Category Archives: Uncategorized

12.23.15
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The Real Reason for the Loss

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If you want to read a feel-good piece about what a great season this was and how we should all be happy about winning 10 games, please head somewhere else.

There is plenty of singing Kumbaya on social media and elsewhere. If you want to read the brutal truth, please proceed.

The brutal truth is that Tuesday night’s embarrassing loss to a MAC team—and it was an embarrassing loss—was not Matt Rhule’s fault, P.J. Walker’s fault or any of the kids’ faults. The fault squarely rests with the Temple administration, which should have never accepted this invitation in the first place.

Of course, we’ve been beating this drum since we heard the announcement (see yesterday’s post and two other posts linked below). My whole post yesterday was that Temple was walking into an ambush and, unfortunately, I was right.

There was no way Temple could match the emotional pitch Toledo was going to have coming into this one. No matter how much Temple could pretend Toledo was Auburn pretending is one thing and reality is another. Auburn is Auburn and Toledo is Toledo and never the twain shall meet, despite 6-6 and 9-2. Toledo had a coaching staff anxious to prove to its administration it made the right call. Temple’s coaching staff needed to prove nothing to its administration.

To Toledo’s players, Temple was Auburn and a step up. To Temple’s players, Toledo was just another MAC school, a directional equivalent of Western Michigan or Central Michigan or Northern Illinois. No matter how much you pretend, those facts cannot be changed.

That’s why Temple should have accepted the invitation that was on the table for Birmingham. There is no doubt on my mind that the Owls would have finished the season by beating Auburn in Birmingham. As you’ve read in this space the past week, there was plenty of doubt in my mind that they could beat Toledo.

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It wasn’t because Toledo was better, it wasn’t, but it was because of all the intangible edges Toledo had going into the game that was outlined in Tuesday’s post. Maybe next year, the Owls will do some homework on an opponent—if they earn the right to pick one—and do a little less snorkeling, beach volleyball or bowling. Invest that time in other pursuits, like better play calls in third-down situations.

A lot of Temple fans dropped a lot of coin going to Florida for this one. We hope that the good time they had made it all worthwhile. For me, I would have gone down there for one thing and one thing only—a win.

This should have been treated more like a business trip and less like a reward and, for that, you can lay all of the blame on Neil Theobald and Pat Kraft.

Related Posts:

Survey Says: Boca Raton

Finishing Near the Bottom of the Bowl Lotto

12.22.15
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Boca Raton Bowl: The Final Game Day

You won’t see much two-minute drill practice here.

Now we have arrived at the final “Leave No Doubt” Game Day and the kids who will be playing in it are safely tucked away in their beds, I have a confession to make: I do not have a good feeling about this game and I usually have a good feeling about every Temple football game.

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No predictions, but this has all of the makings of an ambush. Without a doubt, I feel Temple is the better team in this matchup with Toledo (7 p.m., ESPN) but we all know that the better team doesn’t always win. Just ask Alabama after its loss to Mississippi.

There are other factors, like psychological ones, that have to go into the equation. To me, Toledo sees Temple as a team from a better conference that it could make its season with a win against. I don’t think the feeling is reciprocal from Temple’s end. A lot of things have already made Temple’s season, like tying a school record for wins (10), an extended run in the national top 25, a win over a Power 5 in-state rival (Penn State) and an appearance in a league championship game. Toss in Game Day showing up,  the top TV-rated game of  the Saturday night season, which featured a close loss to a NY6 iconic team, Notre Dame, and you’ve crammed 134 years of Temple accomplishments into three months.

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Temple fans might not be biting their fingernails over this matchup, but some appear to be biting their lips.

Toledo had a short stay in the top 25, no parallel win over an in-state Power 5 rival (beating Ohio State would have been the Rockets equivalent), no school record for wins and no appearance in a league championship game.  No national  TV and no Lee Corso, either. To Toledo, Temple is big, bad Temple and, to Temple, Toledo is just a team from a conference the Owls used to play in before being “promoted.”

New Toledo coach Jason Candle will want to prove to his administration that their confidence in hiring an unproven assistant was well-founded. Temple coach Matt Rhule has nothing to prove to the Temple administration, which already has full confidence in him.

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Today’s Metro has caught Temple fever, something LaSalle grads and Philly.com writers Mike Sielski and David Murphy never will.

