The FAU logo will be replaced by a Boca Raton Bowl logo, but they can keep the end zones the same.

There is still something for Temple to prove against Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday night and chief among them could be stability matters in college football these days.

The Owls had to deal with rumors of their coach, Matt Rhule, leaving for the first two days of the week prior to the AAC championship game at Houston. There was one pretty good indication that it was a distraction because star linebacker Tyler Matakevich was interviewed during a Temple basketball game the Sunday before Houston and said it was just “another distraction we have to block out.” If it wasn’t a distraction, there would be no need to block anything out. While the Owls say they blocked it out, they certainly did not appear to be ready to handle a two-minute drill that they desperately needed to execute in the final seven minutes of the Houston game.  Maybe two-minute practice was scraped when Rhule had Missouri over for a chat that Sunday. Maybe not, but the Owls did not seem like a prepared team for long stretches of the Houston game.

The Owls should have no such distractions on Tuesday night, as Rhule got a new contract after the Houston game and is not talking to anyone for now and hopefully for a long, long time.

The Owls have landed.

From a talent standpoint, the teams are evenly matched.  There are other factors, though. Matt Campbell, Toledo’s former coach, took four assistants with him to Iowa State.  The new head coach (Jason Candle) was the offensive coordinator, and the defensive coordinator (Jon Heacock) is still with Toledo. The defensive line coach is staying for the bowl game, but already is said to be recruiting for Iowa State. Maybe they will scrap the two-minute defensive preparations in order to take phone calls from the Iowa State recruits. How they manage time in these difficult circumstances is an unknown.

Candle hired two new assistants in the time between the end of the season and graduate assistants are taking on additional game preparation duties.

In short, the Rockets might not look as sharp as they have in the regular season but the Owls cannot take anything for granted. Toledo scored 51 points on a team (UMass) that the Owls scored half that number against.  The Temple seniors deserve the reward of going out a winner, but there are probably an equal number of Rocket fans who believe the same thing about their kids. The quarterback, Phillip Ely, is not a two-way threat so that could be a tangible advantage for the Owls.

If Temple has an intangible in its favor, it is distractions or lack of them.

One of the many great watch parties in Manhattan.

While the latest figures from the Temple ticket people for Boca are around 3,000 sold through the school, sheer math shows there will be at least 100x as many Owl fans watching from far away either in the comfort of home or watch parties.

Since I’ve tried watching from home and the carpet became worn out from the pacing and the neighbors concerned about the yelling, I’ve found it a lot more enjoyable to watch with fellow Owl fans. That’s why the latest list of watch parties has me a little underwhelmed.

National viewership for the Houston game. Owls need a big  number  for Boca.

The main watch party in Philadelphia is at a place called Fox and Hound (15^th and Spruce) and that’s where I watched the first half of the Temple vs. Houston game for the first AAC championship. I could not have gotten out of there fast enough.

The worst part of the experience is the ancient—and I do mean outdated—large screen TVs at the bar. There are about five of them, but the blurry quality of the picture is something out of the 1980s. That forces everyone away from the main bar and into the seating areas, where the HDTVs are great. The problem with that is Temple fans are split up into their own cliques and there is no interaction.

I hung in there until halftime, hailed a cab and got to Masters (Carlisle Street, Main Campus) just at the start of the second half. To me, that’s what a Temple watch party should be all about. Just like The Three Musketeers, there is an “all for one, one for all” atmosphere at that party. There are plenty of loud renditions of “T for Temple U” after scoring plays (thank you, Robby Anderson) and plenty of loud “Let’s Go Temple” cheers after every defensive stop.

If I had to script a Temple watch party, the two at Masters would be the ones I would recommend the most. I also understand there were great watch parties all season at Shorty’s Flatiron (66^th and Madison, Manhattan) in NYC.

Last year, I attended a great one at The Field House in Center City for the Vandy game.  Those of us who stayed until the 11 p.m. kickoff had a great time. One large screen HDTV, which we were all forced to watch, brought us all together in a lot of “Let’s Go Temple” cheers and “T for Temple U” singing.

