Category Archives: Temple football

11.19.19
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Fizzy Closes the Book on Tulane

Screenshot 2019-11-17 at 1.14.09 PM

This is the Temple coverage page that was supposed to make it into the print editions but did not due to a “production glitz.”

By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

[Before we review, be advised that those who get the Inquirer found absolutely no coverage of the game. If you’d like to write a nasty letter, go to inquirer.letters@phillynews.com. My letter is already there.]

Before the season started, I was asked to predict our record for 2019. Looking over a tough schedule coupled with a new coaching staff, I thought 6-6 would be the final result. I’m so pleased to be wrong. We’re now 7-3 with the possibility of more wins.

However, does that mean we should do the mummer’s strut down Broad Street? Not yet!  There’s lots of room for improvement. And as the newspapers usually give an excellent account of what happened and who starred in the game, I like to take an in-depth look at the coaching decisions.

Obviously, our defense was terrific. The “Wild Boys,” as they call themselves, were the main reason we held on to the victory. Lead by Quincy Roche, they terrorized the very talented Tulane QB, who became quite nervous as the game continued. He was not only nervous but also quite agitated at the two or three times Temple should have been called for late hits, after he threw the ball. And that’s my first comment. If those penalties had been called, they might have affected the outcome of the game. Add to those uncalled penalties, were the three after the whistle unsportsmanlike calls for 15 yards apiece. One of our guys even reached over the shoulder of a ref to push his adversary. I don’t have any stats, but I’m sure we are among the most penalized teams in the league. The coaching staff has to find a way to tame the guys. This was the 10th game and the penalties haven’t stopped. Maybe our tough guys need some sensitivity training.

I try to stay away from criticizing the official’s calls, as they usually even out. They did on Saturday, as the referees who didn’t make the roughing the passer calls on Temple, also didn’t call the numerous ‘holding’ infractions by the Tulane offensive line. So there!

Screenshot 2019-11-17 at 6.17.26 PM

I’ve previously been remiss in not mentioning our end-of the-half play calling. Yesterday was at least the second time, and possibly the third, we’ve had the ball in reasonably good field position with over two minutes left on the clock, and a small lead. And what did we do with these opportunities? Well, we basically got really conservative and ran out the clock. Yesterday, Tulane had enough time to get downfield and almost score. What is our offensive coordinator thinking? We had the wind. Throw the ball downfield and put the game away.

Similarly, we did the same chicken-shit play calling in our last possession and it almost led to a possible tying score by Tulane.

Now, back again to the first-and-goal calls. We had to kick three field goals because we couldn’t score. Two times we had first-and-goal. I would like to point out that first down in this situation is the only time you can truly fool the defense. That’s because the following calls are based on what happened on first down. So if you’re going to fool the defense, the first down play is most important. In the past, we’ve always run-up-the gut on one and sometimes two plays. Yesterday, we ran up-the-gut on the first occasion, but not on the second. However, all the passes on both series of downs were direct throws with no play fakes. That’s dumb. I could offer any number of terrific plays that make great use of faking to a running back in that situation, and they should happen on first down.

I still don’t understand why Russo doesn’t run more. He mentioned before the season started that he was thrilled with the offense because there were so many RPO’s attached to the plays. So why doesn’t he keep the ball? There were so many times he could have had considerable yardage.

I can’t stop without a defensive comment. Tulane walked in for a score based on two successive running plays. The first running play had a hole so big Santa Clause could have scored. So what did we do on the next play when they had first and goal? We lined up in the same defense – so they ran the same play and strolled into the end zone. How could we not go into a gap defense on the goal line?

This past week a local sports-writer called me grumpy. Okay, so here’s a story.

I was not paying attention while I was driving, and tapped a guy’s bumper at a red light. When he came out, I was embarrassed because he was a dwarf. When he saw a small dent, he said, “I’m not happy!” To which I replied, “Well which one are you?”

Thursday: Hazard Warning

11.17.19
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Temple-Tulane: Stayin’ Alive

The classic 70s music booming from the boombox of one the best post-game tailgates (of many good ones) was from the Bee Gees yesterday.

“Stayin’ Alive.”

Not “staying” alive. Stayin’ alive.


