Category Archives: Temple football

09.08.23
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Here’s a Thought: Have Quincy Patterson pass

Go through just about every single thread on the Rutgers’ fan base board and you will find a lot of predictions.

I found three to be particularly amusing:

Rutgers, 69-0. Rutgers 51-3 and, lastly but by no means least, Rutgers, 92-3. Not a single one picked Temple to win.

Rutgers’ fans full of themselves?

Shocked I tell ya. Shocked.

It’s pretty much the Mets’ fanbase of college football. They think their team is a whole lot better than it is.

Always have. Always will.

I do remember a game where I had a transistor radio in one hand and my program in the other walking into Rutgers Stadium in the otherwise regrettable Bobby Wallace Error.

Listening to the pre-game show, I heard the Rutgers’ color guy tell the Rutgers’ play-by-play guy this: “Let’s face it: Rutgers should never lose to Temple.”

“Who the hell do they think they are?” I thought, almost tossing my radio along the road.

Temple won that game, 48-14, and the quarterback for the Owls, Mike Frost, became a successful bartender on campus and later head manager of the Draught Horse.

A couple of years later, Temple was kicked out of the Big East for “non-competitiveness” but a less competitive team, Rutgers–who the Owls had beaten four-straight years–was allowed to stay.

After that announcement, Temple beat Rutgers 20-17, on a Cap Poklemba field goal in the rain and that was a night when a terrific back named Tanardo Sharps ran 48 times for 246 yards. Once that game was over, the entire 55-man Owl traveling team went over and danced on the Rutgers’ Big East logo and sang “T for Temple U.” Joe Klecko and I tailgated with a small group of our friends before and after.

The beers never tasted better.

Now Temple plays Rutgers tomorrow (7:30 p.m., Big 10 Network) and a lot of those same assumptions are still in place.

Temple should never beat Rutgers (according to RU fans) despite the fact that Temple hung with two teams arguably better than RU in the final games of last season, Houston (42-35) and ECU (49-46). Owls lost both games in the last 1:22 but probably should have won both. At the same time, Rutgers was being beaten up by Penn State (55-10) and Maryland (37-0).

Yes, the same Penn State program that lost, 27-10, to Temple in 2015 and the same Maryland program that lost to Temple in consecutive pre-Covid seasons, 35-14 (in College Park) and 20-17. That last Temple win over the Terps came in the same year Maryland beat RU, 48-7.

But Rutgers should never lose to Temple. Right.

Beginning our official picks this week against the spread. Really like a Cincy team that put up 66 on Eastern Kentucky over a Pitt team that scored 45 on a worse Wofford team.

We do know two more things: Both Temple and Rutgers have highly paid professional coaches who have studied the tendencies of the opposite team so much that they are ready.

The team that throws a wrench into those preparations by showing the bad guys something they haven’t seen is probably the one that will win.

Throws being the operative word and Temple being that team.

If there has been one predictable pattern about the Owls for the last two years, it has been whenever backup quarterback Quincy Patterson comes into the game it’s almost always on short yardage situations and it pretty much is a run on every play call. Patterson always comes in about four plays a game and those four plays are always short-yardage runs.

That hasn’t fooled many people.

The one time Temple was courageous enough to break that pattern, Quincy threw a jump pass to the tight end for a touchdown in a 49-46 loss to bowl-bound East Carolina in the final game of last season. Temple head coach Stan Drayton has praised Patterson for the last nine months by saying his passing game has improved substantially. It’s time to let that baby exit the birth canal and for Stan to put his -8.5 money where his mouth is.

In order to beat a team like RU, Temple is going to have to show Greg Schiano what he hasn’t seen on film and what he has seen so far is a Patterson run. He hasn’t seen Patterson put that ball in the belly of a running back, pull it out and toss it downfield for six.

In a game where the line is single digits, a simple thing like a couple of well-timed Patterson passes in short yardage could be enough to put Temple over the top.

Any other surprises will have to be cooked up by the Temple coaches. They know what they’ve shown Schiano on tape so far. The more new wrinkles they show the better their chances will be.

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.04.23
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Know Your Opponent: Rutgers

There are a couple of ways to look at the puzzling line released about an hour after Rutgers handed fellow Big 10 foe Northwestern a 24-7 defeat on Sunday.

