03.12.16
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Why The Names Ritrovato and Wilson Are Important

few

Nick Sharga had Jahad Thomas’ back all season.

Judging from Temple opponents’ websites—and one Rutgers’ one—the conventional wisdom acceptable as gospel elsewhere is that “Temple has lost everyone and will return to being bad” in the 2016 season.

The pack of so-and-so fans nods their collective heads as if the OP has some inside knowledge of Temple football.

Those of us who are a little closer to the program, purchase season tickets, watch every minute of every game know better. Part of that more plausible narrative is that, while the Owls lose a great linebacker like Tyler Matakevich, they have three potential very-good-to-next-level linebackers returning in single-digit players Avery Williams (2), Nick Sharga (4) and Stephaun Marshall (6).

Think about that for a minute. Temple handed out nine single-digit numbers as voted by  their teammates as the nine toughest guys in the 105-man program and three of those guys are not only returning, but also play the same position—linebacker. (We know Jahad Thomas and Sean Chandler also are among the returning single-digit players, too.)

Yes, Temple will miss Tyler but nowhere near as much as the Temple haters think.

That’s why it is important, although not absolutely vital, that the “Unsung Hero” of last year’s team, Sharga, gets to move to his primary position, which is linebacker. To do that, Temple will be looking closely at two names who can play fullback, Rob Ritrovato and Taiyir Wilson.

The interesting thing about Ritrovato was that the staff had confidence enough to play the 6-0, 228-pounder against Penn State. That’s when he suffered a season-ending injury. The other player listed as a fullback is Wilson, a mid-year enrollee from Fork Union (Va.), who is 6-2, 245.  He played fullback at Perkiomen Valley prior to that.

If either of them show they can lead block for tailbacks like Sharga did, the Owls will have the luxury of moving Sharga over to the other side of the ball where he obviously has a nose for it.

03.10.16
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Ash Saturday At Temple Clinic

clinic
If Temple football really has a rival, it is not Penn State, Villanova or UConn or Cincinnati but Rutgers.
A rivalry needs really three ingredients for the main course:

Geography
Hatred
Competitive History

chumpions

Congrats and good luck to the basketball team.

Only for Rutgers can you place an emphatic checkmark next to those categories. When Temple had good football coaches (Wayne Hardin and Bruce Arians) and a continuing series with the Scarlet Knights, those coaches usually took care of business. When Temple went through a Berndt and Dickerson Dark Age, Rutgers had the advantage. Heck, even Bobby Wallace won four in a row against the Scarlet Knights.

The schools should be playing every single year. Piscataway is a short drive or Temple fans and the Linc is a short drive for RU fans. It makes too much sense. Neither Rutgers nor Temple should be playing Howard or Stony Brook.
The recent controversy is inviting a hated rival, Rutgers, to the Temple coaches’ clinic on April 2. Plenty of Temple fans seem to be against the idea, but I think it is much ado about nothing because the representative of the hated rival, new head coach Chris Ash, knows nothing about the hate.

In fact, until 2020—the next Temple vs. Rutgers game—you could say he is a friend. These coaching clinics are nothing more than an exchange of ideas and, if Ash has a good idea that Temple can “borrow” then his presence will be worthwhile. The same can be said for Matt Rhule, George DeLeone or any of the other guest speakers.
Maybe someone will come up to an alternative to the “dog stare” offense and, if the Owls can adopt that, it will save their fans a lot of angst this fall.

No news will come out of this clinic, not matter how much TU fans might be hoping for a Howard-Stony Brook game that would make an early renewal of the TU-RU rivalry possible this season. The brainstorming should be beneficial to all parties.

Saturday: Fullback Options That Would Allow Sharga to play LB

03.08.16
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Six Months To Defend Triple Option

army

How ND blew up the Army triple option.

Stopping the triple option is all in the timing.

This year, unlike 2014, the Temple football team has all the time in the world to prepare for Army’s confounding—but not as confounding as Navy’s was—triple option. The Owls have six full months before the opener with Army, and they should probably be setting aside some practice time each day to get the reads down.

Before you say “it’s just Army” please note that the Cadets gave Penn State all it could handle a year ago before falling, 20-14. Temple should always take the approach that it is not too good to lose to anyone and not too bad to beat anyone.

breaking

Scheduling is breaking for the Owls to go 7-0 into the USF game, if they  can win at PSU.

