Category Archives: Temple football,

02.19.19
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First Sign of Spring: Temple QBs and WRs

 

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There are little indications that give you a hint spring is coming.

One was Groundhog Day earlier this month.

Yesterday was the full squad reporting for the Philadelphia Phillies.

A week ago it was pitchers and catchers.

Soon, March 10, we will move the clocks ahead, one day ahead of the real pitchers and catchers.

This is not official yet, but I’ve been told by reliable sources that the next day we will see the “real” pitchers and catchers–quarterbacks and wide receivers–report with the team to full practices as the Owls gear up for the spring game (April 13, which is official).

It just so happens that pitchers and catchers are probably the strength of the 2019 Owls. In starting quarterback Anthony Russo and backups Toddy Centeio and Trad Beatty, the Owls have set themselves up with pretty solid quality and depth at the most important position on the field. In fact, in my 40-plus years as a Temple fan, I can only remember three quarterbacks of this quality way back in the 1970s when Maxwell Award-winner Steve Joachim led a room that included Marty Ginestra.

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Got to be impressed with any coach who takes pen and paper in hand and sits down to write a note. Nobody does that anymore. Thanks, coach Carey.

Depth-wise, that pales in comparison, though to the catcher part of this equation as the Owls are set with wide receiver starters Sean Ryan, Branden Mack and Isaiah Wright and pushed hard by backups Jadan Blue, Randall Jones and Freddie Johnson.

That’s a lot of depth and one would hope that to strengthen the running back position, new head coach Rod Carey is open to moving a former tailback, Wright, back there to help keep the running game among the best in the league as it has been for the last five seasons.

We should find that out soon and the idea has been proposed to Carey, who like all good coaches, is open to moving players from a position of strength to shore up an area where the depth might not be as impressive.

Meanwhile, unofficially, there has been a lot of pitching and catching at the Edberg-Olson Complex both outside on the field and idea-wise in the coaching offices.

The fruits of that back-and-forth should be unveiled soon.

Thursday: A King Solomon Solution to a King-Size Dilemma

02.16.19
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Alliance: Something to Watch Between Now and Cherry and White

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Temple TUFF Evan Rodriguez is on the San Antonio Commanders

There aren’t too many dead periods in sports but, for the last few years, the time after the first week in February until real March Madness (late, not early in March) was the deadest of the dead.

It still might be sleeping but it’s not dead, thanks to the American Alliance of Football.

Between signing day on the first week in February and Cherry and White, at least from a football perspective, nothing happened.

I went into the first week of American Alliance of Football play not expecting much but pleasantly surprised by four things:

  • There are Temple guys playing in this league;
  • You can actually hit someone like the old days without drawing a flag;
  • Everybody makes pretty much an equal salary;
  • Games are pretty damn entertaining.

To the first point, the Temple guys are Leon Johnson, Adonis Jennings, and Evan Rodriguez, an offensive lineman, wide receiver and tight end, respectively.

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I could not find the rule on quarterback hits but I saw several quarterbacks being hit pretty hard without the immediate flags that are thrown in an NFL game. Tom Brady, for instance, probably wouldn’t like this league. Also, the helmet-to-helmet restrictions aren’t the same severity in this league that exists in the NFL.

The play clock is 35 seconds, five seconds shorter than the NFL one and there are no TV timeouts so the games can be completed in 2 hours and 30 minutes of real time.

Economic equality comes to pro football with all the players making the same $250,000 a year. The good part of that is it’s probably at least $200,000 more than they’d be making in the “real world.”

All the teams are in Southern markets so inclement weather (other than rain) usually isn’t a factor.

Myles Tannenbaum, the one-time owner of the USFL Philadelphia Stars, summed up the business model of that great league perfectly when he said: “If you like chocolate ice cream in the summer, you probably would like it in the winter, too.”

That league failed because a younger owner demanded it go up against the NFL, which was selling a much tastier brand of chocolate ice cream in a different season. Now, it’s the only ice cream in town.

Until my favorite kind of ice cream, Cherry and Vanilla is dished out on April 13, this will be at least an option we did not have in the past.

Tuesday: Real Pitchers and Catchers

02.09.19
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5 Intriguing Names In The New Class

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysUWv9XlgkI

The University of Temple is cringeworthy, but KBS is already here. 

One of the reasons why you don’t see Group of Five teams having the same kind of sustained success that say, Alabama, Clemson and Georgia have, is illustrated perfectly by what happened to Temple football this year and far too many years.

Coaching change interrupts any recruiting momentum and that is felt not necessarily the next year but three or four years down the road.

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Got to love the Temple Love in this photo by the KBS family

While Temple can and probably will have a good year in 2019, the 2021 season might be the most impacted by the Owls bagging only 18 recruits. According to Scout.com, their recruiting class completed on Wednesday is ranked 102d.

That’s bad for a Sun Belt or a MAC school. It’s terrible for an AAC school.

Still, that doesn’t mean there is a lack of talent in this group. Nobody here can tell you who among this group will be a star but I’ve always been from the school of thought that the best predictor for future success is measured in past success and, based on that criterion alone, here are the five most talented guys:

Kennique Bonner Steward QB 6-3 215 Huntersville, N.C. William A. Hough _  OK, going to say it right now, this guy is going to be The Man on campus after Anthony Russo and Trad Beatty. He throws the ball on a dime and has the kind of escapability past Rod Carey quarterbacks have possessed and he has excelled on the big stage as shown by this big Hough High victory.
M.J. Griffin DB 6-1 189 Ypsilanti, Mich. Saline. _ Any time a Temple commit gets Power 5 offers, that has to open some eyes and that’s certainly the case with Griffin. Part of the reason he chose Temple was that he’s from a city and loves the city environment.

Edward Saydee ATH 5-11 189 Philadelphia, Pa. William Penn Charter _ Reminds me a little of Bernard Pierce coming out of Glen Mills and that’s high praise indeed. Has good vision once he hits the hole and appears to be the same kind of one-cut runner Pierce was. More importantly, his measurables are Pierce-like (Bernard was 6-0, 180 out of high school with a 10.8 in the 100-meters and Edward is 5-11, 189 with the same 10.8.)
Kwesi Evans WR 6-3 198 Parkville, Md. St. Frances Academy _  Nobody knows Evans better than new Temple running backs’ coach Gabe Infante. The national high school coach of the year needed an act of God (literally) to complete an unbeaten state championship season due to lightning with six minutes left in the third quarter. St. Frances was up, 13-7 when the game was called. No other high school team came within 20 points of the Philadelphia squad all year. For St. Frances, Evans caught a touchdown pass in that game.

Wisdom Quarshie DL 6-3 310 Sicklerville, N.J. St. Joseph (Hammonton) _ Because of a need for depth on the defensive line, a player like Quarshie with his size and toughness has a chance to get snaps right away.

As exciting as it will be to see the above players develop, keep an eye on a wide receiver named Joshua Youngblood at Kansas State. He was a solid Temple commit until Geoff Collins left and waivered when Manny Diaz came in and was lost completely when Carey arrived and succumbed to a late effort by Kansas State. This kid in my mind will become a big-time star but that’s life in the G5 when coaching changes happen every couple of years.

Tuesday: A Trade That Elton Brand Would Be Proud to Make

Thursday: Delving Into The Schedule

Saturday: A New Lease on Life For Some Owls

Monday (2/18): The Real Pitchers and Catchers

02.05.19
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Dear Rod: Just My Two Cents

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Editor’s Note: Pretty much every time I felt Temple did the right thing on a coaching hire, I dashed off a note to the new coach congratulating him on the gig. That meant only Al Golden and Matt Rhule got letters. Al sent me a note telling me that he was still waiting on a player who could turn out to be the best in his first class, Kee-Ayre Griffin, and asking me to wish him luck. Matt called me and we had a very cordial and nice 35-minute conversation and he picked my brain on which Temple fans to network with and how to build support. Haven’t heard from Rod yet, but will keep his thoughts under wraps until after he’s gone when I do. If it’s after six years with four division and two league titles, it will be a successful run. We typed this on a word processor and sent it in an old-fashioned, stamped envelope. He should have received it last Thursday.

Dear Rod,

Belated congratulations for getting the Temple head coaching job from a 40-year season ticket holder and Temple alumn.
I wanted to send this right away but knew you were engrossed in hitting the ground running with recruiting and staffing obligations but I was there in the room on the day you introduced and was impressed in a way that I was not on prior coaching introductions.
I have a vested interest in you succeeding because, ever since Al Golden left, I’ve always felt that the Temple head coaching model should be hiring a successful FBS head coach and you certainly fit that description.
Golden was what Temple needed in 2005–someone who knew how to build a program from the ground up–with a binder full of ideas on how to do it.
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Once he left five years later, the program was already established and 20,000 Temple fans drove down I95 from Philadelphia to watch the Owls play UCLA in the Eagle Bank Bowl.
Since then, it’s been a succession of coordinators with eyes on a higher prize than Temple. These kids are the prize and they deserve the stability someone like you can give them and that’s the same kind of stability you gave those kids at Northern Illinois.
I have a strong feeling you will hit the ground running because this is a ready-made team with very little in the way of holes to be filled.
With the Owls seven-deep at the wide receiver position, nothing would help you hit the ground running (pun intended) than making Isaiah Wright a lead tailback.
Just my two cents. I’m sure others will offer their two cents as well. It comes with the territory, as you well know.
Again, congratulations. As underwhelmed I was the day Manny Diaz was hired, that’s how overwhelmed I was on your day.
Good luck,
Mike Gibson
Thursday: Who’s Coming and Who’s Staying?
Saturday: The Second Recruiting Day
02.02.19
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Three Identical Strangers: TU, NIU, Miami

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Hopefully, Rod Carey keeps the Cherry helmets this fall

Nothing I see on TV usually blows my mind.

Like everything, there are always exceptions to the rule and the recent CNN documentary “Three Identical Strangers” falls into that category. Without getting deep into it, it was about three young men separated at birth on July 12, 1961, intentionally by an adoption agency as a case study for the effects of nurturing versus naturing.

The college football version of that show is far less intense and intrusive but the study elements are close this fall. The case studies will be separated not by 100 miles or less but by about 500 miles West and 1,000 miles south of Philadelphia.

Proven coaching or talent. Young, unproven coaching or talent.

The question in the fall of 2019 will be: Given the somewhat equal talent in three separate settings does a proven head coach produce a more desirable result (winning) than a hot assistant?

My theory is that Temple football dodged two big bullets over the last decade, separated by one letter.

Daz and Diaz.

Had Steve Addazio stayed at Temple, the Owls probably would have tapped out at the seven-win mark, a number that has concerned the powers-that-be at Boston College so much that they worked in an eight-win minimum into his contract extension this season.

Manny Diaz would have been a college football version of one-and-done but never got to that point. Temple did not need to hire another head coach for one year only to see him leave because, at some point, the instability has to take a toll on recruiting.

“You don’t want to go there,” the bad guys will begin to tell recruits, “they change coaches every year.”

That begs the question: Why can’t Temple have both excellence and stability?

Rod Carey, who by any account, gave Northern Illinois that for the last six years, shows a lot of signs of being the real deal. If the Owls dodged a bullet with Daz and Diaz, they may have the benefit of getting a lot of ammunition from Carey for their weapons.

The lab experiment for this theory will take place in three places: Philadelphia, DeKalb, and Miami.

Only one of the schools hired a proven winner as a head coach. The others took a flyer on unproven assistants as Baltimore Ravens’ running back coach Thomas Hammock was hired by NIU and Diaz went back to Miami.

Interestingly enough, all three schools return 14 starters from the 2018 squads. If the Owls are able to record the most wins of the three schools, the data won’t be complete on this experiment but will certainly point to a brighter future in Philadelphia than those other towns.

From a talent standpoint versus their respective leagues, there is not much to chose from the three experimental samples.

By December, someone should be able to write a pretty good case study.

Tuesday: Dear Rod Letter

Thursday: Who’s Coming and Going?

Saturday: Signing Day No. 2

Tuesday (2/12): Plugging Holes

 

01.31.19
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Carey Only Needs Cliff Notes

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After the spring game is a perfect time for Carey to network with Temple fans

Al Golden came with his binder.

Rod Carey needs only Cliff Notes to prep for his first year as Temple’s head football coach.


Not since Bernard Pierce
left a year early has a
Temple coaching staff had
such a pressing need at
tailback. They need to find
an elite talent who scares
defenses and, in Wright,
they have that

Back in the day before Google,  Cliff Notes was a small reference guide you used to use only as a last resort when you forgot to read Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace between junior and senior years of high school.  (We’re speaking hypothetically here if Mr. Lefty Ervin, my World Cultures teacher, is reading this.)

Golden had to build a program from the ground up and was well-positioned to do it.

There was one chapter in that binder Golden could not possibly write until maybe now and that was learning to be a head coach on the fly.

Carey has that part down.  He’s not as likely to make first-time mistakes as Golden, Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins were and did, costing the Owls some crucial wins. Golden had a lot of good stuff in that large black binder, including a full list of extensive East Coast High school recruiting contacts and a sound philosophy of targeting high school captains on successful teams. It worked to stock Temple with three No. 1 MAC recruiting classes that were the basis for consecutive nine and eight-win seasons.

Carey doesn’t have to do any of that heavy book lifting, just pick up a Cliff Notes.

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All he needs to do now is get to know Temple, its fans and, most importantly, its players. The essence of great coaching is to put the talent you have and not the talent you want to best use.

To me, that’s the beauty of keeping holdovers like Ed Foley and Adam DiMichele. They, probably more than anyone else, should be able to advise Carey that the Owls are seven-deep at the wide receiver position and can afford to move Isaiah Wright to the tailback spot that Ryquell Armstead filled so well over the last three years. Not since Bernard Pierce left a year early has a Temple coaching staff had such a pressing need at tailback. They need to find an elite talent who scares defenses and, in Wright, they have that. Addazio replaced Pierce with, ironically enough, Boston College transfer Montel Harris. Carey has an Acre of Diamond in his own backyard in Wright.

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Other than that, Carey needs to use the time after the Cherry and White game to press the flesh in the Temple Towers lot and get out and meet the long-time fans and ex-players who form the core of the Temple fan base. He’s got to make the rounds after the football part is over and introduce himself to the Bruce Arians’ players’ group, led by Sheldon Morris and Joe Greenwood, then make a stop and talk to the Wayne Hardin group, led by Steve Conjar. In between, he’s got to show the younger fans, the Owlbulance group, that he welcomes them as well.

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Collins was an engaging enough guy but thought Temple football began and ended with Al Golden and that was a major flaw. Rhule and Golden understood there was a rich and successful Temple football history long before 2005 and tapped into that for the benefit of the program.

Somehow, if Collins had come with a manual on Temple like Golden did with his binder, he would have been more successful and connected better with the Temple family. Carey has that chance and doesn’t even have to read War and Peace to be fully briefed.

Saturday: This Year’s Lab Experiment

12.26.18
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Bowl Game: Keeping Up With The Joneses

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The closest thing Philadelphia drive-time sports talk radio got around to talking about the Temple’s impending bowl game tomorrow was on the Mike Missanelli Show two days ago.

Missanelli was making a point about trading Carson Wentz for a No. 1 and keeping Nick Foles to run the show and mentioned the name of the Duke quarterback as a draft possibility should the Eagles designate Foles as a placeholder for the next couple of years.

“They could even draft a guy this year,” he said. “Let’s look at the list of projected No. 1 NFL quarterbacks. How about that Daniel Jones of Duke? If you reject the notion that Wentz is the last franchise quarterback the NFL draft will ever produce, and I do, then now is the time to get rid of Wentz and get something for him. You can draft a guy like Daniel Jones, have him learn from Foles for a couple of years and then he could turn out to be as good as Wentz. You never know.”

Silly me.

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My 40-year-old Temple News jersey did not survive as well as Mr. Russo’s 40-year-old Bishop Egan jersey

I thought that was a lead-in to talking about the Temple-Duke game, but Missanelli beat about 20 other Eagles’ topics to death and left Daniel Jones floating out there. Philly talk show hosts probably don’t even know Temple is playing in the Independence Bowl against Duke (1:30 p.m., ESPN) tomorrow but the Owls can certainly open some eyes with a big win.

