By Mike Gibson
The subject was broached to a high-ranking Temple official in the hallway of the Liacouras Center recently.
“How are we going to keep Al Golden?” a man asked the official. “I mean, not necessarily now but in the next year or two when he has some success?”
The guy in the know winked.
“We’ve got that taken care of,” he said.
“You mean his salary?” the man said.
“Although he is well-paid, no. I can’t get into specifics but it’s taken care of …”
One member of the search committee who shall remain nameless for obvious reasons filled in the blanks for us.
We’ve been told that Golden’s contract states that he must not have any contact with any other school for most of the length of the current contract. At least five of the six years.
Golden’s not only cool with that, he and his agent suggested it. They felt they could not achieve the level of success they wanted to achieve at Temple with any speculation about his future over the formative first few years.
Golden alluded to it as much the next day, when he said, “the university has made a commitment to me and my commitment to them is that I will build a house of brick, not straw.”

You can’t finish the job when the neighbor uptown wants his house worked on, too.
One of the best-kept secrets coming out of Golden’s initial press conference over a year ago was his salary.
Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw wasn’t talking.
Then Temple president David Adamany wasn’t talking.
Nobody on the board of trustees was talking.
Nobody on the search committee was talking.
Then.

But the night before, an excited Golden _ perhaps not knowing about the next day’s gag rule _ was open enough about it to a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter. Golden is making $575,000 a year _ more than double what the highest salary of the current best-paid Mid-American Conference coach makes. This is an impressive commitment by any standards.
When you are willing to make that kind of financial commitment to an unproven young coach, the people making that investment wanted protection.
Temple got that protection. It’s the kind of protection Idaho didn’t think about getting when it went after Dennis Erickson. Maybe it should have.
In fact, the plan was formulated by members of the search committee and Golden and his agent signed off on it before he was even selected for the job.
Al Golden is going nowhere until this brick house is the envy of all in the MAC neighborhood.
And when it is finished, chances are Golden is going to want to enjoy living in it for awhile.

