Category Archives: Temple football,

10.26.24
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Administration now has its Stan Drayton answer

The great name of Temple University was once again embarrassed on the national stage. Thanks, Stan.

Most people in regular jobs get a three-month probation to prove they can do the job, then they get to join a union and have some protection down the line.

Temple head football coach Stan Drayton has had three years, not a mere three months.

Enough.

This was our post on opening night. Drayton didn’t learn that Simon was the better QB until three weeks later. I, not a $2.5 million paid HC, learned it that night in the first quarter. That’s one of many fireable offenses.

The Temple administration now has its answer about him: He hasn’t done the job, can’t do the job and never will do the job.

That was abundantly clear after a 56-34 loss at East Carolina on Saturday. The only saving grace was that Temple wasn’t playing at another North Carolina school, Charlotte, because that school hung a 55-37 loss on ECU. In two years, Charlotte’s Biff Poggi is 6-13. In three years, Drayton is 8-24. Same conference. Temple has better facilities and roughly the same NIL money.

Charlotte is making progress. Temple is not.

Who made the better hire?

This was our post TWO WEEKS before Stan Drayton was hired.

With another ill-timed bye week (why do we have two bye weeks in one season?), and Temple’s well-earned reputation of doing nothing while other schools do something, nothing will probably happen.

Something is a better option than nothing but if that something is to name defensive coordinator Everett Withers as interim coach, nothing moves to the No. 1 option.

Probably a moot point now since a new President comes onboard on Friday and Temple will probably wait until then to do something.

Temple has proven under other coaches–Wayne Hardin, Bruce Arians, Al Golden, Matt Rhule and even Geoff Collins–that it can win and be nationally respected in football.

This is what we wrote in this space about Everett Withers on St. Patrick’s Day, 2023, the day he was hired to replace D.J. Eliot. Withers gave up 56 points today and the defensive kids totally quit on him, despite what Stan Drayton said post-game.

Under guys like Jerry Berndt, Ron Dickerson, Bobby Wallace, Rod Carey and now Drayton, not so much.

We suspected this for quite awhile now.

Two weeks before Arthur Johnson hired Drayton we wrote in this space “we have a sinking feeling that he is the guy” and the sinking part was because Johnson was at Texas and Drayton was at Texas with him. Given Temple’s history of Bill Bradshaw being at LaSalle at the same time Fran Dunphy was there (and hiring him to be head coach) and Pat Kraft’s history of being at Indiana at “around” the same time Carey was, that was no bueno.

When is Temple ever going to learn that “buddy hires” don’t work nor should they be allowed?

Maybe after three strikes that approach is now out but that would mean someone other than Angel Hernandez, err, Arthur Johnson has to be the umpire.

Historically, the Temple Board of Trustees has given a new President carte blanche to hire his own major managers, including athletic directors. That came on years when the budget was even tighter than it is now.

We suspect Johnson will be gone.

After then, what?

New President John Fry is a Philly guy. It is only logical that he brings in a Philly guy to be AD. Maybe the new AD brings in a Philly guy to be head coach.

As long as that Philly guy is a proven winner as a head coach with recruiting connections within the footprint of Temple and not the buddy of the other Philly guy, Temple has a chance to succeed again in football.

That’s the formula going forward.

Drayton’s probation is up, and he should be out. If Fry wants to do something to ingratiate himself with Temple fans on his first day of work, firing Drayton would prove that he cares about the way Temple is perceived nationally.

Monday: Five Candidates

03.22.24
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March Gladness: The One Chance for G5 to Shine

For TU, one of the solutions to football woes is to purchase either the old Temple Stadium site here or something close to it to revive a home-field advantage if there is no chance to build one on campus .

There is no rhyme or reason to fate.

Of course, in the end, the bad guys will win in college sports.

That’s a script the bad guys wrote and had approved by the NCAA and the Supreme Court in terms of the NIL and transfer portal.

Simply put, the bad guys are the richest ones in college sports, the big conferences with the big fan bases and the big bucks.

The good guys are the ones who ask for a fair shake, the guys who thought the NCAA would have enough power to regulate fairness and fight off the cheaters who want to buy championships.

Well, mostly on a day where the bad guys won, those of us who aren’t the richest or a part of the big conferences all celebrated what Oakland and Duquesne did on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

No. 14 Oakland busted a lot of Final Four brackets with an 80-76 win over No. 3 Kentucky. No. 11 Duquesne beat No. 6 Brigham Young. Samford was robbed when a clean block against Kansas was ruled a foul. Maybe the NCAA told the ref to do it. Maybe not.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

With the NIL and the transfer portal being what it is, the best players from the Duquesnes and the Oaklands will be bought and paid for by the bad guys.

When that happens, this magical NCAA Tournament will be over because Cinderellas are what made this March Madness story so great.

How does this impact Temple football?

In that more important sport, the Owls are more closely aligned with the basketball Duquesnes and Oaklands than they are with the Michigans and the Georgias.

Saw this coming a mile away. If I had $100,000 I would be able to buy Temple football enough players to win a natty. Instead, only had $10 and won $70.

Their No. 1 millionaire athletic booster, Lewis Katz, died in a plane crash and their No. 2, Bill Cosby, was effectively ostracized by legal allegations.

Who knows where Temple sports would be if those guys were still in the arena?

Now the Owls have basically zero NIL support because the bulk of their alumni fan base commuted to school on a train or a bus and would have been overjoyed to receive the same kind of scholarship current Temple football and basketball players have. In my case, it was four years of taking a trolley to the El and then getting off at Berks and walking 10 blocks west to school.

Both ways, uphill, on snowy days. That’s Temple TUFF. Would not try that walk in that same neighborhood today.

Those alums can’t be expected to hold their noses donate to players who are getting a full ride.

Fortunately, they are in the same boat with most of their G5 compadres.

They can win G5 titles, like the 2016 team did, but there is no shot to do anything better unless Congress steps in because we know where the Supreme Court stands.

Until that happens, Temple football will have to ride out the storm.

Batten down the hatches.

Monday: Style over Substance

Friday: Unspoken truths about the depth chart

11.18.22
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Cincy: Temple’s Super Bowl

Everyone please give this video a thumbs up and subscribe. These are three good dudes.

One of the nation’s best prognosticators, Kyle Hunter, of Kyle Hunter’s picks, had this reaction when I told him Temple hasn’t punted in the last two weeks.

“That’s a fantastic stat, Mike, love it,” Hunter said. “E.J. Warner. You can’t stop him. You can only hope to contain him, apparently.”

Temple had gone 134 years punting at least once in every game. The only exception was the 110-0 win over Blue Ridge in 1927. A lot of the credit for this little bit of significant Temple football history goes to a true freshman quarterback, E.J. Warner.

“You can’t stop him. You can only hope to contain him.”

Yeah, I know it’s a line borrowed from Michael Jordan’s days with the Chicago Bulls, but it has applied for the last two weeks.

Suppose it does so again tomorrow (4 p.m. start, ESPN U) against Cincinnati. In that case, Temple will have officially returned to relevance on the national college football scene because it’s hard to envision a scenario where the Owls don’t punt and lose to the Bearcats.

That’s because the Bearcats don’t generate much offense on their end and, in six AAC games, haven’t been able to get the kind of separation from league foes that teams like Memphis (37-13 over Navy), ECU (34-13 over UCF), SMU (77-63 over Houston) and Houston (38-20 over Navy) have done.

Even though the Bearcats are still in contention for the AAC title, their largest margin of victory was by 10 against Tulsa and Navy. They toughed out a 28-24 win over a USF team that Temple hung a 54-burger on in a 54-28 win. To their credit, they were able to beat a Navy team, 20-10, at home after the Owls lost to the same team on the road in overtime.

Considering all that, a 17-point predicted spread seems a little high and most of the smart money agrees.

On a cold, blustery day that doesn’t figure to get out of the 30s, Temple has a puncher’s chance. Cincinnati quarterback Ben Bryant is no more than a game manager and his downfield passing is suspect. Last week, he was only 1 for 8 in passes over 15 yards. He doesn’t have the mobility of Houston’s Clayton Tune and he’s the kind of stationary pocket passer the Owls’ defense thrives against.

On offense, no one expects the Owls to go puntless but just by moving the ball, they can certainly stay in this one. They have to prove that after a month of producing only around 10 points a game their 54- and 36-point outbursts of the last two weeks represent the lightbulb going on over the offensive coaching staff’s heads and not consecutive outliers bulking a season-long trend.

