If the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, the most encouraging news coming out of Temple football spring practice is that the chain is pretty strong.
Going into the spring camp, it did not take a genius to figure out the No. 1 priority was finding some offensive linemen who could step up and play at a BCS level this fall.

Newman

I didn’t think it would be an insurmountable problem because the Owls had last year’s starter at tackle, Martin Wallace, returning and two starters from 2010 returning in tight end Alex Jackson and Sean Boyle, both fully recovered from injuries.
More importantly, head coach Steve Addazio, an offensive lineman guru if there ever was one, did not think it would be a problem.
Now we can see why as the most encouraging news is how the other three players have stepped up.
Jeff Whittingham, 6-foot-4, 275-pound redshirt sophomore Jaimen Newman, a former defensive tackle and end, has been running with the first team at guard.  Redshirt freshman Zach Hooks has played first-team snaps at left tackle.
Those guys seem to have the inside track on the other starting positions.
There’s still plenty of competition and one of the above could conceivably be displaced. Other names in the mix conceivably include but are not limited to Adam Metz, Scott Roorda and Darryl Pringle.

Hooks

Since you know a little about Jackson, Wallace and Boyle, here is a look at Newman, Whittingham and Hooks:
NEWMAN _  6-foot-4, 275-pound sophomore. Played in six games during the 2011 season and redshirted in 2010. Mostly a defensive player, he had 40 tackles and 14 sacks as a senior while playing at Matoaca High School in Virginia. As a junior, he had 32 tackles and six sacks. Also started on the basketball team for two seasons.

Whittingham

WHITTINGHAM _  Also a 6-foot-4, 275-pound junior who also played mostly defense at Temple but was a two-way all-star playing for Atlantic City (N.J.) High School, where he was a team captain and three-year starter. Played against Temple teammate Evan Regas in the 2007 New Jersey State playoffs. Was 2010 Scout Team Player of the Year for Temple.

HOOKS _  6-6, 305 true sophomore. Played both offensive and defensive tackle for head coach Mike Zmijanic at powerhouse Aliquippa in the WPIAL. Was first-team all-state as an offensive tackle in 2010. Was first-team all-conference three years in a row.

Wallace will be on quarterback Chris Coyer’s blindside, playing right tackle (Coyer is a lefty). Boyle will be at the all-important position of center, calling out the signals.
If they can open a sliver of a crack for a slippery, elusive, runner like Matty Brown, he should be able to make explosive plays downfield with Coyer and receivers like Jackson, Deon Miller, Malcolm Eugene and Ryan Alderman.

Temple’s $10 million addition to its $7 million practice facility nears finish line.

It’s a great week to be a Temple Owl.
Not only did Temple Board of Trustees member Lewis Katz (and two others) get a bargain-basement price on the two Philadelphia newspapers, the Temple football team has been practicing pretty much injury-free in front of a palatial $10 million addition to an already relatively new $7 million football facility.

That facility should be done by the start of summer practice.
A few weeks later, a thorough beatdown of Villanova should be done as well.
The Philly papers went for $500 million in 2006 and Katz purchased the same property (same printing presses and massive River Road property in Conshohocken but less a few employees, your humble correspondent included) for $55 million Monday.
Not a bad time to do some numbers crunching with regard to Temple’s football prospects in the Big East this fall.
News flash: While the Big East is a significant step up for Temple, the Owls are not joining the SEC.
According to the two best indicators of team strength in college football, Temple is coming into the league pretty near the top end of the remaining members.
Sagarin (USA Today) had Temple finishing the 2011 season ranked No. 30 in the country, with only Cincinnati (No. 28) ahead of it and the Owls finishing ahead of Rutgers (37), South Florida (47), Louisville (64), Pitt (68), UConn (73) and Syracuse (83).
Realtime RPI.com had Temple ranked No. 37, behind only Cincinnati (24) and Rutgers (30). Louisville was 53, Pitt 64, ‘Cuse (83, again) and UConn 89.
I think Temple will be significantly better this year. The Owls have nine guys returning who have started games on defense in the past. That, and the superb coaching of defensive coordinator Chuck Heater, will keep them in every game. Explosive plays downfield by players like quarterback Chris Coyer, RB Matty Brown, WR Deon Miller and TE Alex Jackson should put enough points on the scoreboard. It’s going to be hard to replace defensive end Adrian Robinson and linebacker Stephen Johnson, but a good program does those kind of things routinely.
Temple has proven to be a good program over the last three years by the only numbers that matter (won/loss ratio) and there is nothing in the numbers going forward that suggest a change any time soon.
While the competition will be a little better than the MAC, the hard numbers by unbiased sources like Sagarin and Realtime suggest it is nothing the Owls can’t handle.

