Author Archives: Mike Gibson

10.11.11
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My two degrees of Raheem Brock separation

Nobody is “representing” TU better than Raheem Brock these days.

Full disclosure.
I’ve never met Raheem Brock, but I feel like I know the former Temple star very well.
I was a big fan of his when he played in college.
Brock had a big role in Seattle’s win at the New York Giants on Sunday and, when he got back to Seattle, tweeted just three words:
“Landed in Seattle.”

Brock sports EBB bowl jersey at
Super Bowl press conference.

I tweeted him back: “Congrats and thanks for representing Temple as usual.”
Two seconds later, he send me back a tweet thanking me.
Heck, he did not need to do that but that’s the kind of person he’s become.
Nobody mentions Temple more than Raheem Brock. Nobody wears the Temple football gear in the locker room more than Raheem Brock.
Other people talk representing.
Raheem Brock lives it.
Brock’s tweet got me to thinking about my “small world” story about him.
You hear about people saying it is a small world, but in a city of 2 million people this is a very freaky but true “small world” story.
When I was in college Zach Dixon, Raheem’s biological father, was thumbing down Broad Street at 2 a.m. on a Saturday night/Sunday morning wearing a “Temple football” sweatshirt, standing pretty close to the Baker Bowl sign at Broad and Lehigh.
I thought  “geez, that’s Zach Dixon” and I slammed on the breaks of my 1974 Opal Manta and gave him a ride back to the main campus.
(Heck, I didn’t want to get our 1,000-yard rusher killed by the guy who might be coming behind me.)
Fast forward, ohh, 20-some years later and I’m jogging on Kelly Drive with wearing a sweet Temple football game jersey I picked up for $20 on Cherry and White Day.
Back then, in the middle of the Owl football Dark Ages,  no one wore Temple football game jerseys while jogging on Kelly Drive except me.
So I’m wearing this jersey and a nice man who was working with a road crew yells out:
“Hey, Temple football. My son plays there.”
I had to stop, just like I did 20 years earlier.
“Really?” I ask. “Who is he?”
“Raheem Brock.”
He didn’t look like Dixon, but I had to ask.
“Are you Zach Dixon?”
“No, I’m his step dad.”
“Raheem Brock is going to make you a millionaire some day, he’s that good,” I said.
He just laughed.
“I hope so.”
“I know so,” I said. “It was great meeting you” and I continued my jog northbound toward the  Ulysses S. Grant statue.
Two degrees of Raheem Brock separation about 20 years apart.
The bloodlines continue at Temple today. Dixon’s son, Hassan, is on the team.
If the genes are any clue, he will represent Temple very well.

10.10.11
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The Final Word on Ball State: OUTFREAKINGSTANDING!

OK, out-freaking-standing is a hyphenated word but that was my one-word reaction watching Temple dismantle Ball State, 42-0, while sitting in a Panera Bread in Montgomeryville and getting free wireless internet.
Outfreakingstanding was not my reaction to the broken feed from the MAC corporate offices.
I missed the first two touchdowns completely while looking at a black screen that said something like “feed broken.”
Yeah, I knew that.
I also missed a nice pass to Rod Streater that set up one touchdown.
I felt bad for the kid with the hot brunette and the “Wild Cherry” T-Shirt looking over my shoulder at the black screen. Then I realized he had a hot brunette and I didn’t feel so bad for him. I told him the score was 14-0 Temple.

Steve Addazio: Pissed-off Owls

“Aww right,” he said.
They left shortly after that.
(Panera Bread is a great date place.)
Back to the game.
All week long, Temple coach Steve Addazio said that he would make things hard on the Owls because he wanted “one pissed-off team” to be playing on Saturday in Muncie.
If so, I want Addazio to do the same thing this week, the same thing next and the same thing the rest of the season.
The Owls played pissed off against Maryland and full of themselves against Toledo and it is obvious that they play a lot better pissed off.
So Daz, you have my permission (and probably those of my fellow Owl fans) to do whatever is necessary to keep pissing them off.
Some other observations:

Great job, Chester Stewart

QUARTERBACKING _ Great job by Chester Stewart. All Chester has to do is complete some downfield passes, hand the ball off to the running backs and protect the football for the Owls to run the table. Chester’s most impressive job was ball security. With this defense and this running game, ball security is vital. No interceptions. No fumbles. This game also represents the first time since I’ve been covering Temple football (30-plus years) that four (4) quarterbacks saw time. It looks like now second-teamer Chris Coyer is averaging 72 yards per carry, probably the highest ypc in all of NCAA football. Two carries and two LONG touchdowns. Nice.

The Franchise showed BSU what PSU already knows.

