Category Archives: Al Golden

10.26.11
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MAC Blogger Roundtable: Week 9

Graphic by Bull Run’s Tim Riordan

If you were wondering why my post “Shallow Hal” remained up on the screen for a few days, it’s because I’m just coming out of a 72-hour Chester Stewart-induced stupor.
On Saturday night, I just sat at the computer staring at the screen for 27 minutes (yeah, I checked the computer clock) after Temple’s 13-10 loss to Bowling Green.

This was me after watching Chester  Stewart
take a sack on the game’s final play Saturday.

I felt like the late Jack Buck.
I kept repeating to myself …. I … can’t … believe … what … I … just … saw.
The perfect metaphor for the day was Stewart taking a sack on the game’s final play. I went back and watched that play three times. It was obvious that he knew the guy was coming at him. He had only one choice: Throw the ball downfield and hope Rod Streater comes down with a miracle catch. Taking a sack wasn’t an option.
Instead, he took a sack and the clock ran out.
Why did he take a sack?
Just another chapter in a book on situational unawareness that Chester could write about his four years at Temple.
I’ve been jarred back into reality by this week’s deadline: MAC Blogger Roundtable, Week 9.
This week, it’s our good internet friend (as opposed to real friend), Tim Riordan of the great Buffalo blog: Bull Run. You should take a look at his site. It’s a beautiful thing. If I had only one-tenth of the html skills as Tim and my real friend, Dave Gerson, I’d be a happy man.
This week’s questions:

1) Parity, a good thing or a bad thing. Outside of Toledo at the top and Akron, Kent, Miami, and Buffalo at the bottom every team has looked about equal. Is this a good thing for the conference or would it be better to have just four very prominent teams.
TFF: I’m a big fan of the NFL, so I love parity. Heck, I loved it when the Giants beat the unbeaten Patriots. That said, I’d love to see Temple go unbeaten just once before I pass on to the great unknown. I think it’s a good thing for the conference, but a bad thing for my imaginary wallet (I don’t have money to bet) since I’ve been taking a beating predicting MAC games.
2) Coaches Hot Seat. The Following MAC coaches are showing up on the ever popular coaches hot seat list. Pick one and tell us why is it or is not fair to have them there (disclaimer Clawson is on the list but I can’t imagine why so I am leaving him off)

(12) Rob Ianello, Akron
(13) Jeff Quinn, Buffalo
(15) Dan Enos, Central Michigan

TFF: Enos doesn’t deserve to be there. Central Michigan has done some good things.

3) Best new hire. Of the four(?) new coaches in the conference who, at this point, seems to be the best hire.

TFF: Steve Addazio. I love the guy. I love the way he competes. I love the staff he’s put together. I love what he’s done despite the fact that Golden’s Achilles Heel was his inability to recruit a quarterback. I will go from loving him to liking him if he loses to Ohio. If he loses to Ohio and Miami, I will go from liking him to tolerating him. If he loses to Ohio, Miami and Army, I will go from tolerating him to loathing him.

4) Ron English is flying high and the EMU *EAGLES* might be going to their first Bowl if they take care of Business. Surely their Coach is going to start getting some looks from other programs (if you can win at EMU right!). Is Turner Gill’s experience in Kansas a cautionary tale to schools who look for that one new up and coming coach? How many years of winning should a mid-major coach put forth before a big time program drops millions on them.
TFF: I would think a three-year sample is better than a one-year wonder. I think that’s the way most BCS programs will approach it going forward. The fact that Ron English recruited Ryan Brumfield shows me he has a keen eye for talent.
5) We all know the MAC does not necessarily award Bowls to the best teams. In MAC contracted bowls the bowl committees, not the conferee, get to pick their representative. Assume the MAC is going to get four Bowls but there are five bowl eligible teams. Make a case for your team, or a team you think is likely to be that 5th wheel.
TFF: I think Temple’s case was solidified by a 38-7 win at Maryland that could have EASILY been 45-0. Addazio took three knees on the Maryland 1 to end the game after putting his third-team defense in on the prior series, allowing Maryland to score. Addazio has been Mr. Nice Guy, maybe to his detriment. He’s had three backup quarterbacks play in shutout wins without any of them throwing the ball. One of those guys is going to have to throw the ball soon.
6) It’s looking more and more like either (a) Temple won’t be going to the Big East or (b) there won’t be a big east football space to even invite Temple. Is the MAC, even with UMass and Temple, a stable football conference for the next year or two?
TFF: I think the MAC is stable, with or without Temple or UMass. I don’t think UMass is going anywhere.
7) Rank’em
Toledo
Temple
Western Michigan
Ohio
Northern Illinois
Eastern Michigan
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Miami
Ball State
Buffalo
Kent State
Akron

10.10.11
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The Final Word on Ball State: OUTFREAKINGSTANDING!

