By Mike Gibson
Uh, no.
Just wanted to get your attention with that headline.
Penn State is just too big, too deep and too fast for the Owls.
This year at least.
Yet this won’t be a 62-0 game.
Or even a 63-9 game.
You can book it.
Not that Penn State isn’t every bit as good as Louisville, Minnesota or Clemson.
The Nittany Lions just might be.
It’s just that the Owls were, in Temple coach Al Golden’s words, “trying to find our way” for much of this first season of his regime.
The Owls haven’t found their way just yet, but at least are pointed in the right direction.
The Owls can at least be competitive and very competitive if they depart from their “motis operandi” established in games against Kent State and Bowling Green.
In those games, the Owls played two tight ends, power-I, and pounded Tim Brown to set up the play-action passes of Adam DiMichele.
That won’t work this time, because of the physical line on the defensive side of the ball Penn State has.
However, if DiMichele can roll away from the pocket and buy himself just enough time to find Brown on screens or Mike Holley on quick slants, he can set up a deeper post to Travis Shelton.
If Shelton can break a kick return or two, the Owls might be able to score points.
If the Owls can break on top, their defense _ almost passive against Central Michigan _ might start to believe and themselves play physical.
Penn State’s offense has had some documented trouble scoring.
Temple isn’t Michigan or Ohio State or Wisconsin, but consider this:

• The newspaper headline factor. Temple kids know they can get immediate respect with a solid performance against State. In Philadelphia, Penn State is always a front-page story. Temple usually can be found on page 8 of the sports section. Temple kids see that every week.
• Adam DiMichele. The Temple sophomore gets a chance to prove he’s better than anything Penn State has at that position and he just might be.
• The Al Golden factor. Joe Paterno, if he’s able to coach from the booth, is likely to call off the dogs early against an Owl staff that has four ex-Penn Staters.
• The opportunistic Owl defense. Two picks in key situations in the win over Bowling Green proved they COULD do it. Georg Coleman knows if he gets another chance, he must take it to the house.

I can see State scoring no more than four touchdowns against the Owls this time.
I think DiMichele and company can put up at least two.
And maybe the Owls will be in the game in the fourth quarter.
Penn State 28, Temple 14.
Win?
Uh, no.
Maybe some day, maybe sooner than you think.

By Mike Gibson
Temple vs. Penn State wasn’t always one-sided.
When the Owls played the Lions during the Wayne Hardin Era, the games were often close.
Penn State won, 26-25, in 1975, 31-30 in 1976 and 10-7 in 1978.
I was in the press box for the 1978 game.
“Hardin’s outcoaching Joe again,” yelled out long-time Allentown Morning Call columnist John Kunda in the Vet Stadium press box.
Much laughter, followed by much nodding of heads.
The assembled press corps knew exactly what Kunda was talking about. Those games often featured a football version of the shell game.
Hardin would run when Penn State expected to pass, throw formations at Paterno that Penn State never saw before, run a shovel pass here and a flea-flicker there to keep the Lions on their toes.
Largely because of Hardin, Temple had the deserved reputation of a school that was outsmarting the other schools during a football game.
It made those of us traveling with the Temple party very proud.
Yet a win would have been nicer.
During the 1976 game, Hardin went for a two-point conversion that would have won the game instead of going for a tie that would have ended it at 31-31.
“You play the game to win,” Hardin said then.
Last week, Hardin told me now that he had 30 years to think about it, he’d have gone for the tie “because of what it would have meant to Temple.”
The Owls enter this week a 35-point underdog and virtually no one expects a win. But current coach Al Golden shows a lot of the qualities Hardin had and the two appeared together on a radio show last night.
Golden is moving the Owls in a direction that Hardin is familiar with and appreciates.
The following is a story that appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News after the 10-7 1978 game …..

