Author Archives: Mike Gibson

04.03.19
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The Real Darkside Defense

gang

Expect the Owls to return to this kind of gang tackling as shown in a prior Penn State game.

Geoff Collins handed out nicknames like candy.

Rod Carey hands them out like Scrooge with Christmas Gifts.

Different strokes for different folks.

Collins, the self-proclaimed Minister of Mayhem,  called his defense “The Darkside Defense” last season.  That same defense went out and gave up 45 points to Boston College, 49 to Houston, 52 to UCF and 57 to Duke.

Hardly a unit that earned any nicknames.

knowles

From left, Knowles, Rice and Stewart sound like a law firm but the are ready to defend the Owls on that side of the field this fall.

Keeping people out of the end zone is a priority for the Owls this season and Carey hinted as much in a radio interview with Harry Donahue when he said his defensive philosophy was to have a “more sound base” and to take fewer chances designed to create turnovers for the trade of keeping the bad guys out of the end zone.

The good news is that Collins brings a sound system for Northern Illinois and three outstanding defensive coaches in DC Jeff Knowles, Melvin Rice and Walter Stewart. Mix in co-DC Fran Brown with his special knowledge of personnel and the Owls will get a lot more from their talent than they have in the last two years.  On October 28, the Huskies won a football game against BYU by scoring just seven points because their defense only allowed six. Yes, that was the same BYU team that beat Wisconsin and that was the same Wisconsin team that beat Manny Diaz’s Miami team, 31-0, in the bowl game.

In Knowles’  first season as defensive coordinator this past fall, the Huskies were second in the FBS in sacks with 50, trailing only national champion Clemson. The Huskies were ranked 11th in the nation in rushing yards allowed per game (109.2), 10th in team tackles for loss per game (7.9) NIU had six all-Mid-American Conference selections on its defense.


In Knowles’  first season
as defensive coordinator
this past fall, the Huskies
were second in the FBS in sacks
with 50, trailing only national
champion Clemson. The Huskies
were ranked 11th in the nation
in rushing yards allowed per
game (109.2), 10th in team tackles
for loss per game (7.9) NIU had
six all-Mid-American Conference
selections on its defense

Arguably, with the linebackers Collins has now and a front line that includes returning starters like Karamo Dioubate, Dana Levine, Dan Archibong and Zack Mesday he probably has more talent than he had at NIU.

There is some learning for the coaches, especially ones who weren’t with Carey last year at NIU. One of them is Fran Brown, the co-defensive coordinator/cornerbacks coach. Brown coached four seasons at Temple, spent the last two years as an assistant at Baylor and is now back with the Owls.

One change in the defense, according to a recent Marc Narducci story, is that the Owls will play off more receivers instead of playing press coverage.

That tends to keep the play in front of the defensive backs and limits long scoring plays.

In other words, don’t expect this defense to give up 57, 52 or 45 points in any single game.

It’s not Mayhem, but Mayhem was never what it was cracked up to be so this change appears to be a welcome one.

We’ll just have to come up with a new nickname for those one-time dark side guys.

04.01.19
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20th Century Solution to 21st Century Problem

 

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At $5 a pop, people will be lining up for these seats at the new Temple stadium

You hear it all the time about modern-day problems of all sorts.

“You can’t apply 20th Century solutions to 21st Century problems.”

Strangely enough, from what we hear, Temple is close to announcing that a 20th Century solution will solve its most vexing problem of the last half-decade: Getting a neighborhood set on saying no to change its mind and say yes.

rooftop

A radical stadium design by the new stadium opens up seats in one end zone to be controlled by residents on the Norris side of 15th Street, with all of the proceeds for tickets sold on their rooftops going to the homeowners.

Temple got the idea from looking at photos of nearby Shibe Park, where 100 years ago the residents of Lehigh Avenue got some needed supplemental income by selling rooftop seating to Phillies and A’s fans.

“Money talks and it seems that the Norris Street people are listening,” one Temple source said. “We’re close. The new design will be a horseshoe and the open end will be facing the Norris Street side. We will build some pretty nice bleachers on the top of those houses and provide ticket takers and security at the front door of each house. The people who live there can go shopping on us for a couple of hours and, once the game is over, we will clean everything up and return the houses to those folks as they were.

“It’s a win-win for Temple and the community and we hope to present this idea at the next stadium stompers’ meeting. Hard for us to believe these people who are struggling financially will turn down this kind of financial windfall. Plus, Temple will have the most unique stadium design in the country. The rooftop seats will go for $5 each with the regular seating at $50 a ticket so there will be enough incentive for fans to use them.”

