Category Archives: Temple football

10.19.16
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Guest Post By Fizzy

 

The following are Fizzy’s comments on the UCF comeback …the opinions are all Fizzy’s.. thanks, Fizzy:

                                                                    By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Watching Temple coaches call the offense, is like going to the dentist for a root-canal.  You know it’s going to hurt, and it does.

But there’s good news.  We finally won a woulda, coulda, shoulda.  We won it, however, despite the game plan.  The players won it themselves because the shackles were finally off.  They had to throw the ball as there were only thirty seconds left.  Phillip got in rhythm and the guys all caught the ball.  It was truly amazing, and the best Temple comeback, probably, of all time.  

[It’s just a shame that former Temple standout football players, Dick Gable and Joe Morelli, left the stadium before the last drive.]

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Before the game our coaches said we had to run the ball to keep the opposition off the field.  So we did, over and over and over.  Even in the next-to-last last possession trailing by five points.     

Usually, the offense goes like this… They line up over the ball, and wait for the play from the sidelines.  On many occasions, the call is slow to get in and last Saturday night, there were many times we got the play off just before the clock ran out. Once, they had to call an unnecessary time-out to get the next play.  Guess what?  It was the proverbial run up the middle.

Let me point out how this handicaps the team, and how it did last Saturday night.  There were a number of third and short, and fourth and short situations.  When you’re down to last few seconds, there’s no time for the quarterback to audible.  On all those plays, Central Florida had eight men up in the box.  When Phillip came up over the ball, even if he was allowed, there was no time to change the play.  So no imagination, up-the-middle they went.  Stufferroonni!

I have to admit I’m a liar.  I told some ex-teammates I wouldn’t write again.  I would just go to the game, see the old (I do mean old) guys, and tell stories.  It just hurt so much after the root-canal…

Tomorrow: Game Preview

10.16.16
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Greatest. Win. Ever.

When I was just a kid, I got on a trolley, an EL and a bus to go to a Temple night game only because I begged my late Sainted father, a Villanova grad, and told him I would be OK.

(Previously, I had watched Temple only on television and fell in love with the football Owls.)

That night, Temple beat a ranked West Virginia, 39-36, before 14,000 in a 20,000-seat stadium thanks to two long punt returns by Paul Loughran.

On the way to the K bus, I heard the chant “We Want Nebraska!” (Nebraska, on that night was the No. 1 team in the country.)

That was the night I became a Temple fan for life, so much so that I turned down a full academic ride to be one of the first 24 males in a school of 1,300 females at Cabrini College so I could work my way through Temple.

That’s how much I loved Temple University in general and Temple football in particular. My male friends who know how much I also loved females told me that’s how crazy I was, but Cabrini also did not offer Journalism so I could rationalize my position that way.

For many years, I thought that was the greatest victory in Temple football history until last year when I saw the look of utter dejection on the faces of Penn State fans and joy on the Temple side and thought that was better.

Nothing, though, like last night when Temple football, in my mind, scored the greatest win in its history, 26-25, at Central Florida. First, in my 40-plus years of crazy Temple fandom, I do not remember winning a game on the final pass or a game by scoring a touchdown in the last second.

I have a pretty good memory and I do not think that is wrong.

Second, I do not remember one of my favorite Temple quarterbacks of all time going 4-for-4 on his final drive and eschewing a spike for a game-winning touchdown pass. My favorite Temple quarterbacks are, in order, Brian Broomell, Steve Joachim, Adam DiMichele, Doug Shobert and P.J. Walker.

I’m not saying they are the best, but they are certainly my favorites and one of my favs has been unduly criticized lately and I was so happy to see him shove it in his critics’ faces.

Walker was forced to throw from the pocket almost exclusively last night, despite us PLEADING with the coaches to roll him out for the last six weeks. Despite that, Walker found a way to get things done on the final drive.

To me, that’s not the only reason why this was the greatest win ever but because the program was at a crossroads before this game. Win, and the Owls still saw a path to the AAC championship; lose, and the Owls were staring at a 6-6 “type” season.