RUSHING GAME _ Bernard Pierce scored three touchdowns, ran 30 times for 121 yards and broke Paul Palmer’s career touchdown record (39) with his 39th, 40th and 41st career touchdowns. The stat of note now is that when Pierce carries the ball 25 times or more Temple is 15-0. Plus, Matty Brown added 114 yards including the highlight reel run of the season so far.
DEFENSE _ After giving up 36 points (mostly not their fault), people got on me about not giving the defense grief. I wrote that much of the defense’s problems last week stemmed from the two fumbles and the two interceptions and the multiple three-and-outs. I ended my summation with the phrase “in Heater I trust” and Chuck Heater and his fire-eaters came through once again. Too many of those guys played well to mention two or three. They are a group of gang-tacklers and that’s what I love second most about them. First most? Putting the quarterback on his ass, which I’ve said for years is the best pass defense ever designed by man.

Morry Mannies

BROADCAST _  Morry Mannies, the  Ball State play-by-play guy, must be old. He first called Mike Gerardi “Mark Carchitti” and then called him “Mike Carchardi.” Ugh. He also mis-pronounced many other Owl names. His sidekick said his record broadcasting Homecoming Games was “40-17.” That’s right. Forty and 17, a number that was repeated three times. Forty and 17 is 57. If this guy started out at 21, he’s at least 78. And I thought Harry Donahue was old. So if this guy is over 80, I’ve got to cut him some slack. He also said he sat through a 66-0 loss to St. Joseph’s. I assume that’s St. Joseph’s of Indiana. I’ll have to tell him someday that I sat through a 76-0 loss to Pitt once.

10.08.11
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Addazio goes for the Golden Hat Trick

Al Golden took his 0-14 record in the MAC south of the (Mason-Dixon) border.

With the Phillies finally done and the Eagles at 1-3 and no NBA and NHL not meaning squat until April, Temple football finally forges its way front and center into the consciousness of Philadelphia sports fans

The Golden Sombrero is a term loosely credited to ESPN announcer Chris Berman for describing a guy who goes 0 for 4 in baseball with four strikeouts.
It was a supposed to be a takeoff on the term “hat trick” when someone scores three goals in a game but does something ignominious instead.
So when The Golden Sombrero fits, wear it.
Today, first-year Temple coach Steve Addazio doesn’t go for the Golden Sombrero but the Golden Hat Trick.
Or, more precisely, The Al Golden Hat Trick.
Golden was not able to blow out Villanova.
Addazio was.
Check.
Golden was not able to beat an ACC team.
Addazio was.
Check.
If Addazio beats 3-2 Ball State today (2 p.m.. in Muncie, Ind.), Addazio will stop an ignominious Golden run of 0-14 against winning MAC teams. If Addazio (and Temple, of course) beats Ball State today, he will be 1-0 against winning MAC teams vs. Golden’s 0-14. That’s if Ball State finishes with a winning record, of course. (Before you get on me about Toledo, the Rockets were 1-3 coming into the Temple game.)
Can’t put the check mark next to that one yet, because it hasn’t happened for Addazio yet but that’s a mark that will haunt Golden the rest of his life.
Think about it.

Watch the Temple-Ball State game live here on your computer

Golden recruited four straight No. 1-ranked recruiting classes in the MAC with one No. 2 and could never beat a winning MAC team.
I’ve got to make only one conclusion from that: Poor game day coaching.
So good game day coaching is the way to end that streak.
That means hand the ball off to The Franchise (Bernard Pierce) and not strictly off-tackle like Addazio did last week. Get the ball in space to a great football player who messed around one spring with track and became a world-class sprinter in his spare time. It also means finding someone who can take advantage of the pressure Pierce puts on defenses by being able to complete a simple forward pass 20 yards or more  downfield.
Do that and keep the defense off the field. Keep the defense off the field and it will produce the times it is needed on the field.
This could be the start of a good Temple football run.
With the Phillies finally done and the Eagles at 1-3 and no NBA and NHL not meaning squat until April, Temple football finally forges its way front and center into the consciousness of Philadelphia sports fans.
Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
I was doing a lot of dreaming until seven days ago when Toledo’s football team woke me rather rudely from a dopamine-induced slumber.
All week after the 38-7 win over Maryland, I was kicking myself.
“Geez, we’re going to go 11-1 now and not being able to stop Penn State on a fourth-and-one is going to cost us a shot at the national championship. Could you imagine Temple winning the national championship? Temple? How great would that be?”
If allowed myself that thought one time last week, it must have been 100 times I repeated it in my head.
I thought Penn State was far and away the best team on the schedule and Maryland was a close second.
Logically, Temple could have run the table.
Logic and sports don’t always mix, though.
Ask the Phillies who, on Sept. 10, had a 94-48 record, the same day the Cardinals had a 78-67 record.
Or ask Al Golden about all those No. 1 recruiting classes adding up to an 0-14 record.
That did not compute, either.

