging words when Brown appeared to be beside himself angry for not playing early in the New Mexico Bowl. It would be a sad irony if this amiable young man could not play Friday due to injury. I’m betting he will.
And here it is, Matt’s TD: (The Zapruder Film was shot in higher quality and that was in 1963)

BRANDON MCMANUS _ Without question, the MVP of this year’s team. My favorite memory was McManus’ game-winning kick in the second Mayor’s Cup game. Al Golden screwed the pooch by playing the first game too close to the vest and the Owls took a loss. They simply could not afford to lose to Villanova the second time and McManus drilled a 44-yarder that won a game the school absolutely needed. His 330 points (hopefully about 345 after Friday) will be a record that will stand a long, long time at Temple. Because he is a rare triple threat kick guy (kickoffs, FGs and punts) and can take up one roster spot normally occupied by two guys, he will be playing on Sundays next year.

My favorite TU photo of Montel, talking to Army linebacker
Nate Coombs after a seven-touchdown performance.

MONTEL HARRIS _ I used to call Bernard Pierce “The Franchise” but I really believe BP would have had a hard time seeing the field if Montel had been here the last three years. This kid has a greater initial burst into the hole than Pierce did and better moves inside the pile than Pierce did. The only thing Pierce had better than Montel is breakaway speed once he made it around the tight end and a quicker burst in that direction. I believe Harris will also be playing on Sundays. I can’t wait until a smiling Montel looks into the camera on Monday Night Football and says, “Montel Harris, Temple Owls.”

The only good thing is that the Owls lose just a dozen players and the returning ones should put Temple in the conversation for the upper half of the Big East in next year’s preseason predictions.
Here is the complete class (click over the name for Owlsports.com bios):


SENIOR STATUS
Twelve members of the 2012 Senior Class— RB Matt Brown; Vaughn Carraway Justin Gildea  Marcus Green . C/.JHammond  Montel Harris , Maurice Jones  Brandon McManus  Darryl Shine , Ahkeem Smith , Martin Wallace, John Youboty 


WHERE’S SEAN?
Senior OL Sean BoyleSean Boyle will not participate in Fridays’ Senior Day activities. The NCAA has granted him a five-year clock extension, giving him a sixth year of eligibility. Plagued by injuries, Boyle did not play during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. He returned to action this fall as the team’s starting center but has missed the last three games. I see Sean slotting into Martin Wallace’s spot as an OT next year, strengthening an improving offensive line. To think that Sean started the 2009 opener against Villanova and will start the 2013 opener vs. Notre Dame is both mind-boggling and reassuring.

Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday

11.19.12
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You think you’ve got troubles?

Every time I start to feel sorry for myself that I still haven’t found a job in the newspaper business after cutbacks cost me mine and the money is about to run out (there still is a newspaper business, right?), I see something that I have to shake my head about and thank God for my blessings.
Lately, it was a story about a poor military guy who lost both legs in Afghanistan or Iraq and is keeping on keeping on.
I plan to do the same, although the next step might be as a greeter at Wal-Mart. I’ll keep my hand in writing here.
That brings me to fandom.
A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling sorry because my university, a school I said was going to shock the Big East world a couple of months ago, was getting pasted for the fourth straight time by a Big East team.
It rocked my world, but it could be worse.
I could be a Boston College fan.
I found this while searching a Boston College fan site the other day:

This from a Boston College fan lamenting a bad day in a bad season.

Montel Harris was trending on Yahoo late Saturday afternoon.
It was the second item right below General Patraeus.
That’s good news for Temple, bad news for Boston College.
While Temple is 4-6 with two more Big East wins than many of the pundits thought possible, Boston College is a two-win team looking for a new head coach.
The Eagles have a great on-campus stadium, but a terrible product and the guy who they kicked off the team is doing pretty well at Temple.
Yes, it could be worse.
In life and in fandom.

Wednesday: A tribute to the seniors

11.18.12
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Better late than never

Montel Harris (8) needs a lift  to see what is distracting Cody Booth (38) and Wyatt Benson (44).

Two phrases rattled around my head during the fourth quarter of Temple’s 63-32 win at Army on Saturday:

  • That’s more like it.
  • Better late than never.

This is the Temple football team I envisioned back in August and September.
No, I’m not crazy enough to think that Montel Harris would have gone for 351 yards and seven touchdowns every Saturday but I thought both Harris and Matty Brown could go near or over 100 yards each game and that their running ability would set up some “explosive plays downfield in the passing game” that head coach Steve Addazio promised in the summer.

Temple football records Saturday:
Most rushing yards game individual: Montel Harris (351)

Most touchdowns game individual: Montel Harris (7)

Most career points individual: Brandon McManus (332).
Most touchdowns game by a Big East team (9).

Whatever the Owls lacked on defense I thought could be made up by an offense turning the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard into an adding machine.
And, I thought, that would have been good for at least six wins and, maybe, as many as eight.
Now, the best the Owls can do is five because those explosive plays in the passing game never materialized, simply because the Owls stubbornly tried to pound the rock against bigger, more talented, defensive fronts for most of October and November. They might as well have been pounding their heads against a rock with that misguided approach.
The Owls were just as stubborn on Saturday in a 63-32 win over Army, but they could afford to do that against a team ranked near the bottom of the country in rushing defense.
They also helped themselves by eliminating the turnovers which, as Michael Vick can tell you, is the key to winning any football game.
If the Owls can somehow parlay Syracuse’s fear of Harris (and Brown) into some, err, explosive plays downfield in the passing game (perhaps off a fake to Harris on an early down), they can make a statement that they are ready to make a run at the top of the Big East ladder next year by rudely sending Syracuse off to the ACC.
The Owls won’t have Montel or Matty next year, but Jamie Gilmore and “Montrell” Dobbs figure to have the requisite three-star talent to pick up where those two left off.
And, pretty much, the rest of the team is back although I’d like to see a serious upgrade in the defensive secondary (hint: Kevin Newsome).
Harris’ performance was an eclipse that obscured a lot of other good things on Saturday, but it should not go unnoticed that Brandon McManus set the school record for career points by an individual, breaking Bernard Pierce’s standard of 324. McManus needed four going into Saturday’s game.
Another great kicker, high school All-American Jim Cooper, Jr., arrives for summer classes in July.
Other than that, as Jose from Norristown might say, it was amazing to see how much misinformation is out there.
Twice during the game, CBS Sports announcers said that Harris was the “leading rusher all-time in the history of the ACC’ and, later, the “15th-leading rusher all-time in the history of the ACC.”
Both were wrong.
In reality, Harris is still the second-leading rusher in the history of the ACC, falling 828 yards short of Ted Brown’s record set at North Carolina State. He is only 50 yards away from another 1,000-yard season.
I was privileged to see Paul Palmer’s 349-yard game against East Carolina and Saturday’s performance by Harris was even better, both on the stat sheet and stylistically.
Harris will have spent only one year here but he will always be remembered by me as a warrior and a great Temple Owl.
So will Brown and McManus and the rest of the seniors.
They deserve to go out in front of a large, appreciative home crowd on Friday.

Tomorrow: You think you’ve got troubles?
Tuesday: ???
Wednesday: A tribute to the seniors 
Thursday: Throwback Thursday 
Friday: Game Day Preview

11.16.12
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Fast Forward Friday: What, Me Worry?

In this, the second installment of “What, Me Worry?” ,  Temple Football Forever is officially worried.
Fortunately, the first installment of worry (The Big East invitation) turned out to be unfounded.
I hope this installment turns out the same way.
Worried  about the outcome of tomorrow’s game at Army.
Nothing the Owls have done in the last four weeks have shown me they can beat EVEN Army, and that would be the exclamation mark of a downward trend between this season and last season that is alarming at best.
Look at what Army’s has done in recent weeks:

  • Beat Boston College, a team that gave Notre Dame a decent game.
  • Lost by one point to an outstanding Northern Illinois’ team.
  • Beat Air Force, a decent team from the West that gave Michigan a good game.

Look at what Temple has done in recent weeks: Lost by 47-17 to a Pitt team that gave Notre Dame a good game.

Even Temple grad Dick Weiss is picking against the Owls.

Lost by 45-17 to  a Louisville team that was given a good game by 0-9 Southern Mississppi and 1-9 Florida International.
Lost by 35-10 to a Rutgers’ team that lost to Kent State.
Temple beat Kent State, 34-16, last year.
Temple also beat Army by 42-14 last year.
Temple also beat Ball State by 42-0 last year.
Ball State is one of the best teams in a Mid-American Conference that is outstanding this year.
Listen, I know Temple lost six starters on defense and most of the offensive line to the pros last year but it did not lose SO much talent to have this kind of a downturn in 12 months.
Except for a 16-for-20 performance in the passing game against South Florida, Temple seemed to spend the entire season in an attempt to return college football back to the days of Woody Hayes and “three-yards-in-a-cloud-of-dust” approach. Only it worked for Ohio State, not Temple.
Beating a 2-8 Army team would not be a feather in the Owls’ cap, but it would certainly show signs that this program has a pulse and won’t take the final game against Syracuse lying down.
Yeah, I’m worried.
I have reason to be.
I hope the football program and team prove my worries as unfounded as the administration did back in March.

