Category Archives: Matt Rhule

02.04.16
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5 Under-The-Radar Guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABuZktzH9h0

Matt Rhule talks about big things ahead for Temple football.

The day started at 8 a.m. with a live two-and-a-half hour show from the Edberg-Olson facility and ended with a flat tire outside of Buffalo Wild Wings in Northeast Philadelphia. As Ice Cube says when he doesn’t have to use his AK, today was a good day. Karamo Dioubate got the flat tire and that had to deflate the crowd of over 200 who came to see him. Once the tire was inflated, Dioubate—a four-star defensive lineman from Prep Charter—pumped up the crowd by announcing he would come to Temple. Just a great recruiting day for Matt Rhule and Temple.

reading

Rivals’ updated recruiting rankings as of 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

Dioubate had offers, not just interest, from Penn State, South Carolina, Rutgers and Temple. Watching his film, it is pretty apparent that he can skip the redshirt year and go right into making plays all over the field. Dioubate, you know about. These five guys, you might not.

  1. Sam Franklin, DB, 6-3, 200

We haa a Benjamin and a Franklin now, both Sams. Franklin is coming and Benjamin is going as No. 10, Sam Benjamin, announced his was transferring to Rhode Island. Franklin is arriving from Inverness, Fla. He played at Citrus High and probably will play DB for the Owls.

radar

  1. Shaun Bradley, LB, 6-2, 220

Bradley, unlike the other “Shawn” Bradley who made it to Philadelphia, is not 7-foot-7. Unlike that Bradley, he is very coordinated. Bradley is a mid-year enrollee who played running back and defensive back at Rancocas Valley (N.J.) High. He brings big-time speed to the LB position, as evidenced by his RB numbers his senior year at RV: 1,467 yards and 22 touchdowns.

  1. Quincy Roche, DL, 6-4, 210

Played defensive line and tight end at New Town High in Owings Mills, Md. He broke the school record in sacks with 19 and was part of the state championship team in basketball. He has the kind of size, speed and athleticism to get to the quarterback and projects as a 2017 starter.  Will have to put on some weight to play the line, so could be a redshirt candidate.

  1. Chris Tucker, DE, 6-3, 245, Jackson

Played fullback and defensive end for head coach Blake Butler at Trinity Christian Academy in Jackson, Tenn. and, as a senior, racked up 79 total tackles, 52 solo, with 16 tackles for loss. Looking at his film, he seems to instinctively come off blocks which might account for the 16 tackles in the enemy’s backfield.

  1. Steve Petrick, TE, 6-5, 230, Norwin High

Anyone who looks at a photo of Steve and former Temple tight end Steve Manieri will do a double-take. They look like the same person. On the field, they look very much like the same player. Manieri came to Temple at 6-5, but he had to spend years in the weight room to bulk up to 230. Petrick is already there. Manieri made it to the NFL. With the same kind of work ethic, this Steve can, too.

Tomorrow: The WRs Lost and Found

0204161320-00

06.03.13
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Smith: Temple’s Gateway to the West

Our first attempt at Adobe InDesign. (OK, we’ll get better.)

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis represents the city known as the Gateway to the West.
Move that about 300 miles to the Northeast and put it in Pittsburgh for Temple’s purposes.
Former Gateway head coach Terry Smith is proving to be one of Matt Rhule’s most productive hires so far.
Look at the list of the six “hard” verbals so far and it is peppered with Smith’s Pittsburgh-area ties.
Today is a good day to talk about those ties for two reasons:
Scout.com is reporting today that Lenny Williams, Sto-Rox’s outstanding dual-purpose quarterback, is about to commit to Temple and the Owls are coming off their first-ever camp held in the Pittsburgh area this weekend..
That would be great news because Williams would be the Owls’ most high-profile recruit out of the Pittsburgh area since Victor Lay signed out of Aliquippa. (Adam DiMichele, also from Sto-Rox, would have qualified but he was technically a Penn State recruit and a transfer from a Florida JC.)

The website 247.com’s list of hard Temple verbals.