OK, out-freaking-standing is a hyphenated word but that was my one-word reaction watching Temple dismantle Ball State, 42-0, while sitting in a Panera Bread in Montgomeryville and getting free wireless internet.
Outfreakingstanding was not my reaction to the broken feed from the MAC corporate offices.
I missed the first two touchdowns completely while looking at a black screen that said something like “feed broken.”
Yeah, I knew that.
I also missed a nice pass to Rod Streater that set up one touchdown.
I felt bad for the kid with the hot brunette and the “Wild Cherry” T-Shirt looking over my shoulder at the black screen. Then I realized he had a hot brunette and I didn’t feel so bad for him. I told him the score was 14-0 Temple.

Steve Addazio: Pissed-off Owls

“Aww right,” he said.
They left shortly after that.
(Panera Bread is a great date place.)
Back to the game.
All week long, Temple coach Steve Addazio said that he would make things hard on the Owls because he wanted “one pissed-off team” to be playing on Saturday in Muncie.
If so, I want Addazio to do the same thing this week, the same thing next and the same thing the rest of the season.
The Owls played pissed off against Maryland and full of themselves against Toledo and it is obvious that they play a lot better pissed off.
So Daz, you have my permission (and probably those of my fellow Owl fans) to do whatever is necessary to keep pissing them off.
Some other observations:

Great job, Chester Stewart

QUARTERBACKING _ Great job by Chester Stewart. All Chester has to do is complete some downfield passes, hand the ball off to the running backs and protect the football for the Owls to run the table. Chester’s most impressive job was ball security. With this defense and this running game, ball security is vital. No interceptions. No fumbles. This game also represents the first time since I’ve been covering Temple football (30-plus years) that four (4) quarterbacks saw time. It looks like now second-teamer Chris Coyer is averaging 72 yards per carry, probably the highest ypc in all of NCAA football. Two carries and two LONG touchdowns. Nice.

The Franchise showed BSU what PSU already knows.

RUSHING GAME _ Bernard Pierce scored three touchdowns, ran 30 times for 121 yards and broke Paul Palmer’s career touchdown record (39) with his 39th, 40th and 41st career touchdowns. The stat of note now is that when Pierce carries the ball 25 times or more Temple is 15-0. Plus, Matty Brown added 114 yards including the highlight reel run of the season so far.
DEFENSE _ After giving up 36 points (mostly not their fault), people got on me about not giving the defense grief. I wrote that much of the defense’s problems last week stemmed from the two fumbles and the two interceptions and the multiple three-and-outs. I ended my summation with the phrase “in Heater I trust” and Chuck Heater and his fire-eaters came through once again. Too many of those guys played well to mention two or three. They are a group of gang-tacklers and that’s what I love second most about them. First most? Putting the quarterback on his ass, which I’ve said for years is the best pass defense ever designed by man.

Morry Mannies

BROADCAST _  Morry Mannies, the  Ball State play-by-play guy, must be old. He first called Mike Gerardi “Mark Carchitti” and then called him “Mike Carchardi.” Ugh. He also mis-pronounced many other Owl names. His sidekick said his record broadcasting Homecoming Games was “40-17.” That’s right. Forty and 17, a number that was repeated three times. Forty and 17 is 57. If this guy started out at 21, he’s at least 78. And I thought Harry Donahue was old. So if this guy is over 80, I’ve got to cut him some slack. He also said he sat through a 66-0 loss to St. Joseph’s. I assume that’s St. Joseph’s of Indiana. I’ll have to tell him someday that I sat through a 76-0 loss to Pitt once.

10.08.11
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Addazio goes for the Golden Hat Trick

Al Golden took his 0-14 record in the MAC south of the (Mason-Dixon) border.