Picks:
Last week: Was a good week. I went top-heavy on high-value underdogs. The only loss was the Army game and it was 7-7 in the fourth quarter. I had ARMY getting 18 at Rutgers; MIAMI (FLA.) getting 1 at Virginia (a push); VANDY getting 3 at Mississippi (Vandy won outright); GEORGIA TECH getting 9 at North Carolina (GT blew out UNC  outright); BUFFALO getting 2 1/2 at home vs. Western Michigan (Buffalo won outright). Only liked one favorite: TULSA giving 2 at Houston and Tulsa won, 41-7.
This week: Going the other way, liking three favorites and a dog.  BUFFALO giving 10 at Umass; TULSA giving 2 to visiting UCF and LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE giving 4 to visiting Western Kentucky. Like one underdog and that’s SOUTH FLORIDA getting 7 at Miami.
Records:
Last week: 4-1 overall, 4-1 ATS.
Season: 17-8 overall, 15-11 ATS.

Saturday: No story, but complete analysis of the game on Sunday

11.15.12
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Throwback Thursday: Temple 23, Army 20

In the grand scheme of Temple wins, Temple’s 23-20 win over Army in 1994 certainly didn’t mean much.
But it was important in the sense that it was Temple’s first-ever win over Army ever and was the start of a series of wins that gives Temple the all-time lead against one of college football’s legendary programs.
By then, though, Army was far from legendary, even though the Cadets hammered the Owls (and everyone else) during the WWII years.
That’s one reason why it was important for Temple.
Another was that it gave a then-downtrodden program its first winning season since the Bruce Arians Era.
I was listening to the game in the Philadelphia suburbs while covering an Abington High School game.
Don Henderson, the Owls’ play-by-play man at the time, called the touchdown pass from Henry Burris to Sid Morse with 1:14 left that won it, pronouncing Morse name “Morris” as he always did. A key play in that game was a fake punt by Temple that set up the touchdown.
The Owls last defeat at West Point came in 2007 when Derek “Bonecrusher” Dennis tackled Adam DiMichele in the open field.
“He’ll never live that down,” Dennis’ dad laughed when I told him about that last year.
Dennis, by the way, signed a contract this week to play in the Arena Football League. He improved enough to be a member of one of the two best offensive lines I ever saw at Temple (2011 and 1979).
I never thought I’d write this coaching comparison, but Steve Addazio might want to rip out a play from the Ron Dickerson playbook and use the fake punt this weekend at Army.
The last time Daz used the fake punt, Ahkeem Smith took the short snap and showed his Bethlehem Liberty all-state running ability in the open field and scored a touchdown.
The Owls beat Buffalo that day, 34-0.
I’d like to win 34-0 again, but I’ll settle for 23-20.

11.13.12
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In this case, Aloha means goodbye

This time, the goodbye is for good.

Aloha is one of those words that could mean either hello or goobye.
For the better part of the last month, it meant both for Temple University’s football team.
First, it meant hello.
Then it mean goodbye.
Then it meant hello again.
Now it means goodbye again.
This time, the parting seems to be final.
This was the release Temple University handed out today:

Hmm.
As late as Saturday, people “in the know” were optimistic a deal would be announced on Monday.
When Monday came and went, I had my doubts.
The “unforseen circumstances” had everything to do with the Benjamins. Unlike the Temple deal with the Eagles, $15 million for the 15-year contract, Hawaii has to pay Aloha Stadium $100K for every time the stadium opens up. Still, there is plenty of talk about Temple being able to make a bowl game as a 5-7 team due to the very real possibility there won’t be enough 6-6 teams to fill the number of available bowl slots but I don’t think that’s even worth discussing at this point.
Unforseen circumstances on the Hawaii end seemed to be ironed out when the Warriors got permission from the NCAA to play the game on Dec. 7 in order to avoid a Dec. 8 conflict with Aloha Stadium but they spent the better part of two weeks crunching numbers that did not add up.
Speaking of numbers, I think it is a net minus for Temple football.
I would have liked to seen the Owls go out to Hawaii with a 5-6 record, finish at 6-6 for the regular season and a chance for a fourth-straight winning season.
That’s not happening this year.
I would have also liked to have seen Temple with the extra few weeks of practice so that a “young team” can develop.
Really, the only positive that can come of this is that this gives three-time “National Recruiter of the Year” Steve Addazio a chance to work his magic in the two months between Nov. 23 and Feb. 4, national signing day.
That was one of the big reasons the university made a significant financial commitment to Daz along with a $10 million addition to an already relatively new $7 million facility.
If the Owls are able to beat out a lot of Kent States and UMass for their recruits, it won’t mean much. If, on the other hand, the Owls are able to get guys with offers from Penn State, Michigan State and those type schools, it could be the significant talent injection this program needs.
Right now, though, the most important thing is to beat Army and, considering the results on the field over the last four weeks, that’s far from a given.
To do that, the Owls need to say Aloha to the 75.9 percent run-on-first-down approach and Aloha to a few well-timed play-action passes on those same early downs.
No need for the definition of  those two Alohas now.

11.11.12
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Disconnect between vision and reality

Daz promises this will get fixed, but he doesn’t promise  it will get fixed by Saturday.

Bottom four teams in passing in FBS football.
Would more play-action passes on first down lift the Owls
out of that morass? Couldn’t hurt.

Watch Steve Addazio’s post-game press conferences the last four weeks and there appears to be, at least in my mind, a disconnect between vision and reality.
The reality is that Temple is a non-competitive football team right now as judged by the most objective meter: The scoreboard.
Addazio wasn’t positively giddy in the post-game, but his positive vision based on these abominably bad outcomes is kind of an odd take.
This team hasn’t been a good football team since after the UConn game and I think it’s gotten a lot worse.
So much worse that I’m very worried about it being able to beat an Army team that got blown out by Stony Brook.
That’s right. Stony Freaking Brook.
Army has gotten much better since Stony Brook, beating Boston College and blowing out a decent Air Force team.
Temple, on the other hand, looks lost out there and has nowhere near the swag it had against UConn and USF.

Temple fans have not had to endure a stretch like this since 2006.

Meanwhile, all over the country, teams with similar or worse talent than Temple are doing impressive things. Louisiana-Lafayette lost at Florida, 27-20, on a blocked punt with 36 seconds left. Ball State won at Toledo and also owns wins over Big East and Big 10 teams. Toledo beat the same Cincy team the Owls got blown out by on Saturday. Kent State beat Rutgers. Ohio beat Penn State.
If those teams can do great things, why can’t Temple even stay in a game anymore?
After four straight weeks of devastating losses, I don’t know if the Owls can get their swag back.
Young teams should be getting better, not worse, as the season rolls along but that hasn’t happened here.
I know Temple’s problems run much deeper than play-calling, but it appears to me that the Owls’ coaches have been their own worst enemies in the play-calling department. Better play-calling, at least in my view, would have put momentum-changing early points on the scoreboard Saturday and a lot of other Saturdays. That problem dwarfs any other one the Owls might have.
Here are the Owls’ first three plays against Cincy:

Run, Run, Run.
Yeah, I know it’s a broken record. It’s also a terribly unbalanced offense. No other BCS, FBS or FCS team operates an offense this way.
Even though I don’t think Chris Coyer was tackled by Munchie Legaux (he’s the Cincy backup quarterback), I’ve been writing all year until I’m blue in the face that this team is not equipped for that style of ball. I’ve been blue in the face and everywhere else for the last four weeks.

Here were my suggested first three plays against Cincy, published in a post last Monday:

TU25-Chris Coyer uses a play-action fake to Montel Harris to freeze the defense and rolls out and hits Ryan Alderman for a 6-yard gain near the sideline.
TU31-Coyer drops back to pass, then shovels it forward to Harris for an 8-yard gain.
TU39-Coyer runs right on a read option with Harris trailing. When the pitch guy goes for Harris, Coyer takes it upfield for +14, running out of bounds for ball security purposes.

First down has got to, at least SOMETIMES, be a play-action fake to Harris to freeze the defense and get a big gain in the passing game downfield. Then go back to the run. Instead,  Temple starts the game in this familiar pattern and it’s no surprise that it failed.

