Category Archives: Rutgers

10.23.12
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The case for the defense

On the touchdown passes in the end zone, you can see Owls around the ball but nobody makes a play on it.

Temple’s defense experienced the worst kind of replay on Saturday, three similar touchdown passes within a seven-minute stretch of the fourth quarter.
For all intents and purposes, the game was over right there, a 21-10 Rutgers’ lead on the way to a 35-10 win.
After giving up two touchdown passes in the first quarter at Uconn, the replays are maddening familiar.
Progress, at least in this case, was the coverage.
If you look at the coverage, Owls are there. On one touchdown, it was a linebacker (Nate D. Smith) and a corner (usual lock-down left corner Anthony Robey, beaten for the first time all season for six). On another, two Owls miss tackles in the open field against Juwan Jamison, one of the best halfbacks in the conference. On another, three Owls are around the ball.
Against UConn, over the middle, nobody was.

Kevin Newsome: Too good an athlete to keep off the field.

Temple defensive coordinator Chuck Heater made the adjustments he needed to make at halftime to close off the middle and the rest of the field. There’s nobody better than Heater making halftime adjustments.
Problem on Saturday was there was no halftime to make adjustments and no offense to make a comeback with.
There would have been an offense if the Owls had thrown on play-action passes on first down in the opening half (see Sunday post below), but 21-10 is too large a deficit for Temple to recover from when facing the No. 15 team in the BCS standings. Throwing is a whole different story when you HAVE to throw the ball. Temple should have mixed it up in the first half, when it didn’t have to throw.
This is about the defense, though.
To me, the solution is simple: Get athletes in there who can make plays and knock the ball down and maybe even intercept it.
They don’t even have to be recruited. They are already here.
Vaughn Carraway, the starting free safety who was suspended for the Rutgers’ game because of a questionable hit (the hit looked OK to me) at UConn, will be back for Pitt.
He’s one of the athletes. I think Carraway makes the tackle on Jamison.
I’d love to see them move Carraway to one corner and move Kevin Newsome, a three-time first-team all-state safety in Virginia, from scout team quarterback to roaming the middle of the field. It’s not like the Owls don’t have Big East talent back there. Carraway, Newsome, Tavon Young, Robey and Abdul Smith are Big East talents. Heck, Newsome (PSU recruit) and Carraway (Michigan recruit) are Big 10 talents. It’s not like the Owls have to play MAC defensive backs against BE wideouts. It’s not like the brain trust at the E-O hasn’t thought about it. Newsome said as much after the Maryland game: “Coach Addazio asked me if I would play either wide receiver or safety and I said I would do anything to help the team.”
The “or safety” comment was the most intriguing to me.
What happened since? I’m told Addazio was not comfortable with only having one spread offense quarterback in reserve should starter Chris Coyer go down. When you are constantly getting beaten on jump balls in the secondary, that’s not a good enough reason for me. Heck, it’s not like if Newsome moves over to defense he won’t be available to play quarterback in a pinch.
Can you imagine how much different it would be on the back-line defense with two 6-foot-3 guys with 4.5 speed  and near 40-inch vertical jumps (Carraway and Newsome) back there to make plays?
We might be talking about three field goals and not three touchdowns.
Even with the Owls’ anemic offensive game plan, we’re also talking about a 10-9 lead going into the final quarter.
And maybe, just maybe, a 3-0 Big East record.
Is it too late to change secondary personnel?
Maybe,  but I think it’s worth a shot even at this late juncture.
Otherwise, get used to more jump balls in the end zone landing in the wrong hands.

10.21.12
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The square-peg round-hole offense

Steve Addazio’s post-game press conference.

On the way into the stadium yesterday, I mentioned to a few of Wayne Hardin’s ex-players that this was a game that Wayne would have loved to have formulated a plan for because of the over pursing nature of Rutgers’ defense and its stout defensive front.

