Category Archives: Temple

01.18.11
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Coach Daz: Meet Ryan Brumfield

Ryan Brumfield would be a great get for coach Daz.
When I went to Temple too many years ago to count, coach Wayne Hardin feasted on foes by getting under-recruited running backs, mostly from the Philadelphia area, who had a chip on their shoulders.
They were really too many to mention here, but I’ll try:

“You hate to say the word ‘unstoppable,’ but that’s what Ryan is. He likes the challenges. The more he gets challenged, the better he plays. But what you like most about Ryan is that he’s a great kid. Here’s a kid that has every right to have an ego, and he doesn’t. He gets along with everyone. It’s why his teammates don’t only want to play with him — they want to play for him.”
_ Tom Barr, head coach, Owen J. Roberts

Kevin Duckett (Northeast), Sherman Myers (Coatesville), Anthony Anderson, Jim Brown (Hardin: “I like that name”), Harold Harmon, Henry Hynoski (Mount Carmel), Zach Dixon, Mark Bright (William Tennent), etc., etc., etc.
It’s funny. The schools who didn’t want those guys could not stop those guys.
Myers scored five touchdowns in a 49-17 win over a Syracuse bowl-bound team (that included future NFLers Joe Morris and Art Monk).
Bright won the MVP in the Garden State bowl against a very good Cal team.
Anderson had a good career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Dixon was a 1,000-yard rusher at Temple (and Raheem Brock’s biological father).

All showed flashes of greatness at Temple.
Chip, meet shoulder.
Hardin had great running backs and great quarterbacks.
That’s not the whole key to winning, but it’s a good place to start.
Temple’s got a great running back now in Bernard Pierce.
When he’s on the field, he’s the best Temple running back I’ve ever seen and that includes Paul Palmer, the 1986 Heisman Trophy runnerup (sorry, Boo-Boo).
When he’s on the field, Temple can beat anybody. (I’m thinking Navy last year and Uconn this year.)
When he’s NOT on the field, there aren’t many teams Temple can beat (I’m thinking UCLA last year, Penn State, Ohio and Miami this year). I have no doubt, none, that Temple would have registered a damn historic win in State College on Sept. 25 had Pierce not snapped his ankle. Chester Stewart wouldn’t have thrown those three God-awful picks if Pierce was in the game.
So Pierce hasn’t been on the field enough for my taste and most of it has been bad luck, not Pierce’s fault.
If I had my druthers, he’s be on the field for every offensive snap in 2011. But I don’t want to go through another year when I see him limp off the field too many times.
That’s why Temple needs another Bernard Pierce.
I found him.
His name is Ryan Brumfield.
I’ve covered high school football in Southeastern Pennsylvania for 30 years and saw maybe five dominating running backs on the same level as Brumfield. Kevin Jones (Cardinal O’Hara, Virginia Tech, Detroit Lions) was one. Bill Foley (Father Judge, Southern Mississippi), Barry Compton (Central Bucks West, Pitt) and Pierce (Glen Mills, Temple) all put up staggering numbers.

Our current backup, while good, is 5-5, 150. He wore down last year. Even Stevie Wonder could see that

They were all special in their own way.
Trust me. Brumfield belongs with them and he might be the very best (and I’m partial to old-school guys).
Brumfield is the second all-time leading running back in the history of Pennsylvania. Defenses geared to stop him and they could not.
Yet he’s seriously under-recruited, much like Hardin’s stars were.
His only scholarship offer, so far, is Buffalo.
He is slightly smaller than Pierce (5-10 vs. 6-foot) and lighter (180 vs. 218) but he’s got the same speed (4.4-40), vision and power. He has the talent to make us forget about Pierce (ouch, it hurt typing that because I’m the biggest Pierce fan there is) but AT THE VERY MINIMUM he provides an insurance policy for Pierce we don’t currently have. Most of all, he is a character kid, a wonderful person and teammate.
Our current backup, while good, is 5-5, 150. He wore down last year. Even Stevie Wonder could see that.
This kid, Brumfield, does not wear down.
Unless we sign Bradenton Southeast’s Jared Williams, I don’t know if there is a guy out there who is that insurance policy.
Brumfield would be provide at least that.
Coach Daz, he’s worth a look and a long, hard one at that.

01.05.11
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The Gator With the Heater

The real Geator with the Heater, a TU football fan?

After Al Gore invented the internet (tongue firmly implanted in cheek here), newspapers followed, maybe,  five minutes behind.
It took about two years, though, before the best of the journalism followed that _ comments below the stories.

