Category Archives: Temple

05.07.13
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Coach voted into Hall of Fame

There are more good  TU plays called in these 10 minutes than 2 years of Dazball.

For all of my life, I’ve simply known him as Coach.
That’s what I called him when I first met him as a sports writer for The Temple News back in the 1970s and that’s what I called him when I saw him last year.
Now I’ll just call him a Hall of Famer.
This morning news comes from Atlanta that  coach Wayne Hardin has been voted into the Hall of Fame.
Probably the best compliment coach ever gave me was last year.
“Mike, I read your blog and it is first-class,” coach said.
First-class.

Coach was the man behind greatest helmets in Temple history, although I have seen better Temple hats.

(Doc Chodoff also told me the same thing a couple of years ago and I was just as flattered.)
I like that hyphenated word because that’s the way I’ve always described coach Hardin.
He was a first-class coach and, for the years he was Temple’s head coach, the Owls had the best head coach in the country.
Period, end of story.
To me the definition of a great head coach is someone who gets the most out of the talent available to him.
Nobody got more out of his talent than Wayne Hardin.

Wayne Hardin storieson TFF through the years

“We get kidded about our short, fat, kids, but we don’t time them in the 40,” Hardin once said. “They might not be too fast over 40 yards but, from here to there, they are not too bad and that’s all we ask of them.”
Meanwhile, he made a nice living out of outsmarting coaches with better players.
Hardin never beat Penn State, but it wasn’t out of a lack of wits against Joe Paterno.
“Hardin’s outcoaching Joe again,” Allentown Morning Call columnist Joe Kunda said out loud in the Beaver Stadium press box as the Owls took a halftime lead at Penn State.
Everybody laughed.

Ukraine checking in for a 3-minute read of TFF.

Everybody knew Kunda was right.
Think about it.
The highest Temple was ever ranked came in 1979, when the Owls rose to No. 17 in both the AP and UPI polls.
The highest Navy was ever ranked (at least in the modern era) was No. 2 in the nation in 1962.
The head coach in both cases?
Wayne Hardin.
No one has ever been more deserving of the Hall of Fame.
Congrats, coach.

05.02.13
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Bradshaw’s retiring a sad day for Temple football

“Now, Steve, you aren’t going to leave me after a couple of years, are you?”

The Catholic Church requires three documented Miracles in order for to qualify for Sainthood.
By those standards, Bill Bradshaw is a Temple football Saint.

TFF and Bradshaw through the years:
A compilation of stories on Temple Football Forever mentioning Bill Bradshaw through the years.

That’s why the news of Bradshaw retiring today (effective June 30) is truly a sad day for the program.
When the 2005 Temple president, David Adamany, formed a committee to “determine the future of Temple football” it was with one goal in mind:
To kill the program.
In December of that year, Adamany put the committee together and said “once their report is completed, it will be made public.”

Bill puts the myth
of Temple making up
attendance figures to rest.

That report was never made public because the outcome was not the one Adamany wanted or expected.
The Board of Trustees, led by then Chairman Howard Gittis, voted to keep football and strengthen it.
Behind the scene, Bradshaw worked the room for the “pro-football” people.
By the time the vote was in, he was exhausted.
“I didn’t know what the outcome would be, but football was saved by one vote,” Bradshaw said.
Miracle No. 1?
Check.
Then football was saved again by one trip Bradshaw made to talk to Virginia defensive coordinator Al Golden.
Bradshaw brought with him a yellow legal pad.
When he got out of the meeting, he had four words written on the notepad:
“This is our guy.”
Even though the university went through the motions of forming a “football selection committee” Bradshaw steered the committee toward Golden, who was just what Temple needed at the time. A young, energetic football surgeon who would spend 80 hours a week, sleeping at 10th and Diamond if necessary, to resuscitate a dying patient.
“I’m going to build a house of brick, not straw,” said Golden, and he did.
Miracle No. 2?
Check.
Getting Temple into the MAC for football was no miracle because the Owls were also being courted by Conference USA at the time, but getting the Owls out certainly qualifies.
When no power conference wanted Temple, Bradshaw pulled the Big East rabbit out of his hat by working the phones and commissioners on TU’s behalf. The signature moment that forced the Big East’s hand might have been a Sunday trip Bradshaw and  then president Ann Weaver Hart made to the Conference USA convention in Dallas.
Thinking Temple might take the largest available football market to CUSA, the Big East moved fast to lock up the Owls within a week after that reported meeting.

