Author Archives: Mike Gibson

08.01.21
by

Adam DiMichele: Sorry to see him go

Adam DiMichele’s final game as a Temple Owl.

Before too much time passed, we wanted to note here that Adam DiMichele is no longer with the Temple program and we’re sorry to hear that.

The news was official less than two weeks ago when Adam sent out a tweet saying goodbye.

Maybe someday we will hear the real story about why a guy who has been here since the beginning of the Al Golden Era left but it won’t be this year and maybe not next.

As soon as I found out, I texted someone I knew inside the E-O simply this: “What’s the deal with Adam DiMichele?”

“What do you mean?”

“He resigned 27 minutes ago.”

“Oh no. I know he wasn’t happy but I didn’t think it was that bad. I’m bummed. He’s a real good dude.”

Whatever the deal is, we simply know this. Of the four coaches Pat Kraft specifically asked Rod Carey to keep (Fran Brown, Ed Foley, Adam DiMichele and Gabe Infante), three of them are gone and Kraft isn’t here to protect a single one.

Sad, because DiMichele was a part of the turnaround from the beginning. He played for Golden and coached under three uniquely different personalities, which suggests he gets along with everyone. He was quarterback with three Philadelphia teams (Eagles, where he threw a touchdown pass in a preseason game to a guy named Gibson), Soul and Owls.

Adam’s career stats at Temple.
P.J.’s career stats at Temple.

DiMichele was one of my five favorite Temple players of all time (Paul Palmer, Joe Klecko, Tyler Matakevich and P.J. Walker were the others).

Stat-wise, DiMichele didn’t compare to Walker but there were extenuating circumstances. Because Joe Paterno never released him from his Penn State scholarship, DiMichele was eligible only three years to play at Temple, not four. Plus, he missed half a season with a broken leg.

The fourth year he would have been the quarterback of a great Temple team that finished 9-3. That team had everything but a quarterback. DiMichele would have been that quarterback and both his stats and an insanely good legacy here would have been cemented.

Would that team have gone 12-0 during the regular season with DiMichele at quarterback? I think they would have. They lost, 31-6 against Penn State with Vaughn Charlton and Chester Stewart at quarterback and they probably would have beaten UCLA in the bowl game and those were the two best teams they lost to that season.

Maybe 13-0 including the bowl (although the bowl opponent would have been better than UCLA) is a stretch but 12-1 was definitely within reach.

No way this team would have been “only” 9-3 with a quarterback like Adam DiMichele behind center.

It would have been fun to find out.

We will never know the story of how his playing career would have ended but someday I’m confident we will hear the real story of how his coaching career ended here.

Someday, but probably not soon.

Friday: Expansion Mania

Monday: Optimism abounds

07.29.21
by

Temple football: Bronx Cheers?

If the Owls bond as a winning team, this is where the magic will happen.

After training camp in the 1992-93 season, Doug Moe went on record with the press as saying his Philadelphia 76ers would win 50 games.

Six months later, he was fired by General Manager Jimmy Lynam after only 19 wins.

In one of the greatest quotes ever in Philadelphia sports, Moe said he only made that 50-win claim on this basis: “We looked great practicing against ourselves. When we had to play other teams, it was different.”

That reminds me a little of both the very important upcoming two weeks in both Temple football and many Cherry and White games that tutored me in the past. The Owls looked like national champions practicing against themselves in so many of the prior Al Golden Era years I was fooled like, maybe, twice.

It never happened a third time and it won’t happen now.

Injuries are one concern; drowning might be another.

Moe is a good example only because he had a similar history to current Temple head coach Rod Carey. Before getting to the Sixers he was 609-492, which is damn close, percentagewise, to Carey’s 52-30 before he got to Temple.

The Owls will begin training camp at SUNY-Maritime in the Bronx next week and Carey is not promising 50 or even five wins in 2021.

He knows what he saw and so do I.

All he’s doing is promising a team that “will play hard and make the fans proud”, whatever that means.

Me?

I’d prefer they play soft and win 10 games.

