Author Archives: Mike Gibson

07.15.22
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5 Individual Owl achievements that can happen

In Darvon Hubbard, the Owls have a big-time SEC recruit from Texas A&M who should, combined with a veteran offensive line, significantly upgrade the running game.

Hard to believe, Harry (Donahue, in this case) but after three years of despair, it’s not hard to see some Temple football Owls making a mark this season.

After all, all the cheering in the practices in the snow and the weightlifting at the E-O have signaled an all-for-one, one-for-all atmosphere around the $17 million Edberg-Olson Complex we haven’t seen since the first year of the Geoff Collins Era.

That team, arguably a nine-win squad, still did the university proud by winning seven games and taking home a bowl title.

Former Virginia Tech starter Quincy Patterson probably beats out former Georgia starter D’wan Mathis to give Temple the deepest 1-2 quarterback punch in the AAC this season.

Underachieving is not an option this year.

Regular achieving?

In this space, we’ve set the bar at six wins.

Hard?

Sure.

Impossible?

Definitely not.

Since the team is the sum of the individual parts, we can see five things happening on that level that lead to a team success.

Now, mind you, we’re not predicting them, but can definitely envision them:

One, Quincy Patterson becomes a first-team all-league quarterback. Sean Hennigan of Memphis, really, is his top competition but a guy who heard pass-rushing footsteps against a 3-9 Temple team certainly is vulnerable against a guy who once led Virginia Tech to a double-overtime win against North Carolina. Patterson, in my mind, has the “it” factor that both P.J. Walker and Adam DiMichele had. I hope I’m right.

Two, Isaac Moore, Adam Klein and Victor Stoffel take things personally. All three of these players were outstanding for Chris Wiesehan under Collins and the return of their coach revitalizes the Temple offensive line. Moore in particular signaled the end of the Rod Carey Error a year ago today when he was quoted in OwlsDaily.com as saying: “It’s Temple. You cannot lose here. Everyone knows that.” (That was in response to a question about a rare 1-6 season at Temple.) Wiesehan, who did not experience a losing season in his prior years at Temple, was considered by many an outstanding candidate to get the job Stan Drayton did and that’s because many current Temple players went to bat for him. Reason? He had pretty much this same talent operating on a much higher level under Geoff Collins. That would lead to the next achievement.

Three, Darvon Hubbard gains 1,000 yards and scores at least 10 touchdowns. Hubbard was a three-star Texas A&M recruit for a reason and it was because it was a state champion 100-meter guy who also maximized his carries on the high school football field in Arizona. With less than 100 carries, Hubbard had over 1,000 yards in his senior year in high school football. That’s a lot of yards per carry. If he does the same against AAC competition, the Owls more than double their run production next year. Hubbard will probably be the best transfer running back Temple has had since Montel Harris scored seven touchdowns in a single game in 2012.

Amad Anderson is definitely the best Anderson at wide receiver since Robby (celebrating with the great Temple fans here the win over Penn State) caught clutch passes at Temple in 2015.

Four, Adonicis Sanders and Amad Anderson exceed the production of Jadan Blue and Randall Jones. Sanders, who caught the game-winning touchdown pass against Duke last year, could do the same this year. Anderson was a productive starter at Purdue before coming to Temple. Their collective target? The four touchdowns and 661 yards Blue (now at Virginia Tech) and Jones combined for last year. I will bet $20 against any Temple fan at the season-ticket-holder party who wants to take me up on that.

Five, the Owls as a team get more sacks (16+) this year than they did last year (15, 105 yards in losses). North Carolina transfer Xach Gill (who didn’t play last year) is a significant upgrade inside and Layton Jordan is an improvement outside. Kentucky transfer Jerquavion Mahone (who did play last year) needs to improve on the inside and surprisingly Dyshier Clary is listed as a DE starter on the other side ahead of Darian Varner and Evan Boozer, who both have good motors. That’s pretty good DE depth.

If a team is the sum of its parts (and it is), the parts point to better production. Does that equal 2x the wins?

