Fizz: Great win, but still work to be done

edfoley

Ed Foley has consistently had the Temple special teams near the top of the NCAA stats but was sorely missed on Saturday.

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub is a frequent contributor to this website and former Temple football player and, later, a high school coach. These are his observations on the 20-17 win over Maryland.

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Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl.

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

In Texas, the sun is shining

In Waco the skies are blue,

But if your name’s Ed Foley

You’re really pissed off too.

Raising my right hand, I would like to forthrightly say I’m thrilled with the win over Maryland. Obviously, the defense was spectacular.  Four goal-line stands are the most I’ve ever seen and against a previously scintillating offense.  Defensive coordinator Jeff Knowles and every defensive coach and player deserve any and all the accolades you can muster.  It was a fantastic performance by very talented guys.

boumerhi

Boomer now kicking for Boston College while Connor Bowler is punting for UNC-Charlotte.

Now, let’s see where we can improve.  Wait, did someone mention special teams?

With the help of the Inquirer’s Mike Jensen, I totaled nine bad plays made by the not so special teams.  Besides the penalties, shanked kicks, bad snaps, missed field goals,  and a blocker running into a bouncing ball, there was some coach’s strategy I need to have explained.  After the bad snap which resulted in a safety, why would you kick-off and not punt where you’d get better hang time?  On some punts by Maryland, why did our receiving team do nothing?  I mean they didn’t try to block the punt nor try to set up a run back; they just stood around.

Now I know it’s Isaiah Wright, but common sense should tell you that when fielding a punt or kickoff on one side of the field, you don’t waste three or four seconds trying to get to the other side to find a lane. All that does is allow the defense to get further down the field.  straight upfield and one block could get the lane he’s looking for.  So before we leave the not so special teams, Coach Carey’s removal of Ed Foley as special team’s coach looks terrible right now.

Now, a few things regarding the offense.  One big negative is the four times Russo tried to throw a hook just over the first down marker, the same receiver never turned around.  How does that happen four times?  Why would you keep going back to that play?

In the first half, Wright would run a late-developing pattern across the middle.  It was open both times, but Russo didn’t make accurate throws.  Why didn’t they go back to that play in the second half?

Despite the fumble in the second half, Gardner looked to be the much stronger runner over Davis.  Why didn’t he get more carries?

On one of our drives down the field in the second quarter, we were chewing up the yardage on the ground, gaining nice chunks almost every play.  Suddenly, there was an incomplete first-down pass and the drive stalled.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

On a few fourth and ones, our play call was a handoff five yards deep against a stacked defense, allowing them penetration.  We have a 6′ 4″ quarterback who weighs around 230 pounds.  Certainly, a quarterback sneak is preferable.

I was surprised to learn from Jensen’s article that our two long bombs for touchdowns were from check-offs at the line of scrimmage by Russo.  Perhaps the coaches should let him call more of the plays.  It’s good, however, he’s allowed the freedom to change the plays.

With 2:25 left in the game and Maryland’s offense in disarray on fourth down, why would we call a time out?  It did turn out rather well though, didn’t it?

All in all, though, the offense is way more efficient than ever before.

So, Defense gets an A+, offense gets a B, and special teams an F.  Thank you Football Gods.  We should be among the top 25 this week.

Thursday: Questions and Answers

Saturday: Game Day

Rest of Season: Brace For Impact

About four hours after the first Temple players appeared in many of the post-game tailgates on Saturday afternoon, an asteroid about the size of the Empire State building missed the earth by “only” 3.3 million miles.

(That’s considered pretty darn close by Asteroid miss standards.)

One of these days we won’t be as lucky and we will be bracing for impact, but that makes appreciating days like yesterday even more important. (Err, hopefully, that day is 100 years or more away.)

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Yesterday was a fun day to be on Planet Earth and at Lincoln Financial Field.

Maybe the most fun day.

As Wayne Hardin used to say, the only fun is winning and there was plenty of fun on the Owls’ side of the field.

Temple’s 20-17 win over No. 21 Maryland has to rank in the top three HOME wins in the Lincoln Financial Field Era. No win will ever top the 27-10 win over Penn State in 2015 because the Owls were pushing that rock up a hill for 74 years.

