Category Archives: Al Golden

11.30.10
by

Orlando Sentinel: Sun Bowl vs. Miami



It’s not going to be this dark in El Paso on Dec. 31 at 2 p.m.

 Gotta love the MAC.
It’s the only conference where you can look reasonably horrible before a small crowd in Ohio in the last regular-season game and get what amounts to a reward.
Win the conference or division and go to Detroit,  Boise or Mobile.
Finish somewhat farther back in the conference and go to El Paso or Las Vegas.
Or D.C.
It was that way last year for the Temple Owls, when they spit the bit at Ohio and lost, 35-17, in the defacto MAC East championship game and got the marquee opponent of the MAC postseason in UCLA before 20,000 Temple fans in D.C.
It appears to be that way again this season, the marquee opponent part, not the D.C. part.
I must admit that I thought the season was, for all intents and purposes, over with a 23-3 loss at Miami.
The Owls would not have been a hot team coming into the postseason.
Their one marquee player has been an injury question mark and they would not bring 20,000 fans on the road with them like they did last year.
Reading the reports, though, I’m thinking that the Owls will find their way to a bowl game, more likely than not in a sunny and warm (err, warmer) climate.
If I had to handicap it today, I would go with these numbers:

  • 30 percent chance of Sun Bowl vs. Miami of Florida;
  • 20 percent chance of Vegas Bowl vs. Utah;
  • 15 percent chance of Humanitarian Bowl vs. Nevada or Fresno State;
  • 5 percent chance of “some other bowl”;
  • 30 percent chance of no bowl;

That’s from a selective reading of the situation. So it looks more like bowl than no bowl for Temple.
Orlando Sentinel says the Owls will go to the Sun Bowl to face Miami (Fla.) and I will take that.
The first thing you have to do when you read a bowl projection is skip over the ones that have “bleacher report” written next to the writer’s byline.
It’s a bunch of Joe Schmoes, like you and me, reports worth money Bleacher Report paid for them _ which is nothing.



The MAAC Vegas Bowl in, well, you know.

 The people you have to pay attention to are the ones who are paid and answer to the person paying them.
That’s why I’m giving credence to sites like CBSSportsline.com and people like Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated.
Those sites have the Owls going to either the Sun Bowl to play the U (the real Miami) or the Vegas Bowl to play Utah.
I’ll take either one.
I will pass on playing Boise or Nevada in Idaho, which is where many of the Joe Schmoes on Bleacher Report have us going. Pass, because it’s too much of a hardship for our fans.
The only reason I want to play a bowl is to get this bad taste out of my mouth that I’ve had the last couple of weeks and I want to be there when it happens. Since I haven’t been eating garlic, it must be the losing that’s eating at me.
I like what Michael Vick said after the game last night.
“I hate losing. It makes me sick. It makes me ill.”
I hear ya, Michael. Losing makes me sick, too, and the only remedy is to win again.
I don’t want to wait until next year for the cure.
It’s only a reward, though, if you go there (wherever) and win.  I want to see these Owls and especially the seniors go out with a swagger. I want to avenge the loss to UCLA and close the season the way it started _ bringing home a trophy. The season started with a Mayor’s Cup Trophy.
I want it to end with a Sun Bowl or a Vegas Bowl Trophy.
You can only get that by playing the game.
Beating Utah or the real Miami is the best mouthwash I can think of right now.

11.27.10
by

Al Golden can fix his team with one phone call

The Brumfield File:

  • No. 2 all-time rusher in Pennsylvania history with 8,595 yards;
  • Averaged 9.79 yards per carry against defenses designed to stop him;
  • Over 100 TDs for his career;
  • A 3.0 GPA;
Quotable:
“You hate to say the word ‘unstoppable,’ but that’s what Ryan is. He likes the challenges. The more he gets challenged, the better he plays. But what you like most about Ryan is that he’s a great kid. Here’s a kid that has every right to have an ego, and he doesn’t. He gets along with everyone. It’s why his teammates don’t only want to play with him — they want to play for him.”


_Tom Barr, head coach, Owen J. Roberts

Sometimes numbers mean nothing.
Sometimes the numbers all add up and the mathematical formula is pretty clear.
I found some numbers that were pretty fascinating over the last few days and I just want to share some here.
They tell the story of why this Temple season has a different, more hollow, feel for me than last year did.
They also show me the equation for getting the Owls out of this morass.
Temple football by the numbers:

  • Al Golden is 0-14 against MAC teams with a winning record;
  • Al Golden’s two most impressive non-MAC wins were against Navy last year and against UConn this season;
  • Against Navy last year, Bernard Pierce went for 268 yards and two touchdowns with a pretty anemic passing attack on his side;
  • Against UConn this year, Bernard Pierce went for 179 yards with three touchdowns (again, with an anemic passer).

So who is most responsible for Temple’s success?
Al Golden or Bernard Pierce?
Certainly, you can make a case for Bernard Pierce to date.
Going forward, to use a term Al Golden fancies, going forward, Al Golden is most responsible for Temple’s success.
That’s because the one thing he can supply is out there for the taking.
Bernard Pierce. Or at least a Bernard Pierce clone.
Certainly, we’d all like to see the Bernard Pierce of last year show up for his junior season (and the bowl game if the Owls are lucky enough to secure one).
What Al Golden failed to do “going backward” was make sure the Owls had a running back with Pierce’s ability or close to it backing up Bernard should Bernard have gone down.
Let’s face it.
Bernard had some injury issues after last year ended. Temple should have been better prepared than to replace him with a 5-5, 150-pound guy, no matter how good that 5-5, 150-pounder was.
The No. 1 running back recruit was a guy named Myron Ross (now Myron Myles) out of Wissahickon. Myron’s a nice back, like Matty Brown, a nice back, not a Gosh-darn superstar.
I don’t think Myron Myles on his best day can give Temple going forward what Matty Brown did.
And that, quite frankly, wasn’t enough against Ohio and Miami.
And it won’t be enough going forward.
He struggled to go over 1,000 yards in his senior year at Wissahickon.
Bernard Pierce was a Gosh-darn superstar, a 2,000-yard back, at Glen Mills.
We all kind of knew he would be something special in college.
So what Al Golden can do going forward is get me another Bernard Pierce as an insurance policy should the real one go down.
Short of cloning Bernard and waiting 18 years for the gestation period, I have a sure-fire answer:
Ryan Brumfield of Owen J. Roberts.
Brumfield, like Pierce, is a gosh-darn superstar.
I wrote about this kid in Friday’s Inquirer.
He’s five inches taller than Matty Brown (5-10) and 30 pounds heavier (180). He’s a tenth of a second faster (4.4 compared to 4.5) and he’s a lot shiftier and stronger. He’s not quite Bernard (6-0, 218) but he’s proven to be more durable.
Think a bigger version of Paul Palmer and that’s what I’m talking about.
Brumfield has an offer on the table from Buffalo (Al Golden, I beg you, please don’t let this kid go to Buffalo) and “interest” from Pitt, Penn State and Rutgers.
If Temple gets involved now, the Owls can have him.
The Owls should get him.
Temple needs Brumfield and Brumfield needs Temple.
That’s a one plus one that adds up to two superstar runners for the Owls.

11.24.10
by

Thanks for a nice season, everybody


“And that’s the way I used to play linebacker.”
“But, coach, I’m a QB.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot.”

Goodnight and good luck.
I think that was Edward R. Murrow’s line, but I was too young to remember him.
Let’s face it.
The season is over, thanks to the BCS schools who derailed the teams-with-worse-records-can’t-be-chosen-over-better-records rule at the end of last season. That means eight-win teams with small fan bases are in jeopardy of getting shut out this year.
Last year, no eight-win team could have been taken over nine-win Temple (excluding bowl tie-ins). This year, any six-win team can be taken over eight-win Temple.
The BCS schools pushing that rule change through is another example that big-time college football is corrupt to the core. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer.
If you think anybody is going to bend over backwards to invite an eight-win Temple team to a bowl, your thinking process is all wrong.
The only bowl that would want us, The Military Bowl, is spoken for with two tie-in participants eligible.

Geez, I hope Al Golden decides to stay at Temple but my gut tells me he’s gone

Why would the Military Bowl want us?
That was the former Eagle Bank Bowl and we helped them out big-time by putting 20K fannies in the seats last year vs. UCLA.
Can we even put 1K fannies at any other bowl?
No.
It’s all about the Benjamins in college football, in case you forgot.
It was a nice season, not a great season, not even a good season.
Why?
Because you can’t return 21 starters at 16 positions and not improve from 9-3 to 10-2 or better.
And you certainly can’t go from 9-3 to 8-4.



Bruce Arians, the only logical choice as next Temple coach.

 It’s a nice season, not a good one, and it represents a regression from a year ago.
So there is blame to be assessed (in this order):
1) Matt Rhule. Sorry, Matt, you do not deserve to be back as offensive coordinator. You are a defensive guy, a career linebacker and a career linebacker coach. There are way too many weapons (Rod Streater, a 318-pound average offensive line, Michael Campbell, Bernard Pierce, Matt Brown, Delano Green, Erod, AJax, etc.) for this team to struggle putting points on the board. There already is an accomplished offensive coordinator on the staff. His name is Rob Spence and he turned scoreboards into  adding machines at places like Clemson and Syracuse. He deserves at least a chance to move up and show what a lifelong offensive mind can do.

Why do we consistently make slow, white quarterbacks look like Fran Tarkenton? Because we don’t blitz anywhere near enough to sack these guys 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, like we should


2) Mark D’Onofrio. Why do we consistently make slow, white quarterbacks look like Fran Tarkenton? Because we don’t blitz anywhere near enough to sack these guys 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, like we should. We should punch these guys in the mouth (figuratively, of course) early and often and make them uncomfortable back there.
I’ve been a big Mark D’Onofrio supporter to take over Al Golden’s job once Al Golden leaves.
No more.
I’ll take a 57-year-old Bruce Arians, a guy who is not afraid to blitz, over Mark D’Onofrio any day of the week. I’ve never seen a more passive defensive coordinator when it comes to attacking the other guy’s quarterback.
Fifty-seven is not old anymore.
I never thought it was.
When I was 21 and working at the Doylestown Intelligencer, I wrote a column that Temple should hire John Chaney as its new basketball coach.
I got called into the office of the Managing Editor, Jim McFadden.
“Mike, don’t you think 50 is a little old for a new basketball coach?” he said.
“Fifty’s not old,” I said.
My boss smiled.
“You get a raise,” McFadden said.
He was 50, too.
The point is if you can do the job, it doesn’t matter how old you are.
Bruce can do the job.
Bruce can recruit. He knows Temple. He loves Temple.  He will put other quarterbacks on their asses and make them give the ball to us early and often.
He’s a Super Bowl winner.
An NFL pension is no longer an issue with him, like it was last time. He’s making $600,000 and his boss is Mike Tomlin. At Temple, he would be making $1.2 million with no boss.
This move makes sense for both Bruce and Temple,
If there ever was a time for Bruce Arians at Temple, it is now.
Do I think Al Golden is leaving?
Geez, my heart says he stays but my head says he’s gone.
If my heart was right tonight, we would have won, 23-3, instead of lost, 23-3.
So I think my head is right this time, too.
The tug might be too strong this year.
Yes, he’s as good as gone. Benjamins also figure into the Al Golden saga. We don’t have them. Other schools do.
I salute him.
What a terrific job he’s done here and I can’t thank him enough.
If he failed this year at all, it was sticking with his Penn State boy, Rhule, for way too long.
Golden proved that you can win at Temple, just like Arians did some 20 years ago.
When Al leaves, let’s keep this momentum and move forward with the only other guy who’s proven he can win here. I don’t want to go back to the days that existed between those two regimes. Hiring Jerry Berndt, Ron Dickerson and Bobby Wallace was a crap shoot. I don’t want any more crappy crap shoot hirings.
I want a sure thing next time and Bruce Arians is the only sure thing out there right now. He’s the round peg that fits nicely into Temple’s round hole.

09.19.10
by

Penn State week: Robinson stole the ball


“You know I’m going to take that ball from you the next time you see me,” Adrian Robinson appears to be telling his cousin, Penn State’s Curtis Drake.

“I saw the ball and it was loose, I ripped it out and it was Murder-She-Wrote from there.”
_ Adrian Robinson.

I don’t have access to Harry Donahue’s call of the play of the game Saturday vs. UConn, but if Chick Hearn was calling the game, it might go something like this (apologies to John Havlichek):
“Adrian Robinson stole the ball. Robinson stole the ball. Game over.”
Well, the game wasn’t over then be it might as well have been.
Adrian Robinson has been making big plays all of his life. Defensive players of the year make defensive plays of the year and Robinson’s strip of Jordan Todman might have been just that.
“I saw the ball and it was loose, I ripped it out and it was Murder-She-Wrote from there,” Robinson said.
It was a great non-call from the officials because Todman was fighting for extra yardage. How many times have you seen guys fighting for extra yardage break out of piles like that and score? I’ve seen it a lot. (How about Navy two years ago?)
Much to the credit of the UConn fans, nobody was calling for that play to be blown dead.
They were too busy killing their own team in general and their fine coach, Randy Edsall, in particular.
How is it that the Friday BEFORE the Temple game these same fans were saying Temple’s got no chance, Temple’s no good and the Huskies might be better than the 1966 Michigan State Spartans.
Then the day AFTER the Temple game, UConn stinks in their eyes.
Can’t have it both ways.
I guess they confused Temple with Texas Southern.
Edsall gave Temple no credit, but the UConn players were unanimous in their praise of the way the Temple kids played and hit.
The kids on the field know. They know.
The adults on message boards not so much.
The implosion on Boneyard.com, the UConn message board, is about as impressive as the explosion caused by the Enola Gay in 1945.
It’s a nuclear-type jaun, as my friend, Jay “Chief” Cooke, used to say.
Yet  it’s also an over nuclear reaction if you ask me.
All week long, I got responses to my messages on the Bonehead, err, I mean Boneyard, board asking me to come over and “apologize for my Temple lunacy” at about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.
My response was simple.
“I hope you do the same, apologize for your disrespect of Temple, but I don’t think you have the class to do so.”
Just like the Big East ref/touchdown flag prediction, I was right.
The same guy who called me out for my “Temple lunacy” never apologized for his “UConn lunacy.”
A little perspective is in order.
For three years with each MAC foe falling to Temple for the first time, I’d go over to the vanquished foe’s message board.
The reaction is the same and can be summed up in one sentence.
“I can’t believe we lost to Temple.”
Gradually, they’ve gotten used to it.
UConn will, too.
Good Temple football is here to stay. Get used to it.
Al Golden promised when he arrived on North Broad Street that he was “building a house of brick, not straw.”
That means IF he leaves, it will be in good hands. Whether those hands belong to Mark D’Onofrio or Bruce Arians, Golden has proven one thing.
You can win at Temple. The Owls have now won a school-record eight home games in a row.
Last year, they beat an Army team that beat Vanderbilt and a Navy team that crushed Missouri and beat Notre Dame.
This year, they beat a UConn team with a relatively recent win over South Carolina.
If he can finish that fancy porch he’s putting in by Saturday, the house might be so nice Golden could take a long look at it and said, “Heck, I want to live here.”
Let’s hope so.
“We’re finally a Division I program now,”  he said on Saturday.
There’s a lot of wringing of hands on the UConn board these days but I think that’s premature.
The Big East is so bad I wouldn’t be surprised if UConn ran the table the rest of the way.
In fact, I hope they do.
I hope Temple beats Penn State next week (Temple is significantly better than Kent State) and I hope UConn and Penn State (and, of course, Temple) run the table after that.
Then maybe our friends at UConn will finally develop the same kind of perspective it took the MAC awhile to accept.

08.20.10
by

The CUSA move: Makes sense for Owls


Temple finally gets into the changing college football landscaping business.
It’s one thing when an anonymous blogger throws out a rumor. Those kind of things happen all the time.
It’s another when a respected college football journalist like Rivals.com’s Tom Dienhart does it, followed a few hours later by an assistant AD at Rice adding the “exciting news” coming later today that Temple and one other school will join Conference USA for football only, effective starting in the 2011 season. Dienhart has broken many stories and his reputation is impeccable in the business, so his word is nothing to be trifled with and when the Rice AD says “exciting news” coming today that’s as close to a two-source confirmation that you’ll get in today’s increasingly electronic media.
When Owlscoop.com editor John DiCarlo asked Bill Bradshaw for a comment regarding the proposed move, Bradshaw said he couldn’t comment.
If nothing was happening, don’t you think Bill Bradshaw would have said nothing was happening?
Something is happening.
So I’m buying it.
Temple to CUSA. Since this has to be approved by the Board of Trustees, the time frame could be a little longer than expected.

It will be released not by Temple first but by the CUSA office. Only after it is made official will Temple have some kind of comment.

2010 C-USA BOWL SCHEDULE
(2011 sked is similar to this one)

Date Bowl (Site) Time (CT) Network

Fri., Dec. 31 AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.) 2:30p ESPN

Thu., Dec. 30 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas) 11:00a ESPN

Wed., Dec. 29 EagleBank Bowl (Washington, D.C.) 1:30p ESPN

Fri., Dec. 24 Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu, Hawai’i) 7:00p ESPN

Tue., Dec. 21 Beef O’Brady’s Bowl (St. Petersburg, Fla.) 7:00p ESPN

Sat., Dec. 18 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, La.) 7:00p ESPN

The Owls were wooed by CUSA a few years ago before accepting the MAC’s football-only invite and that turned out to be a life-preserver for a then-drowning program.
The move was first mentioned by a Tulane blogger a couple of weeks ago and it turns out he had some pretty good sources.

Truth be told, the CUSA Bowl lineup is so much better than the MAC’s it’s not even funny.
Even if Temple wins the MAC this year, the, err, reward for Temple fans is a trip to Detroit for the championship game followed by another trip to Detroit for the bowl game.
No offense Detroit, but that’s dreadful. I can just imagine the Temple fan now complaining that he can’t go to Detroit because the walk from his car to the indoor stadium will be “too cold.”
The only way Temple can avoid that is to win out, beat Penn State, Villanova and UConn and sweep the MAC. Something like that could … could … put Temple in the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl and more likely mean a certain Heisman Trophy for Bernard Pierce.
That’s my mantra this year “12-0 and we’re Golden.”
I’d love to meet the Temple fan who went to the last Sugar Bowl involving Temple (1934). If he/she is still alive and, say, 20 then, he/she would be 96 now.
Possible, not likely.
Still, if this turns out to be true, I’m ambivalent about this.
Seriously, I’ve always liked the MAC.
I liked the MAC when I was a kid.
I liked the MAC when Big Ben was at Miami.
I liked the MAC when Garrett Wolfe was making his run at the Heisman.
I liked the MAC when Northern Illinois upset Alabama a few years ago and when Central Michigan beat Michigan State last year.
I liked the MAC long before Temple even got involved with that conference.
Now that Temple’s in it, I follow all the MAC games even more closely.
I don’t see how Rice will put more opposing fans at Lincoln Financial Field than, say, Bowling Green but, let’s face it, BG never put more than a few hundred in there anyway.
It’s a step up for football certainly and Owl hoop heads will probably like the nonleague schedule a lot more than they do now.

If Temple wins the MAC this year and THEN Conference USA next, I’m loving the move and the history that comes with winning two leagues in consecutive seasons.

06.08.10
by

Now’s the time to gush over BP (Bernard Pierce)


Temple football Fan Fest coming to Ocean City (N.J.) main pier between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on July 10.

I’ve never met David Sourber but, from what I gather, he beat me to the punch with what I thought was an innovative ideal _ create a “Bernard Pierce for Heisman” Facebook page.
Type in “Bernard Pierce for Heisman Facebook” on google and you are likely to find it.
Sourber is from Manheim, Pa., and is on target to graduate from Temple University in 2012.
He represents the current students who bring a passion to and support for the school too many of the older grads can’t begin match.
All you have to do is go to the games, especially last year’s Villanova game, where about 15-16,000 of the fans were students dressed in Cherry and pouring their hearts and lungs out for the Owls in the stands. Walking out of the stadium that night, I was more heartbroken for those kids in the stands than I was for myself (and nobody takes a Temple football loss harder than I do).

Six Owl numbers that will (maybe) get you some lotto money:
White Balls:
Six _ The number of 1986 Heisman Trophy runnerup Paul Palmer.
Fourty-four _ The number of Palmer’s blocking back, fullback Shelley Poole, who went through the hole preceeding Palmer like a bowling ball knocking down pins. An unsung hero if there ever was one.
Thirty _ the number of the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner (hopefully) Bernard Pierce. Also the number of 1979 Garden State Bowl MVP Mark Bright.
Eleven _ The number of Big East offensive MVP Walter Washington (2004), the most dominating year by a player on a losing team maybe ever.
Twelve _ The old number of Vaughn Charlton, this year’s Owl who made the greatest sacrifice for the team in switching to tight end (and becoming No. 3). Another unsung hero.
Powerball (red ball):
Nine _ The number of quarterback Steve Joachim, who holds the highest honor (Maxwell Trophy) heretofore ever bestowed upon a Temple football player (1974)

This Bernard Pierce for Heisman thing is getting some legs mostly because of the legs Pierce showed last year.
Bernard Pierce is, in my mind, the complete package.
If puts up a similar year to last and stays healthy, he should be in the conversation right up until the night the five finalists get together.
Unlike David Sourber who wasn’t born then, I got to know Paul Palmer up close and personal like during his Heisman Trophy run in 1986.
Paul Palmer was a great, great back. Fast. Shifty. Could break tackles. Great vision.
While playing for Temple, he finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting that year only to Vinny Testaverde of Miami.
Yet having watched both Paul Palmer for four years and Bernard Pierce last year, I’m convinced there is nothing … NOTHING … Bernard Pierce can’t do that Paul Palmer did.
In fact, there was little Paul Palmer could do his first year that Bernard Pierce didn’t do.
After one game in which Palmer carried the ball 43 times, a reporter asked then Temple coach Bruce Arians why he gave him the ball that much.
“We gave him the ball because he could handle it,” Arians said. “You know, it ain’t that heavy.”
Good line, Bruce.
If I had to give Palmer the edge over Pierce in any category, it would be his durability.
Pierce carried the ball a lot last year, but so did Palmer. On the other hand, Boo-Boo was fast, but not as fast as Pierce. I think Palmer avoided the big hit more than Pierce and that might have something to do with the injuries.
Pierce, though, combines world-class speed with great moves in the open field and an ability to break tackles and punish defenders.
I watched a lot of college football on network TV and did not see anyone as good. Unlike most non-BCS backs, Pierce has Penn State and UConn on the schedule, as well as the MAC, so he’s got opportunities to lead his team to eye-popping wins that will get him into the conversation as early as September.
So the Heisman is right there for the taking.
If David Sourber helps him get one step closer to the New York Athletic Club, his Bernard Pierce for Heisman page is a worthwhile endeavor.
When Temple goes 13-0 and wins the national championship in Jan. 2011 and Bernard Pierce takes home the Heisman, 100,000 people will claim to be Owl season ticketholders. You can show them your season-ticket stubs by clicking below:

03.20.10
by

March 20: The first day of spring (practice)


Temple fans want to see more sacks like this one.

I have a feeling the Owls are going to find a couple of reliable long-snappers, a quarterback who has moxie and becomes a weapon both with his arm and feet and a defense that can provide a relentless pass rush

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, someone once said.
I’ve never believed that because I think the facts around the story are often more interesting than the story itself.
I’ll relent, though, when it comes to headlines.
Yesterday, not today, was the first full day of spring football practice at Temple University. It’s just a better headline when you combine the first day of spring with the first day of spring practice.
It was also the last full day of the men’s basketball season, the only other marquee sport at Temple University.
Coincidence?
No doubt.
An interesting fact?
Yes.
I’ve never hided that I consider Temple men’s basketball nothing more than a worthwhile distraction between the final day of the football season and the first day of spring practice, but I didn’t think the two would run so seemlessly as they did this year.
I often get grief from my Temple football friends on why I only attend two or three basketball games a year, but I tell them the same thing I write here.
I just don’t enjoy the sport as much as football.
I understand, though, that many of them do.
For me, though, it’s not even close.
I like the fact that a football field is split in two and that strategy is involved in both protecting your turf and probing into the enemy’s.
If you have better men and material, like the Union did in the Civil War, you are probably going to win the war. If you have a better Field Marshall, like the Nazi’s did with Rommel in the Sahara and the Confederates did with Johnson and Stewart at Bull Run, you are going to win your share of battles.
There’s some of that in basketball, but when a dude sticks a 35-footer three straight times down the court, that game is a little too skewed for my taste. So hat’s off to Fran Dunphy and crew, who did this university proud by winning three straight A-10 titles and 29 games this season. There are few people who do more for this university than Fran Dunphy. In fact, I can’t think of any. There are no two better ambassadors for this great university than Fran Dunphy and Al Golden.
As I write this, it is 10 in the morning on the Saturday on the first day of spring.
The birds are chirping, it’s going to be a 75-degree day, and my beloved Temple (Football) Owls are working to find better ways to defend their turf and grab as much of the bad guy turf as possible.
The particulars will unravel over the next month.
What we already know is that 17 of the 22 starters return from a 9-3 team and some of the redshirts who sat  last year may be better than a handful of the starters, let alone as replacements for the five departed.
Defensively, I see this team as perfectly suited to a 3-4, rather than the current 5-2 alignment. That way, you have two athletic 6-5 defensive ends (Mo Wilkerson and Kadeem Custis) coming at the quarterback with a future NFL tackle in Levi Brown playing nose guard and being a lock-down run-stopper. You can move Adrian Robinson to linebacker and just have him blitz on every passing down, but from all different gaps.  If I was a quarterback facing that, I’d run the other way.
Offensively, I’d like to see a quarterback who can make plays both running and passing. I think that quarterback is here.
On special teams, I’d like the see the long-snapping situation tighten up.
Fix all of those fixable items and you have a team with designs on much better than 9-3.
I have a feeling the Owls are going to find a couple of reliable long-snappers, a quarterback who has moxie and becomes a weapon both with his arm and feet and a defense that can provide a relentless pass rush.
Hope springs eternal, but this time the hope comes with a lot of supporting facts.