That’s a math question even Albert Einstein would be hard-pressed to answer but the across-the-board improvement we see in mid-July seems to support the hypothesis.

Monday: What They Are Saying …

07.11.22
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Breaking Good: Joe Klecko’s chances for HOF

Wayne Hardin has a great quote about Joe Klecko in the middle of this video.

Better Call Saul, probably the best TV series since Breaking Bad had its finale nine years ago, returns tonight for the final few episodes.

For fans like me, the Breaking Bad franchise will finally end as brilliant writer Vince Gilligan goes off to different projects and says no spinoffs are planned.

For the uninitiated, Breaking Bad was the way a good teacher (Walter White) went to become a meth kingpin and Saul Goodman was his lawyer.

Dan and Joe Klecko on Senior Day.

That’s the Breaking Bad story. Today we will talk about something Breaking Good.

Joe Klecko’s chances of making the Pro Football Hall of Fame broke very well last week when he was named a semifinalist for the 2023 Veterans Class.

In my mind (and the minds of Howie Long, Peter King, Mike Francesa and several other pro football experts), Klekco should have been in there 20 years ago. From a stat standpoint, he probably should have been in there before Long and Warren Sapp because the numbers said he was a more dominating defensive lineman.

Numbers don’t lie but maybe take it from the best offensive lineman of his era, Anthony Munoz (also in the Hall) who said, “Without a doubt, Joe Klecko was the hardest player I’ve ever had to block and it wasn’t even close.”

At Temple, while Tyler Matakevich and Dan Klecko were both good, there is no doubt in my mind that Joe Klecko was the most dominating defensive player in Temple history. I sat in the press box and watched Klecko make future Detroit Lions’ quarterback Brian Komlo’s day a living hell.

Before the largest Delaware Stadium crowd in history (23,619), to this day even, Klecko pushed the center aside and sacked Komlo 11 times in a 31-8 Temple win. That was a pretty good Delaware team that made the national quarterfinals at its level. While the NCAA didn’t keep sacks that year, the reporters in the press box did. Klecko was on Komlo almost at the snap count on five of those sacks. In a 27-10 Temple win over Penn State (2015), the Owls had an impressive 10 sacks as a team.

To think that one player could get 11 in a game is mind-boggling.

At St. James High, Klecko’s team won the City Championship by beating a pretty good Frankford team, 43-0. The Jimmies didn’t attempt a pass the whole game.

KIecko was the only Owl to go from pro football to Temple. (Well, semi-pro.) He kept his college eligibility playing under the assumed name “Jim Jones” for the Aston Knights while working as a truck driver. The Aston Knights equipment manager was also the Temple equipment manager who told head coach Wayne Hardin: “You’ve got to see this guy. He’s unblockable.” Hardin did and the rest was history. Klecko was a two-sport athlete at Temple and won consecutive NCAA boxing titles (when boxing was a college sport).

Klecko was a regular Temple tailgater during Dan’s years (where he was Big East Defensive Player of the Year). The last time I saw him tailgating in Lot K was Dan’s final game.

“Now, Joe, just because Dan’s leaving I hope that doesn’t mean you won’t be back,” I said.

“No, Mike, I’ll be here,” Joe said.

The last time I saw him at Al Golden’s introductory press conference. The two were Colts Neck, N.J. neighbors at the time.

I reminded him of the tailgating story and Joe laughed, saying life had gotten in the way.

Maybe Temple will have him back next season after he gives his Canton, Ohio induction speech. There is nobody in this class more deserving.

Friday: 5 Individual Achievements That Could Happen

July 18: What they’re saying

07.08.22
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G5: Proving it could beat the P5 every single year

Temple would be the northernmost school of the new Super AAC.

Until about now, the Group of Five has been an interested spectator in this crazy game called college football realignment.

The trend is simply this: Consolidation.

Simply put, the seismic shift is that the two major conferences, the SEC and the Big 10, are going to be superconferences and, while the goal is not to marginalize the other three Power 5 conferences, that is exactly what is happening.