“You know what?
I’ve never lost
to Cincinnati.”
_ James McHale,
a starting tackle
with the Owls the
past four seasons

Can’t go wrong with 1970s or 1980s music at any tailgate, pre- or post-game.

Kudos to that boomer for his boombox because no song was more appropriate for the set of circumstances facing the Temple football Owls now.

The situation has narrowed down to this: Temple stayed alive for what would probably be the most improbable conference title ever with a 29-21 win over a very good Tulane team.

Screenshot 2019-08-02 at 11.21.00 PM

A win over Cincy on Saturday night makes this beautiful moment a realistic possibility once again.

 

Improbable because has a conference champion ever lost 63-21 to another team from the same conference in the regular season? As Donovan McNabb might utter: “I would say no.”

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. The point is it’s not THAT far ahead of ourselves. Just less than a week now.

Goodbye to the few Tulane fans who made a lot of noise from their super box. They weren’t very original as “Get that ball back” seemed to be the only rhythmic cheer they could muster.

The Temple fans in the cheap seats below turned around and waved goodbye (Shaun Bradley style, Cincy, 2018) to them a few times and, to their credit, the Tulane fans in the not-so-cheap seats goodnaturedly waved back when it was apparent they lost.

Goodbye, and good luck.

Really, because if those fans make enough noise and come up with more original cheers in New Orleans next week, the Green Wave can do Temple a huge favor by knocking off UCF. (We suggest DEE-FENSE, DEE-FENSE and Let’s GO TU-LANE for starters.)

Tulane is a very good team so that’s not impossible.

Maybe not even improbable.

Screenshot 2019-11-16 at 9.10.20 PM

In order to beat Cincy, got to bring those rushing attempts and rushing yards up to 54 or so and 200 yards. Temple isn’t even trying to run the ball this year and it’s puzziling.

Should Temple travel to Cincy on that same day and beat the Bearcats for the fifth-straight season, all the Owls would have to do is hold serve against UConn to earn a trip to Memphis for the whole ball of wax. “You know what?” former Temple offensive tackle James McHale told me on the subway on the way home. “I’ve never lost to Cincinnati.”

McHale made a very good point about pride and tradition. Current Temple players: Do not let yourselves be the first class in five years who do because winning is imperative if the Owls are to have a chance at grabbing their second chip in four years. They are standing in the way and you are the way. Does anyone believe the Owls DON’T have a chance to win in Cincy? No. Does anyone believe Cincy is going to win in Memphis? I guess Cincy fans do, but I don’t. Temple must take care of its business first and the reward could be substantial.

After losing by consecutive blowouts in the middle of the season, that would be something.

Cue the Patsy Cline song “Crazy” for the post-game UConn tailgate should that happen but that’s from way back in 1961 so we might need another boomer box. A little Electric Slide action (Marcia Griffith, 1990) would also be nice for the playlist.

It’s up to the Owls getting by with only a little help from their friends (1968, Joe Cocker) to make it happen.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

11.16.19
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Game Day: Swan Song or Fight Song?

There are not a whole lot of believers in the Temple Owls today, as evidenced by our friend Andy Gresh (above) from the league office all but picking Tulane.

He’s not the only one.

footballs

Despite a forecast with wind chills in the 20s and a team from the South coming up North, Vegas had the Green Wave starting as a 3.5-point favorite and that went up to 4 the next and as high as 6 before settling on the 5.5 as we write this post.

That’s a lot of public money moving to the Tulane side.

If the public is right, then today represents a swan song of sorts for the Owls football season. They now have a realistic path to win the AAC East. With a loss, they will not and have to be forced to settle for the same kind of meaningless bowl game they have been in for the last five seasons.

If the public is wrong, though, they can be–to borrow a phrase from Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront–“A contender.”

This game could rest on a couple of observations we’ve been making pretty much the whole season. 1) Does this staff even believe in the concept of establishing a run game? 2) Why does this staff insist on running an RPO that minimizes the strength of their best quarterback?

Nobody is going to buy Anthony Russo as a running threat, so why even run those plays for him? He’s a much more effective guy after the run game is established and with the linebackers and the safeties cheating up to stop the run and him passing over it.

You would think by the 10th game internal film study would have convinced this largely proven championship staff that the personnel here is not the same as the personnel at Northern Illinois nor should the scheme be the same.

So far, not all of the light switches have been turned on in the coaching office on that issue–at least not to our satisfaction.

On a cold day where the Owls need to monopolize the clock and the ball on offense and get about three turnovers defense, we shall soon find out if the experts in the league office or the public is right or Temple TUFF merges with Temple SMART for a satisfying version of ‘][‘ For Temple U about 3:10 p.m. or so.

Sunday: Game Analysis

11.14.19
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Stopping the Tulane zone bluff option

Here is an example of Fritz’s double-option with a lead blocker at Ga. Southern

Among the many who still remember Wayne Hardin around here, the phrase used most about him was that he was many years ahead of his time.

How many?

Screenshot 2019-11-13 at 11.35.12 PM

A multiple-layer, two gloves and hood kind of tailgate

The two games this weekend at Lincoln Financial Field will provide a very real time frame.

Tulane’s offense will show a lot of the same principles Hardin had with his veer this Saturday (noon, Lincoln Financial Field) against Temple.

Hardin liked to call his offense the “smorgasbord offense” and described it this way: “It’s like one of those food spreads, a little of this, a little of that.”  Whatever Hardin liked from a number of offenses, including a lot of the veer and the triple option and the pro set, he would ‘borrow” and utilize all of those looks to fool defenses. In addition, he invented a whole lot of stuff that Bill Belichick uses in New England today.

Here is Fritz motioning the WR to the RB spot in a goal-line offense.

Temple ran all of those offenses so well other coaches thought the Owls were breaking the rules by practicing 24 hours a day. It drove defenses crazy. The Owls would line up in a Houston (Cougar, not Texan) Veer one series and a Dallas Cowboys’ pro set the next and, on a rare occasion, would use a Texas triple option.

Now that the NCAA limits practices to just 15 hours a week, coaches have utilize their time a lot better and no one does that more than Tulane head coach Willie Fritz.


To me, Fritz has to be
the coach of the year
in the AAC. Memphis, UCF,
Cincinnati and Temple have
been the established powers
in the league over the last
five years. Tulane breaking
into that group despite also
having Ivy League-type admission
standards is a tribute to Fritz’s
ability as a football coach

To me, Fritz has to be the coach of the year in the AAC. Memphis, UCF, Cincinnati and Temple have been the established powers in the league over the last five years. Tulane breaking into that group despite also having Ivy League-level admission standards is a tribute to Fritz’s ability as a football coach and recruiter. Put it this way: If Northwestern is the Harvard of the Big 10, Vandy the Harvard of the SEC, Stanford the Harvard of the PAC-12, Duke is the Harvard of the ACC then Tulane has to be the Harvard of the AAC.  (Err, Harvard is the Harvard of the Ivy League.) So it’s hard to get kids admitted to that school. Since two Big 12 schools (Texas and Baylor) are tied for 79th academically, that conference has no elite school. Plus, Temple coach Rod Carey has paid tribute to Fritz for doing it “the right way.” That could be interpreted as a shot at people like Sonny “15 portal transfers” Dykes for doing it the “wrong way.”

Tulane is the clear-cut “Ivy League” type AAC school, though, and, as such, poses some admission problems that don’t exist elsewhere. All of that dictates Fritz adopts and perfects a unique offensive scheme and he has, just like Navy.  Unlike at Navy, though, sophisticated passing concepts are built into the offense.  Call it a “zone bluff” option.

Fritz says his quarterback’s mid-play read to the dive up the gut to the pitchman on the outside. However, Tulane’s quarterback is in the shotgun, receivers are scattered across the field and there are men in motion at the snap.

No one has stopped Tulane’s offense so far except Memphis and Auburn, which beat them, 47-17, and 24-6, respectively. The way the Tigers did it was not with defense per se, but with the offense. In that game, Kenny Gainwell had 18 carries for 104 yards and added nine receptions for 203 yards. Because of Gainwell, Memphis had the ball for 34 minutes and 10 seconds, while Tulane had it for 25:50. Three of those possessions resulted in interceptions so the damage the Green Wave could do was limited.

Does Temple has an offensive talent equal to Gainwell? No, but the Owls can dominate the time with a running game that features Jager Gardner and Ra’Mahn Davis and receivers like Jadan Blue, Branden Mack, and Kenny Yeboah. It would be nice if Isaiah Wright would join the party but returning punts instead of fair-catching them but that’s up to him. He certainly has the talent to flip the field a few times but so far his will hasn’t matched his talent. Maybe the switch will go on Saturday.

The point here is that you don’t stop an offense like Tulane with defense alone. It takes a whole lot of help from your own offense in addition to your defense winning at the point of attack.

If that’s going to look familiar to Temple, it should. The Owls faced a very similar “passing read” offense in UCF and the Knights scored 63 points on the Owls. That offense utilizes one back, though. Tulane runs two out there.

Unless the Owls take a more holistic approach than to stopping it than they did on that disastrous night, the results will not be a helluva lot different. Hopefully, one takeaway the Owls had from that night was the best way to stop a good offense is using your own to keep it off the field. Another takeaway is to get more than one takeaway like Memphis did against the Green Wave.

If Hardin was here, he’d tell you that but, since he’s not, we will do it for him.

Predictions: Last week was a perfect example of why logic doesn’t work sometimes. Logically, Florida State was in disarray after firing Willie Taggart and Boston College looking good after scoring 57 points at Syracuse. So I picked BC as a one-point favorite and lost, 38-31, bringing my record for the season to 28-23 against the spread and 32-21 straight up. (Steve Addazio’s head coaching career may be coming to an end.) More than one line strikes me as a “wrong” one as I like all underdogs this week: LOUISIANA TECH getting 2.5 at Marshall, GEORGIA TECH getting 5.5 to visiting Virginia Tech, USF getting 14 against visiting Cincy (it would really help Temple if USF won that game outright), and my pick of the week, NAVY getting 9.5 at Notre Dame to cover but not to win.

Saturday: A Song For Game Day

11.12.19
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Championship Not A Crazy Thought Now

One of the reasons I declined initial overtures to be invited back at the beginning of the season into the most popular Temple football facebook group after a hiatus was some of the attitudes of the posters.


It’s not like Temple
is asking UConn or
ECU to win a game.
It’s asking good teams
to beat other good teams

For just one example (of many), the way any discussion of a game past the next one was rebuffed by some (err, most) with this inane response: “Let’s beat (XXXXX) first before we can discuss (YYYYY).”

Like a group of fans on a facebook page talking about future games had any impact on what happened on the field in the next one. Now that’s a crazy thought, even crazier than what we’re about to discuss in this post. You can only beat your head against a wall so much before walking away from the wall.

That is there. This is here.

Screenshot 2019-11-10 at 9.06.45 PM

Hell, beating Tulane is the most important thing but we can dream about sitting next to the trophy again on the team bus in December and let the players chew Green Wave gum for a game scheduled on 11/16 at the same time.

Taking one game at a time is the job of the kids and the coaches.

Fans? Not so much.

Thanks in part to a miracle provided by a winless (in the league) Tulsa team over a team that scored 63 points on the Owls (UCF), an American Athletic Conference championship isn’t all that crazy to think about anymore.

At least for Temple. For purposes of this post, we won’t talk about the injuries or any problems the team has on offense or defense but just about beating the three teams left on the schedule.

Cincinnati–a team Temple has beaten four-straight times–still holds all the cards but that doesn’t mean it is going to collect the chips.

Or, as the kids say, the chip.

It basically comes down to this:

  • Temple wins out;
  • UCF loses at Tulane;
  • Cincinnati loses to Memphis

Then, the Owls could play a title game in Memphis. Tough, yes. Crazy? No. It’s not like Temple is asking UConn or ECU to win a game. It’s asking good teams to beat other good teams and, if it is a good team, it can win three-straight games, two at home.

Based on the above-bulleted scenario, Temple would hold the tie-breaker against Cincy based on head-to-head competition. UCF would drop out with its third league loss.

americansked

Tulane has an offense similar to the one UCF brought to Philadelphia so that must’ve factored into the Green Wave entering the week as a four-point favorite and quickly dropped to 3.5 and now 3 at the time of this post. Still, with the brutal weather forecast, that might be a mitigating factor in the Owls’ favor. Temple went down to ECU and beat the Pirates more comfortably than Cincinnati did and the Cincy offense isn’t that crazy wide-open type that seemingly gives the Owls fits and Temple seems to match up favorably with the Bearcats.

