Author Archives: Mike Gibson

01.09.19
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Bullbleep Meter and The Temple Job

typical

Typical crowd at an Eastern Michigan game, Rynearson Stadium. For Chris Creighton to win there, he must be the best head coach since Vince Lombardi

One of the things that makes me proudest to have my Temple B.A is that you also get an honorary degree in B.S on graduation day.

There’s nothing like going to college and living in the heart of a hard-scrabble (emphasis on scrabble) city to sharpen your bullshit meter.

bestnon

Just about everybody I know who has a Temple degree is able to separate the bullbleep from the regular bleep. For instance, the Bruce Arians’ guys who tailgated on the first Cherry and White Day of the Steve Addazio Era told me that Daz was a phony they could spot a mile away and compared him to Jerry Berndt. They loved Arians. They hated Berndt.

The Steve Conjar tailgate group never warmed up to Geoff Collins for some very good reasons. Collins thought Temple football did not exist prior to Al Golden. Upon being introduced to Paul Palmer, the Minister of Mayhem said this:

“Hey, coach, nice to meet you. What high school do you coach for?”

He had no idea he was talking to arguably the greatest player in Temple football history.

Ugh.

Can’t imagine Nick Saban having the same conversation with Joe Namath.

Have you seen the promised Mayhem yet?

I didn’t think so.

All I got was a lousy cotton T-Shirt that I paid $33 for and a “darkside defense” that allowed far too many points this season. Collins was a big fat blip on the bullbleep radar that should have been shot down by the committee two years ago.

Everybody has that kind of radar except the Temple Football Search Committee, if there is indeed one.

They didn’t spot Steve Addazio.

They didn’t spot Geoff Collins.

They didn’t spot Manny Diaz.

creighton

Chris Creighton is for real

As good a regular artist as Norman Rockwell was, that’s how good a bullbleep artist those three are.

So why was I not surprised that the name “Joe Rudolph” came up on Tuesday and “he was impressive” in the interview?

My first reaction was “are they going to let another assistant coach bullshit his way into the Temple job?”

Geez, I hope not.

The criteria this time should simply be this: Deeds over words.

It’s that simple. Temple is looking for a head coach, not an assistant coach, and this time the university has the big bucks to pay an accomplished guy for the job and not roll the dice on another assistant.

Rudolph, to me, is not an exciting name because no one knows what his responsibilities are/were at Wisconsin. We hear that head coach Paul Chryst called all the plays and he probably did.

If Rudolph shined in an interview process, it was probably because he said what the committee wanted to hear.


One exciting name emerged
yesterday and it wasn’t
Rudolph. It was Eastern
Michigan coach Chris Creighton …
He would fit right in here
and maybe take Temple TUFF
up a notch. He’s that good.

“Will you keep Fran Brown?”

“Yeah, I love the guy.”

“How about Ed Foley?”

“Yeah, me and Ed would work well. Love that speech that went viral.”

“How about Gabe Infante?”

“Who? Yeah, him, too.”

“What about the other assistants?”

“I know some of the best people. Great minds. All FBS coordinators. I’m going to bring those guys in here. No FCS guys like Collins.”

wolverine

“You’re doing great, Joe. What about commitment to Temple? Will you be outta here in two or three years.”

“Nope. If I sign a five-year contract, I’m staying the full five years. When I played with the Eagles, I’d go up and down Broad Street and see those Temple flags and think to myself, ‘I’d love to coach there one day. That’s my dream school.’ ”

The lesson of Daz, Diaz and Collins to take away is to avoid the silver-tongue devil promising the world and gravitate to the better angels who have a track record. This time, Temple should look at what the guy has done not what he tells the school he will do.

One exciting name emerged yesterday and it wasn’t Rudolph.

It was Eastern Michigan coach Chris Creighton. There is no more impossible place to win than EMU. If you have been there, and I have, you know there are literally no more than 1,000 or 2,000 people at any home game. I’ve watched that team and it plays with a toughness level very similar to Temple. He would fit right in here and maybe take Temple TUFF up a notch. He’s that good.

For him to have taken that team to Purdue and win and to two bowl games in three years is more impressive than anything Addazio and Collins did at Temple.

If you are going to make a splash, go get that guy or Lance Leipold. Guys who have done pretty impressive things in the very job Temple is looking to fill. Don’t let another bulls hitter talk his way into a job that should be earned.

You are Temple. Act like it. After Diaz, everyone’s bullbleep radar should be on DEFCON 1.

Friday: Smoking Out The Winner

01.08.19
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Could 2019 Be The One?

leipold

Could this actually be THE one?

The first season since Wayne Hardin was on campus that Temple actually won every game it was favored to be in plus a couple it was not?


Nobody knows if Lance
Leipold will be in it,
but he’s got to have a
better handle on the
Owls than any other
outside candidate since
he studied enough film
on the 2018 version
to beat them

A lot will depend on which candidate wins the interview room for the Owls’ head coaching position in the next couple of days. Nobody knows if Lance Leipold will be in it, but he’s got to have a better handle on the Owls than any other outside candidate since he studied enough film on the 2018 version to beat them.

Leipold might have also watched the bowl game. He probably did.

From what I hear, he probably won’t be in the interview room in the next few days. From what I know, he definitely should. There is still time to get the right guy and not settle for second best.

If the Owls do, this year’s team has a chance of lifting the AAC title trophy. They will have to win every game they are favored to win and reach up and get a game or two they are not to accomplish that task.

One way to do it is to bring in a binder, like Al Golden did to Bill Bradshaw’s office in 2005, on how to build a program. What was in the binder made so much sense that Bradshaw wrote on a yellow legal pad:

“This is our guy.”

Now the binder isn’t how to build the program but how to add a wing onto it.

patkraft

“This is our guy”

The last guy who had this kind of chance to win a championship in his first year was Steve Addazio and, when you really think about it, it’s hard to fathom how the 2011 Owls did not win a league title. Addazio never figured out until too late–the game against Ohio–that Chris Coyer was the best quarterback on his roster. Had Coyer played from the jump, instead of Chester Stewart and Mike Gerardi, the Owls likely would have beaten Penn State (a game they lost, 14-10), Bowling Green and Ohio, won the league title and played another Big 10 team in the bowl game. (Coyer, in relief of Stewart, did all he could to beat Ohio with a superb three-quarter performance but Stewart left the Owls in a hole.)
surprise

And, of course, we would have never had to endure the unendurable Year Two of the Addazio regime because someone would have plucked Daz away before the bowl game and Chuck Heater, not Ed Foley, would have been the bowl coach.

Instead, Coyer became the first Owl quarterback to win a bowl game in over 30 years.

Now the next coach has a chance to wow the interview room like Golden did.

The guy who does might say something like this:

“Geez, I saw youse guys (Philly accent) against Duke and I really liked that kickoff returner you had. He needs to get the ball more than five times a game so I would move him to tailback because it was obvious youse guys missed Rock (use the nickname) Armstead. He can be the best breakaway back in the league next year. I’d put that No. 5 (Shaun Bradley) in at fullback and have Wright follow him through the hole 20 times a game because youse have plenty of good linebackers. I don’t know who your offensive coordinator was last year because Russo is no more a RPO quarterback than Tom Brady is. Why your OC would risk getting him killed last year made no sense to me. Make the most of that NFL arm going play-action pro set and hitting those two guys, No. 88 and No. 10.”

“What about defense and special teams?”

“I’m going to hand that over to the best special teams’ coach in the country, Ed Foley, and make Fran Brown the single (not co) coordinator in defense. No Mayhem. Just no scoring. We’re going to try to break the Temple record for most shutouts in a season.”

“Thanks for coming, Lance,” AD Pat Kraft tells the committee.

Candidate walks out of the room and Kraft holds up a yellow legal pad with four words underlined:

“THIS IS OUR GUY!”

Tomorrow: Bullbleep Meter and The Temple Job

Friday: Smoking Out The Winner

 

01.07.19
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TU Search: Good choices and Bad

orlando

Rather have Todd Bowles or Tony Orlando than Todd Orlando

A full day before Manny Diaz was brought to a city he had never been to and probably had no interest even visiting, we wrote this in the comment section of this blog:

sickfeeling

… and so has Temple

And, of course,  Temple athletic director Dr. Pat Kraft made that official a little over 24 hours later when the first news leaked out that the Owls had hired the Miami defensive coordinator.

It was a disaster for all the reasons outlined in the illustrated paragraph. Not quite the disaster it would have been if Diaz stayed and coached a year with the Owls, but a disaster nonetheless.

This week’s sick feeling revolves around Texas defensive coordinator Todd Orlando. Maybe Pepto Bismol will help. The divining rod seems to be pointing in that direction, though. Kraft likes shiny coordinators from P5 teams.

Like Diaz, he would be the WORST POSSIBLE selection simply because of the number of returning starters the Owls have–the most they’ve had on both offense and defense since the 2016 championship season–and the learning curve on “how to be a head coach” every newbie to the job has.

Temple has a great quarterback returning in Anthony Russo and enough depth at wide receiver to switch “touchdown-waiting-to-happen” Isaiah Wright to the tailback position he flirted with during a game or two in the 2016 season. They have TWO potential superstars at wide receiver in Sean Ryan and the pride of Cheltenham High, Branden Mack, and a solid tight end in Kenny Yeboah and return most of the offensive line that dominated Houston for 59 points, 35 against Boston College and 49 against ECU. (When you have two star wide receivers and a run game that came up short in the bowl game, time to move the guy you want with the ball in his hands, Wright, to take care of the run game problem.)

lanceleipold

On defense, they have Zack Mesday and Quincy Roche returning at the ends, Dan Archibong and Karamo Dioubate to anchor the middle and great linebackers in Shaun Bradley and Chappelle Russell. Linwood Crump mans one corner and Benny Walls and Keyvonne Burton have plenty of experience in the secondary.

This is a team built to win now and doesn’t need the additional handicap of someone who has to learn on the job.

Russo is a classic pro set quarterback with an NFL skill set and bringing in someone who forces that square peg into a run/pass option round hole would be counterproductive. Hopefully, all of this is part of the interview process.

You would think.

For a team like this, getting a guy who has been through the wars making the decisions only a head coach can make really is the best way to help them achieve their potential and that potential is lifting the AAC title trophy at Lincoln Financial Field.

A guy like Lance Leipold would be the best-possible guy to help these kids achieve their dreams. He’s already beaten one September foe, Geoff Collins, and his knowledge of Buffalo would be an immeasurable aid in beating another.  Eastern Michigan’s Chris Creighton would also be good and Kraft can’t go wrong by reuniting the long-term staff with their old boss, Al Golden. Michigan DC Don Brown, who has won twice as many games as he has lost as a HC, is also an acceptable option. Another named mentioned on Sunday, Northern Illinois’ Rod Carey, would be nowhere near as attractive as Leipold. Kraft played offensive line at Indiana. Carey played center at the same school. No doubt in my mind they know each other and that might have something to do with it. Geez, wish Pat played with Leipold because Carey is 0-6 in bowl games.

It’s Leipold or Creighton for my taste.

No need for a nightmare like Orlando.

Wednesday: Comparing First Years

01.05.19
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TU Coaching Search: Wait and Hurry Up

hurryupandwait

If the prior coaching search at Temple, the one that took place less than a month ago, was all about hurrying up to meet the early December signing period, this one was about waiting.

Then hurrying up.

Since there was only one other high-profile FBS job available, Temple athletic director Dr. Pat Kraft had to wait for what the Power 5 school (West Virginia) did and then move on after that. Kraft didn’t only have egg on his face after the Manny Diaz Fiasco, he had a whole Denny’s Grand Slam Breakfast. No use hiring a guy on Thursday, only to have him move on to West Virginia on Friday.

We are exaggerating for effect. We think. 

fastnarducci

slownarducci

Seven hours between these two tweets

First, the waiting part.

Since West Virginia hired Troy’s Neal Brown–arguably the most accomplished proven FBS head coach out there–yesterday, Temple has a smorgasbord of pretty decent candidates to choose from and about $8.5 million to spend on a head coach  ($6.5 million in buyouts and Geoff Collins‘ regular $2 million salary) to spread over the next five years.

This time none of the candidates have a place to jump to after 17 days. One or two years maybe, but not 17 days.

pophead

Temple’s depression-era offer of $12,500K per year lured Pop Warner away from Stanford. The second splash hire, Wayne Hardin, arguably turned out to be a better one.

The Owls can pay Dana Holgorsen money for a superstar like current Buffalo head coach Lance Leipold or national coach of the year Jeff Monken (Army) or they can dig back deep into the coordinator churn pile for someone like Texas DC Todd Orlando. Leipold is probably out because he has shown no interest in the Temple job (not everyone is), although the concept of hiring a guy who kicked Geoff Collins’ ass with Buffalo talent is more than intriguing. Temple produces NFL players so Monken and his triple-option is probably out and hiring another team’s coordinator after Diaz probably would probably not be received well by the Temple fan base demanding a splash with the newfound money. Eastern Michigan’s Chris Creighton pulled a minor miracle in an impossible place to win this year, but he hasn’t shown he can sustain it like Leipold and Monken.

