Author Archives: Mike Gibson

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

11.08.12
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Throwback Thursday: Games with Cincy have their kicks

Temple leads the all-time series with Cincinnati, 9-4-1

If Saturday’s game with Cincinnati comes down to a kick, chances are Temple will sign off on that right now. Heck, the Owls are 11-point underdogs.
The Owls have a great kicker in Brandon McManus, who already has the pressure of a game-winning OT kick under his belt.

Brandon McManus: Needs only eight points to become
Temple’s all-time scoring leader. If the Owls throw
play-action passes on first down and make Cincy defend
the entire field, he could do it this weekend.

If past games with Cincinnati are a yardstick, it just might come down to the length of a leg.
Field goals have played a big role in the series, which Temple leads, 9-4-1.
Probably the most famous kick came in the series only tie, 17-17, on Oct. 29, 1977.
A year earlier, Temple coach Wayne Hardin eschewed an extra-point attempt by kicker Wes Sornisky in an attempt to beat Penn State on the final play of the game. The two-point conversion pass went off the hands of the Temple receiver and the Owls lost, 31-30.
“A tie is like kissing your sister,” Hardin said afterward. “I felt the kids came too far and deserved the chance to win.”
Facing a similar situation the next season at Nippert Stadium, Hardin went for the tie, a 33-yard field goal by Sornisky.
It was good and the teams walked off the field with a 17-17 tie. It was Cincinnati’s second 17-17 tie that year. The Bearcats tied Louisville in an earlier game.
Afterward, a famous photo of Sornisky, who ironically wore No. 17, was published with him whispering something in Hardin’s ear. (I can’t find that photo, but I have a request in for it.)
“I asked him if this was like kissing your sister,” Wes said.

Don Bitterlich went on to
an NFL career with Seahawks.

It was probably like kissing your half-sister from Temple’s point of view because the Owls came from down 11 points in the fourth quarter to get in a position for a tie. That year, Cincinnati lost by two points to a Maryland team that finished No. 13 in the nation.
Sornisky was a great kicker for Hardin, who helped the Owls set what was then an NCAA record for consecutive extra points (106) that was snapped earlier that season.
Another kick that factored into a memorable Temple vs. Cincy game came in 1974.
The Owls had a nation’s best 14-game winning streak and Don Bitterlich, who still holds the school record for longest field goal (56).
That Monday’s Temple News sported the headline: OWLS TASTE BITTER-LICK OF DEFEAT FOR FIRST TIME. (Don’t know why, but the old clipping had Don missing a 44-yard FG. An Associated Press account of that game shows no TU field goals missed.)
Temple also won the 1978 game on a field goal, 16-13.
Missed field goals also factored into the last game played between the teams in 2003.
That game, on a Saturday night at unbeaten 13-point favorite Cincinnati, featured missed field goals from 37 and 24 yards by the Owls’ kicker. Temple, with a 24-10 fourth quarter lead, threw a bomb on 2nd and 2. Incomplete, of course. The Owls also threw three passes when they had a first-and-goal on the Cincinnati 2.
INCOMPLETE, of course, and the missed kicks had everything to do with a 30-24 double-overtime loss.
Now if the Owls can just put McManus in  a position to win, they’ve got to feel good about their chances.
Interestingly enough, McManus and Sornisky went to North Penn High School and Bitterlich, a William Tennent grad, lives nearby in the Wissahickon School District.

11.06.12
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Vote for Temple

The swing state in this election could be the 12,500 students living on campus.

After what seems like years watching commentary on this presidential campaign, my head is about to explode after hearing about how this state would break down and that state would break down.
One guy says Romney is going to win in a landslide.
I’ve heard one “comfortable” Obama win prediction.
Most guys say it’s going to be close either way.
I have no idea who is going to win.
I’ll find out around midnight, unless there’s a state out there that still uses punch cards.
Right now, I can be certain of two things.
I’m voting for Temple football on Saturday and, sadly, I don’t think there is going to be a big turnout of people voting with their feet like me.
I’m not an expert on politics, but I do consider myself an expert on Temple’s fragile fan base.
I’m often able to predict the Temple crowd, almost down to a person.
For the Homecoming Game against South Florida, I predicted 26K and Temple drew 25,896.
For the Rutgers’ game, I predicted 41K but I had to smack the upside of my head for not factoring in the “over-the-air” free TV hit of between 5-10K Temple takes. Facts show that when Temple is on live TV, it takes a huge hit somewhere in that general ballpark figure.

