Category Archives: Temple football
These Are the Good Old Days
When a group of guys get together like a lot of us have over the last 20 years or so of Temple tailgating, a lot of the talk invariably returns to the “good old days.”
Well, as Carly Simon once said, “these are the good old days” and the beauty of them is that all of the Temple family, old, young, middle-aged can experience the times together.
Right now, look around and savor them because those days are here and maybe it’s just a hunch but they are going to get better.
Without a doubt, the two greatest linebackers in Temple history.
Tyler Matakevich stopped by our particular Temple tailgate yesterday and I told him he was a POS. I think he took it in the good humor it was meant to be because I still have all my teeth but it came because he said he stopped by another tailgate first. It was great to see the linebacker who is going to break Steve Conjar’s career tackle record breaking bread with Steve Conjar afterward and it could not happen to two nicer guys.
The character of Matakevich was on display for all to see not only yesterday and every game this season but more importantly earlier this week when Tyler and his teammates stopped by to say hello in an old folks’ home to a 97-year-old ex-Temple player, James Woodside, who was the last living Owl to have beaten Penn State. The visit was a beautiful thing to see and that video was much of the conversation.
“Tyler, I just wanted to say that video of you with Mr. Woodside was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen,” I said. “It brought a lot of us to the verge of tears.” After Tyler said thank you, John Belli had perhaps the best line of the day, delivered with impeccable timing.
“Tyler, that was because all of us are closer to his age than we are to yours,” Belli said.
Everybody laughed one of those hearty belly (or in this case, Belli) laughs reserved for one of those stories of old guys reliving their youth.
You can talk about the football part of yesterday, the 49-10 win and the great plays and the great job of the Temple fans all you want, but the character part of it is perhaps the reason why the football part of it is happening. This team has great senior leadership from Tyler Matakevich to Matt Ioannidis to Tavon Young and that leadership is leaving no doubt.
The talk turned to the next game, UCF.
“The best thing about Leave No Doubt is that every game is a championship game,” I told Tyler.
“Absolutely,” he said.
It is the reason why we have “the good old days” right now and the reason why we can expect more in the near future. Knowing the leadership on this team, it could not happen to a nicer group of guys.
They are taking the rest of us on one heckuva ride.
Monday: Photo Gallery.
Game Day: 5 Things to Watch
- Attendance
If the crowd looks slightly smaller than half-filled and it is announced at 31,000, there will be 31,000 people in the stands. Temple does not “fudge” figures. The number of fannies in the seats are the number of fannies in the seats, because the figure is solely taken from the number of tickets scanned at the gate and that goes directly to the press box. Thirty-one K is the figure to shoot for since the last five Temple homecoming crowds were slightly over 25K. If a 4-0 start with a win over PSU isn’t worth at least six more K fannies, then we do not know what to say.
- Explosive passing game
Temple coach Matt Rhule said that the wide receiver group is about to make a big impact in terms of explosive downfield plays in the passing game. With Jahad Thomas setting them up by establishing the running game, this could be the week. Tulane will cheat up the safeties and LBs to try to stop Thomas, then P.J. Walker will fake it into his belly and pull it out and Temple receivers will be running so free through the secondary, Walker will not know which one to pick out.
All systems are go for a beautiful day.
- The Tight End Pass
Kip Patton has shown flashes of brilliance so far and that trend should continue. A couple of plays that might work to Patton would be the old Chester Stewart rollout play to Evan Rodriguez and the old Chester Stewart jump pass to Steve Manieri in the back of the end zone. The problem is that Marcus Satterfield doesn’t know those plays. Matt Rhule, who originally drew them up, does. Hopefully, his headset works. (Note to Sat: The first play is where P.J. makes a quick fake to the running back, rolls two steps to his right and dumps an easy screen pass over the head of the DE to the TE; the second comes near the goal where P.J. jumps in the air and finds Kip at the back of the end zone.)
- Some Passes for Frank
We finally saw backup quarterback Frank Nutile (pronounced NEW-TILE) last week, but that was only to take three knees. Hopefully, the lead becomes large enough to get Frank some passes in case P.J.’s shoulder goes out later in the season.
- A Touchdown for Tavon
Tavon Young was a major playmaker for the Owls last year, scoring a touchdown on an interception against UConn and another on a fumble recovery against ECU. Something tells me he is going to jump a route an take one to the house against Tulane. Call it a strong hunch. Or just say he’s due.
Sunday: Complete Game Analysis
Prodigal Son Day Should Answer Some Questions
On Saturday, we will pick up where we left off over a month ago.
If the medium is the message, as Marshall McLuhan once wrote, the message about the interest in Temple football right now among its Prodigal Son Alumni has been very telling over the past week.
Homecoming Day is what I’ve always called “Prodigal Son Day” because that is the only game many alumni attend. The regular tailgaters get replaced, and the Prodigal Sons (and Daughters) get all of the good spots along tailgate row. The top bunk, if you will. The next week, we return to our regular tailgate programming with the regulars all back in their customary spots.
The challenge at Temple has always been to get those casual fans, what I would call the “soft core” Owl fans, off their couches and away from the TV remotes and potato chips and joining the “hard core” ones at the stadium. That’s why the media’s message this week, however subtle, is encouraging.
In the above video (3:23) kids do an awesome rendition of the alma mater. Would be great if the crowd would add their voices.
Two Temple alumni in the media, who have never mentioned Temple football glowingly in the past, banged the drum rather loudly for their Owls using some impressive platforms. First, renowned Philadelphia Eagles’ expert Ray Didinger said that “Temple should be unbeaten” going into the Notre Dame game and that he would not be surprised if P.J. Walker eventually becomes a NFL quarterback. This is the same Ray Didinger who said two years ago on a Saturday morning program with co-host Glen Macnow that “I kind of wish Temple would drop a level and play Lafayette, Villanova and Delaware.” That was after a caller wanted to talk about Brandon McManus as an NFL kicker and Macnow said sternly, “I’m not talking about Temple football” before hanging up on the guy.
Didinger did not jump to the Owls’ defense then. He is now. Like all Prodigal Sons, he is welcome home. That’s why they call it Homecoming.
Last 4 Homecoming Games for Temple:
|
Year
|
Score
|
Opponent
|
Attendance
|
|
2014
|
Temple, 35-24
|
Tulsa
|
25,340
|
|
2013
|
Temple, 33-14
|
Army
|
25,533
|
|
2012
|
Temple, 37-28
|
South Florida
|
25,796
|
|
2011
|
Temple, 34-0
|
Buffalo
|
25,820
|
Beating Penn State and being 4-0 has changed a lot of long-held perceptions. David Murphy, the Channel 6 weather guy, always mentions the Chester pro soccer team, but never mentioned the Temple team that plays American football until Monday of this week and, every day, has talked up the Owls and Homecoming.
Baby steps, but what this media message means is that Homecoming—which never gets a crowd smaller than 25,000—should experience an uptick in attendance. Sources inside the ticket office said 21,000 tickets were sold as of late Thursday afternoon and also added that Homecoming crowds are traditionally the largest “walk-up” crowds of the season—anywhere from 7-10K—depending upon the weather. Murphy supplied the good weather so, conservatively, the estimate of the crowd should be around 31,000.
While we would all like to see more, a cautionary note is to remember what Wayne Hardin said. “We’d have to go unbeaten 10-straight years for us to sell out the stadium every week,” he said in the 1970s. He was right then and he’d probably be right now. To sell out half of it at 4-0 is saying something and that’s probably the most realistic goal.
Anything above that would be a pleasant surprise.
The fun resumes on Saturday ….
Huey Long’s Only Temple Football Game
Huey Long trying to get a booth review before the invention of television.
Most people remember Huey Long as the only dictator in the history of the United States.
Technically, though, he was a U.S. Senator from the state of Louisiana in the early-to-mid-30s. In a real sense, though, he was “coach” of the LSU football team that lost to Tulane, 14-13, in the last regular-season game of the 1934 season. (He had a puppet Governor installed and puppet head coach, but Long was on the sidelines, made the important decisions and often got into heated arguments with the refs.) Had the Tigers scored two more points, Long’s team would have gone up against one of the legendary college coaches of all time, Temple’s Pop Warner, in the 1934 Sugar Bowl.
Tulane beat Huey Long’s LSU team to earn a shot at Temple.
