Category Archives: Villanova football

09.03.18
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Fizzy’s Corner: Breaking Down A Bad Loss

Adventures in Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Land

 

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub is a former Temple player and later a coach and educator. His recaps are a staple during the season.

                                            By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Well, it’s the day after… and I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I am with the Temple coaching staff.  But first, kudos to the excellently coached Villanova team, and especially their offensive line, which kicked the crap out of our defense.

weinraub

Part of the reason their offensive line was so effective is that, once again, we didn’t adjust or do anything different than mostly stay in the basic four-man down line, that we always do.  Their traps and mis-direction plays consistently killed us. Our guys were always positioned exactly where Villanova knew they’d be.

As far as our offense is concerned, I could take any write-up I did last year, and plug it directly into yesterday’s game. The 2018 version of the 2017, junior high, “Broad-Street Offense,” was exactly the same. No mis-direction, no reverses, no bootlegs, no throw-backs to the QB, no halfback passes, and no screens. It was straight down Broad Street crap.

Oh yeah, I know you’ll say if Frankie didn’t throw the interceptions, we’d have won. Maybe so, but that’s not the problem. The coaching staff is the problem.  With all our talent, just the same old vanilla nonsense – never inventive plays to put the ball in the hands of our big play guys.  Let’s give just one lack of recognition on either side of the ball.

On defense, the giant Villanova left tackle (No. 73), would be the only protector when Nova would go strong right.  All we had to do to get to the QB, was put our defensive tackle head-up, and take an inside route.  Out linebacker to that side could then just loop around.  Didn’t our coaches see that?

On offense in the first quarter, Frankie handed off a sweep to Armstead and carried out the fake to the left side.  There was absolutely no Nova defenders on that side of the field.  So I figured they saw that upstairs, and would come back with a bootleg sometime soon.  Wrong!  The last true bootleg was when Joe Morelli ran it in 1960.

How about the lack of guts of the offensive coordinator.  In the beginning of the second quarter, we moved the ball out to our forty-two, where we had a third and three situation.  Of all the plays in all the gin joints in the world, we ran that deceptive Armstead up-the-gut for a one yard gain.  Now it’s fourth and two.  You know we punted the ball.

In the last quarter with another fourth and two, but at their thirty-something, again a chicken-out and a field goal try.  OMG, should we take a chance and see if we can ignite the offense and put the game out of reach?

Now we get to the timeouts at the end of the game.  With two minutes and thirty-two seconds left in the game, Nova has a third and ten around our forty.  I’m going nuts screaming timeout (we had two left), but it didn’t happen.  Collins let seventy (70) seconds run off before we got the ball back.  May I remind everyone, the offense can stop the clock whenever they want, but not the defense.  He then so muddled the timeout calls after that, I didn’t know what he did.

Well sports fans, this kind of muddled coaching is now into it’s second year.  I’m pissed beyond description.  I was going to hire an airplane to fly a trailer over the Eagles game on September 23, which read, “JEFF – LOWER TEMPLE RENT.”  It’s going to cost $1750, and I was going to ask everyone to contribute what they can.  Now, I don’t know.  Is anyone a shrink?  How do I get over this depression?  This coaching staff is stealing money on game day.

Wednesday: Ancillary Impact 

Friday: Buffalo Preview

09.02.18
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TU Offense and Geoff Collins: Sockless

 

Someone needs to show this film to Geoff Collins

The routine practice here is not to post about a game until a full day has passed so as not to let emotion get in the way of calm and rational thinking.

It usually works.

Not this time.

performance

It’s one thing to put up ugly numbers against USF; it’s quite another to fail against a team that lost to Rhode Island and Elon … that’s right, Elon… last season

No matter how many hours pass, nothing will change what we witnessed on Saturday, an Epic Coaching Fail that will rank with some of the worst days of The Unholy Trinity of Temple head coaches (Jerry Berndt, Ron Dickerson and Bobby Wallace). Don’t blame offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude or defensive Andrew Thacker, either.

This one falls squarely at the sockless feet of Geoff Collins, who is the CEO of this football operation and the buck clearly stops on his desk. He certainly either does not know how to utilize the talents of his best tailback or simply refuses to do so. Rob Ritrovato can pick up where Nick Sharga left off and lead the way for a successful running game, which will be the key to opening everything else up.

Collins hired Patenaude to run an offense ill-suited to the personnel recruited by Matt Rhule, the previous coach. Rhule said that the Owls did not experience the kind of success he envisioned until he went with his instincts, which were power I with a fullback to clear the way for a running back, bring the safeties and linebackers up to the line of scrimmage, and use play-action fakes to pass over their heads. In that kind of offense, Temple wide receivers were so open that quarterback P.J. Walker often had a hard time choosing which one would be on the receiving ends of his passes. In this offense, nobody fears the run and, as a consequence, nobody gets open in the passing lanes.

Clearly, Patenaude stubbornly wants to force this square peg into a round hole and it’s not working nor probably ever will.

This is what we said in our preview two weeks ago:

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Yesterday, guess how many opportunities Ryquell Armstead—a downhill back recruited to run behind a fullback—got to run the ball behind a fullback?

Zero.

As in none.

Instead, Armstead got limited chances in an empty backfield and that’s a recipe for disaster.

Someone—maybe Ed Foley, maybe Adam DiMichele—who understands the meaning of Temple TUFF and how it applies to offensive football, should take the film at the top of this post into Collins’ office this week.

Defensively, this is what we wrote about the Villanova game plan on Aug. 8, meaning roughly that the Owls had one full month (really, nine full months) to get ready for this:

“Villanova is going to throw to the tight end—a lot—and going to try to throw crossing underneath patterns to backs coming out of the backfield” _ TFF, Aug. 8

What did Villanova do?

Throw the ball to the tight end a lot and also gained the majority of its 405 yards total offense on crossing patterns to the running backs.

Then there is the matter of defensive ends or lack of them. That stuck out like a sore thumb when the “above the line” depth chart was released a few days ago. It’s not that the Owls lack defensive ends, it’s just that they have two really good ones—Dan Archibong and Karamo Dioubate—playing on the interior of the line where they are already set with tackles Michael Dogbe and Freddy Booth-Lloyd.

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Nitro, Temple Nation Turns its lonely eyes to you (but as an every-down fullback, not as a tailback).

The Owls got pressure from only one end, Quincy Roche, when they could have both Roche and Dioubate meeting at the quarterback on a regular basis. So to get to the quarterback, they had to blitz, which resulted in a game-winning touchdown on 4th and 9.

When you don’t have to blitz, you can move your other defensive resources elsewhere and stop some of that crossing pattern bleeding. Plenty of questions, very few answers, on that backbreaking play. The first is what idiot  forced a lefty quarterback to run to his left–and most comfortable–side, when the rush could have been set up to flush him to his right make the more difficult throw across his body? Could that have been none other than The Minister of Mayhem?

If that all of those errors weren’t grievous enough, Collins proved that he was very bad at math.

With Temple up, 17-13, with 6:52 left and a 4th and 2, he went for a field goal that was missed. Forget the fact that it was missed. Remember that, up four, a field goal does you absolutely no good because a Villanova touchdown wins the game either way because it sends a deflated Temple into overtime in a game the Owls knew they frittered away. Conversely, a Temple touchdown there probably wins the game. A FG missed or made does zero good. Simple math. People in the stands were saying that before the kick. If Joe Blow knows it, a guy who is paid $2 million per year to make those decisions should know it, too.

Steve Addazio

“At least I beat Nova 42-7 and 41-10”

Collins needs to get better in a whole lot of areas but going back to Temple TUFF power football with a fullback and a tailback would be a good place to start. If Patenaude doesn’t like it, he can go back to Coastal Carolina. We hear they like that brand of football there.

Rhule did not have success here until he had that kind of an Epiphany. Collins won’t until he does the same.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

Wednesday: Ancillary Impact of the Villanova Loss

Friday: Buffalo 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.

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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

 

08.08.18
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Shining Light on Villanova Game Plan

These days at Temple football practice time has been set aside for things like photo shoots and press conferences but, at some point, work has to be done to win a game.

All you have to do to figure out the Villanova game plan is to pop in a tape of last year’s game.

Villanova is going to throw to the tight end—a lot—and going to try to throw crossing underneath patterns to backs coming out of the backfield. That approach pretty much moved the sticks and shortened the game for the Wildcats, but did not put a whole lot of points on the scoreboard in a 16-13 Temple win.

Villanova: Never forgive, never forget

Daz got one thing right: He beat Nova 42-7 and 41-10

For a FCS team looking to beat a FBS team, that has to be the goal. Shorten the game and keep the ball out of the hands of the more talented team.

Villanova did that well a year ago.

Temple has to counter by using its best defensive player, safety Delvon Randall, to cover the tight end and keep the linebackers from being crossed up by the crossing patterns by defined assignment football.

Will the Owls learn?

Those who do not learn by history are doomed to repeat it. There is a history involving the Owls and nine months to prepare for an opponent that telegraphed their game plan.

For the entire year leading up to the 2016 Army game, we outlined Phil Snow’s shortcomings against triple option teams—both at Temple and his previous stop, Eastern Michigan—and presented a simple plan to stop the triple option.

Nose guard, A gaps covered by tackles, and the play blown up at the point of attack. These were solid precepts covered in Wayne Hardin Football 101.

The Owls had nine months to make those adjustments and made none, instead sticking with their base 4-3 defense.

The outcome was that the Army fullback ran for over 100 yards and two touchdowns in both an embarrassing and costly loss. Had the Owls won that game, they would have had a much better argument for a NY6 playoff game. Snow learned his lesson by the Navy championship game, going with a nose guard and two tackles to stymie Navy’s high-octane offense and come away with a 34-10 win but it was a lesson he chose to ignore for the opener. If anything, the Owls learned that being stubborn and, to use Matt Rhule’s words “do what we do and don’t worry about what the other guy does” is not a good philosophy for winning football. Instead, you’ve got to recognize what the other guy does well and counter your game plan to stop it.

It is a lesson these Owls, too, should not ignore. Somewhere in the fine print of Geoff Collins’ contract is the mandate to pummel this team. He has three weeks to find the Mayhem that disrupts what we all know Villanova will attempt to do.

Friday: They Really Like Us

Monday: A Peak Ahead to Buffalo

Wednesday: The Position Flexibility Canard  

04.12.11
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Villanova rejection: The gift that keeps on giving

I guess this is what Villanova fans look like to Villanova revisionists.

Full disclosure.
I like Villanova football.
I always have.
It was pretty much been my second-favorite college team from the time I was, oh, about 10 until just about two years ago when the Mayor’s Cup series started.
I still (secretly) root for Villanova when it plays anyone but Temple only because Villanova wins make Temple look good, especially last year when Temple won the game.
Andy Talley is one of my favorite coaches of all time. As great a coach as Andy Talley is (and he is a great coach), he’s an even better person.
But I’ve had it up to here (I’m holding one hand way over my head while typing with the other) with Villanova fans.
And because of them, with Villanova football itself.
There’s some delicious irony in this story in that Villanova blocked Temple from full all-sports admission to the Big East in 1991 and, 20 years later, Temple’s ironclad 15-year lease to Lincoln Financial Field is blocking Villanova football from admission to that same conference.
It’s a beautiful thing.
That’s why I’m not weeping for Villanova today.
They were, as Walt Frazier says in the Just For Men commercial:
REE-JECT-TED.
The Big East courted them the last few months like a girl who looks good 40 yards away.
In college, we’d call them 40-yarders.
The closer they got, the uglier they looked.
As you walked closer with two drinks in hand (one to offer her), you would veer off at the last second.

