Temple-made Morgyn Seigfried talks with Geoff Collins

So far, we can say new Temple football coach Geoff (pronounced Jeff) Collins is 1-0 after having won his opening press conference.

Certainly, it was a more impressive introduction than the last two.

Rhule also won his, but stumbled on the question of “wanting to sign a 15-year contract, if Bill would let me ” which does not look all that sincere in retrospect. Steve Addazio got a loss because just about everyone in the crowd smelled his loving “South Philly macaroni” comment as the baloney it was then and turned out to be after a two-year stay.

Why Collins won it was mostly because of the things he did not say, not the things he did say.

Collins never mentioned the macaroni or the 15-year commitment and that was just as well. Everybody in the room, or at least most, knows what the landscape of college football is these days and Temple is just a stepping stone to further greatness. Really, any Group of Five school is and some Power 5 schools are as well. Ask Vanderbilt fans if they felt like a Power 5 team when their head coach left for another Power 5 school.

That’s the world we live in, where the bigger schools who draw the biggest crowds eat their young.

If Collins is a tasty morsel in a couple of years, then he will have done his job here and Temple and its fans will be better for it. Anyone who has spent recent stops in Mississippi, Georgia and Florida probably does not plan to put down roots in Philadelphia and the room knows that and Collins did not try to toss the bull bleep at them.

Collins deftly avoided the “Elephant in the Room” which was the revolving door of head coaches at Temple. It’s best to avoid promises you cannot keep. They might have well keep a revolving door at the E-O office Collins will occupy for at least part of his five-year, $2 million-per-year deal.

It would have been nice for Collins to have said it was his goal to be the next Wayne Hardin at Temple, a guy who spent 13 mostly great years here but that was the college football of yesterday and that’s history. For another subject, at least Collins knows the geography, having worked close by in Reading.

“Me, Matt Rhule, Sean Padden at Albright College,” Collins said. “I was the defensive coordinator, Padden was the D-Line coach and Matt Rhule was the linebackers’ coach and we had a blast.”

If he keeps winning in his coming days like he did the first one, this stop along the way on the Collins Train should be another, albeit higher-paying, blast.

Friday: Mayhem’s Already Here