Screenshot 2019-11-11 at 10.05.48 PM

Tulane is a far better team than Tulsa and, without a championship on the line, UCF could pack it in there. With SMU nipping at Memphis’ heels, the Tigers know they have to beat Cincinnati at home to host an AAC title game and would be extremely motivated to do so. Memphis holds first tie-breakers over SMU and Navy.

The beneficiary in all of this could be Temple if the Owls can play the way they did against Memphis or even Georgia Tech.

Temple can only control what it can control and, if the Owls and their fans bring the noise on Saturday, they get one step closer to the most improbable championship ever.

Yeah, I know let’s worry about Tulane first. Me musing about a championship has no impact of what the kids do on the field this Saturday.

It’s called multitasking.

Thursday: Stopping The Spread Option

11.10.19
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Fizzy closes the book on USF

Editor’s Note: If Fizzy, as loyal a long-time fan and season-ticket-holder as he is, says he won’t sit in the cold for the final two games (which he did in the last story), then you know our attendance is not going to approach the 30K average it has through the first five. His recap of USF starts here. 

fizz

By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

                                       How to Shoot Yourself in Both Feet Without a Gun

Offense

  1. The offense continually stops itself with penalties.
  2. The play calling in the red zone and at the goal line is atrocious.  The first two play calls with first and goal are always up-the-gut.  (Dairy Queen is introducing a new product, the Temple all-vanilla softy.)
  3. Twice when Russo got sacked, linemen inconceivably double-teamed, while the linebacker rushed freely.
  4. Continually on third and long, no roll-outs – no imagination.
  5. The offense scored 10 points.
  6. So far, Anthony Russo has had only one really good game. (It was the one with 7 drops.)  In fact, he’s regressed a little since last season.
  7. Isaiah Wright has also gone downhill since last season.

Conclusion:  The game should have been put away in the first half.  Temple needs a new offensive coordinator.

Screenshot 2019-11-10 at 11.43.12 AM

Photo of crowd DURING the game (not at halftime or in warmups) shot from Buccaneers” super box where Bruce Arians hosted his former Owl players

Defense

  1. If the SF receiver doesn’t drop the wide-open deep pass in the fourth quarter, the games’ a nail biter.  There were also two other SF barely overthrown deep passes to open receivers.
  2. Sometimes it’s tough to avoid a targeting call, especially when the receiver or ball carrier suddenly ducks.  However, our outstanding linebacker (Chapelle Russell) had at least three steps before hitting the SF QB in the head with his helmet in the first quarter.  Inexcusable!
  3. A really dumb roughing the kicker penalty negated a terrific stop of SF when the games was tied.

Conclusion:  If it wasn’t for the outstanding performance by our defensive rushers and all their sacks, as well as the defensive touchdown, we’d have probably lost this game. This is the sloppiest 6 – 3 team I’ve ever seen.  Oh yeah, the win was nice.  We are now eligible to go to the White House Sub Shop Bowl in Atlantic City.

There are three important things in football – coaching, coaching, and coaching.

Tuesday: The Improving Scenarios

11.08.19
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Ending a streak and starting one in Tampa

Screenshot 2019-10-01 at 10.38.22 PM

Since CBS sports made this graphic, Owls have had four more games of 20 points or more that ended last night

A couple of streaks ended last night in Tampa, one important, one not.

Temple ended a rare two-game losing streak with a solid if unspectacular 17-7 win over a decent South Florida team. That’s the important streak one that supersedes everything else.

In the process, the Owls’ streak of 20-straight games scoring 20 or more points–a Group of Five that included Oklahoma, Ohio State and Clemson–ended when they eschewed a field goal with 32 seconds left.

Speaking of streaks, the Owls now have become bowl eligible for six-straight years under three head coaches (my editors always told me don’t say different head coaches because three is understood). I don’t think college football reference has a stat for that, but that’s got to put Temple in an elite group of maybe one. Plus, the Owls ended a streak of three-straight ugly losses in Tampa (although they did win a bowl game in nearby St. Pete).

Let’s put it this way. It could be a lot worse. We could be Rutgers and a fan base so delusional they think they can beat the Owls next year after they lost (48-7) to a team Temple beat (Maryland).

