08.02.15
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Temple Having a NFL Head Coach Cannot Be Minimized

Bruce Arians' players showing former teammate Todd Bowles some love.

Bruce Arians’ players showing former teammate Todd Bowles some love.

When the Bruce Arians’ crew made the trip to Florham Park over the weekend for the first full day of New York Jets’ training camp, the contingent of ex-Temple players were treated like the champions they were.

The fact that Temple has a head coach in the NFL, Todd Bowles, cannot be minimized. Hopefully, Matt Rhule can use it as a recruiting tool. He already has the support of Arians’ players, guys like Sheldon Morris, Kevin Jones, Joe Greenwood and Paul Palmer and hopefully that kind of networking will work in Temple’s favor over the next few years.

camppasses

No, Arians’ players did not win the Big East—there wasn’t even a Big East back then—but they helped put Temple on the national football map by having two winning seasons in three years against two schedules that were ranked No. 10 in the country.

Think about that for a moment. Back then, Temple played a schedule equal or superior to the current powers the SEC, PAC-10,and Big 10 and more than held its own. It did so practicing on a rock-strewn field (now the Student Pavilion) when Geasey Field was taken over by the lacrosse or field hockey teams of the day. The weight room was located next to a bowling alley in the basement of McGonigle Hall.

When Arians was asked if beating the Super Bowl winning Seattle Seahawks was the biggest win of his career–he was the last team to beat them before they won the 2014 Super Bowl–he stopped the press conference by saying no. “My biggest win was when I was at Temple, beating Pitt for the first time in 39 years,” Arians said.

Through it all, they beat Pitt three out of five years, beat West Virginia, blew out a Virginia Tech team that won 10 games and a Toledo team that was 9-2-1. They had a Heisman Trophy runner-up in Palmer, who should have been a Heisman Trophy winner. They went down to East Carolina and shut out the Pirates, 17-0. Even in those days, places like Pitt, West Virginia and Virginia Tech had multi-million dollar dedicated practice facilities but Temple did more with less.

It had to.

Arians built his teams around a great running game with a great blocking fullback and hopefully Rhule can take something from that formula, which has been the way Temple has played football for a long time. Arians had an eye for good quarterbacks, like Lee Saltz, Tim Riordan and Matty Baker.

The guys who played for him have always been “tight as a fist” and it was good to see them enjoying and supporting their former teammate the other day.

07.27.15
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Good Sign: Robby Anderson Sighting

Robby Anderson is on the far right, wearing his familiar No. 19.

Robby Anderson is on the far right, wearing his familiar No. 19.

Anyone who went to the Elmwood Park Zoo yesterday got a good sighting of a beast Penn State should fear the most and we’re not talking about a charging Rhino or an Alligator here.

Look who P.J.'s right-hand man is ....

Look who P.J.’s right-hand man is ….

We’re talking about Temple wide receiver Robby Anderson (and, yes, it is now officially Robby; more on that later). That has got to a be a good sign because Temple Summer Session II classes end on Friday and grades are released on Aug. 3. Temple head coach Matt Rhule said Anderson’s eligibility is tied to those Summer II grades. (His Summer I grades were more than acceptable.) This is not a case like Bernard Pierce in 2009, when the NCAA Clearinghouse waited until the week before the Villanova game to approve Pierce’s participation as a true freshman. In Pierce’s case, the NCAA was concerned about the Glen Mills’ course load, which was later approved. Pierce had 44 yards on six carries in his first college game. Had this issue been cleared up before then, he probably would have started and went for 100 plus.

robster

There is that best helmet in college football again with the buckle allowing the ‘][‘ to be clearly shown.

Penn State cannot cover him and I doubt it can even hope to contain him.

 

In Anderson’s case, his community college courses done in Florida were enough for him to be re-admitted to Temple and now his eligibility is tied to how he does here.

For Rhule to even allow Anderson to participate in a team function has to be a sign that the coach is satisfied with Anderson’s academic progress.

(Now to the spelling of Robby’s first name: Since he is now spelling it Robby, instead of Robbie, on his twitter account, that’s how we will spell it here henceforth and Temple Football Forever. Or at least until he changes his twitter account back to Robbie.)

Why is Anderson’s eligibility so important? Temple did not have a single game-changing offensive player Penn State could fear a year ago. Anderson is just such a player and his very presence in the Penn State game makes quarterback P.J. Walker a game-changing player and it makes running back Jahad Thomas a game-changing player and possibly SEC-talent-level tight end Colin Thompson a game-changing player. Heck, he makes Romond Deloatch more dangerous in the red zone. In my mind, Temple beats Penn State with him and it would be very difficult to win this game without him. Penn State cannot cover him I doubt it can even hope to contain him.

So, while Sept. 5 is the most important date in Temple football history, Aug. 3d is shaping up to be pretty darn important, too. Robby Anderson being at the Zoo made July 26th a good day for Temple football, just how good will be determined soon.

07.15.15
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What Matt Rhule’s Jetpack Has to Do With Stadium Failure

Matt Rhule's Jetpack has been on Go Fund Me for half a month now without a single penny raised.

Matt Rhule’s Jetpack has been on Go Fund Me for half a month now without a single penny raised.

Nothing major gets done at Temple University without it being approved at a Board of Trustees Meeting.

That was true for the Apollo of Temple, now known as the Liacouras Center, and also true for the $50 million basketball practice facility and the $17 million football training facility. To assume that a $300 million stadium is going to get done behind the scenes with all that as a backdrop is a fallacy.

With this Jetpack, Matt will no longer have to take the SEPTA 24 bus to practice.

With this Jetpack, Matt will no longer have to take the SEPTA 24 bus to practice.

Temple people are notoriously protective of what is inside their wallets–perhaps as a Pavlovian Response from spending four years near the edges of the Green Zone (17th Street on the West and 10th Street on the East)–and the strong rumor is that the BOT will not allow discussion of a stadium until $25 million is raised by stadium backers

So another meeting of the BOT having come and gone without a stadium announcement—or even a discussion of a stadium—speaks volumes. Meetings were held in December, March, May and now July without mention of a stadium.

The next question has to be why. For that, all you have to do is look at the funding for Matt Rhule’s Jetpack. As a joke, a poster named “Victory Engineer”  set up a “Go Fund Me” for a Matt Rhule Jetpack on July 3 and posted it on Owlsdaily.com. It has been seen by nearly 2,000 viewers and raised a grand total of zero dollars.

You would think someone, even as a joke, would have given five bucks in two weeks but, so far, nothing.

What does this have to do with a stadium?

Temple people are notoriously protective of what is inside their wallets–perhaps as a Pavlovian Response from spending four years near the edges of the Green Zone (17th Street on the West and 10th Street on the East)–and the strong rumor is that the BOT will not allow discussion of a stadium until $25 million is raised by stadium backers. So far, that figure has fallen far short—about $24 million short—and, at this rate, a stadium will not be discussed until the October meeting.

October, 2068.

It’s time to extend the Lincoln Financial Field lease now and worry about a stadium later.

As far as Matt Rhule’s Jetpack, that has a much better chance of happening on Sept. 6 should the result of the Penn State game turn out to be in the Owls’ favor.

Related:

Get coach Rhule His Jetpack

07.12.15
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Why July 14 is the Most Important Date in Temple Sports History

If recent Temple hires in key positions are any clue, the stadium going up at 15th and Norris should look something like this.

If recent Temple hires in key positions are any clue, the stadium going up at 15th and Norris should look something like this.

Usually the middle of July is a dead period in sports as baseball is in the middle of an all-star break, NFL training camp has not started and the NBA, NHL and college football are a couple months away.

For Temple University, though, July 14th might be the most important day in its sports history. That’s because the school’s Board of Trustees will hold a rare meeting amid rumors that there could be talk of an on-campus stadium on the agenda.

meetingminutes

Even if a stadium is not on the docket that could be more telling than if it is because the school’s BOT let a May meeting, a March meeting and a December meeting come and go with no discussion of a stadium. If it is not on this agenda, there likely will be no stadium because the next meeting after this one is in October and the school’s 15-year lease with the Philadelphia Eagles to rent Lincoln Financial Field expires at the end of the 2017 season.

Temple fans on sports message boards seem obsessed with the topic as seemingly innocuous discussion threads get turned into stadium ones at the drop of a hat. When it comes to the people who really matter, the BOT, the topic hasn’t even moved the needle. There were meetings on December 9th, March 11th and May 12th and not a word on the stadium at any of them. That could all change on Tuesday. Or not.

Since the last meeting on May 12, former Indiana University chief bean counter (CFO), Neil Theobald, the current Temple president, kicked a former Indiana U. aide, Kevin Clark, upstairs from AD to No. 2 in command (COO). Then he hired a former Indiana football player, Dr. Pat Kraft, as AD. Yet another former Indiana guy was brought in to raise money for athletics.

If that means a stadium that looks like Indiana’s is about to go up at Broad and Norris, we should know soon.

Or not.

The next meeting after this one does not come until Oct. 13th. By then, any reasonable person could see that there will not be enough time to get shovels into the ground and a stadium completed by the opening day of the 2018 season. Even if it is discussed on Tuesday and approved (highly doubtful), there will be a mad dash to get the stadium done. So if a stadium at Temple is just an unfounded rumor, fans should know by Wednesday. No discussion probably means no stadium, at least not for a decade down the road.

The question of where Temple will play in 2018 is an urgent one.  The logical answer is to extend the Lincoln Financial Field lease. That could be costly because the Eagles are asking for a 300 percent increase in Temple’s $1 million-per-year rent, but it is a price Temple must pay to remain a viable program and about 10 times less costly than building its own stadium.

The AAC, like the Big East before it, will demand that Temple have exclusive rights on Saturdays to a stadium and the only other stadium with a size that fits its needs would be 57,000-seat Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn has those rights so Franklin Field is not an option nor is the 18,000-seat PPL Park.

Temple’s only means toward keeping those rights is to stay where it is right now and build its own stadium and, if the Board is silent again like it has been in the past that means a stadium is a long, long ways away if ever.

Then the next most-important date becomes Sept. 5 and that will not have anything to do with a new stadium.

06.30.15
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Reaching for the Stars or Just Reaching?

Darian Bryant

Darian Bryant

Ronald Reagan once helped win The Cold War with a simple phrase: “Trust, but verify.” When it comes to college football recruiting, that’s as good a mantra for any fan base to follow.

It looks like Matt Rhule’s first couple of classes were the result of some pretty solid legwork, based on the fact that many of his Temple recruits were also offered by Power 5 schools. That is not so much the case this season so far.

So far,  at least for the “trust but verify” crowd, the favorite recruit of the Temple football class of 2016 has to be Darian Bryant. The offensive lineman out of Chestnut Hill Academy committed to the Owls early. He holds a unique distinction among the several early Temple commits. He turned down a Pitt offer.

I’m sure the rest of the guys are nice guys and good players, but it is comforting to know that another big-time staff saw in Bryant what Temple’s staff saw in him.

Al Golden build a solid MAC team with a simple recruiting formula: Trust the film, but also reach up and get a few guys who were wanted by the Power 5 schools. The first player he brought to Temple who fit that later criteria was a defensive back named Kee-Ayre Griffin, whose interception against Penn State would have won the 2011 game had not Mike Gerardi—unrecruited by anyone else—returned the favor with an interception of his own.

Golden also got big Mo Wilkerson, who was a two-star recruit, but for every Wilkerson he got an Adrian Robinson, who also turned down a Pitt offer.

Golden, who could sell ice cream to the Eskimos, also made some serious mistakes tied to offers made at his camp. He was saw a workout warrior, Vaughn Charlton, complete 21-straight passes in a 7-on-7 drill and offered him a scholarship on the spot. Several Southern Chester County League head coaches, who saw Charlton play against a rush, said, “say whaaaat?” when they heard Charlton got the offer. In that case, the SCCL coaches were right and Golden was wrong. Adam DiMichele, nowhere near as good in 7-on-7 as Charlton, but way better against the rush, was a much better investment of a scholarship.

Golden learned to be much more prudent in offering camp scholarships after that lesson.

