Category Archives: Temple football

05.14.11
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Winning TV sets and Temple

Steve Addazio was a big hit at the Pennsylvania High School Football Coaches
Association Convention on Friday, in State College. “There’s a buzz about Temple now,” Addazio said.

Right now, the company line at Temple is that it is “perfectly happy” in the MAC.
Don’t let the company line fool you.
At Temple, just as anywhere else, money talks and bullbleep walks.
Al Golden has handed the keys over to a nice Cherry and White brick house to Steve Addazio and it is now time for Addazio to show that house on the market by continuing to win. Golden has given Addazio players, plenty of good ones, and now it’s up to Addazio to coach these guys to a title.

Every bar in town was tuned into Temple-UCLA football

Nothing less, and maybe even a little bit more. A win at Maryland would be nice. A win over Penn State before 70,000 in the hometown would be even nicer.
Do that, and TV ratings in the hometown go through the roof and ticket sales to the remaining games soar.
Think ESPN might notice?
That’s what is at stake for the school over the next few months.
Addazio has been telling everyone for the last few months that “there is a great buzz about Temple” now and a “great vibe about that place.”
He said so again on Friday at the Pennsylvania High School Coaches Association.
That might be true now, but imagine what it would be like if the Owls had that breakthrough season many believe they can have this year?
The Owls will play a great schedule and can make a great case for advancing in the college football world and for the school’s brand as a whole.
Television networks are coming at the Big East with wads of dollars in their hands for the next national TV contract.
The Big East is holding palms extended.
TV networks are saying, “Wait a minute, here. Where is my Philadelphia market?”
While Philadelphia is the nation’s fifth-largest city, it is the nation’s fourth-largest TV market.
TV sets mean money.
The Big East merely shrugs its shoulders and says, “We’re waiting on Villanova to come up with a suitable stadium plan.”
Clearly, Villanova has no such plan.
Temple not only has a stadium plan, has got a stadium, a good one, and has that stadium locked up for the next seven years.
Temple-UCLA Eagle Bank Bowl ratings were extraordinarily high, the second-highest bowl numbers on ESPN in the 30 years of bowl games in the Philly market. People in the fourth-largest market did not tune in on a Tuesday afternoon to watch UCLA.
Temple proved it can deliver the numbers.

“The relationship has worked out really well for all parties. Expansion into the Philadelphia media market has already shown benefits with strong ratings for the MAC’s football television package.”
_ Rick Cryst,
former MAC commissioner


Temple can give the Big East those numbers and the Big East can give Temple what it wants: A home for all sports.
Temple belongs with schools like Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse and West Virginia and not with schools like the directional Michigans and the Kents and the Akrons.
With a stadium and a quality Division I program already in place, the Big East would be foolish not to look at Temple football as really the only viable answer to lock up the largest available market.
The top five AVAILABLE markets to the BCS are:
1) Philadelphia (fourth overall)
2) Houston (10th overall)
3) Cleveland (17th overall)
4) Orlando (19th overall)
5) Baltimore (24th overall)

It’s pretty clear from that list and from Temple’s most recent bowl ratings that school has positioned itself well. Whether the TV people can convince the Big East the same now that this Villanova mess is over is another matter entirely.
To that end, winning would not hurt.
It never does.

04.12.11
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Villanova rejection: The gift that keeps on giving

I guess this is what Villanova fans look like to Villanova revisionists.

Full disclosure.
I like Villanova football.
I always have.
It was pretty much been my second-favorite college team from the time I was, oh, about 10 until just about two years ago when the Mayor’s Cup series started.
I still (secretly) root for Villanova when it plays anyone but Temple only because Villanova wins make Temple look good, especially last year when Temple won the game.
Andy Talley is one of my favorite coaches of all time. As great a coach as Andy Talley is (and he is a great coach), he’s an even better person.
But I’ve had it up to here (I’m holding one hand way over my head while typing with the other) with Villanova fans.
And because of them, with Villanova football itself.
There’s some delicious irony in this story in that Villanova blocked Temple from full all-sports admission to the Big East in 1991 and, 20 years later, Temple’s ironclad 15-year lease to Lincoln Financial Field is blocking Villanova football from admission to that same conference.
It’s a beautiful thing.
That’s why I’m not weeping for Villanova today.
They were, as Walt Frazier says in the Just For Men commercial:
REE-JECT-TED.
The Big East courted them the last few months like a girl who looks good 40 yards away.
In college, we’d call them 40-yarders.
The closer they got, the uglier they looked.
As you walked closer with two drinks in hand (one to offer her), you would veer off at the last second.

There’s some delicious irony in this story in that Villanova blocked Temple from full all-sports admission to the Big East in 1991 and, 20 years later, Temple’s ironclad 15-year lease to Lincoln Financial Field is blocking Villanova football from admission to that same conference.


“Mike, that’s a dude,” my friend would say.
“Not a dude, but not as pretty as I thought she looked.”
Then we’d both veer away, drinks in hand.
Any way you slice it, that’s pretty much what the Big East football members did to Villanova on Sunday.
For Big East courting purposes, if Villanova isn’t a dude, it’s one butt-ugly girl.
No stadium.
No fans.
No hope of getting a stadium. (Temple has an ironclad exclusivity clause in its lease on Lincoln Financial Field through the 2018 season and probably well beyond that.)
No hope of getting fans.
It’s over.
Villanova is not going to the Big East for football, no matter how its Board of Trustees votes.
If it ever does vote.
Heck, the Villanova fanbase makes Temple look like Penn State by comparison.
The Mayor’s Cup figures show it.
By most objective estimates, Temple had 22K of the 27K fans for the first Mayor’s Cup.
Temple had about 25-28K of the 32K last year, maybe more.
Yet you have some crazy revisonist Villanova fans saying it was more of a 60-40 split in favor of Temple. It was, if Villanova fans were wearing Temple sweatshirts and hats and painted in Cherry and White and filling both sides of the lower bowl of the stadium.

Eigthy/20 if anything.
It’s important because if one thing Al Golden accomplished in five years, it was to make Temple Philadelphia’s No. 1 college football team in terms of interest.
Temple not only proved that in two meetings with Villanova on the field of play, it proved that in the TV ratings when the Temple-UCLA bowl numbers showed it was the highest rated bowl game on ESPN in the Philly market since the 2007 Alamo Bowl that featured Penn State.
Temple delivers hard numbers in football.
It is also the best option for delivering the nation’s fourth-largest TV market.
Those numbers only figure to get better as a team that has won 17 games over the last two years returning 14 starters is handed over to a battle-tested national championship level SEC staff.
If I was Temple, I would take that fourth-largest market and deliver it to Conference USA tomorrow. The Big East doesn’t figure to come calling and Temple should act in its own best interests if it doesn’t.
Villanova?
All I heard about was how it was “a lock” for the Big East for the past few weeks. Done deal, they said.
Done deal.
Yeah, I guess it is.
I’m enjoying seeing a lot of people wearing blue wipe egg off their faces.
Almost as much as I’m looking forward to the epic level beatdown that now becomes mandatory for Steve Addazio and company on Sept. 1.

03.28.11
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NFL lockout would not be a bad thing for "Philadelphia State"

Do you see any families in this photo? I didn’t think so.

There’s not a lot of empirical evidence out there to suggest that a prolonged NFL lockout would help Temple football.
Logically, though, it could not hurt.
First of all, Temple football would be the only game in town and that’s a “good thing, not a bad thing” to use an offhand reference by Bill Parcells.
The NFL had strikes in 1982 and 1987 and, while attendance seemed to increase at Temple home games in both those years, it was 3-4 thousand per home game, not a noticeable 10-15.
I thought about this NFL labor dispute while watching the Owls’ hoop team play San Diego State recently.
Why San Diego State?
Because I thought one of the main reasons why Temple football never captured the imagination of the “Joe Philadelphia” fan was the name Temple.
Let’s face it. Temple has been trying for years to court “families” as part of the fan base.
They haven’t responded. Temple needs to get Temple people to the games and that’s students and mostly adult male alumni. It would also help to convince Eagles’ fans to start liking the other birds in town.
We don’t need no stinkin’ families (I’m not referring to the families of Temple football players who, of course, are the greatest).
In my 30 years of following Temple football, I observed no more than five families who had no connection to players attending a game. Yet Temple promotions spends more damn money going after that group than all the other groups put together.

“While we have all come to love the name Temple,
the name Philadelphia University
would be a truer reflection of 
the school.” _ Dr. Peter J. Liacouras

So, as Celo Green says, forget them.
Temple needs to get the “hard-core” beer-drinking, “700-level” fan, the Joe Philadelphia Guy. That’s a base that has yet to be, err, tapped. That’s a rowdy base, but think of the home field advantage the Owls could have.
Even though Temple is every bit Philadelphia’s school as Pitt is Pittsburgh’s school, I thought Pitt always had inroads to a blue-collar fan base in Pittsburgh that identified with the town. Pitt has plenty more “Joe Pittsburghs” in the stands rooting for the university than Philly has “Joe Philadelphians.”
It has a lot to do with the name.
Temple president Dr. Peter J. Liacouras alluded to such in the 1980s when he suggested the school should “consider” changing its name to Philadelphia University.
“While we all have come to love the name Temple, the name Philadelphia University would be a truer reflection of the school,” Liacouras told the Rotary Club one day at the Union League.
I was there as a guest of a Rotarian and heard the speech. I walked up to Pete and told him it was a great idea.
It was never realized because a school named The Philadelphia  College of Textiles and Science adopted the name a decade later.
Damn.