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Some observations from a game thread on a Maryland message board

Still, the win over Maryland has to rank right behind it because this was a very good Temple team beating what could be a Big 10 contender. The third biggest LFF win had to be handing another No. 21 team, East Carolina, a loss in 2014 but that Temple team finished a mediocre 6-6.

All signs are pointing to the fact that Temple will be much better than that this season. Consider this: The Maryland team Temple beat had a 42-13 lead at halftime over Syracuse. Last night, No. 1 Clemson could only lead ‘Cuse, 17-6, at a similar juncture.

Every game is a different entity but that’s pretty rarified air.

Temple’s defense really won this game with a big assist from the fans, who were involved and as loud as they needed to be from the coin toss to triple zeros on the clock.

Last week, Maryland had its own win over the No. 21 team in the country, Syracuse, and that catapulted the Terrapins into the Top 25.

Logically, that SHOULD mean that Temple moves into the Top 25 but the same level of logic and fairness that applies to Power 5 teams rarely applies to Group of 5 teams. The Owls will probably have to keep winning into October before getting their own chance.

Their defense should be able to keep them in every game and their offense has enough playmakers to do serious damage. The one area they have to work on is punting and placekicking but, sadly, special teams’ coach extraordinaire Ed Foley is working in Waco now. How nice would it be to have Aaron Boumerhi and Connor Bowler back?

That’s water under a bridge that needs to be repaired now. I fervently hope his plan is not this one:

So the task of fixing that third of the team has fallen on the CEO shoulders of Rod Carey, who is now an impressive 5-2 against Big 10 teams.

Unless he faces one in an NY6 bowl, he won’t get another chance this season so let’s hope he gets another chance. After yesterday, such a prospect doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore.

Hell, it appears at least five more incredibly fun-filled home games are left.

Brace for impact and we mean the good kind.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

Thursday: Questions and Answers

Saturday: Buffalo Game Day

 

 

Temple Nation Needs to Show Up

The Temple fans made LFF a house of horrors for Penn State in 2015.

The first time I ever heard the phrase Al Golden uttered it a few years into probably one of the most impressive rebuilding jobs I’ve ever seen:

“Temple Nation needs to show up,” Golden said.

The coach really was four years into the rebuild and the place to show up was Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, D.C. for the Eagle Bank Bowl in 2009. It was the school’s first bowl in 30 years and it was against a marquee opponent and since one school was 200 miles away and the other 3,000, bowl organizers were counting on a big walk-up from Philadelphia.

If Temple Nation needed to show up then, it certainly needs to show up even more now. Full disclosure: This post wasn’t scheduled to be published until Thursday but we felt this plea was important to make early in the week to set the wheels in motion in the school and in the alumni ranks for a big home crowd against Maryland (noon, Saturday).

I don’t know what the crowd is going to look like but if the Owls got a legitimate 35,004 against Army in 2016 (and they did) and a legitimate 35,786 against Tulane in 2015 (and they did), and a legitimate 33,026 for Cincinnati last year (and they did), they are going to have to move that needle close to the 40,000 range for Maryland.

The stakes are that high.

The Owls–who received two votes in “others under consideration” in the Top 25 coaches preseason poll–can crack the Top 25 with a win over Maryland on Saturday. It’s not all that outrageous that a win puts the Owls there. Last week, Maryland was outside the Top 25 when it beat No. 21 Syracuse. This week, Temple is outside the Top 25 when it hosts No. 21 Maryland.

People have to get up on whatever equates to a soapbox at the Student Activities Center, the Bell Tower, the Olympic Complex or whatever place on campus to get a significant portion of the 40,000 fulltime students to attend on Saturday. A solid representation of the 279,000 alumni–almost 200,000 who live within an hour’s drive of the stadium–have to be accounted for as well.

If it can happen for one school, it can happen for another.

Temple Nation?

I never heard of the concept until two weeks before that Eagle Bank bowl.  Hell, Temple isn’t a state or a city let alone even a nation. Yet whatever Temple Nation was responded to that call when an estimated 20,000 of the 23,000 fans in the old baseball stadium cheered their throats out to see the Owls lose to 30-21 to UCLA.

“There were so many Temple fans here I really hated it,” a UCLA vlogger said afterward.