If they play hard and win two or even four, that won’t make me proud.

The two weeks of practice in the Bronx of all places is obviously an attempt at team bonding and to avoid all of the City of Philadelphia COVID pitfalls that set Temple back in 2020.

It’s a longshot but if it works I’m down.

What I know is what I saw.

COVID schmovid, that was a shockingly uncompetitive football team I saw in 2020.

I don’t care if you lose 20 starters, a 28-3 loss at Lincoln Financial Field to an East Carolina team this program has routinely beaten like a drum is unacceptable. Calling a dump pass to a running back down two at Navy when you had a 6-6 receiver against a 5-10 corner is also shockingly incompetent from a coaching standpoint.

When every Owl fan watching on TV knows a fade in the corner will work before the fact and the staff calls a head-scratcher, that’s a red flag. Who are these guys stealing money from the university?

Now they have to earn their pay.

After two weeks in the Bronx, the Owls return for the final two weeks at 10th and Diamond before the Sept. 2 opener at Rutgers.

You can talk all you want about Bronx and North Philly, but the proof is in Piscataway.

Winning there will change the whole vibe right now. Otherwise, be prepared for a lot of “Bronx Cheers” beginning in the home opener the next week. I’d like to bet on the former but I’ve seen this play before.

Monday: Tribute to a champion

07.19.21
by

What would Geoff Collins do?

According to the website coacheshotseat.com, two former Temple guys sit at Nos. 14 and 15, respectively.

While there seems to be some debate about how rosy the future is for Rod Carey at Temple, there is less debate about current Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins had he remained at Temple.

It would not have ended well.

Yikes …

Hell, my best guess has been since December of 2019 that it won’t end well for Carey here but Collins didn’t tee things up for Rod like Matt Rhule did for Geoff.

Carey probably has one more year, maybe two, to post a winning season at Temple or he’s out of here.

Collins would have been on a shorter leash had he remained here simply because his contract would have been up.

Collins recruited primarily from the South, eschewed local connections, and his two classes were mediocre at best.

Had he remained here would he have been able to switch gears like Carey did in the offseason, promote Gabe Infante and hire a guy like Preston Brown?

Doubtful.

So, in my mind and probably in a lot of other minds, Temple is slightly better off with Carey than Collins.

Put it this way: Carey beat Collins, 24-2, with AAC talent while Collins had the benefit of ACC recruiting classes.

Knowing Temple as I do, Carey will probably be able to survive a 2-4 win season as most of the experts expect the Owls to have. Look at it this way: Did Steve Addazio survive a four-win season at Temple?

He sure did until Boston College took the Owls off the hook.

Temple rarely fires head coaches who it owes money to and I doubt they’d start with Carey.

Collins, on the other hand, is feeling the heat in Atlanta and that comes with the Power 5 territory.

Maybe he can make a move to solidify his job by capitalizing on the new NIL rule, but that remains to be seen. The fans there are restless and a story published over the weekend illustrated why.

That’s Georgia Tech’s problem, not Temple’s. We have our own, of course, but things could have been worse.

Friday-Monday: Off the Grid (we’ll be in the Poconos this weekend and our only internet will be by phone so no stories)

Friday, July 30: Summer camp preview

07.16.21
by

New Beginnings: Recruiting

National high school coach of the year Gabe Infante would be my first choice to replace Rod Carey should the wheels fall off this year.

Maybe after nearly three years of banging his head against a wall Rod Carey has figured out a way to succeed at Temple.

Better late than never.

For MOST of the first two years, he relied primarily on his Midwest recruiting connections.

Some nice players out there but, when they get to 10th and Diamond, there has been a history of culture shock.

Not every intersection is for everybody.

The good news is that there are literally thousands of urban kids–good players from good families–who are not only used to the urban environment but prefer it.

The Owls have an established gem on the Pennsylvania side of the river in Gabe Infante. Great head coach with multiple state championships under his belt and the kids love him.

Now they have Preston Brown.

Lose one Camden Brown (Fran), gain another.

Two-time South Jersey state champion Preston Brown (holding trophy) would be my second choice to replace Carey. If Carey goes 10-2 this year, I vote for Carey to remain at Temple.

I would argue Carey got the better Brown.

Hear me out here.

The Brown who went to Rutgers was never a head coach and never won squat as a head coach.

The Brown who Temple hired this week not only won one but multiple New Jersey championships as a head coach at Woodrow Wilson.

The kids love the Temple Brown as much and maybe more than the Rutgers Brown (no relation).

Plus, Carey has now surrounded himself with legendary state championship high school coaches in the very fertile recruiting ground (Southeast Pennsylvania and South Jersey) any Temple head coach must dominate. There are more FBS players in the fourth-largest market in the country than there are in 10 of the next 35 markets.

Temple should have a huge advantage over the Cincys, Memphises and Tulsas and at least rival the UCF/USF Orlando-Tampa market. No Temple fan has been harder on Carey than me but, if anything, I’m objective.

There is no reason (none) that Temple should not compete for the AAC title every season.

The fact that Carey doesn’t feel threatened by the existence of Brown and Infante so close to his office speaks volumes for Carey’s confidence in himself and that he can do the job here.

Since I’m much more a fan of 10-2 than I am of 2-10, I hope Carey’s faith in these two great men pays off sooner than later.

Time is running out for Carey, but it is definitely on the side of Gabe and Preston. The fact that Carey doesn’t feel threatened by either guy makes me respect Rod more today than I did yesterday. Rod, I hope to hell that you succeed because 2020 reminded me more than anything that I hate losing more than I love winning.

Monday: WWGCD?

07.12.21
by

Rod Carey knows how to beat the Big 10

Mike Locksley gets the no-look handshake from Rod Carey after beating the Big 10 in 2019
Sales of this sweatshirt go off the charts with a win at RU.

Rod Carey knows how to do two things:

Lose bowl games.

Beat Big 10 teams.

He’s 0-7 in bowl games.

He’s 5-2 against the Big 10.

Even one of the two losses to the Big 10 was a 20-13 loss to 12-1 Ohio State in 2015.

Presumably, in all seven of those games (not the bowl ones) Carey was working at a huge talent disadvantage.

That bodes well for Carey and the Temple Owls some 50 days from now in the opener at Rutgers.

Bum Phillips might have said it best of Don Shula in 1979: “He can take his ‘um and beat your ‘um.”

Gotta love the fake punt. Temple used to do that all the time.

That’s the ultimate compliment for a head coach, meaning he can take his players from either team and win the game.

Really, though, how much more talent does Rutgers have than Temple, considering the Owls beat Maryland, 20-17, two years ago for Carey’s last win against the Big 10 and later in the same year Maryland took Rutgers to the woodshed, 48-7?

It usually takes a long time for entire rosters to be recycled out of programs and that’s even the case with the transfer portal. There are enough Temple playmakers from the 2019 team to contribute in 2021.

So Carey is going to have to work whatever magic he did in that win over Maryland, plus beating an 8-5 Iowa team in 2013 (30-27), plus Purdue (55-24) that same year, Northwestern (23-15) in 2014 and Nebraska (21-17) in 2017. All the games except Maryland were on the road and all, including Maryland, came in September.

Carey knows something about putting the several months he gets to prepare for more talented opponents to good use.

The good news for Temple fans is that the core members of the NIU staff who made their fortune beating the Big 10 are still in place at Temple.

You have to assume that even this version of Temple has more talent than most of the NIU squads Carey took to Big 10 stadiums. Plus, this group at Rutgers isn’t as talented as Iowa in 2013 nor Maryland in 2019. NIU was a double-digit underdog in all four of its Big 10 wins under Carey and Temple will be probably a double-digit underdog at Rutgers.

Carey has been saying for 10 months now that COVID beat Temple in 2020 more than the six opponents did.

He gets his best chance to back up that statement on Sept. 2.

