Coming Soon: TEMPLE FOOTBALL FOREVER ON STEROIDS!
(by that, we mean bigger and better and more frequently updated than ever, not using banned substances …)
Same great content, probably not with the same design. (Looked at the new templates and it probably won’t look anything like this site, unfortunately.)
We’re going to a new platform coming over the next few days and you may be either redirected or asked to  bookmark a new website.

We’ll iron out these technical details soon.

Thanks for all your support since 2005.

Just a couple of days before the nation celebrated the anniversary of the signing of The Declaration of Independence, another American Revolution was taking place.
Instead of throwing some tea overboard in Boston Harbor, American Athletic Conference (AAC) football fans bombed Stanford.
No worries.
No real explosives were used, just an internet bombing of the Stanford blog.
For some reason, ESPN pulled the plug on its AAC blog, written by Andrea Adelson, who was transferred over to the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) to do that blog.
Apparently, ESPN plans no blog-specific coverage of this new conference, a move that outraged the fans.

Orlando Sentinel reports on AAC fan revolt.

This is the same ESPN that has TEAM-specific blogs for both Notre Dame and Stanford.
I could see Notre Dame, but not Stanford.
Neither could the fans of the AAC, who have taken over every discussion at the Stanford board.
I think it’s a brilliant move.
While it will drive more traffic over to Stanford, the discussion will be dominated by AAC fans.
A topic on the quarterback controversy at that school, say, will turn into a discussion about the AAC from the comments below the story.
If ESPN was smart, they would rid themselves of this problem by assigning a guy (we suggest Matt Fortuna)  to start an AAC blog.
Then the Stanford fans can get back to commenting about Stanford and the AAC fans will have a place to go.

Hopefully, the Owls will be smiling like this after the RU game in November. Photo by Patrick Rosenbaum

After the 2012 Temple spring game, I talked to a couple of Temple players in the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field.
I asked the two guys to do me one favor.
“If you do anything this year, please beat Rutgers,” I said. “I’ve never seen more obnoxious fans in my life.”

This is how every RU-TU game should go. ….interesting use of the possessive in headline.

“Don’t worry,” one of the Owls’ said, “we’ve got something special planned for them.”
Their fans are at it again today, calling the Owls’ recent recruiting surge into New Jersey “getting RU leftovers” and saying that the Owls’ recruits are “RU Plan B” guys who Piscataway can pooch on signing day if needed.
I don’t get this RU fixation with downplaying Temple’s recruiting successes, but it does stir the rivalry juices.
I guess if Kent State didn’t teach RU a lesson in humility, Temple is going to have to come the first Saturday in November.

Not all RU fans are like this, to be fair, but from the 54 plus replies to that thread, a good 50 of them give Temple no credit.
Last year, it was Temple’s fault.

It’s football, not rocket science, so:
On offense, look for the Owls to use guys like Khalif Herbin and Jalen Fitzpatrick on quick slants to open up the running game for, say, Zaire Williams, on wraparound draws.
On defense, use the Owls’ speedy LBs to get in Nova’s face one second after he snaps the ball.

After Temple blew a 10-0 halftime lead and went on to lose, 35-10, last year I could not blame the kids.
They could have not known that the “something special” their coach had planned for Rutgers was to run the ball up the middle all day against the then top-ranked run defense in the country.
Nor did they figure the Owls would play defense passively, dropping eight into coverage at times and allowing the Rutgers’ QB all day to throw the ball in the second half.
As far as Temple games go, it was the worst game day strategy I’ve seen since Ron Dickerson and that’s pretty bad.
Yesterday, the Owls spent all dayhelping build a house in Philadelphia as the Habitat for Humanity program.
I hope when they go to Piscataway in the fall they help tear down one.
Just judging by what new coach Matt Rhule wheeled out in this spring’s game, I think Temple will have a much better plan of attack this fall.

A week later, Kent State showed Temple what should have been the blueprint for beating the Scarlet Knights _ use ultra-quick linebackers in blitzing situations and force Gary Nova, the QB with happy feet, into  six interceptions.
That should be the plan this year.
It’s football, not rocket science, so:
On offense, look for the Owls to use guys like Khalif Herbin and Jalen Fitzpatrick on quick slants to open up the running game for, say, Zaire Williams, on wraparound draws.
On defense, use the Owls’ speedy LBs to get in Nova’s face one second after he snaps the ball on both gap and edge blitzes.
I’m looking forward to Notre Dame, like every other Owl fan, and I fully understand the “one game at a time” mentality in a 12-game season.
With apologies to Thomas Jefferson, though, not all wins in a 12-game season are created equally and the first Saturday in November certainly qualifies under that declaration of war, not independence.

Another great Temple football trailer by the TU video staff. Fran Duffy’s legacy lives.

In football recruiting, it’s one thing to say you are recruiting with the big boys and another thing to be actually doing it.

Judging by the company first-year Temple head coach Matt Rhule keeps, he’s doing it.
According to the latest recruiting rankings posted by Rivals.com, Temple is in the middle of a very impressive list of schools.
The Owls’ 2014 recruiting class is about half finished and they rank ahead of USC and Stanford and just behind Wisconsin and Arizona, currently ranked No. 43 in the country.
That’s about as impressive as these things get at Temple.

The hat is worth $150 alone. If it was a Temple ‘][‘ hat, it would be worth $200.

In all of my years of covering the Owls, I don’t remember them ever recruiting at that level.

Sure, Bruce Arians was a great recruiter and, on the day he was fired in 1988, defensive end Alonzo Spellman (Rancocas Valley) and quarterback Glenn Foley (Cherry Hill East) de-committed from the Owls to sign with Ohio State and Boston College, respectively. Both became NFL players.
Who knows what would have happened to Temple football had Arians been retained, but my guess is that the Owls would not have entered a 20-year black hole.
Now, thanks to Al Golden, Rhule and, even Steve Addazio, the Owls have climbed out of that hole and show no signs of going back into it.

Addazio got up in front of the assembled press on Feb. 4, 2012 and said that the Owls’ No. 54 class was the highest-ranked ever.

France checking in. Thanks, France.

He was right.
For all of Al Golden’s No. 1 MAC recruiting classes, he never had a class rated as high as No. 54 nationally.
If Rhule keeps up at this present pace, the Owls could move up a tick or two or down a tick or two but I don’t see him falling as low as 54.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
Rhule had a month to recruit his first class.
He’s had a few months to recruit this one.
He’s a dynamic, young guy who the kids relate to well.
In assistant Terry Smith, he’s got a guy plugged into the fertile Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL).
The next step for Rhule is to sign one of these superstar Philadelphia kids who keep getting away. One of these days a Sharif Floyd won’t feel the need to go to Florida or David Williams would rather play in South Philadelphia instead of South Carolina or a Matt Ryan clone would like to chuck it around the pitch at LFF, rather than hand it off to a running back in Boston.
That’ll happen, too.
It’s just a matter of time.

Neil Young’s Heart of Gold (original studio verson).

Time marches on and, for me, I got another year older on Wednesday.
I must admit, I don’t feel any different.
Age is just a number until you find yourself in a wheelchair and, fortunately, that hasn’t happened for me.
Yet.