Now Temple has money for a “splash” hire and one opportunity to spend it.

Really, a solid argument can now be made with Neal Brown gone that Leipold is the only “splash” candidate out there. Seven National championships plus an FBS division championship sets him apart from the rest. The only two times Temple went for a “splash” candidate, Wayne Hardin and Pop Warner, it turned out pretty well.


The only two times
Temple went for a
“splash” candidate,
Wayne Hardin and
Pop Warner, it turned
out pretty well

Popular hirings among a certain segment of Temple fans would be Al Golden and Todd Bowles. Golden gave Temple five great years–a lot longer than 17 days–and still has a tremendous relationship with many long-time Temple fans. He probably saved the program and turned a 0-11 season before he got here into a nine- and an eight-win season before he left. He still has terrific recruiting contacts up and the East Coast and good relationships with Ed Foley and Adam DiMichele. He probably has the competitive instincts to prove was better for Temple than Rhule or Collins. Kraft could not go wrong in bringing him back but we don’t know if he’s even interested. Bowles would be popular with players of the Bruce Arians’ Era but he would be a much harder sell in that he hasn’t really won anywhere.

donbrown

Don Brown in an interview with the Detroit Free Press. Note the words “not on anybody else’s terms.” Kraft could be demanding Brown keep Fran Brown, Ed Foley, Gabe Infante and Adam DiMichele, none of whom Brown knows. This problem would be solved by hiring another guy working in Michigan, Al Golden.

Now the hurrying up part.

When Diaz left, Kraft issued a statement that emphasized two words: Excellence and stability.

Fran Brown, the current interim coach, represents “stability” and is well-liked by the players. Still, since he was seen not as a guy who could take over the Temple head coaching job 23 days ago, it’s hard to sell excellence and Fran Brown. Mike Elko, Don Brown and Manny Diaz were by reports the final three in the first search. Elko pulled out of the first search and used it as leverage to sign a new deal at Texas A&M.

That leads us to Don Brown. Of those mentioned so far, he brings both stability and excellence. He has all the big-time coordinator experience (BC, UConn, Maryland, Michigan) of the other coordinator churn pile guys but a 95-45 record as a head coach at three schools. That’s excellence. At 63, Temple would be his last rodeo and he can say with a straight face at the press conference that he’s not going anywhere. Another plus is that this will enable Fran Brown to learn how to be DC (not co-DC) under Don Brown’s watch and make him a more attractive candidate for the Temple job when Don decides to retire.

The narrow criteria of “excellence” and “stability” could make this hurry up phase of the second search go pretty fast and that’s what one Brown can do for Kraft that the other one cannot.

Monday: The special circumstance now

01.03.19
by

Fizzy’s Corner: Follow-Up and Search

 

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

After I sent out my piece, “The Green Flu,” I was contacted by someone very close to the situation at Temple.  He informed me that one of the two Temple players I mentioned as “quitters,” was indeed ill.  So to that player, I offer my sincere apology. As far as the other player who took himself out of the game, I guess it’s your point of view.   You know that my view is you play every game you can with your brothers. Every football player knows there’s a chance of injury whenever you step on the field, but you probably put it out of your mind way back in ninth grade. There were some senior players who had been selected to play in further bowl games didn’t play, and some who did.  Trace McSorley played last night until his leg almost fell off. (Of course, when I finished at Temple, the only organization interested in drafting me was the U.S. Army.)

patenaude

There are two other factors.  The first is the way the situation was handled. No one knew anything until game time.  (At least that’s when I found out the guys weren’t playing.)  If someone was taking himself out of the game, it should have been announced, not camouflaged.   The second factor is that if coaches quit, then players should start looking out for themselves. I have no problem with that. Just tell us.

Selection Committee

Our selection committee has a difficult task.  After five defections, do they go for the best coach they can find, or hire someone who hasn’t yet proven himself but might stay longer?  Just as you never know what high school player is going to succeed in college, you don’t know what assistant is going to make the grade as a head coach.  Of course, even if you select the guy who hasn’t proven himself yet, who says he’s going to stay if he is successful?  How about a pro coach who has already done it all?  It’s a conundrum if there ever was one.

Another way to handle the situation is, at the hiring meeting, have Guido sit in the corner with his hands folded.  (You all know Guido, he’s from South Philly. He looks like Michael Corleone’s guy who dressed in black and went after Hyman Roth.)

patenaudebox

Praise The Lord Department

It has now been confirmed that Dave Patenaude is the offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech.  Therefore, the Broad Street Offense is no more.  It’s now the Peachtree Street Offense. The Georgia Tech fans have been waiting for a new offense, just wait till they get a load of this.  The under/over on reverses for the 2019 season is “2.”  For bootlegs, at the goal line it’s “1.”

The $6.5 Million Windfall

Last, I think Temple should take the $6.5 M, split it up and give it to all us Temple football alums with bad knees, bad backs and concussions.

Saturday: The Slower Pace

 

01.01.19
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The Cleanup Begins

Pat O’Connor (left) to Pat Kraft on Monday morning

My only living relative who cares so little about football she watched Star Trek reruns during the last Super Bowl,  listened to my Manny Diaz U-Turn story and said:

“What a fine mess that guy who hired him got Temple into. …”

neal

“That pretty much sums it up,” I said. “It’s a nuclear-type cleanup now.”

Diaz was the Chernobyl of college football coaching hires.  If my relative thinks it’s a mess, I’m pretty sure Temple Board Chairman Pat O’Connor and President Dick Englert and a lot of the other trustees think it’s a mess, too.

That’s not to mention our players and fans. In addition, anybody who recruits against Temple now has fruit so low-hanging to pick from it has fallen on the ground.

Now the cleanup begins.

You are going to see a lot of Pat Kraft defenders on the internet who say: “He could not have seen this coming” and “he can’t be blamed for this” but if I saw it coming the guy who gets paid the big bucks to do the hiring should have, too. This is what we wrote in a caption the day after Diaz was hired:

disclosure

This was written 20 days ago

The point is that this hire was Temple’s way of telling Miami “we’re going to train your next coach and, don’t worry, he will make all of the mistakes on our watch at our expense and, by the time we hand him off give him to you, he’ll be a polished guy.”


Diaz was the Chernobyl
of college football
coaching hires

Everything about this guy, from an entire career in warm-weather climates to the fact that his dad was the freaking Mayor of Miami screamed he was going back to Miami. One year, two years, seventeen days, what’s the difference? That should have all been factored into the Temple hire. If Temple is going to get a rental, get a ready-made one–a guy who can give this current very talented team a path to next year’s AAC title.

This is no time for a trainee.

payraise

This is the answer Geoff Collins gave in his Temple presser two years ago when asked if he was here to stay: “Every kid in there is going to know that I’m going to love them and there’s too much to do now in every moment to think about anything than what happens in the current moment.”

This is the answer Diaz gave at his presser: “All you can do is give them everything you have at the moment. You’ve got to work to improve every day, then go on to the next one.”

Anything sound familiar in those two comments?

Nothing about staying at Temple and building a winning legacy.  Those days might be over, but to achieve a championship now, the days of training rentals for other programs should be over. They should have been over three weeks ago.

Temple should go out and get a polished head coach who can give these fantastic returning players a championship in 2019. There’s a guy named Brown who can do it and it’s not Fran. It’s Neal. All he has done for Troy is do something Temple has never done–win 10 games three-straight years and beaten teams like LSU and Nebraska. Troy is paying him 1/3d of what Temple could and he would be worth every penny.

A 2019 AAC championship and an NY6 bowl would clean up a pretty big mess.

Thursday: Fizzy’s Corner

Saturday: The Slower Pace

 

12.31.18
by

Comical If Not So Sad

leipold

Lance Leipold is probably the best available head coach out there, but does Kraft know that?

Mulligans are usually associated with the game of golf, but Temple athletic director  Pat Kraft now has a chance to have that kind of do-over in football coaching searches.

He missed this most recent two-foot putt by a mile but this is a chance to correct his mistake.

worstthing

This is what we wrote 20 days ago and Kraft did exactly the worst thing–bring in another team’s coordinator.

The $6.5 million question now is whether he admits his hiring model was a flawed one or does he take this as an opportunity to create a new model?

Manny Diaz lasted all of 17 days as Temple football’s head coach and, frankly, I’m glad he’s gone. He was never a fit for Temple. The guy never coached North of Jacksonville, had no recruiting ties to the area and probably doesn’t even own an overcoat. Temple was going to train him to be Mark Richt’s successor for one year and he would move on to his “dream” job, Miami. He would make all the mistakes first-year head coaches make–all the ones that Matt Rhule made in a 2-10 season and Collins did in a 7-6 one–and the Temple fans and players would be the ones paying for it.

interstate

A busy day ahead for the Interstate sign company

Now Kraft will have to juggle several balls in the air with the $6.5 million buyout money ($2.5 million for Geoff Collins and $4 million for Diaz) and hope he can catch them all:

    • No more carpetbaggers. Kraft, in his message to the players last night, finally used the word “stability.”  That word has never appeared in his vocabulary before and it is a concession to the fact that this revolving door is getting comical if it wasn’t so sad. Is there someone out there who has not lost to Duke and Wake Forest by a combined score of 101-53 who feels that TEMPLE is his dream job? Surely that man exists.
    • Keep contractual obligations. Another ball that is difficult to catch. Temple has the names of Fran Brown and Gabe Infante (and probably Ed Foley) signed on the dotted line and the university has a moral duty to keep them onboard and find a next guy who can work with both. Moral duty may mean nothing to Diaz, but it should mean something to Temple.
    • Forget coordinators.  Both Foley, who lost to Wake and Duke by the above-mentioned 101-53, and Fran Brown are good men who may consider Temple their “dream job” but neither has won a single game as an FBS head coach and probably are not ready for prime time. Nonetheless, we don’t want to learn the hard way.

It is time for Temple to finally bring in an established head coach and not another coordinator to have to learn on the job, someone who will bring some stability to the program and has loyalty to Temple.

stability

Al Golden said on national TV Temple TUFF is spelled T-U-F-F (and it is)

 

That would probably rule out a terrific head coach like FIU’s Butch Davis, who will probably spend his entire year here looking out the window. Buffalo’s Lance Leipold parlayed a 108-6 record at Wisconsin-Whitewater and six national championships (real ones, not fake ones like they have in FBS) into a 10-4 record with the Bulls and is ridiculously underpaid at $325K. Can he be talked into keeping Foley, Brown and Infante, guys who he never met? Waving a couple of million at a guy like that can be convincing. Nothing would scare the shit out of Geoff Collins more than facing the guy who kicked his ass last September at Lincoln Financial Field this September at LFF. He’s a perfect geographical fit for Temple in that Buffalo is a major Northeastern city like Philadelphia. He probably owns several overcoats.

disclosure

… and this is what we wrote 18 days ago

Al Golden is a guy who knows Temple and loves Temple and HAS PROVEN HE CAN WIN AS A HEAD COACH AT TEMPLE and would get along with Foley, Brown, and Infante and deserves a hard pursuit by Kraft. He gave Temple five terrific years, is still young and probably knows more than anyone else that the grass is not greener on the other side of the 10th and Diamond fence.

Todd Bowles would be a good co-defensive coordinator for Fran Brown to learn from but I’m told his lack of a Temple (or any other) college degree ruled him out of the coaching search in 2010.

The worst thing, though, would be for Kraft to go back and churn the coordinator pile of guys like Mike Elko and Don Brown and come up with a guy whose dream job is elsewhere.

Other people’s dreams are Temple’s nightmares.

New Year’s Day: The Cleanup Begins

Friday: The Pace

12.30.18
by

Fizzy’s Corner: The Green Monster

weinraub

Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl, where 6,000-plus Temple fans attended and because of this Independence Bowl fiasco that might be the last time where Temple has more than a hundred fans at any bowl game.

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub, a former Temple player, brings up the interesting concept in this piece that can simply be boiled down to this: If you are going to have a bowl game with no Temple head coach, no Temple star players, then get ready for no Temple fans in the future. 

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

Our two best players quit. Our best offensive player, Ryquell Armstead, and our best cornerback, Rock Ya-Sin, who was supposed to cover Duke’s best receiver, both quit and didn’t play in the bowl game.  Instead of coming clean, coach Ed Foley came up with some claptrap about this was a medical staff decision.  If you believed that, then you must also believe that the Eagles’ Jim Schwartz is a great defensive coordinator.

Why?

nothappy

Temple fans were not happy with the two Rocks

Both players accepted invitations to the Senior Bowl on January 26th, and Rock will also play in the East/West game on January 19th. That’s why they declined to play; it’s called the green flu.  I sure it’s because they thought they might get hurt and ruin their chances to be highly drafted by the NFL.  Two tough as nails football players let their brothers down after fighting with them through thick and thin. If you don’t think that had a major effect on the outcome of the game, you’re just naive.