First, there will be a lot of draftniks watching Jones to form their own opinion of him and, second, there is another very talented quarterback on the field named Anthony Russo who can establish a reputation of his own with a good game. There was a terrific story by Marc Narducci on Russo’s wearing a 40-year-old Bishop Egan jersey that his dad wore as a QB there. I also have a jersey over 40-years old–my game jersey for The Temple News’ intramural basketball team–but it has not survived as well so I don’t know how he preserved it.

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Shreveport’s Channel 3 is calling for an 80 percent chance of AM rain and 70 degrees by the afternoon.

Jones still has a year of eligibility but it would be crazy for a projected first-round pick to come back to college. Jones checks all of the boxes. Like Wentz, he’s 6-foot-5 and, like Wentz, he can do damage with his feet. He had two runs in excess of 60 yards in a 42-35 win over North Carolina. Jones will be looking to move up the draft board with a strong game against Temple because he hurt his prospects some in a 59-7 loss to Wake Forest in his last game. He was 17-of-36 for 145 yards and a Pick 6.

He’ll be motivated but facing a Temple secondary with two NFL hopefuls in safety Delvon Randall and corner Rock Ya-Sin. Since Duke coach David Cutcliffe is adept at breaking down film, expect Jones to try to attack Linwood Crump Jr.’s side of the field. Crump has been pretty solid as well, but sliding over Randall in help is probably the way interim coach Ed Foley is leaning.

Temple is a four-point favorite, but there’s very little to base that upon since there are no common foes. Interestingly enough, this fall Duke owns wins over both the incoming Temple coach (20-12 at Miami) and the team the outgoing Temple coach (28-14 at Georgia Tech) is taking over so there will be bragging rights to be had for the Owls. Another twist is that Duke beat Baylor and Matt Rhule, for what that’s worth.  If the Owls can pull this off, it will be their most prestigious bowl win since beating California, 28-17, in the 1979 Garden State Bowl so there is plenty at stake.

If Temple controls the clock behind Ryquell Armstead and Russo is effective in the short passing game, Jones won’t be able to do too much damage.

Friday: Game Analysis

Monday: Infante Impact

 

11.27.18
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Fizzy’s Corner: A Poetic Ending

                                         templetuff By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

(THE TEMPLE 2018 FOOTBALL SEASON – IN VERSE)

This Temple season started off really quite bad,

our heads were down and we were mighty sad…

In the first two games when we were upset,

most of us were ready to flush the toilet…

Versus Villanova it wasn’t at all sweet,

fiftyseven

cause the offense continued straight down Broad Street…

Against Buffalo, nothing much changed,

and I called a Shrink feeling very deranged…

A trip to Maryland featured coordinators Jekyll & Hyde,

who destroyed the opponent while changing places inside…

Then Tulsa was here and Russo continued to grow,

assisted by the defense and special teams you know…

We went to BC and played them really quite even,

a few different play calls would’ve had the country believe’n…

ECU came to town and there wasn’t much that could rankle,

except the coaches who let Armstead play on his bad ankle…

It was a torrid battle down on Navy’s grass,

but the best thing we did was to finally make them pass…

The game against Cincinnati is tough to rhyme,

but they helped us by blowing it in overtime…

Their coaches actually froze their own kicker,

who missed three field goals and there’s nothing sicker…

A win against Central Florida would’ve had us on the map,

but our second-half play calling fell into a trap…

We were at their goal line late in the game,

but two penalties and a missed field goal left us shamed…

In Houston our offense exploded,

but late in the game we almost imploded…

We were up three touchdowns with ten minutes left,

but a tired defense almost left us bereft…

Against South Florida our offense only scored thirteen,

but Isaiah Wright and our high scoring defense (# 1) kept us clean…

This year’s Connecticut team isn’t worth much mention,

but our fifty-seven points got everyone’s attention…

So all in all as we wait for a bowl,

we have much to savor though we paid the toll…

Our team has greatly improved throughout this year,

and though we’ll lose some great players, many more are here…

My hope is we play a power five team…

and beat them to prove this isn’t a dream.