My worst fears about the offensive game plan were realized

In his day, there was no better offensive mind than Hardin. That wasn’t me saying it. It was guys like Tom Landry, Joe Marciano (see quote at bottom of this story) and Joe Paterno.
“Wayne would pull out all the stops,” I said. “He would throw on first down, throw little waggles and slants to move the sticks on first down, then hand off when the defense was on their heels. Then he might throw in a double-reverse and maybe even a pass off it. All that stuff used to work when coach Hardin called it.”

New York Post picks Temple to beat RU in Friday paper.
Unfortunately, the game wasn’t played in the Friday paper.

 I also expressed my concern that Steve Addazio would do just the opposite.
Too often, Addazio has tried to fit a square peg into a round hole. When you try to move bigger, faster, more experienced, defensive fronts with an inexperienced OL, you might as well be pounding your head against a brick wall.
All you get is a headache.
Why do I have the feeling that if this was 1940 and Steve Addazio was a Field Marshal in the German Army, he would have attacked the Maginot Line head-on instead of adroitly going around it like Rommel did? Rommel was going for the championship of Europe that year while Daz was only going for first place in the Big East in 2012, but the analogy stands the test of time.
Yes, Temple has to run the ball to be successful but it must convince the defense it can throw the ball first to make the run work.
The best chance to do that would be play fakes on FIRST down, not third when the defense is pinning their ears back on the quarterback.
“One of Steve’s great strengths is his stubbornness,” I said. “One of his great weaknesses is his stubbornness.”
A look at the play chart suggests my worst fears were realized.

Temple had 10 first-down play calls in the first half and seven were Montel Harris running plays, two were Chris Coyer running plays and one was, you guessed it, another running play, a two-yard gain by Jamie Gilmore.  In the third quarter, the two initial first-down plays were a Montel Harris rush and a Chris Coyer rush.Sense a pattern here? I’m guessing the Rutgers’ coaches did, too.

Temple had 10 first-down play calls in the first half and seven were Montel Harris running plays, two were Chris Coyer running plays and one was, you guessed it, another running play, a two-yard gain by Jamie Gilmore.  In the third quarter, the two initial first-down plays were a Montel Harris rush and a Chris Coyer rush.
Sense a pattern here?
 I’m guessing the Rutgers’ coaches did, too.
As I have written many times, what would be the harm in opening up the game with a two-minute drill, the same two-minute drill that won the game at UConn?
What would be the harm  in taking advantage of Temple past tendencies by faking the ball right into  Montel Harris’ belly ON FIRST DOWN to freeze the defense and throwing the short- and intermediate sideline routes that have a high likelihood of success? Temple does have edge athletes who can do damage, too.
What would be the harm in having Jalen Fitzpatrick, a Big 33 quarterback, throw off a reverse?
If it’s not there, just have Fitzpatrick tuck it away and take off. He’s damn elusive, as his short stint as a spring practice running back showed.
Yes, the defense could have played better in the third quarter but a better-designed offense might have put a lot more than 10 points on the board by then.
Just once, I’d like to see Temple putting square pegs into square holes.
Maybe Saturday at Pitt.
We can only hope.

10.19.12
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Montel Harris: ‘I want to help my team to the Orange Bowl’

Steve Addazio implores fans to take it to the next level.

About two minutes before the start of Temple’s game at UConn last week, a very loud chant of “LET’S GO TEMPLE” could be heard from the corner of the end zone where about 900 Temple fans stood.

Montel Harris, standing right next to Steve Addazio and loosening up, turned around and gave a “thumbs up” to the Temple cheering section and raised both palms as if asking for the volume to be turned up.

I’m glad  Harris is on Temple’s side for tomorrow’s game (noon, Lincoln Financial Field) with Rutgers.
He hears it and he gets it.

Michael Basiden has a phrase he repeats on WDAS-FM (105.3, Mondays through Fridays, 3-7 p.m.) when he says something people might construe as outrageous.

When you see the “this is our house” in the video, it’s a cue for a “Let’s Go Temple” cheer.

