Click on photo of Brandon McManus to see why the Eagles need to get him or Josh Brown once the final New York Giants’ cuts are made.
Category Archives: Brandon McManus
Here’s the kicker: Brandon McManus is one
Brandon McManus has some classy things to say about Temple fans.
The big story out of the March 3rd Regional kicking combine was that 47 reporters requested credentials.
Usually, it’s no more than four or five.
Reason?
Lauren Silberman was trying to make history as the NFL’s first female kicker.
She either paid $275 or was given $275 to make the trip.
She would have fared much better putting a 50-1 bet on the Temple men’s basketball Owls winning the NCAA championship.
CFPA winners
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Year
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Placekicker
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School
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2013
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Brandon McManus
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Temple
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2012
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Carlos Santos
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Tulane
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2011 (tie)
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Caleb Sturgis
Randy Bullock
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Florida
Texas A&M
|
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2009
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Brian Walsh
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Georgia
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As it stands now, and stood then, the bet on Temple cutting down the nets would have been much safer.
Her two kicks TOTALED 30 yards, one 19 and one 11.
All 47 reporters raced to her side to do the story.
Here’s the real kicker: Brandon McManus is one.
At the other end of the field, McManus was going 6 for 6, including 3 for 3 from beyond 50.
None of the reporters bothered to talk to him, but that wasn’t why he was there.
His stock immediately soared for the upcoming NFL draft.
Kickers are almost never picked in the draft but now it seems McManus could go somewhere in the middle rounds because of his performance at the combine on the heels of an outstanding season at Temple.
On Sunday, McManus received his CFPA as the specialist of the year for his performance while at Temple and got a rousing ovation from the 10,200 fans in attendance to watch the Owls top VCU.
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| France checking in, and we don’t mean former Soul and Eagle kicker Todd France. |
McManus ended his collegiate career as Temple’s career leader in scoring (338), punting average (45.4), field goals made (60), and field goals attempted (83). The 2012 first-team All-BIG EAST punter and 2012 second-team All-BIG EAST kicker set the season record for field goal accuracy (82.4) and set game records at Army for extra points made (9) and attempted (9). McManus played in EVERY game of his collegiate career. In 2012, McManus led the Owls in scoring (74) and went 32-of-33 in PAT. He punted 54 times for 2,433 yards (45.1 average), including a career-long 68-yard punt against No. 19/17 Rutgers, while 15 punts longer than 50 yards. McManus went 6-of-7 on field goals of 40+ yards, including a 50-yarder in the win over South Florida. He also kicked the game-winning field goal at Connecticut in overtime and contributed 40 touchbacks on 56 kickoffs (71.4 percent).
McManus had a Temple connection long before he arrived on campus. His coach at North Penn High, Dick Beck, was the captain of the 1990 Temple team that went 7-4.
Jim Cooper, Jr., the kicker coming on board this year, has another Temple connection. His dad of the same name was the kicker for Bruce Arians in the late 1980s.
McManus proved that you can stay home and do great things at Temple, following in the, err, footsteps of his good friend, Bernard Pierce, of the Baltimore Ravens.
While the reporters were taking notes talking to Silberman, let’s hope future recruits were making mental notes watching McManus.
That’s the bigger story, after all.
A tribute to the seniors
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| Brandon McManus was the reason the Owls opened 2-0 in the Big East. |
One of the constants of being a Temple football fan is change.
As long as I’m living, and hopefully that will be a long, long time, I will be in the stadium six times a year.
Have been for the last 30 years and, God-willing, will be for the next 30 years.
I also understand a lot of great people I’ve met along the way, parents and players, won’t.
(I’ve only seen parents of two players who’ve graduated come back and those were Mr. John Haley and Mr. Elliot Seifert whose only connection with Temple was that their kids were Owls and then they became great fans afterward.)
A lot of the players come back, but a lot of them don’t.
So it is with great sadness every year that this day comes, Senior Day, as it will again on Friday. I may never see some of these guys again, but the memories will always remain.
A few words about some of these guys are appropriate now:
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| Matt Brown: Toughest Owl ever |
MATT BROWN _ Everybody remembers the 226-yard, four-touchdown, performance at Army two years ago year but I have a couple of other favorite memories about this unparalleled Warrior. Last year, during the Kent State game he limped off the field. I turned to my seat neighbors and I said, “You know, I’ve never seen him get hurt.” Pretty much the most durable player I’ve ever seen play at Temple and, pound-for-pound, the toughest. Another memory was Brown scoring the TU third touchdown of the Eagle Bank Bowl to give Temple a 21-7 lead over UCLA. Before he squirted through the hole and into the end zone, 23,000 people rose to their feet with the loudest “Let’s Go Temple!” cheer I’ve ever heard, in or out of Philadelphia. People were pounding on the RFK Stadium frozen seats and going crazy and Brown did not let them down. Last year’s enduring memory was head coach Steve Addazio putting his arm around Brown and walking him down the sideline with some encouraging words when Brown appeared to be beside himself angry for not playing early in the New Mexico Bowl. It would be a sad irony if this amiable young man could not play Friday due to injury. I’m betting he will.
And here it is, Matt’s TD: (The Zapruder Film was shot in higher quality and that was in 1963)
BRANDON MCMANUS _ Without question, the MVP of this year’s team. My favorite memory was McManus’ game-winning kick in the second Mayor’s Cup game. Al Golden screwed the pooch by playing the first game too close to the vest and the Owls took a loss. They simply could not afford to lose to Villanova the second time and McManus drilled a 44-yarder that won a game the school absolutely needed. His 330 points (hopefully about 345 after Friday) will be a record that will stand a long, long time at Temple. Because he is a rare triple threat kick guy (kickoffs, FGs and punts) and can take up one roster spot normally occupied by two guys, he will be playing on Sundays next year.
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| My favorite TU photo of Montel, talking to Army linebacker Nate Coombs after a seven-touchdown performance. |
MONTEL HARRIS _ I used to call Bernard Pierce “The Franchise” but I really believe BP would have had a hard time seeing the field if Montel had been here the last three years. This kid has a greater initial burst into the hole than Pierce did and better moves inside the pile than Pierce did. The only thing Pierce had better than Montel is breakaway speed once he made it around the tight end and a quicker burst in that direction. I believe Harris will also be playing on Sundays. I can’t wait until a smiling Montel looks into the camera on Monday Night Football and says, “Montel Harris, Temple Owls.”
The only good thing is that the Owls lose just a dozen players and the returning ones should put Temple in the conversation for the upper half of the Big East in next year’s preseason predictions.
Here is the complete class (click over the name for Owlsports.com bios):
SENIOR STATUS
Twelve members of the 2012 Senior Class— RB Matt Brown; Vaughn Carraway Justin Gildea Marcus Green . C/.JHammond Montel Harris , Maurice Jones Brandon McManus Darryl Shine , Ahkeem Smith , Martin Wallace, John Youboty
WHERE’S SEAN?
Senior OL Sean BoyleSean Boyle will not participate in Fridays’ Senior Day activities. The NCAA has granted him a five-year clock extension, giving him a sixth year of eligibility. Plagued by injuries, Boyle did not play during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. He returned to action this fall as the team’s starting center but has missed the last three games. I see Sean slotting into Martin Wallace’s spot as an OT next year, strengthening an improving offensive line. To think that Sean started the 2009 opener against Villanova and will start the 2013 opener vs. Notre Dame is both mind-boggling and reassuring.
Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday
Better late than never
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| Montel Harris (8) needs a lift to see what is distracting Cody Booth (38) and Wyatt Benson (44). |
Two phrases rattled around my head during the fourth quarter of Temple’s 63-32 win at Army on Saturday:
- That’s more like it.
- Better late than never.
This is the Temple football team I envisioned back in August and September.
No, I’m not crazy enough to think that Montel Harris would have gone for 351 yards and seven touchdowns every Saturday but I thought both Harris and Matty Brown could go near or over 100 yards each game and that their running ability would set up some “explosive plays downfield in the passing game” that head coach Steve Addazio promised in the summer.
Temple football records Saturday:
Most rushing yards game individual: Montel Harris (351)Most touchdowns game individual: Montel Harris (7)
Most career points individual: Brandon McManus (332).
Most touchdowns game by a Big East team (9).
Whatever the Owls lacked on defense I thought could be made up by an offense turning the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard into an adding machine.
And, I thought, that would have been good for at least six wins and, maybe, as many as eight.
Now, the best the Owls can do is five because those explosive plays in the passing game never materialized, simply because the Owls stubbornly tried to pound the rock against bigger, more talented, defensive fronts for most of October and November. They might as well have been pounding their heads against a rock with that misguided approach.
The Owls were just as stubborn on Saturday in a 63-32 win over Army, but they could afford to do that against a team ranked near the bottom of the country in rushing defense.
They also helped themselves by eliminating the turnovers which, as Michael Vick can tell you, is the key to winning any football game.
If the Owls can somehow parlay Syracuse’s fear of Harris (and Brown) into some, err, explosive plays downfield in the passing game (perhaps off a fake to Harris on an early down), they can make a statement that they are ready to make a run at the top of the Big East ladder next year by rudely sending Syracuse off to the ACC.
The Owls won’t have Montel or Matty next year, but Jamie Gilmore and “Montrell” Dobbs figure to have the requisite three-star talent to pick up where those two left off.
And, pretty much, the rest of the team is back although I’d like to see a serious upgrade in the defensive secondary (hint: Kevin Newsome).
Harris’ performance was an eclipse that obscured a lot of other good things on Saturday, but it should not go unnoticed that Brandon McManus set the school record for career points by an individual, breaking Bernard Pierce’s standard of 324. McManus needed four going into Saturday’s game.
Another great kicker, high school All-American Jim Cooper, Jr., arrives for summer classes in July.
Other than that, as Jose from Norristown might say, it was amazing to see how much misinformation is out there.
Twice during the game, CBS Sports announcers said that Harris was the “leading rusher all-time in the history of the ACC’ and, later, the “15th-leading rusher all-time in the history of the ACC.”
Both were wrong.
In reality, Harris is still the second-leading rusher in the history of the ACC, falling 828 yards short of Ted Brown’s record set at North Carolina State. He is only 50 yards away from another 1,000-yard season.
I was privileged to see Paul Palmer’s 349-yard game against East Carolina and Saturday’s performance by Harris was even better, both on the stat sheet and stylistically.
Harris will have spent only one year here but he will always be remembered by me as a warrior and a great Temple Owl.
So will Brown and McManus and the rest of the seniors.
They deserve to go out in front of a large, appreciative home crowd on Friday.
Tomorrow: You think you’ve got troubles?
Tuesday: ???
Wednesday: A tribute to the seniors
Thursday: Throwback Thursday
Friday: Game Day Preview
Throwback Thursday: Games with Cincy have their kicks
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| Temple leads the all-time series with Cincinnati, 9-4-1 |
If Saturday’s game with Cincinnati comes down to a kick, chances are Temple will sign off on that right now. Heck, the Owls are 11-point underdogs.
The Owls have a great kicker in Brandon McManus, who already has the pressure of a game-winning OT kick under his belt.
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| Brandon McManus: Needs only eight points to become Temple’s all-time scoring leader. If the Owls throw play-action passes on first down and make Cincy defend the entire field, he could do it this weekend. |
If past games with Cincinnati are a yardstick, it just might come down to the length of a leg.
Field goals have played a big role in the series, which Temple leads, 9-4-1.
Probably the most famous kick came in the series only tie, 17-17, on Oct. 29, 1977.
A year earlier, Temple coach Wayne Hardin eschewed an extra-point attempt by kicker Wes Sornisky in an attempt to beat Penn State on the final play of the game. The two-point conversion pass went off the hands of the Temple receiver and the Owls lost, 31-30.
“A tie is like kissing your sister,” Hardin said afterward. “I felt the kids came too far and deserved the chance to win.”
Facing a similar situation the next season at Nippert Stadium, Hardin went for the tie, a 33-yard field goal by Sornisky.
It was good and the teams walked off the field with a 17-17 tie. It was Cincinnati’s second 17-17 tie that year. The Bearcats tied Louisville in an earlier game.
Afterward, a famous photo of Sornisky, who ironically wore No. 17, was published with him whispering something in Hardin’s ear. (I can’t find that photo, but I have a request in for it.)
“I asked him if this was like kissing your sister,” Wes said.
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| Don Bitterlich went on to an NFL career with Seahawks. |
It was probably like kissing your half-sister from Temple’s point of view because the Owls came from down 11 points in the fourth quarter to get in a position for a tie. That year, Cincinnati lost by two points to a Maryland team that finished No. 13 in the nation.
Sornisky was a great kicker for Hardin, who helped the Owls set what was then an NCAA record for consecutive extra points (106) that was snapped earlier that season.
Another kick that factored into a memorable Temple vs. Cincy game came in 1974.
The Owls had a nation’s best 14-game winning streak and Don Bitterlich, who still holds the school record for longest field goal (56).
That Monday’s Temple News sported the headline: OWLS TASTE BITTER-LICK OF DEFEAT FOR FIRST TIME. (Don’t know why, but the old clipping had Don missing a 44-yard FG. An Associated Press account of that game shows no TU field goals missed.)
Temple also won the 1978 game on a field goal, 16-13.
Missed field goals also factored into the last game played between the teams in 2003.
That game, on a Saturday night at unbeaten 13-point favorite Cincinnati, featured missed field goals from 37 and 24 yards by the Owls’ kicker. Temple, with a 24-10 fourth quarter lead, threw a bomb on 2nd and 2. Incomplete, of course. The Owls also threw three passes when they had a first-and-goal on the Cincinnati 2.
INCOMPLETE, of course, and the missed kicks had everything to do with a 30-24 double-overtime loss.
Now if the Owls can just put McManus in a position to win, they’ve got to feel good about their chances.
Interestingly enough, McManus and Sornisky went to North Penn High School and Bitterlich, a William Tennent grad, lives nearby in the Wissahickon School District.
Scripting the first 10 plays versus Cincy
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| These were Temple’s first five plays vs. Louisville. |
My back hurts from getting patted so much after calling for the Jalen Fitzpatrick throwback pass to Chris Coyer, finally used by Temple three months into the season.
My heart aches from being non-competitive on the scoreboard for three weeks.
My head still works, though.
I called for that pass on June 4 in a post I wrote detailing what would be a dream scenario season for the Temple football Owls. That’s five months and one day ago.
In order to avoid a nightmare scenario and get the Owls jump-started on a fine end to a rocky season, I would like to RESPECTFULLY suggest the following 10 scripted plays to open up the game on Saturday:
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| Khalif Herbin: First of his many Owl TDs. |
We’ll assume Temple wins the toss and Cincy kicks it through the end zone.
TU25-Chris Coyer uses a play-action fake to Montel Harris to freeze the defense and rolls out and hits Ryan Alderman for a 6-yard gain near the sideline.
TU31-Coyer drops back to pass, then shovels it forward to Harris for an 8-yard gain.
TU39-Coyer runs right on a read option with Harris trailing. When the pitch guy goes for Harris, Coyer takes it upfield for +14, running out of bounds for ball security purposes.
CI46-Coyer hands off to Fitzpatrick coming around on reverse. Fitzpatrick feigns a throw downfield, handing it off to 4.29 sprinter Khalif Herbin coming from the other side on the double reverse. Field opens for Herbin, who scores a 46-yard touchdown.
Temple 7, Cincinnati 0
Cincinnati quarterback Munchie Legaux then drops back and surprisingly finds the middle of the Temple defense open and hits George Winn for a 75-yard touchdown. Temple makes a nice tackle on Winn in the end zone, though.
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| TFF’s first scripted play of the game. |
Temple 7, Cincinnati 7
TU25-Coyer drops back and hands off to Harris on the wraparound draw, good for +15
TU40-Coyer rolls out and finds Harris over the middle of the field, +10.
50-Coyer rolls out and DBs come up on run support so he floats the ball over DBs head to Fitzpatrick, who gains 20.
C30-Coyer hands it off to Harris up the middle, +1.
C29-Coyer hands off to Harris, who uses a crunching block from No. 44 (Wyatt Benson) to get outside ala South Florida and scores a 29-yard touchdown.
Temple 14, Cincinnati 7
At this point, defensive coordinator Chuck Heater can be seen mouthing “bleep it” (only he didn’t say bleep) and goes to a 3-4 blitzing defensive scheme and unleashes speedy Owl linebackers Tyler Matakevitch and Nate D. Smith on pass rush responsibilities and Temple records a school-record 15 sacks. Other Owl LBs, like Blaze Caponegro and Ahkeem Smith, do a great job in run support. That allows Temple head coach Steve Addazio the comfort level to go back to his pound and ground approach and the Owls control both the clock and, with the help of Brandon McManus’ punting, the field position battle and win going away.
After the team sings “T for Temple U” public address announcer Carlos Bates says the uni will be giving out free Hawaiian Cherry and White Leis to the first 10K fans who come to the Syracuse game.
Hopefully, I won’t wake up from this dream to the last three weeks of nightmares.
The (not so) secret formula to beat Rutgers
The media blitz already has begun for this game with a crowd of at least 40K expected.
“We’ve got the best kicker in the country. That was the mindset. I was tempted to go for two (at the end of regulation) but I thought, ‘Let’s go to overtime.’ In overtime, we were really starting to pound the ball in there and almost scored (a touchdown) but I had enough. I was afraid we were going to have a center/quarterback exchange problem so I was going to center the ball to the left and I thought the best kicker in college football has got to win the game for Temple right now. And that was our strategy. We’re lucky it worked out.”_ Steve Addazio
One of the requirements for a journalism degree when I was at Temple was to take Creative Writing 101.
The basic tenant of the course was that a good story always has a solid beginning, middle and end and all three are intertwined.
So it is with Temple University’s 2012 football team.
The beginning (a 41-10 beatdown of Villanova) was good. Villanova is a much better FCS team than most people give it credit for and the 5-2 Wildcats are coming off a 38-14 win at No. 3 Old Dominion in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,000. Right now, Villanova looks like it could put up about 100 on Howard and 40 on Tulane.
The Owls are 3-2 and 2-0 and that’s better than most prognosticators expected.
The middle and end of the story is yet to be determined.
The middle comes EXACTLY at halftime Saturday against Rutgers and how that plays out will go a long way toward determining what happens at the end.
No one know knows what will happen on Saturday, but the formula to beating Rutgers is pretty simple:
1) Get off to a good start. The Owls have had some trouble doing that largely due to their stubbornness about establishing the run against solid fronts. Maybe they can tweak the game plan to fix that (see No. 2).
2) Get away from the offensive philosophy of pound and ground. If you thought the Penn State and UConn defenses were good at stopping the run, Rutgers is better. The Owls can move the ball on the ground against Rutgers ONLY if they set it up with some well-designed short slant passes. They can take advantage of past tendencies by play-faking to Montel Harris to freeze the defense, particularly on first down (not third). Roll out terrific running and clutch throwing quarterback Chris Coyer, the New Mexico Bowl MVP. That moves him away from the rush and gives him an option to run (if it’s open) or pass (if the DBs) come up on run support.
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| Brandon McManus kicks the game-winner against UConn. |
3) Get field goal kicker Brandon McManus, on the Lou Groza Watch list as placekicker of the year in BCS football, in field position to kick five FGs. He’s got a range of 55 yards and in, so that should not be too difficult. McManus has also kicked a 70-yarder (under a rush) in practice. Hopefully, the Owls can get him closer and more often Saturday. He is also on the Ray Guy Watch List as best punter in the nation and the Ray Guy in him will do the Lou Groza in him a favor with his normal booming punts.
“We’ve got the best kicker in the country,” Steve Addazio said. “That was the mindset. I was tempted to go for two (at the end of regulation) but I thought, ‘Let’s go to overtime.’ In overtime, we were really starting to pound the ball in there and almost scored (a touchdown) but I had enough. I was afraid we were going to have a center/quarterback exchange problem so I was going to center the ball to the left and I thought the best kicker in college football has got to win the game for Temple right now. And that was our strategy. We’re lucky it worked out.”
4) Show some “trickeration” for a change. That has not been on any past Temple game film and would probably work now. A throwback pass from Big 33 starting QB Jalen Fitzpatrick, now the Owls’ best WR, off a reverse (or double-reverse) to either Coyer, Romond Deloatch or Khalif Herbin would work against an over-pursuing defense.
That gets Temple 22 points.
Then the Temple defense just has to do about as good a job as Howard and Tulane did against RU.
Not much to ask since the Temple defense is about 100x better than Howard and Tulane.
It’s as simple as 1-2-3-4 and would be a heckuva middle to a great story, setting up a terrific ending.
It might even be a classic in the non-fiction section by New Year’s Day.
Tomorrow: Got a winner in town
Wednesday: TU-RU by the numbers
Thursday: Throwback Thursday (TU-RU theme)
Temple Football Forever 