Sometimes fans are too close to the forest to see the trees.

As far as Temple football is concerned, I’m right in the middle of the trees so I examined the roster, expressed my concerns about an inexperienced new quarterback, mixed the recipe and baked a conclusion:

6-6.

An improvement on the 5-7 we saw last year but, at least for me, a potential disappointment.

As far as a second year for a coach with the resume of K.C. Keeler, not as impressive as I wanted the second season to be. Kinda thought at the end of last year that the Owls would be able to grab a superstar FCS starter or a competent lower-level FBS starter.

Instead, they grabbed the third-string quarterback from Penn State.

It might work out. It might not.

Might doesn’t get me to a bowl game. Love the way this roster is constructed with the exception of the most important of the 22 starting positions.

Sometimes, though, it’s good to look at things from 40,000 feet and that’s exactly what the guys from The College Football Experience did with their season preview of the Owls dropped yesterday.

Colby Dant and Ryan “Moneyline Mac” McIntyre know their college football and both agreed that the Owls would finish 8-4.

That’s not the biggest news.

“Moneyline Mac” predicted the Owls would beat Penn State in the second game, noting that K.C. Keeler is in his second year and Matt Campbell is a Penn State rookie still putting the pieces together.

He also correctly asserts that if the Owls do the impossible and beat Penn State, they are losing to Toledo the next week. (I’m not as sure about that because Matt Rhule beat PSU and I wrote two days after that the tougher game would be the next week at Cincinnati. It was but the Owls still managed to win. I think Keeler is a better head coach than Rhule so we will see.)

Crazy or not, there is some logic to Mac’s assertion in that there are rookie mistakes for every first-year coach in a new spot. (Even K.C. had his rookie mistake in the Navy game, not falling on the ball and kicking the winning field goal with no or little time left after getting a first-and-goal at the 1 with 1:16 left on the clock.) Hell, if Colby and Ryan are right and the Owls finish 8-4 all will be forgiven.

First, because they have noted quite correctly that Temple has drawn the toughest schedule in the American Conference.

They aren’t the only ones who have noticed.

Phil Steele’s college football magazine was named No. 1 in a survey for this summer and that’s confirmed my personal bias for a number of years and even Phil has said “Temple’s schedule is by far the toughest in the American Conference.”

That, and an injury-prone inexperienced quarterback fueled my lower expectations.

If I had to choose between me being right and Colby and Ryan, I give the nod to the latter two guys and will gladly write the apology post in December.

Sometimes you need to get above those trees and out of the woods to see the forest below and let’s hope this is one of those times.

Monday: Swimming Upstream

Friday: Real Estate Deal

Coaches like to talk about getting the right fit and that includes everything from game plans to starter to recruits.

A fit is looking like part of the plan for Temple in the high school recruiting department as the Owls picked up the New York City championship game MVP (Ameir Morrow) last year and the D.C. Championship game MVP this year (Jakari Graham).

Not surprising that both found Philadelphia a good fit because they thrived in big city environments before and there is a belief–at least among the Temple coaching staff–that they can thrive here, too.

Graham isn’t the only big-city player Temple has added as Temple got added Camden pass rusher Amara Dolleh (6-5, 230), DeMatha Catholic (also D.C) offensive tackle Kevin Nesbittt (6-6, 320) and Charlotte, N.C. wide receiver Ethan Dempsey (6-3, 198).

Others–with the possible exception of edge rusher Caleb Saint Fleur (6-2, 230)–are country bumpkins by comparison. Saint Fleur is from Hollywood, Fla., which for all intents and purposes is Miami.

That’s 11 so far in an expected class of 25. The Owls have way more offers out that available scholarships so it is incumbent on those being recruited to accept the offers as soon as possible or risk holding the bag or going to lesser G5 or even FCS schools.

Temple is taking a developmental approach to its high school recruits, building a team the old-fashioned way–getting the skill position players a chance to play right away, while putting the linemen in a lock box with the idea being getting them in the weight room and a redshirt year to adjust to college without being force-fed into a starting job, like Stan Drayton was forced to do with Luke Watson.

If there is any concern so far, only one–Pleasantville (N.J.) running back Ta’kliesse Barnes–has a three-star rating. That will probably mean Temple won’t get the No. 1 recruiting class in the American Conference this year unless it hits on a lot of stars in the remaining 14 offers. That doesn’t mean it won’t be a good class but it does mean the public perception of it won’t be as high.

All that matters is what the future Owls do between the white lines starting in 2027.

For the best recruiting news, follow Owlsdaily.com. Here is that site’s list of current Temple recruits:

After monitoring the upcoming visits from high school ranks, we’re very aware of what K.C. Keeler’s No. 1 June priority is right now.

Nabbing another No. 1 American Conference high school class. Temple should be able to recruit a great high school class every year because, with the transfer portal, P4s are pretty much dropping high school recruiting.

We’re onboard with that but the meteorological summer includes three months, not one, and there is a summer priority after that.

Getting freshman phenom quarterback Lamar Best up to speed.

Whether that speed means overtaking Jaxon Smolik and Ajani Sheppard, that’s pretty much a combination of two things: 1) Tyler Walker cramming his read-option offense into Best’s head and, 2) Best absorbing all that information.

Put it this way: After watching Smolik on Cherry and White Day, I came away with two observations and those were he was good enough to get Temple to a bowl game but probably not good enough to get Temple to a championship. There is a very low ceiling for both Smolik and Sheppard.

To me, the best Smolik can be is an “Evan Simon-Lite”–meaning having a lot of the qualities of Evan, but not all. After seeing Sheppard, he looks like Chester Stewart to me. Not good enough.

For Best, on the other hand, the sky’s the limit. His 41-inch vertical leap and 4.4 speed make him the most athletic quarterback in the conference by a longshot.

Those 5- and 6-yard gains on option reads with Simon (and perhaps Smolik) were nice but they turn into explosive 70- and 80-yard scores with Best.

A few of those and that ceiling is the American Conference championship.

Now no one understands the difficulty of jumping from high school ball to college more than Keeler and his staff but Best already made a similar jump when he went from Willingboro to St. Joseph’s. Willingboro is a good level of football but St. Joseph’s of Montville is the top of the top of New Jersey football.

P.J. Walker made a similar jump from being a New Jersey state champ at Elizabeth to a true freshman starter at Temple.

Best is faster in the 40, has a higher vertical leap and threw more touchdown passes in high school than Walker and it doesn’t take a leap of faith to see him having a more impactful freshman season.

Recruiting is the focus this June, but the Owls have two months to get Best up to speed and that should be job one until opening day. Whether that speed puts him between Smolik and Sheppard or gives him the job outright is something that should be up to Lamar himself.

For those who say it cannot be done, it has been done at Temple in 2013 and at BYU in 2025 with pretty good results. Hell, every year all over college football true freshman quarterbacks win G5 championships.

That’s never been done at Temple. Now would be a good time.

Every once in a while, Temple head football coach K.C. Keeler might say something that would give one pause.

For me, the “biggest something” was that Keeler noted that preseason practice would “basically start on June 1” after giving a summation of Cherry and White Day way back on April 11.

June 1 is today.

(Made a note to check when the “official” NCAA practice was allowed and it was 42 days before the opening game. This is way more than 42 days.)

Now that depends upon the interpretation of preseason practice is. What Temple is allowed to do from now until August is eight hours per week of preseason instruction, which includes four hours of coaching and weightlifting, etc.

When things really ramp up in August it’s 42 hours per week. Maybe the Owls can get away with a little over eight hours of “official” work because there’s really little oversight in college football anymore but we’ll see.

Eight hours a week until August seems a little light.

That’s a lot of cramming for some important tests, particularly with so many new faces on the team.

Since Keeler considers June 1 the target date, we can assume he’s going to make the best use of those eight hours and treat it as a preseason camp of sorts.

That has to be good news for every Temple football fan because it involves film study and learning from the mistakes in 2025 that turned a 7-5 season into a 5-7 one.

Maybe that 5-7 goes to 7-5 or better.

To me, the key is establishing a running game and Temple has the pieces in place. Hunter Smith was every bit as talented as No. 1 back Jay Ducker was and way more explosive. He has the inside track to the No. 1 RB spot.

Sam Brown has been oft-injured and had some impressive Big 10 production along with being the star of spring practice. (Maybe that’s because Smith had been held back due to some Joel Embiid-type “load management.”)

The real surprise, though, in the young depth behind Smith and Brown, including Keveun Mason (who showed flashes last year as a true freshman), DeCarlos Young, R.J. Blount and Ameir Morrow. I don’t remember the last time Temple has had that kind of quality depth at the RB position. Maybe the last time was when Paul Palmer played here with Shelley Poole, Sheldon Morris, Ventres Stevenson and the McNair brothers (Todd and Scott) but that was the mid-1980s.

The question worth asking is can someone out of those bottom three show enough flashes to actually make a difference on the field?

Unlike last year, when it was Mr. Inside (Ducker) and Mr. Outside (Smith), we think yes.

In fact, if someone does, Temple benefits because they all have different skill sets and, in the American Conference, speed kills and the younger RB group appear to be slightly faster than their older teammates.

They got a head start by being a big part of spring practice and we’ll find out if that speed moves them up the depth chart starting today.

Friday: No. 1 priority