That near brush with Long has to rank as one of the strange circumstances surrounding Temple football history. As it was, Tulane, not LSU, was the southern representative in the 1934 Sugar Bowl and Long never had a chance to match wits with Warner. He was in the stands, though, at the Sugar Bowl, rooting for Tulane according to newspaper accounts of the day. The temperature for that game was in the mid-50s, a day after it reached 78 degrees in New Orleans.
Four months after Tulane’s 20-14 win, Long was assassinated. He was 42 and planning to challenge Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the Presidency. An Oscar-winning Best Picture, All the King’s Men, was made on his life in 1949 and it won the Best Actor Award for Broderick Crawford, who played Long.
10-4? (That’s a Highway Patrol reference.)
Now, the Owls and Tulane and even LSU have come full circle for the 2015 game. The Owls are a 15-point favorite and Sports Illustrated (in the form of Stewart Mandel) this week has projected them as the Group of 5 representatives in the Peach Bowl against LSU.
Leonard Fournette has no shot in the open field against No. 8.
Pretty heady stuff for the Temple fans who will flock to Lincoln Financial Field for the most festive and optimistic Homecoming in, err, Temple Football Forever. It points up how things can change in college football in such a short time because it was only two years ago that the Owls came into Homecoming 0-6 and came out 1-6 after beating Army.
Now they are about as near to the top of the college football world as the 1934 Owls were. Somewhere, Huey Long is looking down and taking it all in, probably ambivalently.
Or, maybe in his case, looking up.
Tomorrow: Some Informed Speculation on HC Attendance
Saturday: Game Day Preview With Updated Depth Charts
Sunday: Complete Game Analysis
A Good Nervous
“I thought our fullbacks did a great job of setting the tone,” Matt Rhule at the 14:36 time stamp.
Anyone who has ever played the game at the high school level or above knows the feeling of being a little nervous before every game. Butterflies is really the best word I’ve heard for it and, although we did not hear Temple head coach Matt Rhule say that word he implied it at the most recent press conference.
“We’re nervous, but it’s a good nervous,” he said.
Can’t argue with the results because the “good nervous” has meant the school’s first 4-0 start since 1974, a season the team won their first six games. In order for the results to continue, it’s OK to have butterflies before Saturday’s Homecoming Game with Tulane (noon, Lincoln Financial Field).
“I thought our fullbacks did a great job of setting the tone.”
Once you get that first hit in, though, the butterflies go away and you just play ball and that’s what the Owls have to concentrate on against Tulane. They are a better team than Tulane, and probably a lot closer to the Duke team that hammered Tulane, 37-7, and the Georgia Tech team that abused Tulane, 65-10, than they are to Tulane right now and that should be enough.
Other highlights from the presser:
- The Owls are playing a lot of players now. This is a very good thing because that means there is going to be a more seamless transition to next year because of the way Freddie Booth-Lloyd (who helps replace Matt Ioannidis) and Michael Dogbe (who probably replaces Nate D. Smith) are playing now. Heck, Nick Sharga—next year’s Tyler Matakevich—also had a good extended run.
- Rhule said “the fullbacks set the tone.” Yes, he really said that. We’ve come a long way in a year.
- The Owls are not quite as good as they are going to get. “We’re not quite there just yet,” Rhule said, “but we’re getting there.” Hopefully, where they are now is good enough to beat Tulane and UCF and they “get there” upon arrival in Greenville, N.C., where they put it all together in three weeks and stay “there” for the rest of the season.
- The Owls have only forced two fumbles. This time last year they forced 10. Got to think the second guy in on every tackle is going to be punching that ball like it’s Chuck Wepner’s face.
- The Tulsa game (last year’s Homecoming) was sloppy because the Owls tried to do too much.
- It was good to establish the run. Jahad Thomas, after a minor hiccup against UMass, took some sugar and got rid of the hiccups against Charlotte, going for 106 yards and two touchdowns.
- Sharga is Temple’s first significant two-way player since even before John Rienstra. “Rhino” came in for only a couple of downs on defense against BYU. Sharga played 11 snaps on offense, mostly early, and 14 more on defense, mostly late. “It’s a great story,” Rhule said. Matt is right about that because I wasn’t born when Temple last had a significant two-way player, and that’s a long time ago.
One person Rhule did not mention was Nate L. Smith, a former Archbishop Wood and George Washington player, who scored a touchdown on a blocked punt and probably should have scored one on his interception. The only reason he did not was a teammate missed a very makeable block and allowed the Charlotte running back to make the tackle. Still, Smith showed the kind of running instincts in the open field and nose for the end zone that would make him a great option as a punt returner.
Got to think that missed block came up in one of Phil Snow’s film room sessions this week since the Owls want to maximize their scoring opportunities on defense.
Tulane is Who We Thought They Are
It takes a village. HC is usually the day all of the regular tailgaters get relocated for the Prodigal Son fans.
Casual college football fans checking the Tulane vs. Central Florida score on Saturday afternoon probably had an initial reflex reaction that the host Green Wave, who visit Temple for Homecoming at high noon on Saturday, must be vastly improved this season.
Only those who followed the sport closely knew better, that Tulane’s 45-31 AAC win only served to illustrate how far things have fallen in Orlando for head coach George O’Leary, who is only two years from routing Power-5 representative Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. The Knights are 0-5 and now are staring at a 0-12 season. As it stands now, they are a three-point favorite over UConn at home on Saturday and, frankly, UConn has played better. UCF has suffered embarrassing home losses to FIU and Furman, the latter being an FCS team.
Watch out for those tapers.
That’s a penthouse-to-outhouse fall unrivaled in college football and probably means the end is near for O’Leary, 69, who has had an accomplished career but age has caught up to him. In addition, he’s had some bad luck. The Knights have played most of their first four games without their starting quarterback, center, best receiver and two best running backs. In all, eight potential offensive starters didn’t play in Saturday’s game against Tulane or the week prior against South Carolina.
UCF’s problems not only stem from injuries, but from O’Leary’s job situation. O’Leary was named UCF’s interim athletic director in June and there are rumors — but no announcement yet — that he will retire from coaching to become the full-time AD after the season. So the appearance is that O’Leary is mailing in the coaching part of his job. Even worse for UCF is that the coach has no experience as an athletic administrator and his possible future involvement as an AD probably will not help his presumably handpicked successor get off on the right foot.
When UCF beat Baylor, plenty of people were talking about the Knights as a possible selection for a Power 5 conference. Now nobody is, and the blame has to go to an aging coach who apparently has lost any enthusiasm for the coaching part of his job.
Tomorrow: Press Conference Highlights
Throwback Thursday: Huey Long’s Connection to Temple Football
Friday: Homecoming Attendance
Saturday: Game Day Preview, Updated Depth Charts
Jim Dedmon’s USA Today Photo Essay
Montel Aaron Could Be the Next P.J.
I’ll have a No. 7 and a No. 11 from this menu.
There is no bigger P.J. Walker fan on the planet than me.
After going through years of Chester Stewarts and Vaughn Charltons, I know a good quarterback from a bad one and only two guys in the last eight years—Walker and Adam DiMichele—have met minimum daily requirement standards for a Temple quarterback. Chris Coyer won a bowl game, but never got the kind of extended run at the position he deserved so he didn’t have a full body of work from which to judge. Both P.J. and Adam could make plays with their feet as well as their arm and, in big-time college football, you need those intangibles. You cannot run an effective read-option play without a quarterback who is a running threat, and that’s something the Philadelphia Eagles are learning the hard way. Adam was and P.J. is a great leader in the huddle. Stewart and Charlton never were. I’m a hard-marker and P.J. gets an “A” in my book, Adam an A+. The difference is that P.J. has two years to improve that grade.
I’m taking his nickname his Scooooby, give or take a few oooos
Fortunately, this year the coaches are helping him with a curriculum that he’s better-suited for—a strong run game that (sometimes) includes a blocking fullback, setting up an effective play-action passing game. Temple is a better team when it runs for 200 yards and passes for 200 and P.J. is a better quarterback when he’s throwing 20-30 passes, not 40-50.
A lot (heck, all) of Walker’s so-called sophomore slump can be attributed to one of the worst offensive schemes ever laid at the feet of a Temple quarterback—empty backfields and four wides that invited blitzes and sacks, which led to fumbles and interceptions—and no pocket protection that a blocking fullback or even a max protect scheme could have provided.
That said, P.J. Walker will sadly not be here forever and it was great to see that the Temple coaching staff used the off week to pound the pavement for his replacement—even though his replacement is 3,000 miles away. Apparently, there is money is the budget to send a couple of Temple assistants on a six-hour plane flight to suburban Sacramento and, judging by the film, it was money well-spent for an acceptable replacement for Walker in Montel Aaron, who committed to the Owls on Friday night. Temple had a very good experience with its last Montel (Harris) and there is no reason to believe this Montel will not give Owl fans reason to smile. (For those who’ve forgotten, Harris went off for 351 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in a 63-32 win at Army in 2012. That’s probably a 56-game hitting streak-type record that will never be broken.)
I looked hard on Cherry and White Day and did not see anyone with the physical tools of P.J. that I could project as a replacement. Montel Aaron has those physical tools.
Aaron reminds me of a more polished version of Clinton Granger. We could not win with Clint because he came here raw and stayed that way. If Montel comes here polished as he appears to be and the coaches rub a little extra Pledge on him, Temple can win with Montel Aaron, and going to the other side of the football earth to get him will prove to be worth it.
Tomorrow: Temple vs. Charlotte photos
Tuesday: Tulane and UCF
Enjoy The View
Be there or be square.
One of those morning shows that targets largely a women’s audience has a perfect slogan that should apply to particularly this Temple football season: “Take a little time to enjoy the view.”
Kyle Friend blew a hole open here that 3 guys could have followed for a TD
Even if it was a little wet and foggy last night in a very satisfying 37-3 win at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (the guy on Camera No. 5 really needed a towel or a shirt or something to clean off his location), a pretty spectacular view is starting to come into focus. After surviving a stumble last week at UMass, the Owls now have a blueprint of how to win out. They now have to take care of business against a Tulane team for Homecoming, a UCF team that lost to Furman but is always dangerous and an ECU team that has revenge on their mind and a huge home field advantage.
Still, winning those three games, one at a time, is doable if the Owls keep doing what they did against Charlotte: Play good defense and special teams, run the ball on offense, and pick their spots in the play action passing game.
It’s not a particularly flashy style of winning, but any kind of winning is a beautiful sight.
The view last night included:
- Nick Sharga playing fullback, seeking out and destroying a linebacker that allowed Jahad Thomas to get an eight-yard gain and then, later, subbing for Tyler Matakevich at linebacker, making a Tyler Matakevich play to stop Khalil Phillips at the line of scrimmage. Haven’t seen that kind of two-way impact since first-round NFL draft choice John Rienstra led the way for a Todd McNair touchdown against BYU and then came in on goal-line defense and sacked Robbie Bosco.
- The P.J. Walker to Robby Anderson connection being revived on a pair of touchdown passes. That was good to see. It was evident on a nice hookup in Cincy, but this is the first time it worked for multiple TDs. Love for P.J. to go up top and hit Robby in stride. That hasn’t happened yet, but will.
- Probably the greatest Bruce Arians’ interview on the CBS Sports Network ever ended with a “go Owls.” Great to see a nice photo of Matt Rhule with Bruce. True story: The day after Matt was hired as Temple head coach, I casually mentioned to Matt that I had Bruce’s cell number. He asked for it and I gave it to him. (That’s for all of you people who think I hate Matt Rhule; I don’t.) I hope Matt and Bruce become as good friends as Matt and coach Hardin are. I also hope Temple University can pull up that interview and post it online. Without a doubt, Matt and Bruce are the two nicest guys to ever become head coach at Temple University.
- The Temple defense not breaking, even though we could do without the bending part.
- Something tells me all of those February practices in the snow are paying off. Temple does not seem fazed by inclement weather. Temple Sunshine.
- Nate L. Smith making a real impact on the special teams, although not in the punt returning role he might be better-suited for. He showed he still has a nose for the end zone, though.
- This team played like it didn’t want Charlotte to take them down to the wire and that’s the kind of ferocity they need to play with going forward.
The Owls are now 4-0 for the first time since 1974 with a Homecoming Game against Tulane coming up in a week (noon start). They deserve a crowd of 40,000 or more and any fan who ventures down to the stadium is going to get a great view of a good football team on a mission.
Take a little time out of your schedule to enjoy it.
….. and now a few words from the bad guys ….
Temple Football Forever 