Category Archives: Uncategorized

12.19.18
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Temple HC Pick: A Cautionary Tale

rhulediaco

Sometimes coordinators (left) work out, sometimes (right) they don’t.

From reading the reaction all across the country about Temple’s recent hire of Manny Diaz as head coach, one might think that the deal is a slam dunk for Temple.

As New York sports talk personality Mike Francesa said on his WFAN show Monday about the New York Jets next hire, no coordinator slipping into a head coaching job is ever a slam dunk.

6155a-hardin

Wayne Hardin was the only slam dunk hire in Temple history but top 10 head coaches don’t go to G5 schools these days.

“I don’t want any more coordinators,” Francesa said. “A coordinator is never a sure thing. Really, there’s no sure thing but at least with a head coach you have a track record of what they’ve done as a head coach.”

Francesa is not always right, but his logic on coordinators taking over head coaching jobs is irrefutable and provides a cautionary tale for Temple right now.

At most … most … Temple’s hiring of Diaz can be considered a layup and layups have been missed in the past.

Really, the only “slam dunk” Temple had was Wayne Hardin and that could not have been surprising. When Hardin came to Temple, he had just come off a professional football championship with the Continental League–a league competing with the fledgling AFL–for the Philadelphia Bulldogs. Prior to that, he had Navy ranked No. 2 in the country and coached two Heisman Trophy winners.

He was the real deal.

There are no slam dunks at Temple anymore and none, really, nearby.

A head coach and a coordinator are two separate jobs. Just because someone is a great produce manager at the local supermarket does not mean he’s cut out to run the whole store.

There are plenty of examples of it not working out on the college football level, either.

In fact, you don’t have to go very far from the center of Temple’s campus to point to three missed layups. You could put a protractor in the middle of Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue and draw a 200-mile circle around it and come up with these recent examples.

WISCONSIN ATHLETIC DIRECTOR BARRY ALVAREZ ON RUTGERS HIRING CHRIS ASH:

“Chris did a great job for us at Wisconsin and has been successful at every stop he’s made as an assistant. I was always impressed with his preparation and the way he motivated his players. He’s ready to be a head coach. I think Chris is a great fit for Rutgers.”

Ash’s record at Rutgers: 7-29

NOTRE DAME LINEBACKER CARLO CALABRESE ON UCONN HIRING BOB DIACO:

“He will bring a winning attitude to the team and we will bring in winning people to the team and just all around winning mentality to the  He will do whatever it takes to that. I think he will do a great job as head coach there.”

Diaco’s head coaching record at UConn: 11-26.

FLORIDA ATHLETIC DIRECTOR JEREMY FOLEY ON MARYLAND HIRING D.J. DURKIN:

“D.J. is one of the bright young minds in the coaching profession. He is a great teacher, recruiter and has a deep passion for the game and helping young men develop both on and off the field. He did a wonderful job while here at the University of Florida. Everyone here loved working with D.J. He is a winner.”

Not so fast. Durkin exited Maryland with an 11-15 record and a bad scandal involving the death of a player.

It’s a little easier to predict success for a guy who has done it all of his life with the clipboard in his hands. Handing the reins of a program over to guys who have had terrific success with the headsets on is not a slam dunk as Rutgers, UConn and Maryland have learned.

While Temple has been lucky in hiring coordinators under two different athletic directors, expecting Temple to be successful using this same kind of formula forever is tempting fate. All Temple has to do is look at some of its neighbors. The one program that hired a successful head coach, Penn State, is thriving. The others not so much.

Right now, Diaz is ahead of the pack and looks like a layup but finishing the play will determine if he scores and the scoreboard always tells the true tale.

Ask the guys coaching schools not all that far away.

Friday: The Latest

11.18.18
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Getting The Job Done

Going into Saturday, the Temple football team had one job to do.

Win. The. Game.

They didn’t have to look pretty doing it, like they did in a 49-6 win over East Carolina a month ago. They didn’t have to even cover the spread.

  • Cherry helmets are 4-0 this year and 22-7 since the start of 2015

They just had to win the game.

It wasn’t pretty and it didn’t cover the spread and the offensive coordinator and his enabler did some more head-scratching things in a head-scratching season, but the defense and Isaiah Wright bailed the Owls out again and Temple won 27-17.

Meanwhile, they lost about 10,000 potential season-ticket holders with heart ailments because if this trend continues into next year, the doctors will write a prescription to watch the home games on television instead.

The main head-scratcher was giving Ryquell Armstead no support in the running game. Last week, the Owls gave Armstead a caravan of blockers in the form of tight ends and H-backs in motion. This time, they fell back into old habits by lining him up in an otherwise empty backfield and asked him to try to beat 11 guys all by himself.

Worse, this is the first time since the Rutgers’ game of 2013 that the Owls went to a shotgun on fourth and less than a yard.

Just like that Rutgers’ game, they did not get the yard on a handoff out of the shotgun. You learn in Geometry 101 that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and there was no reason to line up quarterback Anthony Russo in a shotgun. Armstead following 6-1, 330-pound Freddy Booth-Lloyd was the higher percentage call in that down and distance situation followed by a handoff to Freddy Love himself or even a sneak by your 6-foot-5 quarterback. If you go shotgun with inches to go, at least make a pass part of the option. You are only helping out the defense by running out of a shotgun.

The Sainted Wayne Hardin said that many times. There is a reason why he is in the College Football Hall of Fame and Dave Patenaude is not.

The lowest percentage call is what the Owls went with and that was a deep handoff against an overloaded defense.

That seems to be the new normal for Temple offensive football, though. Figure things out one week, then lapse into old habits the next.

Fortunately, the Owls are going to a bowl and probably will win eight regular-season games but you get the nagging suspicion that this season could have gone much better with a more disciplined and focused offensive approach.

That’s a job for another day, though.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

Thursday: Opposing Fans

Saturday: The Answer Right Underneath Our Noses

10.22.18
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Fizzy’s Corner: Russo is the real deal

capture

Temple fans react to the game-winning touchdown. Don’t know what the person with the sunglasses (lower right) is looking at, though.

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub is a former Temple player and later, an educator, teacher, coach, and writer. His thoughts on Temple games appear periodically in this space.

weinraub

                     By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Sometimes the football gods even things out.  We played mediocre football for 57 minutes and 15 seconds, but then came back to win the game.  You should have taped the game because, based on performance, it was maybe the unlikeliest win in the last sixty years.   Cincy missed three field goals or the game would have never gone to overtime.  Kudos to our defense.  In the overtime, Cincy choked.  There was the snap before everyone was ready, and then the penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.  Game over!

For the first 57 minute and 15 seconds, watching Dave Patenaude call offensive plays was like watching an elephant dance with Royal Ballet.  Not that my friends are highbrow, but some couldn’t watch anymore and left with 5 minutes left in regulation.

 Anthony Russo looks to be the real deal with a big, accurate arm.  Our receivers are long and fast and very difficult to cover.  This team is a big play team and should be coached that way.  Throw the hell out of the ball from the get-go.

Other thoughts:

  1. With first and goal (the first time) – the first two plays were up-the-gut.
  2. With first and goal (the second time) – the first play was up-the-gut.
  3. A little later in the first quarter, with a first and fifteen, up-the-gut.
  4. At the end of the first half, we call a timeout to get the ball back with time on the clock and then run the ball the first two plays.  Cincy then had time to go downfield but missed the field goal.
  5. Every first down from the beginning of the second half until 9:57 left in the game was a running play.

Is it any wonder Cincy was blitzing inside the tackles on first and second down?  I know they saw that upstairs because they started to pitch outside.  Why didn’t Patenaude roll out or bootleg Russo, or have him run some RPO’s?  By the way, we rushed for a total of 80 yards on 30 carries. Do the math.   Also, we were stubbornly trying to run without Ryquell Armstead, our premier runner.  (Gee, was he injured or something?)

  1. In the fourth quarter, Russo quickly brings us downfield to another first and goal and he’s hot.  So coach Patenaude takes him out and puts Centeio in so he can run the ball.  When he comes in, everyone knows he’s going to run the ball.  Why can’t Russo run a keeper on first down where there would be deception?
  2. Then, there’s a slow developing reverse pass.  Well, that’s a beautiful play at midfield where there’s room for the receivers to get open, but not at the goal line.
  3. Two of Russo’s three interceptions, were seemingly miscommunications with the receiver, as was one last week.  What in the world is going on?
  4. Coach Collins gets called for a 15-yard penalty for losing his cool; unnecessary!

Yes, I know, I should be grateful for the win and not be such a wise ass.  But this is big-time college football and our coaches are getting paid a lot of money.  They need to earn it.  You and I are not disloyal if our constructive criticism brings improvement.

With better coaching, our woulda, coulda, shoulda record might be 7 – 1, or even 8 – 0.

Tomorrow: 5 Things That Should Be Addressed on Bye Week

Thursday: Shallow Owl

Saturday: Around The AAC

Monday: Game Week

Wednesday: UCF Preview

10.06.18
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Picks For Amusement Only (until Nov. 1)

parx

Comedy is moving out of Parx 360 Lounge and serious sports gambling is moving into the room.

It’s a good thing Parx Casino’s 360 lounge won’t open until Nov. 1 for college football betting.

We would have taken a figurative bath there last week, going 2-3 overall and, more importantly, 1-4 against the spread. We lost when Louisiana Tech (and Skip Holtz) upset North Texas, Northern Illinois beat Eastern Michigan and Middle Tennessee State nipped Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic squad. The Texas State game that was listed on our schedule was not played.

tailgating

Tailgating at 7:30 this morning should be cloudy but rain-free.

Purdue and North Carolina State won overall as we predicted, but the Wolfpack covered against Virginia so we sit at 7-4 overall, 6-5 for the season.

No matter. When sports betting comes, having that little bit of knowledge is better odds than playing the lottery.

One of the fun things about college football is seeing how you do against the spread so we’re back to another six-pack (that is, for amusement only until Nov. 1). Our picks in boldface:

OLD DOMINION (getting 15) at Florida Atlantic _ The Monarchs not only beat Virginia Tech but gave a good ECU team a tough time in a 37-35 loss. FAU is good, but not 15 points better good. FAU, 24-17.

MARYLAND (getting 17.5) at Michigan _ This is the Temple effect. People think that because Maryland lost to Temple that Maryland must not be any good. I’m still clinging to the hope that Temple will turn out to be very good. Maryland also beat Texas and a good Minnesota team. They will take Michigan into the fourth quarter. Michigan, 34-24.

ILLINOIS (giving 3.5) at Rutgers _ Lovie Smith has a lot of experience head coach. Chris Ash is the epitome of the saying that hiring an assistant coach is a crapshoot and might be the Bob Diaco of the Big 10. Illinois, 31-10.

SAN DIEGO STATE (getting 15) at Boise State _ The Broncos just squeak this one out, 28-24.

LOUISIANA TECH (giving 9) vs. UAB _ Holtz is not only a decent head coach, but he also has coordinators with Power 5 experience (which Temple cannot say). Could be the difference here. La. Tech, 41-19.

NAVY (giving 3.5) at Air Force _ Service academies have two of the top 10 head coaches in the country. Unfortunately for the Falcons, both take part in the Army-Navy game. Navy, 51-35.

Record: Last week 2-3 overall, 1-4 against the spread

Season Overall: 7-4

Season ATS: 6-5

Tomorrow: Temple game analysis

 

 

 

 

09.22.18
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AAC: Separating Wheat From Chaff

darkside

Unless Dave Patenaude returns to the blocking H-back look shown against Maryland, the darkside defense is going to have to score twice every game for Temple to have a chance at a league title.

There is an old saying in farming about separating the wheat from the chaff. It means to sort the valuable from the worthless and refers to the ancient practice of winnowing the grain.

Over the years, the saying has been applied to sports teams and today will be the first one we will be able to start to sort the AAC wheat from the chaff.

slimpickings

My guess is that the two teams that played Thursday night,  Temple and Tulsa, are in the upper half of the league simply because how Tulsa hung with Texas and Temple hammered a team that beat Texas. The Longhorns are a legitimate squad and we think Maryland will cover the 3 today against a halfway decent Minnesota team.

Pretty sure I can’t say the same for any other AAC teams with the possible exception of UCF, USF,  Cincy, Memphis and Navy.

dogsofwar
History shows if the Owls go with the middle uniform here, they are more likely to win than not

All of the other AAC teams might be inferior to Temple and Tulsa.

So what can we learn from today’s games?

Cincy is an eight-point favorite over Ohio, with Tulane a 36-point underdog to Ohio State and USF a 22.5 favorite over ECU. Memphis is a  29-point favorite over  South Alabama. Of those games, I would only lay the eight on Cincy. The others are too close to call. To me, taking the 29 points and South Alabama is a pretty good bet.

Last night, UCF looked great in a big win over an underrated Lane Kiffin FAU squad. This could be the kind of a year where everyone gets behind UCF and hopes for second place. Still, McKenzie Milton is one hit away from opening it up for the rest of the league.

After today, Temple, Memphis, Navy, Cincy and USF are jockeying for those spots. We should learn just a little bit more after the completion of the slate today and even more next week.

Monday: What We’ve Learned

Wednesday: BC-TU Is Dripping in Irony

Friday: BC Preview

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.17.18
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Maryland: Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde

hyde

Editor’s Note: Fizz checks in on his thoughts about the Maryland game.

By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

In the original story, a lawyer named Gabriel Utterson investigates the prominent physician Dr. Jekyll, who transforms into the murderous Mr. Hyde.  In this version of the story, I will take the place of lawyer Utterson.  The dual personalities of Jekyll and Hyde will be played by Dave Patenaude, the Temple offensive coordinator.

power

Utterson (to Inspector Hodges):

“It was most remarkable. During the first three offensive possessions, Mr. Hyde was running the offense.  It was the same old Broad Street Offense… handoffs up-the-gut on first down, followed by straight passes with no fakes from an open backfield.  When the passes failed, it was up-the-gut on third and long.

Hodges (to Utterson):

“Then what happened?”

Utterson:

“From what I heard, there was a timeout and Mr. Hyde went to the men’s room. When he came back to the coaches’ box, he was most composed and dapper.  He’d morphed into Dr. Jekyll, and the offense was completely different.  All of a sudden there was deception in the backfield.  Receivers and running backs were going in motion and coming back to QB before the snap, sometimes getting the ball and sometimes faking. There were even tight-end screens and the defense didn’t know what was happening.  Then, QB Russo started to roll out which gave him plenty of time to  look downfield and throw very accurate passes (except for the time when he looked directly at his receiver doing a sideline pattern and was intercepted for a pick six.)   Amazingly, I saw what may be the best offensive call in Temple’s history.* On a fourth and two, Temple ran a fake punt and a reserve QB threw a touchdown pass that changed the game.”

Hodges:

“Wow!  Was that all?”

Utterson:

“Not by any means.  Russo threw a touchdown pass on a designed play where the wideout broke to the sideline and jumped up and down drawing his man and the safety. Meanwhile, the tight end ran a stop and go and was wide open down the sideline.  This is the first time since this new coaching staff took over last year, that we’ve seen imaginative and deceptive play design.”

Hodges:

“So it was a cake walk after that?”

Utterson:

“Unfortunately, no!  It was really strange.  There was a TV timeout with six minutes left in the third quarter, and Dr. Jekyll’s assistant left the booth.  When he came back, he was so startled he had to change his shorts because Mr. Hyde was once more looking at the field.  Everything then reverted back to the Broad Street Offense.  It seems that Mr. Hyde was once more playing not to lose.  Two of the most curious play calls occurred on third and on long, deep in Maryland’s territory.   On both occasions, he ran his famous up-the-gut play for no gain, and I thought he was trying to set-up a field goal.  But no, he then threw deep from a straight drop-back on fourth down.”

Hodges:

“So what clinched the game?”

Utterson:

“Well, again it was weird.  Maybe Mr. Hyde rubbed off some on the defense which had played so aggressively and outstandingly to that point and not allowed any points.  The defense seemed to relax a little, used some three-man rushes, and Maryland began to be effective with both the run and the pass. The game was saved from being a nail-biter by linebacker Bradley who had an 83-yard interception return for a touchdown.”

Hodges:

“So what’s your conclusion in regards to the coaching staff?”

Utterson:

“Inspector, if you arrest Mr. Hyde and lock him in the basement of Conwell Hall, perhaps this coaching staff will finally learn to be aggressive at all times.”

* This author made mention that the fake punt on fourth and two was possibly the best offensive call in Temple’s history.   Undoubtedly, the worst call was when I was handed the ball against Delaware in 1959, and lost three yards.

Tomorrow: What We’ve Learned

 

 

 

09.15.18
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A Game Between The Lines and Ears

collinscall

“Bruce, I know you are doing commentary on the NFL, but I need an offensive coordinator”

It’s hard to imagine Temple playing a more confident team than Maryland today (noon start, Big 10 network).

It’s also hard to imagine Maryland playing a team whose confidence is more shaken than the Owls.

Between the ears sometimes means as much as between the lines and this could be one of those games.

If this game was played on Aug. 15 (the night of the season ticket-holder party at Temple), the roles might have been reversed. Maryland was dealing with a death in the program and a subsequent scandal that cost them a head coach (D.J. Durkin) who might be gone forever. Temple was coming off a convincing bowl win and five wins in its last seven games.

predictions

One program looked in disarray and another looked like it had its act together.

Fast forward a month to the day and the roles are completely reversed.

The Temple kids—essentially the same players who won the bowl game—had to watch as their coaching staff had them ill-prepared to play two inferior opponents. In the opener against Villanova, this same coaching staff completely disregarded the film of the year prior because it knew what Villanova was going to do and had no discernable plan to stop the Wildcats. In another, Buffalo—a team that proved it could not stop the run in their prior 13 games—took a deep sigh of relief when Temple did not commit to the run.

Somewhere, these same kids have to be thinking: “WTF?” (“Where’s The Fullback?”)

Conversely, Maryland had a plan and executed it well in wins over Texas and Bowling Green. Redshirt freshman Kasim Hill—the No. 6-ranked quarterback in the nation coming out of St. John’s (Md.) two years ago—is playing with a high level of confidence and should be able to make plays against a Temple defense that can’t get off the field on third downs or even on a crucial 4th and 9.

Not the kids’ fault as much as the coaches who put their starting tailback in as a situational pass-rusher when they refuse to play a real pass rusher, Karamo Dioubate, as a DE in those same situations. Dioubate was ranked about as high a DE coming out of high school as Hill was a quarterback. Now he’s lucky to get in the game as a DT behind Michael Dogbe and Freddy Booth-Lloyd.

The difference is that the Maryland coaches play Hill at his position and the Temple coaches refuse to play Dioubate at his. It’s just one example of many where Maryland has a solid handle on its personnel and Temple does not. The Owls have a great fullback, Rob Ritrovato, but refuse to use him there more than one or two times on any given Saturday. Wasted talent leads to questions of what might have been.

To blame the kids is really misguided. It’s a little like blaming the soldiers in the Confederate Army under Generals Lee and Pickett for charging a heavily-fortified Union position at Gettysburg. Dave Patenaude’s refusal to develop a ground game against Villanova or Buffalo is very Lee/Pickett-like in strategic blunder.  For Lee, a master tactician, it was an abnormality. For Patenaude, it’s an every-game occurrence. The kids should be 2-0. The coaches deserve to be 0-2.

It did not use to be this way.

The last time Temple went to Maryland, it knew was it was doing with short rollout passes from Chester Stewart to tight end Evan Rodriguez went 9-for-9 and allowed Temple to use its elite tailback, Bernard Pierce, behind a great fullback blocker in Wyatt Benson. This Temple team does not use the tight end or fullback and, probably not coincidentally, cannot create enough holes for Ryquell Armstead, a proven AAC elite champion tailback.

Between the lines, Maryland has a slight advantage in this one. Between the ears, Maryland’s advantage is a gaping one.

Has the less confident and talented team ever won under those circumstances? Probably, but the examples are few and far between.

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

09.13.18
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How We Went From AAC Champs To AAC Chumps In 2 Years …

sharga

OC Dave Patenaude ditching the “Temple TUFF” offense of full-time fullback (and, more importantly, Geoff Collins’ role in enabling that blunder) is the No. 1 reason why Temple went from consecutive 10-win seasons to a likely 10-loss season.

On the morning Geoff Collins was hired, while finally finding my keys, stashing my wallet away and picking up the cell phone, I looked down and it was ringing.

“Mike, what do you think?” a friend of mine said.

“Think about what?”

“Temple finally announced The Guy.”

“Who?”

chumps

SB Nation’s current (unfortunately correct) assessment of the Temple football program

“Geoff Collins.”

“The guy from Florida?”

“Yeah, isn’t that exciting? I think it’s a great hire.”

“I guess,” I said. “From some of the guys on the list, he’s probably the best one.”


These are guys who
not only do not
understand Temple
TUFF but include an
incredibly arrogant
offensive coordinator
who intentionally sabotaged
the very fullback-oriented
offense that gave Temple
20 wins in two seasons.
That was an offense and
a toughness Temple fans
came to know and love

The list included guys like K.C. Keeler, Danny Rocco, Neil Brown and Matt Canada. Keeler was a failed head coach at nearby Delaware and resurrected his career at Sam Houston State. The other guys were FCS head coaches or FBS coordinators.

Not the kind of list Dr. Pat Kraft should have doodled for an Owl program that had long stretches in the top 25 in consecutive regular seasons.

Underwhelming at best, disappointing at worst.

Given that backdrop, my “I guess” response was appropriate. If Collins had brought with him a national championship Florida coordinator and a Florida quarterback coach—like Steve Addazio did with DC Chuck Heater and QB coach Scot Loeffler—that’s one thing. It’s quite another when your top assistants are from Coastal Carolina and Kennesaw State.

By comparison, Collins has surrounded himself with incompetence and, because of it, has placed a once-great program in jeopardy of a historic free fall. Here’s the empirical evidence:

recentjawns

These are guys who not only do not understand Temple TUFF but include an incredibly arrogant offensive coordinator who intentionally sabotaged the very fullback-oriented offense that gave Temple 20 wins in two seasons. That was an offense and a toughness Temple fans came to know and love.  It was an offense that perfectly epitomized the toughness of the school, its students, the alumni, the city, the neighborhood, even the corner of the practice facility.  It was an offense that had a purpose, with the run setting up a play-action fake and every play seemingly setting up an explosive play in the passing game.  Run the ball successfully with an elite tailback behind an extra offensive lineman (fullback Rob Ritrovato) to bring the linebackers and safeties up to the line of scrimmage. At that point, the defense is susceptible to a deft ball fake that freezes the linebackers and safeties in their tracks and allows the quarterback to find open receivers everywhere. Now, nothing sets up anything else except a five-yard loss on a handoff. This scatterbrained offensive scheme, pardon my language, is complete bullshit that every single one of the 20,000 or so current remaining Temple fans rejects without question.

My feeling was then and still is now that Temple as a program after consecutive 10-win seasons and two appearances in the league championship game reached a point where it could and should have hired an accomplished head coach and did not need to roll the dice on another coordinator again.

evidence

Make no mistake, hiring a coordinator as a head coach is a crapshoot. Coordinator and head coach are two different jobs. Just because you are good at one does not translate being good at another.

The checker at your local grocery store might be the greatest bagger in the history of supermarkets but that doesn’t mean he would make a good store manager.

You could end up with a guy like Al Golden or Matt Rhule or a guy like UConn’s Bob Diaco.

All three had impeccable credentials as a coordinator—Diaco was FBS coordinator of the year as DC at Notre Dame—but there’s plenty of evidence where great coordinators fail as head coaches.

So here we are, not long removed from being a Top 25 (albeit regular season) staple to one coming off a loss to the local FCS program and a team from a lower conference (Buffalo) that the Owls beat 113-13 in their last three meetings with them.

How did we get here?

By rolling the dice on another coordinator when Temple football got to the point where it could attract an accomplished head coach. Owls rolled a seven and 11 on the last two coordinators. It was only a matter of time until their luck ran out.

That appears to be the case now.

If Collins can prove to be Temple TUFF enough to upgrade his coordinators, he has some hope for resuscitating both his career and this precious program, whatever he values the most.

If not, none of us have any hope for anything.

Friday: Fizzy Offers Some Constructive Advice (6 a.m. publishing time)

Saturday: Maryland Preview

Sunday: Game Analysis

08.31.18
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What’s Wrong With This Picture?

atlphoto

Move Archibong or Dioubate to DE and you’ve solved this problem.

For a program that prides itself on “position flexibility” it boggles the mind that one position in particular sticks out like a sore thumb on the “above the line” so-called depth chart:

Defensive end.

footballseason

The weird thing is that it doesn’t have to be this way and there is a fix right under the coach’s noses. You’ve got to wonder if they are so close to the trees they can’t see the forest.

Or vice-versa.

What’s that, you say? “Mike, the coaches are around these guys all the time. They know what they are doing.”

Err, you mean the same guys who said at this time last year that Nick Sharga was “the best fullback in the country” and did not use Nick Sharga as a fullback? Those guys? The same guys who thought Logan Marchi was the best quarterback on the team for the first seven games when every fan who watched the Army game would tell you Frank Nutile was 10x better? Those guys? Yeah, I thought so. Not buying the excuse by the Collins’ apologists that Sharga was “hurt” because the same guy led the nation in special teams’ tackles in 2017. You don’t lead the nation in special teams’ tackles by being a cripple.

But back to this year’s sore thumb problem, though.

The Owls have only one proven defensive end—last  year’s sack leader, Quincy Roche—but an overabundance of flexible above the line talent in the interior of the defensive line.

All they have to do is move an All-American defensive end (that’s right, defensive end)  in high school, Karamo Dioubate, to one end and the problem is solved. Dan Archibong, another outstanding tackle, can also play end. Meanwhile, Michael Dogbe and Freddy Booth-Lloyd are two of the better interior tackles in the American Athletic Conference. There simply just aren’t enough snaps to get all of those guys the reps they need inside but there is plenty of opportunity outside the tackles.

If I was Dioubate or Archibong, I’d walk into Geoff Collins’ office today and tell him I think I can help the team better by rushing the passer and stringing out running plays from sideline to sideline.

Meanwhile, I can’t believe the defensive coaches don’t see that for themselves.

If there is a subplot to watch in tomorrow’s opener against Villanova (noon, Lincoln Financial Field), it is finding out whether the coaches are as flexible in their thinking as they hope the players are in their positioning.

Putting players in the best position to win is the definition of good coaching. In less than 24 hours, we will find out a lot about both.

Sunday: Game Analysis

Tuesday: What We’ve Learned After Week One

Thursday: Buffalo Preview

 

08.03.18
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Silver Linings (Stadium) Playbook

badurban

Color me totally underwhelmed by this projected stadium design.

Sometimes the worst decisions are the impulsive ones.

General Robert E. Lee, holding the advantage pretty much everywhere on the Gettysburg Battlefield on the first day, ordered a charge of General Pickett’s 30,000 troops right into a heavily defended Union position. They pretty much got wiped out.

Had he waited a day and covered both the left and right Union flanks instead of going up the middle, we might all be speaking with a Southern accent right now.

Pretty much that’s the way I feel about the Temple Stadium situation.

martin

Temple fans would tire fast of a glorified high school stadium like this one at Northeast.

Even the most ardent “shovel-in-the-ground-by-August” guys are believing that this is more a dead deal than a done one.

It’s been what I’ve been writing in this space since the March 6 Mitten Hall meeting fiasco. Nothing has changed since then except the goal posts have been moved from, say, 2018 until 2030 or even later.

The neighbors don’t want this, never have, never will, and Temple is dead set on getting the neighbors’ support before proceeding on this project. Since that’s the case, we might have to wait until the neighborhood becomes fully gentrified before proceeding. That probably won’t be before 2030. That’s a more likely scenario than trying to convince Social Justice Warriors to abandon their platform of the moment.

Russell Conwell, the Temple founder, was on the other side of that Pickett’s charge as a Union captain. He survived and so will his beloved Temple.

There is a Silver Lining in the way this play ended.

Building a 30-35K stadium that looks only a little nicer than Northeast High’s Charlie Martin Memorial Stadium would only make those 200 or so fans who think that having “TEMPLE” and “OWLS” spelled out in the end zones every week would more than make up for the bare-bones cheap stadium they would be forced to sit in six times a year.

Building an Akron or a FAU stadium does Temple no good and probably commits Temple to a life sentence of being as irrelevant on the college football landscape as, err, Akron or FAU are now.

Wait and build something like Houston has now is the perspective Temple should have. Swallowing hard and extending the Linc deal is the only way to go. After all, as Bill Bradshaw once said, Temple plays in the nicest football stadium in America. It’s a pro one, but it’s still the nicest.

Otherwise, the 2018 version of  the 1863 Pickett’s charge is an impulsive decision Temple doesn’t need to or even can make right now.

That’s the only silver lining in this otherwise dark cloud.

Monday: He Said What?

Wednesday: Here’s What Villanova is going to (try to) do …