10.06.11
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MAC Blogger Roundtable: Week 6

Our MAC blogger host this week is Alan Rucker of the excellent Ball State blog, Over The Pylon (OTP).
Alan did not want Steve Addazio as the Ball State coach  when that rumor popped up in December. Instead, he got former Lehigh coach Pete Lembo.
Addazio, I think, takes a little more talent into Muncie, Ind. to face Lembo so Saturday’s game (2 p.m.) provides a labratory to test Alan’s theory that Addazio would have been a bad choice for Ball State. If Lembo can be able to take his ‘ums and beat Addazio’s ums, that’s a pretty strong argument in his favor.
What follows below is his questions and my responses:

1.) Now that the nonconference has wrapped up for most everyone and we turn our eyes toward conference play, what did the nonconference season teach you? More importantly, what teams do you see as frontrunners thanks to their nonconference play? Any surprises?
TFF: The surprise to me is Western Michigan. Bill Cubit does a great job there. Losing at Illinois by a field goal and winning at UConn were eye-openers in addition to a 44-14 clocking of Central Michigan. WMU is going to be in the race to the end, as is Toledo. Ohio beat Marshall, 44-7, but was able to only beat Kent State by 17-10 so I think the East is wide open.
2.) It’s obviously early to be thinking about bowls, but what teams do you see going bowling? More importantly, will there be a MAC team that will surprise folks come bowl season? Where do you hope your team ends up bowling?
TFF: Western Michigan, Toledo and Temple. I hope my team goes bowling in a place not named Detroit or Boise.
3.) Again, it’s early, but are there any coaches on the hotseat that should be working their resume? Any MAC coaches you see moving on to greener pastures come season’s end?
I would think an Akron coach is wishing he was back as a BCS assistant. I don’t see why Cubit never got a chance at a BCS program.

4.) With all the talk of conference expansion and the assumption that WVU or Missou is the next to switch conferences, what do you see happening to the MAC? Any teams living? Where to? If teams vacate, how should the MAC respond?
TFF: I think the MAC should lock up the teams within its footprint, like Memphis and Marshall. UMass is just not going to work out, playing games in a pro stadium 100 miles away from the main campus. Temple plays in a pro stadium, but only four miles away from the main campus.
5.) While football is a team game, sometimes it’s about individual efforts. Who has had the most impact individually for your squad? Sort of the same line of thinking, but contingent on your own needs and roster, what other MAC player would you like to switch out for one of your own?
TFF: I’ll take the Miami quarterback, Zac Dysert, for a player to be named later.
6.) Power poll time, baby. First to worst… rank ’em

Toledo
Western Michigan
Temple
Ohio
Northern Illinois
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Ball State
Buffalo
Eastern Michigan
Miami
Kent
Akron
PICKS THIS WEEK:
First the good news. We got seven out of nine games right, straight up homey. ATS, not so good. Three out of six. Buffalo screwed us losing by 31 (the spread was 29). Our only two losses straight up were Temple and Northern Illinois. We did get our one upset special correct. Rutgers was a three-point underdog and we picked RU to both win and cover.
Straight up
Last week: 7-2
Season 29-15
Against the spread:
Last week: 3-6
Season: 21-19
THIS WEEK (point spreads are from Monday’s Daily News):
(team in caps is picked to cover the spread)
ARMY (pick) at Miami (Ohio) _ Bookies made this an even game. This is a very tough one. I will pick the Cadets because they’ve had some success, beating Northwestern of the Big 10 and hammering Tulane. But I would not bet this game to save my life.
Temple at BALL STATE (10 1/2) _ I don’t see Chester Stewart turning the scoreboard into an adding machine, so I’m picking Ball State to cover the double-digits and Temple to win something like a 14-10, 13-10 game. Of course, if Mike Gerardi comes in there and throws a couple of deep balls to open things up for Bernard Pierce underneath, this could be a 29-13 game. I’m thinking Daz is not inclinced to pull the trigger, as Al Golden was, so this game will be closer than it should.
WESTERN MICHIGAN (11) vs. Bowling Green _ Cubit has this team playing too well right now. WMU, 31-10.
FIU (20) at Akron _ Florida International beat Louisville and Central Florida and should have no trouble covering the 20 spot vs. the Zips. FIU, 30-7.
Eastern Michigan at TOLEDO (20) _Rockets could put up 34 or more. I don’t see EMU putting up more than 10. Toledo, 35-10.
CENTRAL MICHIGAN at North Carolina State (12 1/2) _ My upset special No. 1 this week. NC State is the most unimpressive 2-3 team in the land, with wins over Liberty and South Alabama. Chips win this game outright, 20-13 and cover the 12 1/2.
KENT STATE at Northern Illinois (17) _ After coming off a strong performance in a 17-10 loss to Ohio, I see Kent State getting a little better with the number being slightly high. Northern Illinois, 31-20.
OHIO (7 1/2) at Buffalo _ Bobcats have no trouble covering the 7 1/2, winning, 27-14.
(POINT SPREAD) UPSET SPECIAL No. 2
I like to go for value when I look outside the MAC and I think Maryland getting 14 1/2 at Georgia Tech is a tremendous value. First of all, Maryland’s value was skewed by a loss to Temple but it still hung tough with West Virginia and beat Miami (Fla.). Also, Ga. Tech only beat a bad North Carolina State team by 10. Georgia Tech wins this game but by only 31-24.