Matty Brown talks to Bill Evans about his 2012 role.

Smh.
I never knew what that meant until about two years ago when Muhammad Wilkerson found my Facebook page, sent me a “friend request” message and I was only too happy to accept.
Heck, when I know the name and respect the person, I usually accept.
That goes for Muhammad “Highly Praised” Wilkerson and anybody else.

Temple’s all-purpose yards leaders, 2011 season.

Well, after the 8-4 Temple team that beat the Big East champion UConn team was refused a bowl bid, I saw Wilkerson’s message on his Facebook page that fateful Sunday morning.
“Coach told us we’re done. Smh.”
“What’s smh mean?” I asked.
“Shakin’ my head, Mr. Gibson,” he said.
Now a lot of Big East fans think Temple is done because Bernard “The Franchise” Pierce is gone and I have a three-letter response.
Smh.
They don’t know Matty “Rock” Brown.
They soon will.
Brown, as a backup to Pierce, has posted nine 100-yard-plus games in his career.
Think about that.
It’s remarkable that a STARTING back posts nine 100-yard games. It’s unheard of that a backup accomplishes this.
In fact, there are a lot of fans sitting around me that think Brown is better than Pierce as a college back.
Not me.
“I know you are a Pierce guy,” my friend, Cyrus, turned to me and said during one game. “I’m a Brown guy.”
There were Brown guys and Pierce guys all over the stadium last year.
Now we’re all Brown guys.
He will be the rock upon which Temple’s formidable running game will be built in 2012.

If you were in Times Square last Wednesday night, this is what you saw, courtesy of the Big East Conference.

By now, you can pretty much tell I’m a football fan first, everything else a distant second.
Yet I’ve been saying this for the last 30 years or so and I believe it today more strongly than ever:
THE THURSDAY THAT OPENS THE NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT IS THE GREATEST DAY ON THE SPORTS CALENDAR.
Yes, better than Super Bowl Sunday.
Better than the seventh game of the World Series.
Better than any game of the Stanley Cup.
Better than the NBA finals.

Temple football in the news today
UConn coach Paul Pasquoloni welcomes the Owls to Big East play
Mike Jensen talks about Peter Liacouras’ dream for Temple sports finally being realized

Better than the National Championship game in football (unless Temple is in it and then I reserve my right to change my mind).
Sports, to me, is about the fairness of competition and no sport provides that like the NCAA.
Sixty-eight teams start out and have to win their way to the next level.
Today is the day 64 of those teams have hope to win it all. No other day will match it.
Sixty-four teams have that hope and millions of fans fill out brackets on sites like Yahoo.com, Foxsports and ESPN hoping for a perfect bracket that would turn them from middle-class citizens into millionaires in less than one month.

