Category Archives: Temple football

05.26.16
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An Open Letter to Gov. Wolf

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Dear Gov. Wolf,

Always good to hear from you, as the above letter proves, and I will have to check my calendar to see if I can make dinner.

In the time between breaking bread and now, though, I just wanted to throw out this idea for your consideration. This is one of those rare years that two of the three major Commonwealth of Pennsylvania universities, Temple and Pitt, are playing the other major Commonwealth team, Penn State, in football.

If Penn State beats Pitt on Sept. 10, as I suspect it will, please consider making the Sept. 17 game the first “Governor’s Cup” game. The winner of that game gets a nice trophy, probably donated for free by a place like Spikes in Philadelphia, and you get to present it afterward. This has worked in the past at a smaller level, where the “Mayor’s Cup” went to the winner of the Temple vs. Villanova football game. There is talk of that Cup coming but, but you can get the jump on that with a Governor’s Cup.

At least this season.

It costs the state no money and one of the two teams gets to celebrate a bowl-like experience on the field afterward in the first month of the season and you get to give the trophy. This, of course, will have to remain a secret between you and me (and the readers of this blog) pending a Penn State victory on Sept. 10. If that doesn’t happen, the trophy does not have to be awarded. Just something to chew over between now and our dinner.

See you soon, err, hopefully.

Mike Gibson

05.24.16
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The Turner Field Solution

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Georgia State will take over Turner Field  and configure it for football (below).

If you accept the premise, as I have, that this whole stadium deal will be long and dragged out, then it becomes acceptable to look at long-term stadium solutions that do not involve an on-campus facility.

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Someone two weeks ago mentioned Chester and then Dave last week mentioned Camden and those are bad options, and not entirely because they are crime-ridden towns that start with the letter C.  There really are no good public transportation options that get fans from the campus to either Chester or Camden or get those same fans back to campus after a night game.

So both of those places are out, but if the Philadelphia Phillies were to do what the Atlanta Braves did—get rid of a perfectly good modern stadium for a more perfect and modern stadium—than a Citizens Bank Park reconfigured for football would be a perfect backup plan.

Georgia State is moving into Turner is not crazy to suggest that one day Temple might move into Citizens Bank Park because the Owls have transportation options there and it does offer the relative size range (42-45K) they are looking for. Plus, if they buy CBP, they could keep the concessions and the parking and still offer their fans a great game day experience. That all depends on the Phillies moving out, though, probably not likely.

Did anyone, though, see the Braves leaving Turner Field even seven years ago? Probably not.

Turner Field, a perfectly good modern stadium that was opened in 1996, will be abandoned by the Braves next season for a new $600 million stadium in Cobb County. It opened seven years before Citizens Bank Park opened and, just maybe, seven years down the road, the Phillies could be in the market for a new stadium—and maybe one of the affluent suburban counties will give the Phillies the same kind of sweetheart deal Cobb County gave the Braves.

With all of the red tape Temple has to face with an on-campus stadium, waiting seven years to take over CBP might not be the worst option of all.

Thursday: An Open Letter to Gov. Wolf

 

05.22.16
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Paying Temple Forward

 

Letter from Bruce Arians I found two days ago.

Letter from Bruce Arians I found two days ago.

When you make two or three moves like I have, you have a tendency to throw a lot of things into a box and leave them there.

The thought occurred to me that the house I have is slightly too large I and might like to downsize, like my friend, Steve Conjar, whose birthday is today, did so the first step in this long process is to clear out some of the boxes, which necessitated saying goodbye to a lot of good things that I had been holding onto a bit too long.

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Bruce wearing best TU cap ever.

One thing where I won’t comprise is my Temple football stuff. A good doctor from South Carolina, Jim, once send me a lot of great Temple football memorabilia and I put that away in a drawer with a plan to take photos of it and put it on here eventually and leave it in cyberspace long after I am gone (which hopefully will not be soon).

A couple of days ago, though, I came across a bit of Temple football memorabilia I thought I might have tossed and it was like seeing an old friend again after all these years. It was a letter I received from Bruce Arians, who was then the Temple head coach.

Found the above photo accompanying this post in my basement. At the time, I  working on a story about Central Bucks West players going to college late in the recruiting process and asked  then head coach Mike Pettine Sr. where Dick Beck was going to school. “Either West Chester or Towson,” Mike said. My response was a loud: “WHATTTTT???” and then told Mike, “that ain’t happening.” Put Bruce on Beck and the rest was history for the sole captain of the 1990 (7-4) Owls.

