By Mike Gibson
Back on Media Day, Temple quarterback Adam DiMichele said, “we’re only a couple of days away from starting special.”
DiMichele was talking about a season of headlines.
One of those headlines is in, the Hartford Courant’s simple “Temple Routs Army” telling the story of the opening-day 35-7 win over the Cadets slightly better than the Philadelphia Daily News’ “Temple Football Opens with a 35-7 Win at Army” or the Philadelphia Inquirer’s “Owls Storm West Point in Triumphant Opener.”
Those are the headlines that were.
These are the headlines that could be in the coming weeks and months:
Sunday, Sept. 7 _ Owls slog out a 6-0 win in torrential rainstorm _ The UConn fans who returned roughly half of the school’s ticket allotment must have known something. Hurricane Hanna made a run right up the East Coast and arrived in Philadelphia just in time for the 8 a.m. pre-game tailgate. Temple abandoned its no-huddle offense and went to a pro-set two-back attack. Backup tailback Ahkeem Smith shined, gaining 167 yards and scoring the Owls’ touchdown on a 22-yard run in the first quarter. UConn quarterback Tyler Lorenzen was stopped on fourth down at the Temple 2 as the clocked rolled down to zeros in the final quarter, but Big East officials awarded him the touchdown anyway. As several Temple fans headed toward the replay booth with baseball bats in hand, MAC officials quickly overturned the call. “It used to rain like this in Bethlehem all the time,” a beaming Smith said afterward. “I love it.” Owls’ kicker Jake Brownell slips in the mud and misses the extra point.
“Harper killed us again,” UConn coach Randy Edsall said, not knowing Jason Harper is no longer No. 34 for the Owls. Surveying the damage to the field post game, Eagles’ owner Jeffrey Lurie was rushed to Thomas Jefferson Hospital with chest pains and did not make the opener with the Rams.
Sunday, Sept. 14 _ Owls exact messure of revenge _ The number 12 was lucky for Owls. With the No. 12 on their helmets, the Owls beat host Buffalo by the same score, 26-14. Afterward, reporters found out why No. 12 was on the helmet. It wasn’t to honor redshirt quarterback Vaughn Charlton but to help the Owls remember what Buffalo’s No. 12, junior defensive back Kendric Hawkins, said after last year’s game. “We punched them in the mouth and they quit,” Hawkins said then. Owls ran several sweeps in Hawkins’ direction and pulling guard Andre Douglas pancaked him on one Marquise Liverpool touchdown run. Defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio unleashed the dogs of war on Buffalo quarterback Drew Willy, calling for several blindside blitzes that buried Willy. “I never saw them,” Willy said. “I don’t know about punching them in the mouth,” D’Onofrio said. “But I did see him bleeding a couple of times. This is bigger than UConn. Much bigger.”
Sunday, Sept. 21 _ Penn State’s Season Goes Down the Toilet _ Penn State coach Joe Paterno was seen running off the field four times during Temple’s stunning 28-21 win in State College. Remarkably, the Owls scored all four of their touchdowns during Paterno’s bathroom breaks. “Guys, I take Flo-Max, OK,” the 81-year-old Paterno said. “I forgot to do that this morning and it came back to bite me. I heard some cheers and a whole lot of moans while I was in the head. I figured something was going on. How did Temple score?” Paterno was later told Travis Shelton took the opening kickoff of the second half for a touchdown and former Penn State recruit Adam DiMichele tossed three more touchdown passes. “We pick up the biggest win in the school’s history and I know the headline in the Philadelphia paper is going to be Penn State loses and not us winning,” Temple coach Al Golden accurately said afterward.
Sunday, Sept. 28 _ Owls remain unbeaten with 16-3 win over Broncos _ A Homecoming Day crowd of 65,478 greets the Owls after their win over Penn State. Ironically, Jimmy Rollins was honored at halftime for his attendance at Temple basketball games and takes the microphone. Rollins was at the game because he was injured running out a foul ball and could not play for the Phillies. “You guys are front-runners,” Rollins said, adding, “just kidding.” Everyone laughed. Temple’s defense dominated.
