Author Archives: Mike Gibson

06.13.20
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Some early stat predictions

russopj

Anthony Russo (circled) needs to improve by only two touchdown passes to break the single-season record held by both Adam DiMichele and P.J. Walker (above).

Weekly phone calls from Temple trying to sell season tickets is one indication that a full season will be announced soon.

How soon?

Your guess is as good as mine.

The school recently announced it will have both online and in-person classes and the second part of that pretty much confirms the requirement for a football season.

So here goes some early (on-the-record) stat predictions based on a full 12-game regular season (not including a potential bowl game):

We’ll repost this after the season to see how right we were but going on record is important.

grayunis

Quarterback

Anthony Russo is poised for an outstanding senior season. Even if he has a merely “good” one, he will break at least a couple of career passing records at Temple.

His sophomore season stats were these:

Fourteen touchdown passes, and the same number of interceptions. He had 2,563 yards in 2018; 2,861 in 2019. The record is 3,295 by P.J. Walker in that championship season (2016).

He improved those numbers by seven and three, both on the good side, in 2019 regular-season stats and, based on that math, we’re going for these predictions for 2020:

Prediction: 28 touchdowns, 8 interceptions and it’s not a reach that he will become the first Temple quarterback ever to have a 3,296-yard season so we will go for that. LSU’s Joe Burrows went from 19 touchdown passes to 60 his senior year, so it’s not out of the question that Anthony throws for 39 and ties the career record (74) of  Walker, but we’re not getting that crazy. We’ll take just the same improvement he made last year for next year.

If P.J. (who started the better part of four years to Russo’s three) still holds the career touchdown record, that’s perfectly understandable. The other two records are within reach, though.

Receivers: (Jadan Blue and Branden Mack):

Blue set single-season records for Temple in both receptions (95) and yards (1,097). That was a terrific improvement from his 2018 season. He did, however, only have four touchdown receptions and those numbers are going to have to improve to get attention of NFL scouts looking for impact-makers. So we’re going to go with fewer receptions (90) and yards (1,007) but we’re going to add five more touchdown receptions:

kwenkeu

William Kwenkeu (35) revives his Gasparilla Bowl MVP performance by leading the Owls in tackles this season.

Prediction: Blue, 90 receptions, 1,007 yards, and nine touchdown receptions.

Mack had seven touchdown catches and is taller (6-5 to 6-1) so we’re going to give him those seven and raise his number of receptions from 44 to 61 and his yards from 667 to 897.

Running backs

Ray Davis had 900 rushing yards in his first season as a freshman.

Prediction: He will raise that to 1,000 yards and 20 touchdowns his second season simply because Rod Carey and staff will realize they have a big-time playmaker on their hands and won’t make the same mistake of game-planning 26 passing plays in the first 34 snaps from scrimmage (see Cincinnati game, 2019).

Defense

Sacks: Interior tackle Ifeanyi Maijeh will lead with 9.

Interceptions: Safety Amir Tyler with 5.

Tackles: Linebacker William Kwenkeu with 88.

Tackles for loss: Linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley with 11.

OK, those are guesses. Guys will have to remain healthy and, as always, someone will come from nowhere to surprise everyone. My guess is that a DE named Nickolos  Madourie  (who had 17.5 sacks as a JUCO in a single season) will be just one of those guys and there could be many. Graham-Mobley could lead in overall tackles and Kwenkeu–who had two sacks in a bowl game–could lead in tackles for losses.

That’s part of what makes college football great and that’s why we hope there is a concrete announcement saying we will have it soon. Save this post and clip it and hammer me if I’m wrong in December.

If I’m above 50/50, I will take it. More important is getting to those double-digit wins which will mean the profile of all the above guys will rise considerably more than anything they can put on the stat sheet.

Monday: A Potentially Special Addition

 

06.08.20
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Pat Kraft Post-Mortem: Amiable

patkraft

Back in the day while working in the sports department of the Doylestown Intelligencer,  a column accompanied forecasting the weekend’s high school football games and an adjective attached to my name piqued my curiosity.

Lou Sessinger, then a wordsmith for the op-ed page  whose turn it was that week to write the column, turned this phrase when coming to talking about me in the piece: “the amiable Mike Gibson picks CB West to beat North Penn, CB East to beat Souderton and Quakertown to upset Upper Merion.”