By THOM GREER
Joe Paterno’s Brooklyn accent was nearly scared off last night. His coaching career surely flashed before his eyes. His 1978 football season almost went up in smoke.
The mythical national championship, about which Paterno insists he never concerns himself, was a gnat’s eyelash from being farther from University Park, Pa., than Mars. All those Lambert Trophies Penn State have amassed over the years were mere seconds away from being revoked.
AND ALL BECAUSE of a Temple University football team that hasn’t gotten a whiff of the Top 10 rankings since the days of Pop Warner.
Playing football like Attila instructed the Huns in pillaging, the fired-up Temple Owls dueled Paterno’s Lions to a chest-to-chest standoff that required a final Herculean drive capped with a 23-yard field goal by Matt Bahr with 10 seconds left for Penn State to salvage a 10-7 victory at Veterans Stadium. A crowd of 63,103 (the largest home crowd in Temple football history, sounding much like a Big 5 crowd _ half rooting for one team, half for another) sat stunned for 59 minutes and 50 seconds, refusing to believe what was unfolding before them.
In fact, those in the crowd who had been neutral swung to Temple’s side by the end _ or at least sounded louder, perhaps wanting to be a part of history, perhaps in respect for the effort of the Temple kids.
Perhaps even more astounding than Temple’s superhuman team effort was the performance of Owls’ punter Casey Murphy, who kept the Lions penned deep in their own territory most of the night with 11 punts that averaged 48.2 yards each time he thundered his foot into the ball. Included were a 69-yarder on the first play of the fourth quarter and a 51- yard shot that kissed the out- of-bounds line at the three.
It didn’t matter that Penn State recorded more first downs (16-10) or ran more offensive plays (78-51) for more than twice as much yardage (299-126).
WHAT MATTERED was that Temple Coach Wayne Hardin brought his team into the game better prepared and emotionally higher than anything Paterno claimed to have seen before. And it almost produced a bigger upset than the Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III.
“That was the best coaching job anyone has done against us ever,” a shaken Paterno said when his team had finally escaped the Owls’ claws. ” We are as lucky as hell. “
Hardin, although pleased with the performance of his club, flatly rejected Paterno’s show of coaching kindness.
” It’s like throwing flowers at the horse that finishes second in a two- horse race,” Hardin said of Paterno’s reference to Temple’s preparation. “A football game is a two-horse race. Fortunately, I’ve learned there is a lot more to life than a scoreboard. I didn’t always believe that. I just thought our kids gave one helluva an effort. “
IT WAS A FACT no one questioned . . . especially no one in the Penn State locker room, where soiled uniforms and bruised pride were stuffed into blue duffle bags for the long trip back to Happy Valley.
” They gave us so many different looks on defense,” Lions’ tailback Mike Guman said of the first half in which his team never crossed its own 48 yard line. ” We had trouble blocking. They were slanting a little and playing games that seem to confuse everybody.
” We started playing scared or something. We lost our poise in some situations. Our intensity was not there. They (Temple) played good defense. You can’t take it away from them. But we were not firing off the ball and knocking people back. “
Paterno agreed and apparently considered Guman as one of the culprits. He replaced Guman with Booker Moore in the second half, a move that proved the difference in the contest.
Moore slashed around left end the second time he touched the ball, broke free, sidestepped two would-be tacklers and pranced into the end zone with a 26-yard touchdown with 56 seconds left in the third quarter.
” MY RUN WAS a combination of me being fresh and the Temple defense being tired,” Moore said modestly of the game’s first scoring play.
But the 7-0 edge was short-lived. The Owls hung tough. They continued to capitalize on the mighty right leg of Murphy and mistakes of the vaunted Penn State defense. And lightning struck for them 4:11 into the fourth quarter. Quarterback Brian Broomell, who kept the Lions’ defense off balance most of the night, had sent fullback Anthony Anderson into the line on consecutive plays for gains of 15 and three yards. The third time, Broomell faked the dive play to Anderson and fired a strike into the arms of running back Zachary Dixon, who was all alone in the left flat. Dixon’s 21-yard path to the goal line was unimpeded.
There was every indication a turnover would determine the outcome of the game. It appeared to come with 5:44 left in the game. Penn State quarterback Chuck Fusina was looking for split end Scott Fitzkee, but instead found Temple free safety Mark McCants. It was little more than a teaser.
The key turnover struck two plays later. Anderson fumbled a Broomell handoff at the Penn State 42. Lions linebacker Lance Mehl pounced on the ball and there seemed little question Temple’s upset bid had fallen short.
IT WAS AS IF the real Penn State offense took the field for the final 4:52. Moore and fullback Paul Suhey inhaled real estate in chunks of six and 10 yards. Fusina kept the drive alive with a third-down pass to Fitzkee. Indeed, it was a life-or-death march and the Lions answered the challenge. Bahr’s game-winner split the uprights on the 13th play of the drive.
” It shows the character of this team,” Fusina said. ” No one was thinking about a national ranking. No one was thinking about Ohio State. Every man was thinking about the job at hand. We had to get it within field goal range. “
” There was a feeling of togetherness each time we went in the huddle on that drive,” Moore said. ” Everybody kept saying, ‘We can do it. We’ve got to take it down there. ‘”
FINAL DRIVE notwithstanding, Joe Paterno was not too impressed to say, ” I’m not so sure what kind of football team we have. The Temple kids played tough. They’ve heard so much about Penn State this and Penn State that. They came out and looked us in the nose . . . fought for the game. We’ve got to be aware of that if we’re going to be a good football team. We’ve got to be aware of it. “
Perhaps Penn State took Temple for granted, although it seems unthinkable if you consider the last three Lions-Owls’ wars in Philadelphia have been won by a total of five points – 10-7 last night, 31-30 in 1976 and 26-25 in 1975. The fact each was a Penn State victory is not important.
Perhaps Paterno’s team was looking ahead to Ohio State in two weeks. Or maybe even thinking about national ratings.
Whatever, as Guman was careful to emphasize, ” We did not come close to playing up to our potential. “
Paterno was right. Penn State was lucky last night.
“Wait now,” the Lions’ Moore said. ” I don’t know if lucky is the right word. ” He rubbed his chin and thought a few seconds. “Yeah. I guess lucky is the only word.”

By Mike Gibson
Let’s start backward.
The Post Game
The real news coming out of Central Michigan game day was by former Temple football coach Wayne Hardin on the post-game radio show with Harry Donahue and Bill Bradshaw.
“I guaranteed (Temple athletic director) Bill (Bradshaw) that we’d have 66,000 fans for our opening day game with Navy,” said Hardin, the only man to ever be the head coach at both institutions.
Wow.
Those who know Hardin know he tended to make grand pronouncements when he was Temple head coach that he mostly backed up.
Hardin said the Owls were going to play Penn State and people snickered.
They ended up playing Penn State.
Hardin said the Owls would be in a bowl and more guffaws, yet the Owls were in a bowl on his watch.
Then Hardin beat the drum for an Eastern football conference and folks got an Eastern football conference made up of exactly the same teams Hardin mentioned would be in it.
More snickers.
So many think Hardin can deliver this guarantee.
“When Wayne says he’s going to do something, it’s hard to say no to him,” Bradshaw said.
Hardin then said Bradshaw will go to work “next week” on moving the game from Saturday, Sept. 1 to Thursday, Aug. 30.
Then Hardin made an appeal to all those who played for him and who know him.
“I need you to do me a favor,” he said. “Get as many people as you can out there. There’s no reason that Temple, a school with 30,000 students, 8,000 of them living on campus, and 250,000 alumni can’t get this done.”
Hardin went on to praise the players he had at both Navy and Temple.
“The guys at Navy tended to have great careers in business,” Hardin said. “The kids at Temple were very, very special to me because they always gave me every single thing they had.”
Getting 66,000 mostly Temple people in the stands would require a lot of special giving but, if anyone can pull it off, Hardin can.
The Game
Well, it started out good.
Then it got real bad.
Then it got good again.
When Georg Coleman intercepted a tipped ball, I thought the Owls were in business in what turned out to be a numbing 42-26 loss to a very good Central Michigan team yesterday.
Numbing, because I had this sickening feeling that Coleman should have scored on the play.
All that was in front of him was a quarterback who had decent speed, but not Coleman speed.
It appeared that Coleman slowed down, ostensibly to make a move, then decided to run out of bounds.
Had Coleman kept flying down the sideline, full speed, I have no doubt he would have scored. Had Coleman slowed down and taken it up field, he would have scored. But Coleman took it the one place where he could not have scored.
Out of bounds.
Ugh.
Anybody else find this quote by quarterback Adam DiMichele stunning:
“Guys were yawning,” DiMichele said. “It was weird.”
Yawning?
Why?
Guys should have been wide awake for the opportunity to get a second-straight home win.
I’ve never understood why athletes, college football players especially, have letdowns. Maybe in baseball with a 162-game season or basketball with an 82-game season, but not football.
Especially not college football.
They only have 11 or 12 opportunities a year to get out there.
You’d think they’d be chomping at the bit all week and playing like crazed madmen on Saturday afternoons.
Kids today.
The strategy
Maybe it was the good seats at the Club Level.
But nobody in sections C2 or C4 thought lining up for a 50-yard field goal was a good idea to begin with.
There was much groaning.
“Why are we trying a field goal?” the season-ticket holders said, almost in unison. “We should punt.”
When the snap went over the holder’s head, it seemed like a very bad idea indeed.
What might have been a 7-0 lead on a Coleman interception turned into a 7-0 lead the other way.
Fourteen point swings against an unbeaten future conference foes are never a good way to start.
Maybe that’s why head coach Al Golden called it “the most disappointing game” so far.

