Category Archives: Uncategorized

05.04.18
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Collins: Calling All Fans

 

 

One of the most revealing passages from the Temple position paper on reasons for building a new stadium is this:

“Overall, the trend is clear—stadiums built since 2000 have capacities that are sized to fit the institution’s market and football program’s success. The average recently built FBS stadium has a capacity of 37,561, similar to the intended 35,000 seats at Temple. Ninety-five percent of Temple football games over the past 10 years could have been accommodated in a 35,000-seat stadium.”

 

That doesn’t mean that in the last two years of its current contract with the Philadelphia Eagles to play in the cavernous Lincoln Financial Field that the Owls will not try to fill it.

Hence, the hashtag campaign of #filltheLinc and head coach Geoff Collins personally calling season-ticket holders who have not renewed and asking them to renew.

(I didn’t get a call because I renewed during the first week in February.)

A noble goal, but as has been stated here over the years and reiterated in Temple’s own new stadium reasoning somewhat misguided. Our theory is that there is a hardcore base of around 20,000 fans who will come to see the Owls, win, lose or draw. Then there is an additional “softcore” base of about 15,000 who will come out to see the Owls win, win or win.

That base gets cracked easily when the Owls lose an opener they should not have like Villanova in 2009 and Army in 2016.

Win an opener like Penn State in 2015 and the softcore crystallize into diehards the rest of the year.

There is a ceiling of Temple fan interest and it is right around the 35,000 Temple fans who attended the Tulane game for the 6-0 Owls in 2015. It is right around the 34,005 fans who saw the Owls lay an egg in the opener the next year against Army.

The attendance problem simply is not just a matter of wins and losses but of a larger economic driver, supply and demand.

Temple needs a stadium sized to fit its program.

In the American Athletic Conference, Temple currently plays in the largest-capacity stadium and draws below-average attendance, resulting in the lowest percentage of stadium seats filled for home games. Too much supply limits the ability to drive ticket sales and, as a result, gameday revenue.

If Collins calling fans personally leads to the hashtag #fillthelinc then that would be a miracle that would qualify him for Sainthood. It would also have the domino effect of causing the Power 5 to suspend its moratorium on expansion and immediately invite Temple into the conference of its choice. (Hell, if Temple averaged 70,000 fans over the 27 wins of last three years can you imagine a conference NOT inviting the Owls?)

More likely, shoot for a glass full and drink in half that and the Edberg-Olson phone calls will be well worth last month’s hefty Verizon bill.

Monday: Immediate Help

Wednesday: Mr. Softee A Welcome Addition

Friday: Ranking the 5 best Temple teams of All Time

04.20.18
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Pumping The Brakes Means A Left Turn

A week ago, the guy who holds the hammer in this whole Temple Stadium controversy wrote an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer to express his feelings on the project.

If you read the entire thing, he’s against it, essentially saying Temple should “pump the brakes” on a new campus stadium.

The guy is Darrell Clarke. The way politics works in Philadelphia is that the councilman in any district has veto power over a project in his district.

Clarke is not only the Philadelphia City Council President, he is the councilman in that very district. He can afford to tell Temple University to pump the brakes on the project. Temple University cannot afford to wait due to the timeline of its lease with Lincoln Financial Field running out in 2020.

The “community” is vigorously against this project. It’s not 50-50. It’s not even 80-20. It’s more like 90-10. This is not a similar case to what is now the Liacouras Center when palms needed to be greased in order to move the project forward. There simply is not enough oil here to move the gears.

darrellsupport

Darrell Clarke would rather Geasey Field remain an empty lot than a beautiful new stadium

If Clarke says “pumps the brakes” Temple should then recognize what intersection it is approaching and make a left turn.

It appears as though the City of Philadelphia, which really holds the hammer here, will never give Temple the permissions to close 15th Street forever (between Norris and Montgomery) to appease the residents who vote for Clarke in every election. Without 15th closed, there is only one other open space on the Main Campus large enough to build what Temple needs.

The left turn Temple needs to make is at 15th and Montgomery, make a right at Broad Street and travel a couple of blocks south to Masters to build the stadium. The city has no grounds to oppose a football stadium at The Temple Sports Complex since two stadiums have been existing there without opposition for two years and no closure of any street would be necessary. Even if the City would try to block a stadium at that site, Temple–with the most graduates of any school in Pennsylvania appeals courts–probably would prevail on the argument that it was allowed to build dorms and classrooms on its property and should be able to build a needed “multi-purpose” facility there as well.

If not, you can forget about a new stadium at best and Temple football at worst. If Temple football is forced to return to that dump called Franklin Field, the program is doomed. Chester’s 18,500-soccer stadium is a far worse option. If the Phillies ever exit Citizens Bank Park, that would be ideal but that appears to be at least 20 years down the road that is called Broad Street.

The uni would have to do something it said it cannot do—pay the Philadelphia Eagles a $3 million a year lease to rent Lincoln Financial Field on top of a one-time “stadium improvement fee” of $12 million.

Of course, this can all be avoided if the BOT would change plans and build the stadium at The Temple Sports Complex.

On first glance, building a football stadium over a brand new $22 million Olympic Sports Complex would be an admission by Temple that it made a mistake building that facility there and they would not do that.

There is a precedence, though. A few  years earlier, the same board of trustees spent $12 million less to build an Olympic sports complex in Ambler that included also baseball and softball and abandoned it for the Broad and Masters facility.

If they can do that then, they can do this now. The Olympic sports teams can be moved back to Geasey Field.

Running out of time and options,  it is the logical thing to do and, in this political climate, the sooner the better.

Monday: Above The Line

04.13.18
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5 Things To Watch for at Cherry and White

proof

Take this from a guy who has been to the past 43 Cherry and White games: This one as all the makings for being one of the best.

Trust me.

I’ve been to the worst.

Last year, was Worst No. 2 only behind Worst No. 1 at Lincoln Financial Field a couple years earlier. Nothing worse than 1,000 fans in a 70,000 stadium watching a spring game.

Last year, the weather almost topped it.

ryanerasmus

A year ago almost to the day I stood on the top bleacher at the Diamond Street end zone with an umbrella over my head and ducking behind the 6-foot-4 guy standing on the bleacher below me to get a view of Logan Marchi throwing two interceptions off his back foot. He was BY FAR … FAR … the worst of the four quarterbacks playing that day but somehow he started the opener at Notre Dame and was only able to put up 16 points in the next game against a team Rhode Island scorched for 20 points.

It sucked big time.

This year, with 2,500 seats in the beautiful new Temple Sports Complex, I’m pretty much guaranteed of a good view.

Here are the five things I’m looking for:

Ambiance

You might say I’m a dreamer but, as the Beatles would say, I’m not the only one. This is kind of a mini-preview of what to expect at the new stadium. I have serious doubts that this will ever be built but there will be 5-10,000 people there tomorrow and tailgating in that confined space I believe is doable and will be fun. I will get back to you on those points Monday. The new stadium won’t be the same experience as Lincoln Financial Field but it could be better.

forecast

Weather

Mid-April is always a crapshoot in Philadelphia. Last year, to be kind, sucked. We got soaked. Everyone brought an umbrella. This year, with an 80-degree and sunny day forecast, I’ll probably be wearing the 27-10 Penn State T-Shirt.

Coaching

tuff

Last year, it was a clusterbleep because these were first-year guys doing a first-year thing. Let’s hope it’s more focused this season. To me, I want to see kicking in a game situation (punting, punt and kickoff returns, field goals under pressure) and we saw none of that last year in the rain. This is the one chance to kick a pressure field goal in the rain and to see the new punter. That would be nice.

juice

Position Battles

This might be the most important. We all know that Juice is No. 1 and Anthony is No. 2 at quarterback. Isn’t that a much nicer spot to be than we were this time last year when no one had a clue? Absolutely. Let’s move on to other important spots like defensive back, where Benny Walls is battling Keyvone Bruton for the free safety slot opposite strong safety Delvon Randall. I personally think the Owls are in good shape with either guy but, if one guy comes up with two picks on Saturday, it would be hard to keep him out of the starting lineup. Who will emerge as the No.3 wide receiver?. I think it could be Sean Ryan but Jadan Blue could prove me wrong. Right now, Isaiah Wright–a touchdown waiting to happen–is my current favorite Temple player (following in a line that included Adam DiMichele, Bernard Pierce, Tyler Matakevich and Nick Sharga). Him and Ventell Bryant are the two best receivers in the AAC and it’s not even close. Let’s find a third tomorrow.

Gambling

They say you are a sick mofo if you bet an NFL preseason game. You need to call Gamblers Anonymous, though, if you bet the Cherry and White game. That said, after carefully perusing the rosters, I think Cherry wins this one: Say, 17-7. I don’t think they gave the White a shot. Not betting a penny, though.  More than gambling, though, might be the gossip and since I have the ear of one or two donors, I will be able to garner some of the lowdown on the new stadium. Let’s just say I’m not optimistic at this point. I hope I hear differently on Saturday.

Monday: Cherry and White Takeaways

 

04.05.18
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New Uniforms?

eastjumbo

These uniforms are probably the best ones featuring the Temple ‘][‘ on the helmet

In the grand scheme of things, uniforms rate somewhat behind coaching, talent, practice facilities, stadiums and fan bases in terms of importance.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t important at all because they are.

During one of the great Temple wins recently—an overtime win at UConn in 2012 that made the Owls 2-0 in a one-time BCS league—it was with great pride that I noted that the Owls did it wearing what I thought was their best uniform combination:

Cherry pants, white stripes, white jerseys, cherry helmets.slight

They played well and looked good.

It is against that backdrop that I cringed when I heard Temple was getting new uniforms by the end of this month.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

At Temple, it ain’t broke but fixing it could break it.

All over the NCAA, I see teams with awful-looking so-called “modern” uniforms—Maryland comes in the 2011 Temple game comes to mind here—getting their asses kicked by more traditional uniforms.

Temple’s uniforms have remained pretty much the same through the years.

When Al Golden got here, he eliminated the Temple ][ on the helmets for a very good reason because he felt the “football brand” at Temple when he played at Penn State represented toughness and that brand was having TEMPLE spelled out across the helmets.

NCAA FOOTBALL: OCT 31 Temple at Navy

That brand was created by Wayne Hardin in 1970.

“We want people to know who were are,” Hardin said. “We’re Temple. We’re spelling it on the helmets so they won’t forget who we are. There are plenty of schools that have T’s on the helmet but not many that spell the name.”

That brand continued until Jerry Berndt brought the T back because Penn, the Philadelphia team he formerly coached, had a P on it.

To me,  that wasn’t a very good reason.

Golden brought TEMPLE back on the helmet and that lasted until a bald-headed guy who shall remain nameless brought the T back. I’m OK with the ‘][‘ because it is the school brand but not OK with an entirely new look because it is supposed to be attractive to recruits.

Something tells me the new uniforms are going to be closer to a Maryland-type monstrosity—the Under Armour CEO is a Maryland grad—than a more traditional Temple look.

Whatever it is, if the word TEMPLE comes back on the helmet, that would be an acceptable step forward and a fitting tribute to the Hardin Era.

Monday: Spring Phenoms Old and New

Wednesday: The Scrimmage

Friday: 5 Things To Look For At Cherry and White

03.21.18
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The Bullhorn Lady and Rittenhouse Square

square

The NAACP wants Temple to put a stadium here, in half the space they already own on campus

Imagine, for instance, if you wanted to build a deck on your property and several of your neighbors came over and said:  “We don’t think that’s a good idea and we’re going to the City Council to fight it.”

The deck is on your property, not theirs, yet they succeed at getting the city to deny you the opportunity to improve your property.

That’s the level of ridiculousness we’ve reached with Temple University attempting to build a stadium on its own property.

bullhorn

“IF TEMPLE UNIVERSITY CAN COME UP WITH THE MONEY TO BUILD A STADIUM, THEY CAN INSTEAD GIVE IT TO THE COMMUNITY OR INVEST IT IN RAISES FOR TEACHERS.”

 

The sad thing is that the neighbors do not realize how ridiculous they look or sound and probably never will.

I got a taste of this walking into Mitten Hall for the March 6 “community Town Hall” that was drowned out by protesters 13 minutes into the festivities.

On the way in, I was greeted by this sound by a woman with a bullhorn shouting from the seat of a small red car:

“IF TEMPLE UNIVERSITY CAN COME UP WITH THE MONEY TO BUILD A STADIUM, THEY CAN INSTEAD GIVE IT TO THE COMMUNITY OR INVEST IT IN RAISES FOR TEACHERS.”

Huh?

I wanted to saunter over there and disabuse the nice lady of this ill-conceived notion but for my own personal safety let it go. I’ll just explain how “Temple came up with the money”  here.

The stadium will cost at least $130 million and the university is well on its way to reaching its goal of $100 million in private contributions and expects to surpass that by groundbreaking. The rest of the money will be transferring funds already earmarked for Lincoln Financial Field to play in the new stadium.

If the stadium isn’t built, the money goes right back to the donors. It does not go to “the community” nor will it be used for “raising teacher salaries.” The money is for a stadium, or there is no money at all. That’s how that works. Hypothetically, when the university fund-raisers call you on the phone and ask for a stadium donation, they don’t say: “Hey, Sparky, just a heads up. If we run into problems building the stadium, can we get your OK to divert your million bucks to the community or pay raises for teachers?”

Err, no.

Just when you think the level of ridiculousness could not get any more bizarre, the NAACP said Temple University should consider building its stadium in Rittenhouse Square. Three problems with that: One, Temple does not own Rittenhouse Square; two, it’s not a large enough area to build a 35,000-seat stadium on (Geasey Field alone is larger than Rittenhouse Square) and, three, Temple would have to move its campus to Rittenhouse Square for it to be cost effective and Temple simply is not going to do that. Rittenhouse Square is a total of seven acres. Just the “Geasey Field” part of the proposed on-campus stadium site is eight acres, half of what the university has allocated for the entire project.

That would be like your neighbors coming over to you and telling you no deck on your property, but they would support you if you wanted to build your deck five miles down the road in the dog park.

Doesn’t make sense, does it?

Very few things in Provincial “Not In My Backyard” Philadelphia ever do.

 

03.19.18
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Our New Scheduling Buddies

SteveAddazio_2014_8

Steve Addazio contemplating a choice between running left or running right on first and second downs.

Most Temple fans have a pretty good handle on what to expect in the American Athletic Conference part of the season schedule.

Houston, Memphis and Navy are always solid and UCF and USF have the kind of speed to run away and hide.

There are, though, other variables to consider this year in the league as UCF has a new coach and, as we found out last year with Temple, a new coach does not necessarily get the same results out of pretty much similar talent.

Most Temple fans, though, do not know what to expect of our two new scheduling buddies, Boston College and Maryland. Both schools deserve a lot of credit for giving Temple a home-and-home and both schools should be right up there as the two best foes the Owls face this year.

Boston College

The Steve Addazio-led Eagles should be 2-0 with home games against UMass and Holy Cross to open up, but their Temple game gets stuck smack in the middle of a trip to Purdue (Sept. 22) and an Oct. 6 visit to Wake Forest. The Eagles, though, should make another bowl again and you’ve got to figure they have the home date on Sept. 29 against Temple penciled in as a must-win on the way to the bowl. It’s up to the Owls to get the erasers out but it won’t be easy as the Eagles return almost every key contributor.   Running back A.J. Dillon is one of the best in the AAC, a proven 1,000-yard rusher in a Power 5 league. Other stars are defensive end Zach Allen, wide receiver Kobay White and tight end Tommy Sweeney. Their losses are their two cornerbacks, so the Owls probably would be wide to plan to attack those two with a steady diet of passes to Ventell Bryant and Isaiah Wright.

Chuck Heater

The only DC in recent Temple history to post consecutive shutouts

Maryland

The Terrapins’ 2017 football team was a mirror image to this season’s Temple basketball team, peaking in the first month of the season by beating a Texas team that later beat USC. That alone should get Temple’s attention but D.J. Durkin’s squad should be a handful despite their 4-8 record of a year ago. Former Imhotep wide receiver D.J. Moore declared for the draft, so that leaves a pass-catching void but Taivon Jacobs has received a medical redshirt and will be back. He’s got Bryant-level talent. Quarterback Max Bortenschlager is a mouthful but should also be a handful after throwing for 1,131 yards, 10 touchdowns and five interceptions. The Terps have an all-star coaching staff with offensive coordinator Matt Canada and defensive coordinator (as well as safeties coach) Chuck Heater. If you think the Patenaude vs. Heater matchup is a toss-up, you haven’t been paying attention. Canada and Heater should be able to elevate whatever talent level Maryland has now, but, from a pure athlete standpoint, Boston College should be the more impressive team of the two Power 5 teams on the schedule.

Wednesday: The Bullhorn Lady and Rittenhouse Square

03.16.18
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Stadium: Rock and Hard Place

abstract

Abstract cell art from our tailgate bud Darin Bartholomew

Depending upon who is consulted, there are two schools of thought regarding this too-long and drawn-out process called building a new football stadium:

  1. Relax. Everything has been taken care of behind the scenes. Everything you see now is for show.
  2. City Council will see a whole lot of protesters in its chambers come crunch time and vote against closing 15th Street, effectively killing the project.

Maybe it’s because I’ve lived inside the city limits all of my life and am all-too-familiar with the way this City Government works, and people in school of thought one live in far-flung places like Long Island and Virginia, but Temple is officially between a rock and a hard place if it does not get permission to close 15th Street.

Guess what?

It’s not coming.

rockhard

In my mind, just enough space to build if you move the Amos Rec across the street but the Star Complex replaced most of the track and football field here.

Darrell Clarke is dead set against it and the “community” seems dead set against it.

Temple could have built on that site if the Star Complex wasn’t built because it would not require the permanent closing—actually rerouting—of 15th Street. You could probably relocate Amos Recreation Center across 15th to the old student Pavilion and squeeze a 35K stadium into the spot occupied by both Geasey and Star.

Now, with Star built, that limits Temple’s options to this:

Extend the Linc Deal

This will require holding the nose, taking the medicine and swallowing because the “lease” is one of the reasons why the university wanted to build a stadium in the first place.

Go to Franklin Field

Not an option because the AAC requires member schools to have stadium control at least on Saturdays. AAC tolerates the Linc because it gives Temple that control. It will not tolerate Penn having control over AAC TV schedule.

Knock Down The Temple Sports Complex

Move the soccer, field hockey and lax teams back to Geasey and knock down a facility Temple just spent $22 million to build and replace it with a football stadium. If you really want to build a stadium on campus, that’s Temple’s only option. It would not require closing any street and because the “community” did not oppose building the stadiums already on that location, they would not have much of an argument against building a football stadium there.

Monday: Our New Scheduling Buddies

02.28.18
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Current Staff? Meh ….

raponecould

This is the resume Nick Rapone could have brought to Temple.

Everything in life is a trade-off and, so it is with Temple football coaching staffs as this story illustrates.

“My son said, ‘Dad, it’s like Night and Day between this staff and Al Golden’s staff,’ “ John Palumbo’s father told me during Steve Addazio’s first Cherry and White Day. “He said, Dad, these guys are all National Championship coaches. They know what they are doing.”

interested

Palumbo knew what he was talking about. He started at center for both Golden’s last team and Addazio’s first team. Daz took Golden’s talent and made it a bowl-winning team.

Golden was the great CEO-type, someone with a binder full of recruiting contacts up and down the East Coast and nobody was more well-equipped to stock the Temple roster with the talent it needed to succeed—if not win—the MAC.

Addazio was the ambitious successor, a guy who supposedly loved the macaroni and South Philly Italian food so much that he would stay here 10 years. We later found out what he was, a bull-bleeper who could sell snowballs to the Eskimos. In that sense, Daz bought an all-star staff with him to Philadelphia—the defensive coordinator at Florida, Chuck Heater, and Scot Loeffler, a damn good offensive coordinator.

rosscard

They were a good sight better than Mark D’Onofrio and Matt Rhule, Golden’s last coordinators but part of the price of bringing that kind of talent to Philadelphia was that Daz probably promised that he would take them along to a P5 stop in a year or two.

When the Owls hired Geoff Collins from Florida, I had a feeling it would be more like a Daz hire than a Golden or Rhule hire in that he’d poach the Florida staff of a couple of top position coaches with a promise of making them coordinators here. No such luck. The only person he poached from the Gators was the equipment manager.

It wasn’t what I expected.

You get what you pay for. Two days after he was hired, Steve Addazio wooed his buddy, then Florida national championship co-defensive coordinator (really, THE guy according to Urban Meyer), Chuck Heater. Temple paid Mark D’Onofrio $200,000 to be DC in the 2010 season. Daz convinced Lewis Katz, his guy, to kick in an extra $200K to secure the services of Heater. Katz is gone and probably so are the days of Temple outbidding P5 teams for any assistant football coach’s services. Heater loved it here, biked every day from Center City to 10th and Diamond and had a good relationship with many Temple fans, big donors and small.

Now, we have an offensive coordinator from Coastal Carolina, a defensive coordinator from Kennesaw State and position coaches from West Alabama and Georgia State. It’s particularly sad in that Nick Rapone, a former FCS defensive coordinator of the year who spent the last few years with Bruce Arians with the Arizona Cardinals, expressed an interest in the DC job after Taver Johnson left. So did Temple legend Kevin Ross, who was the DB coach with the NFL team.

Instead of NFL guys, we have Kennesaw State and West Alabama guys. Not the kind of resumes that will make sons of the current Owls tell their fathers that the Rhule and Phil Snow did not know what they were doing.

Maybe the trade-off is a little more loyalty for fewer wins. Give me consistent wins on Saturday or any day of the week against mediocre 7-6 records and loyalty every year of the decade. I know I would have them with guys like Scot Loeffler, Chuck Heater, Nick Rapone and Kevin Ross.

These small school guys?

Not so much.

Friday: Developmental Program?

 

02.21.18
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The Philly Special

 

Even though I am an avowed fan of so-called “trick” plays (I prefer the term innovative), I understand that some do not like them.


“We saw Temple use
it to beat Penn State,”
would have been great
local currency, but
Pederson did not go there.

I had a conversation with a fellow Temple fan after Toledo used five trick plays to beat Temple, 36-13, a week after the Owls used no trick plays to beat Maryland, 38-7. Under then Temple (and ironically current Maryland) defensive coordinator Chuck Heater, the Owls were an over-pursuing defense susceptible to misdirection. Randy Edsall, the Maryland coach, didn’t try any the week before but Toledo must have picked up something on the Maryland game film.

folmeister

Ed Foley, Temple Nation turns its lonely eyes to you

“Pure genius,” I said of then Toledo coach Tim Heckman.

“I don’t like trick plays,” my friend said. “Line up and beat them the old-fashioned way.”

“You don’t like them because they beat us. You sound like Knute Rockne before the forward pass.”

I thought about my friend and smiled when the Philadelphia Eagles used at least one trick play–The Philly Special–to beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl and remembered that play looked a lot like a play Temple used to beat Penn State nearly three years prior. The Eagles direct-snapped the ball to running back Corey Clement, who took off ostensibly running for the end zone but instead flipped the ball to receiver Trey Burton–a former quarterback–who found current quarterback Nick Foles in the end zone for six.

