Author Archives: Mike Gibson

04.06.12
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Holding the line

If the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, the most encouraging news coming out of Temple football spring practice is that the chain is pretty strong.
Going into the spring camp, it did not take a genius to figure out the No. 1 priority was finding some offensive linemen who could step up and play at a BCS level this fall.

Newman

I didn’t think it would be an insurmountable problem because the Owls had last year’s starter at tackle, Martin Wallace, returning and two starters from 2010 returning in tight end Alex Jackson and Sean Boyle, both fully recovered from injuries.
More importantly, head coach Steve Addazio, an offensive lineman guru if there ever was one, did not think it would be a problem.
Now we can see why as the most encouraging news is how the other three players have stepped up.
Jeff Whittingham, 6-foot-4, 275-pound redshirt sophomore Jaimen Newman, a former defensive tackle and end, has been running with the first team at guard.  Redshirt freshman Zach Hooks has played first-team snaps at left tackle.
Those guys seem to have the inside track on the other starting positions.
There’s still plenty of competition and one of the above could conceivably be displaced. Other names in the mix conceivably include but are not limited to Adam Metz, Scott Roorda and Darryl Pringle.

Hooks

Since you know a little about Jackson, Wallace and Boyle, here is a look at Newman, Whittingham and Hooks:
NEWMAN _  6-foot-4, 275-pound sophomore. Played in six games during the 2011 season and redshirted in 2010. Mostly a defensive player, he had 40 tackles and 14 sacks as a senior while playing at Matoaca High School in Virginia. As a junior, he had 32 tackles and six sacks. Also started on the basketball team for two seasons.

Whittingham

WHITTINGHAM _  Also a 6-foot-4, 275-pound junior who also played mostly defense at Temple but was a two-way all-star playing for Atlantic City (N.J.) High School, where he was a team captain and three-year starter. Played against Temple teammate Evan Regas in the 2007 New Jersey State playoffs. Was 2010 Scout Team Player of the Year for Temple.

HOOKS _  6-6, 305 true sophomore. Played both offensive and defensive tackle for head coach Mike Zmijanic at powerhouse Aliquippa in the WPIAL. Was first-team all-state as an offensive tackle in 2010. Was first-team all-conference three years in a row.

Wallace will be on quarterback Chris Coyer’s blindside, playing right tackle (Coyer is a lefty). Boyle will be at the all-important position of center, calling out the signals.
If they can open a sliver of a crack for a slippery, elusive, runner like Matty Brown, he should be able to make explosive plays downfield with Coyer and receivers like Jackson, Deon Miller, Malcolm Eugene and Ryan Alderman.

04.03.12
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Big East and Temple by the numbers

Temple’s $10 million addition to its $7 million practice facility nears finish line.

It’s a great week to be a Temple Owl.
Not only did Temple Board of Trustees member Lewis Katz (and two others) get a bargain-basement price on the two Philadelphia newspapers, the Temple football team has been practicing pretty much injury-free in front of a palatial $10 million addition to an already relatively new $7 million football facility.