With the Phillies finally done and the Eagles at 1-3 and no NBA and NHL not meaning squat until April, Temple football finally forges its way front and center into the consciousness of Philadelphia sports fans

The Golden Sombrero is a term loosely credited to ESPN announcer Chris Berman for describing a guy who goes 0 for 4 in baseball with four strikeouts.
It was a supposed to be a takeoff on the term “hat trick” when someone scores three goals in a game but does something ignominious instead.
So when The Golden Sombrero fits, wear it.
Today, first-year Temple coach Steve Addazio doesn’t go for the Golden Sombrero but the Golden Hat Trick.
Or, more precisely, The Al Golden Hat Trick.
Golden was not able to blow out Villanova.
Addazio was.
Check.
Golden was not able to beat an ACC team.
Addazio was.
Check.
If Addazio beats 3-2 Ball State today (2 p.m.. in Muncie, Ind.), Addazio will stop an ignominious Golden run of 0-14 against winning MAC teams. If Addazio (and Temple, of course) beats Ball State today, he will be 1-0 against winning MAC teams vs. Golden’s 0-14. That’s if Ball State finishes with a winning record, of course. (Before you get on me about Toledo, the Rockets were 1-3 coming into the Temple game.)
Can’t put the check mark next to that one yet, because it hasn’t happened for Addazio yet but that’s a mark that will haunt Golden the rest of his life.
Think about it.

Watch the Temple-Ball State game live here on your computer

Golden recruited four straight No. 1-ranked recruiting classes in the MAC with one No. 2 and could never beat a winning MAC team.
I’ve got to make only one conclusion from that: Poor game day coaching.
So good game day coaching is the way to end that streak.
That means hand the ball off to The Franchise (Bernard Pierce) and not strictly off-tackle like Addazio did last week. Get the ball in space to a great football player who messed around one spring with track and became a world-class sprinter in his spare time. It also means finding someone who can take advantage of the pressure Pierce puts on defenses by being able to complete a simple forward pass 20 yards or more  downfield.
Do that and keep the defense off the field. Keep the defense off the field and it will produce the times it is needed on the field.
This could be the start of a good Temple football run.
With the Phillies finally done and the Eagles at 1-3 and no NBA and NHL not meaning squat until April, Temple football finally forges its way front and center into the consciousness of Philadelphia sports fans.
Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
I was doing a lot of dreaming until seven days ago when Toledo’s football team woke me rather rudely from a dopamine-induced slumber.
All week after the 38-7 win over Maryland, I was kicking myself.
“Geez, we’re going to go 11-1 now and not being able to stop Penn State on a fourth-and-one is going to cost us a shot at the national championship. Could you imagine Temple winning the national championship? Temple? How great would that be?”
If allowed myself that thought one time last week, it must have been 100 times I repeated it in my head.
I thought Penn State was far and away the best team on the schedule and Maryland was a close second.
Logically, Temple could have run the table.
Logic and sports don’t always mix, though.
Ask the Phillies who, on Sept. 10, had a 94-48 record, the same day the Cardinals had a 78-67 record.
Or ask Al Golden about all those No. 1 recruiting classes adding up to an 0-14 record.
That did not compute, either.

09.25.11
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We’ve come a long way, baby

Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw hugs Steve Addazio for doing something Al Golden could not do: Beat Maryland.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. _ A very wise person once said that for a good perspective, just open your eyes and take a look at what is happening around you.

All TU fans are
going in Heaven
right now
A few years ago, I wrote this story that appeared in The Philadelphia Daily News about all Temple football fans going to Heaven. Heck, I don’t know what Heaven is like but if it’s anything like Byrd Stadium was today, it must be a pretty good place.

I thought a lot about that today while watching my friend, Matt Cohen, take a shot of the scoreboard in the closing seconds of Temple’s 38-7 win at Maryland’s beautiful Byrd Stadium.
I remember when Matt, his brother, I and a handful of other Temple die-hards sat in Veterans Stadium and then Lincoln Financial Field watching some God-awful Temple teams, including Bobby Wallace squads of 0-11 and 1-11.
I remember many of those same faces tailgating in the rain before the final game of that 0-11 season, a 41-14 loss to the Fake Miami (that’s Ohio).
“You watch,” I told the handful of people left in the empty parking lot. “One day there will be a guy who leads us out of this mess.”
I saw many of those same faces in Section B at Byrd Stadium today.
They believed.

Statement by Steve Addazio:
“What you’re asking me is where is our football team at? I’ll tell you where we’re at right now. I’m really proud of this right now. I’m proud of the city we play in. We play in one of the greatest sports cities there is in America. We play in one of the best venues in the Linc in the country. We play a non-conference schedule – Maryland, Penn State, Notre Dame coming to town. We do that right now.

