By Mike Gibson
If you can’t make Temple’s opening football game at University of Buffalo Stadium (pictured) and are wondering where all those loud “LET’S GO TEM-PLE!!!” chants are coming from, chances are it will be Section 210, West Grandstand.
Or 209.
Or 211.
Or all three.
But the central area appears to be 210.
That’s the general area, about the 10-yard-line behind the Owl bench, where the majority of the Temple fans will be sitting come the 7 p.m. kickoff.
A Temple fan named Ken Mayo has been working hard to get his fellow members of what Al Golden proudly calls “Owl Nation” to the University of Buffalo.
He’s prodded, cajoled and set up buses for those interested in supporting the Owls.
He’s set up an email network of those interested in going to the game and, within a couple of days of the call, said he received over 100 emails from Temple fans interested in supporting the first game of the new Golden Era.
Between the buses, full cars, trains and planes, Owl Nation could be represented by anything from a base low of 500 fans to an estimated one or two thousand.
Anything more would be a pleasant surprise.
Few expect anything less, particularly after an estimated 2,000 people turned out for Fan Fest on Wednesday, what Golden called an “encouraging sign.”
Mayo is hosting a tailgate for $32 a person.
Many Owl fans will be hosting their own impromtu satellite tailgates as well.
Other items of interest for Owl fans:

• All seats in the stadium are $15. Plenty of tickets still available for the game. Good idea to ask for seats in 210, 209 and 208 sections, if purchasing at stadium ticket window.
• The stadium seats 29,013. No more than 20,000 fans are expected.
• The Temple football game will be on CN8, with Chris Carrino handling the play-by-play and Jon Ritchie the color and available on the internet in streaming video at CN8tv.com. The game will also be broadcast over 990 AM in Philadelphia, a 5,000-watt station that can be heard in 3 states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware) at night.
• It will also be the opening game for former Nebraska quarterback Turner Gill, the new UB head coach. Here is the UB roster. Tight end Chad Upshaw is probably the Bulls’ best player. Defensive back Kareem Byrom is also outstanding.
• Golden is Temple’s 24th head coach and the depth chart is expected to be released either today or tomorrow. Here is the Owls’ current roster.
• If driving to the game, it’s about a 7-hour trip from Philadelphia. Here are the directions from the Temple campus.

By Mike Gibson
Moving forward.
If Temple University head football coach Al Golden said it once yesterday, he said it 20 times.
It probably should be the team slogan, Golden says it so much these days.
Temple University’s football program moved forward with a successful media day/fan fest at Lincoln Financial Field that drew a lot of people on Wednesday.
A lot of people.
Media Day isn’t quite practice.
Not a game, not practice, but an impressive crowd nonetheless.
According to Golden, 2,000 Temple football followers came out to see the Owls.
To borrow a rant from Allen Iverson, we’re talking about Fan Fest.
Not practice.
Not a game.
Fan Fest.
Perhaps even more important than the estimated 2,000 there, Golden got a good 12 minutes on Comcast during the Fan Fest and made it into the living rooms of about 100,000 more Philadelphia area fans on Daily News Live Wednesday.
Some highlights of the interview follow below.