A year ago, Temple handed both Maryland and Cincinnati their first losses of the season. It didn’t need a home crowd to beat Maryland, but it did need a very loud one to beat Cincinnati.

“I couldn’t hear because of the crowd,” Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ritter said after fumbling a key snap in overtime that allowed the Owls to win.

The Owls will need that crowd again on Saturday and it will have to be loud and involved to help them crack the top 25 this early for the first time ever.

Even if it’s a mid-size nation, it can still make an impact on the college football globe in a few days.

Saturday: Game Day

Owls Know The Way to Beat Maryland

Perhaps no score in college football surprised the so-called experts more than Maryland’s 63-20 win over Syracuse on Saturday.

Sure, Maryland was a 2-point favorite at home against the No. 21-ranked Orange but Hurricane Dorian-type level of devastation was the thing that opened some eyes.

One thing the Terrapins established is they are a quick-strike team with plenty of speed on offense.


While Maryland has revenge
motivation that can’t be
discounted, Carey has all
the cards in his pocket in
terms of strategy. As a head
coach on the FBS level,
Carey is 53-30; as a head
coach on the FBS level,
Maryland coach Mike
Locksley is 5-31

Those three hours gave Temple head coach Rod Carey a pretty good template for devising a game plan to beat the Terrapins.

Like the old Dean Smith four-corners pre-clock era basketball offense of North Carolina, play keep-away.

The way to control a big-strike type team, as Maryland is, is to run the ball, control the clock, bring the safeties and the linebackers up to the line of scrimmage, and hit some key third-down plays in the play-action passing game. Keep the ball for at least eight minutes of each quarter and score some points and that limits the opportunities Maryland has to touch it.

While Maryland has revenge motivation that can’t be discounted, Carey has all the cards in his pocket in terms of strategy. As a head coach on the FBS level, Carey is 53-30; as a head coach on the FBS level, Maryland coach Mike Locksley is 5-31. Plus, the Owls had an extra week to prepare so Carey knows what the deal is. Last year, the Owls put their tight ends in motion as blockers for NFL fifth-round pick Ryquell Armstead, got some turnovers on defense, and came away with a 35-14 win.

All  Locksley has to go by on Temple is a game film that showed a spread offense without a fullback or two tight ends and that’s pretty much what he’s planning to stop.

If Carey came out in two tight ends, and a fullback, pounded the ball behind running backs Jager Gardner and Re’Mahn Davis (with a healthy dose of Isaiah Wright misdirection), that’s something Maryland coaches would definitely not be prepared to face.

Running the ball behind extra blockers was also that strategy that Steve Addazio employed to beat Maryland, 38-7, in 2011:

As a bonus, it is also the best strategy for Temple in that the Owls’ strengths as a team are their offensive line, quarterbacks and linebackers. If Wright is the full-time running back, you could also say that position would be a strength of the team as well.

With Josh Jackson instead of turnover-prone Kasim Hunt at quarterback, this is not the same Maryland team that lost to Temple 35-14 a year ago in College Park, Md.

This isn’t the same Temple team, either.

It’s better-coached than it was a year behind a guy who is 4-2 against the Big 10.

Whether he goes 5-2 will be determined by his willingness to adjust his scheme to exploit the weakness of his opponent.

We will find that out in six days.

Tuesday: Owl Nation

Saturday: Game Day

How good is Temple? Some clues today

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The $2 million question that wasn’t really answered last week could be today.

“How good is Temple?”

It used to be a $64,000-dollar question in the 1950s (the name of a game show back then) but, due to inflation and the amount of money Temple coach Rod Carey is making, we’ll arbitrarily set it at his $2 million annual salary.

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All that said, comparative scores are just speculation but it’s fun speculation and transitive property means little later in the season let alone this early  …

BUT …

I must admit despite the gaudy 56-14 score and the No. 1 national ranking in overall offense, I was a little leery about the win over Bucknell in that I thought Temple would have laid the kind of beating on the Bison that Maryland did to Howard (79-0) and Penn State did to Idaho (79-7). I thought Temple got first downs on too many third downs and not enough first downs after first downs. Bucknell’s tackling surprised me in that I did not think it would be able to tackle or get off blocks at all.

