Category Archives: Fran Dunphy

07.20.20
by

A summer project for Fran Dunphy

fran

Temple fans might be thanking Fran Dunphy if he replaces Miami, Idaho, and UMass with West Virginia, BYU and Villanova.

Right now, if Fran Dunphy is taking his new role as a new athletic director seriously, he’s sitting down at his kitchen table in Avalon, N.J., trying to get the Temple football Owls four football dates.

dropkick

That’s because the AAC has shown no signs of joining the Big 10 and limiting games to conference ones only. Independents like UConn and UMass will probably have to join the Ivy League and cancel schedules entirely. The strong rumor is the ACC will soon join the Big 10 and go conference only, too, so that leaves three games Dunphy has to tentatively replace:

  • Sept. 5, at Miami
  • Sept. 12, Idaho
  • Sept. 19, Rutgers
  • Oct. 10, UMASS

If Dunphy attacks the position with zeal, he was sitting at the kitchen table yesterday with the 2015 Temple-PSU game on in the background (ESPU, noon) with printouts of the composite 2020 FBS college football schedule trying to replace those dates. Hopefully, he has the phone numbers of the other 126 FBS athletic directors.

Sure, it would be contingent upon several things (like the season being played for one), but what would Dunphy and Temple have to lose by scheduling games based on contingency?

To me, it’s the wise Owl thing to do right now.

The Miami game is probably out even if the ACC decides to play its nonconference games. Miami practice has been suspended due to an outbreak of the virus on that team and no one knows if the Hurricanes will be able or even allowed to compete.

Assuming the ACC and Big 10 are out, on Sept. 5, that gives the Owls an attractive group of opponents to select. Villanova, where Dunphy has a home the other six months a year, is a possibility. The CAA has canceled its season but Villanova has indicated that it will look to fill its entire season with an independent schedule. Good luck with that. My choice for Dunphy is West Virginia. Florida State would not go to West Virginia but Temple will.

Rutgers has to be replaced (Sept. 19) as well.

The Owls also have to have contingencies for the independents, UMass and Idaho. The Sept. 12 game with Idaho can easily be replaced with BYU, which is probably the only independent other than Notre Dame that will be able to get games. BYU was scheduled to play a home game against Michigan State, but that’s out. Temple could easily replace the Spartans on that date.

The final date for the Owls is Oct. 10 against UMass. If UMass can’t play that day, Villanova should be available. (I realize there is a group of Temple fans who don’t want to play Villanova but with a competent FBS head coach, which Geoff Collins wasn’t on the day he lost to the Wildcats, Temple should never lose to Villanova. Say what you will about Rod Carey, but’s it’s indisputable he’s a competent FBS head coach.)

Of course, Dunphy could have been doing other things yesterday like taking the Catamaran for a spin around Townsends Inlet, but we can only hope for Temple’s sake that he is on the job now.

If he didn’t do it yesterday, there’s always next weekend.

Friday: Our Annual Week of  Vacation begins (July 24-31, best of TFF runs on Friday, Monday and Thursday)

 

 

 

 

06.22.20
by

How Dunphy can hit it out of the park

dunphy

Interesting choice of the word “earned” in this OwlsDaily headline.

Back in the mid-1960s, Fran Dunphy spent most of his springs as the shortstop of the LaSalle University baseball team. His second baseman in the double-play combination was former Temple University athletic director Bill Bradshaw.

Since it was a short fence at McCartney Stadium, we can assume Dunphy (and maybe even Bradshaw) hit a few out of the park.

Temple University names William Bradshaw new Director of Athletics.

Bradshaw continued his prolific home run hitting, at least in a figurative sense, at Temple as AD. It’s not a stretch to say that he saved the football program with the hirings of Al Golden and Matt Rhule and, even though he popped out with Steve Addazio (who won a bowl game), a 2-for-3 day at the hiring plate is a good performance in this sport.

More importantly, once the ship was righted, he signed contracts with Notre Dame and Penn State that increased Temple football’s profile nationally and he was directly responsible for the night that Temple set the record (that probably won’t be broken) for  the number of TV sets in the nation’s fourth-largest market glued to a college football game.

So Fran needs to get on the phone with his old buddy today or tomorrow if he’s going to make a difference in this job.

“Bill, what’s up?”

“Fran, congratulations on the AD job.”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you about. I don’t want to be known as a placeholder. I want to be a guy who makes a positive difference at Temple in this job.”

“Fran, here’s what you do. Get on the phone with Lafayette, Norfolk State, Coastal Carolina and rip up those contracts and tell them you are going to help them get games with Penn and Villanova.”

“Then what?”

“Then go through the list of Power 5 schools who are not at the top right now, I’m talking about the Indianas and the West Virginias, and schedule games with them. Try to get home and homes but, if you have to, settle for two for ones. It’ll help Temple get into the Power 5 to win those games. Hell, I’ll even help you try to get Notre Dame back on the schedule if you want.”

“Thanks, Bill. One more thing.”

“What’s that, Fran?”

“How about getting baseball back?”

“Let’s not get crazy. One thing at a time.”

Friday: What the other AAC teams are doing

 

08.10.12
by

New TU President: Success in BE a priority

Board of Trustees chairman Pat  O’Connor introduces Neil  Theobald.

“Looking at the fundraising program, how do we expand that, what’s our strategy, how do we make contact with people — that’ll be number one. Then, how do we make the athletic program successful in the Big East, that’s a very important step.”
_ Dr. Neil D. Theobald, President-elect, Temple

While this week at 10th and Diamond was dedicated to the short-term success of Temple’s football program, possibly the best indication of the long-term future of the program came on Tuesday.
That’s the day Dr. Neil D. Theobald was introduced as the new president of Temple University.
I must say I was a big advocate of Ed Rendell for the job because of the former Governor’s immediate identification as a “Joe Philadelphia” fan, the kind of subway alumni Temple football must attract to sustain success.
Still, I was impressed by Theobald’s first press conference at Mitten Hall when he listed “success in the Big East” as one of his top two priorities in office.
Theobald, a lifelong baseball fan, hit one out of the park with that comment.
As someone who lived through a Temple president who cared little about athletics (err, David Adamany), the correlation of priorities from the top and results on the field often coincide.
Temple University now has a $17 million practice facility that is more than adequate to succeed in a Big East environment and that was funded by a Board of Trustees that understands the importance of success in big-time college football.

Bloomington Herald-Times likes Temple’s choice.

Temple now has all of the pieces in place to be successful in the Big East in the two marquee sports, football and men’s basketball. A great BOT, a great president and, more importantly, great coaches in Steve Addazio and Fran Dunphy.
Addazio and Dunphy can work for anybody, but they chose Temple because of that kind of support from the top and because they are Temple-type people: Hard-working, sincere, honest and genuine.
“Coach Addazio is the realist (sic) coach who ever lived,” Oakland Raiders’ wide receiver Rod Streater said, paying Daz perhaps the highest compliment a player can pay a coach.
I think Theobald would like Daz and Dunphy and vice-versa.
I’m sure Theobald would want to be successful in baseball, too, but that’s not a high-profile sport at the collegiate level.
I’m all for Temple being succcessful in everything but, if I had my druthers, I’d take football first and men’s basketball second.
Those are my priorities.
It looks like those are Theobald’s, too.

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.