Liacouras was the one guy who could have pushed through a name change and he never followed up on his own terrific idea.
A lost opportunity.
Maybe not.
“San Diego State?” I said out loud while watching the Owls play. “San Diego isn’t a state.”
“Doesn’t matter,” the guy next to me said. “San Diego University was taken. They took the next name available.”
Philadelphia State University.
I like it.
Even though you might not now, you would get used to it, too, and it couldn’t hurt attendance.
They could even keep the nickname of Owls.
Changing the name of this blog to “Philadelphia State University Football Forever” might take some getting used to, though.

02.17.11
by

Golden Dome, Meet Bell Tower

Potentially, one of the more bizarre press conferences in college football history will take place today at 3 p.m. at the Fox Gittis Room, Liacouras Center.
In attendance will be John DiCarlo, Owlscoop.com; Bill Bradshaw, Temple AD; Steve Addazio, Temple football coach and Larry Dougherty, SID.
I don’t think they’ll need more seats than four, although there could be a few curious passersby standing in the background.
I’ll try to sum it up here, so none of you will have to skip work to attend:
Dougherty:  (Tapping the speakers.) Testing. One. Two. OK, we’re here to announce that Temple football is playing Notre Dame in beginning in the 2014 season. We’ll be playing in Philadelphia that year, then there the following year and playing one more game an undetermined year, as early as 2013, in South Bend. At this point, I’d like to introduce Temple AD Bill Bradshaw. Bill?

Bradshaw: Thank you all for coming. I just want to say that this is an exciting time for Temple football and announcing this game is exciting for me, personally, as well as the city of Philadelphia. This brings the Temple brand across the country for three years and we’re going to have a great crowd for our 2014 game. I’d like to announce a special deal for the 2014 game. To get a ticket to the Notre Dame-Temple game you must be a full season-ticket holder. By my estimation, we could average 70,000 tickets sold for the six home games of the 2014 season. I really feel sorry for the Notre Dame fans who won’t be able to experience the beauty of Lincoln Financial Field that day, but our goal is to fill the stadium with Temple fans and I think that’s the best way to do it.  I would like head coach Steve Addazio to say a few words.
Addazio: I echo what Bill said. In fact, I wake up the echos.

(Nervous laughter.)
Seriously, I coached at Notre Dame so I know all about the place. Notre Dame is the biggest name in college football and we want Temple to be the biggest name someday.
Bradshaw: Let’s open it up for questions.
DiCarlo: How did this come to fruition?
Bradshaw: We asked them. We wanted a home-and-home. They laughed. Then I said, OK, we’ll settle for a 2-for-1. Then they said they wanted the first two to be at Notre Dame. I said, “You didn’t think I was born yesterday, did you? You’ll just walk out on us after the second game like Navy did. Make us the middle game and you’ve got a deal.” Then we shook on it.
Dougherty: Any more questions? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?
(More nervous laughter.)
John, help me out here.
DiCarlo: No, I’m good.
Dougherty: I just want to invite all of those in the room to our meet and greet with Steve Addazio in … what time is it, Bill? …
Bradshaw: 3:07, Larry.
Dougherty: …in two hours and 23 minutes. Thanks for coming. 
11.24.10
by

Thanks for a nice season, everybody


“And that’s the way I used to play linebacker.”
“But, coach, I’m a QB.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot.”

Goodnight and good luck.
I think that was Edward R. Murrow’s line, but I was too young to remember him.
Let’s face it.
The season is over, thanks to the BCS schools who derailed the teams-with-worse-records-can’t-be-chosen-over-better-records rule at the end of last season. That means eight-win teams with small fan bases are in jeopardy of getting shut out this year.
Last year, no eight-win team could have been taken over nine-win Temple (excluding bowl tie-ins). This year, any six-win team can be taken over eight-win Temple.
The BCS schools pushing that rule change through is another example that big-time college football is corrupt to the core. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer.
If you think anybody is going to bend over backwards to invite an eight-win Temple team to a bowl, your thinking process is all wrong.
The only bowl that would want us, The Military Bowl, is spoken for with two tie-in participants eligible.

