Category Archives: Temple football

11.13.08
by

Final two home games: Plenty of (empty) seats available

This could very well be a shot of halftime at the EMU game.

By Mike Gibson
Before the season started, I wrote that it was important for Temple to get off to a good start so that the product on the field reflected the hype off of it.
At the time, I said that a fan base beaten down for so long needed tangible evidence that wins were going to come in the first part of the season so that they could buy into the product for the last part of the season.
And, I said, close losses were not going to cut it.
So where are we after 10 games, after giving up 600 yards of total offense to a 2-7 Kent State team in a 41-38 loss last night?
Three-and-seven, that’s where.
That’s the bottom line.
This season, in which a lot of Owl fans thought would end in a feast, is pretty much over. All that’s left is crumbs.
What this team needs, right now, is a big-time, ready-to-play, no-excuses, All-American JUCO quarterback to replace the great Adam DiMichele next year. It would be nice to find someone with all of the intangible qualities ADM possesses, but I’ll settle for someone with half his moxie if he has all of his mobility. Surely, some hotshot can be convinced he can come here and get time right away.
Will we get him?
Let history be your guide:
At the end of last season, I wrote that we needed three things in particular to get better:

  • A big-time fullback (I suggested Serra Catholic’s Isiah Jackson);
  • A big-time kicker (I suggested Hun School’s Scott Demler);
  • A big-time running back;

Well, we got the running back but we had him playing cornerback until midway through the season.
Hmm. I wonder whose fault was that?
We decided to go without the first two and, much to my chagrin, that probably cost us quite a few valuable points.
Three-and-seven.

This was
supposed to be
a season of
progress, a season
that saw the 4-8
team of a year ago
jump into the 6-,
7- or 8-win
category. Not
an unrealistic
leap of faith …

An incredible disappointment of a season that will no doubt be punctuated by 60,000 empty seats for the final two home games.
No doubt.
And, quite frankly, I don’t blame a single fan for walking away.
I can’t do it because I want so badly for Temple to succeed.
So I will drive to the stadium for the final two home games, open the car door and walk into the stadium.
Many more will protest by taking their feet and walking in the opposite direction.
That’s their prerogative.
This was supposed to be a season of progress, a season that saw the 4-8 team of a year ago jump into the six-, seven- or eight-win category.
Not an unrealistic leap of faith since said team had 21 of 22 starters returning and, by most accounts, the No. 1 MAC recruiting class for three seasons in a row and a defense that was ranked No. 1 in the MAC was returning intact.
None of the teams Temple would play in the league had 21 of 22 starters back and none of them had the No. 1 recruiting class for three straight years. None of them had the No. 1 defense in the league returning.
Six wins was a minimum and not overly optimistic benchmark given that backdrop.
If this staff could coach at all, that’s what they would deliver this win-starved fan base.

If this staff
could coach at all,
that’s what they
would deliver this
win-starved fan
base. Tangible
progress in terms
of wins, not
points, not close
losses, not net
yield. Wins.

Tangible progress in terms of wins, not points, not close losses, not net yield.
Wins.
There are plenty of things disappointing about the season, but none more than the head coach’s failure to take the blame for anything.
It’s ultimately his responsibility that the team lost games, particularly crucial decisions he did or did not make in UConn, Buffalo and Navy games but, to him, it’s always someone else’s fault.
It’s the kid who didn’t knock the ball down’s fault in the Buffalo game. Never mind that he gave that kid no help when he let the Buffalo quarterback run around for eight seconds before throwing the ball. A jailhouse blitz probably would have ended the game four seconds sooner in Temple’s favor. Bruce Arians had the courage to do just that to win a game against Rutgers in 1988.
Geez, it’s not his fault that he went for a first down at his own 34 in a tie game against UConn.
And, surely, it wasn’t his fault for not punting in the Navy game. It was some 19-year-old kid’s fault for not wrapping the ball up.
Going into the Kent game we were told that “I’ve seen leadership like never before” after the Navy debacle.
Yet where did that leadership get them?
Another loss.
That’s some damn good leadership right there.
I’d rather have crappy leadership and more wins, quite frankly.
And at least a coach who might take responsibility for something that didn’t go quite right.
Or everything that didn’t go right.
I won’t hold my breath.

10.09.08
by

Why the MAC hates Temple

By Mike Gibson
I’m always wary of people I don’t know patting me on the back.
It’s those people who I always meet with an askanse eye, checking to see if there’s a knife in the other hand.
I learned this lesson as it relates to Temple football early in the season, as early as late August.