By Mike Gibson
Last night there was an interview with Vince Papale broadcast over the Bravo Network.
Papale, the former Philadelphia Eagles’ walk-on, talked a little about the movie Invincible, made about his life.
The more I watched, the closer I listened.
“This isn’t a movie about me or about the Eagles or even about pro football,” Papale said. “It’s about everybody who has been told they couldn’t or that they can’t or that they won’t or that they should just stop trying and give up.”
It’s about Temple football, the movie Invincible is, in its own way.
How many of us in the Temple family have been told to give up, to stop trying, that they couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to succeed?
Just about everyone, I’d imagine.
“This is a story about underdogs,” Papale said.
That’s what made Saturday so great _ not that a 19-point underdog rose up and won by two touchdowns, but that the same program people said wouldn’t or couldn’t win a game did just that.
It’s the first of many.
The pain of being a Temple football person has been a deep and cutting one, and writing about it while in this 16-year intensive care state has been catartic for me, as evidenced in this post about going to Heaven and this one about Lost in Space but the bleeding has stopped and the wounds are beginning to heal.
The losses aren’t over, but this patient is no longer in critical condition.
In fact, the long-term prognosis is good.
Very good.

By Mike Gibson
Watching Travis Shelton show his backside to the entire Bowling Green kickoff team, I thought about a lot of people.
Most of all, I thought about Karl Smith.
And all of the other small-minded narrow-thinkers like him.
Smith is the executive editor of PhillyBurbs.com.
You need only read a few excerpts from this piece of crap he wrote about Bowling Green putting up 70 on the Owls.
Things have changed a little since then, Karl.

A brief synopsis is in order. He went on to thank Temple for this and thank Temple for that and then concluded by thanking Temple for accepting an invitation to the MAC so that the Owls can be Bowling Green’s whipping boy for the next few years.
“… how nice to have an extended scrimmage against an overmatched opponent every year that actually counts in the standings,” Smith wrote.
Hmmm.

I guess he doesn’t know collegefootballnews.com named the Owls 2006 freshman recruiting class at the top incoming class among MAC schools, current or future.
I guess he doesn’t care many of those recruits, as many as 18, are seeing significant playing time for the Owls this season or that these same players pushed around Bowling Green’s sophomore- and junior-dominated lineup.
He might not know that the 2007 recruiting class is ranked significantly higher than that one and that it might dwarf any recruiting class of any MAC team in recent memory.
Or maybe he doesn’t care.
And, if he can count, he knows that this same Owls will be around for the next three years. Yes, the same Owls that beat his beloved Bowling Green by two touchdowns yesterday.
We won’t assume that Bowling Green will be Temple’s whipping boy for the next few years, as he assumed the other way.
The evidence is there.
Temple is getting better.
Bowling Green is getting worse.
Get used to watching Shelton’s backside. You’ve got two more years of watching that 4.27-40 speed.
We have six players coming in with that kind of speed and the evidence suggests that Temple could literally leave Bowling Green looking permanently in its rear view mirror.
Al Golden is a young, charismatic, recruiter who kids identify with and will rally behind. He came to Temple with a deserved reputation of being a recruiter without peer and he has only enhanced that reputation so far in his year on the job.
Thank you, Karl Smith.
Thank you very much.