Interesting tweet from Florida’s Sharrif Floyd, a No. 1 draft choice.

Sometimes you’ve got to force the other guy’s hand and Bradshaw, a good poker player, knew how to do that.
What happened to the Big East after Temple signed up was beyond Bradshaw’s control.
Miracle No. 3?
Check.
When Steve Addazio left after two short years after saying Temple was “my dream job” and that “I could see myself staying here the rest of my career” the program faced another crisis.
Hire another name from a big-time program and risk losing him after a year or right a ship that faced the possibility of losing a head coach every year.
Bradshaw thought about it, listened to the players and parents and decided that stability was needed above all at this point and hired Golden disciple Matt Rhule.
Miracle No. 4?
Only if Rhule is able to produce on-field results like Golden was and the early indications are all positive.
There’s still time before the Canonization but, in my mind, Bill Bradshaw is a Saint and, thankfully, a living one.

Bill Bradshaw and Temple football 

Year
Action
Result
2005
Negotiated move into MAC
Gave TU opportunity to compete for automatic bowl bids
2006
Hired Al Golden
First bowl appearance by Owls in 30 years, MAC East co-champs (2009), bowl eligible 3 straight years
2011
Hired Steve Addazio
First bowl win in over 30 years
2012
Move to Big East, expanded football facility with $10 million addition
Gave Temple an upgrade in number and quality of possible bowl bids, solidified future recruiting
2012
Hired Matt Rhule
Stabilized a program hemorrhaging head coaches
04.06.13
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Open quarterback competition good, not bad

The wildcard in the open competition is incoming freshman P.J. Walker.
TFF welcomes Chris
Coyer, 1/14/2009

As former Giants’ coach Bill Parcells once blabbed, “that’s a good thing, not a bad thing” was the reaction I had when Matt Rhule announced an open quarterback competition going into this spring’s Temple football practice.
I like competition.
Really, he is not going to say: “I don’t care what any of these guys do, I’ve already decided.” That’s not good coaching business.
That’s the position former head coach Steve Addazio maintained two days before he went off to become head coach at Boston College. The first thing he said was that there was going to be an open quarterback competition. The second thing he said was that “this offseason is going to be no box of chocolates.” The third thing he said was “I’m outta here like Vladimir.” All in a matter of 48 hours.
If Connor Reilly beats out the field and becomes Temple’s starter on Aug. 31 against Notre Dame, every Temple football fan, coach and player is better off.
The same can be said of the other five quarterbacks who figure to be in the mix.
Because with the possible exception of when Adam DiMichele dined alone, Temple’s quarterbacking training room dinner table is more talented than any in the Golden/Addazio/Rhule Era.
If you beat out those guys, then you have something.
That said, I like John Madden’s quote better: “If you have more than one quarterback, you don’t have any.”
My guess is that Rhule will settle on one quarterback by Notre Dame and stick with him and that quarterback will be Chris Coyer.
There are a few reasons for that:

  • Coyer is the ONLY quarterback in the last 30 years to win a bowl game for Temple;
  • Coyer was recruited by Rhule;
  • Coyer was about to receive a scholarship offer from Ohio State and showed his loyalty to Rhule and the Owls by telling them thanks but no thanks;
  • Coyer replaced starter Chester Stewart in the Ohio game and threw for three touchdowns and over 300 yards passing and, oh by the way, added 184 yards on the ground;
  • Coyer played with a broken hand last year, taking one for the team;
  • Coyer was additionally handicapped by a run-first, second- and too-many-times third-approach by Daz;
  • Coyer can both throw and run equally effectively, a real plus in the days of the modern spread offense;
  • Coyer, without a broken hand two years, ago was UNBEATEN in games he started;
  • Coyer’s co-offensive coordinator during that unbeaten streak: Matt Rhule.

The wildcard in all of this is not necessarily Reilly but P.J. Walker. In a perfect world, you redshirt Walker and have him sponge all there is to know from Coyer, Rhule and graduate assistant DiMichele.
All of these facts are rattling around in Rhule’s brain right now and probably will continue to rattle until Aug. 31.
When the facts stop and the reasoning starts, unless Coyer completely comes apart (and we hear he’s having a good spring, too), Coyer will be under center.
After all, Rhule and Coyer have been an unbeatable combination in the past and there’s no reason to think that success can’t continue in their final year together.