Look at it this way. Temple beat a team, UCF, that won at ECU, 47-29. ECU beat NC State, 33-30. NC State beat Notre Dame, 10-3. UCF took a Maryland team into overtime that beat Purdue, 50-7. It could not take Temple into overtime. Temple overcame a 25-7  lead and won on a literal last-second pass.

Not, mind you, a Hail Mary, but a last-second pass. For Temple, that’s as close as it has ever gotten and a the first repayment for all of the Hail Mary’s completed against the Owls.

Greatest Win Ever?

If the Owls turn this into an AAC title, it will be. For now, the measurables (25-7 deficit, last-second pass)  make it something that has never happened before and that has to be good enough.

Tuesday: The Path Forward

10.15.16
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Third Time A Charm?

Scott Frost has taken an 0-12 team with none of his players and succeeded. 

Just one night this season, it would be a perfectly welcome change to win without having to make excuses.

The Owls have played on two prior nights and there has been no wins to show for it, but plenty of excuses. Somehow the kids got blamed for the Army loss, even though the defensive scheme to stop the triple option was horrific because there was none. The Owls played good defense for the first half at Memphis and good offense for the second half but forgot to put a complete game together.

Greatness might not quit, but it certainly has brain farts in one loss and incomplete halves in the other under the bright lights.

Now the Owls play a third night game tonight (7:30 kickoff) at UCF and maybe the third night is a charm. Temple started as a night school and played plenty of night games in its football history, dating back to the 1940s, so the tradition of playing well at night should be there. At one time in the late 1960s and early 1970s, almost all of the home games were at night and were televised live in Philadelphia (Al Meltzer play-by-play, Charlie Swift color).

Night has spooked this version of the Owls and there is no better time to turn that around than tonight because the Owls find themselves in the revolting position of going 10-4 in one season and being a 3.5-point underdog to a team that finished 0-12 the same year.  UCF was impressive with a 47-29 win at East Carolina and a 30-24 loss to Maryland. Temple lost to an Army team that gave Buffalo its only win in a 1-4 season. Any way you cut it, that’s pretty bad.

What has been the difference?

Connecticut v Temple

Owls can pretty much forget about doing this again without a win tonight.

Certainly, UCF players are pretty much the same guys who went 0-12 a year ago and Temple, despite four big losses to the NFL, has MOST of its players back, too. Four key players leaving for the pros should not bring this kind of swing in the fortunes of the two programs, but it has because former Oregon offensive coordinator (and Nebraska quarterback) Scott Frost has been a coaching upgrade and, quite frankly, the Temple coaches have not done a very good job this year.

They have a better-than-average rollout quarterback in P.J. Walker who they insist on jamming into the square peg of being a Tom Brady type. He fits more nicely into the Russell Wilson hole. When will the Temple coaches ever learn? It better be tonight or the excuses might be the sacks Walker took dropping back or the tipped ball by a charging 6-foot-5 lineman that turned into a game-changing interception. Rolling out P.J. gives him better sightlines and a better chance at success.

Give the kid a chance.

Please.

On defense, the Owls have had problems with the occasional run being bust for long touchdowns against them despite having two proven defensive run-stoppers, Nick Sharga and Brian Carter, playing basically non-essential roles on offense. Will we see either or both players where there is a greater need for their skill set?  It would be nice to see that type of personnel fix at least tried, but do not hold your breath.

Greatness might not quit, but it also should not be too stubborn to resist adjustments that need to be made.

Maybe tonight, but opportunities for hope are running out.

Picks this weekend:

TOLEDO giving the 31 over visiting Bowling Green (BGSU lost, 77-3, to Memphis; Toledo beat Maine, 45-3, and Maine took UConn into OT)

UMASS getting 14.5 over visiting Louisiana Tech (UMass lost to Florida by only 24-7 and Mississippi State, 42-35, two teams better than LT)

PITT giving the three at Virginia (which lost to Richmond, 37-20)

WESTERN KENTUCKY getting the 2.5 at MTSU

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

10.11.16
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5 Reasons To Roll P.J. Out

Click on this great photo of P.J. Walker for details.