Defensively, they will have to do a much better job against the running game than they did in their last home game, a 27-16 loss to Tulsa. They will have to get to Bryant, put him on his backside, strip him of the ball or force tipped interceptions. Relentless pressure is Job One.

Head coach Stan Drayton stood in front of the team earlier this week and told them they will be champions. Not this year, but soon. Temple can either let the close losses to Navy, Houston and Rutgers that kept it out of a bowl game fester or it can push forward to let the rest of the world know Drayton was right in his hunch.

That’s because, unlike Temple, Cincinnati will be in a bowl game this year and Temple has a chance to show by winning it can beat a bowl team now, not later. So this is the Owls’ Super Bowl.

Drayton asked the Owls to eliminate the things “that are slowing us down” earlier this week.

The team responded, “yes, sir.” Words are nice. Deeds are nicer. The Owls have a very good chance of turning those words into deeds by no later than 7 p.m. tomorrow.

If they do, they will send a clear message to the rest of the college football world that Temple football is back now instead of some sort of theoretical championship future their head coach envisions.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

03.11.22
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Temple Football: Hope springs eternal

Fall football is the main course, complete with the mashed potatoes, meat and all the sides like tailgating Temple fans have come to know and love.

Spring football is an acquired taste, more like an appetizer than a full meal.

Fans starving for football love both and, for Temple fans, the menu changes starting this morning when the Owls begin a month of drills at the $17 million Edberg Olson Football Complex.

People ask me why I occasionally throw in the price tag of something that started as a significant $7 million investment in 2003 and included a $10 million add-on in 2011.

Simple.

The $10 million addition to the E-O under construction in 2010.

That kind of investment shows the commitment from the top on down at Temple to a winning football program from the Board of Trustees. There are not many current AAC practice facilities better than Temple’s if you include the indoor one at 15th and Montgomery. Add a $200 million commitment to building a football stadium on campus the Temple brass appears all-in on football.

What has happened since the neighbors pushed back three years ago today in a March meeting that was more madness than the NCAA tournament was troubling but the fact that the face of Temple leadership now more reflects the face of the community is a sign that those at the top understand the goals remain unchanged.

Now the football part.

Temple needs to win this year.

You and I and everyone who follows the program know that.

The $17 million (err, $217 million) question is whether the old guy has set things so far back that the new guy can’t make an impact his first year.

That won’t be answered in the next month, but some clues should give an insight into the future.

To me, the biggest key to winning in football is protecting your quarterback and putting the other guy’s quarterback on his ass and Temple did a piss-poor job in both areas last year and, if there is a No. 1 goal of this coaching staff in the next four weeks, it is fixing both.

To me, “simulated pressures” won’t get the second task done but D.J. Eliot deserves a chance to show that philosophy leads to real pressures.

Offensively, the Owls have some talent on the line and should be better able to protect the quarterback if they establish a running game first. Darvon Hubbard and Iverson Clement following an experienced line gives them the chance to do that. Under the last guy, the scheme to run the football behind guys who didn’t have the speed to break a long run was a failed philosophy.

New philosophies will be in place starting today. If there is a real Cherry and White game on April 9 with hitting and long runs, that will be a good sign that Temple TUFF is back.

Light a candle and pray those changes will be obvious once we see a real Cherry and White game for the first time since 2018.

Monday: 5 Newcomers to Watch

02.24.22
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We interrupt regular programming for … sadness

Thanks to the great Steve Conjar for this photo.

Sometimes one word so perfectly describes a person you think immediately of one guy when you hear it.

Every time I heard the word raconteur I thought of John Belli.

And I smiled. He was the best raconteur I ever knew or will ever know.

No one fit that definition more than John, at least among the real people I’ve met in my lifetime:

I thought of John this morning and I was incredibly sad when I heard he passed away.

This post today was supposed to be about something much less important so we interrupt this regular programming to talk about something much more important.

The wonderful gift God gave to all of us we call John Belli.

The last I saw him–the morning of the Boston College game–he seemed to be the healthiest of our regular tailgating group. He was in much better shape than almost all of us and his mind was as sharp as always.

For most of the last 20 years, I used to see and talk to John before and after every Temple football game.

That’s why I had to take a step back away from the computer and shake my head. Not ashamed to say a few tears rolled down both my cheeks and had to reach up with my shirt to wipe them away.

This was the last person of my age group I expected to leave us so soon. It does not compute but it goes to show that you never know and should never take any day for granted.

Someday, we will find out why he passed so early but that is so unimportant now.

He was not only a friend who shared the same love for Temple football I had but a frequent poster to this site. He was THE most frequent poster.

The ONLY thing we disagreed about was politics. Football, we were Sympatico. At some point, we both agreed to not mention politics.

John followed me when I talked to Geoff Collins about Nick Sharga at the season-ticket holders party and urged him to watch the film and how Sharga led the Owls to the championship. Collins agreed with me and swore on a stack of bibles to use him more than even Matt did but, in reality, he made Sharga disappear the next season. Probably the difference between 7-6 and 10-3 but that’s on Collins and not me and John.

In the first two years of the Matt Rhule regime, we were both frequent critics of Matt (sorry, Matt) but always thought that Rhule could be a good coach if he ditched the spread and went to a fullback-oriented, play-action offense.

Low and behold, Matt did exactly that in Year Three–using a run game established by the blocking of Nick Sharga and the running of Jahad Thomas and Ryquell Armstrong to set up a dynamic play-action downfield passing game behind Temple all-time leading quarterback P.J. Walker.

Since Matt told me personally on the day he was hired the only way he followed Temple football the year he was at the Giants was by reading Temple Football Forever, I somehow feel Matt got the message then, too.

“Mike, Matt owes us $7.4 million bucks,” John said.

He was only slightly exaggerating because, without Sharga, Rhule doesn’t get the Baylor job.

After Temple beat Penn State, Belli whispered in Rhule’s ear: “Hey, Matt, see what the fullback can do for you?” Matt nodded and laughed.

Then Rhule leaned over and kissed 90-year-old Wayne Hardin on the cheek and gave him the game ball, telling him, “Coach this is for all the times you came so close to doing what we did today.”

John played for coach Hardin at Temple so we had come full circle.

We had a party in Lot K that night. When the cops came around and tried to kick us out at 9–almost four hours after the game ended–a police captain came by on his motorcycle and said to his underlings: “Let them be. They waited 74 years for this.”

John never got to 74, like most of us do, and that means a lot of great stories only he can tell in the manner only he can tell them will never be heard again.

Those of us who heard his stories and the wonderful way he communicated them will be sad from this day forward. The tailgates will never be the same without him.

Monday: What we had planned for today

02.07.22
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American Underdog: We’ve Come Full Circle

Saturday night usually is movie night for me so, being a Temple football fan, I scanned through the new offerings of Amazon Prime and found out I could purchase “American Underdog.”

It was the best $19.95 I’ve ever spent, not quite bringing me as much bang for the buck as the $125 I spent for a bus trip to the AAC championship game of 2016 (that included tickets) but close. Hell, a championship is worth a million, not a mere $125.

With the signing of Elijah Warner less than a week ago by new head coach Stan Drayton, this seemed like a pretty good time to revisit the story of his dad, 2017 NFL Hall of Famer Kurt Warner.

In the movie, it was funny to hear coaches at several levels call Kurt “Pop” referring to one of the greatest coaches of all time who made two schools (Temple and Stanford) famous for football back in the day. We’ve come full circle now that his kid has “fallen in love” with Temple, whose President played football at Stanford. His winning Super Bowl coach with the Rams was Dick Vermeil, a West Coast guy who fell in love with Philadelphia and still lives a figurative stone’s throw away from Temple.

Vermeil believed in Kurt, a true American Underdog who was bagging groceries at the Iowa equivalent of “The Ac-a-Me” (or Shop-Rite) before the Rams signed him.

Kurt, Elijah and Brenda on signing day.

Evidently, others believe with me. The movie gets a solid 75 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, beating by almost 20 points my second favorite movie of this calendar year “Don’t Look Up” which has quite a few more A-list stars. The 98 percent rating from viewers is off the charts.

It’s easy to see why.

American Underdog was extremely well done and should resonate well here, not just because of the Temple/Warner/Vermeil/Philadelphia angle.

There are so many wired storylines in this family, Philadelphia, and Temple to shut down a Texas power grid.

Something tells me this “Warner Era” at Temple is going to work out. Elijah, like Kurt, experienced his share of rejection along the way, only to be told by other schools he was “their guy” one day who then called that they signed another guy the next day. Drayton said he liked Elijah because he had that same “chip on his shoulder” his dad did after getting rebuffed by the Packers only to prove himself in the Arena Football League and again with the Rams.

In that case, Drayton might be Temple’s Dick Vermeil.

As a big recent fan of thoroughbred horse racing, I’ve long been a believer in bloodlines of champions. The best horse in the business right now is named Flightline, who is the product of the great Tapit. Temple is the one school that has success with bloodlines. Temple NG Joe Klecko’s son, Dan, was Big East defensive MVP at Temple. Jim Bright, a 1950 fullback with the Owls, sired a 1979 Garden State bowl MVP, Mark Bright, also a fullback. Zach Dixon, a terrific 1,000-yard running back with the 1978 Owls, sired future NFL defensive end Raheem Brock.

Now we get to adopt a Northern Iowa son, just like Kurt adopted Brenda’s son, Zach, in the movie. (If the “I pick you” line doesn’t get you in the feels, you don’t have tear ducts.)

Unless the son of John Elway, Dan Marino or even Tom Brady walk through the E-O door, Temple is going to do no better from a gene pool standpoint than Warner.

Not many schools are.

I’ve never seen his mom throw a football but I’ve seen his dad chuck it several thousand times.

If Elijah wings it the way his dad does and both Tapit and Flightline run it, the Owls should be in pretty good shape.

Somewhere up there, the real Pop Warner is looking down and smiling.

Friday: The Case For the Defense

10.18.21
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Difference between USF and Temple: Commitment

The proposed new stadium at USF was unveiled to the press last month .

All you have to do to figure out the difference between USF and Temple football is look at the national perception.

USF head coach Jeff Scott was hired a full year and a month AFTER Rod Carey yet Scott is listed as No. 1 on the coaches hot seat site and Carey is nowhere to be found.

The perception there, at least from those who run that site is this: Scott’s seat is warm as hell because USF won’t tolerate a poor season coming off a one-win fall and Temple will.

There’s a lot to that because it’s true.

USF has fired two coaches since Al Golden performed CPR on Temple football and Temple has fired zero coaches. Sure, one of the reasons was that it was successful enough not to need that option, but The Rod Carey Error will provide the first real test to Temple’s commitment for fielding a winning team.

If the team loses to USF, it will be magnified.

Proposed site of new USF stadium. Neighbors live across the street and to the right.

USF displayed its commitment to football last month when the President announced plans to build a new stadium on campus while Temple, having already approved the funding for its own stadium three years ago, allowed no more than 20 or so neighbors to shut down the project.

Temple appears to have thrown up its hands and given up without even trying alternative methods like moving the site from 15th Street or marketing the new stadium the ” North Philly Tribute Center” and telling the community the stadium will be for them 359 days and the university for just six. Temple already has a large area for athletics at Broad and Master and has met no community opposition there. Maybe moving that to 15th and Norris and putting a stadium closer to Center City could satisfy all involved.

South Florida, like Temple, also has on-campus neighbors who objected to getting a stadium done. USF believes the stadium is the greater good and, once built, the community will realize it as well. Unlike USF, Temple allowed a few loud voices to table the project. USF’s interim president said “we’re going to get this done.” Temple’s new president, Dr. Jason Wingard, deflected a similar question when he said the school was committed to its deal with Lincoln Financial Field.

USF plays in a pro stadium, too, but realizes even a crowd of 20 or 30K rattling around a 70K-seat stadium looks horrible. It looks closer to 10 people than 70,000 and, if the perception is your product is not successful, that’s even more important than whether it actually is. USF has come to that conclusion. At one time Temple did, too. That ship has apparently sailed.

The latest evidence of national perception came on Sunday night when the books set USF as a 3.5-point favorite. That despite the fact that USF entered its game on Saturday with only one touchdown pass on the season and Temple, coming into its game at Cincinnati, had the No. 1 pass defense in the country. (A misleading stat because Temple plays a three-man front and often drops eight into coverage, allowing opposing running games to gouge the Owls on the ground.)

What can be done to turn around that perception?

The only thing that solves anything in big-time college sports: Winning. If Temple isn’t favored to beat the only team it defeated in a one-win season last year, just when will it happen?