The Gator With the Hooter ….
… and the Heater

Comments, for me, are often better than the stories themselves.
So there it was after the Steve Addazio hiring story, when a guy who purported to be Philadelphia radio and TV icon Jerry Blavat said simply this:
“Welcome to Philadelphia, coach Daz. I know you are going to do a great job.” _ Jerry Blavat.
Now I’m not naive enough to think that was actually Jerry Blavat. I have no way of knowing that. I’m also not cynical enough to think that it wasn’t the real Jerry Blavat, you know, “The Geator With the Heater” and the “Boss with the Hot Sauce.”
(For all of you people living outside Philly, Jerry Blavat and Dick Clark, fast friends to this day, were equally big in this town with the “yon teens” at about the same time. Clark left Philly to amass his fortune elsewhere. Blavat remained and amassed his here.)
Boss with the hot sauce didn’t stick, but Geator with the Heater certainly did.
In a roundabout way, Geator With the Heater’s comment stuck with me today because it’s Wednesday and our new Gator head coach, Steve Addazio, still hasn’t brought his Heater to Philadelphia. That’s Chuck Heater, the Florida co-defensive coordinator, who was reported to be following Addazio on the same flight to Philadelphia to take the Czar of Temple Defense job.
The Gator Without The Heater in this case.

“Welcome to Philadelphia, coach Daz. I know you are going to do a great job.” _ Jerry Blavat.


That had me a little concerned on Monday and I emailed one of the Florida newspaper guys who reported that Heater was likely headed for Temple.
He got back to me today.
“Coach wants to hear about another job first,” he said.
I can’t say I blame Chuck Heater, the current Florida defensive coordinator who might be up for that same job in places like Michigan and UCLA.
Michigan and UCLA pay more than Temple.
I want Chuck Heater to be Addazio’s next hire, but more than that I want Chuck Heater to want to be here.
Heater would bring an impressive resume to Temple and I’m confident he would have this current defense in the right position to do as well or better than Mark D’Onofrio’s defense did last year.
There’s a comfort level with Addazio than can’t be underestimated that might not exist, say, with Rick Neuheisel.
Imagine the publicity Addazio and Heater would get if they beat Penn State and Maryland, win the MAC and get the automatic qualifying non-BCS spot in next year’s BCS bowl picture?
Nothing Heater can do at Michigan or UCLA next year can match the level of satisfaction that Temple accomplishment would bring him.
Yet if there is no Gator With the Heater, there are capable guys, like Delaware DC Nick Rapone, who would take the Temple job in a heartbeat.
It just doesn’t have the same ring as The Gator With the Heater.
I’m crossing my fingers for that pairing.

12.14.10
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The next Temple coach: A proven winner

What Bradshaw should be looking for:
1) Proven WINNING head coach;
2) Multiple WINNING seasons (not just one);
3) Must have proven it at THIS level, not below;
4) Knows Philadelphia and suburbs and;
5) Immediately recognizable to area high school coaches;
6) Working knowledge of Temple and its challenges;
7) Would make a splash with Temple fans and alumni

When Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw is not lamenting the fact that he’s shorter than 6-feet-tall, he tells some pretty good stories.
Ask him sometimes about the tosses that LaSalle University starting baseball shortstop Fran Dunphy would make to starting second baseman Bill Bradshaw back in the day.
Pretty funny stuff.
I’m partial to one Bill Bradshaw story, though.
It talks about his first meeting with future Temple football coach Al Golden.
Bradshaw got back in the car for the long drive to Philadelphia, sat down in the passenger seat and scribbled a few words at the bottom of his notepad.
This is our guy.
So he was.
No one knows what was at the top of that notepad, but I assume it was a series of qualifications Bradshaw was looking for in the next Temple head coach.
Finding a guy who can do the job here is both tough and easy.
Tough because there are so few of them.
Easy because you can narrow the list of special people down to three or four and target those.
All you have to do is look at history.
There are three Temple coaches who have done anything worth a damn here in my lifetime and Bradshaw would be wise to look for similar qualities in the next Temple coach as the following three:

Joe and Wayne

Wayne Hardin _ Was 80-52-3 at Temple. No one ran a more innovative offense. No one was smarter. No one made Temple look better on game day than Hardin did. Hardin is a genuis and he toyed with the overmatched mind of the coach on the other side. Allentown Morning Call columnist John Kunda said it best when an undermanned Temple team was beating a vastly more talented Penn State team in State College. “Hardin’s outcoaching Joe again.” The entire press box roared laughing because they knew it was true. Hardin’s teams were always better-prepared than the teams they were facing. When Hardin had nine days to prepare for his team’s most important game, you would never see Temple line up in an illegal formation on the first play of the game (I wonder how that’s going to go over at The U this fall?). When Hardin came to Temple he was already a proven winner on this level as a head coach (he was head coach at Navy when it was No. 2 in the nation) and had a knack for developing quarterbacks (Roger Stabauch and Bob Broadhead) and knew the Philadelphia area (he was head coach of the Continental League champion Philadelphia Bulldogs). When he got to Temple, the Owls were disciplined and some of his quarterbacks were Doug Shobert, Steve Joachim, Marty  Ginestra, Terry Gregory, Frank DiMaggio and Brian Broomell. Al Golden only had one quarterback of similar ilk: Adam DiMichele.



