10.09.15
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Prodigal Son Day Should Answer Some Questions

On Saturday, we will pick up where we left off over a month ago.

If the medium is the message, as Marshall McLuhan once wrote, the message about the interest in Temple football right now among its Prodigal Son Alumni has been very telling over the past week.

prodigal

Homecoming Day is what I’ve always called “Prodigal Son Day” because that is the only game many alumni attend. The regular tailgaters get replaced, and the Prodigal Sons (and Daughters) get all of the good spots along tailgate row. The top bunk, if you will. The next week, we return to our regular tailgate programming with the regulars all back in their customary spots.

The challenge at Temple has always been to get those casual fans, what I would call the “soft core” Owl fans, off their couches and away from the TV remotes and potato chips and joining the “hard core” ones at the stadium. That’s why the media’s message this week, however subtle, is encouraging.

Words of the alma mater. Please memorize. Thanks.

In the above video (3:23) kids do an awesome rendition of the alma mater. Would be great if the crowd would  add their voices.

Two Temple alumni in the media, who have never mentioned Temple football glowingly in the past, banged the drum rather loudly for their Owls using some impressive platforms. First, renowned Philadelphia Eagles’ expert Ray Didinger said that “Temple should be unbeaten” going into the Notre Dame game and that he would not be surprised if P.J. Walker eventually becomes a NFL quarterback.  This is the same Ray Didinger who said two years ago on a Saturday morning program with co-host Glen Macnow that “I kind of wish Temple would drop a level and play Lafayette, Villanova and Delaware.” That was after a caller wanted to talk about Brandon McManus as an NFL kicker and Macnow said sternly, “I’m not talking about Temple football” before hanging up on the guy.

Didinger did not jump to the Owls’ defense then. He is now. Like all Prodigal Sons, he is welcome home. That’s why they call it Homecoming.

Last 4 Homecoming Games for Temple:

Year
Score
Opponent
Attendance
2014
Temple, 35-24
Tulsa
25,340
2013
Temple, 33-14
Army
25,533
2012
Temple, 37-28
South Florida
25,796
2011
Temple, 34-0
Buffalo
25,820

Beating Penn State and being 4-0 has changed a lot of long-held perceptions. David Murphy, the Channel 6 weather guy, always mentions the Chester pro soccer team, but never mentioned the Temple team that plays American football until Monday of this week and, every day, has talked up the Owls and Homecoming.

Baby steps, but what this media message means is that Homecoming—which never gets a crowd smaller than 25,000—should experience an uptick in attendance. Sources inside the ticket office said 21,000 tickets were sold as of late Thursday afternoon and also added that Homecoming crowds are traditionally the largest “walk-up” crowds of the season—anywhere from 7-10K—depending upon the weather. Murphy supplied the good weather so, conservatively, the estimate of the crowd should be around 31,000.

While we would all like to see more, a cautionary note is to remember what Wayne Hardin said. “We’d have to go unbeaten 10-straight years for us to sell out the stadium every week,” he said in the 1970s. He was right then and he’d probably be right now. To sell out half of it at 4-0 is saying something and that’s probably the most realistic goal.

Anything above that would be a pleasant surprise.

The fun resumes on Saturday ….

10.08.15
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Huey Long’s Only Temple Football Game

Huey Long trying to get a booth review before the invention of television.

Huey Long trying to get a booth review before the invention of television.

Most people remember Huey Long as the only dictator in the history of the United States.

Technically, though, he was a U.S. Senator from the state of Louisiana in the early-to-mid-30s. In a real sense, though, he was “coach” of the LSU football team that lost to Tulane, 14-13, in the last regular-season game of the 1934 season. (He had a puppet Governor installed and puppet head coach, but Long was on the sidelines, made the important decisions and often got into heated arguments with the refs.) Had the Tigers scored two more points, Long’s team would have gone up against one of the legendary college coaches of all time, Temple’s Pop Warner, in the 1934 Sugar Bowl.

Tulane beat Huey Long's LSU team to earn a shot at Temple.

Tulane beat Huey Long’s LSU team to earn a shot at Temple.

That near brush with Long has to rank as one of the strange circumstances surrounding Temple football history. As it was, Tulane, not LSU, was the southern representative in the 1934 Sugar Bowl and Long never had a chance to match wits with Warner. He was in the stands, though, at the Sugar Bowl, rooting for Tulane according to newspaper accounts of the day. The temperature for that game was in the mid-50s, a day after it reached 78 degrees in New Orleans.

Four months after Tulane’s 20-14 win, Long was assassinated. He was 42 and planning to challenge Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the Presidency. An Oscar-winning Best Picture, All the King’s Men, was made on his life in 1949 and it won the Best Actor Award for Broderick Crawford, who played Long.

10-4? (That’s a Highway Patrol reference.)

Now, the Owls and Tulane and even LSU have come full circle for the 2015 game. The Owls are a 15-point favorite and Sports Illustrated (in the form of Stewart Mandel) this week has projected them as the Group of 5 representatives in the Peach Bowl against LSU.

Leonard Fournette has no shot in the open field against No. 8.

Leonard Fournette has no shot in the open field against No. 8.

Pretty heady stuff for the Temple fans who will flock to Lincoln Financial Field for the most festive and optimistic Homecoming in, err, Temple Football Forever.  It points up how things can change in college football in such a short time because it was only two years ago that the Owls came into Homecoming 0-6 and came out 1-6 after beating Army.

Now they are about as near to the top of the college football world as the 1934 Owls were. Somewhere, Huey Long is looking down and taking it all in, probably ambivalently.

Or, maybe in his case, looking up.

Tomorrow: Some Informed Speculation on HC Attendance

Saturday: Game Day Preview With Updated Depth Charts

Sunday: Complete Game Analysis

10.07.15
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A Good Nervous

“I thought our fullbacks did a great job of setting the tone,” Matt Rhule at the 14:36 time stamp.

Anyone who has ever played the game at the high school level or above knows the feeling of being a little nervous before every game. Butterflies is really the best word I’ve heard for it and, although we did not hear Temple head coach Matt Rhule say that word he implied it at the most recent press conference.

“We’re nervous, but it’s a good nervous,” he said.

Can’t argue with the results because the “good nervous” has meant the school’s first 4-0 start since 1974, a season the team won their first six games. In order for the results to continue, it’s OK to have butterflies before Saturday’s Homecoming Game with Tulane (noon, Lincoln Financial Field).

“I thought our fullbacks did a great job of setting the tone.”

Once you get that first hit in, though, the butterflies go away and you just play ball and that’s what the Owls have to concentrate on against Tulane. They are a better team than Tulane, and probably a lot closer to the Duke team that hammered Tulane, 37-7, and the Georgia Tech team that abused Tulane, 65-10, than they are to Tulane right now and that should be enough.

Other highlights from the presser:

  • The Owls are playing a lot of players now. This is a very good thing because that means there is going to be a more seamless transition to next year because of the way Freddie Booth-Lloyd (who helps replace Matt Ioannidis) and Michael Dogbe (who probably replaces Nate D. Smith) are playing now. Heck, Nick Sharga—next year’s Tyler Matakevich—also had a good extended run.
  • Rhule said “the fullbacks set the tone.” Yes, he really said that. We’ve come a long way in a year.
  • The Owls are not quite as good as they are going to get. “We’re not quite there just yet,” Rhule said, “but we’re getting there.” Hopefully, where they are now is good enough to beat Tulane and UCF and they “get there” upon arrival in Greenville, N.C., where they put it all together in three weeks and stay “there” for the rest of the season.
  • The Owls have only forced two fumbles. This time last year they forced 10. Got to think the second guy in on every tackle is going to be punching that ball like it’s Chuck Wepner’s face.
  • The Tulsa game (last year’s Homecoming) was sloppy because the Owls tried to do too much.
  • It was good to establish the run. Jahad Thomas, after a minor hiccup against UMass, took some sugar and got rid of the hiccups against Charlotte, going for 106 yards and two touchdowns.
  • Sharga is Temple’s first significant two-way player since even before John Rienstra. “Rhino” came in for only a couple of downs on defense against BYU. Sharga played 11 snaps on offense, mostly early, and 14 more on defense, mostly late. “It’s a great story,” Rhule said.  Matt is right about that because I wasn’t born when Temple last had a significant two-way player, and that’s a long time ago.

