Category Archives: Temple football

09.26.19
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Patenaude: Just what the doctor ordered

Let’s face it: The Temple Owls looked sick last week against Buffalo and they need a prescription to look like their old selves–or at least the Rosey-cheeked (Cherry-cheeked?) group that played against Maryland.

A Dave Patenaude pill washed down by a little of Geoff Collins’ swag juice might be just what the doctor ordered and that should be delivered at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) when Georgia Tech head coach Collins and his offensive coordinator Patenaude come to town.

At least that’s what Vegas thinks as the Owls were installed as a 9.5-point favorite and that rose to double-digits quickly.

Football is a strange game with an odd-shaped ball that takes funny bounces so it cannot be predicted from a mathematical standpoint. If that were the case, Syracuse, which beat Liberty (24-0) and lost to a Maryland-team (63-20) with Liberty beating Buffalo (35-17) would have meant Temple over Buffalo by 85 points.

It didn’t work out that way because it’s hard to give an X factor to overconfidence or a Y factor to turnovers or a Z factor to three dropped third-down passes.

Still, the variables involved with Patenaude and, to a lesser extent, Collins are pretty rigid and well-known in Temple land and have carried over to Atlanta.

performance

Patenaude with the approval of Collins overhauled a highly successful Temple pro-type (at least the same pro-type run by Bill Belichick in Boston) and turned it into a spread ill-advised to suit the talents of the team he inherited all because that’s what “everybody else” does or because that’s what he did at Coastal Carolina.  He probably should have won nine regular-season games his first year (instead of six) using the Matt Rhule system and at least 10 his second year but underachieved both years. In the 40-plus years I’ve followed Temple football, Patenaude was the worst coordinator-level coach here I’ve ever seen and there was not even a close second.

National people who don’t know better think Collins did a great job here. Local people here, not so much.

So what has he done in Atlanta?

He repeats the same mistake again, trying to force-fit square pegs into round holes.

Both have a team that was exclusively recruited to run a triple-option and have now turned it into a college spread because (you guessed it) “everybody else does it.” Great generals know if they have a strong infantry and weak cavalry they don’t design an attack based on the kind of cavalry they hope to have. Instead, they accentuate the infantry in any battleplan. Similarly, great coaches like Belichick don’t do things because everybody else does it. They do things to fit their personnel and make it work with flawless execution. If Patenaude and Collins were great coaches, they would recruit the personnel they want to fit their offense first and make it work only when those guys are ready to play and not the other way around. They would try to make some form of a triple-option work until then.

Rod Carey proved last week that he wasn’t perfect (really, no one is). I’m still no more thrilled that he has Anthony Russo run a read-option offense than I would be if Belichick did the same with Tom Brady. Overall, though,  I’m glad he’s the doctor to nurse this team back to health and those guys on the other sideline holding up silly money down placards are the cure.

At least that’s what my instincts tell me. We will find out for sure in 48 hours.

Predictions early this week (to get the Maryland-PSU game in): MARYLAND getting 6.5 against visiting Penn State, WAKE FOREST giving 6.5 against visiting Boston College, SMU giving 7 at South Florida, EAST CAROLINA getting 3 at Old Dominion, UAB giving 2 at Western Kentucky, TOLEDO getting 3.5 over visiting BYU, CINCINNATI giving 3 at Marshall. Last week: 5-0 against the spread with Coastal Carolina covering the 17 against UMass (winning, 62-28), Old Dominion covering the 30-point underdog status at Virginia (losing, 28-17), Boston College covering the 7 at Rutgers (winning, 30-16), Indiana covering the 27 against UConn (winning, 38-3) and Iowa State covering the 29.5 against Louisiana-Monroe (winning, 72-20). Season so far: 12-4 straight up, 6-5 against the spread. 

Saturday: Game Day

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.24.19
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Fizz: Buffalo was a team loss

Editor’s Note: Made only slight changes to include two first names on the first reference that were left out.

                                        By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Wow!  Anthony Russo was over, under, in front and in back all day.  Then, when there were good passes in key situations, a lot were dropped.  Russo continues to look directly at his primary receiver as soon as he gets the ball.

All the while, both the offensive and defensive lines were outplayed to say the least, and we couldn’t stop the outstanding Buffalo running backs. (Number 5, Kevin Marks, reminds me of Brian Westbrook.)   The “targeting” calls didn’t help, and they were both questionable.  I guess it all depends if it was your quarterback or not.