Bruce Arians

 Bruce Arians _ Led Temple to two winning seasons against top 20 schedules. One of his teams was 6-5 against the 10th-toughest schedule in the nation. (By comparison, Golden was 8-4 this year against the 112th-toughest schedule in the country.) Under Arians, the Owls beat West Virginia twice and Pitt in three of five seasons. Arians, from York, also knew the area and was a great recruiter. A former quarterback at Virginia Tech, Arians developed Tim Riordan, Lee Saltz and Matty Baker and a guy named Ben Rothlisberger. Knows Temple inside and out. Gets Temple. Loves Temple.  If you think Golden was a good recruiter, you should have seen the talent Arians brought to North Broad Street. On the day Arians was mistakenly  fired at Temple, quarterback Glenn Foley and defensive lineman Alonzo Spellman de-committed from the Owls and signed with Boston College and Ohio State. That’s recruiting.

Al Golden

Al Golden _ Succeeded here because he knew the  recruiting footprint and was a tireless worker. Never developed quarterbacks like Hardin or Arians, but his emphasis on defense more than made up for it. Great recruiter, but failed to identify talent at the quarterback level post-Adam DiMichele and that cost him a bowl game and possible double-digit back-to-back winning seasons.

There are also three Temple coaches who failed to achieve sustained success here and Bradshaw would be wise to avoid this type:

Jerry Berndt _ Was 0-11 as a head coach at Rice before coming to Temple. A huge red flag that Temple ignored at its own peril. Could coach Arians’ talent to a 7-4 record, but could not recruit at this level afterward. What should Temple learn from this: Don’t hire a head coach who hasn’t posted multiple (that’s more than one) winning seasons at THIS level (i.e., avoid Ron Vanderlinden like the plague, who hasn’t even had one winning season at this level).
Ron Dickerson _ Was hailed as the “greatest defensive coordinator in America” by Penn State coach Joe Paterno before Temple hired him. On game day, he looked lost out there. Hey, Paterno never said he could be a head coach. What should Temple learn from this: Avoid coordinators who have not proven they can win as a head coach with this next hire because Temple can’t afford to get this wrong.
Bobby Wallace _ Posted multiple winning seasons at the Division II level, but had no recruiting footprint in the northeast and had no passion to live here and did not connect with the high school coaches here. A bad hiring on so many levels, you can write a book about it. What Temple should have learned from this: No more lower-level head coaches, please.
So who is our guy?
The list of people who “can do this” becomes very small, but manageable:


Bill Cubit, Philly through and through

 1) Arians The guy performed at a higher level than Golden with 1/10th, maybe 1/100th of Golden’s facilities. You can talk him into leaving the Steelers now. He’s got a head coaching, not an assistant’s, mentality. Age? Look what Dunphy’s done and Dunph is older. There are 49 Division IA (FBS) championship coaches older than the 58-year-old Arians now and most of those guys are doing good jobs.
2) Bill Cubit, Western Michigan He’s a Philly guy, knows the area, and comes in with a proven track record as a winning head coach with, say, 1/2 of Temple’s current talent. He, unlike Golden, knows how to beat Big 10 teams. At Western Michigan, he’s beaten Purdue, Iowa, Minnesota and Indiana. You can convince him into coming home because he would automatically triple his current salary by getting the Temple job. On the day he beat Temple at Lincoln Financial Field, Cubit walked over to Citizens’ Bank Park afterward and watched his beloved Phillies clinch the NL East.
3) A unnamed head coach in D1A/FBS (not D1AA/FCS) who was or is a proven winner AT THAT LEVEL and knows Philadelphia and the suburbs and would be welcomed with open arms. Who is that guy? Well, it’s definitely not Ron Vanderlinden and it’s definitely not Andy Talley or K.C. Keeler (the FBS part) and it’s definitely not Mike Leach or any coordinator in college football today. They all meet some criteria, but not all.
Is that third guy out there?
I don’t know. I don’t think so.
So there’s your list.
I told you it takes a special person to do this job right.
So go get him.
These kids deserve nothing less.

12.04.10
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Doomsday bowl scenario faces Owls today



Go Freaking Blue Raiders!!!!

