Love the Daz quote at the 5:50 mark.

Keith Pompey does a great job covering Temple football for Philly.com, but he wrote something that had me shaking my head (or smh as the kids write on social media).
To paraphrase him, he passed on head coach Steve Addazio’s concerns about the wide receiving corps “not making plays” but also added that Addazio praised both Ryan Alderman and Jalen Fitzpatrick, writing “that’s not a good sign because Fitzpatrick is a converted quarterback and Alderman is a walk-on. …”
Huh?
Converted quarterback?
Brian Broomell was converted from starting safety to starting quarterback and he only led the nation in passing efficiency for a 10-2 team in 1979.
Walk-on?
Some of the best players I’ve ever seen at Temple were walk-ons.
Err, does the name Matty Brown ring a bell?
I thought so.
I don’t remember Keith writing about the same thing visa ve Brown last year. Matty was by far the runaway winner of a poll on this website that asked who was  the No. 1 running back in Temple football history who epitomizes the term “Temple TUFF.”
The Rock has proved his worth in a stellar career at Temple. His touchdowns count for the same six points as Bernard Pierce’s.
The last time I checked, Alderman and Fitzpatrick were wide receivers and no one has questioned their ability to get separation and catch the ball.
So what, other than depth, is the problem here?
Chris Coyer’s touchdown passes to Ryan Alderman and Jalen Fitzpatrick will count for the same six points other Temple quarterback TD passes to Willie Marshall, Gerald “Sweet Feet” Lucear and Rod Streater have in the past.
I wonder if the lack of separation and “catching the ball” has anything to do with the fine play of the cornerbacks?
Probably.
The best quote I heard out of  the first week of two-a-days came from Addazio about the difference between last year and this year:
“We know exactly what we’re doing and how to do it,” Addazio said, referring to the offensive approach.
The quote appears on the 5:50 time stamp on the above video.
Last year, Daz “spent an awful lot of time last year with that” (his words) tailoring his offense around the skill set of Chester Stewart and Mike Gerardi, skill sets which were limited.
Now he has three quarterbacks who can do the same things in Coyer, Juice Granger and Kevin Newsome. All can run the spread and know how to do it and, as a result, the Owls are much farther along than they were last year.
That has me shaking my head up and down, not side to side.

The most-anticipated home season in my lifetime opens in about 25 days. Get your tickets now.

As I see it, there are more answers than questions to be found in the next 25 days Temple’s football team has  to prepare for the opening game against Villanova (Aug. 31, be there a couple of hours before kickoff, even if you have to go straight from work).
That doesn’t mean there are no questions that have to be answered in the next 25 days.
1) Who is here?

These are the guys the Owls are going to war with. I like the list.