There was no way we should have won the game, and we didn’t.  It’s a shame because we could have faced Georgia Tech undefeated, and a win would have us definitely ranked.

So let’s look at the coaching decisions that affected the game to some, but not a major degree.

  • There was a poorly executed screen pass where it didn’t seem to be a middle screen or an outside screen, and Russo threw right into the crowd.  Coaching?
  • Whoever has outside responsibility on our left defensive side, continued to penetrate and allow key yardage and a touchdown to go outside.  The defense should have been adjusted.
  • As it became apparent in the second quarter we had trouble stopping their running game, we should have started to run-blitz then. We did in the fourth quarter.
  • The long snapper was finally changed after another miscue which gave the momentum to Buffalo, but the punting is still only satisfactory with another shanked kick in the second half. Perhaps our punter, who could also be changed, should get practice fielding ground balls.
  • Down two scores at the end of the first half, why take a knee with 22 seconds left?
  • Someone on the coaching staff must have had a very low score on his math SAT’s.  I overlooked us going for two against Maryland when we shouldn’t have, and then we did it again against Buffalo.  In the fourth quarter, if we had kicked the extra point after a score, we would have been down 21 points.  The best we could have hoped for at that time, was a tie and overtime, so why risk being down by 22?
  • After Buffalo didn’t get a first down in our territory in the fourth quarter, we refused to take a 15-yard penalty before they punted.  Why?

So, cracks are starting to appear.  If we come back and beat the “Ramblin Wrecks from Georgia Tech,” there still won’t be enough seats on the bandwagon.

Thursday: Just What the doctor ordered

Saturday: Game Day

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.21.19
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Game Day: How Important is beating Buffalo?

When the time comes to say something meaningful at one of those post-game press conferences, Rod Carey seized the moment last week.

“It was a great win, but it wasn’t one-and-a-half wins,” Carey said.

That right there was the best quote of not only this season but the best quote of the last three seasons from a Temple head coach. Geoff Collins made a practice of saying words in those press conferences that really meant nothing.

Screenshot 2019-09-19 at 11.02.51 PM

Early games today …

Carey hit the nail on the head.

You have 12 regular-season football games and every single one means just as much as the last one or the next one.

The next one is this afternoon at Buffalo (3:30, ESPNU) and, as satisfying as the last one was over Maryland, it means the same as that one or next week’s one against visiting Georgia Tech.

In college football, they like to talk about “trap games” but, in a 12-game season, there should be none of those. The players work too hard the other 353 days of the year to throw one of a dozen away and Carey’s no-nonsense approach should serve Temple well.

Screenshot 2019-09-19 at 11.04.19 PM

Nighttime TV lineup

Temple received seven points in the latest Top 25 poll and, if it beats Buffalo, it should receive more next week. That’s the way this thing should work although it didn’t work that way in the preseason poll. In that one, the Owls received two coaches votes and then beat Bucknell, 56-12. In the next one, they received zero coaches votes.

Huh?

A 56-12 win dropped them in the eyes of pollsters? Should they have beaten Bucknell 79-0?

That’s what it seems like.

Beating Maryland got people’s attention, especially after the Terps beat Syracuse, 63-20, the week prior. No one knows what the score will be but how impressive from a national standpoint would it be if Temple was able to beat Buffalo by the same 45-13 score Penn State beat it by three weeks ago? Then, how far does Temple rise in the national polls with that victory piggybacked on a weekend where Maryland beats Penn State and Temple beats Georgia Tech?

Those dominoes have to start falling this afternoon, though.

Today, Buffalo is all about keeping people’s attention and that’s why the Owls have to play with the same fierceness and tenacity on the road that they did a week ago at home.

Survive and advance. A win today is as important as a win last week, not half as good or twice as good.

This Carey guy seems to say some pretty astute things. Hopefully, the kids are listening.

Picks: Iowa State laying the 19 against visiting Louisiana Monroe, Indiana laying the 27 against visiting UConn, Old Dominion getting 30 at Virginia, Wisconsin laying the 3.5 at Michigan, SMU getting the 9.5 against visiting TCU. Record last week: 3-3 overall, 1-5 against the spread (also the season record).