Geez, I hope Al Golden decides to stay at Temple but my gut tells me he’s gone

Why would the Military Bowl want us?
That was the former Eagle Bank Bowl and we helped them out big-time by putting 20K fannies in the seats last year vs. UCLA.
Can we even put 1K fannies at any other bowl?
No.
It’s all about the Benjamins in college football, in case you forgot.
It was a nice season, not a great season, not even a good season.
Why?
Because you can’t return 21 starters at 16 positions and not improve from 9-3 to 10-2 or better.
And you certainly can’t go from 9-3 to 8-4.



Bruce Arians, the only logical choice as next Temple coach.

 It’s a nice season, not a good one, and it represents a regression from a year ago.
So there is blame to be assessed (in this order):
1) Matt Rhule. Sorry, Matt, you do not deserve to be back as offensive coordinator. You are a defensive guy, a career linebacker and a career linebacker coach. There are way too many weapons (Rod Streater, a 318-pound average offensive line, Michael Campbell, Bernard Pierce, Matt Brown, Delano Green, Erod, AJax, etc.) for this team to struggle putting points on the board. There already is an accomplished offensive coordinator on the staff. His name is Rob Spence and he turned scoreboards into  adding machines at places like Clemson and Syracuse. He deserves at least a chance to move up and show what a lifelong offensive mind can do.

Why do we consistently make slow, white quarterbacks look like Fran Tarkenton? Because we don’t blitz anywhere near enough to sack these guys 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, like we should


2) Mark D’Onofrio. Why do we consistently make slow, white quarterbacks look like Fran Tarkenton? Because we don’t blitz anywhere near enough to sack these guys 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, like we should. We should punch these guys in the mouth (figuratively, of course) early and often and make them uncomfortable back there.
I’ve been a big Mark D’Onofrio supporter to take over Al Golden’s job once Al Golden leaves.
No more.
I’ll take a 57-year-old Bruce Arians, a guy who is not afraid to blitz, over Mark D’Onofrio any day of the week. I’ve never seen a more passive defensive coordinator when it comes to attacking the other guy’s quarterback.
Fifty-seven is not old anymore.
I never thought it was.
When I was 21 and working at the Doylestown Intelligencer, I wrote a column that Temple should hire John Chaney as its new basketball coach.
I got called into the office of the Managing Editor, Jim McFadden.
“Mike, don’t you think 50 is a little old for a new basketball coach?” he said.
“Fifty’s not old,” I said.
My boss smiled.
“You get a raise,” McFadden said.
He was 50, too.
The point is if you can do the job, it doesn’t matter how old you are.
Bruce can do the job.
Bruce can recruit. He knows Temple. He loves Temple.  He will put other quarterbacks on their asses and make them give the ball to us early and often.
He’s a Super Bowl winner.
An NFL pension is no longer an issue with him, like it was last time. He’s making $600,000 and his boss is Mike Tomlin. At Temple, he would be making $1.2 million with no boss.
This move makes sense for both Bruce and Temple,
If there ever was a time for Bruce Arians at Temple, it is now.
Do I think Al Golden is leaving?
Geez, my heart says he stays but my head says he’s gone.
If my heart was right tonight, we would have won, 23-3, instead of lost, 23-3.
So I think my head is right this time, too.
The tug might be too strong this year.
Yes, he’s as good as gone. Benjamins also figure into the Al Golden saga. We don’t have them. Other schools do.
I salute him.
What a terrific job he’s done here and I can’t thank him enough.
If he failed this year at all, it was sticking with his Penn State boy, Rhule, for way too long.
Golden proved that you can win at Temple, just like Arians did some 20 years ago.
When Al leaves, let’s keep this momentum and move forward with the only other guy who’s proven he can win here. I don’t want to go back to the days that existed between those two regimes. Hiring Jerry Berndt, Ron Dickerson and Bobby Wallace was a crap shoot. I don’t want any more crappy crap shoot hirings.
I want a sure thing next time and Bruce Arians is the only sure thing out there right now. He’s the round peg that fits nicely into Temple’s round hole.

06.08.10
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Now’s the time to gush over BP (Bernard Pierce)


Temple football Fan Fest coming to Ocean City (N.J.) main pier between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on July 10.

I’ve never met David Sourber but, from what I gather, he beat me to the punch with what I thought was an innovative ideal _ create a “Bernard Pierce for Heisman” Facebook page.
Type in “Bernard Pierce for Heisman Facebook” on google and you are likely to find it.
Sourber is from Manheim, Pa., and is on target to graduate from Temple University in 2012.
He represents the current students who bring a passion to and support for the school too many of the older grads can’t begin match.
All you have to do is go to the games, especially last year’s Villanova game, where about 15-16,000 of the fans were students dressed in Cherry and pouring their hearts and lungs out for the Owls in the stands. Walking out of the stadium that night, I was more heartbroken for those kids in the stands than I was for myself (and nobody takes a Temple football loss harder than I do).

Six Owl numbers that will (maybe) get you some lotto money:
White Balls:
Six _ The number of 1986 Heisman Trophy runnerup Paul Palmer.
Fourty-four _ The number of Palmer’s blocking back, fullback Shelley Poole, who went through the hole preceeding Palmer like a bowling ball knocking down pins. An unsung hero if there ever was one.
Thirty _ the number of the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner (hopefully) Bernard Pierce. Also the number of 1979 Garden State Bowl MVP Mark Bright.
Eleven _ The number of Big East offensive MVP Walter Washington (2004), the most dominating year by a player on a losing team maybe ever.
Twelve _ The old number of Vaughn Charlton, this year’s Owl who made the greatest sacrifice for the team in switching to tight end (and becoming No. 3). Another unsung hero.
Powerball (red ball):
Nine _ The number of quarterback Steve Joachim, who holds the highest honor (Maxwell Trophy) heretofore ever bestowed upon a Temple football player (1974)

This Bernard Pierce for Heisman thing is getting some legs mostly because of the legs Pierce showed last year.
Bernard Pierce is, in my mind, the complete package.
If puts up a similar year to last and stays healthy, he should be in the conversation right up until the night the five finalists get together.
Unlike David Sourber who wasn’t born then, I got to know Paul Palmer up close and personal like during his Heisman Trophy run in 1986.
Paul Palmer was a great, great back. Fast. Shifty. Could break tackles. Great vision.
While playing for Temple, he finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting that year only to Vinny Testaverde of Miami.
Yet having watched both Paul Palmer for four years and Bernard Pierce last year, I’m convinced there is nothing … NOTHING … Bernard Pierce can’t do that Paul Palmer did.
In fact, there was little Paul Palmer could do his first year that Bernard Pierce didn’t do.
After one game in which Palmer carried the ball 43 times, a reporter asked then Temple coach Bruce Arians why he gave him the ball that much.
“We gave him the ball because he could handle it,” Arians said. “You know, it ain’t that heavy.”
Good line, Bruce.
If I had to give Palmer the edge over Pierce in any category, it would be his durability.
Pierce carried the ball a lot last year, but so did Palmer. On the other hand, Boo-Boo was fast, but not as fast as Pierce. I think Palmer avoided the big hit more than Pierce and that might have something to do with the injuries.
Pierce, though, combines world-class speed with great moves in the open field and an ability to break tackles and punish defenders.
I watched a lot of college football on network TV and did not see anyone as good. Unlike most non-BCS backs, Pierce has Penn State and UConn on the schedule, as well as the MAC, so he’s got opportunities to lead his team to eye-popping wins that will get him into the conversation as early as September.
So the Heisman is right there for the taking.
If David Sourber helps him get one step closer to the New York Athletic Club, his Bernard Pierce for Heisman page is a worthwhile endeavor.
When Temple goes 13-0 and wins the national championship in Jan. 2011 and Bernard Pierce takes home the Heisman, 100,000 people will claim to be Owl season ticketholders. You can show them your season-ticket stubs by clicking below:

10.29.09
by

Mids give whole new meaning to term whistle-blower


Mike Gerardi (14), the QB phenom of spring ball, cheers on Peanut Joseph during TD run.
By Mike Gibson
Nothing could be more fitting this year than Temple playing at Navy on Halloween.
Navy played a dirty trick on Temple and it could turn out to be an unexpected treat for the Owls come Saturday.
This year would have been the fourth year of a home-and-home contract with Temple.
Navy and Temple, both in good faith, signed a contract to honor two home and two away games.
Temple honored the final part of its road commitment with a trip to Navy last season.
Then the Owls threw a scare into Navy last season, leading, 27-7, in the fourth quarter before losing, 33-27, in overtime.
Navy’s brass thought for a minute about the possibility of playing Temple in hostile Philadelphia in 2009, then placed a phone call to Temple.
“Err, you know that game we promised you? We’re not coming.”
Navy tore up the contract and would have paid Temple a $200,000 fee for breaking it, but that left the Owls in a bind. They had no team to replace Navy.
So Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw did the only thing he could do with an 18-inch battleship gun pointed squarely at his head:
Offer to play the game in Annapolis.
“Yeah, that’s the ticket,” Navy said.
Navy has a distinct advantage at home. The Middies have a fan who blows whistles when Navy ballcarriers are seemingly stopped, yet the fan never gets kicked out of the stadium and game officials feign deafness around him. He’s the guy who blew a whistle three times while Temple defenders stopped a ballcarrier on fourth and goal, only to see the guy get off the ground and run into the end zone with the officials signaling touchdown and Temple coaches yelling, “what the fu*k?” The whistle caused Al Golden to run onto the field and scream to officials after the bogus score. Temple players stopped tackling the Navy guy for fear of being called for a penalty, only to see the Navy guy score after the whistle. He’s the guy talked about in a response to this well-written post, page down to an answer by Navy72, on a Navy fan website. (He’s a skinny guy with brown hair and a moustache, and last year parked his backside across the aisle from a group of Temple fans in the end zone. If you see him blow one whistle, please point him out to security this Saturday.)
Yet there is irony in this situation this year.

Getting the Owls out of here at this time can only help them do what they need to do, focus on the task at hand

The irony is that Navy might have done Temple an inadvertent favor.
I mean, did Navy know the World Series would be played in Philadelphia that day?
No.
The Phillies are playing that day in Philadelphia and the city is crazed right now.
Everything else in sports is an afterthought, even the Eagles.
All of the parking lots around both stadiums will be all Phillies red all day long.
Getting the Owls out of here at this time can only help them do what they need to do, focus on the task at hand. This is an important game between two teams who have won five straight games. The winner, especially if it’s Temple, will get sorely needed recognition on a national scale.
It’s was a dirty trick Navy played, no doubt.
If the Owls get a win, though, it will be a delicious treat.

02.19.09
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Temple vs. Villanova? This means War


Al Golden (left) accepts surrender sword from Andy Talley after game.
By Mike Gibson
I have to admit I was more than a little nervous when the renewal of the Villanova-Temple football series was announced three years ago.
Geez, I thought then as I do now, Andy Talley is a pretty good coach.
On days when it is not playing Temple, Villanova is my second-favorite college team (Penn is the third favorite, as you can see, I like local college football) and I know Talley’s coaching style as well as any outsider.
I’m one of those rare individuals who walk into a bar and ask them to put on Villanova-Delaware when Temple’s not playing.
Talley can flat-out coach and, quite frankly, a young guy like Al Golden probably is overmatched against him.
I figured that whatever talent advantage Golden could get could be nullified the crafty old field General.
Today, three years later, I am more convinced than ever that Talley is probably a better game coach than Al Golden is and that’s no insult to Al Golden.
Talley is probably a better game day coach than 90 percent of the other guys out there. He’s just found a niche a ‘Nova and loves it so much he never wanted to go anywhere else. Talley loves the Philadelphia area and he doesn’t throw his name into the ring whenever any higher-profile opening becomes available.
There’s a lot to admire about that.
He’s good. Real good.
As convinced as I am about that, I’m even more convinced than ever about this:
By 10 p.m. or so, on Thursday night, Sept. 3, 2009, Temple will walk off the field a 20-point or so winner over Villanova.
Or thereabouts.
At least.
Say, 34-13.
I’m writing that on Feb. 19 with the full knowledge someone will clip it, save it and show it to me on Sept. 4.
I hope it’s to tell me that I should have had more confidence in our defense.
I’m concerned about Villanova having 16 starters back from a 10-3 team.
I’m concerned about the mental advantage Talley has over Golden, concerned that Villanova has two quarterbacks, Chris Whitney and Antwan Young, who have been more productive on the college level than anyone Temple currently has, but nonetheless but mark it down.
Golden will beat Talley.
Temple will beat Villanova.
This Epiphany came to me not in a dream but as a result of some deep football and war games thinking developed recently.
I’m a football and a Civil War nut and I’ll make this analogy.
Andy Talley is Robert E. Lee and Al Golden is Grant The Butcher.
You know how that turned out.
Robert E. Lee had the strategy part down pat. He could maneuver circles around most Union generals, who were afraid of a growing body count and were too timid to attack the smaller Army of Northern Virginia.
Then Grant came along, correctly figured he had more men and materials than Lee and would just keep throwing those men and that material at Lee until he wore him out.
Body count be damned.
So he was called Grant T. Butcher.
I checked the signing list the Daily News had on Feb. 4 for Villanova. Twelve guys.
I checked the signing list the Daily News had on Feb. 4 for Temple. Twenty-eight guys, with 15 additional redshirts eligible for a grand total of 43 newcomers (or 40).
Additionally, Temple, the best I can tell, has 21 guys on a roster of 105 capable running in the neighborhood of a 4.5 40-yard dash, counting defensive backs, running backs and wide receivers.