10.04.11
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It’s time to forget the Big East


BSU did something this year a TU team hasn’t done since 1990: Beat a Big 10 team.

I did not go to Harvard, but at least I went to the place my professor, Norm Kaner, called “Harvard on The Delaware.”
Kaner taught a course at Temple called “Sports in American Society.” It was a cake elective. A football player sat beside me, in front of me and to the left of me.
When I heard the greatest kickoff returner in the United States, James Nixon, flunked out of school this summer, I wish he knew about Kaner’s Sports in America course. With that course and Basket Weaving 101, he’d still be here.

Mike Gerardi threw a nice deep ball against Villanova and Akron, but he seems like a forgotten man now and I don’t know why


Despite the easy elective, Professor Kaner was a very smart man. While most (err, many) of my fellow Temple fans have spent the past few weeks gnashing their teeth over whether or not the Owls will be invited into the Big East, I used my Harvard on the Delaware education to figure something out this week.
Simply, the clear message is forget the Big East.
Don’t get me wrong.
It would be nice to be wanted, but that’s not the most important thing right now.
The most important thing right now is beating Ball State, not going to the Big East, not winning the MAC, not even becoming the “Boise State of the East” but beating Ball State.
Beat Ball State and it becomes possible to win the MAC and win the MAC and it becomes possible to expand horizons beyond the MAC.
Lose to Ball State and the wheels come off the Temple bandwagon very fast. With one MAC loss already, it’s going to be difficult if not impossible to win the MAC East with two losses. This fragile fan base will collapse, too.
None of this is going to be easy, starting Saturday (2 p.m.) in Muncie, Ind.
Before Temple played Toledo, I thought the Owls really had a chance to be the “Boise State of the East.”
Then I saw the difference between Temple and Boise State was as big as the gap between the abilities of one Kellen Moore and one Chester Stewart.
Huge.
Boise State beat Toledo, 40-15, and Moore hit receivers 40 yards downfield like he was handing off to them. Toledo beat Temple, 36-13, and Stewart tried to hit receivers 20 yards away with the kind of futility that made you think they were 2,000 yards away.
Big difference.
That’s why this is going to be a tough game on Saturday. I don’t see the Owls’ offense getting a whole lot of separation from Ball State, like the high-octane offense of Oklahoma, because the Owls can’t hit an open receiver 20 yards downfield to save their lives.
Temple lost to Penn State, 14-10.
Indiana lost to Penn State, 16-10.
Ball State beat Indiana, 27-20.
Forget about Ball State’s double-digit losses to South Florida and Oklahoma. Those are teams with sophisticated passing games. Temple’s passing game, the last couple of weeks at least, is something out of the Teddy Roosevelt Era.
With Steve Addazio sticking with Chester Stewart, it tells you that he doesn’t have any other options. Or at least he doesn’t think he has any other options. Mike Gerardi threw a nice deep ball against Villanova and Akron, but he seems like a forgotten man now and I don’t know why. Gerardi’s ability to throw deep opens everything up for Bernard Pierce underneath.
Temple isn’t going to get it done with a lot of short passes, like it did against Maryland. Toledo figured that out. Going forward, Ball State and others probably will figure it out, too.
I’m not exonerating the defense against Toledo but if your offense continually goes three-and-out, it’s going to take both a psychological and physical toll.
That means, if Temple wins this game, it is going to be a low-scoring, 13-10, 21-14, type game. Temple is going to have to win this game on the defensive side of the ball.
Forget the Big East.
At least until Sunday.

10.02.11
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Addazio needs to find a can opener


In this video, SA goes into a lengthy explanation of why one QB was taken out with a lead against Penn State, yet another was allowed to remain in to throw fuel on Toledo’s fire …. NOT!!! Just a few lobbed softball questions.