Penn State v Temple

Pat Kraft (with tie) on the way down from setting the athletic director vertical leap record at Temple in a 27-10 win over Penn State.

Hmm. Not used to people writing nice things about me in print, I was fascinated by the adjective.

The only thing I knew about amiable was that it meant something good so I scrambled for my pocket Merriam-Webster dictionary.

“Friendly, sociable, and congenial.”

I thought about the word last week when Pat Kraft left Temple for Boston College. He was competent enough for most but, for me, his legacy will be how amiable he was.

Was he the best athletic director ever at Temple?

photo

From a football standpoint, and that’s what we care about here, I would think you have to rate Bill Bradshaw and Ernie Casale above him. Bradshaw hired both Al Golden and Matt Rhule (and, to be fair, Steve Addazio) and signed contracts with Power 5 schools like Penn State and Notre Dame that were beneficial to Temple. Unlike Kraft, Bradshaw eschewed a formula that included multiple FCS opponents for a more Power 5 lean.

Casale hired one of the best head coaches in the country, Wayne Hardin, to bring the Owls from essentially an FCS status to national prominence. He was such a mover and shaker that he formed what was then the East Coast Conference (which the press dubbed the ECC or Ernie Casale Conference).

Both of those guys were amiable enough but Kraft took amiability to another level. He sought out fans, gave his opinion, listened to theirs, and was friendly to everyone.

“Friendly, sociable, and congenial.”

That was Pat Kraft at Temple and I’m sure it will be Pat Kraft at Boston College.

I would talk to Pat a few times every year and would come away more impressed each time about his knowledge of football and commitment to excellence. We disagreed on the schedule, but it was a friendly disagreement.

What we did agree on was a commitment to excellence. One football Saturday morning I congratulated him on firing a men’s soccer coach who hovered for a decade around .500.

“That’s mediocre,” Pat said. “I’m never going to accept mediocrity at Temple.”

If he brings that level of acceptance to BC along with his natural amiability, that school should be in good shape.

Saturday: Some Early Stat Predictions

 

06.05.20
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An interview primer for TU’s next AD

zamani

This could be Temple after winning the Cotton Bowl under the next AD. (Photo courtesy of Zamani Feelings.)

Because Pat Kraft agreed to remain on at Temple until July 1 to ease the transition in the athletic department at Temple University, the Board of Trustees now has some time to get the right fit for its next sports steward.

Let’s hope it’s put to good use.

Screenshot 2020-06-03 at 9.36.12 PM

UAB athletic director Mark Ingram could be THE GUY for Temple.

Simply, the next AD has to be one to sell the BOT that the vision of Temple University is to join the other 64 great universities in the Power 5.

Playing Wagner, Lafayette, Rhode Island and Norfolk State in football is blurring that vision and not providing the right prescription for 2020 and beyond.

That’s why this interview process is the most important one. Asking the right questions and getting the right answers so here is how that process could go. THE GUY will be able to provide those answers.

BOT: I’ve heard you want the job. Sell us on why you are the guy.

THE GUY: Temple belongs in the top 65, not the bottom 65, and everything I’m going to do is designed to get us there. First, while I know Pat and like Pat, I’m was and always will be against playing the Stony Brooks and the Bucknells and I let him know that.

BOT: Why?

THE GUY: Let me give you an example. In 2016, we won the AAC and probably should have been in the Cotton Bowl but Western Michigan got that spot. If, say, instead of beating Stony Brook 38-0 at home that year, we win at Florida State, 35-14, we’d probably get that Cotton Bowl. Since we gave Penn State a better game on the road that year than Wisconsin did in the Big 10 title game at a neutral site, we probably had a decent chance at winning the Cotton Bowl. That’s one thing.

BOT: What’s the other?

THE GUY: The other is what happens in the future if we strike lightning in the bottle and go 12-0. If a couple of those 12 are Lafayette and Rhode Island, we have no shot at the college football playoff. The first thing I’m going to do is get out of those types of contracts, have one less home game and start picking up 2-for-1s with P5 schools. That’s going to benefit us in the long run. If we substitute two road P5 wins for those FCS wins, we become the first G5 team invited to the four-team playoff. Say, instead of beating Rhode Island, 59-0, and Lafayette, 55-12, we go to Indiana and beat Purdue, 30-19 and take down Washington State, 23-18, in Pullman, that’s the difference.