The fact that he has a pretty good history against the Big 10 provides some level of comfort and the mindset around here will change quickly if he proves his point that night.

We’ll worry about the bowl record later.

Friday: New Beginnings

Monday: WWGCD?

07.09.21
by

Only one bigger opener than Rutgers

One of the great games in this fairly tight rivalry: Temple’s win in 1988

Arguably is one of the best words in the English language because we’re going to use it right here.

ARGUABLY the Temple vs. Rutgers opener on Thursday night, Sept. 2, is exceeded by only one other date:

Sept. 5, 2015.

That’s when the Owls beat down Penn State, 27-10, a score that was only somewhat respectable because Penn State grad Matt Rhule took three knees deep in PSU territory late in the fourth quarter and eschewed an almost certain touchdown that would have made it 34-10.

Nice catch by John Christopher

Most of us (including me) did not care one whit because of the euphoria of the moment, breaking a 74-year winless streak. Sticking around at the post-game tailgate until 9:30 was worth it, especially when the police tried to kick us out. A captain came over on his motorcycle and told his underlings: “Let these guys stay as long as they want. They waited a long time for this win.”

Before that, we saw Matt Rhule place a big wet kiss on 90-year-old Wayne Hardin’s cheek in honor of Wayne’s 10-7, 31-30 and 26-25 losses to the Nittany Lions. We also received a text from Bruce Arians saying “way to go Owls, I watched the whole game.”

Why would this year’s Rutgers’ game be nearly as important?

Put it this way: The Temple WINNING brand, which has been 73-54 since 2009, took a big hit with a 1-6 season last year.

The fans’ confidence is shaken.

Hopefully, not the team’s.

What isn’t arguable is that Rod Carey is a bum to MOST Temple fans now. If he beats Rutgers, he will be a hero. Is that fair? Maybe not. Is it true? Most definitely.

There are few FBS football schools as close geographically as Temple and Rutgers (52.1 miles). SMU and TCU (45.2 miles), UCLA and USC (13.2 miles), NIU and Northwestern (74 miles), and Maryland and Navy (30.4 miles) but that’s about it. The crowd for the 1988 Temple-Rutgers game (31,219) was the largest for any game in the history of the old Rutgers Stadium (1938-1994). This is a geographical rivalry and Temple has been the better team at least for seven of the last eight years.

Let’s put it this way. As recently as 2019, the Owls beat a Maryland team that clubbed Rutgers, 48-7.

Have the Owls fallen that far that fast?

A loss would reinforce the current national notion that the Owls are just outside of ESPN’s Bottom 10.

Hell, after all that Al Golden and Matt Rhule did to get this program back on track, Rutgers might be more important than the Penn State game.

Looking backward, I don’t believe that.

Looking forward, I sure do.

If they kick us out of the Piscataway parking lot at 9:30, that would be fine with me. By my calculations for a 6 p.m. start, that would give me 15 minutes of celebration time and a new outlook on the season.

Arguably, it would be worth it.

Monday: Looking at it from the Carey perspective

07.05.21
by

One time stats are for winners

Delano Green shows the current Owls how the program used to treat punt returns back in the day.

Maybe the oldest adage in sports is that statistics are for losers.

Not always.

Not this year.

At least for Temple football.

This is the only red flag Temple fans should care about.

That’s because for the Owls to post a winning season, a lot of the current players and leaders are going to have to post not only their best numbers but numbers significantly above what they’ve done in the past.

The good news is that there is some solid history among the single-digit players.

If, say, Jadan Blue can just surpass his numbers from the 2019 season (95 catches, over 1,000 yards, four touchdowns) that is really all the contribution he needs to make.

I think he can do it, particularly if Randle Jones stays healthy on the other side. (Meaning Blue won’t face double-coverage.)

If, say, Will Rodgers III can get the nine sacks in G5 ball that he took a couple of years to do on the P5 level, the Owls’ pass rush will be significantly improved and it needs to be.

The bad news is that there is no history of the most important players on the field putting up numbers.

Specifically, we’re talking about the most important position on the field: Quarterback.

Through very little fault of his own, D’Wan Mathis had more interceptions than touchdown passes in his brief stint as the Georgia starter last year. (We won’t say NO fault of his own because if Mathis threw five touchdown passes and over 300 yards in his first game as starter, he would have been the quarterback for the next week and maybe several weeks after that.)

To me, the key stats for a winning Temple season are simply this:

Mathis has to better Anthony Russo’s best year: 21 touchdown passes, 11 interceptions in 2019. Who knows? Maybe Mathis tosses 30 touchdowns and throws only eight interceptions but he’s going to have to have a career year either way.

Also, the running backs (presumably R’Von Bonner and Iverson Clement) have to put up Bernard Pierce-type numbers (1,500 yards and 25 touchdowns). Since that’s two guys and Pierce was just one, that should be doable since the Owls’ offensive line.

Also, it would be nice if the Owls were proactive on special teams (blocked kicks, punt returns like Delano Green’s) instead of being passive which they have been for the past two years under Rod Carey.

They’ve had no stats of note on special teams since Ed Foley left town.

That might be a lot to ask but when you are picked to win only two games, you’ve got to do a lot more than the pundits expect to get the results the fans want.

The benchmarks have been set and they are stats that translate into winning, not losing.

Friday: Starting gates

07.02.21
by

NIL: The rich getting richer

With each passing change of college football as we know it, you can excuse Temple sports fans not being overly excited.

As of yesterday, the NCAA adopted the latest reality: Name, Image and Likeness.

To me, it’s another in a series of changes that mean simply this: The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

It makes sense that the teams with the larger followings, like Duke in basketball, and Alabama in football, will have players who rake in the money over, say, the Temple’s and the Cincinnatis.

Fairness?

An even playing field?

Giving everyone an equal chance to win?

Bleep that, says the NCAA, which has reluctantly joined the call for paying the players through this method.

One of the barometers for this is social media following and, just for an example, I can’t imagine Temple basketball ever having a larger social media following than Duke (see above).

Or Temple football against any P5 team.

That 2016 American Conference football championship that Temple had now seems so far away.

Can the Owls win another AAC title?

Sure, but expecting the “amateurs” to compete with the “professionals” in a playoff with be damn near impossible. That 2016 Owls’ team would have been a worthy foe for anyone in a 12-team playoff. It lost by a touchdown at Big 10 champion Penn State despite 130 yards in home-cooking penalties. Have a rematch in a bowl game on a neutral field and things might have gone the other way.

Especially if Matt Rhule saw a playoff game against his alma mater as a better reason to stay at Temple for one more game than a meaningless bowl.

It would have been a mighty blow for the G5 to have one of its champions beat the Big 10 champion in a playoff game. Maybe the biggest boost ever for the G5.

We will never know.

Now Temple faces huge obstacles in the transfer portal and this Name, Image and Likeness development.

If this NIL thing works out the way we think it will, it might just be time for the G5 to break away and form its own organization with its own playoffs. Give similar sized schools with similar followings (and presuming players benefit the same with pay) an even playing field. I had been against that because I always thought that Temple could join the P5 but it seems like the P5 doesn’t want to share its money with anyone.

Except the players who commit to those schools and that’s sad.

Monday: Temple 2021 Measurables

06.28.21
by

Victor Baga: A Life Well-lived

EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally scheduled in this space for today was a discussion of The Supreme Court’s latest decision on intercollegiate athletics. That seems rather meaningless now because Temple lost a truly great fan in former player Victor Baga. I had the honor of talking to Vic at the tailgates maybe 20 times over the last 10 years but felt this was a perfect opportunity to get a take on him by former teammate Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub. It follows in this space.

Fizzy on the beach

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

Sophomore Vic Baga arrived on the Temple football team my senior year and immediately began contributing on defense. We had a pretty close-knit group of seniors and some juniors, and Vic wasn’t my friend yet.