Bill Parcells said a lot of things best, but this is one of his gems:
“If you are going cook the dinner, they better let you buy the groceries.”
Al Golden was fond of another saying:
“I’m going to build a house of brick, not straw.”
Much to Golden’s credit, he not only built that house with a fine kitchen but  he also stocked it with some pretty nice groceries for the next cook, Steve Addazio.
What Golden forgot to do was get a can opener. He recruited a lot of terrific players, but he swung and missed at the most important position on the field.
There are a lot of nice moving parts on this Temple football team, but one of them is not a quarterback.
At least not yet.
I thought about that a lot while watching Chester Stewart go 9 for 9 in a 38-7 win over Maryland a week ago.
While the euphoria of beating an ACC team was nice, I noted to a friend on the bus home that Chester did not throw a ball farther than nine yards. All nine completions finished with longer than five-yard gains, but not a single throw covered more than nine yards. All were RACs (runs after catches).
“That’s somewhat disconcerting,” I said. “Other coaches are going to be watching that film and game planning to get him to throw deep. The film don’t lie.”
Watching Chester Stewart play for four years, it has become painfully obvious to me that he can throw the ball deep but rarely come close to hitting anybody. He’s got a gun for an arm, but no scope.

I hated it when Penn State and Maryland fans did not give credit to Temple so I’m going to give a whole lot of credit to Toledo


The play chart told the story of Temple’s 36-13 loss to Toledo on Saturday.
With Temple facing a third-and-goal at the Toledo 9, the Owls elected to go with a swing pass that looked like a glorified lateral. That’s a telling call by a pretty good offensive coordinator named Scot Loeffler.
Obviously, either Loeffler or head coach Steve Addazio does not have confidence in his quarterback to throw the ball into the end zone on a third-and-goal.

I found it rather curious that one QB gets taken out while LEADING Penn State, yet another QB gets left in there to throw fuel on the fire of a Toledo conflagration


If they don’t, then maybe they should have tried another quarterback.
Or maybe they don’t have confidence in any quarterback Golden put on his shelf.
On another play in the first half, Rod Streater made a terrific double-move to get 10 yards behind his defender and Stewart either did not see him or was so locked into the middle of the field that he threw an interception. Chester seems to play with blinders on way too many times and that’s not good for a quarterback who should be able to see the entire field in a split second.

I haven’t felt good about a TU QB
since this guy was under center.
I hope I feel as good about the next one.

Also, the Owls have gotten away from tossing the ball on pitchouts to Bernard Pierce, where he can use his world-class speed to beat defenders to the outside. Twenty-two of Pierce’s 24 carries were between the tackles on Saturday. I would think about getting Pierce into open space, rather than run him up the gut but maybe I’m crazy.
Addazio says in the above video that he “liked the way (Stewart) competed.”
It’s one thing to compete.
It’s another thing to make plays.
I found it rather curious that one QB gets taken out while LEADING Penn State, yet another QB gets left in there to throw fuel on the fire of a Toledo conflagration.
Temple needs a quarterback who can make plays and see wide-open receivers farther than five yards downfield.
The film don’t lie. Toledo coach Tim Beckman saw the same thing I did.
Give credit to Toledo. There were two teams on that field Saturday. The way to beat a “Temple TUFF” team is through a lot of “trickeration” and I thought the Rockets did that extremely well, taking advantage of Temple’s defensive pursuit with misdirection. I hated it when Penn State and Maryland fans did not give credit to Temple so I’m going to give a whole lot of credit to Toledo.
So did Addazio.
Still, quarterback is the most important position on the field.
Right now, until Addazio can recruit one of those fancy spread offense can openers, Temple needs a guy who is good at play-action faking and throws a nice deep ball. He needs someone who will take care of the ball, two interceptions vs. Penn State notwithstanding.
That guy did not start on Saturday.
Hopefully, Addazio will check out the film a little more closely this week and make the same change Golden was forced to make in the first quarter of the Bowling Green game last year.
Otherwise, this dinner party that started out so well is going to cause some unexpected indigestion.

09.29.11
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MAC Blogger Roundtable: Week 5


Steve Addazio gives Temple fans a healthy dose of Vitamin A.





Add Toledo to the list of MAC teams screwed by Big East refs.

  
As a MAC fan, I’m still steaming from the Big East ripping off Toledo at Syracuse.
As a Temple fan, it was UConn redux.
Official makes an incorrect call, then the BIG EAST replay official blows an obvious call.
Both times, the Big East apologized to the MAC teams for making the mistake.
If that doesn’t prove Big East replay officials are corrupt or incompetent, I don’t know what does.
Now onto the MAC blogger roundtable, hosted by Eagle Totem (Eastern Michigan).
My answers are highlighted in yellow below:
1. What team and what player has been the biggest upside (better than expected) surprise so far? What team and what player has been the biggest disappointment so far?