“We had 57,000 fans for our game against Penn State, over 40,000 Temple fans, last week and 12,000 Temple students. Two weeks before, against a I-AA opponent Villanova, we had over 30,000 fans to their 2,000 – 8,500 Temple students – and the atmosphere at Lincoln Financial was electric.

“Temple, now, guys and gals, has got 12,000 students going to 15,000. Everybody talks about back days, I don’t know why. Back days it was a commuter school. We have a $10 million football facility going on at our place and we’re a proud academic institution, one of the higher ranked ones in the country. If you’re asking me where’s our program, we’re doing it right now. We have attendance. Our TV numbers were higher than they were in Big Ten.

“I’m not a guy that’s much for B.S. I’m a guy based on facts and what is. What is is we’re a hard-playing team, we took a BCS win today. We went nose-to-nose with a BCS team last week. We have a great home-field crowd right now and Philadelphia has passion for college football like it never has before and we’re in the fourth-largest media market in the country, so what that means is not my concern.”

It was not a baseless belief.
“It happened before,” I said back then, telling them there was once a savior named Wayne Hardin. “It can happen again.”
That new savior was Al Golden.
His good looks, dogged personality and impeccable organizational skills led Temple out of these hedgerows. He was able to charm moms into sending their talented sons to play at Temple.
Now Steve Addazio and his SEC staff is leading a General Patton-like charge to bigger and better things.

 Golden wasn’t perfect.
He was a micromanger who did not trust his coordinators to formulate a winning game plan because his coordinators were, quite frankly, buddies from his college days.
Addazio hired two of the best coordinators out there, Chuck Heater for the defense and Scot Loeffler for the offense, and is letting those guys do their job.
That’s the way a good CEO runs any organization. Hire the best possible people for upper-level management positions and let them do their jobs.


Chuck Heater was defensive coordinator at 12-0 Utah. His work as defensive coordinator at Florida was so impressive that, last year, no less an authority than Urban Meyer said: “I call Chuck Heater Mother Theresa because he’s worked wonders with our defense.”

Scot Loeffler was quarterback coach at Michigan when Tom Brady was there and quarterback coach of Tim Tebow at Florida.
Both those guys know their stuff.
It has shown so far.


Photo by Matt Cohen



Heater plays an attacking-style defense, believing, as I always have, the best pass defense is putting a quarterback on his backside. Maryland’s talented quarterback, Danny O’Brien, did not have room to breathe, let alone look for receivers.

Loeffler establishes the run behind one of the great running backs in college football and plays off his skills by keeping the defense honest with play-action waggle passes to an All-MAC first-team tight end and an occasional shot down the field, again off play-action.
This is a team that will not be outcoached.
The results, then, should not be surprising.
 

Temple is two minutes away from being 4-0 with wins over an upper-tier Big 10 team and a solid ACC team. If you don’t think Maryland is solid, the Terrapins beat The Real Miami, 32-24. The Real Miami beat Ohio State, 24-6.
That’s solid.
So is Temple.
The Owls have what I believe is the best running back in the United States in Bernard Pierce. All Bernard did was carry the ball 32 times for 149 yards and a school-record five touchdowns. Bernard leads the nation in touchdowns.
I wrote before the season that 20 touchdowns and 2,000 yards are attainable goals for BP and he has made me look good so far.
Temple did something today it never has before: Both beat Maryland and beat an ACC team.
From the perspective of looking at this team and their fans, it’s just a starting point.
09.23.11
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Steve Addazio vs. Al Golden

Al Golden’s first Miami press conference lasted 49 minutes, during which he never uttered the word “Temple” once.

TU Fact 1:
Temple has seven wins
over schools currently
in the ACC; none while
they were in the ACC

If you make the trip with me to Maryland tomorrow, you will notice the game program says: Temple vs. Maryland.
Very true.
The subtitle, though, should say Steve Addazio vs. Al Golden.
We really don’t know if Steve Addazio is a better coach than Al Golden right now.