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Beck was without a doubt the best pulling guard I have ever seen playing high school ball, but just a little undersized for most D-1A schools. Sent a letter to Bruce, who asked for Dick’s film, and Bruce was sold on Dick’s film and offered him a scholarship.

Bruce became a two-time (probably should have won it three times) NFL Coach of the Year and Dick Beck became a state champion head coach at North Penn after being the only captain of the 1990 (7-4) Owls, who should have gone to a bowl game.

Beck paid Temple forward with kicker Brandon McManus, and I have no doubt Brandon one day will pay Temple forward somehow, someway.

It is sometimes amazing the ancillary benefits that spring cleaning can bring.

Tuesday: The Turner Field Solution

05.20.16
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Spoiling Joe’s Party

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Go ahead, try to explain this: Sue Paterno is planning some kind of “family celebration” on Sept. 17 marking Joe Paterno’s first game as head coach.

The university is denying any kind of sponsorship of this event, but this seems clear: Temple will have a chance to spoil some kind of party because that is the day the Owls travel to Penn State. It also marks the 50th year of Paterno’s first game as head coach, coming on Sept. 17, 1966 against Maryland.

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Joe before TU game in 1950

Whatever your feelings are about Joe Paterno knowing or not knowing what Jerry Sandusky did (I vote yes, for reasons to be outlined further down this post), this is definitely a celebration that needs to be toasted with the sour taste of a Blue and White defeat. There is some good news ahead for Temple fans. As confident as I was in the Owls losing to Toledo in December, that’s how confident I am in the Owls beating Penn State again.

For these reasons:

  • Confidence coming from blowout wins over Army and Stony Brook. Plenty of Owls will get playing time and those two wins should be able to get immensely talented players like Greg Webb and Karamo Dioubate up to speed.
  • A four-year starting quarterback vs. a rookie. This is P.J. Walker’s year and he is not going to be upstaged by someone who could not beat out Christian Hackenberg. Walker clearly outplayed the New York Jets’ quarterback a year ago and goes from being a game manager to a star this season.
  • Phil Snow has the formula to beat PSU. Snow tried the three-man rushes two years ago but now knows that constant pressure is the way to keep the Nittany Lions off balance.
  • Temple will be supremely motivated. The Owls have been hearing all year that the only reason they won was because  was because Saquon Barkley had only 1 carry. PSU fans conveniently forget that carry was a 1-yard loss.
  • Penn State will be trying too hard. Revenge will be on the Staters’ minds, but the pressing that comes with it will cause fumbles and interceptions.
  • Temple has weapons all over the place. With Ryquell Armstead at running back and Jahad Thomas at slot receiver, Kip Patton and Colin Thompson at tight end and Adonis Jennings and Ventell Bryant at wide receiver, the Owls can finally use the “shell game” offense—that is, spreading the ball around to a number of guys who can make explosive plays downfield.  It might not be 27-10 again, but it could be 24-7 or even 34-10.

 

In Paterno’s first year as an assistant, 1950, his team tied Temple, 7-7. He was Rip Engle’s only assistant and, that year, learned to be a micro-manager, a trait that he carried with him through his later years. He had to know Jerry Sandusky was a bad hombre because he facilitated  Sandusky’s exit at a time when defensive coordinators just do not retire. That only made sense after the scandal hit the fan.

If any party deserves to be pooped, it is this one, and the Owls are just the team to do it.

Sunday: Paying Temple Forward

Tuesday: The Turner Field Solution

05.18.16
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For Pete’s Sake

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Last year, the Temple Owls did something relatively simple which was remarkably spectacular and that was put the simple word “Lew” on a patch of the helmet.

This year, for Pete’s sake, it is time to revisit that and, by saying for Pete’s sake, we mean it literally. The word “Pete” should be on the patch this year in Cherry and White for a double meaning in that it would honor two men of the same name who were instrumental in support of the football program, Pete Chodoff and Peter J. Liacouras.

We covered the passing of “Doc” Chodoff a couple of months ago, so we will concentrate on Pete Liacouras here. Full disclosure: I have been critical of Liacouras since he was behind the firing of the only decent head coach between Wayne Hardin and Al Golden and that was Bruce Arians. It was a mistake that set Temple football back 20 years, but Liacouras should be given credit for admitting the mistake.

Arians forgave Pete a long time ago and so should we.

