Category Archives: Rod Carey

12.20.19
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Temple Recruiting Forecast: Imprecise

Kevin Copp breaks down the class

The long-range forecast for Annapolis is shaping up as pretty good for a week from today, which is good for Temple football.

Screenshot 2019-12-19 at 10.46.41 PM

Probably can get away without even a coat at the Temple-UNC game. The recruiting forecast is a little chillier.

The even longer-term forecast for Temple football recruiting: Not as good.

Like the weather, though, long-range recruiting forecasts can be imprecise and there is the hope that this one is, too.  Early signing day has come and gone and Rod Carey’s staff–despite losing recruiter extraordinaire Fran Brown–was able to get 20 signatures on the dotted line. That leaves approximately five more signatures to get by the second signing period in February.

Temple summer practice, football,

We’ll deal with those and the entire evaluation of the class at that time, though. For now, examining the trend is an important exercise and the Owls barely broke a sweat. The people who are paid to rate these things, Scout.com and Rivals.com, have Temple rated No. 8 and No. 4 among the schools that count, their fellow AAC rivals.

Do you think of Temple as an eight-place school in this league or even a fourth-place one? I don’t. The Owls have lost four coaches in a relatively short time span and, despite that, have the second-best regular-season record among AAC teams (only two games behind Memphis and at least one game ahead of everyone else). The Owls have one league championship and two league title appearances and only Memphis and UCF surpass those numbers at least in terms of championship appearances.

The goal should be higher than that, though.

Temple is in the middle of a vibrant city and right smack in the geographical center of 46 percent of the nation’s population, so winning both the recruiting and standings matter. If you don’t think recruiting ratings matter, just look at the teams that finish in the Top 10 every year. The Clemsons, the Ohio States, the Penn States, the Oklahomas and the Alabamas also routinely finish in the top 10 of the recruiting rankings. In the AAC, Cincinnati had the top recruiting class on either Scout.com or Rivals.com the last four seasons and, this year, beat out Temple, which did not. By the way, Oklahoma is on the schedule in 2024 so Rod Carey better get on the stick now.


… just look at the
teams that finish in
the Top 10 every year.
The Clemsons, the Ohio
States, the Penn States,
the Oklahomas and the
Alabamas also routinely
finish in the top 10 of
the recruiting rankings

 

Nobody is asking Temple to finish in the top 10 of the recruiting rankings but it would be nice every once in a while if the Owls would rip off a few 1-2 finishes in their own conference. Of Al Golden’s first five recruiting classes at Temple, at least three of them were rated No. 1 in the MAC by either Scout or Rivals. Four years after Golden’s first season, the Owls were playing toe-to-toe with a PAC-12 team, UCLA, in the Eagle Bank Bowl. There was no discernable dropoff in talent between the teams in that game.

I was struck by Marc Narducci’s story on the one recruited quarterback, Matt Duncan of Summerville, S.C. Narducci mentioned Duncan’s unimpressive four touchdown passes in his senior year by saying he had inexperienced wide receivers. I’m not buying it. A big-time recruit should have 25 or more touchdown passes, no matter if the waterboys are catching it. Anytime you mention the word “but” along with the stats is not a good sign. Anthony Russo had 35 touchdown passes in his final year at state champion Archbishop Wood.

Putting up big-time stats for an elite high school program certainly matters.

That’s one of the reasons I really like Nazir Burnell of Bishop McDevitt (Harrisburg) who caught 27 touchdown passes in his senior year. That jumps off the page because, in the Al Golden Era and afterward, Bruce Francis’ 15 touchdown catches rates as the high-water mark in a single season for Temple receivers. Trey Blair of Haverford High should also become a great college player. The linebacker commit who turned down a Georgia offer, Kobe Wilson, should be in the running to start alongside Gasparilla Bowl defensive MVP William Kwenkew and Isaiah Graham-Mobley next year. Darrius Pittman, the tight end transfer from Purdue, has a chance to mollify the loss of Kenny Yeboah.

Other than that, a lot of them fall into the developmental category, generally speaking. Not that developmental players haven’t fueled success in the past, but you don’t want to punch your meal ticket on those types.

At his signing days, Golden got up and announced to the crowd that his classes were ranked No. 1 in the MAC several times and that statement drew loud applause. It was the result of his hard work and the hard work of recruiters on his staff like Ed Foley and Matt Rhule.

No doubt the Owls have survived a lot by developing the Keith Kirkwoods, the Tyler Matakeviches, the Quincy Roches, the Mo Wilkersons, the Haason Reddicks, the Matt Hennessys and the Jadan Blues–guys who were not heavily recruited–but recruiting an entire roster of those guys makes the margin of error even smaller. It would be nice to be able to develop those types alongside guys who were, say, a Big 33 MVP like Adrian Robinson (who de-committed from Pitt to attend Temple and had a great career here) or  Russo, who turned down an LSU offer and is at least on track become Temple’s all-time leading passer in terms of yardage.

That’s the kind of mix Temple should try to achieve and, just from the early forecast, it looks to have fallen a little short. The good news is that Temple might enter next season as the overall league favorite and achieving that championship could spur an even better-recruiting class in a year.

Let’s hope the forecast for the weather report holds up in seven days and the long-term recruiting forecast changes more in the Owls’ favor by the end of the winter.

Monday: An All-American Game Week

12.13.19
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UNC: Best Bowl Opponent TU has ever faced

Screenshot 2019-12-11 at 9.16.56 AM

Every single UNC loss was a close one

At first glance, a matchup between an 8-4 Temple team and a 6-6 North Carolina team looks like a pretty even game.

Vegas agrees and has set the line with the Tar Heels as a 5.5-point favorite, which is, by any calculation, a competitive game.

Screenshot 2019-12-13 at 11.50.44 AM

The 14-day forecast projects game day temperature to be slightly above average or around 49 degrees. It won’t be the 68-degree temperature of 2016, but certainly better than the 11-degree temps of 2009.

It still might be.

A closer look reveals that this is probably the best bowl opponent Temple has ever faced. Better than FIU in 2017 and Wyoming in 2011 without argument. You might get some folks thinking the 6-6 teams of Wake Forest (2016) and Duke (2018) were just as good.

I don’t agree.

Not, though, since the 1979 California squad that was 6-5 have the Owls faced a team this good. Consider this: Of the six losses. UNC could have won every single game. In fact, this team might be better than that Cal team that lost to unbeaten USC by 10 and beat four winning (then) PAC-10 squads. (Err, the PAC-10 was way better then than the PAC-12 is now).

The Tar Heels lost to Clemson by one, the only team to give Clemson a game.

They beat a South Carolina team that beat Georgia and lost two games in overtime to bowl teams (Virginia Tech and Pitt). The other losses were by a touchdown to Wake Forest and Virginia.

If the Owls win this game, and that’s a big if, it’s going to be a slugfest until the end. It’s pretty clear from these scores that UNC is not going anywhere in this game and, if it’s going to be a blowout, the Owls are the vulnerable team (UCF and SMU come to mind) and not the Tar Heels.

That said, a good game plan will attack the weaknesses of your opponent and accentuate your own strengths.

In bowl games, Rod Carey is 0-6 with such game plans. He might want to reconsider what he did those previous half-dozen times and do the exact opposite.

Monday: The Other AAC Bowls

Wednesday: The Newest Dirty Word

Friday: The Early Signing Period

Monday (12/23): All-Americans

Christmas Day: Off

Friday: Game Day

Saturday: Game Analysis

Monday (12/30): Total Season Review

New Year’s Day: Return to Twice a Week Post Schedule

12.11.19
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Military: All Hands on Deck Bowl

Screenshot 2019-12-09 at 8.57.34 AM
It’s almost fitting that Temple’s football team is playing next at Navy because, for them at least, the Navy term “all hands on deck” certainly comes to mind in this matchup against North Carolina.

In the Navy, all hands on deck usually is a call for ship hands to come to the deck in times of crisis.

For Temple, this is one of those times.

decksters

Last year left a bad taste in the mouths of just about every Temple football fan for a few reasons. One, it was the second time the Owls came in as a favorite over an ACC team and came away with a loss in the bowl game. Two, their best players–Ryquell Armstead on offense and Rock Ya-Sin on defense–decided to sit out the game with an eye on their futures. Three, in both instances their head coaches also decided to sit out the game for basically the same reason.

Nothing was a worse taste than being spanked, 56-27, and the Owls had to live with that taste in their mouths for nine months. They were up, 27-14, at halftime, and a steady diet of Armstead runs in the second half might not have secured the win but certainly would have avoided an embarrassing loss.

Now, all hands are on deck and the fans should be part of that equation, too, since the Owls have always drawn well in bowl games in the DMV area. Ten thousand Temple fans are not out of the question since the Owls drew a little over half of the 26,000 fans to the Wake Forest game in 2016.

The head coach, Rod Carey, isn’t going anywhere due mostly to a wisely negotiated $10 million buyout. One of the first promises Carey secured from senior leader Shaun Bradley was that no seniors would miss the bowl game this season.

That kind of commitment is vital to beating a good team like North Carolina. We’ll get into how good further in Friday’s post but, for now, suffice it to say that this is a much-better 6-6 ACC team than the last two 6-6 ACC teams Temple faced in losses.

The two times Temple was forced to play a bowl with half a hand it lost both games. The last two times Temple played with a full deck it won both.

Beating FIU and Wyoming did little to advance the Temple brand but beating North Carolina will advance the brand nationally so it’s a good sign that everyone in Philadelphia is committed to winning this time.

Friday: A First Look at North Carolina

12.09.19
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Fizzy: Temple TUFF post-Fran Brown?

Baylor had to go through this exact same thing a year ago.

Editor’s Note: Fizzy checks in after Fran Brown checked out. 

By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I coached the junior varsity at West Philadelphia High School.

As this was an inner-city school, hardly any of the guys trying out had ever played organized football. So once they had their physical exams, we had them put on pads and a helmet from a large pile, and go through some skill tests. Of course, we wanted to see who could pass and catch, but our main objective was to find the tough guys. We knew if they were tough, we’d coach them up and find the right position.

Screenshot 2019-12-09 at 8.57.34 AM

Another thing we did was give the players themselves a chance to tell us who they thought were toughest guys by secret ballot. On more than one occasion, we were surprised because we’d overlooked someone. One of my players once said, “Are you kidding? There isn’t a guy in the neighborhood who’d mess with him.”

I’m bringing this up because Temple football recruiting is now in deep trouble. Ed Foley was gone before the season began, and now Fran Brown has bolted to help Schiano rebuild the Rutgers program. These two guys had well-established relationships with high school coaches throughout the tri-state area. I can imagine there were many phone calls to Foley and Brown from High school coaches, and the conversation might have gone something like this.

“Hey Ed (Fran), you should take a look at this kid I have. He’s not on anyone’s radar, but he’s just learning the game. He didn’t come out until he was a junior because his family moved around a lot, and he got into a little trouble. This year though, he started to blossom and is going to graduate. Maybe you should invite him to one of your camps. He’s six-two, 220, and a real hard hitter. He should make a great linebacker.”

We all know the Owls hardly ever got the three and four-star recruits. And yet, this year’s talent level was damn near the equal of any other team in our conference. We got to that level because of situations and players like I just mentioned above. We recruited the late bloomers, the overlooked, and the second team all-conference players. Now, Temple doesn’t have any coach with that kind of local rapport and recruiting experience. The entire coaching staff except for Gabe Infante is from the mid-west.

Well, it is what it is now. So what do we do? One suggestion is Coach Carey quickly look over the top recruiters from the Penn State, Maryland, and Pitt coaching staff because they all heavily recruit here. Find the best. Find the money. Make him an offer he can’t refuse.

Another example is when Matt Rhule arrived at Baylor; he hired the president of the Texas coaches association. Temple football desperately needs someone with proven relationships in the tri-state area.

 If we can’t re-establish a loyal local base of feeder coaches, we’re in deep trouble. The tough kids live here.

Wednesday: The All-Hands Bowl

Friday: A close look at North Carolina

12.07.19
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Possible Dream Bowl Matchup for Temple

Screenshot 2019-12-06 at 11.25.26 PM

Temple QB Chris Coyer runs against Pitt in Temple’s last matchup.

