The Zapruder Film of Temple football. Don’t look, Ethel.

I haven’t been in the mood to post on any of the message boards recently.
I’m in deep mourning.
Thirty years of losing, then being sold that this year would be different, then losing to a 1AA team, will do that to an individual.
I don’t think Al Golden understood the importance of this game to Temple, its current students, alumni and fan base.
I don’t think Al Golden understood the intense dislike Temple people have for Villanova people.
I don’t think Al Golden understood if you lose this game, you lose an entire fan base (at least the much larger soft part of it, countless thousands of people who could have pushed our average past 30K) for a whole season. That’s shy of beating Penn State, which, after that latest brain cramp, is just not going to happen.
In many ways, this was a program-killer. When the story of this program is written, it could include a chapter on redemption, about a win in front of 106,000 people at Penn State that started something big or it could begin and end with five turnovers.
The Zapruder Film of Temple football could be that bullet-to-the-head field goal that we allowed by playing a prevent defense in the final seconds.
Call it The Single Field Goal Theory.
I will always support the program, me and the 15,000 die-hards.
But I won’t sugarcoat the truth.
I just won’t.
The plain truth is me and the 15,000 die-hards are not enough to keep it running.
We are running out of “next years” because decisions on things like conference affiliations are being made now and will largely be determined by attendance.
You need big wins to fuel the attendance engine.
You need to protect your own house.
Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Kent, Fake Miami, just ain’t going to cut it.
Not in this market.
That’s why the Villanova game was so important.
Play the game, Al, but win the game.
As Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo used to rant to Mike Francesa on WFAN when those two were the No. 1 tandem in all of talk radio, “Win The Game, Mikey … WIN … THE … GAME!!!”
Win the game, Al.
WIN … THE … GAME!
OK, I understand about the minus-4 turnover ratio. I understand all of that.
But Al Golden could have done things proactively to turn that stat around.
That’s why I’ll never understand why our linebackers weren’t unleashed on Villanova. Blitz left, blitz right, blitz up the middle.

Every one of our linebackers is faster, significantly faster, than Villanova quarterback Chris Whitney. There is no doubt in my mind if the blitz was a big part of our defensive package, we would have been able to put Whitney down 10 times and not just five. We might have jarred a couple of balls loose in Villanova territory. We might have scored a defensive touchdown or two.
We WOULD have won the game. There’s no doubt in my mind.
Put him on his ass, hit him enough times, and watch that turnover ratio and field position swing in our favor.
This is not second-guessing. It’s first-guessing.
Page down to a post or two below.
There it is in bold typeface with a gold background posted prior to the game: TEMPLE’S NO. 1 PRIORITY SHOULD BE GETTING TO THE QUARTERBACK. I guess I didn’t make that big or bold enough.
I was buttonholed by an older gentleman, I’ll call him Joe, on the way out.
He was walking with another older gentleman.
The other guy told him, “Don’t worry, Joe. We’ve got 11 games left to play.”
Joe was inconsolable.
“I don’t care about those other games. This is the game I wanted to win. You can have all the Akrons and Northern Illinois you want. This is the game I wanted. I’m not coming back.”
“I hear you, bro,” I said.
“Then you understand,” Joe said, nodding his head vigorously. “You understand.”
Joe isn’t alone.
The sad truth is that you can lose to Penn State, go 10-2 and win the MAC and a good chunk of Philadelphia will say, “Yeah, but they couldn’t beat Villanova. The MAC sucks. Who cares?”
I care, but I doubt anyone other than the die-hards care and that’s why this loss was a program-killer in many ways.
We’ve already lost our house.
All we have left is the car.
Anyone want to roll the dice for double-or-nothing with Penn State?

Plenty of good seats now available:

I was just working out some math equations in my head.
Hmm, what does 27,854 plus 1 equal?
Oh, I’d say about 30,632.
What does 27,854 minus one equal?
Probably around 8,000.
Fuzzy math?
No, just some figures based on observing the very fragile Temple football fan base over the last 30 or so years.
Expect the crowd for Temple’s game against Buffalo when it comes back from an expected Penn State beat-down to be around 8,000. That’s where the minus 1 comes in … 27,854 fans minus one must-win, equals 8,000.
Had the Owls beaten Villanova and gave a decent effort in a loss at Penn State, they would have drawn 30,632 for the Buffalo game, which arguably is the most important on their schedule.
I know that.
You probably know that.
Tell that to the 20,000 or so Temple students who believed last night, but no longer do after a 27-24 loss to Villanova.
You could hear the refrain coming out of the stadium.
“Same old Temple,” the kids were saying.
And they were OUR students, not Nova’s.
Can you blame them?
Until Al Golden beats a team with a winning record (and the last time I checked he hasn’t as a HEAD coach), he’s all talk, no substance.
Back on Feb. 4, I wrote that I was worried about this game because Andy Talley, quite frankly, is a better game coach than Al Golden.
I thought it didn’t matter because Golden had the talent edge to Talley’s game-coaching edge.
I was right in both cases.

Talley is the better game coach and Golden had the better talent.
I was wrong about the edge part. Talley’s football acumen far surpasses Golden’s. Edge should not have been an operative word.
What good does it do if you have advantage in a chess match and you can’t finish it off by making the proper moves?
Talley made the proper moves and Golden didn’t.
I wrote here last week that “Temple’s No. 1 priority should be getting to the quarterback.”
A freaking blind man could see that.

Al Golden couldn’t. If that’s Mark D’Onofrio’s fault, he’s got to get in Mark’s face and say, “bring the house.” That’s what the head coach is for.
If you can’t get to the quarterback bringing four or five, bring six.
If you can’t get to the quarterback bringing six, bring seven.
If you can’t get to the quarterback bringing seven, bring eight.
You get the idea.
Temple brought four or five most of the night.
The last time I checked, this is not the North-South All-Star game.
They do allow you to blitz.
Chris Whitney made them pay.
The defensive side of the ball is not the only area where the guys with the headsets on came up small.
The Owls have a career linebacker, Matt Rhule, as an offensive coordinator and that’s probably why their offense has no imagination.
At least George DeLeone, a lifelong offensive mind, pulled out the handoff to Tim Brown, pitch back to Adam DiMichele and bomb to Travis Shelton for six against Bowling Green.

Bruce Arians had Matty Baker also throw a pair of long-bomb flea-flickers to Mike Palys for a couple of scores in a 45-28 win over Boston College two decades ago. Arians, the offensive coordinator of the Super Bowl champs, knows his stuff. Might be a good idea for Rhule to take a page or two or 12 out of his Temple book.
When backup quarterback Chester Stewart lined up in the slot, I thought, “Great, we’re going to TRY at least one throwback pass.”
Nothing.
Meanwhile, Talley tries a reverse that goes for 28 yards and his offensive plays had a sophistication far above any package Matt Rhule threw out there.
What we’ve seen in two years is a 28-24 lead against Buffalo with 38 seconds to go, a 6-0 fourth-quarter lead against Uconn, a 27-7 fourth-quarter lead against Navy and a 24-14 lead against Villanova and losses in all three games. It can’t be the kids’ fault all the time.
Just once, I’d like to hear Al Golden say, “I screwed up. I take full responsibility.”
Instead, he throws Kee-ayre Griffin under the bus after the Navy game and now throws the kids who fumbled and tossed INTs under the bus last night, saying the story of the game “begins and ends” with the five turnovers.
The buck has to stop somewhere else. I, like Golden, love playing this game. You have to win it, though.
Golden can’t go out there and hold onto the ball and throw to the right person, sure.
But he can put those kids in a better position to win.
That’s what Talley has done for nearly 20 years at Villanova and that’s why Villanova has a win Temple needed more.