Michael Barkann, the host of the show, started by saying this: “By 2013, the Temple University football program will be on top of the world and Al Golden is going to tell us that right now. Al, what is the message you want to convey?”
Golden: Mike, as you can see behind me, there’s about 2,000 people here. It’s a new Temple Era and we’re thrilled with the start here.
Barkann: What does this season look like to you?
Golden: I’m not Nostradomas either, Mike, I’m just trying to win one game right now. People don’t want to hear the cliche but we’re getting ready to do something real special right now at Temple and we have so much support and, if you look beihnd me right now, it’s real exciting.
Mike Kern: When you are starting from where you are starting, what’s the biggest thing you had to do?
Golden: The first thing was to instill some discipline and team pride and unity. We sat down with each kid and the top thing they wanted us to do was to achieve was team unity and we had to get the academic issues behind us and I’m thrilled what the kids are doing academically. Now you can start to win and now you can develop of progam.
Kern: What are your goals in terms of wins and losses?
Golden: Mike, as I said to you uin the past before, I haven’t really tried to quantify it . I’ve really just been focused on us. I can’t tell the strength coach, who gets in there at 5 a.m. or the offensive and defensive coordinators who get in at 5:30 a.m. that we’re just trying to win a couple of games. We’re going to try to win every game. That’s what these kids deserve and that’s what Temple University and Philadelphia deserve.
Barkann: Sports Illustrated had a rather unflattering opinion of your team. In light of things like that, how do you sell the team to recruits?
Golden: We’re still selling it. There’s so much going on, our facilities are excellent. We have a tremendsous schedule coming out. There’s a lot to sell. There’s $450 million worth of infrastructure and that’s a $512 million stadium that I’m looking at. We have a lot to sell.
Barkann: On Saturday, Oct. 21, 3 p.m. start, we’ve got your game at Northern Illinois and on Wednesday, Sept. 13, The Al Golden Show premiers. What does that do for your program?
Golden: Anytime on TV, either here or on an informercial or for a 3 1/2 program on Comcast like our Northern Illinois’ game, that’s a 3-hour infomercial on your program. Moving forward, we’re really excited. One thing a lot of people don’t know about is that the MAC is going to be boardcast to a lot of affiliates, something like 16 to 21 million people beginning in 2007 and we’re excited to be a part of that.
Kern: You have a first game scheduled in a week. Talk about that.
Golden: Mike, I’m so focused on the process and the product will take care ot iitself. People have asked me, ‘Is this what you want?/ Well, we’re just beginning. The goal isn’t to be a head coach, the goal is to be a successful head coach and I wouldn’t have taken this job if I didn’t believe in my heart that we weren’t going to be successful. I know that’s going to be the case and this is evidence behind me, the tip of the iceberg, of what we can achieve in Philadelphia.

Editor’s Note: This is probably the only non-Temple football story you’ll ever read on this site. This is a completely true story. Skip Wilson has told it many times in my presence at banquets over the years.
By Mike Gibson
One of the benefits of being a sportswriter is being able to help the kids, in ways large and small.
Sometimes even when you are not much more than a kid yourself.
I was a 22-year-old kid sports writer for the Doylestown Intelligencer when I was able to help out another kid, a 17-year-old pitcher at Souderton High School named Jamie Moyer.
Being the newest member of the sports staff, my job was to cover the games of the outlying circulation high school teams that spring so I saw a lot of Moyer’s senior year at Souderton, in addition to covering games involving Souderton rivals Pennridge and Quakertown.
During the summer, another part of my job was covering American Legion baseball via phone roundups every night.
That would put me on the phone with Jamie’s dad, Jim Moyer, who was the head coach of the Souderton American Legion team.
Now Jim Moyer is just about the nicest guy you’ll ever talk with, either in person or on the phone.
Often, my conversations with the older Moyer would go for 10-, 15- and 20-minutes, grabbing the routine information involving hits, errors and how the runs scored.
“Do you have a feel on where Jamie’s getting drafted,” I asked Jim.
“I don’t think he is,” Jim said. “In fact, he’s getting very little interest from the colleges. We’re kind of concerned.”
“WHAT!!!!!!” I said. “He’s the best high school pitcher I ever saw.”
And, despite the fact I was only 22, I saw future Toronto Blue Jays’ pitcher Tom Filer (7-0 for the Blue Jays in 1985) pitch for Archbishop Ryan and future Chicago Cub George Riley (Southern) and Moyer was better than both.
That led me to do a story on Moyer and why he would not be drafted.
“To be honest with you, Mike, he’s a good high school pitcher, but he just doesn’t throw hard enough,” Phillies scout Jack Toy, who lived in Warrington, told me.
I quoted Toy and a few other pro scouts.
They all said Moyer’s 10-0 record, 0.65 ERA and 168 strikeouts in 72 innings meant little because Moyer’s fastball didn’t measure up on the radar gun.
I basically did a story, quoting Jamie, Jim, and Jack Toy.
My major point in the story was that all the kid has proven since Little League is that he can get people out.
That should weigh more than any radar gun.
The next night I got a phone call from old friend Skip Wilson, the baseball coach at Temple. Skip often picked up the Intelligencer near his home and took a particular interest in my career since I covered his teams for The Temple News.
“Mike, do you have Jim’s phone number?” Skip said. “I have a partial (scholarship). I want to set something up.”
Wilson then set up a time to meet with the Moyers.
Shortly after that, I got a call from Jim Moyer.
“Thanks for that story,” Jim said. “George Bennett, the St. Joe coach, is interested, too. He said he heard Skip’s coming over and he wants to come over to.”
“Don’t you know, I’m coming out of their house and that son-of-a-gun is coming in?” Wilson told me later, only he didn’t say gun.
Bennett, who would later become Villanova coach, could offer more than Wilson could and that’s the only reason Moyer became a Hawk instead of an Owl.
I might have helped just a little, but Jamie did the rest all by himself.
And now he’s come back home.
Good luck, Jamie.