Always amused reading posts like this one last night:

Screenshot 2019-11-08 at 9.05.52 AM

My reaction to the above post

As a Temple fan, I’m pleased that the Owls are making another bowl but I’m greedy. Put it this way: Was anyone all that excited about the Independence Bowl last year? How about the Boca Bowl? Or the Gasparilla Bowl? They all seem the same to me. The problem with the AAC is that the winner gets all the spoils and everybody else gets crumbs.

kwenkeu

With the new rules, Owls can take the redshirt off Gasparilla Bowl defensive MVP William Kwenkeu (35) and play him the final three regular-season games, still preserving his redshirt for next year.

I want a championship and, as long as that remains a possibility (although a remote one), that’s what the Owls should go after. UCF and Cincy need to lose twice more, knocking out UCF, and giving the Owls the head-to-head tie-breaker with Cincy and the East title. That probably means a rematch with Memphis on enemy turf, but that’s a fight the Owls should want to pursue.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves here, but the point is a 9-3 finish–something the Owls can control–is a lot more rewarding than a trip to a non-descript bowl game. Let the chips fall where they may otherwise. If anything last night showed, it was if the Owls front seven (major hat tip to Quincy “Reggie White” Roche) plays the way they did against South Florida, the Owls can run the table.

Screenshot 2019-11-08 at 1.33.09 PM

From Friday’s Tampa Bay Times

Meanwhile, it would be nice to get Isaiah Wright off the milk carton for once and turn those fair catches into 80-yard punt and kickoff returns, but that’s up to him and not us. The fact that head coach Rod Carey still has him back there indicates this is the desired result.

Now that Carey is probably without Isaiah Graham-Mobley (injured) for the Tulane game, this would be a good time to temporarily take the redshirt off Gasparilla Bowl defensive MVP William Kwenkeu and knock some rust off him. That would still be preserving his redshirt and helping Temple in the process.

It would be a win/win situation for the Owls, bolstering the linebacking corps for both this year and next and hopefully help jumpstart another long winning streak.

Sunday: Fizzy’s Insights on the USF Game

Tuesday: The Scenarios

Thursday: Stopping the hybrid triple option

Saturday: Game Day Tulane

11.07.19
by

Owls Need To Show Signs of Life

eagle

These guys helped change the culture from a 20-game losing streak to a nine-win regular season in just four years. This current Temple team needs to win tonight if they hope to match that season.

A long time ago in a college halfway across the state, a young man named Al Golden earned a Bachelor of Science degree in a new major then called sports psychology.

He found a place to put it to good use when he arrived at Temple as the youngest head coach in the country some 14 years later.

Screenshot 2019-11-06 at 11.38.01 PM

If anything, the ECU game points to USF being the slightly stronger team recently with GT game showing the Owls being the better team earlier in the season; still not much to chose

When Golden set up shop at the E-O, he found a program as fractured mentally as it was physically. The Owls would lose 20-straight games before Golden slowly started to turn things around and right a ship that has sailed pretty much in the right direction since.

Golden understood the psychology of sports as it related to winning and losing. Winning is contagious and so is losing and, for this season, the Owls not only have lost the last two games, they looked disinterested on the sidelines. Temple has to stop the bleeding starting tonight (8 p.m., ESPN) at South Florida. Losing by 63-21 on top of 45-21 can shake your belief system, so the Owls will have to show some life tonight, especially on the sidelines.

Body language is important and Golden was the first Temple coach to make the Owls who weren’t playing at the time an important part of the team by getting everybody swaying back and forth, locking hands and cheering on their teammates. It wasn’t as hokey as some of the money down shenanigans Geoff Collins pulled recently, but a useful exercise in team bonding.

That might not help the guys on the field block and tackle better but it will show everyone that their teammates care that they do. Apparent the last two weeks has not only been the lack of blocking and tackling (and catching) but an appalling sense of resignation on the sidelines. Maybe a players-only meeting addressed that issue. We will find out tonight.

One of the things that Golden did was target captains of winning high school programs. Eighteen of his first 25-man class were captains of championship teams. “It wasn’t as important to me as getting the higher-rated recruit, as it was to change the mindset,” Golden said. “I wanted winners here who refused to lose.”