By Mike Gibson
In about six weeks, Al Golden will be on the job as Temple University’s head football coach for a year.
In the time since Dec. 6, Golden has said and done all the right things.
He’s talked about changing the culture of losing, about pounding that rock until it cracks, about even coaching the pre-game warmups.
In less than two months, he’s recruited the top incoming football class in the MAC.
All signs so far that this current class, which includes North Catholic superstar Daryl Robinson, will be off the charts as far as recent MAC recruiting classes go.
Now Robinson is recruiting fellow Philadelphia superstars for the Owls.
All good signs.
At some point, though, Al Golden is going to have to do what he’s been brought in to do:
Win games.
This would be as good a week to start as any against a Bowling Green team that scored 70 points _ twice _ against recent Bobby Wallace teams.
If fact, anything less than a win against Bowling Green is unacceptable.
Consecutive 62-0 losses to Louisville and Minnesota were eye-openers, especially in light of North Dakota State’s ability to take Minnesota into overtime.
North …. FREAKING … Dakota … FREAKING … State.
Giving up 63 points to Clemson was another stomach-turner.
Yet a 28-17 loss to Kent seemed to show some progress because the Owls were toe-to-toe for the most part with one of the MAC’s best teams.
Bowling Green, on the other hand, lost to Kent, 38-3.

Bowling Green, like the Owls, took Buffalo to overtime.
The Owls, unlike Bowling Green, were short six key players in the loss at Buffalo, while Bowling Green did not have equivalent personnel shortages in an overtime win over Buffalo.
The Owls are back at full strength for the first time all season.
That SHOULD be bad news for Bowling Green.
It’s up to Al Golden and his staff to deliver that news.
At some point, you’ve got to win.
At some point, you’ve got to stop dropping third-down passes.

At some point, you’ve got to put your best talent in position to win the game for you. One way would be using Tim Brown on punt returns, too, giving him the space to do what he does best.
At some point, you’ve got to stop receivers from running free through your secondary like roaches in a ghetto kitchen.
It’s up to Al to formulate a game plan to win this week against Bowling Green.
A bold game plan, much like the one against Kent State.
Two tight ends, power-I, use Tim Brown’s talents to move the chains and shorten the game. Use Brown’s running ability to set up Adam DiMichele play-action passes to Travis Shelton and Mike Holley downfield.
On defense, Mark D’Onofrio has to come up with a gambling-style game plan that utilizes the Owls’ strength _ their front seven _ and protects the weak back four.
Blitzes, particularly from the blind side, and up the middle to create protection problems for the Bowling Green quarterback.
The best defense is putting the other guy’s quarterback on his ass _ or, as Jim Rome says, his ARSE _ and it’s high time the Owls adopt that philosophy as the core of their defensive approach.
Use the speed of the young linebackers to smack the quarterback around and, hopefully, come up with the ball a time or two.
Philly-style football. Only a win would open eyes in a cynical and skeptical Philadelphia.
At some point, Al, you’ve got to win.
This week, in front of a Homecoming Day crowd, would be an acceptable place to start.