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It may just be overreacting. It may be just because Carey is a “nicer guy” than Maryland’s Mike Locksley and Penn State’s James Franklin but part of my concern is that I think Howard and Idaho are better teams than Bucknell.

Certainly, Howard did something recently (two years ago) that Bucknell has never done and probably never will: Beat an FBS team in the P5 and G5 eras when it went out to UNLV and won. That year, UNLV followed up that 43-40 loss to Howard by beating Idaho (44-16), San Jose State (41-13), Fresno State (26-16) and Hawaii (31-23) so the Running Rebels were no scrubs.

Bucknell travels to Sacred Heart (6 p.m.) and if it struggles against that team on a 56-12 level, it’s not a real good sign for Temple.

Howard, on the other hand, travels to FCS power Youngstown State and, if the Penguins are able to hang a big number (maybe not 79-0) on Howard, it indicates that the Maryland win is less impressive than it was a week ago.

Those are just a couple of clues.

We really won’t know how good Temple is until next week when it hosts Maryland. Today, the Syracuse at Maryland game is one to watch and the Owls might as well root for the Terrapins because a Temple win over a team that beat Syracuse will be that much more impressive.

Buffalo at Penn State (Fox, 7:30) is also a game to watch. The Bulls were really hurt when quarterback Tyree Jackson left school a year early to pursue an NFL career and found himself on no roster after being cut by his hometown Buffalo squad. Let that be a lesson for any quarterback coming out. If you are not a first-round pick, it’s not worth it. I think Buffalo will be able to give PSU a better game than the 29.5 spread, something like 34-14 and could be a tough foe for the Owls in a couple of weeks.

Then there is another clue game in South Florida at Georgia Tech (2 p.m.) If South Florida (which got rocked by Wisconsin) is able to give GT a good game or even win, that bodes well for Temple at the end of the month because I think TU is significantly better than USF this season.

A game to watch with absolutely no impact on Temple is freaking East Stroudsburg at Wagner (6 p.m.). Wagner lost to UConn, 24-21, last week. If ESU beats Wagner, you might be able to make an argument that Bucknell is better than Uconn.

In the end, it’s the Owls who have to take care of their own business but stock in that business could go up or down depending upon some of today’s results.

Sunday: Temple knows the way to beat Maryland

Tuesday: Temple Nation

Saturday: Gameday Thoughts

 

A treat, a jump shot, and a color highlight new Temple players

People of a certain age remember the Rice A Roni jingle “the San Francisco treat” but few people ever remember a player from San Francisco making an impact as a football player at Temple.

Re’Mahn Davis is that one and only player.

The Frisco native had 90 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns in a 56-12 win over Bucknell in the opener and may just be the running back who allows Isaiah Wright to concentrate on his wide receiver and special teams duties.

We shall see.

To me, there were a lot of impressive first-timers out there getting extensive action for the Owls but none more than a color (Jadan Blue), a jump shot pronounced MY JAY and a treat from San Francisco named Davis.

What we do know is that he was the most talked-about freshman by his older teammates since Bernard Pierce lugged the pigskin before the 2009 season. Pierce had a pretty good year then, rushing for 1,361 yards and 16 touchdowns. Still, Davis had the better opener this time because Pierce’s debut against Villanova was six carries for 44 yards.

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Jager Gardner took this handoff from P.J. Walker against SMU for 94 yards, the longest run from scrimmage in Temple football history

Going into the season, Temple coach Rod Carey pretty much indicated that Davis and veteran senior Jager Gardner were on the same level. Since Gardner scored a pair of touchdowns as well, that equality was borne out during the game.

There is still time for one to separate himself from the other and, in order to beat Maryland, one will have to.

Gardner was always seen as someone with enormous potential–he still holds the longest run from scrimmage (94 yards) in the Temple football history playbook–but has been never above pedestrian backing up guys like Jahad Thomas and Ryquell Armstead.

Maybe he will do that this year but the time clock for college running backs is usually this: If a true freshman and a senior are even, playing time usually goes to the younger player. Davis rushed for 60 yards and a touchdown and caught two passes for 78 yards and an additional score.

It’s been that way in the history of college football.

Gardner can change all that with a couple of long runs for touchdowns against Maryland but he is running out of time.

