Author Archives: Mike Gibson

09.09.18
by

Temple: Worst-coached team in college football

digest

With the possible exception of Willie Taggart’s Florida State football team, it’s hard to come up with a convincing argument that Temple is not the worst-coached team in college football after two games.


No matter how hard
you work Sundays
through Fridays,
you are judged what
you do on Saturdays
and this Temple coaching
staff is a complete and
utter failure on the
most important day
of the week

We’ll go with Temple only because Taggart coached his way into two Power 5 jobs and he’s proven himself as a head coach in other places.

There is no offer on the horizon for Geoff Collins’ staff this year and maybe not for several.

Not only did the Owls lose to a FCS crosstown rival, Villanova, they had to beat in order to retain any football street cred in Philadelphia, Collins and his staff botched a simple game plan that was handed to them on a silver platter.

Playing a Buffalo team that gave up 199 yards to FCS Delaware State and was ranked No. 95 in the nation in rushing defense this year (and No. 96 last year), the Owls refused to go with the one offense—tailback behind a fullback—that would have kept the ball away from the two NFL players the Bulls had, Tyree Jackson and Anthony Johnson.


Playing a Buffalo team
that gave up 199 yards
on the ground
to FCS Delaware State
and was ranked No. 95
in the nation in rushing
defense this year
(and No. 96 last year),
the Owls refused to go
with the one offense—tailback
behind a fullback—that would
have kept the ball away
from the two NFL
players the Bulls had

Collins and offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude had just two jobs—score points and run the ball effectively enough to have six-, seven- and eight-minute drives and chew up the clock.

The Owls scored enough to win but they did not provide their defense with the requisite help needed by keeping the ball away from the Buffalo offense.

Temple had consecutive 10-win seasons by playing an every-down fullback but, on Saturday, did not have fullback Rob Ritrovato on the field to lead the way for Ryquell Armstead even once. With Ritrovato—an outstanding blocker in his own right—Armstead would have had essentially another offensive lineman in front of him and probably a lot more than the 107 yards he had on the ground. More importantly, had Armstead been able to put 200 yards on the board, Jackson and Johnson would have had far fewer possessions and Temple would have been able to come away with a much-needed win. Ritrovato was on the field to gain a short-yardage first down on a running play, but Wayne Hardin (Henry Hynoski, Kevin Grady and Mark Bright), Bruce Arians (Shelley Poole), Al Golden (Wyatt Benson) and Matt Rhule (Nick Sharga) would have been able to tell Collins a fullback can and should play a more vital role.

They either don’t care to use a fullback or don’t know how. Either way, it’s a bad look and not a Temple one.

Collins and Patenaude seem oblivious to that simple concept given an ill-conceived game plan that stopped the clock far too many times on incomplete passes and gave Buffalo far too many needless possessions.

Coaching is all about tailoring your schemes to the strengths of your players and attacking the weaknesses of your opponent. Temple’s coaches have failed miserably in those two most important areas in consecutive weeks. No matter how hard you work Sundays through Fridays, you are judged what you do on Saturdays and this Temple coaching staff is a complete and utter failure on the most important day of the week.

Unless something drastic changes, Temple is looking at a maybe two-win season coming off 27 wins in the past three years after losing two games in which it was a solid favorite. In one game, the Owls watched Villanova do the same damn things it did last year and showed zero adjustments. In another, the Owls stubbornly refused (or did not know how) to use a fullback leading a tailback to chew up clock and keep the ball away from a dangerous offense.

That’s about as bad a job as can be possibly done.

In fact, we’ve scoured the 127 FBS teams and haven’t found a worse coaching job after two games. The scary thing is that nobody will do a damn thing about it. That might not be Temple TUFF, but that’s tough for Temple players and fans who deserve better.

At least Taggart won his nightmare game last night. Temple fans have lived through a pair of nightmares and there’s a lot more tossing and turning ahead.

Tuesday: Fizzy Checks In With Buffalo Thoughts

Thursday: How Did We Go From AAC Champs To AAC Chumps in 2 years?

Saturday: Maryland Preview

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.07.18
by

Game Plan: No Wild Winging Against Buffalo

nitro

Hopefully, Nitro being named a game captain means he will be an every-down fullback which is just what the Temple offense needs right now.

