Editor’s Note: As we approach signing day, time to wrap up a couple of concerns in an open letter to the coach.

Dear Rod,

Congratulations on a nice first season, but it could have been a lot better had just a few things been cleaned up.

Eight wins were just about what many expected–I predicted nine–but not in my wildest dreams did I believe these players would have been beaten 42-21, 63-21 and 55-13 by anyone.

There should be a plan to fix that.

We were warned by the Northern Illinois fans that, while you were a good coach, you were a little bit stubborn and I think a lot of that was revealed in the blowouts. Most of these guys were recruited for a power running game, not a read-option spread, and I was wrong to assume that you would have adjusted to your talent and not made your talent adjust to the coaches.

To me, good coaches don’t try to force-feed their system onto a group better suited for another system and you might want to consider that approach next season. Anthony Russo is a much better passer when the running game is established first without being burdened by deciding to run or pass. Plenty of ways to fix that. Insert a fullback (Tavon Ruley?) and put the tight ends in motion and bring more blockers to the point of attack that there are defenders. That would help spring Ray Davis for some big early runs.

Temple’s had great running backs in the past like Bernard Pierce, Jahad Thomas, and Ryquell Armstead because it established the run with a culture of toughness on the offensive line and often the use of a fullback to help run interference for that talent.

Ray Davis can be every bit as good as those guys but he needs help.

Once the run is established, the linebackers and the safeties inch closer to the line of scrimmage and play-action–not read option–is the way to defeat that kind of defense. A deft fake by Russo to Davis means that both Jadan Blue and Brandon Mack will be running so free through the secondary that Russo won’t know which one to pick out.

Not much can be accomplished by asking Russo to run a read option. I know that’s the system you were familiar with at NIU with Jordan Lynch but Russo is a lot closer to Tom Brady in skill set than he is to Lynch and you don’t see Bill Belichick asking Brady to run the read-option. Great coaches find a scheme that fits their talent at hand, not the talent they want.

Running the ball shortens the game, chews up the clock and helps keep the defense off the field and you’ll find that being on the short end of scores like 62-21, 42-21 and 55-13 don’t happen nearly as much with that approach.

All of these concepts can be implemented by the spring as well as putting someone in charge of special teams and deciding whether you want to block kicks or return them or do both. Doing nothing on special teams, which was Temple in 2019, should no longer be an option.

Temple football is a great running game, special teams, and defense but it all starts with a great running game. It’ll be four more years of recruiting before you can get the players who can run your stuff.

Meanwhile, I think most Temple fans would like to see a little more flexibility in the thinking in the coaches’ room in 2020 than we saw last fall.

That might be as important as anything that happens on the practice field before the ball is kicked off in Miami.

Friday: Signing Day

This is the only red flag Temple fans should care about.

Anyone who even casually follows auto racing, and I emphasize the casual part in my case, knows what a red flag means in that sport.

It means “conditions are too dangerous to continue” and that “cars are advised to proceed to the pit.”

Hmm.

A month ago, I would have said the 2020 season was definitely a green flag. Outside the linebackers, who were very good, just about everybody who made a difference was going to be back in the fold.

Since then, the best center in the country (Matt Hennessy) decided on the NFL draft, where he will probably be a 1-3 round NFL pick. The best defensive player in the AAC, Quincy Roche, decided another school would increase his chances of being picked in the NFL draft in 2021. The tight end decided first on Baylor and then on Ole Miss. The backup quarterback, who was a nice insurance policy if Anthony Russo went down, skipped town.

When will the bleeding of talent ever stop?

Even if it has, my expectations for the 2020 season have been knocked down a peg. If the 2018 and 2019 Owls could win eight games, I thought for sure the 2020 Owls would have a really good chance at double digits and an AAC title.

Now?

This was it for the losses a month or so ago. It’s gotten much worse since.

Unless head coach Rod Carey pulls a couple of rabbits out of the hat by February signing day, I’d have to find my Cherry and White-colored glasses to think that 2020 will be anything more than a 6-6 season. Honestly, do you see Carey as that kind of magician? Good game day coach, for sure, but there seems to be some evolving evidence that he doesn’t have the same connection with the kids that coaches like Al Golden and Matt Rhule had. He’s got the X’s and O’s part down pat, not so much the Jimmy’s and Joe’s. Really, what can Carey do at this point to excite the fan base? Maybe sign the 1,000-yard running back in the portal from NIU or a Power 5 defensive end. That’s about it.

I can’t say for sure that Carey has lost the locker room but it would be hard for me to believe that if, say, Al Golden was here the connection between players and the coaching staff would have been enough for a lot of the kids who left to stay. Hennessy, to me, was a goner but losing Kenny Yeboah and Quincy Roche really hurt. There is absolutely nothing any objective observer can say to convince me that they would have been better off elsewhere than Temple.

For some reason, they believe otherwise.

Power 5 programs who lose talent can survive because those programs routinely recruit four- and five-star talent. A program like Temple cannot, especially when I don’t notice a similar exodus from UCF, Cincinnati and Memphis. Just look at the Miami opener, for instance. When the Owls beat Georgia Tech, 24-2, and Miami lost to Georgia Tech, 28-21, a couple of weeks later, winning in Miami next year seemed not only possible but probable.

Since then, though, the Owls lost a lot and Miami gained a lot, including Houston quarterback superstar D’Eriq King.

Cars might not be advised to return to the pit in 2020 but if fans remain in the parking lot and do not go into the stadium it’s because these red flags are directing them there. Not me, because even in 1-11 seasons and 20-game losing streaks, the game was always the thing. But the Temple fan base, on the whole, is more softcore than hardcore and deciding to make game day more about the day than the game will be a product of success or failure.

Since fans can’t go in the portal, their only option is to declare for Lot K on game day. It’s up to Carey to give them a reason to believe now and he’s running out of time.

Friday: The Dotted Line

Shot of a fairly crowded Temple (Cherry and White-clad fans) side minutes before kickoff (photo contributed by UNC fan Steve Laskowski)

It usually takes a lot for me to get up out of my seat and leave a Temple football game.

On Friday, it took something as little as a water bottle fight.

Oh, the score (41-13) at the time was bad enough, but watching two Temple players laughing and having a water bottle fight was worse. Just as I was shaking my head, two more Temple players were laughing and posing for cameras.

Down 41-13.

The face of this fan on the Temple side pretty much reflected what all who took the time and effort to make the trip felt.

Shaking my head. SMH as they say on the internet.

I got up and left, thinking this was the end of the Temple brand. Was Temple ever down 41-13 during the decade-long run revival of Temple TUFF? Yep. But not with this nonchalant attitude on display for all to see.  To be sure, Temple TUFF existed during the Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians Eras but the brand was revived by Al Golden and pretty much embraced by Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins.

I guess Temple was down at least once 41-13 during each of the Golden, Rhule, Daz, and Collins eras but back then the mood on the sideline reflected the numbers on the scoreboard.

Sure, but I never remember laughing and posing and water bottle fights. I remember a lot of yelling and thrown helmets during those few occasions.

Golden, Daz, Rhule, and Collins pretty much had that stuff locked down. If what happened on the sidelines happened during, say, Rhule’s tenure, he would have turned around and gone ballistic. I knew it. You knew it. Everyone knew it. Basically, that’s why it did not happen.

At the time, Rod Carey was busy folding his arms and looking up at the sky. Maybe he was looking for another flyover of jets.

Golden made sure all the players, subs and starters, were literally locked into what was happening on the field by having them interlock their arms, swaying back and forth and cheering for the team while the other Owls were on the field. It was part of the brand.

One last look at Temple TUFF before it goes away forever.

Friday’s incident–forever known in my mind as the water bottle fiasco–was the best illustration of a lack of discipline but it wasn’t the only one. You can’t have one guy called for two offsides and another guy getting an offside on a possible score that would have cut the halftime lead to possibly 17-14.

You can’t be on the short end of scores like 63-21, 45-21 and 55-13 without some level of quitting involved. You can’t quit and then spend the second half laughing on the sidelines.

“They were really hot on the Temple fan facebook page,” one of the members messaged me. “Only people who are not upset are the Temple players.”

“That’s a big part of the problem,” I messaged back.

Not everyone. There are plenty of guys who care but half of them don’t seem to show it and the coaches don’t seem to notice.

The record books will say this was an 8-5 season but was this an 8-5 season equal to last year’s 8-5 season? I think not. Temple TUFF does not lose 63-21 or 55-13.

Not a single regular-season loss in last year’s schedule was by more than a dozen points. There were two this year by a combined 66 points.

Last year, that  63-21 loss to UCF at home was a 52-40 loss to a better UCF team on the road a game that was in doubt pretty much until the end. After starting this season 5-1, this team finished 3-4.  Last year’s team finished 5-2. You should get better, not worse, as the season progresses. There was no SMU game last year but the UNC equivalent (Duke) involved a staff whose minds were elsewhere.

So, too, apparently are the minds of this staff. The problem is their bodies are still here. They are going to have to revive a brand that we thought was revived. From the looks of the sideline six rows up Friday, it’s going to be a harder job than I thought.

Wednesday: New Year, New Problems

Saturday: Resumption of Twice a Week Posting Schedule