North Carolina does the unthinkable this year … opening on the road at two G5 teams. We might never see that again. Temple should be rooting for both home squads.

Group of Five?

What was an afterthought is becoming moreso so why not be as aggressive as the two major conferences are?

The thinking here is that there is not much for the G5 to lose at this point.

A superconference of G5 schools would not adversely affect the current landscape in the G5 now and might help it.

In other words, for the G5 to have a seat at any potential playoff table–and that should be the goal–one conference of G5 teams might be enough to force the hand of the Power 5.

If not an automatic bid, then maybe some kind of litigation striping the P5 of its ability to marginalize the G5 would work.

It’s worth a try.

If anything, the Group of Five schools have proven they can beat the P5 schools on a regular basis.

Last year, Cincinnati went into Notre Dame and won as did Memphis beating a Mississippi State team (which beat Texas A&M, which beat Alabama). Memphis lost to probably the worst-coached Temple team in history.

We all know Temple, in back-to-back years, beat Penn State and came within a touchdown of beating a Big 10 champion (also Penn State) the next year on the road. Temple won, 37-7, at SEC member Vanderbilt in 2014 and hammered Maryland of the Big 10 on the road, 35-14, in 2018 and returned the favor the next year, 20-17, when Maryland came into Lincoln Financial Field ranked No. 21 in the country.

Coastal Carolina beat Kansas in consecutive years and, in one of those years, Kansas beat Texas.

Liberty beat Syracuse.

UTSA won not only at Memphis but at Power 5 Illinois.

There are plenty of G5 victories over P5 teams to point to, really, too many to mention in this space.

If the G5 had never beaten P5 teams, there could be a solid argument to be made to exclude them from the playoffs but there are examples every year that their champion deserves a chance.

Maybe producing one G5 champion from a G5 Superconference would bolster that argument. Whatever it would behoove the G5 to make some news when all of the offseason noise right now is coming elsewhere.

If you can beat them but they won’t let you at the playoff table, force their hand by forming a superconference, too. If they deny you a seat at the table, file a suit.

It might work. It might not but laying back and letting them screw you should not be an option.

Monday: Breaking Good

Friday: 5 Individual Achievements That Could Happen

July 18: What they’re saying

07.01.22
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Lafayette we are not here

If Pat Kraft does for Penn State what he did for Temple, Nittany Lion fans can expect something like this:

Adding teams Colgate and New Hampshire on the schedule in the future and hiring someone from the Midwest with no knowledge of Pennsylvania or what makes that program tick to replace James Franklin when he jumps to the Redskins, err, Commanders, in a couple of years.

Maybe it will be another Indiana grad. That hire says things like “who cares, he’s a kicker” and “where I’m from, we don’t say we’re tough, we just are” and Penn State becomes a bottom-feeder in the Big 10.

Kraft was a nice guy and probably the most approachable athletic director Temple has had since the great Gavin White.

Plenty of room for improvement in these future schedules

Unlike White, though, Kraft lobbed a few grenades over his shoulder on the way out the McGonigle Hall/Star Complex door that pretty much did a number on Temple sports.

The Rod Carey hiring definitely is one. Maybe Aaron McKie but that’s to be determined. McKie must make the NCAA tournament next year or be shown the door. He doesn’t seem to have the same fire in his belly for winning that his coach, John Chaney, did. Give me 25 wins in 2022-23 and I will like his belly just fine.

No Kraft grenade has done more damage, though, than the football scheduling one.

Twelve years ago Temple played a competitive football game on national television with UCLA and lost arguably only because its star player, Bernard Pierce, could not play in the second half.

Now UCLA will join the Big 10 in a couple of years as will its major rival, USC.

When all is said and done, it looks like we are headed for two superconferences, the SEC and Big 10 and there is a lot of jockeying to get there.

UCLA and USC didn’t get there by playing FCS teams, although an argument can be made P5 teams can afford to play FCS teams more than G5 teams can.

Temple has to play the P5 and beat them in order to get into that exclusive club. It is never going to get there playing FCS teams.

Tough task, but nothing worth achieving is ever easy.

There have been too many cupcakes on the Temple schedule in the past and the blame largely can be put on one man: Pat Kraft.

There is one on the schedule this year: Lafayette. Arguably, two, if you include UMass (and I would). There was one on the championship year: Stony Brook. There was one last year.

We’ve written this in this space from the jump: Temple has no business playing Stony Brook, Wagner, or Lafayette.

Ever. Period, end of story.

Next year, Norfolk State is on the schedule and, in 2026, Rhode Island is on the schedule.

Temple has no business playing those teams, either.

If Arthur Johnson wants to do something now that would benefit Temple football in the future, he would pick up the phone today and engineer a swap with Lafayette that would enable Temple to play a Power 5 school. “Hey, Lafayette, we are not here,” Johnson should say.

That won’t happen because the 2022 schedule is set in stone but Norfolk State and Rhode Island can be easily swapped for Power 5 opponents.

I’ve never understood Temple scheduling FCS teams. This is what I’ve been told: “Mike, we’ve got to schedule at least one FCS team every year in order to make a bowl game.”

Poppycock.

Nobody loves Temple going to bowl games more than me, but if Temple needs to schedule an FCS team in order to make a bowl game, just drop football already.

Temple, one of the great universities in the country, should be able to find six FBS schools out of 130 to beat every year or just give it up. I would argue Temple needs to find at least eight FBS teams out of 130 it can beat every year.

The No. 1 priority for Temple is not to get into one of those two superconferences, the SEC or the Big 10, but maybe get into what is left over, like the remnants of the Big 12 or, better yet, the ACC. In light of Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC and UCLA and USC going to the Big 10, chaos is the likely result.

Maybe Clemson to the SEC as well causes more dominoes to fall.

Chaos is Temple’s friend. Maybe in a couple of years Temple could be to the ACC what UAB and Rice were to the AAC this year, a viable backup plan.

Beating Maryland, 38-7, 35-14 and 20-17–all things Temple did in the last decade–moved the needle in that direction more than the AAC champions beating Stony Brook, 38-0, did.

Put it this way: The 2016 AAC champion Temple Owls lost by a touchdown, 34-27, at Big 10 champion Penn State and perhaps the only reason for that is the Owls had 134 yards in penalties and two touchdowns called back by questionable holding calls.

Just for giggles, had a G5 conference champion, Temple, beaten that P5 conference champion, Penn State and, instead of a 97-degree afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field that proved to be a wasted three hours against Stony Brook traveled to, for sake of argument, Auburn and beating the Tigers, Temple would have had almost a virtual lock on the first G5 spot in the Final Four.

That would have moved the needle much farther along than it is now and maybe Temple would have jumped Cincinnati–a team it had beaten four-straight times through 2018–into the P5.

That competitive game against UCLA a dozen years ago now seems a century away. So does the one-touchdown loss in 2016 on the road against the Big 10 champion.

Temple can fix it by playing the best and beating the best going forward.

It has nothing to lose by trying.

Monday: The Honeymooners

06.27.22
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Drayton makes the call to Temple fans

As if he didn’t have enough work to do, new Temple coach Stan Drayton was given another task by the Temple administration last week.

Making phone calls.

Like the calls to recruits and portal transfers and other coaches, the latest calls were just as important.

Maybe more important.

TFF would like to thank a player from the Al Golden Era, Matt P., whose generous donation enabled us to purchase a printer for this site. Copying down info on recruits by hand was really time-consuming and now going forward this speeds up the process of gathering stats and other information for the site. All donations to TFF go back into the website, paying for things like copyrighted photos and site hosting and, now, a TFF printer. Thanks, Matt.

Drayton called a hefty number of fans who had been season-ticket-holders but for some reason or another decided to put the money away the last two years.

The diplomatic reason is COVID but I suspect the real reason Temple season tickets dropped particularly last year was the abysmal performance of the prior coaching staff.