That facility should be done by the start of summer practice.
A few weeks later, a thorough beatdown of Villanova should be done as well.
The Philly papers went for $500 million in 2006 and Katz purchased the same property (same printing presses and massive River Road property in Conshohocken but less a few employees, your humble correspondent included) for $55 million Monday.
Not a bad time to do some numbers crunching with regard to Temple’s football prospects in the Big East this fall.
News flash: While the Big East is a significant step up for Temple, the Owls are not joining the SEC.
According to the two best indicators of team strength in college football, Temple is coming into the league pretty near the top end of the remaining members.
Sagarin (USA Today) had Temple finishing the 2011 season ranked No. 30 in the country, with only Cincinnati (No. 28) ahead of it and the Owls finishing ahead of Rutgers (37), South Florida (47), Louisville (64), Pitt (68), UConn (73) and Syracuse (83).
Realtime RPI.com had Temple ranked No. 37, behind only Cincinnati (24) and Rutgers (30). Louisville was 53, Pitt 64, ‘Cuse (83, again) and UConn 89.
I think Temple will be significantly better this year. The Owls have nine guys returning who have started games on defense in the past. That, and the superb coaching of defensive coordinator Chuck Heater, will keep them in every game. Explosive plays downfield by players like quarterback Chris Coyer, RB Matty Brown, WR Deon Miller and TE Alex Jackson should put enough points on the scoreboard. It’s going to be hard to replace defensive end Adrian Robinson and linebacker Stephen Johnson, but a good program does those kind of things routinely.
Temple has proven to be a good program over the last three years by the only numbers that matter (won/loss ratio) and there is nothing in the numbers going forward that suggest a change any time soon.
While the competition will be a little better than the MAC, the hard numbers by unbiased sources like Sagarin and Realtime suggest it is nothing the Owls can’t handle.

03.31.12
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Daz: ‘I like our personnel’

No truth to the rumor that was Holy Water poured on Chuck Heater last year.

There’s a lot of uncertainty upon entering the Big East season for Temple’s football team.
Lack of talent is not one of them, though.
On Friday, after the 13th practice of the season, head coach Steve Addazio made clear that “I like our personnel” and that there is plenty of talent to sustain and build upon the level of success of the last three years.
I agree.

Chuck Heater won’t have to be a miracle-worker with this group of Owls.

While there are significant losses in the areas of offensive line, the team is pretty well set at most other positions.
Even talented tailback Bernard Pierce, who figures to go now lower than the third round of this year’s NFL draft, finished second on the team in all-purpose yards to his replacement, Matty “Rock” Brown. In the true spread that Addazio plans to run with talented (and unbeaten) quarterback Chris Coyer at the helm, you can make a pretty good argument that Rock is a more effective college back.
The credit for much of this talent still goes to former head coach Al Golden, who made a practice of stockpiling prospects by redshirting most of his incoming freshmen. That was part of Golden’s “core values” of building a “house of brick, not straw.”
In each of his final two seasons, Golden redshirted no less than 16 of his 25 incoming signees.
Many of those guys will play significant roles with the 2012 Owls.
“The reason I redshirted at Temple so much,” Golden told a Miami-area newspaper recently, “was that I was committed to building a program. That’s the way the so-called powerhouse programs do it. We weren’t able to do that the first couple of years, but we were able to do it by the time I left. I want to do the same thing [at Miami].”
Addazio doesn’t believe in redshirting as much as Golden did, but that doesn’t mean he won’t benefit from it.
In many positions, even ones where high-profile starters left, there could be a talent upgrade from last year.
Take the case of tight Alex Jackson.
Jackson, another redshirt, split starting time with Evan Rodriguez two years ago.
“I think of our all tight ends last year he had the highest end [talent],” Addazio said. “He wasn’t ready to play last year, but now he is and that’s going to show.”
Even on the offensive line, if you count Jackson’s starts from two years ago and Sean Boyle’s starts from two years ago and Martin Wallace starting all last year, that’s three returning offensive line starting caliber players and that’s pretty good. Also, Big 33 recruit Adam Metz benefited from a redshirt year (thanks, Al Golden) and is ready to compete for his spot. These are quality offensive linemen.
On defense, there is plenty of talent along the line with John Youboty, Levi Brown, Kadeem Custis, Kamal Johnson, Marcus Green and Sean Daniels all returning. All have started games in the past. Two starting linebackers, Blaze Caponegro and Ahkeem Smith, return, as does Olaniyi Adewole, who got considerable playing time last year as a sub. Starting strong safety Justin Gildea returns, as does his backup, Chris Hutton. Starting free safety Kevin Kroboth is gone, but one-time five-star recruit Vaughn Carraway was his backup last year and should slide right into that spot without a drop in production.
At the corners, last year’s true freshman, Anthony Robey, was a lock-down cover specialist and starter until he got hurt midway into the season but is looking in top form in practice. Zamel Johnson also started at corner, but he is being pushed by Rutgers’ transfer Abdul Smith. Maurice Jones, who got plenty of playing time, is also in the corner mix.
Temple defensive coordinator Chuck Heater was called “Mother Teresa” by no less an authority than Urban Meyer for his work as DC of the Florida defense two years ago.
Addazio could have called Heater the same thing last year the way he pieced together a Temple defense  that lost seven starters from 2010 into the third-best defense in the nation (behind only Alabama and LSU) in 2011.
Heater won’t have to work a miracle for Temple’s defense this year because he’s got more capable parts already in place to have a defense that keeps the Owls in every game.
The same can be said for the rest of the team as well and that’s doesn’t even count the reinforcements from the calvary who arrive (hello, Kevin Newsome, Jamie Gilmore and company) in July.
Aug. 31 can’t come soon enough.
To borrow a phrase from Mr. T, I pity the fool called Villanova.
Hopefully, a blowout there starts an avalanche of similar good results for Temple fans the rest of the fall.

