Category Archives: Temple football

07.28.24
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Artificial intelligence or pure logic?

Must admit I was fooled when a friend of mine sent me a message Sunday afternoon that had former President Barack Obama’s voice endorsing Temple Football Forever.

It sounded so real I was convinced for almost a full 60 seconds.

Then a few seconds later, he let me know it was AI-generated.

Who knew the technology would be this good? (I’ve heard AI-generated voices before but they always seemed a little off. Obama’s was spot on.)

Artificial intelligence hasn’t checked on what it thinks Temple’s record will be in 2024 but the pure logic so far isn’t optimistic.

Vegas has the over/under for Temple at 2.5 wins, which means a $100 bet on the over gets you only a measly five bucks ($105 payout) if Temple goes the same abysmal 3-9 this year it had for the prior three years.

Had to laugh when someone said five wins would be a successful season.

It won’t in my mind and should not be in anyone else’s mind. Matt Rhule went from 2-10 in his first season to 6-6 in his second and that’s what Stan Drayton should have done last season, not this one. Stan has to make up for going sideways in Year Two.

Now he must find a way to get to 6-6 or better by hook or crook.

One way would be to get a quarterback who has done something on the FBS or FCS level in here ASAP. I don’t think that’s happening. By doing something, I’m not talking about six career interceptions versus four career touchdown passes in the Big 10. What would it look like?

A FCS guy with 20 TD passes vs. 10 INTs or a New Mexico Bowl MVP from the 2022 season.

Both guys with those credentials are still in the portal, yet the brain trust at the Edberg-Olson facility is sitting on their hands.

What are they waiting for?

Peyton Manning’s kid to shake free?

It’s not going to happen.

So right now, simple logic dictates it won’t be a good season.

One running of the EA Sports game had Temple beating Oklahoma, 14-10, and we ran a trailer on that game in our last post.

Maybe that can be considered AI.

If Temple wins, 14-10, that will surpass my being blown away by how the same friend made Obama’s voice sound.

From his lips to God’s ears.

07.26.24
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So you’re telling me there’s a chance?

Since I had a couple of teeth extracted on Thursday, my literal grasping of straws has taken a doctor’s ordered week hiatus.

They say that you can’t drink anything through a straw because the “sucking motion” impedes healing.

The dentist didn’t say anything about grasping for figurative straws, which I’ve been doing for most of the last couple days after watching Temple head coach Stan Drayton’s performance at this week’s AAC Media Day Extravaganza.

The one biggest straw is the fact that Drayton has one scholarship remaining in his pocket and is holding it as a wild card for someone currently in the transfer portal who can immediately help the Temple football program.

All I could think about is that one Jim Carrey meme: “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?”

I don’t want Drayton’s ace in the hole to be used for anything other than a starting quarterback. There are a few left in the portal who still haven’t found a home if one shakes free, there’s a pretty good chance that guy is better than any guy who has been at the E-O facility over the last seven months.

Any real success that Temple will have this year will depend on how Drayton uses that one remaining scholarship and whether he is able to talk an upgrade into coming to Philadelphia.

Drayton hit on some themes he’s always hit on and, while that sounded nice, it’s not as important as upgrading the quarterback room. He talked about the No. 1 thing being that the players love one another and know each other “well enough” to hold everyone in the room accountable.

Whatever.

Those are things that he’s talked about for the past two years and all that’s gotten him is a couple of 3-9 seasons.

So the biggest thing he said was that he was holding a scholarship for an impact player. There is no more impactful player on any team’s roster than a quarterback.

If he’s not able to grasp that last straw and turn it into pixie dust, watching the Owls probably will be as painful as getting a couple of teeth pulled and any sucking motions will be reserved for a three-hour period every weekend.

07.21.24
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Last in the American for a reason

Long before Wayne Hardin coached Temple, he was a guest on What’s My Line?

The great sportswriter Charles Dryden once dropped this line about Washington, D.C. in 1904:

“First in War, First in Peace and last in the American League.”

(He was referring to the Washington Senators back then.)