Fortunately, the important pieces in the puzzle have arrived on campus. Montel Harris will be wearing No. 8 and head coach Steve Addazio says he is fully recovered from a knee injury. If so, that represents an upgrade over the departed “franchise” Bernard Pierce. No bigger BP fan than me (that’s well-documented by searching the name Bernard Pierce in the box at the top of this blog), but can you imagine BP having the same career in the ACC that Harris had? I think the answer to that is a clear no. My fervent hope is to see Harris go for 252 and five touchdowns in a 52-28 win over Rutgers, like he did in a 52-28 win over North Carolina State. Remember, BP got a lot of those yards in the MAC. As much as ACC football gets minimized, not even the biggest Big East fan can say their conference is a better football one than the ACC. I see two “true” freshman either starting or competing to start and those are Khalif Herbin (No. 27, slot receiver) on offense and Nate L. Smith (No. 1, free safety) on defense. They are here, too, and incredible playmakers. Matty Brown is an NFL-level third-down back and kickoff returner. Having a healthy Harris here enables him to showcase those skills. The Owls lose nothing by making Herbin the kickoff and punt returner, either.
2) What about the offensive line?
Only two guys who have started games in the past, Sean Boyle (center) and Martin Wallace (tackle) return but part-time 2010 starter Alex Jackson also returns and is a good blocker and I have confidence that Addazio and offensive line coach Justin Frye will be able to bring two guards and a tackle up to speed in 25 days. There is no better offensive line coach in the country than Addazio (even his Florida detractors will admit that). Remember, there is some good backup talent there. Adam Metz, for example, was a Big 33 starter.
3) What about the pass rush?
Moving John Youboty from inside to outside should help. Sean Daniels, the second-leading sacker from the 2010 season, needs to become the other starter at end to get a push from both sides. The interior wall, anchored by pre-season All Big-East tackle Levi Brown, is in good shape.
4) What about the depth?
Without a doubt, the biggest concern going into the Big East season is injuries. The Owls drop off considerably after the first two units. At times, they drop off considerably after one unit. For example, if they lose starting kicker and punter Brandon McManus, they go from potentially an eight-win team to an eight-loss team because field goals and field position will decide so many close games and all 11 games figure to be close. I’ll call McManus “bubble boy” because they need to keep him in a bubble to achieve their dreams. I don’t want him laying out a runner like he did on a 2010 kickoff vs. Connecticut. I want him running off the field. We all know he’s Temple TUFF. We need him to be Temple HEALTHY.
5) What about the backline defense?
If linebacker Nate D. Smith plays like he did in the spring, he gives Temple an upgrade over NFL-bound Stephen Johnson. That’s a big statement, but Johnson did not have the kind of spring in 2011 that Smith had in 2012. Another potential upgrade is Nate L. Smith at free safety over Kevin Kroboth, a steady and heady safety who didn’t make mistakes but also didn’t make many game-changing  plays. Nate L. Smith is a game-changer. I like the two starting linebackers returning, Blaze Caponegro and Ahkeem Smith as well as returning starter Justin Gildea at strong safety and lock-down left corner Anthony Robey.
Twenty-five days and five questions.
We should know the answers by Aug. 31.

Steve Addazio was the star of the Big East media day on Tuesday.

On the first night with a full moon this month, Steve Addazio talked about the second night with a full moon this month.
“We don’t like Villanova,” the Temple head football coach to the loudest applause of anything else he said at the season ticket-holder party Wednesday night.
The overflow crowd at Xfinity Live loved it.
Aug. 31 will feature a full moon, just like Aug. 1 did. Aug. 31 will also be the night Temple’s football team takes to the field for the first time in this most-anticipated season in its history against crosstown rival Villanova.
It is such a rare occurrance they call it a Blue Moon.
Appropriate because that is the color Villanova’s football team wears and also likely the mood of their fans afterward.

I think I would have said, “Even though we were 1-10 last year in the FCS and they were 9-4 in FBS, I hope we can compete with them on Aug. 31.”

Villanova is just a small step on what could be a great journey this season but it’s important because of the history involved between the schools. It is the last meeting in the “Mayor’s Cup” four-game series and, likely, the last time the schools ever play in football.
One of the Villanova running backs, Kevin Monangai, talked some trash about Temple the day the Owls were invited into the Big East, saying, “it’s just another good reason for us to snap on them Aug. 31.”
Later, Monangai clarified his response as a comment on this blog, saying, “What do you expect me to say, I hope we lose to them?”
No, but saying you are going to “snap on” a team that, by all independent accounts, is bigger and stronger and faster is probably not the best way to go about it.

On the same day, March 12, officials from Temple and Villanova played all kissy-face in front of the camera.
I wrote then and I believe now that part of the press conference was a complete charade.
Villanova had done its damnedest to keep Temple out of the Big East. Had it not been for Villanova, Temple would have been in for football as early as last Oct. 13th, according to the New York Post’s Lenn Robbins.
“The Big East conference call deteriorated into a two-hour Villanova bashing of Temple,” Robbins wrote.
By March, the Villanova Catholic cartel fell apart and Temple was into the league and Villanova will likely be  on the outside looking in for football.
Temple fans haven’t forgotten the Villanova bashing.
It’s nice to know that Addazio hasn’t, either, and has a bashing of his own on the mind.
Hopefully, the fake kneeldown out of victory formation followed by a long bomb will be added to the game plan soon.

About 10 years ago, you could hold a TU season-ticket party in a phone booth. Now, it needs Xfinity Live.

Recently, the subject of redemption and Temple football came up as part of a message board post on Owlscoop.com. A poster named MH55 noted the difference between Penn State and Temple football fans thusly:
“Frankly, I’ll stand with the 5,000 who came every weekend through 15 years getting our asses kicked. The commentary on BWI (a Penn State equivalent to Owlscoop) has revealed the character of many and continues to shine light on the source…”
I will stand by those fans, too, as early as Wednesday night of this week when the season-ticket-holders like myself get together at Xfinity Live for a shindig party (6-7:30 p.m.). I’ve never been to Xfinity Live but I hear great things about the place and this is my opportunity to check it out.

Xfinity Live is right next to Temple tailgate Lot K.

 Redemption is a big word for Temple football fans.
Sometimes, I had the fleeting thought that “sadism” was an apt word, too, sitting through a 51-3 loss to Virginia in 2005. The score was 44-0 at halftime and it might have been the only time I left the stadium that early.
A year later, the defensive coordinator of that Virginia team, Al Golden, took over at Temple and the curve started to slowly shoot up but not before a pair of 62-0 losses, one to Louisville and one to Minnesota.

 On Wednesday night, Temple fans can celebrate redemption with a few drinks and light snacks. They are back in a Big East that once scorned them. This time, the Big East does not know what is about to hit them.
We do.

Lt. Col. Neil Reilly with Temple flag.

When I first met Connor Reilly, it was waiting for the bowl selection party to begin last year. It was a good first impression.
I immediately liked the kid.
A few of the parents and I were at Maxi’s on the Main Campus. I asked Connor a few questions and he said, “yes, sir” and “no, sir” and “I guess so, sir.”
Geez.
I usually hate when people call me sir because it makes me feel old but something in the way Reilly said it led me to believe he was brought up the right way.
I suspected he from a military family and this great piece on ESPN.com by Andrea Adelson confirmed it. If you have two minutes today, give it a read. Lt. Col. Neil Reilly flies the Temple flag in Afganistan as a tribute to his son flying the American flag before Temple games.
When I was in New York, I mentioned to Steve Addazio how impressive I thought it was that he gave Connor permission to play on the Temple baseball team and I mentioned several great Temple football players (Cap Poklemba and Mike Palys) who were great Temple baseball players as well.
“He’s such a great kid,” Addazio told me.
Now I know why.

On the day the Freeh Report was released, the lede (or lead) story on the front page of the most popular Penn State football website was an interview with me.
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing that Black Shoe Diaries picked that day to run an interview it conducted with me a few days earlier.
I guess the only good that came out of it was  because it led to a large number of hits on Temple Football Forever.

Bad timing, though, because a July preview of the September Temple vs. Penn State football game looked trivial in comparison on a day like that.
Truth is, the show must go on and the staff of Black Shoe Diaries needed a few more hours to digest the 266-page report and write on it.
The whole dirty Sandusky matter is a Penn State problem that soon the NCAA will determine.
I agree with Louis Freeh, the former FBI chief, that the top four officials “covered up” the Sandusky crime in order to protect what to that point had been a pristine national Penn State image.
I don’t think Penn State is going to get the death penalty, though.
USC got two years of bowl bans and 30 scholarships taken away for “institutional control” problems related to the Reggie Bush incident.
That pales in comparison to this.
I think Penn State will probably get three years of no bowls and more scholarship losses, which will relegate the Lions to near the bottom of the Big 10 for most of the upcoming decade.
That’s just an educated guess.
In the meantime, Penn State might have its best football team in a awhile this year.
I hope Penn State wins the Big 10 and loses to Temple.
A death penalty would rob the Owls of the chance for possibly their most prestigious win ever and, for selfish reasons, I don’t want that to happen.
If there’s a death penalty to be meted out this fall, I want the Owls to be the executioners. Beating a decent to good Big 10 team like Penn State would do wonders for Temple attendance the rest of the season. Plus, it’s Penn State, a program revered in Philadelphia for so many years.
I really believe the Owls are closer now to winning than they were in 14-10 and 22-15 losses the last two years. They have a great quarterback, great defense and a great kicker and those are major ingredients in the plan to win.
Temple can take back its town by winning.
After that, the NCAA can do whatever it wants.

On the day major league baseball resumed after the all-star break, Steve Addazio stepped up to the recruiting plate and hit another home run yesterday when he nabbed Camden Catholic’s Jarred Alwan as Recruit No. 9.
The three-star linebacker with tremendous speed and lateral quickness comes to Temple with All-American credentials.
As a sophomore, Alwan was named to the Air Force All-American team.
The 6-1, 222-pound senior turned down offers (not interest) from West Virginia and Boston College, among others, according to John DiCarlo of Owlscoop.com.

Jarred Alwan

Just to give you an example of his speed, Alwan clocked a 4.57 at the Penn State camp, which is ridiculously fast for a linebacker. As a comparison, at the NFL combine in Indianapolis, Temple running back Bernard Pierce clocked a 4.59. Pierce was the Pennsylvania state 100-meter champion as a senior at Glen Mills.
Alwan was scheduled to make an official visit to West Virginia this week, which he canceled to call Addazio and tell him that he was going to become an Owl instead.
He was the No. 22-ranked player at any position in the state of New Jersey by Rivals.com.
Predictably, Rutgers’ fans will now try to tell you they backed off of him at the last minute.
Right, Baghdad Bob.
And, in a couple of years, a running back wearing Scarlet will probably be “backing off” of him on the way to a 20-yard loss in another Temple win.
Alwan started his career on this side of the river as a linebacker and fullback at St. Joseph’s Prep.
After his freshman year, tedsilary.com rated him the No. 5 prospect overall among Catholic League players after his freshman season starting for the powerhouse Hawks.
Huck Palmer, who handles those rankings for Silary, had Alwan rated above many other players who have signed to go to BCS schools.
Of the nine Temple verbals so far, six are from New Jersey.

Stars of this video who signed NFL contracts were:
Adam DiMichele – Philadelphia Eagles; Muhammad Wilkerson – New York Jets; Andre Neblett – Carolina Panthers; Eli Joseph – Green Bay Packers; Wayne Tribue – Denver Broncos; Peanut Joseph – Green Bay Packers; Alex Joseph – Green Bay Packers; Amara Kamara – Kansas City Chiefs; Pat Boyle – Detroit Lions; Terrance Knighton – Jacksonville Jaguars; Mike Campbell – New York Jets; Alex Derenthal – New York Giants; Stephen Johnson – New Orleans Saints; Bruce Francis – NFL Tryout; Jabari Ferguson – NFL Tryout; Chester Stewart – Baltimore Ravens; Vaughn Charlton – Pittsburgh Steelers; Tahir Whitehead – Detroit Lions; Junior Galette – New Orleans Saints; Adrian Robinson – Pittsburgh Steelers; Morkeith Brown – Tampa Bay Bucs; Brian Sanford – Cleveland Browns; Jaiquawn Jarrett – Philadelphia Eagles; Dominique Harris – Buffalo Bills; Travis Shelton – Denver Broncos; Andre Douglas – Dallas Cowboys; Darius Morris – Houston Texans; Derek Dennis – Miami Dolphins; Colin Madison – Baltimore Ravens; Devin Tyler – Baltimore Ravens; Kee Ayre Griffin – NFL Tryout; Marquise Liverpool – Detroit Lions; Evan Rodriguez – Chicago Bears; Steve Maneri – Kansas City Chiefs; Matt Balasavage – Baltimore Ravens; Wilbert Brinson – NFL Tryout; Jamal Schulters – NFL Tryout; Kevin Kroboth – NFL Tryout; James Nixon – Arizona Cardinals Source: Fran Duffy, Philadelphia Eagles

Surrounding all of the talk about conference shifts, championship playoffs and recruiting rankings, we sometimes forget that football is a fun game.
At least it is supposed to be.
Fun to play.
Fun to watch.
Having spent a few years of my young life living on the campus of Temple University, I know nothing brings young people together like being in that kind of environment, living in a vibrant, world-class, city like Philadelphia.
I’ve always felt this “danger” thing about living on campus was way overblown. In my time, if you went West of 17th Street and East of 10th, that was a pretty stupid thing to do. Inside that box, which is a large thriving campus covered by 150 well-armed, well-trained police officers, I’ve never felt safer. I walked home from The Temple News every night at about 4 a.m. (we put out a daily tabloid back then) and had several of those guys say “hi, Mike” on my walk back to Johnson Hall.
The people who say Temple is a dangerous place just never spent as much time on the campus as I have.
I can honestly say I had a lot fun in my time at Temple, all the while getting my work done.
 I don’t know if I could say the same thing living in a boring, dull, town like Piscataway, Storrs, Cincinnati or State College.
Who am I kidding?
I know I couldn’t.
I once walked into Wayne Hardin’s office for an interview and asked him about fun.
 “Football is fun if you win,” Hardin said.
Al Golden did a lot of great things at Temple.
Probably the greatest thing was that he used that Masters in Sports Psychology to figure out a way to bond the players.
 Golden made football practice at Temple fun for the most part.
His teams had fun winning and practicing to win. Golden’s team often played wiffleball before a practice and had some kooky crazy games.

This team looks like it is having fun all the time.

They even sang together as the above video demonstrates.
In singing Buttercup, beautifully produced by then Temple (and now Philadelphia Eagles) video coordinator Fran Duffy, you can see on the face of each Owl how much fun they had.
Golden is seen making a cameo, shaking his head from side to side at the 1:06 mark.
They proved that the team that sings together wins together.
I love this kind of stuff.
Taking the time to do that helped bond the team, but did not take away from their ultimate goal. Thirty-five players in that video signed contracts with NFL teams. Not one signed a contract as a professional singer.
Even the producer of this video, Fran Duffy, signed an NFL contract.

Nobody tells funnier jokes than coach Addazio.

Current video coordinator Ben Cauthen and assistant Dave “Owlified” Gerson are also terrific as successors to Duffy and “Our Very Own” Scotty Hartkorn but I think even they would be hard-pressed to match the video.
I suggested D.J. Khalid’s “All I Do is Win” but I don’t think Daz likes rap.
Steve Addazio has picked up where Golden left off, not just in the winning department but in the fun department as well.
Former Temple and current Oakland Raiders’ receiver Rod Streater said as much after the Owls beat Wyoming, 37-15, in the New Mexico Bowl.
“He’s the realist (sic) coach who ever lived,” said Streater, who played for both Addazio and Golden.
The photo of Addazio laughing with the team afterward is Exhibit A in the bond Daz forms with his teams.
 “No coach can motivate like he can,” Tim Tebow said.
College football is a big business for sure.
 At Temple, though, it can be a lot of fun as well. Probably more than any other place.
Recruits are noticing and that can be nothing but a good thing.

“I’m a quarterback. All I want to do is score points, get first downs on every drive and win. That’s all we have to do as a team is to take it one play at a time.” _ Kevin Newsome