As a senior at Sto-Rox, DiMichele threw for nearly 3,000 yards and 36 touchdown passes.
Thirty-six TD passes.
By comparison, recent Temple recruits Chester Stewart (DeMatha, Md.) and Vaughn Charlton (Avon Grove, Pa.) had 17 and nine touchdown passes during their senior years.
We’ll see what kind of numbers Lenny Williams puts up in the TD-throwing department his senior year, but I’m willing to bet it’ll be closer to 36 than 17.
Williams would be the fourth Temple verbal from the Pittsburgh area this season, joining the Gateway duo of Delvon Randall (safety) and interior linebacker Brenon Thrift and Renaissance Christian Academy athlete Troy Simons.
Smith, DiMichele and Rhule all were in Pittsburgh this weekend, spreading the Temple gospel.
Evidently, they found a few believers and that can only be good news for Temple fans going forward.

Create your own Animation

04.06.13
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Open quarterback competition good, not bad

The wildcard in the open competition is incoming freshman P.J. Walker.
TFF welcomes Chris
Coyer, 1/14/2009

As former Giants’ coach Bill Parcells once blabbed, “that’s a good thing, not a bad thing” was the reaction I had when Matt Rhule announced an open quarterback competition going into this spring’s Temple football practice.
I like competition.
Really, he is not going to say: “I don’t care what any of these guys do, I’ve already decided.” That’s not good coaching business.
That’s the position former head coach Steve Addazio maintained two days before he went off to become head coach at Boston College. The first thing he said was that there was going to be an open quarterback competition. The second thing he said was that “this offseason is going to be no box of chocolates.” The third thing he said was “I’m outta here like Vladimir.” All in a matter of 48 hours.
If Connor Reilly beats out the field and becomes Temple’s starter on Aug. 31 against Notre Dame, every Temple football fan, coach and player is better off.
The same can be said of the other five quarterbacks who figure to be in the mix.
Because with the possible exception of when Adam DiMichele dined alone, Temple’s quarterbacking training room dinner table is more talented than any in the Golden/Addazio/Rhule Era.
If you beat out those guys, then you have something.
That said, I like John Madden’s quote better: “If you have more than one quarterback, you don’t have any.”
My guess is that Rhule will settle on one quarterback by Notre Dame and stick with him and that quarterback will be Chris Coyer.
There are a few reasons for that:

  • Coyer is the ONLY quarterback in the last 30 years to win a bowl game for Temple;
  • Coyer was recruited by Rhule;
  • Coyer was about to receive a scholarship offer from Ohio State and showed his loyalty to Rhule and the Owls by telling them thanks but no thanks;
  • Coyer replaced starter Chester Stewart in the Ohio game and threw for three touchdowns and over 300 yards passing and, oh by the way, added 184 yards on the ground;
  • Coyer played with a broken hand last year, taking one for the team;
  • Coyer was additionally handicapped by a run-first, second- and too-many-times third-approach by Daz;
  • Coyer can both throw and run equally effectively, a real plus in the days of the modern spread offense;
  • Coyer, without a broken hand two years, ago was UNBEATEN in games he started;
  • Coyer’s co-offensive coordinator during that unbeaten streak: Matt Rhule.

The wildcard in all of this is not necessarily Reilly but P.J. Walker. In a perfect world, you redshirt Walker and have him sponge all there is to know from Coyer, Rhule and graduate assistant DiMichele.
All of these facts are rattling around in Rhule’s brain right now and probably will continue to rattle until Aug. 31.
When the facts stop and the reasoning starts, unless Coyer completely comes apart (and we hear he’s having a good spring, too), Coyer will be under center.
After all, Rhule and Coyer have been an unbeatable combination in the past and there’s no reason to think that success can’t continue in their final year together.

03.26.13
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Sports Illustrated sits down with coach Rhule

Ryan Alderman (left) and Jalen Fitzpatrick look like they are having fun
after Fitzpatrick caught game-tying touchdown pass at UConn.

You can forget all of that talk about Temple football becoming the Boise State of the East.
How about the Florida Gulf Coast of the North?
That’s essentially the message head coach Matt Rhule imparted to Pete Thamel in today’s online edition of Sports Illustrated.
That’s OK with me.
The message essentially is this:
If Temple’s players have fun, they’ll play loose and with confidence and win, just like  those Florida Gulf Coast kids did over the weekend in Philadelphia.
If Temple’s players play tight, like Georgetown and even our own Scootie Randall did, they won’t perform to their highest level.