Except for the War and Peace part, you could say the same thing about Temple football Monday and Tuesday as the American Conference holds a two-day football media extravaganza.

It’s pretty hard to get everyone in any field to agree on anything but the assembled media has agreed on one thing:

Temple is the worst team in the “American League.”

While a slight bit of hope could gleaned from the fact four of the five recent last-place picks didn’t actually finish in last, it’s not a good look for Temple with a little over a month to go before the opening kickoff.

Temple is picked last for a reason and, a lot of the writers who cover the league have been looking around and seeing what teams were most aggressive in the transfer portal and which were not.

While Temple did add a lot of quantity in the portal, the perception is that the quality is lacking. Temple went after a good share of JUCOs while the rest of the league scoured the FCS ranks for established starters or at least took a good look at P5 (now P4) backups who made some noise when they were in a tougher player group.

The Temple Board of Trustees once paid a Princely sum to bring Pop Warner from Stanford to Philadelphia.

Temple has one of those players in running back Antwain Littleton II. Almost all of the Owls’ fellow league members have four or five of those type players.

Also it doesn’t help that the school is coming off an unacceptable stretch of 1-6, 3-9, 3-9, and 3-9 seasons.

Perception has been a problem at Temple for awhile now. A school that was able to hire one of the best coaches in college football, Pop Warner, once followed that up 40 years later when it hired one of the best coaches in college football then in Wayne Hardin (see his appearance as the “new” Navy coach on What’s My Line? above).

Making that kind of investment paid off handsomely for Temple both times as Warner got the Owls in the Sugar Bowl and Hardin secured the first bowl win ever for the school.

Now, all Temple can afford is a running backs’ coach who will spend the better part of the next two days explaining why the perception of football at the school has plummeted to the bottom.

You get what you pay for.

Friday: The Answers

07.18.24
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5 Questions that need to be asked at Media Day (but won’t)

A little over a month until this happens … or not

For about six months, five questions about Temple football have been rattling about in my head.

I expected some to be asked after the Cherry and White Day game by the assembled Philadelphia media, but did not hear a single one.

Maybe next week as AAC Media Day is July 22-23 in Texas.

Stan Drayton will be there.

I suggest the biggest stress that came from two Stan Drayton 3-9 seasons was not on Stan but on the Temple fans who were expecting him to better Rod Carey’s last 3-9 season.

I don’t expect the Philadelphia media to ask him one of these questions (they’ve pretty much kissed his ass for three years) but since I won’t be there, I hope some of the AAC Media does.

The key to asking good questions is the phrase them in a way that cannot be answered with a yes or no so, with that in mind, here are my top five:

One, you seemed to have gotten what you needed in Clifton McDowell, a proven championship level FCS starting quarterback. After he left, why wasn’t there an attempt to grab a proven FCS or FBS starter–instead relying on backups to replace a Temple record-setter at the most important position on the team?

Everett Withers gave up 35.7 ppg last year. He was retained.

Two, at the end of last season, you said you’d re-evaluate everything in the program, including the coaching staff. How is it that a defensive coordinator who allowed a record 35.7 ppg be evaluated as having done the kind of job that suggested he be retained?

Three, in the transfer portal, you seemed to have gone heavy on JUCOs and light on proven FCS starters and P5 backups. What was the thought process behind that approach?

Four, in the three years you’ve been here, you’ve seen five single-digit Temple players leave for other schools. One solution might be to limit those single digit honors to players who are in their final year of eligibility at Temple? Why have you not implemented that rule?

Five, the NIL and the transfer portal have changed the game but other schools with similar or less resources than Temple have been able to attract a higher-level of player with the promise of playing time. Why haven’t the Owls leveraged that advantage?

Important questions that have not yet been asked but need to be answered. If not by the press, then at least by the new Temple administration. Surely there has got to be one press guy with the courage to ask these questions next week.

We’ll find out.

Monday: Setting The Table With Honest Answers

Friday: Analyzing The Real Answers

07.14.24
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Hidden Figures: Some Temple coaching gems

A YouTube channel called Temple special teams coach Adam Schierer a genius.

One of my favorite movies of the last decade was Hidden Figures about a group of women whose mathematical genius contributed to the success of the space program.

Watching that movie last week got me thinking about some of the “Hidden Figures” on the Temple coaching staff who might contribute to any of the success the Owls might have this season.

Adam Scheier was the lead recruiter in getting Maddux Trujillo and some Australian punters in here.

Three coaches immediately come to mind: Temple special teams coach Adam Scheier, running backs coach Tyree Foreman and Temple offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan.

Wiesehan we’ve known for a while. He was an accomplished offensive line and tight ends coach for both Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins here. The players from two different Temple eras raved about him and, for what we know from the people inside the E-O, Wiesehan isn’t only considered the most accomplished coach in the building but also the most personable.

The pleasant surprise has been Scheier, though, who has fit the Temple culture quite nicely.

Knowing that the placekicking and kickoffs have been a problem, Scheier was at the forefront of trying to get someone who could solve the problem by being a lead recruiter of Maddox Trujillo, who made 38 of 52 field goal attempts.

Tyree Foreman is a well-respected coach with a solid background of winning at Temple.

Trujillo wasn’t a part of spring practice but Carl Hardin was and his kickoffs were, by all accounts, the best we’ve seen at Temple Austin Jones was here. Jones made 17 field goals in a row at Temple and was a victim of a cheap shot against Memphis, only for Aaron “Boomer” Bouhmeri to do a great job subbing for Jones in the 2016 championship year.

Now, with Scheier leading the way and a kicking corps that includes Trujilo and Hardin, that part of the game figures to be in good hands.

Also the offensive line under Wiesehan appears to be better, as does the running game under former Temple RB coach Tyree Foreman.

Will it be enough to overcome the deficiencies of the defensive coaching staff and the CEO who refused to get a big-time quarterback in here?

Since all the holes have not been plugged, that’s certainly a concern but it is nice to know that at least three important areas of the 2024 Owls have not only better personnel but proven leadership on a micro level.

Three math geniuses were enough to help lift the space program off the ground. Hopefully, Temple’s version of Hidden Figures devises out an equation to bypass the obvious deficiencies on one side of the ball.

Friday: AAC Media Day

07.11.24
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Bobby Harrington: Losing an All-World Person

Stan Drayton with Bobby Harrington talking about matching shirts at last month’s golf outing.

The last time I saw Bobby Harrington was at the Navy at Temple game and he walked up to me in Lot K and said: “Mike, we’re going to win this one. I have no doubt.”

“I don’t know, Bobby, Navy is pretty good.”

“Trust me. We’re winning this.”

Temple won, 34-16.

Haason Reddick with Bobby at last year’s Cherry and White game.

I didn’t get to see him after the game but messaged him on Facebook to congratulate him for being right.

“I just had a feeling,” he responded.

I had a feeling I would seeing Bobby Harrington again. His feeling was right. Mine was wrong.

A couple of days ago I woke up and saw a post on Facebook with a photo of Bobby holding a fish and a comment that said something to the effect that someone in the photo was in Heaven.

I assumed it was the fish. Later, I learned it was Bobby.

Hard to process that because, to me, Bobby Harrington was healthier than 90 percent of the people I know.

They must have meant someone else.

He worked out at the Swarthmore College track every day.

I will probably still be processing on opening day when I look around and he’s not in Lot K.

I posted on twitter that Harrington was a backup linebacker at Temple but an All-World person and I meant it. A walk-on at Temple, he worked his way from the scout team to second-team linebacker for both Bruce Arians and Jerry Berndt. While he wore No. 51 in his freshman year, he changed his number to 55 for the last three years and was known as 55 to most people.

His story is pretty well-known. He was addicted to drugs once but clean and sober for more than the last dozen years. He dedicated his life to helping people with similar problems cross the other side into a clean and sober life.

Who knows how many people he helped but it must have been in the thousands.

Knowing Bobby was an All-Catholic at Monsignor Bonner, I introduced him to another former All-Catholic quarterback, Bishop Egan’s Tony Russo, at one Cherry and White tailgate. Mr. Russo is the father of Anthony Russo, the fourth-leading passer in Owls’ history.