Notice we didn’t say “team” because the kids who left for other teams depleted the talent level on the roster so much so that the kids who were left behind couldn’t compete.

I got a little taste of what was to come at the 2019 tailgates when several parents mentioned to me at post-game tailgates, “Mike, nobody likes the guy (Rod Carey) and everyone wants out.”

If that was in the late stages of an 8-5 season, you can imagine the patience completely ran out after 1-6 and 3-9 seasons.

It’s apparent Drayton has stopped the bleeding of players out the door, welcomed a lot of good players into the program and is liked by the team, all the while instilling discipline necessary to compete at a high G5 level.

You need players and coaches committed and Temple has that.

The last piece of the puzzle is fans and Temple must show the rest of the college football world that the buzz around the program extends beyond the practice facility and into the stands.

With those phone calls, it’s apparent Drayton understands what’s needed and a personal appeal to the Prodigal Son fans is an excellent way to start.

Getting the Doubting Thomases, though, back into their seats requires a win at Duke and, if Drayton understands the first three pieces of the puzzle (as he’s demonstrated), he surely understands what he has to do next.

Friday: Decrafting the schedule

Monday: Honeymoon Period

06.20.22
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Temple will have to earn TV time

The first three games are set for TV.

The damage report on the hand grenade the last Temple football head coach tossed over his shoulder on the way out the Edberg Olson door won’t be fully known for a couple of years.

That’s because the impact of roster depth and quality and recruiting usually take that long to show on the field.

We do know one thing: Fans will have to scramble to find the Owls on television for the early games, part of the collateral damage.

Temple has always done well in TV ratings, particularly in winning years like 2015, when the Owls game against visiting Notre Dame drew the highest rating for any college football game in Philadelphia EVER. That included six prime time Notre Dame vs. Penn State games.

ESPN+ is one of the best buys anywhere. For $4.99 a month, you can get most of the AAC football games and even Olympic sports like soccer and baseball.

However, it’s probably a good idea to plan a September road trip to Durham, N.C. because the ACC Network is not a part of the package. In other words, just to see the Temple game, you’ll have to make an additional subscription to the ACC Network.

Bummer.

Of course, you could try to find a bar that has the ACC Network but good luck with that. Temple has always had a significant number of casual fans who will watch home games on TV but the challenge always has been getting them off the couch and away from the potato chips and into the stadium.

Winning big road games like Duke gets the job done better than about 1,000 commercials.

There is still a chance … a chance … that ESPN allows the Philadelphia market a one-time dispensation to allow the Temple game on ESPN+. Let’s hope so, but I’m not counting on it.

It would be a terrific advertisement for ticket sales if the Owls were on TV for the opener.

The next two games will be on ESPN+, both Sept. 10 against overmatched Lafayette and the Sept. 17 Homecoming Game against Rutgers.

That won’t help ticket sales but since the Owls usually draw between 28,000 to 35,000 for Homecoming and Rutgers brings anywhere from 15-20K, the crowd could push 40-45K for that game alone.

If the Owls win, subsequent home games are headed for a big boost. I don’t care if any of the home games are televised since I will be in the stadium, but I do want to be able to see all of the Owls’ road games.

A lot will depend on them winning.

Still, much of the remaining TV schedule is listed as “to be determined” and that means ESPN and others are waiting to see if the Owls are for real.

How they do at Duke will go a long way toward determining the to-be-determined part.

06.17.22
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Temple football: Follow the money

Temple took a gamble by making the Sept. 17th game with Rutgers homecoming rather than the more winnable UMass game a week later. Temple has not had less than 32,000 for a homecoming game in any non-Covid years for the last decade and the gamble is a win over RU would make those fans come back for a Homecoming-like crowd against UMass.

Anyone who followed those great detective shows of the 1960s can relate to this way of solving a crime.

Some police Lieutenant, say Columbo or Kojak, would put the clues together like a puzzle and the final piece would be revealed in the final act pointing to the killer.

Often, but not always, money was involved.

Nobody knows how this Temple football story currently being written by the staff of new head coach Stan Drayton ends but the pieces in the puzzle are pointing in the right direction.

Drayton has upgraded the Owls’ talent by way of the transfer portal in a way not even Matt Rhule was able to, let alone Steve Addazio, Geoff Collins or Rod Carey did.

Definitely, the stock of the franchise is up but, just looking at it from a money perspective, Temple football has appeared to have flatlined over the last decade or so. Does that mean the Owls have peaked? No, because there is more money coming into the program.

If Temple had been able to sustain this average after 2015, we’d be talking about the Owls in the Big 12 and not, say, Houston.

Shawn Pastor of Owlsdaily.com did the most impressive digging we’ve seen since the TV series Six Feet Under to come up with how much the football program has made over the last decade.

Not surprisingly, the Owls had a good year in the Big East, raking in $5.3 million in 2012-13. That year was highlighted on the field by a 17-14 win at 5.5-point favorite UConn and not much else.

Since then, though, the numbers have been surprisingly consistent in the American Athletic Conference years:

2013-14: $4.8 Million

2014-15: $3.4 Million

2015-16: $4.6 Million

2016-17: $4.9 Million

2017-18: $5 Million

2018-19: $4.5 Million

2019-20: $5.9 Million

Those above numbers reflect Temple’s cut from the conference alone. Gotta think the 2015 games against Penn State and Notre Dame enriched the coffers even more and, to be fair, the Owls probably lost money by Pat Kraft’s decision to bring Wagner here. Looking forward, though, somehow, with the $54 million settlement the AAC has made with the three departing schools–Houston, Cincinnati and UCF–Temple and the leftovers are in for somewhat of a windfall making this upcoming season the best for football revenue ever.

Now it’s up to the university to spend the money wisely. Spending money to make money probably is the way to go with an aggressive advertising campaign designed to put butts in the seats.

More butts in the seats mean not only more money flowing into the coffers but a signal that the product is worth buying. The best way to put those butts in the seats is to win and, at least so far, all the clues point to Drayton handling that end well.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a detective to figure that out.

Monday: Temple on TV

06.13.22
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Media a willing partner in denigrating the G5

Good luck finding any Group of Five college football content on the internet these days.

Not that there isn’t plenty of college football content, just not any college football content mentioning the larger half of the teams currently playing FBS ball.

A great segment on 60 Minutes would be the Power 5 schools working to eliminate the G5 schools.

Josh Pate of CBS Sports seems to have the most popular YouTube channel and the titles are just slightly misleading, including “CFB Expectations” and “Most Important CFB Players in 2022” and “Boldest CFB Predictions.”

Pate probably should drop “CFB” and rebrand each video “Power 5” because he never mentions any of the G5 teams in expectations for the 2022 season. Or any player from the G5 although at least one G5 player has been a first-round NFL draft pick since the G5 came to be. Surely, there are important football players on G5 rosters, too.

I mentioned that to him recently with this exchange:

His guess wouldn’t be my guess.

Every rule the Power 5 forces the NCAA to enact works against the existence of the G5.

My guess is that he would say it’s because there’s “more interest and more clicks” with Power 5 stories and he’s got a point there but there are other larger stories the media is ignoring about college football that might not get the clicks Pate would want but need to be told.

Just once I’d like to see the media delve into why the Power 5 limits the playoff system to just four teams (and college basketball is more inclusive) and how can Group of 5 teams compete with P5 teams down the road in areas with rules in place like the NLI and the transfer portal. What should be done to even the playing field? In my opinion, something should be done to help the G5.

Not too many videos will be done about that this offseason but maybe they should. To me, it would be a great story for someone like 60 Minutes to pursue since the college football media seems to be a willing partner with the P5 in the denigration of the G5.

Friday: Temple Money

06.10.22
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Temple has many more playmakers this year

Football is not a complicated thing.

Teams that make plays win.

Teams that have more playmakers make plays.