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

 

09.17.19
by

Fizz: Great win, but still work to be done

edfoley

Ed Foley has consistently had the Temple special teams near the top of the NCAA stats but was sorely missed on Saturday.

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub is a frequent contributor to this website and former Temple football player and, later, a high school coach. These are his observations on the 20-17 win over Maryland.

weinraub

Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl.

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

In Texas, the sun is shining

In Waco the skies are blue,

But if your name’s Ed Foley

You’re really pissed off too.

Raising my right hand, I would like to forthrightly say I’m thrilled with the win over Maryland. Obviously, the defense was spectacular.  Four goal-line stands are the most I’ve ever seen and against a previously scintillating offense.  Defensive coordinator Jeff Knowles and every defensive coach and player deserve any and all the accolades you can muster.  It was a fantastic performance by very talented guys.

boumerhi

Boomer now kicking for Boston College while Connor Bowler is punting for UNC-Charlotte.

Now, let’s see where we can improve.  Wait, did someone mention special teams?

With the help of the Inquirer’s Mike Jensen, I totaled nine bad plays made by the not so special teams.  Besides the penalties, shanked kicks, bad snaps, missed field goals,  and a blocker running into a bouncing ball, there was some coach’s strategy I need to have explained.  After the bad snap which resulted in a safety, why would you kick-off and not punt where you’d get better hang time?  On some punts by Maryland, why did our receiving team do nothing?  I mean they didn’t try to block the punt nor try to set up a run back; they just stood around.

Now I know it’s Isaiah Wright, but common sense should tell you that when fielding a punt or kickoff on one side of the field, you don’t waste three or four seconds trying to get to the other side to find a lane. All that does is allow the defense to get further down the field.  straight upfield and one block could get the lane he’s looking for.  So before we leave the not so special teams, Coach Carey’s removal of Ed Foley as special team’s coach looks terrible right now.

Now, a few things regarding the offense.  One big negative is the four times Russo tried to throw a hook just over the first down marker, the same receiver never turned around.  How does that happen four times?  Why would you keep going back to that play?

In the first half, Wright would run a late-developing pattern across the middle.  It was open both times, but Russo didn’t make accurate throws.  Why didn’t they go back to that play in the second half?

Despite the fumble in the second half, Gardner looked to be the much stronger runner over Davis.  Why didn’t he get more carries?

On one of our drives down the field in the second quarter, we were chewing up the yardage on the ground, gaining nice chunks almost every play.  Suddenly, there was an incomplete first-down pass and the drive stalled.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

On a few fourth and ones, our play call was a handoff five yards deep against a stacked defense, allowing them penetration.  We have a 6′ 4″ quarterback who weighs around 230 pounds.  Certainly, a quarterback sneak is preferable.

I was surprised to learn from Jensen’s article that our two long bombs for touchdowns were from check-offs at the line of scrimmage by Russo.  Perhaps the coaches should let him call more of the plays.  It’s good, however, he’s allowed the freedom to change the plays.

With 2:25 left in the game and Maryland’s offense in disarray on fourth down, why would we call a time out?  It did turn out rather well though, didn’t it?

All in all, though, the offense is way more efficient than ever before.

So, Defense gets an A+, offense gets a B, and special teams an F.  Thank you Football Gods.  We should be among the top 25 this week.

Thursday: Questions and Answers

Saturday: Game Day

09.14.19
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Game Day Forecast: Great weather, uncertain outcome

Temple is not getting much respect from the prognosticators.

Fanciers of sports talk radio pick up on the catchphrases of various successful hosts.

Mike Francesa of New York has “wait a minute, wait a minute!” but today’s signature that applies to the noon kickoff between host Temple and Maryland goes to another Mike, Missanelli, who says: “the line is telling me something.”

The opening line was Maryland favored by four.

It has since adjusted to around a touchdown.

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No rain, just a beautiful day for football

Shocking, because after last week, I thought the line would open with Temple a mid-teen double-digit dog.

The line should be telling you that Vegas feels that Temple is a whole lot better than Syracuse–which was ranked No. 21 last week–but elsewhere the signs are that there is little respect for the Owls.