Applying good old-fashioned capitalism and an economic solution to the problem seems to work better than what the university has done over the past five years, pleading its case to a small group of people covering their ears.

“Hell, we’ll even call it Stompers Stadium if that’s what they want,” the Temple source said.

Happy April’s Fool Day everyone!!!!

 

 

03.29.19
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Mark the Calendar: 9/28/2019

Screenshot 2019-03-27 at 10.18.32 PM

A recent headline in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The guys who write the scripts in Hollywood could not have penned a better outline for at least one game this Temple season.

The Minister of Mayhem vs. Mr. Traditonal Buttoned Down coach.

As boring as the opener versus Bucknell should be (the April 13 practice that takes the place of the Cherry and White game this year will be more competitive), the storyline on 9/28/2019 should represent a season’s worth of drama.

The most interesting part of this script is that it was made possible long before the plot line was established as it was negotiated in September of 2017 by Temple athletic director Pat Kraft. Geoff Collins was just starting his first season at Temple and Rod Carey was in the fifth of is six at Northern Illinois.

Now the guy who is known for “swag” and “money downs” will be replaced by a more traditional coach and it will be a battle of old and new. Cell phones versus landline. Social media versus texting.

Make no mistake about one thing: The more motivated team should be on the home side of this one because the Owls would like nothing better to take down their ex-head coach. The Yellowjackets don’t even know who Rod Carey is. There should also be a sizable group of hometown Temple fans who will be similarly motivated.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution already made note of this fact (see graphic at the top of this post) recently and the accompanying story said this:
“Given the itinerant nature of the profession, it’s not unheard of for a coach to face a former employer. Coach Paul Johnson faced Georgia Southern, which he led to two Division I-AA (now FCS) national championships, in 2014 and 2015, but that was 13 years and two jobs after he had left Statesboro.
“But this a meeting of a different sort. Much of the Owls’ roster will be made up of players who were recruited to Temple by Collins.”

Kraft pulled a coup when he scheduled this game not because of the circumstances that developed, but because of the circumstances that existed. Home and homes between P5 and G5 teams are unusual enough. Home and homes that give the G5 the team the first date are impossible to find. (Usually, this is set up to allow the P5 team to dump the G5 team if something better comes along). Temple returns the favor in 2025, not 2020.

ESPN should give this storyline major play and no one should be surprised if the game (listed as TBA now) be moved off a noon slot to a more appealing 3:30 or night time slot. After all, the television markets involved are four (Philadelphia) and nine (Atlanta) nationally. This has the makings of a higher-than-usual audience for a late September non-conference game.

No one knows if the “money downs” signs will be on the other side of Lincoln Financial Field, but I would not be surprised.

All that matters will be actually turning those money downs into real-time stops and Temple could have the advantage in that regard.

It should be the most fun home date of this or the last several years.

Monday: Glass Houses

03.27.19
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Breaking News: No Spring Game This Year

 

breaking-news.png

Turn on one of those 24-hour news channels and chances are we will all see a cryon proclaiming this:

Breaking News.

It used to be in the old days that breaking news meant actually that: a fire here, a holdup there, a tornado farther south.

Now it means something that you knew about yesterday, not today.

So, given those parameters, here’s what we found out through official university channels yesterday: For the first time in 50 or so years, there will not be a spring game. I always thought the game was weird anyway because I never knew to root for the Cherry or the White. It was always the good guys versus the good guys. Instead, there will be an “open practice” mixed in with a “fan fest” and a good time will be had by all.

As Bill Parcells would say, this is good news, not bad news.

The Cherry and White game has pretty much deteriorated into a glorified practice over the last decade or so. If new head coach Rod Carey wants to close out the 15 practices he’s allotted by the  NCAA with No. 15, that should be OK.

All that matters is going 4-0 or, at worst, 3-1 in the first month or so of play so that brings us to the other news out of practice so far: The new offense.

According to a number of ex-players who have seen the Owls practice, the Owls are showing multiple looks. While there is some RPO (run/pass/option), there is also use of the fullback (primarily in goal-line situations), two tight ends and even three wide receivers.

Former Temple head coach Wayne Hardin used to call this his “smorgasbord” offense (“you know, a little of this, a little of that”) and that’s kind of what quarterback Anthony Russo was talking about in an interview with the Temple News earlier this week when he talks about learning a new offense. It’s the kind of offense designed to accentuate the talents of Russo, who has an NFL skill set and probably would have never been allowed to develop it if Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude had been around for another season.