03.30.12
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Fun with Mega Millions and Temple football

“You won’t believe this, but we just got a donation of $231 million” Bill Bradshaw
tells a puzzled Steve Addazio.

My Mega Millions’ ticket Stephen Colbert’s both have something in common, No. 6 as the all-important Mega Ball number tonight.
Colbert got to his number a little bit differently than I did, picking 1-2-3-4-5 as his first five and six as his Mega Ball number.
Heck, I know both Colbert and I have the same chance of winning (zero) but it is fun to think about so I made it a game with two lines based on “some” (not all) of my favorite Temple football players.
I went with No. 6 because it was the number worn by Paul Palmer, the Temple football player who came closest to winning the Heisman Trophy (second, 1986).
Palmer’s line: 12 (Brian Broomell), 26 (Anthony Young), 43 (Adrian Robinson), 52 (Stephen Johnson) and 55 (Steve Conjar). 12-26-43-52-55 (6).

Steve Conjar

Then I went with a line featuring Maxwell Award winner Steve Joachim (9) that includes Matt Brown (2),  New Mexico Bowl MVP Chris Coyer (10), Brandon McManus (19), Ahkeem Smith (24) and Bernard Pierce and Garden State Bowl MVP  Mark Bright (30). That line reads 2-10-19-24-30 (9).
I’m only spending $2 to win $640 million because you don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that purchasing $4 worth of tickets doesn’t double your chance of winning.
If I’m the only winner, I’ll “settle” for the cash payout of $462 million and give half to Temple football via the Xtra Point Club. The only condition is that Temple spend it on a new stadium and name it “Temple University Stadium” or, at the very least, purchase the naming rights to Lincoln Financial Field and call it “Temple University Stadium.”
(Hey, if Akron can build a beautiful stadium for $61.6 million five years ago, Temple can build something slightly better for $231 million. It already has the land, 15th Street and Norris to 15th and Montgomery.)
That’s it.  I’ll scrape by on the other $231 million.

Matt Brown will be wearing No. 2 this year.

I’m serious, too. Temple’s lawyers can consider this post a promisory note.
Once they get the money, it is theirs to spend under no further conditions and no further suggestions from me. (It would be nice, though, if it gave Temple fans the security of knowing another program won’t be able to poach their coach at the end of every season.)
I’ll give the money to Bill Bradshaw and Steve Addazio at halftime of the spring game on April 14 with one of those oversized white checks with Cherry writing.
I don’t have kids and only one living relative so I can afford to do this.
In addition to the tangible cash contribution, an ancillary benefit is that Temple football becomes the No. 1 story in the Philadelphia media. I’m sure the cynical professional sports media will be calling me crazy but it will be crazy like a fox because any publicity is good publicity when it comes to putting Temple TUFF front and center of Philly sports talk.
Heck, with a jackpot like this, maybe the talk of the nation as well.
It would be fun to find out.
No Mercedes or Porches, strippers, mansions, like that guy from West Virginia who besmirched an otherwise great sports broadcasting name  (Jack Whitaker) for me. Maybe a Hurricane-proof six-month-a-year snowbird getaway house near Tampa, Fla., an HDTV and a new Chevy and I’m good to go.
Now comes the hard part. Getting those numbers to come up.

