Category Archives: Bernard Pierce

12.01.11
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Five 7 reasons why Bernard Pierce should stay

“When I get out of here, I’m going to lay out that guy with the long hair
 from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Troy Polamalu, and the only reason I’m going to be able
 to do that is because I stayed my full time at Temple building my body for the rigors
 of the NFL.  When I do that, you’ll know it’s a signal from me to you to stay in school.”



Just as promised, Steve Maneri lays out Palamalu.


The subject of my favorite Temple Owl came up with one of my favorite Temple fans in the parking lot before the game last Friday.
“What is Bernard majoring in?” my friend, Chet, said.
“Nuclear physics,” I shot back.
Of course I knew Bernard Pierce is majoring in the same thing I majored in at Temple University, Communications. I have that degree on my wall and it is next to my two Associated Press Best Sports Story awards and one Pennsylvania Newspaper Publisher Association award for Best Feature Story.
Without the degree, I don’t get a chance to get the other two items framed. Whatever little writing talent I had as a 17-year-old was harnessed into a readable style thanks to Temple profs.


Of course, I could never run the ball like Bernard Pierce can but I see a bright future for him in Communications after football and the average work lifespan of a good NFL running back is about five years.

The average work lifespan of a TV guy with a Temple degree is about 60 years longer than that.
Ask Kevin Neghandi of ESPN.

Another reason to come back: Steve Addazio tells funny jokes.



If Bernard really was majoring in nuclear physics, I’d advise him to leave.

Since it is Communications and he is thisclose to graduating, he would be a wise Owl to stay.
He’s going to run into a lot of shady sports agent characters and they are going to give him a lot of advice designed to get their cut of his money a year early. My best advice (and it’s free) for him is to go with the first agent who tells him it is in his best interest to stay.
Five good reasons:



Mel Kiper is much more likely
to call Bernard Pierce a No. 1 choice
next year, not this one.

 Draft status _ There are plenty of good running backs coming out including Trent Richardson (Alabama), Lamar Miller (Miami), Montee Ball (Wisconsin), Chris Polk (Washington), Cyrus Gray (Texas A & M) and LaMichael James (Oregon). I know Bernard is better than these guys. You know Bernard is better than these guys but, right now, those guys are rated higher than Bernard. That means he could go as low and third or fourth round. Next year, when he’s the unquestioned best (by you, me AND Mel Kiper), he will get guaranteed first-round money and be able to start his own TV station. If he gets drafted in the second round or below, which appears likely, there is no guaranteed money, which means he is an injury away from getting cut and sitting next to me in the stands at Temple games wishing he was out there (just like Big East player of the year Walter Washington sadly did when he got bad advice from an agent and came out early in 2004).

 

Bernard already has a nice suit
ready for next year’s Heisman ceremony.



The Heisman Trophy _ With Richardson, James and Ball graduating, Bernard has jumped over the field into the top five in next year’s Heisman conversation. All the good backs will be gone. He’ll be on national TV in the bowl game and every TV guy will be mentioning his name as one to watch in next year’s Heisman talk. Also, he’s playing Villanova next year in the first game. He should get 500 yards and six touchdowns in that game alone and that should catapult him into the top of the race. Usually, guys who get to the top early stay there at the end. If he stays, I will make it a singular mission to gather up all my Temple communications alumni buddies and get Bernard the Heisman Trophy. What a great thing it would be for him to be at the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan accepting the award that just eluded Temple’s Paul Palmer in 1986. Plus, it would set him up for a good TV gig 10 years down the road.



No wonder BP has such
great vision.
The Franchise Tag _ Not Temple’s, mine. For the past three years, I have been the guy yelling the loudest from the stands: “GIVE THE BALL TO THE FRANCHISE. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT’S FOOTBALL!!” For some reason, I didn’t do that in the Kent State game and, after all three BP touchdowns, the two teenage girls sitting in front of me turned around to me, gave me a fist bump, and said: “GIVE THE BALL TO THE FRANCHISE. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT’S FOOTBALL!” I wonder where they got that from? I must’ve been a bad influence on those kids. If there’s no Bernard Pierce next year, I got nothing. Matty Brown will do a nice job, but it won’t be the same without The Franchise. Scot Loeffler, you are on your own calling plays. Could get scary.

Tesa, Wayne and Cyrus Tribue
The Mom Factor _ Watching all the moms with their sons on Friday, I thought it would be great if Tammy Pierce would be escorted onto the field by Bernard Pierce for the Senior Day ceremony next year. Tammy has been Bernard’s No. 1 fan since Day One. She deserves that day in front of a packed house next year. (And it will be a packed house. Paul Palmer drew over 40,000 to crappy Veterans Stadium for his final home game.)  I met her in the concourse at the Miami game and, without knowing who she was, she said to me: “Nice to meet, you, I’m Bernard Pierce’s mom.” I stood there with my mouth open for about five seconds before thinking of something to say. “He’s my favorite player, I love him,” I said (nothing kinky, of course just like a proud adopted uncle). Tammy said, “Well, we do, too.” There’s a lot more people at Temple who love him than in the NFL. There is no agent out there who loves him like we do.

Ramone looks sad he came back (not!)

Lavoy: All smiles during his senior year.

Ramone Moore and Lavoy Allen _ Like Bernard Pierce, both Ramone Moore and Lavoy Allen filed paperwork with the pros to determine the level of interest. Hopefully, like Ramone and Lavoy, Bernard will make the same determination to come back. Neither guy is far away if Bernard wants to get advice. Lavoy is practicing with the Sixers. Bernard walks by Temple basketball practice on the way to class every day so he can talk to Ramone as well. Just by looking at the smiles on the faces of both guys during their senior years at Temple should be enough for Bernard to want to experience his senior year at Temple as well.

Daz finally figured out how to use Bernard Pierce best.
The Daz Factor _ Both head coach Steve Addazio and offensive coordinator Loeffler finally figured out by the Army game that the best way to use Bernard Pierce was outside the tackle box, not between the hash marks. You hear the term “edge rusher” almost exclusively referring to a defensive player, but Bernard Pierce is the best edge rusher on offense I’ve ever seen. When Addazio stopped using Pierce between the tackles like he did at Ohio and Bowling Green, we saw the real Bernard Pierce once again. He’s got the speed to beat everyone outside on sweeps and tosses. I don’t think they will go back to between the tackles again. That will undoubtedly  mean bigger numbers and bigger things for a bigger and better Bernard Pierce in 2012.




11.14.11
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Survive and advance time for Owls

They do allow you to give the ball to the fullback and Wyatt Benson can run.

Survive and advance.
You can toss out all the scenarios you want about Temple having a chance at winning the MAC East if so-and-so beats such-and-such but, simply put, we’ve reached the “survive and advance” part of the season for Temple.
Win and live another day.

“Please tell Daz to stop using you as a fullback. Toss left, toss right.
Screen passes. Sweeps. That’s The Franchise I know.”

Photo by Ryan Porter

Lose and there will be no postseason, even though there will be another game to play.
Getting to a bowl game seems possible, even probable, for Temple should the Owls go 8-4 again.
You can forget about a bowl with a 7-5 Temple team.
Lose to Army and it’s over.
Yeah, you can say lose to Army and beat Kent and Ohio loses to Miami (and Buffalo finishes ahead of Bowling Green) and the Owls could win the MAC East.
That’s way too many variables to leave in other folks’ hands.
That’s why I’m hoping that Temple goes balls out in practice this week for Army.
Prepare for that option, which I have full confidence Chuck Heater is doing right now.

Joe Jones: Reverses, throwback passes.

Work on getting Bernard Pierce up to speed (and by speed we mean tweaking the offensive package so that he goes right and left and not up the middle).
If you want to run up the middle, hand the ball off to the fullback.
Get Chris Coyer more comfortable in his role, which means to stick the ball into Bernard Pierce’s belly and quickly pull it out and make a pass downfield to an open Temple Owl.
Work on the reverses with Joey Jones and throw in a trick play (a throwback pass from Jones to Coyer) or two (a halfback pass by Bernard Pierce). Heck, both Jones and Pierce can throw the ball (they both have a touchdown pass in their careers).
Army knows Jones can throw the ball. His touchdown pass, a nice tight spiral at Army, was Temple’s best forward pass last season.
Maybe even fullback Wyatt Benson will get the ball once or twice a game. As good a blocker as he is (and he’s a terrific one), he was a stud running back in high school at Haverford School.
Army hasn’t seen that part of his game on film yet.
When it is survive and advance, you pull out all of the stops.
Hopefully, that’s what practice will be all about this week.

11.10.11
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Temple becomes bowl eligible

Any Eagle fan can tell you what the first words out of a famous Temple football father’s mouth will be after a win.
Andy Reid will clear his throat, cough a couple of times, and say:
“First off, any win in the National Football League is a good win.”

Deon Miller makes nice catch for touchdown.

That’s pretty much how I feel about the Mid-American Conference these days.
Any win in the MAC is a good win and Temple’s 24-21 bowl-eligible-qualifying win over gritty Miami (Ohio) was a good way to cap one of the most beautiful November days and nights, weather-wise, I can ever remember in my nearly half-century of living in Philadelphia.
The game was not as perfect, mind you, but pretty much what I expected.
Pretty much what all the Temple fans I talked to in the pre-game tailgate expected, too.
“Twelve-and-a-half points is way too high,” I said to pretty much everyone.
“Yeah,” pretty much everyone replied.
I thought the defense recaptured a little bit of the swagger it lost in the last couple of weeks (heck, it was hard to blame the defense for the Bowling Green loss) and the offense did just enough.
Game-plan wise, I would have liked to seen more first down play-action passes and not being forced into a situation where you HAVE to pass on third down all the time. I don’t think Temple mixed it up particularly well on offense. Then again, compared to last year’s offensive game plan, it was pure genius.

Dream remains alive
The ONLY scenario Temple can win the MAC East:
(Updated 11:35 a.m., 11/11/11)
Temple wins over Kent
Ohio loses to Miami (assuming it beats BGSU)
(TU, Miami and Ohio all tied
with 5-3 records but TU wins
on basis of second criteria)
Note: If Ohio loses to BGSU but not Miami, Ohio wins tie-breaker
source: MAC League Offices

There were a couple of silly penalties, one a late hit out of bounds and one an offsides, but those things can be fixed in the next week or so of practice.
I was heartened to hear that people behind me were getting text messages from folks watching at home that their enjoyment of watching the Temple game was curtailed because ESPN cut in for a Joe Paterno press conference.
Good.
There is no reason to be living within an hour’s drive of the stadium for a Temple home game and watch on TV. If my friends from Palmerton sitting behind me can get by one night of the year on four hours worth of sleep, then so can the Philadelphia couch potatoes who give Temple a bad fan reputation by staying home. I hope they missed a lot of exciting plays because I saw them all. I know Temple has a “softcore” fan base who stay at home and watch every time the Owls are on local TV (ratings indicate it), but that part of the fan base does the team and school irreparable harm by doing so. You can’t talk about being in a BCS conference and not travel to a home game.
End of rant.
From a personal standpoint, a highlight of mine was finally getting to meet my favorite player’s Mom.
I have three favorite players from the current era, Adrian Robinson, Adam DiMichele and Bernard Pierce, but Pierce is The Franchise in my mind and therefore my favorite. Heck, speaking as someone who saw Paul Palmer play every game, he’s flat-out better than Boo-Boo and that’s the highest compliment I can ever give anyone. He’s faster than Paul Palmer, has better moves and vision in the open field and can deliver more punishment to tacklers. The only facet of Paul’s game that was better was his durability.
So Pierce is my favorite Temple player and he has been since his freshman year.
Tammy is Bernard Pierce’s mom and while it was sad to see BP not playing (he should be back against Army), it was good to see the entire Pierce family just as wrapped up in the Owls as they would be if he was out there.
Hopefully, when The Franchise finally gets out there, Scot Loeffler will tweak the package for him just enough to get Pierce the ball in open space and not utilize him on “fullback-type”  draws so much. Pitchouts to the wide side of the field and screen passes ought to make Bernard Pierce lethal once again.
Still, you can’t say enough about the relief effort of tough hombre Matty Brown. If it wasn’t for Matty’s 120 yards, there would be no three-point win over a good team.
Even Andy Reid would agree.
Time’s yours.

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.

08.31.11
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The Eve of (Villanova’s) Destruction

Once again, we’ll let the Lovely Laura be your guide on what to expect tomorrow.

Long before midnight tomorrow night, we’ll find out if Steve Addazio can coach.
Despite what many of my Florida Gator friends tell me, I suspect he can. The sign of a great CEO is his knack for surrounding himself with top upper-level management.
Already, for whatever flaws Addazio might have had as an OC, he appears to have this CEO thing down.
What makes me confident is that the guy has surrounded himself with coordinators who might be the two best in college football, regardless of the level.

Chuck Heater was the defensive coordinator at Utah when it went 11-0.
Yeah, Freakin’ Utah.
He was the co-defensive coordinator at Florida (with Teryl Austin) over  the past couple of years at Florida.
Don’t let the “co” title confuse you.
“I call Chuck Heater Mother Theresa,” Florida head coach Urban Meyer said last season. “He’s worked miracles with our defense.”
That kind of endorsement is good enough for me.
Loeffler was the quarterbacks’ coach at Michigan for Tom Brady and at Florida for Tim Tebow.
That’s all I needed to hear.
I think he can, and probably will, put this offense in a better position to succeed than Matt Rhule has done.
Addazio, by even his detractors’ accounts, is a motivator second to none and an accomplished offensive line coach.
I like what this equation can do for Temple’s football team this year.
Addazio’s motivation + Loeffler’s playcalling/QB developmental skills + Heater’s fire-eaters = big-time success for the Owls.
Offensively, I look for Bernard Pierce, “datboy Nard”, to run wild over this team. Remember, in the first year, as a true freshman, Pierce gained 66 yards on six carries against the Wildcats despite being cleared by the NCAA to play only a couple days before kickoff. Last year, in the joke move of all joke moves, Al Golden helped Villanova out by alternating Pierce with Matty Brown on every other series.

Adrian Robinson: Three sacks.

Defensively, I look for Adrian Robinson to get three sacks and for guys like Kadeem Custis and Morkeith Brown to be spending more time in Villanova’s backfield than the Wildcat quarterbacks and running backs.
We won’t have to wait until the second or third game to find out if Temple has the right people in charge.
We’ll know by 11 p.m. tomorrow night.
My gut tells me a 55-3 Temple win. My head tells me more like 35-14. The score will probably end up somewhere in between.
Anything less than 35-14 and we’re not in as good a shape as I thought.
Don’t worry.
The Eve of (Villanova’s) Destruction is at hand.

02.22.11
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Daz: ‘Scot will call the plays’

The Heisman “campaign” may be low-key this year, but nonetheless Scot Loeffler would be one wise Owl if he fueled the Owls’ offense with BP oil.

Google “Steve Addazio” on the internet and what you are likely to find is a litany of ramblings from Florida fans, justified or not, complaining about how Steve Addazio “called the plays” for the 2010 Gators.
Steve Addazio has become a synonym of offensive incompentence in their eyes.
I think it’s a pretty unfair characterization given that the buck always stopped with Saint Urban Meyer.
So Florida fans are going to love this latest pronoucement from Addazio’s lips:
“Scot will call the plays,” Daz said on Meet and Greet Day last week.



 Scot (one T) is new offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler, a quarterback genius who developed Tom Brady and Chad Henne at Michigan and Tim Tebow at Florida.
Loeffler is a big-time offensive mind who knows how to move the football, probably through osmosis, by now.

“Dude, my boy from Temple Football Forever told
coach Daz to give the ball to No. 30. That seals i t.
I’m putting you down for 20 TDs and 2,011 yards in 2011.”
Addazio, on the other hand, is a life-long offensive line coach who appears to be more at home in the trenches. If he’s comfortable with making Scot Loeffler the offensive head coach and Chuck Heater the defensive head coach, that makes me comfortable, too.
After meeting Daz for the first time last week, I must admit I was, err, Dazzled.
My sense is that he’s probably more suited to being a CEO/Motivator than someone who wants to be micromanaging each individual facet of his organization.
That’s got to be good for Temple because being a big-time football head coach is too large a job if you can’t hire people you can trust. See Andy Reid and his less-than-stellar NFL draft day record as a case in point.
If all Addazio does is leave the offense up to Loeffler and the defense up to Chuck Heater and take care of the CEO duties and motivates the hell out of the Owls, this  should be the best season yet.
The same guy Florida fans hated so much could be the very one Owl fans come to love.
With the exception of a failure to recruit a high-profile tailback to spell Bernard Pierce, he’s pushed all the right buttons so far.
There’s only one more button to be pushed.
The last thing I told him was to give the ball to No. 30.
He laughed out loud, that hearty belly laugh that I never heard from Al Golden.
Like any good CEO, I hope he processed the tip and passed it along to Scot.
11.30.10
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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
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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.

08.20.10
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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: