Category Archives: AAC football

07.20.25
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This week: The AAC Discovers Keeler’s Plan

Plenty of “money quotes” in the above short six-minute interview where the AAC sent a media person into the Temple film room to interview K.C. Keeler.

To me, the big takeaway was that Keeler was so unlike his predecessor, Stan Drayton, that any objective observer has got to assume that the record is going to reflect that.

Drayton spent three years of spinning his wheels in the mud at Temple, going for the trifecta with the same record that got his predecessor, Rod Carey, fired: 3-9. Drayton never figured out a way push the bus out of the mud and get it moving forward.

I have that exact black jacket but it’s a pullover and not a full zipper. Would be sweet to find a full zipper in adult extra large.

Keeler spent six minutes detailing how he is going to put some straps around those Temple tires and have his new strength coach and big hogs up front pull this spinning vehicle out of the mud.

It’s sounds like a pretty good plan.

It’s a week of discovery for Temple football, not so much for the people inside the $17 million Edberg-Olson facility but for the AAC and maybe college football in general because they are going to hear Keeler’s plan to revive everything inside the building and at Lincoln Financial Field.

That’s because media day is in Charlotte on July 24th-25 and a lot of what Keeler said in the above interview will be on full display those two days. ESPN will cover the second day session but, by then, it should become apparent that Keeler’s approach is different than Drayton’s.

In the above interview, Keeler says that “we’re not going to be the kind of team on 4th and 1 where we’re going to bring five receivers in. We’re going to run the football.” Yet bringing five wide receivers in is what Drayton did on 3d and 1 at the 50-yard line in Year Two of his regime, throwing a pass with a lead against visiting ECU that turned out to be incomplete with 1:46 left in the game. He was forced to punt on fourth down and never saw the ball again in a 46-42 loss.

That wasn’t even Keeler’s best money quote of the week.

The money quote came not from the above interview but from Shawn Pastor’s excellent five-part series about Keeler, which just concluded on Sunday. (We recommend you subscribe to OwlsDaily.com to read all five parts. It’s well the few bucks a month it takes to subscribe.)

Here’s the Keeler Money quote:

“I didn’t come from Michigan. I came from Sam Houston, where we had very limited resources. So I see life a little bit different. I see this isn’t half-full here. This is overflowing in my mind. I think this is a gold mine.”

Compare that to what Drayton said on Nov. 10 on the same site after a 53-6 loss to Tulane: “Tulane has made the commitment to bring good players into the program. There’s definitely a gap there if we don’t catch up, no question about it. We have to level up.”

Two Temple coaches. Two very different opinions to what resources they have/had at their disposal.

One made Chicken Shit out of Chicken Salad.

The other is trying to make a Chicken Parmesan dinner, complete with Spaghetti and meatballs on the side out of the same base ingredients. He knows what he needs to put in the pot, even though his proven recipe is largely a secret. He’ll outline what the dinner will be this week, but not give away any KFC (or KCK) secret recipes.

When he gets back from Charlotte, he will be in the kitchen working on the first course to be served Aug. 30.

My educated guess is that it won’t taste like the same chicken bleep we fans have been eating as our post-game meal for the last four years.

Friday: Media Day Reactions

Monday: Biggest Turnarounds

07.24.23
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2023 Temple Owls: Not a perfect 10 (yet)

There’s a post on social media circulating about a daytime talk show host named Ana Navarro and people are falling into a couple of separate camps.

Evidently she dropped a few pounds recently and almost all of the comments from the women are: “She looks fabulous” or “gorgeous” or “stunning” or “beautiful.”

That’s one team. Team Women.

Team Men are not seeing it. Almost all of the comments from the guys are a little more objective.

Lost a few pounds, yes. Gorgeous, no. Nothing mean, just calling balls and strikes and she is high and outside the box.

Ironically, there are women on that same daytime show who could be objectively considered fabulous, stunning, gorgeous and beautiful and Sunny Hostin, Sarah Haines and Alyssa Farrah-Griffin would certainly fall into that category. Definitely strikes as in striking.

Closer to 10 than six.

Navarro most definitely not.

Closer to a four than a 10.

Depends on which team you support, I guess.

There are certain Temple fans who look at this 2023 version of the Owls through Cherry-colored glasses and see the Owls as a 10.

You could count me in that group after the end of last season when I saw real momentum and thought if the Owls just added a big-time running back via the portal they could be beautiful this year.

They did not and, if they struggle in the running game like they did a year ago, it has a trickle-down effect on the rest of the team. Clock isn’t eaten. The defense stays on the field more than it should. Wins are harder to come by.

That’s why stepping back and taking off the Cherry-and-White colored glasses is important when breaking down the coming season game-by-game.

I think the Owls are closer to a six than a 10.

Here is my game-by-game prediction for the Owls. My fervent hope is that Temple wins every game I pick them to win and adds at least a couple more.

Temple 33, Akron 29 _ Like a lot of these games you will see below, Temple can just as easily lose this game as it can win it. Joe Moorhead has beaten Temple before and he can again. His offense will give Everett Withers fits but Akron had one of the worst defenses in the FBS and the edge in this game goes to Temple’s far superior quarterback, E.J. Warner, and some Power 5 level receivers in Amad Anderson (Purdue transfer), Dante Wright (FBS freshman of the year in 2019), Zae Baines, and true freshman Richard Dandridge. Plus, don’t sleep on Temple’s real strength this season, the TE combo of Jordan Smith and David Martin-Robinson.

The Temple part of media day will air on ESPN+ Tuesday at 10:15 a.m.

Temple 21, Rutgers 17 _ Going with the upset in this one simply because as explosive as Temple’s offense looked in the last six games of the season, someone diffused the RU offense that finished with a 37-0 loss at Maryland (a team Temple beat in consecutive seasons as recently as 2019).

Temple 44, Norfolk State 14 _ Norfolk State lost to Marshall 55-3 last season. Temple won’t duplicate that but it will be a thrashing nonetheless.

Miami 35, Temple 21 _ If Miami plays the way it did in a 44-27 home loss to Middle Tennessee, Temple can win this game but if the Hurricanes play the way they played in their five wins, this could get away from Temple really quick.

Temple 29, Tulsa 27 _ One of the more disappointing losses of the Temple season from my point of view was last year’s 29-16 one at the Linc to Tulsa. The Owls were able to take Navy into overtime and that was the same Navy team that hammered Tulsa, 59-27. Owls get revenge on the road this season. Gotta think games against Washington and Oklahoma will take a physical toll on Tulsa, who are under a first-year head coach (former Indiana HC Kevin Wilson).

USTA 35, Temple 33 _ Temple’s biggest game of the season will be Homecoming. Last year, the Owls sent a large crowd home heartbroken with a 16-14 loss to Rutgers. This one is shaping up as the same way. Don’t like the matchup between future NFL quarterback Frank Walker and Everett Withers’ defense.

North Texas 34, Temple 31 _ Probably asking Temple to win this game on the road is a stretch but if the Owls fall to, say, RU, they need to make up for it with a later win and this qualifies.

SMU 41, Temple 35 _ SMU has been ahead of the Owls since Rod Carey stepped on campus and Drayton has made strides but probably not enough.

Temple 17, Navy 14 _ Navy fired one of the best coaches in college football, Ken Niumatalolo, and will pay for it with a one- or two-win season. The Owls won’t be one of those wins.

Temple 31, USF 30 _ Temple beat this team 54-28 last season. It will be a lot closer under a new coach.

UAB 32, Temple 24 _ UAB has been one of the best stories in college football, dropping the sport in 2014 only to come back and win three championships. New coach Trent Dilfer hit the portal hard.

Memphis 36, Temple 35 _ Temple has won the last two games in Philadelphia but don’t trust the Owls’ defense in this one.

It’s not a perfect 10, but it’s not the ugly three we’ve seen for the last couple of years so there is some beauty in that.

Friday: Thoughts On Media Day

05.26.23
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Mike Aresco: The AAC’s Don Quixote

A rare color photo of Temple Stadium, a place that existed from 1928-2004. Have to wonder where Temple would be now if the campus was moved to the border of Cheltenham and Philadelphia, as was the original thought when the stadium was built. Temple could have upgraded it and 12,500 students living there could have made it a real home-field advantage.