When I first saw P.J. Walker play quarterback for Temple University, I had two overriding thoughts.

One,  he reminded me of a fellow AAC quarterback at the time, Teddy Bridgewater, and, two, I thought there was a good chance he would be gone by his senior season.

That’s how good I thought he was and that’s how good I thought he was going to become. He took over as a starter a few games into his true freshman year and compiled 20 touchdown passes against only eight interceptions. If the numbers kept going up, I imagined he’d have 25 touchdowns as a sophomore and 30 as a junior and 30 touchdown passes is a ticket to getting drafted.

A couple of things happened on the way to him not declaring for the NFL draft a year early. One, he was the victim of a horrific coaching scheme as a sophomore that gave him no pocket protection from a tailback or fullback and plenty of empty backfields. It was not his fault that he regressed to 13 touchdowns against 15 interceptions. (And I told him that after the next Cherry and White game.) He bounced back nicely as a junior with 19 touchdowns against eight interceptions, but that was in 14 games. He had better stats in nine games his freshman year and he started only seven games that season.

That was P.J. Walker and I want the old P.J. Walker back. As Phillip Walker, he has only eight touchdown passes against nine interceptions. To get the old P.J. back, the Temple coaches are going to have to roll him out—if not all of the time, at least 80 percent of the time.

It should be a no-brainer and should have been done about six games ago.

friendwalker

Here are five reasons why you do that:

He Sees The Field Better

At 5-foot-11, when he drops back, guys who are 6-foot-5 are running  and jumping at him. It’s only logical that he sees the field better when he leaves the pocket and rolls out to his right. It also opens up the other side of the field for wheel routes and throwback passes to the tight ends (hint: Central Bucks School district products Colin Thompson and Jake O’Donnell).

The Threat of Running

By rolling out, P.J. brings up the linebackers and the safeties to cover the threat of him running.  The linebackers and safeties have to make a quick decision. Quick decisions lead to bad decisions.

If Temple rolls the pocket and throws off play action, it will win. If it keeps asking P.J. to throw into tight windows, it will lose. Simple as that.

If Temple rolls the pocket and throws off play action, it will win. If it keeps asking P.J. to throw into tight windows in the pocket over taller linemen, it will lose. Simple as that.

Coverage Mismatches

Those linebackers and safeties have pass coverage responsibilities and, by coming up on run support, they leave the Temple receivers they are assigned to cover. P.J. can then see the field and toss the intermediate pass to Temple tight ends or wide receivers who now are running free through the secondary.

Spacing

By rolling out, P.J. is no longer the sitting duck he is when protection breaks down on a more conventional dropback pass. He now has the option to run in open space and pick up a first down should the linebackers and safeties stay back. That leaves the No. 1 reason why P.J. should roll out.

Red Zone Offense

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Nothing drives defenses more insane than the threat of a running quarterback near the goal line. They are damned if they come up in run support because the option of throwing to the back of the end zone is always there. They are damned if they do not come up on run support because P.J. has the speed to get to the pylon.

Temple becomes a much better team if the Owls stop trying to jam Phillip Walker into a square Tom Brady peg when P.J. Walker fits more nicely into a Russell Wilson hole.  The sooner the Owl coaches realize that, the better their chances of getting out of the quicksand of mediocrity where Phillip and his teammates are mired now.

Thursday: Meet Your New Kicker

10.09.16
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Mediocrity Is Not My Cup Of Tea

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Coach Hardin during game at Temple Stadium.

The last time I saw Wayne Hardin in his official duty as Temple University head football coach we were both in a side interview room of the Andy Kerr Stadium in Hamilton, New York.

There was me, coach, and two other reporters, and it was there that he dropped his bombshell announcement that he was retiring from coaching at the all-too-young age of 55.

That came after a season-ending 24-17 loss to host Colgate, which gave the Owls a 4-6 record. It was only the third losing season for Hardin in his 13 years as head coach at Temple (he never had one in his five years at Navy), but this one stung a little bit more.

I was stunned, but it was a stunning afternoon.

“Why?” I said.

“Mediocrity is not my cup of tea,” he said.

I remembered that exchange late Thursday night after Temple’s 34-27 loss at Memphis because a 3-3 record is the definition of mediocrity.

I mentioned this quote to coach Hardin, who is now 90, two weeks ago when I caught up to him for a 45-minute talk prior to the SMU game. Since that Colgate day in 1982, I’ve spoken to him about 20 times, but the resignation day never came up.

Now, prior to SMU, it did.

 

There were some extenuating circumstances that day that made this loss more painful than some of the others. One, Colgate was then, as now, a 1-aa (FCS) team and Temple was then, as now, a FBS team. Two, and more importantly, Temple quarterback Tim Riordan completed a 31-yard pass in the corner of the end zone on the game’s last play. The Temple receiver—whose name escapes me—clearly caught the ball with both feet (you only need one) inbounds, but the home cooking got to the ref, who ruled it out. There was no replay in those days; otherwise Wayne might have been in a better post-game mood.

colgate

“The Monday after that game,” coach said two weeks ago, “the Colgate coach called me and asked if I was OK. He said, ‘You are not retiring because you lost to us?’ I said, no, I just thought it was time.”

Even though his sense of time came much earlier than other coaches who retire at ages considerably older than 55 years old. The conversation touched on a lot of topics but he told me not to quote him only on one subject and that was the proposed new stadium at Temple. He had an interesting take on it, and maybe someday he will be comfortable making it public.

Former Temple quarterback Joe Morelli accompanies coach Hardin to the games, even though Joe never played for him.

“Joe takes good care of me,” coach said.

I mentioned to Joe and coach how great it was that Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick, who never answers questions with more than one or two words, went into this long detailed answer about how Hardin’s coaching influenced his.

Hardin was thrilled many of his old Temple players get together before and after every game. “The fact that they have remained close all of these years is great,” he said. I then walked him over to where they were and he got to shake hands with many of them.

“God bless him,” former great Mark Bresani said. “In 30 years, if I’m still around, I will be here, too.”

That, and the fact that Temple won, 45-20, made it a very good day.

playcalling

About as bad a series of play calls as you will ever see at TU

Ironically, while mediocrity was not Hardin’s cup of tea, it is the brand Temple is drinking now with a 3-3 record. Watching the Memphis game, I could not help but think that Hardin would have called a much better series after recovering a fumble on a kickoff at the 5. He would have probably pitched to Jahad Thomas because he always wanted to put the ball in the hands of his best player. If that did not work, he probably would have rolled P.J. Walker out a couple of times to give him a run/pass option on the goal line and create space for Temple receivers in the end zone.

There was a reason Temple had only three losing seasons in those 13 years and that reason was Wayne Hardin. Hopefully, he will keep coming to Temple games for as long as he is physically able to do so.

Related:

Hall of Fame story

Bill Belichick on coach Hardin

Lou Holtz on coach Hardin

Tuesday: 5 Reasons Why You Roll Phillip Out

10.07.16
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How Do You Lose? Let’s Count The Ways

Ample evidence in this film to make P.J. a full-time rollout passer as we’ve been saying all year.

Up 13-0, you’ve got to win the game.

So, how do you not?

Let’s count the ways.

The first and most important is that you cannot come up with empty possessions. An empty possession is one without a field goal or a touchdown and, after 13-squat, the Owls came up with seven empty possessions.

Watching on TV, it only seemed like 70.

Phillip Walker had a career night with over 400 yards worth of passing, but most of those 400 yards were needed with a 13-0 lead and the Owls were way too comfortable walking off the field as it went to 13-3 and 13-6.

yet

For the Wildcat to work, got to throw off it from time to time.

There has got to be a greater sense of urgency at 13-0 than there was Thursday night.

The body language was “la-dee-da, we’ll get them next time” but, in big-time college football, there is no next time.

The sad truth is that there will be no AAC championship for the Owls this season and it was left on a football field in Memphis when the score was 13-0. They had a chance to put the hammer down and make it 20-0 and 27-0, but refused to see how important that was.

You can talk all you want about a kickoff return for a touchdown or two long touchdown runs before that, and even the two missed field goals from a guy who had hit 17 in a row (I know, the announcers should have never mentioned that), but this game, this night, was lost when it was 13-0.

The Temple coaches were far too comfortable is “managing” the game at 13-0 rather than putting it away when the pedal needed to be put to the medal. Nick Sharga and Brian Carter, two standouts in their limited time on defense stopping the run up the middle, were nowhere to be found and the Owls were gouged up the middle late without them. Does this coaching staff even know they are on the team? From the 120 yards in penalties at Penn State to the horrific defensive game plan against Army’s triple option, to the lack of killer instinct at Memphis, one thing is clear about this 2016 version of the Temple Owls.

This is a poorly-coached football team. How does Memphis hire a 34-year-old guy with no head coaching experience who goes 4-1 when the same guy Temple hired in his first year went 2-10? You thought Memphis would have the coaching growing pains, not Temple. Turned out the opposite was the case.  The Wildcat Offense is an absolute joke when you have someone running it who has not demonstrated he can complete a pass out of it. What do you think the scouting report for Temple is when Isaiah Wright comes into the game? That he’s going to throw the ball? They just load up on the run.

Late in this one, I thought the law of averages would catch up to Temple and the Owls would be the ones benefitting from a Hail Mary pass instead of the ones suffering from it (Fordham, Buffalo, UCF). Instead, this game was lost long before then when the game was sitting on what turned out to be unlucky 13.

Now the only thing left is to figure out what crummy bowl game the Owls will be sent to, if indeed they are that lucky.

hondo

Even before the game, not a whole lot of belief in Temple anymore (Sad).

Sunday: Catching Up With Greatness

10.05.16
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The Whole World Is Watching

world

Memphis’ Jake Elliott is the best kicker on college football.

There will be a couple of things on the television in every sports bar in America on Thursday night.

One will be an NFL game involving Cardinals and 49er; the other will be Temple football. Since the NFL game will not be on until 8:25, Temple football will be the only thing on TV in every sports bar in America between for an hour and a half. In that time, the Owls have a chance to make their game compelling television.

When it comes to Temple University and national branding, Thursday’s game at Memphis (7 p.m., ESPN) will be a chance to show the product to a wider audience than it has been since the Notre Dame game on Halloween Night last year.

memphisweather

Memphis weather.

In essence, the whole world will be watching and this will be a bigger audience than the last two Penn State games and a chance for Temple to walk away a winner, and not the gallant loser it was seen to be against the Fighting Irish a  year ago this month.

So this is a very unique chance for the kids and the coaches to show what they are made of tomorrow night. Will the nation see the sloppy Owl team that committed 120 yards in penalties at Penn State or will they see the crisp Owl team that raced out to a 34-12 lead at Cincinnati a year ago? Will the nation see a defense that was aligned improperly against Army in the opener or one filling the gaps and making life miserable for Memphis quarterback Ryan Ferguson?

Largely, that’s up to both the Temple kids and the coaches. Let’s put it this way: Probably more people will be watching Temple football tomorrow than watched the Vice-Presidential debate on Tuesday night  or at least they should because football is more entertaining than politics.

The Owls have not played their best game yet, but Thursday night will be a good time to start. They seem to be vulnerable to runs up the middle on defense, but that can be shored up by shifting backup offensive guard Brian Carter (6-1, 303) to his old familiar spot, which was as a starting defensive tackle before he was forced to move over to the other side of the ball. Fullback Nick Sharga, a tremendous run-stopper, would also probably be better-suited to play linebacker from here on out because, frankly, he’s more needed there.

Hopefully, the coaches are using their heads for more than a hat rack.

There is not a whole lot of belief in the Owls among the general public because the line jumped from Memphis favored by 6.5 to Memphis favored by 10.5. Maybe the line is telling the nation something.

Or maybe the Owls should take things into their own hands and tell the line something that cannot be printed. A statement for Temple football on a night the whole world is watching is the perfect prescription to get national respect again.

Friday: Game Analysis

10.04.16
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Guest Post From Fizzy

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The following is a guest post from Fizzy, who played for George Makris in the `1960s. 

Adventures in Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda land

 

RUN PHILLIP RUN

Operating a college spread offense without having your quarterback run the football, is like taking a shower with your golashes on.  

Why doesn’t Matt Rhule allow his quarterback to run the football?  Doesn’t he see how much it limits his play calling by eliminating the threat of forcing linebackers to hold their pursuit until they see who has the ball?  In all the last five winnable games that were lost, if Walker had been a force on the ground, the outcomes may have been different.

running

This year, Phillip Walker has been a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  He’s thrown some fantastic passes for long touchdowns.  On the other hand, he has thrown too many interceptions, and made un-senior like decisions.  The one thing missing, and it’s been missing from his sophomore year on, is he rarely runs the football.  Walker is very good at running the football, and it adds so much to the offense.

After the second straight week of watching Temple blow out an opponent, you would think I’d be happy. But keep in mind these were both soft teams.  The offense didn’t do well against Army and Penn State, and playing at Memphis Thursday night will certainly be more of a test.        

This past week, Coach Rhule employed the “Wildcat” against SMU with freshman Isaiah Wright playing tailback, and it was mostly successful with jet sweeps and tailback keepers.  However, the Wildcat is a gimmick.  If you take out your quarterback and put in a runner, who are you going to fool?  It hasn’t worked well in the NFL, nor in college for that exact reason.  The quarterback is the one who should be doing the keepers, roll-outs and bootlegs; that’s what will surprise the defense and energize the offense.

I’ve been advised that Walker has an ongoing shoulder problem on his non-throwing shoulder, which continues to plague him.  That puts Rhule in the tenuous position of being damned if he does, and also if he doesn’t. As a former coach, I’ve been in that situation too.  But Walker’s been playing and there’s always the possibility he will take a shot on the tender shoulder, anyway.  So my suggestion is to allow Walker to run bootlegs, keepers and roll-outs, to the outside only.  That way, he can go out of bounds or slide to protect himself.  It won’t protect him all the time, but neither does staying in the pocket to throw the ball.  

In the past two weeks, I’ve watched Houston’s quarterback Ward, and Louisville’s quarterback Jackson, bring their offenses to life with scintillating runs.  We can do the same.  

I’m just sayin…

 

Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

10.01.16
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Long Day, Short Week

Love the acceleration of Ryquell Armstead on that last score.

If a team could feel a tinge of sadness coming off a 45-20 win, there is no blaming the Temple Owls after that score was completed at the end of a long day on Saturday afternoon.

Just before the game, it was learned that star safety and kick returner Sean Chandler could be lost for the season with a knee injury sustained in practice and that backup defensive linemen Julian Taylor and Sharif Finch are definitely done for the season.

Fortunately, Matt Rhule called this version of the Owls the “deepest and most talented team I’ve ever coached”  (even after the Army debacle) and we will learn shortly if that is true because Saturday’s long day will be followed by a short week.

natel

Nate L. Smith

There are signs, though, that Rhule could be onto something here because Chandler was replaced by a player we feel has been underappreciated in his four years at Temple, safety Nate L. Smith. All Smith did was pick up an interception and add seven tackles. If Smith is indeed The Guy in the middle of the field, nothing he did on Saturday indicates there will be a significant drop off in play.

Smith is one of those guys who all he does is make plays and that has held true for the few times he has gotten into games over the last four years.

The same could be said of Finch, with his five blocked kicks and his spectacular near-pick 6 of Christian Hackenberg last year. Still, for all of the Finch plays, he was a backup to both Praise Martin-0quike and Haason Reddick at defensive end this year.

So the bad news might not be so bad and the good news is that the Owls’ offense is now showing signs of being the dominant unit. Phillip Walker is going to have to stop throwing interceptions, because SMU’s pick 6 was the only thing keeping this from being a 45-13 final.

There is much talk on social media about the poor crowd, but we told you here in writing what was going to happen in this post entitled “Unintended Consequences” after the Army loss. It was plain to see then and there is no surprise it is happening now. There is going to be no crowd redemption this season and that is the fault of the coaches who had eight months to prepare for that triple option. The Owls had a legitimate crowd of 34,005 on opening night and pretty much said goodbye to that kind of crowd with that loss. When Buffalo gets the job done that Temple should have, it gives those casual/fringe/lazy/softcore fans pause. We hardcores, the 20,000, will always be here. To use a double Biblical analogy, it’s the Prodigal Son fans who are the Doubting Thomases (not Glenn or Jahad).  They need to be wooed by early wins. That’s the way it’s always been at Temple and that’s the way it always will be.

For now, though, the emphasis will be on getting the most out of this season and, despite the injuries, there is some promise for better times ahead. Memphis, the Thursday night opponent, will be a sterner test than SMU, so we should know more in five nights.

Monday: The Best Images From Saturday

09.28.16
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Double Death Penalty

seanstopperich

Sean Stopperich, who helped bring down the SMU program, ended up at Temple with BA.

Both SMU and Temple have something in common in that both school’s received the Death Penalty for their football program.

SMU had the formal one, the first “modern” death penalty—the NCAA’s power to suspend a program for a year—while Temple had a self-imposed one based on years of neglect.

You decide which was worse, but sitting through an 0-11 season and a 20-game losing streak which I did as a Temple fan in the Bobby Wallace Era was pretty bad.

stopperich

Temple never paid players $1,000 a month and with free cars—like SMU boosters did in the 1980s—but some of the 1980 Temple teams probably could have given the pay-for-play guys a pretty good game. The late Sean Stopperich, whose family was relocated from Pennsylvania, reneged on a scholarship with Pitt and signed with SMU and his story was featured on ESPN’s 30 for 30 expose on the SMU Death Penalty.

Ironically, Stopperich ended up at Temple, where he played a few games before a shoulder injury ended his career. He was part owner of a gym in the Pittsburgh area when he died in 1995.

In those days, under Bruce Arians, the Owls went 6-5 twice and both winning records were posted against the then-No. 10 schedule in the country. Arians’ 6-5 seasons were in 1984 and 1986.

To show you how much times have changed at Temple, the current Owls are playing against the 126th-ranked schedule in FBS football. That’s pretty hard to do when you are in highest-rated G5 league, the AAC, but thanks to Charlotte and Stony Brook, the Owls are doing it this year.

SMU’s highly-paid players lost their entire 1987 season due to sanctions and could play no home games in the 1988 season. The Mustangs went 52-19-1 from 1980 through 1986.

The 1984 SMU team went 10-2 with no common opponents with Temple. The 1986 SMU team went 6-5, like Temple, and beat Boston College, 31-29. That year, the Owls lost to BC, 38-29.

When SMU and Temple played in the 1940s, neither was a national power as the 2-4-1 Owls tied the 4-5-1 Mustangs in 1946 and 3-6-2 SMU and 2-5-3 Temple tied, 6-6, in 1942.

Decades later, both programs lost their way because one put too much illegal money into the program and the other did not put enough legal money into the program.

Now, both are trying to come back from the dead and the Owls have had more recent success than the Mustangs. It was a long, hard, climb, but both appear headed upward.

Friday: Game Preview