Adonicas Sanders

From where I sit, Temple has at least … at least … five big-time playmakers it did not have last year and that should play a role in the turnaround we wrote about in this space on Monday.

The Owls lacked a lot of things a season ago in finishing 3-9 but the sore thumb in this badly bloodied hand was a lack of speed.

For no matter how highly you think of last year’s running backs (Edward Saydee, Kyle Dobbins or Tayvon Ruley) or even record-setting wide receiver Jadan Blue (now at Virginia Tech) or even four-star starting quarterback D’Wan Mathis, none of them were able to take that ball, turn the corner and outrun anyone on a long touchdown run.

That’s not to say it didn’t happen. Randle Jones outran the entire Akron and SMU teams in recent years on his way to touchdowns and Amad Anderson took a short pass and did the same against Memphis.

Still, as a matter of course, Temple didn’t have enough of those kinds of players a year ago.

It does now.

Five come to mind:

Iverson Clement

Iverson Clement _ The former Florida Gator moved from running back to cornerback because the Owls need speed at that position. New coach Stan Drayton said he studied the film and no doubt saw a tight end chase down a Temple cornerback from behind in the South Florida game and made a vow that it won’t happen again. Iverson intercepts that same pass and puts six on the board in the fall. Because of a falling out with the former staff, Iverson didn’t see the field last year. He will see it this year.

Adonicas Sanders _ Sanders caught two passes against Duke, both for touchdowns in a 31-27 win for Georgia Tech last year, and no doubt Drayton has an inkling Sanders can reprise the role in the opener.

Darvon Hubbard

Darvon Hubbard _ The reason Texas A&M made Hubbard one of its prized recruits a couple of years ago was the elite speed at the running back position the Owls did not have last year. The 100- and 200-meter Arizona High School track champion had over 1,000 yards on just 99 carries at Willow Canyon High.

Dominick Hill_ A defensive back, it’s fair to say without the transfer portal, Temple doesn’t recruit a player like this. He was the No. 1-ranked player in the Orlando Sentinel’s 2020 Central Florida Super 60 and it’s easy to see why because he led Jones High in Orlando to a 13-2 record in 2019 with 30 tackles and a district-leading six interceptions as a senior. The Orlando area is considered the best area for recruits in the best state for recruiting in the nation.

Quincy Patterson _ After watching this young man’s film for the last four weeks, I’m convinced the Owls have recruited their best quarterback since beating out Nebraska for Dodge City Community College first-team All-American Walter Washington. As tentative as Mathis played for most of last season (other than the Memphis game, it appeared he was walking on eggshells), that’s how confidently Patterson plays a position that demands confidence. The Owls will rally around this special talent.

Those are just five playmakers the Owls have this year who did not see the field last year.

There are more and they will let themselves be known to the fans by making big-time plays that translate into wins.

06.06.22
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Temple football: Expect a turnaround

Last two games don’t appear on this graphic.

Somewhere on the Walt Whitman bridge around 5:37 p.m. on Sunday, Joe Girardi was banging his head on the steering wheel.

Phillies fire him three games ago and, under the new guy, win all three games against a Los Angeles Angels’ team that came into town with a winning record. Joe probably doesn’t like the perception right now that he was the problem.

Coaching change makes a difference

Now I don’t expect Rob Thomson to be manager of the year, but I do expect him to do much better than the 22-29 Girardi did.

Sometimes a change at the top is necessary and what’s good for the Phillies probably is 10x better for Temple football.

That’s because while the Phillies clubhouse hasn’t been good place to be over 10 games prior to Girardi’s dismissal, the Temple football clubhouse was absolutely toxic by comparison over its last 10 games.

More players left under the last guy than came in and new coach Stan Drayton has not only reversed that trend, but the players coming in have largely been an upgrade over the players leaving and that could not be said of the Owls for the last couple of years.

That’s why in this early-than-should be projection we have the Owls at 6-6 and making a bowl game. Last year we saw enough in February to predict in this space that the Owls would win two games.

They won three.