“Maryland travels to Temple
this coming Saturday before
a well-placed bye week ahead
of its first significant
test: a nationally televised
home game on Sept. 27, a Friday
night, against Penn State”
_ Ross Dellenger, National College
Football writer
What?
Temple NOT a test?
Bulletin Board material

Only Sports Illustrated said to jump on the Owls but that was to cover, not to win, and I haven’t found a viable prediction service who is picking Temple to win outright.

I won’t but I won’t pick Maryland to win, either, because I think there are too many variables going into this game.

First, Bucknell might be the worst FCS team in the history of college football and I don’t think that game adequately prepared the Owls for this one. That’s not on the kids or coaches but on the Temple administration. To me, even a full-contact scrimmage between the first and second Temple units under game conditions would have been a better way to prepare and certainly a game against another FBS team would have also been better. I’m still very concerned that not a single Temple running back was able to take a handoff from deep in his own territory and outrace that entire Bucknell team for a touchdown.

That’s one strike against Temple.

On the other hand, many of the key players who starred in last year’s victory for Temple–notably Kenny Yeboah, Anthony Russo, and Shaun Bradley.–have not gone anywhere and they all figure to be the same kind of a nightmare for the Terrapins that they were a year ago. Russo was great in his first-ever college start, finding Yeboah for a touchdown, while Bradley had a pick 6.

That’s one strike against Maryland.

The second strike could be coaching but that’s also up in the air. Temple should have an advantage there because Rod Carey entered this season with a 52-30 record as an FBS head coach while Mike Locksley entered this season as a 3-31 FBS head coach. Last week, Locksley had to outsmart only Dino Babers (19-20 as a head coach coming into this season). It should be tougher against Carey. Still, I have a question whether Carey is married to a read-option offense. If he is, that’s playing into Maryland hands by giving the Terrapins more possessions than they should have and, with that kind of speed, that’s a high hanging curveball. If he’s flexible enough to adjust to attack the Terrapins’ weakness–run defense–by establishing the run first and throwing off play-action fakes, that could be a home run for Temple.

This morning it’s the bottom of the ninth and one team is down to its final strike.

We won’t know who swings and misses until 3 p.m., but that’s what makes sports great and just maybe a big and loud home crowd becomes the kind of closer Mariano Rivera was.

Picks this week (record 0-0 against the spread, 0-0 straight up): North Carolina State laying the 6.5 at West Virginia, Penn State laying the 17 against visiting Pitt, Eastern Michigan getting 8 at Illinois, Iowa laying the 2.5 at Iowa State, Buffalo laying the 4.5 at Liberty and Georgia State getting 10.5 at Western Michigan

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

09.10.19
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Temple Nation Needs to Show Up

The Temple fans made LFF a house of horrors for Penn State in 2015.

The first time I ever heard the phrase Al Golden uttered it a few years into probably one of the most impressive rebuilding jobs I’ve ever seen:

“Temple Nation needs to show up,” Golden said.

The coach really was four years into the rebuild and the place to show up was Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, D.C. for the Eagle Bank Bowl in 2009. It was the school’s first bowl in 30 years and it was against a marquee opponent and since one school was 200 miles away and the other 3,000, bowl organizers were counting on a big walk-up from Philadelphia.

If Temple Nation needed to show up then, it certainly needs to show up even more now. Full disclosure: This post wasn’t scheduled to be published until Thursday but we felt this plea was important to make early in the week to set the wheels in motion in the school and in the alumni ranks for a big home crowd against Maryland (noon, Saturday).

I don’t know what the crowd is going to look like but if the Owls got a legitimate 35,004 against Army in 2016 (and they did) and a legitimate 35,786 against Tulane in 2015 (and they did), and a legitimate 33,026 for Cincinnati last year (and they did), they are going to have to move that needle close to the 40,000 range for Maryland.

The stakes are that high.

The Owls–who received two votes in “others under consideration” in the Top 25 coaches preseason poll–can crack the Top 25 with a win over Maryland on Saturday. It’s not all that outrageous that a win puts the Owls there. Last week, Maryland was outside the Top 25 when it beat No. 21 Syracuse. This week, Temple is outside the Top 25 when it hosts No. 21 Maryland.

People have to get up on whatever equates to a soapbox at the Student Activities Center, the Bell Tower, the Olympic Complex or whatever place on campus to get a significant portion of the 40,000 fulltime students to attend on Saturday. A solid representation of the 279,000 alumni–almost 200,000 who live within an hour’s drive of the stadium–have to be accounted for as well.

