Author Archives: Mike Gibson

06.03.22
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Temple-Duke a statistical toss-up?

The best thing about the last Temple-Duke game was this pass blocking by current Owls’ Adam Klein and Victor Stoffel.

(Photo and ID courtesy of Zamani Feelings)

Gotta give credit where credit is due so OwlsDaily.com gets a big nod here for finding this gem from ESPN’s Bill Connelly.

OwlsDaily editor Shawn Pastor gets mad at me when I say his shit is better than the Brand X site shit (he wants to keep the peace with the other site) but his shit is objectively better. One site has a trained journalist with 30 years plus of Temple experience and the other relies (mostly) on student writers.

Game, set and match.

Sorry, Shawn, for the unsolicited compliment.

Finding and highlighting stat guru Connelly’s analysis of Temple vs. Duke on Sept. 2 (ACC Network, 7:30 p.m.) is just another example.

If you asked me to analyze Temple vs. Duke a day after Temple’s last football game, I might have said Temple losing by the same 56-27 score it lost to the same team in the Independence Bowl might be the best the Owls could expect.

Things have changed since the last guy left the building and now outside people like Connelly are crunching the numbers together and noticing.

Summer workouts have already begun for the Owls at Edberg-Olson.

Here’s what OwlsDaily.com wrote less than two weeks ago:

“Temple’s season-opening game at Duke should be a coin flip, based on updated SP+ preseason projections for 2022, which ESPN college football writer Bill Connelly released on Monday.  The Owls are rated 118th and the Blue Devils are rated 119th in the new rankings, which Connelly adjusted from the initial 2022 projections that he released in February.  The new numbers are based on transfer portal movement over the past three months and updated rosters for most college teams, Connelly wrote.

“Temple has moved up one spot after being rated 119th in February, while Duke has dropped two spots from 117th to 119th.  Across the entire 2022 schedule (and the entire American Conference), the biggest change over the past three months was Houston dropping from 35th to 44th in SP+.”

The key wording above is “the new numbers are based on transfer portal movement and updated rosters for most college teams.”

Here’s the difference between now that bleak Sunday morning after a 38-14 loss to Navy:

Temple has significantly upgraded its roster since that game and Duke has not made the same splash with impact portal guys as good as Darvon Hubbard, Quincy Patterson and Adonicas Sanders to name a few. Patterson beat a team much better than Duke (UNC) as a starting quarterback and Sanders caught the game-winning touchdown pass for a bad Georgia Tech team in a win over Duke last year.

What we don’t know is the gameday coaching ability of Mike Elko and Stan Drayton since neither has been a head coach anywhere.

On Sept 2., in a toss-up game, that could be the difference.

Hmm.

Pat Kraft hired both Manny Diaz and Rod Carey. His first choice was Mike Elko, who turned him down.

If Elko is anywhere near the equal of Diaz or Carey, bet the house and the farm on Temple.

Especially if the Owls are getting any points.

My guess is that they will be getting at least three before game time, probably more.

Connelly, who has a good history of knowing his stuff, seems to feel it will be closer.

Hell, I hope he’s right and will go one step further. I hope the Owls win as a road favorite at a Power 5 school, which would be the first such win since Vandy in 2014.

That probably won’t happen since the public’s perception of Temple over the last two seasons was sullied by a failed Indiana grad hired by another failed Indiana grad proving only one thing.

Indiana guys should stick to hoops.

Monday: Early game-by-game predictions

05.30.22
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Three-month sprint to Duke

Now the summer begins, the fastest three months of the year for almost all of us except the few cold-weather lovers.

For Temple football, it’s a sprint, too.

In roughly 90 days, the Owls will travel to Duke for a shot at redeeming the national perception of the program which was good three years ago but reached nearly Bottom 10 status the last two.

The last guy dropped the baton and the Owls have a lot of running to get to the finish line but the line will be there whether they beat Duke to it or not.

Temple head coach Stan Drayton has pushed all of the right buttons so far, upgrading the two areas of need in quarterback and running back. He’s probably not done in the talent acquisition department, either.

Owls were 4-15 the last two years and that did not sit well with anyone around here.

Is it enough to beat Duke?

The Blue Devils have their own problems they have to fix and, like Temple, a new head coach. They lost to arguably a team with less talent than Temple, UNC-Charlotte, so they are beatable.

Ironically, one of the storylines during the opener would be surrounding that coach, Mike Elko, who was Pat Kraft’s first choice to replace Geoff Collins. Elko turned down the Owls to get a pay raise in Texas.

Since Kraft has made two horrible choices for that job since (Manny Diaz and Pat Carey), Elko’s hiring for Duke could bode well for Temple.

Maybe Elko would have been an equally bad hire for Kraft as Diaz and Carey turned out to be.

If that trend holds up in September, Stan Drayton could look very good in comparison.

Any Temple fan has to hope so. Whatever the case, will win find out in a blink of an eye because these next three months usually go like that.

05.27.22
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What the Dandridge commitment means for Temple

Ten million percent committed is a pretty solid commitment but that’s what Richard Dandridge, one of Florida’s top receivers, gave Temple on Wednesday.

What does “10 million percent” mean?

For starters, it’s a lot more than 100 percent or 1,000 percent or even 10,000 percent.

It probably means come early signing day in December even an offer from Alabama or Clemson or Ohio State will be turned down or that’s too much credibility going down the drain for any young man to tinker with.

This will probably be the shirt Richard wears to the LC to watch future AAC Player of the Year Khalif Battle play for the Temple basketball Owls.

Beyond that, it’s just another indication that new Temple head coach Stan Drayton continues to push all the right buttons as we wrote in this space last week.

Put it this way: Drayton obviously feels some pressure to produce this year so stacking the roster with transfer portal talent better than the talent in the building has been job one.

All signs point to that job being near complete with the addition of probable starting quarterback Quincy Patterson a week ago yesterday. In just a few short months, Drayton has upgraded the quarterback room from a guy who started the 2021 opener for 2022 National Champion Georgia to a guy who led Virginia Tech to a win over a North Carolina roster that hammered Temple, 55-13.

You can talk all you want about Patterson’s passing but his throwing ability was on display against Mack Brown’s Tarheels and it was good enough.

At least for me considering the guy on the short end for Temple against UNC was statistically one of the four best quarterbacks in Temple history.

Patterson has two years of eligibility left at Temple and Dandridge will be one of the guys he will be able to throw to in 2023. Dandridge is a guy who had 10 touchdown receptions and over 1,000 yards receiving in one of the best leagues in the very best high school state.

That’s an explosive combination.

Even more so, Dandridge’s commitment is an indication that Drayton understands that the way to build the Temple program is the same way Al Golden and Matt Rhule did … by establishing strong relationships with great high school players that lead other great high school players to want to join that first guy.

That might not be a 10 million percent improvement over Rhule or Golden but it certainly is a 100 million improvement over the last CEO here and just watch where that leads.

Dandridge might be the first high-level recruit, but all indications are he won’t be the last.

Monday: A Three-Month Sprint

05.22.22
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Temple’s brush with a Golden Voice

Sometimes greatness is the result of being in the right place at the right time.

Such was the case for John Facenda’s long stint as the voice of NFL Films.

One night Facenda, already the first “Jim Gardner of Philadelphia” in 1965 visited a tavern in Center City. On the TV was NFL Films. Facenda marveled how impressive the footage was and Ed Sabol, the founder of NFL films, was at the other end of the bar and heard Facenda, who was the anchor of Channel 10’s then top-rated newscast.

“What if I give you a script to read?” Sabol said.

The rest is history.

Sabol said that the three key hires who made NFL Films as good as it was were: Facenda, his son, Steve, and musical composer Sam Spence.

NFL films did only produced only one college film, a 1980 short about Notre Dame called “Wake Up the Echos.”

Out of that, the local school, Temple, asked Facenda if he had time to do the voice over of a Temple vs. Pitt game two years later.

Facenda did it and it appears at the top of this post (and thanks to Zamani Feelings for converting it into the YouTube video).

“I could watch this a billion times just to hear that voice,” said former Temple All-American safety Anthony Young, who makes an interception in the above clip.

Due to his other duties, Facenda politely declined to do any more college videos and he died two years later.

The rest is history, too.

Facenda did hundreds of classic NFL films, but only college voiceovers for that Notre Dame special and that Temple vs. Pitt game.

That’s pretty good company and long after we’re all gone, this is a pretty good video to watch but, most of all, listen.

05.20.22
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Quincy Patterson: Season-changer

About a year ago at this time, I was absolutely convinced the 2021 Temple football Owls would finish 2-10 and you could not move me off that block.

As excited as I was about Stan Drayton replacing the old guy for this season, I looked at six wins as the absolute ceiling for the 2022 Temple football Owls.

Even looking at it eight optimistic ways, doubling last year’s win total seemed the best we could do.

With the news on Wednesday, the freaking sky is the limit.

Stan Drayton broke the good news to Temple fans in New York City on Thursday night.