Any publicity is good, especially on SI.com

Think Florida Gulf Coast and Khalif Wyatt.
Or the fun Khalif Herbin looks like he’s having when he’s carrying the ball from scrimmage. When he’s running a pass route, Herbin looks out of his comfort/fun element.
That’s the kind of confidence and fun levels that Rhule wants to bring to the Edberg-Olson Football Complex every day.
If the Owls can play with that kind of confidence and sense of fun that FGCU and Wyatt always plays with, the results on the field will be Boise State-like.
I once asked Temple football Hall of Fame coach Wayne Hardin about the fun of playing football.
“Mike, the only way you can have fun is to win,” coach said.
If the only way to win is to have fun and still do work, I’m all for it.
I think Rhule might be onto something here.
We’ll find out for sure in the laboratory environment of September, October and November.

03.23.13
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Temple football’s Khalif and Wyatt

Temple Football Forever congratulates our friend Fran Dunphy and his Owls on a great season (Fran-haters, he did not shoot 0 for 12) … also congrats to our friends from LaSalle. .. hope Explorers win the NC …

There was a reason Wyatt Benson was the first in the end zone on most TD celebrations.

“I’m only going to switch someone who wants to be switched.”
_ Matt Rhule

Temple’s big man on campus these days is Khalif Wyatt, a basketball player for the Owls.
Temple football has both a Khalif and a Wyatt, though not in the same uniform.
I hope the the football Owls get as much out of their Khalif and their Wyatt as the basketball team has.
Khalif Herbin and Wyatt Benson.
If so, they should be in good shape this fall.
Pick a rushing touchdown, any touchdown, for Temple’s football team in the last three years and if there’s one common denominator it is that Wyatt Benson is blowing up a defender right before it.
Sometimes two defenders.
All you have to do is look at the South Florida film from last year.
Montel Harris sprung free for an exclamation point touchdown only after Benson destroyed someone on a sweep.
Same for all five of Bernard Pierce’s touchdowns at Maryland two years ago.
In all of my 30-plus years of watching Temple football, I can honestly say Wyatt Benson is the best blocking fullback the Owls have had since Paul Palmer followed Shelley Poole through the hole to nearly win a Heisman Trophy.

Nobody appreciated Benson more than Montel Harris.

Now Benson has been moved from fullback to linebacker, a position of strength for the Owls.
Go figure.
Herbin, like the 5-5 Matty Brown four years ago, needs to get the ball in his hands more than a typical slot receiver does. He’s got the potential to make those explosive plays downfield that Steve Addazio always talked about but never delivered. A switch to running back might help get him more than the two or three touches a typical slot receiver gets per game.
Current Temple head coach Matt Rhule indicated the strong possibility exists that Benson will be back at fullback in August.
“He’s our starting fullback, but what does a fullback do?” Rhule told Owlscoop.com. “He came here as a linebacker and I liked him as a linebacker.”
Good point.
He’ll play 15 snaps and you can do that and play linebacker as well.
Hey, if Bill Cosby, Bill Juzwiak, Fizzy Weinraub and John Rienstra can play two ways for the Owls, so can a few of these modern players. (Although Rienstra, an offensive tackle, only played nose guard on goal-line situations.)
It won’t kill Benson to play linebacker and come in to block on the goal-line package, something Rhule was in charge of for the New York Giants this season.
Also notable in practice from Saturday is this quote from Rhule:
“I’m only going to switch someone who wants to be switched.”
He was talking about Kevin Newsome from quarterback to another position, but I hope the same, err, rule applies to everyone else.
Khalif Herbin please report to Rhule’s office immediately and bring a letter of recommendation from Matty Brown.