Here are Temple’s next three plays when it got the ball back:

Run, run, pass.
Incredible.
Talk about a buzzkill.
When you don’t throw the ball on first and second down, you get forced to throw it on third and then everybody in the stadium (and especially the defense) knows what you are going  to do. Is it any wonder Temple quarterbacks don’t get time to throw the ball?
Here were my suggested second three plays against Cincy:

TU25-Coyer drops back and hands off to Harris on the wraparound draw, good for +15
TU40-Coyer rolls out and finds Harris over the middle of the field, +10.
50-Coyer rolls out and DBs come up on run support so he floats the ball over DBs head to Fitzpatrick, who gains 20.

Run, Run, Run.Yeah, I know it’s a broken record. It’s also a terribly unbalanced offense. No other BCS, FBS or FCS team operates an offense this way

I think this package is a little more imaginative and a little harder to defend than Daz’s or Ryan Day’s (whoever was responsible). These are easy, confidence-building throws made away from a rush designed to get the QB in a rhythm.
But, as John Belushi might say, noooooooo, Temple’s got to stay in a stuck pattern of run, run, run or run, run, pass.
Geez.
Meanwhile, after the game Addazio said he’s confident this thing will turn around.
The quickest way to do that is not to appeal to the players’ pride, but to be more creative in the offensive approach.
This team can only succeed if it spreads the ball around and makes teams defend the entire field.
That disconnect between vision and reality is almost as disturbing as the blowout losses have been but not nearly as hard to take as the unbelievably ill-conceived and stubborn play-calling week after week.

11.09.12
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Fast Forward Friday: Two home games left

We called Matt Brown’s opening kickoff return for six last week
 so now we’re calling for Vaughn Carraway’s first INT return 
for six since the Villanova game.

Weather should be great for penultimate home game.

As I sat in Rentschler Stadium on a beautiful October afternoon, I was drawn to a promotion on the scoreboard.
“Next home game: UConn vs. Pitt, Nov. 9.”
“November 9 is the next home game here?” I said to the person sitting next to me. “That’s a long way away.”
In just another testimonial to how fleeting time is, Nov. 9 is here.
In another, that’s the last time Temple got to enjoy a win.
In a third, there are only two home games left in Temple’s football season.
I plan to make the most out of the experience.
I hope you do, too.
Owl fans are blessed to be in the Big East and are blessed to have had great weather days for home games this season.
I remember sitting in 32-degree weather in a November home 55-52 win over Eastern Michigan, so the 60-degree and sunny forecast for tomorrow is a blessing indeed. Hell is not supposed to be that cold but, believe me, Temple playing a directional Michigan school before an empty LFF on the day after Thanksgiving was pure Hell.

Both Brown taking the opening kickoff and it standing turned out to be true.

Those days are over, Thank God.
Most of all, I hope the team makes the most of their chance to redeem this season.
What to expect?
I have no idea, but I mused on another website before last week’s game that it would be nice for Matt Brown to return the opening kickoff for six. He did, so I’m musing that it would be nice for Vaughn Carraway to make the most out of Munchie Legaux’s penchant for interceptions by returning one for six this week.
Going into the season, I thought Temple had a chance to go 8-3 and I did not think the Owls would do worse than six wins.
What happened?
Some injuries and a couple of big suspensions and an under-performing defensive line and secondary and drops and turnovers.
Basically, everything.
To get to six wins now, though, they will have to sweep the remaining November games or win two  Nov. games and the proposed Dec. 7 not-so-sneak attack on Honolulu.
That’s a long way away in more ways than one.
If the Owls traverse that time and distance, what awaits is the greatest bowl game in Temple history. A six-win Big East team always goes to a bowl that trumps any 10-win MAC team so Temple fans at least have that hope to hang onto.
And the great weather.
Only two home games left.
Here’s hoping the fans and the team make the most of it.

Picks last week: Only a half point stopped me from going 3-1 against the spread last week. Buffalo won by 3, instead of 3 1/2.
Last week: 3-1 overall, 2-2 ATS.
Overall: 14-7, ATS 11-10.
This week:  (All from spreads in USA Today) Although my overall record probably will take a hit this week, I like a lot of high-value underdogs to pump up the ATS record. ARMY getting 18 at Rutgers; MIAMI (FLA.) getting 1 at Virginia; VANDY getting 3 at Mississippi; GEORGIA TECH getting 9 at North Carolina; BUFFALO getting 2 1/2 at home vs. Western Michigan. Only like one favorite: TULSA giving 2 at Houston.
Reasoning: Trends over the last 3 games show all of the underdogs playing their best ball of the season and Tulsa has been a solid play all year, thanks largely to the nation’s leading sack attack.

Tomorrow: No story, but complete analysis of the game on Sunday