Category Archives: UConn football

10.09.08
by

Why the MAC hates Temple

By Mike Gibson
I’m always wary of people I don’t know patting me on the back.
It’s those people who I always meet with an askanse eye, checking to see if there’s a knife in the other hand.
I learned this lesson as it relates to Temple football early in the season, as early as late August.



Dan LeFevour
in front of a billboard
of himself

After a few visits to the MAC bulletin board, a healthy number of posters wished Temple good luck against Army and, by the way, come back with a win.
Nobody mentioned that Army was a bad team in any of those 37 posts.
Yet, after Temple beat Army, 35-7, a roughly equal number of posts all carried this troubling theme:
“Good win against Army but, let’s face it, that’s the worst Army team we’ve seen in years.”
Why?
Because it lost to Temple, 35-7?
Obviously, that was the unsaid message.
Nobody is saying that any more because it really carries no weight, not after what Army did to Tulane (44-13) in New Orleans this past weekend.
Let’s face it: The rest of the MAC, with notable exceptions such as Karl Smith of PhillyBurbs.com, hates Temple.
Or at least a good sizeable portion of the MAC fanbase dislikes the Owls.
They mitigate anything good the Owls have done by saying “yeah, but.” After Army, it was “yeah but” and after Miami it was “yeah but.”
I respect a guy like Joe Paterno of Penn State a lot more. Not only does he slam the Big East refs for costing the Owls two games against UConn, he says his team’s 45-3 win would have been “a lot closer” had “the DiMichele kid not been knocked out so early. I feel sorry for Temple.”
You know Joe means what he says.
There are two guys running MAC websites who have NEVER picked the Owls in a game against another MAC team, yet the Owls have won two MAC games on the road and more at home in the last three years.
“Temple should have beat
UConn. It completed a pass
on the first play of overtime
that took the ball down to the 1
and it was called back on a hold,
which was a bad, bad, bad call.”
_Penn State coach Joe Paterno
on his statewide radio show

It’s not logic. It’s hate. Or an intense dislike.
The motive is simple.
Nobody wants a ex-BCS team kicked out of a BCS conference coming in and dominating a league known for some pretty good football.
Nobody wants a team carrying a bad “brand name” like Temple carrying the conference’s championship trophy around Ford Field come December. It doesn’t matter that the Temple they are thinking about is the “same old Temple” and not the group of Grade A recruits hauled in by Al Golden the past three seasons.
That’s why I’m wary about this week’s game at Central Michigan.

Let’s hope for a clean,
well-played, game decided
by the kids on the field
and not the adults
wearing prison outfits

Not only do the Owls have to deal with the league’s best healthy quarterback, Dan LeFevour, they have to deal with refs who have that built-in mindset.
It was manifested last year in a home game against Northern Illinois when one side judge called 10 of the 11 penalties, almost all bogus, against the Owls in a 16-15 win.
It was manifested against visiting Western Michigan a couple of weeks ago when the MAC supervisor of officials apologized to Temple for calling a sideline interference call on the Owls’ coaches after Temple got a crucial third-down stop and was able to force WMU to punt in the fourth quarter.
The guy who called the sideline interference call? Same guy as in the NIU game. He should be fired or at least investigated.
Good officiating means never having to say you’re sorry. It’s gotten so ridiculous at times this year that every time Temple makes a big play or scores a touchdown, I expect to see a flag.
This kid LeFevour is really good. Central Michigan purchased a billboard (pictured) of him and put it in the middle of the Detroit stadium complex. He’s a load to worry about on his own, playing for a good team. I don’t want to worry about him AND the officials, yet two days before the game that’s just what I’m worrying about.
Let’s hope for a clean, well-played, game decided by the kids on the field and not the adults wearing prison outfits.

What they’re saying about the Owls:
… “They out-physicaled us up front. It’s really the first time we’ve come out of a game feeling like we didn’t control the line of scrimmage. Even Nebraska, we kind of thought was a wash.” _ Western Michigan coach Bill Cubitt talking about Temple…

… “I was told by a lot of people before the game that Temple is really good but, man, this team has all kinds of weapons.” _ Ohio News Network sports director Andy Raskin during the telecast of Temple vs. Miami on ESPN360.com…

…”What my Owls have done this year–and I will call them ‘my Owls’ because I’ve been on this team since the beginning–is sensational considering they lost their starting quarterback. … Maybe people are starting to realize that this is one of the top defenses in the country.” _ Vegas handicapper Robert Ferringo…

…”They have high-caliber athletes all over the place. That’s the hardest-hitting team we’ve played all year. I’ve never been this beat up after a game.” _ Western Michigan offensive guard Phil Swanson…

…”It was just two great teams. Both Temple and us have made great strides and I don’t think there are two better teams in our league than us and them.” _ Buffalo tight end Jesse Rack, after a Hail Mary pass beat Temple, 30-28, at the buzzer…

09.04.08
by

Having a cow over Hurricane Hanna


Photo by Hippoears
I’m having a cow about this Hurricane Hanna.
I just looked at the latest projected path of the Hurricane and it places the strength of the thing right over Lincoln Financial Field, right at the noon kickoff for Saturday’s much-ballyhooed game against visiting UConn.
That stinks.
It really does.
The Eagles, who don’t deserve a crowd, will get 70,000 the next day under sunny weather and 86 degree temperatures.
Temple, which needed everything to go right to get a crowd of 30K, won’t get half of that because of a Monsoon with a capital M and winds projected to be 20-30 mph.
That’s a shame and a crime.
And it’s sad.
It feeds into the stereotype of “nobody goes, nobody cares” which may have been true under the last coaching regime, but does not apply now.
Unless there’s a Hurricane.
The talk on WIP won’t be of a great college football atmosphere or a great college football game, but of how Temple and UConn ruined the Eagles’ precious field.
That’s beyond sad.
Sure, the diehards like myself will be there, wearing a Temple game jersey over a parka if necessary but the casual fan, what Thomas Paine once called “summer patriots and sunshine soldiers” won’t.
No amount of my pleading to get them there will matter.

    So the checklist before going out the door on Saturday:

  • Parka
  • Tickets
  • Beer
  • Roster
  • Radio
  • Binoculars
  • Goulashes
  • Rubbers
  • Umbrella (for the tailgate)
  • Let’s Go Temple sign (in cellophane)

Let’s just get a win.

07.15.08
by

"How’s Temple going to do this year?"

By Mike Gibson
One of my New York friends, a guy who loves the Yankees named Frank, asked me what is turning into a yearly question the other day.
He usually asks “How’s Temple going to do” but this year phrased it differently.
“How many wins is Temple going to have this year?” Frank asked.
“Seven,” I said.
“SEVEN?” he asked, incredulously. “They haven’t had seven wins total in the last seven years combined!”
(That’s not quite true but it’s what Frank and so many fans believe.)
“Seven,” I said again. “Check back with me in December.”
Now Frank is a very good sports fan, a Giants’ fan as well as a Yankee fanatic.
Strangely, he’s adopted Temple football over the years and has become a closet Owl follower. He went to Pace University and his wife went to Temple.
He pretty much knows everything about every baseball team.
He’ll tell me how many homers Ryan Howard, one of his fantasy players, needs to hit this week so that his team can advance.
On the front porch of his summer place near mine in the Poconos he has a sign that says “Mickey Mantle Way.”
A good, solid, sports fan with impeccable credentials. Yet he shook his head when I said seven.
I meant eight, but I said seven because I didn’t want to hear him follow me in his golf cart yelling while I was jogging and trying to listen to Mike and the Mad Dog at the same time.
Eight, I’m saying now.
I’d love to get greedy and have nine, 10 or 11, but I’ll settle for eight and consider seven OK.
As I turned the bend and rounded the road in the direction of the Blue Ridge Country Club, I thought Frank was pretty typical of the informed sports fan around the country, the kind of guy who just can’t picture Temple winning seven games.
Well, for the first time in nearly a generation, some informed fans and pundits are picking Temple to win seven games. One ESPN insider wrote as much. Athlon’s College football preview also predicted the Owls to win seven games.
Bright, intelligent, objective, people.
They could have chose any team to win seven games.
They chose Temple.
And they don’t see the world through Cherry and White-colored glasses.
You really have to know college football to pick the Owls to win seven games. In fact, you’d really have to be a hardcore college football junkie.

    Here are my simple reasons:

  • 1. Temple really won five games last year. The loss to Big East co-champ Connecticut was a well-documented travesty. Only some UConn fans really believe the myth perpetuated by some that Bruce Francis was juggling the ball. In fact, MAC officials used the side angle those same UConn fans claim showed Francis juggled it to support their apology to the Owls saying their officials got it wrong.
    The MAC officials viewed the play from every conceivable angle, including the Hartford TV station reverse angle, and came to the inescapable conclusion that BF had both the ball and possession. In fact, the ball clung to Francis’ hands so snugly that some claimed he must have had a sticky, glue-like, substance on those gloves.
    Bobble my ass.
    Period, end of story.
  • 2. Temple played the second half of the season without its MVP, quarterback Adam DiMichele. He’s back and better than ever. Check out the scrolling quote of the day on the sidebar of this blog. With DiMichele, the Owls beat UConn and later won three straight games, including a one-touchdown win over a Miami team that beat Syracuse, which beat Louisville (who also, by the way, beat UConn but that’s another travesty for another day). Temple led, 24-7, and physically manhandled Miami before the Redhawks came back to make the score respectable.
    You really have to know
    college football
    to pick the Owls
    to win seven games.
    In fact,
    you’d really have to be
    a hardcore college football
    junkie.
  • 3. Temple won those five games with just 64 scholarship players. This class brings the Owls up to NCAA norms.
  • 4. Temple recruited the best class in the MAC for the third straight year. It’s going to show up on the field. It has to.
  • 5. Temple is now strong in areas where it was weak last season (running back, offensive line) and stronger in areas where it was strongest last season. Remarkably, over the last few days, the Owls picked up a BC recruit, Eric Reynolds, who was considered the No. 1 high school running back in Pennsylvania last season. He might not be good enough to start and I’m serious because in Joe Jones, a kid from Florida who had to sit out a year with an injury, the Owls may have a future pro.
  • 6. Temple had the No. 1 overall defense in the MAC last season. Temple had the No. 1 red zone defense in the country last season. No. 1. Everybody is back from that defense.

I told Frank seven wins because he’s a doubting Thomas for now.
Much like the rest of the unwashed college football country.
That’s OK, though.
It’s going to make those of us who don’t doubt look all that much better once we get a helluva Christmas present under that tree.
Two tickets to a bowl game.
It’s going to happen.
At Temple.