Sunday, Oct. 5 _ Owls move one step closer to MAC East title _ In a repeat performance of last year, Temple beat Miami, 24-17. This time, it was closer as the Owls’ Eric Reynolds scored on a 67-yard punt return in the fourth quarter to break a tie. “This is why we practice all over the place,” Golden said. “I told the guys we have to learn to win anywhere and they’ve adopted that mindset.”
Sunday, Oct. 12 _ Owls hand Central Michigan first loss _ Long touchdown runs by Joey Jones, Marquise Liverpool and Ahkeem Smith gave Temple a 21-0 halftime lead and the Owls coasted past the defending champions, 35-14, before a stunned crowd of 18,568. “Where did those guys come from?” Central Michigan coach Butch Jones said. “I read MAC Report Online and they never said the Temple runners were that good.” After the game, Joe Jones legally changes his first name to Joey. “That’s in honor of coach,” Jones said, pointing to Golden.
Wednesday, Oct. 21 _ Owls hammer Ohio, 41-0 _ ESPN Game Day makes a special trip to the rare Tuesday night game with Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit throwing bouquets at the Owls as several thousand Temple students ham it up for the cameras in the background. Corso interviews former Temple kicker Cap Poklemba, who arrives to the halftime set in a Dr. Suess hat. “You lead the cheers,” Corso said. “I understand you led the cheers when no one was here. It must be sweet.”
“Lee, you don’t know the half of it,” Poklemba said. “It’s sweeter than sweet.”
Owls go to 8-0 and move into the top 20 for the first time since 1979.
Sunday, Nov. 2 _ Owls sink Navy, 21-14 _ Temple uses experience gained from stopping Army’s option to stopping the Middies as well. “I don’t know how to say this diplomatically, but I think they found out we’re not Towson,” Golden said. Owls go to 9-0 and Philadelphia radio station WIP announces that it will now take calls on Temple football.
Thursday, Nov. 13 _ Owls sack Kent State, 21-7 _ Temple’s defense finds diminutive quarterback Julian Edelman for nine sacks in the win. “Those guys are so tall I couldn’t see over them, so I tried to duck for a view downfield and, by then, they had me,” Edelman said. “It’s frustrating.” D’Onofrio: “We weren’t going to let a midget beat us.” Temple goes to 10-0 and DiMichele and Golden make the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Sunday, Nov. 23 _ Owls give Eastern Michigan an empty feeling, 28-0 _ Before an announced crowd of 5,234 that looked like 534, the Owls coasted to a routine road win. “We’re not used to this,” DiMichele said. “It was like playing in library but, like coach says, you need to be prepared to win everywhere. Man, I didn’t know it was this cold in Michigan.” Owls go to 11-0 and clinch the MAC East title by a full game over Bowling Green.
Saturday, Nov. 29 _ Record crowd sends Owls off to MAC title game _ Temple tunes up for the Dec. 5 MAC title game with a 26-7 win over Akron before a record crowd of 71,222. “It’s the beginning of a new tradition in Philadelphia,” Golden said. “Everybody goes to a Thanksgiving Day game on Thursday and our game on Friday. I saw a lot of turkey sandwiches in the stands.” Owls spend two hours going around the stadium and high-fiving the fans afterward. Owls go to 12-0 and are mentioned as a possible BCS Bowl game foe.
Saturday, Dec. 5 _ Owls beat Central Michigan for MAC title _ Using the no-huddle offense Temple last used in the opening game against Army, Temple befuddles Central Michigan in a 35-25 win. “It’s my fault,” Central Michigan coach Butch Jones said. “In our game against them earlier, they pounded us running the ball. I thought they’d do the same thing so we practiced using an eight-man line. Then they go no-huddle. We got outcoached.” Unbeaten Temple named as foe for once-beaten LSU in 2009 Fiesta Bowl.
Saturday, Jan. 10 _ Tigers topple Temple, 22-17, for National Title _ In an eerie end to the game at the Fiesta Bowl, DiMichele finds Bruce Francis in the back of the end zone for an apparent score but he is ruled out of bounds. Fox Replays from several angles show Francis clearly caught the ball but LSU fans insist Francis bobbled the ball. “If he bobbled the ball, why is there no video anywhere of him bobbling the ball?” Golden asks. On ESPN afterward, Corso rips the officials and says both the BCS refs and the BCS replay officials are corrupt.
“As far as I’m concerned, Temple is the national champion,” Corso says.

Eric Reynolds is No. 9 in this video.
By Mike Gibson
Webster’s dictionary refers to a hypothesis as an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument.
I had a couple of belly laughs and had to shake my head from side to side when I read interpretations relating to how well the Temple University football team will do based on faulty logic.
One fan in particular caught my eye on the Boneyard, UConn’s message board. He stated the Owls’ running game won’t be that good because “Harper is no longer on the team.”
Well, (Jason) Harper is on the team but the guy who gained over 100 yards against the UConn defense was moved to wide receiver because every member of the Temple coaching staff, Al Golden included, thought that with the influx of exception talent coming in that Harper could do no better than be the fifth running back.
That’s right. Five.

They liked Harper’s blocking ability and speed so much they thought they might try him at wideout.
Well, those wideouts are pretty good, too, and Harper is having a tough time cracking the 1-2. No doubt Jason will be a valuable member of the Owls on special teams and that’s fine because he has a nose for the football and wants to help out wherever he can.
I had to laugh again when someone who should know better wrote that he “has some concerns” about the Owls’ inexperience at running back. The guy writes the MAC blog for PhillyBurbs.com but, when it comes to Temple, he doesn’t really have a good grip on how things really are on North Broad Street.
If his opinion is reflective of the rest of the MAC _ and from reading the MAC message boards it pretty much is _ he has no idea of what about is to hit him. Or, more precisely, no idea of how hard a time MAC teams will have trying to hit those inexperienced guys.
Let’s see. When you have four guys coming in who are better than the No. 1 back of last year, that’s not much cause for concern.
Inexperience?
Ha.
All over the NCAA, true and redshirt freshman running backs have been making an impact for years.
It will be no different at Temple.
Here’s the current tailback depth chart, subject to change right up until Friday night’s kickoff at Army:
MARQUISE LIVERPOOL _ The 5-11, 195-pound sophomore from Ramsey, N.J. was a SuperPrep All-American at wide receiver playing at Don Bosco High School in 2004, where he was rated the No. 23 high school receiver in the nation his senior year. Signed letter-of-intent with Boston College, but elected to play pro baseball instead. Now back with football. Showed his open field running ability by taking five punt returns for touchdowns during his senior year.
JOE JONES _ Listed as a co-No. 1 on the depth chart now with Liverpool, the 5-11, 206-pound Jones, a redshirt freshman, was the most heralded tailback out of talent-rich Broward County (Fla.). As a senior at South Broward High, Jones had 98 carries for 989 yards and 23 TDs. Was All-Miami Herald first-team running back. Turned down a solid offer from South Florida to sign with the Owls.
AHKEEM SMITH _ Scored 50 (that’s right, five zero) touchdowns as a junior and senior at Bethlehem Liberty, one of the marquee programs in the Lehigh Valley. The 6-0, 190-pound true freshman has been compared to the Minnesota Vikings’ Adrian Peterson in running style by Temple quarterback Adam DiMichele. As a senior, he rushed for 1,010 yards and scored 23 touchdowns. As a junior had even better stats for the District 11 Class AAAA (large school) champs, with 27 touchdowns and 1,340 yards.
ERIC REYNOLDS _ The 5-10, 192-pound true freshman enters Temple with spectacular credentials as well. Reynolds was Associated Press first-team all-state at running back and it’s easy to see why. The Central Bucks South product was Pennsylvania Football News’ 2007 state football player of the year (large school division) and the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Southeastern Pennsylvania player of the year. As a senior, he led the Titans to an 11-1 record by rushing for 2,830 yards and 38 touchdowns.
Yeah, I’m concerned about the inexperience at running back and the fact that Jason Harper is not running with the first team anymore.
Real concerned.
Father forgive these doubting Thomases. They have no idea of what is about to hit them.
Or what they soon won’t be able to hit.