Dan LeFevour
in front of a billboard
of himself

After a few visits to the MAC bulletin board, a healthy number of posters wished Temple good luck against Army and, by the way, come back with a win.
Nobody mentioned that Army was a bad team in any of those 37 posts.
Yet, after Temple beat Army, 35-7, a roughly equal number of posts all carried this troubling theme:
“Good win against Army but, let’s face it, that’s the worst Army team we’ve seen in years.”
Why?
Because it lost to Temple, 35-7?
Obviously, that was the unsaid message.
Nobody is saying that any more because it really carries no weight, not after what Army did to Tulane (44-13) in New Orleans this past weekend.
Let’s face it: The rest of the MAC, with notable exceptions such as Karl Smith of PhillyBurbs.com, hates Temple.
Or at least a good sizeable portion of the MAC fanbase dislikes the Owls.
They mitigate anything good the Owls have done by saying “yeah, but.” After Army, it was “yeah but” and after Miami it was “yeah but.”
I respect a guy like Joe Paterno of Penn State a lot more. Not only does he slam the Big East refs for costing the Owls two games against UConn, he says his team’s 45-3 win would have been “a lot closer” had “the DiMichele kid not been knocked out so early. I feel sorry for Temple.”
You know Joe means what he says.
There are two guys running MAC websites who have NEVER picked the Owls in a game against another MAC team, yet the Owls have won two MAC games on the road and more at home in the last three years.
“Temple should have beat
UConn. It completed a pass
on the first play of overtime
that took the ball down to the 1
and it was called back on a hold,
which was a bad, bad, bad call.”
_Penn State coach Joe Paterno
on his statewide radio show

It’s not logic. It’s hate. Or an intense dislike.
The motive is simple.
Nobody wants a ex-BCS team kicked out of a BCS conference coming in and dominating a league known for some pretty good football.
Nobody wants a team carrying a bad “brand name” like Temple carrying the conference’s championship trophy around Ford Field come December. It doesn’t matter that the Temple they are thinking about is the “same old Temple” and not the group of Grade A recruits hauled in by Al Golden the past three seasons.
That’s why I’m wary about this week’s game at Central Michigan.

Let’s hope for a clean,
well-played, game decided
by the kids on the field
and not the adults
wearing prison outfits

Not only do the Owls have to deal with the league’s best healthy quarterback, Dan LeFevour, they have to deal with refs who have that built-in mindset.
It was manifested last year in a home game against Northern Illinois when one side judge called 10 of the 11 penalties, almost all bogus, against the Owls in a 16-15 win.
It was manifested against visiting Western Michigan a couple of weeks ago when the MAC supervisor of officials apologized to Temple for calling a sideline interference call on the Owls’ coaches after Temple got a crucial third-down stop and was able to force WMU to punt in the fourth quarter.
The guy who called the sideline interference call? Same guy as in the NIU game. He should be fired or at least investigated.
Good officiating means never having to say you’re sorry. It’s gotten so ridiculous at times this year that every time Temple makes a big play or scores a touchdown, I expect to see a flag.
This kid LeFevour is really good. Central Michigan purchased a billboard (pictured) of him and put it in the middle of the Detroit stadium complex. He’s a load to worry about on his own, playing for a good team. I don’t want to worry about him AND the officials, yet two days before the game that’s just what I’m worrying about.
Let’s hope for a clean, well-played, game decided by the kids on the field and not the adults wearing prison outfits.

What they’re saying about the Owls:
… “They out-physicaled us up front. It’s really the first time we’ve come out of a game feeling like we didn’t control the line of scrimmage. Even Nebraska, we kind of thought was a wash.” _ Western Michigan coach Bill Cubitt talking about Temple…

… “I was told by a lot of people before the game that Temple is really good but, man, this team has all kinds of weapons.” _ Ohio News Network sports director Andy Raskin during the telecast of Temple vs. Miami on ESPN360.com…

…”What my Owls have done this year–and I will call them ‘my Owls’ because I’ve been on this team since the beginning–is sensational considering they lost their starting quarterback. … Maybe people are starting to realize that this is one of the top defenses in the country.” _ Vegas handicapper Robert Ferringo…

…”They have high-caliber athletes all over the place. That’s the hardest-hitting team we’ve played all year. I’ve never been this beat up after a game.” _ Western Michigan offensive guard Phil Swanson…

…”It was just two great teams. Both Temple and us have made great strides and I don’t think there are two better teams in our league than us and them.” _ Buffalo tight end Jesse Rack, after a Hail Mary pass beat Temple, 30-28, at the buzzer…

09.04.08
by

Having a cow over Hurricane Hanna


Photo by Hippoears
I’m having a cow about this Hurricane Hanna.
I just looked at the latest projected path of the Hurricane and it places the strength of the thing right over Lincoln Financial Field, right at the noon kickoff for Saturday’s much-ballyhooed game against visiting UConn.
That stinks.
It really does.
The Eagles, who don’t deserve a crowd, will get 70,000 the next day under sunny weather and 86 degree temperatures.
Temple, which needed everything to go right to get a crowd of 30K, won’t get half of that because of a Monsoon with a capital M and winds projected to be 20-30 mph.
That’s a shame and a crime.
And it’s sad.
It feeds into the stereotype of “nobody goes, nobody cares” which may have been true under the last coaching regime, but does not apply now.
Unless there’s a Hurricane.
The talk on WIP won’t be of a great college football atmosphere or a great college football game, but of how Temple and UConn ruined the Eagles’ precious field.
That’s beyond sad.
Sure, the diehards like myself will be there, wearing a Temple game jersey over a parka if necessary but the casual fan, what Thomas Paine once called “summer patriots and sunshine soldiers” won’t.
No amount of my pleading to get them there will matter.

    So the checklist before going out the door on Saturday:

  • Parka
  • Tickets
  • Beer
  • Roster
  • Radio
  • Binoculars
  • Goulashes
  • Rubbers
  • Umbrella (for the tailgate)
  • Let’s Go Temple sign (in cellophane)

Let’s just get a win.