The two immediately hit it off and had a great conversation about Catholic League football that left my jaw open.

That’s the effect Bobby Harrington had on everyone, though.

To meet him the first time was to be his friend for life.

Bobby was always at Cherry and White, always at the practices reserved for football alumni and even made the golf outing last month.

He loved Temple football and Temple loved him back. He had a way to connect with the current players most alumni don’t and always looked at things positively.

Hopefully, he will be sending positive vibes to this year’s Owls from above he will “have a feeling” about a lot of Temple wins in 2024.

Monday: Hidden Figures

07.07.24
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5 Newcomers who could make a difference

It’s “Manheim Central” not “Mana” heim Central but these are RU educated people, not Temple.

Not a single Temple fan is holding up 128 fingers (120 borrowed) and saying “we’re No. 128” but that’s what Athlon Sports has the Owls ranked for the upcoming season.

Evan Simon during a spring game for Rutgers.

Sobering indeed, especially considering there are only 130 FBS teams.

The numbers other than 128 aren’t all that encouraging, either.

Temple had the No. 1 passer in the league in yards per game (E.J. Warner) but he’s at another team in the same conference now.

On defense, Temple was last in forced turnovers.

SO, if a difference is to be made, it’s only logical that it will come from the newcomers and not the guys who are left behind.

Since there doesn’t seem to be a newcomer at the quarterback position other than Rutgers’ transfer Evan Simon, we’re going to have to be happy with what we have.

Thanks to Stan Drayton, we have no choice.

Here are the five newcomers who could be impact players for Temple this year:

One, running back Antwain Littleton. When I make an argument that the Temple running game is going to be the best it has been since Ray Davis, people ask me about the offensive line. I think the offensive is going to be at least as good as last year but, if you look at Littleton, at 6-1, 245, he’s an offensive line all by himself. Those aggravating times where we saw Edward Saydee lose balance on a 3d and 1 and fall short of a first down are probably over.

Two, quarterback Simon himself. If Forrest Brock, who was a large part of the reason Temple crapped the bed in a 55-0 loss to SMU last year, beats out Simon for the starting job, we will know what we suspected. Simon stinks. If, on the other hand, Simon clearly beats out Brock, maybe a horse racing analogy comes into play. Those of us who follow that sport know a Grade 3 horse who drops into an Allowance Optional Claiming race usually is a good bet. In this case, the Big 10 is a graded stakes while the AAC is an Allowance Optional Claiming race. Maybe those six interceptions against four touchdowns in the Big 10 translates to 12 and 4 on the good side in the AAC. Let’s face it. He’s not going to put up the numbers Warner did but I will take 12 and 4 over Warner’s 23 and 14 any day of the week. I don’t think we will see it but Drayton probably does and he’s getting paid a lot more than I am. For his sake, I hope he’s right.

That’s a heckuva troll job by Torey Richardson after this interception.

Three, cornerback Torey Richardson. The UTEP transfer actually stopped some top wide receivers at that level and, for Temple fans who had to hide their eyes on every first pass of the game last season, there is a real expectation that those long completions will now be long incompletions.

Four, safety Andreas Keaton. The Western Carolina transfer has a chance to be a difference-maker in the turnover equation. In three years with the Catamounts, Keaton started all 33 games and totaled 184 tackles, five interceptions, and 14 pass breakups. “The main thing with Temple was the relationships,” Keaton said. “Temple came easy. They showed me a great time. It seemed like a family. It just felt right… no bad vibes, everything was cool. There was a brotherhood. They do a great job doing that.” Matt Rhule left Western Carolina to come to Temple so if Keaton does as well, the Owls should be OK. “The players invited me with open arms,” he said.

Five, wide receiver Ian Stewart. Calling him a newcomer would be a misnomer, but he’s been plagued with injuries all of his career so he’s basically a newcomer. If he plays up to the single digit he’s been given, Temple might have the best wide receiver trio in the league with Dante Wright and Zae Banes. He’s going to have to stay out of the injury tent.

Is the talent enough to go from three wins to six?

Not according to the outsiders who objectively look at things. The insiders seem OK with the talent level and they will be the ones who either suffer the consequences or reap the rewards.

Friday: Hidden Genius

07.04.24
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Business as usual: We’re back baby

In 1984, Time Magazine estimated Bill Cosby’s net worth at $368 million. That same year, Cosby went on the field and hid a flag that an official threw against Bruce Arians’ Temple team. Fortunately, the ref laughed.

Sometimes you have to read between the lines to get a real handle on what someone is saying.

Reading too much between the lines is dangerous but this we do know.

Temple’s new President, John Fry, is on the record as being anti-football. According to a recent article in Football Scoop, which shouted out Temple Football Forever and got Fry’s quotes from a Philadelphia Inquirer story, he’s now anti-football ONLY at places not named Temple.

Hmm.

In the story, Fry says “Temple has a proud football tradition” and he has “no plans to end football.” He also says he has “no preconceived notions” about football at Temple.

Thanks to Zach Barnett of Football Scoop for the shoutout.

So we’re back in business, baby, but on notice.

This is where the reading between the lines part comes into play.

The comment I felt particularly interesting was the “no preconceived notions” part.

The implications are when he does get here–and that will be after Drexel names a President–he will start having “conceived notions.”

I imagine if another 3-9 season or worse comes while Fry is on board he will start building those notions.

So Temple football is on notice. Start winning and make it snappy. I find it particularly interesting that Temple’s recruiting class for 2025 is good but what about 2024? To paraphrase Terrell Owens, “where is my quarterback?” because we can’t say for sure “that’s my quarterback.”

If 2024 is not a good one, there might not be a 2025. When the E-O is on fire, you don’t bring out a garden house to wet it down. You need the whole damn fire department or, in this case, the whole damn transfer portal.

Where’s the urgency to win now?

No more 3-9 seasons in the future because those will be conceived notions built on the foundation of two-straight 3-9 seasons before that and one 1-6 season before that.

The university is investing a lot of money in football and has seen little return on it since Geoff Collins used Matt Rhule’s players to post consecutive winning seasons. Since the university invested $17 million into the E-O and a couple more million on Collins’ salary, and maybe a couple more on support staff, that was an acceptable return on the investment.

Happy Birthday to Temple Sports Hall of Famer Al Golden. Not an exaggeration that he saved Temple football at a time it needed saving. Born 16 days before the first Moon landing.

Since then, what we have seen is unacceptable.

It would be impossible for Fry to do to Temple what Drexel did to itself when it eliminated football if Stan Drayton could meet that minimum standard.

Right now, that’s the $21 million question only to be answered by either Drayton or his next big boss.

Monday: Some roster additions

06.30.24
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Owls: Screwed, blued and tattooed

One more day. As a big fan of summer and long days, Monday is a sad day for me. The sunset has been 8:33 p.m. since June 22 and will be for one more day until Tuesday, when it's 8:32. Means it really didn't get dark until 9 for more than a week now.
Jason Wingard (left) soaked in the Temple football tailgates. New President John Fry probably won’t.

One more day.

As a big fan of summer and long days, Monday is a sad day for me.

The sunset has been 8:33 p.m. since June 22 and will be for one more day until Tuesday, when it’s 8:32. Means it really didn’t get dark until 9 for more than a week now.

New Temple President John Fry thinks schools should not have football.

Loved these last three months because I was looking forward to the days getting longer. The good news is that we really won’t notice it until the middle of July because we only lose three or so minutes until then but it’s sad nonetheless. The other good news is that hope springs eternal every year.

BOT chairman Mitchell Morgan sent a clear signal by hiring former big-time football player Jason Wingard as President and now he’s sending a similar message by hiring a football hater.

Worse news is that the sun seems to be setting on Temple football with the apparent hiring of John Fry as the new President and there might not be a spring, if not by 2025, certainly by 2026.

Temple football is blued, screwed and tattooed.

Screwed, we’ve known about for a while. That means “cheated” and the Owls–along with the other 63 fellow G5 members–have been cheated out of the big boys’ club by NCAA rulings favoring the larger P5 schools.