Not this year. At least not unless Temple rips off a winning streak starting now.

Temple has to beat USF to begin to change minds, then come back and complete the Florida sweep against UCF at Lincoln Financial Field. It should not be that hard.

The fact that few nationally believe it will happen is in and of itself a big problem for Temple.

Friday: USF Preview

07.16.21
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New Beginnings: Recruiting

National high school coach of the year Gabe Infante would be my first choice to replace Rod Carey should the wheels fall off this year.

Maybe after nearly three years of banging his head against a wall Rod Carey has figured out a way to succeed at Temple.

Better late than never.

For MOST of the first two years, he relied primarily on his Midwest recruiting connections.

Some nice players out there but, when they get to 10th and Diamond, there has been a history of culture shock.

Not every intersection is for everybody.

The good news is that there are literally thousands of urban kids–good players from good families–who are not only used to the urban environment but prefer it.

The Owls have an established gem on the Pennsylvania side of the river in Gabe Infante. Great head coach with multiple state championships under his belt and the kids love him.

Now they have Preston Brown.

Lose one Camden Brown (Fran), gain another.

Two-time South Jersey state champion Preston Brown (holding trophy) would be my second choice to replace Carey. If Carey goes 10-2 this year, I vote for Carey to remain at Temple.

I would argue Carey got the better Brown.

Hear me out here.

The Brown who went to Rutgers was never a head coach and never won squat as a head coach.

The Brown who Temple hired this week not only won one but multiple New Jersey championships as a head coach at Woodrow Wilson.

The kids love the Temple Brown as much and maybe more than the Rutgers Brown (no relation).

Plus, Carey has now surrounded himself with legendary state championship high school coaches in the very fertile recruiting ground (Southeast Pennsylvania and South Jersey) any Temple head coach must dominate. There are more FBS players in the fourth-largest market in the country than there are in 10 of the next 35 markets.

Temple should have a huge advantage over the Cincys, Memphises and Tulsas and at least rival the UCF/USF Orlando-Tampa market. No Temple fan has been harder on Carey than me but, if anything, I’m objective.

There is no reason (none) that Temple should not compete for the AAC title every season.

The fact that Carey doesn’t feel threatened by the existence of Brown and Infante so close to his office speaks volumes for Carey’s confidence in himself and that he can do the job here.

Since I’m much more a fan of 10-2 than I am of 2-10, I hope Carey’s faith in these two great men pays off sooner than later.

Time is running out for Carey, but it is definitely on the side of Gabe and Preston. The fact that Carey doesn’t feel threatened by either guy makes me respect Rod more today than I did yesterday. Rod, I hope to hell that you succeed because 2020 reminded me more than anything that I hate losing more than I love winning.

Monday: WWGCD?

01.22.21
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Temple’s near national title miss

Musing about how rigged college football has become in this space last week makes you appreciate how fair it once was.

One such year was 1979.

Only two teams finished unbeaten that season, eventual national champion Alabama (12-0) and runnerup USC (11-0-1). Pitt was 11-1.

Had Wayne won another wrestling match with Paterno at Beaver Stadium and found two more points in a 10-9 loss to Pitt, the Owls would have probably played Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and maybe won the national title.

Temple, with any luck, could have played Alabama, maybe beat them, in the Sugar Bowl and hoisted that national title trophy instead of the Crimson Tide.

The Owls played a much-tougher schedule then, lost to Pitt only by one and led Penn State by a point at halftime before inexplicably going away from a run game that worked in the first half to a passing game that didn’t in the second half of an eventual 22-7 loss. The crowd at Beaver Stadium that day was the largest ever to watch a Penn State game to that point. (They would eventually expand the field from 82,986 to 100K plus shortly after that.)

Even to this day, a couple of the offensive linemen who played for Temple that day told them Penn State defenders came up to them and said, “Why did you guys stop running the ball?”

Water under the dam now but, if the Owls had scrounged up 17 more points they would have finished unbeaten and untied.

A couple of interesting scores that year indicate the Owls would have been more than competitive against the Tide had a game materialized.

Tennessee, a team that lost to Rutgers, 13-7, that year, gave Bama a relatively competitive game in a 27-17 loss. Temple smoked that same Rutgers team, 41-20, on the road.  Temple beat California, 28-17, by a greater score than that USC did (24-14).