So Golden not only brought those winners in, but he applied a tourniquet in some of his psychological approaches on gameday and maybe that’s what this team needs.

If Temple football is going to do something more than just make another obscure bowl game, the game at South Florida tonight represents the last stand to recapture the brand that has stood not only for winning over the last decade but for sustained excellence.

Face it: Even if the Owls cannot get past Cincinnati and UCF in the standings, what they can control is to finish the regular season 9-3 and not 6-6 and those are two polar opposite outcomes.

Nine and three would be a good record and get the respect of people nationwide. Six and six is just the middle of the pack mediocre in a business where 130 other programs are struggling to be noticed.

Owls need to show some signs of life tonight, both on the field and in the sidelines, after not showing it anywhere for the last two weeks. Showing that they care would be a good place to start.

Predictions: Another 3-3 week. Only one game jumps out at us on the schedule this week so we’re just taking Boston College to cover the 1.5 at Florida State. For the season, we are 28-22 against the spread and 32-20 straight up.

Friday: Game Analysis

11.04.19
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Temple-USF: The Narrow Path Forward

NCAA FOOTBALL: DEC 03 AAC Championship - Navy v Temple

This is the only thing worth getting

Over the last two weeks, the Temple Owls made their bed and now have to sleep in it or do the whole thing over.

It’s a bed with a lot of lumps in it and corners not tucked in and they can give up or do it over again starting in a couple of nights at a place where they have never won, Raymond James Stadium.

Unfortunately, it’s a bed that needs others to help them make it.  First, the Owls will have to tuck in their corner and win at USF. On the other side, they need help from Cincy and UCF. Cincy will have to lose to USF and Memphis. Then, on top of that, UCF would have to lose twice.

Not likely, but still possible.

So, as long as there is a chance that there is some glory at the end of this rainbow, it’s worth the effort to achieve it. Because the runnerup prize to the non-champion in this league is a bowl pretty much equal to the others.

Nothing happens, though, without a win over USF in a couple of nights. It’s important because the Owls team that started this season bears no resemblance to the team that did a bad impersonation of this one in the middle of the season.

Screenshot 2019-11-04 at 9.50.25 PM

Let’s keep it Cherry or White the rest of the season, please

 

If the Owls are to win on Thursday night, they will have to run–literally–for their lives. Run or die.

They have to do whatever they can to jumpstart what has been a nonexistent running game in consecutive losses to SMU and UCF if they have any chance to beat the next alphabetical opponent, USF. That means not doing the same thing with the running game they have the last two weeks–spreading the field with the RPO and hoping that opens running lanes.

Guess what?

It doesn’t.

So what do they do? Try something different. Since there is no fullback on the roster, line tight ends as H-backs, put them in motion and bring more blockers to the point of attack than there are defenders in that area to stop them. Mix in a few jet sweeps with either Jaden Blue or Isaiah Wright and get this running game rolling.

Only then will the fakes to the running backs work and open up lanes in the passing game and then the Owls will start to resemble the team we all knew and loved after the Memphis game.

Otherwise, it will be an offseason of tossing and turning in that lumpy and uncomfortable bed asking a whole lot of unanswered questions.

Thursday: Game Night Preview

 

 

11.02.19
by

Game Day Without The Owls

gameday

How the Owls played so well against Memphis and so poorly against UCF is a mystery

There are few things more depressing than waking up on a crisp Saturday in November without my beloved Temple Owls playing football but today is one of those days.


Consecutive games of 63 and 45
points cannot be easily explained
away by missing a couple of key
players. Miss 11 starting players
on defense and maybe you can talk
about an excuse for 63 points.
Two, not so much.

Game Day is not only without the Owls but includes a team they beat, Memphis, playing a team they should have been a lot more competitive against, SMU, on the most national of stages, the ABC Prime Time game of the week tonight.

Ugh.

Oh, what might have been.

You can make a strong argument that the Owls didn’t play the last two weeks, either, but that’s neither here or there because there is a void today that is as much psychological as it is physical. The Inquirer’s Marc Narducci made a great point in an article this week that the Owls lost to Buffalo because they were overconfident but, after being exposed by SMU, probably lost to UCF because their belief system in themselves was shaken by coming up microscopically small in Dallas.

There’s a lot to that theory because a normally sure-tackling team couldn’t tackle anyone nor was even seemingly in the vicinity of a tackle.

Consider this in this crazy season:

Temple dominates Georgia Tech, 24-2, which beat Miami (Fla.), which beat Pitt, which beat UCF. Temple beat Memphis, which is at least as good a team as UCF and SMU, possibly better. Temple doesn’t show up against either SMU or UCF.

eagle

2009 team never lost by 63-21

Something has happened since and it’s an easier fix on offense than the defense from a mostly schematic point of view. Definitely, a lot of it stems from not only their heads but the heads of their coaches. Consecutive games of 63 and 45 points cannot be easily explained away by missing a couple of key players. Miss 11 starting players on defense and maybe you can talk about an excuse for 63 points. Two, not so much.

If Pitt can beat UCF, Temple should have at least been competitive with that squad.

What was the difference?

Pitt won the time of possession battle (31 minutes, 13 seconds) by having 37 rushing attempts for 214 yards.

Temple didn’t even try to run or did so half-heartedly. Pitt established the run first against UCF and then had successful passing plays off of it. Temple tried to spread the field and open lanes for the run, which UCF’s speed closed off. Maybe a fullback and two tight ends would have helped. I suspect so, but we will now never know.

Screenshot 2019-11-01 at 11.24.16 PM

Early TV games today

For folks used to the way Temple has played in the past, it was sickening to watch.

Saturday night, the Owls paid tribute to the 10-year anniversary of their Eagle Bank Bowl team and I noted on facebook that those Owls never lost, 63-21. That was a Temple TUFF team in every sense of the word.

Dominque Harris, a safety who was drafted by the Green Bay Packers, replied to my post: “You know we would have fought tooth and nail, brother.” They also ran the ball behind an elite college tailback, Bernard Pierce, and a great blocking fullback.

Screenshot 2019-11-01 at 11.26.19 PM

Late TV games today

It might be too much to say this team quit, but you can’t lose 63-21 without the fight disappearing at some point. They had their teeth punched out and no tough as nails could be found anywhere.

Now you would figure the Owls’ coaches have been to work trying to fix the running game but the defense is a whole other story. The confidence of this defense appears to be shattered, even though there is plenty of talent on that side of the ball. A defense that played with so much swagger against Maryland and Georgia Tech–the two Power 5 wins on the schedule–appears shaken.

Defensive backs who played well in the first six games have been out of position. Linebackers who played with a fierceness in three goal-line stands against Maryland were routinely blocked.

Maybe Vince Lombardi said what every Temple fan was thinking on Saturday night:

Unfortunately, Vince is not around to fix this disaster and we will have to rely on Rod Carey to restore some kind of order.

He’s all we got.

We’ll have to wait until Thursday night to find out if he’s all we need.

Predictions: First last week. I prefaced my picks by saying it was a very tough week for picks (it always is when something doesn’t jump right out at you) and it was. Went 3-3 SU and 3-3 against the spread, winning on Georgia State beating Troy, Indiana winning at Nebraska and TCU upsetting Texas. Lost on Liberty at Rutgers, Ball State losing to the always well-coached Ohio squad and Pitt crapping the bed against Manny Diaz and visiting Miami. For the season, now 32-15 SU and 28-19 ATS.

This week (for amusement only): Going with Georgia Tech getting the 7.5 against visiting Pitt. Miami, which is in disarray, was able to go up to Pitt and beat the Panthers. GT is not in as much disarray as Miami and has the home-field advantage so I could see GT winning this more than the Panthers. Pitt might win, but this is more of a 20-17 game than a 25-17 one. Others: Visiting Buffalo getting the 2 at Eastern Michigan, UCLA covering the 5.5 against visiting Colorado, Northern Illinois going from a 1-point underdog to a 1-point favorite over visiting Central Michigan, Memphis covering the 5.5 against visiting SMU and Middle Tennessee State covering the 3 at Charlotte and former Temple punter Connor Bowler.

The Memphis logic: At home, Memphis was able to take care of business against Tulsa, 47-17, the same Tulsa team that took SMU into double-OT in Dallas. You can point to the Temple scores against both teams but the big difference here is that Memphis is at home and the excitement around Game Day should propel the Tigers.

Tuesday: The narrow path forward