From Zero to 94 in One Play
Err, make that 2015
Maybe the worst thing that might have happened for Temple in the short term last night against SMU was scoring on the second play of scrimmage because, maybe, the Owls thought this was going to be too easy.
It might also turn out to be the best thing in the, err, long run—the longest in Temple history by a guy who might be the single most talented back in the program. Jager Gardner went from zero to 94 yards in just one play. He had zero yards for the season before that play and finished with 116 yards on just six carries.
At that point, I thought Jagermeister might have remained in the game in order to establish a rhythm, but it became apparent that head coach Matt Rhule had a plan to rotate the running backs. It’s nice to know, though, if something happens, the Owls at at least three—maybe four—deep at an important position.
Love to see the Owls
in a 5-2 with
two-time Pennsylvania
heavyweight wrestling
champion Averee Robinson
lined up over the center
as the nose guard
and having tackles
Matt Ioannidis and
Hershey Walton flanking
him with Sharif Finch
and Praise Martin-Oguike
at the ends.
Somehow, though, I think Gardner is going to be The Guy after Jahad Thomas finishes as The Guy and he showed flashes of that ability on that play. Even though Gardner has appeared in other games, it was for a carry here and there and never enough to establish a rhythm. Maybe next week will be that week in order to give Thomas’ injury more of a rest before Memphis.
As far as the rest of the game, the Owls are going to have to tighten up on defense. Special teams, as well as they’ve played all season, deserve a mulligan for that free kick return. Great job by Tyler Mayes on the fake punt.
After watching the film, the problem on defense appears to be that the Owls had chances to knock down long passes and simply did not even attempt to do it—they allowed that play to Will Fuller to repeat itself. Also, too many three-man rushes. Love to see the Owls in a 5-2 with two-time Pennsylvania heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson lined up over the center as the nose guard and having tackles Matt Ioannidis and Hershey Walton flanking him with Sharif Finch and Praise Martin-Oguike at the ends (Nate D. Smith is hurt). To me, that personnel grouping is best suited to both stop the run and cause havoc in any passing game without blitzing. We’ve seen the 5-2 before, just not enough of it.
Other than that, any time you drop 60 and some people call it escaping with a win is a good time.
Temple-SMU Preview: Next Man Up
The Owls’ biggest opponent tonight will be a hangover from this.
The biggest moment in Temple football history is now over, but not the season, and the carrot at the end of this season is the possibility of an even bigger moment.
That moment will come tonight at SMU (8 p.m., ESPN2) for a handful of players who will be receiving significant playing time for the first time in their Temple careers. One of those players no doubt will be Brendan McGowan, who will be starting for the injured Kyle Friend at center. Another will be the speedy Ryquell Armstead and the equally elusive, if not as speedy, Jager Gardner who will be subbing for Jahad Thomas. Head coach Matt Rhule said Thomas will be available, but with tougher opponents coming up, it might be wise to give those injured ribs one more week of rest.
Sub Maryland for Buffalo and Navy for UMass and WVA for Army and this is the league the Owls should be in … unfortunately, greed has trumped common sense.
There could be more playing time for a number of backups, like corner Nate Hairston. Suffice it to say, before heading out to the local bar for a game watch or at home in front of the HDTV, have a program handy.
SMU has been gosh awful this season and is coming off a 40-31 loss to perhaps the another bad AAC team (Tulsa). The Mustangs also lost to East Carolina, 49-23. The Owls handled ECU by double-digits two weeks ago.
That should not translate to a 49-23 win or better for two reasons: One, the Owls just do not possess the explosive offense of an ECU and you’ve got to figure there’s a heartbreak hangover coming. Still, quarterback P.J. Walker is getting better every week and there is going to be one week where Robby Anderson breaks out and puts three touchdowns on the board.
I think it is this one. Owls, 34-10.
South Florida should be a little tougher in a week and Memphis even more so in two. The focus now should be on the next men up.
Temple did not update the “official” depth chart in these game notes for SMU, but you can cross Kyle Friend and Kip Patton off that list and probably one or two others.
Attendance: We’re Here to Cheer for Temple
The only thing that would have made this show better is video of the four PI calls against Temple and the hosts breaking each one down. Hopefully, the intro video gets updated next week.
Other than Matt Rhule trying to jar the team out of their heart-breaking-induced slumber and the number of injuries a war like the one against Notre Dame is bound to produce, there was one other important takeaway from the Matt Rhule Weekly.
Rhule said that while Notre Dame brought a lot of fans that it was “a Temple crowd” and he was right. I would estimate 55-45, Temple fans, and that was confirmed by close observation of the replay on ESPN U on Monday night. More than that, though, the noise was about 85-15, Temple. Several times, Kirk Herbstreit said that Notre Dame is going to have to fight through the crowd noise for Temple. Not once did Herbstreit said that Temple had to do the same. From a crowd standpoint, Temple won the day—from the 9 a.m. ESPN GameDay show, through the tailgate, through the night. It was remarkable feat of endurance.
This was a home crowd for Temple, just like the Penn State game was a home crowd for the Owls. As impressive as those fans were those two games, they were even more so for the Homecoming Game against Tulane when a crowd in excess of 35,000 nearly completely filled the lower bowl. Tulane might have brought 100 to 200 of those fans, tops.
In fact, the Temple fan experience for the Tulane game was the single best home fan experience I ever had for a Temple game. The three or four waves were impressive, but that paled in comparison to the several very loud renditions of “T for Temple U” that were song by just about every fan after every Temple touchdown. Since the score of that game was 49-10, there was plenty of singing.
In my lifetime, Temple attendance will probably never get any better than this and I’m inhaling this like the downwind scent of a good cigar or burning fall leaves.
Right now, Temple leads the AAC in attendance with an average of 51,252. Memphis (44,381) is second and it looks like the Owls will finish No. 1 in AAC attendance. If anything, they should parlay that, plus TV ratings, into a Power 5 invite. They average more fans than many of their own former Eastern rivals, including Rutgers (48,722), Maryland (46,405), Syracuse (31,533) and Boston College (30,483).
That brings us to what one of the team’s mottos is: What’s Next? While we like to focus on SMU and USF, when the team returns from a couple of business trips, they will be 9-1 and deserve a crowd in excess of 45,000 for probably the most important game of the year, Memphis.
Nothing would help the Owls beat Memphis more than that kind of crowd singing T for Temple U at the top of their lungs. That is what is needed in three weeks after the Owls do their business one week at a time.
Tomorrow: Game Preview With Depth Charts
Saturday: Game Analysis
Dick Butkus Award is a Complete Joke
Left it all on the field, as usual.
If the Dick Butkus Award selection committee got points for honesty, probably all of them would admit to skipping the Notre Dame vs. Temple football game on Saturday night. The award is supposed to go to the nation’s best linebacker.
One of the linebackers in that game had 13 tackles and an interception and is the nation’s leading active career tackler and the only player in the FBS to lead his team in tackles for all eight games. Another had 10 tackles and no interceptions, is not the FBS career leader in tackles nor has led his team in tackles in each and every game.
The guy with 13 tackles and an interception, Temple’s Tyler Matakevich, was left off the list of Dick Butkus Award semifinalists released by the committee on Monday. The guy with the 10 tackles, Notre Dame’s Jaylon Smith, was on it. There were 10 linebackers on that semifinal list and not to include Matakevich should be enough evidence to get every member of that committee fired.
The argument extends beyond that single game and the comparison with that single foe. It is supposed to be an award based on this single season of performance in the college football realm alone, not on where the guy projects in the NFL draft. On their criteria, it is hard for the committee to make a case for any of the 10 being better than Matakevich.
Along with Smith, the following are the semifinalists: Kendall Beckwith and Deion Jones of LSU, Su’a Cravens of USC, Kyler Frackrell of Utah State, Leonard Floyd of Georgia, Blake Martinez of Stanford, Raekwon McMillan of Ohio State, Antonio Missison of Florida and Reggie Ragland of Alabama.
For the season—and that’s what this award is based on—Matakevich has 78 tackles, four sacks and five interceptions for the 7-1 Owls and has led a defense that is ranked No. 9 nationally in scoring defense (15.8 ppg.). He has more sacks and more interceptions than anyone on that list and only one player has more tackles.
Certainly, it cannot be because Matakevich plays for a Group of Five team because he has reserved his two best games against Power 5 teams—a 27-10 win over a 6-2 Penn State team and a 24-20 loss to No. 8 Notre Dame. Plus, Frackwell–wit his measly 53 tackles and no interceptions by comparison–is on the list and he’s on G5 team. If the Dick Butkus Committee is going exclude Group of 5 linebackers, it should say so in the criteria. Otherwise, this award is a complete farce.
In almost every category across the board, No. 8 ranks No. 1.
The hard numbers suggest none of these linebackers rate on a par with Matakevich, let alone deserve to jump over him. Craven has 50 tackles and two interceptions. Beckwith and Jones are tied for the LSU team lead with 51 tackles and only Jones has interceptions (two). Frackwell has 53 tackles and no interceptions. Floyd no interceptions and 44 tackles. Martinez has 91 tackles, but only one interception. McMillan has 74 tackles and no interceptions and there is a poll on one Ohio State website questioning whether he is even the best linebacker on the Buckeyes, let alone one of the top 10 in the nation. Missison has 60 tackles and no interceptions and Ragland has 71 tackles and no interceptions.
No one has made the kind of impact in the nation and on his own team as Matakevich and the Butkus Award committee should be ashamed to leave this young man off a final list of 10. There can be no valid reasons for this sloppy work, just excuses.
Mitchell Leff’s Getty Images Photo Essay
TV Ratings Should Woo P5 Suitors to TU
Temple was a winner both at the box office an on TV.
If it is possible to win in a loss, that’s exactly what Temple football did for the university in a prime time game against Notre Dame on Saturday night.
The scoreboard numbers gave the Irish a 24 and the Owls a 20, but the ratings in that nearly four-hour, real-life drama made Temple the big winner. Notre Dame has appeared on prime-time Saturday night television in Philadelphia 93 other times and in some big games against inter-sectional foes like Penn State and USC. During none of those times did the Fighting Irish capture anywhere near the ratings as they did against Temple. In fact, the Temple vs. Notre Dame was the No. 1-rated TV game ever in the history of Philadelphia college football-watching.
#NDvsTEM: Philadelphia with 18.1 overnight, best ever for a regular season college football game on ABC pic.twitter.com/hFiDzBiBLO
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) November 1, 2015
Since Notre Dame has been on so much without nearly that many sets tuned in, it doesn’t take much of an imagination to know the variable in this case was Temple. The Owls showed they can deliver the nation’s fourth-largest TV market to any possible Power 5 suitors. Philadelphia is the largest current media market without a Power 5 team.
It was also the highest-rated college football game of the week and beat by 26 percent the ratings in the same Week 9 slot a year ago which featured Penn State, the second-most popular team on Philadelphia TV sets, against No. 1 Ohio State.
ABC’s Saturday Night Football (#NDvsTEM): Up 26% over 2014’s Week 9 Saturday Night Football (#OSUvsPSU) pic.twitter.com/Jfgt2Ri13L
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) November 1, 2015
What this all means is that, one of the Power 5 conferences decides to expand, the fact that Temple has proven it can deliver the nation’s last major market should get at least the ACC and the Big 12 knocking on AD Pat Kraft’s door.
Turning the Page
That looks like double coverage on Will Fuller. Two things: Why wasn’t the primary corner closer to Fuller and why did the safety help make no attempt to jump to knock the ball down?
So close, yet so far away.
Turning the page on this one is going to be hard, because it’s quite possible that this was the best chapter in the book.
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Temple players awoke this morning with many pats on the back, but I’m sure what Matt Rhule said last night is going to carry much more weight than anything written here but it needs to be repeated: There is no such thing as a moral victory.
It would have been nice to see Temple run the table, go 13-0, and leave the college football playoff committee to complete the messy task of screwing the Owls out of a Final Four playoff spot. That opportunity will not present itself because one of the best defenses in the country failed to make a play against one of the best offensives in the country in the final three minutes.
Make no mistake, the committee would have screwed Temple because the Power 5 conferences have imposed a set of standards on the Group of 5 that are impossible to achieve. A P5 officiating crew from the ACC was there, not a G5 one.
I will put this Temple loss in the same box with the 10-9 loss to No. 1 Pitt in 1979 and the 10-7 loss to eventual No. 1 Penn State in 1978. Good, but not good enough. After those games, there was the feeling that Temple would come back the next year and make the next step and win one. Next year never came. Who knows when Temple will ever be placed in a position to win one of these games again?
“I thought our kids overcame a lot of things, and I’m proud of them,” Rhule said. That was the politically correct way of saying three of the four pass interference calls on Temple were completely bogus. That looked like double coverage on Will Fuller. Two things: Why wasn’t the primary corner closer to Fuller and why did the safety help make no attempt to jump to knock the ball down?
One possible conclusion is the two were spooked on Halloween by those earlier calls.
Rhule was right about everything he said last night and now it’s time to turn the page. It’s a worthwhile book that deserves a happy ending but the facts are it won’t be The Great American Novel it could have been.
How sweet would it have been to have picked up that ball out of Kizer’s hand and run it in with no time left?
5 Examples That It Can Be Done
The calm before the storm at Lincoln Financial Field.
It’s truly amazing to watch the comments of all of these Notre Dame fans, who think the mere suggestion of Temple winning tonight’s game is not only implausible, but impossible. How soon they have forgotten these five recent games. Arguably, these are five teams with lesser resumes of Temple that proved capable of beating ND. Will Temple join this list? Don’t know, but amnesia can be a terrible thing.
The documented history:
Nov. 15, 2014: Northwestern 43, Notre Dame 40
A Northwestern team that finished 5-7 would walk into Notre Dame and come away with a 43-40 win over the Fighting Irish. The Irish finished last season with an 8-5 record, beating LSU, 31-28, in the Music City Bowl. Temple already has more wins than Northwestern had all of last season, so the Owls winning should not be too much of a shock.
Nov. 9, 2013: Pitt 28, Notre Dame 21
The Panthers broke a four-game Irish winning streak by beating Notre Dame, 28-21. Pitt finished the season with a 7-6 record, while the Irish won two of their last three to finish 9-4.
Sept. 3, 2011: South Florida 23, Notre Dame 20
The Bulls, now a fellow AAC member, would walk into South Bend and come away with a 23-20 win. They finished the season an undistinguished 5-7. Notre Dame finished 8-5.
Nov. 30, 2010: Tulsa 28, Notre Dame 27
The Golden Hurricane, now also of the AAC, took a 28-27 win in South Bend. They would go on to a 10-3 record and Notre Dame would finish 8-5, but folks would be hard-pressed to make an argument that Tulsa of 2010 is better than Temple of 2015.
Nov. 21, 2009: UConn 33, Notre Dame 30
A Randy Edsall-coached Connecticut team that would finish 8-5 walked into South Bend and came away with a 33-30 win. That was the worst of all the ND teams with a 6-6 record.
Updated depth chart
5 Signs That Temple Will Beat Notre Dame
Reason No. 6 Owls will win: They did not make the cover of SI.
The first thing Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said to Temple’s Matt Rhule when he greeted him for a post-game handshake in 2013 was: “You have a good football team.” Much of that was coachspeak, but Kelly had the right assessment in the wrong year. Many of the players who played for Temple in that 28-6 loss are back for this year’s nationally televised game and there are five signs that point to this one ending differently.
Getty Images
- The Rise of Memphis
Nobody thought fellow AAC member Memphis had a chance against an Ole Miss team that went to Alabama and waxed the Tide on the road, but the Tigers used a home field advantage in the Liberty Bowl and dominated Mississippi, 37-24. Memphis needed a field goal at the gun to beat Temple last year, 16-13. Ole Miss is arguably better than Notre Dame. Temple is arguably better than Memphis now.
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- The Last Game
Even though the Owls finished the 2013 season 2-10, an Irish team which finished 8-4 was not able to take them to the woodshed. With a first-year coach and many first-year starters, the game was 14-6 until 43 seconds remained in the first half. In the second half, the two teams played fairly evenly and the 28-6 score was respectable. Even though this ND team is better than that one, the Owls are exponentially better.
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- The GameDay Effect
This will be the first visit by ESPN’s College GameDay to Temple and first-time hosts have a 40-25 record. The first thing Temple athletic director Pat Kraft did when he learned the show was coming was to procure an extra head of Hooter, the team’s mascot, for show host Lee Corso to have under his desk. On the other hand, the Luck of the Leprechaun has produced four losses in the last four Irish GameDay appearances.
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- ECU’s Game With Florida
Temple went into Dowdy-Ficken Stadium and came away with a 10-point win over East Carolina, the only home loss of the season for the Pirates. ECU is a good team which lost by a touchdown in the swamp to Florida, 31-24, a similar team in skill set to Notre Dame. If the Owls can handle that kind of foe on the road, they can certainly operate more comfortably in the friendly environment of Lincoln Financial Field.
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- Analytics Favor Owls
The Owls rank No. 5 in the nation in one of the most important statistics, scoring defense (14.6 ppg), ahead of Ohio State and Clemson, and it is no fluke as they returned all 11 starters from a defense that finished No. 4 a year ago. Notre Dame ranks No. 14 in scoring offense (38.3 ppg). The Irish should have a tough time scoring against this defense and, if you cannot score, you cannot win.
No opinion, just cold numbers from a computer not affiliated with either TU or ND.
Temple Football Forever 