I was at a friend’s house watching the game ( I left after the third quarter.), and when I got home I told my wife what happened.  My wife knows very little about college football, but Cheryl’s first words were, “Why does that surprise you?  Their coach quit.”  Yes indeed, their coach did quit as did the previous three before him. Is it any wonder it was only a matter of time before this, me first – screw you, attitude filtered down to the players.  Thinking back to the guys I played with, it’s unimaginable to me that a teammate would do this.  But then again, I’m now sure I’m the one who’s naive.

As far as the coaching, well, I’m so pissed right now that the coaching seems relatively unimportant.  The butchering of the last sequence of plays right before the end of the first half with three timeouts left should go down in the hall of shame. Slowing down the blitzing in the second half only allowed a great pro prospect QB all the time in the world to catch fire.  Of course, we dropped untold passes.

So in college football, the coaches quit on their teams, and now seniors quit on their teams.  When is it our turn?  It’s been sixty years of Temple football for me now. Maybe it’s time I say, “Fer who, fer what?”  How about those who spent a few grand to travel to the game, only to see a half-assed effort?  What about the undecided recruits? Major college football is now as much “pay to play” as the NFL.  I wanna go back to the last century.

P.S. The only good news, was great news. Marc Narducci reports unsubstantiated sources say that Temple’s offensive coordinator, Dave Patenaude, is going to Georgia Tech with Geoff Collins.  Thank you, oh great omnipotent being.  Maybe our Broad Street Offense can become the Philly Soft Pretzel Offense, under the new guy. (You want some mustard on that?)

Wednesday: The Cleanup Begins

 

12.28.18
by

Winning Is the Only Thing

ultimate

TU played like walk-ons, Duke like scholarship players

In a far-off, long-ago era of football, Vince Lombardi probably had the best quote in the history of the sport:

“Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

The great ex-Green Bay Packers’ head coach, if he were still alive, probably would have repeated his second most famous quote during Temple’s meltdown in a 56-27 loss to Duke yesterday:

“What the hell is going on out there?”

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Good words, Vince, that perfectly described an Independence Bowl where the wheels came off for a 3.5-point favorite.

The quotes are reminders to me of a conversation the other day I had with an otherwise sane and rational Temple fan on my decision not to attend this bowl.

“C’mon, down, Mike,” he said, “bowls are about the pageantry and the band, not really about the game itself.”

“Huh? If I’m going down, I’m going down to win. I don’t give a whit (minus the W) about the pageantry. The only reason I go down is to see Temple win and there’s too much uncertainty and I would be way too pissed off if I spent that much money to see a loss.”

All that said, the night before the game I wrote this nugget:

“If Temple controls the clock behind Ryquell Armstead and Russo is effective in the short passing game, (Duke quarterback) Jones won’t be able to do too much damage.”

To me, there was no doubt Armstead would play. He was quoted as saying on Dec. 17 that he was excited to play “one last time with my brothers” and participated in every practice, several of them full contact. He was listed as “probable.” What did he do in the minutes before the game, trip over the Elvis Pressley statue? This news completely came out of the blue.

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Both cornerback Rock Ya-Sin and Armstead did not play and interim head coach Ed Foley said those were for “medical reasons.” Photos, though, of the two showed them smiling (not grimacing) before the game, so who the hell knows? All I know is that Armstead was a warrior who wanted to come back into the ECU game (and did) despite a sprained ankle and he looked a helluva lot better walking around the sidelines yesterday than he did that day in October.

Jones, the Duke quarterback who is a far better prospect than Armstead or Ya-Sin, did play “one last game” with his brothers and that set the tone for the entire day.

Do I think Temple would have benefited from having Armstead in there to run the ball with a 27-14 lead in the second quarter? Hell yes. Do I think he would have scored the six touchdowns that he did against Houston? Hell no, but three would have done the job and 30 carries would have kept the ball away from Jones for 30 plays. Play-action would have aided quarterback Anthony Russo if he had Armstead to put the ball in the belly of and pull it out.

Do I think Ya-Sin would have batted down a couple of those Jones’ touchdown passes?

Hell yes.

Football is a team game and the next man should step up but Temple had no “next man” nearly as capable as those two. Maybe part of their decision had to do with coaches coming and going at Temple, but it still sucks.  Ed Foley is now 0-2. He talks a good game but I’d rather see actions than words. I always have.

This is what bowl season at Temple has come to, though. Maybe forever. Maybe just for the foreseeable future:  Decide to go down to see the band, go to pre-game events and walk around a small town in the middle of nowheresville but don’t be upset if Temple losses the game.

No thanks.

I feel most sorry for all of those Temple fans who paid their hard-earned money thinking they would see the full Temple team for one more time.

Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing. My good Temple friend can go down for the pageantry and the sightseeing next year, but it will be a hard pass for me unless it’s an NY6 game and everyone from Temple from the head coach to the waterboy is 100 percent committed to winning.

Sunday: Fizzy on The Green Flu

Wednesday: Some New Year’s Resolutions for Manny Diaz

Friday: Infante Impact

Sunday: Comparing First Years

Tuesday: (1/9): Pressing Needs

Thursday (1/11): Impact of Bowl Loss on Future

12.26.18
by

Bowl Game: Keeping Up With The Joneses

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The closest thing Philadelphia drive-time sports talk radio got around to talking about the Temple’s impending bowl game tomorrow was on the Mike Missanelli Show two days ago.

Missanelli was making a point about trading Carson Wentz for a No. 1 and keeping Nick Foles to run the show and mentioned the name of the Duke quarterback as a draft possibility should the Eagles designate Foles as a placeholder for the next couple of years.

“They could even draft a guy this year,” he said. “Let’s look at the list of projected No. 1 NFL quarterbacks. How about that Daniel Jones of Duke? If you reject the notion that Wentz is the last franchise quarterback the NFL draft will ever produce, and I do, then now is the time to get rid of Wentz and get something for him. You can draft a guy like Daniel Jones, have him learn from Foles for a couple of years and then he could turn out to be as good as Wentz. You never know.”

Silly me.

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My 40-year-old Temple News jersey did not survive as well as Mr. Russo’s 40-year-old Bishop Egan jersey

I thought that was a lead-in to talking about the Temple-Duke game, but Missanelli beat about 20 other Eagles’ topics to death and left Daniel Jones floating out there. Philly talk show hosts probably don’t even know Temple is playing in the Independence Bowl against Duke (1:30 p.m., ESPN) tomorrow but the Owls can certainly open some eyes with a big win.

First, there will be a lot of draftniks watching Jones to form their own opinion of him and, second, there is another very talented quarterback on the field named Anthony Russo who can establish a reputation of his own with a good game. There was a terrific story by Marc Narducci on Russo’s wearing a 40-year-old Bishop Egan jersey that his dad wore as a QB there. I also have a jersey over 40-years old–my game jersey for The Temple News’ intramural basketball team–but it has not survived as well so I don’t know how he preserved it.

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Shreveport’s Channel 3 is calling for an 80 percent chance of AM rain and 70 degrees by the afternoon.

Jones still has a year of eligibility but it would be crazy for a projected first-round pick to come back to college. Jones checks all of the boxes. Like Wentz, he’s 6-foot-5 and, like Wentz, he can do damage with his feet. He had two runs in excess of 60 yards in a 42-35 win over North Carolina. Jones will be looking to move up the draft board with a strong game against Temple because he hurt his prospects some in a 59-7 loss to Wake Forest in his last game. He was 17-of-36 for 145 yards and a Pick 6.

He’ll be motivated but facing a Temple secondary with two NFL hopefuls in safety Delvon Randall and corner Rock Ya-Sin. Since Duke coach David Cutcliffe is adept at breaking down film, expect Jones to try to attack Linwood Crump Jr.’s side of the field. Crump has been pretty solid as well, but sliding over Randall in help is probably the way interim coach Ed Foley is leaning.

Temple is a four-point favorite, but there’s very little to base that upon since there are no common foes. Interestingly enough, this fall Duke owns wins over both the incoming Temple coach (20-12 at Miami) and the team the outgoing Temple coach (28-14 at Georgia Tech) is taking over so there will be bragging rights to be had for the Owls. Another twist is that Duke beat Baylor and Matt Rhule, for what that’s worth.  If the Owls can pull this off, it will be their most prestigious bowl win since beating California, 28-17, in the 1979 Garden State Bowl so there is plenty at stake.

If Temple controls the clock behind Ryquell Armstead and Russo is effective in the short passing game, Jones won’t be able to do too much damage.

Friday: Game Analysis

Monday: Infante Impact