Army is just one part of the schedule that sets up beautifully for the Owls because, if you are going to play a triple option team, opening day is the best week to play one.

The Owls failed miserably in a 31-24 loss to Navy in 2014 because of a number of reasons. It was the second game of the season and they had only one week to prepare for the triple option after the high of going down to Vanderbilt and coming away with a 37-7 win over an SEC team. (Ohio State “held” Navy to just 17 in the opener the week before, admittedly with far better talent than the Owls.)

The triple option is designed to take advantage of defenses by allowing the quarterback to make his reads during the play, not before. That means the defense is rarely in position to make the play and any pre-snap reads are useless.

The Owls should be mentally prepared to not get to down when Army gets its yards. The key is limiting big plays and forcing turnovers. That’s one of the reasons why quick penetration against this kind of offense (the kind a 5-2 might afford) could cause bad reads and turnovers. The Owls also have the kind of speed on the back end of their defense that will probably help them from giving up big plays.

Blitzing would be a bad idea because a 5-2 could provide plenty of penetration without giving up numbers. Blitzing teams usually run past their assignments in a triple option. Staying home and keeping contain is the way to stop the triple option.

The “A” and “B” gap is the key to stopping the triple option. The first read the QB makes is to the A gap fullback and if, say, nose guard Averee Robinson blows up the center, the “B” gap option is either the QB going outside or pitching to the trailing halfback. A Sharif Finch honing in on the QB means that stopping the pitchman falls to a DT like Michael Dogbe or the new guys, Karamo Dioubate or Greg Webb. There is always single-digit linebackers like Avery Williams (2) or Stephaun Marshall (6) coming up on support.

Obviously, a savvy coordinator like Phil Snow knows all of this so the extra time he has to work on it should make for a better outcome than the week he had to prepare for the 31-24 loss to Navy.

Thursday: Ash Wednesday at Matt Rhule Football Camp

03.06.16
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The Curious Saquon Barkley Narrative

barkley

If the Owls play a 5-2 defense, Averee Robinson will blow up the PSU center often enough to allow Praise Martin-Oquike, Greg Webb and Karamo Dioubate and company to get through and tackle the QB before he can even hand off to Saquon Barkley.

According a mental health website, the seven stages of grief can be paired down to three—disbelief, acceptance and rationalization.

When it comes to Penn State’s loss to Temple last September, we’ve already seen one and two but only now are we seeing number three. On several message boards, and in Philly.com under the name Ruben Amaro, Penn State fans have appeared and said “if Saquon Barkley played against Temple, we would have won.”

Huh?

That narrative is a reach, even for Penn State fans. The Nits lost by 17 and by 27-0 over the last three quarters. Barkley did play and got one yard on one carry. How does that extrapolate out to 100 yards on 25 more carries? The only numbers we have against Temple is that had Barkley got the 25 carries Penn State fans wanted him to get, he would have finished with 25 yards, and maybe Penn State would never have scored its only touchdown (a run by Akeel Lynch). Those are hard numbers, not the “gut” of some Penn State fans talking.

Let’s face it, Penn State losing to Temple was a bitter pill to swallow for these fans and they might have to hold their nose and down the same medicine in State College on Sept. 17.

The thought process there—not here—is that Temple is “losing everybody” and that Barkley and the returning Penn Staters will roll over the Owls. They do not know that Temple ran in two entire defensive units in the second half of the season, with many of the freshman, sophomore and junior backups playing roughly the same amount of time as the senior starters.

The thinking here is that Penn State is going to be surprised by Temple’s ability to stop the run and put the same clamps down on Christian Hackenberg’s successor that they did to Hackenberg himself. Offensively, P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas—who had 134 more yards than Barkley in the Sept. 5 game—should put even more than 27 on the board this time.

No doubt Temple will be getting points on 9/17 and I’ll be flying to Vegas and putting my money down on the Owls, even if it is as little as two or three. Temple knows Barkley is good, but it also knows his one carry wasn’t the reason the Owls won. A large segment of the PSU fan base won’t admit that now, but they will find out in a few months that narrative is faulty, too.

Ignorance isn’t a stage of grief but, in this case, it should be.

Tuesday: Six months to practice against a triple option

03.04.16
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Tennessee Tech’s Season Could Provide Useful Clues

field

Normally, the only football team Temple fans follow in Tennessee is conference rival Memphis.

