Category Archives: Temple football

08.24.20
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The Math Just Got Easier for Russo

Who would have thought that both of these guys would finish 1-2 in stats as a Temple quarterback?

As far as we could determine, this quote about numbers and people was first attributed to Matt Holloway, but we’re sure someone slipped it into a figure of speech sometime before then.


If the quarterback position
was meant for
a runner then we’d
still be playing
the single wing
 

“Numbers don’t lie, people do.”

The numbers for Anthony Russo to pass P.J. Walker as the consensus all-time best Temple quarterback were challenging coming into this season. Even with a full season this year, and that’s doubtful, Russo would have to pull 40 touchdown passes to knock off the toughest record ahead of him: Walker’s career touchdown list. Not impossible, since LSU’s Joe Burrow tossed 60 touchdowns last season, but not likely, either.

Now, though, with Russo stating in an OwlsDaily.com story quoting Anthony that he will be back for not only 2020 and 2021, all of Walker’s records become not only fair game but well within reach, especially his career yard total of 10,669. (OwlsDaily.com is well worth the subscription.)

That’s assuming a lot of things, though, among them that the current coaching staff is not so wedded to a read-option that it might ditch the better passer for the better runner. They do that to their own peril, though, and coaching staffs usually don’t commit career suicide. If the quarterback position was meant for a runner, then we’d still be playing the single wing.

Interesting that Russo had 10 more TD passes in two years than Mike McGann had in five (medical redshirt).

The other assumption is that the Owls will get a minimum eight and a maximum dozen games in this season and that could be problematic considering the science, politics and general angst over public health in relation to big-time sports.

All that aside, though, all Russo will have to do the next two seasons is do what he did in the 2019 regular season in touchdown passes (21) and yards (2,861) and he will have two significant career quarterback records at a school that began playing football two centuries ago.

He already has 15 wins in nearly two full regular seasons (missing the first two and the final UConn game in 2018). Walker had four full seasons with two wins his first year, six his second and 10 each in his junior and senior seasons. If Russo goes 15-6 in the next two regular seasons (we’re not counting bowl games because only a handful of Temple quarterbacks have played in one), he beats what in my mind is the most important stat a quarterback can have.

The “people lying” part of this equation was on display on the same OwlsDaily board when someone wrote: “Russo had a better season in 2018 than 2019.”

Huh?

He had 14 touchdowns against 14 interceptions in 2018 vs. 21 and 11 in 2019. The numbers said he got better, not worse.

Since people often lie when they move their lips and the numbers on the page always remain the same, I will take the latter over the former when discussing anyone’s legacy.

If Russo’s passing remains as on target the next two years as the last two, that legacy will be unsurpassed.

Friday: Projected Offensive Starters

Monday: Projected Defensive Starters

08.21.20
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Possible replacements: CUSA, Sun Belt

Mike Aresco says the AAC is committed to a 12-game schedule.

The commissioner’s member schools do not seem as sure. Temple interim athletic director Fran Dunphy was quoted as saying by OwlsDaily.com that the school is more likely to add “one or two” rather than “three or four” non-conference opponents.

That said, Dunphy also noted that he is pretty much leaving this up to his director of football operations so there is some hope of movement behind the scenes to get the Owls replacement games.

FBS schedules.com lists “TBA” for several dates on the Temple schedule and those include the opening weekend of 9/5 and subsequent September dates of the 12th and the 19.

I say go for it. If other AAC schools get 12 games, then the Owls should go for that standard, too.

Right now, it doesn’t look likely that Army will be one of the opponents as the Black Knights have already filled the same exact open dates Temple has with Middle Tennessee State (9/5), Louisiana Monroe (9/12), BYU (9/19), Abilene-Christian (10/3) and Mercer (10/10).

Still, the Owls should take a page out of the Army playbook (not the triple option) and find replacement schools in both the Sun Belt and Conference USA. Both of those leagues–unlike the ACC and SEC for example–are committed to a 12-game schedule and the departure of the Mountain West and MAC in particular and, to a lesser extent, the Big 10 and PAC-12, have made it difficult for member schools to find a game.

Temple is available and should reach out to those schools with open dates. Right now, there are multiple foes available for the Owls to choose from but they need to get on the stick and announce those replacements before it’s too late.

Every other AAC school is scrambling and he who hesitates will be lost.

Let’s hope the Owls can add more than one or two or the rust of not playing an actual foe won’t help in the current opener against Navy.

Monday: The Math Gets Easier For Anthony Russo

Friday: Projected Offensive Starters

Monday (8/31): Projected Defensive Starters

08.17.20
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Aug. 17th: College football’s rain delay

In this space usually, on this date, there would be speculation of who looks good in summer camp and who is winning the battle of positions.

Not this year.

The Temple football Owls are practicing but not in the usual sense of intense hitting and contact so nobody is really standing out.

walt

Walter Washington probably knocked more defenders out of games than any quarterback in Temple history.

This basically is Temple’s–and the rest of the roughly half of college football deciding to play as of now–rain delay, waiting for the go-ahead for full-contact practices and a return to normalcy and maybe even an imminent announcement of a  replacement game for Miami (Sept. 5).

When the Phillies went to rain delay, the broadcast jumped to past highlights and this is what we’re going to do today.

Last week, photographer extraordinaire Zamani Feelings found this tape on the 2004 Temple-Syracuse game and send me a message with the link. Zamani is slowly but surely building the kind of video library Temple football needs on Youtube so please support his page by subscribing and liking here. Also, if anyone has any Temple film or tapes of games please forward them to him so this can be a one-stop source for Temple fans. He has more games on another Youtube site.

I sat down on the first rainy afternoon I could find and watched the entire thing.

Plenty of thoughts on this game but these came to mind off the top of my head:

1) Walter Washington breaks Paul Palmer’s record for season TDs in this game with 16; if you want to see what “beast mode” really means, check out this tape. Washington, who turned down a solid offer from Nebraska to come to Temple, could not be stopped and, at times, it looked like Syracuse defenders wanted no part of him.

2) The 16-touchdown record made me really appreciate what Bernard Pierce did seven years later (27 TDs in a single season);

3) Great job by ESPN’s Dave Sims on the play-by-play and one of the reasons why I think Dave is the best to ever call a Temple game (he even threw in the fact that Washington’s bench press
of 475 was the 6th-highest on the team). Sims was the Owls’ radio play-by-play guy in the 1990 season when the team went 7-4 and won at Wisconsin. He is now the Seattle Mariners’ play-by-play guy and does NFL games on Westwood One radio.

4) Even in a “down” season, Temple football provides great memories.

5) Syracuse could have tied for first place in the old Big East by winning this game because West Virginia lost to Boston College on the same day.

6) Sad that Washington, who could have used that extra year at Temple to hone the passing portion of his game, decided to leave early for the pros.

Rain delay over and now all we’re waiting on is to see if the radar to the West has cleared up or the umpires have called the game.

Let’s hope it’s the former or Zamani will be working extra hard on that Wayback machine.

Friday: Possible replacements

Monday: Projected Defensive starters

08.13.20
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Big 12 decision opens door for Temple

masks
With masks and better social distancing than this, college football can be played this season like it was in 1918

The great George Carlin may have inadvertently summed up college football for what is known as the Group of Five when he once said this:

“It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.”

club

The next “big announcement” for college football may already have been made and, if Temple and the rest of the AAC don’t get cold feet like the MAC and Big 10/Pac 12 seem to have, they are poised to join the club.

The SEC and ACC were waiting for the Big 12 to make the announcement and, now it seems like college football is a go for the fall, notwithstanding some of the other conferences did. The prayers of the SEC and ACC were answered a day later when the Big 12 gave the go-ahead for football.


Major League Baseball,
the NHL, and the NBA
have provided enough of
a sample that sports
can go forward without
major problems
 

Those three playing conferences probably are hoping that the AAC joins them in a “more-the-merrier” arrangement which would at least keep college football on TV on Saturdays and keep the NFL–which also is playing–swooping in and taking Saturdays like the league indicated it would last week.

