Category Archives: Louisville

11.04.12
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What happened?

Shockingly, this crack team of reporters didn’t ask Daz about why he didn’t use his final 2 timeouts with 1:46 left in the first half and the Owls driving.

Somewhere near the end of the first half yesterday, I found myself repeating two words:
What happened?
Even though I had to scratch my head about Temple (with two time outs and 1:46 left and down 31-17) giving up at the end of the first half by not using its two time outs, I wasn’t talking about the game.
I was talking about the last three weeks.
I’m not buying the argument that because this is the “big bad Big East” that the Owls are in over their head, talent-wise.

I called for this pass to be thrown on June 4. It took them to Nov. 3d
to throw it and it worked, but not for six.

According to Scout.com and Rivals.com, Temple recruited talent that was at or near the top of the MAC for the past five years.
So that puts the Owls somewhat on a par or more talented than Northern Illiniois, Ohio, Kent State and Toledo.
Or not.
So much for recruiting rankings.
I don’t think there’s any doubt now that any of those teams would do better in the Big East than Temple has.
Yet, as we stood three weeks ago after a win at UConn coming off a win over South Florida, I didn’t think any of the above teams would have done as well as Temple.
So, what happened?
Regression.

Regression might not have happened in the locker room, but it has on the scoreboard and, ultimately, that’s where you are judged in this business

Joe Paterno said a football team improves the most between the first and second games, yet did Temple  improve after a 41-10 win over Villanova? No, it lost to Maryland.
Head coach Steve Addazio says the team is so young, but nine of the 11 defensive starters against Villanova were either seniors or juniors. It’s young because of a couple of suspensions and a couple of other coaching decisions.
If it’s so young, then shouldn’t it be getting better, not worse, with each game?
I get that Louisville is unbeaten, but shouldn’t Temple AT LEAST have given the Cardinals the same kind of game 0-8 Southern Mississippi did (17-21) or 1-8 Florida International did (21-28)?
Should Temple not have given Louisville the same kind of game Troy (48-55) gave Tennessee or Tulsa (15-19) gave Arkansas yesterday?
Shouldn’t Temple have given Rutgers the same kind of game Kent State gave the Scarlet Knights?

And this, mentioning the Fitzpatrick to Coyer throwback on the eve of the Rutgers’ game. ….

I think so.
The Owls lost a lot to the NFL last year, but they didn’t lose so much talent that they should have been blown out three weeks in a row.
This is what happens when you don’t throw the ball on first down, using the one dependable weapon you have, Montel Harris, to set up the passing game with play fakes. Love the Jalen Fitzpatrick throwback pass to Chris Coyer that I called for on June 4 (see inset), but it shouldn’t have taken until Nov. 3 to use it.

This is what happened in the last 2 minutes before half. Do you see a timeout? 

When you throw so much on third down, you are asking for sacks and negative plays. I realize the fumbles came on third-down runs, but it’s OK to throw the ball on first and second down, too.
That’s one of the possible fixes. The other fix would be to move Kevin Newsome from offense to the middle of the field on defense. Daz says he’s not playing more at quarterback because he doesn’t know all the plays. (I don’t know how that’s possible since all they do is run it up the middle, do a read option left and a read option right and throw an occasional pass. That’s four plays to remember.) Then put him in the middle of the field on defense and tell him to knock down or intercept any ball in his zone. Since Temple has been killed on passing plays over the middle, Newsome could not be any worse than what the Owls have now. He is perhaps their most freakishly good athlete.
That said, the game got away from Temple yesterday because of a negative four in the turnover department.
The offense keeps giving the ball away and the defense can’t take it away.
That’s a pretty deadly combination.
Regression might not have happened in the locker room, but it has on the scoreboard and, ultimately, that’s where you are judged in this business.
Beat Cincinnati.
Win the game.
Win … the … game.

Tomorrow: Charting the first 10 plays, free courtesy of TFF

11.01.12
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Throwback Thursday: Temple 55, Louisville 14

Bill Cosby opened a monologue on Oct. 11, 1982 praising TU’s win over Louisville.

The Tonight Show host opened his guest stint on Monday night, Oct. 11, 1982 with this line:
“I love Louisville. I love Louisville because Temple beat them, 55-14, in football Saturday night. Crushed them. I love Louisville.”
The guest host, a comedian named Bill Cosby subbing for Johnny Carson again, received loud applause from those in the audience who loved Louisville the town and Temple football.
Then Cosby went right into a hilarous routine about his playing days at Temple.
Louisville football fans did not appreciate the mention as much and flooded NBC with letters (this was before the days of email).
Evidently, there were few Louisville football fans in the Burbank audience.
There are many more Louisville football fans today.
Winning can do that for a program.
There was a time not all that long ago when Temple was not only where Louisville is now, but was much better than Louisville. History shows that the Owls are 3-2 all-time vs. Louisville, with their only losses coming, 21-12, on the road in 2003 and 62-0 at home in 2006, the first year of the Al Golden Reclamation Project. Temple has beaten Louisville by an average score of 24-12.
Louisville is rated about 105 slots ahead of Temple in the current rankings.
Temple coach Al Golden is confident that the Owls are headed in the direction Louisville is now.

Rick Pitino explains to reporters that Temple can beat Louisville
if the Owls use play-action fakes to Montel Harris on first down
to find open receivers and buy time for Chris Coyer to throw.
At least that’s what we think he’s saying.   Meanwhile, the Daily News’
Dick Jerardi (background) looks  longingly at the buffet table.

Golden is not a patient man and both he and Temple fans hope they can get there sooner rather than later.
What follows below is what can happen when a superbly-coached Temple team takes the field, an account of the Owls’ 55-14 win at Louisville a generation ago.
By Jere Longman
Inquirer Staff Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There was great optimism in the Louisville athletic department last night. Basketball practice starts Friday.
Football? Well, that’s another story. Football here ranks a distant fifth to varsity basketball, intramural basketball, fast-running horses and slow-sipping bourbon.
It’s not hard to see why.
Take last night’s 55-14 humiliation by Temple (3-3). The Cardinals jumped ahead early but were helpless as the Owls steamrolled ahead, 27-7, by halftime.
Led by linebacker Tom Kilkenny, the Owls tuned up for Pittsburgh by sacking quarterbacks Dean May and Scott Gannon eight times and intercepting May twice.
”Our defense gave us good pressure to make the offense go,” said Temple coach Wayne Hardin.

This is the Louisville weather starting tomorrow.

Louisville’s defense was as inept as its offense, surrendering 402
yards and resuscitating the Owls repeatedly with mental lapses.
Temple played with injuries to several of its running backs but still
delivered 277 rushing yards. Harold Harmon rolled up 108 yards in the first half before exiting with a bruised heel. Rod Moore, understudy to injured fullback Brian Slade, scored twice in the first half.
Quarterback Tim Riordan completed 8 of 11 passes for 132 yards and a 38-yard
touchdown.
Early in the third quarter, Louisville (2-3) closed to 27-14, but its defense was too leaky to contain anyone stronger than Wisconsin-Stout. First, the Owls drew the Cardinals offside on a fourth-and-one at the 38, then repeated the trickery to gain first-and-goal at the eight. Riordan rolled right, and tightroped his way into the end zone, putting the game out of reach, 34-14.
“We’ve come close before, but recently our offense has been
sputtering,” Hardin said.
“I don’t know of another team in the country who could lose their top three runners (Jim Brown, Slade and Joe Baiunco) and still play the way these kids played.”
For good measure, cornerback Anthony Young intercepted May late in the third quarter and returned the ball 54 yards to the Louisville four. A facemask penalty put the ball at the one, backup tailback Sherman Myers (58 yards rushing) vaulted over and the margin was now 41-14. The audience of 19,223 at Cardinal Stadium was not amused.
Early in the fourth quarter, a group of students began singing, “Turn out the lights, the party’s over,” but Temple scored twice more before anyone could find the switch.
Gannon was flushed from the pocket at the four, only to be rammed by
nose tackle Bob Shires. The ball bounced into the end zone and was
pounced on by Jerry McDowell.
With 5 minutes, 29 seconds left, Young fielded a punt and returned it 58 yards for a touchdown, pulling Temple ahead, 55-14. That was the most points the Owls had scored since 1978, when they rang up 56 on that vaunted football power, Akron.
“Anthony Young had another outstanding night,” Hardin said. “That was
our first TD on a punt return in about 10 years.”
The outcome was quite unexpected and embarrassing in Bluegrass
Country.
Fueled by an earlier win over Oklahoma State of the Big 8 Conference, the locals figured Louisville football finally was emerging from the shadows of its basketball team.
Indeed, Denny Crum, the basketball coach, has been appearing on television boosting Bob Weber’s football program. The local media wondered whether Louisville’s big problem this weekend would be taking Temple too lightly.
Now Louisville’s big problem appears to be regaining whatever shred of
credibility it once enjoyed. Some schools don’t score 55 points on the
Cardinals’ basketball team.
“We just got an old-fashioned whipping,” Weber said. “We played much poorer than I ever thought possible. The first half, we were just standing around, and the second half was just an after-the-fact happening for us.”
Temple grabbed a quick 3-0 lead on Bob Clauser’s dying-quail field
goal of 39 yards.

belt
Frank Minniefield gave Louisville some false confidence, fielding a punt and slashing up the middle for an 88-yard touchdown. The Cardinals were temporarily ahead, but it was all a mirage.
Temple quickly regained the lead, 10-7, driving 80 yards to score in
seven plays.
“What bothers me is that we started so slow and never got into the
game mentally,” Weber said.

Tomorrow: Fast Forward Friday

10.31.12
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Hawaii pulls out of talks with Temple

If the Owls get to six wins, they would likely be slotted into a sweet bowl.
Hawaii could not resolve a myriad of issues.

The road ahead just got a lot bumpier for Temple’s football team on becoming eligible for a bowl for the fourth-straight season.
Hawaii pulled out of talks to give Temple a 12th game today because it could not resolve ticket issues.
It would have been tough enough to get to a bowl game with Hawaii on the schedule and now it appears to be near impossible.
Now the Owls will have to get to a bowl the old-fashioned way: By earning it.
Four games left, two against teams that have been in the top 20 most of the season, one against a Syracuse team with a premier quarterback, Ryan Nassib, and another against an Army team that beat Boston College.
 Not easy. The Owls will have to hold serve against Army, pull a mild upset against Syracuse and an even more shocking one against either Louisville or Cincinnati.
 The road ahead:

Anthony Robey: Lock-down corner

LOUISVILLE _ The game will be played at 11 a.m. Louisville time (12 in Philadelphia) and is the only home game not a sellout the rest of the way. Louisville has a tendency to play “up” or “down” to the level of competition. It was not able to blow out a horrid Southern Mississippi team in the rain (21-17) and it barely got by a bad Florida International team (28-21). Louisville and Temple both struggled to beat South Florida (Cards by 27-25, Owls by 37-28), but Cards handled a Pitt team (45-35) that handled the Owls. If the Temple secondary doesn’t start knocking balls down (and maybe even intercepting one or two passes), it won’t matter against a quarterback like Teddy Bridgewater. Except for lock-down sophomore corner Anthony Robey, a 4.39-40 speedster, the Owls look lost on the back line of their defense.
ARMY _ Hopefully, Matty Brown will be 100 percent for this game at West Point because he has been Army’s worst nightmare the past three years. Two years ago, in a 42-35 win, Brown singlehandedly led the Owls back from a 28-7 deficit with 226 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Also in that game, the Owls did something they have not done the Steve Addazio Era: Score on a trick play, a 48-yard pass off a double-reverse thrown by Joey Jones, by far the best pass thrown by a Temple player in 2010. Last year, Brown had 159 yards rushing against Army in a 42-14 win prompting the Army fan sitting next to me to ask, “Doesn’t he graduate this year?” No, I told him it was Bernard Pierce who probably is leaving. “I wish it was Brown instead,” the man replied.

Chris Coyer: More effective throwing on 1st down than 3d.

CINCINNATI _ The Bearcats have shown some chinks in their armor but mostly have been outstanding. They were able to beat Delaware State, 23-7, a week after Delaware beat Delaware State, 48-14. They also allowed Fordham to stick around for most of the first half. On the other hand, they beat Pitt, 34-10, and Virginia Tech, 27-24. They also have a sophisticated passing attack, something the  Owls might have if they let Chris Coyer throw on first down instead of third down all the time. The pathway to winning is to ratchet up the passing game and head away from pound and ground. The Owls should follow the blueprint they had against USF: 16 for 20 in the passing game and, not coincidentally, 37 points. The plan to win should be 37-28, not 17-14. Planning to win 17-14 is a good way to lose, 47-17.
SYRACUSE _ If the Owls go into this game with only four wins, a crowd of about 11,000 should be rattling around Lincoln Financial Field putting a sad punctuation mark on the dreariness of the season. If, on the other hand, they go into the game with five wins and a chance to reach a bowl game with six, there should be a big crowd cheering them on and a win will depend on whether the Owls’ new 3-4 defensive alignment with an abundance of athletic linebackers will be able to put enough blitzing pressure on Nassib to rattle him into a loss. (That new alignment might be wishful thinking on my part but when you can’t cover anybody on the back line and you have six linebackers who can run a 4.6 40, that’s the way to go IMHO.)
That’s the road ahead. It won’t be easy to navigate, but earning greatness or even a BCS bowl never is.

Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday