Category Archives: ACC

03.02.13
by

Conference shifting puts Temple in no Jeopardy

Temple was the answer to a Jeopardy question last night.

In honor of Temple being the answer to a trivia question yesterday on Jeopardy, we have a question:
“What does all of this conference shifting mean to Temple?”
“What is everything and nothing, Alex?”
Alex would have said that is correct.
First, yesterday’s question, which appeared under the category of “Texas Towns” and a contestant got right.
“1-95 goes through it; it’s a university in Pennsylvania or a synagogue?”
“What is Temple?”

Cliff: “Alex, I object, I-95 doesn’t technically run through Temple.”

Alex: “Correct.”
I would have pulled a Cliff Clavin since the I-95 part of the question threw me off.
Back to the conference shifting, though.
There’s so much landscape shifting out there that the average Temple fan’s head has to be spinning like Linda Blair in the Exorcist.
What does this really mean for Temple football?
Everything and nothing is the correct answer.
Everything because Thursday, March 7, is the one-year anniversary of the date the news broke that Temple was joining the Big East.
The conference Temple signed up for then certainly isn’t the one it signed up for now.
At the time, visions of a packed Liacouras Center for games against Georgetown, Pitt, Villanova and Rutgers had to dance through the heads of the Board of Trustees.
Those visions are now gone.

Temple fans have to get in the mindset of going to watch Temple, not the bad guys

Nothing because if Temple sports people keep doing their jobs and Temple fans do their jobs, Temple will end up in a better place.
Temple football certainly IS in a better place than the Purgatory that was the MAC, sentenced to years playing Tuesday and Wednesday night games against directional mid-western schools having little or nothing in common with Temple.
Now, at least, there is the familiarity of Cincinnati and UConn and, for a year, Rutgers.
There are exciting road trips ahead to be made to places like New Orleans, Tampa and Dallas ahead, a far cry from the puddle jumpers and buses needed to get to places like Yipsilanti and Oxford.
Temple has a nationally known basketball coach who is admired and respected by his peers, if not a small but vocal group of his team’s own fans, and who just posted his sixth-straight 20-win season.
Temple has an energetic young football coach who is following a successful business model established by Al Golden, his mentor.
Temple fans have to get in the mindset of going to watch Temple, not the bad guys. When Penn or Belmont come to Cameron Indoor Stadium, do Duke fans whine “get some decent opponents in here” or do they say thank God for another chance to see the Blue Devils?
Advertising to a Temple-centric audience certainly helps.
Today should be a good crowd because the last time we streamed an ad for Hooter’s Birthday across the top of this website, 9,323 fans attended an end-of-the-season game against Duquesne in 2011.
That’s what Temple fans have to do for the product these outstanding coaches provide.
If those guys keep doing work, and the fans start voting with their feet and season-ticket money, Temple will be a respected player on the national stage and there is always a nice role for an actor like that.
For final Jeopardy the category is NCAA business:
“Is the conference shifting done?
“What is no, Alex?”

10.25.12
by

Throwback Thursday: TU beats No. 4-ranked Pitt

… Breaking News: Hawaii players are posting on their Facebook pages this morning that the game with Temple is a “done deal” and they will probably be playing the Owls on Friday, Dec. 7, 2012 … a day that will live in infamy (maybe) … …

Program covers have come a long way since this Sept. 25, 1976 Temple vs. Pitt game.

Temple plays Pitt a week after a loss to Rutgers its head coach called “an embarrassment.”
October, 2012?
No.
September, 1984.
The difference then was that Pitt at the time was three weeks removed from a No. 4 preseason ranking in the country.
Temple beat Pitt, 13-12, on a field goal by a kicker named Jim Cooper.
Temple will have a kicker named Jim Cooper next year, but more on that later.
The win in 1984 gave Temple a 2-1 record on the way to a winning season under 32-year-old head coach Bruce Arians.

Story in the Allentown Morning Call the week after Temple beat Pitt.

“We were embarrassed at Rutgers, didn’t play to our ability at all,” Arians said. “We oughta be 3-0 and we know it.”
The Owls played the No. 10-toughest schedule in  the country then and its wins over East Carolina (17-0) and Pitt were sandwiched around a one-point loss to Rutgers.

Bruce Arians made a habit out of beating nationally-ranked Pitt teams.

Pitt was coming off an 8-3-1 year and maybe that influenced its inflated preseason ranking in Sports Illustrated. The Temple loss was one of four straight for Pitt (BYU, Oklahoma, Temple, West Virginia) and the Panthers never met their expectations.
At the time, it was the first win for Temple over Pitt in 39 years but Arians made sure it would not be the last.
The next week, Temple was to play Florida State and Arians fully expected to win that game, too.
“Florida State is a great opponent and it is a game we can win,” Arians said. “There’s no doubt about it. We can take the field anytime, anywhere and we have a chance to win.”

Temple’s last win over Pitt came 14 years ago.

This week, Temple renews its long-standing “rivalry” with Pitt. It’s just a one-year deal since Pitt moves to the ACC next year, but when the teams meet on Saturday it will bring back fond memories of Cooper and Arians for a lot of Temple fans. Arians beat Pitt three out of his five years as Temple’s head coach.
Later, he became well-known (and sometimes vilified) in that town as the offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Still, Arians is mostly fondly remembered in Philadelphia by Temple people as an energetic young coach who did the best he could with the tools he was given.
Beating Pitt in a year it was ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP poll certainly helped foster a positive impression of Arians, who is still helping Temple football today.
Arians figuratively begat then kicker Cooper who literally begat another Cooper by the same name, Jim Cooper, Jr.
Next year, Cooper Jr. will take over the kicking duties for Steve Addazio.
If he beats Pitt, 13-12, like his dad did, it will have to be in a bowl game.
I’m sure dad and son would sign for that now but first both, being long-time Owl fans like the rest of us, just want to win the next one.

Tomorrow: Fast Forward Friday