BOT: Why does that benefit us?

THE GUY: Our attendance goes up from a 28,000 average to nearly 50K and our TV ratings in the largest available market to the Power 5 also doubles. When the next round of expansion comes in 2023, we get invited and the rest of the G5 becomes marginalized and forced to have their own championship, a minor league of college football. Temple in my mind is not minor league nor should it be in yours. We have a small opening in that window and I’m going to pry open that window for us and get us all to the other side.

BOT: Gentlemen, as Bill Bradshaw wrote on that yellow legal pad some 15 years ago, this is our guy. Congratulations, Mark, you start on July 2.

Monday: The Kraft Post-Mortem

Saturday: Some Early Stat Predictions

Monday (6/15): A special addition

Saturday (6/20): A sad subtraction

Monday: (6/22): How other AAC approach schedules

Saturday (6/27): Drop Dead Date

06.01.20
by

A game to circle on the calendar

banks

Every team has its know-it-all fans.

Then there are Rutgers’ fans.


Now let’s address
the other “fact”
he threw out: “They
lose two starters
at receiver.”
That’s true only
if you substitute
the word “lose”
with “return”

I don’t know if it’s because of their proximity to New York or the toxicity of New Jersey landfills near Piscataway but, per capita, the knowledge they have versus the knowledge they think they have outweighs any other fan group who has played Temple in my lifetime.

They think they are better than they are and they think they are entitled to being better than they are.

At least with Penn State fans they have something to back it up with. There are exceptions to every rule. Joe P. seems to be a reasonable Rutgers’ fan but he is the exception rather than the rule.

Take this fan for instance. His handle on Rivals is Cubuffsdoug and under it is “All-American.” Yes, he’s an All-American jackass. To me this guy sums up the typical Rutgers’ fan:

cubuffsdoug

This is the Mr. Know it All=Mr. Know Nothing that represents the Rutgers’ fan base.

Temple does not return “something like” two starters on defense.

SEPT

You know that. I know that.

He doesn’t.

Nor do many of his fellow know-it-all fans.

Doug pulled that number out of his ass because I’m holding the North Carolina game program and Temple’s defensive starters in that game included tackles Dan Archibong, Ifeanyi Maijeh, linebacker William Kwenkeu, safety Amir Tyler and cornerback Christian Braswell. All return for the 2020 season. Kwenkeu, a linebacker, was the defensive MVP  in the 2017 Gasparilla Bowl. Plus, another starter, linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley, will return after missing the last six games with an injury.

That’s six starters on defense. Six starters are not “something like” two no matter how you spin it.

Now let’s address the other “fact” he threw out: “They lose two starters at receiver.”

That’s true only if you substitute the word “lose” with “return.” In starters Branden Mack and Jadan Blue, the Owls return their all-time single-season record-setting receiver (Blue) and a guy who had the second-most catches and most touchdown catches on the team (Mack.) It’s a dynamic duo that any Big 10 team would be hard-pressed to match, let alone Rutgers.

Temple beat a team (Maryland) by three points that beat Rutgers by 41 points. Yet they think that by replacing the old coach with the new one, they can make up a 44-point difference. I don’t think so but I don’t pretend to be a know-it-all.

Right now, the Rutgers’ game is on the calendar for September 19. It’s worth circling to shut up know-it-all fans like that one.

Friday: A Primer for the Next AD

Monday: Some Early Stat Predictions

Saturday: When will we ever learn?

 

05.30.20
by

Upgrades and Downgrades

arnold

Arnold Ebiketie (47) is the only returning defensive end for the Owls but Wake Forest transfer Manny Walker has a couple of P5 starts under his belt.

Walking away from the late December debacle Temple football was primarily responsible for, it was pretty apparent that the Owls needed to improve in a couple of areas:

  • Game planning
  • Pass defense
  • Pass Rushing
  • Offensive line

We won’t know about the game planning until about halftime of the Miami game if there is such a game but it is apparent the Owls improved in one of the key areas with the acquisition of a Northern Illinois center and a Dayton guard.

Offensive line.

Michael Niese got his number called on NFL draft day and it wasn’t to be selected but showed him pancaking a defender on the way to a Dayton touchdown while another Dayton guy was drafted. All the reports on Mike are that he is a high Power 5-level offensive guard talent who was stuck in the FCS. He should earn a starting spot for the Temple Owls. He certainly has the size (6-4, 273) to play the position at this level and he was all-conference for Dayton the last two seasons.