By Mike Gibson
The sign is on the wall at the Edberg-Olson Complex for all to see:
“HUNTING A MAC CHAMPIONSHIP WITH LOCAL TALENT.”
If you know anything about Al Golden so far in his almost one year on the job, it’s this:
Allie G. means what he says and says what he means.
It’s evident in the verbals so far.
One, Daryl Robinson, might be the best player in North Catholic’s long and sometimes glorious football history.
Another, Kit Anderson, scored three long touchdowns in a big Neshaminy win last week.
There is a school of thought that there isn’t enough talent in the Philadelphia area and Eastern Pennsylvania to support a winning Division IA football team.
The Headmaster of that same school likes to say there’s more talent in a five-mile square area of Florida than there is in Southeastern Pennsylvania or South Jersey.
Hogwash, Phooey and any two-syllable word you can think of that begins with a B and ends with a T.
Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians proved you could field WINNING football teams at TEMPLE with primarily local talent.
Take the 1979 team, which finished 10-2 and ranked No. 17 in both final polls.
Brian Broomell, the quarterback who led the nation in passing efficiency for most of that season, was from Sterling. Mark Bright, the fullback who was MVP of Temple’s bowl win over California, was from William Tennent. Kevin Duckett, the slippery halfback, was from Northeast.
We could go on and on but won’t.
The proof is in the history, past and present.
The sons of these great players, figuratively, did not forget how to play football.
The football is Southeastern Pennsylvania and nearby might not be Florida but it is good enough.
If you like what Golden has done so far, the best is yet to come if the recruiting of D.J. Lenehan is any indication.
I had the pleasure of watching Lenehan of Wilson Area near Easton compete in the Class AA championship game last year.
I saw a number of his games on Service Electric Cable TV and on WFMZ Channel 69 in Allentown.
This kid is the real deal.
Much like Adam DiMichele of the current Owls, this young man has the “it” factor.
“I like to say this about all great quarterbacks, they have IT,” ESPN commentator Lee Corso said. “I can’t put into words precisely what it is, but when you see a quarterback who has it, you’ll know.
“I’m going to say it like this: IT is the sense of when to throw the ball and when not to, it’s the ability to throw the ball deep on a dime while sitting in the pocket or running at full speed and IT is toughness and the sixth sense to stay in the pocket until the last split second in order to make a play.”
If you don’t believe me, look at the Lenehan highlight films on Rivals.com and judge for yourself.
This kid can play and he’s perfect for the Temple offense. DiMichele’s presence, and to an extent Vaughn Charlton’s, gives Lenehan a chance to develop at a pace that will accelerate his production.
The first school to offer Lenehan was Temple.
If anything, that indicates Golden is paying attention to the films and his two eyes and not letting some recruiting service tell him who the players are.

From left, Ann Weaver Hart, Dan Polett, Peter J. Liacouras, Al Golden
By Mike Gibson
There was more power under one tent at the pre-game Temple vs. Kent State tailgate than can be found at the Limerick Nuclear reactors.
At least when it is the power provides the fuel for the Temple athletic department.
First, there was Chancellor Peter J. Liacouras, still looking vigorous and young and still Temple football’s biggest backer and still wlelding a lot of influence.
Then there was new Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dan Polett, Howard Gittis’ successor, and another familiar face at Temple sporting events.
Last, but certainly not least, was Ann Weaver Hart, the new president of Temple University.
That’s right.
A Temple president and BOT Chairman were in attendance today and visible.
And, I might add, approachable.
A friend of mine, Nick, and I saw her under the tent and said, “what the hey, let’s go up and say hi.”
President Weaver Hart could not have been more gracious.
We exchanged some small talk, I suggested that she probably should have brought her football team with her from New Hampshire.
She laughed and said that New Hampshire once struggled like Temple is now and she stuck with the coach and that team is now flourishing. A 34-17 win this year at Northwestern of the Big 10, not Northeastern of the A-10, is evidence enough of that.
She believes the same can be done at Temple. Even though she didn’t say it in as many words, I got the feeling, too, that she also believed a successful football team is vital to the image of Temple nationally, that the football team is the front porch of the university and it’s high time to replace these rotted boards and loose shingles with brand new ones.
And she believes Al Golden is doing just that, getting his tool kit and hammer out for this massive makeover project.
You want the rest of the Mid-American Conference to say no later than next year:
“Wow, that’s nice.”
Instead, too many are looking at Temple’s front porch like it’s Jed Clampbett’s, pre-black oil, Texas tea, days.
Since Temple is the 26th largest university in the country, it deserves a football team successful on the biggest stage, the 1A theater.
If Temple is ever to bring what has been a disjointed community of alumni, students and friends together in one setting, a football game is the place to do that. But it’s a football game where the Temple community has to feel there is a realistic chance of winning every week.
I told her I look forward to the day when I can post a supportive quote from her about Temple football on this website, as you can read quotes from Liacouras, former BOT chair Howard Gittis and current athletic director Bill Bradshaw.
She would be happy to oblige, she said.
I’m waiting for a blockbluster comment, along the lines of Gittis’ saying the students at Temple deserve a “great football team” and “we will provide it.” Or Liacouras saying “universities with 1A football teams must invest to succeed.”
Temple football always had a huge supporter in Liacouras and now has a pair of staunch allies in Weaver Hart and Polett.
That only bodes well for a program that saw former president David Adamany and Gittis attend just one game in six years together.
After that one, Adamany emailed me with this terse one-liner.
“Mr. Gittis was not happy with the audience,” he wrote.
Somehow, I think Ann Weaver Hart knows the difference between an “audience” and a “crowd.”
At least I got that first impression.

By Mike Gibson
On my day off Wednesday, I stopped at my neighborhood LA Fitness Club in the Andorra Shopping Center.
(Well, it’s not my neighborhood but it’s the closest LA Fitness Club to Center City.)
Since it was in the middle of the afternoon, there were only a couple of other guys in the locker room. Both of them were in their mid-to-late 20s.
After they exchanged some small talk about their kids, I overheard this exchange:
First guy: “I’ve got some tickets to the Kent State vs. Temple game on Saturday. I think I’ll go.”
Second guy: “I’m going, too. Where are you sitting?”
First guy: “I don’t know. I’ll go back and check and let you know by email.”
Second guy: “I was thinking about going up to Penn State to see them play, but I decided on the Kent game instead. I really think they have a chance to win.”
First guy: “Those 62-0 scores were getting old, but I think they competed at Vanderbilt and I think they are going to get better. I want to see them play at home.”
By this time, I was impressed.
Talk from young guys about Temple football and no gratuitous shots.
I was impressed. Surprised and impressed.
I spoke up.
“What do you know,” I said, “all three people in this locker room are going to the Kent State-Temple game.”
Those two guys were friends and I was a stranger, but they immediately included me in the conversation.
“I know it’s only Kent State, but this would be big for them,” the first guy said. “They really have to show people they can make that step from being bad to getting a little better to winning. I hope this is the week they do it.”
“Me, too,” the second guy said.
One guy had no connection to Temple other than he was from Philly and wanted, desperately he said, to see a competitive Division IA team in town and Temple was the only school trying to be competitive.
The other was a grad with some passing interest in the team, saying he tries to take in a game once every year.
Both said if Temple started winning they’d come to every game.
This represents the great untapped market Al Golden is trying to reach.
Philadelphians and Temple people wanting to see a representative Temple football team take the field.
As Golden said on Fan Fest Day, “what you see behind me is just the tip of the iceberg of what we can accomplish here in Philadelphia.”
Win on Saturday, Al, and that iceberg slowly begins to melt.

By Mike Gibson
This Saturday, Temple will play Kent State at Lincoln Financial Field.
Like so many other Saturdays, I will be looking over my shoulder, anticipating Steve Bumm tapping me on the shoulder to talk some Temple football. Steve always flew up from Fort Myers, Fla., for the Temple games or at least a couple of Temple games every year.
Most of the time we’d talk about the old days, the way things were when Temple won all the time, seemingly, and bemoan the more current era where the opposite was true.
Steve was always the greatest guy to talk to because he was at Temple before me and could connect the dots when we compared, say, Temple quarterbacks of the 70s with Temple quarterbacks of the 60s.
Or the 80s.
Or the 90s.
We saw most all of them.
My favorite was Tim Riordan for his toughness, smarts and leadership.
His was Marty Ginestra for many of the same qualities.
I was looking for Steve Bumm on the Saturday of the Louisville game, but he wasn’t there. I knew he died almost a year ago, but old habits are hard to break. The link in this paragraph is recommended reading from the Ft. Myers’ paper.
I will be looking for him again on Saturday at the Temple game and he won’t be there but it will feel like he’s there every time I make the walk from the tailgate into the stadium or walk around the ramps or stop to watch a TV behind the concession stands, places Steve and I used to talk.
And maybe he is. At least in spirit.