Bernard Pierce has been the best Temple player, but that’s expected. The Temple player with the biggest upside (unexpected by most) to me, has been cornerback Anthony Robey, a redshirt freshman. He has been a lock-down cover and brings attitude to the job. It also helps to run a 4.3 40. I can’t think of a disappointing player on Temple. I haven’t seen much of the league outside Temple, so I can’t comment on that.

2. Evaluate your team’s performance, relative to your pre-season expectations?
I thought Temple would be 3-1, but with a win over Penn State, followed by a letdown loss to Maryland. As it turned out, the PSU loss pissed off the Owls so much they played with an incredible fire against Maryland that resulted in a 38-7 win.

3. What is one key thing you’ll be watching for over the next four games?

To see if Ohio, Temple, Northern Illinois or Toledo is capable of separating from the rest of the pack.

4. Although the PAC-12 seems to have put the breaks to the whole affair for now, how do you see conference realignment affecting the MAC?
I don’t see the MAC losing more than one team.

5. If you could pick two (at least somewhat realistic) teams to join the MAC for football as a result of conference realignment or advancement from a lower division, what teams would you pick?

I’d like to see one of the Florida teams (FIU, realistically) join the MAC along with Marshall, which makes a lot more sense for the MAC than it does in the CUSA. Marshall adds a value to the MAC than UMass doesn’t.

6. Rank ’em.

Temple
Ohio
Toledo
Northern Illinois
Bowling Green
Western Michigan
Miami
Ball State
Buffalo
Eastern Michigan
Miami
Kent
Akron
This week’s picks:
Last week, was a bad week.
Picking football is a little like the stock market. You are going to have bad weeks, but just don’t have a bad year.
We were 3-5 straight up and 2-6 against the spread. One of those losses was when the Big East refs screwed Toledo. We had picked Toledo both against the spread and straight up. Another came when Penn State up, 31-0, allowed Eastern Michigan to cover the 29-point spread by a point, 34-6.
Last week:
SU: 3-5
ATS: 2-6
Record for the season:
SU: 22-13
ATS: 18-13
This week’s picks, lines courtesy of Tuesday’s USA Today (HOME team in CAPS):
TEMPLE 35 (7), Toledo 21 _ I’m a believer now. Steve Addazio has the Owls focused. Last week was an incredible focus job after a bitter disappointment.
WEST VIRGINIA 34 (20 1/2), Bowling Green 24 _ No way WVU covers the 20 1/2 against a team that can score like the Faclons.
TENNESSEE 35 (29), Buffalo 7 _ The number seems a little high to me. Buffalo has a decent defense and should barely cover the high number.
EASTERN MICHIGAN 17 (9), Akron 14 _ If Akron has a chance to win a game, this is it. I believe the Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore, will keep them in this one.
Cincinnati 29 (13 1/2), MIAMI (Ohio) 13 _ Big rivalry game, bigger difference in the talent.
OHIO 40 (15 1/2) Kent State 15 _ Bobcats both cover the number and the over/under of 47 1/2.
Northern Illinois 30 (9 1/2), CENTRAL MICHIGAN 17 _ Huskies have the ability to put up points in bunches. Chips don’t.
OKLAHOMA 45 (37 1/2), Ball State 10 _ I know Oklahoma is No. 1 but 37 1/2 is too much to give up.
UPSET SPECIAL:
We will go out of the MAC for this week’s upset special. Syracuse is a 3-point favorite at home against Rutgers. Scarlet Knights will win this one by 10, unless the Big East refs miss three good field goals. Rutgers, 24-14.

09.28.11
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The Philly Pro $ports Media


Listen to the answer at the 5:19 mark. Do you love this guy or what?

Not a good day for the old Chevy Cavalier on Tuesday.
Went jogging for a couple of hours then, just as the sun was setting, I turned the ignition over and nothing happened.
I got the car towed to Pep Boys, sat in there for an hour and the guy came up to me and said: “Sorry I won’t be able to get to it tonight. It looks like a fuel pump. I don’t have enough mechanics.”
So I had to take the 96 bus from Montgomery Mall to the Lansdale train station, get off at the Jenkintown train station to hop another train to Somerton and the 58 bus home.
While at Pep Boys, though, I was able to read up on the coverage the Temple Owls received in The Daily News the past couple of days.
It took me all of seven minutes to read one story, only part of it was devoted to Temple’s 38-7 win at Maryland.
As impressed as I was with the Owls on Saturday, that’s how unimpressed I was with the Daily News over the last two days.
Let’s start with Monday first.