About 3:29 p.m. today, I will roll up in front of the television and my attention will be on the Cincinnati at Memphis AAC championship game.

It will not be, as Rod Carey likes to say, “full attention.”

Half of the attention will be thinking about, “that should have been us.”

At some point, though, you’ve got to let it go and people who read this space will be able to tell you when it comes to Temple, it’s hard for me to let anything go.

That should have been us.

To me, Temple should have beaten Cincinnati in Cincy and it should not have been close. With Ray Davis and Jager Gardner and a good offensive line, the game plan should have been 26 runs in the first 34 plays and not the other way around.

Maybe … just maybe .. things change in the bowl game which brings us to tomorrow’s announcement. The scuttlebutt I’ve been hearing is Temple against Pitt in the Military Bowl and, to me, that’s the dream matchup. That’s what the uni is pushing for but since Mike Aresco and the AAC office assigns bowls, there’s been some pushback so I’m not getting my hopes completely up.

Since Miami (Fla.) is also available, some might say a Manny Diaz-Rod Carey matchup would be the dream matchup but I’m not thinking that right now because we will have that matchup early next year.

Temple may never get to play Pitt again so I say go for it.

The two teams have only one common opponent and that was Georgia Tech and the Owls won that game, 24-2. Pitt also beat GT, 20-10.

ticket

Tickets will probably set Temple fans back a little more than $1.14.

This would be a very competitive game and feature a number of interesting storylines. One of them would be at quarterback where Pitt is led by Kenny Pickett, who originally committed to Temple out of Ocean Township (N.J.), then reneged on that commitment to sign at Pitt. Temple also has a quarterback who reneged, Anthony Russo, who backed out of a Rutgers’ commitment to sign at Temple. Pitt has a player named Temple (Nate, a DE) and one of Temple’s greatest all-time receivers was named Pitt. (Err, Pitts, as in Wiley Pitts. Close enough). Temple has a transfer from Pitt (TE Tyler Sear).


Now watch the AAC
put the Owls in some
God-forsaken Florida
matchup vs. someone
like Marshall

Those are interesting storylines of varying degrees.

Another is the Pitt was player who helped Temple get kicked out of the Big East in 2003 and set the Owls on the path for football redemption.

Temple has been at least a good a program as Pitt over the last decade, maybe better. Pitt has had one 10-win season since 1981; Temple has had two 10-win seasons in the last five years and two eight-win ones.

Temple coach Rod Carey is smarting from his 0-6 bowl record and even mentioned it in his hiring press conference saying, “we’re going to have to find a way to do something about that.” The same day Carey met with team leader Shaun Bradley and got a promise from Bradley that no seniors will sit out a bowl game this season like two did last year, so that’s one thing.

The other thing is the in-state rivalry.

If the two should meet in a bowl game where several thousand Temple fans can make the short trip, the Owls could not ask for anything more. Now watch the AAC put the Owls in some God-forsaken Florida matchup vs. someone like Marshall, but we’re hearing the university is pushing for this dream pairing.

Manny Diaz can wait.

Monday: Fizzy on The Post-Fran Brown Era

Wednesday: Thoughts on the Bowl Matchup

12.05.19
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Fizzy: Regular Season In Verse

foleymeek

Free Ed Foley

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub recaps the season the way Robert Frost or Walt Witman might. Made only one change (the year for the Owls in the Sugar Bowl was 1935, not 1938).

By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Listen my friends and you will hear,

how Temple football fared this year

But even before the action began,

Screenshot 2019-12-04 at 10.26.18 PM

Err, this was last year, not this year when the special teams were abysmal.