By Mike Gibson
During a 17-minute, 5-second appearance on WPEN’s 700-level sports talk program, Temple University head football coach Al Golden said a lot of encouraging things.
None more than this, though:
“I can tell you right now we have a Division IA quarterback in the program,” Golden said haltingly, carefully choosing his words. “I know this from experience. The hardest thing in college football is getting a Division IA quarterback into your program.
“At this time, I can tell you that we have a Division 1A quarterback in the program.”
A two-second pause followed.
“We might even have two,” Golden said.
Judging from the way Golden used those words, it seems like he’s chosen his guy.
Two days later, a story on the quarterbacks appeared in the Inquirer, written by Kevin Tatum.
This is what Golden had to say about each quarterback in that story:

Vaughn Charlton (6-4, 220) – “He has the physical tools and a strong arm. He has a tremendous makeup in his character, leadership and work ethic. He’s catching up in terms of the offense.”

Colin Clancy (6-0, 195) – “He’s very bright and has a good grasp of the offense. He’s done a good job of protecting the football and made very good decisions in this camp.”

Adam DiMichele (6-1, 185) – “He’s come a long way in a short time. I keep calling him Roy Hobbs – he’s a natural. He’s played no football in three years, and the first day, he looked like he’d been playing his whole life.”

Shane Kelly (6-4, 215) – “He understands the offense, and he’s spent a great deal of time in the spring and summer learning it. He has a comfort level with it.”

There are plusses with every guy.
DiMichele (pronounced DEE-MY-KUL) was a Fabulous 5 basketball player of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper in 2003. He was made that newspapers’ all-star Super 22 first team in football. He also set the career record for passing yardage in the highly competitive WPIAL. In addition to that, he was a good enough athlete to be named state Class AA basketball player of the year by the Associated Press during his senior season. One scouting expert called him a “poor man’s Joe Montana.” Now Golden calls him Roy Hobbs.
Hmm.
Clancy is a savvy quarterback and was coached in high school by former Temple and Philadelphia Stars’ (USFL) quarterback Tim Riordan, who was Wayne Hardin’s last Temple quarterback and Bruce Arians’ first Temple quarterback. Riordan audibled from scrimmage and called the long touchdown bomb that gave the Owls a 23-18 win over Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. If Clancy is a clone of Riordan, the Owls have something very special.
Kelly, like Clancy, went to prep school (Hill School in Pottstown) and, like DiMichele, was a superb basketball player.
Charlton is a highly sought-after recruit who wowed the big-timers with his arm, quick release and footwork at every camp he attended.
He furthered wowed the Temple coaches with his work ethic from the day he signed with the Owls, attending spring workouts (when he didn’t have to), coming to the Cherry and White game and memorizing the playbooks.
Golden has been playing his QB hand close to the vest so far, saying that the upcoming scrimmages will determine the guy.
Something tells me, though, a position that was a big question mark coming into the season will turn into an exclamation point by its end.

By Mike Gibson
Most people think Temple University’s football association with the Mid-American Conference is something relatively new.
Judging by the first games of the last five Temple University head football coaches, though, opening against MAC schools is the norm, not the exception over a period of 36 years.
Only Bruce Arians, who opened his career in Sept. of 1983 with a 17-6 win over Syracuse at Franklin Field, played a first game against a non-MAC foe.
Al Golden, the 24th head coach in the history of Temple football, opens against Buffalo in two weeks.
Here’s a brief look at past first games by Owl coaches, some with quirky milestones:
BOBBY WALLACE _ The last name of the first player to score in an Owl game coached by Wallace? Wallace, of course. Toledo quarterback Chris Wallace scored on a 1-yard TD run with 4 minutes, 50 seconds left in the first quarter of a 24-12 Rocket win on Sept. 5, 1998. Current Philadelphia Soul and former Philadelphia Eagle Todd France kicked three extra points and a 27-yard field goal in the game, played before 25,724 in the Glass Bowl. Three future professional football players carried the ball for the Owls in the game, Stacey Mack (20 carries, 114 yards), Jason McKie and Kevin Harvey. Temple outgained Toledo, 232-99, on the ground.
RON DICKERSON _ In the first Division IA meeting ever between black head coaches, Temple and Dickerson won, 31-28, on Sept. 9, 1993 over Ron Cooper and host Eastern Michigan. Dickerson was carried off the field afterward. That was the only plus of the season for Dickerson, who lost his remaining games by scores the likes of 58-0 (California), 66-14 (BC), 62-0 (RU), 56-21 (Army), 55-7 (Virginia Tech) and 52-3 (Syracuse).
JERRY BERNDT _ Opened with a 31-24 loss at Western Michigan on Sept. 2, 1989. His only win of that season was 36-33 over Rutgers. Berndt was 7-4 the next season (beating Virginia Tech, Boston College, Pitt and Wisconsin), a year before the Owls were to play an official Big East Conference schedule.
BRUCE ARIANS _ The first Temple coach in the modern era carried off the field by a team after his first game, a 17-6 win over Syracuse at Franklin Field on Sept. 2, 1983. The Owls won three other games that year, 24-7 over Louisville, 24-23 at Rutgers, and 23-16 at rival Delaware.
WAYNE HARDIN _ Opened unimpressively, with a 21-0 loss at home to Akron on Sept. 12, 1970, but finished his first season (like most of his seasons) strong as the Owls won seven of their last nine.
Al Golden enters his first game at Buffalo as an underdog, but chances are Las Vegas oddsmakers don’t know enough about either team to establish a clear favorite. They set the line based on the action, not necessarily the stronger team.
Will Al Golden become the third Owl head coach to be carried off the field in the modern era after game No. 1?
I’m, err, betting on it.

