Category Archives: Temple

11.25.11
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Handicapping Temple’s bowl odds

“There is no doubt that Temple will be in a bowl game.”
_ Steve Addazio

Only 14 more games remain in Bernard Pierce’s career at Temple (this year’s
bowl game and next’s year’s 13 games) and that thought seems to weigh heavy on
head coach Steve Addazio as the two share a hug on Friday afternoon.

Great photo by Mike Edwards

It’s been a long time since I’ve put some sheckles on a football game, but I could not help but noticing the score of Temple’s game today against visiting Kent State in the final moments.
Temple 34, Kent State 16.
Temple was a 17 1/2-point favorite.
The Owls won by 18.
“How good is Vegas?” I said.
Not as good as me, though. I predicted a 28-10 Temple win and the line fell right on that 18-point spread.
I don’t think Vegas does lines on handicapping bowls, but I’ll take a shot.
Temple’s got a 75 percent chance or BETTER of going to SOME bowl with an 8-4 record. Had the Owls lost, it would have been a 25 percent chance or LOWER of going to a bowl.

Here’s what I have:
KRAFT HUNGER BOWL _ Better than a 50 percent shot and I think this is where the Owls eventually land. Since the bowl is in San Francisco, I think they will land a California team (Cal?) to play Temple. Since the local angle takes care of the crowd, the KHB won’t be as keen on a team that brings a big following as one that gives them big East Coast TV ratings and Temple provides that. It’s a great story line, too, in that it could be a rematch of the 1979 Garden State Bowl, won by Temple.

NEW MEXICO BOWL _ Owls have a 40 percent chance of going here. Look for a Utah State vs. Temple matchup if that happens. Utah State brings the crowd, Temple brings the East Coast TV ratings.

FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO BOWL _ Owls have a 20 percent chance of heading to this one but I think the Boise people would like a team that brings a crowd and that would not apply to Temple. The Owls probably won’t travel more than 1,000 fans to Boise and you can blame that on the $825 round-trip airfare with at least two connections.
MILITARY BOWL _ The game, formerly the Eagle Bank Bowl, has good memories of Temple since the Owls brought 20,000 of their fans to the 2009 bowl. Still, the Military Bowl people seem to be keen on an Air Force vs. Conference USA matchup and that’s why I think Temple has only about a 10 percent chance here.
Other possibilities (less than five percent) include New Orleans and the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. I only throw those in because both bowls had representatives at today’s game.
Whatever, though, it appears because the Owls have legitimate star power (Bernard Pierce) and TV ratings in a large market coming off a three-game winning streak, they will be ticketed for somewhere.
Dec. 4 is Bowl Selection Sunday.
The Owls will know their destination well before then.
You can take that to the bank.

11.12.11
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Teams to root for today: UB, SMU, Rutgers

Even in this age of instant communication, it’s going to be hard to find the score of the Buffalo at Eastern Michigan game.
First off, it’s never on KYW-AM (they only give top 10 scores) and it’s not on over the air TV (even pay cable) anywhere.
But it is on the internet and, for Temple fans, provides a rooting element.
All these teams would do Temple a big favor by winning:

Hooter is more endearing.

BUFFALO at Eastern Michigan (1 p.m., MAC all-access) _ If the Bulls finish ahead of Bowling Green in the standings, they provide a positive backup tie-breaker for Temple should it finish in a three-way tie with Miami and Ohio. Eastern Michigan is a three-point favorite. The game is on internet only. Buffalo’s got a chance. It beat Ohio.

She’d be perfect for me
if she was 20 years older
and I had $1 million

Navy at SMU (3:30, FSN) _ Southern Methodist football players wrote a letter to the school newspapers complaining about the lack of enthusiasm by their own fans in a win over TCU. They must be looking at the coeds and not on the field of play. Navy has to win all three of its remaining games (at SMU, at San Jose State and vs. Army) to qualify for a bowl Temple could be looking at attending (D.C., likely) and SMU is the toughest of the three. SMU is a seven-point favorite.