 A Twin Brother from a Different Mother

Player
Height/Weight
40 speed
Yards gained from
Scrimmage in final
High school year
Position started/finished at Temple
Matt Brown
5-5/150
4.40
1,450 (9 TDs)
WR/RB
Khalif Herbin
5-7/170
4.34
1,940 (43 TDs)
WR/???
03.20.13
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Matt Rhule Bobblehead Day

Fans grab their spots prior to the 1919 C&W game. (Nah, that’s across
the street for a 1919 A’s game at Shibe Park, 22d and Lehigh.)
Sean Boyle a few days
before he signed at
Temple, Feb. 5, 2008

Spring cleaning comes around this time of the year for me.
This year, I found an old Al Golden Bobblehead (see right), an old social security card and re-arranged some of the furniture.
Everything for a purpose.
When I looked at Al’s bobbing head, I remembered how he routinely changed a player’s position for the betterment of the team.
Everything Al did regarding personnel moves was for a reason. I don’t remember a single Al Golden personnel switch that didn’t work out. Al was shaking his head yes while I was thinking that.

Matt Rhule interview today
Please click here to read an interview with Matt Rhule that appeared in today’s Harrisburg Patriot-News.

I’m the same way. I re-arranged my furniture for function, not style. I moved the chairs and the sofa this year so I can get to the door quicker when the Publisher’s Clearing House people arrive in a couple of weeks. (Smile.)
So it goes with position changes for the Temple football Owls. Change for a reason is good change.
Head coach Matt Rhule made one I totally endorse.
Sean Boyle, a long-time starter at center, will move to the right tackle spot vacated by the dependable and graduating Martin Wallace.  That makes a lot of sense. Boyle is the team’s best offensive lineman and will be protecting Chris Coyer’s blind side, plus Kyle Friend proved he’s more than a capable center as a true freshman last season. It’s mind-boggling to think that Sean Boyle signed on Feb. 5, 2008 (not 2009) in the same recruiting class with guys like Adrian Robinson and Mo Wilkerson. His maturity will help this team.
Some other functional changes that could make sense:

Kevin Newsome: Temple Owl Forever

KEVIN NEWSOME (QB to DB) _ It would be a shame if Newsome’s path to get on the field was blocked by Coyer and Juice Granger again, but I see that happening. Newsome is arguably the best athlete on the team and wants to play quarterback.  Unlike Coyer and Granger, Newsome can play another position. I suggest safety. I love the way Newsome said last year: “I’m a Temple Owl until the day I die.” He’s 6-3, 215, runs like a deer and has a 37-inch vertical leap. On third down against Maryland last year, starting strong safety Justin Gildea went up for “jump ball” type plays with taller Maryland receivers on four different occasions. Not surprisingly, the Maryland guys came down with key receptions each time. Gildea was in great position to make the plays but had no vertical. Put Newsome in the same position and those balls either get knocked down or picked.

ALEX JACKSON (TE to DE) _ Jackson has some experience as a DE and maybe it’s time to put him back there. For some reason, Alex could not catch a cold at TE last year and Rhule’s new offensive philosophy minimizes the tight end position.  I do see a guy with his height and speed being a nightmare for opposing quarterbacks. I like it when opposing quarterbacks have nightmares against the Owls. It would be great for Jackson and Sean Daniels to be meeting regularly at the opposing quarterback.

Khalif Herbin could be the
 Matty Brown of the next 3 years.

KHALIF HERBIN (WR to RB) _ Temple already has one great Khalif in a major sport (basketball) and put  this Khalif as a RB and he might be the next. This is the exact same situation Matty Brown faced four years ago. When he was moved to running back from slot receiver, his career took off. Brown was 5-5, 150 at the time and ran a 4.40. Herbin currently is 5-7, 170 and runs a 4.34 40. He’s got the metrics to do it.
Sometimes, you’ve got to re-arrange the furniture for function.
Steve Addazio was too stubborn to do it.
One of the intriguing things about this spring practice that starts on Friday will be finding out if Matt Rhule is as open to change as Al Golden was.
If he is, expect Matt Rhule Bobblehead Day to come sooner than later.

03.09.13
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A look at the new foes

New Opponent
Recent common foes
Result
How Temple fared
SMU
Army, Navy
Army 16, SMU 14 (2010)
Navy 38, SMU 35 (2009)
Temple 42, Army 35
(2010)
Temple 28, Navy 24 (2009)
Houston
UCLA, PSU
UCLA 31, Houston 13 (2010)
Houston 30, Penn State 14 (2011)
UCLA 30, Temple 21 (2009)
Penn State 14, Temple 10 (2011)
Central Florida
Buffalo, Ball State
UCF 23, Buffalo 17 (2009)
UCF 24, Buffalo 10 (2011)
UCF 38, Ball State 17 (2012)
Temple 37, Buffalo 13 (2009)
Temple 34, Buffalo 0 (2011)
Temple 42, Ball State 0 (2011)
Idaho
Wyoming, Bowling Green
Wyoming 40, Idaho 37 (2011)
Bowling Green 32, Idaho 15 (2011)
Temple 37, Wyoming 15 (2011)
Bowling Green 13, Temple 10  (2011)

Chart shows that, with the exception of Houston, Temple has done significantly better against recent common foes.

A couple of years ago, the Princeton football team was about six games removed from winning the national championship based on the faulty theory of transitive property.
You know, if Team A can beat Team B and Team B beat Team C, then Team A can also beat Team C.
By now, every fan who handed in a losing slip at the football betting window knows that way of gambling is Fool’s Gold.
Still, transitive property is a useful exercise in getting a GENERAL idea of how a team might perform against another.

We all know about the Notre Dames of the world. The Irish just recruit in a


Bryant Rhule has a sister!
TFF congratulates
coach Matt Rhule and family
on the birth
of a new daughter
(below) football scoop
seemingly has
every scoop
ever uncovered

different stratosphere than Temple.
That one is going to be a rough go for the Owls, even if Khalif Herbin switches to running back and Kevin Newsome becomes a strong safety in a couple of weeks.
Cincinnati and Louisville also figure to be tough,
but I’m not conceding Rutgers.
I don’t think Matt Rhule is conceding any loss,

either, but beating a regional rival like RU on the road would be a nice statement well within his reach.
Temple returns everyone and Rutgers was relatively wiped out on both sides of the ball.
Had Steve Addazio used the pass the way it was meant to be used, even the young Owls would have been a lot more competitive against Rutgers in the second half and might have pulled that one out. A week later, Kent State showed what an effectively-coached team could do against Rutgers.
To me, seven wins against this schedule (Idaho, Fordham, Memphis and Army as the givens and three of the other eight) is realistic and attainable. (Army has had a more recent history of success than Memphis has had and Temple has handled the Cadets pretty easily.)
The key to the season is how the Owls do in the so-called America 12 toss-up games and, while teams like Houston, UCF and SMU have had more success in the past couple of years than Temple has, the Owls have not embarrassed themselves against common foes.
Rhule is guiding the program based on the principles (or core values) of Al Golden, not Steve Addazio.
Addazio was stubborn and Golden was flexible.
So that could mean switching a guy like Matty Brown to running back from slot receiver or switching a guy like Kee-Ayre Griffin from running back to cornerback. In Rhule’s case, it could mean Herbin to Brown’s role and Newsome as an upgrade over departed starter Justin Gildea at strong safety.
Nate L. Smith, the best playmaking defensive back in Pennsylvania high school football for Archbishop Wood two years ago, finally gets on the field at free safety and with Newsome and NLS back there maybe the secondary finally starts to make some plays.
It could also mean getting the team’s other best playmakers (linebackers) on the field by going from a 4-3 to a 3-4.
That worked for those guys and expect similar adjustments in personnel this spring.
While you can’t win them all, you can at least try. Things won’t be perfect when practice starts in 13 days, but you can rest assured they will be tweaked in that direction.
Let’s put it this way: Spencer Reid is a nice kid and a credit to the program, but I don’t expect to see him get 17 carries in the spring game again this year.

03.05.13
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The final word on Steve Addazio

In about a year, only the fan bases from Florida, Temple and BC will understand this video.

In an effort to keep my blood pressure from elevating to dangerous levels, I’ve avoided the final word on Steve Addazio until now.
Before Matt Rhule takes over on the first day of spring practice (it’s now three weeks away), though, I think it’s a useful exercise to put the Steve Addazio Era to rest.
Although he wasn’t my first choice then (Bruce Arians was), I liked Steve Addazio when I got to know him at Temple.

I had a long talk with him in New York City and he gave me some good stuff and asked me not to use it and I kept both my mouth and laptop shut. In any meeting with Temple alumni, he had us all ready to strap on the pads. Vitamin A was that addictive. There was much to like.
He was 51, but had the vim and vigor of a 21-year-old.

Matt Rhule in today’s Morning Call
Keith Groller of The Morning Call wrote this great story on Matt Rhule that appeared in today’s paper. For this cool bumper sticker above and to support Temple Football Forever, anyone who contributes at least $20 via the pay pal donation option on the sidebar (in the Support TFF section) or $20 to the address (in the help TFF afford a pair of shoes section) gets it exactly as it appears above (3 inches high, 11 inches wide). Please allow two weeks for pay pal orders and one month for postal orders. Thanks.

He was “National Recruiter of the Year” not once but three times and I thought this was just the kind of guy Temple needed. I could easily envision a recruit putting down Penn State hat, an Alabama hat and putting on a Temple one on ESPNU under Addazio’s watch (if you don’t think that’s possible, the same thing happened for a New Mexico football recruit two years ago).
On the day Addazio was hired, a Florida fan emailed me the video above and warned me about Addazio. He told me the firesteveaddazio.com website was available if I wanted it.

I dismissed it as poppycock.
I’d like to apologize to that fan today.
Everything Hitler, err that Florida fan, said about Addazio’s one-dimensional, hare-brained, offensive scheme turned out to be true in 2012.
He turned an explosive, otherwise productive, quarterback in the 2011 season into a caretaker of a Woody Hayes’-type, run-first, scheme. Chris Coyer was limited to handing off on almost all first and second downs and that’s an offensive recipe for disaster.  After pounding his head against a brick wall for most of four quarters against UConn, Addazio was forced to unleash Coyer in a two-minute drill that won the game.
Did he learn a lesson that would carry over to the rest of the year?

Not surprisingly, confidence in Daz’s future waning.

No.
Truth is, Addazio is a stubborn former offensive lineman who always wants to run the ball. He was that way at Florida and (sans Scot Loeffler’s one year as OC) was that way at Temple and probably will be that way at BC.
After that UConn win, he went back to pounding his head against the wall and about 20,000 of my fellow Temple fans joined him.
Now we can get back to watching football.
There’s a lot we don’t know about Matt Rhule but he does believe in making defenses defend the whole field and, for that alone, we know he will do a better job that Daz did.
My blood pressure will be better off now that Daz is gone and hopefully that means my life expectancy has just been extended by a couple of years.

02.20.13
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Matty Brown’s replacement? How about Herbin?

“Jerry Jones’ Money, you a running back” comes up at the 2:12 time stamp. That’s song lyric perfectly describes Khalif Herbin in my book.

Matt Brown’s career took off after being switched to RB.

As the crow flies, where both Matty Brown and Khalif Herbin played their final years of high school ball is separated by only 50 miles of I95 and Garden State Parkway highway in New Jersey.
Brown played his final year at Peddie School in Highstown. Herbin played at Montclair.
To me, that’s really the only thing that separates the two players.
The highest compliment I can pay Herbin now is that, used properly _ the way Brown was _ he can be just as good and maybe even better.
I really believe that.
Going into this 2013 season, I am not worried about too many areas of Temple’s football team this upcoming season, but I was worried about finding the next Matty Brown.
Until the light bulb went on in my head yesterday.
The next Matty Brown is sitting right there in the Edberg-Olson Complex.
You know, that shifty, elusive guy everybody else underestimates until he’s putting up six points on a regular basis?
Instead of wearing No. 2 or 22, he’s wearing No. 27.

In 2009, Matty Brown started the seson as a slot receiver until a similar light bulb went off in Al Golden’s head and Al gave Brown a chance to carry the ball. It turned out to be a stroke of genius

Khalif Herbin is my choice. Heck, he’s got the talent to be better than Brown. He’s faster (4.39 to Brown’s 4.44). He’s even bigger (5-7, 170 to Brown’s 5-5, 150). There are a lot of intangibles about Brown that make him the toughest son-of-a-gun I’ve seen play for Temple in a long, long time (maybe ever) but I’d like to see what Herbin can bring to the table with the same opportunity.
Herbin was an unbelievable talent with the ball in his hands (check out the film above, just from his first five high school senior games).
He just didn’t get the ball in his hands enough last year. As a 5-7 slot receiver, it’s just not possible.
That was one of the many problems with Steve Addazio. He didn’t maximize the talent of his players. To me, one of the best athletes on the team should not be a third-team quarterback nor should a guy as elusive as Herbin be a slot receiver. A guy who both runs and throws the ball as well as Chris Coyer does should not be spending the first two downs of every series handing of to a running back.
In 2009, Matty Brown started the season as a slot receiver until a similar light bulb went off in Al Golden’s head and Al gave Brown a chance to carry the ball. It turned out to be a stroke of genius.
The position move led to a nice chapter in Temple football history.
Not that Brown is gone, Matt Rhule should consider doing the same for Herbin.
Temple found Brown while playing for Peddie School in Blairstown in 2009 and could find his replacement in a Montclair, N.J. product.
The Owls need a game-breaker like Brown and Herbin could be all that and more. It’s definitely worth a shot.

The Khalif Herbin File

2011
Carries
Yards
Touchdowns
139
1,940
43
2010
176
1,488
15
2011 Punt Returns*
12
245
3
2010 Punt Returns**
4
133
1

*Also returned 7 kickoffs for 243 yards and 2 TDs
**Also returned 9 kickoffs for 385 and 2 TDs
02.18.13
by

One fan’s take on how the season will go

The Big East’s original color-coded schedule.

Any day now the Big East will release the schedule for the upcoming football season.
A guess on how Temple will do at this point is just that.
Too soon for me. Last year, I didn’t post my prediction until August and I’ll probably wait until that same time this year.
Too many things can happen between now and then.
That doesn’t mean I discourage other fans from playing a preliminary numbers’ game.
One of those fans, Steve Sipe, actually gave a pretty optimistic rundown below:

Steve Sipe’s early game-by-game analysis. I’ll sign for that now. Unfortunately, Charlie Strong is still at Louisville.

He only has the Owls down for two losses, one by a touchdown to national runner-up Notre Dame, the other at Tommy Tuberville’s Cincinnati.
When it comes to Temple football, I always hope for 12-0 and settle for winning seasons.
While many might view Steve as being a little overly optimistic, I’ll sign for it now.
Maybe that view is tempered by the fact that I had Steve Addazio going a base 6-6 (with a bowl win) or as optimistic as 8-3 in 2012. No way did I ever dream that he would come up with a hare-brained one-dimensional offensive scheme that would add up to 4-7.
Right now, though, I feel better about  Matt Rhule’s offensive acumen but I’m waiting on how the defense shapes up.

Cherry and White Day Special
From Feb. 16 through Cherry and White Day, get this cool Temple Football Forever bumper sticker.
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I feel confident about the kicking game (Paul Layton, Jim Cooper Jr., Nick Visco) and I’m a big Chris Coyer  guy so I feel good about those areas. I would like to see Zaire Williams on the field  but that’s not going to happen until August. I hope Jamie Gilmore has a big spring. He’s the only legitimate tailback on the roster now.  Heck, even fullback Wyatt Benson, the best blocker I’ve seen at Temple since Shelley Poole, might even get a few carries.
If Phil Snow is as good a defensive coordinator as Matt Rhule advertises him to be, maybe 10-2 is a good prediction. I’d love to see Kevin Newsome or Nate L. Smith  roam the middle of the field as a free safety and Kenny Parker moved to strong safety and the Owls go to a 3-4 defense to take advantage of their nose tackle depth (Averee Robinson, Hershey Walton and Levi Brown) and terrific linebacker speed. Sean Daniels is going to have to become the push-rusher I know he can be at one DE and the Owls are going to have to find another speedy pass-rusher on the other side. If all those personnel moves pan out, the Owls could cause enough turnovers to become an efficient, maybe dangerous, Big East defensive team. Right now, without knowing, I have the Owls losing to ND, Central Florida (a better team than Steve might think), Rutgers, Cincy and Louisville for a 7-5 record.
Praying for 12-0, would sign for 10-2 right now and grudgingly accept 7-5 at this point.
Anything less would be disappointing.
Spring practice starts March 22.