If it can happen for one school, it can happen for another.

Temple Nation?

I never heard of the concept until two weeks before that Eagle Bank bowl.  Hell, Temple isn’t a state or a city let alone even a nation. Yet whatever Temple Nation was responded to that call when an estimated 20,000 of the 23,000 fans in the old baseball stadium cheered their throats out to see the Owls lose to 30-21 to UCLA.

“There were so many Temple fans here I really hated it,” a UCLA vlogger said afterward.

A year ago, Temple handed both Maryland and Cincinnati their first losses of the season. It didn’t need a home crowd to beat Maryland, but it did need a very loud one to beat Cincinnati.

“I couldn’t hear because of the crowd,” Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ritter said after fumbling a key snap in overtime that allowed the Owls to win.

The Owls will need that crowd again on Saturday and it will have to be loud and involved to help them crack the top 25 this early for the first time ever.

Even if it’s a mid-size nation, it can still make an impact on the college football globe in a few days.

Saturday: Game Day

09.08.19
by

Owls Know The Way to Beat Maryland

Perhaps no score in college football surprised the so-called experts more than Maryland’s 63-20 win over Syracuse on Saturday.

Sure, Maryland was a 2-point favorite at home against the No. 21-ranked Orange but Hurricane Dorian-type level of devastation was the thing that opened some eyes.

One thing the Terrapins established is they are a quick-strike team with plenty of speed on offense.


While Maryland has revenge
motivation that can’t be
discounted, Carey has all
the cards in his pocket in
terms of strategy. As a head
coach on the FBS level,
Carey is 53-30; as a head
coach on the FBS level,
Maryland coach Mike
Locksley is 5-31

Those three hours gave Temple head coach Rod Carey a pretty good template for devising a game plan to beat the Terrapins.

Like the old Dean Smith four-corners pre-clock era basketball offense of North Carolina, play keep-away.

The way to control a big-strike type team, as Maryland is, is to run the ball, control the clock, bring the safeties and the linebackers up to the line of scrimmage, and hit some key third-down plays in the play-action passing game. Keep the ball for at least eight minutes of each quarter and score some points and that limits the opportunities Maryland has to touch it.

While Maryland has revenge motivation that can’t be discounted, Carey has all the cards in his pocket in terms of strategy. As a head coach on the FBS level, Carey is 53-30; as a head coach on the FBS level, Maryland coach Mike Locksley is 5-31. Plus, the Owls had an extra week to prepare so Carey knows what the deal is. Last year, the Owls put their tight ends in motion as blockers for NFL fifth-round pick Ryquell Armstead, got some turnovers on defense, and came away with a 35-14 win.

All  Locksley has to go by on Temple is a game film that showed a spread offense without a fullback or two tight ends and that’s pretty much what he’s planning to stop.

If Carey came out in two tight ends, and a fullback, pounded the ball behind running backs Jager Gardner and Re’Mahn Davis (with a healthy dose of Isaiah Wright misdirection), that’s something Maryland coaches would definitely not be prepared to face.

Running the ball behind extra blockers was also that strategy that Steve Addazio employed to beat Maryland, 38-7, in 2011:

As a bonus, it is also the best strategy for Temple in that the Owls’ strengths as a team are their offensive line, quarterbacks and linebackers. If Wright is the full-time running back, you could also say that position would be a strength of the team as well.

With Josh Jackson instead of turnover-prone Kasim Hunt at quarterback, this is not the same Maryland team that lost to Temple 35-14 a year ago in College Park, Md.

This isn’t the same Temple team, either.

It’s better-coached than it was a year behind a guy who is 4-2 against the Big 10.

Whether he goes 5-2 will be determined by his willingness to adjust his scheme to exploit the weakness of his opponent.

We will find that out in six days.

Tuesday: Owl Nation

Saturday: Game Day

09.07.19
by

How good is Temple? Some clues today

footballs

The $2 million question that wasn’t really answered last week could be today.

“How good is Temple?”

It used to be a $64,000-dollar question in the 1950s (the name of a game show back then) but, due to inflation and the amount of money Temple coach Rod Carey is making, we’ll arbitrarily set it at his $2 million annual salary.