Now, there are at least a couple of good reasons to follow another one: Tennessee Tech and it is not strictly because at least two former high-profile Temple football assistants are on the staff, and one is head coach Marcus Satterfield.

There are a couple of interesting subplots involved here because Satterfield was a wide-open spread guy who wanted to put five wide receivers on the field every time he could. Head coach Matt Rhule reined him in with a more conventional approach this season, emphasizing the run game. I always had that feeling that Satterfield would send five wides out every time Rhule would turn his back to talk to the defense but, fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Much.

If Satterfield spreads the ball all over the place for TT, we will know that there was a basic difference in offensive philosophy between Rhule and his former coordinator. Since the TT games are not on TV, we will try to judge that by YouTube. Maybe the Golden Eagles will have the “Dog Stare” offense. Geez, I hope Temple streamlines that out of the playbook.

Another subplot is the appearance of Tyree Foreman as running backs coach for Satterfield. Foreman and Temple had a parting of the ways two years ago and the rumor was that Rhule fired him. Now he’s back with Satterfield, who obviously had a difference of opinion.

We will find out a lot about what happened at Temple the last couple of years by looking at the way TT runs things. Either way, good luck to Marcus in whatever he does. The feeling here is that, for Temple at least, the addition by subtraction will be noticeable.

Sunday: The Curious Saquon Barkley Narrative

Tuesday: The Triple Option

Thursday: Ash Wednesday at Matt Rhule Camp

Saturday: Possible Fullback Replacements for Nick Sharga

03.02.16
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The New Run Game Coordinator

Miami Dolphins 2010 Headshots

George DeLeone  poses for his 2010 NFL headshot. (Photo by NFL via Getty Images)

 

In a slow news month for Temple football, arguably the biggest news in February for the Owls was the addition of George DeLeone as run game coordinator. That was a position in college football that didn’t exist 20 years ago, but a quick google search indicates that there are plenty of current RGCs.

gardner

 

DeLeone, a former offensive coordinator at Temple, is a good person to be the first Temple football RGC in history.

When Al Golden hired DeLeone to be OC, I thought it was an ingenious move for a couple of reasons. First, Al was the youngest head coach in college football at the time, 35, and it does not help a young head coach to have an “old head” around to guide him through some of the rough spots.

Nothing was rougher than the tail end of the 20-game losing streak, but DeLeone was as responsible as anybody for it coming to a sweet end. In a 28-14 win over a Bowling Green team that had dropped 140 points combined on the Owls in consecutive seasons, the key play was a flea-flicker. Quarterback Adam DiMichele handed off to halfback Tim Brown, who pitched the ball back to DiMichele, who found a streaking Travis Sheldon for an easy touchdown. Mix in a Sheldon kickoff return and, wala, the streak was over.

DeLeone, I assume, is doing some diligent film study. If he does, he’s got to like the fact that Jager Gardner has the biggest upside in the running game and moving Jahad Thomas from tailback to the slot has to be intriguing. A guy just like Thomas, Jalen Fitzpatrick, caught a game-tying touchdown pass against DeLeone’s UConn team in 2012. Gardner could be the AAC’s most dominating back in 2016 if he is able to establish a rhythm.

Plus, there is always the flea-flicker.

I sincerely hope that DeLeone injects some of that same innovation to the Temple offense this fall.

Related:

Jager Gardner Key To 2016 Run Game

Friday: Why We Should Follow Tennessee Tech.

Sunday: The Saquon Barkley Narrative

Tuesday: Setting Time Aside for Triple Option

02.29.16
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The Case for Jahad Thomas in Slot

 

Nobody outworks the Owls, so the 3-4 finish could have been a ND hangover.

One of the puzzling lessons of the Notre Dame game was that the Irish seemed to suck all of the Temple TUFF mojo out of the team for the remaining seven games of the season. The Owls finished 3-4 after starting 7-0, and there had to be a reason and the Notre Dame game was the easy scapegoat.

At first, it didn’t make sense.

Going down the rosters of the two teams, it could not have been the size factor as both lines were relatively the same height and weight.

fitzy

If Jahad does what another No. 5, Jalen Fitzpatrick (above), did for the Owls’ receiving game, the offense will be that much more explosive in 2016.

Knowing how hard the Owls practice (see above video), it could not be because Notre Dame outworked the Owls. Got to figure the Owls get out there in the snow even more than Notre Dame—which has a bigger indoor practice facility—so it had to be something.

It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure  out the difference was the running game and the size of the running backs, as Temple’s running game seemed to be worn down after ND, but ND did not suffer the same lack of production after TU.

The size was a factor there.

The Notre Dame running backs, C.J. Prosise (appropriately enough, pronounced PRO SIZE) and Josh Adams, were 6-1, 220 and 6-2, 210, respectively. The primary Temple back, Jahad Thomas, was 5-10, 180 (and the 180 might be generous).

There is no tougher kid on the Temple team than Thomas, but it was apparent he was so dinged up that his production dropped off dramatically in the final seven games.

The solution is simple: Temple needs a tough, reliable, slot receiver who is capable of making defenses pay with runs after catches and that receiver should be Jahad Thomas.

Temple needs a Prosise (or PRO SIZE) running back who can take the pounding for 14 games, not seven, and hand nicks out and not be nicked up and that guy could very well be Jager Gardner (6-2, 205) or Ryquell Armstead (5-10, 205). David Hood (5-10, 185) could be the occasional change-of-pace guy. Have those two battle it out in spring practice which begins in a couple of weeks and, if one emerges, make that guy the No. 1 back. If it’s too close to call, alternate series or quarters until one does.

Plus, it will be doing Thomas a favor because his position at the next level is slot receiver, not featured back. If Thomas lines up in the slot and does the same thing another No. 5, Jalen Fitzpatrick, did for Temple, the Owls will have something special again.

It’s the best of both worlds for Temple because, although departing slot receiver John Christopher was as tough as they come and had great hands, he did not get the yards after catch Thomas will. Plus, he and P.J. Walker have a symmetry that goes back to high school and, with Robby Anderson gone, Walker will need to establish the same kind of relationship with a receiver again.

Good teams learn lessons from losses and that’s probably the best takeaway from the Notre Dame one.

Wednesday: The New Run Game Coordinator

02.27.16
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There’s No Doubting Thomas

falcons

Glenn Thomas has been a positive influence on P.J. Walker.

When the Temple offensive coordinator position opened up, we put together a wish list of five potential candidates for the job, listed the pros and cons, but came to the conclusion that Matt Rhule will hire “the least sexy” person for the job, Glenn Thomas.

Now, sexy in football and sexy in real life are two different things. To me, Mike Locksley would have been football sexy because he would have locked up the recruiting in DMV (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) and had Power 5 OC experience.

pjwalker

The goal should be getting P.J.’s QB rating over 150.8.

Sometimes, though, least sexy is good when you want to get things done. (I learned that watching Sheena Parveen doing the Tornado Watch last week when I listened to the entire forecast but realized afterward that I didn’t really hear anything because I was so distracted.)  Things were not perfect–down 11 in the fourth quarter there has to be an alternative to wasting 20 seconds looking to the sideline for a play–but there was an undeniable upward trend in 2015.

sharknado

The forecast for the TU offense is bright and sunny.

Thomas has the potential of getting things done, especially with the arrival of recruit Anthony Russo. Thomas was Matty Ryan’s quarterback coach with the Atlanta Falcons and Russo’s game is so much reminiscent of Ryan’s that guru Trent Dilfer ended up calling Russo “Ryan Russo” for a day at his Elite 11 camp.

First things first, though, and that is the continued progress in P.J. Walker’s game. For Walker not to be known as a guy who peaked as a freshman, he must slightly improve his numbers in his final year of 2016. Thomas, at least, has him pointed in the right direction. As a freshman, Walker had 20 touchdown throws against only eight interceptions. In Marcus Satterfield’s ill-advised spread formation in 2014 (when Walker got zero protection in the pocket), Walker fell to 13 touchdowns vs. 15 interceptions.  A new scheme that featured a fullback and two tight ends—ostensibly  two additional blockers for Walker—enabled P.J. to see the field better last year and go 19-8.

Ideally, against this schedule, you’d like those numbers to be around 25 and eight (or less) for 2016. If that happens, another double-digit winning season is in sight and that’s about as sexy as things get for Temple football fans.

Unless, of course, Sheena Parveen comes on the Jumbotron instead of Hurricane Schwartz.

Monday: The Case For An Exciting Name As New Slot Receiver

02.25.16
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The Case for A 5-2 Defense At Temple

charter

A possible two-deep using a 5-2 alignment

Some people wonder what football coaches do at this time of year, the few days after signing day and the few days before spring camp begins.

While the players do some conditioning drills outside and some weightlifting inside, the really good staffs are inside trying to figure out how to best utilize the talent that is available on the team. That was shown a year ago when Temple head coach Matt Rhule was reviewing film of a loss at Houston, saw his former offensive coordinator line up with five wides on a first and goal at the 1 and said he got physically ill watching that alignment. After a visit to the porcelain throne, Rhule scraped the Satterfield offense and went with his own.



“Give me a great
wrestler as a nose
guard and I will
show you a guy
who is going to
blow up the center
every time”
_ Vince Hoch
former TU DC

The result was a new offensive philosophy built around the talent at hand, a mix that (largely) saw two tight ends, a fullback and a heavy dose of play-action in the passing game. The result was a tie for the most points ever scored by a Temple offense and a 30 percent improvement in third-down efficiency.

That’s using your head for more than a hat rack.

Conversely, with the collection of depth and new high-end talent coming in, a strong case can be made for a 5-2 defense. With the number of quality linemen the Owls have on that side of the ball, they can cause havoc in opposing backfields by blowing up the point of attack with five guys across the front, instead of four. Imagine speedy defensive ends like Sharif Finch and Haason Reddick containing mobile quarterbacks when interior linemen like Karamo Dioubate and Greg Webb are on each side of nose guard Averee Robinson, a two-time Pennsylvania State Class AAAA (large school) heavyweight wrestling champion at Susquehanna Township. Former Temple defensive coordinator Vince Hoch was fond of saying “give me a great wrestler as a nose guard and I will show you a guy who is going to blow up the center every time.” Robinson has that kind of gap leverage potential as a nose guard. Like his brother, Adrian, he is playing out of position at Temple. Adrian was a natural OLB, his future position in the NFL, who was forced into DE duty as an Owl. Averee’s future is as a nose guard at the next level, whether it is the NFL or Canada.

I like the two linebackers for a couple of reasons. In Avery Williams (2) and Stephaun Marshall (6), you have two proven single-digit tough guys to carry the linebacker load. If I’m only going to use two LBs, I’m comforted by the fact that they are among the nine toughest guys on the team already. Then I can still use another proven tough guy, Nick Sharga (4), in the same role he had last year (roughly 10-15 plays on offense and 10-15 plays on defense as a backup LB).

There is experience all over the place with this defense, and a couple of big-time playmakers coming in to flank Robinson in Greg Webb and Karamo Dioubate. With Robinson blowing up the center, and Dioubate and Webb during their thing, these mobile quarterbacks are hit as soon as (or right after) they get the snap and do not get a chance to turn a corner or build up a head of steam.

Robinson and Freddy Booth-Lloyd playing nose guard could just be the disruption along the DL the Owls need to stop those mobile quarterbacks. The experiment is worth a try in spring practice.

 

02.23.16
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Pierre Is Temple’s Latest Beef

fiftyfive

Willa Pierre is the newest Temple Owl.

It was a lot easier to judge Temple football recruiting classes back when Al Golden had the CEO reins and that was because of Golden’s straight-forward recruiting philosophy.

“I believe in recruiting a full team, 25 guys—11 players on defense, 11 on offense, three specialists, depending on need,” Golden told the Temple crown on his first signing night.

Current head coach Matt Rhule believes the same thing, but has had to adjust his philosophy because Steve Addazio’s half-hazard recruiting methods—going down the aisle and picking up this guy and that guy without regard for position—has left Rhule scrambling to get the right mix.

That left most Temple fans asking the question: “Where’s The Beef?” after the current class included a lot of speedy athletes, but not nearly as many of the so-called “big uglies” who create the space for the athletes to do their thing.

As John Kerry might say, help is on the way. The Owls’ latest recruit, 6-3, 293-pound offensive tackle Willa Pierre, is from talent-rich Florida. One of the things you’ve got to love the fact that Pierre was a starter on a high-talent-level OL as a sophomore. The three-star lineman has made a verbal commitment, and you hope he is as much of a man of his word as, say, Keyvone Bruton, was after his Sept. 6 commitment to the Owls. Not only did Bruton commit after the 27-10 win over Penn State, he said he would not take any other visits and he kept that promise, too.

If Pierre is any indication, the current crop of recruits will be top-heavy on linemen on both sides of the ball and then Rhule can hit the reset button after Feb. of 2017 and start recruiting entire teams once again. That method is a proven one for Temple.