Category Archives: Temple football signing day

02.04.22
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Temple Football: It just feels different

The number one takeaway from Wednesday around the world will be that Temple signed about a dozen fewer football players than anyone else in the American Athletic Conference, most of them with fewer stars than the top dozen or so signees from the other teams.

That’s important but no less important is the vibe very successful ex-Owls who have been to the Edberg Olson facility since Stan Drayton took over have experienced.

Almost to a man everyone else has said: “It just feels different.”

Different, meaning good.

Stan Drayton’s hastily put together first class might not be rated high but has a couple of starters

Personality matters and the Owls went from a dead fish personality (Rod Carey) to a dynamo (Stan Drayton).

Many of us (raising my hand here) believe both Al Golden and Fran Brown (Temple guys) would have the same dynamic personality of (Texas guy) Stan Drayton but, now, with the decision already made, I will take my dynamos wherever I can get them. More and more, Drayton is becoming a Temple guy and that’s not an easy thing to do.

Anyone who treats Paul Palmer, Dave Gerson and Nadia Harvin with this much respect is OK in my book.

If you really believe only one person can return Temple to the kind of glory it had only in 2018 and 2019, then you are a special kind of naive. It wasn’t that long ago and there’s nowhere near the work now that needs to be done that, say, Golden did in 2005.

I’ve always felt that there are dozens of guys who could perform CPR on Temple now and my fellow ex-Owls who have visited the E-O have given Drayton their stamp of approval.

Since I haven’t been in the building (but most likely will on Cherry and White Day), I have to take their word for it.

Now the bigger question becomes does signing a dozen or so supbar (compared to the rest of the league) players put Temple in a position to win immediately?

That answer appears to be no.

In the AAC, the Jimmies and Joes will always beat the X’s and O’s.

There are two starters in this class, one I can identify (running back Darvon Hubbard) and that will come out of nowhere, maybe in the linebacker group. After 1-6 and 3-9, that’s not enough but it’s a starting point.

Drayton gets major points in my mind for acknowledging the need to sign a “scholarship quarterback” sometime after spring if “no one here has demonstrated the ability to handle the job.”

My advice is meaningless but I think Drayton should not wait until spring. Incumbent Dwan Mathis hasn’t proven to be good enough and newcomer Elijah Warner probably is a year away. Mathis needs competition at least as good and probably better if the Owls want to double their 2021 win total and that should be the minimum goal. Waiting until after spring means one of those three guys will already have committed elsewhere. Temple can’t afford to gamble.

If the Owls want more adversity, they should probably settle with Mathis and Warner leading the quarterback room.

Drayton said he wants adversity but if adversity means 3-9 again, that’s probably the kind of adversity he doesn’t want nor the kind of adversity fans are expecting.

There are at least three quarterbacks right now still in the portal who are better than anyone Temple has now and Drayton should probably pull the trigger before one of them gets away. Waiting until spring is definitely not needed if Drayton has, as he noted, watched the film. Stan, please rewind to the 3d and 17 play in the Cincy game and watch was Mathis did. After seeing that, please tell me he doesn’t need competition.

No matter how different things feel now, another 3-9 would be the kind of flashback no Temple fan or coach ever wants to experience again and raise questions about the future that would counter any current optimism.

Monday: American Underdog

02.17.14
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With a Caveat, I’ll pick up the tab on the new stadium

Hopefully, the new Temple Stadium doesn't have a track around it like this one does. I want the fans right on top of the action.

Hopefully, the new Temple Stadium doesn’t have a track around it like this one does. I want the fans right on top of the action.

We’ve heard this all before about this time two years ago.

“It’s a done deal.”

Back then, the Temple football recruits and their parents (fathers, mostly) were saying that Temple to the Big East was a done deal. Almost one month to the day after signing day 2012, Temple inked a pact to join the Big East for all sports.

The original Temple Stadium at Pickering and Cheltenham Aves.

The original Temple Stadium at Pickering and Cheltenham Aves.

That lasted one year for football, while the basketball team never got to play in the Big East.

Now many of the new recruits and their parents (again, fathers mostly) are saying (privately) that they have been told a new stadium is a done deal. I will give Matt Rhule a little more credit than Steve Addazio here. He’s keeping a lid on Social Media and none of the recruits are saying publicly that they’ve been told a new stadium is a done deal. We’ve heard, though, that is what they’ve been told.

Temple will have a new football stadium and it will be sooner as well as later.

I don’t know if it’s true but, if I were a betting man, I’d bet there’s at least a 60 percent chance the stadium gets done before the Lincoln Financial Field contract expires before the start of the 2018 season.

Eagles’ owner Jeff Lurie wants the Owls out and he basically wants to use a $521 million stadium for 10 games a season in addition to a concert or a soccer game or two. Since $60 million of that was state money, that doesn’t seem fair to Temple but that’s a story for another day.

The Geasey and old track field complex, rumored site for Temple Stadium

The Geasey and old track field complex, rumored site for Temple Stadium

I like playing at Lincoln Financial Field. I think there are significant advantages of playing at a $521 million palace located a 10-minute train ride from the main campus, with dedicated stops at each end. In fact, the university might consider all the alternatives and come to the conclusion that the ransom Lurie is demanding is more cost-effective than sinking $300 million into an on-campus facility likely to be delayed by legal challenges.


I like playing at Lincoln Financial Field.
I think there are significant advantages
to playing at a $521 million palace located
a 10-minute train ride from the main campus,
with dedicated stops at each end. In fact,
the university might consider the alternatives
and come to the conclusion that the ransom
Lurie is demanding is more cost-effective
than sinking $300 million into an on-campus
facility likely to be delayed by legal challenges

All that said, a new on-campus stadium could better simply because the regional rail which has a stop by the Edberg-Olson Practice Facility does not go to South Philadelphia. Any time you can open up more public transportation options to get to a Temple football game you increase the likelihood of a bigger crowd. The rumors are that the stadium will go on the present site of Geasey Field also using the former adjacent track “stadium” at 15th and Montgomery. When I went to Temple, Geasey’s claim to fame was that it was the “largest astroturf field in the World.” Temple had a stadium once–located eight miles away from the campus in Mt. Airy–and I always wondered why it was so far away. I asked one of our distinguished alums about that recently and he said the plan was to move the whole campus up there to Wyncote/Oreland/Erdenheim, lock stock and barrel, but they could not grab  sufficient land for the deal and those plans were scraped. Unfortunately, they had the stadium built before finding that out.

Not all that worried about tailgating since the games are on Saturdays when you can close off some student lots used for weekday classes just for those purposes.

New Tulane Stadium will open this fall.

New Tulane Stadium will open this fall.

I am worried about where the funding for this will come from. I don’t think the state or city or feds will contribute one dime, so it will have to come from Temple fans. Knowing Temple fans like I do, it won’t take them long to raise the money.

Unless you consider 346 years long.

I’ll tell you what: I’ll pick up the tab. Powerball on Wednesday night is $400 million. If I win, I’ll keep a measly $100 million and donate the balance to the stadium.  If 21-22-28-39-58 (06) pop up and nobody else uses those numbers, I will send Temple University a check the day after the presentation ceremony in Harrisburg. The university can consider this post a promissory note. All I want is for them to name it Temple Stadium in perpetuity, without any future sale of naming rights.

Done deal.

02.04.14
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The company you keep

Rivals.com's list of Temple commits (above and below)

Rivals.com’s list of Temple commits (above and below)

thrif

You are pretty much judged by the company you keep.

So it is with the Temple recruiting class of 2014.

By all accounts, it will be a good class. Will it be ranked  by any of the three services (Rivals, Scout or 247) as high as No. 55?

Probably not, but we won’t know for sure until 3 or 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon when all of the faxes with the LOIs will be received at the E-O.

signingdaysnip

Click over the black image above for a TV link to coverage of the faxes coming in starting at 7 a.m.

Fifty-five is a magical number, because that’s how high Steve Addazio’s 2012 recruiting class was ranked and that was the highest-ever in the history of Temple. Addazio was able to put that class together even after a few great  recruiting classes by Al Golden, who had three straight recruiting classes ranked No. 1 in the MAC.

Of course, current head coach Matt Rhule was part of putting together those classes and now he appears to have put together a good one.

More than whether the class is ranked No. 55 or better is really not as important as how many guys Temple signed who were “offered by” BCS schools and not “received interest by.” When the bios start coming in, that’s a thing to pay special attention to before judging.

If Temple beats out a guy who was offered by say, Stony Brook and Kent State, that’s not as impressive as  Penn State and Rutgers.

If Temple gets a late commit who turned down a Sun Belt school to take a Temple scholarship, that’s not as impressive as Temple beating out a Big 12 school (as it did when a West Virginia commit flipped at the last minute two years ago).

There will be those who say “trust the coaches” but I say “trust, by verify.” If more successful coaches than 2-10 coaches like our recruits, I will be impressed.

Let’s hope that’s the case once the faxes start rolling in and Temple gets guys who can play anywhere. We should know by this time Wednesday night.

02.06.13
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Hard to pick an MVP from this class … now

Right now, P.J. Walker looks like your 2014 starting quarterback.

Not many people know this, but there was once a quarterback who won a Maxwell Award at Temple.
Now, after a nearly 40-year wait, there is a second.
“Hard to believe, Harry.”
That might be the way current Temple radio color guy Steve Joachim would tell the story to play-by-play guy Harry Donahue.


Follow real time updates all day
Temple head coach Matt Rhule will be tweeting the announcement of each signee during the morning as their letters arrive.
To be part of the action, follow him on twitter @CoachMattRhule.
Rhule will discuss the 2013 recruiting class in a 3 p.m. media conference, which is not open to the public. TFF has not received an invite, so we’ll be watching the press conference LIVE on Owlsports.com before heading out to the TU basketball game.

Joachim was the Maxwell Award winner for the 1974 college football season, emblematic of the nation’s best college football player.
Signing on the dotted line heading a solid class today is the second Maxwell Award-winner in Temple history, an incoming freshman quarterback by the name of P.J. Walker.
Walker’s Maxwell came for being the New Jersey Player of the Year for unbeaten Elizabeth.
Walker doesn’t remind me as much of Joachim as he does former Temple quarterback Henry Burris. Watching the film at the top of this post I had a similar reaction when former Temple coach Ron Dickerson showed me film of Spiro (Okla.) High School quarterback Burris.
My gosh, I thought. Same throwing style, same motion, as Henry Burris.
Same deadly accuracy. Walker is a little better runner than Henry was, but Henry has three Canadian Football Most Valuable Player awards on his mantlepiece.
We’ll see how P.J. develops. He better get there fast since he’s the only QB on the 2014 depth chart.
Walker could be the MVP of this class, but so could Jim Cooper, Jr., the first All-American kicker ever signed by Temple. His dad, also Jim Cooper, once kicked a 38-yard field goal to help Temple beat West Virginia. Son, also from Mainland, N.J., holds the New Jersey record for career field goals.

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Speaking about beating West Virginia, another MVP from this class could be running back Zaire Williams, from Timber Creek, N.J. The 5-foot-11, 200-pounder with 4.49 40 speed gave a glimpse of his big-time ability while playing for Cherokee two years ago. He finished with 42 carries and 386 yards (and six touchdowns) in a game against Cherry Hill East. Maybe he’ll break Montel Harris’ single-game Owl record (351, seven touchdowns).
Williams could be the MVP of this class.
So could two-time state heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson, who once had six sacks in one game for Susquehanna Township while playing every position along the defensive line.

Shane Rafter (76) casts a rather large shadow.

Robinson comes from good bloodlines. His brother is a former Owl, Adrian Robinson, now with the Steelers.
I once told Adrian’s dad, also Adrian, that the Owls were playing that Robinson out of position, that  he should have been an outside linebacker but that they needed him as a “rush” end to get pressure on the quarterback. Both Adrians understood. Still, Arob was a natural OLB.
This Robinson won’t be playing out of position. He’s a natural nose tackle in a 3-4 AND a natural DT in a 4-3.
Since he is a state wrestling champion, maintaining gap leverage in a 3-4 should make him especially effective there.
Buddy Brown is one of the best linebackers in the state of New Jersey, so he could be MVP of this class or mabye it could be his Williamstown teammate Jullian Taylor, a transfer from Abington (Pa.). Camden Catholic middle linebacker Jarred Alwan so also highly rated, so it could be him as well.
Or it could be someone else, like Harrisburg’s Brian Carter or Meadville defensive back Artrel Foster or offensive linemen like Shane  Rafter (Moorestown, N.J.) or one of the two Montour linemen, Tyler Haddock-Jones or Matt Barone.
I’ve got an idea.
Let’s wait until the Temple football banquet four years from now and decide then.
The fact that there are so many in this group in the discussion at this point only bodes well for the future of Temple football.
What’s that Steve Joachim said?
Yeah.
Hard to believe, Harry.

Complete analysis of the class, with photos, up by Thursday afternoon