12.08.15
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But the Big Story on Action News Is ….

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The first time I ever heard the name Bronko Nagurski was holding the transistor radio close to my ear as a kid and listening to the great play-by-play guy, Ron Menchine, do a Temple game at Pitt.

“There’s Dynamo Hyno with the ball getting, 10, 15 yards and he’s running like Bronko Nagurski,” Menchine said.  “The Pitt defenders just cannot bring him down.”

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Tyler cleans up good. (Photo courtesy Charlotte Observer)

I didn’t know who Nagurski was, but I knew who Dynamo Hyno was—Temple fullback Henry Hynoski—and I knew this Nagurski guy must have been pretty good if he was being compared to Hynoski.

Now I can say the same for Nagurski and Tyler Matakevich. This Nagurski guy must have been pretty good if they are giving an award named after him to the great Temple linebacker, who I know is pretty good.

Great, really.

Years from now, the alumni from this team will gather around the post-game tailgates and talk about Tyler Matakevich with alumni from other eras. They will have plenty to talk about because the big story on Action News tonight is that Matakevich became the first Temple player to bring home a major award in 41 years when he was named the Bronko Nagurski Trophy Winner as the nation’s best  defensive player.

It is an award well-deserved.

I had a long conversation with Tyler in Lot K the week before the UCF game and I told him the greatest thing about the Leave No Doubt motto was that UCF was a championship game, like the week before that one and the week after.

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Ron Menchine

“Absolutely,” Tyler said. “We know that’s the only way we can have success.”

Then he explained the what’s the #what’snext hashtag. It was a fascinating conversation and he could not have been more gracious with his time. We talked about other things, like his visit to 97-year-old former Temple end James Woodside, but his take on turning a couple of slogans into a meaningful foundation for this season was illuminating.

I had an inkling Matakevich might win it when a story I wrote for Rant Sports.com ranking the five finalists for the Nagurski Award and putting Matakevich as No. 1 was not only liked by the official twitter account of the Charlotte Touchdown Club, but retweeted to each and every one of the voters.

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I followed that up with the following chart and it was a pretty stark black and white (well, cherry and white in this case) difference between Matakevich and the competition.

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The last Temple player to earn a major award was Steve Joachim, who won the Maxwell Award was the nation’s best college player. Matakevich is also up for an award from that same club called the Chuck Bednarik Award, also as the nation’s top defensive player.

I have a feeling that he’s also going to bring home that trophy as well. It could not happen to a nicer guy or a better player. Dynamo Hyno should be, and Bronko himself, who has long since left us, would have been, proud.

Related:

http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2015/11/24/ranking-the-5-bronko-nagurski-award-finalists-for-nations-top-defensive-player/

http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2015/11/04/dick-butkus-award-will-be-a-complete-farce-without-including-temples-tyler-matakevich/

Tomorrow: Temple vs. Houston Photo Gallery

12.07.15
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Finishing Near Bottom of Bowl Lotto

boca

As someone who occasionally dabbles in the lottery, the selection of Temple vs. Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl today reminded me very much of a Super 7 lotto ticket I purchased around 21 years ago.

The Super 7 no longer exists and I think I know why.

My selection of 1-3-6-13-19-20-21 was just one number off the jackpot of $2 million. If I had 26 instead of one of the above, I would have won $2 million.

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The second-place prize was $90. No, that’s not a misprint. That’s the way the old Super 7 was set up. When I explained the situation to my father, who was living at the time, he simply said: “Shouldn’t the second-place prize be halfway between $90 and $2 million?”

No, dad, it’s a bleep-up game.

I thought about that bleeped-up game today when I heard the opponent for my beloved Temple Owls in the Boca Raton Bowl would be Toledo. My first thought that the bowl selection game is just as bleeped up when the second-place team in a good conference like the AAC gets short-shrifted in comparison to several teams it beat, some in its own conference.

No offense to Toledo, who I really believe is better than most of the Power 5 teams the Owls would have faced in the other bowls, but beating Toledo does absolutely nothing to advance the Temple brand. Before that Super 7 pick, I won at least $90 before in another lotto game (Cash 5), but I was in this thing for the big payout.

A 10-win Temple team should get a better payout than this, both literal and figurative.

Toledo? Been there, done that, too.

Beating Auburn, who the Owls could have faced in another bowl, would have. So would have beating Georgia, who is facing Penn State.

In fact, Penn State, Cincinnati and Memphis are getting to play in better bowls than the Owls are and that’s the reward the Owls get for beating all three.

Being in the Boca Raton Bowl is nice, but it’s a little like winning $90 when there was $2 million on the table. The payoff should have been much more.

Tomorrow: The Big Story on Action News

12.06.15
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Two Ways to Look at This

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Look how far off the boundary corner is. One 3d and 3, Anderson had the same cushion on the other side  later in the game. Take it, and Owls have a new set of downs with 7:18 left and a possible 24-21 deficit.

 

There are two ways to look at Temple’s 24-13 loss to Houston on Saturday.

There is the Kumbaya view and the real world view. The Kumbaya view seems to have carried the day in the post-game Matt Rhule press conference and on much of social media. You know, “I’m proud of the kids” and “this is one of the greatest days in Temple football history” and “we’ve gone from point D to point A.”

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That’s born out of T-ball mentality. You know, there are no losers and everybody gets a trophy for participation. Little Johnny goes home with a pat on his head. The coaches are great. The kids are great. We’re all just so darn proud of everybody.

Kumbaya.

Ugh.

Then there is the real world view. You know, the “what the hell is going on out here?” view.

The last quarter was a cluster, err, bleep that made you wonder what goes on at the $17 million Edberg-Olson Complex the other six days of the week. In the last seven minutes, Temple showed itself either unwilling or incapable of running a functional two-minute drill that every high school, college and pro team seems to run efficiently.  (If you don’t believe it, take a look at the way St. Joseph’s Prep runs it. The offensive line sprints to the ball. Plays are called at the line, not looking over to the sidelines, with the emphasis on a short passing game to get out of bounds and stop the clock. Prep coach Gabe Infante is only seven blocks away. Invite him over this week.)

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That was a blown opportunity to win a championship due to a number of brain cramps by the coaching staff.  There is no guarantee that the Owls will be back in the title game next year and, if they aren’t, the coaches have no one but themselves to blame for a number of perplexing offensive miscues.  With four minutes left, they seemed incapable of running a true two-minute offense, taking precious seconds off the clock on every play by having the kids stare over to the sidelines for plays. Those 20, 30 seconds a play add up and, before you know it, the game is over.

That wasn’t the worst. This is the worst.

After closing the gap to 24-13 with 7:18 to go in the game, the Owls had a 3d and 3 at the Houston 38 but inexplicably attempted a long pass into the end zone. The call was made even more confounding because Houston was playing 10 yards off Temple wide receiver Robby Anderson on the play.  A simple pitch and catch would have moved the sticks.

Moving the sticks then would have cured a lot of earlier self-imposed ills. Early on, the players had just as much to do with it as the coaches did but after fighting back they deserved a coaching staff that was more focused. The Owls have been a team all year whose motto was to not beat themselves by turning the ball over, but on their first drive of the game, quarterback P.J. Walker threw an interception. That resulted in a 7-0 lead. The Owls were driving for a tying touchdown when Anderson—who caught 12 passes for 150 yards—was fighting for yardage and fumbled the ball on the Houston 5-yard-line. That led to a 10-0 lead.

Had the Owls moved the sticks on 3d and 3, instead of taking the shot into the end zone, they might have scored to make it 24-21 and that would have left seven minutes to bleep around with the dog stare offense. Instead, they followed that botched call with a clinic in mismanaging the clock and never had a chance to find out what would have happened.

While the physical errors by the unpaid amateurs could be forgiven, the mental ones by the well-paid professionals cannot.

Tomorrow:  Thoughts on the Bowl Lotto

Tuesday: …. But the Big Story on Action News Is …

Wednesday: Houston Photo Gallery

Thursday: One Wacky Throwback

Friday: Matakevich’s Special Moment on ESPN

Saturday: A Look at the Other AAC Bowls

Sunday: Welcome Criticism

Monday (12/12): 5 Things the Owls Have to Clean Up

Tuesday: The Fallacy of the Fall Off

Wednesday: The Problem With Watch Parties

Thursday: The Pitt-Navy Monkey Wrench

12.05.15
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Game Day: The Robby Anderson Effect

Tulane v Temple

TU will find a guy who can make catches like this occasionally, but it will be hard to find a guy who makes these catches as routinely as  Robby Anderson does. 

Hard to believe today will the penultimate game to one of the most exciting receivers who has come to Temple since the great Van Johnson and we are talking, of course, about Robby Anderson.

Anderson, you might know about. Johnson, you might not.

Yes, Van Johnson, the late 1990s Temple receiver, not to be confused with Van Johnson, the 1940s actor. The actor was shot seven times in his movies, the wide receiver once when growing up in D.C. When he played for Temple, he got off the line of scrimmage like he was shot out of a cannon. He was to the great Henry Burris what Anderson is to P.J. Walker.

Yeah, I know Temple’s had a lot of great receivers since then, from Phil Goodman to Charlie (err, Zamir) Cobb, and Bruce Francis and Rod Streater, but there’s a little “it” factor that has set Johnson apart from his successors and Anderson from his predecessors. Johnson’s 1996 season was very similar to Anderson’s 2013 season. In that year, in 11 games, Johnson had 50 catches and eight touchdowns and 902 yards. In 2013, in nine games Anderson had 44 receptions for 791 yards and nine touchdowns.  This year, he has 52 receptions for 723 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games. Both guys could go up and get the ball and make explosive plays after they caught it.

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Van Johnson, TU player

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Van Johnson, 1940s actor

In a game like today, at Houston (noon, ABC) for the championship, while everybody will be focused on Jahad Thomas, Greg Ward and Tyler Matakevich, it’s often another guy who grabs the spotlight and Anderson certainly is capable of being THAT guy. He has not had to be that guy this because Temple can spread the rock around, but he is a prime time player. He is only four receptions away from 100 for his career and I believe he will get them. If a couple of them are for touchdowns, the Owls will win. If he catches just three balls, he will pass Steve Watson into the sixth spot on the all-time list.

Speaking of lists, most of the bowl projections by the so-called experts have Houston beating Temple and earning the AAC’s slot in a NY6 bowl.

ESPN analyst Lee Corso might give his stock answer to that assumption, “not so fast, my friend” by closely observing the evidence at hand. Two or three games into a 12-game season, comparative scores hardly seem like a good way at picking a winner but that equation all changes 12 games into a season.  Those appear to point to Temple as the winner over host Cougars.

Both teams played Memphis and UConn recently and Temple performed significantly better against similar opposition in two games than Houston. The Cougars lost at UConn, 20-17, two weeks ago while Temple beat UConn, 27-3, last week. A lot of that could be attributed to the Cougars being without  Ward Jr., but the 27-point difference points to more than just one player.

Another example is Memphis, as the Tigers led, 34-14, with seven minutes left at Houston before blowing the lead and losing, 35-34. A week later, the Tigers were not even in the game at Temple, where the Owls won, 31-12.

Those are a couple of compelling examples, but there have been others as Cincinnati had the lead for much of a game at Houston before falling, 33-30. Its game against visiting Temple played out far differently earlier in the season as the Owls took a 34-12 lead into the fourth quarter before holding on to win, 34-26.  Temple’s top two non-conference foes, Penn State and Notre Dame, was certainly tougher than Houston’s top two, Vanderbilt and Louisville, so the evidence suggests that Temple has been steeled for these types of games.

Of course, there is other data to consider, but there is a lot of empirical evidence out to suggest that Temple will come out on top but part of the fun of football is discovering if the clues lead to the right conclusion.

Call it a hunch, call it men’s intuition, but I have a strong feeling that Robby Anderson will factor rather largely into this game.

12.04.15
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Is It Saturday Yet?

 

We’re from Philadelphia and we fight, or something like that.

While we do not know which team will win on Saturday, fans of both Houston and Temple have confidence in their favorite players and rightly so.

Is it Saturday yet?

A lot of things make the Saturday matchup even more compelling than it being the first-ever G5 title game that results in a NY6 Bowl reward, but it starts with the unstoppable force (Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr.) meeting the immovable object (Temple linebacker Tyler Matakevich).  In games like this, it’s often the unknown guy who makes a big play or becomes the big player. File that thought away in the memory bank.

Right now, the known is Ward and Matakevich.

piazza

Official watch party at Piazza. Crowd will probably not be this large. Hopefully, the sound will be up.

Matakevich was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year and, in a 27-3 win over Connecticut to clinch the AAC East title, he widened the gap between his top competition for both the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Bronko Nagurski Award.

After the final game of the regular season for all of the schools, Matakevich is the clear leader from all of the available empirical evidence. One of his top competitors, Penn State end Carl Nassib, has missed the last two games with an injury.  Matakevich is up for the Bednark with Nassib and Shaq Lawson, while he is up for the Nagurski with both of those guys and two others. This is the complete list with updated stats:

nagurski

Clemson DE Shaq Lawson: The 6-foot-3, 275-pound junior has 48 tackles in 12 games, 19.5 for losses with 8.5 sacks and no fumble recoveries and no interceptions. He is the best player on one of the best defenses in the nation, but doesn’t produce in the all-important turnover area.

Carl Nassib, Penn State (DE):  The walk-on from Malvern Prep in the suburbs of Philadelphia has had a superb season for the Nittany Lions. In 10 games, Nassib has 46 tackles, 19.5 for losses, including 15.5 sacks. He also has one interception and returned it for 10 yards and forced six fumbles. He played only the first three snaps on Saturday against Michigan before being removed with an undisclosed injury.

Reggie Ragland, Alabama (LB):  In 12 games, the 6-2, 252-pound Ragland has 90 tackles, 6.5 for losses with 2.5 sacks, no interceptions and two forced fumbles. He almost has no impact, though, on the opponent’s passing game as he has no interceptions this season.

Jeremy Cash, Duke (SS):  The 6-2, 210-pound is projected as a strong safety on the next level, but has played both strong and free safety for the Blue Devils. This year, in 12 games, he has 100 tackles, 18 for losses with 2.5 sacks. After recording two interceptions a year ago, he has none this season.

Tyler Matakevich, Temple (LB):  No one seems to be nearly as qualified for the Nagurski hardware as does the 6-1, 232-pound Matakevich, who is only the sixth player in FBS history to record fourth-straight 100-tackle seasons. He is also the only player in college football this season to lead his team in tackles in every game. He has 118 tackles, 14.5 for losses, 4.5 sacks and five interceptions.

12.03.15
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Throwback Thursday: Temple-Houston

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When the Temple Owls land in the Wild Wild West today, they would be wise to take a page out of a long-forgotten Western called “Temple Houston” when they put the finishing touches on a game plan.

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Common scores indicate this is going to be close.

The Western lasted only two years on NBC television and it was about the son of Sam Houston, a lawyer named Temple.  It was a “Who Done It” on horseback, with Temple delving into clues and solving cases without the benefit of modern tools like video and DNA.

The Owls do not need video or DNA to know how to solve this case. The bad guy is Greg Ward Jr. and they know they have to arrest his  development. They also know that they have had a tough job with similarly mobile quarterbacks in the past and, if they expect to stop Ward, they cannot do the same thing they did against Quinton Flowers of USF and DeShone Kizer of Notre Dame.

They played both of those guys like pocket quarterbacks, often rushing three. What happened more often than not was the three-man rush was not getting to either guy and they were able to make plays downfield with their arms.

