Now that Matt Rhule has finally found the secret formula to winning football at Temple (defense, special teams, running the ball, passing off play action), it’s a good thing, not a bad one that he’s in it for the long haul.

Fans of Group of Five teams have to go through this endless speculation every season, much of it warranted, that they are going to lose their successful head coaches, no matter how committed the head coach sounds.

That said, I had my doubts that Rhule was going “I don’t make promises I can’t keep — I’m not one of those guys,” Rhule said. He also said, “who knows what the future holds?” and “no one’s called me about anything.”

Juxtapose those quotes around one made by university president Neil D. Theobald last week on Philly.com: “We have a dynamic young coach [Matt Rhule] who wants to stay at Temple and build a national program.”

 

Sounds like someone is not listening to what the other person is saying, but what happened in the last few days seems to suggest that Rhule will stay.

One, the Owls’ 44-23 loss to South Florida doesn’t make Rhule the hot commodity he was four days ago and, two, Houston Texans’ head coach Bill O’Brien appears to have thrown his hat into the ring at Maryland,  one of the few places that would make sense for Rhule. One of Rhule’s best friends is Temple AD Pat Kraft, so it’s hard to see him leaving that relationship for Rutgers and Julie Hermann, whose support for football is tacit at best. In the AAC alone, Willie Taggart—who got the job done as head coach in two places—is now ahead of him, as are Tom Herman (Houston) and Justin Fuente.

That’s just in this league and you have to think guys like Dino Babers (Bowling Green), Matt Campbell (Toledo) and P.J. Fleck (Western Michigan) are ahead in the pecking order.

Right now, Rhule is here to say and that’s a good thing, not a bad one.

Quinton Flowers looked way too comfortable back there. 

A great man who had a Philadelphia stadium named after him probably said it best in 1927: “You can’t win them all.” Connie Mack was the first man credited with saying that, although many men have said it since.

Not that Temple didn’t try to win them all– at least the AAC games it was scheduled to play until last night. USF won, 44-23, and that was an eye opener. Many of us thought the defense falling apart for one game was an outlier. Now it’s a trend that needs to be fixed.

A Temple team built on defense, running the ball, throwing off play action and great special teams should be able to win by scoring 23 points.

The paid professionals who are in charge of fixing this probably know to do it is getting the swag back.  For these Owls to be any good, they have to be frequent visitors and disruptors in the enemy’s backfield. That hasn’t happened the past two weeks.

It’s going to have to happen the next two, otherwise this is 2010 all over again, where the Owls jumped out to an 8-2 record and finished 8-4 and left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. The Owls are still 5-1 in the AAC East standings and USF is still 4-2. If USF wins out and Temple wins out, then Temple wins the East. USF, not Temple, is the team that has to hope the other loses.

So now the question that needs to be answered is how to get that defensive swag back that the Owls had against both Notre Dame and Penn State, two teams that are arguably—and the stress is arguably—better than Memphis and UConn. Wins over Memphis and UConn is all that matters now and the way to get them is to follow the same schematic blueprint—with a few tweaks—that worked so well on defense against ND and PSU.

Utilizing a 5-2 front, with two-time Pennsylvania heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson using his gap leverage over the center’s nose, has more potential to create havoc for Memphis and UConn’s offenses that the three- and four-man rushes the Owls have been using the past two weeks. Make Hershey Walton and Matt Ioannidis the flanking tackles and Nate D. Smith and Sharif Finch the ends and that’s the best way to make sure Paxton Lynch has plenty of unexpected company in the backfield. Christian Hackenberg did not have time to think, let alone throw an effective pass, and that is the kind of havoc the Owls need to bring on Saturday.

By using a 5-2, they will not have to blitz and be vulnerable for the big plays that have plagued them the past two weeks. It’s something that deserves consideration.

When Temple travels to Raymond James Stadium for a game against South Florida, there is nothing on the line other than an AAC East title for the Owls and a chance for USF to stay in the AAC East race. Other than that, tonight’s 7 p.m. game (CBS Sports Network) is just your run-of-the-mill regular season game. Will the moment be too big for the Owls? Fortunately, they’ve had moments (Penn State, Cincinnati, Notre Dame) just as big and that kind of experience could serve them well tonight. Here are five keys to watch.

5. OL Cohesiveness

Center Kyle Friend figures to be out for what head coach Matt Rhule called a “long, long time.” Since there’s less than a month to a possible AAC championship game, got to figure Friend is out until then if not the bowl game. Brendan McGowan subbed and had a terrific block on the Jager Gardner 94-yard touchdown run. He needs to sustain that kind of play for four quarters.

4. Jahad’s Health

Last week, Jahad Thomas did not look fully recovered from the pulled stomach muscle he suffered against Notre Dame. Sources inside the E-O say he is fully recovered and the Owls need him to return to the kind of form he had against both Penn State and Cincinnati. If not, establishing Jager Gardner on consecutive series probably would help him establish a rhythm better than alternating him with Ryquell Armstead on every other series.