Screenshot 2019-09-06 at 3.05.41 PM

All that said, comparative scores are just speculation but it’s fun speculation and transitive property means little later in the season let alone this early  …

BUT …

I must admit despite the gaudy 56-14 score and the No. 1 national ranking in overall offense, I was a little leery about the win over Bucknell in that I thought Temple would have laid the kind of beating on the Bison that Maryland did to Howard (79-0) and Penn State did to Idaho (79-7). I thought Temple got first downs on too many third downs and not enough first downs after first downs. Bucknell’s tackling surprised me in that I did not think it would be able to tackle or get off blocks at all.

Screenshot 2019-09-06 at 3.07.24 PM

It may just be overreacting. It may be just because Carey is a “nicer guy” than Maryland’s Mike Locksley and Penn State’s James Franklin but part of my concern is that I think Howard and Idaho are better teams than Bucknell.

Certainly, Howard did something recently (two years ago) that Bucknell has never done and probably never will: Beat an FBS team in the P5 and G5 eras when it went out to UNLV and won. That year, UNLV followed up that 43-40 loss to Howard by beating Idaho (44-16), San Jose State (41-13), Fresno State (26-16) and Hawaii (31-23) so the Running Rebels were no scrubs.

Bucknell travels to Sacred Heart (6 p.m.) and if it struggles against that team on a 56-12 level, it’s not a real good sign for Temple.

Howard, on the other hand, travels to FCS power Youngstown State and, if the Penguins are able to hang a big number (maybe not 79-0) on Howard, it indicates that the Maryland win is less impressive than it was a week ago.

Those are just a couple of clues.

We really won’t know how good Temple is until next week when it hosts Maryland. Today, the Syracuse at Maryland game is one to watch and the Owls might as well root for the Terrapins because a Temple win over a team that beat Syracuse will be that much more impressive.

Buffalo at Penn State (Fox, 7:30) is also a game to watch. The Bulls were really hurt when quarterback Tyree Jackson left school a year early to pursue an NFL career and found himself on no roster after being cut by his hometown Buffalo squad. Let that be a lesson for any quarterback coming out. If you are not a first-round pick, it’s not worth it. I think Buffalo will be able to give PSU a better game than the 29.5 spread, something like 34-14 and could be a tough foe for the Owls in a couple of weeks.

Then there is another clue game in South Florida at Georgia Tech (2 p.m.) If South Florida (which got rocked by Wisconsin) is able to give GT a good game or even win, that bodes well for Temple at the end of the month because I think TU is significantly better than USF this season.

A game to watch with absolutely no impact on Temple is freaking East Stroudsburg at Wagner (6 p.m.). Wagner lost to UConn, 24-21, last week. If ESU beats Wagner, you might be able to make an argument that Bucknell is better than Uconn.

In the end, it’s the Owls who have to take care of their own business but stock in that business could go up or down depending upon some of today’s results.

Sunday: Temple knows the way to beat Maryland

Tuesday: Temple Nation

Saturday: Gameday Thoughts

 

09.03.19
by

Fizzy: The Bucknell Game

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Fizzy likes what he’s seen from coach Carey and staff so far.

Editor’s Note: Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub is one of the few ex-players we know at Temple who has actually played in a game against Bucknell. His review of the latest gridiron clash between the two schools follows.

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

The day after Temple announced the hiring of Rod Carey, I got this message from a friend who lives in Boulder, Co.  “TEMPLE DID WHAT???”

Let me explain.

weinraub

Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl with a few  friends

My friend Erik, in Boulder, was an alum of Northern Illinois University (NIU), and two of his college buddies still lived there and went to all their football games.  Erik would get a weekly message during football season from his buddies, who were not at all happy with Carey’s play calling.  Basically, they said he was a run-oriented guy who rarely did imaginative things.  Erik predicted I was going to go crazy watching and writing about Carey’s offense.  So all winter long, I was dreading Temple’s first game, expecting to see a boring offensive game plan that wouldn’t make use of all our inherent talent.

Just one more qualifier, please.  Long ago, a West Philly High student was asking me about my career.  When I got done a brief summary, he looked up and thoughtfully said, “Weinraub, you older than shit!”