The fallback plan has always been Wright, who spent a full week in summer camp at the running back position. The hope is that plan will not have to be dusted off and used, but the reality is that Wright is a game-breaking talent and the Owls are plenty deep with game-breaking talent at wide receiver. Blue, who caught a pass from Frank Nutile against Villanova last year, had his first significant action since catching a pair of touchdown passes in the 2017 Cherry and White game with 10 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown. He missed that fall season with an injury but could play a major role this season.

On defense, the guy who really impressed has a name perfectly suited for basketball, not football. Ifeany Maijeh (last name pronounced my jay) won the starting defensive tackle position against Karamo Dioubate and finished with five tackles, two for a loss and a sack. Dioubate–rated the No. 5 defensive end recruit in the nation coming out of high school–also had a sack.

Still, the same school of thought applies to the Maijeh/Dioubate competition as it does the Davis/Gardner one. If it’s close, the tie goes to the younger runner.

So the next couple of games are most crucial for the older guys who have to do something in the games to separate themselves.

That kind of competition can only help the team as a whole.

Saturday: Bye Weeks Clues

Fizzy: The Bucknell Game

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Fizzy likes what he’s seen from coach Carey and staff so far.

Editor’s Note: Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub is one of the few ex-players we know at Temple who has actually played in a game against Bucknell. His review of the latest gridiron clash between the two schools follows.

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

The day after Temple announced the hiring of Rod Carey, I got this message from a friend who lives in Boulder, Co.  “TEMPLE DID WHAT???”

Let me explain.

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Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl with a few  friends

My friend Erik, in Boulder, was an alum of Northern Illinois University (NIU), and two of his college buddies still lived there and went to all their football games.  Erik would get a weekly message during football season from his buddies, who were not at all happy with Carey’s play calling.  Basically, they said he was a run-oriented guy who rarely did imaginative things.  Erik predicted I was going to go crazy watching and writing about Carey’s offense.  So all winter long, I was dreading Temple’s first game, expecting to see a boring offensive game plan that wouldn’t make use of all our inherent talent.

Just one more qualifier, please.  Long ago, a West Philly High student was asking me about my career.  When I got done a brief summary, he looked up and thoughtfully said, “Weinraub, you older than shit!”

That I am, and I’ve seen so many Philly football coaches at all levels, I couldn’t begin to list all their names.  In two weeks, I knew Andy Reid couldn’t call plays in the Pop Warner league.  I saw so many Temple coaches way over their heads and continually call time outs because they couldn’t get the plays in on time. Then, more often than not, run the ball up the middle. Many of these coaches didn’t make use of their talent and even had students carrying posters running up and down the sideline signaling in the plays.  Those coaches learned on-the-job and at our expense. Lots of times, Temple players won games despite their coaches.

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Well, that was then.  Yesterday, however, I was the most surprised fan at the LINC.  Yes, it was only an overwhelmed Bucknell team, but I saw a flawless offense.  There was no hesitation on play calls.  We started out throwing the ball and then mixed everything up continually.  The shovel pass for the first touchdown was a beautiful call.  Later, we went to an up-tempo, no-huddle scheme that rocked Bucknell’s defense.  And guess what?  After all my years of bitching, I saw an offense make excellent use of misdirections.  As promised, Carey got our all-American special teams player (Wright), the ball in every conceivable fashion.  I was thoroughly impressed because I saw an offense truly designed around the skills of our talented players.  Coach Carey and offensive coordinator Mike Uremovich, are to be congratulated.  The coaching staff showed how years of working together pay off.

I do have one coaching complaint. Can you explain to me why Russo and the first-team offense was on the field and risking injury into the fourth quarter?

The only player negatives revolve around Anthony Russo.  Many times, our outstanding quarterback looked directly at his primary receiver as soon as he got the snap.  Perhaps that had a hand in the pick-six interception?  Also, would someone please teach him how to slide?  (If we had a baseball team, that coach could do the job. Wait, maybe our baseball team is playing in our new 160 million dollar campus stadium. Duh!)

Today, I’m not going to get into the defense because I really want to see how they do against stiffer competition.  However, I believe it was only once they had to call a timeout to set the formation near our goal line.

To sum up, color me thrilled.  I hope yesterday wasn’t a mirage.