“That’s right, I said it!” Baisden, who has a popular nationally syndicated radio show, will repeat.
Harris doesn’t need to repeat it, but this quote has all but one Harris YouTube clip so far this season:

“I want to help my team to the Orange Bowl. That’s our goal.”
Harris wasn’t talking about Boston College.
 He was talking about Temple.
That’s right. He said it.
Last week’s game against UConn might have been a bowl elimination game.
Tomorrow’s game against Rutgers might be an Orange Bowl elimination game.
Win, and the dream remains alive.
Lose, and the dream in all likelihood is dashed.

Set the alarms for 7 a.m. tomorrow and enjoy the beautiful day at LFF.

If Temple wins, it is 3-0 in the league and might be all alone atop the Big East standings by 7 p.m., depending  on how the rest of the day plays out.
If Temple wins the league, it will go to the Orange Bowl and no amount of backroom dealing can keep the Owls out.
I like the way Montel Harris reaches for the stars.
Some Temple fans poo-poo such talk. Some might even call it embarrassing.
It is not embarrassing to tell people your goal is to be the best you can be.
Right now, the 2-0 Owls can be the Big East champs.
That’s a fact.
Whether they will be in a position to do it depends I think on a couple of things:
1) Can the fans take it to the next level? Can we get the 30K TEMPLE fans in attendance to stand and chant “Let’s Go Temple” at the top of their lungs and sing the fight song in unison like they did several times in the second half of the USF game? (If you don’t think the kids on the team hear it, see the first graph above.)
2) Will the offensive game plan be diverse enough to get the job done? In other words, maybe open up with a two-minute drill, throw in a trickeration play or two, throw on first down enough to set up Harris’ on second- and third-down runs?
I saw enough evidence in the second half of the Maryland and USF games to think No. 1 can happen.
No. 2, I’m not so sure about but I have to trust that a coaching staff with muliple national championship rings can  figure that out.
Harris and the rest of the Owls will be ready.
Will you?

Tomorrow: No story due to power tailgating but complete analysis on Sunday

10.18.12
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Throwback Thursday: RU-TU memories

Bruce Arians was the youngest
coach in college football
when he called a “jailbreak”
blitz that resulted in four straight
Temple sacks of Scott Erney
to end the 1988 game in favor of TU

The headline and lede in story written by now talk-show host Mike Missanelli.

Rivalries are a beautiful thing.

I’m old enough to know when Temple and Delaware were rivals.
One of my fondest days was spent in Newark, Del., when Temple beat Delaware 31-8 in front of a still-record and still-stunned crowd of 23,619.
An even fonder day was Temple’s 45-0 win in Newark on another beautiful Saturday. The hot dogs in that post-game tailgate tasted like filet mignon. Delaware went on to win the national Division II championship (which became D1AA which became FCS).
Temple even got grief from the local media for scheduling Delaware.
“I believe in scheduling Delaware…and then beating the crap out of them,” was the way Wayne Hardin was quoted in response.
Bruce Arians responds to a text
message congratulatng him on
beating the Green Bay Packers.
BA is still a big Owl fan.
I loved it.
Can you imagine any coach in today’s “politically correct” world saying something like that?
Then Temple dropped its rivalry with Delaware and picked up one with Rutgers.
Penn State is supposed to be a rival, but to be one, you’ve got to prove that you can beat one.
Temple’s proven that against Rutgers numerous times, and the proximity of the schools combined with an animosity factor qualifies this as a real rivalry.
You’ve got to have a little animosity to stir the rivalry pot, and in Rutgers, there’s some of that.
Since Delaware, Rutgers has always been Temple’s biggest rival.
The rivalry was only further fueled by Rutgers’ involvement in kicking out Temple from the Big East. Despite Temple winning four straight games from the Scarlet Knights, Rutgers led the charge to kick out Temple for “non-competitiveness.”
“I’ve never lost to f-ing Rutgers, and I’m not going to end my career losing to f-ing Rutgers.” Temple center Donny Klein, halftime of the 2002 game.
So there’s some animosity there.
I have some fond memories, too, of some Rutgers-Temple games.
I’m sure Rutgers fans have similar memories as well of games that didn’t turn out as well for Temple, but that’s what rivalries are all about.
When Bruce Arians was Temple coach in 1988 and Dick Anderson was his opposite number at Rutgers, Anderson had a quarterback named Scott Erney who was killing Temple on the final drive of the game with Temple holding a 35-30 lead over an RU team that beat Penn State.
(Arians is now the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, but he has never forgotten TU, to which he remains fiercely loyal.)
Erney, running a two-minute drill against Nick Rapone’s prevent defense, drove RU to the Temple 20 in the game’s final minute and appeared to be leading his team to the winning touchdown.

Map and towns by N.J. Schmitty.

Arians then called a timeout, got in Rapone’s face, and ordered a jailbreak blitz on the next four plays. “Jailbreak” in those days was the Temple defensive call for eight men rushing, three back in coverage.
“We go jailbreak because we feel you can’t block us all,” Arians said. “My philosophy, as a former quarterback, is the best pass defense is putting the QB on his ass.”
The result?
Four straight Temple sacks, with a defensive lineman named Swift Burch ending the game on top of Erney at midfield. Temple won, 35-30.
“If I was going to go down, it wasn’t going to be against a prevent,” Arians said, holding the game ball. “I was going to go down with my guns blazing.”
With the backdrop of BE explusion, In 2002, at Rutgers in the rain, the Owls trailed at halftime, 14-3.
The Owls, by then, had won three straight over Rutgers, and a senior center named Donny Klein got up at halftime and pounded his helmet on the floor and started an F-bomb tirade. By that year, Temple got kicked out of the Big East and knew Rutgers would be staying in instead.

TU and RU were both 3-1 going into this game.

“I’ve never lost to f-ing Rutgers, and I’m not going to end my career losing to f-ing Rutgers,” Klein said, ending a 10-minute rant that included about 100 f-bombs.
Led by Klein’s incredible blocking, a back named Tanardo Sharps rolled up 215 yards on 43 carries, and Temple won, 20-17, on Cap Poklemba’s last-second field goal.
The Temple team then ran over to the Big East logo and danced on it, singing the school’s fight song in a monsoon.
That’s what I would call animosity.
That’s what I would call a rivalry.
Temple really hasn’t had one of those in long time.
It has now and it’s back. I hope these Owls can find a Big East logo and dance on it while singing “T for Temple U” oh, about 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
Maybe even Poklemba, who now leads the student cheers as a welcomed “old head”, will join in and give dance lessons.
10.17.12
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TU-RU by numbers: Who’s poop now?

Steve Addazio and the Owls react after reading posts on Rutgers’ rivals’ site about Temple.

If you have read the Rutgers’ message board over the last year or so, you get the impression that all Rutgers’ fans agree on at least four things:
1) Temple can’t draw more than 15K to its home games;
2) Temple is a bad addition to the Big East while Rutgers is good;
3) Temple doesn’t own the Philadelphia TV market;
4) Temple never has had a winning season.

Notice this poster has Rutgers beating Temple for the same reasons he had USF beating Temple.

One fan even went as far as to post a poll on the Rutgers’ website comparing the Owls to “poop.”
Those beliefs are based, as Steve Addazio has stated, on “way back when days.”
The metrics back up Addazio:
 1) Temple has averaged nearly 30K fans to its home games over the last three years. Temple’s home game last year vs. Villanova drew 32K fans, 31K from Temple. Temple’s home game against Villanova this year drew 33K, 32K from Temple. Temple drew 26K to the USF game and there might have been 100 fans from USF (would you leave Tampa for Philly in Oct.?). The Owls’ home game vs. Penn State last year drew 57K fans, at least 40K wearing Cherry and White, as Addazio correctly pointed out in the Maryland post-game press conference (go to 6:00 in time stamp) last year.