Tomorrow: Backroom Jockeying and Bowl Bids

Saturday: Temple football’s version of Allen Iverson

Monday: Bowl Selection Show Reactions

11.25.18
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A Happy Ending

Sometime after Temple did not bother to challenge an obvious touchdown by Isaiah Wright at the end of the half, a long-time Owl fan sent this message on social media:

“This is sad.”

The fan was not referring to Temple eschewing a challenge and taking a field goal there, he was talking about the utter non-competitiveness of UConn.

My response was swift and definitive:

“Happy for me. Any time the good guys have a lot and the bad guys have a little, it is a great game.”

On Saturday afternoon, the good guys wore the white hats and won, 57-7.

makfenton

This now becomes my second-favorite TU-UConn game (by a point).

It was reminiscent of an almost identical score in 2001 when Makonnan Fenton took a kickoff for 94 yards and a touchdown in a 56-7 win over a UConn team that was pegged to replace Temple in the Big East.

Wright went six more yards than Fenton did on his kickoff return, also the pivotal play (if there can be one in a 57-7 win).

You can have all the last-second exciting back-and-forth wins you want, give me a good Temple 57-7 win over that kind of excitement any Saturday of the week.

While the 56-7 win was a vindication that the Big East was getting rid of a far more competitive program for a less-competitive one, the 57-7 win becomes my favorite for reasons that extend far beyond that single point.

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It vindicates the Owls as one of the premier programs in the stepchild of the Big East, the AAC, and comes at the end of a five-year bowl-eligible run for Temple

Really, since 2001, the odyssey in this space I’ve always wanted for Temple football is respect and the Owls now have that on a global level. Be bowl eligible every year, win a championship every few years, have everyone say what a tough team Temple is and that’s all we has Temple fans can ever hope for on a regular basis.

narducci

In between pounding 90 wpm on the laptop and making a post-game video, Marc Narducci got this capture of Anthony Russo hugging Toddy Centeio after Toddy touchdown scored his first TU touchdown and posted it on his twitter feed.

It certainly beats the 20-game losing streak and (mostly) 20 years of losing seasons that existed between 1989 and 2009. (Only the 7-4 team of 1990 broke what would have been a 20-year losing skein.)

More importantly, a culture of toughness has been established that existed once under Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians and was only was later given recessitation by Al Golden.

Fair to great hirings by Bill Bradshaw (Golden, Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule) and one by Pat Kraft (Geoff Collins) kept that ball rolling. That ball looks like it will continue to roll for the next two years because the current sophomore and junior classes appear to be at least the equal of any of the best similar groups of the Bradshaw coaches. The Owls have a great quarterback, Anthony Russo, for the next two seasons and seem to have a succession plan in place after he leaves with Toddy Centeio and Trad Beatty waiting in the wings.

It could all blow up if the Owls do something stupid and follow the blueprint of bad coaching hirings established by, say, UConn but having a ex-Big 10 football player like Kraft doing the hiring probably precludes that. Collins seems to fit this school well, even if his offensive coordinator does not.

We learned a lot about the Owls this year. Mostly, that sad beginnings can lead to happy endings if the culture prevails.

There’s one more chapter in this 2018 book to be written and, if the Owls are able to beat a Power 5 foe (I really don’t care where) and hoist another bowl trophy, that would be an even happier ending than the one that closed the regular season.

Baylor in the Armed Forces Bowl would be my heavy lean (negotiate a trade with Army by putting it in the Birmingham Bowl) and hopefully the crafty Kraft is working on that now.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner: Poetic Justice

Thursday: How The West Was Won

Saturday: Temple’s Version of Allen Iverson

Monday: Bowl Selection Analysis

 

 

 

 

11.17.18
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Tribute To The Temple Seniors

Ryquell Armstead has always been the epitome of Temple TUFF.

The routine on Senior Day is always a little different from the rest of the home games for a lot of Temple fans.

At least for me.

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Brodrick Yancy taking the time to line up Ventell Bryant here was one of the smartest plays in Temple history.

Instead of going in 15 minutes before the game, as I usually do, I make it a point to get in there a half-hour or earlier so I can see the Senior Day ceremonies.

The kids who play for Temple deserve that kind of respect because four years go by too quickly and the memories they leave behind will last for 40 years or more.

When you break it down to the basics, a college football season is really all about the seniors.

In the NFL, players exit stage left by doing what the old soldiers of General MacArthur did: “Fade away.”  They leave without fanfare, some just being injured and released, some making the decision on their own but no ceremony involved.

In college, it is just the opposite.

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If Freddy Love doesn’t make it in the NFL, he will make a great Temperor

Seniors go out in a burst of glory with their entire glorious lives in front of them. They’ve given four or five years to their college program and deserve the best exit possible.

When you strip the game of football to its basics, the most important thing is making plays.

That is what I will remember of this senior group, the plays a lot of them made as sophomores that enabled that championship trophy to be strapped on the team bus on the way home.

Start with wide receiver Ventell Bryant, who caught the first touchdown pass of the 34-10 win over Navy. The Owls would not have been even in the title game had it not been for the heroics of Bryant, who caught three passes in a 32-second, 70-yard drive that won a game at Central Florida.

Include Brodrick Yancy, who instructed a groggy (and probably concussed) Bryant where to line up that enabled then quarterback P.J. Walker to throw the winning touchdown pass. Had Yancy, who has caught a lot of clutch passes of his own, not had that kind of football IQ, the Owls would have suffered a 10-second runoff and never had time for the final play to Keith Kirkwood.

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Zack Mesday (10) was given a 6th year of eligibility

Mix in Ryquell Armstead, arguably the best running back on that 2016 championship team. His 25-yard touchdown run sealed the championship and allowed play-by-play announcer Brad Nessler to make this call on national TV: “How does it feel to be champions, Temple?”

Nobody epitomized Temple TUFF more than Armstead and his lead blocker, fullback Nick Sharga.

Rob Ritrovato picked up the mantle from Sharga and, while he wasn’t allowed to be a lead fullback blocker, took Sharga’s number and toughness to make some big plays on special teams. I first noticed Ritrovato throwing great blocks at the fullback position for Jahad Thomas in the historic win over Penn State.

Then there was Frank Nutile, who saved the season last year after Logan Marchi almost ruined it and was the second Temple quarterback named MVP of a bowl game (Chris Coyer was the first). Nutile played through injuries the first couple of games and has been nothing but a supportive teammate to sophomore Anthony Russo.

ride

A lot of the current seniors were responsible for this trophy.

There were impact defenders, like safety Delvon Randall–who was projected by one service to be a first-round NFL pick–and tackle Michael Dogbe, who will surprise no one if he sneaks into that first round. Dogbe had the key hurry that resulted in an overtime interception thrown this year in the win over Cincinnati.

There are also the one-and-done Owls, including lockdown corner Rock Ya-Sin, who was everything Mike Jones was advertised to be last year, and Syracuse transfer Rodney Williams, who was the victim of an incredibly bad pass interference call at UCF. Holdover Jyquis Thomas has been an off-and-on starter for the last three years, but always Above The Line. 

Linebacker Todd Jones, who played so well in the bowl game last year, has been outstanding on special teams this season. 

The Owls are going to miss offensive tackle James McHale from the Scranton area as well as linemate Aaron Ruff, a one-time four-star recruit from Imhotep who became a late-bloomer at Temple. Tight end Chris Myarick being awarded a scholarship was one of the highlights of Geoff Collins’ first Cherry and White Day and defensive tackle Freddy Booth-Lloyd was the single-biggest (literally) reason the Owls were able to shut down the fullback dive in the second half and that allowed them to beat Navy.

He will always be known as the “Refrigerator Perry” of Temple if he doesn’t gain fame as an NFL player or Temperor in future years.

The best news involving a “senior” was about defensive end Zack Mesday, though. He was given a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA on Wednesday so that’s the first senior we won’t have to say goodbye to for a while.

Parting is sweet sorrow enough with the other guys so, when you get to keep one, it’s extra special. 

Tomorrow: Game Analysis