3. Big Game for Robby Anderson

All year long we’ve been waiting for the Plantation (Fla.) native to return to the kind of form he had in 2013. A number of factors stunted those expectations, the first of which was the emergence of offensive weapons all over the field. Still, Anderson had a cosmic connection with P.J. Walker in 2013 and it would help the Owls’ cause if  he had the kind of three-touchdown game he had in the final game of the 2013 season at Memphis.

2. Pass Rush on Quinton Flowers

The Owls have have the kind of tacklers who swarm to the ball and have stopped premier running backs, so assuming they stop USF sophomore tailback Marlon Mack, they will have to redial the kind of fierce pass rush they had against Christian Hackenberg the first game of the season. If they do, Flowers has been known to put it up indiscriminately and, in Sean Chandler and Tavon Young, the Owls have a pair of ballhawking corners.

1. Cutting Down The Nets

Whoops, wrong sport, but you get the idea. If the Owls win, it will be a milestone that will last through a very spirited rendition of T for Temple U in front of the large Temple contingent that figures to make the game and partially fulfilling a promise Matt Rhule made to Temple basketball fans here of bringing a football championship to Temple. (There are a whole lot of Philadelphians who live in the Tampa Bay area in the winter, many from Temple.) Since no AAC East Trophy will be awarded, the only reward for winning this game is a spot in the title game and that’s worth celebrating. Then it will be time to get to work to secure home-field advantage.

Being a good listener is a real talent and if you listen to these Matt Rhule press conferences, you’ll learn a lot.

The guy, unlike Andy Reid, actually says things that mean something. Unlike Chip Kelly, he is not a smart-ass.

That said, there are a couple of takeaways from this past press conference and that is the Temple Owls have practiced well. Anyone who has played football will tell you that you are more likely to play the way you practice. If that’s the case, the way the Owls practiced this week has been a good sign. Not only did Matt Rhule say they have practiced well, Tyler Matakevich went on Channel 6 on Tuesday and called it a “great practice.” The other takeaway is that several banged-up Owls will return, but valuable center Kyle Friend will be out for  “a long, long time.” I take that to mean Dec. 5 or the bowl game.

When the Owls take the field on Saturday (7 p.m., CBS Sports Network) against South Florida, the way they have practiced will mean something. This will represent the first chance Temple has to have a sniff at a title since 1967 (Mid-Atlantic East title) and good practices the six days of the week leading up to game day are how it’s done.

Good practices this week mean that the Owls know what they have done for the 364 days leading up to this one mean. The Owls, not South Florida, are the ones who have YouTube videos showing them sprinting in the snow at the E-O. If you do that, then what exactly is Saturday for?

While South Florida will be a formidable foe, they just are another team in the way for the Owls to accomplish the goal they have set out to do. South Florida has a great team with a great tailback in Marlon Mack, but the Owls have experience stopping a better offensive line with a greater tailback in C.J. Prosise.

Hearing that they have practiced well and focused well does not ensure a win, but it certainly does not hurt.

Somewhere, H. Shindle Wingert and Horace Butterworth are smiling.

Depending upon your beliefs, they are floating up on a cloud looking down smiling or decaying skeletons under a load of dirt looking up with a fixed grin.

That’s because, when it comes to football team records at Temple University, they are going to be the only coaches who will still have bragging rights over current head football coach Matt Rhule at the end of this 2015 season.

If the Owls finish strong, they will have the most wins and, perhaps, the fewest losses of any team in Temple football history. They can accomplish one—most wins—by still losing another game,  if they win the Dec. 5 AAC championship game. To accomplish both, they will have to win out and that is the preferable option right now.

Still, the Owls cannot win out without the laser-type focus they have spent on each and every game this season. The hashtags #LeaveNoDoubt and #What’sNext has served them well and, if they follow that mindset, all they should be thinking about is the next game, Saturday, 7 p.m. (CBS Sports Network) at beautiful but at least half-empty Raymond James Stadium against South Florida.

Because the next win will mark the first time the Owls have ever been 9-1 since 1973. The 1979 team went into State College and was a 3.5-point favorite over a Penn State team that would eventually

finish 8-4. They led, 7-6, at halftime on a 64-yard touchdown run by a slippery halfback named Kevin Duckett. Things fell apart in the second half and the Owls left that stadium 8-2.

In terms of team records, the Owls are already the first team in Temple history to have gone 7-0. Being the first team  to go 9-1 in more than 30 years would be especially sweet because it would clinch the AAC East, which would be the first title of any kind since the Owls won the MAC East in 1967.

While the Owls have bigger goals than that, following the what’s next and leave no doubt processes have delivered some ancillary rewards that they can revel in when the season is over. As far as individual awards, quarterback P.J. Walker is only two touchdown passes away from tying the school record held by “Smiling” Hank (better known as Henry) Burris and two rushing touchdowns from tying Burris’ school record.

That’s fitting because the first time I saw P.J., I said his style of play reminds me more of Henry Burris than any other Temple quarterback and that’s a high compliment indeed.

Harry Shindle Wingert, who went 2-0-1 in 1905, and Horace Butterworth, who went 4-0-2 two years later, can have their perfect seasons if the Owls are able to leave Florida with that historically elusive 9-1 mark.