Category Archives: Mario Cristobal

12.14.12
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Rhule to be named head coach

BREAKING NEWS: As of Saturday night, Matt Rhule officially accepts offer to become Temple’s 26th head football coach … press conference on Monday … I already updated Temple football Wikipedia page …

Matt Rhule motions to his PSU teammates to get a good look at the worst
helmet in the history of college football after a sack of a Temple QB.

Some people dream about Jessica Cristobal, I dream of Matt Rhule.
(Hey, I can’t pick my dreams, they just happen.)
In this latest one (true dream, not a made-up one), Rhule is addressing a group of Temple supporters and members of the press at his “introductory” press conference in the Howard Gittis Room at the Liacouras Center.
The team is going wild in the background and all during the conference nobody can hear what Rhule is saying because of the noise the group is making amongst themselves.

Jessica, we hardly knew ye

The newspaper and TV guys along the first row are shrugging their shoulders and pointing to their ears.
Suddenly, Bill Bradshaw goes to the podium, takes the microphone from Matt and says: “Guys, I know you are excited but please give Matt a chance to talk. This is his day. It’s rude to be talking while he’s talking. OK, Matt.”
Then Bradshaw hands the microphone back to Rhule and a spitball flies by Bradshaw’s ear.
Then I wake up.
Unless Temple re-opens its coaching search, something like this will happen on Monday around noontime, with or without the noise or the spitballs.
This just  in: Temple won’t be re-opening the coaching search and Matt Rhule will be named head coach on Monday. Rhule is the current assistant offensive line coach of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.
Just as there were red flags surrounding past hirings (like Jerry Berndt going 0-11 before he was hired and DC Ron Dickerson giving up 55 points in his last game), a coach this well-liked being hired is a huge red flag to me.
I would like someone to ask Bradshaw why Temple didn’t reach out to Ball State coach Pete Lembo (it didn’t), but I doubt that question is going to come up or be answered on Monday.

“The biggest thing I would say: I am blessed to be at Temple and I love Temple”
_ Matt Rhule

I’d rather have an ass-kicking Bill Belichick-type than a “players’ friend” Andy Reid-type any day of the week.
People tell me Matt can be quite the disciplinarian but I will have to see that for myself in the next few months.
I keep hoping something good comes out of this. Maybe Matt brings in Adam DiMichele to be his QB coach. Maybe he brings back Bruce Francis to show the wide receivers how it is done. Maybe he can convince DC Chuck Heater and Heater’s son-in-law, Sean Cronin, to stay. Give Heater Kevin Newsome to play free safety and Heater becomes the best DC in the country again and Temple gets another first-round NFL draft pick.
Still, it all comes down to winning. To me, that’s all that matters.
I felt even in Steve Addazio’s final days that nothing short of seven wins in 2013 was acceptable.
I’m holding Matt Rhule to those same standards. I hope he holds himself to that standard.
I hope he holds the players to those standards.
To me, the success or failure of Matt Rhule’s selection as next Temple coach rests on that record. Nothing else.
Until then, when it comes to Matt Rhule, I’ve moved from Northeast Philly to Missouri: Show me.
Jessica Cristobal, we hardly knew ye.

12.12.12
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The Haves, The Might-Haves and The Have-Nots

Tom Davis covered both Brady Hoke and Pete Lembo at Ball State.

Funny how people remember where they were when big events happen.
I’m the same way with Temple football coaches coming and going.
I was there when Wayne Hardin quit, saying something I’ll never forget: “Mediocrity is not my cup of tea.”

Pete Lembo is cut from the same
mold as Wayne Hardin and Bruce
Arians.

I was standing in the back of the room when Bruce Arians exited Mitten Hall after his final press conference at Temple. I was the Temple football beat writer for Calkins Newspapers at the time. He was about to make the turn to leave, saw me there, and stopped to say: “Hey, Mike, I just wanted to thank you for being so fair to me over the years.”
Stunned by the thoughtfulness of the gesture, I could only say, “My pleasure. Good luck, Bruce.”
We shook hands and that was the last time I saw him. The loss was Temple’s. Even Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz mentioned as much in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview years later, making a point about fired coaches and saying, “Look at Temple. Firing Bruce Arians set that program back 20 years.”
Something told me that Temple would never get two great coaches like that again. More importantly, two great men.
Temple hasn’t had one like that since, a “triple-threat” coach (game management, recruiting, CEO ability).
I hope the Owls snatch one of those types now.
While Al Golden was a great program-builder, he was never the game day coach Hardin and Arians were. (Hardin was great; Arians was good.) Golden was a two-tool guy (recruiting, CEO).
Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians were great coaches and great men, the “haves” in a coaching fraternity of too many “have-nots” and “Might-Haves.”
Temple needs a “have” right now.