By Mike Gibson
About five minutes after Al Golden arrived on campus, he dropped a couple of what one reporter termed as “Goldenisms.”
I prefer to call them Golden Nuggets.
Like, “we’re going to keep pounding that rock until it breaks” (referring to a long losing streak) or “I’m going to build a house of brick, not straw” (talking about avoiding the quick fix to build a solid structure of a program at Temple University.
Things haven’t changed much in Year Three.

At Media Day, Golden polished off a freshly baked batch:

On offensive lineman Devin Tyler: “We’re all pleased that he finally bought into the program and finally figured it out. He was one of the last holdouts.”
On a won/loss goal: “Our only goal is to execute and finish every day, every play. That sounds like a cop out but, if we do that, we’ll have success in the end.”
On the MAC media’s fifth-place prediction: “We want to finish first or second in everything we do, from recruiting to everything else. As for that (prediction), we finished fifth last year. I don’t think anybody could think that would fit (well) for us, intuitively.”
On the fierce competition for spots: “Nine or 10 linebackers are going to want to get on the bus (to Army) and we’re going to only have room for four. So you can imagine how fierce that competition is. If some of them are going to make the bus, it’s going to be on special teams.”
On the turnover in the starting lineup: “We played with a lot of guys this year who are not starters for us this year and that’s a good sign for our team.”
On preparation for Army: “Today was the first day we looked at Army and (Thursday) will be the first day we’ll practice for Army. Nine days is more than enough time.”
On the fans’ hype with the UConn game: “We’re not even thinking about UConn. We’re taking one day at a time. Today, we were thinking about going to Fan Fest and seeing the parents and the fans.”

On quarterback Adam DiMichele: “I love Adam. He’s a special person and more than fit to lead our football team right now. We rested him a couple of times in camp so far by choice but it wasn’t his choice. He looks good and he’s running very well.”
On the competition at defensive line: “There’s a tremendous battle going on right now. We have eight different combinations there and all of those guys are playing at a very high level. There’s a lot of competition going on there and I expect it to go on throughout the season. We believe in a Meritocracy. If you merit it, you get to start.”

By Mike Gibson
You never know who you are going to see at Temple Football’s Fan Fest.
Last year, Bill Cosby made it.
The Cos, Temple’s most famous ex-player, dressed up as a 1940s Temple football player when we all know he played in the 1950s and early 1960s.
At least some of us do.
Perhaps the most impressive fan fest came last year when, coming off a 1-11 season, 2,000 fans showed up.
This year, about 5,000 fans are expected to the free event.
That says a lot about the potential for a WINNING Temple team to attract paying customers to the actual games.
This one is Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field.
All of the Philadelphia TV stations will be there and Comcast Sports Net will devote a large part of its popular Daily News Live program to the event.
You are sure to see Temple football coach Al Golden and about 115 players vying for starting and travel squad jobs in what promises to be the toughest competition for those spots in a generation.

Sign looks like the one above, with the word “Justice” on top and the date and place of the game on the side.
By Mike Gibson
It is a relatively new term, “Thinking Outside the Box” and it means to solve a problem differently, from a new perspective.
One of the main problems with Temple football has been filling the seats, a problem exacerbated by 25 years of losing.
The solution, of course, is winning.
The “what to do in between” crossing that bridge from losing to winning led some Temple University people to think outside the box the last couple of years.
For this year’s opener against UConn, on Sept. 6, the Temple people put their heads together and came up with a couple of spectacular ideas designed to put fannies in the seats.
The football people, led by video whiz Fran Duffy, put a nifty two-minute video documenting how Temple was ripped off at UConn last year and vowing revenge.

