Category Archives: Temple football

01.05.15
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Temple is Bluffing with Football Stadium Talk

One artist's mock rendering of what a future 30K stadium would look like at Temple (don't know where he expects to get that parking space from).

What an on-campus stadium might look like, without the parking lot surrounding it.

Comparatively speaking, there are so few major supporters of athletics at Temple that the word of someone who is should mean a lot. Temple is not like Oregon, where you can see a billionaire like Phil Knight on the sideline of every football game.

The supporter, who makes several billion less than Knight, said he was told at halftime during the Temple vs. North Carolina State March Madness basketball game that a stadium for football was a “done deal.” The Temple vs. North Carolina State game—won by the Owls, 76-72—was March 22, 2013. In a little over three months, that game will be two full years in the rear-view mirror.

No one has seen a shovel yet and that’s why football stadium talk at Temple is just that. Right now, Temple plays its football games in the $521 million Lincoln Financial Field, home to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles want triple the current annual rent Temple pays from $1 million to $3 million.

It’s a steep price, but the Owls should pay it for a number of good reasons. First, it would cost over $300 million to build their own and you to not have to be a bargain-hunter to know that something that costs $3 is a better buy than $300 .

Also, the Owls currently have a beautiful on-campus stadium and it is called The Liacouras Center. After Temple beat No. 10 Kansas and defending national champion Uconn, it was less than half-full yesterday for a conference game against UCF. The LC is a 15-year lab experiment that predicts how life will be in a future on-campus football stadium.

Plenty of seats available at Temple's beautiful on-campus stadium yesterday.

Plenty of seats available at Temple’s beautiful on-campus stadium yesterday.

There is a much more important reason the Owls should continue to play football at the Linc, though, and that’s to make them a much more attractive option for a Power 5 conference somewhere down the road. Although Houston, North Texas, Tulane and Akron have built nice 30,000-type seat stadiums in the last five years, none of them are options for a Power 5 invite any time soon. Very few Power 5 teams not grandfathered in (like Wake Forest) have stadiums with 30,000 seats.

Temple, with the fourth-largest media market and a 70,000-seat stadium and a great basketball program, would be a candidate down the road if it is ever able to figure out a way to just fill more than half of it. Temple has to figure out a way to do that and its money would be better spent supporting football head coach Matt Rhule’s efforts to do that, not chasing some on-campus stadium pipe dream. If Rhule is not able to do the job, Temple would still be better off spending money on a big-time coach who is and not a small-time stadium.

An on-campus stadium jeopardizes any chance Temple has of putting on big-boy pants. A stadium is a nice dream for many Temple fans who want to camouflage a paltry lack of support, but winning and winning big in football is the larger issue that needs to be addressed first.

Spending $300 million on winning is a much more cost-effective option than bricks and mortar.

12.30.14
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Ted’s Excellent Temple Adventure

Ted's own photos from the more recent past, including these from the New Mexico Bowl. Hopefully, the current coaching staff delivers with several of these bowl experiences starting next year.

Ted’s own photos from the more recent past, including these from the New Mexico Bowl. Hopefully, the current coaching staff delivers with several of these bowl experiences starting next year. Note spelling is not a strongpoint of the New Mexico Bowl scoreboard operator.

There is a great Temple fan named Ted DeLapp out there who went searching for Temple football history like one of those guys with metal detectors you see on beaches.

To say Ted is a great fan really is a misnomer. He’s The Greatest Fan, until I stumble upon another with his credentials of investing in the program by purchasing way more season tickets than he really needs for a 30-plus year period.

He hit on gold with some nuggets this week that we think deserve a wider audience than his own personal facebook page.

The first one involves a challenge game between the New York Giants of the National Football League and the Temple Owls. Turns out both the Owls and the Giants had an open weekend and Giants’ owner John Mara, eager to gain some credibility for his team, challenged the Temple Owls to a game in 1935. That year the Owls were 7-3 with wins over Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Here’s what Ted found:

giants

Another was Temple luring Pop Warner from Stanford. Love the way sports pages used cartoons back in those days:

pop

Not often you find one coach with two nicknames “Pop” and “Scobey.”

Temple lured him for the princely sum of $18,000 after Stanford refused to match the offer. Temple’s BOT in those days was forward-thinking, learning that the only way to make money is to spend money and go after the top head coaches available. Unfortunately, due to an arm’s race that would make the Cold War look like Kid’s Play, Temple is now out of that high-stakes poker game.

pophead

Interesting that a clause in Warner’s Temple contract allowed him to hold a job at a bank on the west coast during the six months between Jan. and June. Bobby Wallace had no such clause, but was away for much of the time of his eight-year contract, maintaining a home in Gulph Shores, Ala.

Temple TUFF about 100 years ago.

Temple TUFF about 100 years ago.

12.22.14
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Requiem For a Heavyweight: Wes Sornisky

Wes Sornisky says something to Wayne Hardin after a 17-17 tie at Cincinnati.

Wes Sornisky says something to Wayne Hardin after a 17-17 tie at Cincinnati.