He deserves a larger stage and he will get it at Temple.

downgrade

There are plenty of players like that, notably two of the last three quarterbacks who played for North Dakota State. One, Carson Wentz, is playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. The other, Trey Lance, is coming off his first season as a starter with 28 touchdown passes, 2,717 yards, and zero (that’s right, 0) interceptions. That’s insane. If there is anything good about the portal, it’s that Temple can grab good players off FCS squads to help them. Brian Westbrook would have come in handy about 20 years ago for instance.

Temple had a big hole in center when Matt Hennessy went in the third round of the draft to the Atlanta Falcons and did not fill it by spring camp but used the quarantine time to acquire All-MAC center C.J. Perez in the portal. With Niese replacing Jovahn Fair and Perez replacing Hennessy, the Owls not only shored up a couple of positions but allowed for more depth along the line because they won’t have to move people around to fill areas of need.

westbrook

Villanova’s Brian Westbrook representing Temple.

If this gives quarterback Anthony Russo an extra nanosecond in the pocket to make a decision, it’s a big plus. I’ve got to think that Anthony’s 21 touchdowns versus 11 interceptions will improve too, say, 25 and 8, and that would make a difference in the win/loss total.

Their pass-rushing got worse, not better, with the loss of AAC Player of the Year Quincy Roche in the portal to Miami but they did acquire Manny Walker, a DE from Wake Forest, in the portal and Arnold Ebiketie logged a lot of time on the field in the last five games at the other DE. Still, that’s a thin area and maybe some thought of moving Dan Archibong back to end, a spot he started at, could be a consideration if tackles like Kris Banks continue to develop.

Overall, it looks like coach Rod Carey has some pretty good personnel to work with on defense but he must emphasize success in the running game first for both his offense to work and to help keep his defense off the field.

Has he figured this out on his own or is he too set in his ways to change?

We won’t know that for a few months at least.

Monday: A Game to Mark on Calendar

Saturday: Significant Stat Predictions

Monday (6/8): Drop dead date

 

05.25.20
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Suspending campaign decision nears

masks

Closely following the political campaign of the past year or so was a fascinating exercise.

Roughly 23 folks threw their hats into the ring and each dropped out by “suspending” campaigns until the last two guys were left and we have one on one side vs. the one on the other side.


Each school and conference
will be free to decide how
to safely resume athletic
operations, the council said

Suspending meant ending in all of the cases.

Plenty of factors involved in those decisions but two were key ones: Money and time.

Now we’re waiting on college football.

If college football was going to suspend its campaign, it will be between now and, say, June 1 and that happens to be the day the NCAA has permitted athletes to have individual unsupervised workouts.

In the above story the key graph is this:

“The NCAA Division I Council says college athletes can take part in “voluntary athletics activities” such as workouts in less than two weeks, as long as they can also follow any local restrictions meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus, such as limits on building capacities and physical distancing. Each school and conference will be free to decide how to safely resume athletic operations, the council said.

I can see them running out of time to do it for this fall.

The options seem to be these:

  • Have fans attend as usual wearing masks as they did in 1918.
  • Have fans attend wearing masks and limit the size of crowds to where there can be at least a seat or two in between.
  • Play in an empty stadium with no fans.
  • Play next spring when there (hopefully) will be a vaccine.

Either way, it’s time to bleep or get off the pot. Temple is still trying to sell season tickets (as I would imagine every other school is) based on the old model. Fans are balking at buying until some kind of announcement can be made.

That’s the money part. The time part is that fall class schedules have to be determined soon and it’s hard to imagine justifying having college football on the field if there is no college learning at the campuses.

So it’s time to make an announcement: Are we having a season or are we not and what are the limitations around it?

Until then, we’re in a state of limbo and nothing can be done.

It’s time to do something, anything, to end this uncertainty.  Something tells me we will find out within the next two weeks, tops.

If not, this campaign is not being fair to its supporters.

Saturday: Upgrades and Downgrades

Monday: A Game to Mark on the Calendar

 

05.23.20
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Recruiting looking up for Carey

National High School Coach of the Year Gabe Infante will have a positive impact on both Temple’s game plans and recruiting

People who were wondering what the Temple football coaches were doing since spring practice was cut short can rest easy now because it’s obvious that they haven’t been.