Cherry Crusaders showed up in force to support Owls vs. PSU two years ago. All indications are they will take it to a much higher level against ‘Nova.

By Mike Gibson
Checked my twitter account the other day and noted that “The Cherry Crusade” is now following my tweets.
Geez, I don’t tweet that much (I’m just getting used to the whole thing) but I could not have been more honored if Bill Cosby had become a follower (he hasn’t, but I’m following him).
I checked and The Cherry Crusade is the official tweet site of the loud and organized Temple rooting section of the same name.
The Cherry Crusade, by all accounts, has done a spectacular job mobilizing the students for Thursday night’s game against Villanova. An army of about 20,000 students reportedly already have tickets in hand.

Looks like our readers have nailed Thursday’s attendance ….
Final results of poll:
Since 22K tickets have already been sold, your best guess on TU-VU attendance:

22-25K 24 (12%)

25-27K 28 (14%)

28-30K 39 (20%)

31-32K 42 (21%)

33-39K 34 (17%)

40-45K 15 (7%)

45K plus 12 (6%)

Votes so far: 194
Poll closed

The Cherry Crusade is the organized rooting section that usually numbers in the high single-digit thousands for Temple home football games.
That’s usually.
Thursday won’t be anything near usual and could be the start of something really big.
In the last four days, the Liacouras Center ticket office has been beseiged by long lines of Temple students purchasing their discounted tickets for the Villanova game.
Each day, the lines got longer at the Broad Street entrance.
It’s spreading in a good way like the 1918 flu spread in a bad way.
You walk by and hear one student say to the other, “What’s the long line for?”
“They are getting tickets to the game Thursday night,” the other kid will say.
“I’ve got to go, too, then.”
One post on Owlscoop.com mentioned millions of Temple students have lined up for tickets.
Millions is an exaggeration.
High thousands isn’t.
“I’d say around 20,000 (students), give or take about a thousand each way,” someone in the know emailed me this morning. “We’re looking at 10K Temple alumni and about 5K Villanova fans for a grand total of about 35K, if all goes well.”
I’m stunned, but in a very proud way.
I come from an era where Temple students didn’t cheer and didn’t get involved in extra-curricular activities.
You took the bus or subway to school, went to class, put out the Temple News and went to work. Maybe only 1,000 lived on or near campus. Now, according to the university’s official website, 12,000 students live on or near campus and those students are Owls to the very core.
“Temple has a large and loud student section,” a poster named UConnJack87 wrote on the Boneyard website last year. “The game was played in a Hurricane and I’d estimate that several sections of students alone stood and cheered the whole game. I didn’t expect that.”
Similar positive posts appeared on MAC websites about the nationally televised game with Ohio.
These students not only stand the whole game, they are loud, their cheers are funny and imaginative and, largely thanks to an ex-football player named Cap Poklemba, appropriate to the game situation at hand.
They are truly the Owls’ 12th man.
What a difference from 20, 30 years ago.
Back in the day, you went to the games, sure, but you always wondered where the other students were.
Temple kids no longer have to wonder that anymore. The entire 12,000 kids who live on campus now apparently are going to the game Thursday night.
Throw in a few thousand of the commuters who want to have a total college experience and you have something big happening Thursday night.
Real big.
Thanks, Cherry Crusaders.
May you all cheer so loud Thursday night that you won’t be able to speak Friday morning.
That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.
I plan to have the same kind of worn-out vocal cords, too.
Hell is coming here, Villanova fans ….

Villanova is ranked No. 2 in the country.

Thursday night should be spectacular.

By Mike Gibson
I’m going to make a confession that’ll probably get me beat up in the parking lot by my fellow Temple fans a couple of hours before Thursday night’s game will Villanova.
I like Villanova football.
Villanova basketball, not so much (because of Rollie Massimino).
Villanova football, I like.
I always have.
When I was deciding to pick a team, I was 8 years old and lived in Southwest Philadelphia. My dearly departed father (Nov. 5), a Villanova grad who worked seven days a week, gave me two tokens to take the 13 trolley to watch Penn play.
Today, an 8-year-old kid riding the trolley alone would be big news on Regis and Kelly.
Back then, it happened all the time.
I later talked him into giving me tokens for the Red Arrow line to watch Villanova play and, somewhat after that, more tokens for more buses to get up to Mt. Airy to watch Temple play.

I loved watching those teams. Don Clune and Billy Creeden were my favorite Penn players. Darryl Woodring and Mike Siani were my favorite Villanova players. I liked Joe Mesko and Skip Singletary at Temple.
I finally told my dad that Temple was the only school thinking big-time football of the three and I was going to support Temple’s efforts to bring big-time football to Philadelphia and I was becoming a Temple fan because of coach Wayne Hardin.
But I always liked Penn and rooted for Villanova as well.
I’d still rather watch Penn and Villanova if Temple’s not playing than Georgia or Florida or Texas. Those areas have never meant anything to me.
I probably will root for Villanova again, after 10 p.m. or so on Thursday night in the parking lot at the when I’m drinking a few victory Diet Pepsi’s (I don’t drink and drive).
I will hate it between 7-10, though, and wish I was Adrian Robinson of all Owls that night.
Or maybe Muhammad “Big Mo” Wilkerson or nose tackle Andre Neblett or even Elisha Joseph at the other end. Big Mo is 6-5, 301, Elisha is 6-3, 275. Andre is 6-2, 230.
I’m settling on Robinson, though. In order to win, Temple’s No. 1 priority should be getting to the quarterback.
Robinson is the “rush” defensive end, the MVP of the Big 33 game two years ago. The sophomore is mean as hell and runs a 4.46 40-yard dash. He’ll be coming at Villanova quarterback Chris Whitney from the blind side. I expect him to cause a lot of havoc when Whitney goes back to pass. I expect Big Mo and Andre and Elisha to help him collapse the pocket.
I won’t actually BE Adrian Robinson (good for Temple, because I’m 5-6, 180 and run an 8.7) but I will BE the guy yelling “BALL!!! …. BALL!!! …” from the stands the moment AR pops Whitney in the back and the ball comes free.
When the pocket collapses as it should on a regular basis, I expect Amara Kamara, John Haley, Alex Joesph and Elijah Joseph to join in the party and pick up loose balls, pick off tipped balls and take them back the other way.
That’s something DBs Anthony Ferla, Dominique Harris, Jaiquain Jarrett and Marquise Liverpool have to be thinking about, too _ jumping routes and picking off balls.
A good coach always puts himself in the shoes of the other coach.
If I were Andy Talley, how would I attack Temple?
Probably not on straight runs against a team that big and strong with that kind of run support. Probably not with deep passes because I couldn’t protect my quarterback long enough for those routes to develop.
If I were Talley, I’d go to a lot of quick outs and see if I can dink and dunk my way down the field, shorten the game and hang around for three quarters.
I think that’s just what he’ll do, him being crafty and all.
I like Talley and I like Villanova football.
I just don’t like them for three hours Thursday night, not against that defense and with only one option to attack it.
Temple, 34-13.

I’m struck by how many Owl players got “most impressive in camp” as judged by their fellow Owls.

2009 updated Temple Football Depth Chart for Villanova game

Please support these great players and outstanding young men representing our university by going to the games and cheering your head off. Click on the game logo for tickets.

Temple’s permanent locker room at Lincoln Financial Field

Photo by Dave Gerson

By Mike Gibson
Can’t talk about 2009 Temple Football Fan Fest without first talking about the 2008 version of Temple Football Fan Fest.
Last year’s TFFF came on Aug. 20. I remember that date because I did a doubleheader.
Fan Fest late afternoon, followed by Phillies game at night.
First, though, I heard Don Tollefson on my radio.

Don Tollefson and Jim Gardner back in the day.

I know his wife is an Archbishop Ryan and Temple grad, like myself, so I picked up my cell phone, called 950 ESPN and told the producer I wanted to talk Phillies.
(That’s the only way a Temple football call gets on sports radio in this town, fool the producers, but I digress.)
I did talk Phillies.
Kind of.
“Don, I’m headed down to the Phillies, but first I’m going to stop off at Temple Football Fan Fest,” I said.
“Wow,” Tolley said. “Al Golden is doing a great job with those Owls.”
“Yeah, I’m a Temple grad and an Archbishop Ryan grad,” I said.
“Double wow,” Tolley said. “You have like no degrees of separation with my beautiful wife.”

Tolley and I then went on to talk for 10 minutes about Temple football and how they were going to spank Army in the opener.
The university couldn’t have paid enough money for that positive airtime.
Oh yeah.
I never got around to my Phillies point.
Didn’t matter.
What Fan Fest really is, or is designed to be, is to get Temple some positive press and mention in media that it normally gets neglected by, places like Comcast and sports talk radio.
If it alerted thousands of people to the game and energized the fan base, it was a success.
The biggest news coming out of this year’s Fan Fest was that Vaughn Charlton was named the starter at quarterback, but I had that on this website last week.
Didn’t make this year’s Fan Fest because of an inner ear infection, but 3,000 of my fellow Owl fans did and they got to see the beautiful facility the Owls have.
No other college football team in America plays in a better stadium.
None.
Now it’s high time for Owl fans to fill that stadium and make it a real house of horrors for opposing teams.
Starting in about one week.

Vaughn Chartlon was strong in the pocket against PSU two years ago.
By Mike Gibson
Al Golden said it was a good problem to have.
“We have two Division I quarterbacks that’s the hardest thing to find in college football,” he said. “I really don’t know who we’re going to pick at this point. The competition is that close.”
You would assume that Golden was talking about Vaughn Charlton and Chester Stewart.
No, that quote was about Vaughn Charlton and someone else.
Chris Coyer?
No.
Mike Gerardi?
Try again.
The young man Golden was talking about was named Adam DiMichele.
About this time two years ago, Golden agonized and agonized and finally gave the nod to DiMichele.
“That doesn’t mean Vaughn isn’t going to play,” Golden said at the time. “We have two really good options so this isn’t bad, it’s good.”
The rest became history.

Don’t miss the beginning of The Vaughn Charlton Era at Temple. Click on the game logo above for really cheap tickets

Yesterday, Charlton completed a second knock-down, drag-out, battle for the quarterback job, this time with Chester Stewart and this time he came out on top.
The announcement will be made on Tuesday at Fan Fest, but you read it here first.
Yesterday, Charlton was seen leaving a meeting with the coaches and Stewart, with a big smile and shaking hands.
It’s been well-documented here that DiMichele was my favorite player at Temple, maybe in the last 20 years. He deserved to go to a bowl game, but injuries robbed him of that opportunity. There were so many intangibles to like about DiMichele. It seemed every time the Owls had a 3d and 8, DiMichele would will those sticks to move by ducking out of a rush and picking up nine yards.
There’s much to like about Charlton, too. Maybe there will be less 3d and 8s with Vaughn because he’ll move the sticks at first and second downs.
Let’s hope so.
People forget that Vaughn was thisclose to putting a whole lot of points up on the board against Penn State two years ago. He got one TD pass dropped, another called back on a bogus holding call and a third fouled up due to a dropped double-reverse.
None were his fault.
(Heck, add to that dropped INTs by Alex Joseph and Omar McDonnnaugh-Hales in the PSU offensive backfield and Temple might have won that game.)
People forget how close that competition was with DiMichele two years ago.
Vaughn has already proven to be a terrific team leader who has taken freshman sensation Chris Coyer under his wing.
“He’s a great athlete and just a another example of a tremendous quarterback Temple is bringing in,” Charlton said. “I’m going to be his roommate and I look forward to getting to know him.”

The maturity and team leadership in that quote was staggering.
He comes from a great family, has a super and supportive dad who sits behind me in the lower bowl and cheers with the rest of us (unlike those people who sit on their hands in the club seats).
I like how eager Vaughn is to take over this time.
“You’re The Man next year,” I said to Vaughn in the parking lot after a game last year.
“I can’t wait, sir,” Vaughn said, shaking my hand.
Vaughn and Temple fans will now have only a few days to wait before he finally takes over.
Here’s one guy who hopes Vaughn turns that Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard into an adding machine.

In case you want an early start the questions are:
1)Tyler Sheehan and Freddie Barnes are simply lighting up the stat sheet, the record book, and the scoreboard. Is it a slap in the face that Barnes isn’t being mentioned for some major postseason hardware? If you were the MAC commissioner, what sort of things would you do to ensure our student athletes get the national attention they deserve?

TFF: Nothing could be done now, I believe. Really, work for a better TV package in the near future. Offer ESPN or even Versus a Thursday night Game of the Week. That’s how I became a big MAC fan long before Temple got involved with the league.

2.) We’ve reached midseason, so take a moment and talk about how your team has either lived up to expectations or ridiculously underperformed. What sort of grade would you give your beloved program if you were asked to sort of give them a midsemester progress report?

TFF: Kinda thought the team would be right where it is, without the loss to Villanova. Also thought the team would have trouble scoring points without a playmaker at quarterback (that’s why I pushed for them to sign an All-American JUCO to no avail) and that could bite them in the butt this Saturday when they need points at Toledo.

3.) This weekend’s Pillow Fight features winless Ball State venturing to winless Eastern Michigan. Who loses this game? Do you see them winning any other game this year, or is the loser virtually guaranteed 0-12?

TFF: Saw both teams and I think Ball State is about 10-15 points better than EMU so I would be surprised if that game doesn’t shake down that way.

4.) There are 4 teams right now with above a .500 overall record, and a whole host of teams either right at .500 or a game under. The odds of most of these teams getting Bowl eligible is fairly good, which means the odds of someone getting snubbed is equally high. Which team do you see getting snubbed and being left home for the Holidays? What are your thoughts on the current Bowl structure, the tie-ins, or the MAC affiliations?

TFF: I don’t really have a feel for that, other than I believe only one team goes from the East and two from the West.

5.) In terms of general college football and away from the MAC… we’re halfway through the season. What team’s have surprised you the most for overperforming? Underperforming? Which two teams do you foresee playing for the giant crystal football?

TFF: I thought Tim Hiller would have a better season, so that’s underperforming. As a team, all I heard in pre-season was how many injuries and true freshmen NIU had, so I thought they’d struggle but obviously Kill is a great coach, so that’s overperforming.
6.) MAC Power Poll 1-13
1. CMU
2. WMU
3. Toledo
4. NIU
5. Temple
6. Ohio
7. BGSU
8. Buffalo
9. Kent
10. Akron
11. Ball STate
12. Miami
13. Eastern Michigan

The Philadelphia pro sports media took a time out (exactly 3 minutes, 29 seconds worth) to recognize the Temple vs. Villanova game this morning by interviewing both Villanova coach Andy Talley and Temple coach Al Golden.

Laugh at the people waiting in long lines at the ticket windows 9/3 by getting your tickets now:

Click on the game logo above for really cheap tickets

Between the seemingly 50 minutes every hour covering the Eagles (and nine minutes on the Phillies), it’s refreshing that at least one local media outlet recognized that there was another attractive sports entertainment option out there.
It was really the first good look at the Mayor’s Cup fans got so far.
Not the World Series Trophy, but a nice-looking piece of hardware.
Hopefully, come next Cherry and White Day, it will be on display at the E-O.