TU fact No. 2
Temple is 15-0
with Bernard Pierce
getting 16 carries
or more

However, we could all get a much better handle on that come 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
Bum Phillips, the colorful former coach of the then Houston Oilers, once said:
“The sign of a great coach is that he can take your ‘ums and beat his ‘ums and he can beat his ‘ums with your ‘ums.”
Steve Addazio has a chance to prove that against Maryland.
If Al Golden, with arguably better talent than Temple, can’t beat Maryland with his Miami group and Steve Addazio CAN beat Maryland with, err, lesser talent that could go a long way toward proving once and for all that Steve Addazio is the better game coach than Al Golden.
If not prove conclusively, than it would be a pretty good Exhibit A in any case to be made for Daz vs. Golden.
Many of the Daz fans, me included, were duly impressed with Addazio doing to Villanova what Golden was not able to do _ blow them out. Yet that body of work can be argued to be inconclusive since Villanova was in a rebuilding year.
Add a win over Maryland with a blowout of Villanova and you can make an argument that this is an open-and-shut case.
It might even cause one set of eyebrows at The U to be raised.

09.06.11
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MAC haters and Temple


I don’t see Temple taking a step back in this video at all.
When I listen to an opinion, I usually consider the source and break it down into three levels of credibility:
Those who know a lot.
Those who know a little.
Those who know nothing.
You can put practically the entire MAC into the second and third category when talking about Temple University’s football team.

The notion that “Temple will take a step back without Al Golden” is widely regarded as gospel in the MAC community. Temple fans know a different reality.

Of the 14 MAC websites, including numerous blogs, only eight people picked Temple to beat Villanova and most of those who picked the Owls said it would be a “tight game.”
One of the guys  said “since Temple lost a ton of talent on defense” and “had a new system” that the Owls would lose to Villanova.
Huh?
I chalk this up to MAC haters. More specifically, Temple haters in the MAC.
Temple did lose some talent, but not a “ton” and the Owls returned nine of 11 guys who started AT LEAST ONE GAME on defense last year. One of the guys who started three games as a DE, promising left end Sean Daniels, is now a backup. Not due to any fault of his own but because Temple moved tight end Morkeith Brown, a born leader, to the DE slot. Temple’s defensive line is bigger, stronger, deeper and faster overall despite losing a first-round draft pick.
 Another returner, Steven Johnson, beat out one of the guys who went into an NFL camp for a cup of coffee at middle linebacker.
 New system?
Yeah, a new and improved system that does something the other system did not do, especially on offense _ put the Owls’ explosive players into the best position to explode. That is, establish the run with first-round NFL pick Bernard Pierce behind a massive offensive line (averaging 6-5, 320, the Eagles just wish they had that size) and then throwing play-action to talented receivers and tight ends.
The notion that “Temple will take a step back without Al Golden” is widely regarded as gospel in the MAC community. Temple fans know a different reality.
Did anyone notice that “Saint Al Golden” fielded a Miami team that committed nine penalties, including a false start and two illegal substitutions in a 32-24 loss at Maryland tonight? Does it sound familiar?
I thought so.
Look, one thing Al Golden did was bring in a ton of talent and it is still here but I maintain it’s coached better now. Al was a charismatic guy who was universally loved by mothers whose sons he recruited.


Good seats still available for PSU, but not for long.



On game day, not so much loved by Temple fans who remembered Wayne Hardin’s genius for those three hours of the week.
There’s an upgrade of talent on both offense and defense, but that’s something the MAC will start to learn the hard way on Saturday night at Akron.
For the record, I predicted on this website that the final score of the Villanova game would be 35-14 and on Owlscoop.com as 41-7.



My reasoning was that I saw this as an epic beatdown somewhere between that conservative 35-14 estimate and a possible 55-3 outcome.
That’s pretty much how it played out.
For Akron, I don’t expect a 42-7 beatdown because the word Akron doesn’t whip Temple players into a frenzy of hate that the word Villanova does.
So I will revert to the more conservative prediction of 35-14 and think that might drop to around 31-10, but no lower.
The season began last week, but breaking down perceptions around the league won’t start until Saturday night.
07.21.11
by

Thumbs up to the Media Guide Cover

For the most updated depth chart (until the eve of the Villanova game) click on the headline above

This cover speaks to the meaning of Temple TUFF.

The date was Dec. 30, 2009 and I was in the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C.
After filing my report from the Eagle Bank Bowl for this website from the desk of my hotel room, I debated about whether or not I should watch the replay on ESPN2.
I was hurting so much that night I could not sleep, so I turned on the TV.
To a lot of people, a close loss to UCLA was acceptable.
Not to me.

What impressed me most was how loud the 20,000 Temple fans were and how that noise translated to HDTV. I knew they were loud from being there, but I didn’t know how it translated.
Standing in the minus 11-degree wind chill, I heard the stadium literally shake with a LET’S GO TEM-PLE cheer after the Owls scored the second touchdown but I wondered if the ESPN audience got the message.
They did.
The announcers praised the Temple fans and the energy they brought to the chilly night.
Then, with a half-time interview of Al Golden, the term “Temple TUFF” was born.
Wearing only a dress shirt and a Cherry-colored tie, the announcer asked Golden if he was crazy.
“No, that’s Temple TUFF … T. U. F. F.,” Golden said.
The term stuck and new coach Steve Addazio embraced it as the cornerstone of his program.
You can tell by the cover of the Media Guide released this week.
All I can say is that there are a bunch of TEMPLE TUFF guys on that cover at the train station in the middle of one of the toughest neighborhoods in the country.
Hopefully, the toughness will carry over onto the football field this fall.
For a complete depth chart, put your cursor directly over the thumbs up headline and click once.

05.24.11
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Al Golden talks Temple football

Al Golden may be gone, but he has not forgotten Temple.

Read that headline and you might just shrug your shoulders.
Al Golden has spent much of the last five years talking Temple football, so that might not be news.

‘Obviously I think Temple’s a better fit. …I think clearly we began the process of establishing you can recruit, and there’s so many great things that have occurred at Temple University. I think they’re worthy of taking that next step’
Al Golden
on Temple
and the Big East

There was never a more tireless promoter of the program than AG and that was one of his many, many good qualities.
If some kid who had an internet radio podcast wanted to talk Temple football with him, Golden would give the kid five minutes of his valuable time.
Rivals.com radio, scout.com recruiters, Golden would talk to them all.
The reason that headline, though, is news today is that Al Golden is talking Temple football for the first time in five months, basically.
In a 40-minute opening introductory press conference as the head coach at the University of Miami, Al Golden did not mention Temple once.
Not a big deal to some, but a big deal to me.
That’s why I was heartened to read this Golden nugget, courtesy of Octoberproject, a neighbor of our good friend Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub, a former Temple football great.
In it, Golden is asked what he thinks the addition of Villanova would mean to the Big East.
He basically said to forget Villanova, that Temple would add a lot more value to that conference.
From TV ratings to increased attendance to the overall perception of the program, Golden certainly added to that value.
By making comments like those AG made recently, old habits like talking up Temple football seem to be hard for Al Golden to break and that’s a good thing.

12.09.10
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The Al Golden Coaching Carousel

After some pretty structured newspaper writing for many years, I took to blogging on the side for fun (certainly not profit).
I know a little about everything, which enabled me to pass the tests for Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but a lot only about the one thing that interests me most.
Temple football.
If the 15 questions on Millionaire were about Temple football, I’d go right to the $1 million.
No doubt.

So I started a blog on the thing I knew most about right around the time Temple joined the MAC.
Joining the MAC was the culmination of a lot of hard work by myself and others.
I wrote to each member of the Temple Board of Directors about the importance of keeping big-time football at Temple University.
I purchased five cars from one of the BOT members, Wilkie Buick president Dan Polett, who later became chairman of the BOT and reminded him of that. (Like that made  a difference. I know it didn’t.)
I went to the press conference that the uni (university) held to announce its admission to the MAC and I told a friend of mine afterward, Sal, this:
“Whew. We almost came close to no program. I wonder how many people know that. Temple football now and Temple football forever.”
When I got home, I had the title of my blog.
Temple Football Forever.
I knew the next order of business was getting a head coach who would take us out of the abyss.
That was a little out of my control, so I crossed my fingers and toes and hoped  athletic director Bill Bradshaw would find the right guy.
I was more for a “big-name” guy, but I would have been OK with a young tireless assistant because I remember what Bruce Arians, once a young, tireless, assistant did for this program.
Bradshaw went the tireless assistant route and came up with a gem, Al Golden.

“People would not believe the plans I have for this program,” Al Golden said of Temple, Nov. 20, 2010

What I didn’t figure on was Golden being mentioned for every job since the end of his second year.  I didn’t want the instability factor. I didn’t have it with Harry Litwack. I didn’t have it with John Chaney. I didn’t have it with Wayne Hardin and I didn’t have it with Bruce Arians, who turned down the Virginia Tech head job in 1986, saying, “I can’t leave my Temple guys.”
A guy named Frank Beamer got it instead.
I certainly don’t have it with Fran Dunphy, a guy who is happy with being Temple coach for life. Fran Dunphy gets Temple, much like Harry Litwack, John Chaney, Skip Wilson, Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians did.
I pray for the day when Al Golden gets Temple.
When it comes to Al Golden being mentioned for every job every year, my reaction is to close my Owl eyes (like the image accompanying this story) and say, “not this shit again.”
(Unlike newspapers, you can say shit in a blog. I usually avoid words like that, but it’s apropos here.)
I guess that’s the price of success, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Now, in the same week, Dave Wannstedt left Pitt, Urban Meyer left Florida and Randy Shannon was fired at Miami.
And Al Golden is being mentioned for each and every job.
I knew this shit would come up again.
I would like for one year, one year, Al to get up and say, “I have no interest in going anywhere. I’m going to stay at Temple and finish the job.”
Tonight at halftime of the Georgetown basketball game would be a good place to do it.
Let’s face it.
Al is 0-14 against winning MAC teams.
There is still much work to be done.
Al Golden doesn’t want to build this program in the image of Rutgers, which people keep asking him about.
He wants to be the Boise State and the TCU of the East.
That’s very attainable in my view. It’s as close as a year away.
Al had the greatest Al Golden quote I ever heard.
“People would not believe the plans I have for this program,” Al Golden said of Temple.
That was just one month ago.
I hope he was sincere.
That’s the Temple side of it.
There is also the Al Golden side of it and I believe that strongly leans toward him staying at Temple, too.
Although he has told no one of this, I think Al Golden wants to be the head coach at Penn State. Joe Paterno is not going to live forever, nor is he going to want to stay as head coach there forever.
Paterno’s deal is now year-to-year.
JoePa has said he’s staying one more year.
I believe Al Golden is taking him at his word.
What better place for Al Golden to position himself to get the Penn State job than Temple? There’s no reason for him to go to Miami for a year or go to Pitt for a year.
Temple is loaded next year. Temple faces Penn State in Philadelphia.
Already Al Golden is No. 1 or No. 2 on the wish list of every Penn State fan to succeed JoePa.
Beating Penn State would immediately move him to the No. 1 position and, at the same time, give another great Pennsylvania university a terrific parting gift.
That’s the way I want to see Al Golden go out.
I hope that’s the way he sees it, too.

12.03.10
by

Al Golden to Minny? Ha … Ha



The Al Golden Football Camp is the largest one-day camp on the East Coast.

 Today, long-time reader of TFF Brian sent me an excellent question about how speculation about Al Golden going to Minnesota and anywhere else, for that matter, affects Temple.
While not getting into the Temple part, I answered it this way:

All I can say about Minnesota is that Owlscoop.com, which has direct access to Al Golden, has said that Al Golden has no interest, had no interest and will have no interest in the Minnesota job.

Al Golden has done enough RIGHT NOW at Temple to move into the No. 1 or No. 2 spot to replace JoePa at PSU, which is his dream job.

Could you imagine what would happen if, before 50,000 screaming TEMPLE fans (and maybe 20K) PSU fans at the Linc next year, he, Mike Gerardi/Chris Coyer, Bernard Pierce/Ryan Brumfield, Rod Streater, Mo Wilkerson and Adrian Robinson, et. al. BEAT Penn State?

He immediately moves into the No. 1 spot at PSU and gives Temple the greatest parting gift of all.

Going anywhere right now jeopardizes dreams he has for two of the three major educational institutions in Pennsylvania.

And, more importantly, himself.

Golden has the largest single-day camps during the summer within easy driving distance of 45 percent of the nation’s population (and football talent). This is Golden’s recruiting footprint.
He won’t give that up to go just anywhere.
Minny?

Ha. Ha.

Now to answer the Temple part.
I don’t like Al Golden’s name coming up in speculation for all of these jobs every year.
It can’t help recruiting.
However, look at it this way:
If his name wasn’t to crop up every year, he wouldn’t be doing his primary job, which is to put Temple football on the national map.
Is that job done?
Heck no.
A bowl game against UCLA was a nice step last year.
A bowl win, over say a Utah or a Miami (Fla.), is the next step.
Beating Penn State next year would put Temple football right in the middle of the national map with a thumb tack over an Owl logo.
Only then will the job be complete.