The Might-Haves

Matt Rhule and Todd Bowles are great men.
I’m not sure about them being great head coaches.
I wish I were. Sorry, I’m not. Honestly, nobody is.
Unless you’ve done the head-coaching thing, metaphysical certainty about how someone will do as a head coach is impossible.
There are really good pluses about both guys, though. Rhule has experience in every facet of building Golden’s program except making the final decisions under fire.
Bowles was both an NFL and a college coach and recruited for the great Doug Williams at Grambling.
So he, like Rhule, knows about going into homes of kids and looking them and their parents in the eye and saying, “Come to Temple.”
Rhule and Bowles are “might-haves.”

The Have-Nots

People like Mark D’Onofrio, who had to be escorted out of campus by Temple security the last time he was here, is a “Have-Not.” He’s interviewing only because he was defensive coordinator for a Miami team ranked No. 118 in defense this year. Rather than fire his old buddy, Al Golden is pushing Temple to take D’Onofrio off his hands. I hope Temple AD Bill Bradshaw sees through this and his interview with D’Onofrio  yesterday was not more than a courtesy to Golden.
To me, Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco is also a have-not. He would not turn down a once-in-a-generation opportunity to coach Notre Dame in a National Championship game. That game is Jan. 7. Signing day is Feb. 3. Temple needs someone able to fully commit to 24-hour recruiting between now and Feb. 3, being behind the 8-Ball already. Temple got fooled before by a blustery-talking assistant from a big-time program and I hope it isn’t fooled again.

The Haves

Dave Clawson is a great head coach and, by all accounts, a good man. So is Ball State’s Pete Lembo.
Mario Cristobal is also a proven winner as a head coach and I’ve never heard anything bad about him, personally. He turned down the Rutgers’ job and a $1 million pay raise to stay at FIU. There’s something to be said for that kind of loyalty.
Owlscoop.com is reporting that Clawson has withdrawn his name from consideration from the coaching search. Owlscoop.com is the only place reporting that. It’s not on OwlsDaily. It’s not on any of the popular “inside” coaching sites, like footballscoop.com.
I’m hoping that’s not true.
Lembo is not being reported as a Temple candidate, but  Bradshaw said yesterday that some interviews have yet to be conducted “because their teams are in bowl games” and I’m hoping he means Lembo, whose 9-3 Ball State team is in the Beef O’Brady Bowl. If Temple hasn’t reached out to Lembo now, it should.
Cristobal already has interviewed and would be more than acceptable as a Temple coach in my mind, having built Florida International University’s program “from a hole in the ground” (his words) into a two-time bowl team.
Temple needs a have right now.
It had two in Hardin and Arians and it’s way past time for a third.

Tomorrow: Reading the tea leaves

12.10.12
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Latina: The Harold Stassen of TU candidates

Breaking News: ESPN reporting Mike MacIntyre to be named Colorado coach … Temple would be wise to scoop up Pete Lembo, Dave Clawson or Mario Cristobal now …
John Latina (left) has the persistence of Harold Stassen. 

Clawson has the Midas Touch wherever he goes and Temple fans would give thumbs up to that choice

You can say a lot of things about the current coaching candidates at Temple University but John Latina holds the patent on the word perserverance.
Latina is the Harold Stassen of Temple head coaching candidates. Stassen, a former Mayor of Philadelphia, ran for President of the United States in 1944, 48, 52, 64, 68, 76, 84, 88 and 92.
For reasons known only to him, like Stassen, Latina keeps throwing his hat into the ring and Temple keeps humoring him (and maybe themselves) by interviewing the guy.
Latina applied for the Temple head coaching job when Arians left, when Jerry Berndt left, when Ron Dickerson left, when Bobby Wallace left and when Al Golden left.
 Latina must know by now he has no shot but keeps applying anyway, even enlisting Bruce Arians’ support this time.

Clawson’s plusses:
1. Head coach and has been CEO of a program and terrific on game day
2. Won everywhere he’s been
3. Coached in the Philly area before
4. Beat Addazio with half of Daz’s talent

Sorry, John, I’d rather have Bruce as Temple’s next head coach but I know that has the same chance of happening as you getting the job.
In Mystery Science Theater, there was once a great line about Harold Stassen: “You’ll never win. You’ll always lose. You’re Harold Stassen.”
To me, guys like Latina and Ohio State running backs’ coach Stan “Definitely Not The Man” Drayton throwing their hats into the ring only serve to muddle up the process.
They have to know they are not getting the job, but wasting Temple’s time interviewing them does not do the Owls any favors. Temple needs to move and move now.
My favorite guy for the job is current Bowling Green head coach Dave Clawson.
I wrote on Saturday that either Mike MacIntrye or Clawson were 1 and 1A but I wasn’t sure which was the 1 and which was the A.

SI’s Pete Thamel is on top of the search.

After careful analysis of their coaching histories, now I am.
Clawson has the Midas Touch wherever he goes. As an offensive coordinator at Villanova, Clawson was 12-1. As Fordham head coach, that school had its best season since Vince Lombardi. As Richmond head coach, he stockpiled enough talent for Mike London that the Spiders won the FCS National Championship. MacIntrye really did it at only one place. MacIntrye also has a “George O’Leary” issue, listing being a two-time defensive coordinator at Temple University (1997 and 1998) on his resume (from the official San Jose State website). MacIntyre was never the defensive coordinator at Temple. He was the defensive backs coach. Ron McCrone was the defensive coordinator in 1997 and Raymond Monica was the defensive coordinator in 1998.

USA Today chimes in on the Temple job.

Clawson has no such credibility issues. Now, at Bowling Green, he has the Falcons in what was once the Eagle Bank Bowl playing MacIntyre and San Jose State. I hope now neither guy shows up for the game.
With MacIntrye at Colorado, and Temple leaning toward hiring a guy with head-coaching experience, Clawson is clearly No. 1 and Mario Cristobal is No. 2.
There’s a big dropoff to No. 3 and you should need a parachute to get to guys like Drayton, Latina and former Owl defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio.

Inquirer’s Mike Jensen on Dave Clawson

Tomorrow: Waiting for a puff of smoke outside Mitten Hall

12.08.12
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Coaching Carousel stops at Temple

Heck, Clawson would be a great sell for a Temple fan base irate with Steve Addazio leaving because Clawson beat Addazio last year with half of Addazio’s talent

When Bill Bradshaw finally sits down and hammers out a short list for Temple head coaching candidates, the good news is that the Coaching Carousel seems to have stopped at 10th and Diamond and a couple of good men fell off.
Just as of a couple of days ago, it looked like Dave Clawson, the Bowling Green head coach, might be headed for Cincinnati, robbing Temple of a prime choice of coaching beef. That job went to Texas Tech’s Tommy Tuberville instead.
Good for Temple because Clawson is a much better fit for the Owls than Cincy. Heck, Clawson would be a great sell for a Temple fan base irate with Steve Addazio leaving because Clawson beat Addazio last year with half of Addazio’s talent. Clawson has Philadelphia-area ties, having been a longtime coordinator for Andy Talley at Villanova.
Clawson then built a FCS champion at Richmond, giving Mike London all the players he needed (Al Golden-style) before heading to Bowling Green. Now, at Bowling Green, he has the 8-4 Falcons in a bowl game.
It also looked as though San Jose State head coach Mike MacIntrye could be headed to either Cal or USF but Louisiana Tech’s Sonny Dykes got the Cal job instead and Willie Taggart got the USF job.
Again, good for Temple because MacIntyre kicked Dykes’ backside with San Jose State talent last week.
MacIntyre could still be in line for the Colorado job, but that is looking more of a longshot now that former Super Bowl coach Jim Fassel threw his hat into that ring.
Taggart’s getting the USF job is doubly good for Temple because another head coach with solid credentials, Mario Cristobal, was rumored to be in line to take over that job.
The Wisconsin job is still available but there are strong indications that Notre Dame co-defensive coordinator Bob Diaco is the solid choice to replace Bret Bielema, who went to Arkansas.
If Temple should hire a “head” coach, and I really think that’s the only way to go at this juncture of the program, possibly the best three candidates fell off that carousel and right into Bradshaw’s lap. When Bradshaw hired Golden, he needed a program-builder. When he hired Addazio, he needed a recruiter. With the talent already in place, now needs a proven head coach who can get the most out of the talent and establish Temple as a national brand.
I can’t believe three of the best men on a crowded coaching carousel at the beginning of this week are still around at the end, but I’m glad they are.
According to any objective empirical analysis, these three guys have all proven to be better head coaches than Steve Addazio:

MacIntyre might bring to Philly something TU fans haven’t
seen in two years: A forward pass.

MIKE MACINTYRE _ Is familiar with Temple, but probably would be blown away with the facilities now, which are 100x better than they were when he was a defensive assistant in 1997 and 1998. He had San Jose State, a program with a history worse than Temple’s (the Spartans almost dropped football three years ago), 10-2 and ranked No. 24 in the country. He’s just what Temple needs, a guy who can outcoach the guy across the sidelines from him. Temple did not have that with Addazio. It would with MacIntyre. Now would MacIntrye, whose son is a hotshot California quarterback, want to come here? Why not? He interviewed at USF. We can confirm that, but can’t confirm reports that he was in Thursday to interview for the Temple job. I hope he did and I hope he’s interested. Maybe he’ll bring his son along to play for my other alma mater, Archbishop Ryan (Raiders need a quarterback, too).
DAVE CLAWSON _  MacIntrye is either No. 1 or 1A.  I’m not sure which because of Clawson, who could be the 1 to MacIntyre’s 1A. Clawson is familiar with the Owls, having coached against them in the MAC. He’s familiar with Philadelphia, having coached at Villanova.

This is our guy

He’s had the Midas Touch with every team he’s coached, from leading a powerhouse Villanova offense to stockpiling the talent for FCS champion Richmond to leading Bowling Green into a prestigious bowl game. Remember, he beat Addazio’s best team with half of Daz’s talent. He would be an easy sell to the Temple fan base. He would have the Midas Touch at Temple, too.

Was going to put a photo
of Mario here, but decided
on his wife Jessica instead.

MARIO CRISTOBAL _ One year ago, he was one of the hottest young coaching prospects in the country, after taking obscure Florida International University to two bowl games. A rash of injuries this year cooled his stock a bit and he was, in my mind, hastily fired after a 3-9 season. Still, I think Cristobal, with the Owls’ current talent (not even counting the recruiting class) could have Temple at least 7-4 in 2013. Last year, Cristobal finished second in the running for the Rutgers’ job to Kyle Flood and would probably like nothing better than to send the Scarlet Knights off to the Big 10 with a BE loss in Piscataway next year. Married to the beautiful Jessica Cristobal. Could have also explained the 3-9. As much as I love Temple, if I was Temple head coach and married to her, that would explain me going 3-9 because I  might be late for a lot of practices.
All three would do a better job than any current assistant coach on Temple’s radar screen, even the legendary assistant offensive line coach of the New York Giants.

Tomorrow: The $17 million gamble

12.06.12
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Red Flags and Temple hirings

This is the only (somewhat) Red Flag I care about.
If Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw listens to the players, chances are better than even he’ll be sitting with the one or two who might come back and watch the Owls in an empty stadium a couple of years from now

If they made a movie about the current Temple football head coaching search underway, they’d probably call it “Eight Days in December.”
Good title, a take-off from the 1962 novel thriller “Seven Days in May” by Charles W. Bailey.
Eight days because that’s how long the last coaching search took and I don’t think this one should take any longer than that.
 Seven Days in May had a red flag theme, about a President (played in the movie by the late, great Henry Fonda) whose nuclear disarmament policy caused a revolt among the generals who feared a war with a red flag country (the then Soviet Union).
 This one has a red flag theme, too, the “non-CEOs”, meaning players, trying to tell the CEO how to do his job.

‘If Temple can get San Jose State coach Mike MacIntyre, a former Owls assistant who built something quickly in San Jose, I wouldn’t worry about how long he stays. That’s exactly the kind of hire Temple needs to make.’
_Mike Jensen, Philadelphia Inquirer