One person Rhule did not mention was Nate L. Smith, a former Archbishop Wood and George Washington player, who scored a touchdown on a blocked punt and probably should have scored one on his interception. The only reason he did not was a teammate missed a very makeable block and allowed the Charlotte running back to make the tackle. Still, Smith showed the kind of running instincts in the open field and nose for the end zone that would make him a great option as a punt returner.

Got to think that missed block came up in one of Phil Snow’s film room sessions this week since the Owls want to maximize their scoring opportunities on defense.

10.06.15
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Tulane is Who We Thought They Are

It takes a village. HC is usually the day all of the regular tailgaters get replaced for the Prodigal Son fans.

It takes a village. HC is usually the day all of the regular tailgaters get relocated for the Prodigal Son fans.

Casual college football fans checking the Tulane vs. Central Florida score on Saturday afternoon probably had an initial reflex reaction that the host Green Wave, who visit Temple for Homecoming at high noon on Saturday, must be vastly improved this season.

Only those who followed the sport closely knew better, that Tulane’s 45-31 AAC win only served to illustrate how far things have fallen in Orlando for head coach George O’Leary, who is only two years from routing Power-5 representative Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl. The Knights are 0-5 and now are staring at a 0-12 season. As it stands now, they are a three-point favorite  over UConn at home on Saturday and, frankly, UConn has played better.  UCF has suffered embarrassing home losses to FIU and Furman, the latter being an FCS team.

Watch out for those tapers.

Watch out for those tapers.

That’s a penthouse-to-outhouse fall unrivaled in college football and probably means the end is near for O’Leary, 69, who has had an accomplished career but age has caught up to him. In addition, he’s had some bad luck. The Knights have played most of their first four games without their starting quarterback, center, best receiver and two best running backs. In all, eight potential offensive starters didn’t play in Saturday’s game against Tulane or the week prior against South Carolina.

UCF’s problems not only stem from injuries, but from O’Leary’s job situation. O’Leary was named UCF’s interim athletic director in June and there are rumors — but no announcement yet — that he will retire from coaching to become the full-time AD after the season. So the appearance is that O’Leary is mailing in the coaching part of his job. Even worse for UCF is that the coach has no experience as an athletic administrator and his possible future involvement as an AD probably will not help his presumably handpicked successor get off on the right foot.

When UCF beat Baylor, plenty of people were talking about the Knights as a possible selection for a Power 5 conference. Now nobody is, and the blame has to go to an aging coach who apparently has lost any enthusiasm for the coaching part of his job.

Tomorrow: Press Conference Highlights

Throwback Thursday: Huey Long’s Connection to Temple Football

Friday: Homecoming Attendance

Saturday: Game Day Preview, Updated Depth Charts

10.04.15
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Montel Aaron Could Be the Next P.J.

I’ll have a No. 7 and a No. 11 from this menu.

There is no bigger P.J. Walker fan on the planet than me.

After going through years of Chester Stewarts and Vaughn Charltons, I know a good quarterback from a bad one and only two guys in the last eight years—Walker and Adam DiMichele—have met minimum daily requirement standards for a Temple quarterback. Chris Coyer won a bowl game, but never got the kind of extended run at the position he deserved so he didn’t have a full body of work from which to judge. Both P.J. and Adam could make plays with their feet as well as their arm and, in big-time college football, you need those intangibles. You cannot run an effective read-option play without a quarterback who is a running threat, and that’s something the Philadelphia Eagles  are learning the hard way. Adam was and P.J. is a great leader in the huddle. Stewart and Charlton never were. I’m a hard-marker and P.J. gets an “A” in my book, Adam an A+. The difference is that P.J. has two years to improve that grade.

I'm taking his nickname his Scooooby, give or take a few oooos

I’m taking his nickname his Scooooby, give or take a few oooos

Fortunately, this year the coaches are helping him with a curriculum that he’s better-suited for—a strong run game that (sometimes) includes a blocking fullback, setting up an effective play-action passing game. Temple is a better team when it runs for 200 yards and passes for 200 and P.J. is a better quarterback when he’s throwing 20-30 passes, not 40-50.

A lot (heck, all) of Walker’s so-called sophomore slump can be attributed to one of the worst offensive schemes ever laid at the feet of a Temple quarterback—empty backfields and four wides that invited blitzes and sacks, which led to fumbles and interceptions—and no pocket protection that a blocking fullback or even a max protect scheme could have provided.

That said, P.J. Walker will sadly not be here forever and it was great to see that the Temple coaching staff used the off week to pound the pavement for his replacement—even though his replacement is 3,000 miles away. Apparently, there is money is the budget to send a couple of Temple assistants on a six-hour plane flight to suburban Sacramento and, judging by the film, it was money well-spent for an acceptable replacement for Walker in Montel Aaron, who committed to the Owls on Friday night. Temple had a very good experience with its last Montel (Harris) and there is no reason to believe this Montel will not give Owl fans reason to smile. (For those who’ve forgotten, Harris went off for 351 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in a 63-32 win at Army in 2012. That’s probably a 56-game hitting streak-type record that will never be broken.)

I looked hard on Cherry and White Day and did not see anyone with the physical tools of P.J. that I could project as a replacement. Montel Aaron has those physical tools.

Aaron reminds me of a more polished version of Clinton Granger. We could not win with Clint because he came here raw and stayed that way. If Montel comes here polished as he appears to be and the coaches rub a little extra Pledge on him, Temple can win with Montel Aaron, and going to the other side of the football earth to get him will prove to be worth it.

Tomorrow: Temple vs. Charlotte photos

Tuesday: Tulane and UCF

10.03.15
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Enjoy The View

Be there or be square.

One of those morning shows that targets largely a women’s audience has a perfect slogan that should apply to particularly this Temple football season: “Take a little time to enjoy the view.”

Kyle Friend blew a hole open here that 3 guys could have followed for a TD

Kyle Friend blew a hole open here that 3 guys could have followed for a TD

Even if it was a little wet and foggy last night in a very satisfying 37-3 win at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (the guy on Camera No. 5 really needed a towel or a shirt or something to clean off his location), a pretty spectacular view is starting to come into focus. After surviving a stumble last week at UMass, the Owls now have a blueprint of how to win out. They now have to take care of business against a Tulane team for Homecoming, a UCF team that lost to Furman but is always dangerous and an ECU team that has revenge on their mind and a huge home field advantage.

Still, winning those three games, one at a time, is doable if the Owls keep doing what they did against Charlotte: Play good defense and special teams, run the ball on offense, and pick their spots in the play action passing game.

It’s not a particularly flashy style of winning, but any kind of winning is a beautiful sight.

The view last night included:

  • Nick Sharga playing fullback, seeking out and destroying a linebacker that allowed Jahad Thomas to get an eight-yard gain and then, later, subbing for Tyler Matakevich at linebacker, making a Tyler Matakevich play to stop Khalil Phillips at the line of scrimmage. Haven’t seen that kind of two-way impact since first-round NFL draft choice John Rienstra led the way for a Todd McNair touchdown against BYU and then came in on goal-line defense and sacked Robbie Bosco.
  • The P.J. Walker to Robby Anderson connection being revived on a pair of touchdown passes. That was good to see. It was evident on a nice hookup in Cincy, but this is the first time it worked for multiple TDs. Love for P.J. to go up top and hit Robby in stride. That hasn’t happened yet, but will.
  • Probably the greatest Bruce Arians’ interview on the CBS Sports Network ever ended with a “go Owls.” Great to see a nice photo of Matt Rhule with Bruce. True story: The day after Matt was hired as Temple head coach, I casually mentioned to Matt that I had Bruce’s cell number. He asked for it and I gave it to him. (That’s for all of you people who think I hate Matt Rhule; I don’t.) I hope Matt and Bruce become as good friends as Matt and coach Hardin are. I also hope Temple University can pull up that interview and post it online. Without a doubt, Matt and Bruce are the two nicest guys to ever become head coach at Temple University.
  • The Temple defense not breaking, even though we could do without the bending part.
  • Something tells me all of those February practices in the snow are paying off. Temple does not seem fazed by inclement weather. Temple Sunshine.
  • Nate L. Smith making a real impact on the special teams, although not in the punt returning role he might be better-suited for. He showed he still has a nose for the end zone, though.
  • This team played like it didn’t want Charlotte to take them down to the wire and that’s the kind of ferocity they need to play with going forward.

The Owls are now 4-0 for the first time since 1974 with a Homecoming Game against Tulane coming up in a week (noon start). They deserve a crowd of 40,000 or more and any fan who ventures down to the stadium is going to get a great view of a good football team on a mission.

Take a little time out of your schedule to enjoy it.

….. and now a few words from the bad guys ….

10.02.15
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Game Day: Boring Would Be Preferred

CBS Sports Network should own the Philly TV ratings tonight.

CBS Sports Network should own the Philly TV ratings tonight.

One exchange on social media about tonight’s Temple at Charlotte football game centered on whether the weather would make a game that, under perfect conditions, figured to finish something like 56-10 Owls to something like 20-3 or 20-7.

A long-time Temple fan, a guy who might be the best Temple football fan on the planet, ended the thread: “It should be interesting.”

eighteen

You want a lot of things tonight from Temple at Charlotte, but you do not want interesting. My idea of interesting always has been Temple a lot, bad guys a little.  What might bore a national audience, a Temple blowout, interests me greatly. That would be interesting. Blocking an extra point and winning on a last-second field goal against a vastly inferior opponent might make for great drama, but is not for the faint of heart. Different strokes for different folks.

Leave interesting for the novels.

Speaking of that subject, one of the most republished works of literature in the United States is the book “Charlotte Temple” by Susanna Rowson, a best seller in its first printing in 1794 and a book often described as interesting and compelling with 200 American editions.

Since the last republished one hasn’t been since 1984, you can consider tonight’s game, the 201st edition of Charlotte Temple—albeit the first football edition.

The plot line that supposedly will make this one interesting is the weather. Can the protagonist (in this case, Temple) hold onto a fortune (i.e., the possibility first broached by ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit of running the table) against a conniving antagonist (Charlotte) helped by a surprising ally (wind and rain)?

Or will the protagonist be saved by the good fortune of holding onto the ball and getting out of Dodge with the delicious possibility of an unbeaten season and the wealth and fame that comes with said accomplishment still alive?

It should be interesting.

Geez, I hope not.

Tomorrow: Complete Game Analysis

10.01.15
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Weather: The Great Equalizer

richardson

Playing at Jerry Richardson Stadium will be like playing at Northeast High.

First, the good news: the weather for Temple’s football game at Charlotte could be a whole lot worse than things appear now.

Tropical Storm Joaquin “meandered” off the cost of Bermuda for so long, stopping, then going southeast, before making a slow turn up the coast and apparently headed for North Carolina that it will not get there until Sunday. Although Jerry Richardson Stadium (15,000 capacity) seats about 6K more than Northeast High and 7K less than Allentown’s J. Birney Crum Stadium, it does have a state-of-the-art turf field that should absorb rain.

joaquin

Now the bad news: there’s going to be a whole lot of rain and wind and that is never good for the more talented team. Ask UConn in 2008 when the 17.5-point favorite Huskies needed overtime (and an incredibly bad holding call on Temple wide receiver Travis Shelton) to win, 12-6, in overtime. Ask ECU last season when a double-digit road favorite came out a double-digit loser, thanks to turnovers. The forecast changes every few hours, so there is always hope.

andujar

Bad weather is never a friend of a more talented team with multiple weapons that thrives on a dry field and that’s what Temple is on Friday night (7 p.m., CBS Sports Network).  Temple is a 24.5-point favorite, the largest road margin in Temple history.  The previous road favorite margin was -15 at Akron in 2011 (the Owls won that game, 41-3, but it was on a dry field). Charlotte has had some interesting results, more so last year when it beat FCS No. 23 Albany, 31-28, on the road and hung tight with this year’s SMU-killer James Madison, 48-40, at home. This year, though, the team has two wins over cupcakes before being torched for 73 points by the only decent team so far on the schedule, Middle Tennessee State. Don’t expect the Owls to score 73 points, though, because MTSU is a much-better coached team, offensively, than Temple is and recognizes that the tight end is an eligible receiver and can be utilized as an effective weapon.

The biggest question coming out of this game is going to be whether the Owls are the team that beat Penn State and Cincinnati or struggled against a truly horrible UMass team. I think UMass was an aberration. At least that’s the hope.  The big difference was that the Owls had a commitment to the run in the first two games that they abandoned in the UMass game. For this team to realize its potential, it must be successful in establishing the run and throw off play action. The weather could dictate a lot of what the Owls do on Friday. So we might have to wait until next week against Tulane to get a better reading on the Owls because weather could be the great equalizer here. Got to think the Owls win this one; it just might not be 25-0.

Temple biggest home margin came as a 29.5 favorite in 2010, also against Akron. In a great testament to the people in Vegas, Temple won, 30-0. (It’s amazing how close these lines are sometimes.) One line-killer is weather and, tropical storm or not, it does not look good at this point for the favorites.

Bad weather never does.

09.30.15
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The Big Cleanup

I thought “Matt” gave way too much credit to UMass in this presser.

Probably the biggest cleanup in Philadelphia history came over the weekend, when an army of people knocked down barricades and grandstands and swept away a whole bunch of garbage from the Pope’s visit.

The second biggest cleanup, hopefully, was occurring at roughly the same time on Sunday night and Monday afternoon when the Temple Owls had to address some major issues leading up to Friday’s 7 p.m. at Charlotte (CBS Sports Network).

Here are five things that needed to be addressed:

Penn State v Temple

  1. The Run Game

The Owls took the nation’s third-leading rusher, Jahad Thomas, into the game against UMass and came out with a 67-yard rushing effort against a defense that gave up 390 yards to Colorado and 457 yards to Notre Dame. Colorado is a mediocre team, as proven by its loss to Hawaii. It looked like the Owls overreacted to the Minutemen’s stunts and abandoned the run game too early. That cannot happen going forward. If the run game isn’t working inside, the coaches have to take the run game outside.

  1. Killer Instinct

When it was 14-0, Temple, got to find a way to make it 21-0 against these inferior teams like UMass. If Temple TUFF really means anything, you have to put more helmets on their helmets and knock them back off the ball. If that means putting Nick Sharga in at fullback running lead interference for the tailbacks, so be it. Head coach Matt Rhule said “it’s going to be 17-17” but against teams like UMass and Charlotte, it should never be 17-17. Temple has much, much too much talent to b be playing the likes of UMass 17-all at half. Newsflash: UMass is not going to win the MAC in this century or maybe even the next one.

sharif

  1. Turnovers

The Owls have to find a way to limit their turnovers in the passing game and one of the ways to do that is to cut the number of throws from 48 against UMass to the more manageable 15-for-20 P.J. Walker had against Penn State. To do that, they have to establish the run first, then throw off play-action. That brings the LBs and safeties close to the line of scrimmage and more susceptible to the play-fake.

  1. Big Plays on Defense

The Owls gave up big plays on defense because they could not get to the quarterback against UMass. Getting to the quarterback is the key to limiting the big plays. They do not have to sack every quarterback 10 times like Penn State, but at least get in the QB’s face so he does not get a good look downfield.

  1. Negative Plays on Offense

The Owls lead the country with 15 negative plays on offense. One way to negate that is to take more shots down field—again off play fakes to the running backs. Robby Anderson was extremely effective making those kind of explosive downfield plays in the passing game and it is high time that he returns to that role. The best way to get Robby involved is to fake it into the belly of Jahad, pull the damn ball out and find Robby streaking down the left sideline.