Category Archives: Temple football coaching search

12.08.16
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Finished Business?

fordhamfoley

Not the best day in Fordham football history.

The only way Temple football makes the sports talk radio rounds is if something negative happens to the program.

When the bus from Annapolis on Saturday night dropped me off at the Liacouras Center, I made my way to the parking garage and turned on the radio eager in anticipation of some Temple love coming on 97.5. Instead, all they talked about was Matt Rhule possibly leaving.

That wasn’t the only time in the span of a couple days that sports talk radio about Temple football caused me to shake my head.

That happened on Monday and a former Boston College quarterback named Glenn Foley called in to assure Owl Nation that not all was lost.

“Nothing bad is going to happen, Owl fans,” Foley said. “The program is still going to continue to win and, if they hire my brother, he will do a great job.”

With all due respect, Glenn, a hire like your brother is EXACTLY what I’m afraid of happening at this point. Some people are career lifetime assistant coaches and some people have head coaching stardom written all over them. Foley is the former and definitely not the latter.


I will say this in all seriousness:
If Temple hires Ed Foley or any other
unproven assistant coach with no
winning head coaching
experience, we’re going to pack
it in for Temple Football Forever
and end the website on the day
of the announcement

The best thing I can say about him is that he is a helluva nice guy and sings a mean version of high hopes.

The fairest thing to say about him is that he is not qualified to be head coach at Temple University.

Let’s open up the record books and examine that head coaching record, which is 7-15 over two years, 2004 and 2005.

Before Foley took the head coaching job, a guy named Dave Clawson went 10-3 and 9-3 in the two years prior. After that, Foley went 5-6 and 2-9. Clawson will coach Wake Forest against Foley in the Military Bowl. Joe Moorhead, who coached Fordham between 2012 and 2015, went 12-2 and 11-3 in his two best years there.

So you have a guy in Foley who couldn’t get it done from a head coaching perspective at Fordham sandwiched between a couple of guys who had enormous success at the same institution.

I understand Glenn is family and he has got to stick up for his brother, but Temple has got to look at the cold, hard facts and say no to a permanent Ed Foley candidacy. Now Ed would be great to join a possible Al Golden staff with George DeLeone and Adam DiMichele, but he is not cut out to be a head coach.

I will say this in all seriousness: If Temple hires Ed Foley or any other unproven assistant coach with no winning head coaching experience, we’re going to pack it in for Temple Football Forever and end the website on the day of the announcement. There will just not be any point in going on and providing a forum to discuss Temple football with that bleak backdrop facing it. This hire is going to have to have some juice and it will have to be a guy with a history of winning seasons for multiple years as a head coach. There are plenty of such candidates out there who want to coach at Temple and will hit the ground running.

One has even proven he could win as a head coach at Temple.

Coaches like Al Golden, current Old Dominion head coach Bobby Wilder, Moorhead and former FIU head coach Mario Cristobal certainly have those qualifications. From what we hear, all of them would love the opportunity. Guys like Ed Foley do not possess the minimum requirement of winning head coaching experience, no matter how much love he gets from his brother on the radio.

Saturday: Rating The Candidates From A to F

03.02.16
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The New Run Game Coordinator

Miami Dolphins 2010 Headshots

George DeLeone  poses for his 2010 NFL headshot. (Photo by NFL via Getty Images)

 

In a slow news month for Temple football, arguably the biggest news in February for the Owls was the addition of George DeLeone as run game coordinator. That was a position in college football that didn’t exist 20 years ago, but a quick google search indicates that there are plenty of current RGCs.

gardner

 

DeLeone, a former offensive coordinator at Temple, is a good person to be the first Temple football RGC in history.

When Al Golden hired DeLeone to be OC, I thought it was an ingenious move for a couple of reasons. First, Al was the youngest head coach in college football at the time, 35, and it does not help a young head coach to have an “old head” around to guide him through some of the rough spots.

Nothing was rougher than the tail end of the 20-game losing streak, but DeLeone was as responsible as anybody for it coming to a sweet end. In a 28-14 win over a Bowling Green team that had dropped 140 points combined on the Owls in consecutive seasons, the key play was a flea-flicker. Quarterback Adam DiMichele handed off to halfback Tim Brown, who pitched the ball back to DiMichele, who found a streaking Travis Sheldon for an easy touchdown. Mix in a Sheldon kickoff return and, wala, the streak was over.

DeLeone, I assume, is doing some diligent film study. If he does, he’s got to like the fact that Jager Gardner has the biggest upside in the running game and moving Jahad Thomas from tailback to the slot has to be intriguing. A guy just like Thomas, Jalen Fitzpatrick, caught a game-tying touchdown pass against DeLeone’s UConn team in 2012. Gardner could be the AAC’s most dominating back in 2016 if he is able to establish a rhythm.

Plus, there is always the flea-flicker.

I sincerely hope that DeLeone injects some of that same innovation to the Temple offense this fall.

Related:

Jager Gardner Key To 2016 Run Game

Friday: Why We Should Follow Tennessee Tech.

Sunday: The Saquon Barkley Narrative

Tuesday: Setting Time Aside for Triple Option

12.13.12
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Our picks: Lembo, Bowles, Rhule (in that order)

BREAKING NEWS: CBS Sports and Owlscoop.com are now reporting as of Thursday night it’s down to Rhule or D’Onofrio … God help Temple if it’s D’Onofrio, whose Miami defense was ranked No. 118 of 120 FBS teams in 2012 …

Todd Bowles, because he represents the diversity this university  is all about and  proudly rocks the Temple colors and has a winning head-coaching record in the NFL, should be named the next Temple coach if it’s between him and Rhule. I think it might go to Matt Rhule , though.

Lembo and Cristobal have “home run” power while Bowles and Rhule, at best, are gap hitters and it’s more likely that Bowles or Rhule will strike out or pop up than the other two guys

Getting information from inside the walls of Temple athletics is almost impossible.
Bill Bradshaw runs a tight ship and that approach has navigated Temple through some troubled waters in the big-time college football world.
I’m OK with that because of the nice ports this trip has taken Temple fans of their major sports.
He hired “the most underrated head coach in college basketball” in his old baseball infield mate at LaSalle, Fran Dunphy.
He hired a program-builder without peer in Al Golden who lifted the Temple football program off the scrap heap and into respectability.
Love him or leave him (cough, leave him), Steve Addazio was able to talk his way into two high-profile jobs after Florida and was able to take Golden’s talent and win Temple its first bowl game in 30 years.
Addazio might have done Temple a huge favor by leaving after this  4-7 disaster.
That’s 3 for 3 and the best Bradshaw hit at LaSalle was .312, so I’ve got to like him better as an AD than a lead-off hitter.

Bradshaw’s track record is good, so I’m OK with his stealth methods.
The latest news is that Temple fans may have to wait until next week to learn of a new coach.
In the meantime, all we can do is read between the scraps of information we’re able to get out of Broad Street.
Reading the tea leaves, as it were.
We’ve learned that early last week Bradshaw called a current NFL and former Temple player and asked him who he would chose between Matt Rhule and Mark D’Onofrio, two former Temple coaches.
The player said without a doubt Rhule.

That was before Eagles’ defensive coordinator Todd Bowles entered the picture and I’m told Bowles is now considered a very serious candidate.
Former Florida International University coach Mario Cristobal already interviewed, as did current Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. No confirmed status on two great head coaches already available, Dave Clawson of Bowling Green or Pete Lembo of Ball State.
My choices are Lembo first, Clawson second and Cristobal third simply because they have taken FBS teams to bowls as head coaches. They would remove all the guesswork about how they will do at Temple simply because they’ve done it as a head coach before.
I’m thinking, though, that Temple will hire someone like Rhule or Bowles because this delay speaks more to Rhule and Bowles finishing their NFL games this week. If you are into conspiracy theories, and I’m not, you might guess the delay might have something to do with new Temple president Dr. Neil D. Theobald, an Indiana guy, flying out to the Hoosier state to try to convince either Colts’ head coach Bruce Arians or Lembo to take the job. Arians might win the Super Bowl, so that’s not happening but I would gladly take Lembo instead.
Borrowing a phrase from Facebook friend Chris “Mad Dog” Russo “gun to my head” Bowles gets the job. (I wrote this Thursday afternoon and still believe Todd should get the job over Matt Rhule or Mark D’Onofrio for a multitude of reasons.) The reasoning will be that Temple is looking for stability in the position above all and Bowles will beat out Rhule based on his small sampling (2-1 record) as an NFL head coach. Plus, he has OWL in the middle of his name and the marketing people love that kind of stuff.
That said, I’d rather see either Lembo or Cristobal sitting there at the presser on Monday. To use a baseball phrase Bradshaw might understand, Lembo and Cristobal have “home run” power while Bowles and Rhule, at best, are gap hitters and it’s more likely that Bowles or Rhule will strike out or pop up than the other two guys.
That would make it 3 for 4 for Bradshaw.
Good enough?
Yes, in baseball, but maybe not athletic administration.

12.12.12
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The Haves, The Might-Haves and The Have-Nots

Tom Davis covered both Brady Hoke and Pete Lembo at Ball State.

Funny how people remember where they were when big events happen.
I’m the same way with Temple football coaches coming and going.
I was there when Wayne Hardin quit, saying something I’ll never forget: “Mediocrity is not my cup of tea.”

Pete Lembo is cut from the same
mold as Wayne Hardin and Bruce
Arians.

I was standing in the back of the room when Bruce Arians exited Mitten Hall after his final press conference at Temple. I was the Temple football beat writer for Calkins Newspapers at the time. He was about to make the turn to leave, saw me there, and stopped to say: “Hey, Mike, I just wanted to thank you for being so fair to me over the years.”
Stunned by the thoughtfulness of the gesture, I could only say, “My pleasure. Good luck, Bruce.”
We shook hands and that was the last time I saw him. The loss was Temple’s. Even Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz mentioned as much in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview years later, making a point about fired coaches and saying, “Look at Temple. Firing Bruce Arians set that program back 20 years.”
Something told me that Temple would never get two great coaches like that again. More importantly, two great men.
Temple hasn’t had one like that since, a “triple-threat” coach (game management, recruiting, CEO ability).
I hope the Owls snatch one of those types now.
While Al Golden was a great program-builder, he was never the game day coach Hardin and Arians were. (Hardin was great; Arians was good.) Golden was a two-tool guy (recruiting, CEO).
Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians were great coaches and great men, the “haves” in a coaching fraternity of too many “have-nots” and “Might-Haves.”
Temple needs a “have” right now.

The Might-Haves

Matt Rhule and Todd Bowles are great men.
I’m not sure about them being great head coaches.
I wish I were. Sorry, I’m not. Honestly, nobody is.
Unless you’ve done the head-coaching thing, metaphysical certainty about how someone will do as a head coach is impossible.
There are really good pluses about both guys, though. Rhule has experience in every facet of building Golden’s program except making the final decisions under fire.
Bowles was both an NFL and a college coach and recruited for the great Doug Williams at Grambling.
So he, like Rhule, knows about going into homes of kids and looking them and their parents in the eye and saying, “Come to Temple.”
Rhule and Bowles are “might-haves.”

The Have-Nots

People like Mark D’Onofrio, who had to be escorted out of campus by Temple security the last time he was here, is a “Have-Not.” He’s interviewing only because he was defensive coordinator for a Miami team ranked No. 118 in defense this year. Rather than fire his old buddy, Al Golden is pushing Temple to take D’Onofrio off his hands. I hope Temple AD Bill Bradshaw sees through this and his interview with D’Onofrio  yesterday was not more than a courtesy to Golden.
To me, Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco is also a have-not. He would not turn down a once-in-a-generation opportunity to coach Notre Dame in a National Championship game. That game is Jan. 7. Signing day is Feb. 3. Temple needs someone able to fully commit to 24-hour recruiting between now and Feb. 3, being behind the 8-Ball already. Temple got fooled before by a blustery-talking assistant from a big-time program and I hope it isn’t fooled again.

The Haves

Dave Clawson is a great head coach and, by all accounts, a good man. So is Ball State’s Pete Lembo.
Mario Cristobal is also a proven winner as a head coach and I’ve never heard anything bad about him, personally. He turned down the Rutgers’ job and a $1 million pay raise to stay at FIU. There’s something to be said for that kind of loyalty.
Owlscoop.com is reporting that Clawson has withdrawn his name from consideration from the coaching search. Owlscoop.com is the only place reporting that. It’s not on OwlsDaily. It’s not on any of the popular “inside” coaching sites, like footballscoop.com.
I’m hoping that’s not true.
Lembo is not being reported as a Temple candidate, but  Bradshaw said yesterday that some interviews have yet to be conducted “because their teams are in bowl games” and I’m hoping he means Lembo, whose 9-3 Ball State team is in the Beef O’Brady Bowl. If Temple hasn’t reached out to Lembo now, it should.
Cristobal already has interviewed and would be more than acceptable as a Temple coach in my mind, having built Florida International University’s program “from a hole in the ground” (his words) into a two-time bowl team.
Temple needs a have right now.
It had two in Hardin and Arians and it’s way past time for a third.

Tomorrow: Reading the tea leaves

12.09.12
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The $17 million roll of the dice

Doesn’t look like Parx is getting any of Temple’s business this time.

If your boss gave you $17 million to invest in some solid stock futures, would you instead hop in the car and drive up Route 1 to Parx Casino and throw it all on a crap table?
I didn’t think so, but that’s essentially what Temple’s Board of Trustees gave Temple athletic direction Bill Bradshaw the day after Steve Addazio quit.
Edberg-Olson Hall is worth $17 million ($7 million in 2001, an additional $10 million this year) and, if Temple gave the head coaching job to an assistant coach who never held the clipboard as a head coach in battle before, that’s a pretty expensive roll of the dice.
That assistant could become a Temple head coach and stay five years and go 3-9 each year or worse or go 9-3 or better.
You don’t know. I don’t know. Nobody knows.
If it is the lower number, the E-O might as well be padlocked after five years because nobody will come to watch the Owls play and $17 million will be essentially wasted.

These are just the candidates mentioned in the media.

A current head coach, though, with a head-coaching record of excellence, is like a solid stock future. There’s no better predictor of future success than past success.
Loyal TFF reader Steve Sipe sent me five spreadsheets of data analyzing the possible candidates and I’ve published his experience chart here. To me, that’s the most important qualification for Temple right now.
Fortunately, there’s no indication Bradshaw is considering getting in the car and heading up to Parx any time soon.
In fact, the quotes by Bradshaw in this morning’s Inquirer are downright encouraging. Without saying he’s ruling out hiring a current assistant, it certainly looks like he’s leaning that way.
On whether or not he’s leaning toward hiring an assistant, like Addazio and Al Golden were:
“Some people will say you are going to get another Al Golden, another Steve,” Bradshaw said. “I will say this is a different need, a different time in place.”
 And ….
 “I have not restricted [the job] to that,” Bradshaw said of hiring someone with prior head-coaching experience. “But somebody as a head coach, who’s been successful as a head coach and recruiting has an advantage. No question.”
Whew.
Players have walked off the Who Wants to Be A Millionaire TV show with a lot less money at stake than $17 million.
When it comes to the question of hiring an assistant coach, I think I’ll walk, Meredith.
Looks like Temple will, too.

Based on Steve Sipe’s analysis, Mike MacIntyre should be next TU coach. (Couldn’t fit the recruiting areas part in there, but it is weighted on the left.)

Tomorrow: The Harold Stassen of Temple head coaching candidates