Survey Says: Boca Raton

survey

About a month ago, season ticket-holders, myself included, received an email from Temple athletics.

The main question asked the fans where they would like to go for the Owls upcoming bowl game. Listed were D.C., NYC, Florida and other locations.

Nowhere in there was a question regarding possible opponents.

That was my first question. As early as the day after the Notre Dame game, the main goal was to be in the NY6 game. Failing that, I thought the best reward for the Owls was to find a Power 5 opponent in a bowl game and go beat them.

fauchart

One  post on a Toledo board speculated 20,000 Temple fans will attend. We can only hope. My guess is anywhere between 3,000-10,000.

That’s not going to happen and the reason is the survey, which hopefully will be better-worded next year. The overwhelming number of people picked Florida (duh?) for its nice weather and beaches.  There was no checkmark asking if Florida would be the pick if the Owls had to play a MAC team.

As the editor of Pravda likes to say, it is what it is.

The mindset changes from going out with a signature win to “better not lose” and that’s a tough mindset to take against a quality opponent.  Even though the hardcore college football fan knows Toledo is good and beat Arkansas and Iowa State, the facts are the Temple brand is better advanced by beating a 6-6 Auburn than a 9-2 Toledo. One of the reasons the Owls did not go to the Birmingham Bowl, with a payout of $1.2 million, is the money is evenly distributed among all AAC bowl teams. It didn’t matter that the Boca Raton Bowl payout was only $400,000. AAC has very interesting rules regarding bowl payouts. All bowl money is evenly distributed among all 8 league bowl participants, meaning Temple gets EXACTLY the same share of Houston’s $6.9 million Peach Bowl payout as Houston does. Independence Bowl gets a $1.2 million payout, and the AAC rep will be the 6-6 Tulsa.  Bernie Sanders would be proud of the way the AAC redistributes wealth.

So the Temple administration didn’t need to follow the money, just where it thought the most Owl fans will go. The Owls had a choice of Shreveport, Birmingham and Boca and went with Boca.

To those unable to attend, it’s all in the perception and the masses who watch these bowl games are not hardcore college football fans. They watch usually because it is the only thing on ESPN in the bar or at home on a Tuesday night. If they see Temple lose to Toledo, the Temple brand, built on wins over PSU and Memphis and a close to Notre Dame, takes a huge hit. On the other  hand, if the Owls were to lose to 6-6 Auburn, the casual fan would say, “Hey, wow, Temple is playing Auburn on TV. That’s great.”

The Owls have to take care of business because a win is really the only way these terrific seniors deserve to go out and because 11 wins will be a school record, but that’s a good team on the other side of the ball that will also have at least half a say in the outcome.

To them, beating a team that—at least in their minds—said it was too good for the MAC is a powerful incentive. Just like beating Auburn would have been for Temple. So it will be interesting to see how the Owls react. Hopefully, they will play like they did against Penn State and Memphis and the mindset will be academic.

At least that’s the theory.

Addazio needs to find a can opener


In this video, SA goes into a lengthy explanation of why one QB was taken out with a lead against Penn State, yet another was allowed to remain in to throw fuel on Toledo’s fire …. NOT!!! Just a few lobbed softball questions.

Bill Parcells said a lot of things best, but this is one of his gems:
“If you are going cook the dinner, they better let you buy the groceries.”
Al Golden was fond of another saying:
“I’m going to build a house of brick, not straw.”
Much to Golden’s credit, he not only built that house with a fine kitchen but  he also stocked it with some pretty nice groceries for the next cook, Steve Addazio.
What Golden forgot to do was get a can opener. He recruited a lot of terrific players, but he swung and missed at the most important position on the field.
There are a lot of nice moving parts on this Temple football team, but one of them is not a quarterback.
At least not yet.
I thought about that a lot while watching Chester Stewart go 9 for 9 in a 38-7 win over Maryland a week ago.
While the euphoria of beating an ACC team was nice, I noted to a friend on the bus home that Chester did not throw a ball farther than nine yards. All nine completions finished with longer than five-yard gains, but not a single throw covered more than nine yards. All were RACs (runs after catches).
“That’s somewhat disconcerting,” I said. “Other coaches are going to be watching that film and game planning to get him to throw deep. The film don’t lie.”
Watching Chester Stewart play for four years, it has become painfully obvious to me that he can throw the ball deep but rarely come close to hitting anybody. He’s got a gun for an arm, but no scope.

I hated it when Penn State and Maryland fans did not give credit to Temple so I’m going to give a whole lot of credit to Toledo


The play chart told the story of Temple’s 36-13 loss to Toledo on Saturday.
With Temple facing a third-and-goal at the Toledo 9, the Owls elected to go with a swing pass that looked like a glorified lateral. That’s a telling call by a pretty good offensive coordinator named Scot Loeffler.
Obviously, either Loeffler or head coach Steve Addazio does not have confidence in his quarterback to throw the ball into the end zone on a third-and-goal.

I found it rather curious that one QB gets taken out while LEADING Penn State, yet another QB gets left in there to throw fuel on the fire of a Toledo conflagration


If they don’t, then maybe they should have tried another quarterback.
Or maybe they don’t have confidence in any quarterback Golden put on his shelf.
On another play in the first half, Rod Streater made a terrific double-move to get 10 yards behind his defender and Stewart either did not see him or was so locked into the middle of the field that he threw an interception. Chester seems to play with blinders on way too many times and that’s not good for a quarterback who should be able to see the entire field in a split second.

I haven’t felt good about a TU QB
since this guy was under center.
I hope I feel as good about the next one.

Also, the Owls have gotten away from tossing the ball on pitchouts to Bernard Pierce, where he can use his world-class speed to beat defenders to the outside. Twenty-two of Pierce’s 24 carries were between the tackles on Saturday. I would think about getting Pierce into open space, rather than run him up the gut but maybe I’m crazy.
Addazio says in the above video that he “liked the way (Stewart) competed.”
It’s one thing to compete.
It’s another thing to make plays.
I found it rather curious that one QB gets taken out while LEADING Penn State, yet another QB gets left in there to throw fuel on the fire of a Toledo conflagration.
Temple needs a quarterback who can make plays and see wide-open receivers farther than five yards downfield.
The film don’t lie. Toledo coach Tim Beckman saw the same thing I did.
Give credit to Toledo. There were two teams on that field Saturday. The way to beat a “Temple TUFF” team is through a lot of “trickeration” and I thought the Rockets did that extremely well, taking advantage of Temple’s defensive pursuit with misdirection. I hated it when Penn State and Maryland fans did not give credit to Temple so I’m going to give a whole lot of credit to Toledo.
So did Addazio.
Still, quarterback is the most important position on the field.
Right now, until Addazio can recruit one of those fancy spread offense can openers, Temple needs a guy who is good at play-action faking and throws a nice deep ball. He needs someone who will take care of the ball, two interceptions vs. Penn State notwithstanding.
That guy did not start on Saturday.
Hopefully, Addazio will check out the film a little more closely this week and make the same change Golden was forced to make in the first quarter of the Bowling Green game last year.
Otherwise, this dinner party that started out so well is going to cause some unexpected indigestion.