Although both Villanova and Buffalo wear different shades of Blue and White, there is no doubt about one thing.

Buffalo is a better version of Villanova. Just because Buffalo is better than Nova, there is no reason for Temple to panic (3:30 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field, no over-the-air TV) against its former MAC rivals.

conditional

Fortunately, transitive property has been proven faulty on many occasions and matchups are more relevant than any other factor in college football.

In that area, Temple would seem to have the advantage.

The game will simply come down to this: Temple exploiting the one weakness Buffalo has demonstrated not only this year but over the past 13 games: Run defense. Against a very bad FCS team, Delaware State, the Bulls yielded 199 yards rushing. Villanova might be the Alabama of FCS football (although that is yet to be proven), but Delaware State is probably closer to the New Mexico State version of FCS football and the fact it could gain that many yards against a FBS team is alarming. Of the 127 FBS teams, Buffalo is ranked No. 95 against the run. Last year, the Bulls were even worse—ranked No. 96th (195.3 ypg) against the run in a 12-game season. This is probably not the game OC Dave Patenaude should have Frankie Nutile winging it all over the lot nor the kind of game he throws a couple of passes after getting first-and-goal at the 1 (like the Army game a year ago).

So if the Owls commit to the run behind a proven AAC championship tailback (Ryquell Armstead, 916 yards, 15 touchdowns in 2016)  following a fullback like they did in back-to-back 10-win seasons, they can accomplish two very important things:

  • Controlling the clock and the game, chewing up big chunks of yards and scoring touchdowns on the ground;
  • Keeping the ball away from the two NFL prospects on the Bulls, quarterback Tyree Jackson and wide receiver Anthony Johnson.

Jackson a very accurate 6-foot-7 passer and can see over a Temple pass rush that is already down one starting defensive end (Dana Levine, out 4-6 weeks with an injury). Levine’s subs got pushed around by the Villanova starting offensive line while the only heavy lifting at the defensive end position was being done by Quincy Roche at the other end. Too bad the Owls couldn’t recruit a guy who was named the No. 12-ranked DE in the United States when he got out of high school three years ago.

What’s that?


This will not be the easiest
game of the season, but
it will certainly be the
easiest game plan
of the remaining dozen or
so games left on the schedule.
In about 24 hours, we will
have a good idea if the highly
paid professionals running
the Temple program are able
to figure out what anyone
with a minimum football IQ can

 

They did?

Oh yeah, Karamo Dioubate is getting limited snaps in the interior of the line while walk-ons back up the other end. It would seem to be a simple move to slot Dioubate in his more comfortable position so as to help Roche create additional pressure.

A lot of things that appear logical to the casual observer about this Temple team were illogical the first week of the season.

Maybe naming fullback Rob Ritrovato one of the four game captains is a sign that the Owls are getting back to the Temple TUFF brand of running game Owl fans know and love. Maybe it’s just window dressing like calling Nick Sharga “the best fullback in the country” one year ago and limiting him only to five downs or less in the actual games.

This will not be the easiest game of the season, but it will certainly be the easiest game plan of the remaining dozen or so games left on the schedule. In about 24 hours, we will have a good idea if the highly paid professionals running the Temple program are able to figure out what anyone with a minimum football IQ can.

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.05.18
by

Impact of Villanova Loss

badolddays

The crowd won’t be this bad but it won’t be good on Saturday.

If it seems extra roomy in the stands on Saturday, it won’t be by accident.

Nothing chases away the fragile mostly soft-core Temple fan base faster than a home-opening loss and there’s nothing worse than losing to a hated rival by playing a brand of football Temple fans hate even more.

Geoff Collins’ coaching staff made their beds with a terrible game plan that eschewed the fullback and the running game in favor of a scatterbrained offensive approach that lacked any semblance of an identity. The bed is topped by a mattress of an even more traditional rival for Temple football than Villanova, Rutgers and Penn State put together:

Apathy.

weather

At least the weather should be OK.

Now they will have to sleep in it for the rest of the season.

Beating Penn State to open the 2015 season opened the gates for the largest single season of attendance in Temple history. One of the next home games, against Tulane, drew over 35,000 fans.