Thursday: The Newbies

Saturday: Things to Look for

 

 

 

5 Goals Out of Summer Camp

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You can make up all the mock depth charts you want (as we have today) but the power of moving up the charts rests in what these young men do.

According to The Inquirer’s Marc Narducci, the highlight of the first day of Temple football summer camp was the handing out of single digits.

Count me among those loving Temple’s single-digit tradition–perhaps because it gets mentioned on every national telecast–but more significant highlights should be coming in the next four weeks.

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Owls have 2 votes in the coaches poll. Since you are not allowed to vote for your own team, I’m guessing Geoff Collins and Matt Rhule

Temple’s schedule is an odd one in that the Owls have nothing more than a practice game with Bucknell on the schedule on the last day of this month, followed by a too early bye week, then the real schedule.

These should be the 5 goals to accomplish in the next four weeks:

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Dan Archibong (photo by Zamani Feelings) is a good bet to earn a single digit.

Hitting

Few Cherry and White days were more disappointing than the past one. After watching a few drills that did not involve hitting, the fans left in droves. I was gone right after they practiced punt returns with the return guy catching the ball and running through a line of players who had no interest in touching him. That’s not football. After a 35-0 loss to Pitt in 1983, Bruce Arians brought the team out at 6 a.m. and had them hitting in full pads the next morning. “Dumb mistake by a rookie coach,” Bruce said at the end of that season. “We were out-hit that day. We got into a physical mentality in that practiced and we weren’t outhit the rest of the year.” Owls need to create that mentality early.

Depth

The Owls have a lot of promising players on the second units of both lines but few of those actually saw game action. They need to develop that depth this month.

wright

Solving the Running Back Dilemma

Head coach Rod Carey indicated that he’s open to moving Isaiah Wright into a full-time role at running back should no one emerge as a go-to guy. That beats what he said a week earlier when he indicated going to RB by committee was an option. Running back by committee is like having a baseball closer by committee. It never works. I like Jager Gardner as a backup but I don’t see him as an elite No. 1. Jeremy Jennings is fast, but he doesn’t have great open-field moves. Tyliek Raynor strikes me as a David Meggett-type third-down back. Maybe a true freshman will emerge like Bernard Pierce did in the weeks before the 2007 but, failing that, using Wright (where he has been used in the past) there will give the Owls the best running back in the league without hurting a deep and talented wide receiver corps.

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RPO: Blessing or a Curse?

Quarterback Anthony Russo talked about the Owls using more of a run-pass-option this year than in the past couple. That’s a blessing if the run option is to a running back instead of a quarterback. You won’t catch Bill Belichick using Tom Brady as a run option nor should Carey expose Russo to getting killed on similar plays. While Russo is no Tom Brady (yet), he is like Brady in that he’s more valuable as a dropback passer than as a run decoy. A good coach designs schemes to best utilize the talent he has, not the talent he wants and, for Temple this year, the RPOs should be delayed draws and an occasional swing pass out of the backfield and little else.

A place for Franklin

The Owls need to get Sam Franklin on the field and, with a linebacker corps that includes Chapelle Russell, Shaun Bradley, Isaiah Graham-Mobley and William Kenkewu, snaps will be limited there. He has an opportunity to play safety and that’s where he should line up.

Other than that, and getting the timing down, the Owls are all set to build on expectations that have them getting more votes in the coaches poll than Tennessee and Ole Miss.

Saturday: Around The League

Monday: 5 TUFB Headlines We’d Like to See

Saturday (8/17): Depth Chart Thoughts

Carey on Foley: Plausible Deniability

retained

Carey’s litmus test going forward is to protect these other three guys and give them room to thrive.

A few weeks ago we wrote that Rod Carey had some “splaining to do” after the incident that caused Temple football to be jettisoned from a loyal soldier, Ed Foley.

The explanation came in a recent Marc Narducci story where Carey said that he had “too many offensive coaches on the field, including myself” and wanted to put a talented young defensive assistant, Tyler Yelk, on the field.

Narducci has been on fire recently, with a piece stating that Isaiah Wright wants an expanded role and another giving detail on Manny Diaz’s departure from Temple, but his stories detailing both sides of the Foley issue might have been the best of the summer.

Foley said he was leaving to go “with someone I trust and respect” and the implication was that he did not trust and respect Carey.

Then Narducci came back with Carey’s side of the story. 

A lot of fans, this one included, are still irked that Foley is gone but, given Carey’s explanation, it makes sense.

TLNXruN

Pretty much every Temple fan now watching how Carey treats our beloved trio of Adam DiMichele, Fran Brown and Gabe Infante.

One, Foley could have remained in an off-field capacity if he wanted and both men admitted that. Two, Temple did seem to be top-heavy with offensive coaches in a program that, as Carey has said, “hangs its hat on defense.”

Plausible deniability should Foley’s absence be felt this season. By that, I mean deniability that he’s trying to get rid of the Temple holdovers in favor of NIU guys. The litmus test going forward for Carey is to protect the other three guys (Fran Brown, Gabe Infante and Adam DiMichele) and give them a chance to thrive at Temple. Rod, we’re watching you. 

The bottom line is that Temple, which generally never had to worry about special teams, has one more thing to worry about now. That’s why Carey gets paid the big bucks, though, to make sure everything runs smoothly, including special teams.

The Owls have a serviceable kicker in Will Mobley, who did a nice job when Boston College transfer Aaron Boumerhi had a hip flexor last year. Boomer had the range, while Mobley was essentially a solid extra point kicker. They also have the nation’s best returner, Isaiah Wright, so the special teams should be OK.

Where I think Temple fans will really notice Foley gone is in the area of blocked punts, field goals, and extra points. Foley consistently had the Owls in the nation’s top 10 in those categories because he was an aggressive coach who went after kicks. There is little in Carey’s history to suggest NIU was anywhere near as consistent in that area as Temple was.

When Al Golden got here and brought Foley with him, he said special teams were as important as offense and defense and he practiced what he preached. Let’s hope Carey continues that tradition. 

Monday: Up Against The Walls

Anthony Russo: Let’s Go to the tape

Covering high school football for two Philadelphia newspapers for nearly 39 years, I got to see a lot of good quarterbacks.

Rich Gannon (St. Joseph’s Prep) and Matt Ryan (Penn Charter) later became NFL MVPs.

Yet, the night Anthony Russo won a state championship with Archbishop Wood, I made this bold statement to a group of writers I was with at HersheyPark Stadium: “He’s the best Philadelphia high school league quarterback I’ve ever seen and that includes Rich Gannon and Matt Ryan.”

beatty

Temple is set at QB with these 3

Not surprisingly, two or three nodded their heads in agreement.

That’s not to say that Russo will be an NFL MVP like those two were–geez, I hope, so, though–but his high school career in terms of stats and wins and sheer ability to throw the football surpassed those two.

At the time, Russo was a Rutgers’ commit and, as a Temple fan, he fit the profile of the one guy I wanted to have as my quarterback: A Philadelphia star who would be the Pied Piper of Philadelphia stars and make Temple a destination school. That came about when Matt Rhule pursued him and he de-committed from Rutgers and, after a brief one-afternoon flirtation with LSU and Les Miles, reaffirmed his commitment to Temple.

This is what I wrote on Twitter back in October of 2017:

Screenshot 2019-06-10 at 10.00.53 PM

Fortunately, the Steinmetzes agreed with me way back then.

He has gotten onto the field and he has not lost the job and I don’t think he will. That’s not to say Toddy “Touchdown” Centeio will not be nipping at his heels because he will and that’s good for Temple. Trad Beatty is also in line and I don’t think the Owls have had this much depth at the quarterback position since Maxwell Award winner Steve Joachim was backed up by future CFL star Marty Ginestra.

That’s a good thing, not a bad one.

For his first year after shaking off two years of rust, Russo had a terrific season. That’s not to say he was perfect. Fourteen touchdown passes and 14 interceptions is not a good ratio but, say, 25 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions is and that’s a pretty realistic goal to shoot for in terms of stats. Getting away from offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude is probably the best thing that ever happened to AR’s career.

To me, though, about a dozen wins would be even more impressive and, if that’s the end result of the 2019 season, I think Anthony Russo would take that and another 14/14 ratio again.

That’s what made him such a great quarterback in high school and it’s what makes him a great quarterback now.

Temple is lucky to have and, fortunately, it is only 80 or so days until we see him on the field again wearing Cherry and White.

Saturday: Archiving Temple’s Past