All over America, offices are holding their own pools for some major coin. I won the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News major pool last year, beating out hundreds of employees in both the main building on North Broad Street and the new one in Conshohocken. It took me 15 years to win that pool. If I had only won it 15 years ago, I would have pocketed $2,000. Since then, though, with massive layoffs over that time period, I got roughly one-tenth of that last year.
Still, a source of great pride to know I came out on top despite my competition included those of the college basketball “experts” working both both newspapers.
If only NCAA football could build an interest vehicle like that for their fans, we’d have something. (They could easily do that. Have the three BCS bowl game winners play the best at-large team and you’d have a four-game, two week playoff after the bowl games. Have the top four bowl games rotate home sites. It’s a win-win for everyone.)
But NCAA football doesn’t, so NCAA basketball holds my attention for this month, something to hold me over until Cherry and White day.
My Final Four this year includes Syracuse (despite the Melo injury), Kentucky, Missouri and Georgetown. I don’t get the love for Michigan State. I think Missouri will knock off the Spartans in an Elite Eight game. The Hoyas are my sleeper team. I think they upset a disinterested Kansas team in St. Louis in the Elite Eight.
I also have North Carolina knocking off our beloved Owls in an Elite Eight game, but Temple can beat anyone on any given night if the Owls stay out of foul trouble, particularly along the interior.
Imagine, if you will, what a national championship in basketball would do for Temple as a whole and football specifically.
Plenty.
I’ll leave you with that thought for today and hope that remains a delicious possibility for at least a few more weeks.
Go Owls.

Despite what this looks like, Daz is not thinking basketball these days.

While many, including me, fill out their NCAA brackets this selection Sunday, Temple head football coach Steve Addazio is making a list and checking it twice, scratching out some ideas and coming up with other ones.
Spring practice begins on Monday and this is Addazio’s most intriguing one because, unlike last year, he’s fully aware of all the moving parts he has on the team.
Last year’s spring was a “get to know” process while this year’s spring is fitting the right round pegs into the round holes and the square ones firmly into the square receptacles.
The results on the field this fall should demonstrate that knowledge for the good of the Owls.
I won the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News “for amusement only” basketball pool last year, but Addazio’s pool is more fascinating to me because he’s bracketing the best athletes into the best slots to help the Owls win in a BCS conference.
And it’s way more important.
This spring’s priorities, in order, as I see it:

Two of these OL guys return to open holes for Matty Rock.

REBUILDING THE OFFENSIVE LINE _  Even though Temple returns only two starters (Sean Boyle and  Martin Wallace), this area is not  as  in bad a shape as some opposing fans think. If I read one more time “Temple loses its entire offensive line” I’m going to go crazy. Temple does NOT lose its entire offensive line. Boyle and Wallace, starters throughout last season, are back. An oft-time starting tight end from two years ago, Alex Jackson, returns. Adam Metz, a Big 33 player from two years ago, is ready to make an impact somewhere only the offensive line. Daz is an offensive line guy and Justin Frye proved himself as a top-notch offensive line coach last year. Still, it should be interesting who emerges in a tight fight for a couple of positions there. Whoever emerges as “Temple TUFF” will earn a starting spot. (On a side note, I’d check with Steve Caputo to see if his knee as improved to playing shape. Nobody was more Temple TUFF than that guy and he still has eligibility left.)

The last time Nate Smith was a feature back: 32 TDs, 2,734 yards (in one senior year of high school )

GETTING A BACKUP FOR MATTY BROWN _ They don’t come any tougher and more elusive than Matty “Rock” (ice is already taken) Brown, who had over 1,000 combined rushing and receiving yards and six touchdowns last year in part-time duty. Let’s face it, though. He’s 5-5 and 150 pounds. I don’t like the current alternatives. Daz seems set on giving Kenny Harper a chance but he typically does not make a first defender miss and is, at best, a 2-3 ypc back. He was an out-and-out stud, though, as a safety in high school on the other side of the ball. I see Harper as a future NFL player and Jacquaiwn Jarrett clone on the defensive side of the ball.  Jalen Fitzpatrick, while being elusive, is a small “slot receiver” type. On other hand, Nate Smith (currently a fullback) has the entire package. Speed, size, elusiveness, a nose for the end zone. I hope Daz uses this spring to give him an extended look at tailback. If not, hope someone from the gang of three (Brandon Peoples, Jamie Gilmore or Khalif Herbin) transforms from a high school star to a BCS one when they get here in July. Hope is never a good plan, though.
REPLACING ADRIAN ROBINSON _ Arob was the chief pass-rusher, but the Owls should be in good shape there. Sean Daniels showed Arob-type playmaking ability when forced to play extensively in 2010.  Still, Arob had a motor like nobody’s business and installing  that motor in talented bodies like  Daniels’ becomes a priority. It would be nice to collapse the pocket with two guys meeting at the quarterback in every third-down passing situation.