The Week Two line showed Rutgers ONLY a 10-point favorite over visiting Temple (Saturday night, 7:30, Big 10 Network).

You could take the Mike Missanelli approach or the Occam’s Razor approach.

Missanelli was a fixture in Philadelphia on the radio with the best sports talk show for about 20 years straight. When a puzzling line came out, Mike would say “that line is telling me something” and go the other way.

More often than not, when Mike took that line of reasoning, he cashed in with a winning ticket.

Or there is the other way, the Occam’s Razor Theory. Simply stated, if the line seems too good to be true go for the simpler explanation and jump on it.

I’m going with Occam’s Razor and taking Cincy getting 7, Tulsa getting 30 and Memphis laying 21.

It doesn’t make any sense that a Big 10 team that won by double digits over another Big 10 team is ONLY favored by a touchdown and a field goal to beat an AAC team that struggled to beat a MAC team.

Easy money, right?

Missanelli would probably disagree.

One, that same Rutgers’ team struggled to win at Temple last year, 16-14, as a 17-point favorite and Vegas was fooled once by this matchup and probably doesn’t want to be fooled again.

Two, Temple has a quarterback with the “it” factor in E.J. Warner and Rutgers, in Gavin Wimsatt, does not have a guy who has proven to be capable taking over a game like Warner has a few times.

Yes, we know Warner just had an “OK” game against Akron but we also know he is capable of doing much better.

Three, the line is and NEVER has been meant to “predict” games but ensure that pretty much an even number of money is wagered on both teams. If more money is bet on RU in the next two days than TU, expect that line to go up a bit.

Who wins?

The next few days will show if the Occam method or the Missanelli method has been adopted by the betting public.

Saturday night will be the true test to show which theory is right.

Friday: Predictable Patterns

09.02.23
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5 Takeaways From Opening Day

Watched the complete post-game press conference from Stan Drayton and will say one thing about the guy.

He was a lot happier with a 24-21 win than I would have been if I was a head coach.

Pretty hard for me to stomach that freaking Rod Carey, with inferior talent, can beat Akron, 45-24, and Drayton can’t.

Win and advance, I guess that’s the philosophy but I will say this: IF I’m Rutgers (and thank God I’ve never been Rutgers), I would not be concerned with Temple right now.

Hell, if I’m Temple–and I’ve been Temple all my life–I am so unconvinced that Temple will win this next game that I’ve canceled my trip to Piscataway next week.

Prove me wrong, Stan and the Owls.

The logic simply is this: If you can only beat a 2-10 MAC team, 24-21, you are not going to beat a Big 10 team no matter what kind of Big 10 team that is.

Five other takeaways:

The Edward Saydee wearing No. 2 looked a lot like the Edward Saydee wearing No. 23.

One, where was Edward Saydee? All offseason, we heard that Saydee improved so much that he could be a dominant back for the Owls. What we saw was what we saw last year. He had a hard time getting past the first guy who hit him. Darvon Hubbard did just a little better. Let’s see what No. 24 (Joquez Smith) can do next game. The kid deserves a shot.

Two, E.J. Warner was the Lafayette Warner not the ECU one . If you thought Warner was going to resume what he did in the last game (574 yards, 5TDs) against East Carolina, think again. He was closer to the game manager he turned out to be in his first extended duty against Lafayette and not the confident difference-maker he was against ECU. He needs to be that difference-maker at RU, throwing the ball deep to set up the intermediate stuff. He did not throw it deep nearly enough. The way to fix E.J.? Throw the bomb. Put some fear in the defense. Temple tried zero bombs against Akron.

Three, the longest line since Notre Dame turned into a dud. _ Plenty of Temple fans in the parking lot but my friend Mark correctly said: “They aren’t going into the game.” Must have been only one open window because I remarked to former Temple bowl-winning quarterback Chris Coyer “this is the longest line I’ve seen going into the game since Notre Dame.” Disgraceful crowd of 12,456. Winning cures everything and one win over Akron isn’t going to hit that sweet spot.

A win is a win but the Owls need to throw some bombs to open up the offense enough to beat Rutgers. There will be no short passing game without that threat.

Four, Layton Jordan showed up when he needed to _ Jordan, who in my mind is the best football player on the team, got the key sack of a 14-0 Temple second half. Shocked he didn’t get a single digit. If he makes plays to beat Rutgers, he deserves one.

Five, nobody expected to beat Akron by 30 _ One of my comments pre-game was that “I’d settle for a 30-24 win.” Why? Like Temple, the light turned on for Akron in the last two games of 2022. One was a 44-12 win over perennial MAC power Northern Illinois. The other was a one-point loss to a bowl team, Buffalo, 23-22.

This wasn’t Wagner or Bucknell or Delaware State or Stony Brook. This was a real team with a great head coach and the good guys won while, at the same time, lowering the expectations for Temple fans down the road.

Rutgers will walk into next week expecting an easy win. If what the Owls did today sets the trap better than a 55-13 win over Akron would have, I will sign for it.

Not expecting it, but someone hand me a pen.

Monday: Know Your Foe

    09.01.23
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    T Minus One Day: Temple Owls Take the Field

    The full Gary Segars video can only be seen through by clicking on the link below. Well worth a watch.

    One of the greatest calls in Temple football history occurred just short of seven years and a month ago when the ESPN announcer said: “The Owls have their first lead of the night … and the only one they’ll need.”

    No nicer day for football than tomorrow.

    That was after Keith Kirkwood made a great catch off a fake spike from P.J. Walker with 0:01 on the clock, giving Temple a 26-25 win at UCF.

    Those were the days for Temple. Without that catch, there is no appearance in the AAC title game for the Owls and no championship.

    As it was, the Owls got both.

    All the Owls needed that day was that Kirkwood catch. All you need tomorrow to enjoy the game is this depth chart below.

    No need to spend $10 on a program tomorrow. Print this out and bring it to the game.

    The season starts tomorrow (2 p.m., ESPN+, Lincoln Financial Field) against an Akron team that is more than capable of beating Temple. Owl Nation have always been believers. The “regular nation” over the last three years has not and with good reason.

    One, Rod Carey came to Philadelphia with a Midwestern arrogance and a “my-way-or-the-highway” approach and some of the best Temple players chose the highway.

    That gutted the program for more than the three years Carey was here.

    Two, Stan Drayton needed a full year to clean up that poisoned culture and what he did in a 3-9 season convinced many of the outsiders that he has changed it enough so that the Owls will be bowling.

    For starters, Gary Segars of “Winning Cures Everything” has gone on record that the Owls will go 6-6 and be bowling (see above video). Segars, Parker Fleming and Kyle Hunter are able to take a step back and look at what is happening at Temple now and are impressed at the direction of the program. It is one of the best college Youtube channels on the internet. Most of the other channels still trot out that tired trope of Temple sucking.

    Another, Bud Elliott, of CBS Sports has said “I think Temple can go bowling this year.”

    From their lips to God’s ears.

    Head coach Stan Drayton has said the goal is championships but did not say this year although that would be a welcome early development.

    There are concerns but one is not the most important position on the field, quarterback. E.J. Warner has that “it” factor and, when you have that factor, “it” can carry the team a long way. If the unthinkable happens and E.J. goes down, backup Quincy Patterson can win a lot of games in the AAC. Hell, when he was with Virginia Tech, Patterson beat a UNC team that beat Temple, 55-13.

    Are there concerns?

    Sure.

    You worry about a thin defensive line and cross your fingers that nobody on that unit goes down. Ironically, one of the guys who could have helped–Darian Varner–transferred to Wisconsin, where he currently is a backup DE. Ugh. When will these Temple players learn that the grass is never greener outside the Edberg-Olson Complex fence? Varner could be playing and helping at Temple right now. At Wisconsin, there is a very real chance he doesn’t get on the field.

    Nobody expects Temple to go 12-0, though, and the players on the above chart should be able to deliver a winning season against a 127th-ranked schedule in the country. That won’t happen without a win over Akron tomorrow so the Owls would appreciate any hometown fan support on one of the nicest days of the year.

    As that announcer said seven years ago, their only lead is the only one they will need. That applies if the the Owls take a 7-0 lead and add on to eventually send everyone home happy tomorrow.

    It could be the start of something big.

    Sunday: Game Analysis

    08.28.23
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    Game Week: Know your opponent (Akron)

    This is what happened the last time Temple played Akron.
    Got to love the great Temple single digits of the past watching this ceremony on the screen via Zoom.

    For how Week One of the college football season goes, there were plenty of clues left by what happened in Week Zero.