You can’t call yourself a BCS team and throw the ball only 10 times in a 45-17 loss. That tells your fan base either you a) gave up or b) have Stevie Wonder calling the plays

Rutgers took care of its end of the bargain, bringing at least 15K. (To be fair, RU was 6-0 and Temple 3-2.) Temple must have brought no more than 20K, meaning at least 6K fans stayed home and watched on TV.
This week, probably more unfortunately than other weeks, the game is on TV.
Students have come out in big numbers in the past. There were 12K students for the Villanova game, but that was at night when they did not have to set their alarms after a Friday of partying. When I went to Temple, I had no problem setting my alarm for noon games so I never understood that reasoning. The Temple students could be the swing part of this election, but they came up lame against Maryland and Rutgers so I don’t expect they’ll suddenly, err, wake up.
I’ve always said this:
Temple has a hardcore fan base of 15-17K who will show up no matter what.
It also has a “softcore” fan base of between 20-30K who need a reason to believe.
Thirty years of football futility lost that secondary fan base and it’s going to take more than three or four years of good football to bring it back.
Three weeks of Gosh-awful football have lost that softcore base for this season.
In a way, I can’t blame them.
You can’t call yourself a BCS team and throw the ball only 10 times in a 45-17 loss. That tells your fan base either you a) gave up or b) have Stevie Wonder calling the plays.
I expect the 17K to show up on Saturday, but no more.
It might be as low as 15K, which would put it in the same neighborhood as the Penn vs. Harvard Ivy  League football championship game being played at the same time across town.
I do know this: There are 270K Temple alumni, 130K living within an hour’s drive of Lincoln Financial Field and 39K students, 12.5K living within a 10-minute subway ride of LFF. That’s a lot of potential voters out there. I’m voting for Temple but only because I’m a Temple football junkie and I need my fix.
Someday, hopefully soon, there will be a lot more Temple people who use Saturdays in the fall to cast a vote for their school.

11.05.12
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Scripting the first 10 plays versus Cincy

These were Temple’s first five plays vs. Louisville.

My back hurts from getting patted so much after calling for the Jalen Fitzpatrick throwback pass to Chris Coyer, finally used by Temple three months into the season.
My heart aches from being non-competitive on the scoreboard for three weeks.
My head still works, though.
I called for that pass on June 4 in a post I wrote detailing what would be a dream scenario season for the Temple football Owls. That’s five months and one day ago.
In order to avoid a nightmare scenario and get the Owls jump-started on a fine end to a rocky season, I would like to RESPECTFULLY suggest the following 10 scripted plays to open up the game on Saturday:

Khalif Herbin: First of his many Owl TDs.

We’ll assume Temple wins the toss and Cincy kicks it through the end zone.
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.
CI46-Coyer hands off to Fitzpatrick coming around on reverse. Fitzpatrick feigns a throw downfield, handing it off to 4.29 sprinter Khalif Herbin coming from the other side on the double reverse. Field opens for Herbin, who scores a 46-yard touchdown.

Temple 7, Cincinnati 0

Cincinnati quarterback Munchie Legaux then drops back and surprisingly finds the middle of the Temple defense open and hits George Winn for a 75-yard touchdown. Temple makes a nice tackle on Winn in the end zone, though.

TFF’s first scripted play of the game.

Temple 7, Cincinnati 7

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.
C30-Coyer hands it off to Harris up the middle, +1.
C29-Coyer hands off to Harris, who uses a crunching block from No. 44 (Wyatt Benson) to get outside ala South Florida and scores a 29-yard touchdown.

Temple 14, Cincinnati 7

At this point, defensive coordinator Chuck Heater can be seen mouthing “bleep it” (only he didn’t say bleep) and goes to a 3-4 blitzing defensive scheme and unleashes speedy Owl linebackers Tyler Matakevitch and Nate D. Smith on pass rush responsibilities and Temple records a school-record 15 sacks. Other Owl LBs, like Blaze Caponegro and Ahkeem Smith, do a great job in run support. That allows Temple head coach Steve Addazio the comfort level to go back to his pound and ground approach and the Owls control both the clock and, with the help of Brandon McManus’ punting, the field position battle and win going away.
After the team sings “T for Temple U” public address announcer Carlos Bates says the uni will be giving out free Hawaiian Cherry and White Leis to the first 10K fans who come to the Syracuse game.

Hopefully, I won’t wake up from this dream to the last three weeks of nightmares.

11.04.12
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What happened?

Shockingly, this crack team of reporters didn’t ask Daz about why he didn’t use his final 2 timeouts with 1:46 left in the first half and the Owls driving.

Somewhere near the end of the first half yesterday, I found myself repeating two words:
What happened?
Even though I had to scratch my head about Temple (with two time outs and 1:46 left and down 31-17) giving up at the end of the first half by not using its two time outs, I wasn’t talking about the game.
I was talking about the last three weeks.
I’m not buying the argument that because this is the “big bad Big East” that the Owls are in over their head, talent-wise.

I called for this pass to be thrown on June 4. It took them to Nov. 3d
to throw it and it worked, but not for six.

According to Scout.com and Rivals.com, Temple recruited talent that was at or near the top of the MAC for the past five years.
So that puts the Owls somewhat on a par or more talented than Northern Illiniois, Ohio, Kent State and Toledo.
Or not.
So much for recruiting rankings.
I don’t think there’s any doubt now that any of those teams would do better in the Big East than Temple has.
Yet, as we stood three weeks ago after a win at UConn coming off a win over South Florida, I didn’t think any of the above teams would have done as well as Temple.
So, what happened?
Regression.

Regression might not have happened in the locker room, but it has on the scoreboard and, ultimately, that’s where you are judged in this business

Joe Paterno said a football team improves the most between the first and second games, yet did Temple  improve after a 41-10 win over Villanova? No, it lost to Maryland.
Head coach Steve Addazio says the team is so young, but nine of the 11 defensive starters against Villanova were either seniors or juniors. It’s young because of a couple of suspensions and a couple of other coaching decisions.
If it’s so young, then shouldn’t it be getting better, not worse, with each game?
I get that Louisville is unbeaten, but shouldn’t Temple AT LEAST have given the Cardinals the same kind of game 0-8 Southern Mississippi did (17-21) or 1-8 Florida International did (21-28)?
Should Temple not have given Louisville the same kind of game Troy (48-55) gave Tennessee or Tulsa (15-19) gave Arkansas yesterday?
Shouldn’t Temple have given Rutgers the same kind of game Kent State gave the Scarlet Knights?

And this, mentioning the Fitzpatrick to Coyer throwback on the eve of the Rutgers’ game. ….

I think so.
The Owls lost a lot to the NFL last year, but they didn’t lose so much talent that they should have been blown out three weeks in a row.
This is what happens when you don’t throw the ball on first down, using the one dependable weapon you have, Montel Harris, to set up the passing game with play fakes. Love the Jalen Fitzpatrick throwback pass to Chris Coyer that I called for on June 4 (see inset), but it shouldn’t have taken until Nov. 3 to use it.

This is what happened in the last 2 minutes before half. Do you see a timeout? 

When you throw so much on third down, you are asking for sacks and negative plays. I realize the fumbles came on third-down runs, but it’s OK to throw the ball on first and second down, too.
That’s one of the possible fixes. The other fix would be to move Kevin Newsome from offense to the middle of the field on defense. Daz says he’s not playing more at quarterback because he doesn’t know all the plays. (I don’t know how that’s possible since all they do is run it up the middle, do a read option left and a read option right and throw an occasional pass. That’s four plays to remember.) Then put him in the middle of the field on defense and tell him to knock down or intercept any ball in his zone. Since Temple has been killed on passing plays over the middle, Newsome could not be any worse than what the Owls have now. He is perhaps their most freakishly good athlete.
That said, the game got away from Temple yesterday because of a negative four in the turnover department.
The offense keeps giving the ball away and the defense can’t take it away.
That’s a pretty deadly combination.
Regression might not have happened in the locker room, but it has on the scoreboard and, ultimately, that’s where you are judged in this business.
Beat Cincinnati.
Win the game.
Win … the … game.

Tomorrow: Charting the first 10 plays, free courtesy of TFF

11.03.12
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Pulling out a rabbit’s foot to beat Louisville

My letter in the Philadelphia Daily News three days after the UConn game.

OK, I admit it.
Steve Addazio’s Stone Age offensive philosophy and the lack of a pass rush or a lost back line of the defense is not why Temple has lost its last two games.
I’m to blame.
Yeah, me.
Ever since I wrote that letter to the Philadelphia Daily News at the top of this post, Temple hasn’t been able to do a damn thing on the football field. You can read that complete letter here.
I must be the most superstitious person, or at least one of, in the world.
I wore a black “Papreps” T-Shirt to the Maryland game.
They lost, so I tossed the shirt.
I sat in the Penn State section at the Temple game (figured I’d be nice to my PSU friends who gave me a free ticket).

The game will be seen within the entire Temple recruiting footprint.

They lost, so I sat in the Temple section at the UConn game.
I’ll never sit in an opposing section again.
I wore my Cherry “Temple Al Golden” sweatshirt to the Rutgers’ game. (I call it the Al Golden Sweatshirt because it’s the one he wore on the sidelines of the Penn State game in 2007. Or so Patti told me when I bought it from her in the Temple athletics office.)
You won’t see my Al Golden Sweatshirt again, even though I paid $55 for it.
Last week, I’ve done something I haven’t done in years.
Watched from home and my furniture and lamps and TVs got the brunt of my frustration in a 47-17 loss.

Al Golden, wearing my sweatshirt

They got smoked, so I don’t care if I’m the only person in the neighborhood watering hole watching Temple football today, but I’ll be damned if I watch the game from home.
And I’ll bring my rabbit’s foot with me.
In this space every week on this day, I usually write about what teams did to be successful against the teams Temple is playing every Saturday.
Since William and Mary blitzed Maryland (and Temple didn’t) and Ohio used a short passing game to beat Penn State (and Temple didn’t) and Youngstown State used a spread offense to beat Pitt (and Temple didn’t), I figured I’d throw all that X’s and O’s mumbo jumbo out the window.
All I know is that an 0-8 Southern Mississippi team lost by four to Louisville and a 1-8 Florida International team lost by a touchdown to Louisville.
Armed with that knowledge and a rabbit’s foot and the same clothes I wore in Connecticut, I’m hoping to reverse the Karma back to 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 13, when I was singing “T for Temple U” with the team after an overtime win at Uconn.
You’ll know if it works by about the same time today.

Picks last week: Last week, I went 2-2 straight up, 1-3 against the spread. I had Kent State and Toledo winning straight up, but Toledo fell two points of the spread and the 13.5 I had with Kent State against Rutgers was the bargain of the year.
Season record: 11-6 straight up, 9-8 against the spread, 1-1 locks of the week.
This week: AIR FORCE giving 7 at Army; GEORGIA TECH giving 7 1/2 to host Maryland; Host BUFFALO giving 3 1/2 to Miami (Ohio) and CINCINNATI giving 4 1/2 to visiting Syracuse.
Reasoning: Air Force has played a tougher schedule, Maryland is without its top four QBs, Buffalo is on the upswing and Cincy has far more talent and depth than ‘Cuse.
Also like (unofficially and not for purposes of picks) national sack leader TULSA getting 8 at Arkansas. Staying away from that game because 7-1 Tulsa is stepping up in class.

Tomorrow: Complete analysis of the game

11.02.12
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Fast Forward Friday: Agreement in principle

Owls can go high end and have this view from Trump International …

According to Hawaii’s athletic administration, the school and Temple have reached an “agreement in principle” to play a football game on Friday, Dec. 7, 2012.
Whether it will be a day that lives in infamy or regular fame will be determined by whether or not the Owls are able to squeeze two wins out of their next four games.

... or slum it and have this view from the Maile Sky Court.

Heck, I hope the Owls now win all five but that will require a return to the offensive form they showed against USF and the defensive form they showed against UConn.
We can only hope.
Hawaii sports columnist Dave Reardon, who has a sweet job in a sweet town, noted that because the Owls will be playing the same weekend of the Honolulu Marathon, they might have trouble reserving hotel rooms.
Thanks to the magic of the internet, I found that should not be a problem.
I wanted to enter 50 rooms for three nights arriving Thursday, Dec. 6 and leaving Sunday, Dec. 9, but they only go up to 10 rooms. (This also  works for getting in Dec. 5 and leaving Dec. 8.)
At least 82 hotels had 10 rooms available as of this morning.
If the Owls chose to go first class, 10 people for 10 rooms at The Trump International will run them $12,270.
If they go low end, the Maile Sky Court will set the same amount of people back $4,270.
In between, they could go Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach ($6,470), Modern Honolulu ($10,170), Aqua Waikiki Wave ($10K even), Waikiki Marriott ($8,070) and Hilton Hawaii Village ($6,660).
That’s not even counting the airfare.
Where are the Owls getting this money from?
Pure speculation here but the Big East may be hyperventaling from the prospect of having six DIRECT bowl tie-ins and only three current teams qualified to fill them.
Syracuse and Temple could make four and five.
Plus, if Temple makes a bowl it will be a much bigger payout than the money the Owls made at the Eagle Bank Bowl, the Garden State Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl.
Combined.
So a trip to Honolulu to set up that kind of payday would be chump change in comparison. (Or Trump change, if the Owls go first-class.)
Problematic that any of the other BE teams have a chance.
First, though, the Owls will have to show signs that they can come out of a six-quarter on-field funk.
They will have that chance starting tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Louisville Game Day Preview

11.01.12
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Throwback Thursday: Temple 55, Louisville 14

Bill Cosby opened a monologue on Oct. 11, 1982 praising TU’s win over Louisville.

The Tonight Show host opened his guest stint on Monday night, Oct. 11, 1982 with this line:
“I love Louisville. I love Louisville because Temple beat them, 55-14, in football Saturday night. Crushed them. I love Louisville.”
The guest host, a comedian named Bill Cosby subbing for Johnny Carson again, received loud applause from those in the audience who loved Louisville the town and Temple football.
Then Cosby went right into a hilarous routine about his playing days at Temple.
Louisville football fans did not appreciate the mention as much and flooded NBC with letters (this was before the days of email).
Evidently, there were few Louisville football fans in the Burbank audience.
There are many more Louisville football fans today.
Winning can do that for a program.
There was a time not all that long ago when Temple was not only where Louisville is now, but was much better than Louisville. History shows that the Owls are 3-2 all-time vs. Louisville, with their only losses coming, 21-12, on the road in 2003 and 62-0 at home in 2006, the first year of the Al Golden Reclamation Project. Temple has beaten Louisville by an average score of 24-12.
Louisville is rated about 105 slots ahead of Temple in the current rankings.
Temple coach Al Golden is confident that the Owls are headed in the direction Louisville is now.

Rick Pitino explains to reporters that Temple can beat Louisville
if the Owls use play-action fakes to Montel Harris on first down
to find open receivers and buy time for Chris Coyer to throw.
At least that’s what we think he’s saying.   Meanwhile, the Daily News’
Dick Jerardi (background) looks  longingly at the buffet table.

Golden is not a patient man and both he and Temple fans hope they can get there sooner rather than later.
What follows below is what can happen when a superbly-coached Temple team takes the field, an account of the Owls’ 55-14 win at Louisville a generation ago.
By Jere Longman
Inquirer Staff Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There was great optimism in the Louisville athletic department last night. Basketball practice starts Friday.
Football? Well, that’s another story. Football here ranks a distant fifth to varsity basketball, intramural basketball, fast-running horses and slow-sipping bourbon.
It’s not hard to see why.
Take last night’s 55-14 humiliation by Temple (3-3). The Cardinals jumped ahead early but were helpless as the Owls steamrolled ahead, 27-7, by halftime.
Led by linebacker Tom Kilkenny, the Owls tuned up for Pittsburgh by sacking quarterbacks Dean May and Scott Gannon eight times and intercepting May twice.
”Our defense gave us good pressure to make the offense go,” said Temple coach Wayne Hardin.

This is the Louisville weather starting tomorrow.

Louisville’s defense was as inept as its offense, surrendering 402
yards and resuscitating the Owls repeatedly with mental lapses.
Temple played with injuries to several of its running backs but still
delivered 277 rushing yards. Harold Harmon rolled up 108 yards in the first half before exiting with a bruised heel. Rod Moore, understudy to injured fullback Brian Slade, scored twice in the first half.
Quarterback Tim Riordan completed 8 of 11 passes for 132 yards and a 38-yard
touchdown.
Early in the third quarter, Louisville (2-3) closed to 27-14, but its defense was too leaky to contain anyone stronger than Wisconsin-Stout. First, the Owls drew the Cardinals offside on a fourth-and-one at the 38, then repeated the trickery to gain first-and-goal at the eight. Riordan rolled right, and tightroped his way into the end zone, putting the game out of reach, 34-14.
“We’ve come close before, but recently our offense has been
sputtering,” Hardin said.
“I don’t know of another team in the country who could lose their top three runners (Jim Brown, Slade and Joe Baiunco) and still play the way these kids played.”
For good measure, cornerback Anthony Young intercepted May late in the third quarter and returned the ball 54 yards to the Louisville four. A facemask penalty put the ball at the one, backup tailback Sherman Myers (58 yards rushing) vaulted over and the margin was now 41-14. The audience of 19,223 at Cardinal Stadium was not amused.
Early in the fourth quarter, a group of students began singing, “Turn out the lights, the party’s over,” but Temple scored twice more before anyone could find the switch.
Gannon was flushed from the pocket at the four, only to be rammed by
nose tackle Bob Shires. The ball bounced into the end zone and was
pounced on by Jerry McDowell.
With 5 minutes, 29 seconds left, Young fielded a punt and returned it 58 yards for a touchdown, pulling Temple ahead, 55-14. That was the most points the Owls had scored since 1978, when they rang up 56 on that vaunted football power, Akron.
“Anthony Young had another outstanding night,” Hardin said. “That was
our first TD on a punt return in about 10 years.”
The outcome was quite unexpected and embarrassing in Bluegrass
Country.
Fueled by an earlier win over Oklahoma State of the Big 8 Conference, the locals figured Louisville football finally was emerging from the shadows of its basketball team.
Indeed, Denny Crum, the basketball coach, has been appearing on television boosting Bob Weber’s football program. The local media wondered whether Louisville’s big problem this weekend would be taking Temple too lightly.
Now Louisville’s big problem appears to be regaining whatever shred of
credibility it once enjoyed. Some schools don’t score 55 points on the
Cardinals’ basketball team.
“We just got an old-fashioned whipping,” Weber said. “We played much poorer than I ever thought possible. The first half, we were just standing around, and the second half was just an after-the-fact happening for us.”
Temple grabbed a quick 3-0 lead on Bob Clauser’s dying-quail field
goal of 39 yards.

belt
Frank Minniefield gave Louisville some false confidence, fielding a punt and slashing up the middle for an 88-yard touchdown. The Cardinals were temporarily ahead, but it was all a mirage.
Temple quickly regained the lead, 10-7, driving 80 yards to score in
seven plays.
“What bothers me is that we started so slow and never got into the
game mentally,” Weber said.

Tomorrow: Fast Forward Friday

10.31.12
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Hawaii pulls out of talks with Temple

If the Owls get to six wins, they would likely be slotted into a sweet bowl.
Hawaii could not resolve a myriad of issues.

The road ahead just got a lot bumpier for Temple’s football team on becoming eligible for a bowl for the fourth-straight season.
Hawaii pulled out of talks to give Temple a 12th game today because it could not resolve ticket issues.
It would have been tough enough to get to a bowl game with Hawaii on the schedule and now it appears to be near impossible.
Now the Owls will have to get to a bowl the old-fashioned way: By earning it.
Four games left, two against teams that have been in the top 20 most of the season, one against a Syracuse team with a premier quarterback, Ryan Nassib, and another against an Army team that beat Boston College.
 Not easy. The Owls will have to hold serve against Army, pull a mild upset against Syracuse and an even more shocking one against either Louisville or Cincinnati.
 The road ahead:

Anthony Robey: Lock-down corner

LOUISVILLE _ The game will be played at 11 a.m. Louisville time (12 in Philadelphia) and is the only home game not a sellout the rest of the way. Louisville has a tendency to play “up” or “down” to the level of competition. It was not able to blow out a horrid Southern Mississippi team in the rain (21-17) and it barely got by a bad Florida International team (28-21). Louisville and Temple both struggled to beat South Florida (Cards by 27-25, Owls by 37-28), but Cards handled a Pitt team (45-35) that handled the Owls. If the Temple secondary doesn’t start knocking balls down (and maybe even intercepting one or two passes), it won’t matter against a quarterback like Teddy Bridgewater. Except for lock-down sophomore corner Anthony Robey, a 4.39-40 speedster, the Owls look lost on the back line of their defense.
ARMY _ Hopefully, Matty Brown will be 100 percent for this game at West Point because he has been Army’s worst nightmare the past three years. Two years ago, in a 42-35 win, Brown singlehandedly led the Owls back from a 28-7 deficit with 226 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Also in that game, the Owls did something they have not done the Steve Addazio Era: Score on a trick play, a 48-yard pass off a double-reverse thrown by Joey Jones, by far the best pass thrown by a Temple player in 2010. Last year, Brown had 159 yards rushing against Army in a 42-14 win prompting the Army fan sitting next to me to ask, “Doesn’t he graduate this year?” No, I told him it was Bernard Pierce who probably is leaving. “I wish it was Brown instead,” the man replied.