How wise this decision is and was will be debated but the “system” has kept Temple and some other deserving schools out being broken up for at least a year props up a window for Temple to climb through and the Owls should probably take advantage.

Now I’m a big science guy so there is a risk to that approach.  The reward could be worth it. I could see the AAC, ACC, Big 12 and SEC partnering in a way that would restructure the bowl system at least for a year and give the G5’s best league the kind of marquee matchups they haven’t had in the past. Plus, who knows? Maybe an AAC team can sneak into the final four. The league certainly had no shot under the old system.

Major League Baseball, the NHL, and the NBA have provided enough of a sample that sports can go forward without major problems. College football was played in 1918, a year where the Spanish Flu killed millions more than this current virus. Fans attended games wearing masks. Were lives at stake then? Sure. Was playing football back then any more of a problem than, say, shopping or work? No.

The Big 10 and PAC-12 may have jumped the gun on a quick decision because let’s face it, there will be no college football in the spring. Not now with the other three conferences playing in the fall. I like the fact that the ACC, SEC and Big 12 are at least trying to move forward. If it has to be shut down in mid-season, then the powers-that-be will have to cross that bridge when they come to it. Turning back three weeks before reaching that bridge seems a bit premature.

For Temple, this might be the last chance to join a club it should have been in a long time ago. The Owls and the rest of the AAC should try to join it while they can or risk regretting it later.

08.10.20
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A sliver of a silver lining

Throwback Thursday: TU beats No. 4-ranked Pitt

Penn State might not need a foe, but Pitt does

When we last left this episode of “As the Pandemic Turns” the Owls’ former conference, the MAC, dropped football (for at least a year) and rumblings were the Big 10 presidents were leaning in the same direction.

Hard to believe, Harry, but the AAC and the rest of the, err, “P6” forge ahead.

Temple is holding its preseason camp and plans are for a full season so far. The SEC, Big 12, PAC-12 and ACC also seem committed to forging ahead with a limited schedule.

If there is a season, fans are not likely to attend and this will be a studio season only.

Where’s the silver lining?

Penn State v Temple

Nothing more satisfying than beating a P5 school as Robby Anderson and fans here celebrate after PSU win.

Since there is no incentive for six or seven home games, the Owls can (and probably should) go on the road to fill out less attractive home dates (Idaho, Rutgers for example) with more attractive opponents.

There are two camps of Temple fans when playing P5 schools. One group who feel the Owls can no longer compete against those opponents (bolstered by arguments supplied in the last two bowl games) and another group who feel that the only way for the Owls to join the big boys is to compete and beat them.

I’m in the latter group.

The Owls were 3.5-point favorites over Duke and probably lost that game largely due to the staff leaving for Georgia Tech. (I know many of them stayed to coach the game but a lot of time paid for by Temple was spent recruiting for Georgia Tech.)

There was no excuse for a thumping last year to North Carolina so these Owls should get another chance to play with a chip on their collective shoulders. Pitt is one of those schools that lost a game on a date the Owls did and could be looking for a home opponent. There are several other P5s, plus BYU, which is a G5 school with a high profile, under similar scheduling dilemmas. Since this season is largely a TV production, networks who pay the freight like ESPN could be looking to pair high-profile G5 schools, like Temple, against other P5 schools who might have refused to play the Owls in the past.

Yet this was a team with the talent to beat Georgia Tech and Maryland during the regular season and has done well against Power 5 teams during recent past regular seasons, including a 37-7 win at Vanderbilt and a 27-10 win over Penn State. If there was ever a season to schedule four Power 5 teams and break up the Pat Kraft scheduling formula of playing two patsies and two P5s, this is such a season. Interim athletic director Fran Dunphy said the Owls are actively looking for non-conference replacements. Since the patsies aren’t playing this year, that points to the Power 5s.

It would be great to see the Owls find four P5s needing a home game and giving these players an opportunity for four wins.

If there’s a silver lining for this season, that’s it.

Even if it’s a sliver of one.

Friday: The Next Big Announcement

08.07.20
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The math and Temple football

 

So far so good for Temple football fans.

Preparations for the season are going as planned and there has been no outbreak reported among the Owls as with, say, Rutgers up the road.

We could be UConn or Rutgers now and, while I’m glad we’re not, this is a fluid situation.

That said if you get the feeling–as I do–that we are walking on eggshells and something could crack in the next few weeks–join the club.

So far, here are the numbers:

rodster

Speaking of numbers, my money is on Anthony Russo going from 15 to a single digit very, very soon

 

0

Chance of playing Miami on Sept. 5. The edict has come down from the ACC: No football before Sept. 7. The Hurricanes–who have their own COVID-19 problems–have shown no inclination of asking for a league dispensation and officially canceled the game yesterday. Owls need to find a 9/5 opponent stat.

4

As of yesterday, that’s the number of weeks from the opener. New athletic director Fran Dunphy probably is shopping around for a replacement game with Miami now. There are several attractive schools from which to chose and some of them might even come here.

1

The number of FBS schools already dropping the season. That, of course, does not count the Ivy League, Patriot League and the Colonial, which are FCS. UConn has become the first school on this level to cancel the season. That affects Temple since the Huskies were mentioned as a possible replacement for both the Idaho and Miami games. That option no longer exists.

5

The magic number to get to a bowl game lowered from six. While this isn’t official yet if the majority of the 80 bowl games are played, it’s hard to believe that there will be 40 teams with at least six wins so five could be that figure since conferences like the Big 10 and ACC have either eliminated or reduced non-conference games.

Right now, commissioner Mike Aresco has committed the AAC to eight league and four non-conference games. That seems a little ambitious to me but let’s hope he and the league can pull it off.

Fans or no let’s hope the Owls can get out there and be happy and healthy in the process.

Monday: Silver Lining

 

 

08.03.20
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Fizz’s plea did not fall on deaf ears

russo

Fizzy is among the many Owl fans who hope the team, like Anthony Russo here, is the last man standing when and if the AAC race concludes this fall. (Photo courtesy of Zamani Feelings)

Editor’s Note: A couple of weeks ago, Fizz sent one of the last letters to come across “interim” President Dick Englert’s desk prior to his retirement. It was his thoughts on the new season-ticket policy. He was largely pleased with the response from Temple administrators and the story follows.

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

My recent letter to Dr. Englert regarding new seating for football season ticket holders did not fall on deaf ears.

The afternoon I sent the letter, I got a call from Adam Miller, Senior Associate AD for Development. Even though he had a copy, I reiterated much of what I wrote. His response was the criteria for awarding seats was a fair one, based upon service to the school. We went back and forth and ended the amicable conversation without a solution.

When I sent the original letter, I copied our new AD, Fran Dunphy. Coach got right back to me, and we corresponded with two emails. He promised to look into the issue. Fran Dunphy will be a super AD.

weinraub

Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl, where 6,000-plus Temple fans attended  

I then sent another email to Dr. Englert, bringing him up to date on what transpired.

With the horrible virus affecting everything, the issue I raised is probably trivial. And perhaps, there won’t even be a football season. If it were my decision, there wouldn’t be. It’s not worth one life or the contamination of one family. If I was a player, however, I’d freak out if the season was canceled.

Let’s hope a vaccine will come along quickly, and everything will be back to normal next year. If so, here are my thoughts.

  1. If the home side of the stadium is to be switched, then flip the seats. There are only a few people with season tickets on the other side now, and they knew they’d be on the opposite side when they bought their tickets. It’s not a problem.
  2. Temple is not Notre Dame, Alabama, or Auburn. We went through hell to sell as many season tickets as we have now. Why would you piss-off people when you don’t have too? Don’t make them go through this ridiculous formula to repurchase the seats they’ve had for years and separate them from friends. It will only hurt the bottom line and shrink the fan base.
  3. Recently, we were knocking on the door of the Power Five Conferences with wins over Penn State, and a shoulda, woulda, coulda, at home with Notre Dame. We slid back down because we lost five winnable games in the second half last year. If we want to fill the seats, then we need to win our share of the big games.

One last thrust. Taking season ticket holders out of their seats is only Temple’s second dumbest idea. Just think where we’d be right now if plans for a campus stadium had congealed. We’d have a $160,000,000 empty hole in the ground.

Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, “Common-Sense,” should be required reading for all administrators.

Friday: The Math and Temple football

07.31.20
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Best of TFF: Streak No. 4 (30)

Editor’s Note: To close out our favorite month of the year and our vacation week, the final installment of this year’s Best of TFF is a tribute to a team that not only broke a 30-year bowl drought but led the Owls from a 20-game losing streak to national prominence in three years. This post chronicles the pure joy of selection night.

Click on above logo to order tickets through Temple.

Owls and Brian Sanford rejoice in one of the  greatest photos ever 

There’s a saying way older than I am that pretty much describes what happened yesterday at the Liacouras Center.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

That might come from an old Chinese Proverb, although some internet sources dispute it.

Until yesterday, I didn’t think much of the phrase.

“Yeah, right,” I always said. “The guy who wrote that never read a Gary Smith story in Sports Illustrated or never enjoyed morning coffee over a Bill Lyon column in the 1980s or never heard the beautiful word pictures as described by Vin Scully or Harry Kalas.”

Then I saw the photo in today’s Daily News by Charles Fox and that changed my mind.

That photo, which is credited to Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC and appears above this story, says it all.

The sheer joy on the faces of the wonderful kids who play football for Temple University is genuine and spontaneous and cannot be conveyed by mere words.

So I publish it here instead with a plea.

Nobody took a photo of us in the parking lot during that 2005 game against Miami, but it would have been a lot uglier than that beautiful shot. There were less than 10 of us left tailgating in the rain but, before we even heard about Al Golden, we had a dream that someone, someday would come and lead us back to a bowl game.

That day and that someone has come.

That’s why it’s important that all 21,046 of you who showed up for the last home game against Kent State purchase tickets for this “home” game in D.C.

All of you and, hopefully, 21,000 more on top of that.

For maximum impact, please purchase your tickets through Temple University by clicking on the logo above. By buying through Temple, the university will be able to show future bowls that this fan base will travel and have concrete figures to back it up.

Please buy as many as you can and give to those who can make the short trip down I-95 and cheer on these great kids. Or you can wait until Monday morning at 10 a.m. and walk up to the Liacouras Center ticket window. The best seats are on the Temple (South) side 200, 300, 400 and 500 levels. Don’t buy the obstructed 100-level seats.

But buy them through Temple and don’t procrastinate like thousands of folks did only to be caught waiting in long lines at the ticket windows at the last home game.

Monday: Resumption of Regular Programming

07.29.20
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Best of TFF: Streak No. 3 (74)

For our vacation week, we are running a three-part series on the most-read stories in Temple Football Forever history. Here is one on Bruce Arians’ reaction to the win over Penn State published in 2015, published three days after the 27-10 win that ended a 74-year losing streak to PSU:
bruceandanthony1

When Bruce Arians led the Arizona Cardinals to a late-season upset of the Seattle Seahawks two years ago, it was the final loss of the season for the Seahawks on the way to winning the Super Bowl. The question for Arians then was a natural one as someone in the press room asked him if that was his biggest win as a head coach. Arians paused for a second and said, no, his biggest win as a head coach came at Temple when the Owls broke a 39-year losing streak to Pittsburgh in the 1984 season.

So, of all the congratulatory messages pouring into third-year Temple head coach Matt Rhule after a 27-10 upset of Penn State on Saturday, the one posted by Arians on his twitter page was priceless:

Rhule had one-upped Arians in the sense that he broke a longer streak over another in-state rival in Penn State (after a 74-year drought), so the two men have been in the same shoes at the same place. No one knew more what a win over Penn State could do for the Temple program than Arians, who said the first question asked of him at his first Temple press conference was, “Why does Temple even play football?” Like the presser after the Seattle game two years ago, Arians paused before a thoughtful response: “To beat Penn State.” Arians came close twice, losing to nationally-ranked Nittany Lions’ teams, 23-18, in 1983 and 27-25 to what would become an 11-1 PSU team in 1984, but never quite got over the hump.

Now that Rhule did, Arians used both twitter and the phone to express his satisfaction with the result. Rhule took the call and said, “Yes sir, thank you sir.” to a guy who was a young coach at Temple once, too. Rhule said he did not know what else to say to the NFL coach of the year. Then Rhule went out to the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field and presented the game ball to another former Temple coach, College Football Hall of Fame member Wayne Hardin, who came close a few times against Penn State but, like Arians, could not get over the hump.

In the fraternity of college coaches, and the circle of life, all three coaches will now share a pretty neat memory forever because only those three fully understand the magnitude of the moment.

07.27.20
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Best of TFF: Streak No. 2 (49)

Editor’s Note: This story was first published on the day after Temple’s championship win. It received nearly 900,000 page views, the second-most in TFF history. The title broke a championship draught that dated back to 1967 when the Owls won the old Middle Atlantic Conference championship. This is the second part in our three-part Best of TFF series that will end Friday.

The morning after arguably the greatest win in Temple football history, there are no words.

Literally no words are coming out of my mouth, at least in the sense of being able to talk this morning.

The throaty and hoarse condition is more than OK because it was the result of cheering for the Owls at beautiful Navy-Marine Corps Stadium as they captured what really is their first-ever major football championship. The 1967 MAC title was admirable, but that was a day when the school played to a level of football that was beneath their status even then as one of America’s great public universities.

NCAA FOOTBALL: DEC 03 AAC Championship - Navy v Temple

ANNAPOLIS, MD – DECEMBER 03: Temple Owls defensive back Nate Hairston (15) carries the ACC Championship placard  (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire)

So this was it.

Walking out of the stadium and into the concourse, I let out a very loud primal: “THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT!!”

Fortunately, I got a few high fives and smiles from my fellow Temple fans and not fitted for a straightjacket. It also put the voice out for 24 hours, maybe more.

When it comes to Temple football today at least, you cannot think in terms of a national championship—the deck is stacked against G5 teams in an unfair system—so what happened yesterday was the pinnacle of Temple football success. Thousands of Temple fans, easily in excess of 10,000 Temple fans, made Navy’s 15-game home winning streak a moot point by turning that stadium into a Temple home field advantage and to get to that mountaintop and look down from it is incredibly satisfying.

Hey, it’s a pretty spectacular pinnacle. The only thing that would have made it better was a G5 slot in a New Year’s Six bowl against Penn State, but that’s not happening for a number of reasons that are not important today. (Objectively, would you take a team for the Cotton Bowl that has won seven straight against this schedule and beat a Navy team, 34-10, over a Western Michigan team that struggled to beat a four-loss Ohio team? I would but I don’t expect the bowl committee to be that objective. I can also grudingly see the WMU argument.)

What is important is that the Owls have gone from being a perennial Bottom 10 team and laughed at nationally to being ranked in the Top 25 for two straight years and going to a title game one year and winning it the next. When you think of the success P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas have had here, there is a Twilight Zone quality to the parallel between this success and their success at Elizabeth (N.J.). In their freshman year at Elizabeth, they won one game; in their freshman year at Temple they won two games. In their sophomore year at both schools, they won six games. In their junior year at both schools, they reached the title game and lost and, in their senior year at both schools, they lifted the ultimate hardware together.

Truly amazing and I will miss both of those guys.

Back on Cherry and White Day, I wrote that this team will be better than last year’s team while people on other websites—notably, Rutgers and Penn State fan boards—insisted that Temple would take a step back. I was consistent in my belief that this was the STEP FORWARD year, not the step back one, and that belief was rooted in knowledge that both the defense and offense were significantly upgraded despite graduation losses. Only a Temple fan who follows the team closely would know that, not the know-it-alls who make assumptions on subjects they have no idea what they are talking about.

Today at noon, the Owls will know where they will go for a bowl game. They can finish the season in the top 25 and set the record for most wins in Temple football history.

It won’t be the cake because we saw that yesterday, but it will be the Cherry on top of that white cake and it will be delicious even going down past what promises to be a future sore throat.