Now if Golden was William Tecumseh Sherman (the guy who burned Atlanta), he’d be up 54-9 with a minute left and calling timeouts trying to get to 60.
It won’t happen, but oh how I wish Golden becomes Sherman that night.

Villanova has four on a roster about half as large.
Grant had a plan. Now Golden’s plan is coming to fruition.
His plan has been a simple one: Keep bringing in high-quality talent and then call in the reserves. For the first time last year, he was able to redshirt 15 guys.
That’s a pretty nice force in reserve.
With 20 less scholarships for football, Villanova doesn’t have that luxury.
Golden, like Grant, will keep throwing bodies at Villanova.
Bigger, faster, meaner, leaner, bodies.
As Joe Paterno has said, “Temple doesn’t have any fat guys.”
Yes, both teams play 11 guys at a time but when Temple’s guys are bigger, faster, stronger across the board it’s not really that fair a fight.
That’s OK with me because it eases my nervousness about Talley’s impact on the game. He could win a quarter or two but, by the third at the latest, both lines will be overwhelming the Villanova lines on a fairly consistent basis.
The ‘Cats won’t be able to block Mark D’Onofrio’s defense and they will be largely ineffective against Temple’s offense because the Owls could have an athletic line that averages 300 pounds across the front. That’s a lot of big, gaping holes for a 4.4-40 guy like James Nixon or a 4.5-40 guy like Kee-Ayre Griffin to run through.
It could get ugly, but it won’t because Golden, like Grant, will graciously accept Talley’s sword at the end of the game and kneel on the ball rather than run it up.
Now if Golden was William Tecumseh Sherman (the guy who burned Atlanta), he’d be up 54-9 with a minute left and calling timeouts trying to get to 60.
It won’t happen, but oh how I wish Golden becomes Sherman that night.
Hell, this is War and War is Hell.
Or at least it should be for Villanova.

12.09.08
by

Adam DiMichele: We may never see his like again

Adam DiMichele's fake kneeldown at the end of the first half at Navy that ended in a long-bomb touchdown to Bruce Francis will always be remembered as one of the greatest Temple plays of all time.

Adam DiMichele’s fake kneeldown at the end of the first half at Navy that ended in a long-bomb touchdown to Bruce Francis will always be remembered as one of the greatest Temple plays of all time.

Adam DiMichele will be missed by all Temple fans.

By Mike Gibson
OK, I’ll be the first to admit it.
I’ve been spoiled for the past three years.
I’ve never once wished for a quarterback change at Temple University when No. 13 was on the field.
The thought never even entered my head.
Not once.


It’s hard to
put your
finger on
it, but I
knew from
the first time
I saw Adam
DiMichele
in a Temple
uniform that
he was the
perfect quarterback
for me and my team.

“I love that kid,” I said to my friend, Mark, during the 28-14 win over Bowling Green three years ago.
“You have to,” Mark said. “Who wouldn’t love Adam DiMichele?”
Nothing kinky, mind you, but I love him as a (very) older brother or as a proud father.
Quarterback is a very strange position.
You either have it or you don’t.
It’s hard to put your finger on it, but I knew from the first time I saw Adam DiMichele in a Temple uniform that he was the perfect quarterback for me and my team.
He had all the qualities I ever wanted in a quarterback:
Arm?
Check.
Heart?
Check.
Courage?
Check.
Overlaping skills like moxie, determination, leadership?
Check, check, check.
Athleticism, escapability?
Check, check.
I made the list in my head and could put an emphatic checkmark next to each wonderful quality under Adam DiMichele’s name.
Check, check, check, check, check.

I slumped back in my seat. All these years of asking why the other team always had a better quarterback than Temple were over.

Wow.
I slumped back in my seat. All these years of asking why the other team always had a better quarterback than Temple were over.
There were other problems, but I was always confident in my quarterback.
For sure, there were similar stretches in other years, like when Walter Washington came or Henry Burris was here but not three years like this.
I don’t remember ever having three years of this level of confidence in the leader on the field.
I knew those days would be over once and now they are.
I don’t have that same level of confidence anymore.
I don’t know if I ever will.
I’ve never yelled from my seat in the stands for some kid to be pulled from the game, but I will admit I thought a few times it might be a better idea for Chester Stewart to sit and watch the Homecoming Day game from the bench and let Vaughn Charlton have a shot.
After the 7-3 loss to Western Michigan and after Stewart missed a wide-open Bruce Francis by 10 yards for what would have been a third time, I saw enough.
As I walked into the concourse, the first person I saw was Vaughn Charlton.
Not the kid, the dad.
“They should have burned the redshirt,” I said.

I wasn’t looking for a response nor did I get one. I just walked away, knowing that a precious game was frittered away.
The most important position on the field is quarterback and I would have liked to see how a year older and wiser Vaughn Charlton would have responded to the challenge at a time his team needed him the most, after DiMichele went down.
I didn’t see it. All I know is that, right now, I can’t picture either Vaughn Charlton or Chester Stewart throwing six touchdowns in a game, like Adam DiMichele did two weeks ago.
I don’t know if either one of them has the qualities down the line that Adam DiMichele does.
I hope they do, but hope doesn’t get me to a bowl game.

On the other hand, DiMichele came to Temple as the WPIAL’s all-time passing leader and, in his senior year alone at Sto-Rox, tossed 36 touchdown passes for 2,706 yards.
Charlton’s senior year at Avon Grove?
Nine TD passes, 1,337 yards.
Stewart’s senior high school numbers were slightly better than Charlton’s but not half as good as DiMichele’s: 72 for 134, 1,348 yards and 17 touchdowns.
What was that coach Bill Parcells said?
“You are what your record says you are.”
Well, with quarterbacks, you pretty much are what your stats say you are.
Adam DiMichele proved that. So did every other previous great Temple quarterback.
None of them came here and achieved at a high level without doing the same exact thing in high school or JUCO ball. Walter Washington (Jacksonville Mainland), Burris (Spiro, Okla.), Matty Baker (Central York), Brian Broomell (Sterling, N.J.) and Steve Joachim (Haverford High) and Doug Shobert (Central Bucks) were big-time high school superstars.

So was Adam DiMichele. It’s a good blueprint to look for when Temple recruits its next-great quarterback.

11.29.08
by

So much for the MAC "experts"

Temple players, in a classy move, thank the fans after the final game.

By Mike Gibson
I dreaded going into the final two games with a loss to lowly Kent State because there’s really nothing satisfying to me about finishing with a losing record.
You can say that five wins this year, compared to four last year, is progress but I never really saw it that way.
I expected a win and wanted to taste a win, but I didn’t expect to be satisfied walking out of the stadium in a season that has been, to me, mostly disheartening.
Satisfaction is what I got, though.
Not with the season, but with the 27-6 win over Akron. This was a Zips’ team which won at Syracuse, 42-28, and lost to Big East power Cincinnati, 17-15.
For the first time since Bruce Arians, the Owls scored more points in a season than they got scored upon them.
For the first time since Jerry Berndt, they won as many as five games.



Muhammed Wilkerson does what the Owls should have done to Drew Willy at Buffalo on the last play: Get in the QB’s face.
(Akron Beacon-Journal photo)

The part of me who was disheartened with the season was also heartened by watching the Owls celebrate afterward.
They stood and participated in a raucous rendition of “T for Temple U” only to see Bruce Francis, in my estimation the greatest Temple receiver of all time, sent in the direction of a ladder in front of the band by coach Al Golden.
Francis then climbed to the top rung of the ladder and directed the band for a “T For Temple U” encore.
The team and the thousands of Temple fans who remained afterward to soak it all in went nuts.
I couldn’t help but thinking then that these kids deserved much more than 5-7 and played much better, much better, than any 5-7 team in the country. Had their braintrust showed a little better on-the-fly decision-making skills, these team could have been 9-3.
That’s all that was needed.
Not luck. Not Devine intervention. Just good, sensible, late-game, decision-making.
I chalk it up to Golden learning on the job.
He’s a smart-enough guy that he won’t make those same mistakes a second time.
But they came at a hard price for these wonderful kids who represented Temple University so well.
So the win was satisfying for in some respects but nowhere near as satisfying as this:
Almost all of the MAC so-called experts picked Temple to finish fifth in the MAC East.
No one picked Temple to finish second, but that’s just where the Owls finished in the final Mid-American Conference standings, in a second-place tie with Bowling Green.
That, to me, was satisfying.
Not as satisfying as a winning season would have been, but satisfying.
Don’t expect any of these “experts” to pick Temple to finish above fourth place next year, though. All but one of the MAC beat writers who participated in a pre-season poll picked Temple to finish fifth in the MAC East. (Seems like they were all copying off the other’s guys paper.)
Their blinding loyalty to the “old-line” MAC teams and their hatred of newcomer Temple obscures anything close to journalistic integrity.
The fact that they have been exposed as frauds today is, well, satisfying.
There’s no other word for it.