Category Archives: Montrell Dobbs

11.18.12
by

Better late than never

Montel Harris (8) needs a lift  to see what is distracting Cody Booth (38) and Wyatt Benson (44).

Two phrases rattled around my head during the fourth quarter of Temple’s 63-32 win at Army on Saturday:

  • That’s more like it.
  • Better late than never.

This is the Temple football team I envisioned back in August and September.
No, I’m not crazy enough to think that Montel Harris would have gone for 351 yards and seven touchdowns every Saturday but I thought both Harris and Matty Brown could go near or over 100 yards each game and that their running ability would set up some “explosive plays downfield in the passing game” that head coach Steve Addazio promised in the summer.

Temple football records Saturday:
Most rushing yards game individual: Montel Harris (351)

Most touchdowns game individual: Montel Harris (7)

Most career points individual: Brandon McManus (332).
Most touchdowns game by a Big East team (9).

Whatever the Owls lacked on defense I thought could be made up by an offense turning the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard into an adding machine.
And, I thought, that would have been good for at least six wins and, maybe, as many as eight.
Now, the best the Owls can do is five because those explosive plays in the passing game never materialized, simply because the Owls stubbornly tried to pound the rock against bigger, more talented, defensive fronts for most of October and November. They might as well have been pounding their heads against a rock with that misguided approach.
The Owls were just as stubborn on Saturday in a 63-32 win over Army, but they could afford to do that against a team ranked near the bottom of the country in rushing defense.
They also helped themselves by eliminating the turnovers which, as Michael Vick can tell you, is the key to winning any football game.
If the Owls can somehow parlay Syracuse’s fear of Harris (and Brown) into some, err, explosive plays downfield in the passing game (perhaps off a fake to Harris on an early down), they can make a statement that they are ready to make a run at the top of the Big East ladder next year by rudely sending Syracuse off to the ACC.
The Owls won’t have Montel or Matty next year, but Jamie Gilmore and “Montrell” Dobbs figure to have the requisite three-star talent to pick up where those two left off.
And, pretty much, the rest of the team is back although I’d like to see a serious upgrade in the defensive secondary (hint: Kevin Newsome).
Harris’ performance was an eclipse that obscured a lot of other good things on Saturday, but it should not go unnoticed that Brandon McManus set the school record for career points by an individual, breaking Bernard Pierce’s standard of 324. McManus needed four going into Saturday’s game.
Another great kicker, high school All-American Jim Cooper, Jr., arrives for summer classes in July.
Other than that, as Jose from Norristown might say, it was amazing to see how much misinformation is out there.
Twice during the game, CBS Sports announcers said that Harris was the “leading rusher all-time in the history of the ACC’ and, later, the “15th-leading rusher all-time in the history of the ACC.”
Both were wrong.
In reality, Harris is still the second-leading rusher in the history of the ACC, falling 828 yards short of Ted Brown’s record set at North Carolina State. He is only 50 yards away from another 1,000-yard season.
I was privileged to see Paul Palmer’s 349-yard game against East Carolina and Saturday’s performance by Harris was even better, both on the stat sheet and stylistically.
Harris will have spent only one year here but he will always be remembered by me as a warrior and a great Temple Owl.
So will Brown and McManus and the rest of the seniors.
They deserve to go out in front of a large, appreciative home crowd on Friday.

Tomorrow: You think you’ve got troubles?
Tuesday: ???
Wednesday: A tribute to the seniors 
Thursday: Throwback Thursday 
Friday: Game Day Preview

01.12.12
by

The Montrell Dobbs Show Debuts

Montville rival coach speaks in glowing terms of Montrell Dobbs.

“He’s got to be the most in-shape athlete I’ve ever seen in any sport in the state.”
_ Montville coach Tanner
Grove, speaking about
Ansonia’s Montrell Dobbs

About this time last week, I was lamenting how Temple could lose a guy named Bernard to the NFL draft while a guy named Montee returned to Wisconsin for his senior year.
Never mind the guy named Montee was rated higher than Bernard in every statistical and other rating category and therefore had MORE to lose than Bernard by returning to college. Bernard Pierce is rated as a high third-round pick. Montee Ball would have gone in the first round.
Well, a lot has happened in a week.
A couple of days ago, Temple got a full Montee as in a Montrell.
We don’t know if Temple’s Montrell Dobbs will be as good or better than Bernard but, judging on their high school stats, Dobbs outperformed Pierce in a number of categories.
While Pierce’s stats were impressive as a high school senior at Glen Mills (1,356 yards, 26 touchdowns), Dobbs’ 45 touchdowns were literally off the charts (see accompanying chart).

Temple Football Fun Fact
Owls finished ahead of the University of Florida, Notre Dame and Miami (Fla.) in the final USA Top 25 poll. Owls had two votes, Notre Dame and Florida one and Miami zero (sorry, Al Golden).

We don’t know how good a high school league Dobbs played in, but he followed that up with 1,227 yards and 21 touchdowns on a prep school level rated at about a JUCO level.
That’s a pretty good level of football.
Add in the fact that Dobbs, like Pierce, is a 4.5-40 speedster and appears to have Paul Palmer-type durability (he even had a few games over 50 carries) and this just might be the best pickup of the Steve Addazio Era (and he’s had a few good ones).
Dobbs told the Stamford Advocate that he’s “real excited” about coming to Temple. The only person more excited about Montrell Dobbs coming to Temple is me because a top-flight running back should have been Temple’s No. 1 priority in this class from the get-go and Dobbs fits the bill.
Since he’s a partial qualifier, getting Dobbs on the field ASAP to play the same role Pierce played with Matty Brown now becomes urgent.


Montrell Dobbs’ senior year transcript from Ansonia (Conn.) High.


Addazio appears to have addressed that  by having Dobbs enroll on Jan. 17 where he can work with Temple’s excellent staff of academic advisors to come up to 4.5 speed in the classroom as well.
Al Golden once told me that the formula for winning in the MAC is pretty easy.
“Trust your eyes on most guys, but get five or six guys per class who were wanted by BCS schools,” Golden said. “To win in the MAC, you’ve got to have BCS-level talent at the key positions.”
When Temple ripped off that long winning streak in 2009 (stopped when Bernard Pierce got injured), I felt for the most part I was watching a BCS team play in a FCS league.
With Temple’s recruiting advantages over the other MAC schools, that’s the way it’s got to be going forward.
Addazio seems to have gotten a lot of guys wanted by the Old Dominions and the Akrons, but is finally showing signs of getting guys wanted by the UConns.
Golden had a handful of guys offered (not just wanted) by BCS schools every year. Adrian Robinson was offered by Pitt. Kee-ayre Griffin was offered by Boston College. Kadeem Custis was offered by West Virginia. Evan Rodriguez actually played at West Virginia before transferring to Temple.
And those are just some examples.
Now Addazio has a marquee player offered by UConn.
By recruiting a quarterback who was wanted by Ohio State (which made an offer based on a visit) in Chris Coyer, Golden finally filled that key position and Temple fans finally saw the value of that scholarship this year.
Dobbs was wanted by UConn and signed with that school a year ago before going the prep school route.
Running back is a key position as well but, unlike quarterback, it is a position where impacts are made right away.
Montrell Dobbs has all the measurables to make an impact right away.
It should be a show worth watching.

“Get your popcorn ready. It’s gonna be a show.”
_T.O.
(ok, nuke the popcorn first and then come back and click on the video below.)


This is how you break all of Shady McCoy’s rushing records at Milford Academy.