cherry-blooded coach Ed Foley was canned

So I was definitely worried about our special teams,

and would they now fall apart at the seams

And with the start of a new coaching staff,

I assumed we’d win our games by one-half

However, to my surprise and delight,

our talent level was quite out of sight

And where I thought we’d be even-steven,

the first few games had me really believe’n

Then we went up to play a tough Buffalo,

and they beat us again – two years in a row

How could this happen you might ask,

well just about everyone wasn’t up to the task              

We won against Maryland and especially Tulane,

therefore making up for our 1935 Sugar Bowl shame      

Beating Georgia Tech and Memphis was a feather in our cap,

and for one week a ranking fell into our lap

But then came Central Florida and SMU,

and it was obviously clear we hadn’t a clue

There was poor rushing and pass defense,

and playing man-to-man seemed to make no sense

Our conservative play-calling created so much dread,

I named our offense the Vanilla Spread

But Cincinnati gave us one more chance,

a triumph would take us to the big dance

Alas and alack it was not to be,

though our defense gave us a chance at victory

Opportunities were wasted and passes went errant,

and our last opportunity washed away in the current

So though we ended the season eight and four,

a championship could have been at our door                                      

As we plan ahead for the coming season,

our needs are quite clear and not without reason

Sometimes our defense was a total delight,

but passes in our secondary had too much flight

Because we’re near the airport and can’t use a drone,

we should definitely consider employing a zone

And a special teams coach should be reinstated,

so once again it can be highly rated

The offense had us all very concerned,

its predictability continually caused a slow burn

So up in the coaches’ box on our game days,

we need someone else to be calling the plays

Saturday: A Possible Dream Bowl Matchup

Monday: Bowl Reaction

12.03.19
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Regular Season: Could Have Been More Special

Rod Carey’s disdain for special teams goes way back. 

About this time every year, I pour through the predictions made over the summer or before online.

Vegas had the over/under for Temple at six and the over seemed like easy money at the time and it was.

Only one national writer, the Associated Press’ Ralph Russo, had Temple doing any better than 8-4 and he also had the Owls winning the AAC East. It is important to know here that Russo is no relation to the Temple quarterback, so he wasn’t wearing Cherry-colored glasses.

edfoley

Whether he wants to admit it or not, Rod Carey cannot say his special teams by delegation produced better results than any of Ed Foley’s special teams at Temple.

Even in this space, I did not have Temple winning the AAC East simply because I did not think it was fair to expect the Owls to go to Cincinnati and beat a team that traveled 35 true or redshirt freshman to Lincoln Financial Field and extended the 2018 Owls into overtime. I disagreed with the AAC media’s consensus of the Owls finishing fourth. I thought they would at least finish third, ahead of USF, and I was right.

Still, after seeing the season unravel, the Owls probably should have done what the elder Russo said–win the AAC East. There was just too much offensive talent on this team to struggle to score 13 points at Cincy. Still, the Owls really never figured out how to utilize the talents of Ray Davis and that has to be a priority in the offseason. Throw as many blockers at the point of attack in front of him, establish the run and then the passing game benefits.

It’s hard to imagine the Owls winning anything less than eight games next year with the returning talent they have if properly utilized.


If you aren’t going
to block kicks, you
better make a difference
in returning them.
If you aren’t going to
return them, you better
be able to block them.
Do something

My thoughts on the portal will come in a future post. Just say I’m not a fan for now. Losing Kenny Yeboah was a blow, but losing Kip Patton at the same position seemed to be a blow at the time and turned out not to be.

Still, the portal bleeding must stop with Kenny if the Owls are going to go from good to great next season. You can’t go through expected losses (graduation) and then, on top of that, have younger guys leaving on their own if the program has any chance of moving forward.

Still, if the Owls hold serve–keeping guys from going to the portal and raiding a few top talented guys already in the portal–it should be a double-digit winning season next year because they have good depth in areas they lose talent (linebackers and defensive backs). Isaiah Graham-Mobley and William Kenkeuw return in areas where the Owls lose Sam Franklin, Shaun Bradley, and Chapelle Russell and at least those two guys are as good as any of those three.

Jadan Blue and Branden Mack are poised to become wide receiver stars and, if the Owls decide to return punts next year instead of fair catching them, the special teams immediately get better.

Quarterback Anthony Russo improved from a 14 touchdown 14 interception year to 21 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions this season. Contrast that to P.J. Walker’s “sophomore slump” of 13 TDs and 15 INTs and that bodes well for even further improvement in that area.