In the end, though, Liacouras’ heart was in the right place for Temple football even if his Sugar Bowl timetable was a little off. He wanted a stadium, but he did not want one if there wasn’t “an identifiable funding source” and that phrase has been the foundation for the new proposed stadium.

It would be nice if the stadium was built, but the more immediate task at hand is for the season to be dedicated to him and the “other” Pete with a simple patch. Cherry and White would be the perfect color.

This is all, of course, up to Matt Rhule but he showed how something relatively simple last year could be remarkably spectacular and this tribute would be the exact same thing.

Friday: Spoiling Joe’s 50th

05.16.16
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2017 Mock Draft: Temple Edition

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Nobody gets through Dion.

A writer for The Washington Post, Neil Greenberg, was way ahead of the curve with his 2016 Mock Draft for the Baltimore Ravens.

In it, Greenberg had Praise Martin-Oguike, a defensive end from Temple, being drafted in the sixth round. There was only one problem with that. Praise Martin-Oguike was already committed to playing for Temple next season.

Oguike

Too soon?

Oguike will be one of a number of Temple Owls, in our mind, drafted in the 2017 real NFL draft and we think he will go in the fourth, not sixth, round. Hanging around a former position NFL coach like Phil Snow for another year can only help his draft value.

Here are five Owls we think could be drafted and which rounds they will go to if they play up to their potential:

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Jahad Thomas, Seventh Round

This is all incumbent on the Owls splitting Thomas out and using him at his position on the next level, which will be slot receiver. One of P.J. Walker’s problems in a sophomore slump, was that he was without his crutch and cosmic partner, Robby Anderson. With Anderson gone, he will need another receiver to mind meld with and Thomas—who has even better run-after-catch potential than Anderson—could be that guy. This will be their eighth year of football together. There is not a demand in the NFL for 5-10, 170-pound running backs. There is one for 5-10, 170-pound elusive slot receivers.

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Accuracy and mobility

P.J. Walker, Sixth Round

There were three quarterbacks drafted in the sixth round by the NFL this season and none of them had as good a touchdown-to-interception ratio in their final year as P.J. Walker did in his penultimate year.  (Michigan’s Jake Rudock, Arkansas’ Brandon Allen, and Louisiana Tech’s Jeff Driskel were the three. ) After tossing 13 touchdowns and 15 interceptions as a sophomore, Walker improved those numbers to 19 and 8 as a junior. More importantly, he improved the wins from six to 10. He will leave Temple with every QB mark. He might be short, but he makes up for that with tremendous accuracy and he is very mobile and can get out of trouble to make plays downfield. If he can improve the wins from 10 to 11 or more, he will get noticed. Wins, that will be his most important draft number. If it’s 15 wins, he could go in the first round. Right now, we’ll settle for 11 and 6.

Praise Martin-Oguike, Fourth Round

This defensive end has all of the physical tools to be a dominating NFL player. For him to be drafted, though, he will have to stay on the field and have at least double-digit sacks. With guys like Greg Webb, Averee Robinson, Haason Reddick and Sharif Finch collapsing the pocket (not even mentioning what Karamo Dioubate’s roll could be), he could get those numbers.  If he does, look out.

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One of 2 picks to the house.

Sean Chandler, Third Round

This prediction is made only if he is allowed to take his superior vision and route-jumping skills to the middle of the field, where he can come up with a lot of interceptions. So far, so good because it looks like Artrel Foster,  Kareem Ali Jr., Nate Hairston could have the requisite ability to hold down the other corner positions.  How many people know that Chandler is one of only two players in the nation to have multiple interception returns for touchdowns a year ago? Surely, the NFL knows. If he is able to duplicate that and add a half-dozen interceptions, he becomes a candidate to do exactly what Bernard Pierce did on the other side of the ball—get drafted in the third round and come out a year early.

Dion Dawkins, First Round

The guy who stands in the middle of the pre-game huddle and is a natural-enough leader to get the team around him when he does is “I play for; I play for; I play for  …. TEMPLE” chant will be playing for a first-or second-round NFL payday this season. He is the perfect size, speed and strength to be an NFL tackle and has the kind of nasty-knock-them-back attitude the league is looking for on draft day. How much he knocks back the Penn State line on Sept. 17 will be his most important film of the season.

Wednesday: For Pete’s Sake

05.13.16
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Stadium: The End Game

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On the eve of the Toledo game, I wrote that the Owls were walking into an ambush and I did not have a good feeling about that outcome.