Matt Falcone (15) sprung James Nixon with a great block for 6 on this KO return in the 2009 season. Falcone is rehabbing his knee now.

REMAKING THE SPECIAL TEAMS _ Brandon McManus, in my mind, is the 2012 most valuable player. He’s the one player TU cannot afford to lose. Even though he was one of the best punters in the countryin 2011, it makes me nervous every time I see an NFL placekicking leg back in punt formation. The nervousness was unfounded last season but I still hope Daz finds a serviceable backup punter. The special teams has a new coach. I hope he does as well as Zack Smith did.
GETTING JUICE UP TO SPEED _ Now that Mike Gerardi is gone, I’d like to see Clinton “Juice” Granger brought up to speed as Chris Coyer’s backup. I’m hoping by the end of the day on April 14, we’ll be saying that Juice is significantly better than Gerardi and I thought Gerardi was serviceable. The best thing Kevin Newsome can do when he arrives is to volunteer to help out the team in any way he can and if that means defense, so be it. Nothing will demonstrate to Daz and the staff that Newsome is a team-first, me-second, guy than volunteering to play defense. If Coyer keeps the job, and I suspect he will, Newsome needs to get on the field in some capacity and he was an all-timer on the defensive side of the ball in high school.
Maybe he can take a few reps at QB each practice just in case Coyer goes down but he’s too good of an athlete to sit on the sideline wearing a headset and holding a clipboard for the 2012 season.
That’ll be determined, though, in July.
There will be enough work to do starting tomorrow.



Temple fans’ home away from home in Albuquerque is the Owl Cafe, 10 minutes from the team hotel.

Heck, it’s one week to the New Mexico Bowl and back in August I was off in dreamland thinking it might be another month until the Temple Owls got on the field again by the time December rolled around.
You know, beat Penn State, beat Maryland and then run through the entire MAC to finish 12-0.
Then win the MAC title game to go 13-0.

“I ain’t lettin’ you go to the NFL because we’re going to be 14-0 next year with you,” Deon Miller seems to be telling Datboy Nard.

Then I woke up with a minute to go in the Penn State game.
Temple never found an answer to its quarterback woes until three games remained in the season (too late) so that dream was busted.
The only other things I needed was Penn State to win the Big 10 and Maryland to win the ACC.
Walla, national title game.
When Maryland opened up with a 32-24 win over Miami (Fla.), I thought that just might happen.
Heck, if UConn, a team that lost by two touchdowns to Temple last year, can really make it to the Fiesta Bowl after that, then I can dream of a national title shot for Temple.
Then they tanked it and Penn State got hit by the Jerry Sandusky scandal and that fell apart.
So no national championship game for Temple, shockingly. No cover of Sports Illustrated featuring Bernie and the Bug. No shot of  Steve Addazio giving Florida fans the finger.
There’s always next year.
No Temple and LSU.
It’ll be LSU and  Alabama instead.

By going 14-0, Addazio could have given his Florida critics this finger.

Wyoming and Temple (Saturday, Dec. 17, ESPN, 2 p.m.) will kick off the bowl season instead and that game will be pretty much as important as the 34 other non-championship games.
If Temple wins, the Owls get to take a bowl trophy home for the first time in 32 years.
The Owls can win their own little championship before a sizeable crowd in New Mexico and on TV since they will be the only FBS football on television that afternoon.
I’m cautiously optimistic.
I think the Owls can win by following the Addazio plan (play great defense, run the football, make a difference on special teams and use the play-action pass for explosive gains downfield). I think defensive coordinator Chuck Heater will whip up a pass rush scheme that rattles Wyoming freshman quarterback Brett Smith. He won’t let him sit back and pick the defense apart.
I think No. 20, Kee-ayre Griffin, will jump one route and get a pick six. He has that kind of athletic ability.
Wyoming, though, is not a team to be taken lightly and I don’t think the Owls will.
Seeing the kids celebrate around the Gildan New Mexico Bowl trophy would be a great way to frame this season after starting with a Mayor’s Cup trophy.
It wasn’t the dream I started with, but it’s the one I have now and it is within this team’s grasp.
One week and three hours away.

A special message from Hooter follows:

Laramie, Wyoming, the site of the last Temple vs. Wyoming game.

Turnovers costly for Owls
By Mike Bruton
LARAMIE, Wyo. (9/2/1990) — If Wyoming was expecting an embattled opponent haunted by last season’s failures, it didn’t find one in Temple yesterday. What it found was a most generous adversary.

Jerry Berndt’s Owls had no intention of making things easy for the Cowboys and, in fact, made things rather rocky for them for nearly three quarters before succumbing to its own mistakes and losing, 38-23, before a crowd of 17,564.
The game at War Memorial Stadium was pockmarked by turnovers, but the Owls hatched six of the eight that occurred, their last three propelling the Cowboys to victory in this, the season opener for both teams.
Complete story from Sept. 2, 1990 editon of Inquirer is here for your edification.

As I write this, the temperature in Albuquerque, New Mexico is 12 degrees.
Here in Philadelphia, it’s 62 degrees.
So much for warm-weather bowl destinations.
It could be worse.
According to an email I received from Wyoming, it was 21 degrees when the man started his car in the morning there on Monday.
That’s minus-21.
Much can change in 10 or so days and hopefully that temperature inversion will.
College football is like the weather that way.
A short 20 years ago and Temple was playing Wyoming in an unlikely matchup in Laramie.
A lot has changed since:

• The Big East WANTED Temple;
• A high school head coach named Steve Addazio was in his second year working toward the first of three  state titles in Cheshire, Conn.;
• Temple had a good, professional, competent football announcer in Dave Sims;
• There was no BCS (and therefore no BS in college football);
• Teams actually had to have WINNING seasons to earn a bowl bid;

What hasn’t changed are the precepts of the game itself.
The team that blocks and tackles the best and limits the turnovers usually wins the game.
Such was the case in 1990 when Temple dropped a 38-23 game in Laramie, based on turnovers.
In fact, Temple head coach Jerry Berndt used the term “ball security” way back then.
Some things never change.
Addazio’s plan to win at Temple has the ball security issue right at the top of the sheet.
Limit turnovers, play great defense, run the ball, make a difference on special teams.
If Temple doesn’t do anything crazy like turn the ball over 127 times (exaggerating for effect here), like it did the first time these two teams played, it should come away with its first bowl win since 1979.
That would give me a warm and fuzzy feeling, whatever the temperature is on Dec. 17.

Morkeith Brown, Adrian Robinson and Daquan Cooper will be all smiles once again if the Owls beat Kent State  to secure a bowl bid.

According to the NCAA, bowl games can’t start until December but you might want to call Temple’s game on Friday against Kent State as Philadelphia’s first college bowl game since the Liberty Bowl in 1961.
That’s because, if Temple wins, it has a pretty good shot at going to a bowl.
If Temple loses, it has almost no shot.
Call it a bowl game to play a bowl game then.
Or a playoff game.

Beautiful photo of Army watching Owls sing T for Temple U Photo by Ted DeLapp

That’s what Kee-ayre Griffin did in the Tuesday presser this week and the ball-hawking Temple right-cornerback is completely right.
Win and advance.
Lose and go home.
That’s what the playoffs are all about.
That’s what this game means to Temple.
Temple has been mentioned for three bowls if it goes 8-4 and those are in California, New Mexico and Idaho.
Late Thursday night, it was learned that Liberty Bowl officials have also requested credentials for Friday’s game, even though it would appear that matchup is likely set. (Maybe there could be some jockeying and trading of teams we don’t know about. Still an interesting development.)

Why work or shop on a day this beautiful when you can enjoy it outside watching Temple football?

Temple’s team will have to show up for this one, like it did against Army, Penn State and Maryland. If the team that shows up against Bowling Green or Ohio surfaces again, it’ll be time to pack the helmets and the shoulder pads away.
It would also be nice if Temple’s fans showed up, especially the 130,000 alumni living in Philadelphia, because the students are away on break.
Most alumni have off Friday, most of them don’t like to shop and their presence is needed to impress any bowl officials in attendance. If there was ever a call to arms (and feet and backsides) for Temple fans to attend a regular-season home game, this is it.
Nothing would impress the suits who represent the bowls more than a big crowd.
Temple’s players plan to take care of business or, in this case, bidness.
As I see it, Temple’s got to follow Steve Addazio’s plan to win.
That is, play great defense, make a difference on the special teams (a punt block like the ones vs. Penn State and Maryland might be in order), limit turnovers and use the run to set up the pass.
That last part is important because if Bernard Pierce and Matty Brown get going, Kent State is going to load up the box. Once that happens, Chris Coyer is going to use deft play-action faking to find Joey Jones, Evan Rodriguez and Rod Streater because that initial fake will freeze the defense enough to free those guys.
I expect those four to make explosive plays down the field.

MAC BLOGGER ROUNDTABLE

This week’s host for the MAC Blogger Roundtable is B.J. Fischer of Bowling Green’s Falcon blog.
His questions:
Who is the MAC Offensive Player of the Year?
TFF: Bernard Pierce, Temple … can’t argue with his touchdown numbers.
Who is the MAC Defensive Player of the Year?
TFF: Adrian Robinson, Temple… was the defensive player of the year and eschewed the draft last year and it turned out to be a great decision because he moved up from a projected fourth-rounder to a projected second.
Who is the MAC Player of the Year?
TFF: Eric Page, Toledo
Who is the MAC Special teams Player of the Year?
TFF: Eric Page, Toledo
Who is the MAC Freshman of the Year?
TFF: Titus Davis, Central Michigan. The first-team all-state receiver from Wheaton, Ill. did not disappoint this year. He got on the field and performed right away. Ryan Brumfield of EMU did not get on the field much because he had a pair of studs ahead of him, but I suspect he will make a big-time impact down the line.
Who is the MAC Coach of the Year?
TFF: Pete Lembo, Ball State. … the former Lehigh coach said, after losing to Temple, 42-0, “that’s the kind of team we’re looking to become in four years.” Then, shortly after that, forced the clock ahead four years by doing something Temple could not do: Win at Ohio. Still had the same players.
Who is your team’s MVP.
TFF: Bernard Pierce.
Rank ’em:
1) Northern Illinois
2) Toledo
3) Ohio
4) Temple
5) Western Michigan
6) Ball State
7) Eastern Michigan
8) Bowling Green
9) Central Michigan
10) Miami
11) Kent State
12) Buffalo
13) Akron

A special message from Hooter:

Derek Dennis, Wayne Tribue, Pat Boyle, John Palumbo are among the seniors on the OL.

One more win and this is the greatest senior class ever.

Some highlights of this class:

• The 2011 Owl seniors are the winningest four-year class in school history.
• All but two members of the starting offensive line are seniors.
• They are the first class in school history to be bowl eligible in three consecutive years.
• They have won more conference games than any other class in school history
• They have recorded three consecutive winning seasons and out-scored opponents in four straight seasons.

On the subjects of how quickly time passes and Thanksgiving Day remembrances, we have reached a perfect confluence of that and the Temple University football seniors.
Friday is going to be a sad day for me because I will be seeing a group of seniors wear a Temple uniform for the last time.
It is a reminder of how fleeting life is and how so many players have come and gone but the legacy of this group already is very impressive.
 So I’m officially depressed.
 What do I usually do when I’m depressed?
 Eat a gallon of non-fat yogart?
No.
I’m going to play the lottery on Thursday night, Match 6. Since the numbers only go 1-49, I’m picking the numbers of each of the senior starters on defense (sorry, Morkeith Brown and Stephen Johnson, you are No. 85 and 53) plus two guys on offense. Adrian Robinson (43), Tahir Whitehead (2), Kee-Ayre Griffin (20), Kevin Kroboth (37), Joey Jones (26) and Rod Streater (18). If 2-18-20-26-37-43 come up, I win $900,000 and it’ll take a little sting off the next day.
Even as a near-millionaire, there’s still going to be some sadness.
This year will be even more depressing because the group includes the following names: TE Matt Balasavage (Lancaster, Pa.), DE Morris Blueford (Chesapeake, Va.), OL Pat Boyle (Towson, Md.), DE Morkeith Brown (Harrisburg, Pa.), OL Derek Dennis (Peekskill, N.Y.), DB Kee-ayre Griffin (East Orange, N.J.), LB Stephen Johnson (Norristown, Pa.), WR Joe Jones (Hollywood, Fla.), DB Kevin Kroboth (Nazareth, Pa.), OL John Palumbo (Lyndhurst, N.J.), DB Deonte Parker (Lakeland, Fla.), DE Adrian Robinson (Harrisburg, Pa.), TE Evan Rodriguez (North Bergen, N.J.), OL Jeremy Schonbrunner (Salisbury, Md.), QB Chester Stewart (Hanover, Md.), WR Rod Streater (Burlington, N.J.), OL Wayne Tribue (York, Pa.), LB Quinten White (Philadelphia, Pa.), and LB Tahir Whitehead (Newark, N.J.).
   A personal note about a couple of guys.
 I feel bad for Rod Streater because I feel he fits the profile of one of those “explosive” players who can make big plays down the field. Same with Joey Jones, who was one of Al Golden’s first-high profile recruits out of South Florida. Not getting the ball to Streats and Jones enough at Bowling Green probably cost the Owls a win there.

Kee-Ayre Griffin was the subject of the only email Al Golden ever sent me. I congratulated Al on his first recruiting class and Al wrote back: “Mike, thanks, but we’re going after a guy right now from St. Peter’s Prep in North Jersey who would really big a big get. Wish us luck.” That guy is Kee-Ayre Griffin, who finally found his way here and was part of the building process from Day One. He was the last recruit of Golden’s first year.
    I’ll never forget the joy on the face of Morkeith Brown at the bowl selection party and how the entire team surrounded him in celebration (see upper right corner of the logo at the top of the page).
 Adrian Robinson was a four-year starter and MVP of the Big 33 game and defensive MVP of the MAC. He set a terrific example for the Owls behind him by forgoing the pros this year and staying his senior year. The pros will always been there and Robinson enhanced his draft status by staying. You only have four years in college. Cherish them and use all four of them.
Derek “Bone-Crusher” Dennis was a stalwart on the second-best offensive line I’ve ever seen at Temple and has completely erased the memory of him being the only Temple player in history to tackle another Temple player in the open field (at Army, 2008). Well, maybe not completely because it is a pretty funny memory (and a heckuva tackle of Adam DiMichele, by the way).

I’m going to miss them all, whether they make me a millionaire or not on Thanksgiving.

 
A special message from Hooter: