By Mike Gibson
Saw the first installment of a slick Temple infomercial this morning, targeting increased ticket sales for the Temple University football team.
The 30-minute segment delivered with a fast-paced show, highlighting the many plusses that Temple University has to offer a prospective student athlete.
Golden said the thing fans will notice about the team is that “it has a plan formulated by professionals.”
Harry Donahue co-hosted the show along with Golden and the two did “walk throughs” at several locations, including the Liacouras Walk, the Student Activities Center and the new tech center. They also did a segment on an unlined Lincoln Financial Field and climbed to the top of the stadium for a terrific view of Center City Philadelphia.
Golden said he would like to see the Linc “packed for the first game” with Louisville and would like for fans to give Temple opponents a “welcome that only Philadelphia fans can give them.”
Temple linebacker Ryan Gore was among the players interviewed and he promised the Owls “will be in every game until the end” this season and that the sense of urgency this year to win is greater than ever.
Long-time Temple University football supporters, like John Longacre and Bill Barnes, got some serious face time and were articulate in their support of the program, with the theme being that the time to support the team is now and the time to turn around the program is now.
The segment ended with Golden talking to the team and complimenting them on “buying into the offseason program” and telling them to keep it up.
“The most important thing to me is your integrity,” Golden told the team. “Lie to me and you’re gone. We have to build a foundation of trust.”

By Mike Gibson
I’m not big on fantasy leagues or fantasy games or computer games that pick a score and situations in a mythical game between teams from different eras.
I’d much rather deal in what actually happened years ago and how it can affect what will happen in the future.
So it is, too, with Temple University football.
It has always been my abiding belief that Temple can win in football and do it consistently primarily because it has done so in the past.
What has happened before can happen again.
So, today, I really have to give it up for the Goat, who posted this story under the banner “NCAA football news.”
Not only does he have the Owls winning their opener at Buffalo, 28-22, he has a game story with stats.
He has the Owls 6-4 going into the final game at Navy.
It might not happen, probably won’t happen, but I like the thought process.

Adam DiMichele (left), Jarrett Dunston, Shane Kelly, Colin Clancy

By Mike Gibson
Chances are Temple football’s quarterback situation will be like the Florida weather.
Constantly changing the next three weeks or so.
It’ll be up to Al Golden to settle on someone, but Allie G. probably would prefer someone to seize this opportunity and go to the head of the class at Temple University.
There’s a lot of talent and a lot of inexperience at the position.
These few paragraphs, ripped from the pages of the current official team prospectus and released yesterday, say it best:

“Position concerns are a standard reality for all programs prior to the start of preseason camp. The Owls’ area of primary concern resides under center, where the team needs to identify its starting quarterback prior to its opening battle against the Bulls. A pair of sophomores—Colin Clancy and Shane Kelly—saw action as true freshmen in 2005. They competed in the spring with Jarrett Dunston, a mid-year transfer that was the top rated postgraduate quarterback in the nation by Rivals. Clancy played in five contests in 2005, connecting on 10 of 19 aerials for 121 yards and a score. Kelly competed in one game, completing two of six passes for 18 yards at Wisconsin.
The trio will grow by two in preseason camp when former Penn State signee Adam DiMichele and true freshman Vaughn Charlton, from nearby Avon Grove High School, join the fray. Golden expects a five-horse race for the starting job once camp begins.”

What is known is that the guy with the most savvy, the guy with moxie beyond his tender years, probably will step to the head of the class.
Adam DiMichele gets high marks in that category from the Pittsburgh papers, having been named a Super 5 (top five) football player in the Pittsburgh area by the Post-Gazette and was named the Tribune-Review’s basketball player of the year.
I’m looking forward to seeing all of the QBs in action.

From left, Jarrett Dunston, Anthony Ferla and Jason Harper

By Mike Gibson
The theory turned out to be as effective as it was simple.
BillyBall, it was called.
Oakland baseball general manager Billy Beane’s “recruiting” or “drafting” philosophy differed from that of so many of his contemporaries.
He believed strongly that height or weight, how fast a guy could throw the ball as measured on a radar gun or 40-speed mattered not as much as performance.
What Beane looked for was simple.
How did players perform on the field at a high level?
Duh?
It’s a proven philosophy that produced a farm system that for years was the envy of programs with much larger payrolls.
Handicapped by a small payroll, Bean went out and stacked the A’s with players who hit home runs, had high batting averages and won/lost records. Beane figured if athletes proved themselves against the best possible competition at a lower level, it only followed they would do so on the next level.
For the most part, he was right.
Bean stacked the farm system with players who produced statistics, meaningful numbers, for quality programs and guys who were instrumental in the success of their prior teams. While other guys relied on radar guys and stopwatches, Beane relied how the guy actually played the game.
It worked for Billy Beane.
It worked for former Temple University head coach Wayne Hardin, too.
When Temple was winning on a consistent basis in college football, it did so recruiting players from traditional winning programs at the high school level.
Hardin stacked his program with players from the Central Bucks Wests and the Mount Carmels, character guys who did nothing but win on the high school level and expected nothing less in college.
If push came to shove, he would take a 5-10 guy who was a player over a 6-4 guy at the same position who couldn’t play. Hardin wanted tough guys who he could count on at crunch time.
As a result, the Owls won four four straight years in the 1970s, a run that culminated in a 1979 Garden State Bowl win.
It appears as though Al Golden is following that same template.
Within the last few days, Anthony Ferla, Millage Peaks and Jarrett Dunston joined what appears to be a stellar first recruiting class at Temple. Earlier, Jason Harper, the Daily Record’s 2004 Player of the Year, committed to Temple, too.
Those three, like the vast majority of the current class of at least 18 verbals (headed for 23), are proven winners with high achievement records on the field of play for traditionally winning programs.
Hardin’s philosophy was to recruit high-character winners who were used to being part of winning programs and then coach the hell out of them.
Apparently, Golden feels the same way.
His players have got the 40-speed and the vertical leaps, too, just a better record of being good, clutch football players who have performed under pressure in big games for marquee programs.
They will accept no less from their Temple experience, either. That can only bode well for the players themselves, Golden and for Temple fans.

My favorite Harry Chapin song of all time. Wish it was louder.

By Mike Gibson
As a young man, I was into the music of Chapin.
Not Chopin. Chapin. Harry Chapin.
Saw him at a concert at the old Temple University Music Festival. He played there about six or seven times and I saw every Chapin concert.
There was something about his music that touched a, pardon the expression, chord with me.

The old Temple Music Festival drew huge crowds.
Temple University photo

All My Life’s A Circle, Taxi, etc., great, great songs.
A Chapin concert was an almost spiritual experience. No one put on a show like Harry. He’d do six, seven, eight encores. Plenty of good-looking women at these concerts, too. Just a fun, fun time.
As long as the roadies and the crew were into it, Harry would play.
The songs, to me, are timeless.
There was one thing, though, I wondered about Harry, who died in an automobile accident on the Long Island Expressway on July 16, 1981.
After every concert, there’d be a big gathering in the back of the tent, what is now the Ambler Campus parking lot. Chapin would sell T-Shirts and other memorabilia to combat “World Hunger.”
At first, I was really into it.
“Yeah, let’s eliminate world hunger,” I’d say after the first year.
Then the second year came.
And the third.
And the fourth.
Harry collected all this money and world hunger was getting worse, not better.
Billions and billions of dollars were collected for world hunger by well-meaning Harry Chapins of the world and it was not solving the problem.
Heck, it wasn’t even making a dent into the problem.
I came to the conclusion that there are some things you could throw money at and not make a difference, like World Hunger.
That there are other problems that money could solve.
Like Temple Football.
After that Epiphany, I came to the conclusion if I ever had millions I could throw half of what I had toward Temple football and I could solve much of what had ailed the Owls over these last 25 years.
Think about it. Saturday’s powerball is now $365 million. If I win, I promise right now to give Temple football, via the Xtra Point Drive, half.
What could Temple football buy with a, say, $182 million donation?

Here are some ideas:
• Half payment (about $90 million) on a 40K campus stadium, to be completed sometime after Temple’s current 15-year lease runs out at Lincoln Financial Field;
• 10,000 season tickets to be given to the 10,000 students currently living on campus or players on high school football teams in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware in order to create a cadre of young fans;
• Enough commercial minutes to sponsor live TV for every Temple road game (to also help build a following);
• A weekly coaches show on Comcast with current coach Al Golden providing highlights and commentary on each Owl game;
• A revolving contract that would reward Golden, and his staff, based on performance and guarantee that if the performance (i.e., wins) warrants it, Temple would have the financial resources to match whatever offer he’d get elsewhere.

Unlike its impact on world hunger, money would help Temple build a following and win and winning would solve Temple’s football image problem. It bears repeating the powerball for Saturday is $365 million.
I know there’s not a snowball’s chance in heck I’ll win but, if I do, do I really need the $365 million to live a lifestyle that would make me happy?
Heck no.
All I need is a modest hurricane-proof house in the Tampa area for seven months a year, a new Subaru and a new place in the Poconos.
The Florida house would be $500K, the Subaru $20K, the place in the Poconos $500K. Max. Throw in a couple million a year for spending money for the next 10 years and I’m good to go.
What else would make me happy?
A rampaging group of angry Owls kicking some serious college football butt, exacting their revenge for 15 years of humiliation with 15 years of glorious victories.
I know it’s selfish, but it’s my money.
I’d settle for half the lottery winnings, minus annuity and taxes and the like and give half to Temple football.
Sorry, world hunger.
Been there, done that.

…. Welcome 2006 Temple University football recruits … congratulations, coach Golden, on a super first group……..

Breaking news: Palmer, Bradshaw moving in the direction of a hug … read below …
By Mike Gibson
No, there is not a word missing in that headline.
The University of Virginia has been a Santa Claus to three fellow institutions of higher learning, giving a Prince to Kansas State, a Rocco to another smaller university in Robert E. Lee’s state and a Golden to Temple.
Of the three, Santa saved his biggest and highest-quality gift for the Temple University Owls.
Al Golden is the present that won’t be falling apart a couple of weeks after its unwrapping.
Rocco will be working for Jerry Falwell. Enough said.
Prince was roundly criticized for his play calling, by Virginia fans and media, all season.
Golden, in addition to his ultra successful history as a recruiter, has guided the Virginia defense to five straight productive seasons.
He never came under the kind of scrutiny Prince did because he delivered the goods on defense.
Temple fans can only hope he delivers the same kind of goods with his hands behind the wheel of their program.
Palmer, Bradshaw make up
Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw is not making kissy-face with former Temple running back legend Paul Palmer just yet.
But at least the two are moving in the direction of a hug.
“Bill called me and asked me to come here and I appreciate that,” Palmer told me after the press conference..
Bradshaw made it a point to seek out Palmer and ask him to stand.
Palmer said the door is open, on his part, for a return to the Temple broadcasting team.
In a related development, Palmer admitted to saying “someone needs to grow some (balls)” in reference to former head coach Bobby Wallace’s play calling during the Virginia Tech game two years ago, despite repeated public denials by his engineer.
“I said it,” Paul said, laughing. “Pat (the engineer) was supposed to dump it, but didn’t. I guess that’s why (he denies Paul saying it). He’s just covering for me.”
Klecko lectures media
Another former Temple legend, tackle/nose guard/end Joe Klecko, lectured a group of reporters during the press conference.
The quote only made the Asbury Park Press.
“You talk about the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, you talk about Army’s history. Temple has that, too,” said Klecko. “It’s hidden really because they haven’t brought it out of the archive for so many years now. But from Pop Warner to the great teams I played on with Steve Joachim, and so on.
“I told Al in the back, I’ll do anything for him. I can be a unique help to him because not only did I go here, my son Dan recently went here, and I played at the next level and Dan’s playing in the NFL right now.”

By Mike Gibson
If there was any doubt that Al Golden knew Philadelphia, Temple University or the area, it was erased today.
“This is my son, A.J. and my wife, Kelly,” Golden told the assembled media, players and fans in attendance. “We were on the beach in Stone Harbor (N.J.) and he decided he didn’t want to stay in anymore. We ended up at Cooper Medical Center the next three weeks in Camden.”
It was a natural progression from Stone Harbor to Camden and now Philadephia for the 23d Temple University football coach in its history.
Golden was born and raised in Colts Neck, N.J., the same town Dan Klecko became a high school star in before coming to Temple University.
Dan Klecko’s father, Joe, a superstar of some note himself, was in attendance.
Speculation raged about possible assistants, but Golden was understandably playing it close to the vest.
“I can’t say anything about that now,” Golden said. “People have to go through human resources and all of that.”
Golden did say plenty Tuesday, actually his second day on the job.
Well, maybe his third.
“This whole thing went down on Sunday,” said the former Virginia defensive coordinator. “I’ve spent the last two days drawing up a recruiting chart and I’m pretty proud of that. We have guys we’ve targeted and we’re already working on that.”
Golden knows how to chart recruits pretty well, having done much of the recruiting for Tom O’Brien at Boston College, Joe Paterno at Penn State and Al Groh at Virginia.
Golden said that “I last saw the Temple campus some 18 years ago” while being recruited by then Temple head coach Bruce Arians and “that so much has changed. …you can recruit here. We’re going to be able to recruit here.
“This is a beautiful place and a great campus. We stayed at Conwell Hall last night and we walked around campus and this place is alive at night. I talked to some of the students at the 7-11. They didn’t know who I was, but that was OK.
“Recruiting kids to this campus will be a big plus, one of our strengths. I did know what they did here in the past but, we’re going to recruit an area from Boston to D.C. and west of Pittsburgh. That will be our core area.”
To the players, Golden said: “I don’t know what’s happened before and I can’t apologize for it, but you are going to get the best I have and the best our staff has. I will never turn down a request to talk to a player.”

Al Golden to become 23d head coach at Temple University in a press conference Tuesday, 2 p.m., at the Liacouras Center. … Good luck, Al
By Mike Gibson
Put aside the fact that no one has ever seen what Al Golden can do running a team with a clipboard in his hand.
Every other indication points to Golden, the current Virginia defensive coordinator, having a terrific career as Temple University head coach.
Golden stocked the Boston College roster with outstanding talent that has perpetuated itself to this day.
As recruiting coordinator at his alma mater, Penn State, he did the same.
He comes to Temple with an insiders’ knowledge of the East Coast, its players and the potential to win at Temple University. As an assistant coach to Tom O’Brien, in two trips to Philadelphia, he went home a loser to the Temple Owls.
O’Brien, after watching the $7 million Edberg-Olson Hall go up at Temple University, remarked to the Boston Globe in the ultimate backhanded compliment, “now even Temple has better facilities than us.”
It should be interesting to see what level of talent Golden can attract to Edberg-Olson Hall to prepare to play in the greatest football stadium in America, Lincoln Financial Field.
The one question remains, as is the one question with any assistant coach, is how he’ll do under the pressure of calling those plays and running that program.
Al Golden has prepared all of his life for this moment. Greg Schiano, a terrific recruiter at Rutgers, has been routinely criticized for his game-day coaching.
Maybe Temple will luck out and, in Golden, get superb recruiter and a great gameday coach.
Whatever, Golden will now have his chance.
Last year, he turned down Charlie Weis’ offer to become Notre Dame defensive coordinator. That wasn’t quite the right fit, in his mind.
This is.
This is his time.
With this hiring, Temple had a chance to both turn around the perception of its program in Philadelphia and beyond. They could have had the Joe Philadelphia fan say “wow” with this hiring, if it had been a big name like Rick Neuheisel, Mike Price or Dennis Erickson and, to a lesser extent, Jim Harbaugh and Bruce Arians _ recognizable names in this heavily pro football town.
Early, the rumors circulated that a big-time alumnus would deliver the money needed to attack a name like Neuheisel. The late rumor was that another alumnus agreed to pay the salary of Bruce Arians and was refused.
The administration could have had “Joe Philadelphia Fan” saying “wow, Temple hired him?”
Now the few Joe Philadephia fans who care will likely say: “Who?”
At this point, though, who cares?
With creative funding, Bill Bradshaw could have delivered both flash and substance.
Instead, he settled for substance.
Already, there is considerable consternation on the Rutgers’ board over the rumor that Mark D’Onofrio will become Temple defensive coordinator and more over what Golden can do for Temple.
Al Golden has substance written all over his face and more importantly his resume.
With substance comes results and with results there will be enough flash to light up a Fourth of July party.
Thanks to Temple Football Forever’s h-t-m-l consultant NJ Schmitty, good luck to someone who will be known for the forseeable future as “Owl” Golden.

1) There are several mid week MAC games this week, with only one game being played on Saturday. Which game are you most looking forward to watching or has the most interesting matchup? OU @ Buffalo (Tuesday). Toledo @ CMU (Wednesday). BGSU @ Miami (Thursday). Ball State @ NIU ( Thursday). Temple @ Akron (Friday). WMU @ EMU (Saturday).

TFF: Well, since all but one of the games have been played, I’ll pick Temple at Akron.
2) Bernard Pierce of Temple is only a Freshmen yet is the only one in the conference with over 1,000 yards rushing to date (1,211) good for 3rd in the nation. He has found the end zone 14 times already and has not yet fumbled or turned the ball over. Does Pierce have an amazing offense line or should we expect this from him for 2-3 more years?

TFF: Both. He’s got the moves, the speed (PA. State champ in both the indoor 60 and outdoor 100 meters) and his offensive line is pretty young. The freshman who are redshirted on the OL were more heralded recruits, generally, than the guys on the current line.

3) This is a sore subject for some teams (IE – Buffalo, Toledo) but discuss the major injuries your team has endured this season and what your projected outcome WOULD HAVE BEEN if everyone was healthy. We expect 100% homerism.
TFF: Aside from a linebacker, Alex Joseph, who has been playing with about as bad a foot injury as you can have and still play, the Owls have been pretty lucky.

4) Outside of the MAC, which other college program(s) most closely mirrors your respective MAC school ? Who’s performance / problems / coaching / etc. is similar ?
Rutgers. Close by. Same recruiting area. Similar coaches (great recruiters, still learning the gameday aspect). Both large state schools.
5) If you could reorganize the MAC divisions, how would you see it divided to better promote competition, rivalries, recruiting, etc. ? What groupings would you like to see ? (Can be any number of divisions)
I’d keep it the same and beg and conjole Army to join.