03.23.13
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Temple football’s Khalif and Wyatt

Temple Football Forever congratulates our friend Fran Dunphy and his Owls on a great season (Fran-haters, he did not shoot 0 for 12) … also congrats to our friends from LaSalle. .. hope Explorers win the NC …

There was a reason Wyatt Benson was the first in the end zone on most TD celebrations.

“I’m only going to switch someone who wants to be switched.”
_ Matt Rhule

Temple’s big man on campus these days is Khalif Wyatt, a basketball player for the Owls.
Temple football has both a Khalif and a Wyatt, though not in the same uniform.
I hope the the football Owls get as much out of their Khalif and their Wyatt as the basketball team has.
Khalif Herbin and Wyatt Benson.
If so, they should be in good shape this fall.
Pick a rushing touchdown, any touchdown, for Temple’s football team in the last three years and if there’s one common denominator it is that Wyatt Benson is blowing up a defender right before it.
Sometimes two defenders.
All you have to do is look at the South Florida film from last year.
Montel Harris sprung free for an exclamation point touchdown only after Benson destroyed someone on a sweep.
Same for all five of Bernard Pierce’s touchdowns at Maryland two years ago.
In all of my 30-plus years of watching Temple football, I can honestly say Wyatt Benson is the best blocking fullback the Owls have had since Paul Palmer followed Shelley Poole through the hole to nearly win a Heisman Trophy.

Nobody appreciated Benson more than Montel Harris.

Now Benson has been moved from fullback to linebacker, a position of strength for the Owls.
Go figure.
Herbin, like the 5-5 Matty Brown four years ago, needs to get the ball in his hands more than a typical slot receiver does. He’s got the potential to make those explosive plays downfield that Steve Addazio always talked about but never delivered. A switch to running back might help get him more than the two or three touches a typical slot receiver gets per game.
Current Temple head coach Matt Rhule indicated the strong possibility exists that Benson will be back at fullback in August.
“He’s our starting fullback, but what does a fullback do?” Rhule told Owlscoop.com. “He came here as a linebacker and I liked him as a linebacker.”
Good point.
He’ll play 15 snaps and you can do that and play linebacker as well.
Hey, if Bill Cosby, Bill Juzwiak, Fizzy Weinraub and John Rienstra can play two ways for the Owls, so can a few of these modern players. (Although Rienstra, an offensive tackle, only played nose guard on goal-line situations.)
It won’t kill Benson to play linebacker and come in to block on the goal-line package, something Rhule was in charge of for the New York Giants this season.
Also notable in practice from Saturday is this quote from Rhule:
“I’m only going to switch someone who wants to be switched.”
He was talking about Kevin Newsome from quarterback to another position, but I hope the same, err, rule applies to everyone else.
Khalif Herbin please report to Rhule’s office immediately and bring a letter of recommendation from Matty Brown.

 A Twin Brother from a Different Mother

Player
Height/Weight
40 speed
Yards gained from
Scrimmage in final
High school year
Position started/finished at Temple
Matt Brown
5-5/150
4.40
1,450 (9 TDs)
WR/RB
Khalif Herbin
5-7/170
4.34
1,940 (43 TDs)
WR/???
03.20.13
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Matt Rhule Bobblehead Day

Fans grab their spots prior to the 1919 C&W game. (Nah, that’s across
the street for a 1919 A’s game at Shibe Park, 22d and Lehigh.)
Sean Boyle a few days
before he signed at
Temple, Feb. 5, 2008

Spring cleaning comes around this time of the year for me.
This year, I found an old Al Golden Bobblehead (see right), an old social security card and re-arranged some of the furniture.
Everything for a purpose.
When I looked at Al’s bobbing head, I remembered how he routinely changed a player’s position for the betterment of the team.
Everything Al did regarding personnel moves was for a reason. I don’t remember a single Al Golden personnel switch that didn’t work out. Al was shaking his head yes while I was thinking that.

Matt Rhule interview today
Please click here to read an interview with Matt Rhule that appeared in today’s Harrisburg Patriot-News.

I’m the same way. I re-arranged my furniture for function, not style. I moved the chairs and the sofa this year so I can get to the door quicker when the Publisher’s Clearing House people arrive in a couple of weeks. (Smile.)
So it goes with position changes for the Temple football Owls. Change for a reason is good change.
Head coach Matt Rhule made one I totally endorse.
Sean Boyle, a long-time starter at center, will move to the right tackle spot vacated by the dependable and graduating Martin Wallace.  That makes a lot of sense. Boyle is the team’s best offensive lineman and will be protecting Chris Coyer’s blind side, plus Kyle Friend proved he’s more than a capable center as a true freshman last season. It’s mind-boggling to think that Sean Boyle signed on Feb. 5, 2008 (not 2009) in the same recruiting class with guys like Adrian Robinson and Mo Wilkerson. His maturity will help this team.
Some other functional changes that could make sense:

Kevin Newsome: Temple Owl Forever

KEVIN NEWSOME (QB to DB) _ It would be a shame if Newsome’s path to get on the field was blocked by Coyer and Juice Granger again, but I see that happening. Newsome is arguably the best athlete on the team and wants to play quarterback.  Unlike Coyer and Granger, Newsome can play another position. I suggest safety. I love the way Newsome said last year: “I’m a Temple Owl until the day I die.” He’s 6-3, 215, runs like a deer and has a 37-inch vertical leap. On third down against Maryland last year, starting strong safety Justin Gildea went up for “jump ball” type plays with taller Maryland receivers on four different occasions. Not surprisingly, the Maryland guys came down with key receptions each time. Gildea was in great position to make the plays but had no vertical. Put Newsome in the same position and those balls either get knocked down or picked.

ALEX JACKSON (TE to DE) _ Jackson has some experience as a DE and maybe it’s time to put him back there. For some reason, Alex could not catch a cold at TE last year and Rhule’s new offensive philosophy minimizes the tight end position.  I do see a guy with his height and speed being a nightmare for opposing quarterbacks. I like it when opposing quarterbacks have nightmares against the Owls. It would be great for Jackson and Sean Daniels to be meeting regularly at the opposing quarterback.

Khalif Herbin could be the
 Matty Brown of the next 3 years.

KHALIF HERBIN (WR to RB) _ Temple already has one great Khalif in a major sport (basketball) and put  this Khalif as a RB and he might be the next. This is the exact same situation Matty Brown faced four years ago. When he was moved to running back from slot receiver, his career took off. Brown was 5-5, 150 at the time and ran a 4.40. Herbin currently is 5-7, 170 and runs a 4.34 40. He’s got the metrics to do it.
Sometimes, you’ve got to re-arrange the furniture for function.
Steve Addazio was too stubborn to do it.
One of the intriguing things about this spring practice that starts on Friday will be finding out if Matt Rhule is as open to change as Al Golden was.
If he is, expect Matt Rhule Bobblehead Day to come sooner than later.

03.15.13
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BE split opens path to football title for Owls

Sources say this is the likely split in money.
Would the Philadelphia Inquirer do this for us?

The Big East and as-yet-to-be named conference have split.
Good riddance to the Catholic schools, I say.

According to some pretty good sources, Temple recently negotiated an upward swing in its cash payout.
The Owls were set to be lumped in with the new 2013 schools.
Temple wanted the same kind of split that Cincinnati, UConn and USF received, but those schools argued that they were here longer.
Temple argued that it was here longer than the newbies, so the above schools each chipped in to give Temple a higher payout than the newbies.
After UConn, USF and Cincinnati took the largest portion of the money and the Catholic 7 got $10 million, the rest had to be negotiated.
Since the payouts to UConn, USF and Cincy (and even Temple) are installments, that’s a further incentive to stay.
Temple is in a better place now and not just money-wise.
OK, so the Owls don’t play Villanova in a Big East  basketball game next year but what good was Villanova to Temple?

My original choice for the new conference name.

OK, it’s a decent hoop rivalry but that can be continued on a nonleague basis.
When you look at the big picture, this new conference (I kind of like the name BAM … Big America Conference, which was suggested by Kent in the post below) will be a better one for Temple.
My second choice is Metro America, which incorporates the big-city theme of the all-sports schools.
The Owls get to keep all of their old basketball rivals as nonleague games.
Playing Villanova, LaSalle,  St. Joe’s and Penn will continue. The Owls will just have to drop the Towsons,  Caniniuses  and Detroits of the world.  I don’t think anyone has a problem with that. The MAC affilation is basically over, although I’d like to see Buffalo added (big city, former quasi rival) should someone else leave.
This is about football and when you look at where the Owls were and where they are going, they become instantly more competitive. Heck, I could see them winning the title this year (‘chip, as the kids say) if everybody stays healthy. Since that rarely happens, I see seven wins within sight.
I thought they should have been competitive in the Big East last year, but I blame that on Steve Addazio.

