Category Archives: Pete Lembo

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

12.11.12
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Waiting for that puff of smoke from Mitten Hall


 Workers put up the smokestack for the big announcement at Mitten Hall.

Two hours after this post, Steve Addazio was hired by BC.

Nobody does it quite like the Vatican when it comes to hiring announcements.

The last time a big hiring happened in St. Peter’s Square, thousands of people waited outside for a puff of smoke announcing a new Pope.
Got to wonder what happened during that interview process.

“Your resume said you were in the Hitler Youth?”
“Yes.”
“Then you were in the German Army?”
“Yes.”
“Then you were Hitler’s driver for eight months?”
“Yes.”
“Can you win?”
“Yes.”
“Not a problem. You’re hired.”

Inquirer’s Mike Jensen’s choice is the most logical one.

As important as that hiring was for that organization, what’s going on inside Mitten Hall today and tomorrow is for this one.
Temple University is hiring a new head football coach and this is what’s at stake:
Hire a proven winner and Temple goes from 4-7 to 9-3 seasons and increases attendance at Lincoln Financial Field from the 25K range of the past three seasons to 35K and beyond. With that come increased contributions and an overall university endowment in the bottom half of the nation moves into the top half.
That’s all.
Hire someone who MIGHT win and risk going from 4-7 to 3-9 or worse. If that happens, the only thing rattling around LFF on Saturday afternoons will be tumbleweed, not people.
Do you want to take that chance, even with a popular former assistant coach who is well-liked by the current players and the parents? Or a popular former Temple player who has never run a BCS program or recruited a single player?
I don’t.
No one knows who is the leading candidate at this point, but this much is clear: Temple got burned by a blustery-talking assistant coach from a big-time program the last time and is not likely to go down that road again.
Also expect that a name will surface who might not be among those mentioned so far.
You need only to look at Boston College for an example of that. Steve Frauddazio, err, Addazio was named head coach by BC a week ago today at 4:30 p.m., even though at 2:13 the same afternoon he was not mentioned as a finalist by ESPN Boston writer Brett McMurphy (see inset).
Pete Lembo of Ball State is the one guy who has NOT been mentioned by anyone, so I fully expect that Lembo could be named head coach sometime tomorrow.
Lembo is one of really two “proven winning head coaches” available for Temple to hire at this point. The other is Bowling Green’s Dave Clawson.
And neither one of those guys were ever in the Hitler Youth.

Tomorrow: The Haves, The Have-Nots and the Might-Haves

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.