By Mike Gibson
One three-win streak.
Major front-page stories in at least two publications, the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Another positive mention of what Al Golden is doing at Temple in Chris Fowler’s ESPN.com weekly column.
People are starting to notice Temple football.
New York Times
Phil Sheridan
It makes you wonder what will happen after a four- or five-game winning streak.

By Mike Gibson
By now, it should be apparent to even the worst of the doubting Thomases out there that we are watching something very special in one Adam DiMichele, the quarterback of the Temple Owls for this season and next, God-willing.
I’ll call it the Akron Audible for alliteration purposes.
You can call it whatever you want.
I would not believe it if I wasn’t watching it on my brand new Compaq Laptop computer, getting a clear wireless picture and going crazy all by myself in the Flourtown McDonald’s.
It was not only an audible, it was the second most amazing audible I’ve ever seen.
We’ll get to the first later. (Read the small print at the end of this post.)
DiMichele steps to the line of scrimmage, goes under center, then backs off, takes a look at the defense and his eyes almost pop out of his head like one of those cartoons.
He saw something that made him change the play, so he backs up into the shotgun, runs down the line of scrimmage to the left and right, alerts every Owl on the line almost individually, then yells to the outside receivers, then stomps his right foot twice, taps his right hand against the side, takes the short snap and fires a perfect pass over the middle to Crudup for six.
Easy as Pumpkin Pie on Thanksgiving.
If he and his Owl teammates keep improving with every game, by Thanksgiving Temple could possibly … possibly … be preparing to play for a Mid-American Conference championship.
And how would that taste?
Better than the best Pumpkin Pie with the best whipped cream topping.
Now to the greatest audible I’ve ever seen. The 1979 game at Villanova. Brian Broomell is the Temple quarterback at midfield. He walks up to the line of scrimmage, goes under center, is about to snap the ball and instead takes a step back. He points to wide receiver Gerald “Sweet Feet” Lucear, then gestures with his finger, pointing toward the right corner of the Villanova end zone. He calmly takes the snap, throws to that same spot in the end zone, and Lucear floats under the ball for six. THAT was the greatest audible I ever saw. Temple 42, Villanova 10.

Click once or twice on the icon in the center of image

By Mike Gibson
File this under the letter N.
For no shit, Sherlock.
However, according to the New Haven Register, the Temple Owls have been told by MAC officials that, yes, Bruce Francis did have one foot inbounds and possession on the game-winning catch against UConn and that, yes, Temple should have won the game and that, yes, Big East replay official Jack Cramer was wrong in not overturning the call.
All of this was done in an official review of the play by the MAC, who had their officials view it from every possible angle, including a shot from the “other” side of the field that clearly showed Francis had possesion all the way.
Interesting, though, in that it puts the Big East in a bit of a quandry.
Now the people in charge of the crew on the field are saying they were wrong in not getting the call right.
That means that the replay guy got the call wrong.
Right?
Right.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Big East Conference to admit that.

“No, Jack, I said he was out of bounds by that much, not in … no catch, capiche? … comprende? …understand?”

By Mike Gibson
It’s been like a week-long hangover for this Owls’ fan.
I know, some of my fellow Owl fans are saying things like, “Let it go, man. There’s no point in rehashing the past.”
Well, I can’t let it go.
The injustice was so big, the history between Temple and the Big East so fowl, that the stench of The Call has remained with me for a week.
Jack Cramer, a Big East official was refusing the do the right thing, a thing that would have allowed Temple to beat UConn, 23-22. I’m not the only one who feels that way. Seventy percent of respondents to a recently closed poll on this website feel the injustice in Connecticut was “worse than the O.J. verdict.”
The O.J. verdict was on TV night and day and this travesty rated just a passing mention on ESPN and hardly any mention on the local sports segments of newscasts.
Jack The Ripper.
I know I haven’t felt this violated after a sporting event since the 1972 Olympics when the USSR officials stole the Gold Medal from Mike Bantom and Doug Collins and a bunch of game USA college kids.
This should have been the No. 1 story in sports last weekend, but because it didn’t involve two powerhouse college teams, it was largely ignored.
I can’t let it go, but I sure hope Temple’s football team can before tomorrow’s kickoff.
If the Owls can, they have a chance to win.
If they can’t, they won’t.
It’s that simple and that difficult.

By Mike Gibson
In this case, the case of Temple winning a game on the field that was given to the University of Connecticut by an old man with failing eyesight in the replay booth, the headlines told the story.
Headlines to real stories written about UConn’s 22-17 win over Temple on Saturday.
Or should we say headlines written about TEMPLE’s 23-22 (or 24-22 or 25-22) win over UConn on Saturday.
Because that’s just what it was.