The Temple coaches obviously have been working and working hard.

Rod Carey dipped into his past to pick up a center and now the Owls have a marquee running back for the future.

The 2021 class now includes one of the best running backs in South Jersey, Blackwood’s Johnny Martin and the Owls were able to land a big-time portal transfer from Northern Illinois, center C.J. Perez, to fit an area of need.

Also, Gonzaga (D.C.) defensive back Jalen McMurray turned down multiple Power 5 offers to attend Temple on a firm commitment (“I won’t listen to other offers”) and Iowa State’s No. 2 quarterback, Re-Al Mitchell, is a portal transfer.

Impressive indeed as I don’t recall even great recruiters like Al Golden and Matt Rhule getting a similar haul in the space of one month. Rod Carey is a damn good gameday coach, even if I disagree with his RPO offense, but him getting players eschewing the Power 5 for Temple was always a huge question for me.

Not anymore.

Already, the recruiting prowess of running backs coach Gabe Infante is starting to show. Infante has been a legendary high school head coach in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey and, when he was hired, it was thought he would be able to bring in a motherlode of talent from both sides of the river.

It took more time than I thought but better late than never.

To me, if Carey ever left, Al Golden would be a nice replacement but Infante might be an even better one. Golden can recruit and CEO but Infante can recruit and game-day head coach way better than Al. CEO? That’s a question but he was a damn good CEO at St. Joseph’s Prep.

It took him a little time to get his feet wet, but now it appears his persuasive powers helped him land someone who a few Power 5 schools were after. Just look at this quote from Martin, as told to 247 sports recruiting guru Brian Dohn.

If the kind of relationship-building skills Infante showed with Martin manifests itself in future recruits, the Owls could be moving up the rankings. Right now, their class is in the middle of the AAC pack (fifth) and they are an unacceptable 83 overall.

Something tells me by filling in areas of immediate need, as with Perez, and future need, as with Martin, the 2021 class will finish closer to 50 nationally and in the top three in the conference when all is said and done.

Not ideal, but you can win with those kinds of numbers, and,  with a head coach with an FBS record of 60-36, you can win a lot.

I’m not asking to win national championships at Temple but I’m asking to win a lot and the month of May, 2020, has been a terrific step in that direction. It’s nice to know the coaches are earning their coronavirus paychecks.

Monday: Suspending Campaigns

 

05.18.20
by

Pet Peeve: The TU scheduling philosophy

Screenshot 2020-05-17 at 12.55.28 PM

The only way CC was able to fill a 21K-seat stadium was to draw the fans in as in this artist rendering.

In this space today, we were supposed to discuss recruiting.

That can wait for another day simply because there was a timely development over the extended weekend that put Temple playing in 21,000-seat Brooks Stadium in 2025.

Screenshot 2020-05-17 at 10.50.54 PM

It’s so rare for some real news about Temple football so we’re going to jump on this topic while it’s hot.

Now signing a 1-for-1 deal with Coastal Carolina (here, 2024, there 2025) is problematic enough but seeing the Temple Owls regress to playing in 21,000-seat stadiums is something I thought we were long past.  This after Brooks Stadium increased its seating capacity from 6,400 in 2018 to 21,000 in 2019.

Something we should be long past, at least.

Yet here with are with Coastal Carolina added to a future group that includes this:

Screenshot 2020-05-17 at 12.45.54 PM

To me, getting into a Power 5 Conference should always be a long-range goal for Temple football. Temple is one of the largest universites in the nation and the country’s 6th-best producer of educated professionals.

The Owls belong in a group with Penn State, Pitt, Syracuse, Rutgers, BC, Louisville, West Virginia and, yes, Cincinnati, and not necessarily with the Tulsas and the Tulanes.

The question has always been how to get there and television is just one advantage Temple has. If you buy the argument that Rutgers is in the New York market, there is no Power 5 team in only two of the top 10 markets: Philadelphia and Houston. USC and UCLA are in Los Angeles, Northwestern is in Chicago, TCU in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Stanford in Frisco/San Jose, Boston College in Boston, Georgia Tech in Atlanta and Maryland in D.C.

Screenshot 2020-05-17 at 1.28.01 PM

Temple’s TV ratings when on in the Philadelphia market surpass those of Penn State in the same market for seven of the last 10 times the two have been on TV opposite the other. The Temple-Notre Dame game (2015) is the most-watched college football game in the history of Philadelphia TV. Before you give credit to ND, the Irish and Penn State played three times on national TV and did not come near the Temple numbers in this massive market. Temple owns the Philadelphia market, largely due to the fact that its 35,641 full-time students, 12,500 full-time employees and 175,000 of its living 279,000 graduates still reside in it.

The answer, though, is that TV is just not enough. If it were, Temple would be in the ACC by now. Mix TV success in with attracting fannies in the seats and that moves Temple to the head of the P5 prospect class.

Attract 50,000 fans a game to Lincoln Financial Field or in excess of 30,000 fans a game to an on-campus stadium and do it over a long period, perhaps a decade.

That’s why it’s called a long-term goal.

How to do it?

Schedule and beat Power 5 teams. Scheduling and beating Power 5 teams is something Temple used to do (Maryland, 2011, 2018 and 2019), Vanderbilt (2014), and Penn State (2105) on a fairly regular basis. Four of those five games were blowouts. The Owls did by successfully recruiting against P5 schools in half of the Al Golden and Matt Rhule classes and filling those classes by “trusting the film” and recruiting “tough kids” like Tyler Matakevich and Haason Reddick who eventually became NFL players. They did it by emphazing the run, shortening the game, being tougher than teams with better talent.

By doing so, Temple had the second-highest percentage increase in the nation in attendance (from an average of 15K in 2008 to 29K in 2019) of any team, either P5 or G5. Temple football is one of the underrated success stories of this century and the Owls didn’t do it by beating Stony Brook and Bucknell.

How not to ever have a chance of being invited to the Big Boys’ table? Do what Temple is doing now.

 

Scheduling Coastal Carolina, Idaho, Lafayette, Wagner, Norfolk State, Rhode Island is the right turn on the road to oblivion. A home game against, say, Vandy, puts 10K more fans in the seats than one against Lafayette. Home games against regional foes like Rutgers and Pitt would put even more fannies in the stands. Winning those games attracts attention from the larger conferences.

Another way of not doing it is playing the P5 teams and going with an RPO offense that stops the clock and gives more talented teams needless extra possessions.

Beating Power 5 teams, as we found in the last two bowl games, is hard. As JFK said about the Moon landing, we don’t do it because it’s easy but because it is hard.

By scheduling the Coastal Carolinas of the world, it looks like Temple is taking the easy way out. Temple should be better than that.

Saturday: Recruiting Patterns

05.15.20
by

Temple football as Lysol Spray

Screenshot 2020-05-14 at 9.38.50 AM

Got to feel for the people whose unenviable job is to sell college football season tickets.

I’m sure they are given a script to follow because I got something like this again left on my voicemail yesterday.

“Hi, Mike, just checking base to see what you are going to do about season tickets. I know it’s a crazy time but wanted to see what your thinking was …. blah … blah … blah.”

Problem is, they are giving these guys and gals an impossible job. They are trying to sell a product that doesn’t exist or won’t have in stock. It’s like being a Lysol Disinfectant Spray salesman. Lysol spray is a favorite product of mine that I thought was always going to be available and now cannot get in any store or online and, frankly, I don’t know when I ever will. Tried supermarket chains Weis, Giant and Acme, then moved to the Dollar stores and even the small mom and pop pharmacy down the street.

No luck.

Temple football these days is a little like Lysol spray.

Screenshot 2020-05-14 at 9.37.11 AM

The difference is no Lysol spray guys are calling me.

We think there will be college football but, as long as people in the media vacillate between some semblance of a fall season and moving the entire thing until spring, the product is “currently unavailable.”

Here’s my true feelings: Get back to me when a decision has been made if and when the season is going to be played and only then will I move forward with the purchase. It’s hard to commit a couple hundred bucks to something that might not exist.

Ironically, the type of season talked about now might be more beneficial to Temple than anybody else. At least one idea floated around will start the season late, and include only conference games and one “regional rivalry” game chosen by mutual agreement. To me, that would be an AAC schedule and maybe the Rutgers’ game.

That would be a good season, eliminating the angst involved of opening at Miami and against former Temple player Quincy Roche and pretty much giving the Owls an even playing field against every team not named Cincinnati. After the UNC debacle, I don’t look forward to playing a team with significantly more talent than Temple and I think Miami might fall into that category.