Head coach Rod Carey, though, will have to be able to face hard facts. The hard facts are that Temple’s special teams returned five kicks for touchdowns and blocked five punts in 2018 and went 0-for-0 in those areas in 2019. If you aren’t going to block kicks, you better make a difference in returning them. If you aren’t going to return them, you better be able to block them. Do something and don’t just be vanilla on special teams, which Al Golden always said was one-third of the game of football. Not only did the Owls fail to make a difference on special teams this year, they did to themselves on those teams what they’ve been doing to others for the past decade. The level of screwups this year on Temple special teams in the post-Golden Era was unmatched.

Golden was right about that, as he was about a power running game. Both are the essence of Temple tough (TUFF) and, hopefully, someone will knock some sense into his head in the offseason. Maybe Ed Foley will enter the assistant coaching transfer portal (just kidding, we know coaches don’t have one).

Hell, to see evidence of a change in special teams’ philosophy by the bowl game would be a nice indicator that what happened or didn’t happen the dozen prior games will be unacceptable going forward.

Thursday: Fizzy’s Recap in Verse

Saturday: A Dream Bowl Matchup

11.30.19
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TU-UConn: A case of de Ja Vu

If some of the old-timers like me felt a little bit of deja vu on Saturday, it could be understood.

The last time a lot of us remember Temple trailing at halftime and winning, 49-17, it was at Veterans Stadium and the year was 1979.

Head coach Wayne Hardin told me the story then.

“I turned to (defensive coordinator) Vince (Hoch) and said, ‘What do we do?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, coach, what do you think?”

Screenshot 2019-11-30 at 11.30.33 PM

Hardin thought about throwing the ball but instead decided to give the ball to a great running back from Coatesville named Sherman Myers. “Tank” scored five second-half touchdowns, then a Temple record, in a 49-17 win.

The difference between then and now?

That Syracuse team was one of only 30 bowl teams that year. So was Temple. Now there are 80 bowl teams in a watered-down college football landscape.

That Syracuse team had future NFL Hall of Famers Joe Morris and Art Monk.

I doubt that this UConn team will have a single future Hall of Famer and I know for certain that the Huskies are about as far away from a bowl as any program in the country.

The 49-17 score this time was cosmetic but it was pretty good makeup so the current Owls deserve a lot of credit for averting disaster. Call it lipstick on a pig.

Screenshot 2019-12-01 at 12.18.38 AM

When people all over the country see the final, they will think Temple took care of business the way Temple was expected to do so prior to the game as a 29.5-point favorite. What isn’t as noticeable in the boxscore is that UConn led for half of the game and Temple needs to play better if it is going to win a bowl game.

I talked to two former Temple quarterbacks (before the game) who shall remain nameless and mentioned to them that this offense is ill-suited to the talents of the best quarterback on the team, Anthony Russo. Temple needs to run the same offense with Russo it ran in the last two years with P.J. Walker. Ditch the spread and establish a power running game and only then throw off play-action fakes. They both said they are going to sit down with current head coach Rod Carey and take that argument to him.

Good luck with that because that’s really the only way Temple goes from 8-4 this year to 10-2 or better the next. This season went way too fast and Temple had way too much offensive talent to struggle to score 13 on Cincinnati last week.

Carey is going to have to be flexible, but there’s nothing in his history at Northern Illinois that suggests he’s anything but stubborn. Great coaches, though, design an offense that suits their talent and the next few months will tell if Carey is great or just good.

At Temple, just good won’t do.

Tuesday: Season Recap

Thursday: An Ideal Bowl Matchup

11.30.19
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Game Day: Seniors and Sendoffs

Screenshot 2019-11-28 at 9.55.07 PM

By the luck of the draw of scheduling, the American Athletic Conference has given Temple the chore of sending off UConn in style.

The Owls are 29.5-point favorites and for good reasons. Rod Carey can probably run up the score on the Huskies if he chooses to do so and no one in the league offices would blame him.

Throwback Thursday: The infamous call at UConn

Bruce Francis’ TD catch to win the 2007 game was ruled incomplete by MAC refs but replay showed that Francis had a foot down and possession but the Big East replay official (Jack Kramer) refused to overturn the call in perhaps the most controversial ending of a Temple game in modern history.

Nor in the athletic offices over at the Star Complex on the campus of Temple University.