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Stir in the Temple season motto “Leave No Doubt” and there is some added doubt. That motto was born in a post-season meeting when the Owls were told they would not be awarded a bowl appearance despite being bowl eligible. Kenny Harper told his teammates to leave no doubt about a bowl invitation next year by their play on the field during the regular season. Harper forgot to make up a slogan for the team when it got to the bowl.

You have to wonder, at least subliminally, if the team is just satisfied by appearing in a bowl. One way to artificially change the mindset would be by, say, a surprise onsides’ kick on the opening kickoff that would say, “Hey, we’re here to win this.” That might get everybody pumped up. Passing out pickle juice in the heat might also help.

I just hope I’m being a worry wart and I’m as wrong as Donald Trump ends up being after his “facts” are checked.  Yeah, that might be it. We should find out long before the clock strikes midnight on this Cinderella season.

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

12.21.15
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A Final Tribute to The Seniors

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Geez, how much stuff did these guys pack?

When you strip the game of football to its basics, the most important thing is making plays.

That is what I will remember of this senior group. We will remember the great plays of linebacker Tyler Matakevich for the next 30 or so years. When he is in his 50s and I am the age of James Woodside now, 97, I hope he will visit me in my assistant living center and talk to me about them. We covered Tyler yesterday.

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Nate Smith: Maestro of T for Temple U.

Today is for the other guys, who I will all miss deeply, and who will all play their final games for my beloved Temple tomorrow (7 p.m., ESPN).

The plays, those are the things I will remember most.

For defensive tackle Matt Ioannidis (No. 9), I will remember him absolutely plastering a Penn State running back on  a screen out of the backfield. That play said we are Temple and we are not going to take it anymore more than any other in that game. It was also featured in an outstanding photo in Sports Illustrated. For his line mate, Nate D. Smith, the three-man sack in the same game.

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Matt Ioannidis: Iconic photo.

For Brandon Chudoff, a fellow Northeast Philadelphia homeboy, I will never forget him falling on two fumbles in the Connecticut game in 2012. Without Chudoff being at the right place at the right time, Temple never wins that game. Brandon was placed in a tough spot. He was recruited as a linebacker, then moved to the line, where he had to bulk up.  He took one for the team and that’s the definition of Temple Tuff.

Notre Dame v Temple

Genius catch.

Robby Anderson, I will remember for making me sound like an expert. In a crucial moment of the Notre Dame game, I had to excuse myself from my seat because I was so nervous. I was the lone Temple fan in the concourse with about 20 Notre Dame fans watching on TV. Temple decided to go for it on fourth and 4. The Notre Dame fan turned to me and said, “That’s a big gamble, going for it on 4th and 4?” I didn’t hesitate: “Not when you have No. 19 on your team.” Seconds later, P.J. Walker lofted the ball over a VERY tight window and Anderson caught it with one hand and made me look like a genius. Great catch by No. 19. Anderson returning to Temple made me very happy, and I think it did him, too. Notre Dame fans thought I knew all the plays, which I did not.

Notre Dame Temple Football

Brandon Shippen: Not denied.

Kyle Friend, I will remember from the same game, for spraining his knee and limping to the line of scrimmage on every play.  He finished out the entire fourth quarter with the same injury where he would miss the next five games. That’s Temple TUFF right there.

Brandon Shippen, again the Notre Dame game, hit at the 2 and pirouetted for the touchdown and the best Temple athlete from Norristown since Khalif Wyatt, but not as good as the next one, Kip Patton.

John Christopher, I will remember for saving the season at UMass, catching a sideline pattern despite being completely obscured until the last second by a Minuteman defensive back. The guy was a human vacuum cleaner for four years.

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John Christopher: Human Vacuum

Hershey Walton has been here seemingly forever but he’s been dependable for that long, too. Will Hayes will be remember for the two-point conversion and Alex Wells for coming here in mid-career to fill a need and Tavon Young for that 96-yard interception return at UConn and the even more important hit to set the tone against Memphis.

There are others, too, like offensive linemen Eric Lofton and Shahbez Ahmed who did their part to Leave No Doubt and assure that what’s next was usually always better than what happened before. Sal Major paid his way through Temple and caught a key TD pass against Memphis. Tyler Mayes promised me there would be another surprise onsides’ kick and I hope he makes it the opening kickoff  tomorrow.

They all set the tone for the greatest Temple season ever and a season next year that I think will be even better, but the juniors have to prove me right about that. They could not have had better guys to follow.

Tomorrow: The Final Leave No Doubt Game Day

12.10.15
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Throwback Thursday: When Temple-Toledo Sold Out

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Owls’ first “bowl game” with Toledo in 1984.

There has been much speculation over the last few days about Temple fans traveling for a bowl game with Toledo and I’ve seen figures ranging from 3,000 all the way to 10,000.

There was once a time when Temple played in a bowl game away from home with Toledo and sold the place out with almost all Temple fans. The year was 1984 and, for the Centennial Celebration of Temple University, the team played a regular-season home game, called it the Boardwalk Bowl, and played it at the Atlantic City Convention Center. The school sold all 7,000 tickets to the game, but “only” just fewer than 6,000 Temple fans made the trip.

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Still, it was a memorable game because Toledo came into the Nov. 30th game as the Mid-American Conference champions with an 8-1-1 record. That thing about Al Golden never beating a winning MAC team did not apply to Bruce Arians, who was 5-0 against winning MAC teams.

Arians’ 1984 team pummeled Toledo, 35-6, on the way to a 6-5 record against the then 10th-toughest schedule in the country. (By comparison, Temple’s current scheduled is rated No. 71.)  One of the interesting things about that game was that Toledo’s defense was the No. 4 scoring defense in the country and gave up only 9.9 points per game. It allowed no more than 17 points in a single game before that, but Temple doubled up that figure.

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Temple had a lot of exciting players on the 1984 team, one of which was a sophomore running back named Paul Palmer, who had a then career-high 148 yards. He would later top that in several more memorable games, including 349 in a 45-28 win over East Carolina in 1986.

Another was wide receiver Keith Gloster, who arguably is the fastest man ever to play for Temple. (We say arguably because you will get some arguments from Devin Hester’s cousin, Travis Sheldon, and James Nixon, who took a kickoff back for 103 yards against Navy in 2009.) Gloster caught a 74-yard bomb from Lee Saltz that appeared seriously overthrown when it left Saltz’s  hand, but he was able to run under it.

As good as the offense was, the “no-name” defense was even better with too many good players to single out one or two.

In 1987, Temple visited the Glass Bowl and Toledo coach Dan Simrell called the Owls the best team to ever come into that stadium. The Owls rotated future NFL running back Todd McNair, then a junior, with sophomore Ventres Stevenson, and grinded out a 13-12 win.

No one knows how many Owl fans will be able to make the trip to Boca, but you can be certain most of Arians’ players from  that 1984 team will be there as will a large group of Arians’ players from other years. That group has been tight as a fist and, while a trip to Florida will be a reward for the current Owls, it will be another chance for them to get together.

12.07.15
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Finishing Near Bottom of Bowl Lotto

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As someone who occasionally dabbles in the lottery, the selection of Temple vs. Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl today reminded me very much of a Super 7 lotto ticket I purchased around 21 years ago.

The Super 7 no longer exists and I think I know why.

My selection of 1-3-6-13-19-20-21 was just one number off the jackpot of $2 million. If I had 26 instead of one of the above, I would have won $2 million.

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The second-place prize was $90. No, that’s not a misprint. That’s the way the old Super 7 was set up. When I explained the situation to my father, who was living at the time, he simply said: “Shouldn’t the second-place prize be halfway between $90 and $2 million?”

No, dad, it’s a bleep-up game.

I thought about that bleeped-up game today when I heard the opponent for my beloved Temple Owls in the Boca Raton Bowl would be Toledo. My first thought that the bowl selection game is just as bleeped up when the second-place team in a good conference like the AAC gets short-shrifted in comparison to several teams it beat, some in its own conference.

No offense to Toledo, who I really believe is better than most of the Power 5 teams the Owls would have faced in the other bowls, but beating Toledo does absolutely nothing to advance the Temple brand. Before that Super 7 pick, I won at least $90 before in another lotto game (Cash 5), but I was in this thing for the big payout.

A 10-win Temple team should get a better payout than this, both literal and figurative.

Toledo? Been there, done that, too.

Beating Auburn, who the Owls could have faced in another bowl, would have. So would have beating Georgia, who is facing Penn State.

In fact, Penn State, Cincinnati and Memphis are getting to play in better bowls than the Owls are and that’s the reward the Owls get for beating all three.

Being in the Boca Raton Bowl is nice, but it’s a little like winning $90 when there was $2 million on the table. The payoff should have been much more.

Tomorrow: The Big Story on Action News

12.06.15
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Two Ways to Look at This

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Look how far off the boundary corner is. One 3d and 3, Anderson had the same cushion on the other side  later in the game. Take it, and Owls have a new set of downs with 7:18 left and a possible 24-21 deficit.

 

There are two ways to look at Temple’s 24-13 loss to Houston on Saturday.

There is the Kumbaya view and the real world view. The Kumbaya view seems to have carried the day in the post-game Matt Rhule press conference and on much of social media. You know, “I’m proud of the kids” and “this is one of the greatest days in Temple football history” and “we’ve gone from point D to point A.”

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That’s born out of T-ball mentality. You know, there are no losers and everybody gets a trophy for participation. Little Johnny goes home with a pat on his head. The coaches are great. The kids are great. We’re all just so darn proud of everybody.

Kumbaya.

Ugh.

Then there is the real world view. You know, the “what the hell is going on out here?” view.

The last quarter was a cluster, err, bleep that made you wonder what goes on at the $17 million Edberg-Olson Complex the other six days of the week. In the last seven minutes, Temple showed itself either unwilling or incapable of running a functional two-minute drill that every high school, college and pro team seems to run efficiently.  (If you don’t believe it, take a look at the way St. Joseph’s Prep runs it. The offensive line sprints to the ball. Plays are called at the line, not looking over to the sidelines, with the emphasis on a short passing game to get out of bounds and stop the clock. Prep coach Gabe Infante is only seven blocks away. Invite him over this week.)

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That was a blown opportunity to win a championship due to a number of brain cramps by the coaching staff.  There is no guarantee that the Owls will be back in the title game next year and, if they aren’t, the coaches have no one but themselves to blame for a number of perplexing offensive miscues.  With four minutes left, they seemed incapable of running a true two-minute offense, taking precious seconds off the clock on every play by having the kids stare over to the sidelines for plays. Those 20, 30 seconds a play add up and, before you know it, the game is over.

That wasn’t the worst. This is the worst.

After closing the gap to 24-13 with 7:18 to go in the game, the Owls had a 3d and 3 at the Houston 38 but inexplicably attempted a long pass into the end zone. The call was made even more confounding because Houston was playing 10 yards off Temple wide receiver Robby Anderson on the play.  A simple pitch and catch would have moved the sticks.

Moving the sticks then would have cured a lot of earlier self-imposed ills. Early on, the players had just as much to do with it as the coaches did but after fighting back they deserved a coaching staff that was more focused. The Owls have been a team all year whose motto was to not beat themselves by turning the ball over, but on their first drive of the game, quarterback P.J. Walker threw an interception. That resulted in a 7-0 lead. The Owls were driving for a tying touchdown when Anderson—who caught 12 passes for 150 yards—was fighting for yardage and fumbled the ball on the Houston 5-yard-line. That led to a 10-0 lead.

Had the Owls moved the sticks on 3d and 3, instead of taking the shot into the end zone, they might have scored to make it 24-21 and that would have left seven minutes to bleep around with the dog stare offense. Instead, they followed that botched call with a clinic in mismanaging the clock and never had a chance to find out what would have happened.

While the physical errors by the unpaid amateurs could be forgiven, the mental ones by the well-paid professionals cannot.

Tomorrow:  Thoughts on the Bowl Lotto

Tuesday: …. But the Big Story on Action News Is …

Wednesday: Houston Photo Gallery

Thursday: One Wacky Throwback

Friday: Matakevich’s Special Moment on ESPN

Saturday: A Look at the Other AAC Bowls

Sunday: Welcome Criticism

Monday (12/12): 5 Things the Owls Have to Clean Up

Tuesday: The Fallacy of the Fall Off

Wednesday: The Problem With Watch Parties

Thursday: The Pitt-Navy Monkey Wrench

12.05.15
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Game Day: The Robby Anderson Effect

Tulane v Temple

TU will find a guy who can make catches like this occasionally, but it will be hard to find a guy who makes these catches as routinely as  Robby Anderson does. 

Hard to believe today will the penultimate game to one of the most exciting receivers who has come to Temple since the great Van Johnson and we are talking, of course, about Robby Anderson.

Anderson, you might know about. Johnson, you might not.

Yes, Van Johnson, the late 1990s Temple receiver, not to be confused with Van Johnson, the 1940s actor. The actor was shot seven times in his movies, the wide receiver once when growing up in D.C. When he played for Temple, he got off the line of scrimmage like he was shot out of a cannon. He was to the great Henry Burris what Anderson is to P.J. Walker.

Yeah, I know Temple’s had a lot of great receivers since then, from Phil Goodman to Charlie (err, Zamir) Cobb, and Bruce Francis and Rod Streater, but there’s a little “it” factor that has set Johnson apart from his successors and Anderson from his predecessors. Johnson’s 1996 season was very similar to Anderson’s 2013 season. In that year, in 11 games, Johnson had 50 catches and eight touchdowns and 902 yards. In 2013, in nine games Anderson had 44 receptions for 791 yards and nine touchdowns.  This year, he has 52 receptions for 723 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games. Both guys could go up and get the ball and make explosive plays after they caught it.

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Van Johnson, TU player

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Van Johnson, 1940s actor

In a game like today, at Houston (noon, ABC) for the championship, while everybody will be focused on Jahad Thomas, Greg Ward and Tyler Matakevich, it’s often another guy who grabs the spotlight and Anderson certainly is capable of being THAT guy. He has not had to be that guy this because Temple can spread the rock around, but he is a prime time player. He is only four receptions away from 100 for his career and I believe he will get them. If a couple of them are for touchdowns, the Owls will win. If he catches just three balls, he will pass Steve Watson into the sixth spot on the all-time list.

Speaking of lists, most of the bowl projections by the so-called experts have Houston beating Temple and earning the AAC’s slot in a NY6 bowl.

ESPN analyst Lee Corso might give his stock answer to that assumption, “not so fast, my friend” by closely observing the evidence at hand. Two or three games into a 12-game season, comparative scores hardly seem like a good way at picking a winner but that equation all changes 12 games into a season.  Those appear to point to Temple as the winner over host Cougars.

Both teams played Memphis and UConn recently and Temple performed significantly better against similar opposition in two games than Houston. The Cougars lost at UConn, 20-17, two weeks ago while Temple beat UConn, 27-3, last week. A lot of that could be attributed to the Cougars being without  Ward Jr., but the 27-point difference points to more than just one player.

Another example is Memphis, as the Tigers led, 34-14, with seven minutes left at Houston before blowing the lead and losing, 35-34. A week later, the Tigers were not even in the game at Temple, where the Owls won, 31-12.

Those are a couple of compelling examples, but there have been others as Cincinnati had the lead for much of a game at Houston before falling, 33-30. Its game against visiting Temple played out far differently earlier in the season as the Owls took a 34-12 lead into the fourth quarter before holding on to win, 34-26.  Temple’s top two non-conference foes, Penn State and Notre Dame, was certainly tougher than Houston’s top two, Vanderbilt and Louisville, so the evidence suggests that Temple has been steeled for these types of games.

Of course, there is other data to consider, but there is a lot of empirical evidence out to suggest that Temple will come out on top but part of the fun of football is discovering if the clues lead to the right conclusion.

Call it a hunch, call it men’s intuition, but I have a strong feeling that Robby Anderson will factor rather largely into this game.

12.03.15
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Throwback Thursday: Temple-Houston

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When the Temple Owls land in the Wild Wild West today, they would be wise to take a page out of a long-forgotten Western called “Temple Houston” when they put the finishing touches on a game plan.

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Common scores indicate this is going to be close.

The Western lasted only two years on NBC television and it was about the son of Sam Houston, a lawyer named Temple.  It was a “Who Done It” on horseback, with Temple delving into clues and solving cases without the benefit of modern tools like video and DNA.

The Owls do not need video or DNA to know how to solve this case. The bad guy is Greg Ward Jr. and they know they have to arrest his  development. They also know that they have had a tough job with similarly mobile quarterbacks in the past and, if they expect to stop Ward, they cannot do the same thing they did against Quinton Flowers of USF and DeShone Kizer of Notre Dame.

They played both of those guys like pocket quarterbacks, often rushing three. What happened more often than not was the three-man rush was not getting to either guy and they were able to make plays downfield with their arms.

Even Temple Houston, played by Jeffrey Hunter, in his day would be able to solve this problem. The Owls need to utilize a 5-2.  Rotate the speedy Haason Reddick and Nate D. Smith at left end and do the same with Sharif Finch and Praise Martin-Oguike at right end. Put two-time Pennsylvania heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson at nose guard where his gap leverage skills would cause a nightmare for the Houston center and flank him with Hershey Walton and Matt Ioannidis as the tackles.

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Those guys alone have the physical talent to overwhelm the Houston offensive line and disrupt things while in the backfield but, just in case, use one of the safeties as a spy in case Ward tries to escape the inevitable problems.

Temple Houston struggled in the TV ratings back in 1964 because it went opposite The Flintstones on ABC and Rawhide (Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates) on CBS. This Temple-Houston figures to have no such ratings’ problems because it is the nationally featured noon game on ABC and Philadelphia is the 4th-largest TV market. Houston is the 10th-largest TV market and there is plenty of interest in this game in the other AAC markets, all in the top 36.

While Temple has prided itself on doing what it does to get to this point, it will have to swallow some of that pride and tweak some things on defense to stop this quarterback. You don’t have to be a 19th-century sleuth to figure that out.  If you see a three-man rush, time to change the channel to something like reruns of Rawhide or The Flintstones.

12.01.15
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Jahad, Bernard and Paul

This ridiculously great spin move (0:19) says it all about Jahad Thomas.

They call Penn State linebacker U and Brigham Young has an earned reputation for producing quarterbacks, along with Miami of Ohio for coaches but, after a couple of years of a drought, Temple is back to being Tailback U.

The Owls have Jahad Thomas to thank for that. I had to smile when I saw a post on Facebook that said Jahad is better than Bernard Pierce and laugh out loud when the same person posted that he was better than Paul Palmer.

Let’s pump the brakes a little on that one.

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My guess is that the person who wrote that probably was not old enough to see Paul Palmer play. I’ve seen both, and while Jahad is good, Paul Palmer was in a different stratosphere.

There’s no shame in not being as good as Paul Palmer. Heck, no running back in college football in the year of 1986 was as good as Paul Palmer. I’m pretty sure even Jahad would admit there are plenty of running backs as good as he is in college football this year.

Temple is Tailback U. thanks to guys like Palmer, Zach Dixon, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Duckett, Tanardo Sharps, Stacy Mack, Sid Morse, Elmarko Jackson, Pierce, Montel Harris and, now, Thomas.  I’m sure I missed a back or two.

That’s a pretty good lineage.

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Jahad Thomas celebrates with Dion Dawkins.

Right now, I’d rate Jahad behind only Paul and Bernard and that’s high praise indeed. Bernard was capable of a high-end game (268, 2 TDs in a 2008 win at Navy) and I haven’t seen that nearly 300-yard type game from Jahad yet.

He’s got another year, so I’m confident he has it in him.

As early as last year on this site, we were calling for Thomas to be the featured back behind a fullback named Kenny Harper. Unfortunately, Temple’s offense was so ass backwards last year it used a fullback as a tailback and the tailback who gained 152 yards against Tulsa was in Witness Protection the rest of the season. Better late than never because the role of fullback this year is being played by Nick Sharga, the witness protection guy, Thomas, is in plain view and Temple is back to being Temple.

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From our season wrapup story, Dec. 14, 2014.

If the Owls are going to beat Houston for the AAC championship on Saturday in a noon showdown (ABC and we’d love to see the ratings for that one), they are going to have to do it by feeding the rock to Thomas on a steady basis. Right now, head coach Matt Rhule has to be working on a game plan that involves as many carries for Thomas as passes for P.J. Walker. We’re talking 20-30 touches for Jahad and 20-30 passes for Walker. Temple is a great offensive team when Jahad gets 20-25 carries, P.J. throws 20-25 balls and Robby Anderson and Romond Deloatch catch touchdown passes. Temple gets in trouble when it has to throw the ball nearly 50 times, like UMass.

Put the ball in the hands of those playmakers, and I like Temple’s chances. Of course, that’s assuming that there is time to put together a detailed game plan.

If Temple wins a championship with a heavy dose of Jahad Thomas, it will be a fitting tribute to a great lineage of tailbacks who led up to this moment.