Cos and Hall and Oates are more famous.

RUTGERS vs. Army (3:30, Yankee Stadium, CBS College Sports) _ Same deal with Navy as Army has to win all three of its remaining games to qualify for a bowl. If Temple LOSES to Army, it still has a chance to qualify for a final bowl slot if Army loses today. Hopefully, both Rutgers and ESPECIALLY Temple beats Army. The Black Knights of the Hudson have proven to be a tough out on occasion this year, losing at Miami (Ohio) by only a touchdown and beating Northwestern, 21-14. Northwestern, you’ll recall, won AT Nebraska last week. Rutgers is an eight-point favorite.

11.10.11
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Temple becomes bowl eligible

Any Eagle fan can tell you what the first words out of a famous Temple football father’s mouth will be after a win.
Andy Reid will clear his throat, cough a couple of times, and say:
“First off, any win in the National Football League is a good win.”

Deon Miller makes nice catch for touchdown.

That’s pretty much how I feel about the Mid-American Conference these days.
Any win in the MAC is a good win and Temple’s 24-21 bowl-eligible-qualifying win over gritty Miami (Ohio) was a good way to cap one of the most beautiful November days and nights, weather-wise, I can ever remember in my nearly half-century of living in Philadelphia.
The game was not as perfect, mind you, but pretty much what I expected.
Pretty much what all the Temple fans I talked to in the pre-game tailgate expected, too.
“Twelve-and-a-half points is way too high,” I said to pretty much everyone.
“Yeah,” pretty much everyone replied.
I thought the defense recaptured a little bit of the swagger it lost in the last couple of weeks (heck, it was hard to blame the defense for the Bowling Green loss) and the offense did just enough.
Game-plan wise, I would have liked to seen more first down play-action passes and not being forced into a situation where you HAVE to pass on third down all the time. I don’t think Temple mixed it up particularly well on offense. Then again, compared to last year’s offensive game plan, it was pure genius.

Dream remains alive
The ONLY scenario Temple can win the MAC East:
(Updated 11:35 a.m., 11/11/11)
Temple wins over Kent
Ohio loses to Miami (assuming it beats BGSU)
(TU, Miami and Ohio all tied
with 5-3 records but TU wins
on basis of second criteria)
Note: If Ohio loses to BGSU but not Miami, Ohio wins tie-breaker
source: MAC League Offices

There were a couple of silly penalties, one a late hit out of bounds and one an offsides, but those things can be fixed in the next week or so of practice.
I was heartened to hear that people behind me were getting text messages from folks watching at home that their enjoyment of watching the Temple game was curtailed because ESPN cut in for a Joe Paterno press conference.
Good.
There is no reason to be living within an hour’s drive of the stadium for a Temple home game and watch on TV. If my friends from Palmerton sitting behind me can get by one night of the year on four hours worth of sleep, then so can the Philadelphia couch potatoes who give Temple a bad fan reputation by staying home. I hope they missed a lot of exciting plays because I saw them all. I know Temple has a “softcore” fan base who stay at home and watch every time the Owls are on local TV (ratings indicate it), but that part of the fan base does the team and school irreparable harm by doing so. You can’t talk about being in a BCS conference and not travel to a home game.
End of rant.
From a personal standpoint, a highlight of mine was finally getting to meet my favorite player’s Mom.
I have three favorite players from the current era, Adrian Robinson, Adam DiMichele and Bernard Pierce, but Pierce is The Franchise in my mind and therefore my favorite. Heck, speaking as someone who saw Paul Palmer play every game, he’s flat-out better than Boo-Boo and that’s the highest compliment I can ever give anyone. He’s faster than Paul Palmer, has better moves and vision in the open field and can deliver more punishment to tacklers. The only facet of Paul’s game that was better was his durability.
So Pierce is my favorite Temple player and he has been since his freshman year.
Tammy is Bernard Pierce’s mom and while it was sad to see BP not playing (he should be back against Army), it was good to see the entire Pierce family just as wrapped up in the Owls as they would be if he was out there.
Hopefully, when The Franchise finally gets out there, Scot Loeffler will tweak the package for him just enough to get Pierce the ball in open space and not utilize him on “fullback-type”  draws so much. Pitchouts to the wide side of the field and screen passes ought to make Bernard Pierce lethal once again.
Still, you can’t say enough about the relief effort of tough hombre Matty Brown. If it wasn’t for Matty’s 120 yards, there would be no three-point win over a good team.
Even Andy Reid would agree.
Time’s yours.

11.07.11
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Sandusky’s Temple connection

You may question Daz’s loyalty to Chester Stewart as costing the team a MAC title, but you can never question his character as a human being and that’s a lot more important.

 Just  when I’m feeling depressed after losing a pair of winnable college football games, a shot of perspective comes down to jolt me back to reality.

At least I’m not living in (Un) Happy Valley today.
Man, you think losing football games is tough, how about having that cloud hang over your program and town?
We won’t get into the sordid details (there’s enough of that information out there), but suffice it to say: There But For the Grace of God Go We.
Or, in this case, Joe Paterno.
Up until Saturday, Paterno had been considered God by some in then Happy Valley.
Even though he’s been exonerated by the law, I think his legacy has been knocked down a few pegs over the last 48 hours.

dodged
I have to thank Joe Paterno today, though, on behalf of the entire Temple community.
Paterno talked Sandusky out of taking the Temple job. Sandusky had an offer on the table from Charlie Theokas, who was then Temple’s AD.
Instead of getting Jerry Sandusky back on Dec. 20, 1988, Temple got Jerry Berndt.
I’d never thought I’d say this, either, but Thank God for Jerry Berndt. (Hey, Berndt did take talent Bruce Arians recruited and gave us our last win over a Big 10 team, 23-18, at Wisconsin, in 1990.)
Penn State can have that Sandusky headache and heartache.
Temple can look forward to a three- (or four-) game winning streak, starting in a couple of days.
Suddenly, I’m not so depressed anymore and, ironically enough, it is thanks to Joe Paterno’s bad-mouthing Temple.

10.31.11
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Former Pa. Gov. lobbying for TU in BE

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Ed Rendell introduces Hillary Clinton at Temple University.

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We’ll have a complete preview on the Temple vs. Ohio game tomorrow (which is really the only important thing to me right now) but I thought I’d use Monday to share some good news.
Former two-term Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell came out solidly behind Temple’s all-sports inclusion into the Big East Conference in a very big way today with an appearance on WIP Sports Radio (94.1FM and 610AM).
The Villanova Law grad also lectured his “other” alma mater on obstruction and really ripped them a new asshole, for want of a better term.
Since all of the Big East presidents are in town for the next two days, we assume this has gotten around and hopefully they will take Rendell’s advice to heart.
Place cursor over the gray area and advance it forward to the 5:25 mark.

10.29.11
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Brown’s punch recalls NCAA champ Klecko


Classic coach Hardin quote at the 1:19 mark.

If a day without Temple football is a day without sunshine, we’d have cloudy days about 353 days a year and no sunshine at least six days a week during the football season.
Still, today’s cloudy and rainy (and later, snowy) weather is a metaphor for how I’m feeling without Temple football on a Saturday in the fall.
It’s pretty gloomy, made all the more dull by the fact that I have to sit on the egg the Owls laid in Bowling Green last week for nine long days.
If I’m feeling this way, I can’t even imagine how hard it is for the kids who have to strap on the helmets at the E-O.
Steve Caputo’s father was fond of yelling out “THAT’S TEMPLE FOOTBALL RIGHT THERE”  in his booming voice a few rows behind me when someone made a big play over the last couple of years.

When you let a team hang on the ropes
 for this long, a lucky punch can beat you.
Photo courtesy of Toledo Blade.

Sadly, I don’t know what that was last week but that wasn’t Temple football right there.
Not even close.
There were moments, though, and Matty Brown’s punch (legal, of course) was one of the rare highlights of the day to me.
Heck, it might have been the highlight of the season if I didn’t have to associate it with a loss.
Brown combined a straight arm with a simultaneous punch of a BGSU defensive back and picked up an additional 12 yards during a long run that set up Bernard Pierce’s touchdown.
I haven’t seen a Temple player punch like that since Joe Klecko.
Many of you know who Joe Klecko was, a great All-American tackle at TU in the 1970s who later became the most famous member of the New York Jets’ sack exchange.
Not many of you, though, know that Klecko was the two-time NCAA heavyweight boxing champion in 1974 and 1975.
Yes, back then the NCAA offered boxing on a club level and Klecko took it up as something to do between the end of football season and spring practice.
He messed around and became NCAA champion. The fights were three rounds and Klecko had to wear head gear, but he knocked out everyone in a “field of 64” tournament on the way to the title. Klecko was unbeaten in the postseason, with his only two losses coming to a boxer named Bruce Blair during the regular season as he made the transition from football legs to boxing legs. His collegiate record was 25-2.

The NCAA no longer offers the sport, even on a club level.
I’ve got to believe, after seeing what I saw last Saturday, if the NCAA brings it back we’ve got a lightweight champion on our hands in the 5-7, 150-pound Brown.
I hope the entire team takes Brown’s fighting spirit back to Ohio on Wednesday night and comes away with a TKO.
After waiting this long to get back into the ring, they should be mad enough to throw their weight around. For guidance, all they have to do is look at the way Brown tosses his.
TODAY’S PICKS
(Home team in CAPS; favorite with
points in parenthesis)
Central Michigan (8) 30, AKRON 14 _ I can’t believe a team that beat Northern Illinois is 2-6. Akron has no such impressive win.
WESTERN MICHIGAN (11 1/2) 24, Ball State 10 _ Number is a little high, but Western has beaten Bowling Green, 45-21, and lost to Illinois, 23-20. Loss last week to Eastern Michigan was a head-scratcher.
Bowling Green (4) 21, KENT STATE 13 _ I can’t believe this number is so low. Kent State’s 400 fans aren’t going to make enough noise to keep this any closer than a touchdown.
Buffalo 14, MIAMI of Ohio (5) 10 _ Upset special. Buffalo is trending upward. Miami only beat Kent State, 9-3, and then lost to Toledo, 49-28.
Others:
Rutgers is getting seven points against visiting West Virginia and should cover that; Louisville is giving three points to visiting Syracuse and should cover that; visiting Western Kentucky is getting six points at Louisiana-Monroe even though the Hilltoppers have won three straight so I like Western to come away with the upset there and cover.
Record:
Season (SU) 43-24; Season (ATS): 24-33.
10.26.11
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MAC Blogger Roundtable: Week 9

Graphic by Bull Run’s Tim Riordan

If you were wondering why my post “Shallow Hal” remained up on the screen for a few days, it’s because I’m just coming out of a 72-hour Chester Stewart-induced stupor.
On Saturday night, I just sat at the computer staring at the screen for 27 minutes (yeah, I checked the computer clock) after Temple’s 13-10 loss to Bowling Green.

This was me after watching Chester  Stewart
take a sack on the game’s final play Saturday.

I felt like the late Jack Buck.
I kept repeating to myself …. I … can’t … believe … what … I … just … saw.
The perfect metaphor for the day was Stewart taking a sack on the game’s final play. I went back and watched that play three times. It was obvious that he knew the guy was coming at him. He had only one choice: Throw the ball downfield and hope Rod Streater comes down with a miracle catch. Taking a sack wasn’t an option.
Instead, he took a sack and the clock ran out.
Why did he take a sack?
Just another chapter in a book on situational unawareness that Chester could write about his four years at Temple.
I’ve been jarred back into reality by this week’s deadline: MAC Blogger Roundtable, Week 9.
This week, it’s our good internet friend (as opposed to real friend), Tim Riordan of the great Buffalo blog: Bull Run. You should take a look at his site. It’s a beautiful thing. If I had only one-tenth of the html skills as Tim and my real friend, Dave Gerson, I’d be a happy man.
This week’s questions:

1) Parity, a good thing or a bad thing. Outside of Toledo at the top and Akron, Kent, Miami, and Buffalo at the bottom every team has looked about equal. Is this a good thing for the conference or would it be better to have just four very prominent teams.
TFF: I’m a big fan of the NFL, so I love parity. Heck, I loved it when the Giants beat the unbeaten Patriots. That said, I’d love to see Temple go unbeaten just once before I pass on to the great unknown. I think it’s a good thing for the conference, but a bad thing for my imaginary wallet (I don’t have money to bet) since I’ve been taking a beating predicting MAC games.
2) Coaches Hot Seat. The Following MAC coaches are showing up on the ever popular coaches hot seat list. Pick one and tell us why is it or is not fair to have them there (disclaimer Clawson is on the list but I can’t imagine why so I am leaving him off)

(12) Rob Ianello, Akron
(13) Jeff Quinn, Buffalo
(15) Dan Enos, Central Michigan

TFF: Enos doesn’t deserve to be there. Central Michigan has done some good things.

3) Best new hire. Of the four(?) new coaches in the conference who, at this point, seems to be the best hire.

TFF: Steve Addazio. I love the guy. I love the way he competes. I love the staff he’s put together. I love what he’s done despite the fact that Golden’s Achilles Heel was his inability to recruit a quarterback. I will go from loving him to liking him if he loses to Ohio. If he loses to Ohio and Miami, I will go from liking him to tolerating him. If he loses to Ohio, Miami and Army, I will go from tolerating him to loathing him.

4) Ron English is flying high and the EMU *EAGLES* might be going to their first Bowl if they take care of Business. Surely their Coach is going to start getting some looks from other programs (if you can win at EMU right!). Is Turner Gill’s experience in Kansas a cautionary tale to schools who look for that one new up and coming coach? How many years of winning should a mid-major coach put forth before a big time program drops millions on them.
TFF: I would think a three-year sample is better than a one-year wonder. I think that’s the way most BCS programs will approach it going forward. The fact that Ron English recruited Ryan Brumfield shows me he has a keen eye for talent.
5) We all know the MAC does not necessarily award Bowls to the best teams. In MAC contracted bowls the bowl committees, not the conferee, get to pick their representative. Assume the MAC is going to get four Bowls but there are five bowl eligible teams. Make a case for your team, or a team you think is likely to be that 5th wheel.
TFF: I think Temple’s case was solidified by a 38-7 win at Maryland that could have EASILY been 45-0. Addazio took three knees on the Maryland 1 to end the game after putting his third-team defense in on the prior series, allowing Maryland to score. Addazio has been Mr. Nice Guy, maybe to his detriment. He’s had three backup quarterbacks play in shutout wins without any of them throwing the ball. One of those guys is going to have to throw the ball soon.
6) It’s looking more and more like either (a) Temple won’t be going to the Big East or (b) there won’t be a big east football space to even invite Temple. Is the MAC, even with UMass and Temple, a stable football conference for the next year or two?
TFF: I think the MAC is stable, with or without Temple or UMass. I don’t think UMass is going anywhere.
7) Rank’em
Toledo
Temple
Western Michigan
Ohio
Northern Illinois
Eastern Michigan
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Miami
Ball State
Buffalo
Kent State
Akron

10.20.11
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MAC Blogger Roundtable: Week 8

With this many fans wearing Cherry, it’s easy to see why Temple is so tough at home.

When Bowling Green opened the season with an impressive 32-15 win at Idaho (one of the few indoor campus stadiums in the nation), I thought this would be a tough week for the Temple football team.
It still might, but these are two teams going in different directions.
Temple is leaving the friendly confines of Lincoln Financial Field (above), where the Owls are 14-4 against MAC teams since joining the league.
Temple posted a couple of shutouts, both over teams that beat Ohio, presumably Temple’s toughest opposition for the MAC East title.

Bowling Green has lost three straight.
In the MAC, though, that means little.
Someone who can tell you about that is Mike Breese, who runs the Red and Black Attack blog covering Northern Illinois football. The Huskies opened with a 49-26 win over Army (which beat Northwestern), but also gave up 48 points in a loss to Central Michigan. Now they are coming off 40-10 and 51-22 wins over Kent State and Western Michigan, respectively.
So anyone who takes anything for granted in this league gets beaten.
Hopefully, Temple learned that lesson from Toledo.
Breese throws out the questions this week:

1. Just when one team thinks they have a hold of the division, it seems like the next week they get upset by a seemingly lesser-talented surprise team. How do you explain the volatility in the MAC this year, with CMU beating NIU, then NIU beating WMU and EMU defeating CMU just this past week?

TFF: There’s a lot of emotion involved in football. I’ve noticed a lot of the upsets come a week after a satisfying win. Maybe the work habits at practice are affected by that.

2. Going off of the last question, how emotionally involved are you with your respective team? Do you have your highs and lows or do you try and keep an even keel the entire season following your respective squad?

TFF: I get emotional only in rivalry games, like Villanova and Penn State. Villanova, because I know that school is trying its best to badmouth Temple at every opportunity. Penn State, because I know what a win over that program would have done for credibility in a pro market like Philadelphia. The rest of the season I’m on an even keel.

3. It seems like the MAC is past being a league where just offense prowess can win the league. Is that statement correct? Do you think your team has the right balance this season, or will one side of the ball have to carry the other the rest of the way?

TFF: I’m concerned about the offensive balance. Temple has a great running game, but the Owls have not demonstrated (yet) that you can trust the forward pass in a big spot, especially the deep routes.

4. If you could get a top recruit for one position on your team, which one would it be?
TFF: Quarterback.
 
TFF Rankings
Toledo

Temple
Northern Illinois
Western Michigan
Central Michigan
Ohio
Bowling Green
Miami
Ball State
Buffalo
Eastern Michigan
Kent State
Akron
This Week’s Picks
HOME TEAM IN CAPS
FAVORED TEAM IN PARENTHESIS
(point spreads from Tuesday’s USA Today)
TONIGHT
CENTRAL FLORIDA (13 1/2) 31, Ala. Birmingham 17 _ Central Florida beat Boston College, 30-3, and came within a touchdown of beating BYU. UAB is 0-6.
FRIDAY
Rutgers 14, LOUISVILLE (2) 10 _ Upset special. Gotta believe RU is better than its showing against Navy. Louisville has beaten only Murray State and Kentucky, neither impressively.
SATURDAY
MAC GAMES
Temple (13 1/2) 24, BOWLING GREEN 13 _ Falcons score a touchdown against Steve Addazio’s third-team defense late in the fourth quarter to cover the number. Hard to expect a third straight shutout against a team with a good QB.
Northern Illinois (14 1/2) 30, BUFFALO 14 _ Northern Illinois has looked very good the last two weeks and should cover the number.
Central Michigan 17, BALL STATE 14 (1 1/2) _ Upset special No. 2. Chips are an underdog. They win the game outright.
Western Michigan 33 (13), EASTERN MICHIGAN 17 _ Eastern Michigan stunned Central Michigan, 35-28, last week. I don’t think that’s sustainable over two weeks.
TOLEDO 44 (17 1/2), Miami (Ohio) 10 _ Despite Zac Dysert, Miami has had trouble scoring. Toledo hasn’t.
Others:
Georgia Tech, a 2 1/2-point underdog, wins at Miami, 24-14; Wake Forest, a three-point favorite, covers the number in a 20-13 win at Duke; Houston, a home 20 1/2-point favorite, covers the high number vs. Marshall.
Last week SU: 5-3; ATS 2-7 (including the under in Miami’s 9-3 win over Kent State)
Season SU: 40-18; ATS 26-31;

10.19.11
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What should Temple do?

You’ve heard the phrase by now so many times that you might recognize it by its four-letter abbreviation:
WWJD?
What Would Jesus Do?
It’s a reminder of a moral imperative on how to do the right thing.

“What would I do, Fr. Peter?
 State your  case, but  I certainly would not run down Temple
University. As Donovan McNabb said to T.O,
 keep their name out of your mouth.
I say welcome TU in with open arms.
That’s what I would do.”

Nobody at Villanova consulted that checklist before trying to run down Temple University for the last week on a Big East conference call. At the time, according to reports in the New York Post and the Boston Globe, Temple appeared to be a shoe-in for all-sports membership. Three days later, Temple was an afterthought. It was not hard to see why. Rather than promote its own name, Villanova _ according to well-placed sources _ spent the better part of three days on the conference call running down Temple.
It lined up opposition for Temple for all sports membership, mostly from its fellow WWJD schools, like Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall and St. John’s.  The WWJD schools said, basically: “Well, you are against them joining in all sports. We’re against them joining in basketball. Why don’t we just conspire to keep them out altogether.”
Villanova: “Err, yeah, OK.”
So Villanova destroyed about a 100-year relationship with a fellow city institution to keep its tenuous spot in a tenuous conference.
(There’s no maybes there. Villanova declared War on Temple with this Pearl Harbor sneak attack and Temple, in its righteous might, will gain the inevitable triumph so help it God. Apologies to FDR.)
Speaking of God, can you imagine Jesus getting on the phone and saying, “Don’t let those chumps associate with us.”
No, he’d welcome them with open arms.
The more important question now is: What Should Temple Do?
Or WSTD?
I listened to a lot of possibilities in that area both pre- and post-game on Saturday, ranging from holding a press conference lambasting them to canceling this year’s basketball game and next year’s football game to suing Villanova and the Big East.
All interesting suggestions from good, well-meaning, people.
It’s a tough call either way, but I say Temple is doing the right thing by staying quiet and working behind the scenes, which I’ve been assured that it is.
Put it this way.
The chances of Temple football finishing the regular season 10-2 currently is a better than 50/50 shot.
If that happens, Temple becomes a national story.
There’s no conference in the country that would not want a 10-2 team coming off consecutive 9-3 and 8-4 seasons.
There’s no conference in the country that would not want the fourth-largest TV market in the country that offers a team with demonstrated and documented TV ratings success over a three-year period.
WWJD?
Villanova failed that test over the last seven days and I don’t think even confession absolves them of that sin.
WSTD?
Temple is passing it right now.

10.15.11
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The defense never rests


Steve Addazio talks about the great Homecoming crowd and the continued support of the students, which I thought was both classy and appropriate.

Steve Addazio came up big
 on game day once again.

Someone said something very profound in Lot K after today’s 34-0 win over Buffalo and it had nothing to do with Villanova, The Big East or exit fees.
“We should have five shutouts,” the man said.
I’ll call him Edgar, because that’s his name.
Think about it for a second or two and you’ll come to agree.
Villanova scored a bogus touchdown only because the officials kept flags in their pockets after an obvious intentional grounding.
Maryland scored a late meaningless touchdown against Temple’s third-string defense.
If that’s not enough evidence supporting my claim that Chuck Heater is far and away the best defensive coordinator in the country, I don’t know what is.
Two things stood out for me today.
One, after Bernard Pierce had a touchdown called back on a totally made up block in the back call, Steve Addazio called a timeout just to berate the two officials and tell them just why the block was legal.
I liked that.
I liked that a lot.
Two, Addazio had the gonads to call the short snap call on fourth-and-two that resulted in Ahkeem Smith’s touchdown run.
Great call, great execution.
I wondered if Al Golden would have done either thing.
I don’t think he ever did.
Off to an alumni function and more tomorrow.