Plenty of things that were once not only possible in sports but actually occurred have no shot of happening again.

Fortunately, horse racing proved that a $30,000 claiming horse with an 80-1 shot can beat the 4-1 and 7-2 shots and still win the Kentucky Derby as Rich Strike did on Saturday.

That was a great moment in sports history.

Other great moments, though, are slip-sliding away.

Robin Roberts’ 28-straight complete games for the Philadelphia Phillies?

No shot ever since somebody came up with a pitch count.

Maury Wills’ 104 stolen bases for the 1960s Dodgers?

No way.

Ted Williams’ .406 batting average?

Err, no.

Baseball, though, despite declining impressive stats is infinitely fairer to the have-nots than college football is.

Because college football is controlled by the big-name, big-conference, schools, the likelihood that we will ever see another Group of Five football team in the playoffs is as remote as all of the above baseball records being broken.

Heck, there is even talk of the Power 5 splitting away from the rest of the NCAA and starting its own version of March Madness.

That means no more terrific stories like the ones crafted by schools like Butler, George Mason, Loyola of Chicago, and, most recently, St. Peter’s. They were the Rich Strikes of college basketball.

If that happens, the basketball tournament loses much of its appeal. Hell, Mike Leach makes a good argument here as to why college football should be more inclusive, not less, after the Kentucky Derby result. Gotta give that guy credit because he is one of the few haves to advocate for the have-nots.

Temple football came within 16 points of a 12-0 season in 1979 and a likely national championship if they were able to find those points, but that kind of ceiling got raised so high it’s in another galaxy by now.

What is the current Temple football ceiling?

Certainly, an AAC football title is within reach, probably not this year, but certainly 2-3 years down the road.

The Owls will have to use their advantages (located in a big city with plenty of NLI opportunities) plus having a charismatic head coach who should be a great recruiter. By then, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF will be gone and, if Temple can’t compete for titles with the Memphises, Tulanes, USFs and Tulsas, the administration will have to do some serious soul-searching about its football future.

Heck, even with Cincy, Houston and UCF to compete against, it wasn’t all that long ago that Temple appeared in consecutive football title games and won one of them.

The formula remains the same: A committed, enthusiastic, head coach who can attract only 25 great players in a recruiting area that holds 46 percent of the nation’s population within a five-hour drive.

That standard existed roughly five years ago. For the future to mean anything, it must be revisited.

Friday: Your Next QB?

Sometimes it’s the thought that counts.

Judging by the thinking in the coaches’ room at the Edberg-Olson Football Complex, there is a plan going forward and that’s a good thing.

At least from a Temple fan perspective.

From this seat in the stands and on the sidelines the last year or so (including the spring game a couple of weeks ago), what we’ve seen so far of D’wan Mathis is promising but not enough.

We speculated in this space 18 days ago about the availability of Florida transfer Emory Jones and said he was “open to going anywhere” and Temple is one of those places now.

He is just off a visit to Arizona State so the Owls getting him is not assured but they have shown interest and are also interested in Pitt transfer portal QB Davis Beville.

If they can get one, they will be better off. If they can get both, it’s hitting the jackpot.

To me, Mathis is a guy who needs a fire lit under him to excel and either/or of the above two qualify as kindling.

If Mathis excels with the competition, Temple’s offensive productivity is better off. If either Jones or Beville beats out Mathis, then Temple is better off. Being the Temple quarterback is a job worth earning, not one that should be given.

Remember, Mathis came in here with more interceptions than touchdowns thrown at Georgia and his six touchdowns vs. four interceptions in his inaugural year with the Owls didn’t represent the kind of productivity we were looking for.

Former head coach Rod What’s His Name staked his future on Mathis, replacing a guy who had thrown 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in his last full regular season with a guy who went 6/4.

Not good.

Before the uneven Cherry and White performance of Mathis, head coach Stan Drayton said he was “bringing in guys” to compete and now it appears, as with most things Drayton, he is hell-bent on keeping his promise.

Jones and Beville are two interesting guys but, if they don’t come here, there are still several FCS starters in the portal looking to move up. Scholarships are running out and Temple appears to be making room for quarterbacks as deep sub Matt Duncan announced his intention to enter the portal.

Jones threw 19 touchdown passes at Florida and that was 17 more than Mathis did at Georgia and Beville was 14-for-18 in a 2020 game for Pitt.

Bring one of those guys to Temple and things really get interesting here.

The best-case scenario would be for Mathis to accept the challenge and win a starting job that was given to him a year ago. The worst case would be to keep things as they are now and have no viable AAC-level backups.

The new guy seems to understand that a whole lot better than the old guy and that means the Temple brain trust is using their heads for more than a hat rack, a welcome change from the most recent past.

Monday: The Next Big Thing

Stan Drayton takes time from his busy schedule to talk to the fans in Lot 10.

Movie stars from the West Coast were really branching out on Saturday at Cherry and White.

A friend of mine standing on the bleachers behind me tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to Kurt Warner only a few feet away.

Technically, Warner wasn’t the star in his own movie (American Underdog)–Zach Levy played that role–but he was arguably the closest to one we will ever see at the E-O Football Complex.

He wasn’t the only high-profile person. Haason Reddick and Shaun Bradley of the Philadelphia Eagles were there, as were coaches Nick Rapone and Kevin Ross of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. All former Temple football Owls were there to show support for the current Temple football Owls.

It was a pretty good day, all designed to get Stan Drayton’s first Owl team up to game speed.

Hopefully, future stars. Maybe even movie ones.

Weather-wise, there was everything–a little rain, some clouds, some sun, even some hail–so at some point if the Owls have to play under those conditions they will be ready.

We won’t make any predictions on records for the season off an uneven performance except this one: Nobody is going to score 61 points or more on this defense again. You read it here first.

The defense beat the offense, 64-54, but it seemed to me to be a more dominating performance than that. The defensive line was into the backfield on numerous occasions and disruptive.

That might cause some concern about the offensive line, but Drayton said a number of them were playing out of position in order to provide some flexibility in the fall (tackles playing guard, guards playing tackle, etc.) When you have guys like Adam Klein, Isaac Moore and Victor Stoffel coming back–people who played at a high level pre-Rod Carey–offensive line shouldn’t be a big concern right now.

Running back and quarterback is somewhat as Darvon Hubbard didn’t have the breakout game some might have expected. Still, it’s a deep unit with a couple of high-level P5 recruits (Hubbard and Iverson Clement) who didn’t play last year and the guys who did nipping on the depth chart behind them. Have to expect at some point they will shake off the rust and perform at a high level.

Drayton, for his part, seemed to get the above nuances and connect with the Temple fans on a level we have not seen since Matt Rhule.

Drayton walked through Lot 10 and took the microphone from former Owl offensive tackle Kevin Jones (see above photo) and said a few words of appreciation to the fans.

“We’re going to do everything we can to get this thing back to the way you are all used to seeing it,” Drayton told the Lot 10 crowd. “I just love you all and I thank you all for the way you received me and I’m going to give you everything I can. I promise you that.”

The last coach to walk through Lot 10 and shake some hands? Rhule, who posted consecutive 10-win seasons here.

On a day when there were a lot of good omens, here’s hoping Drayton’s appreciation of the Temple culture off the field produces impressive results on it.

Friday: Stories from Cherry and White

One of the more exciting days every year for me is also one of the more conflicting ones.

There’s seldom a day I’ve walked away from a good three-hour visit to the campus I know and love in April without a good feeling about my Temple football Owls.

The last three years were the exception.

Three years ago, I walked away shaking my head in disgust as the coach who shall remain nameless showed a crowd of about 5,000 people at Broad and Master what it looks like for a running back or a punt returner to be hit by a foam rubber pad.

Really, Rod? (Whoops, I meant nameless.)

Covid caused me to miss the last two years–not because I came down with it (I did not)–but because out of an abundance of caution, there was no real public Cherry and White game. (I did take a train past practice on what would have been last year’s Cherry and White game but that doesn’t count.)

There will be one this year and it will be glorious.

How do I know?

Because judging from new head coach Stan Drayton’s numerous public statements, he “gets it.” Having a real football game with real hitting, field goals, kickoffs and punt and kickoff returns is important to Temple fans because it was really all they have known prior to the disaster visited upon Philadelphia by a group of carpetbaggers from Illinois.

Maybe even a real final score.

Whatever happens, one group of “good guys” will beat another group of good guys.

If there are plenty of touchdown passes and long runs, we will exit worrying about the defense. If it’s a scoreless tie, we will spend many sleepless nights between now and Duke worrying about the offense.

The most important thing, though, will be the return of real football here for the first time in a long while.

In this space on the day before the April, 2015 Cherry and White game our headline was simply this: “Cherry and White this year is all about beating Penn State.”

Those Owls got that job done, both on that Saturday in April and another one in September. This year, it’s all about beating Duke and, whatever the final score Saturday, seeing Temple TUFF return again after a four-year hiatus will make that a viable possibility.

Monday: Cherry and White Recap