Here is a list of the headlines and the stories that were filed under those headlines, mostly by UConn-area media:
• From AOL: Replay officials rob Temple of victory
• From Delaware Online: Temple loses as apparent TD is taken away
• My personal favorite, from The Bristol (Conn.) Courier: Blown Call Favors Huskies in Win Over Temple
• Tigerdroppings.com: Temple Just Got Robbed
• Danbury (Conn.) News-Times: UConn Escapes With Win

Click ONCE on icon in center of image
By Mike Gibson
Why, in God’s name, are former Big East refs allowed anywhere near a replay booth involving a Big East team against any other conference team?
Jack Cramer, a former Big East official, was the replay official in the booth who failed to overturn an obvious mistake in UConn’s 22-17 win over Temple, a catch by Bruce Francis for the winning TD in the end zone that was ruled an incompletion.
Neutral replay officials should be the norm, not the exception, in cross-conference games.
Let’s see here.
One of the major elements in any crime investigation is motivation.
Temple was kicked out of the Big East.
UConn is in the Big East.
UConn took Temple’s spot in the Big East.
The Big East would look very bad if Temple handed one of its unbeaten schools its first loss.
The Big East would be completely impartial in any game involving Temple. … yeah, right, and I also believe those 32 Heaven’s Gate people who committed suicide in 1996 are riding on the Hale-Bopp Comet now instead of dead in their graves.
Not.
Morley Safer or Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes would love this story.
No further words necessary, just the words of fans from two big East schools, UConn and Rutgers.

By Mike Gibson
The last time a university tried a Bobblehead Giveaway for a coach who won exactly one game, the coach came away a 55-25 loser.
Turner Gill walked off the field with a Bobbleahead likeness of himself in one hand, a clipboard in the other and a stat sheet with the bottom line: Ball State 55, Buffalo 25.
That was Oct. 7, 2006.
Buffalo learned the lesson.
No Bobbleheads for Turner Gill this season.
Temple learned the same lesson the hard way yesterday.
This time, it was Al Golden staring at a stat sheet with the bottom line: Buffalo 42, Temple 7. Somewhere, his Bobblehead was in the trash can.
Blame it on the Bobbleheads.
How else can you explain a 35-point loss to a team you are favored to beat by 3 1/2 points?
How else can you explain so many so-called betting experts saying to lay the wood on Temple, including one nationally syndicated radio show tabbing Temple the stone-cold lock of the week.”
Blaming it on the Bobbleheads doesn’t make any sense, but neither does the way Temple University’s football team played its game on Saturday afternoon.
Poor blocking, poor tackling, a general malaise.
“We’ve got to change the culture of losing,” Temple head coach Al Golden keeps saying over and over.
Screw the culture.
Just change the losing.
One way would be to get Travis Shelton the ball.
Often.
Here’s a guy who singlehandedly beat Bowling Green last year and he gets maybe five touches a game.
It’s obvious the coaching staff is trying to teach Travis Shelton a lesson for a real or perceived ill.
I’m sick of trying to teach guys lessons.
Teach the third-string right offensive guard lessons. Put Travis Shelton in the game and have him teach other teams a lesson the way only a guy with 4.27-40-yard dash speed can.
Culture, smuchler.
Just change the losing to winning.
Soon, like in the next two weeks.
Until then, no Bobbleheads for you.
Or anybody else.

Great photo by Darryl Rule

By Mike Gibson
Prior to Wayne Hardin’s “guarantee” of 66,000 for the Temple opener with Navy, he speculated about what makes a winning program.
“Is it the wins themselves or is it the support?” Hardin asked. “It’s like the old question, ‘What comes first, the chicken or the egg?”
Well, how about half a chicken and half an egg?
Hardin can be excused for being about half off in his guarantee.
I firmly believe Hardin could have put 60,000 in the stands for the Navy game had it been on a THURSDAY night, not Friday.
Having lived within the city limits of Philadelphia all of my life (with the exception of 10 years or so in beautiful downtown Doylestown), I know the town empties the Friday morning of Labor Day weekend.
Philadelphia is unlike any other town in that regard.
Geographically, it’s situated 45 miles from the New Jersey shore towns of Atlantic City on south. Places like Atlantic City, Ventnor, Brigantine, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Margate, Avalon, Stone Harbor, The Wildwoods and Cape May are 80 percent Philadelphians most of the summer and about 90 percent Philadelphia Labor Day weekend.
That’s just vacation life in the big city.
The Eagles screwed Temple royally by taking the Owls’ Thursday night away.
We’ll never know if Hardin could have gotten his 66K just 24 hours earlier, but look at it this way:
If you lived in Philadelphia and the Labor Day weekend was your last chance to get away for nine months that promised to be mostly cold and dark, wouldn’t you jump at that chance?
I would have if Temple wasn’t playing.
I like Temple football more than the shore. But I’m not most people.
I looked at the record crowd of 30,648 on Friday night with a glass half-filled mentality.
It was a remarkable achievement, mostly due to the pounding of doors and pavement by an 81-year-old ex-Temple coach who had a dream and a commitment to it.
We all owe him a debt of thanks for filling the stadium beyond what most reasonably thought would be there. He did it despite the fact that only 77 Midshipmen were cleared to make the trip. An independent Scout.com report estimated that “at least 80-85 percent were Temple fans.” And Al Golden Bobbleheads (inset) weren’t even being given away, like they are this week to the first few thousand fans at Saturday’s game with Buffalo.
Back in April when Hardin made the guarantee, he had hoped Navy would bring 30K and Temple 30K.
Instead, Navy brought 77 and Temple brought 30,583.
Or thereabouts.
By all accounts, it was a huge Temple presence and a dominant home crowd.
I thought all of this while driving home on Columbus Blvd. (better known as Delaware Avenue), all while passing places like Dave and Busters and other major night spots along that thoroughfare at 11:30 p.m.
Then another thought occurred to me.
On any other Friday night, the traffic would be at a standstill all along that busy row.
Here I was among only two or three cars owning the road.
If you don’t think a large chunk of the city’s population was down the Jersey Shore, that’s all of the evidence you needed.