Category Archives: Temple coach

01.04.16
by

5 Possible Names to Take Temple OC Job

sexy

Without a doubt, Mike Locksley  is the best candidate available for Temple.

The top talk in Philadelphia football this week will center on potential coaching hires, but chances are Temple fans are not as interested in who succeeds Chip Kelly as much as who will succeed Marcus Satterfield. Satterfield, who took the Tennessee Tech head coaching job on Sunday, was a three and four wide receiver guy who was running an offense ill-suited to Temple’s defense-first, run-the-ball, style of play. Fortunately, head coach Matt Rhule put his foot down prior to this season and told Satterfield that he wanted to run the ball. That is the very definition of Temple football and head coach Matt Rhule is most comfortable with that style and now has an opportunity to find guys who are better-suited to that system. Here are five possible candidates:

Adam DiMichele

Adam DiMichele is a fan favorite.

  1. Adam DiMichele

Currently Temple’s director of player development, DiMichele—one of Temple’s greatest quarterbacks of all time—was wide receivers’ coach in 2014.  DiMichele spent the 2013 season at TU as a graduate assistant coach, working with the offense. DiMichele was part of some of the most imaginative plays in TU history, including the fake kneel down in the final seconds before halftime that found Bruce Francis open for 55-yard touchdown at Navy in 2008.

gibby

  1. Mike Gibson

Probably the best pure name  🙂 among the five, Gibson—a former Temple offensive coordinator (and no relation)—currently is the head coach at the University of Regina (Canada). He was offensive coordinator at Rice, Temple and Rutgers before embarking on career in Canada in 2001. An offensive coordinator in the states makes more than twice as much as a head college coach in Canada, so the former Western Maryland center could probably be enticed back to his native land. Since the name already was mentioned on Pravda as a candidate, we figured we research his credentials.

mcnair

Todd has a NC and Temple ties.

  1. Todd McNair

On Dec. 7, a ruling by a three-justice panel in the 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed that McNair “has demonstrated a probability of prevailing on the merits of his defamation case (against the NCAA),” Justice Richard D. Aldrich wrote in the 30-page opinion and that probably clears the way for the former national championship assistant to be hired by Temple or any other school. The former Owl would be a great recruiter and coach here.

thomas

Probably the least “sexy” choice (see Lockley’s wife), that’s why he probably will get a bigger office.

  1. Glenn Thomas

Rhule has shown a propensity to promote from within, so that probably makes him the leading candidate. His credentials, though, other than being Atlanta Falcons’ QB coach, don’t seem nearly as impressive as the other candidates. From 2001-07, Thomas spent his coaching tenure at Midwestern State. Four of those years were as a grad assistant coaching wide receivers (2001-04). From 2005-2007, he was the OC there.

recruiter

Mike Locksley: Could be recruiting coordinator or OC.

  1. Mike Locksley

Four days ago, it was reported that Locksley, this year’s interim head coach at Maryland, would not likely be retained on D.J. Durkin’s new staff, making him a free agent. During Maryland’s debut campaign in the Big Ten in 2014, Locksley coordinated the highest scoring offense for the program in four seasons. The Terps averaged 28.5 points, which is the most since the team averaged 32.2 points per game in 2010. Locksley is also known for strong recruiting skills. He was listed as a top-25 recruiter in the nation three different times (2003, 2005, 2006) and was a finalist for 2007 recruiter of the year by Rivals.com. He also engineered top-10 recruiting classes during each of his two seasons (2003-04) as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Florida. This is just the guy Temple needs to overtake Houston recruiting next year in the AAC.

11.12.11
by

Bradley, Addazio and the MAC Roundtable


In the interview process, dynamo (left) always beats wet noodle.

One of the unexpected perks of blogging about Temple football is the people who reach out to me and try to fill in some questions that I have to help me keep the general TU football community relatively well-informed.
Some of them are well-connected people.
Around Dec. 23d, I was scratching my head when the name Steve Addazio came up as the guy who got the Temple head coaching job. All I heard for a week was Tom Bradley was the leading candidate and then with about five furlongs left, Addazio comes charging at the finish line and nips Bradley at the tape.

Graphic by Tim Riordan (not the ex-TU QB)

Or so I thought.
I, quite frankly, wasn’t excited about either one and I never even heard of Addazio.
Then I got an email from someone who was in the room when both Addazio and Bradley were interviewed.
“Mike, it wasn’t even close,” the man wrote. “Bradley came in and had the personality of a wet noodle and this guy [Addazio] was a dynamo. It was an easy choice.”
I watched the “wet noodle” Thursday in his first press conference as a head coach at Penn State and I understood just exactly how the Temple search committee felt.
All I could imagine was Lew Katz or somebody asking him what his “expectations” are for the Temple football program and Bradley saying “the expectations are the expectations” which he seemed to be saying like 100 times on Thursday.
No thanks, Tom.
Thanks for coming to Philadelphia and don’t let the door hit you in the backside on the way out.
I need more specificity than that.
I got it with Addazio and I’m pretty confident Temple made the right choice.
Since the penultimate day before Christmas, Addazio has been that dynamo.
Knowing what I know now, I’m glad to have a guy with that kind of personality leading my team. Also knowing what Bradley probably has known for 15 years, I don’t want anybody like that near my team.
This week, I’m hosting the MAC Blogger Roundtable and just like Addazio, both Tim Riordan (Buffalo) and B.J. Fischer (Bowling Green) are blogging dynamos and wasted little time in answering the questions.
Riordan is always the first across the finish line and his answers are here.
Fischer came in a couple of hours behind. One of the more interesting things in B.J.’s blog is that a Bowling Green alumn gave $10 million to athletics. I thought only Karl Smith had that kind of money to give Bowling Green.
I’ll add the rest after this paragraph when the ballots are counted:
Let’s Go Rockets

01.11.11
by

The Elephant in the Room: Part II



Steve Addazio needs to make a  strong statement  today or leave tomorrow.

Some time ago, I wrote a story about Al Golden’s first dalliances for a new job.
It wasn’t five minutes after he was hired, but too soon for my taste.
I called the post: The Elephant in the Room because a lot of Temple people just didn’t want to talk about it.
Call this one The Elephant in the Room Part II.
A report out of the Hartford Courant newspaper, not some anonymous blogger, links current Temple head coach Steve Addazio’s “representative” contacting the UConn search committee about the current football opening there.
Because this report was in an actual newspaper last night and supposedly confirmed today, I think it might have some legs.
I’m willing to give Addazio the benefit of the doubt, though.
For now and not for long.

If I was UConn, I’d avoid Steve Addazio like the plague. The PR hit the school would take for “stealing” a coach just hired by another school is just not worth it

I just can’t fathom a guy who got up on the podium two weeks ago telling people how excited he was to be here could do such an about-face because another job comes open, even a job in his home state.
I can’t picture how the guy who kept mentioning “Destination Temple” can change that speech to “Destination UConn” so quickly.
If I was UConn, I’d avoid Steve Addazio like the plague. The PR hit the school would take for “stealing” a coach just hired by another school is just not worth it. Plus, Addazio is no more the slam dunk hiring for UConn that he would be here. So far, his OL hiring is a grad assistant and his strength coach is a guy from Marshall, who supposedly made no real positive impact at Marshall. Also, Florida co-DC Chuck Heater, who was rumored to be coming here with Daz, is nowhere in sight nor are any big-time recruits from Florida (the state, not the school) that Daz might have been connected to prior to his hiring.
Something smells like dead fish out there.
Would a guy leave a job he was hired two weeks ago for a similar job 200 miles away?
I don’t know.
Stranger things have happened, though.
This is one elephant that can’t be ignored.
This is one time Temple people can’t stick their heads in the sand and hope the Elephant finds its way out of the room on its own. This is too vital a time for recruiting both coaches and players. This doesn’t need to float out there in cyberspace any more than the 18 hours it already has been out there.
If Bill Bradshaw doesn’t get to the bottom of this today, then Ann Weaver Hart or Lew Katz need to get Addazio to address this right now.
If Steve Addazio doesn’t come out and say this report is totally false and that he is totally 100 percent committed to Temple University, then he should be fired and Temple should feel free to pursue Bruce Arians (the best choice, IMHO) or Tom Bradley, outcome of the UConn search notwithstanding. Even if UConn hires, say, Mark Whipple later this week, this story will be out there and in the folder of every coach who recruits against us this year and next to question Addazio’s commitment here. Addazio might not think he needs to reaffirm it, but he does. That’s the way of life in the real world.
There’s an Elephant in the Room today and the more people ignore it, the more damage it is likely to do.

12.25.10
by

Happy Holidays to the Addazio Family

Steve Addazio’s first Temple recruit, RB Cedric “The Entertainer” Walker.


Dear Steve,
Happy Holidays to you and your family and welcome to the Temple Football Family on behalf of Temple Football Forever.
I started this blog when I looked around the parking lot in the rain and saw five people, myself included, tailgating before a 2005 loss to Miami of Ohio.
I knew then we only had one place to go and that was up.
I had a dream that we would hire a coach who would take us out of the darkness into the sunshine and we did make that hire.
Now, looking around, there are thousands of people tailgating before every Temple game. Not enough, mind you, but thousands and it’s slowly growing.
Over the years, this blog has gotten favorable reviews first on Deadspin.com and in the New York Times (whose college football editor is a Temple grad).
In 2006, it won the Bloggers’ choice award as Best New College Football Blog.
The next year, it won for Best Non-BCS blog.

Temple’s tailgates regularly draw in the thousands now.

Both awards were voted on by a panel guys who run the biggest and most traffic-driven of the big-time sports blogs, like Deadspin, Black Shoe Diaries and the excellent EverydayshouldbeSaturday (yes, it was one word back then).
While it was nice to be recognized, I didn’t get into this for the awards.
I got into it because I had a passion for writing and for Temple football.
You sold me as the next Temple coach on Thursday because I sense you have the same passion for coaching and, now at least, for Temple football.
I liked that very much.
So you had me at wow, not hello (and no I don’t go that way).
I wanted to write about the thing I loved the most so this, for the most part, has been a fun venture.
I hope the years ahead are even more fun for you.

Do Temple fans a favor and keep reminding them that you are here for the long haul and if your name comes up in speculation for other jobs in a year or two, please remove it from consideration immediately. The last guy enjoyed reading his name associated for every job a little too much for my taste.
Full disclosure, though, I wasn’t for your hiring at first.
You can read my reasons in the posts below.
That’s not important now.
What is important is that you hit the ground running and I know you will.
You are inheriting a team that needs no overhaul, just tweaking.
You have a running back with Heisman Trophy talent in Bernard Pierce. Getting him and keeping him healthy should be a top priority in the off-season. Recruiting a stud backup of Pierce-level talent should be another priority.
With Pierce, the Owls were able to beat UConn by two touchdowns in 2010 and a good 2009 Navy team.

Without him, they struggled to put three points on the board at Miami (Ohio).
Offensively, this is a team that should establish the run and throw off play-action effectively and I think you will do that. If you hire a smart offensive coordinator, like current Miami Dolphins’ tight ends’ coach George DeLeone, I know he will come to the same conclusion, too. DeLeone knows Temple and can help show you the ropes here, since he’s a former colleague of yours and was Al Golden’s first and best offensive coordinator. Plus, he’s highly thought of here. I think he can be had for OC money and job security with the Dolphins can’t be too good these days anyway.
You have a quarterback who I think will remind you (at least a little) of Tim Tebow in Chris Coyer and another quarterback, Mike Gerardi, who was co-first-team all-state in New Jersey with a guy named Simms.
Defensively, your first priority is to lock up 6-5, 305 tackle Muhammad “Big Mo” Wilkinson for his senior season. Tell him there’s going to be an NFL lockout (there is, by the way). Tell him that no NFL draft projection has him higher than the third round (and none do). Tell him with one good year he will move up into guaranteed money and a No. 1 pick (which he will).
Get a good, attacking defensive coordinator in here who loves to blitz and put the quarterback on his backside because there are a lot of slow, white quarterbacks in the MAC. There are a lot of turnovers to be eaten by the defense as a result. I don’t know who you have in mind, but I recommend former Temple DC Nick Rapone, who still lives in the area and was named FCS coordinator of the year at Delaware this season. His daughter currently is a student at Temple.
Rapone loves to bring pressure to make quarterbacks uncomfortable and Philadelphia loves a blitzing team.
Sell those recruits, just like you sold Miami’s Cedric Walker today (congratulations, by the way).
Wrap your arms so hard around Philadelphia media and Temple alumni that their ribs break.
Sell them on Temple football like you sold Bill Bradshaw on yourself.
Understand that a lot of us will approach you skeptically until about 10 p.m. on September 3.
That’s when Temple will be finished playing hated rival Villanova.
Temple returns 14 starters from an 8-4 FBS team. Villanova returns five from a six-loss FCS team.
A beatdown is mandatory. In fact, it should be on page two of the job description.
I’d say a 35-14 minimum, although I’d like a 55-3 number.
See what you can do for me.
If we can get that kind of margin, we’re off and running to a special 2011 both in terms of team and fan momentum.
Meanwhile, good luck and, most of all, have fun.

Happy Holidays,
Mike Gibson
Temple Football Forever

12.09.10
by

The Al Golden Coaching Carousel

After some pretty structured newspaper writing for many years, I took to blogging on the side for fun (certainly not profit).
I know a little about everything, which enabled me to pass the tests for Jeopardy and Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but a lot only about the one thing that interests me most.
Temple football.
If the 15 questions on Millionaire were about Temple football, I’d go right to the $1 million.
No doubt.

So I started a blog on the thing I knew most about right around the time Temple joined the MAC.
Joining the MAC was the culmination of a lot of hard work by myself and others.
I wrote to each member of the Temple Board of Directors about the importance of keeping big-time football at Temple University.
I purchased five cars from one of the BOT members, Wilkie Buick president Dan Polett, who later became chairman of the BOT and reminded him of that. (Like that made  a difference. I know it didn’t.)
I went to the press conference that the uni (university) held to announce its admission to the MAC and I told a friend of mine afterward, Sal, this:
“Whew. We almost came close to no program. I wonder how many people know that. Temple football now and Temple football forever.”
When I got home, I had the title of my blog.
Temple Football Forever.
I knew the next order of business was getting a head coach who would take us out of the abyss.
That was a little out of my control, so I crossed my fingers and toes and hoped  athletic director Bill Bradshaw would find the right guy.
I was more for a “big-name” guy, but I would have been OK with a young tireless assistant because I remember what Bruce Arians, once a young, tireless, assistant did for this program.
Bradshaw went the tireless assistant route and came up with a gem, Al Golden.

“People would not believe the plans I have for this program,” Al Golden said of Temple, Nov. 20, 2010

What I didn’t figure on was Golden being mentioned for every job since the end of his second year.  I didn’t want the instability factor. I didn’t have it with Harry Litwack. I didn’t have it with John Chaney. I didn’t have it with Wayne Hardin and I didn’t have it with Bruce Arians, who turned down the Virginia Tech head job in 1986, saying, “I can’t leave my Temple guys.”
A guy named Frank Beamer got it instead.
I certainly don’t have it with Fran Dunphy, a guy who is happy with being Temple coach for life. Fran Dunphy gets Temple, much like Harry Litwack, John Chaney, Skip Wilson, Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians did.
I pray for the day when Al Golden gets Temple.
When it comes to Al Golden being mentioned for every job every year, my reaction is to close my Owl eyes (like the image accompanying this story) and say, “not this shit again.”
(Unlike newspapers, you can say shit in a blog. I usually avoid words like that, but it’s apropos here.)
I guess that’s the price of success, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Now, in the same week, Dave Wannstedt left Pitt, Urban Meyer left Florida and Randy Shannon was fired at Miami.
And Al Golden is being mentioned for each and every job.
I knew this shit would come up again.
I would like for one year, one year, Al to get up and say, “I have no interest in going anywhere. I’m going to stay at Temple and finish the job.”
Tonight at halftime of the Georgetown basketball game would be a good place to do it.
Let’s face it.
Al is 0-14 against winning MAC teams.
There is still much work to be done.
Al Golden doesn’t want to build this program in the image of Rutgers, which people keep asking him about.
He wants to be the Boise State and the TCU of the East.
That’s very attainable in my view. It’s as close as a year away.
Al had the greatest Al Golden quote I ever heard.
“People would not believe the plans I have for this program,” Al Golden said of Temple.
That was just one month ago.
I hope he was sincere.
That’s the Temple side of it.
There is also the Al Golden side of it and I believe that strongly leans toward him staying at Temple, too.
Although he has told no one of this, I think Al Golden wants to be the head coach at Penn State. Joe Paterno is not going to live forever, nor is he going to want to stay as head coach there forever.
Paterno’s deal is now year-to-year.
JoePa has said he’s staying one more year.
I believe Al Golden is taking him at his word.
What better place for Al Golden to position himself to get the Penn State job than Temple? There’s no reason for him to go to Miami for a year or go to Pitt for a year.
Temple is loaded next year. Temple faces Penn State in Philadelphia.
Already Al Golden is No. 1 or No. 2 on the wish list of every Penn State fan to succeed JoePa.
Beating Penn State would immediately move him to the No. 1 position and, at the same time, give another great Pennsylvania university a terrific parting gift.
That’s the way I want to see Al Golden go out.
I hope that’s the way he sees it, too.