That I am, and I’ve seen so many Philly football coaches at all levels, I couldn’t begin to list all their names.  In two weeks, I knew Andy Reid couldn’t call plays in the Pop Warner league.  I saw so many Temple coaches way over their heads and continually call time outs because they couldn’t get the plays in on time. Then, more often than not, run the ball up the middle. Many of these coaches didn’t make use of their talent and even had students carrying posters running up and down the sideline signaling in the plays.  Those coaches learned on-the-job and at our expense. Lots of times, Temple players won games despite their coaches.

Screenshot 2019-09-03 at 9.05.06 AM

Well, that was then.  Yesterday, however, I was the most surprised fan at the LINC.  Yes, it was only an overwhelmed Bucknell team, but I saw a flawless offense.  There was no hesitation on play calls.  We started out throwing the ball and then mixed everything up continually.  The shovel pass for the first touchdown was a beautiful call.  Later, we went to an up-tempo, no-huddle scheme that rocked Bucknell’s defense.  And guess what?  After all my years of bitching, I saw an offense make excellent use of misdirections.  As promised, Carey got our all-American special teams player (Wright), the ball in every conceivable fashion.  I was thoroughly impressed because I saw an offense truly designed around the skills of our talented players.  Coach Carey and offensive coordinator Mike Uremovich, are to be congratulated.  The coaching staff showed how years of working together pay off.

I do have one coaching complaint. Can you explain to me why Russo and the first-team offense was on the field and risking injury into the fourth quarter?

The only player negatives revolve around Anthony Russo.  Many times, our outstanding quarterback looked directly at his primary receiver as soon as he got the snap.  Perhaps that had a hand in the pick-six interception?  Also, would someone please teach him how to slide?  (If we had a baseball team, that coach could do the job. Wait, maybe our baseball team is playing in our new 160 million dollar campus stadium. Duh!)

Today, I’m not going to get into the defense because I really want to see how they do against stiffer competition.  However, I believe it was only once they had to call a timeout to set the formation near our goal line.

To sum up, color me thrilled.  I hope yesterday wasn’t a mirage.

Thursday: The Newbies

Saturday: Things to Look for

 

 

 

09.01.19
by

Bucknell: The Horse that had to be put down

As a recent horse racing aficionado, I’ve learned that I enjoy going to see the ponies for more than monetary reasons:

First and foremost, I don’t want to see any of the horses hurt so that’s my first and really only fervent hope.

Second, it would be nice to see my horse win. Third, I enjoy seeing great athletes compete against one another and the thoroughbreds are great athletes. With that in mind,  full disclosure: I had no interest in seeing a horse go down like I knew Bucknell would so I skipped the game and had better things to do on a Labor Day weekend. I did check the ESPN+ feed (at $4.99 ESPN+) is the best buy in sports. To me, the great thing about going to a sporting event is the competitiveness. I knew there would be no competitiveness here. Great athletes against so-so athletes do nothing to move the competitiveness meter.

My horse won against this claimer.

The other horse had to be put down.

I  knew it would happen. You knew it would happen.

It didn’t have to happen but the Temple administration allowed it to happen.

Same thing with the Maryland administration that allowed a 79-0 win over Howard to happen.

The season really starts in two weeks against Maryland and the Owls will have to establish a running game that they did not even try against Bucknell.

Or at least not enough.

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That they can do it was established because this is the same offensive line that hammered Houston for 59 points a year ago and they have a promising freshman in Re’Mahn Davis and an improved senior in Jager Gardner to block for.

What they did against Bucknell is something that they should not be doing–at least twice giving an NFL prospect in Anthony Russo a chance to run in a run/pass option. I don’t know who designed those type of plays but those pages need to be ripped out of the playbook immediately if not sooner. First, as much as I love Anthony as my quarterback–and that’s at least as much love that I had for P.J. Walker–he is no threat to run. Second, if head coach Rod Carey gets my quarterback killed on a similar play, I will never forgive him.

Nor probably will any Owl fans.

Temple TUFF means establishing the run and throwing the pass off play-action.

What we saw on Saturday was a team trying to establish the run off the pass and that is ass-backward.

Hopefully, that’s something Carey saved for his back pocket against Maryland.

If not, the Owls probably won’t achieve their potential.

To me, as I wrote on Friday, beating this team 65-14 would have been just about right. Since it was “only” 56-12, there is a lot to work on in two weeks.

More than I thought because Howard is better than Bucknell.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

Thursday: The Newbies

Saturday: Things to Look For