None of them were from Tulane.

Perhaps that was the largest single gathering of Temple fans in history other than the 55,000 who made the trip up the turnpike to see the Owls thrash California at Giants’ Stadium in 1979.


After a loss to Delaware,
Bruce Arians fired his
offensive coordinator and
called for a full-contact
6  a.m. Sunday practice
(less than 24 hours after
the game) on the cement
turf at Geasey Field.
The Owls got the message
and played well the
rest of that season.
Did you see Collins
do anything similar
this week? I didn’t think so

In 2016, losing at home in the opener against Army, the Owls struggled at the gate the rest of the year even though they were champions of a very good league. The fans suspected the team was going to be good that year but, after laying an egg in the home opener, the belief system never materialized. Army wasn’t even a hated foe so the disgust this time could be more impactful at the turnstiles.  There is plenty of hate against a school playing at a supposed lower level of football that intentionally sabotaged every advancement Temple athletics tried to make over the past 20 years. Still, the Army game had 35,004 mostly Temple fans who left muttering “same old Temple” and “I won’t be back” and, the next game, the Owls were lucky to have an announced 22,233 (which looked more like 10K).

Expect a similar non-turnout on Saturday (3:30) for Buffalo.

To lose is one thing, but to lose the way Temple did is another. Matt Rhule said it best after capturing the AAC title.

“For the first two years I was at Temple, I was talked into the spread and we didn’t win until I went with my gut which was Power I and run the football.  That’s what we did under Al (Golden). That’s what makes Temple TUFF. How do we differentiate ourselves? How do we make ourselves hard to prepare for? Put two backs on the field. Put two tight ends on the field. This is what your roots are. These kids have made themselves really tough. And that’s the only way Temple will ever win–by being a really, really tough football team and establishing that identity.”

Temple fans expect no less than that kind of football and they are getting a kind of Coastal Carolina soft from the current coaches they don’t like it one bit. It is time for the current CEO to put his foot down like the former CEO did and return to the Temple TUFF brand so perfectly described by Rhule above. If not, he’s lost the program already.

No doubt about it, losing to any FCS team is an embarrassment but TEMPLE … Temple … losing to Villanova is worse. Villanova has 30 less scholarship football players, pays its head coach 10 percent of what Temple does and has a practice facility worth $1.7 million (Temple built its practice facility for $10 million in 2001 and added a $7 million annex in 2010). How is it possible that Temple could have all of these advantages and lose to a school that lost to Elon and Rhode Island last year? Temple fans have to be asking just what are they paying for. Damn good questions with few answers. Shouldn’t Temple have been able to recruit the kinds of athletes who could just pound the rock down Villanova’s throats?

bickeringtwo

So attendance will be the first visible impact of this debacle.

“The season has been permanently tainted by the loss to Villanova,” one of our esteemed posters wrote. “They could go 11-1 and it would still be ruined by that loss.”

Truer words were never penned. If by some miracle, the Owls win the AAC and qualify for a NY6 bowl, do you see any NY6 bowl taking a team that lost to Villanova over the champs of the Mountain West or even the MAC?

I certainly don’t.

Another poster, a guy named John Whiteside, wrote this one Facebook: “After the disgrace last week, ask me to follow you next year. Best of luck saving this season. A disgusted alumni.”

Pretty much that sums up the feeling of a large portion of the Temple fan base and I don’t blame them one bit.

The next negative effect might be recruiting where several recruits have to be asking if this is the coaching staff they want to take them to the next level. A third could be the belief system among the current players, who have way more talent than Villanova but were coached into a loss.

You can love the kids to death and implement all the swag and money downs you want, but it is all a downright mockery if you can’t win on Saturdays. Forget the hash tags about filling the Linc, which seems downright silly in light of the Villanova loss that effectively emptied the Linc for the remainder of the season. Right now, some of these kids have to be wondering if a John Chaney-type 5 a.m. practice where the coach yells at them for two hours would be something they need more than swag. After a loss to Delaware, Bruce Arians fired his offensive coordinator and called for a full-contact 6  a.m. Sunday practice (less than 24 hours after the game) on the cement turf at Geasey Field. The Owls got the message and played well the rest of that season.

Did you see Collins do anything similar this week? I didn’t think so.