Who knows?

The way the Owls competed against Cincinnati in the last five years (winning four-straight followed by a 15-13 loss last season on basically a missed extra point returned for two), they could have a better than 50/50 shot at every game on the schedule from a pure talent standpoint. If they can fix the special teams, it could be a special season.

I would sign for those season tickets today. Just give me a firm starting date and my check will be in the mail.

Maybe by that time I might be able to get a bottle of Lysol as well.

 

05.11.20
by

Virtual Press Conference: Rod Carey

Everything is virtual these days.

Virtual graduations.

Virtual games.

Even a virtual Kentucky Derby showdown between Seattle Slew, Affirmed and Secretariat (spoiler alert: Secretariat won).

There are even actual newscasts seeming virtual with reporters and weather people working from home.

Temple head coach Rod Carey gave his thoughts on the NFL draft from home via Skype to reporters from Jeff Skversky to Fran Duffy, two guys with deep Temple connections.

Maybe it’s time for a Carey press conference on the state of the program where no reporters have to show up and the folding chairs for the press don’t have to be six feet apart.

NCAA Football: Florida at Miami

Scott Patchan could have filled an area of need for Temple.

If there was one, these would be the five questions I’d ask Rod:

You brought the RPO offense from NIU but Temple has used play-action and a power running game to post consecutive 10-win seasons and recruited that type of personnel. What was your thinking behind that?

What Rod would probably say: “Really, that’s the only offense we were comfortable running at NIU and Mike (Uremovich) doesn’t know how to run anything else.”

What we hope he would say: “Yeah, that was a mistake. We took a long look at the film and we’re going do try to establish the run first and have explosive plays in the passing game of play fakes. When you have a guy with a great arm like Anthony, you can’t be exposing him to decisions on whether or not to run the ball. Plus, Ray Davis and our OL gives us a chance to establish the run. Once that happens, I can see a lot of success off play-action to guys like Jadan and Branden.”

carey

What did Quincy Roche say to you when he transferred to Miami and what did you say to him? 

What Rod would probably say: “We have a rule that once you are in the portal, you are off the team. We wished him good luck.”

What we hope he would say: “We pointed out that Haasan and Muhammad were first-round defensive linemen picks out of Temple and told him there was no reason he couldn’t follow in their footsteps. Plus, we showed him how much progress he made in one year under Walter (Stewart) and if that was repeated next year, the sky would be the limit.”

Temple fans haven’t watched their team beaten 55-13, 63-21, and 45-21 in the same season in a long time. What do you attribute those lopsided games to?

What Rod would probably say: “We had a lot of bad luck, turnovers, missed assignments, things like that. We just let those games get away from us. Matt (Hennessy) didn’t play in the UCF game and that hurt us.”

What we hope he would say: “That kind of alludes to what I said above. Temple has been known in the past as a tough team that runs the ball, controls the clock, shortens the game, and wins it in the fourth quarter. That’s what we have to get back to and that’s where we hope to be in 2020. I’m still kicking myself for throwing the ball 26 times in the first 34 plays at Cincinnati. If we had flipped that, like we started to do in the second half, we would have won that game.”

Did you show any interest in available portal players Scott Patchan (Miami DE who ended up at Colorado State) or Ricky Slade (Penn State running back who is still in the portal)?

What Rod will probably say: “We were only interested in guys who wanted to be here. Manny Walker, for example, wanted to be here.”

What we hope he would say: “We know we had holes at DE and RB and looked at every available guy. We tried to sell Scott on proving to Miami they gave up on him too soon but he wanted to go play for Steve Addazio.”

You mentioned after the NFL draft that Temple is already cashing in on the NFL success with potential recruits? Which recruits with Power 5 offers have committed since the NFL draft?

What Rod will probably say: “I can’t tell you names but I can say we got a few guys who MAC schools offered and we hope to get more.”

What we hope Rod would say: “We got a few guys who saw the NFL stuff, want to play in the NFL, and said Temple was a proven place to achieve that dream. We convinced Muhammad and Haason to make those calls and that really helped us with recruits. We got one guy with an offer from the SEC, one from the Big 10 and one from the Big 12. We’re going to release those names soon.”

Friday (5/15): Advantages of a shortened season

Monday (5/18): Recruiting Patterns

Friday (5/22): Suspending Campaigns