    Vegas pretty much got every game right with only Notre Dame significantly exceeding expectations from a line perspective (although it should have known that Navy getting rid of a great coach like Ken Niumatalolo would have a deleterious effect on that program).

    What does that mean for Temple’s opening game against Akron (2 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field)?

    Give or take just a few points, the Owls SHOULD win by about 10.

    Should and that’s only if both teams play up to their potential.

    The only question is what kind of 10-point win: 17-7, 24-14, 35-25 or 45-35.

    Take the over.

    What do we know about Akron?

    Joe Moorhead’s team went out with a bang last year, winning at Northern Illinois, 44-12, and losing by a point at a good Buffalo team, 23-22. Akron quarterback D.J. Irons was an All-MAC player, joined on that team by his No. 1 target, receiver Alex Adams.

    Moorhead’s teams usually score a lot of points and Everett Withers’ defenses usually give up a lot of points, so that’s certainly has to be Temple’s biggest concern going into the game.

    The good news for the Owls is that they have a quarterback with the “it” factor in E.J. Warner. The “it” factor is simply this: He has total command of the offense, abundant talent and a knack for getting the ball in the right spots at the right times. In Amad Anderson and Dante Wright, he has explosive perimeter receivers. In tight ends Jordan Smith and David Martin-Robinson, two dependable receivers although one is more of a reliable stick-mover and the other is a threat to take it to the house.

    They complement each other well.

    The running game has improved so much that its No. 1 protagonist, Edward Saydee, earned a single digit. We’ll believe it when we see it. (Not the single digit, but the improvement.)

    The Owls have nine returning starters on defense and if Withers is able to put that kind of talent in the right places at the right times, tackles for losses could ensue.

    This opener is no Wagner or Bucknell for the Owls, a gimmie tuneup. There is a real threat the Owls could lose this game and that should have them on their toes.

    Yet this is the kind of team Temple must beat if it has any designs on a bowl game because all but one of the teams on the Owls’ schedule is better than Akron.

    Still, Akron must be respected or the Owls will lose.

    Consider this: The Northern Illinois team that Akron beat, 44-12, was the same NIU team that lost at Tulsa, 38-35. Tulsa turned around two weeks later and beat Temple in Philadelphia, 29-16.

    If that’s not a sobering enough fact, Moorhead already took a less talented team into Philly and won a decade ago.

    In Temple’s defense, the ECU and Houston teams the Owls should have finished off at the end of last season were much better than anyone Akron played all of last year.

    Maybe Vegas didn’t input all of the available data. Maybe it did. Let’s hope they nail the TU outcome the way they nailed most of their picks over Week Zero.

    Friday: Game Preview

    Sunday: Game Analysis

    08.25.23
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    Bulletin Board Material for Everett Withers?

    The website Wager Talk places any blame for TU failures this year on Everett Withers.

    Don’t know what motivates new Temple football defensive coordinator Everett Withers but do know one thing:

    He was a competitive enough guy to have made it all the way to the NFL as a player so when someone tells him he can’t do something or they are not confident in him doing something, the competitive juices usually flow the other way.

    Withers trying to answer the question what kind of offense Joe Moorhead runs.

    That was Withers the player, though.

    If Withers, 59, the coach is the same way, Temple should be in good shape.

    The website Wager Talk is not a big fan of Withers. Nor am I.

    My concerns about him are well-documented in this space and have been since he was hired by Stan Drayton to take charge of 1/3d of the team in March.

    One, in his last sole role as defensive coordinator–not all that long ago in 2021 for FIU–his defense hemorrhaged points like a motorcycle rider does blood falling off his bike at 60 mph without a helmet.

    Two, he was sole DC at Austin Peay (1989), Louisville (1995-97), Minnesota (2007), North Carolina (2008-10), and FIU (2021) and doesn’t have a great record in any of those places.

    With UNC in 2008, his teams gave up double-digit points in every single game with the exception of a 28-7 win over Georgia Tech. In 2009, the Tar Heels’ best defensive effort was a 19-6 win over Duke (every other FBS game giving up double digits) and in 2010 they did not hold a single team to 10 points or less.

    In fact, you have to go back all the way to 1995 when Withers shut out an FBS team.

    College football offenses have changed a lot since 1995.

    Just as an example, Chuck Heater–who is without a job right now–shut out FBS teams in consecutive weeks for the 2011 Temple team. That was 16 years after Withers shut anyone out and more than a decade ago.

    To say it’s a concern for this Temple fan is an understatement. However, it’s not a concern for head football coach Stan Drayton so if the Owls give up 30 or more against Akron, it should be on the CEO, not the DC, to step in and fix things. Withers is Drayton’s buddy and evidently Drayton’s comfort factor with Withers outweighed any thought about hiring a DC with a better track record.

    Akron head coach Joe Moorhead has proven he can put points on the board with lesser talent than Temple before (Fordham, 31 points, 2013) so that should set off all kinds of alarms inside the Edberg-Olson Football Complex.

    Withers would have to be living in a bubble right now if he’s not aware of criticism over his record stopping modern college football offenses.

    If I’m him, I’m in the E-O until midnight studying every single damn play Akron ran in scoring 28, 44 and 22 points in its last three games of 2022 and devising a plan to stop the 10 most successful ones. I’d be hitting that rewind button a million times and taking notes and delivering them to Jordan Magee and Layton Jordan and company next week. In practice, I’m making sure those guys know what’s coming and are ready for it. I’d make sure they are in the right spots and, if they are not, I’ll be asking the scout team to rerun the play until the defense gets it right.

    Somebody saying you can’t do something should be a motivating factor to prove them wrong. We will find out if that applies to Everett Withers in a week and a day.

    Monday: Game Week

    08.21.23
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    Drayton deserves credit for one statement

    If, and this is a big if, Temple posts a winning season this year, a lot of the “credit where credit is due” can be traced to this statement Temple football head coach Stan Drayton made at his Aug. 18, 2023 presser.

    Talking about schemes Drayton hit the nail right on the head when he said this:

    “We have to play to the strength of our players. That’s a daily deal. The strength of our players, not the strength of the scheme. That’s what we have to do. We have to be somewhat multiple. … we put our best 11 out there. Certain players come out there, the strength of our team might change.”

    Hopefully, Stan is explaining the 3-5-3 defense or double tight end offense to the team here.

    At least this year.

    It’s pretty clear to anyone that five of the best 11 defensive players on the team are linebackers so the challenge is to keep those five guys on the field at all times. They are the best pass rushers and, in many cases, the best run-stoppers so the Owls should be at least be considering the 3-5-3 as their base defense. Two DE’s, a nose guard, five linebackers, one safety and two corners. It’s not the same 4-3 or 5-2 everybody else plays but Temple isn’t everybody else.

    Of course, all coaches SAY they want to play to the strength of their players. Even the last guy, Rod Carey, said as much about the offensive side of the football yet he went out and did the exact opposite by running a read/option offense with a classic dropback passer in Anthony Russo.

    As a result, he almost got Russo killed and did the offense no favors. Temple should have run an NFL offense with Russo at quarterback, not a college one.

    Successful coaches follow up on what they say by doing it. Carey got cold feet and went with what worked for him at Northern Illinois.

    If you look at some of the great Temple teams in the past, they had coaches who were willing to adapt the scheme–even change it–to fit the personnel.

    After trying the spread offense for this first two years, Matt Rhule went to a running game with a blocking fullback (Nick Sharga) and that led to consecutive 10-win seasons. It was the same offense Rhule ran under Al Golden, who benefited from fullback Wyatt Benson’s blocking in front of tailback extraordinaire Bernard Pierce. Steve Addazio adopted that approach the next season and won Temple’s first bowl game in over 30 years.

    This year, the Owls’ strength on defense is their linebackers and on offense is their tight ends.

    It’s up to CEO Drayton to put his words into deeds to accentuate those positives. In less than two weeks, we will know if he means what he says.

    08.18.23
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    Two weeks and five stats to look for

    Nice to see an OL guy get a single digit but don’t think Victor Stoffel will be wearing No. 4 this year.

    Tomorrow marks two weeks until Temple kicks off the season at home against Akron.

    Those two weeks are important in the micro sense because I really believe that the key to winning the opener is new defensive coordinator Everett Withers charting and having his guys ready for every possible play that Akron ran during last season.

    When guys like Jordan Magee and Layton Jordan recognize what’s coming and start pointing to who might have the ball on pre-snap reads and tackle the guy you know Withers will have done the requisite film room study.

    What I don’t want to hear is the things we’ve heard before Temple opening day losses to teams like Duke and Army in the past.

    “We’re not concerned about what anyone else does. We’re concerned about what Temple does.”

    All that gets you is a big fat L.

    The Zips aren’t a mystery. They are on film and it’s Temple’s job to know what’s coming.

    That’s the micro picture.

    The macro one is five stats we think are the difference between Temple going 6-6 and 8-4 this year.

    1-E.J. Warner _ Not too much to ask Warner to up his touchdown passes from 18 to 30 this year. The guy is a film room freak and he will not suffer a sophomore slump. But if he only improves from 18 to 23 or 25 touchdown passes, the Owls will only improve 1-2-3 wins and that’s not enough in my mind.

    2- Edward Saydee _ Somewhat shocked to hear that Saydee–who only gained 629 yards last year–has looked good enough to earn a single digit. If he hits the magical 1,000-yard mark, the Owls are in business. Saydee gained 257 yards in a 54-28 win over USF but did not gain more than 70 yards in any other game. We would gladly trade that one 200-plus game for six 100-plus games and, if he gets that, the sky’s the limit for this team.

    3-Double Tight Ends _ If the Owls employ double tight ends (and by that we mean Jordan Smith and David Martin-Robinson), watch out. Those two are as good as any pair of tight ends that ever played at Temple and having both in the game at the same time poses double trouble for any defense. One, it gives the running game at extra blocker and, two, playmakers at positions where playmakers don’t usually line up. If DMR and Smith combine for 10 TDs, and we think they will, the Owls are in good shape. When the Owls went to double TEs at Maryland (2018) and put one in motion as essentially a blocking fullback, they came away with a 35-14 win over a Big 10 team.

    4- Tackles for losses _ Layton Jordan had 13 TFLs, including a strip and falling on the ball in the end zone at Navy. If he and Jordan Magee combine for 20TFLs, the Owls will have a winning season.

    5- Jalen McMurray interceptions _ McMurray, who had the most pass breakups on the team last year, had only one INT. He’s quick enough and confident enough as a sophomore to pick off a few of those passes. We’re only asking for five and we think he can do that.

    Micro, lock everything down from on the defensive end in Game One.

    Macro, improved stats for the key players.

    Those are the ingredients for success once the Owls come out of the tunnel in a couple of weeks.

    Monday: Credit Where It’s Due

    08.14.23
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    Motivation: Getting back to the old days

    Would love to see this headline appear on the regular for Temple football again.

    Clicked through a list of available videos free to Amazon Prime members and landed on a surprisingly good film about the invasion of Iwo Jima on Friday night.

    In it, the money quote was from a soldier who said they didn’t try to win the battle for their country but for their fellow soldiers. They didn’t want to let the guy down in their foxhole or the next foxhole.

    That, to me, is the No. 1 motivational factor for the Temple football players this fall. A rising tide (Temple wins) lifts all boats (players’ NFL futures) and that would seem to me to be the motivation for the kids, not to win it for dear Old Temple. So they are playing for each other and that’s OK, too.

    Whatever floats your boat works for me.

    This was the company Temple kept between 2015-18

    For fans like me, though (and I assume you) it’s been a tough three years.

    Temple was 1-6, 3-9, 3-9.

    That’s not the Temple football I knew and loved through my school years or the one I got used to from roughly 2007-2018.

    So, for me, the motivation is getting back to the old days.

    Not winning for Dear Old Temple but getting back to that level of respect Temple had.

    While looking for a particular story in the New York Times archives researching Joe Klecko, I came across the gem at the top of this post. Temple was the lead story in the national pre-game preview in the New York Times. Headline: “Temple Picked to Win Again.”

    At least two “money quotes” in those few paragraphs.

    Here’s one: “They have arrived. They have made great strides toward being No. 1 in the East, definitely think they are on a par with Penn State.” _ Holy Cross head coach Ed Doherty.

    The very next quote is from NYT writer Gordon S. White: “Penn State, the long-time power in Eastern football, has been trailing Temple in the weekly vote for the Lambert Trophy this season.”

    We might never see a year where Temple leads Penn State for several weeks as the top team in the East again, but it’s certainly possible that the Owls return to the AAC championship game like they did in consecutive seasons less than a decade ago.

    In fact, one college football magazine picked the Owls to win the title the same year after they appeared in the championship game. The Owls lost to Houston in 2015 but came back to hammer No. 22-ranked Navy the next, proving that prediction right.

    Something like that 2015 year this year and the 2016 the next would be perfect but the overall goal should be at the minimum to return to a bowl.

    Regardless of the motivation that gets them there.

    Friday: 5 Individual Stats We’d Like to See

    Monday: Credit Where Credit is Due

    08.11.23
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    Temple 2024 recruiting: Flying too low to ground

    Kee-Ayre Griffin was Al Golden’s first recruit whose offer sheet included only other P5 schools. RIP.

    Without mentioning any names, there is a big announcement today when a lineman from Delaware is going to announce his college decision.

    It’s a big deal for Temple football because that is one of his two remaining schools.

    The other is Old Dominion.

    Yikes. Nice school, but it is no Temple.

    Nice player, hope he commits to the Owls but this refrain is becoming too familiar.

    Adrian Robinson (43) went from Big 33 MVP to turning down a Pitt offer, playing for Temple and then the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos. RIP

    We’re about a quarter of the way through the 2024 signing class and the schools Temple is keeping company recruiting-wise certainly don’t match the reputation of the university on the football landscape over the last 15 or so years.

    Maybe the last three but not the last 15.

    There was an old World War II trick pilots used when radar was first introduced: Fly low to the ground to avoid detection, complete the mission, and fly just over those same treetops to get home safely.

    That works pretty well in wartime and not so much if your goal is to win Group of Five championships.

    Temple needs to pick it up.

    Let’s look at some of the commitments so far:

    Adrian Lang, CB- Temple beat out Central Michigan, Akron, Boston College and Bryant for his services.

    Dan Evert, TE-Temple beat out Akron and USF.

    Bryson Goodwin, WR-Temple beat out Bowling Green, Jacksonville State and Middle Tennessee.

    Denzel Chavis, CB-He chose the Owls over Army, Bucknell, Columbia and Cornell.

    Chris Dietrich, QB-After throwing 12 interceptions against only 11 TDs for his New Jersey High school team last season, Dietrich received interest from Bucknell, Monmouth and Duke. He picked Temple.

    Tyler Stewart, WR-His commitment list included Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay, and MTSU.

    Geez. I’m sure these are nice kids and I KNOW they made the right choices, but Temple football has come a long way since the days when it recruited two MVPs from the Big 33 game (Adrian Robinson, who the Al Golden stole from Pitt) and Jalen Fitzpatrick, who the Owls convinced to come to 10th and Diamond against the arguably more beautiful Maryland campus in College Park. Al Golden’s first major recruit was running back Kee-Ayre Griffin from St. Peter’s in New Jersey, who turned down solid offers from Pitt, Rutgers and BC to take his shot at Temple.

    When Golden was hired, I dashed off an email to him congratulating him for getting the job. He took only about 20 minutes to respond: “Thanks, Mike, wish me luck. Today we’re about to steal a guy from BC and Rutgers who is really good. We got involved and it turns out he loves Temple.”

    That guy was Griffin.

    The apologists for the Owls recruiting under-the-radar will always point to Tyler Matakevich getting no offers and Haason Reddick being a walk-on but what they forget is that the championship-level teams those guys were part of also included guys who Power 5 teams recruited.

    You need a mix of both and those teams successfully recruited their fair share of guys more highly paid staffs evaluated and wanted too. It’s pretty much the same reason the top 25 recruiting rankings mirror the same top 25 teams you see in the AP poll every year.

    For every Reddick and Matakevich you hit on, there are about eight misses. Conversely, for every Robinson, Griffin and Fitzpatrick recruited, you miss on only about two. There is a reason why P5 coaches look at the same film you look at and like the same guys.

    Welcome to Temple for the guys who have picked this place.

    Going forward, the message to the coaching staff should be to aspire to get those guys teams they want to beat also want. Certainly of the 18 or so scholarships left, there are 18 great players within a 400-mile radius of Philadelphia who would rather spend the next four years in a vibrant city with a great sports culture vs. a cow pasture where boredom easily causes homesickness. Find those guys who are energized by that dynamic. That was the Golden Rhule selling point and it needs to be revised now.

    Do better.

    Flying too low to the ground to avoid radar risks crashing and burning and, with Oklahoma and Penn State on the schedule in a very short time, they have to fly higher.

    Monday: Motivation

    Friday: 5 Top Things We Want to See in 2023