Another typical “know-it-all” (err, know-nothing) Rutgers’ fan.

2) Most of the schools thought Temple was a good enough addition to the Big East to invite the Owls back in on March 7, 2012, despite what Rutgers’ fans think.
 3) Temple’s bowl game against UCLA drew the second-highest TV rating of ANY BOWL EVER on ESPN in the Philadelphia market, second only to Penn State’s 2007 appearance in the Alamo Bowl and higher than any SEC, PAC-10 or Big East matchup ever shown in the Philadelphia market.
 4) Temple is working on four straight winning seasons, while Rutgers is not.
Who is poop now?
More Temple vs. Rutgers’ numbers:
Temple opponents (2012): 18-14; Rutgers’ opponents (2012) 10-21. Advantage: TEMPLE.
Temple in its last 20 conference (MAC and BE) home games: 17-3; Rutgers in its last 20 conference road games: 8-12. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple in its last 20 overall conference games: 12-8; Rutgers in its last 20 overall conference games: 8-12. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple overall record last 3.5 years: 29-14; Rutgers’ overall record last 3.5 years: 28-16. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple current streak of winning seasons: 3; Rutgers current streak of winning seasons: 1. Advantage: TEMPLE.
Temple wins against Rutgers in last 6 games: 4. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple at home against Rutgers in last 4 games: 3-1. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple all-time in Philadelphia against Rutgers: 9-6. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple this year in BE road games: 1-0; Rutgers this year in BE road games: 1-0. Advantage: EVEN
Temple Bowl MVPs currently on roster: 1; QB Chris Coyer Rutgers Bowl MVPs currently on roster: 1, RB Juwan Jamison. Advantage: EVEN.
 Jamison rushing yards against UConn: 110; Montel Harris rushing yards against UConn: 142. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple coaches with national and SEC title rings (3;) Rutgers coaches with national and SEC title rings (0). Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple conference championships (1, co-MAC East, 2009); Rutgers conference championships (0). Advantage: TEMPLE.

Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday

10.15.12
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The (not so) secret formula to beat Rutgers

The media blitz already has begun for this game with a crowd of at least 40K expected.

“We’ve got the best kicker in the country. That was the mindset. I was tempted to go for two (at the end of regulation) but  I thought, ‘Let’s go to overtime.’ In overtime, we were really starting to pound the ball in there and almost scored (a touchdown) but I had enough. I was afraid we were going to have a center/quarterback exchange problem so I was going to center the ball to the left and I thought the best kicker in college football has got to win the game for Temple right now. And that was our strategy. We’re lucky it worked out.”_ Steve Addazio

One of the requirements for a journalism degree when I was at Temple was to take Creative Writing 101.
The basic tenant of the course was that a good story always has a solid beginning, middle and end and all three are intertwined.
So it is with Temple University’s 2012 football team.
The beginning (a 41-10 beatdown of Villanova) was good. Villanova is a much better FCS team than most people give it credit for and the 5-2 Wildcats are coming off a 38-14 win at No. 3 Old Dominion in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,000. Right now, Villanova looks like it could put up about 100 on Howard and 40 on Tulane.
The Owls are 3-2 and 2-0 and that’s better than most prognosticators expected.
The middle and end of the story is yet to be determined.
The middle comes EXACTLY at halftime Saturday against Rutgers and how that plays out will go a long way toward determining what happens at the end.
No one know knows what will happen on Saturday, but the formula to beating Rutgers is pretty simple:

1) Get off to a good start. The Owls have had some trouble doing that largely due to their stubbornness about establishing the run against solid fronts. Maybe they can tweak the game plan to fix that (see No. 2).

2) Get away from the offensive philosophy of pound and ground. If you thought the Penn State and UConn defenses were good at stopping the run, Rutgers is better. The Owls can move the ball on the ground against Rutgers ONLY if they set it up with some well-designed short slant passes. They can take advantage of past tendencies by play-faking to Montel Harris to freeze the defense, particularly on first down (not third). Roll out terrific running and clutch throwing quarterback Chris Coyer, the New Mexico Bowl MVP. That moves him away from the rush and gives him an option to run (if it’s open) or pass (if the DBs) come up on run support.

Brandon McManus kicks the game-winner against UConn.

3) Get field goal kicker Brandon McManus, on the Lou Groza Watch list as placekicker of the year in BCS football, in field position to kick five FGs. He’s got a range of 55 yards and in, so that should not be too difficult. McManus has also kicked a 70-yarder (under a rush) in practice. Hopefully, the Owls can get him closer and more often Saturday. He is also on the Ray Guy Watch List as best punter in the nation and  the Ray Guy in him will do the Lou Groza in him a favor with his normal booming punts.
“We’ve got the best kicker in the country,” Steve Addazio said. “That was the mindset. I was tempted to go for two (at the end of regulation) but  I thought, ‘Let’s go to overtime.’ In overtime, we were really starting to pound the ball in there and almost scored (a touchdown) but I had enough. I was afraid we were going to have a center/quarterback exchange problem so I was going to center the ball to the left and I thought the best kicker in college football has got to win the game for Temple right now. And that was our strategy. We’re lucky it worked out.”

4) Show some “trickeration” for a change. That has not been on any past Temple game film and would probably work now. A throwback pass from Big 33 starting QB Jalen Fitzpatrick, now the Owls’ best WR, off a reverse (or double-reverse) to either Coyer, Romond Deloatch or Khalif Herbin would work against an over-pursuing defense.

That gets Temple 22 points.
Then the Temple defense just has to do about as good a job as Howard and Tulane did against RU.
Not much to ask since the Temple defense is about 100x better than Howard and Tulane.
It’s as simple as 1-2-3-4 and would be a heckuva middle to a great story, setting up a terrific ending.
It might even be a classic in the non-fiction section by New Year’s Day.

Tomorrow: Got a winner in town
Wednesday: TU-RU by the numbers
Thursday: Throwback Thursday (TU-RU theme)

08.23.12
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Bernard Who?

Villanova (and Rutgers and South Florida, among others) have never seen anything like Montel Harris.

What can be said about Montel Harris that hasn’t already been said?
We all know the facts, that Harris was the second-leading rusher in the HISTORY of the ACC, that he was LAST YEAR’S runaway choice for Preseason Player of the Year in that same conference, that he once ran for 252 yards and five touchdowns in a 52-28 win over North Carolina State and had 22 games of over 100 yards against ACC teams such as Florida State, Virginia Tech and Miami.
Much bigger-time teams than even the ones he will be facing in the Big East.

David Wilson and Luke Kuechly were first-round NFL picks.
Danny O’Brien is the starting QB at Wisconsin. Few considered
them nearly as good as Montel Harris in the ACC media poll.

All I was interested in finding out Tuesday during a media sitdown with the new Temple running back (and quite possibly this year’s Big East Player of the Year) was finding out if Montel Harris was 100 percent because, if he is, he will make people forget Bernard Pierce.
No bigger Bernard Pierce fan than me but, as good as Pierce was (and still is), a healthy Harris is better.
There’s a lot of empirical evidence out there to suggest that. Harris had more yards in a much higher level of football playing roughly the same number of games as Pierce did.
Harris says he’s 100 percent. I believe him.
If that holds up, people might be saying Bernard Who if not by September, then certainly by October.
He says he’s fine and so does head coach Steve Addazio and the cuts he made on the field on Tuesday said so the loudest.
“I’m feeling 100 percent,” Harris said. “The knee is good. It was the left knee, but most people aren’t able to tell.”
When I first saw the many video highlights of Harris, his running style reminded me a lot of not Pierce, but Matt Brown, the other half of Temple’s 1-2 running punch. Harris is bigger and heavier. Brown might be a tad faster. Both are tough and both can make runners miss and make what Addazio calls “explosive plays” downfield. Throw in a great running quarterback like Chris Coyer and a spread offense that opens the field up and a few bulbs could break this year on the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard.
“I’m a balanced runner able to make things happen in the open field but also able to break tackles,” Harris said.
Even though Harris ran into some trouble at Boston College, I think he will be a solid citizen at Temple.
“I’m just here to say I’m here to play football and I’m a great football player and I have great character off the field,” Harris said.
Everyone at the E-O has known that for the past month or so.
In eight days, the seamless transition from BP to MH could become just an unquestioned upgrade to Temple’s fans.

06.26.12
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Brown turns down SEC and Big 10 offers for TU

Buddy Brown’s junior year highlights at Williamstown, N.J.

“You don’t have to go to Rutgers, you can go right here. We are not North Jersey people. We are basically a step over from Philly. We love the Eagles. We love Temple basketball. We like all that. So why not stay here and have a chance to make a change?”
_Sean Brown, Buddy Brown’s father

Ben Franklin once said it first in this town, over 200 years ago:
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Now you can add a third certainty.
Delusional Rutgers’ fans.
Prior to Temple getting verbals from  Jihaad Pretlow and  P.J. Walker, RU fans were drooling over getting their services.
When the two committed to Temple, the prevalent opinion was Rutgers must have backed off at the last minute and “they weren’t that good, anyway.”
Now that Williamstown four-star linebacker Buddy Brown has committed to Temple, RU fans are saying the same thing.
Truth is no offer was ever pulled. Brown was 247.com’s top-rated linebacker in New Jersey and the 10th highest-rated player on the board at any position in that state. He was a four-star national recruit by them and a three-star national recruit by Rivals.com.

Your typical, run-of-the-mill, Rutgers’ football fan

Brown picked Temple fair and square.
It doesn’t matter what a group of nerd fans say, but what Brown says.
“I think more recruits should take a harder look at Temple,” Brown said. “They will be impressed.”
One RU fan came onto Owlscoop.com and wrote, “you really don’t think someone would turn down an offer to come to Rutgers or Penn State over Temple, do you?”
Well, yeah, and there’s no thinking involved, just facts.
Ask former Big East player of the Year Walter Washington (who turned down Nebraska), former Owl wide receiver Mike Palys (who turned down Penn State), former MAC defensive player of the year Adrian Robinson (who turned down Pitt) and current quarterback Chris Coyer (who turned down Ohio State), among many others who could have gone anywhere but chose Temple.
Rutgers’ fan reaction is curious and humorous, more than annoying, really.
They can’t accept the fact that Temple has a more charismatic head coach than they do, a guy who was head coach at Florida (even if it was for three months). They can’t accept the fact that Temple has a defensive coordinator who as a defensive coach was instrumental in an 11-0 season at Utah and was the brains behind a national championship defense at Florida.
They can’t accept the fact that, in comparison, they have a dull, bland, unproven offensive line coach taking over for Greg Schiano.
Yeah, right, and the 23th-ranked linebacker in the country got an offer pulled from Rutgers when he had offers on the table from Wisconsin (Big 10) and the SEC (Mississippi State).
I didn’t know Rutgers, 7-13 in its last 20 conference games, was in the NFC East.
Baghdad Bob must have had a degree in communications from Rutgers.
He was the guy who stood on one bank of the Tigris River on April 8, 2003 in Baghdad saying “American Troops are committing suicide” and “they will be either killed or burned in their tanks”  before getting to the other side.
Two U.S. Army M1 tanks could be seen in the background. By April 9, the entire town of Baghdad was secured and Bob was arrested by the troops he said would commit suicide or burn.
RU will learn the hard way on Oct. 20, 2012, just like Bob did on April 9, 2003. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);

01.28.12
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Source: RU leaning toward Flood

Call me naive, but I believe him.