I keep active.
I jog every day and, this time of year, three hours a day, always rocking some sort of a Temple T-Shirt.
Heck, I even ran into a young Temple assistant when he was jogging the other way one spring afternoon at Mondauk Commons in Upper Dublin Township.
That assistant was a guy named Matt Rhule.
We were two Temple football T-Shirts passing in the middle of the afternoon, a couple of days before I thought Bruce Francis was going to get drafted.
I don’t think Matt does the Mondauk Commons trail anymore but, then again, neither do I.
He’s come a long way since then.
I’ve just gotten older.
Sometimes, though, things happen that make you wonder if someone is trying to send you a message.
True story: Jogging Wednesday around 5:45 listening to 98.1 (WOGL) and, out of nowhere, the second song comes on by the Beatles (or was it Paul by himself?), “I hear it’s your birthday.”
Usually when you hear that song, it’s preceded by an explanation about someone’s birthday and why they are playing it but not this time.
No dedication.
No request.
No explanation.
Nothing.
Then the next song is Neil Young’s Heart of Gold.
“Keep me searching and I’m growing old.”
Now I’m figuring out that some sort of crazy Poltergeist got into my old AM/FM radio (I don’t do the IPOD thing).
That had me REALLY down, but then I got home and read James Gandolfini died.
Not happy to hear that, but I had a better day than he did. RIP James, one of my favorite one-role actors of all time.
I’m sure Gandolfini would have been good in a number of roles, but he made Tony Soprano a cultural Icon in the same kind of way Jason Alexander made George Costanza, Carroll O’Connor for Archie Bunker and Henry Winkler for The Fonz.
So while birthdays now are far from my favorite days of the year, this one more than the last few taught me a good lesson in perspective.
That, and to stay away from eating too much rich Italian food.

Notes: As far as my Temple football birthday present, the Owls recruited their second consecutive lineman on June 19. … Last year, Steve Addazio gave me Matt Barone, who I think will have a very good career at Temple, and, this year, the June 19th signing was Kenny Randall of Mainland Regional (N.J.). Randall is 6-3, 290 and comes to Temple with the reputation of being a lock-down run-stopper.

I am playing responsibly … spending only four bucks.

World Hunger loses.
I know I’ll take heat from the press and other do-gooders for this, but I have big enough shoulders.
(Plus, the Somalis haven’t exactly shown a large amount of gratitude for the last food run Bill Clinton made for that country some 20 years ago.)
So I’m bringing back this “oldie but goodie” post for a day.
Not going to give the numbers I’m playing for the $600 million, but one line has significance for past Temple greats and another line plays to the strength of the current Temple team.
If I find the right needle in the right haystack and the right grain of sand on the Wildwood Beach, half of the $600 million goes to Temple FOOTBALL (not athletics) to benefit the Temple FOOTBALL program long after I’m gone.
Decisions to use that could be a stadium, could be an extended lease with signage rights to LFF.
Or maybe an eight-story practice bubble with an underground parking garage for athletes and coaches attached to the E-O.
It’s all up to Temple.

Temple football takes an active role this year at today’s Race for the Cure.

If Karma translates into support from the City of Philadelphia, season tickets might be moving at a brisk pace between now and August.
If you were at the Susan G. Komen Race for the cure this morning, you saw Temple football take an active role in the race.

For those of you who
want to donate to Nadia,
there is still time

I was there because my late mom was a survivor (she succumbed to another disease subsequently) and I don’t want to see any other woman go through what she did.
Some Owls were there because they had similar personal experiences, others were there because they are just good people.
We as fans are lucky them on OUR team.
Not that the Owls weren’t at past Komen races, they were, but this was just a little bit different.
This time the Owls were racing and walking for the cure for a disease that affects so many women and their families. Last year, they were “just” handing out water.
It’s all part of Temple being Philadelphia’s team.
The Owls have given the City of Philadelphia much in the past eight years.
In the past, the Owls have bowled for Big Brothers’/Big Sisters, visited the Children’s’ Hospital, handed out free turkeys for Thanksgiving and kept Diamond Street clean with regular sweeps from 10th all the way through 15th. This is not just a one-time deal. This happens every year.
The Owls do it not because they have to, but because they care.
I really did not see it at this level until Al Golden arrived in 2005 and it’s just evolved in a positive way every year since.
If Philadelphia gave back to them what they give to Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Field would be packed every Saturday afternoon.
It hasn’t translated so far, but the Owls are winning hearts one person at a time.
Let’s hope Karma kicks in one day.

Bernard Pierce & Darryl Pringle

Blast from the past: Bernard Pierce helps Darryl Pringle clean up.

Somebody (Fran Duffy?) please send these Matt Brown highlights to Chip Kelly. (No truth to the rumor that Steve Addazio wrote these rap lyrics.)

Four Temple Owls signed NFL free agent contracts yesterday.
I thought two (Brandon McManus and Montel Harris) would be drafted.
I’m still surprised that Matty Brown is out there. I hope the Eagles pick him up as a kickoff returner.
(Heck, they had freaking Colt Anderson return a couple of kickoffs last year.)
Late Sunday night news: Matt Brown accepted an invite to work out with the Tampa Bay Bucs.
Still, the case of Montel Harris is the most curious to me.
He came back for his senior year, performed well on the field, put some great film numbers up and also did relatively well at the pro days and combines.
I think, given a chance, he has a chance to be a great pro.
At least I’m not alone in this thought.
Martin Freedman also felt the same way in this excellent treatise posted on Thursday.
It’s worth a read. (I read it online yesterday and now only the first graph appears. If you have $1, it’s worth a read.)
Basically, he says that in all of the “metrics”  Harris rates higher than Montee Ball and seven other “drafted” running backs and that for the value a NFL team cannot get a better back than Harris.
McManus is going to the Colts, where all he has to do is win either the punter or kicker jobs (not both).
John Youboty is going to Denver.
Harris is going to Tampa Bay (where I often wish I’m going) and Martin Wallace is going to Cleveland (where I hope I never have to go).
Good luck to all the Owls.

Liz Sim with the report from pro day. Great quote from Matt Brown.

The first round of the NFL draft is today.
The second and third are tomorrow.
For Temple, though, the draft starts at noon on Saturday.
I don’t expect any of the Owls to go in the fourth and fifth rounds, but I do expect kicker Brandon McManus to go in the sixth to the Green Bay Packers.
I told him that Saturday.
I hope it comes true.
Montel Harris should be drafted as well.
Based on his 351-yard, seven-touchdown, game against Army, I do expect him to get drafted.
We’ll call it the seventh round.
The scouts always say that film and game production is more important than pro days or combines so we’ll see if they are telling the truth.
Harris’ film was outstanding.
So was Matt Brown’s.
Brown said something in the above video from Temple’s pro day that I agree with:
“I’m the hardest-working player in the country,” Brown said.
That said, I don’t think Matt will be drafted on Saturday but he will catch on with someone as an undrafted free agent (UDA).
Once he gets in a camp, I think he will do there what he did for Temple the last four years and that will be enough to get on an NFL roster as a kick returner.

Liz Sim sent over this video by email that she did for Owls Update. Great job by Temple-made Liz, a journalism major.


Sorry to see that a guy named Justin Klugh lists “Temple University” as the only school on his resume.
Klugh is a sports producer at Philly.com and, according to his LinkedIn file is responsible for “organizing content on Philly.com Sports. Making editorial decisions about the placement of stories.” 
Make that “non-stories.”

Great ESPN story on Connor Reilly:
Here’s an example of the kind of stories worth publishing. While ESPN is the worldwide leader in sports,  Justin Klugh and Philly.com are way at the back of that line.

 Today on Philly.com might have been one of the biggest “non-stories” in the history of journalism, the “fact” that Matt Rhule is listed in the low-90s among head coaches in the FBS football.
 Klugh, linking a Sporting News.com story, makes the Grand Canyon-sized leap in logic by saying Temple coaching is in a downward spiral, writing that Al Golden is No. 32 and Steve Addazio is No. 85.
 Duh?
 Nowhere does he point out that Golden might have been 120 when he was hired by Temple.
How did Golden rise up the ranks?
Largely by his work AT Temple.
I’m kind of shocked that Lewis Katz, the Temple-made CEO at Philly.com, hasn’t fired this guy by now.
 Matt Rhule is a huge upgrade on Steve Addazio. Ask any of Rhule’s players and they will tell you that.
I fully expect Rhule to flip Addazio’s 4-7 record into something similar on the other side, say 7-5 or better.
When it is, I’d like to see Justin Klugh post a story on Philly.com about the upward trend in coaching hires at Temple.
 I won’t hold my breath.
Don’t feel sorry for Klugh, though. He can always go back to making coffee at the Barista Cafe in Lancaster, his last job.