Category Archives: Temple football

05.12.19
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Between a Rock and a Wright Place

All we know from what Rod Carey has said is that Isaiah Wright “will be moved all over the field.”

Judging from what he has privately told some people, including Wright himself, the part of the field he will park himself most at is running back.

That both makes sense and is good news because not many college football teams have a first-team All-America returning and, in Wright, that’s just what the Owls have. Plus, the Owls have plenty of talented wide receivers.

They are a little thin at running back.

He was named first-team All-America kick returner by The Sporting News and, while Owl fans would like to see him in that role again this year, a team that desperately needs a top-tier running back could use Wright lugging the ball at least 15 times a game lined up behind Anthony Russo.

Screenshot 2019-05-11 at 11.43.57 PM

Army head coach Jeff Monken called Wright a “touchdown waiting to happen” before his team’s 2017 game with the Owls and with good reason.

What kind of running back would Wright be? He gave a slight glimpse in a 38-0 win over Stony Brook in 2016 when he carried the ball seven times for 48 yards but Wright was a true freshman playing in his second game. (For comparison, Bernard Pierce’s first game produced 44 yards on six carries as a true freshman.)

Wright would be more of a Pierce-like running back than Ryquell Armstead was. To use a baseball analogy, Armstead was a line-drive hitter who could occasionally hit a home run. Wright, like Pierce, is a home-run hitter who can take it to the house on any given play.

Wright will get a long look at the position at summer practice. Here’s hoping, instead of moving him around, new head coach Rod Carey will make the sound football decision for Temple and leave him right there.

Wednesday: The 2020 NFL Draft and Temple

05.10.19
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The Listerine Bowl: It’s Not Bucknell

listerine.jpg.optimal

The late great Arthur Ashe once said it best: “You are only as good as your last game.”

I don’t know if Ashe said it first, but some versions of it have been quoted by players and coaches since and I have not found anyone who said it before Ashe.

The last game Temple football played was a 56-27 loss to Duke in the Independence Bowl. That was not Temple football by any means for a number of reasons and left a lingering feeling of bad breath on the mouths of anyone who cares anything about the program.

It’s like having that taste and not being able to find a bottle of Listerine in any store and living with it. The Owls do not play football again until August against Bucknell but does anyone really believe knocking the snot out of the Bison will do anything to eliminate the memory of Duke?

I certainly don’t and you can make that reason No. 1,267 why playing Bucknell is a bad idea for Temple and, really, playing any FCS opponent is a bad idea for a league trying to establish a football identity like the AAC. Temple probably should have scheduled a P5 road game for its opener, but that’s a debate for a different day.

Moving back to the Temple aspect of this argument, that’s why it’ll be a long time to wash out the taste of Duke. Maybe three weeks later.

You can talk “take-this-one-game-at-a-time” thing all you want but that’s for the coaches and the players.

For the fans, it’s different and should be.

That’s why Temple fans have to circle Sept. 14, 2019 on their calendar. A fired-up Maryland team comes to town to try to take revenge on the Owls for suffering a 35-14 embarrassment. Beat a Big 10 team in consecutive seasons and that will show me something. Remember the last time Maryland came to town it was fired up to win after a 38-7 loss to Temple in 2011 (one of the Terps said “we took last year personal”) and beat the Owls, 36-27. So beating a P5 team in revenge mode and we will finally be able to get the taste of Duke out of our mouths.

It was a particularly bitter pill to swallow because Duke’s best player, the highest-rated NFL prospect on both teams, decided to play with his brothers one last time and the two highest-rated Temple players said “nah, I’m good” and were seen more than once laughing on the sidelines as their brothers got pounded.

Not a good look to take into the offseason.

Now, Temple goes forward at full strength and should be back to the Temple football we all know and love by mid-September.

At least that should be the plan.

Listerine shots for all in the post-game tailgate.

Sunday: A Contrast of Styles

Tuesday: The 2020 Draft and Temple

05.07.19
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The Wisdom of Collins’ recruiting

Screenshot 2019-05-06 at 9.16.38 AM

One of the benefits of arriving at Cherry and White Day a couple of weeks ago was the Temple football informational sheet they handed out to every guest.

On one side was the complete roster, broken down alphabetically at the top and numerically below.

On the flip side were the football schedule (Bucknell, ugh), quick facts, coaching staff, pronunciation lists and football recruits.

The recruits–mostly the guys who arrive in July–seemed like a thin list but you could always find a number of guys who could be immediate contributors.

Not this year.

This year we found one: Wisdom Quarshie, who is listed as a 6-foot-3, 310-pound tackle who could play on either side of the ball. Todderick Hunt, the “Ted Silary” of NJ.com wrote this about him: “Senior defensive tackle Wisdom Quarshie is, arguably, the most violent offensive lineman in New Jersey. His highlight tape is a non-stop real of pancake blocks and on-field devastation. And he’ll now bring his lunch pail to Temple, less than 30 minutes away from his home, where his family, friends and all who support him can watch him live his dream.” (Note he called him a defensive tackle but said he was the most violent offensive lineman in NJ.)

Quarshie, a two-time first-team All-State player at St. Joe’s (Hammonton), appears to be ready-made to help but, of the 15 players listed as “recruits” on the info sheet, his sticking out like a sore thumb among those ready to make an impact points out the, err, Wisdom of Collins’ recruiting. Or lack of same. Hard to see anything but redshirts for the other 14 guys on the list of incoming recruits.

Collins had three classes and the only one worth much was unveiled on St. Pete Beach at the Gasparilla Bowl. In that one, he got two immediate offensive line starters and a grad transfer who became a second-round NFL draft choice.

Wayne Hardin once said recruiting was easy at Temple because you could “put a pencil in the middle of Broad Street and draw a 200-mile circle around it and come up with enough players to win.” Collins got away from that formula by concentrating his recruiting in the South. Good for him and his Southern-centric coaches, but bad for Temple.

Now that Fran Brown is back in charge of the important business of Temple recruiting, the Owls should return to their neighborhood roots where the fruits of Brown’s earlier stint here produced a championship roster.

Fran knows what he’s doing and, with him supplying the guys and Rod Carey coaching them up, that should be a productive partnership.

Friday: The Listerine Bowl

 

 

05.05.19
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TFF: Banned by Collins

maymeister

The promised Mayhem was just another Collins’ lie.

In the two years observing Geoff Collins up close, we can sum him up in a few words:

More style than substance.


He always struck me
as Steve Addazio 2.0
with one eye on the
coach’s exit door
the entire two years
he was here

At least that’s my take and, after talking to a lot of former Temple football players who played mostly for substance coaches, that’s pretty much a universal take on him, too.

Now we can add another personality trait to Collins:

Thin-skinned.

I’m not much of a twitter guy. I’m on it only because of the business associated with this blog. I’ve never asked a single person to follow me and I never will but, much to my amazement, I have 378 followers.

Thankful for them all.

I’m a lot more selective in people I follow and only follow 238 but one of the people was Collins because he was a savvy social media guy and I wanted to hear what he had to say.  I never interacted with @CoachCollins on twitter, just followed him. Never said a word to him on twitter or reacted to any of his posts.

So consider my surprise a few days ago when I checked Collins out on twitter for the first time since he quit Temple only to see this:

Screenshot 2019-05-04 at 1.08.45 PM

I can only assume that since I’ve never said anything to Collins on social media that he is blocking Temple Football Forever instead.

Forever.

I’ve been told I’m not the only Temple fan blocked by Collins on twitter but the difference between me and them is that most of those guys have said something to Collins on Twitter so I’ve got to assume that something was written in this space has gotten under Collins’ skin.

To that I say good.

For one, I’m glad he’s gone. He’s a terrible game-day coach and his offensive coordinator was the most ill-fitted coach, assistant or head, in Temple history.  As game day coaches of the last decade go, Matt Rhule was No. 1, Al Golden No. 2, Steve Addazio No. 3 and Collins fourth. When you are a worse game day coach than Al and Steve, that’s not good.

Mostly, though, it’s about credibility.

Really the only time I ever talked to Collins was at the first season ticket-holder party when I asked him to do me one favor.

“What’s that?” he said.

“Make Nick Sharga an every-down fullback.”

“Don’t worry. I’m the fullback coach and we’re going to use him more than they used him last year.”

Since “last year” was the year Sharga pretty much led the team to the AAC championship as a three-down fullback, I was satisfied with that answer.

Collins, of course, lied. Now we know he followed this blog and was upset with its contents. My biggest problem with him in his first year was he pissed away any chance Temple had of repeating its AAC title by abandoning the very offense that its players were recruited to execute. Tailback with a lead fullback blocker, establish the run and make explosive downfield plays in the passing game off play-action fakes. Instead, he eschewed the “best fullback in the nation” (his words) by playing him one down a series, if that. Now he’s going to screw up his first season at Georgia Tech by doing the same thing. Making an entire team recruited to play the triple option run Dave Patenaude’s version (pass first, run second) of the read-option. If that’s not a formula for disaster, I don’t know what is. Georgia Tech fans, you can’t say you have not been warned.

So he’s a certified liar who was more schtick than substance and now we can add the trifecta of being thin-skinned. He always struck me as Steve Addazio 2.0 with one eye on the coach’s exit door the entire two years he was here. In fact, pretty much a year and a month ago we predicted that Collins would be headed to Georgia Tech with this post on March 7, 2018.

From what I’ve seen of Rod Carey so far, he hasn’t displayed any of those negative traits. Temple football is better off with Carey both on Sept. 28 and every other day going forward.

Tuesday: The Newbies

Friday: The Listerine Bowl

05.03.19
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An Early Crack at the Temple Depth Chart

line

You can make up all the mock depth charts you want (as we have today) but the power of moving up the charts rests in what these young men do.

Soon we will be seeing something Temple football fans have not been able to hold in their hands for the last three years.

A depth chart.

Geoff Collins did not believe in them, instead opting for a vague concept he called “Above The Line.”

Not a single former Temple Owl football player I talked to (and I talked to a lot) thought that made any sense at all.

Now that we have a more traditional head coach, Rod Carey, who does believe in such things, odds are that a full depth chart will be hashed out at least by the end of summer practice if not before.

Depth should be an issue (really, it is pretty much across the AAC and not just at Temple) but the Owls should be able to field a pretty compelling first team.

clemson

Tyler Sear could move up the depth chart fast

We’ll take a crack, not at the full chart but who the starters probably will be (knowing, of course, that someone will come out and surprise to grab a spot this summer. Since there is only one fullback on the roster (Jonny Forrest), we’ll assume they will try to get their “fullback-like” blocks from H-backs or tight ends.

So far, we will put our money on the fact that at least 15 of these 22 will be starters in the Aug. 31 opener against Bucknell:

OFFENSE

QB-Anthony Russo, Todd Centeio, Trad Beatty, Kennique Bonner-Stewart

RB-Isaiah Wright, Jager Gardner, Tyliek Raynor, Tayvon Ruley, Jeremy Jennings,

OT-Isaac Moore, Adam Klein, Victor Stoffel

C-Matt Hennessy, Griffin Sestilli

OG-Vincent Picozzi,  Jovahn Fair, Leon Pinto

TE-Kenny Yeboah, David Martin-Robinson, Tyler Sear

WR-Branden Mack, Jadan Blue, Randle Jones, Freddie Johnson, Travon Williams, Kadas Reams

PK-Will Mobley

DEFENSE

E-Nickolos Madurie, Quincy Roche, Zack Mesday, Dana Levine, D’Andre Kelly,

T-Dan Archibong, Karamo Dioubate, Khris Banks, Ifeanyi Maijeh

LB-Shaun Bradley, Chapelle Russell, William Kwenkeu, Isaiah Graham-Mobley

S-Sam Franklin, Benny Walls, Keyvone Bruton

CB-Linwood Crump Jr.,  Ty Mason, Christian Braswell, Harrison Hand*

P-Max Cavallucci

*Pending NCAA Clearinghouse

Sunday: Banned From Georgia Tech

 

04.30.19
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The Drafted Temple Guys

 

dogsofwar

Two of these guys (9 and 7) got drafted by the NFL

The curious case of Bryon Cowart illustrated just what a strange draft this was for the Temple guys picked in by NFL teams over a very long weekend.

Michael Dogbe, 6-3, 284, who was the most dominant player on the field in a 35-14 win over Maryland last fall, slipped to the seventh round and was chosen by the Arizona Cardinals. Dogbe had 72 tackles, including 12.5 for losses, seven sacks and three forced fumbles. He ran a 4.94 40-yard dash on Temple’s pro day.

Cowart, who was MIA against Temple, was picked in the fifth round by the New England Patriots. Cowart, also pretty much the same size (6-3, 298),  had 38 tackles, no sacks and ran a 5.16 40-yard dash.

You guess who the most impactful player in the NFL will be over the next few years. My money is with Dogbe.

Without getting into boring rep details on the lifts, Dogbe’s strength numbers also dwarfed those of Cowart.

To me, what you do on the field is the most important thing and Dogbe excelled there, especially in the head-to-head matchup at Byrd Stadium.

Rock Ya-Sin went, as expected, in the second round by the Indianapolis Colts so there can be no complaints there.

The other Rock, Armstead, is another story entirely.

The Eagles saw fit to pick Penn State’s Miles Sanders ahead of Armstead in the second round, even though Armstead is faster (4.45 at the combine to 4.49) and had 1,078 yards in 10 games while it took Sanders 13 games to accumulate his 1,274 yards. Plus, Armstead scored 13 touchdowns in those 10 games versus Sanders’ nine in 13.

That’s a much closer call than the Dogbe/Cowart comparison because Armstead has a longer history of being hurt at Temple than Sanders did at Penn State. A strong case can be made that since Sanders has less tread on his tires than Armstead, the Eagles made a better pick.

Fortunately, all of these players will get their chances (as will some Temple undrafted FAs as well, including Delvon Randall, who hitched on with the Eagles) but, to me, Dogbe is the one playing with the biggest chip on his shoulder and those guys usually do very well in the NFL.

Friday: Shot Chart

04.28.19
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Bulking Up a Forgotten Position

Like fullback, the tight end is becoming an extinct species with college football offenses trying to spread the field.

Still, there are old school coaches like Kurt Ferentz still out there who understand a 100×40-yard field can only be stretched so far and the tight end can still be weaponized for good.

That’s why it was heartening on the first night of the NFL draft to see one school (Iowa) get not just one, but both of its starting tight ends drafted in Round One.

clemson

Tyler Sear gets big gain against national champion Clemson last year.

Rod Carey, being an old school coach, probably took stock of the Temple roster and saw only a pair of tight ends with game experience in Kenny Yeboah and David Martin-Robinson and, when a one-time Temple recruit was looking for a new landing spot, Carey offered a parachute.

Tyler Sear’s transfer from Pitt to Temple should give Owl fans a sense of security in that he was rated the No. 1 tight end in Pennsylvania in his senior year of high school.

He was Pitt’s starting TE this past season but left the team in October. Since two other tight ends left the team, a logical takeaway is that Pitt has de-emphasized the position so much that there was some grumbling in the tight end room.

Not so at Temple, where Yeboah was used in one of the more clever plays last year against Maryland. Quarterback Anthony Russo faked an out to Ventell Byrant (who sold it with a 37-inch vertical leap) and that drew two DBs to Bryant, leaving Yeboah free to run down the sideline for an easy six.

Carey has a history of utilizing the tight ends in pretty much the same manner.

Since waivers are routinely granted by the NCAA now, Sear will probably be eligible for the Owls this fall. The Owls are still waiting on a waiver request from Baylor DB transfer Harrison Hand, but these things routinely are adjudicated in the late summer and not in the spring.

Hopefully, these means more double-tight end sets in a run-oriented goal-line offense this fall.

Tuesday: The Drafted Guys

Friday: Shot Chart

Sunday: The Arrivals

 

04.26.19
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Gauging The Competiton: UCF, USF, Cincy

surprise

Just a small portion of the 33,306 Temple fans whose chant of “DEE-fense!, DEE-fense!” was so loud the Cincy QB could not hear the snap count. Heroes, really.

Gauging is a pretty good word.

Defined as “to determine the exact dimensions, capacity, quantity, or force of; measure. to appraise, estimate, or judge” it is probably first best used after spring football practice to determine the weaknesses and strengths of Temple football opponents.

If I were writing this with cherry-colored glasses now, I would rate Temple as THE favorite.

The Owls have in my mind the best quarterback in the league in Anthony Russo and POTENTIALLY the best running back in the league in Isaiah Wright. Since we’re not sure new head coach Rod Carey will use Wright on more than a handful of plays from scrimmage, we will have to take those glasses off and put on the regular ones with brown rims and a prescription.

(If Carey made the announcement today or in the summer that he’s putting what Army coach Jeff Monken said was a “touchdown waiting to happen” permanently in the backfield, we’d change our minds.)

temple

Looking through those, I’d have to rate Cincinnati as the AAC East favorite, followed by UCF and then Temple. I cannot see USF rated ahead of Temple under any circumstances, but those are the four strongest teams in the East.

Here’s an early look:

(from USA Today)

UCF

UCF’s annual spring football game Saturday gave fans a chance to see just how close the quarterback battle is for the Knights. Head coach Josh Heupel let all four of his available quarterbacks rotate series under center.

Though they each showed flashes of brilliance, it was clear that more work needs to be done for a true starter to emerge.

“Some good and some bad,” Heupel said of his quarterbacks’ play today. “Today was not any of their best days collectively from start to finish. I thought there were some real positive things early when we were pushing the ball down the field. There were some times where we didn’t handle the tempo as well as we needed to.”

Redshirt sophomore Darriel Mack Jr. opened the game with a two-play drive that was capped off by touchdown pass to redshirt senior wide receiver Jacob Harris.

Senior Brandon Wimbush’s best came right before halftime when he led a lengthy drive that resulted in Jacob Harris catching his second touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone with 13 seconds left.

CINCINNATI

Like Carey, Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell does not believe in spring football contact:

He believes full contact special teams in spring are a throwback. Fickell remembered doing them in his days as a player at Ohio State under Jim Tressel.

“It’s not that often that you get to do it,” Fickell said. “Coach Tress used to do it. You kind of get worried. A guy can get rolled up or this, that and the other thing. But as tired as they are by the end of spring, as tired as they are after covering a couple of kicks, the contacts are nearly as high speed.

“It was a great opportunity for our returners, our kickers in those situations were they have to make some decisions.”

The Bearcats are coming off an 11-2 season with a win over Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl.  Quarterback Desmond Ritter, who blamed the Temple fan crowd noise for a key fumble in one of the two losses, looked good but he has lost his top wide receiver Kahil Lewis.

USF
The Bulls might have a new starter at quarterback in Plant City High’s Jordan McCloud, who was 17 for 25 for 228 yards and two touchdowns (and one pick) in the spring game.

The offensive line, though, which was the team’s weak point a year ago, needs “work” according to Charley Strong. It’s hard to make a living in the AAC with an offensive line in a state of flux like this one.

Sunday: Bulking Up a Position

Tuesday: The Drafted Guys

Friday: Shot Chart

Sunday: Blocked by Collins

04.23.19
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What’s Next for Temple? A NY6 Bowl

visual proof

Getting an AAC championship home game would be a logical next step.

A few days ago, we checked a few of the boxes that we once did not think were possible for Temple football:

  • Beating Penn State
  • Two NFL first-round draft choices
  • A National Player of the Year
  • A league championship
  • College football game day

A cynic might suggest there’s not much left to accomplish as long as this program has Group of Five status but the Owls can do something either this year or next that they haven’t been able to do so far:

  • An AAC championship HOME game
  • A New Year’s Six Bowl Game.

It certainly isn’t low-hanging fruit this year as both Cincinnati and UCF figure to be picked ahead of Temple. Even if the Owls won the AAC, scheduling Bucknell could prove to knock them out of an NY6 game–this year either the Fiesta Bowl or the Peach Bowl–just like the ill-advised Stony Brook game probably had a big hand in knocking the AAC champions out of the Cotton Bowl in 2016. Had the Owls then scheduled, say, an ACC team or another (good, not average) Big 10 team and beaten them, they would have had at least as compelling a resume as unbeaten Western Michigan did.

next

That’s probably the strongest argument for dropping all FCS opponents going forward, at least from Temple’s perspective and maybe the league’s as a whole.

Still, the Owls now have a coach who has beaten the Big 10 in four of the six games he has played them and more talent here than he did at his last stop so he should not be afraid of asking Pat Kraft to upgrade the non-conference portion of the schedule and that, combined with another AAC championship, is what this program should strive to accomplish.

If not this year, then certainly next when the Owls should be stronger and UCF and Cincy weaker.

Friday: Gauging The Competition

Sunday: Bulking Up a Position

Tuesday: Shot Chart

 

04.19.19
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Temple Football: Checking Five Magic Boxes

Penn State v Temple

Robby Anderson celebrates win over Penn State with many of the 70,000 fans that day

There was a lot of talk on Saturday at the various aptly named fun-fest stops about the current and the future of the Temple football program but, to get an appreciation for where we are now, it is a worthwhile endeavor to reflect upon the last decade or so.

There was no one more optimistic than me on that December day in 2005 that Al Golden was hired but if you told me one … ONE … of these things would happen in the span of 10 years I might agree it was possible.

All five?

I’d have to say you were crazy.

Consider these five boxes checked:

Penn State v Temple

Sharif Finch suckers Hackenberg into a near pick six.

Beating Penn State: This I would have believed the most. Temple had come close many times before in this series but just never got to the finish line.  Getting this monkey off the back, though, might have been the most satisfying of the five boxes we’re checking today. Having a capacity house of 70,000 fans (more Cherry than Blue in the stands) cheering their heads off for something that has not happened since 1941 was awe-inspiring. Having Temple be the team showing mercy to Penn State by taking four knees deep in Nittany Lion territory when it could have scored easily to make it 34-10 made it that much better.

golden

Al Golden no doubt was watching this day. I wonder if he saw his photo?

Being the focus of ESPN’s College Football Game Day: Not only were the Owls the focus, but the thousands of cheering Temple fans that filled Independence Mall made it one of the more iconic Game Day shows in that program’s history. Mix in a national TV game between then No. 21-ranked Temple vs. No. 9 ranked Notre Dame that night in 2015 that went down to the last play and that was the topper. If the Owls ever won a game they lost (24-20), that was it. It was the second-highest rated college football game on TV in 2015 and the Philadelphia rating of 18.2 (higher than most Eagles’ games) made it the most watched college football game in Philadelphia of all time on ESPN.

Tyler Matakevich, Temple, Notre Dame,

 

Having the National Defensive Player of the Year: Maybe the most difficult needle to pass through is getting a Temple player a prestigious national player of the year award but, in 2015, Tyler Matakevich squeezed through it by getting both the Chuck Bednarik and Bronco Nagurski Awards as national defensive player of the year.

Getting Two NFL first-round draft choices: In Mo Wilkerson and Hasson Reddick, the Owls have had two first-round draft choices in a span of five years. More, obviously, to come–maybe this season–but that’s pretty good stuff.

NCAA FOOTBALL: DEC 03 AAC Championship - Navy v Temple

Winning a championship: Winning the AAC is not a national championship, but it’s darn good. The year the Owls won their league, 2016, Navy beat Notre Dame (28-27), Cincinnati beat Purdue (38-20), Memphis beat Kansas (43-7) and Houston handed Oklahoma one of its only two losses (33-23). Temple, though, was the team in that league which hoisted the championship trophy of that league.

Hopefully, there’s more of that kind of hoisting to come.

Tuesday: What’s Next?