A Doomsday Bowl scenario faces the Owls today.
No, I’m not talking being one of the few teams in history to miss a bowl with an 8-4 record.
I’m talking about going to a meaningless bowl in Detroit to play another MAC team, Toledo.

MTSU vs. Fla. Int.
Time: 6 p.m.
TV: None
Radio: Link here


There’s a lot of scuttlebutt out there that the MAC, in order to maximize its teams in the bowl picture, will pit two of its teams, namely Temple and Toledo, in the Little Ceasars Pizza Bowl in Detroit.
I’ll pass on that one, thanks.
I’m sure there are some positives in there, but I fail to see them.
To me, it has all the appeal of moving the Cherry and White game to Detroit.
All week long, the talk has been of Las Vegas and El Paso and, recently, New Orleans.
If the announcement tomorrow is Detroit against another team in the same conference, downer would not be a strong enough word to describe my reaction and, I guess, that of my fellow Owl fans.
We can do two things now.
Hope for the best and root like hell for Middle Tennessee State in Miami for tonight’s 6 p.m. game.
That’s because, if Middle Tennessee State wins tonight at Florida International, it takes the automatic spot in the LCB opposite a MAC team, probably not Temple (hint: Toledo).
It eliminates the tempting option (only to MAC officials) of putting two MAC teams in that bowl and opens up a spot for Temple in another locale.
MTSU has a shot. It’s a 4 1/2-point underdog on the road, which means it would be favored at home. The Blue Raiders (5-6) have had their moments this year, pummeling Louisiana-Lafayette (34-14) and beating Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic in their last two games.  That might not sound impressive, but Florida Atlantic beat Florida International, 21-9, and LL hung tough at Ohio (38-31).
Really, MTSU is playing for Temple tonight and, in the absence of the Owls having a game, I’ve adopted the Blue Raiders.
As much as I’ve railed against Boise, I’d take Boise over Detroit in a heartbeat, particularly if the Detroit foe is another MAC team.
As bowltoligist Chris Squieri (Doogie on a pair of Owl message boards) points out, Temple’s dream scenario tonight is a Middle Tennessee State win coupled by losses by Washington (vs. Washington State), Oregon State (vs. Oregon, a given) and Louisiana Tech vs. Nevada (a probability).
Should Florida International win, I will be doing a lot of tossing and turning tonight with the possibility of throwing up at about 8:30 Sunday night.

11.30.10
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Orlando Sentinel: Sun Bowl vs. Miami



It’s not going to be this dark in El Paso on Dec. 31 at 2 p.m.

 Gotta love the MAC.
It’s the only conference where you can look reasonably horrible before a small crowd in Ohio in the last regular-season game and get what amounts to a reward.
Win the conference or division and go to Detroit,  Boise or Mobile.
Finish somewhat farther back in the conference and go to El Paso or Las Vegas.
Or D.C.
It was that way last year for the Temple Owls, when they spit the bit at Ohio and lost, 35-17, in the defacto MAC East championship game and got the marquee opponent of the MAC postseason in UCLA before 20,000 Temple fans in D.C.
It appears to be that way again this season, the marquee opponent part, not the D.C. part.
I must admit that I thought the season was, for all intents and purposes, over with a 23-3 loss at Miami.
The Owls would not have been a hot team coming into the postseason.
Their one marquee player has been an injury question mark and they would not bring 20,000 fans on the road with them like they did last year.
Reading the reports, though, I’m thinking that the Owls will find their way to a bowl game, more likely than not in a sunny and warm (err, warmer) climate.
If I had to handicap it today, I would go with these numbers:

  • 30 percent chance of Sun Bowl vs. Miami of Florida;
  • 20 percent chance of Vegas Bowl vs. Utah;
  • 15 percent chance of Humanitarian Bowl vs. Nevada or Fresno State;
  • 5 percent chance of “some other bowl”;
  • 30 percent chance of no bowl;

That’s from a selective reading of the situation. So it looks more like bowl than no bowl for Temple.
Orlando Sentinel says the Owls will go to the Sun Bowl to face Miami (Fla.) and I will take that.
The first thing you have to do when you read a bowl projection is skip over the ones that have “bleacher report” written next to the writer’s byline.
It’s a bunch of Joe Schmoes, like you and me, reports worth money Bleacher Report paid for them _ which is nothing.



The MAAC Vegas Bowl in, well, you know.