Chris Coyer: More effective throwing on 1st down than 3d.

CINCINNATI _ The Bearcats have shown some chinks in their armor but mostly have been outstanding. They were able to beat Delaware State, 23-7, a week after Delaware beat Delaware State, 48-14. They also allowed Fordham to stick around for most of the first half. On the other hand, they beat Pitt, 34-10, and Virginia Tech, 27-24. They also have a sophisticated passing attack, something the  Owls might have if they let Chris Coyer throw on first down instead of third down all the time. The pathway to winning is to ratchet up the passing game and head away from pound and ground. The Owls should follow the blueprint they had against USF: 16 for 20 in the passing game and, not coincidentally, 37 points. The plan to win should be 37-28, not 17-14. Planning to win 17-14 is a good way to lose, 47-17.
SYRACUSE _ If the Owls go into this game with only four wins, a crowd of about 11,000 should be rattling around Lincoln Financial Field putting a sad punctuation mark on the dreariness of the season. If, on the other hand, they go into the game with five wins and a chance to reach a bowl game with six, there should be a big crowd cheering them on and a win will depend on whether the Owls’ new 3-4 defensive alignment with an abundance of athletic linebackers will be able to put enough blitzing pressure on Nassib to rattle him into a loss. (That new alignment might be wishful thinking on my part but when you can’t cover anybody on the back line and you have six linebackers who can run a 4.6 40, that’s the way to go IMHO.)
That’s the road ahead. It won’t be easy to navigate, but earning greatness or even a BCS bowl never is.

Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday

10.30.12
by

When did Temple stop playing smart?

… Breaking News: Temple’s proposed game with Hawaii is ‘off the table’ … Hawaii could not resolve ticket issues on its end …

Note Boston College was beaten badly by Temple, yet beat Navy, 37-0. This was the only time I ever saw Hardin say he was outcoached but Temple had better personnel than Marshall and won, 31-10.

Not long ago in the general scheme of history, Temple was known as having a smart football team.
Smart coach.
Smart players.
“I was outcoached by Wayne Hardin again,” Joe Paterno said after his second-straight one-point win in a row over the Owls in the 1970s. “We were lucky they didn’t connect on that two-point conversion.”
“Hardin is outcoaching Joe again,” late Allentown Morning Call sports columnist John Kunda said out loud  in the press box after Temple took a 7-6 lead on PSU at halftime in 1979.
Everybody in the press box laughed because they knew it was true.
Something happened along the way to change that perception, certainly in the 1990s, and again maybe in the last couple of weeks.

Also at Pitt, Temple gets two cracks at a score inside the 5. On third down, instead of rolling Clint Granger out on a pass/run option, the Owls run it up the middle behind an inexperienced offensive line and a true freshman running back. That’s just beyond stupid.

I get all the Temple TUFF talk and the team generally over the last five years has been as tough as nails.
What’s alarming is the number of extremely dumb plays being made out there by both players and coaches. Here are four touchdowns worth of stupidity at Pitt:
1) Ball goes off Temple player’s leg on a punt, leading to an early Pittsburgh possession.
2) Temple player catches a kickoff while standing on the sideline. If you are standing on the sideline at the 10, that’s usually a pretty good clue the ball is going to go out of bounds.
3) Temple player gets the ball stripped. That probably falls more in the area of toughness than smartness, but it takes some smarts to secure the ball.
4) Also at Pitt, Temple gets two cracks at a score inside the 5. On third down, instead of rolling Clint Granger out on a pass/run option, the Owls run it up the middle behind an inexperienced offensive line and a true freshman running back. That’s just beyond stupid. Give Granger two cracks at finding a receiver in the end zone on a rollout.
To me, that’s the most egregious stupidity because it came from a coaching staff who should be thinking on the fly better.
Just once, I’d like to see the team play as smart as those Hardin teams did most of the time.
There’s still four games to get the team’s head in the same place as their heart. If that doesn’t happen, there won’t be a fifth.

Tomorrow: The Road Ahead