Addazio blamed it on a youth movement, but the youth movement was of his making. In the home opener against Villanova, nine of the 11 starters on defense were either juniors or seniors. By the time they played Syracuse in the season finale, nine of the 11 starters were sophomores or freshmen.

People say he had MAC talent going up against Big East talent but Kent State had MAC talent going up against Rutgers, Toledo had MAC talent going up against Cincinnati and Ohio had MAC talent going up against Penn State and they all accomplished what Addazio wasn’t able to do:
Win against those same foes.
Could Addazio have AT LEAST been competitive? With better coaching and a more balanced offensive approach, I think so.
Addazio blamed it on a youth movement, but the youth movement was of his making. In the home opener against Villanova, nine of the 11 starters on defense were either juniors or seniors.
By the time they played Syracuse in the season finale, nine of the 11 starters were sophomores or freshmen.
Convenient excuse.
New coach Matt Rhule will throw the ball on first and second downs, which should immediately improve the whole structure of down and distance for four quarters. I only hope and pray that Phil Snow is as good as Rhule says he is.
Now while newcomers like SMU and Houston figure to be tough, Temple can be competitive against them.
Kent State beat Rutgers by blitzing its linebackers and putting constant pressure on quarterback Gary Nova, forcing him into six interceptions. Hint: Temple’s got fast linebackers.
A win over regional rival Rutgers, a going-away gift to the Big 10, would be nice.
Good riddance, and welcome.
The door is open for Temple to win a title now if it has the courage to walk through it.

03.13.13
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Here’s the kicker: Brandon McManus is one

Brandon McManus has some classy things to say about Temple fans.
The big story out of the March 3rd Regional kicking combine was that 47 reporters requested credentials.
Usually, it’s no more than four or five.
Reason?
Lauren Silberman was trying to make history as the NFL’s first female kicker.
She either paid $275 or was given $275 to make the trip.
She would have fared much better putting a 50-1 bet on the Temple men’s basketball Owls winning the NCAA championship.

CFPA winners
Year
Placekicker
School
2013
Brandon McManus
Temple
2012
Carlos Santos
Tulane
2011 (tie)
Caleb Sturgis
Randy Bullock
Florida
Texas A&M
2009
Brian Walsh
Georgia

As it stands now, and stood then, the bet on Temple cutting down the nets would have been much safer.
Her two kicks TOTALED 30 yards, one 19 and one 11.
All 47 reporters raced to her side to do the story.
Here’s the real kicker: Brandon McManus is one.
At the other end of the field, McManus was going 6 for 6, including 3 for 3 from beyond 50.
None of the reporters bothered to talk to him, but that wasn’t why he was there.
His stock immediately soared for the upcoming NFL draft.
Kickers are almost never picked in the draft but now it seems McManus could go somewhere in the middle rounds because of his performance at the combine on the heels of an outstanding season at Temple.
On Sunday, McManus received his CFPA as the specialist of the year for his performance while at Temple and got a rousing ovation from the 10,200 fans in attendance to watch the Owls top VCU.

France checking in, and we don’t mean former Soul
and Eagle kicker Todd France.

McManus ended his collegiate career as Temple’s career leader in scoring (338), punting average (45.4), field goals made (60), and field goals attempted (83).  The 2012 first-team All-BIG EAST punter and 2012 second-team All-BIG EAST kicker set the season record for field goal accuracy (82.4) and set game records at Army for extra points made (9) and attempted (9). McManus played in EVERY game of his collegiate career. In 2012, McManus led the Owls in scoring (74) and went 32-of-33 in PAT. He punted 54 times for 2,433 yards (45.1 average), including a career-long 68-yard punt against No. 19/17 Rutgers, while 15 punts longer than 50 yards. McManus went 6-of-7 on field goals of 40+ yards, including a 50-yarder in the win over South Florida. He also kicked the game-winning field goal at Connecticut in overtime and contributed 40 touchbacks on 56 kickoffs (71.4 percent).
McManus had a Temple connection long before he arrived on campus. His coach at North Penn High, Dick Beck, was the captain of the 1990 Temple team that went 7-4.
Jim Cooper, Jr., the kicker coming on board this year, has another Temple connection. His dad of the same name was the kicker for Bruce Arians in the late 1980s.
McManus proved that you can stay home and do great things at Temple, following in the, err, footsteps of his good friend, Bernard Pierce, of the Baltimore Ravens.
While the reporters were taking notes talking to Silberman, let’s hope future recruits were making mental notes watching McManus.
That’s the bigger story, after all.

03.05.13
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The final word on Steve Addazio

In about a year, only the fan bases from Florida, Temple and BC will understand this video.

In an effort to keep my blood pressure from elevating to dangerous levels, I’ve avoided the final word on Steve Addazio until now.
Before Matt Rhule takes over on the first day of spring practice (it’s now three weeks away), though, I think it’s a useful exercise to put the Steve Addazio Era to rest.
Although he wasn’t my first choice then (Bruce Arians was), I liked Steve Addazio when I got to know him at Temple.

I had a long talk with him in New York City and he gave me some good stuff and asked me not to use it and I kept both my mouth and laptop shut. In any meeting with Temple alumni, he had us all ready to strap on the pads. Vitamin A was that addictive. There was much to like.
He was 51, but had the vim and vigor of a 21-year-old.

Matt Rhule in today’s Morning Call
Keith Groller of The Morning Call wrote this great story on Matt Rhule that appeared in today’s paper. For this cool bumper sticker above and to support Temple Football Forever, anyone who contributes at least $20 via the pay pal donation option on the sidebar (in the Support TFF section) or $20 to the address (in the help TFF afford a pair of shoes section) gets it exactly as it appears above (3 inches high, 11 inches wide). Please allow two weeks for pay pal orders and one month for postal orders. Thanks.

He was “National Recruiter of the Year” not once but three times and I thought this was just the kind of guy Temple needed. I could easily envision a recruit putting down Penn State hat, an Alabama hat and putting on a Temple one on ESPNU under Addazio’s watch (if you don’t think that’s possible, the same thing happened for a New Mexico football recruit two years ago).
On the day Addazio was hired, a Florida fan emailed me the video above and warned me about Addazio. He told me the firesteveaddazio.com website was available if I wanted it.

I dismissed it as poppycock.
I’d like to apologize to that fan today.
Everything Hitler, err that Florida fan, said about Addazio’s one-dimensional, hare-brained, offensive scheme turned out to be true in 2012.
He turned an explosive, otherwise productive, quarterback in the 2011 season into a caretaker of a Woody Hayes’-type, run-first, scheme. Chris Coyer was limited to handing off on almost all first and second downs and that’s an offensive recipe for disaster.  After pounding his head against a brick wall for most of four quarters against UConn, Addazio was forced to unleash Coyer in a two-minute drill that won the game.
Did he learn a lesson that would carry over to the rest of the year?

Not surprisingly, confidence in Daz’s future waning.

No.
Truth is, Addazio is a stubborn former offensive lineman who always wants to run the ball. He was that way at Florida and (sans Scot Loeffler’s one year as OC) was that way at Temple and probably will be that way at BC.
After that UConn win, he went back to pounding his head against the wall and about 20,000 of my fellow Temple fans joined him.
Now we can get back to watching football.
There’s a lot we don’t know about Matt Rhule but he does believe in making defenses defend the whole field and, for that alone, we know he will do a better job that Daz did.
My blood pressure will be better off now that Daz is gone and hopefully that means my life expectancy has just been extended by a couple of years.

03.02.13
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Conference shifting puts Temple in no Jeopardy

Temple was the answer to a Jeopardy question last night.

In honor of Temple being the answer to a trivia question yesterday on Jeopardy, we have a question:
“What does all of this conference shifting mean to Temple?”
“What is everything and nothing, Alex?”
Alex would have said that is correct.
First, yesterday’s question, which appeared under the category of “Texas Towns” and a contestant got right.
“1-95 goes through it; it’s a university in Pennsylvania or a synagogue?”
“What is Temple?”

Cliff: “Alex, I object, I-95 doesn’t technically run through Temple.”

Alex: “Correct.”
I would have pulled a Cliff Clavin since the I-95 part of the question threw me off.
Back to the conference shifting, though.
There’s so much landscape shifting out there that the average Temple fan’s head has to be spinning like Linda Blair in the Exorcist.
What does this really mean for Temple football?
Everything and nothing is the correct answer.
Everything because Thursday, March 7, is the one-year anniversary of the date the news broke that Temple was joining the Big East.
The conference Temple signed up for then certainly isn’t the one it signed up for now.
At the time, visions of a packed Liacouras Center for games against Georgetown, Pitt, Villanova and Rutgers had to dance through the heads of the Board of Trustees.
Those visions are now gone.

Temple fans have to get in the mindset of going to watch Temple, not the bad guys

Nothing because if Temple sports people keep doing their jobs and Temple fans do their jobs, Temple will end up in a better place.
Temple football certainly IS in a better place than the Purgatory that was the MAC, sentenced to years playing Tuesday and Wednesday night games against directional mid-western schools having little or nothing in common with Temple.
Now, at least, there is the familiarity of Cincinnati and UConn and, for a year, Rutgers.
There are exciting road trips ahead to be made to places like New Orleans, Tampa and Dallas ahead, a far cry from the puddle jumpers and buses needed to get to places like Yipsilanti and Oxford.
Temple has a nationally known basketball coach who is admired and respected by his peers, if not a small but vocal group of his team’s own fans, and who just posted his sixth-straight 20-win season.
Temple has an energetic young football coach who is following a successful business model established by Al Golden, his mentor.
Temple fans have to get in the mindset of going to watch Temple, not the bad guys. When Penn or Belmont come to Cameron Indoor Stadium, do Duke fans whine “get some decent opponents in here” or do they say thank God for another chance to see the Blue Devils?
Advertising to a Temple-centric audience certainly helps.
Today should be a good crowd because the last time we streamed an ad for Hooter’s Birthday across the top of this website, 9,323 fans attended an end-of-the-season game against Duquesne in 2011.
That’s what Temple fans have to do for the product these outstanding coaches provide.
If those guys keep doing work, and the fans start voting with their feet and season-ticket money, Temple will be a respected player on the national stage and there is always a nice role for an actor like that.
For final Jeopardy the category is NCAA business:
“Is the conference shifting done?
“What is no, Alex?”

02.23.13
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Frankford’s DiGiorgio a Diamond Tim

Love the way the Frankford announcer calls the first TD five yards into the pattern.

Little wonder why Tim DiGiorgio wants to become an accountant.

He should fit right in at Temple’s nationally ranked Fox Business School. He’s spent the last couple of years being very good with numbers.
Tim DiGiorgio gets ready to throw the ball.
The Frankford quarterback is headed to Temple as a “preferred walk-on” after breaking a few calculators putting some eye-popping stats together.
After throwing for 2,357 yards and 30 touchdowns as a junior for the Public League champion Pioneers, he added 1,704 yards and 14 more touchdowns as a senior.
He was the third player in the 97-year history of the Public League to pass for 3,000 yards and did it in only his 15th varsity game, the first to accomplish that feat.
My good friend, Donald Hunt, of the Philadelphia Tribune (he co-wrote the book “Winning is an Attitude” with John Chaney) asked Temple coach Matt Rhule a question at his first press conference about what he would do to keep the talent from the Philadelphia Public and Catholic League here and Rhule answered that recruiting would start from here and head on out.
In DiGiorgio’s case, Frankford High School is only 5.1 miles from 10th and Diamond.
DiGiorgio, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound lefty, is the very epitome of what Rhule was talking about when he said Temple was all about finding Diamonds in its own backyard, to borrow founder Russell Conwell’s theme.
He did so well when he attended a passing camp at Penn State that assistant coach Ron Vanderlinden told him they would offer him if highly rated recruit Christian Hackenburg backed out of his commitment. Surprisingly, Hackenburg remained true to Penn State and four years of playing behind suspect offensive lines and Temple could be the beneficiary.

Imagine this billboard on I-95 with a slightly different spelling and the
word “not” replaced by “a” and the pizza replaced by a throwing TU QB.

DiGiorgio had some feelers from other places, but wanted the chance to play Division I (known as FBS football now).

Temple should offer him that chance. The Owls are very thin at the quarterback position for the 2014 season.
So far, only incoming recruit P.J. Walker and DiGiorgio have significant playing time over the last couple of years. Connor Reilly, the starting holder on extra points and field goals, hasn’t thrown the ball in a real game since high school (although in 2011 he handed it off in a 42-0 win at Ball State). Those are your 2014 Owl quarterbacks.
For now at least.
If DiGiorgio can play, and all indications are that he can, he will be given every opportunity by Rhule, walk on or not.
Rhule played at Penn State.
As a walk-on.
And you don’t have to be a future accountant to know that adds up to a fair shot.
The Tim DiGiorgio File
Completions
Attempts
Yards
Touchdowns
2011
136
237
2,357
30
2012
107
215
1,704
14