 The people you have to pay attention to are the ones who are paid and answer to the person paying them.
That’s why I’m giving credence to sites like CBSSportsline.com and people like Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated.
Those sites have the Owls going to either the Sun Bowl to play the U (the real Miami) or the Vegas Bowl to play Utah.
I’ll take either one.
I will pass on playing Boise or Nevada in Idaho, which is where many of the Joe Schmoes on Bleacher Report have us going. Pass, because it’s too much of a hardship for our fans.
The only reason I want to play a bowl is to get this bad taste out of my mouth that I’ve had the last couple of weeks and I want to be there when it happens. Since I haven’t been eating garlic, it must be the losing that’s eating at me.
I like what Michael Vick said after the game last night.
“I hate losing. It makes me sick. It makes me ill.”
I hear ya, Michael. Losing makes me sick, too, and the only remedy is to win again.
I don’t want to wait until next year for the cure.
It’s only a reward, though, if you go there (wherever) and win.  I want to see these Owls and especially the seniors go out with a swagger. I want to avenge the loss to UCLA and close the season the way it started _ bringing home a trophy. The season started with a Mayor’s Cup Trophy.
I want it to end with a Sun Bowl or a Vegas Bowl Trophy.
You can only get that by playing the game.
Beating Utah or the real Miami is the best mouthwash I can think of right now.

09.19.10
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Penn State week: Robinson stole the ball


“You know I’m going to take that ball from you the next time you see me,” Adrian Robinson appears to be telling his cousin, Penn State’s Curtis Drake.

“I saw the ball and it was loose, I ripped it out and it was Murder-She-Wrote from there.”
_ Adrian Robinson.

I don’t have access to Harry Donahue’s call of the play of the game Saturday vs. UConn, but if Chick Hearn was calling the game, it might go something like this (apologies to John Havlichek):
“Adrian Robinson stole the ball. Robinson stole the ball. Game over.”
Well, the game wasn’t over then be it might as well have been.
Adrian Robinson has been making big plays all of his life. Defensive players of the year make defensive plays of the year and Robinson’s strip of Jordan Todman might have been just that.
“I saw the ball and it was loose, I ripped it out and it was Murder-She-Wrote from there,” Robinson said.
It was a great non-call from the officials because Todman was fighting for extra yardage. How many times have you seen guys fighting for extra yardage break out of piles like that and score? I’ve seen it a lot. (How about Navy two years ago?)
Much to the credit of the UConn fans, nobody was calling for that play to be blown dead.
They were too busy killing their own team in general and their fine coach, Randy Edsall, in particular.
How is it that the Friday BEFORE the Temple game these same fans were saying Temple’s got no chance, Temple’s no good and the Huskies might be better than the 1966 Michigan State Spartans.
Then the day AFTER the Temple game, UConn stinks in their eyes.
Can’t have it both ways.
I guess they confused Temple with Texas Southern.
Edsall gave Temple no credit, but the UConn players were unanimous in their praise of the way the Temple kids played and hit.
The kids on the field know. They know.
The adults on message boards not so much.
The implosion on Boneyard.com, the UConn message board, is about as impressive as the explosion caused by the Enola Gay in 1945.
It’s a nuclear-type jaun, as my friend, Jay “Chief” Cooke, used to say.
Yet  it’s also an over nuclear reaction if you ask me.
All week long, I got responses to my messages on the Bonehead, err, I mean Boneyard, board asking me to come over and “apologize for my Temple lunacy” at about 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.
My response was simple.
“I hope you do the same, apologize for your disrespect of Temple, but I don’t think you have the class to do so.”
Just like the Big East ref/touchdown flag prediction, I was right.
The same guy who called me out for my “Temple lunacy” never apologized for his “UConn lunacy.”
A little perspective is in order.
For three years with each MAC foe falling to Temple for the first time, I’d go over to the vanquished foe’s message board.
The reaction is the same and can be summed up in one sentence.
“I can’t believe we lost to Temple.”
Gradually, they’ve gotten used to it.
UConn will, too.
Good Temple football is here to stay. Get used to it.
Al Golden promised when he arrived on North Broad Street that he was “building a house of brick, not straw.”
That means IF he leaves, it will be in good hands. Whether those hands belong to Mark D’Onofrio or Bruce Arians, Golden has proven one thing.
You can win at Temple. The Owls have now won a school-record eight home games in a row.
Last year, they beat an Army team that beat Vanderbilt and a Navy team that crushed Missouri and beat Notre Dame.
This year, they beat a UConn team with a relatively recent win over South Carolina.
If he can finish that fancy porch he’s putting in by Saturday, the house might be so nice Golden could take a long look at it and said, “Heck, I want to live here.”
Let’s hope so.
“We’re finally a Division I program now,”  he said on Saturday.
There’s a lot of wringing of hands on the UConn board these days but I think that’s premature.
The Big East is so bad I wouldn’t be surprised if UConn ran the table the rest of the way.
In fact, I hope they do.
I hope Temple beats Penn State next week (Temple is significantly better than Kent State) and I hope UConn and Penn State (and, of course, Temple) run the table after that.
Then maybe our friends at UConn will finally develop the same kind of perspective it took the MAC awhile to accept.

08.20.10
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The CUSA move: Makes sense for Owls


Temple finally gets into the changing college football landscaping business.
It’s one thing when an anonymous blogger throws out a rumor. Those kind of things happen all the time.
It’s another when a respected college football journalist like Rivals.com’s Tom Dienhart does it, followed a few hours later by an assistant AD at Rice adding the “exciting news” coming later today that Temple and one other school will join Conference USA for football only, effective starting in the 2011 season. Dienhart has broken many stories and his reputation is impeccable in the business, so his word is nothing to be trifled with and when the Rice AD says “exciting news” coming today that’s as close to a two-source confirmation that you’ll get in today’s increasingly electronic media.
When Owlscoop.com editor John DiCarlo asked Bill Bradshaw for a comment regarding the proposed move, Bradshaw said he couldn’t comment.
If nothing was happening, don’t you think Bill Bradshaw would have said nothing was happening?
Something is happening.
So I’m buying it.
Temple to CUSA. Since this has to be approved by the Board of Trustees, the time frame could be a little longer than expected.

It will be released not by Temple first but by the CUSA office. Only after it is made official will Temple have some kind of comment.

2010 C-USA BOWL SCHEDULE
(2011 sked is similar to this one)

Date Bowl (Site) Time (CT) Network

Fri., Dec. 31 AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.) 2:30p ESPN

Thu., Dec. 30 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas) 11:00a ESPN

Wed., Dec. 29 EagleBank Bowl (Washington, D.C.) 1:30p ESPN

Fri., Dec. 24 Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu, Hawai’i) 7:00p ESPN

Tue., Dec. 21 Beef O’Brady’s Bowl (St. Petersburg, Fla.) 7:00p ESPN

Sat., Dec. 18 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, La.) 7:00p ESPN

The Owls were wooed by CUSA a few years ago before accepting the MAC’s football-only invite and that turned out to be a life-preserver for a then-drowning program.
The move was first mentioned by a Tulane blogger a couple of weeks ago and it turns out he had some pretty good sources.

Truth be told, the CUSA Bowl lineup is so much better than the MAC’s it’s not even funny.
Even if Temple wins the MAC this year, the, err, reward for Temple fans is a trip to Detroit for the championship game followed by another trip to Detroit for the bowl game.
No offense Detroit, but that’s dreadful. I can just imagine the Temple fan now complaining that he can’t go to Detroit because the walk from his car to the indoor stadium will be “too cold.”
The only way Temple can avoid that is to win out, beat Penn State, Villanova and UConn and sweep the MAC. Something like that could … could … put Temple in the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl and more likely mean a certain Heisman Trophy for Bernard Pierce.
That’s my mantra this year “12-0 and we’re Golden.”
I’d love to meet the Temple fan who went to the last Sugar Bowl involving Temple (1934). If he/she is still alive and, say, 20 then, he/she would be 96 now.
Possible, not likely.
Still, if this turns out to be true, I’m ambivalent about this.
Seriously, I’ve always liked the MAC.
I liked the MAC when I was a kid.
I liked the MAC when Big Ben was at Miami.
I liked the MAC when Garrett Wolfe was making his run at the Heisman.
I liked the MAC when Northern Illinois upset Alabama a few years ago and when Central Michigan beat Michigan State last year.
I liked the MAC long before Temple even got involved with that conference.
Now that Temple’s in it, I follow all the MAC games even more closely.
I don’t see how Rice will put more opposing fans at Lincoln Financial Field than, say, Bowling Green but, let’s face it, BG never put more than a few hundred in there anyway.
It’s a step up for football certainly and Owl hoop heads will probably like the nonleague schedule a lot more than they do now.

If Temple wins the MAC this year and THEN Conference USA next, I’m loving the move and the history that comes with winning two leagues in consecutive seasons.

03.20.10
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March 20: The first day of spring (practice)


Temple fans want to see more sacks like this one.

I have a feeling the Owls are going to find a couple of reliable long-snappers, a quarterback who has moxie and becomes a weapon both with his arm and feet and a defense that can provide a relentless pass rush

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, someone once said.
I’ve never believed that because I think the facts around the story are often more interesting than the story itself.
I’ll relent, though, when it comes to headlines.
Yesterday, not today, was the first full day of spring football practice at Temple University. It’s just a better headline when you combine the first day of spring with the first day of spring practice.
It was also the last full day of the men’s basketball season, the only other marquee sport at Temple University.
Coincidence?
No doubt.
An interesting fact?
Yes.
I’ve never hided that I consider Temple men’s basketball nothing more than a worthwhile distraction between the final day of the football season and the first day of spring practice, but I didn’t think the two would run so seemlessly as they did this year.
I often get grief from my Temple football friends on why I only attend two or three basketball games a year, but I tell them the same thing I write here.
I just don’t enjoy the sport as much as football.
I understand, though, that many of them do.
For me, though, it’s not even close.
I like the fact that a football field is split in two and that strategy is involved in both protecting your turf and probing into the enemy’s.
If you have better men and material, like the Union did in the Civil War, you are probably going to win the war. If you have a better Field Marshall, like the Nazi’s did with Rommel in the Sahara and the Confederates did with Johnson and Stewart at Bull Run, you are going to win your share of battles.
There’s some of that in basketball, but when a dude sticks a 35-footer three straight times down the court, that game is a little too skewed for my taste. So hat’s off to Fran Dunphy and crew, who did this university proud by winning three straight A-10 titles and 29 games this season. There are few people who do more for this university than Fran Dunphy. In fact, I can’t think of any. There are no two better ambassadors for this great university than Fran Dunphy and Al Golden.
As I write this, it is 10 in the morning on the Saturday on the first day of spring.
The birds are chirping, it’s going to be a 75-degree day, and my beloved Temple (Football) Owls are working to find better ways to defend their turf and grab as much of the bad guy turf as possible.
The particulars will unravel over the next month.
What we already know is that 17 of the 22 starters return from a 9-3 team and some of the redshirts who sat  last year may be better than a handful of the starters, let alone as replacements for the five departed.
Defensively, I see this team as perfectly suited to a 3-4, rather than the current 5-2 alignment. That way, you have two athletic 6-5 defensive ends (Mo Wilkerson and Kadeem Custis) coming at the quarterback with a future NFL tackle in Levi Brown playing nose guard and being a lock-down run-stopper. You can move Adrian Robinson to linebacker and just have him blitz on every passing down, but from all different gaps.  If I was a quarterback facing that, I’d run the other way.
Offensively, I’d like to see a quarterback who can make plays both running and passing. I think that quarterback is here.
On special teams, I’d like the see the long-snapping situation tighten up.
Fix all of those fixable items and you have a team with designs on much better than 9-3.
I have a feeling the Owls are going to find a couple of reliable long-snappers, a quarterback who has moxie and becomes a weapon both with his arm and feet and a defense that can provide a relentless pass rush.
Hope springs eternal, but this time the hope comes with a lot of supporting facts.

11.17.09
by

Temple Fans: Cherry Out The Linc Saturday

Loyal Temple fans need to bring at least one other fan to the game.



Weather, SEPTA, Phillies … no excuses on Saturday. Be there.

By Mike Gibson
A quick search of Ticketmaster’s data base revealed some very good news yesterday.
At least 10 rows of end zone tickets were sold in a matter of hours on Monday morning alone.
That’s more tickets on one day that any other day this fall and it came on what usually is the slowest day of the week.
Who knows what moved that many tickets in one day?
Let’s hope the trend continues to go upward the rest of the week.
Maybe it’s the winning, maybe it’s the head coach’s tireless efforts promoting the program.
Probably a little bit of both.
I’ve always been a strong proponent that word-of-mouth is the best advertising.
It’s been that way since the caveman found out that rubbing two sticks together could start a fire.
So Al Golden’s radio appearance combined that word-of-mouth advertising with mass media.

Honor the Seniors:

Longest winning streaks
Florida 20
Texas 14
TCU 12
Cincinnati 10
Alabama 10
Boise State 10
Temple 8
Georgia Tech 8

Golden’s 20-minute appearance on an Eagles’ pre-game radio show (97.5, The Fan) certainly didn’t hurt and may have helped a lot. Give coach a lot of credit for making his way across the bridge and into South Jersey to do that for Temple football and the university.
He didn’t have to and could have easily begged out.
The show, hosted by Temple grad Harry Mayes, has upwards of 200,000 listeners every Sunday so Golden spreading the Temple gospel had to have an impact.
We should all follow the Temple head coach’s lead. Not all of us can get on the radio, but every single one of us can use word-of-mouth advertising.
If every one of Temple’s core base could bring just one other fan, we’d have a crowd approaching 30,000 on Saturday.
If every Temple fan who has been attending all year can bring two or more other fans, all the better. If the students spread the word around campus and on Facebook and Twitter and MySpace, that will help immeasurably.
The pre-game tailgates have been great and the games have been even better.
It’s a fun event that won’t be duplicated in this town until next year’s Mayor’s Cup.
All indications are that a large crowd will be seeing off Temple’s remarkable senior class for Saturday’s 1 p.m. kickoff against Kent State at Lincoln Financial Field.
But it won’t be the happening it should unless YOU do YOUR part.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it or hope somebody else does it.
Temple has a football team that has won eight straight games for the first time since 1973.
It has a team that needs to beat Kent State in order to move a step closer to clinching a championship.
It has gotten positive mentions in Sports Illustrated and ESPN in recent weeks.
All of that coverage would pale in comparison to what might happen if Lincoln Financial Field was sold out Saturday.
I know and you know it’s not going to happen, but bear with me for a second.
Temple has 260,000 alumni, 5,000 full-time employees and 33,000 full-time students.
Do the math. That’s 298,000 people still living who are being directly represented by the young men wearing Cherry and White.
Subtract 70,000 from that figure.
In a perfect world, 228,000 fans would be turned away at windows on Saturday, trying to get tickets.
I realize it’s not a perfect world, but we can all do a lot in the next few days to get as many of those seats filled with Temple fans on Saturday.
We can and we should.
Let’s make Lincoln Financial Field a solid wall of Cherry on Saturday.

10.11.09
by

Cosby beats Letterman, but punt protection team is the only joke


Owl fans sport wide smiles watching Bernard Pierce run.
Photos by Ryan Porter


“If that’s not the best defense, especially physically, we’ve played since I’ve been at Ball State, it’s right up there.” _ Ball State head coach Stan Parrish

By Mike Gibson
Gotta give Stan Parrish some love.
He’s not getting much in Muncie, Ind., these days, there’s even a firestanparrish.com website.
Gotta give him some love for this quote today, though.
“If that’s not the best defense, especially physically, we’ve played since I’ve been at Ball State, it’s right up there,” Parrish, the Ball State head coach said of Temple.
Temple beat Ball State on Saturday. A cynic would headline it: Cosby beats Letterman in Sexual Harassment Bowl on Breast Cancer Awareness Day.
I prefer to see it, though, as a flawed win for the Owls, a siren call for a tweek here and a tweek there to get this engine raady for the MAC race stretch run.
Even the Owls themselves hinted as much in their post-game remarks.
Consider these words by Owl linebacker Peanut Joseph.
“We have some goals, but we’re nowhere close to them,” the Owls’ linebacker said after a 24-19 win over Ball State.
Nowhere but one small step. There are seven, maybe eight, more steps just like these.
Joseph is right.
Let’s face it. The defense won this game. They deserve 11 game balls.
Then there’s the flip side.
If the Owls keep playing like this on offense and special teams, they will be nowhere near close to getting those goals.
The good thing is that the problems are fixable.

Al Golden’s To Do List:
1. Fix punt protection _ Tighten this up. It looks like the Owls don’t even practice this stuff. Change the snapper, if necessary.
2. Fix the passing game _ Way too many plays are left on the field. Going to James Nixon only once a game is borderline criminal. Work Mike Gerardi or Chris Coyer in there one series per quarter, just to give them some experience in case Vaughn goes down and to change things up on offense. Don’t worry about Coyer’s redshirt. It’s all hands on deck for this MAC championship. Whoever moves the team best, stays on the field.
3. Leave Mark D’Onofrio alone _ Coach D’Onofrio is certainly doing his job, which is to keep points off the board. The same cannot be said for special teams coach Al Golden or offensive coordinator Matt Rhule. Al should just say, “Hey, Mark, keep doing what you’re doing, big guy. Nice blitz on that interception, by the way.”

Temple hasn’t shown in the past that it has trouble snapping or protecting.
Special teams coach Al Golden is going to have to put in a whole new scheme of punt protection, and maybe even a new snapper, in the next few days before the Army game.
Ball State evidently saw something in Temple’s protection that dictated the Cardinals go after every punt.
That entire scheme must change because the Army coaches will see it, too.
One way to change it is not to have to punt at all.
Temple has to develop a viable passing game to complement Bernard “The Franchise” Pierce.
Pierce became the first freshman in Owl history to rush for over 100 yards in three straight games, getting a buck 25 and two touchdowns.
If the Owls can develop a passing game opponents respect, and it might include changing the passer or the receivers or both, look for Pierce to turn a few of those twisting and turning 8-, 9- and 10-yard runs into 70-yard touchdowns. This is a team with too many weapons to be scoring in the low 20s every game. Temple coaches must view the film and determine what the problem is and correct it. If it requires a change in scheme or a change in personnel, so be it. This is big-time college football and they should not be afraid to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Winning ugly is still winning, but Saturday is Homecoming and a good Army team is coming to town before an expected Temple crowd of 25,000 plus.
Winning “beautiful” is the next goal and that means for all three phases to show up, not just the defense.
That would be the next step and it must be forward, not backward.