The theme of Mike Kern’s story was not to praise Temple, but bury Maryland. He even put Maryland into his “Fraud Five.” Why? For losing to Temple? That is a not well-disguised rip at Temple.


Temple was coming off the biggest BCS win possibly in its non-BCS history and both the back and the front covers had full-page Eagles’ photos.
Sixteen (that’s right, 16) more pages of Eagles followed, then a page devoted to the Jets-Raiders and the “NFC East this week” followed by another page of “around the league”  and two more pages of “NFL scoreboard”, three Phillies pages, a page devoted to an NBA pickup game and another page for the Flyers.
Finally, I find Temple on page 67 and that’s twenty-nine (right, 29) pages into the sports section.
The theme of Mike Kern’s story was not to praise Temple, but bury Maryland. He even put Maryland into his “Fraud Five.”
Why?

The Inquirer’s Keith Pompey has done a fantastic job. Last year, Kevin Tatum wrote one short story on each Temple game and used the quotes handed out on printed sheets by the SID. Pompey busted his stones and wrote three outstanding stories on the win over Maryland.


For losing to Temple? That is a not well-disguised rip at Temple. If Kern felt Temple was good, there was no reason to put Maryland in the Fraud Five. He provided no real good explanation for the rip.
How is Maryland not a fraud for beating Miami (Fla.) and a fraud for losing to Temple?
It’s not like Maryland was beaten by a bad team. What Temple is Kern going by, the Temple of 30 years ago?
He certainly is not going by the Temple that is 16-0 when Bernard Pierce gets the ball 18 or more times a game. Or maybe he just doesn’t know that fact.
Tuesday’s DN was worse.
Four pages of Eagles’ coverage was followed by four pages of Phillies coverage.
Another page was devoted to college basketball and the next page was high school football.
Not a single word about the Temple Owls.
I can see the interest in the Eagles, but it has become ad naseum.
An Eagle sneezes at the Nova Care Center and Comcast reports on it and hands the guy a tissue.
Sports talk radio is even worse.
Thank God for the great coverage in the Philadelphia Inquirer, with a front-page of the paper photo followed by the lede story and photo on the cover of the sports section Sunday as well.
The Inquirer’s Keith Pompey has done a fantastic job. Last year, Kevin Tatum wrote one short story on each Temple game and used the quotes handed out on printed sheets by the SID.
Pompey busted his stones and wrote three outstanding stories on the win over Maryland.
The Daily News, when it comes to Temple, is no better than fish rap.
The DN has, like my car, a broken story pump when it comes to providing even a smidgen of fairness in its coverage.
It’s not worth the dollar.

09.25.11
by

We’ve come a long way, baby

Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw hugs Steve Addazio for doing something Al Golden could not do: Beat Maryland.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. _ A very wise person once said that for a good perspective, just open your eyes and take a look at what is happening around you.

All TU fans are
going in Heaven
right now
A few years ago, I wrote this story that appeared in The Philadelphia Daily News about all Temple football fans going to Heaven. Heck, I don’t know what Heaven is like but if it’s anything like Byrd Stadium was today, it must be a pretty good place.

I thought a lot about that today while watching my friend, Matt Cohen, take a shot of the scoreboard in the closing seconds of Temple’s 38-7 win at Maryland’s beautiful Byrd Stadium.
I remember when Matt, his brother, I and a handful of other Temple die-hards sat in Veterans Stadium and then Lincoln Financial Field watching some God-awful Temple teams, including Bobby Wallace squads of 0-11 and 1-11.
I remember many of those same faces tailgating in the rain before the final game of that 0-11 season, a 41-14 loss to the Fake Miami (that’s Ohio).
“You watch,” I told the handful of people left in the empty parking lot. “One day there will be a guy who leads us out of this mess.”
I saw many of those same faces in Section B at Byrd Stadium today.
They believed.

Statement by Steve Addazio:
“What you’re asking me is where is our football team at? I’ll tell you where we’re at right now. I’m really proud of this right now. I’m proud of the city we play in. We play in one of the greatest sports cities there is in America. We play in one of the best venues in the Linc in the country. We play a non-conference schedule – Maryland, Penn State, Notre Dame coming to town. We do that right now.

“We had 57,000 fans for our game against Penn State, over 40,000 Temple fans, last week and 12,000 Temple students. Two weeks before, against a I-AA opponent Villanova, we had over 30,000 fans to their 2,000 – 8,500 Temple students – and the atmosphere at Lincoln Financial was electric.