What’s that Dick Vermeil said when the fans booed Ron Jaworski?
“If you listen to the fans, it won’t be long before you’re sitting with them.”
Good line, Mr. Vermeil.
That also applies to the players.
Players play and athletic directors pick coaches.
If Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw listens to the players, chances are better than even he’ll be sitting with the one or two who might come back and watch the Owls in an empty stadium a couple of years from now.
 I hope Bill Bradshaw, like Henry Fonda, sticks to his guns and hires the best proven head coach out there, with the best proven head-coaching record and heeds this red flag.
I also hope Matt Rhule gets a head-coaching job at a lower level (the Kent State and Ball State jobs will be available) and then proves his worth to Temple by building a proven head coaching record, like Darrell Hazell and Pete Lembo did.
If he does, I will personally climb to the top of the Bell Tower and wave the Matt Rhule Flag after Mike MacIntrye, Pete Lembo, Dave Clawson, Mario Cristobal, Ken Niumaltalolo, Bill Cubit or Tom O’Brien lead the Owls to a couple of BE titles and bolt for Tennessee. (I think there are a couple of high-character guys in that group who will stay, though.)
And it will be a Cherry Flag, not a red one.
Other red flags ignored in past Temple hirings:

The Red Flag File

JERRY BERNDT _ For some reason, Temple President Peter J. Liacouras was enamored with Berndt, who never had a real record as a winning head coach before. RED FLAG: He was 0-11 with the Owls (Rice Owls) the year before he was hired by the Temple Owls. He also got to go 1-10 with the Temple Owls, making him the only head coach in history to go a combined 1-21 for two teams named the Owls. Berndt could not recruit his way out of a paper bag.

RON DICKERSON _ Joe Paterno, no big lover of Temple football (thank God in retrospect), urged Dickerson not to take the Temple job. When Dickerson was adamant about taking it, Joe supported Dickerson, saying that “Ron is the best defensive coordinator in the country.” RED FLAG: The “best defensive coordinator in the country” allowed 55 points in his last regular-season game, a bowl loss to Clemson. Dickerson was in over his head as a CEO. He could recruit, but he couldn’t coach his way out of the same paper bag Berndt recruited from.

 BOBBY WALLACE _ The man won three Division II titles, but those were Division II titles, taking the scraps of players not wanted by the big Southern schools like Auburn and Alabama. Because he was hooked into the Southern recruiting system, he found some good players for that level. Those kind of players would never work for Temple and Wallace found out that the hard way. RED FLAG: He didn’t have the level of drive or commitment needed to succeed at football’s highest level, no desire to live in the Northeast and Temple wasted eight years of their fans’ lives as a result.
In these eight most important days in Temple hiring history, going over the red flag mistakes of the past might be the best way of avoiding a big one now.

01.28.12
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Source: RU leaning toward Flood

Call me naive, but I believe him.

In a perfect world, Steve Addazio would take the microphone at halftime at today’s St. Joseph’s University at Temple basketball game and say something like:
“I was offered an opportunity to interview for the head coaching job at Rutgers yesterday and I declined. I’m not going anywhere. Temple is where I wanted to be all along and this university is better-positioned to do great things than Rutgers.”
Cue the thunderous applause from the 10,006 fans in attendance.
Band breaks out into T for Temple U.
Students storm the court at halftime to slap Daz on the back.
Owls finish up their rout of St. Joe.
As we all know this is not a perfect world and that probably won’t happen.
(Don’t say I didn’t throw the suggestion out there, though.)
Still, Temple fans should calm down.
I have a good friend who I worked with here, now working in North Jersey, who said his paper is earlier today was about  to break the story that Florida International University (FIU) coach Mario Cristobal will accept the head coaching job. If that fails, current assistant Kyle Flood would be the fall-back choice.
Now it looks like Cristobal doesn’t see the Rutgers’ job as the Alabama of the North (only Rutgers’ fans are that delusional) and he’s going to pass.
That opens up the, err, floodgates for Flood.
Flood would not be the big splash RU fans are looking for but Greg Schiano’s leaving for Tampa Bay made the timing bad all around.
Pernetti was given permission to speak with Addazio, but that never made it past the phone call stage according to my source.
The guy is a first-rate reporter and I believe him.
Still, I long for the days when Temple football had coaches like Harry Litwack, John Chaney and Fran Dunphy, guys who see  the Owls as a destination not just a step along the way.
I long for the days when Temple football had a guy like Bruce Arians, who did not take the Virginia Tech job when it was flat-out offered to him (not just an interview), saying, “I couldn’t leave my Temple kids.”
I long for the days when we had a guy like Wayne Hardin, who turned down the offensive coordinators’ job with the Dallas Cowboys to stay and do big things at Temple.
Before the game with Wyoming, Steve Addazio said he was that kind of guy, saying that he loved Temple and could see this as his last stop.
I sense that Steve is different than Al Golden in that he is principled and loyal enough not to leave after one year at Temple.