In the Owls’ version, they direct-snapped to running back Jahad Thomas, who took the same route to flip it to receiver John Christopher–a former quarterback–who found then current quarterback P. J. Walker for a big first down.

It would have been nice for Eagles’ head coach Doug Pederson to give a tip of the hat to the local college squad afterwards but, instead, he vaguely referred to “seeing some plays in college games that we liked” as the Genesis for The Philly Special. National TV people picked up the Clemson version of the Temple play a year later and pointed to it as being Pederson’s possible inspiration. “We saw Temple use it to beat Penn State,” would have been great local currency, but Pederson did not go there.

To me, anything from 1-5 trick plays a game is perfect. Six is probably too much or using the same play more than once in the same game is probably not advisable.

Generally speaking, there haven’t been enough trick plays in the Temple offensive arsenal for my taste since that Penn State victory. I can remember only one from scrimmage in a down-and-distance situtation last year–the scramble formation that allowed Isaiah Wright to score on a direct snap against Army. The Owls also tried a variation of the 2015 play last year on a two-point conversion with Wright hitting Frank Nutile.

That’s not enough.

Maybe new assistant head coach for offense Ed Foley can install at least one  for the upcoming season. The Maryland game might be a nice place to start. Ed, Temple Nation turns its lonely trick plays eyes to you. Foley has been around for all of the trick plays of the last 10 years–spanning four head coaches–and might be able to come up with the daddy of all trick plays and something we haven’t seen before.

If so, he can call it the North Philly Special.

Friday: The Five Best Trick Plays of the Ed Foley Era

Monday: The Coaching Shuffle

Wednesday: Developmental Program?

 

01.29.18
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Attendance Goals: Cement Ceiling

mcHale

 

Recently, a hashtag has surfaced on the Temple football twitter page #fillTheLinc18 with photos of several returning Owls in action.

It might have had something to do with seeing that stadium vibrant and exciting and filled to capacity and sound for the Eagles’ season but, while an admirable goal, that ceiling is out of reach.

bestoftemple

 

A university with 40,000 full-time students, 320,000 alumni and 12,500 employees should be able to fill a 70,000-seat stadium

 

It should not be, but it is. A university with 40,000 full-time students, 320,000 alumni and 12,500 employees should be able to fill a 70,000-seat stadium but only a small fraction of those numbers are even interested in college football. (We have a great ex-Temple basketball player who posts photos of him and his sons at Eagles’ games every Sunday on Facebook but who I’ve seen at about one Temple football game in the last five season. #Sad.)

A glass ceiling is an Invisible but real barrier through which the next stage or level of advancement can be seen, but cannot be reached by a section of qualified and deserving individuals.

Temple football, though, does have a real ceiling of interest and it’s a cement one, harder than glass.

The 2016 Owls were set up for a nice season—which they eventually had—but fell flat on their faces before a crowd of 34,005 against Army. On the way out of that game, I heard several dozen fans saying “same old Temple” and “I’m not coming back” and these were the soft core fans, not the hard core ones. There is a reason why Temple always gets good crowds in the opener and it is because the soft core group is giving them one shot. Big wins in the opener usually mean good attendance years; big losses in the opener are almost impossible to recover from.

Getting that soft core wrapped around the hard core should be the goal and build from there.

Wayne Hardin was asked what it would take for Temple to fill Veterans Stadium—their long-demolished home then—on a consistent basis. “We’d have to go undefeated for 10-straight years,” Hardin said.

The comment was just a little tongue-in-check.

The ceiling of Temple football interest is about 35,000 fans and that’s why the university is creating a demand for tickets by building a stadium of exactly that size. So while the hashtag of #halffillTheLinc18 may not be as sexy, it certainly is a lot more realistic and the best the Owls can do until the new Temple Stadium is completed.

Meanwhile, a nice 52-7 win over Villanova would do much more to fill the Linc the rest of the season than another 16-13 one.

Wednesday: Great Expectations