By Mike Gibson
It’s been less than a month since the most important first season of Al Golden’s head coaching career.
We’re not talking about the football season that recently ended.
We’re talking about recruiting season.
This time, a full one.
Golden has hit the ground running and, in this race, he’s got Travis Shelton-type speed.
If the best recruiters in the country run a 4.5, Golden runs a Shelton-like 4.27.
Or at least a Daryl Robinson-style 4.31.
Despite recruiting for a school that has won zero and one game in successive seasons, Golden is recruiting with a zeal that produces impressive results.
Collegefootballnews.com named Temple’s 2006 class the No. 1 recruiting class in the MAC.
All signs are that this 2007 one will blow that one well off the charts.
Golden is Temple’s “Big Man on Campus” and he was escorting as many as 16 recruits around Temple Town this weekend, almost all larger in stature than the former Penn State tight end who will be their head coach.
From all the information we’ve been able to gather so far, Temple has at least 13, maybe as many as 15 or 17, commitments headed for 25.
Of the following, 13 are solid Temple verbals. Tempe is hopeful about Cooper signing, lured by the promise of not only some immediate playing time, but some immediate IMPACT playing time:
Daryl Robinson, North Catholic _ The Philadelphia Daily News’ co-player of the year in the city, Robinson scored 26 touchdowns on the best North Catholic team of the modern era. In the summer, he was listed as a four-star recruit by Rivals.com and rated the No. 15 cornerback prospect in the nation. He’s locked down three Division IA receivers this season.
Delano Green, Fork Union Military _ One of two Fork Union players at the Temple football banquet, who had what was described as a “fantastic” performance in a combine in late November. As a result, got two solid offers from ACC teams. Stands by his Temple commitment. Chances are another big-time Fork Union catch will verbal to the Owls in the next few days.
Charles Stewart, DeMatha (Md.) _ Starting quarterback and versatile all-everything athlete from one of USA Today’s top 25 teams. Tossed game-winning touchdown pass in D.C. championship game in front of 9,000 fans.
Marcellus Grigsby, Sacramento City College _ Same area that produced Tim Brown (who went to City College of San Francisco), Grigsby is considered one of the best JUCO running backs in the country and someone who could conceivably replace Brown as the Owls’ feature back. Grigsby is a mid-year transfer and will enter Temple in January.
Corwin Acker, Maryland _ Named the top running back in his Maryland county of Montgomery and named county Player of Year for struggling 1-9 Blake team despite encountering defenses designed to stop him. Rushed for 1,490 yards and 13 touchdowns. Runs a 4.4-40.
Elijah Joseph, Kent School (Ct.) _ Brother of former Owl recruit Alex Joseph. Great instincts to the ball. Reminds some Temple coaches of current Owl Junior Galette.
Matt Balasavage, Lancaster Catholic _ Perfect tight end for Golden’s pro-style offense, has height (6-5) and great hands and comes from a championship program. Caught 35 passes for 515 yards and five touchdowns. Also played defensive end for the Crusaders.
Kit Anderson, Neshaminy _ Running back also comes from a perennial contender. Not only the captain of the team, crowned King of his senior class. An excellent student and former teammate of current Owl starter Georg Coleman. Owls are concentrating on adding some speed and Anderson is one of seven recruits who have posted sub-4.5-40 times.
Chris Tremel, West Essex, New Jersey _ The 6-4, 260-pound defensive lineman has eye-opening speed (4.9-40) for a man his size. Owls currently have plenty of opportunities for young linemen to make their mark and Tremel could move up the depth chart quickly.
Richie Walls, Downingtown East _ Can play corner, or safety, running back or wide receiver. Runs a 4.37 40.
Tyreek Spain, Wissahickon _ 6-3, 215 pass-rush end who runs a 4.8 40 and turned down solid offers from fellow MAC teams Buffalo and Akron for Owls.

“I could not have been happier after Daryl told me he picked Temple. Coach Golden is a great guy and a great coach and he is on the verge of achieving some really incredible things at Temple and I’m glad Daryl is going to be a big part of that.”
_ North Catholic head coach Chalie Szydlik

By Mike Gibson
We can only guess what went on during the most recent phone call between Temple head coach Al Golden and North Catholic superstar Daryl Robinson, who verbally committed to Temple in July.

Robinson de-committed from an oral to West Virginia, then said when committing to Temple that “my recruiting is over. I’m done.”
Yesterday, in a Ted Silary story, Silary quoted Robinson as saying “some schools want me on offense and some on defense.”
Without asking Robinson point-blank, Silary took it upon himself to interpret that Robinson’s commitment to Temple was waning, too.

We can only guess how this made Golden feel. Maybe the conversation went something like this:
Golden: Daryl, what’s this, ‘Some schools want me’ quote all about?
Robinson: I guess I misspoke coach. I’m still firm. In fact, last week, I talked to (Northeast High superstar) Sean Evans and tried to get him to join me at Temple.
Golden: That’s what I like to hear. Just wanted to clear that up. We can’t wait to show you around. I just wanted to remind you that over 90 percent of Division I guys never make it to the pros, but a lot of them do go on to have great careers in business. In business, Daryl, your word is your bond and it doesn’t look good to go back on your word twice in such a public way. You are going to be big in this area long after your NFL career is over, if you are lucky enough to have one. You’ve got to establish your trustworthiness now. This would be a good way to prove to people in your hometown you’ve grown up.
Robinson: I know, coach. My word is good. See you next week, coach.
Golden: We can’t wait to show you around. See you next week, Daryl.
Robinson: Bye, coach.
Golden: Bye, Daryl.
We can only hope that’s the way things went down. There are all sorts of lowlifes out there in the college football world trying to put a bad bug in Robinson’s ear.
Let’s hope he follows the same heart that led him to Temple in July and not the lowlife slimeballs who are trying to get him to change his mind.