In a perfect world, Steve Addazio would take the microphone at halftime at today’s St. Joseph’s University at Temple basketball game and say something like:
“I was offered an opportunity to interview for the head coaching job at Rutgers yesterday and I declined. I’m not going anywhere. Temple is where I wanted to be all along and this university is better-positioned to do great things than Rutgers.”
Cue the thunderous applause from the 10,006 fans in attendance.
Band breaks out into T for Temple U.
Students storm the court at halftime to slap Daz on the back.
Owls finish up their rout of St. Joe.
As we all know this is not a perfect world and that probably won’t happen.
(Don’t say I didn’t throw the suggestion out there, though.)
Still, Temple fans should calm down.
I have a good friend who I worked with here, now working in North Jersey, who said his paper is earlier today was about  to break the story that Florida International University (FIU) coach Mario Cristobal will accept the head coaching job. If that fails, current assistant Kyle Flood would be the fall-back choice.
Now it looks like Cristobal doesn’t see the Rutgers’ job as the Alabama of the North (only Rutgers’ fans are that delusional) and he’s going to pass.
That opens up the, err, floodgates for Flood.
Flood would not be the big splash RU fans are looking for but Greg Schiano’s leaving for Tampa Bay made the timing bad all around.
Pernetti was given permission to speak with Addazio, but that never made it past the phone call stage according to my source.
The guy is a first-rate reporter and I believe him.
Still, I long for the days when Temple football had coaches like Harry Litwack, John Chaney and Fran Dunphy, guys who see  the Owls as a destination not just a step along the way.
I long for the days when Temple football had a guy like Bruce Arians, who did not take the Virginia Tech job when it was flat-out offered to him (not just an interview), saying, “I couldn’t leave my Temple kids.”
I long for the days when we had a guy like Wayne Hardin, who turned down the offensive coordinators’ job with the Dallas Cowboys to stay and do big things at Temple.
Before the game with Wyoming, Steve Addazio said he was that kind of guy, saying that he loved Temple and could see this as his last stop.
I sense that Steve is different than Al Golden in that he is principled and loyal enough not to leave after one year at Temple.

11.12.11
by

Teams to root for today: UB, SMU, Rutgers

Even in this age of instant communication, it’s going to be hard to find the score of the Buffalo at Eastern Michigan game.
First off, it’s never on KYW-AM (they only give top 10 scores) and it’s not on over the air TV (even pay cable) anywhere.
But it is on the internet and, for Temple fans, provides a rooting element.
All these teams would do Temple a big favor by winning:

Hooter is more endearing.

BUFFALO at Eastern Michigan (1 p.m., MAC all-access) _ If the Bulls finish ahead of Bowling Green in the standings, they provide a positive backup tie-breaker for Temple should it finish in a three-way tie with Miami and Ohio. Eastern Michigan is a three-point favorite. The game is on internet only. Buffalo’s got a chance. It beat Ohio.

She’d be perfect for me
if she was 20 years older
and I had $1 million

Navy at SMU (3:30, FSN) _ Southern Methodist football players wrote a letter to the school newspapers complaining about the lack of enthusiasm by their own fans in a win over TCU. They must be looking at the coeds and not on the field of play. Navy has to win all three of its remaining games (at SMU, at San Jose State and vs. Army) to qualify for a bowl Temple could be looking at attending (D.C., likely) and SMU is the toughest of the three. SMU is a seven-point favorite.

Cos and Hall and Oates are more famous.

RUTGERS vs. Army (3:30, Yankee Stadium, CBS College Sports) _ Same deal with Navy as Army has to win all three of its remaining games to qualify for a bowl. If Temple LOSES to Army, it still has a chance to qualify for a final bowl slot if Army loses today. Hopefully, both Rutgers and ESPECIALLY Temple beats Army. The Black Knights of the Hudson have proven to be a tough out on occasion this year, losing at Miami (Ohio) by only a touchdown and beating Northwestern, 21-14. Northwestern, you’ll recall, won AT Nebraska last week. Rutgers is an eight-point favorite.