After I began teaching and coaching, I lost track of Vic and his activities for many years. Then, about forty years later, some of the guys got together at the original Nick’s Roast Beef after a Temple game, and Vic was there. We renewed acquaintance, but Vic still wasn’t my friend yet.

We then saw each other more frequently at different alumni functions and impromptu gatherings But it wasn’t until Vic’ss long-time girlfriend Leslie passed, did we begin to get close. Then, a teammate invited some of us down to Senile (Sea Isle) City for the weekend, and that’s where I got a chance to spend some time with Vic. After that, we would speak on the phone mostly every week, and Vic would keep me up-to-date on the happenings and health of our teammates. Our conversations were far-reaching, about personalities, politics, and sports.

One of the great things about our conversations wereVic thought most of my jokes were funny. You have to love a guy for that. When we got into our 80s, we naturally spent increasing amounts of time discussing our health and the health of our teammates and their wives. I knew Vic had breathing problems and was in and out of the VA, seeing doctors and getting tested. But we last talked on the Sunday before he passed, and Vic gave me no indication anything serious going on. But on Saturday I went to his funeral Mass. He went into the hospital on Friday and left us on June 18. It turns out he knew he had a severe problem but didn’t tell anyone.

Vic Baga was a warm and caring guy who loved his family, friends, and his dog. Before he moved from South Jersey, We’d often talk when he and his dog were on the beach, and he allowed his buddy to roam free.

All of us will dearly miss him.

Friday: Play to Play

Monday: Temple measurables

06.25.21
by

Sam Fraley: A player to root for …

If Sam Fraley does his job well for Temple’s football team this fall, nobody will notice and that’s a good thing.

That’s because Fraley has a chance to be the Owls’ long snapper and that’s a position that’s been a disaster ever since the Lerch Brothers left town.

I have a personal reason to root for Sam because he is the son of a former colleague at The Philadelphia Bulletin, Gerry Fraley, who unfortunately will not be around to see him play at Temple. I got to The Bulletin a little before him, working high school sports under Bob Savitt and Julius Thompson but got to know him through my Bulletin friends.

Sam Fraley

Sam, his son, also shares my middle name: Gerard. (Which was Sam’s first name.) He’s not only had to overcome a rare disorder (see video above) but his dad died two years ago so he’s had a lot to deal with and deserves any success that comes his way.

Gerry passed away at the young age of 64 in 2019 after becoming one of the best sports writers in the country. When the Bulletin folded, he left for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and then the Dallas Morning News. He was President of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Gerry’s Phillies coverage was unmatched.

Later, when I would cover the Phillies a few springs for the Doylestown Intelligencer in Fraley’s home town of Clearwater, Gerry and I would have several late-night conversations after I filed my stories underneath the old Jack Russell Stadium. No nicer guy in the business. We drove to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City to catch up with Pete Rose. When we both approached Steve Carlton in the locker room in Clearwater, he waved us off.

Carlton growled. We laughed.

At least we tried.

Now his son has made it to Philadelphia.

Chances are Temple has never had a player from Redwood City, California but Fraley has Temple and Philadelphia running through his blood.

Back when Gerry was writing up a storm about the Phillies for The Bulletin, the competing Daily News had an all-star staff of columnists (Tom Cushman, Mark Whicker, Stan Hochman) and Temple’s own Dick “Hoops” Weiss to cover The Big Five and other fellow Temple News former sports editors, Phil Jasner, to cover the Sixers, and Hall of Famer Ray Didinger to cover the Eagles.

The Bulletin had Sandy Grady as a columnist and The Inquirer countered with Frank Dolson and Bill Lyon.

Those were the halcyon days of sports writing in Philadelphia. The DN cost 25 cents and I probably would have paid $10 per issue. Now the DN costs $2.95 and it’s probably not worth 25 cents.

According to Owlsports.com, the school’s official roster lists Fraley as wearing No. 46.

I will be looking for him through my binoculars and rooting for him. For his sake, I hope I’m the only one who notices.

Somewhere, I think Gerry would understand that take.

Monday: Pay to Play?