By Mike Gibson
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
A very wise man, conservative philosopher George Santayana, coined that phrase.
Today’s biggest misconception is that the “college football landscape” is so different than it was “20, 30 years ago” and “ignoring that is a sign of being out of touch with reality.”
Here’s the biggest dose of reality: College football’s landscape has changed so that the mid-majors are allowed to experience the kind of success they never had back 20, 30 years ago.
The landscape the very Bobby Wallace apologists cited as a reason why Temple football can’t succeed is the very reason Temple football can succeed.
Let’s see.
What did Temple have in the 1970s and 1980s?
Surely not a $521 million stadium to play all of its games in, not a stadium that is widely hailed as the best from a fan’s standpoint in all of football, pro and college.
Maybe Temple could play in Temple Stadium, later maybe it could get dates at Franklin Field and Veterans Stadium _ two places with major drawbacks for Owl fans. No creature comforts at Franklin Field, no sightlines at the Vet.
Temple University athletic director Bill Bradshaw is right about a lot of things, but none more than this quote.
“None of our opponents can say they play in a stadium as nice as ours,” Bradshaw said.
And none of them can.
That wasn’t the case 20, 30 years ago when every single one of them could.
Those who cite “landscape” as the reason Temple can’t succeed in football usually weren’t even around 20, 30 years ago to see what the landscape really was.
I was there, covering the team, making the road trips when every team the Owls played had a nicer stadium.
Facilities?
Every other team had an Edberg-Olson equivalent or better way back when that landscape was supposed to be so different.
Temple had a dingy weight room in the McGonigle Hall basement and a rock-strewn grass practice field (now the Student Pavilion) adjacent to it.
Bruce Arians would pass out if he saw the facilities Temple has now compared to what it had then.
Somehow, he got players who could compete.
That’s the reality of the landscape then and now.
It changed for Temple’s benefit, not its demise.
The landscape also included a blantantly unfair distribution of scholarships, something that doesn’t exist now. Pitt gave out hundreds of scholarships in those days, as did Penn State. Temple could never even afford half that. That’s a handicap that dwarfs facilities. Temple’s problems stem from Jerry Berndt, Ron Dickerson and Bobby Wallace (and David Adamany).
Al Golden is a dedicated, committed coach who has a clue and can turn things around here in no more than 3-4 years.
Yes, the college football landscape was completely different 20, 30 years ago. What Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians did against that brutal backdrop can be considered nothing short of a miracle.
Comparatively speaking, the landscape Golden has to work with is a Garden of Eden.

By Mike Gibson
Saw the first installment of a slick Temple infomercial this morning, targeting increased ticket sales for the Temple University football team.
The 30-minute segment delivered with a fast-paced show, highlighting the many plusses that Temple University has to offer a prospective student athlete.
Golden said the thing fans will notice about the team is that “it has a plan formulated by professionals.”
Harry Donahue co-hosted the show along with Golden and the two did “walk throughs” at several locations, including the Liacouras Walk, the Student Activities Center and the new tech center. They also did a segment on an unlined Lincoln Financial Field and climbed to the top of the stadium for a terrific view of Center City Philadelphia.
Golden said he would like to see the Linc “packed for the first game” with Louisville and would like for fans to give Temple opponents a “welcome that only Philadelphia fans can give them.”
Temple linebacker Ryan Gore was among the players interviewed and he promised the Owls “will be in every game until the end” this season and that the sense of urgency this year to win is greater than ever.
Long-time Temple University football supporters, like John Longacre and Bill Barnes, got some serious face time and were articulate in their support of the program, with the theme being that the time to support the team is now and the time to turn around the program is now.
The segment ended with Golden talking to the team and complimenting them on “buying into the offseason program” and telling them to keep it up.
“The most important thing to me is your integrity,” Golden told the team. “Lie to me and you’re gone. We have to build a foundation of trust.”

By Mike Gibson
I’m not big on fantasy leagues or fantasy games or computer games that pick a score and situations in a mythical game between teams from different eras.
I’d much rather deal in what actually happened years ago and how it can affect what will happen in the future.
So it is, too, with Temple University football.
It has always been my abiding belief that Temple can win in football and do it consistently primarily because it has done so in the past.
What has happened before can happen again.
So, today, I really have to give it up for the Goat, who posted this story under the banner “NCAA football news.”
Not only does he have the Owls winning their opener at Buffalo, 28-22, he has a game story with stats.
He has the Owls 6-4 going into the final game at Navy.
It might not happen, probably won’t happen, but I like the thought process.

Adam DiMichele (left), Jarrett Dunston, Shane Kelly, Colin Clancy

By Mike Gibson
Chances are Temple football’s quarterback situation will be like the Florida weather.
Constantly changing the next three weeks or so.
It’ll be up to Al Golden to settle on someone, but Allie G. probably would prefer someone to seize this opportunity and go to the head of the class at Temple University.
There’s a lot of talent and a lot of inexperience at the position.
These few paragraphs, ripped from the pages of the current official team prospectus and released yesterday, say it best:

“Position concerns are a standard reality for all programs prior to the start of preseason camp. The Owls’ area of primary concern resides under center, where the team needs to identify its starting quarterback prior to its opening battle against the Bulls. A pair of sophomores—Colin Clancy and Shane Kelly—saw action as true freshmen in 2005. They competed in the spring with Jarrett Dunston, a mid-year transfer that was the top rated postgraduate quarterback in the nation by Rivals. Clancy played in five contests in 2005, connecting on 10 of 19 aerials for 121 yards and a score. Kelly competed in one game, completing two of six passes for 18 yards at Wisconsin.
The trio will grow by two in preseason camp when former Penn State signee Adam DiMichele and true freshman Vaughn Charlton, from nearby Avon Grove High School, join the fray. Golden expects a five-horse race for the starting job once camp begins.”

What is known is that the guy with the most savvy, the guy with moxie beyond his tender years, probably will step to the head of the class.
Adam DiMichele gets high marks in that category from the Pittsburgh papers, having been named a Super 5 (top five) football player in the Pittsburgh area by the Post-Gazette and was named the Tribune-Review’s basketball player of the year.
I’m looking forward to seeing all of the QBs in action.

From left, Jarrett Dunston, Anthony Ferla and Jason Harper

By Mike Gibson
The theory turned out to be as effective as it was simple.
BillyBall, it was called.
Oakland baseball general manager Billy Beane’s “recruiting” or “drafting” philosophy differed from that of so many of his contemporaries.
He believed strongly that height or weight, how fast a guy could throw the ball as measured on a radar gun or 40-speed mattered not as much as performance.
What Beane looked for was simple.
How did players perform on the field at a high level?
Duh?
It’s a proven philosophy that produced a farm system that for years was the envy of programs with much larger payrolls.
Handicapped by a small payroll, Bean went out and stacked the A’s with players who hit home runs, had high batting averages and won/lost records. Beane figured if athletes proved themselves against the best possible competition at a lower level, it only followed they would do so on the next level.
For the most part, he was right.
Bean stacked the farm system with players who produced statistics, meaningful numbers, for quality programs and guys who were instrumental in the success of their prior teams. While other guys relied on radar guys and stopwatches, Beane relied how the guy actually played the game.
It worked for Billy Beane.
It worked for former Temple University head coach Wayne Hardin, too.
When Temple was winning on a consistent basis in college football, it did so recruiting players from traditional winning programs at the high school level.
Hardin stacked his program with players from the Central Bucks Wests and the Mount Carmels, character guys who did nothing but win on the high school level and expected nothing less in college.
If push came to shove, he would take a 5-10 guy who was a player over a 6-4 guy at the same position who couldn’t play. Hardin wanted tough guys who he could count on at crunch time.
As a result, the Owls won four four straight years in the 1970s, a run that culminated in a 1979 Garden State Bowl win.
It appears as though Al Golden is following that same template.
Within the last few days, Anthony Ferla, Millage Peaks and Jarrett Dunston joined what appears to be a stellar first recruiting class at Temple. Earlier, Jason Harper, the Daily Record’s 2004 Player of the Year, committed to Temple, too.
Those three, like the vast majority of the current class of at least 18 verbals (headed for 23), are proven winners with high achievement records on the field of play for traditionally winning programs.
Hardin’s philosophy was to recruit high-character winners who were used to being part of winning programs and then coach the hell out of them.
Apparently, Golden feels the same way.
His players have got the 40-speed and the vertical leaps, too, just a better record of being good, clutch football players who have performed under pressure in big games for marquee programs.
They will accept no less from their Temple experience, either. That can only bode well for the players themselves, Golden and for Temple fans.