Every once in a while, somebody sees something that needs to be done and makes a difference.

Meet the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Temple spirit, which Wes Sornisky was and someone who I had the honor to know well for at least a few years of his all-too-short life.

wes

Wes died tragically in a fire in Delaware a few days ago and I cannot help but think much of the football tailgating scene at Temple now, a scene that went from dreadful to really good, was due to him making a difference.

During the darkest of Bobby Wallace days, Wes organized a group of ex-football players into something called the “Fourth and Goal Club” and they picked the Jetro Lot at 11th and Damien as their headquarters. It started out with a few and ended with many and eventually made the move over to Lot K, where the ex-player group thrives under all-time tackle leader Steve Conjar.

Wes finally made Sports Illustrated for this fact in the weekly college roundup.

Wes finally made Sports Illustrated for this fact in the weekly college roundup.

Wes would bring one of those food trucks you’d see at Temple and make it tailgate headquarters. Eventually, word spread and other tailgaters would join the group.

There’s something extra special about the kickers and their connection to Temple. Almost all of the ex-kickers make it regularly to the games and I’m sure Brandon McManus would, too, if he didn’t have a job kicking in the NFL.

Wes and Cap Poklemba, another kicker, separated by 30 years or so but united by a common spirit, even held a tailgate at a Temple basketball game. That idea never caught on, but that was more due to the weather than the idea itself.

Wes could have been a big part of history in the 1976 Penn State game when Temple went for a two-point conversion to win at the end instead of allowing him to tie it with an extra point. Wayne Hardin told me last year it was a mistake because a tie would have been viewed as a win for Temple. (I disagreed and told him he absolutely did the right thing.)  After that game, though, Hardin said a tie “was like kissing your sister.”

The next year, at Cincinnati, Hardin allowed Sornisky to kick a field goal to tie, 17-17. After the game, Sornisky is seen in a photo saying something to Hardin. I asked Wes what he said. “How’s kissing your sister feel?” is what Wes told me he said.

Wes knew of my affinity for the old “TEMPLE” helmet and wanted me to have his a few years ago and we decided to meet a couple of miles from his home at the Montgomeryville LA Fitness Center. Something came up and Wes had to cancel but said we would meet again somewhere along the line.

And that was the last I’ve heard from Wes, who moved to Delaware, which was like moving to Kansas. He never came to a game again, but he made a big difference in his life at a time when a difference needed to be made.

RIP, Wes.

12.19.14
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Best QB Prospect in Pa.? He’s Going to Play in Philly

A great quarterback prospect is like the famous Potter Stewart quote about pornography: “It’s hard to define, but I know it when I see it” he said in the case of Jacobellis v. Ohio, 1964.

The Supreme Court Justice went to Yale, so he was around when Brian Dowling was throwing around the pigskin for the Bulldogs. Being a smart man, he probably also know great quarterbacking when he sees it. So do most of us. I knew Adam DiMichele had “it” the first game I saw him in a Temple uniform. I also knew whatever Chester Stewart had wasn’t it in his first game, a 7-3 loss to Western Michigan on a dreadful day at Lincoln Financial Field.

Ben DiNucci after winning WPIAL Class AAAA championship for Pine-Richland.

Ben DiNucci after winning WPIAL Class AAAA championship for Pine-Richland.

Trust me on this one: Pine-Richland’s Ben DiNucci has “it.” He will go down as the most productive quarterback of the next four years on the college level Pennsylvania, too, including whomever Temple, Pitt or Penn State recruit. The 6-3, 190-pound Gatorade Pennsylvania Player of the Year became the first Pennsylvania player to throw for more than 4,000 yards, setting a PIAA record for single-season passing with 4,269. DiNucci was 32 of 46 for 383 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-41 loss to St. Joseph’s Prep in the Class AAAA title game Saturday night. DiNucci also set a PIAA playoff record with his 32 completions and a championship game record with 383 yards passing. His four touchdown passes tied Berwick’s Ron Powlus (1992) for the most in a championship game.

More than all of those records, though, he possesses the elusive “it” factor in quarterbacks that make or break coaches. Forget that he wasn’t offered by the big schools. Big schools often miss big players. Ask Marty Ginestra. Or Henry Burris. Or Brian Broomell. Or Matty Baker. Or Tim Riordan. DiNucci falls into the category of a very good quarterback who can be very productive for Temple.

Some people have a better “it” radar than others. Al Golden’s Achilles’ heel was not having a good quarterback GPS installed (he inherited ADM from Bobby Wallace). To borrow a Potter (not Chester)  Stewart term, the jury is still out on Matt Rhule’s quarterback radar.

Trust me with this one, though: Ben DiNucci will be a great college quarterback at any level and the good news that he has chosen to play his college football in Philadelphia. The bad news is that it will be at Penn.

DiMichele currently is spending the weekend recruiting in the Pittsburgh area. If he’s smart, he would swing by Pine-Richland to investigate the level of interest DiNucci has playing the game at its highest level in the same city for Temple. If Temple is smart, it would offer him a scholarship now.

12.16.14
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Temple’s Hype Machine Needs to Get Grinding Now

Owls need to get Tyler (8) and Kyle's (79) name out there now and let their play do the rest in 2015.

Owls need to get Tyler (8) and Kyle’s (79) name out there now and let their play do the rest in 2015.

There can be little doubt that Tyler Matakevich and Kyle Friend will be the two best players on the 2015 version of the Temple Owls. Heck, they were this past season.

Temple promotions hit a home run with this comic book since it was written about all over the country.

Temple promotions hit a home run with this comic book since it was written about all over the country.

Today’s release of the All-American team was a perfect illustration of why both guys need to be heavily promoted for the Rimington and Bednarik Awards for the nation’s best center and linebacker, respectively.

You cannot tell me that there are nine linebackers in the country better than the Owls’ Tyler Matakevich or nine centers better than his teammate, Kyle Friend, who manhandled a first-round NFL draft choice from Notre Dame two seasons ago. Yet that is precisely what the Associated Press’ All-American team release was telling me today.

Active career tackle leaders in all divisions. Source: NCAA

Active career tackle leaders in all divisions.
Source: NCAA

Heavily promoting both for the nation’s top award at those positions would help solve that problem. Temple did the same in 1986 for Paul Palmer, when it came up with a clever comic book idea that promoted Boo-Boo for the Heisman Trophy. He did not win it, coming as close as possible—losing to Miami’s Vinny Testaverde and ahead of such luminaries as Oklahoma’s Brian Bosworth and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.

The Owls’ promotion department—not the sports information arm led by Al Shrier–mailed the comic book to all 1,056 of the Heisman voters at the time and, since many of the Heisman voters were members of the national press corps, a few of them took the time to write a column about it and Palmer’s name was out there in places it would have not normally been.

One mile from history but 1,000 miles from making a national impact is how this BP I-95 billboard campaign failed.

One mile from history but 1,000 miles from making a national impact is how this BP I-95 billboard campaign failed.

The Owls’ mounted a half-hearted campaign to get Bernard Pierce the Heisman, but put it up only on billboards in the Philadelphia area and it drew little notice across the country.

Shoot for the top and settle for something less or shoot for the top and get to the top. It’s up to Temple now. They have the ball and a chance to score big now. Let’s hope they don’t use three wides and ignore the running game here, too.

The Owls’ 2014 running game might have been a joke, but copying the comic book idea for these two guys would not be.

12.13.14
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Season Review: Square Pegs Into Round Holes

Fortunately, not one of the 27 helmets Temple currently uses. With 2 games left, a Utah website predicted this bowl matchup.

Fortunately, not one of the 27 helmets Temple currently uses. With 2 games left, a Utah website predicted this bowl matchup.

Watching Dunmore of the Scranton area play in the state championship game today was a reminder of how Temple could have schemed its way into the wins it needed to assure itself of a bowl bid.

Dunmore ran the kind of offense that perfectly suited Temple personnel all season: Two backs, tailback running behind the fullback and play-action off a max protect scheme for the quarterback. It doesn’t matter that Dunmore lost, because Dunmore got the most of its personnel using that system.

These numbers would have been much better with a blocking fullback and play-action approach. Twelve games of 3-4 wides will lead to these kind of unacceptable numbers.

These numbers would have been much better with a blocking fullback and play-action approach. Twelve games of 3-4 wides will lead to these kind of unacceptable numbers.

Temple did not.

It’s a simple principle: Coach to the players you have, not the ones you want to get. It seemed like all year the Owls were running formations for the kind of guys they want to recruit, not the guys they had in the building.

The Owls had a potentially great tailback in Jahad Thomas, but he disappeared after gaining 157 yards from scrimmage in the Tulsa game. He also appeared sparingly after that, partly because the coaching staff did not have a whole lot of confidence in the offensive line, but mostly because the coaching staff refused to use two of the best blockers they had —Marc Tyson and Kenny Harper—who could have helped open some holes for Thomas with lead blocks.

Ask Paul Palmer what Shelley Poole meant for him as a lead blocker. Ask Montel Harris what Kenny Harper did for him as a lead blocker.  Ask Bernard Pierce what Wyatt Benson did for him as a lead blocker. Ask Tanardo Sharps what Harold Jackson did for him as a lead blocker. Ask Kevin Duckett what Mark Bright did for him as a lead blocker.

All of them will say that one lead block was just as responsible for any big gain as was the entire offensive line.

Thomas never had a chance to answer that question because the coaches never tried the concept.

A lead block opens up the running game and a good running game opens up a play-action passing game. This season was 12 games of Temple running three and four receiver sets, even splitting the tight end when he could be better used to jump-start the running game. Twelve games of trying to force square pegs into round holes.

As a result, this ass-backwards’ approach to offense killed Temple’s chances of winning a couple more games (Navy, Memphis and Cincinnati come to mind) that would have given Temple fans a nice trip to the Bahamas.

If the coaching staff learns something from this experience, it might be worth it. If not, they will be banging their heads against the wall for another 12 games next season.