This thing has already gone pretty far south with one loss. Add a loss to Buffalo and the whole season can implode in a hurry. Everybody better buckle up the chin straps, forget the hashtags, swag and money downs and just play (and, more importantly, coach) fundamentally sound Temple Owl football.

Friday: Buffalo Preview

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.03.18
by

Fizzy’s Corner: Breaking Down A Bad Loss

Adventures in Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Land

 

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub is a former Temple player and later a coach and educator. His recaps are a staple during the season.

                                            By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Well, it’s the day after… and I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I am with the Temple coaching staff.  But first, kudos to the excellently coached Villanova team, and especially their offensive line, which kicked the crap out of our defense.

weinraub

Part of the reason their offensive line was so effective is that, once again, we didn’t adjust or do anything different than mostly stay in the basic four-man down line, that we always do.  Their traps and mis-direction plays consistently killed us. Our guys were always positioned exactly where Villanova knew they’d be.

As far as our offense is concerned, I could take any write-up I did last year, and plug it directly into yesterday’s game. The 2018 version of the 2017, junior high, “Broad-Street Offense,” was exactly the same. No mis-direction, no reverses, no bootlegs, no throw-backs to the QB, no halfback passes, and no screens. It was straight down Broad Street crap.

Oh yeah, I know you’ll say if Frankie didn’t throw the interceptions, we’d have won. Maybe so, but that’s not the problem. The coaching staff is the problem.  With all our talent, just the same old vanilla nonsense – never inventive plays to put the ball in the hands of our big play guys.  Let’s give just one lack of recognition on either side of the ball.

On defense, the giant Villanova left tackle (No. 73), would be the only protector when Nova would go strong right.  All we had to do to get to the QB, was put our defensive tackle head-up, and take an inside route.  Out linebacker to that side could then just loop around.  Didn’t our coaches see that?

On offense in the first quarter, Frankie handed off a sweep to Armstead and carried out the fake to the left side.  There was absolutely no Nova defenders on that side of the field.  So I figured they saw that upstairs, and would come back with a bootleg sometime soon.  Wrong!  The last true bootleg was when Joe Morelli ran it in 1960.

How about the lack of guts of the offensive coordinator.  In the beginning of the second quarter, we moved the ball out to our forty-two, where we had a third and three situation.  Of all the plays in all the gin joints in the world, we ran that deceptive Armstead up-the-gut for a one yard gain.  Now it’s fourth and two.  You know we punted the ball.

In the last quarter with another fourth and two, but at their thirty-something, again a chicken-out and a field goal try.  OMG, should we take a chance and see if we can ignite the offense and put the game out of reach?

Now we get to the timeouts at the end of the game.  With two minutes and thirty-two seconds left in the game, Nova has a third and ten around our forty.  I’m going nuts screaming timeout (we had two left), but it didn’t happen.  Collins let seventy (70) seconds run off before we got the ball back.  May I remind everyone, the offense can stop the clock whenever they want, but not the defense.  He then so muddled the timeout calls after that, I didn’t know what he did.

Well sports fans, this kind of muddled coaching is now into it’s second year.  I’m pissed beyond description.  I was going to hire an airplane to fly a trailer over the Eagles game on September 23, which read, “JEFF – LOWER TEMPLE RENT.”  It’s going to cost $1750, and I was going to ask everyone to contribute what they can.  Now, I don’t know.  Is anyone a shrink?  How do I get over this depression?  This coaching staff is stealing money on game day.

Wednesday: Ancillary Impact 

Friday: Buffalo Preview

09.02.18
by

TU Offense and Geoff Collins: Sockless

 

Someone needs to show this film to Geoff Collins

The routine practice here is not to post about a game until a full day has passed so as not to let emotion get in the way of calm and rational thinking.

It usually works.

Not this time.

performance

It’s one thing to put up ugly numbers against USF; it’s quite another to fail against a team that lost to Rhode Island and Elon … that’s right, Elon… last season

No matter how many hours pass, nothing will change what we witnessed on Saturday, an Epic Coaching Fail that will rank with some of the worst days of The Unholy Trinity of Temple head coaches (Jerry Berndt, Ron Dickerson and Bobby Wallace). Don’t blame offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude or defensive Andrew Thacker, either.

This one falls squarely at the sockless feet of Geoff Collins, who is the CEO of this football operation and the buck clearly stops on his desk. He certainly either does not know how to utilize the talents of his best tailback or simply refuses to do so. Rob Ritrovato can pick up where Nick Sharga left off and lead the way for a successful running game, which will be the key to opening everything else up.

Collins hired Patenaude to run an offense ill-suited to the personnel recruited by Matt Rhule, the previous coach. Rhule said that the Owls did not experience the kind of success he envisioned until he went with his instincts, which were power I with a fullback to clear the way for a running back, bring the safeties and linebackers up to the line of scrimmage, and use play-action fakes to pass over their heads. In that kind of offense, Temple wide receivers were so open that quarterback P.J. Walker often had a hard time choosing which one would be on the receiving ends of his passes. In this offense, nobody fears the run and, as a consequence, nobody gets open in the passing lanes.

Clearly, Patenaude stubbornly wants to force this square peg into a round hole and it’s not working nor probably ever will.

This is what we said in our preview two weeks ago:

tome

Yesterday, guess how many opportunities Ryquell Armstead—a downhill back recruited to run behind a fullback—got to run the ball behind a fullback?

Zero.

As in none.

Instead, Armstead got limited chances in an empty backfield and that’s a recipe for disaster.

Someone—maybe Ed Foley, maybe Adam DiMichele—who understands the meaning of Temple TUFF and how it applies to offensive football, should take the film at the top of this post into Collins’ office this week.

Defensively, this is what we wrote about the Villanova game plan on Aug. 8, meaning roughly that the Owls had one full month (really, nine full months) to get ready for this:

“Villanova is going to throw to the tight end—a lot—and going to try to throw crossing underneath patterns to backs coming out of the backfield” _ TFF, Aug. 8

What did Villanova do?

Throw the ball to the tight end a lot and also gained the majority of its 405 yards total offense on crossing patterns to the running backs.

Then there is the matter of defensive ends or lack of them. That stuck out like a sore thumb when the “above the line” depth chart was released a few days ago. It’s not that the Owls lack defensive ends, it’s just that they have two really good ones—Dan Archibong and Karamo Dioubate—playing on the interior of the line where they are already set with tackles Michael Dogbe and Freddy Booth-Lloyd.

nitro

Nitro, Temple Nation Turns its lonely eyes to you (but as an every-down fullback, not as a tailback).

The Owls got pressure from only one end, Quincy Roche, when they could have both Roche and Dioubate meeting at the quarterback on a regular basis. So to get to the quarterback, they had to blitz, which resulted in a game-winning touchdown on 4th and 9.

When you don’t have to blitz, you can move your other defensive resources elsewhere and stop some of that crossing pattern bleeding. Plenty of questions, very few answers, on that backbreaking play. The first is what idiot  forced a lefty quarterback to run to his left–and most comfortable–side, when the rush could have been set up to flush him to his right make the more difficult throw across his body? Could that have been none other than The Minister of Mayhem?

If that all of those errors weren’t grievous enough, Collins proved that he was very bad at math.

With Temple up, 17-13, with 6:52 left and a 4th and 2, he went for a field goal that was missed. Forget the fact that it was missed. Remember that, up four, a field goal does you absolutely no good because a Villanova touchdown wins the game either way because it sends a deflated Temple into overtime in a game the Owls knew they frittered away. Conversely, a Temple touchdown there probably wins the game. A FG missed or made does zero good. Simple math. People in the stands were saying that before the kick. If Joe Blow knows it, a guy who is paid $2 million per year to make those decisions should know it, too.

Steve Addazio

“At least I beat Nova 42-7 and 41-10”

Collins needs to get better in a whole lot of areas but going back to Temple TUFF power football with a fullback and a tailback would be a good place to start. If Patenaude doesn’t like it, he can go back to Coastal Carolina. We hear they like that brand of football there.

Rhule did not have success here until he had that kind of an Epiphany. Collins won’t until he does the same.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

Wednesday: Ancillary Impact of the Villanova Loss

Friday: Buffalo Preview

Sunday: Game Analysis

08.31.18
by

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

atlphoto

Move Archibong or Dioubate to DE and you’ve solved this problem.

For a program that prides itself on “position flexibility” it boggles the mind that one position in particular sticks out like a sore thumb on the “above the line” so-called depth chart:

Defensive end.

footballseason

The weird thing is that it doesn’t have to be this way and there is a fix right under the coach’s noses. You’ve got to wonder if they are so close to the trees they can’t see the forest.

Or vice-versa.

What’s that, you say? “Mike, the coaches are around these guys all the time. They know what they are doing.”

Err, you mean the same guys who said at this time last year that Nick Sharga was “the best fullback in the country” and did not use Nick Sharga as a fullback? Those guys? The same guys who thought Logan Marchi was the best quarterback on the team for the first seven games when every fan who watched the Army game would tell you Frank Nutile was 10x better? Those guys? Yeah, I thought so. Not buying the excuse by the Collins’ apologists that Sharga was “hurt” because the same guy led the nation in special teams’ tackles in 2017. You don’t lead the nation in special teams’ tackles by being a cripple.

But back to this year’s sore thumb problem, though.

The Owls have only one proven defensive end—last  year’s sack leader, Quincy Roche—but an overabundance of flexible above the line talent in the interior of the defensive line.

All they have to do is move an All-American defensive end (that’s right, defensive end)  in high school, Karamo Dioubate, to one end and the problem is solved. Dan Archibong, another outstanding tackle, can also play end. Meanwhile, Michael Dogbe and Freddy Booth-Lloyd are two of the better interior tackles in the American Athletic Conference. There simply just aren’t enough snaps to get all of those guys the reps they need inside but there is plenty of opportunity outside the tackles.

If I was Dioubate or Archibong, I’d walk into Geoff Collins’ office today and tell him I think I can help the team better by rushing the passer and stringing out running plays from sideline to sideline.

Meanwhile, I can’t believe the defensive coaches don’t see that for themselves.

If there is a subplot to watch in tomorrow’s opener against Villanova (noon, Lincoln Financial Field), it is finding out whether the coaches are as flexible in their thinking as they hope the players are in their positioning.

Putting players in the best position to win is the definition of good coaching. In less than 24 hours, we will find out a lot about both.

Sunday: Game Analysis

Tuesday: What We’ve Learned After Week One

Thursday: Buffalo Preview

 

08.29.18
by

Playing Villanova: Coach Hardin Had The Right Idea

dogsofwar

Temple appears to have the talent to put a hurting on Villanova

On or about the time Temple was flirting with the Top 10 in the 1979 season, a reporter once asked Wayne Hardin why the Owls were still playing teams like Delaware and Villanova.

“I believe in playing Delaware and Villanova and beating the crap out of them,” Hardin said.

It wasn’t very politically correct and probably didn’t play well with large groups of local fans, but it was his mantra and it was Temple-centric.

Usually, he did.

clouds

Hopefully, the shower part will be after 3 p.m.

It helped having a Mensa IQ of 159 that translated to outsmarting just about every coach he ever played, but having the talent advantage helped even more.

Hardin won seven of his last nine games against legendary Delaware coach Tubby Raymond—father of the first Phillie Phanatic—and beat Villanova, 42-10, that year on the Main Line.

I thought about coach Hardin when reading a large sentiment on social media of current Temple fans’ opinions on this series.

“We have nothing to gain and everything to lose by playing Villanova.”

“It’s a no-win situation.”

“If you win, meh, but, if you lose, it’s a disaster.”

Around and around that goes and where it stops defeatism knows.


Last year’s 16-13 game
was a complete disgrace
and hopefully put as bad
a taste in the players’
and coaches’ mouths as
it did with the Temple fans

 

Coach Hardin was right. Temple SHOULD be playing Villanova and Temple SHOULD be beating the crap out of them. First, even though Villanova has contributed only about 2-3,000 fans to the last three games (all over 30,000), the game does get Temple fans motivated to put down the remote and potato chips and get to a game in person. Temple should never be “scared” to play Villanova in football.

If you are scared get a dog.

Fortunately, head coach Geoff Collins—who is a little more politically correct than Hardin was—has the dogs of war to beat the crap out of this team.

Do you think Villanova basketball goes around worried about playing Temple?