There’s some delicious irony in this story in that Villanova blocked Temple from full all-sports admission to the Big East in 1991 and, 20 years later, Temple’s ironclad 15-year lease to Lincoln Financial Field is blocking Villanova football from admission to that same conference.


“Mike, that’s a dude,” my friend would say.
“Not a dude, but not as pretty as I thought she looked.”
Then we’d both veer away, drinks in hand.
Any way you slice it, that’s pretty much what the Big East football members did to Villanova on Sunday.
For Big East courting purposes, if Villanova isn’t a dude, it’s one butt-ugly girl.
No stadium.
No fans.
No hope of getting a stadium. (Temple has an ironclad exclusivity clause in its lease on Lincoln Financial Field through the 2018 season and probably well beyond that.)
No hope of getting fans.
It’s over.
Villanova is not going to the Big East for football, no matter how its Board of Trustees votes.
If it ever does vote.
Heck, the Villanova fanbase makes Temple look like Penn State by comparison.
The Mayor’s Cup figures show it.
By most objective estimates, Temple had 22K of the 27K fans for the first Mayor’s Cup.
Temple had about 25-28K of the 32K last year, maybe more.
Yet you have some crazy revisonist Villanova fans saying it was more of a 60-40 split in favor of Temple. It was, if Villanova fans were wearing Temple sweatshirts and hats and painted in Cherry and White and filling both sides of the lower bowl of the stadium.

Eigthy/20 if anything.
It’s important because if one thing Al Golden accomplished in five years, it was to make Temple Philadelphia’s No. 1 college football team in terms of interest.
Temple not only proved that in two meetings with Villanova on the field of play, it proved that in the TV ratings when the Temple-UCLA bowl numbers showed it was the highest rated bowl game on ESPN in the Philly market since the 2007 Alamo Bowl that featured Penn State.
Temple delivers hard numbers in football.
It is also the best option for delivering the nation’s fourth-largest TV market.
Those numbers only figure to get better as a team that has won 17 games over the last two years returning 14 starters is handed over to a battle-tested national championship level SEC staff.
If I was Temple, I would take that fourth-largest market and deliver it to Conference USA tomorrow. The Big East doesn’t figure to come calling and Temple should act in its own best interests if it doesn’t.
Villanova?
All I heard about was how it was “a lock” for the Big East for the past few weeks. Done deal, they said.
Done deal.
Yeah, I guess it is.
I’m enjoying seeing a lot of people wearing blue wipe egg off their faces.
Almost as much as I’m looking forward to the epic level beatdown that now becomes mandatory for Steve Addazio and company on Sept. 1.

02.19.09
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Temple vs. Villanova? This means War


Al Golden (left) accepts surrender sword from Andy Talley after game.
By Mike Gibson
I have to admit I was more than a little nervous when the renewal of the Villanova-Temple football series was announced three years ago.
Geez, I thought then as I do now, Andy Talley is a pretty good coach.
On days when it is not playing Temple, Villanova is my second-favorite college team (Penn is the third favorite, as you can see, I like local college football) and I know Talley’s coaching style as well as any outsider.
I’m one of those rare individuals who walk into a bar and ask them to put on Villanova-Delaware when Temple’s not playing.
Talley can flat-out coach and, quite frankly, a young guy like Al Golden probably is overmatched against him.
I figured that whatever talent advantage Golden could get could be nullified the crafty old field General.
Today, three years later, I am more convinced than ever that Talley is probably a better game coach than Al Golden is and that’s no insult to Al Golden.
Talley is probably a better game day coach than 90 percent of the other guys out there. He’s just found a niche a ‘Nova and loves it so much he never wanted to go anywhere else. Talley loves the Philadelphia area and he doesn’t throw his name into the ring whenever any higher-profile opening becomes available.
There’s a lot to admire about that.
He’s good. Real good.
As convinced as I am about that, I’m even more convinced than ever about this:
By 10 p.m. or so, on Thursday night, Sept. 3, 2009, Temple will walk off the field a 20-point or so winner over Villanova.
Or thereabouts.
At least.
Say, 34-13.
I’m writing that on Feb. 19 with the full knowledge someone will clip it, save it and show it to me on Sept. 4.
I hope it’s to tell me that I should have had more confidence in our defense.
I’m concerned about Villanova having 16 starters back from a 10-3 team.
I’m concerned about the mental advantage Talley has over Golden, concerned that Villanova has two quarterbacks, Chris Whitney and Antwan Young, who have been more productive on the college level than anyone Temple currently has, but nonetheless but mark it down.
Golden will beat Talley.
Temple will beat Villanova.
This Epiphany came to me not in a dream but as a result of some deep football and war games thinking developed recently.
I’m a football and a Civil War nut and I’ll make this analogy.
Andy Talley is Robert E. Lee and Al Golden is Grant The Butcher.
You know how that turned out.
Robert E. Lee had the strategy part down pat. He could maneuver circles around most Union generals, who were afraid of a growing body count and were too timid to attack the smaller Army of Northern Virginia.
Then Grant came along, correctly figured he had more men and materials than Lee and would just keep throwing those men and that material at Lee until he wore him out.
Body count be damned.
So he was called Grant T. Butcher.
I checked the signing list the Daily News had on Feb. 4 for Villanova. Twelve guys.
I checked the signing list the Daily News had on Feb. 4 for Temple. Twenty-eight guys, with 15 additional redshirts eligible for a grand total of 43 newcomers (or 40).
Additionally, Temple, the best I can tell, has 21 guys on a roster of 105 capable running in the neighborhood of a 4.5 40-yard dash, counting defensive backs, running backs and wide receivers.

Now if Golden was William Tecumseh Sherman (the guy who burned Atlanta), he’d be up 54-9 with a minute left and calling timeouts trying to get to 60.
It won’t happen, but oh how I wish Golden becomes Sherman that night.

Villanova has four on a roster about half as large.
Grant had a plan. Now Golden’s plan is coming to fruition.
His plan has been a simple one: Keep bringing in high-quality talent and then call in the reserves. For the first time last year, he was able to redshirt 15 guys.
That’s a pretty nice force in reserve.
With 20 less scholarships for football, Villanova doesn’t have that luxury.
Golden, like Grant, will keep throwing bodies at Villanova.
Bigger, faster, meaner, leaner, bodies.
As Joe Paterno has said, “Temple doesn’t have any fat guys.”
Yes, both teams play 11 guys at a time but when Temple’s guys are bigger, faster, stronger across the board it’s not really that fair a fight.
That’s OK with me because it eases my nervousness about Talley’s impact on the game. He could win a quarter or two but, by the third at the latest, both lines will be overwhelming the Villanova lines on a fairly consistent basis.
The ‘Cats won’t be able to block Mark D’Onofrio’s defense and they will be largely ineffective against Temple’s offense because the Owls could have an athletic line that averages 300 pounds across the front. That’s a lot of big, gaping holes for a 4.4-40 guy like James Nixon or a 4.5-40 guy like Kee-Ayre Griffin to run through.
It could get ugly, but it won’t because Golden, like Grant, will graciously accept Talley’s sword at the end of the game and kneel on the ball rather than run it up.
Now if Golden was William Tecumseh Sherman (the guy who burned Atlanta), he’d be up 54-9 with a minute left and calling timeouts trying to get to 60.
It won’t happen, but oh how I wish Golden becomes Sherman that night.
Hell, this is War and War is Hell.
Or at least it should be for Villanova.