“Temple, now, guys and gals, has got 12,000 students going to 15,000. Everybody talks about back days, I don’t know why. Back days it was a commuter school. We have a $10 million football facility going on at our place and we’re a proud academic institution, one of the higher ranked ones in the country. If you’re asking me where’s our program, we’re doing it right now. We have attendance. Our TV numbers were higher than they were in Big Ten.

“I’m not a guy that’s much for B.S. I’m a guy based on facts and what is. What is is we’re a hard-playing team, we took a BCS win today. We went nose-to-nose with a BCS team last week. We have a great home-field crowd right now and Philadelphia has passion for college football like it never has before and we’re in the fourth-largest media market in the country, so what that means is not my concern.”

It was not a baseless belief.
“It happened before,” I said back then, telling them there was once a savior named Wayne Hardin. “It can happen again.”
That new savior was Al Golden.
His good looks, dogged personality and impeccable organizational skills led Temple out of these hedgerows. He was able to charm moms into sending their talented sons to play at Temple.
Now Steve Addazio and his SEC staff is leading a General Patton-like charge to bigger and better things.

 Golden wasn’t perfect.
He was a micromanger who did not trust his coordinators to formulate a winning game plan because his coordinators were, quite frankly, buddies from his college days.
Addazio hired two of the best coordinators out there, Chuck Heater for the defense and Scot Loeffler for the offense, and is letting those guys do their job.
That’s the way a good CEO runs any organization. Hire the best possible people for upper-level management positions and let them do their jobs.


Chuck Heater was defensive coordinator at 12-0 Utah. His work as defensive coordinator at Florida was so impressive that, last year, no less an authority than Urban Meyer said: “I call Chuck Heater Mother Theresa because he’s worked wonders with our defense.”

Scot Loeffler was quarterback coach at Michigan when Tom Brady was there and quarterback coach of Tim Tebow at Florida.
Both those guys know their stuff.
It has shown so far.


Photo by Matt Cohen



Heater plays an attacking-style defense, believing, as I always have, the best pass defense is putting a quarterback on his backside. Maryland’s talented quarterback, Danny O’Brien, did not have room to breathe, let alone look for receivers.

Loeffler establishes the run behind one of the great running backs in college football and plays off his skills by keeping the defense honest with play-action waggle passes to an All-MAC first-team tight end and an occasional shot down the field, again off play-action.
This is a team that will not be outcoached.
The results, then, should not be surprising.
 

Temple is two minutes away from being 4-0 with wins over an upper-tier Big 10 team and a solid ACC team. If you don’t think Maryland is solid, the Terrapins beat The Real Miami, 32-24. The Real Miami beat Ohio State, 24-6.
That’s solid.
So is Temple.
The Owls have what I believe is the best running back in the United States in Bernard Pierce. All Bernard did was carry the ball 32 times for 149 yards and a school-record five touchdowns. Bernard leads the nation in touchdowns.
I wrote before the season that 20 touchdowns and 2,000 yards are attainable goals for BP and he has made me look good so far.
Temple did something today it never has before: Both beat Maryland and beat an ACC team.
From the perspective of looking at this team and their fans, it’s just a starting point.
09.23.11
by

Steve Addazio vs. Al Golden

Al Golden’s first Miami press conference lasted 49 minutes, during which he never uttered the word “Temple” once.

TU Fact 1:
Temple has seven wins
over schools currently
in the ACC; none while
they were in the ACC

If you make the trip with me to Maryland tomorrow, you will notice the game program says: Temple vs. Maryland.
Very true.
The subtitle, though, should say Steve Addazio vs. Al Golden.
We really don’t know if Steve Addazio is a better coach than Al Golden right now.

TU fact No. 2
Temple is 15-0
with Bernard Pierce
getting 16 carries
or more

However, we could all get a much better handle on that come 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
Bum Phillips, the colorful former coach of the then Houston Oilers, once said:
“The sign of a great coach is that he can take your ‘ums and beat his ‘ums and he can beat his ‘ums with your ‘ums.”
Steve Addazio has a chance to prove that against Maryland.
If Al Golden, with arguably better talent than Temple, can’t beat Maryland with his Miami group and Steve Addazio CAN beat Maryland with, err, lesser talent that could go a long way toward proving once and for all that Steve Addazio is the better game coach than Al Golden.
If not prove conclusively, than it would be a pretty good Exhibit A in any case to be made for Daz vs. Golden.
Many of the Daz fans, me included, were duly impressed with Addazio doing to Villanova what Golden was not able to do _ blow them out. Yet that body of work can be argued to be inconclusive since Villanova was in a rebuilding year.
Add a win over Maryland with a blowout of Villanova and you can make an argument that this is an open-and-shut case.
It might even cause one set of eyebrows at The U to be raised.