Got to have a good mix of both in order to beat the big schools.  Hopefully, the Owls will pick up a few Adrian Robinson and Kee-Ayre Griffins along with these (err, also hopefully) Mo Wilkersons:

Recruit Position Height/Weight Other Offers
Kimere Brown WR/DB 5-11, 166 None
Dan Archibong DE 6-5, 245 Army, Villanova, UConn, Delaware, UMass, Stony Brook, Western Michigan
Darian Bryant OL 6-6, 295 UConn, ODU, UMass, Pitt, Towson, UConn
Kareem Gaulden DB 6-0, 187 Monmouth
D’Andre Dill DT 6-3, 295 None
Branden Mack ATH 6-5, 190 Delaware State
06.26.15
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Temple Putting the Cart Before the Horse With Rhule Extension

This had to be the reaction of a lot of Temple fans reading the news of Matt Rhule's contract extension this morning.

This had to be the reaction of a lot of Temple fans reading the news of Matt Rhule’s contract extension this morning.

The way it works in the business world is that a promotion or contract extension usually goes to the guy or gal who has proven to be an asset to the company with a history of proven results.

Anything else is called putting the cart before the horse. That’s why it’s extremely puzzling that the university would give a contract extension to a guy who has coached two years and has yet to produce a winning season or even secure one of the 76 bowl bids that go to the 126 FBS teams.

Temple could afford to wait for two important reasons. First, we do not know if this fine young man possesses the game day decision-making acumen that leads to winning football games. You do not give promotions and contract extensions to people for just being nice guys. If that were the case, a lot of guys pushing carts in super market lots would be CEOs of Shop Rite and Acme. Second, a contract extension buys Temple no security.

Unless the buyout is $8 million or more—and there is no reason to believe it is—any Power 5 team can break Temple’s contract with Rhule without a sweat.

Temple could afford to wait. The uni’s highly paid publicity staff tried to put lipstick on this pig with a slickly-worded press release yesterday but, if they were really honest, this is what they would have penned:

PHILADELPHIA (6/25/15) – Temple University announced today that it has extended the contract of head coach Matt Rhule for four years, which might or might not keep him as leader of the team through the 2021.

Rhule was hired to become the Owls’ 26th head coach on December 17, 2012, succeeding Steve Addazio and inheriting a team that went 4-7 in 2012. Despite returning 16 starters from a four-win team, Rhule turned that into a two-win team, which included arguably the three worst losses in Temple history—to an FCS team, Fordham, the worst FBS team in 25 years, Idaho, and to an 0-9 UConn team. Fordham would later get blown out by Lafayette.

That did not engender a whole lot of confidence for Owl fans for the 2014 season but the Owls finished the season with a 6-6 record, still not good enough to secure one of the 76 bowl berths that go to the 126 FBS teams.  Despite a four-win improvement in one year, Rhule had the Owls in the bottom third of FBS teams. The Owls often called a puzzling parade of time outs in the opening portion of each half which left  them without valuable timeouts at the end of each game.

In 2014, thanks to a Hurricane-like storm that took the sails out of an ECU Pirate ship that shot a full volley of 70 points into North Carolina, Rhule led the Owls to their first win over a ranked opponent since 1988. Still, Temple suffered a puzzling loss to a Navy team that got hammered by Western Kentucky for the second-straight year. The Owls were able to muster only two field goals against a Cincinnati team that gave 448 yards per game (102d nationally) and ranked 66th in the nation in scoring defense (27 ppg). That was a game the Owls had to win and a game in which the offense suffered a 60-minute malaise. 

The Owls’ offense was ineffective, largely because the coaching staff gave sophomore quarterback P.J. Walker empty backfields on numerous third-down situations, making him a sitting duck for blitzing linebackers. Not surprisingly, the Owls finished last in the FBS in third-down efficiency (23.8 percent) and last in the AAC in rushing. Running the football historically been a Temple strongpoint with players like Paul Palmer, Brian Slade, Harold Harmon, Zach Dixon, Stacy Mack, Jason McKie, Bernard Pierce, Matty Brown and Montel Harris following the blocks of lead fullbacks through the hole (Shelley Poole, Nelson Herrera, Henry Hynoski, Mark Bright, Wyatt Benson and Kenny Harper).

With the addition of a fullback as an additional blocker at the point of attack to jump-start the running game (and give P.J. some needed pocket protection) and the recent reacquistion of wide receiver Robbie Anderson, the BOT is confident Matt can fix last year’s problems on offense and decided to jump the gun and give him a contract extension.