Temple was the team the then Big East decided to kick out of the league and UConn was the team that the league decided to replace the Owls with and, pretty much since then, Temple football has been on the ascent and UConn football pretty much on the decline. The year after Temple was kicked out, the Owls put up 56 on the Huskies in a game at Franklin Field that opened with Mac Fenton taking the kickoff to the house. That game finished 56-7.

Last year, the Owls did it one better, 57-7.

Even in the year the Huskies made the Fiesta Bowl, Temple hung a 30-16 number on the Huskies at Lincoln Financial Field.

UConn has told the league it no longer wants to play basketball in the conference but asked to continue playing football. It took Commissioner Mike Aresco all of about two minutes to essentially say: “We don’t want your crappy football program.”

So the Owls committing a program to the trash heap of college football with a big win today would be more than a fitting sendoff.

There is, though, a much more important chore at hand: Giving the seniors a big win in their final game at Lincoln Financial Field.

The Owls will lose perhaps the best three linebackers they’ve had on the same field in a long time: Shaun Bradley, Chapelle Russell and Sam Franklin. All played with a fierceness that benefited their single digits.

At the season ticket-holder party a couple of years ago, Russell sought me out like he seeks out quarterbacks but, instead of putting me on the ground hard, he extended his hand and said simply: “Thanks for coming.” I told him I thought the team would be a lot better than the projections and he responded: “We know it.”

Three years ago at the same function, Isaiah Wright and Linwood Crump Jr. were among the five people at my table. Wright called me “Mr. Mike” (I like that better than sir and Mr. Gibson) and asked me if I thought the stadium would be built by the time he was a senior. I said, “I don’t think so. Too much politics.” Sadly, it turned out I was right.

I’ll miss my yearly, albeit short, conversations with guys like Wright and Russell and what all of the seniors brought to the field during their careers. These guys deserve to see the Owls score early and often and, if Carey decides to run it up, nobody in the league office will get upset.

Sunday: Game Analysis

Tuesday: Regular Season Roundup

Thursday: Our Dream Bowl Matchup

11.28.19
by

Two Guys To Be Thankful For This Season

rodster
“Even if I was with the Patriots, I’d be asking Tom Brady to read the option and run every once in a while. Yeah, I know it probably wouldn’t work there, either, but that’s the only offense Mike knows how to run.”

There are plenty of things to be thankful for as Thanksgiving rolls around today. This season flew by and there is at least one more chance to get together with my football friends on Saturday, so there’s one thing.

Maybe a bowl game if it’s in D.C. or NYC as well.

Keeping this post to football, though, I’m thankful for two people this year what I believe is far too much criticism on social media: Our quarterback and head coach.

First the quarterback.

Screenshot 2019-11-26 at 9.23.17 AM

Adam DiMichele’s first two full years at Temple were 2006 and 2007

As Temple fans, we can pretty much agree on the following:

Steve Joachim, Henry Burris, P.J. Walker, and Adam DiMichele were great quarterbacks wearing the Cherry and White.

Screenshot 2019-11-26 at 9.13.49 AM

Anthony Russo’s first two full seasons at Temple compares favorably with any of the great quarterbacks at the school, even with a full game left in the regular season.

Guess what?

Anthony Russo’s first two years at quarterback–with a full game to go–stacks up with the first two years of any of those above quarterbacks and he still has another year to go, so that’s something to be thankful for.

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Henry Burris’ first two full years at Temple were 1994 and 1995

I’d love to see Russo run a similar offense to Joachim (the veer), Burris, Walker and DiMichele (NFL-type pro sets) but his stats in variations of the spread have been pretty darn good. Give him a more traditional NFL-type offense than a college one and he would thrive. Nobody asks those NFL quarterbacks to run with the exceptions being the Jacksons and the Wilsons.

To me, the No. 1 stat for a quarterback is wins and losses. Russo was 7-2 last year as a starter (losses to Villanova and Buffalo went to Frank Nutile and the win over UConn to Todd Centeio) and is 7-3 this season and about to finish 8-3. That’s 15-5 and only Joachim, the Maxwell Award winner as a national college football player of the year (1974) was better in his two seasons (17-3).