Large contingent of Temple fans make the game at Navy seem like a home one for the Owls

If the Owls win one more than projected, I will be very happy considering what has happened the last two seasons.

Here’s our game-by-game predictions as of June 6:

Sept 2.–Temple 24, Duke 21 _ Adonicis Sanders reprises his role of a year ago, catching a touchdown pass from Quincy Patterson in the final play of the game to beat Duke. Owls carry Stan Drayton off the field. A quality control coach at Indiana bangs his head against the steering wheel when he hears the final score on the radio.

Owls 1-0

Sept. 10–Temple 62, Lafayette 7 _ Owls do to Leopards what they should have done to Wagner a year ago. They only have to throw five passes all day as they score long touchdown runs on their first four handoffs. Elijah Warner gets in the game in the second half as Patterson rests after the first quarter and Dwan Mathis throws a couple of touchdown passes on the second.

Owls 2-0

Sept. 17–Rutgers 34, Temple 14 _ Owls stay close for three quarters but avoid the mistakes on special teams that allowed last year’s game to get out of hand.

Owls 2-1

Sept. 24–Temple 35, UMass 21–Owls jump out to a 28-7 lead at halftime but are spotty in the second half. “We lost our focus and I got on them about it,” Drayton says afterward.

Owls 3-1

Oct. 1–Memphis 38, Temple 21–Tigers get revenge for losing the last two games in Philadelphia. “When I saw it was a home game, I knew we were going to win it,” Memphis quarterback Sean Henigan said. “Philadelphia is a house of horrors for us.”

Owls 3-2

Oct. 13–UCF 28, Temple 17–Owls put up a good fight but fall late. “Their speed was too much for us,” Drayton said. “I was proud of the way we competed.”

Owls 3-3

Oct. 21–Temple 31, Tulsa 21–Drayton said a big part of the win was showing the team game film of a 44-10 loss a year ago. “I made them watch it every damn day,” he said. “My message to them was that it was an embarrassment to lose to a school that has 3,865 full-time students when we have 39,645 full-time students.” Drayton also credited the Temple students: “Great turnout for the ESPN Friday night game and our kids stood up and cheered on every third down. That made a difference.”

Owls 4-3

Oct. 29–Temple 21, Navy 20–Drayton gives the game ball to defensive line coach Antoine Smith. “Our D-line stopped the fullback and, when you stop the fullback, you make them go sideline to sideline and they don’t have the speed to do that.” Drayton also gave a nod to the Temple fans who made the trip. “The 3:30 start really juiced up our fans,’ he said. “They were quite, shall we say, lubricated when the gates opened and it sounded like a Temple home game.”

Owls 5-3

Nov. 5–Temple 37, USF 20–Temple clinches a bowl bid with three games remaining. “We had this circled for a number of reasons,” Drayton said. “They pushed us off the ball last year for 5-7 yards every play. We weren’t strong enough then. Now we are. We lifted two hours a day, 300-plus days, and our mission was to return the favor and that’s just what we did.” Trey Blair got the Owls off to a good start with by returning the opening kickoff 92 yards for a score. “You won’t see us ever fair catch,” Drayton said. “That’s not Temple TUFF. We make things happen.”

Owls 6-3

Nov. 12–Houston 38, Temple 30–Having clinched a bowl bid, Temple suffers a letdown. “We competed but it wasn’t good enough,” Drayton said. “This program is going to a bowl game. That’s just the first step back to getting this thing to the way you guys are used to seeing it.”

Owls 6-4

Nov. 19–Cincinnati 34, Temple 7–Bearcats wear down the Owls. “They’ve recruited at a whole different level than us for the last four years but those days are over,” Drayton said.

Owls 6-5

Nov. 26–East Carolina 28, Temple 14–In 32-degree temperatures, Owls fall to a team that has beaten them soundly three-straight years. “Fortunately, our next game will be a lot warmer,” Drayton said.

Owls finish the regular season 6-6, doubling their win total of last season.

That qualifies as a turnaround. Not quite the turnaround we all want, but it is one step forward after taking two steps back.