Like him or not, you cannot accuse American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco of being lackadaisical.

As recently as two weeks ago, Aresco penned an open letter complaining about how the league has been treated by “the media” in not getting a Power 5 designation.

It is a familiar theme for Aresco and unfortunately will fall on deaf ears.

The problem is, like Don Quixote, the hero in a satirical novel by Cervantes, Aresco is tilting at windmills. To some, Quixote represents the idea of a person pursuing a goal that might be foolish or unattainable in the eyes of others but the quest matters to them.

That’s pretty much where the AAC is today.

Temple made several institutional missteps along the way to find itself in limbo with the other top G5 schools when it had a chance to be promoted. Maybe it goes all the way back to 1928. When I asked the late Doc Chodoff more than a decade ago why Temple built a field on Cheltenham Ave. instead of the main campus, he said the plan back then was to move the campus there so that’s where it made the most sense to get ahead of the game and build a campus around a stadium. Back in the 30s, the seating capacity was 40,000 and already having a stadium the university could have easily made upgrades. In the 1950s, the capacity was downgraded to 20,017.

Moving from largely a commuter school to 12,500 students living on campus, a stadium already existing in that environment could have probably been enough to position Temple for inclusion into the Power 5. Keeping Bruce Arians as head coach probably would have also helped move the ball forward. Instead, the school fumbled with bad coaching hires that started with Jerry Berndt and hopefully ended with Rod Carey.

Charles G. Erny (hat) and two others take a look at the “brand new” Temple Stadium in 1928. Erny contributed $350,000 to build the stadium and the Temple baseball team played on the adjacent Erny Field for decades. Perhaps Erny is pointing to North Philly and telling the men that’s where the school will house its students temporarily. (Photos courtesy Temple Libraries)

Water under the bridge for Temple now and so to it is for the AAC.

The “media” isn’t responsible for the Power 5 designation but the NCAA is for allowing the five largest conferences to hijack whatever governing it had over not only football but for the two major sports. The NCAA probably feels it has no other choice but to cede power to those leagues because it might fear they will break away to form their own organization.

Maybe they should let them go because a lot of the good that the NCAA provided was a tight reign on institutions that play fast and loose with the rules in order to get ahead.

Now it’s the Wild Wild West and there is no James West or Artemas Gordon to police the bad guys.

The bad guys certainly are not the media who just report on the reality of the situation.

The reality is that the “bad guys” are in control and no number of good guys or good arguments by the good guys seem to matter.

The system in place now rewards the “haves” with more riches and subjugated the “have-nots” with even less than they already had. The G5 didn’t start out to be a farm system for the P5 but with the NIL and the transfer portal, that’s what it has become.

The victim has been fairness and an eroding of confidence by fans of G5 schools that their teams can ever get a shot at upward mobility.

Nobody on the governmental level seems to be in a hurry to restore it. All Aresco can do in 2023 is, like Quixote in 1605, tilt at windmills.

Monday: The New Arrivals

07.28.22
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AAC Media Day: Temple Between the Lines

The question is always asked on these media days to coaches about expectations and the answer, at least for the last two Temple head football coaches has always been something like this:

“We won’t set a number on wins and losses we just want to play the best we can.”

Temple’s Stan Drayton broke from that mundane view on Thursday when he said “we have set expectations and we expect to meet them” in terms of wins and losses in separate interviews with members of the media (not shown in the above video).

Guess what?

Reading between the lines, just four wins is not acceptable to this coaching staff and that has been transmitted to the players.

What is?

Certainly a dozen would be but we get the distinct feeling from the way Drayton talks that a losing first season is not on his radar.

Nor should it be.

Those who don’t set goals never reach them and the last two coaches, Rod Carey and Geoff Collins, wanted just to “play well.”

That doesn’t cut it.

In Adam Klein, Victor Stoffel and Isaac Moore, the Owls have at least the foundation of a terrific offensive line and that was communicated to the media on Thursday.