Blued, means lost or being robbed and that certainly applies to all the players Temple developed over the last half-decade or so only to see them move to other schools.

Tattooed refers here to a beating with very rapid blows, in the same sense as a military tattoo, which is a rapid pattern on a drum. That interpretation is correct in the sense that this pattern has repeated itself over the last few years with no remedy in sight.

So the phrase literally means cheated, robbed and beaten.

Does Temple continue to go down this dark alley year after year to get its figurative wallet stolen or lumps on the head or does it go in another direction?

The Temple BOT seems to have made its decision by hiring an anti-football guy in Fry, who wrote a noted editorial decrying schools who try to succeed in big-time football.

Contrast that with their last hire, a Stanford tight end who was a teammate with U.S. Senator (D-New Jersey) Cory Booker at that school.

The BOT seemed to put the football bus in drive with the Jason Wingard hire and back to neutral by going to old standby Dick Englert. With Fry, it’s in reverse.

The BOT micro-manages Temple and this is sending a clear signal to the fans that it prefers a David Adamany-type over a Jason Wingard-type given the current state of college football.

Otherwise, they would not have signed off on a football-hater.

One more day until the sun sets a little later is sad but nowhere near as sad as one, maybe two, years before the sun sets on Temple football for good.

July 4: Business as Usual

Monday: Roster Additions

06.27.24
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Temple beating Oklahoma is a habit about to be broken

There is also a town named Temple in Pennsylvania.

If you need a reason to believe Temple might come up with a victory in late August at Oklahoma, providing some historical perspective might help.

Or not.

In the 1940s, a one-win Temple team beat the Sooners, 14-7, at Temple Stadium as a defensive back named Woodhouse made the decisive play, an interception.

After the victory over Penn State, national defensive player of the year Tyler Matakevich and his teammates made a pilgrimage to an old folks home in Blue Bell to present the late Mr. Woodhouse with the game ball.

Woodhouse was also the last living Temple player to participate in the 1941 win over Penn State, which was the last time the Owls beat the Nittany Lions.

Almost a generation later, in the middle of the John Chaney basketball era, Temple beat Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament in Florida.

The difference between those times and these times is what will be the ruination of college sports.

Then, there was such a thing called “student/athletes” and everyone–from the No. 1-ranked team in college football to the last-ranked team in college basketball–could only “pay” their players with room, board, books and tuition.

The playing field was completely level.

On that the last Friday night in August, please do not adjust your TV screens.

What you will be seeing is real.

Every time the Sooners get the ball, the field will be tilted down.

Every time the Owls get the ball, they will be playing upfield.

Welcome to the world of the NIL and transfer portal.

Oklahoma gets the all-star transfers from the P5 and G5, already proven players.

Temple gets the hopefuls from the JUCO ranks, guys who want to prove themselves.

The nation has noticed.

In May, the line opened at 39.5.

Now, it’s up to 40.5.

There is no reason to believe it will move downward, only upward, as Temple refuses to recruit any of the five big-time quarterbacks remaining in the portal.

Don’t ask me why Temple has refused to dip into the portal after picking up Evan Simon from Rutgers and Clifton McDowell from Montana. Maybe after McDowell left for the obscurity of McNeese State, Temple head coach Stan Drayton promised Simon the Owls were not interested in anyone else.

Temple fans should take no solace in the fact that the Owls were 36.5 underdogs to 1998 and beat Virginia Tech, 28-24, on the road.

Back then, the Tech players and the Temple players were getting paid the same.

The NIL isn’t dropping $4 million dollars on the Okie players to lose to a Temple team that might be getting a couple of players getting 100k at best.

If that.

Although that would be a delicious way to open the season, not only for Temple fans but for fans of every underdog team.

My prediction remains the same: 66-7, Okie, though nothing would please me more than to write an apologetic post on the first Saturday of September saying I was off by 60 points in the Temple direction.

Pretty hard for the new anti-football Temple President to drop football after a win over Oklahoma.

Monday: Screwed, blued and tattooed