Category Archives: P.J. Walker

12.07.12
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Dec. 7: A day that would have lived in TU infamy

In retrospect, Temple would have said Aloha to $500K if Hawaii hadn’t backed out of a verbal agreement.

Steve Addazio leaving for BC is the best thing
that ever happened for P.J. Walker.

Seventy-one years ago today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Dec. 7 a day that would live in infamy.
He wasn’t talking Temple football because that day came a couple of months earlier for the Owls: Their last win over Penn State.
Yet, just from what happened this week, it might have applied to the current-day Owls, too.
Tonight, around midnight Philadelphia time, Temple was scheduled to play Hawaii in what would have been the Owls’ 12th game of the season. Hawaii backed out of a verbal agreement. In retrospect, that decision saved the Owls about a half-million dollars.
Knowing what you now know about Steve Addazio, how many assistants would have been around to coach this Temple team against Hawaii?
One? Two? Zero?
Remember, this is the same Addazio who said “don’t be passing through” and to “make Temple a destination school” and that Temple was his “dream job.”
He said all those things about Boston College this week. What a phony.
Five years (or less) from now, he’ll be saying the same thing about UConn if he doesn’t get fired first. My money is on the firing.
Already, Ryan Day is in Boston recruiting for Addazio.
So is Justin Frye.
Some Temple holdovers, like Chuck Heater, are holding down the fort at the E-O in this most important recruiting weekend of the year. I’ve met Chuck and talked to him. I think he’s professional enough to expouse the benefits of staying at Temple to these recruits. The same goes for recruiting coordinator Tyree Foreman, who was instrumental in getting quarterback P.J. Walker to commit to Temple.
To me, Addazio leaving for Boston College is the best thing to even happen to P.J. Walker. Addazio is probably the only dinosaur left among college football head coaches who run a 1901 offense (run, run, sack, punt) in 2012.

Great to see this tweet yesterday from one of TU’s  top-rated  recruits.

Chances are, the next Temple football head coach, whether he’s Mike MacIntrye, Dave Clawson, Matt Rhule or Mario Cristobal or someone else believe in chucking the football downfield and P.J. Walker will thrive in that system.
P.J. Walker and Temple are perfect together. The Owls lose all four quarterbacks on their depth chart after next year and P.J. would immediately slot into the starting job in 2014. In fact, he might see a lot of playing time in 2013.
So he’s better off staying and helping the new coach bring Temple a Big East championship soon.
So are the rest of the recruits.
Yesterday, a great pass-rusher, Tyler Haddock-Jones, tweeted that “of course” he was going to TU. Lord knows, Tyler and incoming NT Averee Robinson can make an impact along the defensive line and the Owls need immediate help there.
The same things Addazio said that made these guys commit to Temple are true today.
Just because Temple is no longer his dream home doesn’t mean that applies to the recruits who committed to a great school, not a flawed man.

Tomorrow: How the coaching dominoes affect the Temple field

11.30.12
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P.J. Walker leads unbeaten Elizabeth tonight

I don’t think this music is on Steve Addazio’s IPOD, but the passes are impressive.
The recruits so far, according to Owlscoop.com

When one of the nation’s top 15 recruits last year was asked why he chose a lesser profile school over another, he responded:
“That other school wanted me, but this team NEEDS me,” he said.
So it is with P.J. Walker of Elizabeth (N.J.).
Other schools may WANT P.J. Walker, but Temple NEEDS P.J. Walker and that is why I think he will be arguably the top recruit of the 2013 Temple class. I write “arguably” because you could make a good case for kicker Jim Cooper, Jr., too.
With Temple’s top three quarterbacks (Chris Coyer, Juice Granger, Kevin Newsome) gone after next season, the Owls need someone for the 2014 season who can be brought up to speed in the 2013 season to be The Man in the 2014 season.
To me, that person is P.J. Walker, who leads his team tonight (7 p.m., Williams Field, Elizabeth) against Franklin. Walker’s Minutemen are 9-0 and probably 10-0 after tonight (they already beat Franklin, 42-13, in the regular season) and are the top-ranked Public School in the state.

Williams Field is just off Route 1 in Elizabeth.

Head coach Steve Addazio says he wants to run a true spread offense, but he said that in the summer and that didn’t happen. He says that will happen next year. I want to see play-action passes on first down to make the running game more effective on second down. I want to see defenses have to defend the whole field and next just inside the tackle box. I think all Owl fans do. That’s a true spread offense.
We’ll see.
In my mind, the true spread has got to happen because Temple needs a “Doug Flutie-type” impact player to make the move from bad to good to phenomenal to super phenomenal.
This year, let’s be honest, the Owls were just plain bad.
They have to make the move to good next year and, I don’t care what Daz says, the record is going to have to reflect it. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but the construction guys didn’t take a year off, either.
Boston College wasn’t significantly better than Temple until Flutie pushed the school into national prominence. The same argument can be made for Louisville and Teddy Bridgewater.
Walker could be that player for Temple.
Once Walker takes the controls, they can think of being phenomenal in his sophomore year and “super phenomenal” by his junior year.
At least that’s the direction Daz promises the team is headed.
To do that, the Owls have to corral Walker and a few more impact players.
If you are in the neighborhood of Northern New Jersey, a trip to Williams Field might be a better option tonight than watching the MAC championship game on ESPN.
It’ll be like going to a Temple football game two years from now.