What was surprising, though, was Drayton’s assertion that the DEFENSIVE LINE–considered coming into the season as the biggest question mark–was his biggest exclamation point:

That is surprising in the sense that the returning personnel didn’t get enough pressure on the quarterback last season (only 15 sacks for 104 yards of losses) but not so because new line coach Antoine Smith led Colorado State’s defensive line to a top 10 sackmeister rate last season AND Temple’s most talented defensive lineman, Xach Gill, did not play a year ago. Now he’s not only playing but becoming a leader of the returning guys.

The best way to win in football is protecting your quarterback and putting the bad guy’s quarterback on his ass. Games are won in the trenches and that’s exactly where the Owls plan to win at least six and maybe more this season.

Temple seems to have progressed a long way in both of those areas.

How far?

Nobody knows but Drayton already has set the bar and it ain’t low. That has to be good news for every Temple football fan.

Monday: Something no one has seen in 30 years

07.22.22
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AAC Media Day: The Veneer is Off

Mike Aresco at least year’s AAC Media Day.

About five years ago, The Question was always answered one way:

What is the AAC all about?

Mike Aresco, the very well-paid commissioner of the league (exactly $2,246,027.00 cents per year), would always answer that the league felt it belonged as a Power conference and would accept no less than a Power 6 designation.

Now the veneer is off.

Arguably before now because the departure of cornerstone members Houston, UCF, and Cincy was known last year.

Now just about everyone knows that the AAC Media Day–which will be held on July 28–will take on another brave face: That Rice, UAB, FAU are all valuable additions and that the league will sustain one way or another.

No doubt, it will, but key members like Memphis and Temple want out and Aresco cannot claim otherwise in good faith.

The only way Memphis–which lost to quite possibly the worst Temple team in the last decade last year–and Temple (which most people would concede made a positive move jettisoning Rod Carey) stay is that they have no place to go.

That might be the truth but the larger truth is that this year the AAC is at its most vulnerable state since it was created in the ashes of the old Big East.

Memphis is renovating its stadium to the tune of $200 million (more than Temple said it would cost to build a new one) and that probably is not because it wants to remain in the AAC.

Temple’s media market (No. 4) is the only top five media market that does not have a Power 5 team within its footprint so, for that reason alone, a lot of eyes will be on the Owls and the way they bounce back from 1-6 and 3-9 seasons

Aresco can’t say that Temple or Memphis or really anyone else is committed to this league for a long time.

That said, it should be interesting how he walks on the eggshells that will no doubt be on the floor in less than a week. Repeating the same line he has in past media days threatens not only his credibility but the leagues.

Monday: There are two ways of looking at it

09.18.20
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5 Ways This Season Won’t be The Same

Road closures for tailgating around the Linc this year

In another bit of what this space believes is governmental overreach, the City of Philadelphia announced Wednesday that four streets will be blocked off on Eagles’ Game Day so that fans cannot tailgate around Lincoln Financial Field.

No announcement was made about Temple, but they probably don’t feel the need to do so when it comes to the Owls. In other words, don’t expect to tailgate.

For a couple of weeks I was thinking about how this season will be different from all the rest and came up with five (out of about 100) off the top of my head:

5. Above-mentioned tailgating

All over in the first couple weeks of the season, we’ve seen places where people have been allowed at the games. Mostly, there’s been spacing with appropriate mask-wearing. The few shots of tailgating we’ve seen have shown the same. Not in Philadelphia, though. There won’t be fans or tailgating in Philadelphia this fall. Sad, because what worked at grocery stores and gas stations–appropriate social distancing and masks–can work at games and pre-games as well. Maybe next year.

4. Interesting non-conference matchups

So rare almost to be non-existent, a nugget will show up on the screen this weekend–UCF at Georgia Tech. Almost all of the conferences will be like the Big 10 this season, games almost exclusively against conference opponents. It’s a shame because I think Temple would have put a huge beatdown on Rutgers and the Owls even opened at a 12.5-point favorite on VegasInsiders.com this week (don’t know why VegasInsiders even listed the game because it’s non-existent) but the UCF at Georgia Tech probably will be one of the five best non-conference games this year. UCF is an 8.5-point favorite, but I would stay away from this game due to 10 UCF players opting out and uncertainty over whether GT’s win at FSU was due to GT being impressive or Mike Norvell facing unique first-year challenges.

3. Power 5 Dominance of Playoffs

The Power 5 might grab its usual four spots in the Final Four but, if there is one year the G5 can break through, it’s this one. How so? Say, UCF wins at Georgia Tech, goes unbeaten, and GT finishes no worse than second to Clemson in the ACC. It would be hard to deny Central Florida under that scenario, particularly if there are only two other unbeaten teams. Still, would prefer Temple to go unbeaten and UCF have that one loss but, if the Owls aren’t the team, Owl fans certainly would root for UCF in that scenario. Sadly, since the Owls did not seek out a P5 opponent (Pitt?) due to city practice restrictions, there is virtually no chance an unbeaten Temple team makes the playoffs.

2. Tuneups

In the early part of September, P5 teams like to schedule so-called cupcake games for tuneups prior to the conference season. The Big 12 thought it had three against the Sun Belt when Kansas hosted Coastal Carolina, Kansas State hosted Arkansas State and Iowa State hosted Louisiana. Those turned out to be tuneups for the Sun Belt, which now at least has a compelling argument it is the best G5 conference. At least this year.

  1. Stats

Asterisks in sports are always annoying but this will be the year of the asterisk. With eight games, it’s going to be hard to get a 1,000-yard rusher or a 20-touchdown passer. Doubtful any team season records will be broken this year. Say, though, with eight games instead of 12, Anthony Russo throws for more than 21 touchdown passes and fewer than the 11 interceptions he threw last year. That’s a pretty impressive accomplishment. Harder, though, for Ray Davis to hit 1,000 yards in eight games if he could get 900 yards last year in a dozen. Still think he can do it but the bar gets higher. To me, Babe Ruth’s 60 homers in a 154-game season will always be more impressive than Roger Maris’ 61 in 162 games and that’s the prism we will view these 2020 football stats as well.

Monday: All Systems Go

09.10.20
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Everybody plays before Temple

As I write this, I’m watching the UAB Blazers taking on the Miami Hurricanes in a college football game and shaking my head in the process.

You remember the ‘Canes. That was supposed to be Temple’s opener five days ago. That game was scrapped as the ACC decided to postpone the opening of the season.

Rumors were a month ago that Temple and Pitt tentatively agreed to play a game this weekend but that was also tabled because of the City of Philadelphia’s practice restrictions on Temple.


Imagine all of the
Penn State players
and fans sitting
home watching TU-Pitt

 

That’s the same city that placed no such practice restrictions on the other Lincoln Financial Field tenant, the Eagles, who are playing this weekend. COVID-19 must be much worse in North Philadelphia than South Philly. There really has not been a satisfactory answer to the question why the Eagles get different treatment from the city than the Owls in the area of practice restrictions. Pittsburgh, a city in the same state, placed no such restrictions on the Panthers.

The last time the Owls opened in October did not turn out well.

UAB’s athletic director is Mark Ingram, who was rumored to be a leading candidate for the Temple job before Fran Dunphy was chosen as a stop-gap measure. It seems to me that Ingram, who is familiar with Temple having been here before, would have been able to navigate the dilemma facing the Owls and facilitated a temporary practice move to Ambler so the Owls could get ready for Pitt.

Dunphy probably doesn’t think outside the box like that.

That game would have been a terrific middle finger to a rival of both teams, Penn State. Imagine all of the Penn State players and fans sitting at home watching Temple and Pitt play. That would have been sweet. It would have been, in my mind, a terrific game, with former Temple commit Kenny Pickett battling Anthony Russo in nice quarterback battle.

Another missed opportunity by the Temple administration.

Now with the Navy game moved to October every single AAC team will have played before the Owls. The record will show that the first fumble of the season will have come not in the Navy game, but in the AD’s office at the Star Complex, 15th and Montgomery.

Whether the Owls will recover is a question yet to be answered but the last time they started a season in October it didn’t turn out well for the Cherry and White. They finished 0-8.

Let’s all pray similar circumstances lead to opposite results this season but from where I sit, watching UAB and Miami and wondering why Temple isn’t playing, does not give me the warm and fuzzies.

Monday: Checkers and Chess

08.31.20
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Temple starting defensive projections

They said it couldn’t be done, but we have college football in 2020

We’re getting thisclose … thisclose … to a real football season judging my the weather patterns.

Almost always the weather moves from West to East and, if the Austin Peay football game over the weekend was an indication, it’s going to be raining footballs at Navy on Sept. 26.

Austin Peay made sure the guy who wrote this has egg on his face this morning

The players there proved you can play a fun game and it can still be fun and the fans there showed that, if you can wear a mask and do high fives six feet apart, you don’t have to sacrifice a season. Look at it this way: If you can wear a mask and shop for groceries, you can wear a mask and go to a football game.

Gasparilla Bowl defensive MVP William Kwenkeu (35) had two sacks in the win over FIU in 2017.

So I’m feeling better for the Temple football Owls today. If the city allows the Owls the same rights the other birds in town, the Eagles, have, then Temple should be ready for a football season. If not, as Al Golden said in the past, all the Owls need is to-find a 100-yard patch and the will be ready. Owls have two of those at Ambler.

What we do know is that this team is in relatively good shape on offense.

Defense is going to be a little more challenging. The Owls have to replace their best pass rusher, Quincy Roche, who pulled a Benedict Arnold and transferred to Miami. The coaches did their best to replace him, grabbing a P5 transfer in Manny Walker, but he would have to be awfully impressive to replace the AAC defensive player of the year. He should line up where Roche did. It’s up to him to match the production.

Owls held their preseason camp at The Cherry Hill Inn (1974 here) and finished 8-2, proving all you need to get ready is a field, goal posts and permission to hit.

Our defensive starting projections:

DE: Manny Walker (6-4,250) and Layton Jordan (6-2, 210); DT: Dan Archibong (6-6, 300) and Ifeanyi Maijeh (6-2, 285); LBs: Isaiah Graham-Mobley (6-2, 225), Audley Isaacs (6-1, 227) and William Kwenkeu (6-1, 230); S: Amir Tyler (6-0, 195) and DaeSean Winston (6-2, 200); CBs: Christian Braswell (5-10, 178) and Linwood Crump Jr (6-0, 175). For the mathematically challenged (and we had one of those last week), that’s two DEs, two DTs=4; plus 3LBS=7; two safeties=9 and two corners=11.

First impressions: That’s a lot of inexperience to create an edge rush but the Owls also have another defensive end, Arnold Ebiketie, who was a healthy part of the end rotation last year and could challenge for a starting spot if one of those falter. Pretty good depth at the corner position as Ty Mason and Freddie Johnson both have AAC starts under their belts behind the even more experienced duo of Crump and Braswell. Both Mason (Tulsa) and Braswell (UConn) have pick 6s on their resumes. Safety Amir Tyler is a solid single-digit player and Kwenkeu was the defensive MVP of the Gasparilla Bowl win way back in 2017. IGM might be the best NFL prospect on the team, even though Dan Archibong is a solid DT and fellow DT Maijeh is a returning AAC first-teamer.

Second impressions: Depth is better in years past because of people like Mason, Johnson and tackles Kevin Robertson and Khris Banks. George Reid, from Abington High (thanks, Rob Krause!), has had plenty of playing time at safety and outside linebacker and M.J. Griffin is a prized recruit ready to come into his own at safety.

Now it’s just a matter of getting these guys on the field against a real opponent. If Austin Peay can get it done, so should Temple.

Friday: Special Teams

Monday: Do You Ever Get The Feeling?

08.21.20
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Possible replacements: CUSA, Sun Belt

Mike Aresco says the AAC is committed to a 12-game schedule.

The commissioner’s member schools do not seem as sure. Temple interim athletic director Fran Dunphy was quoted as saying by OwlsDaily.com that the school is more likely to add “one or two” rather than “three or four” non-conference opponents.

That said, Dunphy also noted that he is pretty much leaving this up to his director of football operations so there is some hope of movement behind the scenes to get the Owls replacement games.

FBS schedules.com lists “TBA” for several dates on the Temple schedule and those include the opening weekend of 9/5 and subsequent September dates of the 12th and the 19.

I say go for it. If other AAC schools get 12 games, then the Owls should go for that standard, too.

Right now, it doesn’t look likely that Army will be one of the opponents as the Black Knights have already filled the same exact open dates Temple has with Middle Tennessee State (9/5), Louisiana Monroe (9/12), BYU (9/19), Abilene-Christian (10/3) and Mercer (10/10).