The dictionary defines conundrum as a particularly perplexing problem.
When I think of Kevin Newsome’s arrival on campus this week, I see a solution to the conundrum.
The problem is that Newsome might not consider it a conundrum at all.
The conundrum as I see it is that Newsome is a great athlete who probably is best-suited to help the Temple’s football team right away on defense, particularly at outside linebacker or strong safety.
Newsome might be the third-best quarterback on the current Temple football team. That’s how I see it.
You don’t displace a bowl game MVP in the first Temple bowl win in over 30 years. It’s just not happening.
Chris Coyer is the starter and probably possesses a better skill set in passing and running and taking care of the football (he threw no interceptions last year) and Newsome had a ball security history while playing backup QB at Penn State in 2009.
Clinton “Juice” Granger had a great spring and has that under his belt and has a tremendous head start over Newsome.
Problem is that Newsome sees himself as a quarterback and he was quoted as much in an article that appeared a couple of weeks ago.
So the conundrum is this: Sit on the sidelines and waste all that talent or do something to help the Temple football team immediately, which is play defense (possibly at strong safety or outside linebacker).
As good a quarterback as he was in high school, my Virginia prep fans say he was an even better defensive player.
If he was that good, he can be brought up to speed as a Temple starter for Chuck Heater in a month or so.
Newsome reminds me of former Temple great quarterback Brian Broomell. He was recruited as a QB and not ready to play the position right away, so Broomell starred on defense for Temple at strong safety as a true freshman in an era where true freshman rarely played (they don’t play all that often now, but did so less then).
Temple needed Broomell to play quarterback as a senior and all he did was lead the nation in passing efficiency and Temple to 10 wins. I really think that team should have been 12-0, except for close losses to Pitt and Penn State but that’s a story for another day.
Maybe someday Temple will need Newsome to play quarterback.
Not now.
I hope he understands the conundrum. Tweet!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);

Jihaad Pretlow’s junior year highlights at Blair Academy.

It’s been a year and two months since I’ve last walked inside the Edberg-Olson Football Complex, now a $17 million football practice facility on the main campus of Temple University.
I was impressed by a lot of things, but one sign caught my fancy:
“What you do outside of here, you do to everyone inside of here.”
Gosh, even though that’s an Al Golden sign, I hope that’s still hanging prominently and they make everyone jump up and touch it on the way out, even the 5-5 Matt Brown (I know he’s got the vertical leap to do it).
Judging by the first recruits of Steve Addazio’s 2013 class, there is something special happening at Temple University and I hope some alleged knuckleheaded behavior that we’ve heard about in recent weeks doesn’t ruin it for everybody inside.

The early recruiting list, according to Owlscoop.com

We won’t mention any names now because these are just two kids out of 105 and no one has been proven guilty yet.
Just suffice it to say, if you are a Temple football player, look at that sign and take it to heart. For four years, keep your nose clean, listen to your coaches and generally don’t be a pain in the ass.
You will be rewarded once you graduate.
Just ask Muhammad “Highly Praised” Wilkerson or Bernard “The Franchise” Pierce or Rod Streater, among others. They will lead you down the right path.
Ironically, the Golden Rule is to do under others as you would have done unto you. That’s the regular Golden Rule, not the Al Golden Rule.

I like the way lock-down corner Anthony Robey thinks.

With that in mind, we hope the new Temple football players in the Class of 2013 are listening to this kind of advice because Steve Addazio is in the process of building a formidable football power in Philadelphia.
I wouldn’t get caught up in the star system because, even though cousins Jihaad Pretlow and P.J. Walker are rated only two stars now, they have five-star talent in my mind. Take a look at the Pretlow video above. If that’s not the re-incarnation of Bernard Pierce or Paul Palmer, I don’t know what is. Pretlow makes fast cornerbacks look like linemen. Walker is a better version of Juice Granger and Juice Granger is very, very good right now.
Nik D’Avanzo and Tyler Haddock have big-time pass-rushing ability. Offensive lineman Matt Barone has “Temple TUFF” stamped on his farhead, figuratively at least.
I always thought there were two keys to winning at any level of football:
1) Protect your quarterback;
2) Put the other quarterback on his ass.
Addazio seems to be building his program with those two tenants in mind.
He’s going for mobile quarterbacks who, if the protection breaks down, can make defenses pay with their feet.
He’s also going for fast linemen who can chase down those quarterbacks, preferably far behind the line of scrimmage.
Stir in a spread offense and a Chuck Heater defense, kickers like Brandon McManus and Jim Cooper Jr., return men like Jalen Fitzpatrick and Khalif Herbin, mix, and you have a championship cake baking, with a Cherry on top of White icing.
Let’s go eat, as Hunter Pence might say.

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