The promotions people, led by Scott Walcoff, might have topped that with “lawn placards” made in the shape of those poltical signs for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or John McCain.
Lawn placards is a misnomer because they aren’t meant for your front lawn.
Walcoff made hundreds of these sharp-looking signs and now they are all over Philadelphia and South Jersey in high-traffic areas.
I picked up one of these yesterday and placed across the main parking lot at Temple’s Ambler campus, where thousands of Temple students, faculty and staff can see it every day. (My plan was to put it at 20th and Spring Garden, but a police officer was there yesterday and I lost my nerve.) I got a couple of thumbs-up when I put it on the satellite campus. I was even shocked that it was the only sign placed there. Heck, the ground was pretty solid but I used both feet to secure the sign as best as I could.
It was the second-straight year Temple people thought outside the box to put people in the seats.
Former head coach Wayne Hardin led that charge last year when he “guaranteed” 66,000 fans for the opener with Navy.
He went on every TV station in the Philadelphia area, every radio station and talked to every reporter getting that guarantee out there.
The “guarantee” in and of itself was news and an example of thinking outside the box.
Hardin got publicity money could not buy and his guarantee was half right.
Thirty thousand, mostly Temple fans, gave Lincoln Financial Field a rare college football atmosphere.
Navy ran into some problems. Due to Labor Day Weekend, many of its loyal fans eschewed a trip to Philadelphia for a trip to the shore. The Academy would not pay for the Midshipmen to make the trip.
So only about 2,000 Navy supporters made it, including about 100 Midshipmen who paid their own way.

If the Owls handle Army, as expected, my guess is that 30-35K will find their way to Lincoln Financial Field and it will be a sea of Cherry and White. It could be more. I doubt it will be less. If the Owls lose to Army, I would not be surprised with 15-20K. That’s life in the big city.
What the signs do and the video does is get the brand out there so the fans can start thinking about attending the game and buying tickets and circling their calendars for Sept. 6.
For that, you can thank guys like Fran Duffy and Scott Walcoff for thinking outside of the box and a lot of fans, like Mike Adkins, who used plenty of old-fashioned shoe leather to find high-traffic places to put these signs before thousands of eyes.

By Mike Gibson
A week ago, the “MAC football media” picked Temple to finish fifth in the Eastern Division of the Mid-American Conference.
Clueless hogwash.
I could just see it now.
A MAC beat writer who doesn’t know Eric Reynolds from Al Reynolds or Joe Jones from Jack Jones circles Temple for fifth place because he remembered the Temple running game from last year and figured it wouldn’t be much improved.
One guy even wrote, “With everybody back, Temple should be an improved squad” and then his bottom-line prediction was 4-8. Huh? Temple won four games last year.
Another guy who doesn’t know Adrian Robinson from Jackie Robinson figures the Temple defense could not possibly get any better than last year’s, which was incidentally No. 1 in MAC overall and No. 1 in the nation in red-zone defense.
No. 1 out of 119.
It wasn’t long ago that Temple was 119 out of 119 in a number of categories.
The after-effects of 25 years of futility are not lost on the MAC beat writers, who seemingly cannot get THAT Temple out of their minds.
Al Golden and company have already reached that mindset.
“We can’t change what’s happened in the past,” Golden said. “We’re a whole different program.”
Yesterday, Golden’s group of 102 extremely talented players got to work at the Edberg-Olson Football Complex to debuse the MAC media’s incredibly sloppy research when coming to a fifth-place berth for the Owls.
Sloppy research and, yes, a lot of anti-Temple bias based on outdated notions of the program.
It’s a new year and a new program and it’s going to be fun proving the so-called experts wrong.

By Mike Gibson
You don’t know who long I’ve waited to write this or see this in print.
TEMPLE SEASON TICKETS SOLD OUT!!!
Well, they are.
At least for two sections.
I was told today that sections 120 and 119 are sold out.
Season tickets in 121 and 118 are also going at a very brisk rate.
I will be sitting on the 45-yard line, in section 121.
As most of you know, Temple moved over to the “sunny” side of the field from its “home” side since the nation’s best football venue became its permanent home in 2003.
That led to a lot of ignorant people writing on mostly MAC message boards saying things like, “No way there were 30,000 people there. I watched on TV and there was nobody there.”
Dude, TV shoots the “visitor’s side” of the field exclusively (the cameras are all set up that way) and, if there was nobody there, that’s your fault, not ours.
The empty seats belonged to Kent fans or Miami fans or Central Michigan fans.
The 30K on the Temple side were unseen by people watching on TV. Despite repeated complaints to the television people to shoot the Temple side, they all wrote back saying it would be too costly to move the permanent camera spots.
So Temple moved its fans.
Now they will be right there for all to see.
And, once the Owls start winning, the other side will fill up, too.