We speculated in this space very recently that Drayton promised an upgrade at the quarterback position but did not see it. We said a week ago that Drayton was “bringing in a couple of guys” to compete for the starting quarterback job with D’Wan Mathis and I said that even given “one of those guys was Elijah Warner, who is the other guy?”

That “other guy” is Quincy Patterson with his recent signing at Temple.

This is a game-changer. Hell, it’s a season-changer. This has moved the needle from “ceiling of six wins” to a winning season.

A winning season needs to happen this year. I’ll take 7-5 but I’m much more into 8-5 and 9-3 or better.

Patterson now makes that possible.

Owls were “acceptable” on defense, offensive line, wide receiver and even running back but Mathis’ history of fragility and his underwhelming first year with the Owls made quarterback the No. 1 priority.

Prior to last week, Florida Gator transfer Emory Jones and Pitt Panther transfer Davis Beville were considered slight upgrades Temple could get over Mathis.

Patterson (who seemingly came out of nowhere because he entered the portal last week) is a huge upgrade and Drayton seeing the flaws in spring practice and getting upgrades since at running back and quarterback is the biggest indication that this guy is pushing all the right buttons.

Patterson is just what the doctor ordered for Temple football.

Consider this: This man singlehandedly led Virginia Tech to a 6OT win over a North Carolina team that beat Temple, 55-13. That was an 8-5 Temple team that beat No. 21 Maryland, 20-17. (That Maryland team hammered Rutgers, 48-7, four weeks later.)

This is no Re’Al Mitchell or even a Mathis.

I hope Mathis is Temple TUFF enough to accept the challenge and compete for a job I feel he will eventually lose but, if he wins it, Temple is better off with the competition.

The reality is that since both Mathis and Patterson have now entered the portal twice they are both committed to Temple for another year or will have to sit out before transferring to the next school.

For that reason, the Temple quarterback room has morphed from the thinnest to the deepest in the AAC and that’s a very good thing for all of us.

Monday: The Golden Voice

05.16.22
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Addison’s story is a cautionary tale for Temple

Jordan Addison

One of the best low-key stories in college sports is happening right now.

Columbia’s baseball team is on a 19-game winning streak, the longest in the nation.

Great story. Ivy League school becomes a legit threat on the national level, if it can beat out Philadelphia’s Penn for the title this coming week.

Temple used to have a baseball team. Made it to the College World Series twice. Finished third in the nation once. Defied all of the laws of “Eastern” teams and “cold-weather” teams not doing well in that sport in championships.

Also a great story.

Temple stopped writing that story when it dropped the nation’s past-time almost a decade ago. Drexel has a baseball team. So does Villanova and St. Joseph’s. Penn thrives in the sport and is the only threat to Columbia in the Ivy League. Temple does not but it still has a pretty nice stadium in Ambler, nicer than any of the city rivals.

Right now, tiny Arcadia College has the best college baseball stadium in the metropolis only because it rents Skip Wilson Field from Temple.

Columbia baseball, St. Peter’s basketball–at least in my mind–are the two best sports in college sports in the last couple of months, not in that order.

We’re running out of great stories in college sports and the chief reason is greed by the rich guys, not the poor ones.

That means terrible stories are obfuscating the good ones on a recurrent basis.

One such story is the Jordan Addison one currently happening.

Addison won the Fred Biletnikoff Award for being the best receiver in college football in the 2022 season while playing for Pitt.

That wasn’t good enough for Addison to continue playing at Pitt.

You would think Pitt football is big-time. The Panthers are coming off a Power 5 Conference championship and the Biletnikoff Award the school made possible for Addison has set him up for a nice pro career.

No.

The transfer portal and the NLI rule made Addison look around and it appears he is headed for the highest bidder, likely USC.

If Pitt is negatively affected, what does it mean for cross-state rival Temple?

Not good.

Something needs to be done about both the transfer portal rule and the NLI rule sooner than later but neither appears on the immediate horizon. I’m praying that some structure returns to college football but actually doing something is needed over thoughts and prayers at this point.

Addison leaving Pitt for greener (money) pastures is like Temple having a Heisman Trophy finalist leaving for another school after appearing in New York and finishing second. Fortunately, Paul Palmer never had to make that decision since he went immediately from the New York Athletic Club to the NFL but if both the transfer portal and the NLI existed (and Paul had some eligibility remaining), what would he have done in 1986?

Pitt doesn’t have the greenbacks to keep up with USC.

Temple doesn’t have the greenbacks to keep up with Pitt.

As far as a level playing field, which we once had, we can kiss that goodbye.

That’s the worst story in college sports these days and the NCAA needs to do something.

05.13.22
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Temple running out of time on a new quarterback

“You’re out of touch
I’m out of time
But I’m out of my head when you’re not around”

_ Temple grads Darryl Hall and John Oates in a 1984 No. 1 hit.

With the untimely departure of Lew Katz in an airplane crash and Bill Cosby in a scandal, Temple grad John Oates is probably the richest person alive who has publicly stated he cares about Temple football.

In a 2015 interview, Oates–who lives in Colorado and is reportedly worth $30 million–said he “watches every Temple game on TV” and is “thrilled with how far the program has come since I went there.”

Katz, who loved Temple football more than any rich guy ever, amassed a personal fortune of $467,000,000 before he died. Cosby’s last fortune estimate was made in the 2008 Time Magazine piece when “America’s Dad” had $365 million in his checking account. Katz’s son, Drew, is on the Temple Board of Trustees but doesn’t share the same enthusiasm for Temple football his dad did.

That leaves Oates.

Had to think about John, who was basically the lyric writer in the famous music duo, when researching Stan Drayton’s post-Cherry and White game promise about bringing in “a couple of quarterbacks” to compete for the job with current starter D’wan Mathis.

Even if Elijah Warner is one of the “couple of guys” Drayton promised to bring in to compete for the QB job, that leaves out a guy. Who is that guy?

“I’m out of time but I’m out of my head when you’re not around.”

Back in mid-April, had to be thinking about Florida portal guy Emory Jones and Pitt portal guy Davis Beville looking for a team where they could start right away.

They were available for Temple then. They are not now. Jones signed with Arizona State and Beville went to Oklahoma, where he might be the starting quarterback at Temple in 2024.

Temple?

Holding an empty bag so far.

What, exactly, did Drayton mean when he said “I’m bringing in a couple of guys” to compete for the starting job?

Even if you concede one of those guys was incoming freshman Elijah Warner, son of the current richest Temple football dad (Kurt, who, like Oates, has $30 million stashed away) that leaves us short a guy.

Listen, I like Mathis. I love his skill set.

I don’t like his history of fragility nor do I like what Temple currently has behind him.

Without insulting those kids by name, they are Villanova-level backups, not Temple-level starters.

Surely, Drayton must realize this.

That begs the question: What does Drayton have in mind?

We will find out soon or not at all. It’s the next big story on the Temple football horizon and it needs to be written.

We are running out of time and they (or he) is not around.

I’m not out of my head yet but will be if he’s not around on September 2.

05.09.22
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Still within reach for Temple: An AAC title

Temple will need to hit the local high schools to come away with a recruiting haul.

Plenty of things that were once not only possible in sports but actually occurred have no shot of happening again.

Fortunately, horse racing proved that a $30,000 claiming horse with an 80-1 shot can beat the 4-1 and 7-2 shots and still win the Kentucky Derby as Rich Strike did on Saturday.

That was a great moment in sports history.

Other great moments, though, are slip-sliding away.

Robin Roberts’ 28-straight complete games for the Philadelphia Phillies?

No shot ever since somebody came up with a pitch count.

Maury Wills’ 104 stolen bases for the 1960s Dodgers?

No way.

Ted Williams’ .406 batting average?

Err, no.

Baseball, though, despite declining impressive stats is infinitely fairer to the have-nots than college football is.

Because college football is controlled by the big-name, big-conference, schools, the likelihood that we will ever see another Group of Five football team in the playoffs is as remote as all of the above baseball records being broken.

Heck, there is even talk of the Power 5 splitting away from the rest of the NCAA and starting its own version of March Madness.

That means no more terrific stories like the ones crafted by schools like Butler, George Mason, Loyola of Chicago, and, most recently, St. Peter’s. They were the Rich Strikes of college basketball.

If that happens, the basketball tournament loses much of its appeal. Hell, Mike Leach makes a good argument here as to why college football should be more inclusive, not less, after the Kentucky Derby result. Gotta give that guy credit because he is one of the few haves to advocate for the have-nots.

Temple football came within 16 points of a 12-0 season in 1979 and a likely national championship if they were able to find those points, but that kind of ceiling got raised so high it’s in another galaxy by now.

What is the current Temple football ceiling?

Certainly, an AAC football title is within reach, probably not this year, but certainly 2-3 years down the road.

The Owls will have to use their advantages (located in a big city with plenty of NLI opportunities) plus having a charismatic head coach who should be a great recruiter. By then, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF will be gone and, if Temple can’t compete for titles with the Memphises, Tulanes, USFs and Tulsas, the administration will have to do some serious soul-searching about its football future.

Heck, even with Cincy, Houston and UCF to compete against, it wasn’t all that long ago that Temple appeared in consecutive football title games and won one of them.

The formula remains the same: A committed, enthusiastic, head coach who can attract only 25 great players in a recruiting area that holds 46 percent of the nation’s population within a five-hour drive.

That standard existed roughly five years ago. For the future to mean anything, it must be revisited.

Friday: Your Next QB?

05.06.22
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We Were The Champions, My Friend

Spurred on by a friend who liked my review of a recent Elton John movie, I finally got around to watching Bohemian Rapsody the other night.

“Mike, great movie, but you’ve got to watch Bohemian Rapsody and get back to me.”

I did.

Late to that party but better late than never.

An absolutely brilliant film and Remi Malek deserved his Best Actor in a Lead Role Award probably better than anyone I’ve seen in the last decade.

At least.

One of the cornerstones of the film was the 22-minute performance by Queen during the Wembley Stadium version of Live Aid which was pure gold. Widely hailed by critics as the best live performance by any rock band ever, I can honestly say I’ve never seen an audience both more mesmerized by any rock band or more participatory in the concert itself.

It got me to thinking about Temple football and crowd reactions.

In my lifetime, I’ve seen a lot of great Temple crowds.

While 35,000 people going crazy in the 27-10 win over Penn State at Lincoln Financial Field was truly inspiring and 30,000 Temple fans in a Mayor’s Cup win over Villanova (where only 5,000 Nova fans could make it) was a close runnerup, I have to give the nod to one game in 2016.

The 34-10 win over Navy at Navy.

That was SUPPOSED to be a home game for Navy but, of the nearly 30K fans in a 35K stadium, at least 15K were Temple fans. Maybe more, maybe less, but from the sound of the crowd only one team had a home-field advantage.

That was Temple.

Fans of then the No. 19 team in the country, Navy, largely sat on their hands.

That’s damn impressive because one group of fans had to travel three hours to get to the game while the other group had to roll out of bed and walk a mile or so down the road.

We were the champions, my friend, and the noise we made will be remembered to the end.

In the closing 20 seconds when the outcome had been long determined, I made my way to the concourse like a nut case and yelled out to no one in particular:

“THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!”

Sheepishly, I looked around hoping no one saw me but saw about a dozen or more people wearing Temple stuff smiling back and clapping.

They understood the 50 years or so of frustration being released in a positive manner.

Savor it because while being a champion again is always the goal, don’t know if the present-day college football landscape will ever give Temple the same kind of even playing field it had seven short years ago.

Monday: How History Could Repeat

05.02.22
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Breaking up with Illinois not hard to do

Jakari Norwood shows here that you can’t teach speed.

The transfer portal giveth and it also taketh away.

When it comes to Illinois football and Temple football, it giveth.

Don’t know why Temple is a destination for Illinois players, but as a Temple fan, I will take it.

When you have a head coach with all the charisma of a dead fish (and not all that long ago, Temple did), the portal door only seems to have an exit sign.

Now that Temple has a charismatic head coach, like Stan Drayton, the entrances seem to outnumber the exits.

That’s a good thing.

The latest Illinois’ running back to pick Temple is Jakari Norwood, who committed after a visit to Temple this weekend. He is second Illinois running back to commit to Temple in the last three years, with Ra’Von Bonner picking the Owls in 2020.

Jakari Norwood gets robbed of a touchdown vs. Nebraska here.

Game-changer?

Yet to be determined but arguably Bonner had better numbers at Illinois (822 yards, 10 touchdowns) than Norwood (49 carries, 244 yards, no touchdowns) and Bonner did not make much of an impact here.

That fact has to be tempered by the last coach’s history of failure in getting the entire running game at Temple to work no matter who carried the ball and that this coach is a highly touted run game specialist.

We shall see.

Bonner and Norwood were both starters at Illinois (Bonner started 10 games and Norwood one). Another one-time Illinois starter, Jacob Hollins, is a current linebacker at Temple.

The acquisitions show that Drayton is taking a hard look at the roster. Running backs did not make an impact in last month’s Cherry and White game the chief reason appeared to be the lack of breakaway speed among any of them and that includes sprinter Darvon Hubbard, a Texas A&M portal transfer.

Norwood, a 100- and 200-meter state champion in Florida, does have breakaway speed.

When he graduated from Deerfield (Fla.) High, he was ranked among the top 100 running backs in the country. Temple almost never gets that kind of recruit.

If he wins the job, he will have two years left to show why he was rated that highly and probably will bring a chip on his shoulder to prove it.