By Mike Gibson
Well, it was a great idea while it lasted.
Approximately two weeks.
Former Temple football coach Wayne Hardin announced a couple of weeks ago, on the air with athletic director Bill Bradshaw, that he would personally spearhead a plan that would “guarantee” 66,000 fans in the seats for Temple’s 2007 opening game with Navy.
The lynchpin of that plan was to move that game from Saturday, Sept. 1 to Thursday night, Aug. 30.

Hardin said on the air then that Bradshaw would “get to work” on moving the game on Monday.
Bradshaw has since ran into an old nemesis: The Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles are supposed to be “co-tenants” at Lincoln Financial Field with the Owls but treat the relationship more like a spoiled child, reluctant to share their new toy with their football younger brothers.
They made the Owls wait until two weeks before a scheduled 2003 opener with Villanova to even sign the stadium lease, creating a nightmare for both the Temple promotions and box office people. The Philadelphia Inquirer estimated that 10,000 fans walked home, rather than wait in long ticket lines that day. Still, the Owls and Wildcats drew 30,000 mostly irritated customers.
Now the Eagles have told Bradshaw to cool his jets because the Jets or some other NFL team might like to use that night for a meaningless pre-season exhibition game.
Temple needs close to a full year to promote the game to get the kind of crowd Hardin guaranteed. It needed the Thursday night prior to the Labor Day.
Wouldn’t it be great to see a billboard on I95 and I76 with a photo of Hardin and Golden asking fans to set aside the night of Aug. 30, 2007 for Navy and the Owls?
Or a radio spot from Hardin asking for a “personal favor” from all Temple people to attend the game?
And even then most were highly skeptical that Hardin could pull off this ambitious task.
It was an admirable goal for someone who was head coach at both Navy and Temple.
“Temple has 250,000 alumni living in the Philadelphia area, 30,000 full-time students and about 10,000 of them living on campus,” Hardin said. “There’s no reason Temple can’t get this done. If Temple put 66,000 in the seats, people around town might see that and think, ‘Well, maybe Temple has something here.’ “
He sold Bradshaw, who pledged to do whatever he could to help Hardin.
“When Wayne makes up his mind to do something, it’s hard to say no to him,” Bradshaw said.
Evidently, though, it’s not hard for Jeffrey Lurie, the Eagles’ owner to say no to Temple or Bradshaw.
At best, the Owls could get the night.
At best, they won’t hear about it until around March 29, 2007. That’s when the NFL is scheduled to release its preseason schedule.
The Eagles have told Bradshaw to cool his jets until then.
Bradshaw is looking into moving the game to Friday night or waiting for the Eagles.
Friday won’t work because the Labor Day crowd has left for the shore and the Poconos by then.
Wednesday won’t work because the NCAA won’t allow teams to play before Thursday.
Thursday would work.
Would it draw 66,000?
Highly doubtful, but there’s absolutely no shot at anywhere near that kind of crowd on Friday or Saturday.
Would it kill the Eagles to tell the NFL they don’t want to play a home game that week, to reschedule it for the week before or the week after?
No, but taking the high road with a co-tenant is not something Jeffrey Lurie seems inclined to do.
Thanks, Jeffrey.
Thanks, as usual, for nothing.

By Mike Gibson
Uh, no.
Just wanted to get your attention with that headline.
Penn State is just too big, too deep and too fast for the Owls.
This year at least.
Yet this won’t be a 62-0 game.
Or even a 63-9 game.
You can book it.
Not that Penn State isn’t every bit as good as Louisville, Minnesota or Clemson.
The Nittany Lions just might be.
It’s just that the Owls were, in Temple coach Al Golden’s words, “trying to find our way” for much of this first season of his regime.
The Owls haven’t found their way just yet, but at least are pointed in the right direction.
The Owls can at least be competitive and very competitive if they depart from their “motis operandi” established in games against Kent State and Bowling Green.
In those games, the Owls played two tight ends, power-I, and pounded Tim Brown to set up the play-action passes of Adam DiMichele.
That won’t work this time, because of the physical line on the defensive side of the ball Penn State has.
However, if DiMichele can roll away from the pocket and buy himself just enough time to find Brown on screens or Mike Holley on quick slants, he can set up a deeper post to Travis Shelton.
If Shelton can break a kick return or two, the Owls might be able to score points.
If the Owls can break on top, their defense _ almost passive against Central Michigan _ might start to believe and themselves play physical.
Penn State’s offense has had some documented trouble scoring.
Temple isn’t Michigan or Ohio State or Wisconsin, but consider this:

• The newspaper headline factor. Temple kids know they can get immediate respect with a solid performance against State. In Philadelphia, Penn State is always a front-page story. Temple usually can be found on page 8 of the sports section. Temple kids see that every week.
• Adam DiMichele. The Temple sophomore gets a chance to prove he’s better than anything Penn State has at that position and he just might be.
• The Al Golden factor. Joe Paterno, if he’s able to coach from the booth, is likely to call off the dogs early against an Owl staff that has four ex-Penn Staters.
• The opportunistic Owl defense. Two picks in key situations in the win over Bowling Green proved they COULD do it. Georg Coleman knows if he gets another chance, he must take it to the house.

I can see State scoring no more than four touchdowns against the Owls this time.
I think DiMichele and company can put up at least two.
And maybe the Owls will be in the game in the fourth quarter.
Penn State 28, Temple 14.
Win?
Uh, no.
Maybe some day, maybe sooner than you think.

By Mike Gibson
Temple vs. Penn State wasn’t always one-sided.
When the Owls played the Lions during the Wayne Hardin Era, the games were often close.
Penn State won, 26-25, in 1975, 31-30 in 1976 and 10-7 in 1978.
I was in the press box for the 1978 game.
“Hardin’s outcoaching Joe again,” yelled out long-time Allentown Morning Call columnist John Kunda in the Vet Stadium press box.
Much laughter, followed by much nodding of heads.
The assembled press corps knew exactly what Kunda was talking about. Those games often featured a football version of the shell game.
Hardin would run when Penn State expected to pass, throw formations at Paterno that Penn State never saw before, run a shovel pass here and a flea-flicker there to keep the Lions on their toes.
Largely because of Hardin, Temple had the deserved reputation of a school that was outsmarting the other schools during a football game.
It made those of us traveling with the Temple party very proud.
Yet a win would have been nicer.
During the 1976 game, Hardin went for a two-point conversion that would have won the game instead of going for a tie that would have ended it at 31-31.
“You play the game to win,” Hardin said then.
Last week, Hardin told me now that he had 30 years to think about it, he’d have gone for the tie “because of what it would have meant to Temple.”
The Owls enter this week a 35-point underdog and virtually no one expects a win. But current coach Al Golden shows a lot of the qualities Hardin had and the two appeared together on a radio show last night.
Golden is moving the Owls in a direction that Hardin is familiar with and appreciates.
The following is a story that appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News after the 10-7 1978 game …..

By THOM GREER
Joe Paterno’s Brooklyn accent was nearly scared off last night. His coaching career surely flashed before his eyes. His 1978 football season almost went up in smoke.
The mythical national championship, about which Paterno insists he never concerns himself, was a gnat’s eyelash from being farther from University Park, Pa., than Mars. All those Lambert Trophies Penn State have amassed over the years were mere seconds away from being revoked.
AND ALL BECAUSE of a Temple University football team that hasn’t gotten a whiff of the Top 10 rankings since the days of Pop Warner.
Playing football like Attila instructed the Huns in pillaging, the fired-up Temple Owls dueled Paterno’s Lions to a chest-to-chest standoff that required a final Herculean drive capped with a 23-yard field goal by Matt Bahr with 10 seconds left for Penn State to salvage a 10-7 victory at Veterans Stadium. A crowd of 63,103 (the largest home crowd in Temple football history, sounding much like a Big 5 crowd _ half rooting for one team, half for another) sat stunned for 59 minutes and 50 seconds, refusing to believe what was unfolding before them.
In fact, those in the crowd who had been neutral swung to Temple’s side by the end _ or at least sounded louder, perhaps wanting to be a part of history, perhaps in respect for the effort of the Temple kids.
Perhaps even more astounding than Temple’s superhuman team effort was the performance of Owls’ punter Casey Murphy, who kept the Lions penned deep in their own territory most of the night with 11 punts that averaged 48.2 yards each time he thundered his foot into the ball. Included were a 69-yarder on the first play of the fourth quarter and a 51- yard shot that kissed the out- of-bounds line at the three.
It didn’t matter that Penn State recorded more first downs (16-10) or ran more offensive plays (78-51) for more than twice as much yardage (299-126).
WHAT MATTERED was that Temple Coach Wayne Hardin brought his team into the game better prepared and emotionally higher than anything Paterno claimed to have seen before. And it almost produced a bigger upset than the Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III.
“That was the best coaching job anyone has done against us ever,” a shaken Paterno said when his team had finally escaped the Owls’ claws. ” We are as lucky as hell. “
Hardin, although pleased with the performance of his club, flatly rejected Paterno’s show of coaching kindness.
” It’s like throwing flowers at the horse that finishes second in a two- horse race,” Hardin said of Paterno’s reference to Temple’s preparation. “A football game is a two-horse race. Fortunately, I’ve learned there is a lot more to life than a scoreboard. I didn’t always believe that. I just thought our kids gave one helluva an effort. “
IT WAS A FACT no one questioned . . . especially no one in the Penn State locker room, where soiled uniforms and bruised pride were stuffed into blue duffle bags for the long trip back to Happy Valley.
” They gave us so many different looks on defense,” Lions’ tailback Mike Guman said of the first half in which his team never crossed its own 48 yard line. ” We had trouble blocking. They were slanting a little and playing games that seem to confuse everybody.
” We started playing scared or something. We lost our poise in some situations. Our intensity was not there. They (Temple) played good defense. You can’t take it away from them. But we were not firing off the ball and knocking people back. “
Paterno agreed and apparently considered Guman as one of the culprits. He replaced Guman with Booker Moore in the second half, a move that proved the difference in the contest.
Moore slashed around left end the second time he touched the ball, broke free, sidestepped two would-be tacklers and pranced into the end zone with a 26-yard touchdown with 56 seconds left in the third quarter.
” MY RUN WAS a combination of me being fresh and the Temple defense being tired,” Moore said modestly of the game’s first scoring play.
But the 7-0 edge was short-lived. The Owls hung tough. They continued to capitalize on the mighty right leg of Murphy and mistakes of the vaunted Penn State defense. And lightning struck for them 4:11 into the fourth quarter. Quarterback Brian Broomell, who kept the Lions’ defense off balance most of the night, had sent fullback Anthony Anderson into the line on consecutive plays for gains of 15 and three yards. The third time, Broomell faked the dive play to Anderson and fired a strike into the arms of running back Zachary Dixon, who was all alone in the left flat. Dixon’s 21-yard path to the goal line was unimpeded.
There was every indication a turnover would determine the outcome of the game. It appeared to come with 5:44 left in the game. Penn State quarterback Chuck Fusina was looking for split end Scott Fitzkee, but instead found Temple free safety Mark McCants. It was little more than a teaser.
The key turnover struck two plays later. Anderson fumbled a Broomell handoff at the Penn State 42. Lions linebacker Lance Mehl pounced on the ball and there seemed little question Temple’s upset bid had fallen short.
IT WAS AS IF the real Penn State offense took the field for the final 4:52. Moore and fullback Paul Suhey inhaled real estate in chunks of six and 10 yards. Fusina kept the drive alive with a third-down pass to Fitzkee. Indeed, it was a life-or-death march and the Lions answered the challenge. Bahr’s game-winner split the uprights on the 13th play of the drive.
” It shows the character of this team,” Fusina said. ” No one was thinking about a national ranking. No one was thinking about Ohio State. Every man was thinking about the job at hand. We had to get it within field goal range. “
” There was a feeling of togetherness each time we went in the huddle on that drive,” Moore said. ” Everybody kept saying, ‘We can do it. We’ve got to take it down there. ‘”
FINAL DRIVE notwithstanding, Joe Paterno was not too impressed to say, ” I’m not so sure what kind of football team we have. The Temple kids played tough. They’ve heard so much about Penn State this and Penn State that. They came out and looked us in the nose . . . fought for the game. We’ve got to be aware of that if we’re going to be a good football team. We’ve got to be aware of it. “
Perhaps Penn State took Temple for granted, although it seems unthinkable if you consider the last three Lions-Owls’ wars in Philadelphia have been won by a total of five points – 10-7 last night, 31-30 in 1976 and 26-25 in 1975. The fact each was a Penn State victory is not important.
Perhaps Paterno’s team was looking ahead to Ohio State in two weeks. Or maybe even thinking about national ratings.
Whatever, as Guman was careful to emphasize, ” We did not come close to playing up to our potential. “
Paterno was right. Penn State was lucky last night.
“Wait now,” the Lions’ Moore said. ” I don’t know if lucky is the right word. ” He rubbed his chin and thought a few seconds. “Yeah. I guess lucky is the only word.”

By Mike Gibson
Let’s start backward.
The Post Game
The real news coming out of Central Michigan game day was by former Temple football coach Wayne Hardin on the post-game radio show with Harry Donahue and Bill Bradshaw.
“I guaranteed (Temple athletic director) Bill (Bradshaw) that we’d have 66,000 fans for our opening day game with Navy,” said Hardin, the only man to ever be the head coach at both institutions.
Wow.
Those who know Hardin know he tended to make grand pronouncements when he was Temple head coach that he mostly backed up.
Hardin said the Owls were going to play Penn State and people snickered.
They ended up playing Penn State.
Hardin said the Owls would be in a bowl and more guffaws, yet the Owls were in a bowl on his watch.
Then Hardin beat the drum for an Eastern football conference and folks got an Eastern football conference made up of exactly the same teams Hardin mentioned would be in it.
More snickers.
So many think Hardin can deliver this guarantee.
“When Wayne says he’s going to do something, it’s hard to say no to him,” Bradshaw said.
Hardin then said Bradshaw will go to work “next week” on moving the game from Saturday, Sept. 1 to Thursday, Aug. 30.
Then Hardin made an appeal to all those who played for him and who know him.
“I need you to do me a favor,” he said. “Get as many people as you can out there. There’s no reason that Temple, a school with 30,000 students, 8,000 of them living on campus, and 250,000 alumni can’t get this done.”
Hardin went on to praise the players he had at both Navy and Temple.
“The guys at Navy tended to have great careers in business,” Hardin said. “The kids at Temple were very, very special to me because they always gave me every single thing they had.”
Getting 66,000 mostly Temple people in the stands would require a lot of special giving but, if anyone can pull it off, Hardin can.
The Game
Well, it started out good.
Then it got real bad.
Then it got good again.
When Georg Coleman intercepted a tipped ball, I thought the Owls were in business in what turned out to be a numbing 42-26 loss to a very good Central Michigan team yesterday.
Numbing, because I had this sickening feeling that Coleman should have scored on the play.
All that was in front of him was a quarterback who had decent speed, but not Coleman speed.
It appeared that Coleman slowed down, ostensibly to make a move, then decided to run out of bounds.
Had Coleman kept flying down the sideline, full speed, I have no doubt he would have scored. Had Coleman slowed down and taken it up field, he would have scored. But Coleman took it the one place where he could not have scored.
Out of bounds.
Ugh.
Anybody else find this quote by quarterback Adam DiMichele stunning:
“Guys were yawning,” DiMichele said. “It was weird.”
Yawning?
Why?
Guys should have been wide awake for the opportunity to get a second-straight home win.
I’ve never understood why athletes, college football players especially, have letdowns. Maybe in baseball with a 162-game season or basketball with an 82-game season, but not football.
Especially not college football.
They only have 11 or 12 opportunities a year to get out there.
You’d think they’d be chomping at the bit all week and playing like crazed madmen on Saturday afternoons.
Kids today.
The strategy
Maybe it was the good seats at the Club Level.
But nobody in sections C2 or C4 thought lining up for a 50-yard field goal was a good idea to begin with.
There was much groaning.
“Why are we trying a field goal?” the season-ticket holders said, almost in unison. “We should punt.”
When the snap went over the holder’s head, it seemed like a very bad idea indeed.
What might have been a 7-0 lead on a Coleman interception turned into a 7-0 lead the other way.
Fourteen point swings against an unbeaten future conference foes are never a good way to start.
Maybe that’s why head coach Al Golden called it “the most disappointing game” so far.

By Mike Gibson
Last night there was an interview with Vince Papale broadcast over the Bravo Network.
Papale, the former Philadelphia Eagles’ walk-on, talked a little about the movie Invincible, made about his life.
The more I watched, the closer I listened.
“This isn’t a movie about me or about the Eagles or even about pro football,” Papale said. “It’s about everybody who has been told they couldn’t or that they can’t or that they won’t or that they should just stop trying and give up.”
It’s about Temple football, the movie Invincible is, in its own way.
How many of us in the Temple family have been told to give up, to stop trying, that they couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to succeed?
Just about everyone, I’d imagine.
“This is a story about underdogs,” Papale said.
That’s what made Saturday so great _ not that a 19-point underdog rose up and won by two touchdowns, but that the same program people said wouldn’t or couldn’t win a game did just that.
It’s the first of many.
The pain of being a Temple football person has been a deep and cutting one, and writing about it while in this 16-year intensive care state has been catartic for me, as evidenced in this post about going to Heaven and this one about Lost in Space but the bleeding has stopped and the wounds are beginning to heal.
The losses aren’t over, but this patient is no longer in critical condition.
In fact, the long-term prognosis is good.
Very good.

By Mike Gibson
Watching Travis Shelton show his backside to the entire Bowling Green kickoff team, I thought about a lot of people.
Most of all, I thought about Karl Smith.
And all of the other small-minded narrow-thinkers like him.
Smith is the executive editor of PhillyBurbs.com.
You need only read a few excerpts from this piece of crap he wrote about Bowling Green putting up 70 on the Owls.
Things have changed a little since then, Karl.

A brief synopsis is in order. He went on to thank Temple for this and thank Temple for that and then concluded by thanking Temple for accepting an invitation to the MAC so that the Owls can be Bowling Green’s whipping boy for the next few years.
“… how nice to have an extended scrimmage against an overmatched opponent every year that actually counts in the standings,” Smith wrote.
Hmmm.

I guess he doesn’t know collegefootballnews.com named the Owls 2006 freshman recruiting class at the top incoming class among MAC schools, current or future.
I guess he doesn’t care many of those recruits, as many as 18, are seeing significant playing time for the Owls this season or that these same players pushed around Bowling Green’s sophomore- and junior-dominated lineup.
He might not know that the 2007 recruiting class is ranked significantly higher than that one and that it might dwarf any recruiting class of any MAC team in recent memory.
Or maybe he doesn’t care.
And, if he can count, he knows that this same Owls will be around for the next three years. Yes, the same Owls that beat his beloved Bowling Green by two touchdowns yesterday.
We won’t assume that Bowling Green will be Temple’s whipping boy for the next few years, as he assumed the other way.
The evidence is there.
Temple is getting better.
Bowling Green is getting worse.
Get used to watching Shelton’s backside. You’ve got two more years of watching that 4.27-40 speed.
We have six players coming in with that kind of speed and the evidence suggests that Temple could literally leave Bowling Green looking permanently in its rear view mirror.
Al Golden is a young, charismatic, recruiter who kids identify with and will rally behind. He came to Temple with a deserved reputation of being a recruiter without peer and he has only enhanced that reputation so far in his year on the job.
Thank you, Karl Smith.
Thank you very much.

By Mike Gibson
In about six weeks, Al Golden will be on the job as Temple University’s head football coach for a year.
In the time since Dec. 6, Golden has said and done all the right things.
He’s talked about changing the culture of losing, about pounding that rock until it cracks, about even coaching the pre-game warmups.
In less than two months, he’s recruited the top incoming football class in the MAC.
All signs so far that this current class, which includes North Catholic superstar Daryl Robinson, will be off the charts as far as recent MAC recruiting classes go.
Now Robinson is recruiting fellow Philadelphia superstars for the Owls.
All good signs.
At some point, though, Al Golden is going to have to do what he’s been brought in to do:
Win games.
This would be as good a week to start as any against a Bowling Green team that scored 70 points _ twice _ against recent Bobby Wallace teams.
If fact, anything less than a win against Bowling Green is unacceptable.
Consecutive 62-0 losses to Louisville and Minnesota were eye-openers, especially in light of North Dakota State’s ability to take Minnesota into overtime.
North …. FREAKING … Dakota … FREAKING … State.
Giving up 63 points to Clemson was another stomach-turner.
Yet a 28-17 loss to Kent seemed to show some progress because the Owls were toe-to-toe for the most part with one of the MAC’s best teams.
Bowling Green, on the other hand, lost to Kent, 38-3.

Bowling Green, like the Owls, took Buffalo to overtime.
The Owls, unlike Bowling Green, were short six key players in the loss at Buffalo, while Bowling Green did not have equivalent personnel shortages in an overtime win over Buffalo.
The Owls are back at full strength for the first time all season.
That SHOULD be bad news for Bowling Green.
It’s up to Al Golden and his staff to deliver that news.
At some point, you’ve got to win.
At some point, you’ve got to stop dropping third-down passes.

At some point, you’ve got to put your best talent in position to win the game for you. One way would be using Tim Brown on punt returns, too, giving him the space to do what he does best.
At some point, you’ve got to stop receivers from running free through your secondary like roaches in a ghetto kitchen.
It’s up to Al to formulate a game plan to win this week against Bowling Green.
A bold game plan, much like the one against Kent State.
Two tight ends, power-I, use Tim Brown’s talents to move the chains and shorten the game. Use Brown’s running ability to set up Adam DiMichele play-action passes to Travis Shelton and Mike Holley downfield.
On defense, Mark D’Onofrio has to come up with a gambling-style game plan that utilizes the Owls’ strength _ their front seven _ and protects the weak back four.
Blitzes, particularly from the blind side, and up the middle to create protection problems for the Bowling Green quarterback.
The best defense is putting the other guy’s quarterback on his ass _ or, as Jim Rome says, his ARSE _ and it’s high time the Owls adopt that philosophy as the core of their defensive approach.
Use the speed of the young linebackers to smack the quarterback around and, hopefully, come up with the ball a time or two.
Philly-style football. Only a win would open eyes in a cynical and skeptical Philadelphia.
At some point, Al, you’ve got to win.
This week, in front of a Homecoming Day crowd, would be an acceptable place to start.