No. Villanova basketball is, for all intents and purposes, a Power 5 team now playing Temple, a mid-major basketball name.

They just go out and beat the crap out of them.

The roles are reversed in football with Temple being the FBS school and Villanova a FCS school.

It is high time Temple football fans got the same level of satisfaction out of this meeting the Villanova basketball fans routinely get. They got that during Hardin’s years and during the two Daz years (42-7 and 41-10). Last year’s 16-13 game was a complete disgrace and hopefully put as bad a taste in the players’ and coaches’ mouths as it did with the fans.

Now it’s just a matter of restoring the normal order of things.

Friday: Seeing The Forest Through The Trees

Sunday: Game Analysis

08.27.18
by

Camp Phenoms: Russo, Mack, Jennings, Mason

russo

Sometimes camp phenoms work out and sometimes they don’t.

When I was a cub reporter covering the Philadelphia Phillies, they had a kid named Jeff Stone who was hitting line drives all over the place for the entire month of March.

Nice kid, but not the brightest bulb on the ceiling. After a 4-for-4 night at Clearwater, Stone looked up into a full moon and said:

“Look at that moon. Would that be the same moon we have back in Missouri?”

True story. The reporters cracked up.

Stone did not last long, but this group of Temple tough guys are smart enough to get admitted to Harvard on the Delaware (what my Sports in America professor Norm Kaner called Temple) so they should make an impact:

(Disclaimer: These are not the only so-called phenoms, but the ones who have had the most mention in preseason practice reports.)


“I cannot stress enough
how much better Anthony Russo
looks this preseason and how
well that reflects on the
entire offense.”
_ Shawn Pastor, Editor, OwlsDaily.com

Ty Mason, cornerback

The true freshman has been perhaps … perhaps .. the most impressive corner of the spring, breaking everything up coming his way but will be second team because Rock Ya-Sin earned a single-digit and has locked up one corner and Linwood Crump Jr. is one of the three fastest guys on the team and has the other corner down. Still, Mason’s play has head coach Geoff Collins gushing that “we have five corners who can start for a lot of teams in this league.”

Jeremy Jennings, running back

Jennings—currently behind Ryquell Armstead and Jager Gardner—is THE fastest guy on the team with a 4.3 40 and a legitimate home run threat. It’s interesting that he’s faster than Armstead, whose. 10.8 in the 100 meters in his senior year in high school was the fastest in New Jersey during his senior year down the shore. Injuries at that position could place Jennings, from Downingtown, in the spotlight sooner than expected.

Branden Mack, Cheltenham

Temple has an interesting history with Cheltenham players.  Sid Morse (who announcer Don Henderson pronounced the name as “Morris” for four years) was a great running back. He was perhaps the best of several great players the Panthers sent to North Broad Street. Now Mack, who has caught everything in sight this summer, moves to the top of the list. He’s forced his way into a rotation that includes Isaiah “Touchdown Waiting to Happen” Wright and Ventell Bryant. If he frees Wright up to play some more snaps at running back, the Owls are that much more of a dangerous team.

Anthony Russo, Quarterback

Shawn Pastor, editor of OwlsDaily.com, tweeted: “I cannot stress enough how much better Russo looks this preseason and how well that reflects on the entire offense.” Pastorini is almost always right and Russo’s improvement gives Temple an insurance policy and competition at the most important position on the field.

Wednesday: What They’re Saying About Nova

Friday: Seeing The Forest Through The Trees

Sunday: Game Analysis

08.24.18
by

Coalescing A Depth Chart

nohelmet

It’s hard to get a bunch of guys who played for Temple over different eras to agree on one thing.

There is a big tailgate hosted by arguably the greatest (or second) best linebacker in Temple history, Steve Conjar, and the big topic of the home opener a year ago was Geoff Collins’ abstract “Above The Line” Concept.

There were about 50 ex-Owls there.

No one liked it.

These guys disagree on a lot of things from politics to fashion to music but they all agreed on one thing.

junior

Should be starting against Villanova

Traditional depth charts were a good thing, not a bad one.

Another ex-Temple linebacker who was good enough to play for the Philadelphia Eagles, probably put it best.

“I was a walk-on,” he said. “Seeing my name third on the depth chart did nothing but motivate me to get better. This above the line thing is garbage.”

There are 127 teams that play FBS football and 126 of them have traditional depth charts with at least a projected first and second team. Temple is the only one with an “above the line” concept. It’s an abstract thing, like The Deep State, but Collins is stubbornly sticking with it for a second-straight season.

That makes it hard for us to follow the team closely to get a handle on important things like depth, but to coalesce a depth chart is an important exercise a week before the opener.

spouses

From interviews, we can tell you this much:

On offense, Frank Nutile will be the starter at quarterback and Anthony Russo is No. 2. Ryquell Armstead will be the tailback, followed by Jager Gardner. The starting wide receivers will be Isaiah Wright and Ventell Bryant with another veteran, Brodrick Yancy, getting a lot of playing time along with camp phenom Brandon Mack (Cheltenham).

The center is Rimington Watch List candidate Matt Henessey

According to offensive line coach Chris Wiesenhan, the other starters are LT Isaac Moore, LG Jovahn Fair, RG James McHale and RT Jaelin Robinson. Vince Picozzi, a starter at guard last year from Lansdale Catholic, is banged up but should play. Moore, a true freshman, is the surprise.

On defense, the line starters look like last year’s sack leader, Quincy Roche, with Dan Archibong at the other end and Michael Dogbe, Karaomo Diaboute and Freddy Booth-Lloyd in the middle.

The linebackers look like Shaun Bradley, Chapelle Russell and Todd Jones and the safeties are Rodney Williams (a transfer from Syracuse) and Delvon Randall, a potential first-round draft choice.

Lynwood Crump Jr. has nailed down one corner spot with a single-digit guy, Rock Ya-Sin, getting the other corner. Collins said the corners and safeties are “five deep each” with three guys at each spot who could start “for a lot of teams in this league.”

If he’s right, and he sees a lot more of the Owls than we do, this could be a ridiculously good team.

One of these days, though, we and a lot of ex-Owls, would like to see a true depth chart. If we see an nuclear-type spanking of Villanova, though, we’re fine with above the line for now.

My guess is that the rest of the ex-players who hated it a year ago almost to the day would probably grudgingly agree.

08.22.18
by

Collins: “I truly love this university”

collinslove

While Temple dodged a bullet in keeping its athletic director and receiving help in jettisoning the one arguably failed football coach of the last decade, the same cannot be said of the universities investing in Owl coaches not named Geoff Collins.

Collins got up at the season-ticket holder party exactly a week ago today and said “I truly love this university” and you had to hope that he finally was talking a little about Karma.

For no matter how much money Al Golden and Matt Rhule—who also professed love for the university—made from their Temple experiences elsewhere, you’ve got to wonder if they are truly happy now.

The ironic thing is that both knew they were headed into sanctions at Miami (Fla.) and Baylor, but took those jobs anyway when they probably could have parked themselves a year or two more at Temple and received better ones down the road. Worse yet, the sanctions when they signed on the dotted line turned out to be worse when they got at their new homes.

nitro

Hopefully, Collins has been taking mental notes.

It looks right now that Rhule might never win on the Art Briles’ level at Baylor and Golden, stuck as the tight ends coach with the lowly Detroit Lions, can only talk so much about the intricacies of seal blocking and pass catching before being bored to tears.

Tears not of happiness, either.

If anything those two guys proved, it is that you can win football games at Temple and $2 million-per-year for that kind of happiness might beat the uncertainty of double that losing elsewhere. If Collins does leave, Temple could do a whole lot worse than Golden (probably available) or Rhule (probably not) replacing him. For what it’s worth, I think Collins was sincere when he said “I truly love this university” on Wednesday.

An ancillary benefit for Temple is that these Power 5 schools might think twice before coming after a winning coach here. At least that’s the thought.

Whatever it is, Temple’s kids deserve the kind of loyalty of a head coach who does not have one eye on the exit door. What Collins said a week ago today gives us hope he  grasps what others preceding him have not.

Friday: Coalescing A Depth Chart

Monday: Summer Phenoms

Wednesday (8/29): Neighborhood’s Fastest Humans

Friday (8/31): Villanova Preview

Sunday (9/2): Game Review