BE Offensive Player of the Week Montel Harris mentions two words in this video that sound great together.

The best weekend in recent Temple football history is over.
First Big East game in eight years, first BE win in eight years, large enthusiastic crowd, all good things.
The only way to make it better is to keep on pushing on and top it every week from this point out.
The focus when the kids put the pads on tomorrow should be on one thing and one thing only:
Beating UConn.

Montel Harris and Ryan Alderman exchange thoughts on how to make moves in the open field. Photo by Mike Edwards

The Huskies are no slouch, either. They won at Maryland and lost by three to an NC State team that just took down Florida State.
It’ll be important to buckle down the chin straps Saturday in Storrs, Conn.
I think this is a much better matchup for Temple than USF was because the Huskies have had trouble moving the ball and the Owls are just starting to find their offensive and defensive identities. UConn doesn’t have a QB who can make big gains out of broken plays like B.J. Daniels can. That theory goes out the window, though, if the Owls don’t play with the fire they showed against USF. The Owls have a history of losing focus after recent big wins.
For these purposes, we’ll call it The Toledo Syndrome.
That’s why the Owls should listen to Winston Churchill (and Steve Addazio) this week:
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” Churchill said.
Here’s some recent Owl history:
2011:
TEMPLE 38, Maryland 7 _ At Maryland, franchise running back Bernard Pierce went for 159 yards and five touchdowns as the Owls took down an ACC foe that beat Al Golden’s Miami team, 32-24, two weeks prior. The next week? Owls lost at home, 36-13, to Toledo. After the Toledo loss, Addazio put the Owls back in pads and Pierce said “that was the hardest week of practice we ever had.” Owls went on to beat Ball State, 42-0.
TEMPLE 34, Buffalo 0 _ After a second-straight shutout win, Owls lay a 13-10 egg at Bowling Green. Five straight quarters of woeful offensive football got Chester Stewart a permanent seat on the bench. After becoming the starter, Chris Coyer finished the season with four straight wins.
2010:
TEMPLE 30, Uconn 16 _ After beating the eventual BE champs at home by two touchdowns, Owls fail to get a whole lot of offense going in the second half of a 22-13 loss to Penn State. Probably more due to Bernard Pierce spraining his ankle after giving the Owls a 13-12 halftime lead than a letdown, though.
2008:
TEMPLE 14, Ohio 10 _ Owls beat Ohio on a last-minute touchdown pass at home on national TV from Adam DiMichele to Steve Maneri then go to Navy, build a lead and lose, 33-27, when Golden eschews the kneeldown and hands off to Kee-Ayre Griffin, whose fumble was taken in for a score on the penultimate play of regulation. Golden could have kicked it to Navy and forced a triple-option team to go 80 yards with 17 seconds left and no time outs. Instead of allowing KAG a seat on the bus ride home, Golden throws him under it postgame.
But then, the program was just learning how to be great.
The sign of a great program is to follow one good win with another.
The Owls have a chance to do that on Saturday.

Steve Addazio calls the win over USF his biggest in the post-game presser.

The biggest play in the biggest Temple game this century was made by the guy on the cover of the The Temple Gameday Homecoming program.
Marcus Green blocked the field goal on the day when he was the only player on the gameday cover.
I mean, you can’t make that stuff up.

Cody Booth makes “Temple TUFF” TD catch .

A 45-yard field goal certainly is no chip shot, but Green made sure the 26,000 fans did not have to watch the agonizing flight of the ball toward the goal post.
After so many twists and turns and heart-stopping plays in Temple’s 37-28 win over South Florida, Green probably saved the defibrillators from being used on a few older alumni.
There were other heroes, too, some who didn’t even play.
Kevin Newsome simulated South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels in practice last week and that helped the Owls’ defense.
“Kevin Newsome, he was phenomenal, ” head coach Steve Addazio said. “Kevin Newsome’s coming into his own, by the way. He can really run explosively and he can really throw. We really appreciated what he’s done and where he is right now.”
The Owls are three-deep at quarterback with Newsome and Juice Granger backing up Coyer.
Temple baseball star Connor Reilly is no slouch at No. 4, either.
Still, I’d like to see the defense improved by putting Newsome at safety and moving Vaughn Carraway from safety to corner opposite lock-down sophomore Anthony Robey. Carraway’s got the speed to play corner and, at 6-3, 215 with a 37-inch vertical and a 4.5 40, Newsome would be a playmaker roaming the middle of the field at safety. If needed at QB, it wouldn’t take long to bring him on the other side of the ball.
Certainly beats Newsome holding a clipboard and running the scout team for the remaining seven games.
Have Reilly simulate the UConn QB next week.
Just a thought.
The other people who didn’t play and helped were the fans.
Everybody, from the student section, through the alumni were involved and loud and active.
When the fight song “T for Temple U” was sung in the second half, all 26,000 fans were on their feet and belting the song out at the top of their lungs. I never thought I’d see it in my lifetime but I hope to see it again in two weeks. These fans weren’t sitting on their hands. I was proud to be one of them. They were indeed the 12th man.
The team has to go to UConn and win a game next week but Rutgers thinks they are going to take over Lincoln Financial Field. I think they’ll be surprised that the stadium is solidly Temple’s now. They remember the “back in the day” Temple. They haven’t seen the new Temple.
They will.
Really, there were about 22 heroes on the field and this space is not large enough to list them all but, at least on offense, you’ve got to give credit to quarterback Chris Coyer, who was 16 for 20 with no picks and running back Montel Harris, who had 24 carries for 133 yards and two touchdowns.
Matty Brown left the game after accumulating 134 all-purpose yards and he got the longest standing ovation I can ever remember for a Temple player when he gingerly walked off the field in the fourth quarter.
The fans know Brown embodies the definition of Temple TUFF and sent him a message telling him that.
Hopefully, he will be OK.
The Owls were more than OK.
If they play with the competitive fire they showed Saturday, this season could get real interesting going forward.

Fans need to get crazy like here and not just the student section.

That sound you heard was Steve Addazio scratching his bald head.
While William and Mary offered a clear blueprint for Temple to beat Maryland and Ohio’s Frank Solich wrote the book on how to beat Penn State, there was not much to glean from Ball State’s 31-27 win over South Florida a couple of weeks ago.

Skip Holtz wants Brandon McManus to squib kick to his team. McManus has 15 touchbacks.

I know.
I pieced together all of the clips I could find off Ball State’s excellent TV network and this is what I found:
Ball State beat South Florida the old-fashioned way:
The Cardinals earned it.

Tweet from Greg Auman of the Tampa Tribune.

No special formula like William and Mary’s blitzing of a Maryland true freshman quarterback or Solich’s quick-slant passing game moving the sticks against Penn State.
Just a couple of great plays by quarterback Keith Winning, throwing a tight spiral twice into the corner of the end zone and the BSU player making great catches over his shoulder.
Easier said than done.
One way would be for the fans to get off their hands and cheer. The team needs to hear “Let’s Go Temple” early and often and not just when they get behind.
My guess is Temple is just concentrating on being the best Temple the Owls can be:
Here’s what the Owls must do:
1) Get away from the ground-and-pound philosophy they used so much in the first three games. Sure, the Owls can run the ball but only after establishing the pass as a viable threat. Roll Chris Coyer out of the pocket and hit those five-yard slants to playmakers like Jalen Fitzpatrick, Romond Deloatch and Khalif Herbin. Then go back to the run behind right tackle Martin Wallace after Wyatt Benson leads either Matty Brown or Montel Harris through the hole. Mix it up. Get both Harris and Brown in space by utilizing screen passes, shovel passes and pitchouts.
2) Play Temple defense. That means swarming to the ball and sacking the quarterback. It also means being aggressive  when the ball is in the air. That’s Vaughn Carraway’s ball as much as it is the receivers. Step in front of it and pick it off, rather than let the guy catch it and tackling him 20 yards down the field. Keep B.J. Daniels in the pocket, but get after him, too.
3) Make special teams plays that make a difference. It’s time for Brown  to bust a big one.
4) Bring the Temple swagger back. The Owls must play confidently and aggressively, not the passive team on their heels that we saw the last two games. Think back to how the Owls played in a 42-0 win over Ball State and a 34-0 win over Buffalo last year for reference.

Picks this week: BOSTON COLLEGE giving 9 1/2 at Army; WEST VIRGINIA getting 7 at Texas; UCLA giving 2 1/2 at California.
Locks of the week: None
Record: 4-1 overall, 1-1 locks of the week (had Toledo as a pick at Western Michigan and Rockets won, 37-17; lost with Ball State at Kent State).

Tomorrow: Complete analysis of the game

Dick Kenney’s barefoot FG gave MSU a 10-0 lead over ND in 1966.

The first “Game of the Century” of my lifetime was the infamous 1966 showdown between host Michigan State and Notre Dame.
Infamous, because Notre Dame head coach Ara Parseighan elected to fall on the ball with a 10-10 tie rather than go for the win. Notre Dame was ranked No. 1 at the time, Michigan State No. 2. That might have had something to do with the decision.
Too young to remember it, but I read up about it when subsequent “Games of the Century” followed in 1968 (Harvard vs. Yale) and 1971 (Oklahoma vs. Nebraska).
By 1971, I was old enough to know that “Game of the Century” didn’t mean “Games of the Century” so I did some research.
All three had legitimate claims.
Notre Dame was No. 1, Michigan No. 2.
Nebraska No. 1, Oklahoma No. 2.
Harvard and Yale?
The last game between Ivy League schools when one (Yale, ranked No. 22) was nationally relevant.

All great hype, all great games.
A lot of debate there, so I couldn’t decide.
That got me to thinking.
What is Temple’s Game of the Century?
Since this century technically started in 2001, I’ve narrowed it down to two choices:
Eagle Bank Bowl, 2009
Temple vs. South Florida, 2012
Eagle Bank Bowl is a fine choice because that was Temple’s first trip to a bowl in 30 years and gave the Owls an opportunity to beat a “name” opponent (UCLA) on national TV. The Owls fell short in that one, 30-21, primarily because franchise running back Bernard Pierce pulled a hammy and didn’t play in the second half after leading the Owls to a 21-10 lead.
Tomorrow’s Temple vs. South Florida game is a better choice, at least in my mind.
That’s because Temple is in the UNIQUE position (unlike any other team in the United States) to play a first game in a conference that kicked it out for being non-competitive and the statement Temple can make is to beat an opponent who got votes as the best team in the Big East in a pre-season poll.
In fact, Louisville got 24 votes to finish in first place. South Florida got the other four.
Temple has gotten hammered in the Big East media and elsewhere for losing its non-conference games in a conference that has three unbeaten teams. Even South Florida (Nevada) has a quality win.
Temple does not.
Yet.
If Temple wins, it gets to make a statement it could not make in any other game this century, beating a team that was at least going into the season considered one of the best two in the conference. It can make a statement before a large Homecoming Day crowd saying 26 wins in three years is no fluke and not the product of being in the MAC.
If Temple loses, it’s just another game and could cause an unexpected slide backward.
If Temple wins, it’s saying something else, like Temple is a contender for the title right now, not five years down the road. Montel Harris’ dream of leading the Owls to the Orange Bowl remains alive.
Game of the Century?
You bet.
And that ain’t no hyperbole, pardon my French.

Tomorrow: Game Day Preview

The clock is certainly ticking on all of us and, when someone remembers the good works we did as youngsters, it means a lot.
When I was a kid, Doug Shobert was my favorite quarterback.
I remember Shobert well.

Lance Johnstone as an Owl.

He didn’t play for my pro team, the Philadelphia Eagles, but he played for my favorite college team, the Temple Owls.
Shobert was Wayne Hardin’s first quarterback at Temple and he will be inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday with the other football inductee, Lance Johnstone.
I blacked out during Johnstone’s years because the Owls never won more than two games in any of them but I also remember Johnstone as a tough player who did the Owls proud. I don’t remember Lance as I do Doug, primarily because the Owls won in the Shobert days pretty much all the time.
Lance, though, did something Doug didn’t do: Have a career in the NFL.
Lance, though, broke Steve Conjar’s record for tackles in a season with 288 and Conjar was a helluva player.
Ironically enough, Shobert broke the record for completion percentage in the North-South game set by another high-profile Hardin quarterback, a guy named Roger “The Dodger” Staubach.
So Shobert was taught well.

Homecoming weather should be great.

Later, as a sports writer in Doylestown, I covered some of Shobert’s Quakertown teams. Shobert went on on a high note in 1987, with an 8-3-1 season, as head coach of the Panthers (I still think Quakertown should be named the Quakers). After dealing with him professionally, I can truly say that Doug was/is as great a person as he was a quarterback.
His wife at the time, Cookie Shobert, was a reporter for the Quakertown Free Press.
At the other end of our coverage area at the time, in Upper Moreland, I also dealt with Joe Injaychock, who was head coach there. Injaychock started at cornerback on the same teams Shobert played for at Temple. I don’t think Joe is going to make the Temple Hall of Fame, but he was a good high school football coach and part of a terrific cornerback tandem with Joe Cioffi.
A lot of good football minds came out of those teams and they owe the education to Hardin, the greatest football mind of all.
On Saturday, remain in the stands at halftime and give both Shobert and Johnstone a rousing ovation.

Tomorrow Fast Forward Friday: Biggest Temple game this century?