The more looks Temple can show another defense the harder it is to prepare for the Owls on game day. It’s all about beating the bad guys even if there will be no game between the good guys this season.

Friday: Mark Your Calendar

Monday: Glass Houses

Wednesday: Another Nickname for the Darkside

03.25.19
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The New AAC Contract and Temple football

temple

For the last half-century, the halves have enjoyed increasingly more wealth than the have-nots.

College football’s schism between rich and poor is no different.

That’s why the new contract the AAC signed with ESPN should not be surprising.

Sure, the AAC received more money (a reported $1 billion) from ESPN but it pales in comparison to what the Power 5 schools get.

The 12-year deal with ESPN will be worth $1 billion, or an average of $83.3 million per school over the life of the contract. The new deal will run from 2020-21 through the 2031-32 academic year.

For Temple, the new contract will increase its yearly conference media revenue from $2.16 million to $6.94 million.

photo

The Star Complex is one of the best indoor facilities in the AAC

A significant part of the deal is the absence of a grant-of-rights agreement which would have prevented schools from jumping to a Power Five conference. Such agreements enhance media rights deals because conferences offer TV partners the assurance that the composition of the league will not change.

That means schools like Temple (and notably Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF) can still accept a spot in the Power 5 if offered.
I don’t see that happening as the musical chairs seem to be over. The 64 schools do not want to share the pot of gold with the other 67 schools.

According to the Sports Business Journal, “the majority of basketball games and a significant number of football games will go to ESPN+,” which is a subscription digital streaming service. The contract will include some Saturday football games on ABC, while most football, and men’s and women’s basketball will remain on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU — at least those not on the streaming service or CBS networks. (I don’t know about you, but the $4.99 a month on ESPN+ is among the best investments I have made. For the price of a beer at Xfinity Live, you can get to see an unlimited number of live sporting events.)

Bottom line with this contract is that Temple is in a better position to compete with its G5 partners because of the recent football buyouts and this new contract. The other AAC schools do not enjoy the windfall that the Owls have had with Geoff Collins’ $2.5 million and Manny Diaz’s $4 million.

Still, unless some miracle happens, they (and Cincy, Houston, and UCF) will remain on the outside looking in for a long time.

Wednesday: Tidbits From Spring Practice

Friday: Mark Your Calendar

Monday: Glass Houses

03.23.19
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Temple football: Let’s try stability

 

stability

Pat Kraft promised the kids stability and he delivered

Just the other day, St. Joseph’s University gave up a whole lot of stability for a future of uncertainty.

Unfortunately, we won’t know if the firing of Phil Martelli as that school’s head basketball coach is a good thing or a bad thing until a couple of years down the line because we don’t know who the new guy is.

When former athletic director Bill Bradshaw turned Temple football from a perennial loser into a perennial winner by hiring Al Golden he said famously: “Let’s try winning.”

Now his successor, Dr. Pat Kraft, seems to be saying, “let’s try adding stability to the winning.”

temple-ec799b36-3e2a-47cc-8a6f-079dc33a26d3

Fran Brown procuring players and Rod Carey coaching them should be an unbeatable combo for Temple football. Photo credit: Zamani Feelings

The stability Kraft purchased with $10 million of monopoly money is a whole lot recognizable. Kraft made the buyout of new head coach Rod Carey $10 million partly because that’s exactly the amount that UCF made Josh Heupel’s buyout. UCF went unbeaten during the regular season and, if anyone was the hot young head coach out of the AAC, it was that guy.

None of the Power 5 teams in need of a head coach approached him, partly because the buyout was $6 million higher than the going rate for such things. Even the Board of Trustees for big-time schools have limits.

“I told Pat to make it (the buyout) whatever he wanted,” Carey told the press on the day he was hired. “I wanted to be here.”

The difference between St. Joe basketball and Temple football is this: Temple got a guy who already was a successful head coach on the level Temple football is trying to play and gave that new guy more talent than he had in his last place of employment. Unless St. Joe is able to hire someone like Buffalo coach Nate Oates there is no certainty that it traded stability for excellence. St. Joe is more likely to grab the Swarthmore coach than Oates and that is no slam dunk. Temple fans found out that a guy who was a legend in Division II doesn’t automatically become a legend in Division One.

Temple now has both stability and excellence and the fact that Temple foes can no longer recruit against the Owls using the argument that the coach is likely to leave is going to reap rewards in that area. That, plus the fact that assistant head coach Fran Brown is one of the best recruiters in the business.

Kraft promised a team weary of the revolving door of coaches going through the revolving door E-O stability and he delivered. It should pay dividends, maybe immediately, but certainly over the long haul.

Monday: The New AAC Contract

Wednesday: Thoughts on Spring Ball So Far

Friday: Mark Your Calendar

Monday: Glass Houses

03.21.19
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Temple pro day confirms suspicions

NJ.com takes a look at Rock Ya-Sin.

In between filling out March Madness brackets and pouring over scouting reports on Belmont, something else important happened on the campus of Temple University on Monday.

Temple Pro Day.

It confirmed a couple of notable suspicions: One, Ryquell Armstead is really that fast and, two, Michael Dogbe got screwed out of an NFL combine invitation.

Screenshot 2019-03-20 at 8.58.44 AM

Credit: Owlsports.com

Some people (not I) thought Armstead’s 4.45 in the 40-yard dash at the combine might have been a fluke but Armstead was able to duplicate the same exact time on Monday, causing him to have a long talk with Philadelphia Eagles’ running back coach Duce Staley. The Eagles apparently are interested in Armstead and the interest is mutual. Frankly, after pouring over the available free agent backs and the other draft choices and the current roster of the Eagles, I think Armstead would do very well here. I don’t see Josh Adams, the current starter, bringing more explosiveness to the table than Armstead.

It’s already been proven by a neutral clock that Armstead would smoke Adams in a foot race. I think the Eagles should take a chance on Armstead, particularly if he’s available in the 4-5 round area.

With Dogbe, he put up 34 reps on the bench press and came in at 6-3 and 284 pounds. Only one other player at the NFL combine had that many reps at that weight. I see Dogbe as a No. 2 pick, potentially a one.

Rock Ya-Sin, considered by many one of the top five DBs in the draft, could also go as high as the second round and did nothing to diminish those prospects.

Other Owls of note were safety Rodney Williams, who had a 4.46 40 and another safety, Delvon Randall.  It’s nice to know that Nick Sharga is still pursuing his dream and hopefully the New England Patriots were taking notice. He would be the perfect player in that system.

If Temple pro day proved anything, it is that as many as four Owls could be drafted and more added with free agency.

That probably will do a lot more for the school’s image than the end of a basketball season in March Madness.

03.19.19
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Season Tickets: Preaching to the Choir

Three weeks ago, I got my annual season ticket call from the guy who handles my account.

Nice guy and I told him that I would renew before the April deadline.

image_handler

Nothing would help Temple more than a stadium full of these people

We engaged in a little small talk and he asked me if I liked the new coach (I did), liked the game-day experience (I did) and what I thought of the game host (I thought she was terrific and reminded me very much of the cupcake girl in the above video). I wish I could remember her name, but I don’t. I think she does a terrific job and oozes charisma just like her doppelganger Camila Cabello. She’s a Temple student on Temple TV and I hope she continues to be a worthy successor to Ryan Rinaldi.

When I hung up the phone, though, I thought a couple of things: One, no amount of great shows on the Jumbotron will put people in the stands like winning and, two, even that might not be enough to impress the people Temple needs to impress.

Temple needs to direct all of its expenditures into becoming a Power 5 school.

Ironically, though, Temple would have been a Power 5 school a long time ago if it was able to duplicate the game-day experience the Owls had in 2015 for home games against Penn State and Notre Dame. In those games, the Owls had more home fans than both ND and PSU in capacity crowds, were much louder and had terrific TV numbers.

The problems have been the other games.

Frankly, Lincoln Financial Field is too big a venue and the Temple Board of Trustees tried to address this in building a campus stadium. Halve the tickets and create a demand that does not exist now. Nothing would impress the P5 more than a sold-out Temple stadium, whether it is a 35K one or 70K one. That seems to have hit a brick wall called the community.

When I hung up the phone it occurred to me, that the guy on the other end was preaching to the choir. People like me who have had season tickets for 40 years (minus one) will keep coming back. It’s the other ones that Temple needs to reach, the bulk of the 275,000 living alumni, the 40,000 full-time students and the 12,500 full-time employees.

If just one-quarter of that number get behind the football Owls consistently on a Saturday afternoon, that’s a Power 5 team that cannot be stopped.

Thursday: Temple Pro Day

 

03.16.19
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Carey: First Impressions Could Not Be Better

Normally, at this time of the spring practice coaches usually bullbleep their way through media sessions and say this guy or that guy looked good.

That happened before with Temple coaches Steve Addazio and Geoff Collins, not so much with Al Golden and Matt Rhule.

Judging from the video posted on Shawn Pastor’s excellent OwlsDaily.com site, Rod Carey has planted his flag very much with the latter group and not the former. In it, he said he got to know the faces and now that the helmets are on, he’s asking which guy was what. When he was pressed for specific players, he didn’t make stuff up just saying that it’s to be determined.

That is the best first impression of all.

Fortunately, we are not alone.


“Excited to see what a real
coach with good talent can
do here, been a few years
since we’ve had someone in
charge I am excited about.”
_ former Temple linebacker
Matt Powell

Matt Powell, a former walk-on linebacker who earned a scholarship under Al Golden, sent us a note yesterday with this remarkably perceptive remark: “Excited to see what a real coach with good talent can do here, been a few years since we’ve had someone in charge I am excited about.”

Me, too.

The video didn’t prove that there is no bullbleep with the new coach, but it was at least Exhibit A in a case that will be proven over time.

Each coach Temple has hired has brought something to the table. Al Golden brought organization and terrific recruiting skills, Steve Addazio hired a staff that was a Power 5 one, not a G5 one. Matt Rhule contributed concepts learned from Tom Coughlin and was able to bake a delicious recipe from ingredients in the Golden and Daz cookbooks.

Collins?

I’m thinking. Guy was enthusiastic, I’ll give him that, but so were the others.

Carey brings in 52-30 record in a league Temple did not dominate, beat a team last year Temple could not beat (with lesser talent than Temple) and those credentials represent an improvement on the past.

Being brutally honest on opening day is just icing a cake which should be tasty.

Tuesday: Call To Season Tickets

Thursday: Pro Day Thoughts

Saturday: A Whole Lot of Stability

Monday (3/25): Return to Mon/Wed/Fri pub schedule until C and W Day

 

03.14.19
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Just a guess on number’s games

Only two players on the current Temple roster return inheriting their single-digit roster numbers.

One of the byproducts of the next month will be to find seven other guys to join Chapelle Russell (3) and Shaun Bradley (5) as the toughest non-offensive linemen on the squad.

Taking a guess at the other spots is a little like filling out the March Madness brackets next week: A fun endeavor but probably not 100 percent foolproof.

The good news is that there are probably about 20 deserving tough guy candidates out there. Before the players even vote, we’ll take a guess at these seven with the assigned number in parenthesis:

Archibong_Robinson_20180915_Feelings_AAAA1086

Dan Archibong (photo by Zamani Feelings) is a good bet to earn a single digit.

Dan Archibong (9) _ For my money, the toughest and most talented player along the defensive line and ready to take the mantle from Michael Dogbe as the leader on the defensive interior.

Zack Mesday (4) _ Granted a fifth year of eligibility (see above video), this tough guy worked his way from walk-on to starter following the same path of fellow walk-ons to starters Nick Sharga and Rob Ritrovato so we will give him the same number.

narducci

Anthony Russo (8) _ Probably deserves P.J. Walker’s former number due to having to deal with the punishment of working with former offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude, whose concept of max protect was telling Russo to slide. Russo should thrive under a system with a little less RPO and a little more emphasis on the run game and play-action.

Isaiah Wright (1) _ Anyone who makes first-team All-American as a special teams’ performer is a tough guy. For the first three years of his time at Temple, two coaches have talked about getting the ball “more” in Wright’s hands but there’s only so many plays a wide receiver or wildcat quarterback can get. If Wright moves to tailback, he’s going to get the ball 15-20 times a game more and Temple’s offense should be 15-20x as effective.

wright

Sam Franklin (7) _ Franklin has been a “jack-of-all-trades” for the Owls, playing safety, defensive end and linebacker and effective in all three spots. It takes a tough and smart guy to learn three positions at the same time. He’s been a great leader who will probably slot into a starter’s spot wherever he’s needed.

Branden Mack (6) _ Nobody made more clutch catches in traffic than this former Cheltenham High star, including the catch that tied Cincinnati with 22 seconds left in regulation. Mack rips the ball out of defensive backs’ hands. That’s a tough guy.

William Kwenkeu (2) _ Wearing No. 35, Kwenkeu was the defensive star of the Gasparilla Bowl, a game he registered his first career start and had a pair of sacks. Due to a change in coordinators last year, he did not play as much as he should have but he has both the talent and toughness to reclaim his spot in the lineup.

Saturday: First Impressions