01.18.10
by

Why AG turned down East Carolina (and Cincy and Tenn.) …

I don’t mention coach Fran Dunphy on here because I’m not much of a hoops fan, but I admire the man a lot.
The thing I admire most about him is that he already is a Hall of Fame coach in my mind but he doesn’t drag Temple needlessly through speculation every time a big-time opening comes up.
Fran Dunphy is a Philly guy through and through and even if he wins the national championship with the Owls, he will likely remain the Temple head coach.
Temple will be his last head coaching job.
There is much to admire about that.
You can throw a Brinks’ truck worth of money at him and he will likely wave the Brinks’ truck by so he can get to his Suburu parked in the Liacouras Center lot.
Philly and family mean that much to him.Temple fans are comforted by that and they don’t take it for granted.
They trust Fran Dunphy. They have plenty of reasons to do so.
I must admit that I get uneasy with this yearly speculation that comes up surrounding Temple’s other high-profile coach, Al Golden.
Word comes tonight from multiple reliable sources that Al Golden has withdrawn his name for consideration for the East Carolina head football coaching job, reportedly telling Terry Holland to politely take his job and shove it.
Politely, of course. (Rick Stockstill will likely get that job now.)
It’s all part of The Plan.
I have to trust Al today because the one thing he said when he took the Temple job was that he had a plan to turn Temple’s football fortunes around and that it wouldn’t take long for Temple fans to discern that plan.
You’ve got to give the guy credit. He had a plan and it didn’t take any of us long to realize that it would work.
He is an East Coast recruiter without peer who has high schools from Boston to Washington, D.C. locked up. He can walk into any one of them today and be welcomed with open arms.
He would have to change his whole recruiting footprint if he went outside that corridor. Cincinnati, Tennessee and East Carolina are far outside that footprint.
His alma mater, Penn State, is not.

I have a feeling he’s got a similar plan for his own career.

My guess is that he’s had his eyes on the Penn State job all along.
Think about it.
What better way to get the attention of the people he wants to nudge than to have Temple … TEMPLE … beat Penn State in State College next year?
Golden told selected boosters at the bowl party that the Owls were “loaded” next year.
Loaded, with emphasis on loaded with talent.
Penn State people may not realize it, but Temple was a quarterback away from being in the game until the end with the Nittany Lions this season. I’m not talking about a Colt McCoy here. I’m talking about an Adam DiMichele, a guy who is capable of making 20 to 30 positive plays on his own.
Temple might have that guy next year.
With one swift Temple over Penn State blow, he would unsettle the Penn State fan base and hasten the departure of the legendary Joe Paterno and sell himself as his successor in the same day.
He would not get that chance at Cincy or at Tennessee or at East Carolina.
ESPN.com reported him as the leading candidate at Cincy before he withdrew his name from consideration for that job. My guess is that Golden, not Cincy, made that decision.
Same with Tennessee.
Do you really, honestly, think Louisiana Tech’s Derek Dooley is a better coach than Al Golden? The same Dooley who had a losing record in the past three years?
I didn’t think you did.
If Al Golden wanted that job, he probably could have gotten it.
He didn’t want Cincy.
He didn’t want Tennessee.
He didn’t want East Carolina.
He wants Temple.
It’s all part of The Plan.
Hopefully, The Plan evolves into Al Golden seeing Temple the way Fran Dunphy sees Temple but that’s up to Al to decide.
With no attractive jobs left, he’ll have another year to think about it.
What the Temple administration does behind the scenes and what he Owls do on the field will determine the future now.

11.17.09
by

Temple Fans: Cherry Out The Linc Saturday

Loyal Temple fans need to bring at least one other fan to the game.



Weather, SEPTA, Phillies … no excuses on Saturday. Be there.

By Mike Gibson
A quick search of Ticketmaster’s data base revealed some very good news yesterday.
At least 10 rows of end zone tickets were sold in a matter of hours on Monday morning alone.
That’s more tickets on one day that any other day this fall and it came on what usually is the slowest day of the week.
Who knows what moved that many tickets in one day?
Let’s hope the trend continues to go upward the rest of the week.
Maybe it’s the winning, maybe it’s the head coach’s tireless efforts promoting the program.
Probably a little bit of both.
I’ve always been a strong proponent that word-of-mouth is the best advertising.
It’s been that way since the caveman found out that rubbing two sticks together could start a fire.
So Al Golden’s radio appearance combined that word-of-mouth advertising with mass media.

Honor the Seniors:

Longest winning streaks
Florida 20
Texas 14
TCU 12
Cincinnati 10
Alabama 10
Boise State 10
Temple 8
Georgia Tech 8

Golden’s 20-minute appearance on an Eagles’ pre-game radio show (97.5, The Fan) certainly didn’t hurt and may have helped a lot. Give coach a lot of credit for making his way across the bridge and into South Jersey to do that for Temple football and the university.
He didn’t have to and could have easily begged out.
The show, hosted by Temple grad Harry Mayes, has upwards of 200,000 listeners every Sunday so Golden spreading the Temple gospel had to have an impact.
We should all follow the Temple head coach’s lead. Not all of us can get on the radio, but every single one of us can use word-of-mouth advertising.
If every one of Temple’s core base could bring just one other fan, we’d have a crowd approaching 30,000 on Saturday.
If every Temple fan who has been attending all year can bring two or more other fans, all the better. If the students spread the word around campus and on Facebook and Twitter and MySpace, that will help immeasurably.
The pre-game tailgates have been great and the games have been even better.
It’s a fun event that won’t be duplicated in this town until next year’s Mayor’s Cup.
All indications are that a large crowd will be seeing off Temple’s remarkable senior class for Saturday’s 1 p.m. kickoff against Kent State at Lincoln Financial Field.
But it won’t be the happening it should unless YOU do YOUR part.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it or hope somebody else does it.
Temple has a football team that has won eight straight games for the first time since 1973.
It has a team that needs to beat Kent State in order to move a step closer to clinching a championship.
It has gotten positive mentions in Sports Illustrated and ESPN in recent weeks.
All of that coverage would pale in comparison to what might happen if Lincoln Financial Field was sold out Saturday.
I know and you know it’s not going to happen, but bear with me for a second.
Temple has 260,000 alumni, 5,000 full-time employees and 33,000 full-time students.
Do the math. That’s 298,000 people still living who are being directly represented by the young men wearing Cherry and White.
Subtract 70,000 from that figure.
In a perfect world, 228,000 fans would be turned away at windows on Saturday, trying to get tickets.
I realize it’s not a perfect world, but we can all do a lot in the next few days to get as many of those seats filled with Temple fans on Saturday.
We can and we should.
Let’s make Lincoln Financial Field a solid wall of Cherry on Saturday.

10.29.09
by

Mids give whole new meaning to term whistle-blower


Mike Gerardi (14), the QB phenom of spring ball, cheers on Peanut Joseph during TD run.
By Mike Gibson
Nothing could be more fitting this year than Temple playing at Navy on Halloween.
Navy played a dirty trick on Temple and it could turn out to be an unexpected treat for the Owls come Saturday.
This year would have been the fourth year of a home-and-home contract with Temple.
Navy and Temple, both in good faith, signed a contract to honor two home and two away games.
Temple honored the final part of its road commitment with a trip to Navy last season.
Then the Owls threw a scare into Navy last season, leading, 27-7, in the fourth quarter before losing, 33-27, in overtime.
Navy’s brass thought for a minute about the possibility of playing Temple in hostile Philadelphia in 2009, then placed a phone call to Temple.
“Err, you know that game we promised you? We’re not coming.”
Navy tore up the contract and would have paid Temple a $200,000 fee for breaking it, but that left the Owls in a bind. They had no team to replace Navy.
So Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw did the only thing he could do with an 18-inch battleship gun pointed squarely at his head:
Offer to play the game in Annapolis.
“Yeah, that’s the ticket,” Navy said.
Navy has a distinct advantage at home. The Middies have a fan who blows whistles when Navy ballcarriers are seemingly stopped, yet the fan never gets kicked out of the stadium and game officials feign deafness around him. He’s the guy who blew a whistle three times while Temple defenders stopped a ballcarrier on fourth and goal, only to see the guy get off the ground and run into the end zone with the officials signaling touchdown and Temple coaches yelling, “what the fu*k?” The whistle caused Al Golden to run onto the field and scream to officials after the bogus score. Temple players stopped tackling the Navy guy for fear of being called for a penalty, only to see the Navy guy score after the whistle. He’s the guy talked about in a response to this well-written post, page down to an answer by Navy72, on a Navy fan website. (He’s a skinny guy with brown hair and a moustache, and last year parked his backside across the aisle from a group of Temple fans in the end zone. If you see him blow one whistle, please point him out to security this Saturday.)
Yet there is irony in this situation this year.

Getting the Owls out of here at this time can only help them do what they need to do, focus on the task at hand

The irony is that Navy might have done Temple an inadvertent favor.
I mean, did Navy know the World Series would be played in Philadelphia that day?
No.
The Phillies are playing that day in Philadelphia and the city is crazed right now.
Everything else in sports is an afterthought, even the Eagles.
All of the parking lots around both stadiums will be all Phillies red all day long.
Getting the Owls out of here at this time can only help them do what they need to do, focus on the task at hand. This is an important game between two teams who have won five straight games. The winner, especially if it’s Temple, will get sorely needed recognition on a national scale.
It’s was a dirty trick Navy played, no doubt.
If the Owls get a win, though, it will be a delicious treat.