03.27.12
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2012 Schedule: Sugar for hiccups

The 2012 Temple Football schedule released today.

One of the favorite household remedies for a hiccup is spoonful of  sugar.
Temple University’s football team had a few hiccups last year (Toledo and Bowling Green come to mind) and, if the 2012 football schedule released today is any indication, the Owls got an intravenous injection of sugar today that could inoculate them against future similar spasms.
It’s a sweet schedule, with the only hint of bitterness that is is one game short.
As far as I know, the college football preseason magazines come out too late to include a classified section.
However, if Temple was to place an ad, it would look something like this:

HELP WANTED: Large urban university, close to major airport and within easy driving distance of 46 percent of the nation’s population, seeks football opponent for fall of 2012, but not necessarily for a home game. School has been bowl eligible for three straight seasons and has posted record-setting TV numbers for college football in the nation’s fourth-largest market. Have fan base, will travel. Fan base traveled 20,000 to D.C. for 2009 bowl and 6,000 to New Mexico for 2011 bowl. Open dates are Saturday, Sept. 15 or 29th or Saturday, Dec. 1. FCS foes need not apply. If interested, please contact Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw at bill.bradshaw@temple.edu.

The “official” word out of Temple is that the Owls are quite satisfied to play 11 games this season after the release of the schedule today.
The “unofficial” word out of Temple is that there is still time (albeit not much) to add another opponent.
The trick is finding someone with an open date on either Sept. 15, Sept. 29 or Dec. 1.
Not much luck there, but there are FBS and BCS schools out there who would like to drop an FCS foe for Temple, so there is some wiggle room involved. Selfishly, as a fan who plans my fall Saturdays around Temple football, I’d like to see another game added.
Realistically, though, going with 11 just for this year could turn out for the better.
Whether or not they can find another suitable game for an FCS school is the tricky problem.
That’s what Temple AD Bill Bradshaw will be working on today and into the weeks ahead.
Still, whether this is an 11-game or a 12-game schedule, it is undoubtedly the most exciting schedule of my lifetime.
Even in the Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians years, when the Owls were playing the 10th-toughest schedule in the country, there was no league title on the line.
When the Owls did finally join a league, the Big East, they weren’t competitive.
Now they have the best of both worlds: Attractive foes week-in and week-out and a good chance to win every week.
They have six locked in home games and bring a competitive team to the Big East right away.
It could be the best Temple football season ever if the Owls focus every week like they did against Penn State and Maryland last year.
No time for hiccups this year.

03.23.12
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Matty Ice Rock

Matty Brown talks to Bill Evans about his 2012 role.

Smh.
I never knew what that meant until about two years ago when Muhammad Wilkerson found my Facebook page, sent me a “friend request” message and I was only too happy to accept.
Heck, when I know the name and respect the person, I usually accept.
That goes for Muhammad “Highly Praised” Wilkerson and anybody else.

Temple’s all-purpose yards leaders, 2011 season.

Well, after the 8-4 Temple team that beat the Big East champion UConn team was refused a bowl bid, I saw Wilkerson’s message on his Facebook page that fateful Sunday morning.
“Coach told us we’re done. Smh.”
“What’s smh mean?” I asked.
“Shakin’ my head, Mr. Gibson,” he said.
Now a lot of Big East fans think Temple is done because Bernard “The Franchise” Pierce is gone and I have a three-letter response.
Smh.
They don’t know Matty “Rock” Brown.
They soon will.
Brown, as a backup to Pierce, has posted nine 100-yard-plus games in his career.
Think about that.
It’s remarkable that a STARTING back posts nine 100-yard games. It’s unheard of that a backup accomplishes this.
In fact, there are a lot of fans sitting around me that think Brown is better than Pierce as a college back.
Not me.
“I know you are a Pierce guy,” my friend, Cyrus, turned to me and said during one game. “I’m a Brown guy.”
There were Brown guys and Pierce guys all over the stadium last year.
Now we’re all Brown guys.
He will be the rock upon which Temple’s formidable running game will be built in 2012.

03.22.12
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My invitation must have been lost in the mail

This is where Pitt is playing its spring game.

The Cherry and White scrimmage has been canceled.
Now that I’ve got your attention with that opening sentence, I want to clarify it.
The Cherry and White scrimmage has NOT been canceled officially.
In reality for many (most) of us, though, it has.
I received a letter in the mail yesterday from “Temple athletics” and eagerly ripped it open, hoping that it was my “few invited guests” invitation to this year’s Cherry and White game.
Instead, it was a form letter signed by Steve Addazio and Bill Bradshaw saying that “due to safety concerns and space limitations at our facility, it is necessary to limit the number of spectators at this year’s final scrimmage to recruits, families, and a few invited guests of the football program.”
I guess my invitation has been lost in the mail.

This is where Temple should play its spring game.

Which means I will probably miss my first Cherry and White game in 32 years as it stands now.
Really, this means that if you are a member of the Owl Club or a big booster, you are in the door.
If you are a “regular season ticket-holder” _ even a 30-year one like me _ tough luck.
Talk about class warfare in an election year. ….
Let me go on record as saying if I don’t get an invitation, that offer of $365 million dollars to Temple football is officially off the table. If you didn’t like me when I was poor, I don’t want you coming to me when I’m rich. Since the Mega Millions is $290 million this Friday night, that could be very soon.
It didn’t have to be this way.
Actually, it still doesn’t.
Temple tried to get Lincoln Financial Field, but Jeff Lurie made the price so high that it was cost prohibitive.
Temple’s Ambler Campus Field was determined unsafe (don’t know why because it was safe enough for Al Golden to take the team there five years ago).
High school fields were determined out of the question because of the “small-time” perception involved.
I’m not buying that last excuse.
Pitt is playing its spring game at North Hills High because, like the Linc, Heinz Field is unavailable or cost prohibitive on that date. Pitt wants its fans to have a full spring game experience and damned with what everybody else’s small-time perception is.
Temple should do the same for its fans.
North Hills seats 5,000 people and has a brand new sprint turf field.
Northeast High in Philadelphia, less than five miles from the Edberg-Olsen Complex, seats 9,000 people and has a brand new sprint turf field. Northeast is a great venue for both football and tailgating, with many Temple grads as teachers, and would welcome the Owls with open arms.
Pitt doesn’t give a damn about perception.
Neither should Temple.

03.20.12
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Big East quarterbacks: Coyer may be the best

Case Keenum and RGIII have nothing on Chris Coyer in this comparison.

Back in 1979, a tremendous athlete by the name of Brian Broomell led the nation in the then new category of passing efficiency while playing quarterback for Temple University.
Probably not coincidentally, Broomell led Temple to a 10-2 record, the most wins in the history of Temple football.
Since then, passing efficiency has been my most favorite statistic.
Where there is a quarterback who has a good passing efficiency rating, you’ll usually find a tremendous won/loss record in his favor as well.

Last year’s BE quarterback ratings.

Fortunately, the Owls will enter Big East play this fall with a big known in that area as another tremendous athlete, Chris Coyer, is not only the No. 1 returning in the nation in the terms of passing efficiency, he is also No. 1 in terms of a new category called “yards per play.”
A respected California blogger, football fan and math whiz came up with the statistical data and it is intriguing. In fact, yards per play might be a better indicator of a quarterback’s overall worth than passing efficiency.
Admittedly, Coyer provides a small sample but it is large enough in my mind to rate him the No. 1 returning quarterback in the Big East by a wide margin.
He has a passing efficiency rating of 177.4.
Compare that to returning South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels (126.7), Louisville’s Terry Bridgewater (132.4), Rutgers’ Chris Dodds (118.5) and Gary Nova (116.6), Cincinnati’s Zach Collaros (131.6), Pitt’s Tino Sunseri (124.1) and Syracuse’s Ryan Nassib (129.9).
Even with a statistical allowance for strength of conference (and let’s face it, there wasn’t that much difference between the Big East and MAC last year), Coyer comes out pretty far ahead.

Coyer accepts New Mexico Bowl MVP Award.

Plus, he’s unbeaten as a Temple starter and put up 31 points as a relief pitcher to the woefully ineffective Chester Stewart in the Ohio game. Had Coyer started against Ohio, I believe the Owls would have won that one, too. Heck, had he started against Penn State I think the Owls would have won that also.
Those hypotheticals will be decided on the field this year, fortunately.
I’m a little concerned about Coyer’s backup and Matty Brown’s backup, but I’m not concerned at all with the starting offensive personnel.
With Coyer, Brown, Malcolm Eugene, C.J. Hammond, Deon Miller, Ryan Alderman, Alex Jackson, Cody Booth and company (not even mentioning the incoming freshmen), the Owls could turn the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard into an adding machine this fall.
And it all starts with the trigger man.
Just from the eye test, I think Coyer will be the best quarterback in the Big East this fall.
He throws a nice ball, makes great decisions (nine touchdown passes to zero interceptions), is elusive and has the “it” factor Temple has been looking for in a quarterback since Adam DiMichele sadly departed in 2007.
The two Rutgers’ kids, Dodds and Nova, can’t even carry his jock strap (nor would Chris want them to). I saw a few RU games and both those quarterbacks struggled.
If he’s as efficient as Broomell was some 30 years ago, the all-important stat of 10 wins might be in jeopardy as well.
That’s the only stat I really care about.
For the first time since 2007, I’m not going into a season worrying about the most important position on the field.
That’s both comforting and exciting.

03.17.12
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Villanova: Never forgive, never forget

With Temple in the BE, Villanova  basketball now becomes as irrelevant as DePaul.

The definition of  charade is an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance.
I’ve never seen a more apt word describing the press conference to introduce Temple as the newest Big East member a couple of weeks ago.
Don’t let Villanova being at the table confuse you.
The part of the press conference (really, too much) that promoted Villanova’s involvement in this was a complete charade.
And Temple should never forget that.

Villanova resident Andy Reid will be rooting for the Owls.

Villanova fought tooth and nail to keep Temple out of the Big East in football, basketball and hop-scotch (if the BE offered hop-scotch).
In early October, the Owls were all set to be introduced as a new member but, as Lenn Robbins of the New York Post reported, the “conference call deteriorated into ‘Nova bashing Temple” and the Wildcats were able to form a voting block of Big East Catholic schools (St. John’s, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Providence, DePaul) that denied Temple a spot at the Big East table.
According to our sources, Seton Hall and St. John’s decided to break away from that block a little over a month ago and the writing was on the wall. Villanova no longer had the votes to block Temple.
Villanova already had taken a huge public relations’ hit in the Philadelphia area over the last five months for blocking Temple and decided to show up at the press conference and call this its own idea.
Liars.
Although BOT trustees’ member Lewis Katz was effusive in his praise of Villanova, you could see at times the look of utter amazement on his face at some of the things coming out of the mouth of Villanova president, the Rev. Peter Donahue.

If I was Monangai (No. 26) ,I’d keep my head on a swivel 8/31

I like being in the Big East, but I’m not buying the charade.
Nor should any Temple person. Villanova fans took great pride at coming over to Owlscoop.com and delighting in the demise of the Temple basketball Owls and taking swipes at Fran Dunphy, a guy I consider a great coach, man and representative of Temple University. I’ve met Dunph only once and that was for a brief period of five seconds or so in the concourse of Lincoln Financial Field, but there is no bigger fan of the man and the coach out there than I am. Temple is blessed to have Fran Dunphy and Steve Addazio as coaches of its two flagship sports programs.
The loss to South Florida was no more his fault than it was Al Golden’s (and I’m pretty sure Al Golden had nothing to do with it). Dunphy can’t make Ramone Moore take it to the basket when Moore seemed totally disinterested to beat an overmatched defender. He can’t make Juan Fernandez shoot. He had nothing to do with Khalif Wyatt  being called for an ill-timed technical foul.
But Villanova’s days of delight are a precious few now.
“I want you to come out to (Lincoln Financial Field) and see us kick Villanova’s butt again,” said Katz, who came out of that press conference as a star in my mind.
Daz, consider that an order, not a request. The only knees the Owls should take in that game should be the post-game prayer, thankful for an 88-0 win.
When it comes to Villanova, never forgive and never forget.

03.15.12
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Today: Greatest day of sports calendar

If you were in Times Square last Wednesday night, this is what you saw, courtesy of the Big East Conference.

By now, you can pretty much tell I’m a football fan first, everything else a distant second.
Yet I’ve been saying this for the last 30 years or so and I believe it today more strongly than ever:
THE THURSDAY THAT OPENS THE NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT IS THE GREATEST DAY ON THE SPORTS CALENDAR.
Yes, better than Super Bowl Sunday.
Better than the seventh game of the World Series.
Better than any game of the Stanley Cup.
Better than the NBA finals.

Temple football in the news today
UConn coach Paul Pasquoloni welcomes the Owls to Big East play
Mike Jensen talks about Peter Liacouras’ dream for Temple sports finally being realized

Better than the National Championship game in football (unless Temple is in it and then I reserve my right to change my mind).
Sports, to me, is about the fairness of competition and no sport provides that like the NCAA.
Sixty-eight teams start out and have to win their way to the next level.
Today is the day 64 of those teams have hope to win it all. No other day will match it.
Sixty-four teams have that hope and millions of fans fill out brackets on sites like Yahoo.com, Foxsports and ESPN hoping for a perfect bracket that would turn them from middle-class citizens into millionaires in less than one month.

All over America, offices are holding their own pools for some major coin. I won the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News major pool last year, beating out hundreds of employees in both the main building on North Broad Street and the new one in Conshohocken. It took me 15 years to win that pool. If I had only won it 15 years ago, I would have pocketed $2,000. Since then, though, with massive layoffs over that time period, I got roughly one-tenth of that last year.
Still, a source of great pride to know I came out on top despite my competition included those of the college basketball “experts” working both both newspapers.
If only NCAA football could build an interest vehicle like that for their fans, we’d have something. (They could easily do that. Have the three BCS bowl game winners play the best at-large team and you’d have a four-game, two week playoff after the bowl games. Have the top four bowl games rotate home sites. It’s a win-win for everyone.)
But NCAA football doesn’t, so NCAA basketball holds my attention for this month, something to hold me over until Cherry and White day.
My Final Four this year includes Syracuse (despite the Melo injury), Kentucky, Missouri and Georgetown. I don’t get the love for Michigan State. I think Missouri will knock off the Spartans in an Elite Eight game. The Hoyas are my sleeper team. I think they upset a disinterested Kansas team in St. Louis in the Elite Eight.
I also have North Carolina knocking off our beloved Owls in an Elite Eight game, but Temple can beat anyone on any given night if the Owls stay out of foul trouble, particularly along the interior.
Imagine, if you will, what a national championship in basketball would do for Temple as a whole and football specifically.
Plenty.
I’ll leave you with that thought for today and hope that remains a delicious possibility for at least a few more weeks.
Go Owls.