There will be watch parties in LA, Chicago, D.C. and NYC and I hope all of you there will have that kind of experience. To those who will be in Boca, we want to hear a few loud “Let’s Go Temple” cheers through the television feed. (Sadly, I heard none from Houston.)

In a perfect world, the Owls would be playing a P5  team as a just reward for a terrific season. These were the cards they were dealt, though, and they deserve a big crowd of Temple supporters in Boca. For  those who cannot make it, please consider supporting the Owls at a regional watch party.

If you’ve had a good (or bad) watch party experience, please list it in the comments below.

Great cartoon from the Northeast Times.

Something Temple offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said in the offseason a year ago gave a rare insight into the way the brain trust approaches problem-solving at the Edberg-Olson Practice facility. He said the staff realized midway through the 2014 season that the four- and five-wide sets that had been at the core of the Owls’ offensive philosophy needed be scraped but it was “too late in the season” to fundamentally change the offensive approach. So do not expect any major changes for the bowl game, but these five things need to be addressed in the spring.

5. Another Nick Sharga

There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth when fullback Nick Sharga moves to the other side of the ball as ostensibly Tyler Matakevich’s replacement at the “Mike” linebacker position next year. Most of those molars and tears will belong to Jahad Thomas, who was sprung for many of his 1,000-plus yards and 17 touchdowns off lead blocks by Sharga. The Owls will need another fullback to replace Sharga because Nick’s backup, Mike Felton, will be graduating. My recommendation is to give all the Sharga film to Daiqwon Buckley, a 5-9, 225-pound freshman from Dunmore, and tell him to do exactly what he sees Sharga doing. Then work on those lead blocks in the spring. Also, reward Buckley with a few carries a game to keep the defense honest. He rushed for 2,322 and 35 TDs as a senior and led Dunmore to the Class A state final. Since he’s ambidextrous—able to throw with either hand—he might also be a candidate for a few trick plays.

Elite Edge Speed

The Owls haven’t had a James Nixon or Travis Sheldon type since, well, Nixon and Sheldon. Ventell Bryant, Sam Benjamin and Romond Deloatch and all the returners are pretty much the same type receivers, tall targets that will not necessarily stretch the field.  Cortrelle Simpson, a 5-10, 175 pound freshman who ran a 4.3 as a high school senior, is that guy.  He was the scout team player of the week prior to both the Penn State and the East Carolina games.

Kareem Ali Jr.

3. Return Punts

Simpson, who had 795 kick return yards in high school, also might be the guy to wake the Owls from their two-year punt return slumber. The Owls haven’t had that flip-the-field guy since Delano “Positive Man” Green. They need to turn the punt return into an offensive play again, the way it was when Green  played, and when past greats like Anthony Young and the late great Paul Loughran played.  Kareem Ali has the speed to handle that role, too.

Freddy Booth-Lloyd stopped Paxton Lynch for no gain on a QB  sneak.

2. Build Depth

One of the fallacies floating around out there is that the Owls’ defense will not be elite because of the losses of people like Matakevich, Matt Ioannidis and Tavon Young. Head coach Matt Rhule appears to have a done a good job building a line of succession because Sharga will plug in for Matakevich, Freddy Booth-Lloyd for Ioannidis and Kareem Ali for Young. I don’t expect Sharga to become a first-team All-America like Matakevich was, but he’s certainly capable of making all-league. Ali will be a star and FBL has certainly showed he’s ready for prime time. The challenge is to build the backups for those guys and the next line of succession.

The 2-minute drill worked against UMass and flopped against Houston.

1. Two-Minute Drill

Let’s be honest, the Owls looked lost when they had to preserve precious time for a fourth-quarter comeback at Houston but we know they are more than capable of running an effective two-minute drill because they executed one flawlessly to beat UMass. The challenge is to make sure what happened at Houston never happens again and to learn from what was done well at UMass and make that a permanent two-minute package—even for long stretches like seven minutes. That probably should not wait until spring because it might be needed against Toledo.