No other quarterback was close in modern Temple history and that’s pretty rarified air.

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Steve Joachim’s first two (and only) seasons at Temple were 1973 and 1974. Surprisingly, he had a much better passer rating at Penn State (162.5) than he did at Temple (141.7).

The next most important stat is touchdown/interception ratio and Russo improved on his 14/14 line with 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions this season.

In the area of cold statistics, Russo completed 418 passes in 721 attempts for 5,049 yards with 33 touchdowns and 25 interceptions. Compare that to Joachim’s first two seasons (208 completions in 380 attempts, 3,262 yards with 31 touchdowns and 23 interceptions).

Henry Burris and Adam DiMichele could not compete in the area of wins but put up some impressive, albeit, inferior statistics to Russo. Henry, a legend in the CFL, completed 354 passes in 709 attempts for 4,720 yards with the same amount of touchdowns (33) but four more interceptions.  ADM? 273-443, 3,113, 22 touchdowns and 22 interceptions in his first two full seasons.

P.J. Walker had 20 touchdowns to 8 interceptions in his first season but never had a better TD/INT ratio after that. He did throw for nearly 3,000 yards in each of the years after Rhule ditched the spread option for more of a pro-style attack using a fullback. That led to a championship appearance one year and an outright championship the next. There is still time for Russo to do that but he will need to get some help from Carey in the form of an offense more suited to his passing skills than his running ones.

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P.J. Walker went from 20 TDs and 8 INTS to a sophomore slump of 13/15. He threw for nearly 3,000 yards ONLY after Rhule switched to a fullback-oriented play-action passing game in P.J’s final two seasons.

For someone who remembers and cringes thinking about the quarterbacks of the Al Golden Era and before that, I’m glad that Anthony Russo is my quarterback.

Carey has deservedly received some criticism here because he did not tailor his offense to the talents of his players but I’m also glad he’s my head coach for one reason.

Manny Diaz could have been.

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This was our blog post on the day Temple hired Manny Diaz. We were off only about 348 days.

Diaz lost to a team, FIU, last week that lost to both Tulane (42-14) and FAU (37-7). He lost to a Georgia Tech team that Carey beat 24-2.


I have to laugh at the
criticism of both guys,
Russo and Carey. Guess what?
Jalen Hurt and Nick Saban
are not walking through that
door to quarterback and coach
Temple. If you don’t like
Carey as Temple coach, who
would you have hired instead?
Chris Creighton? Lance Leipold?
I don’t think either would
have done appreciatively
better here.

Despite my criticism of Carey’s blind spot (not running a play-action run-oriented offense to open up passing lanes for Russo), I’m also glad he’s my coach because there is no way Temple beats Georgia Tech, Memphis and Maryland with Diaz as my coach.

I have to laugh at the criticism of both guys, Russo and Carey. Guess what? Jalen Hurt and Nick Saban are not walking through that door to quarterback and coach Temple. If you don’t like Carey as Temple coach, who would you have hired instead? Chris Creighton? Lance Leipold? I don’t think either would have done appreciatively better here.

To me, if Carey had run a pro set with a fullback and two tight ends and established the running game against Cincy, Russo would have had plenty of time to find receivers on play-action fakes and thrown four touchdown passes in a 40-15 win instead of a 15-13 loss. Scoring points on Cincy with the talent Temple has on offense (Russo, Ray Davis, Jager Gardner, Jadan Blue, Isaiah Wright, Branden Mack, Kenny Yeboah, etc.) should not have been that hard. The system has to be designed around the talent and this system does not do that. That’s what I believe now and that’s what I believed after Matt Rhule’s first two years of doing the same exact thing before Matt adopted our suggestions in Year Three. (Matt admitted to me in a phone call that he read this blog the entire year he was an assistant at the New York Giants. I doubt he stopped once he became Temple head coach.)

Maybe Carey will have a similar Ephinany after his first year like Rhule did after his second. I think Rhule was more pliable but I hope Carey surprises me.

Is there room for improvement for both coach and player?

Yes.

That’s why next year is an important one for both and a major reason we should give thanks today and be excited about the future.

Saturday: Two Proper Sendoffs

Sunday: Game Analysis