Even Temple Houston, played by Jeffrey Hunter, in his day would be able to solve this problem. The Owls need to utilize a 5-2.  Rotate the speedy Haason Reddick and Nate D. Smith at left end and do the same with Sharif Finch and Praise Martin-Oguike at right end. Put two-time Pennsylvania heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson at nose guard where his gap leverage skills would cause a nightmare for the Houston center and flank him with Hershey Walton and Matt Ioannidis as the tackles.

fivetwo

Those guys alone have the physical talent to overwhelm the Houston offensive line and disrupt things while in the backfield but, just in case, use one of the safeties as a spy in case Ward tries to escape the inevitable problems.

Temple Houston struggled in the TV ratings back in 1964 because it went opposite The Flintstones on ABC and Rawhide (Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates) on CBS. This Temple-Houston figures to have no such ratings’ problems because it is the nationally featured noon game on ABC and Philadelphia is the 4th-largest TV market. Houston is the 10th-largest TV market and there is plenty of interest in this game in the other AAC markets, all in the top 36.

While Temple has prided itself on doing what it does to get to this point, it will have to swallow some of that pride and tweak some things on defense to stop this quarterback. You don’t have to be a 19th-century sleuth to figure that out.  If you see a three-man rush, time to change the channel to something like reruns of Rawhide or The Flintstones.

12.02.15
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Twenty-Twenty Vision for the Houston Game

wardster

Temple is going to have to hit Greg  Ward a little harder than this.

Before just about every Temple football game, I have tried to crunch the numbers, look at things from all angles, and come up with about as close to an objective opinion as I can get.

I had Temple beating Tulane, 37-9. Temple won, 49-10. I had Temple beating ECU, 24-10. Temple won, 24-14. I had Temple LOSING to Notre Dame, 21-17. Temple lost, 24-20. I had Temple beating UConn, 29-10. Temple won, 27-3. For all of the other games, nothing added up so I did not make any predictions.

For this all-important Houston game, I have crunched all the numbers, looked at things about objectively as I can, and have come away with one score and one score only and  I know it  is wrong.

Twenty-twenty, that’s right, 20-20.

I cannot get past that score.

tickets

OK, who is getting  tickets for $20?

Houston is a 7-point favorite and the teams have played six common foes. Temple has beaten those foes by exactly three more points than Houston has. Give Houston the three points for home field advantage that Vegas usually gives home teams and it is even Steven.

Unfortunately, as much as I’d like a Temple blowout, I think it enters overtime and it will probably come down to Mr. Dependable, sophomore Austin Jones, calmly lining up and hitting a field goal and giving Temple a 23-20 lead.

Will Tyler Matakevich and company hold?

I, quite frankly, do not know. I will say this:  How fitting would it be for a tipped ball to land in the hands of Matakevich in the end zone? Somebody’s got to tip the ball and I cannot for the life of me know who will.

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to me and you but I can’t make a prediction for this game in good faith. I don’t have the same strong feeling I had for ND, Tulane, ECU and UConn and I had a numb feeling for the other games.

So I guess we will all have to tune in and see if the final is 23-20 or 26-20. It should make for riveting television about 3:07 p.m. on Saturday. That’s my prediction and I’m sticking to it.

Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday

Friday: The Tyler Sweepstakes

Saturday:  The Robby Anderson Effect

12.01.15
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Jahad, Bernard and Paul

This ridiculously great spin move (0:19) says it all about Jahad Thomas.

They call Penn State linebacker U and Brigham Young has an earned reputation for producing quarterbacks, along with Miami of Ohio for coaches but, after a couple of years of a drought, Temple is back to being Tailback U.

The Owls have Jahad Thomas to thank for that. I had to smile when I saw a post on Facebook that said Jahad is better than Bernard Pierce and laugh out loud when the same person posted that he was better than Paul Palmer.

Let’s pump the brakes a little on that one.

autofit

My guess is that the person who wrote that probably was not old enough to see Paul Palmer play. I’ve seen both, and while Jahad is good, Paul Palmer was in a different stratosphere.

There’s no shame in not being as good as Paul Palmer. Heck, no running back in college football in the year of 1986 was as good as Paul Palmer. I’m pretty sure even Jahad would admit there are plenty of running backs as good as he is in college football this year.

Temple is Tailback U. thanks to guys like Palmer, Zach Dixon, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Duckett, Tanardo Sharps, Stacy Mack, Sid Morse, Elmarko Jackson, Pierce, Montel Harris and, now, Thomas.  I’m sure I missed a back or two.

That’s a pretty good lineage.

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Jahad Thomas celebrates with Dion Dawkins.

Right now, I’d rate Jahad behind only Paul and Bernard and that’s high praise indeed. Bernard was capable of a high-end game (268, 2 TDs in a 2008 win at Navy) and I haven’t seen that nearly 300-yard type game from Jahad yet.

He’s got another year, so I’m confident he has it in him.

As early as last year on this site, we were calling for Thomas to be the featured back behind a fullback named Kenny Harper. Unfortunately, Temple’s offense was so ass backwards last year it used a fullback as a tailback and the tailback who gained 152 yards against Tulsa was in Witness Protection the rest of the season. Better late than never because the role of fullback this year is being played by Nick Sharga, the witness protection guy, Thomas, is in plain view and Temple is back to being Temple.

tff

From our season wrapup story, Dec. 14, 2014.

If the Owls are going to beat Houston for the AAC championship on Saturday in a noon showdown (ABC and we’d love to see the ratings for that one), they are going to have to do it by feeding the rock to Thomas on a steady basis. Right now, head coach Matt Rhule has to be working on a game plan that involves as many carries for Thomas as passes for P.J. Walker. We’re talking 20-30 touches for Jahad and 20-30 passes for Walker. Temple is a great offensive team when Jahad gets 20-25 carries, P.J. throws 20-25 balls and Robby Anderson and Romond Deloatch catch touchdown passes. Temple gets in trouble when it has to throw the ball nearly 50 times, like UMass.

Put the ball in the hands of those playmakers, and I like Temple’s chances. Of course, that’s assuming that there is time to put together a detailed game plan.

If Temple wins a championship with a heavy dose of Jahad Thomas, it will be a fitting tribute to a great lineage of tailbacks who led up to this moment.

11.29.15
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The Elephant in the Room

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Mike Schmidt said something about Philadelphia being the only place you could experience the ecstasy of victory one night and the agony of reading about it in the paper the next day.

Saturday night was pretty ecstasy-filled, a lot of hugs among the fans who sat through losses to Fordham not so long ago and even had Fordham—Fordham, this is—fans yell, “Bleep you, Temple!” as they drove out the exits of Lot K.

And, at the time, we couldn’t say a damn thing.

That all changed last night with Temple fans on top of the world after winning the AAC East title and I thought the good feeling would last for a long, long time—or at least until the “real” championship next week at Houston.

toldyou

“I told you guys he ain’t no different from me.”

It lasted for no longer than the hour it took me to get home.

Flipping open the laptop, I expected to read about the ecstasy of winning, but the first headline I saw was about the head coach leaving for Missouri.  When I heard that it was Missouri, I thought of former Phils’ outfielder Jeff Stone, who was from Missouri but never outside that state until his first training camp at Clearwater. After a 3-for-4 night at Jack Russell Stadium, Stone looked up at the moon and said: “That’s a beautiful moon. Would that be the same moon we have back in Missouri?”

The entire Phils’ press corps broke up and Stone had that look on his face wondering what he said that was funny.

When I heard Missouri, I thought: “Would that be the same Missouri that walked out and threatened not to play a football game?”

Yeah, it would be that Missouri. The problem, to me, is not Matt Rhule but the eat-your-young mentality of the NCAA. If coaches, like kids, were forced to sit out a year before transferring, a lot of this destructive “coaching carousel” talk would be muted.

Everybody says this morning to chill and that Matt Rhule is not going anywhere but I don’t like what I heard after the game. Would it have killed him to say, “I am Temple’s head coach for as long as this wonderful university will have me.”

Evidently, it would have killed him, and that’s what is troubling this morning. We were all told that this guy was different, that he was no Daz or no Golden and that he wanted to sign a 20-year contract.  There’s still time to mute the talk and I hope he is reaching for the remote right now.

Otherwise, this whole week is going to be one big distraction talking about big fat elephants when the focus should be on getting a chip.