Still, the Owls should take a page out of the Army playbook (not the triple option) and find replacement schools in both the Sun Belt and Conference USA. Both of those leagues–unlike the ACC and SEC for example–are committed to a 12-game schedule and the departure of the Mountain West and MAC in particular and, to a lesser extent, the Big 10 and PAC-12, have made it difficult for member schools to find a game.

Temple is available and should reach out to those schools with open dates. Right now, there are multiple foes available for the Owls to choose from but they need to get on the stick and announce those replacements before it’s too late.

Every other AAC school is scrambling and he who hesitates will be lost.

Let’s hope the Owls can add more than one or two or the rust of not playing an actual foe won’t help in the current opener against Navy.

Monday: The Math Gets Easier For Anthony Russo

Friday: Projected Offensive Starters

Monday (8/31): Projected Defensive Starters

07.03.20
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We’re No. 6!!!! (Or Not)

athlon

I’ll put my money down on this when I see Temple on the cover.

This is usually about the time I walk down the aisles of my local Giant and Weis Markets peruse the covers of the various college football guides.

Flipping about a third of the way through for most of them is where you come to the sections on AAC.

Most of them have the Temple football Owls, a successful program for over a decade by G5 standards, ranked No. 6 in the toughest G5 conference.

I’m not buying it. (Not just the magazine but the premise.)

IF … and that’s indeed an IF there is a next season with the current uptick in the health scare, Temple will not be No. 6. The Owls might not be No. 1 but I would put money on them being closer to No. 1 than No. 6 and that’s based on an objective look at the talent on the roster.

The reason is simple.

joke

I’ve seen the Owls ranked as high as No. 4 (Underdog Dynasty) to as low as No. 8 here (The Breakdown). Most of the major magazines have the Owls at No. 6 in the AAC.

The Owls have an outstanding offensive line, a first-team freshman All-American running back in Ray Davis and two great … and I’m NOT using hyperbole when I write this … wide receivers in Branden Mack and Jadan Blue. The stats are there for all to see. Blue not only led the Owls in catches (95), but he ranks No. 1 among all Owls of all time in that category in a single season. That covers a lot of ground, both figuratively and literally, considering Leslie Shephard and Steve Watson were outstanding receivers in the NFL. Despite that, Mack–a complementary 6-5 receiver to Blue’s 6-1–caught more touchdown passes (7-4).

Quarterback Anthony Russo is on target to break all but two of P.J. Walker’s Temple career records (yards and touchdown passes). IF he makes the same kind of improvement from junior year to senior (14 touchdowns, 14 interceptions to 21-12), he has an outside shot at collecting all of the records. How outstanding would that be? P.J. played four years; Anthony only three.

The returning interior defensive line is really good, led by Dan Archibong and Ifeanyi Maijeh. Some transfers and recruits have bolstered the interior wall so moving Archibong out to his original position (end) should be an option to help with the outside rush.

The Owls have one linebacker returning who was a bowl game MVP (William Kwenkeu) and another (Isaiah Graham-Mobley) who just might be a better NFL prospect than Eagles’ No. 5 pick Shaun Bradley. He was certainly on par with Bradley until he got injured halfway through the 2019 season.

Corners Christian Braswell, Ty Mason, and Linwood Crump Jr. are back and have had plenty of experience. Two (Braswell and Mason) have pick 6s in AAC games. Amir Tyler is a pretty good safety.

Plus, in head coach Rod Carey‘s seven years as head coach (six at NIU), he has never won fewer than eight games. He’s been able to plug enough holes and identify them to sustain excellence.

This is not a sixth-place team. It may not be the first-place one, either, as Cincinnati and UCF have more talent on paper, but it is one with a perception problem on the national scale fueled by a couple of dud bowl games.

Right now, perception is everything until the Owls have a chance to get on the field and prove the magazines wrong. Let’s hope they have a chance to do so.

Monday: That’s What I’m Talking About Willis

Saturday (7/11): You can’t really go home again

Monday (7/13): An idea that makes too much sense

Friday (7/18): Best of TFF (our annual one-week vacation begins)