I have had a similar feeling in the pit of my stomach for a long time about the proposed new stadium. I kept hoping it was heartburn and it would go away, but now I am more convinced than ever it is not after hearing City Council President Darrell Clarke say this the other day: “I don’t know even five people who are in favor of it.” If he were really considering approving this, his comments at this point would open the door slightly for interpretation by saying things like “we’re going to review this” but the “I don’t know five people” comment is effectively slamming the door shut.

(He must be ignoring the hundreds of Temple students who voted in favor it it in the Temple News poll. Either that, or they don’t count as people in Clarke’s world.)

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Not counted among those five is Mayor Kenney,  who has been against it from the beginning, thinking that it was nothing more than a Temple ploy to bring down the rent. Temple President Neil D. Theobald debunked that notion while speaking to the student government by saying that the school is committed to building a new stadium for long-term reasons and despite any concessions it gets from the Eagles.

Kenney has also been adamant that this is Clarke’s baby and, if he doesn’t want it, Kenney is going to put the full weight of the city’s political machine against it. I’m particularly not buying the belief of many Temple people that the city wants a handout before they give the go-ahead. I don’t think this falls into the same category as the Liacouras Center. The city is really dead set against this.

I don’t see Temple having the stomach to rage against that machine. That’s too bad because I feel, if push comes to shove, the city would stand a good chance in a more friendly state supreme court if it decided to sue the city for the right to build the stadium. (The state hates the city anyway.) Temple can simply state it has as much right to build a stadium on its property as any other university building (citing no city opposition to Morgan Hall, the Library or the Student Activities Center). It can further point out that similar universities, like Penn State and Rutgers and Maryland have stadiums on their campus and that the city barring Temple from building puts the school at a competitive disadvantage.

The top three administrators at Temple are all Indiana Hoosiers, who could be so shocked by how city politics operates they decide to say bleep it, let’s continue to play at LFF. It all comes down if they decide this is worth the fight.

This is the same bad gut feeling I had before Toledo, and no amount of Alka-Seltzer or arguments to the contrary is going to make me think differently.

Monday: 2017 Mock Temple Draft

Wednesday: For Pete’s Sake

Friday: Spoiling Joe’s 50th

05.11.16
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Unfinished Business: The Real Meaning

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At first, the slogan Unfinished Business seemed like an overused and trite slogan for the 2016 Temple football team, but it seems to be catching on as of late and it certainly describes where the program is right now.

On Sunday, around 4 in the afternoon, I saw an attractive young woman (in her early 30s, I assumed), jogging through the park near where I live wearing a Cherry “Unfinished Business” with a Temple’][‘ logo smack in the middle. She was otherwise pre-occupied—multitasking with a kid on a bike will do that–or I would have asked where she got it. I have since learned that the only place where she could have got it was the Cherry and White game because they were given out at that venue and, even if you were there, if you were not at the right place at the right time you would not have received one. (I did see from my vantage point shirts being given out, but I assumed they were generic Temple football ones and I have about 90 of those.)
Damn.

As the season goes along, I have a feel that the shirts will become more popular.
Assumptions about both the shirt and the slogan were a little premature. At first, I thought the slogan meant winning a bowl game but now it is pretty clear the business that was unfinished last year and will be the focal point for this year is getting that school record of 11 football wins in the same season. Anything beyond that will be gravy and, since I like gravy, let’s do it. Ironically, Walker’s No. is 11 but I don’t he was talking about uniforms in these tweets as much as a record-setting season for Temple football.

The evidence is these two tweets from quarterback P.J. Walker:

Legendary year ahead:

 

These goals, to me, are reasonable and attainable. First, the offense should be more explosive–especially if Jahad Thomas is split out and Ryquell Armstead or Jager Gardner emerge as at least equal to JT’s production last season. That doubles the number of weapons Walker has, not even counting the other WRs and TEs. Two, despite defensive losses, there are people ready to step in at positions where the losses were felt the most. Three, the schedule is significantly weaker.

Unfinished business indeed. The waiting is the hardest part.

05.09.16
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Time To Give Old Shoe The Boot

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This is what you get for a win over Bucknell

When it comes to college football and future schedules, it is always wise to follow the money. The money—in this case Power 5 opponents—is moving away from  scheduling FCS schools and so should Temple.

Because what the P5 says, usually goes, and if the P5 conferences (ACC, SEC, Big 12, Big 10, Pac-12) have told their members to stop scheduling them, then the BCS is probably planning to tell the NCAA what to do and that will be making what is now a bowl-eligible game ineligible for bowl consideration.

That’s why Temple should start to clear the table of its future FCS opponents. On this page an updated list of Owl future foes as of a month ago. We’re hearing that Villanova for 2017 is a “done deal” and even that the Owls are talking to Bucknell for a future game. Hopefully, the 2017 Villanova game is a one-and-done deal  and any thought of reviving the Bucknell rivalry for the “Old Shoe” has been quickly dismissed. (Temple once scored 82 points on Bucknell and then shortly after that lost 20-straight games, the first of two 20-game losing streaks Owl fans had to endure in the last 50 years.)

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Owls were up 82-14  at one point in this game before 7,000 at Homecoming. They had 35,000 at Homecoming this year.

There are a lot of opponents who make sense for Temple football, especially since Penn State will be off the schedule, maybe forever, with this fall’s game.

Rutgers and Maryland because of geography and Syracuse, BC and Pitt because of past relationships make a great deal of sense. Virginia Tech and Miami should also be considered. Idaho, which just dropped FBS football, should also be dropped from the 2018 schedule. The problem with playing P5 schools for non-conference games is that they won’t play home-and-homes. Still, the Owls got a home-and-home with Maryland and should seek one with ‘Cuse and BC. If not, then dip into non-P5 schools like Buffalo (which we hear is also a done deal). A UMass game in 2017 holds no appeal, especially if the Minutemen follow Idaho in the FCS as rumored.

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At a tailgate last fall, I asked Temple athletic director Pat Kraft, a former Indiana football player, about playing the Hoosiers and he said “they don’t want to play us” and that he had indeed asked them. He felt it was because Temple was getting too good. The only reason Temple is playing Stony Brook this year is because the Seawolves graciously stepped aside when Notre Dame asked for the 2014 game to be pushed back a year. Opponents similar to Delaware State and Stony Brook should never be considered again.

It’s not dissing those schools, just following the leaders Temple aspires to be a part of in the not-too-distant future.

Wednesday: Real Meaning of Unfinished Business

05.07.16
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Inside The Mind Of A Stadium Stomper

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With a lot of luck, this is what Geasey Field will look like in 2 years.

Days before her scheduled graduation in 2015, Rachel Hall was struck by a hit-and-run driver, leaving her in a coma. After an agonizing year of medical treatments and therapy, Hall received her graduating honors with her fellow Temple University grads on Friday.

Hall was among the 9,341 Owls who graduated and made most of her fame not only in the classroom, but with her athletic accomplishments on the site of the future on-campus stadium at Temple, currently called Geasey Field.

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Colorado State started construction on its $220 million stadium. This photo was taken Friday night. It will open in the fall of 2017.

There would have been no athletic opportunities for Hall or her teammates had there been a group of Geasey Field Stompers when the university sought to build the then “largest Astroturf field in the world” 40 years ago. (They used the same land as grass fields for at least 63 years. In 1953, university public information director Bob Geasey died and the fields were immediately named after him.)

Fortunately, most students today at Temple are like the ones back then, intelligent and driven to success.

Then you have others,  looking to pick a fight when there is no fight really there.

Those are called Stadium Stompers and at least one went off on an illogical rant in response to our recent post how misguided the stompers are. Here are just some twitter responses.

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Yes. People who want to donate to that can follow this link and name it as their specific cause. There are donors who made stadium-specific donations. If the stadium is not built, the money returns to the donors.

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To give to the office of sustainability, go to Temple.edu, find giving , click other and name that as your cause. I’m sure they would appreciate as many Stomper contributions as possible.

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You are also allowed to donate to that as well.

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That above tweet, as well as the others, represents a basic misunderstanding how of university projects are funded at Temple. It might be “stale” to her, but it’s how funding life works at major universities without an Ivy League-level endowment. For a special project like a stadium, where the university does not want to dip into the general fund, it solicits donations. The Board of Trustees made clear it would not approve this project without special conditions. For the stadium, the bulk of the project will be funded by donations from alumni specifically directed toward that project. The  balance of the money required will come from shifting the Lincoln  Financial Field rent to the new stadium. If the project isn’t started, the money returns to the donor and the Owls continue to rent LFF with the Linc money. It’s a relatively simple concept that is hard for some who have not done their homework to understand.

Something tells me Rachel Hall and most of the graduates yesterday have done enough homework to understand simple reality that others interpret only as stale rhetoric.

Monday: Future Schedules

Wednesday: Real Meaning of Unfinished Business

Friday: Stadium End Game