You can take comparative scores with a grain of salt, but those scores indicate Temple’s 1979 team had nothing to fear from anyone.

Only the 1934 squad could put up an argument that it was better than the 1979 team but I will take the 1979 team all day long. First, the 1934 Sugar Bowl team lost. The 1979 bowl team won. Back then, everybody was Power 5 and Temple was in the elite of that group.

finalpoll

The 1979 Owls captained by Mark Bright and Steve Conjar not only beat every team they were favored to beat but pulled a couple of upsets in a big way. They were not favored to beat Syracuse–with future NFLers’ Art Monk, Joe Morris, and Bill Hurley–but they destroyed the Orange, 49-17. They were not favored to win the Garden State Bowl but beat California, 28-17.

Consider that: TEMPLE winning a National Championship in football. It was thisclose …

Those were the days in college football when there were no participation trophies. You had to be really good and not just one of the best 80 teams to earn a bowl bid. Only 30 teams were extended bowl invitations.

There are now 40 bowl games. In 1979, there were only 15. Temple won one of them. The Owls finished ranked No. 17 in both polls (then, UPI and AP).

Screenshot 2019-10-11 at 1.20.42 PM
That’s it. The entire list of bowl games in 1979

On a cold January afternoon in 2021, the mere thought of that 1979 team is a warm one. It might be as close as Temple ever gets to playing on an even field in this sport again.

10.17.20
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TU Fans: Enjoy the win

In the waning days of Andy Reid’s tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles, his team did not look good.

Mostly losses, and even the wins were sloppy.

After the unimpressive wins, Reid would walk into the press room and brush off legitimate questions with one phrase: “Enjoy the win, fellas.”

That’s pretty much the message to Temple fans today.

This is what Temple has looked like on special teams

Enjoy the win because this might be the last one of this strange season.

It’s not hyperbole.

I can’t find a single team remaining on the Temple schedule as bad as USF was and is but the Owls had to struggle mightily to beat the Bulls, 39-37. In fact, they needed the USF quarterback, Jordan McLeod, to inexplicably put the ball on the carpet for a scoop and score that pretty much gave Temple a gift win.

I had to laugh at a few of the exchanges I saw on social media Saturday. After the game, former Owl Barry Jenkins correctly noted these Owls were “soft on defense” and “couldn’t stop the run.”

To that, a familiar face on the sidelines for the last couple of decades responded: “Adam (Klein) was hurt. We’ll be fine.”

My response: “He was talking about the defense. There was nothing about the defense that spelled fine unless you are talking about Larry Fine of The Three Stooges.”

If the defense was the only problem, that would be one thing. Defense is only one-third of the team. Offense is another third and special teams is a third.

That was the Al Golden Mantra. Defense one third, Offense one third, special teams one third. The way Rod Carey has prioritized special teams since his arrival has made it abundantly clear that he considers special teams 1/10th of the team, defense nearly one half and offense nearly one half.

That’s a losing football mentality.

The sad thing was that he had the best special teams coach in the country, Ed Foley, and let him slip through his fingers. If there was anyone who was a Temple lifer it was Foley. Coaches from Al Golden to Steve Addazio to Matt Rhule to Geoff Collins were smart enough to give the keys to the special teams car to Foley and know that he would not wreck it. Foley had that thing shiny and clean and purring like a kitten and he changed the oil and filter every 3,000 miles.

Since Carey let Foley go because he “wanted to get an extra defensive coach on the field” the Owls have looked like the Keystone Cops on special teams. They can’t block kicks (they used to routinely lead the country in that department), they can’t return kicks, they can’t cover kicks, and they can’t even kick it into the damn end zone. They even have a hard time recovering onsides’ kicks. Anthony Russo doesn’t even hold on field goals any more and defenses consequently don’t even have to account for a possible fake, which makes it much easier to block field goals.

Other than that, they are doing great on special teams.

Yet, for some reason, Carey thought getting an extra defensive coach on the field was a higher priority.

How did that extra defensive coach work out against USF on Saturday? He probably had a lot to do with USF, a team that was shut out by Notre Dame, scoring 37 points.

Not good.

Enjoy the win, though, fellas. It might be the last one because two-thirds of the team looks remarkably like all thirds of The Three Stooges.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner