Category Archives: Temple football

08.06.23
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Justice finally arrives for Joe Klecko, Temple

Somewhere up there, Norman J. Kaner is smiling.

Norman? We just called him Norm.

Kaner was without a doubt the funniest professor who taught the best course I ever had at Temple University, Sports in America.

Little did he know sitting by the 13th Street window would be a future Maxwell Award-winner as college football’s national player of the year sitting in one seat and over in the next row a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

I observed all of this seated behind Steve Joachim, the Maxwell-winner for college player of the year, and next to now Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Klecko. Joachim beat out Ohio State’s Archie Griffin for the honor back in 1974. Klecko beat out every Temple player who ever played in the NFL for the first spot in the Hall of Fame.

Two Temple Pro Football Hall of Famers who played football at St. James High in Chester, Ray Didinger, and Joe Klecko. Ray is in the writer’s wing of the hall and Joe becomes Temple’s first Pro Football Hall of Fame player. Let’s hope first of many.

What a class in that one room at Temple taught by “probably Temple’s best-loved teacher. . . He touched everybody, and he kept in touch with his students over the years – students who went on to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals.” That, according to Ambler professor and colleague Lee Schreiber.

Not surprisingly, in those days Temple had the longest FBS winning streak in the nation with 14 wins over two years. More consecutive wins than Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State and Penn State over a two-year period.

Kaner moved from the main campus to Ambler for the last seven years of his life before he died in March of 1993 but one of his pet peeves even back then was that his student, Klecko, wasn’t in the Hall of Fame. He wasn’t the only one. There was a website created by Jets’ fans called “Joe Klecko Deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.”

Years came and went and the list of players on the ballot was released and Klecko wasn’t on them. Until last year.

Justice was finally served on Saturday when Klecko was inducted in Canton. There was a healthy Temple representation, including 1979 captain Steve Conjar and teammates Mark Bresani and Mike Curcio, among others.

Klecko nodded to that group in the back saying: “I would like to recognize my teammates from Temple that are here today: Go Owls!”

Klecko could have said a lot more about Temple but this was the pro football Hall of Fame and he kept his remarks pretty much limited to that aspect of football. He did give props to former Temple head coach Wayne Hardin and Temple equipment manager John DiGregorio for “discovering” him and said it took Hardin one quarter of watching him play to offer him a scholarship.

If Dan Klecko had given the introduction, instead of Marty Lyons, chances are Dan would have brought up that both he and his father played pretty much the same position at Temple. Instead, Joe’s reference to Dan was his three Super Bowl rings and how Joe’s Hall of Fame bust topped Dan’s rings.

Fortunately, Dan and Joe and the rest of us lived to see this day. Justice for the living at least.

Kaner was one of those who didn’t but, if there is any justice for the departed, he, DiGregorio and Hardin were among those up there smiling.

Friday: Flying Low

07.31.23
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Temple’s saving grace: AAC parity

If Temple gets back to playing downhill defense with pressure on the QB, the Owls will be successful

From a ticked-off Charlotte coach wondering why he was picked for last to a Memphis coach saying he respects every AAC program, one theme emerged as probably the saving grace for a team like Temple:

There is no one dominant team in the league. That much was apparent at AAC Media Day last week.

In order to not let these guys down, Stan Drayton will have to demand accountability from HIS guys.

Temple can finish first and, although I doubt it can finish last, it could finish near the bottom.

Don’t worry about who is picked to finish first at this point because Cincinnati was picked to finish first last year and Tulane seventh and the seventh pick finished first. If that holds true again, then North Texas will probably will it all.

The team that develops a winning culture probably has the best chance.

Temple’s culture under Drayton is 1,000 percent better than under the former guy but it can’t be considered a winning culture yet when your most impressive games were last-minute losses against bowl teams Houston and ECU.

Winning has to be the only thing this year.

Memphis is picked to be one of the top four teams in the league but Temple took a 3-0 deficit into the fourth quarter of that game last year before things fell apart.

Sean Hennigan might be one of the top quarterbacks in the AAC but is he really better than E. J. Warner?

Warner’s last two games were significantly more impressive than Hennigan’s final two and this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league.

If Warner explodes and Hennigan flatlines, Temple can surge past Memphis.

While it only seems like the college football world that includes the transfer portal and the NIL may have passed Temple by, there is also some solace that it has passed nearly every other G5 team by and that includes all 14 teams in the still best G5 league.

To me, it all comes down to Stan Drayton because it comes down to Everett Withers. If the defense Withers puts on the field, err, withers like the last five college defenses he led, then Drayton must have a Plan B in his back pocket.

The hire made zero sense initially except for the Drayton/Withers comfort factor. Does Drayton respect Withers so much that he refuses to pull the trigger to replace him if the Owls hemorrhage points the first two games? Or has he identified a rising star defensive staffer who can rally the team going forward?

Giving up 30 points to Akron in the opener should raise all kinds of red flags for Drayton. Or Withers can see the handwriting on the wall and do what’s necessary now to make sure his defense is ready for anything. Playing downhill and attacking the quarterback is what Temple defenses have been all about for all but the last couple of years and the Owls need to get back to real pressures and not simulated ones.

It’s up to Withers.

Or it’s up to Drayton to put his foot down. When it comes to old friends, that can be a tricky proposition.

Friday: The Boss of Bosses

07.28.23
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Thoughts from Temple’s AAC Media Day

Talk to any football expert not named Kurt Warner and the evaluation about Temple quarterback E.J. Warner is something like this:

“He’s going to be a great college quarterback but he’s probably not going to make it in the league (NFL) because he’s only about 6-foot.”

That’s the one thing that stood out (or up) about E.J. to me watching him at the recent AAC Media Day.

He’s not 6-0 anymore.

Counting his hair, he’s at least 6-3, maybe 6-4.

Try getting that hair in a helmet.

Seriously, though, as Warner goes so go the Owls this season.

Let’s compare first years between the last significant true freshman starter at Temple, P.J. Walker, and Warner.

Walker, who was only 5-11, had 20 touchdown passes, and eight interceptions in his first year as the Owls went 2-10. Then he slumped to 13 TDs and 15 INTs the next.

Is it just me or was the word “win” noticeably absent from this evaluation by Stan Drayton?

That is what is known as a sophomore slump but still the Owls improved to a six-win season the next year before Walker was setting all kinds of records as a junior and senior in consecutive 10-win seasons.

No one is more aware of that than the younger Warner, who is putting in the time in the film room to make sure he avoids the sophomore slump this season. Bump those numbers up to, say, 30TDs and no more than 11 INTs and the Owls are in business.

Just from his on- and off-field coaching, I think he will.

Walker played in nine games his true freshman year and Warner played in 11, throwing for 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Yet his yardage (3,028) set a Temple freshman record and was better than any of the first three seasons of Walker.

Supposedly, according to OwlsDaily.com, Warner improved his weightlifting numbers and has grown from 190 to 200 pounds to that will help him better absorb hits. That site also noted that Warner improved his speed by about two miles an hour, although we’re not sure what that translates to in the all-important metric of 40-yard dash speed.

The idea is that the mere threat of Warner being able to run–something he did not do last year–will make him a more effective downfield passer.

That’s the theory.

The practice is that a good running game will probably benefit him more.

I no more want Warner out there keeping the ball on read-options than I want new Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper diving into camera wells next to dugouts to make great catches on foul balls.

Like Harper is to the Phils, Warner is to the Owls.

They are The Franchise. At least this season.

Keeping them healthy and productive is the best indicator of future success for their teams.

At least in Warner’s case, AAC Media Day confirmed he was a hair above the rest of the Owls.

Maybe even more than one hair.

Monday: Other Takeaways

07.24.23
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2023 Temple Owls: Not a perfect 10 (yet)

There’s a post on social media circulating about a daytime talk show host named Ana Navarro and people are falling into a couple of separate camps.

Evidently she dropped a few pounds recently and almost all of the comments from the women are: “She looks fabulous” or “gorgeous” or “stunning” or “beautiful.”

That’s one team. Team Women.

Team Men are not seeing it. Almost all of the comments from the guys are a little more objective.

Lost a few pounds, yes. Gorgeous, no. Nothing mean, just calling balls and strikes and she is high and outside the box.

Ironically, there are women on that same daytime show who could be objectively considered fabulous, stunning, gorgeous and beautiful and Sunny Hostin, Sarah Haines and Alyssa Farrah-Griffin would certainly fall into that category. Definitely strikes as in striking.

Closer to 10 than six.

Navarro most definitely not.

Closer to a four than a 10.

Depends on which team you support, I guess.

There are certain Temple fans who look at this 2023 version of the Owls through Cherry-colored glasses and see the Owls as a 10.

You could count me in that group after the end of last season when I saw real momentum and thought if the Owls just added a big-time running back via the portal they could be beautiful this year.

They did not and, if they struggle in the running game like they did a year ago, it has a trickle-down effect on the rest of the team. Clock isn’t eaten. The defense stays on the field more than it should. Wins are harder to come by.

That’s why stepping back and taking off the Cherry-and-White colored glasses is important when breaking down the coming season game-by-game.

I think the Owls are closer to a six than a 10.

Here is my game-by-game prediction for the Owls. My fervent hope is that Temple wins every game I pick them to win and adds at least a couple more.

Temple 33, Akron 29 _ Like a lot of these games you will see below, Temple can just as easily lose this game as it can win it. Joe Moorhead has beaten Temple before and he can again. His offense will give Everett Withers fits but Akron had one of the worst defenses in the FBS and the edge in this game goes to Temple’s far superior quarterback, E.J. Warner, and some Power 5 level receivers in Amad Anderson (Purdue transfer), Dante Wright (FBS freshman of the year in 2019), Zae Baines, and true freshman Richard Dandridge. Plus, don’t sleep on Temple’s real strength this season, the TE combo of Jordan Smith and David Martin-Robinson.

The Temple part of media day will air on ESPN+ Tuesday at 10:15 a.m.

Temple 21, Rutgers 17 _ Going with the upset in this one simply because as explosive as Temple’s offense looked in the last six games of the season, someone diffused the RU offense that finished with a 37-0 loss at Maryland (a team Temple beat in consecutive seasons as recently as 2019).

Temple 44, Norfolk State 14 _ Norfolk State lost to Marshall 55-3 last season. Temple won’t duplicate that but it will be a thrashing nonetheless.

Miami 35, Temple 21 _ If Miami plays the way it did in a 44-27 home loss to Middle Tennessee, Temple can win this game but if the Hurricanes play the way they played in their five wins, this could get away from Temple really quick.

Temple 29, Tulsa 27 _ One of the more disappointing losses of the Temple season from my point of view was last year’s 29-16 one at the Linc to Tulsa. The Owls were able to take Navy into overtime and that was the same Navy team that hammered Tulsa, 59-27. Owls get revenge on the road this season. Gotta think games against Washington and Oklahoma will take a physical toll on Tulsa, who are under a first-year head coach (former Indiana HC Kevin Wilson).

USTA 35, Temple 33 _ Temple’s biggest game of the season will be Homecoming. Last year, the Owls sent a large crowd home heartbroken with a 16-14 loss to Rutgers. This one is shaping up as the same way. Don’t like the matchup between future NFL quarterback Frank Walker and Everett Withers’ defense.

North Texas 34, Temple 31 _ Probably asking Temple to win this game on the road is a stretch but if the Owls fall to, say, RU, they need to make up for it with a later win and this qualifies.

SMU 41, Temple 35 _ SMU has been ahead of the Owls since Rod Carey stepped on campus and Drayton has made strides but probably not enough.

Temple 17, Navy 14 _ Navy fired one of the best coaches in college football, Ken Niumatalolo, and will pay for it with a one- or two-win season. The Owls won’t be one of those wins.

Temple 31, USF 30 _ Temple beat this team 54-28 last season. It will be a lot closer under a new coach.

UAB 32, Temple 24 _ UAB has been one of the best stories in college football, dropping the sport in 2014 only to come back and win three championships. New coach Trent Dilfer hit the portal hard.

Memphis 36, Temple 35 _ Temple has won the last two games in Philadelphia but don’t trust the Owls’ defense in this one.

It’s not a perfect 10, but it’s not the ugly three we’ve seen for the last couple of years so there is some beauty in that.

Friday: Thoughts On Media Day

07.20.23
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We All We Got But Not Exactly What We Need

This is what my car looked like two nights ago. RIP.

Sometimes you think you do all the right things and get a gut punch otherwise.

Fifty-plus years of being a defensive driver has kept me out of accidents. When someone is tailgating me, I pull over and let him by. When I see a teenage girl in the rearview mirror checking her phone and not the red light in front of her, I move over to the next lane. Not a single accident behind the wheel and I’ve driven five cars over 125,000 miles. (Four of them were purchased at Wilkie Buick when it was the Liacouras Center.) You couldn’t tell it by looking at my 19-year-old Chevy Cavalier, though, when I left the Giant in Huntingdon Valley the other night.

Of course, nobody left a note after leaving this damage to my car.

Great car, runs terrific but doesn’t fair well when I’m not at the wheel.

Two nights ago, I made a quick run to the Montgomery County Giant to avoid the Philly soda tax. Got a lottery ticket, some sodas, toilet bowl cleaner and some Pepto Bismol.

By the time I got out to the parking lot with my bag of goodies, my driver’s side door had a huge dent in it and I couldn’t open the door. Climbed through the passenger side and opened the door that way.

I got what I needed in the soda, Pepto, cleaning products and lottery ticket but not what I expected in a door that will probably cost me a thousand or two to fix. A thousand or two that I don’t have. Fortunately, he (or she) didn’t hit anything under the hood and the car drives just fine. (I asked the Giant manager to check the video and he said it was a pickup truck but couldn’t see the license plate.)

On the way home, I got to thinking that this offseason for Temple head football coach Stan Drayton might be like my run to the Giant supermarket on Wednesday night.

He got some of the things he wanted but not all he expected and, like me, might become poorer for it.

My blind spot probably was parking too close to the store where a lot of traffic is backing up without checking in the rear view mirror. His blind spot might be running back and the defensive coaching staff.

At the end of last season, I thought Drayton might make a late-night run and upgrade his running game with a portal transfer and improve the defensive side of the ball by adding a couple of big-time run-stoppers on the defensive line.

What happened instead was that he rolled the dice and decided to trust his returning starter, Edward Saydee, and a couple of true freshman running backs coming in (Joquez Smith and Kyle Williams). He added a couple of D-Line guys but nobody with a track record of stopping the run game. On top of all that, his defensive coordinator, D.J. Eliot, was hired away by the hometown Philadelphia Eagles as a LB coach. Eliot was known as the master of “simulated pressures” while the best way to describe the last five defenses the new hire, Everett Withers, had were “Matador defenses.”

No Philadelphia or Temple fan is expecting Bud Carson, Jimmy Johnson or even Chuck Heater to transform the Owls into a version of the 1990 Eagles or even the 2011 Owls.

What does this all mean?

Sometimes a late-night run to the nearby Giant Supermarket can resemble an offseason for a college football coach.

You come home with what you expected but not what you needed.

Our expectations for the Owls at the end of last season were 8-4 or better for 2023. Instead of Pepto, soda or a lottery ticket, I expected Stan’s off-season list to be a RB and a couple of run-stoppers on the the DL.

Stan never made it to the transfer portal store for those items.

Maybe his career will fair better than my driver’s side door but the truth is we’re seeing all we’ve got not all we need.

Monday: Temple 2023 Game-By-Game Predictions

Friday: Recap of AAC Media Day:

Monday (7/31): The Boss of Bosses

07.17.23
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What if College Football News is Right?

Shockingly, I did not win the $875 million in Saturday’s Powerball so that means no new state-of-the-art stadium for Temple until possibly tonight at 11 p.m. Don’t worry. I won’t allow those trees to obstruct fan views.

Most people are predicting improvement for the Temple football Owls in the 2023 season.

The key words are significant or incremental.

It ranges from a significant jump to fourth place but at least a couple of publications all the way down to the College Football News predicting the Owls would finish ninth in the AAC.

The improvement CFN sees for the Owls?

A whole lousy stinking one win over the back-to-back three-win seasons the Owls posted the last two years. They predict the Owls will go 4-8.

Not good.

We don’t think they are right.

I’m thinking the minimum is six wins while the maximum is about eight.

They got me to thinking about something else.

What if CFN is right and the rest of us are wrong? CFN sees wins over Akron, Norfolk State, Navy and Memphis.

I don’t think the Owls will be beating Memphis but USF (a team they beat 54-28 last year), Navy, Akron, Norfolk State should be very doable. To get to six, I can see the Owls beating Rutgers and Tulsa or even North Texas. UAB has a new coach in Trent Dilfer. I don’t see a significant dropoff if any in talent between Temple and UAB.

Certainly, it’s possible Temple could win four games but in this age of the transfer portal it would not be enough to change national opinion about Temple football.

Sure, head coach Stan Drayton would probably be able to keep his job but the damage to the program with a four-win season would be, well, significant because of the incremental nature of the improvement.

Fans who were energized by Rod Carey’s firing and Drayton’s hiring would start to tune out and think “same old Temple” and the empty seats won’t do anything for Drayton’s ability to bring in players the next season.

Last year was a year where the culture needed to be changed and Drayton accomplished that. This year it’s time to win and four wins just doesn’t cut it.

In this age when a whole roster can be upgraded in a matter of months, Temple can’t afford to be known as a team treading water and four wins would be the definition of that.

The Owls need to speedboat through that water this year as opposed staying afloat last.

Friday: We All We Got

Monday: A Kernel of Truth

07.14.23
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The Ultimate X’s and O’s game: Temple-Akron

There were 69,756 people in the stands for the last most important home football game in Temple history, the 27-10 win over Penn State on 9/5/15.

There will be roughly–give or take a couple thousand–22,646 announced for Temple’s next most important game, vs. Akron, in less than two months, 9/2/23.

Hopefully, the brain trust in the coaching room at the Edberg-Olson Complex is paying attention. Hopefully, they have been paying attention.

This will be the ultimate Xs and O’s vs. Jimmy and Joe’s game.

It might be more important than Penn State because the Owls are coming off a couple of 3-9 seasons after a decade of restoring respect for the program.

Beat Akron and hope springs eternal. Losing to Arkon and another 3-9 (or worse) seems unavoidable.

Akron’s last two games proved the Zips need the attention of everyone at 10th and Diamond right now.

As a Temple fan, I’m very confident that the team wearing Cherry and White that day will have a significant advantage in Jimmy and Joe’s department.

The X’s and O’s?

I wish I could say I’m not sure but am fairly confident that the Akron coaching staff has that edge.

What makes me say that?

Akron’s head coach, Joe Moorhead, has already beaten better Temple players with worse players and a better head coach, Matt Rhule, than anyone Temple has seen since, arguably, Al Golden.

With gosh-darn Fordham football talent. That should set off all kinds of wake-the-bleep-up calls in the E-O.

Don’t fool yourself. He can beat Stan Drayton.

Will he?

Not if the defensive brain trust is studying the pin-and-pull offense.

Do I have confidence new defensive coordinator Everett Withers is in the film room studying Akron’s offense like Moorhead is studying Temple’s defense?

Hell no.

Unless he proves otherwise, Withers to me to a skate-through-life guy and Moorhead is a nose-to-the-grindstone guy. Withers hasn’t stopped any modern offense recently on a consistent basis, but Moorhead’s schemes have confused a more talented team more than once. Withers hasn’t shut out a college football offense as a sole DC in this century and he’s had a whole lot of chances. The evidence shows the opposite. Opponents pretty much have scored at will against Withers’ defenses. This is something Drayton has to take responsibility for since it’s his hire.

The pin-and-pull has been Moorhead’s bread and butter at Fordham, Penn State, and Mississippi State even before he got to Akron.

That’s a Moorhead staple and it’s been since he used it to befuddle a Phil Snow-led Temple defense.

Everyone on the Temple fandom side is going to approach this game like it’s going to be a 34-7 Temple win. Not me. Don’t fall into that trap. Temple is a 10-point favorite and Vegas is usually pretty good. On top of that, Moorhead’s offense is usually OK so I’m thinking somewhere near 31-21 Temple if everything goes right.

History is always a good teacher, though. In 2016, the Owls did not do their homework and came away with an opening-night loss to Army.

You had nine months to prepare for a triple-option offense and the best Snow could do that night was leave the A-gap open for the Army fullback and he gouged the Owls for 134 yards. By the time he inserted Averee Robinson in the game as a nose guard with 8;32 left in the fourth quarter it was too late.

Now the Owls have to be ready for the pin-and-pull.

Studying the Akron film should have been part of every Temple coaching meeting so far. If it hasn’t, there is still enough time.

Temple’s superior Jimmy’s and Joe’s deserve that much.

Monday: What if “they” are right?

07.10.23
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Cheat sheet: Some law and order restored

Sometime between the end of last year and a couple of months ago a lot of Group of Five football fans must have come to this conclusion.

E.J. Warner (third from left) at his dad’s Hall of Fame induction. Above, he throws a touchdown against Rutgers nine years later. Maybe Temple wins that game this year.

“Why don’t we cheat? The NCAA won’t enforce its rules anyway.”

There was some logic to that opinion but a couple of things happened in the last week to counter that argument.

As Blazeman pointed out in an earlier comment, the NCAA now has the power to crack down on some of the NIL (NLI?) nonsense and that should help–above all–the G5 teams who have unfairly been placed in a position where they cannot compete with the P5.

How much?

Doubtful it will make that much of a difference but unregulated cheating is never a good thing.

Another instance of the NCAA influence is the recent Northwestern hazing scandal.

Head coach Pat Fitzgerald was suspended due to an independent investigation. Had the NCAA not had the power to enforce its rules, a lot of universities would never hold similar investigations and policed themselves. (In 1986, Temple policed itself by voluntarily forfeiting all 11 games due to one of its players signing with an agent but there was no evidence the NCAA would have handed down such a harsh penalty. The Owls would have probably gotten a year bowl ban.)

Baby steps, but steps forward and not backward like we’ve seen since the portal and NIL came into play.

The next step for the G5 in general and Temple, in particular, is to win. The Owls have something no other G5 team can offer the P5: A Top 10 TV market. If the Owls win, they go a long way toward filling seats. If they fill seats, the only available top 10 market in the FBS becomes an appealing carrot that the Temple administration can dangle to a potential P5 suitor.

A big market with an empty stadium does not have much appeal but a big market with proven TV ratings (which Temple already has) makes Temple a viable P5 commodity.

A strong NCAA oversight of this new Wild Wild West makes both possible for Temple and recent evidence seems to suggest that rumors of the NCAA’s enforcement demise may be premature.

Friday: The Ultimate X and O’s vs. Jimmy and Joe’s Game

Monday: What if “they” are right?

07.07.23
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Numbers crunching: Hope and Change

By Mike Gibson

Not for nothing, some numbers could mean big things for Temple football fans.

Hopefully sooner for some than later.

The Powerball for Saturday night is $610 million. I’m playing a lot of numbers pretty close together because they are the most important ones for Temple football this season.

I will take 15-6-10-7-24 with 13 as the Powerball and take my chances tomorrow night.

The reason is that I think those are the five most important numbers of players for the 2023 Temple football Owls. (Unfortunately, a lot of Owls who are just as good including tight ends David Martin-Robinson and Jordan Smith have numbers too high to qualify as Powerball numbers.)

If they don’t come through with the $610 million, my fervent hope is that even a slight improvement of their 2022 numbers will mean the Owls’ bottom line will be the best since 2019 when the number on the left was greater than the number on the right.

Let’s go through it and, for the record, I’m predicting the production for every single one of these players improves the Owls’ chances of winning.

You heard it here first: Layton Jordan will be the AAC Defensive Player of the Year.

15-WR Amad Anderson. The Purdue transfer had his best season for the Owls a year ago when he caught 38 passes for 348 yards and four touchdowns.

My hope: He gets that number up to 60 catches, 700 yards and 8 touchdowns. My prediction: 514 yards, 6 touchdowns.

6-LB Jordan Magee. Last year’s stats: 86 tackles. My hope: 123 tackles. My prediction: 100 tackles.

10-WR Dante Wright. Called by one non-Temple person as “the steal of the portal” this guy is the most explosive wide receiver Temple has had since All-Pros Steve Watson and Leslie Shephard. He was a first-team freshman All-American at Colorado State where he caught 57 passes for 805 yards and four touchdowns. My hope: 1,000 yards and 10+ touchdowns. My prediction: 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns.

7-CB Jalen McMurray. The sophomore-to-be is easily the most talented CB to play at Temple since Rock Ya-Sin transferred from FCS Presbyterian. He already owns a Pick 6. My hope: He gets another Pick 6 and raises his interception level to his number (7). My prediction. He leads the team in pass breakups with 10 or more and picks off four passes.

24-RB Joquez Smith. Smith is the most heralded incoming running back at Temple since Al Golden signed state indoor 100-meter track champion Bernard Pierce out of Glen Mills. Pierce proved himself right away at Temple, getting over 1,000 yards freshman year, including a 268-yard, two-touchdown game in a 2009 27-24 win at 10-win Navy. Smith has a much higher ceiling than returning starter Edward Saydee and, if he wins the job, it will be a good sign. His best season was his junior year at high school when he went for 1,883 and 27 touchdowns for unbeaten Florida 6A state champion Tampa Jesuit. My hope: 1,500 yards, 15 touchdowns in his first season at Temple. My prediction: 943 yards, 11 touchdowns. Either way, it’s an upgrade over Saydee’s 639 yards and six touchdowns.

Temple’s Powerball: 13: E.J. Warner and Layton Jordan

For the first time in 15 or so years, Temple’s two best players are not wearing single digits (yet) but are wearing the same lucky number: 13.

If you live in Pennsylvania and your house rep is a Republican, dash off an email urging for them to vote to release these funds. Martina White, I’m looking at you.

A lot of people are predicting a sophomore slump for quarterback Warner. I’m not one of them. The simple reason is that this guy lives in the film room at 10th and Diamond and is getting great coaching not only from inside that building but from an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback. Joe Burrow from LSU went from 16 touchdown passes his junior year to 60 his senior one. Do I think Warner can go from 18 true freshman touchdown passes to 60? Not this year but it’s not out of the question he could hit 40. My hope: 40 touchdown passes, 10 or fewer interceptions. My prediction: A Temple season record 30 TD passes with the same number of interceptions he had last year (12).

Jordan is a remarkable playmaker with 18.5 tackles for losses, including a TFL that resulted in a touchdown in the checkered end zone at Navy. He had nine sacks and three defensive touchdowns. The grad student will earn his football Ph.D. at Temple with double-digit sacks, 20 TFLs and five defensive touchdowns. If he does all that–and I think he will–he will be a first-round NFL draft choice, joining former Temple Owls Haasan Riddick and Mo Wilkerson. He will also be the AAC Defensive Player of the Year, joining former Owls Tyler Matakevich and Quincy Roche in earning that honor.

That’s both a hope and prediction. Hitting all of those numbers tomorrow night would but a nice bonus but I will gladly setting for hitting the numbers associated with those numbers no later than the AAC title game.

If the hope outperforms the prediction, Temple will be one of the teams in that game.

Monday: Cheat Sheet

07.03.23
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What could go right: Uttering a three-letter word

This headline caught my attention last week. Temple football should have the same sense of urgency.

My buying the paper routine has changed in the last 15 or so years, ever since the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News downsized on both quality and quantity of local coverage.

Usually, I’ll page through the paper and if there’s something that interests me, I will pluck down the three bucks.

It might be once a month.

The other day I saw a major Temple head coach utter a word I haven’t seen a major Temple head coach say in about eight years.

“Win.”

I immediately purchased the paper.

It was new basketball coach Adam Fisher and he put the word win out there and it was right away, not three years down the road. I like the way this guy thinks and maybe the leaders of the other major sport at Temple should incorporate that level of urgency.

Win is a three-letter word but, to hear recent major Temple head coaches speak, you would think it’s a four-letter one.

Temple has to get back to those days when others expected the Owls to win and they went out and did.

Stan Drayton had a press conference in December of 2021 and the closest he came to mentioning the word win or winning was this quote: “And we will develop a trust that will form an unbreakable brotherhood and once we develop that, we’ve got championships coming to Temple.”

No timeline just an abstract promise of championships to come. He didn’t say 2022 or 2023 but “to come.” There was a lot of “we want to be tough” and “we want to compete” but the word win was noticeably absent.

Understandable in that Drayton didn’t want to promise too much too soon but this year should be different. The facts are that the Owls came close to beating Rutgers, East Carolina, and Houston exactly one year after not coming close against any of those three teams the prior year.

Now the goal has to be holding serve on the three wins they got the last couple of years and breaking serve by turning those three losses into wins. Maybe picking up one or two more. (They don’t play Houston this year but beating a similarly good team like UTSA at home would suffice.)

Right away, not next year or two years down the road.

They have a playmaker at the most important position on the field in quarterback E.J. Warner and seven starters back on defense. They’ve given Warner an important weapon in wide receiver Dante Wright and that’s with the second-half improvement of receivers like Amad Anderson and Zae Baines.

It’s OK to expect to win and raising expectations to win should be one three-letter word that the Owls should no longer treat like a four-letter one.

Friday: Numbers crunching