This is the greatest bargain in the history of sports marketing (seriously).

I was unpacking the groceries Tuesday at the Genaurdi’s on Huntingdon Pike and saw an older lady wearing a Temple sweatshirt.
I see Temple sweatshirts all over the place these days.
I usually don’t say anything.
This time, I did. I figured I could because I was rocking my Temple gear, too.
“Temple, huh?” I said. “We’ve got a big game on Tuesday.”
“Football?” she said. “I’ve heard about it. I’ve never gone. I’m going to talk my husband into taking me.”
“It should be fun,” I said. “It’s for the championship.”
I put my stuff in my car and she put her stuff in hers.
Sold. Two tickets to Temple people for the Temple game.
(Maybe.)
See.

One person can make a difference.
I’m going to bother as many strangers wearing Temple stuff as I can in the next few days.
I hope they all tell me they are going. I hope a lot of them tell me they are first-timers.
Going is the most important thing, though.
Being in the stands, suppporting kids playing football for your university in the most important game of their lives is a worthwhile endeavor if there ever was one.
I don’t care if it’s 8 p.m. on a Tuesday and you worked a full day and you have to be at work at 6 the next morning.
Has anyone ever heard of a sick day?
Has anyone ever heard of re-arranging their schedule?
How many among us have ever slept four hours or less to do something important?
I think all of us have.
Tuesday is that important a day to us, to the kids who play football for Temple, to the national image of the university as a whole.
Our usual 20,000 in a stadium that seats 70,000 won’t cut it anymore.
People across the country will be saying the things they have been for years.
“Same old Temple.”
“Yeah, Apathy U.”
“We can’t invite them to a BCS conference. Not with that support.”
Put 40,000 in the house and all those perceptions change.
Most of all, the kids who put their bodies on the line for this university will finally get the support they deserve.
One person can make the difference in the next few days.
Yesterday it was me.
Today I hope it is you.



Great photo and sentiment by Temple’s “very own” Scotty Hartkorn. Thanks, Scott.


By Mike Gibson
The lyrics of Carly Simon song come to mind when thinking about Temple football recently:
These are the good old days.
When you think about a story told by the numbers, these really are the good, old days and something to think about when I’m at the old folks’ home in the rocking chair, comparing one Temple football era to another.
I hope this is just the beginning of a long string of good old days, but that remains to be seen.
With a 28-10 win at Kent State on Saturday, the 8-2 Owls have tied the winningest two-year span in the program’s history and are well on their way to posting consecutive bowl seasons for the first time ever.

They will go for a school-record 11-straight home wins in the final regular season home game.
Temple is now 17-3 in its last 20 regular-season games.
Head coach Al Golden (I prefer calling him Owl Golden) lost 16 of his first 20 games at Temple. He has now won 17 of his last 21.
The coaches and the kids who play football for the university have held up their end of the bargain.
On Tuesday, Nov. 16, though, it’s time for the rest of the university community to do the same.
That’s the time of the next (and last) home game of the season against Ohio University in a game between the co-leaders of the Mid-American Conference’s Eastern Division.
If the Owls win out, this will be the first game that I can remember with a championship on the line being played at college football’s highest level (now Football Bowl Series) in the city of Philadelphia.
The entire nation will be watching (ESPN2) and a home crowd of 20,000 or so in a stadium that seats 70,000 won’t cut it anymore. It will be the only football game on national TV that night and probably be on as background noise in every taproom and restaurant in the country.
The Owls have averaged a little more than 20,000 over their first five home games.
In my mind, they need to hit at least 30,000 and fill the lower bowl with a loud, enthusiastic crowd if they hope to impress.
Forty thousand would be even nicer.
Nothing would present a more positive image for the Temple “brand” than a packed house. Not a Poet Laureat. Not a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Not even a famous comedian.
The possibility of winning a championship in a packed stadium before a nation of eyeballs puts Temple on the map like nothing else. No amount of money can buy that kind of advertising.  It’s the only game not only in this town, but every other town in America.
With 260,000 living alumni within driving distance of Lincoln Financial Field, it can be done. With 33,000 full-time students just a 10-minute hop on the subway away, it should be done.
Then Tuesday could possibly be the best of a long string of good old days.

Owls let a championship slip through their fingers last year. Let’s help them grab it in nine days.

You’ve heard of the movie title Seven Days in May.
Well, the movie to see if you are from Temple or ever cared about Temple is Nine Days in November.


Crunch time for Owls and their fans (Photo courtesy Akron Beacon-Journal)



We have nine days to fill the stadium for a national broadcast on ESPN2.
We have nine days to fill the stadium to support the Owls in what essentially is a conference (MAC East) championship game played in Philadelphia, the first time I can recall a title game ever for a Division IA (OK, FBS) team ever being played in this city.
The stakes of this game are THAT enormous and that important.
The benefits of getting a huge crowd are too many to list here.
Suffice it to say, it will open the eyes of the nation not just to win this game but win it in a packed, loud, enthusiastic stadium.
With all of this conference shifting being discussed, could anything help the Owls and Temple more than a big crowd?
In a word, no.
In fact, you can make a strong argument that the nation would be more impressed with a crowd of 30-35,000 filling the entire lower bowl of Lincoln Financial Field than it would be with an Owl win.
I’m greedy, though.
I want both.
I want the big crowd going crazy and the big win.
We can have both if we all knock on doors, pick up the phone and get five friends to come to the game with us.

Temple vs. Ohio

Tuesday, November 16 at 8 PM
Lincoln Financial Field
* Temple Employee Night! Temple Employees receive special discounted tickets (as low as $12 for end zone tickets) with ID at the Box Office!
* Bring a Canned Food item to the game – receive a ticket for as low as $12!
* College Night! All area college students can receive a ticket for only $5 with ID!
* First 5,000 fans receive a Rally Towel – sponsored by Verizon Wireless and Snyder’s of Hanover!

Game starts at 8 p.m., so no excuses about missing work or it being too cold or SEPTA strikes or Phillies games or nor’easters allowed.
No excuses about it being on a Tuesday night and you have to work the next day.
I don’t want to see any live game threads on any Temple message boards during that game.
Get on a damn bus, subway, plane, cab or drive to the game. Don’t sit home and watch. This is an all-hands-on-deck, all-asses-in-seats game if there ever was one.
It’s that important to the university’s national and local image that a good chunk of the 260,000 living alumni and 33,000 full-time students set aside this block of three hours on Nov. 16 to be at this happening.
Nine days in November.
That should be enough time.

Girls, come back. We need you and 32,995 other full-time Temple students to make another appearance at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 16 for the championship of the world and a Michelob Light (in your case, free $5.75 sodas). How great would it be to have 30K students and 40K alumni there? Damn great, I’d say.

Dix Stadium, home of the final Temple Saturday game of the year.

One of the things I’m proudest of is never betting Temple games and that’s true every year and certainly this year and on this day, unbelievably the last Saturday game of the year for the Owls (2 p.m., at Kent State).
The heart is too strong and my head can’t stand losses to my heart (if the Owls lose) and solar plexis (wallet, although I don’t put it there) twice on the same day.
Yet I never cease to be amazed by how good Vegas is with these odds every week.
Last week against Akron, the line for the five days preceeding the game was 29 1/2 points.
Temple won, 30-0.
The morning of the game the line jumped up to 30.5. My friend, who shall remain nameless, jumped on it nonetheless and lost some serious coin on one of those internet betting sites.
I’m telling him now like I tell every die-hard Temple fan. Don’t bet Temple. Don’t bet with or against Temple. Watch the game, enjoy it, root like crazy for the Owls. But don’t bet it.
Both my heart and head says a “comfortable” Temple today, somewhere in the 10-point range, say, 27-17.
Vegas, though, disagrees.
It calls for an “uncomfortable” Temple win of 3 1/2 points. Since you can’t win by 3 1/2 points, I’m guessing it will go 17-14 today.
Guessing, not betting since I’m too much of a wimp. My bookie moved out to Sandy, Utah, 10 years ago and I haven’t used a bookie since. I don’t like putting my credit card number online, particularly to an offshore company, so I don’t do that, either.
Plus, being flat-out broke doesn’t help.
So I have my reasons for not betting real dough.
But I’m knowledgeable on college football, particularly the non-BCS conferences, and I like to pit that knowledge against Vegas with play money. I do OK with play money.
If Delaware or Pennsylvania every brings in legalized sports betting, I’m there with the real cash on a very limited basis.
I do much better on games I’m emotionally detached from so that’s why I like these ones this week (for amusement purposes only, of course):
Army 17, Air Force 14 _ Army is a 7-point underdog at home. Air Force is not the dominating team it has been the last few years. Army is good.
Florida 31, Vandy 10 _ Gators are a 14-point favorite on the road. I got to believe if UConn beats Vandy by 19, Florida beats Vandy by 21.
Fresno State 24, Louisiana Tech 20 _ Fresno State is a 2-point road favorite. Fresno State is good. Louisiana Tech not so good.

Average MAC attendance
(games through 10/16)

Temple 22,273
Toledo 22,266
OU 20,978
CMU 20,741
KSU 20,377
NIU 17,762
BGSU 17,530
WMU 17,350
EMU 16,140
Miami 15,738
Buffalo 15,293
Akron 12,716
Ball State 10,696

Fire Up Chips has the questions this week and I’ll try to give some answers:

I. Northern Illinois has maintained steam from the primordial ooze of preseason rankings, while the Ohio Bobcat are building steam and look like they could make a return trip to Detroit. With only a handful of games left, which teams do you foresee playing in Detroit?

TFF: Temple and NIU.

II. Since it is my turn this week, I would like to bring my fellow knights a problem which has vexed both peasant and gentry class alike in Mt. Pleasant.

“Dust thou thinkest that Sir. Dan Enos should be banished from the goodly folk of Mt. Pleasant for his blackguard performance and 2 – 7 record thus far? There is much talk in all reaches of the Central Michigan Kingdom that he has squandered our season with a playbook so bad it must be from France! What say you!”

TFF: No, they made two good hires in Brian Kelly and Butch Jones. They get a pass on this one. I’m not a big believer in hiring assistant coaches, although it worked out at my uni (Al Golden). When AG goes, I want a proven head coach at this level to take over. Assistants are crapshoots.
III. If you accept the premise that the playing field in completely level in the MAC, then shouldn’t long time coaches like Bill Cubit at Western Michigan and Herb Martin at Kent State have to win a championship within 10 years or risk being fired?

TFF: No, because Bill Cubitt has a few Big 10 pelts on his wall. Give me a guy who can beat Big 10 talent with a MAC recruiting budget any day.

IV. Who is your front runner for MAC Coach of The Year?

TFF: Jerry Kill. That guy can flat-out coach.

V. What is your favorite Michael J. Fox movie from his golden era of film making 1984 – 1986?

TFF: Back to the Future.

1. Temple
2. NIU
3. Ohio
4. Western Michigan
5. Ohio
6. Central Michigan
7. Kent State
8. Miami
9. Bowling Green
10. Ball State
11. Buffalo
12. Eastern Michigan
13. Akron



A few thousand Temple fans in the crowd of 106,000 go crazy watching Bernard Pierce  score twice against PSU.



Kent State by the numbers:
1) It leads the MAC in rushing defense, allowing just 65.9 yards per game and 2.1 yards per carry.
2) Kent State and Northern Illinois are tied for the MAC lead in fewest rushing touchdowns allowed with nine.
3) Ohio, by comparison, is No. 2 in the conference against the run, allowing 115.0.
4) Senior middle linebacker and Michigan transfer Cobrani Mixon has a team-high 65 tackles, including 9.0 tackles for a loss, and 4.5 sacks.
5) Outside linebacker Dorian Wood has 60 tackles, including 10 for losses.
6) Cornerback Norman Wolfe has four interceptions.
7) Defensive tackle Roosevelt Nix has nine sacks.

From reading some of the comments about Kent State before this Saturday’s (2 p.m. start) game, you might think Temple is playing Clark Kent and not Kent State.
(Clark Kent was Superman. The Golden Flashes are no Supermen.)
This is a team that lost at Penn State, 24-0.
Temple, on the other hand, hung tough at PSU and lost, 22-13, and the Owls were leading when Bernard Pierce went down with an ankle sprain. Penn State had no shot at stopping The Franchise, but did a nice job stopping his backup, Matty Brown.
So I have a Temple game plan guaranteed to beat Clark Kent, err, Kent State.
Superman.
Bernard Pierce.
Toss in a little more Bernard Pierce on top of the Bernard Pierce you already have.

If Penn State couldn’t stop The Franchise, Kent State sure won’t.
Ditch this stupid Matt Brown in for one series, Bernard Pierce in for the next, experiment. Matt Brown is a valuable member of the Owls. I would use him as a third-down slot back, a David Meggett-type back. To have him split carries with Pierce, I think, is foolhardy on Temple’s part and only helps the opposition.
When Gale Sayers played for the Chicago Bears, you didn’t see Rocky Bleier come in for one series and and Gale the next.
When Jim Brown played for the Cleveland Browns, you didn’t see Leroy Kelly coming in for one series and Brown the next.
When Paul Palmer played for the Temple Owls, you didn’t see Shelley Poole come in for one series and Paul come in for the next.
When you’ve got a Machine Gun in a firefight, you don’t set it aside and shoot every other guy with a pistol.
That’s what Bernard Pierce means to the Temple Owls.
Establish Pierce left, right and up the middle behind that 318-pound average offensive line and I guarantee you all sorts of good stuff off ball fakes to Pierce will open up for quarterback Mike Gerardi, who throws an exceptional play-action pass.
Once Pierce is established, Kent will crowd the line and guys like Rod Streater, Alex Jackson, Michael Campbell and Evan Rodriguez will be running so free through the secondary that Gerardi’s toughest decision will be choosing which ones to pick out.
By that time, Gerardi will have thrown at least three touchdown passes.
Then go back to more Pierce to run out the clock and put the game on ice.
That’s my game plan.
Will Temple use it?
If the Owls want to win convincingly, they will. If they want to play down to the level of competition, like they did against CMU and Bowling Green, they’ll keep ill-advised two-back shuttle system.

You know Al Golden has reached iconic status in Philadelphia when the winning costume during the third-quarter Halloween Contest was a Temple student dressed up as Al Golden.
I thought I saw Al cast a “you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me” glance and a smile at the kid when he was announced the winner, so it looks like Al took it in good fun. I was rather impressed that Golden took time during the game to realize what was happening.
It all dates back to the day when Golden’s mom told him wearing a sweatshirt on the sidelines made him look sloppy.
So Alfred has worn the same outfit for every game since the beginning of last year.
Tan pants. White shirt. Cherry tie.
The look has become as Temple as Bear Bryant’s Hound’s Tooth Hat is Alabama or Jim Tressel’s Sweater Vest is Ohio State.
I must admiit I will give the kid who won (and I’m sorry that I can’t find his name on the internet) major props for creativity.
Actually, two young men were weaing the Golden costume, both roommates.
I personally don’t care what Al wears as long as he keeps piling up the wins.
With the 30-0 win over Akron on Saturday, Temple tied a school-record with 10 straight home wins. The defense recorded its second-straight shutout for the first time since 1971.
Pretty impressive, too (and thanks for blitzing, Mark D’Onofrio).
If the Owls get to consecutive home win No. 11, against Ohio in a Tuesday night game, it will likely mean the Owls will clinch the MAC East title, something they were unable to do last year.
In fact, now I hope he wears the Cherry tie and the white shirt because it’s become a good-luck charm.
It’s not a particularly scary outfit, unless you happen to be on the other side of Lincoln Financial Field wearing some other uniform.
Let’s do our best to keep that outfit and the man wearing it here for a long, long time.
Becoming Iconic (with a capital I) in the World Class city of Philadelphia is a good way to start.

ARob in action against UCLA last year.

I would be remiss if I let this day go by without thanking Adrian Robinson, who I shall refer to as The Man Who Saved Temple’s season.
Think about it.
Had not ARob blocked an extra point against Bowling Green, there would be no MAC championship to play for and (maybe) the very best Temple could hope for was a repeat of the 9-3 season of a year ago.
Not what I, or probably you, was expecting or hoping for this season.
So thanks, ARob, and keep on making plays.

Matt Falcone proves that when you go to Temple, you get to meet Super Bowl winning coaches. Matt was a special teams’ star in 2009 from the great town of Palmerton, Pa. (Home of the Blue Ridge Country Club and not far from the Bowmanstown Diner.) I had the good fortune of meeting his Mom at the UConn game. Hurry back, Matt.

Let’s Go Rockets (Toledo) is hosting this week’s MAC Roundtable Question and Answer session:

1. What has been the biggest surprise for your MAC team this season? Can be good or bad, player or team?

TFF: Matt Brown taking carries away from My Main Man Bernard Pierce. I don’t like it, but I have to give the little guy credit for producing (except against Penn State). I really feel Matt is best suited as a third-down back and a slotback (and emergency backup) and Bernard should get his 20-25 carries. I hope the offense evolves that way because Penn State had no shot at stopping BP before he broke his ankle. When Brown replaced him, the Nits had no problem with Brown. A steady diet of Bernard Pierce gives quarterback Mike Gerardi more wide-open play-action options.

2. Hypothetical: your team has been selected to play in a bowl game — from which MAC-tied bowl would you like to receive an invite ?
TFF: I would say GMAC (whoops GoDaddy.com) because at least Mobile, Ala. has a chance of having a 65-degree day in Jan. (Yeah, I know it was 35 degrees at last year’s GMAC game but I froze my ass off in sub-11 wind chill in D.C.)

3. In your bowl game answer from above — what opponent (any) would you like to face and why ?
TFF: Easy. Penn State. Mike Gerardi at QB AT LEAST evens the playing field vs. Penn State and that would be a huge statement win for the program, like UCLA should have been last year. I ust hope PSU gets to six wins. (I know that’s more likely in Detroit than Mobile, so I’d go to Detroit for that matchup if I have to ….)
4. Only a few weeks remain in this season, what has to happen in the remaining games for your team to finish on an upswing / maintain / save the season / etc. ?
TFF: No injuries at the RB or QB positions especially.
5. Rank the teams in the order you expect to see them at the close of the season.

1. Temple
2. NIU
3. Ohio
4. Western Michigan
5. Ohio
6. Central Michigan
7. Kent State
8. Miami
9. Bowling Green
10. Ball State
11. Buffalo
12. Eastern Michigan
13. Akron

Mike Gerardi (14) cheers on Peanut Joseph as a bench player during last year’s UB game. Now he will take a more active role in the winning.

“I saw every play of the Temple vs. Penn State game and the only thing Temple needed to win that game was better quaterback play. I really think if Mike Gerardi played that game, they would have beaten Penn State.”
_ Doug Graber, on ESPN Plus telecast

The dictionary has two definitions for the term “missing link.”
I hadn’t heard it since I used to play full court noon-time basketball at the Doylestown YMCA about 20 years ago.
We’d always call this wild guy the missing link. He was bald, big, had a beard (kind of looked like Brian Wilson of the Giants) and was muscle-bound and would camp underneath the basket and get all the rebounds.
I haven’t really heard the term “missing link” again until Saturday.
The announcers on the TV during Temple’s 42-0 win at Buffalo, Michael Reghi and Doug Graber, kept referring to quarterback Mike Gerardi as Temple’s missing link.
I don’t think he’s bald, big or particularly muscle-bound so I had to page through my Merriam-Webster Dictionary to see what they were talking about.

It gives two definitions and I like the second one best:

1.  A theoretical primate postulated to bridge the evolutionary gap between the anthropoid apes and humans. Not in scientific use.
2.  Something lacking that is needed to complete a series.

Something lacking that is needed to complete a series.

That pretty much describes Mike Gerardi to me and what he means to Temple’s football team.

Too many series have been left on the field and, to me, the position mostly at fault was the quarterback one.

Too many interceptions.
Too many fumbles.
Too many overthrows.
Too many left plays on the field.
Not anymore.
Gerardi threw a pair of interceptions that could be forgiven today because both were right near the hands of the wide receivers and both came after Gerardi demonstrated an ability to make positive plays with the ball.
This team has so many weapons and now, for the first time all year, I feel confident that they can be used properly.
Something had been missing all year until now.
Missing link?
If your talking about the second definition of that term, I think that’s the perfect description for Mike Gerardi.