02.05.15
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Finally, a Temple Fan Playing for the Owls

Every once in a while, someone says something that makes you feel like they understand exactly what another person feels and that someone yesterday was Kareem Ali Jr.

Ali said something so profound that I had to stare at the words while holding my Philadelphia Daily News: “I’m tired of seeing Temple lose. I’ve been to almost every home game since my eighth grade or seventh grade year. I know their pain. I’m tired of seeing that.”

So, for every Temple fan who wanted to go down on the field and break up that Hail Mary against Fordham or Buffalo and run a more direct route to sacking Blake Bortles, Kareem Ali Jr. is playing for us. I hope his play will be contagious and the rest of the Owls who are not from here are tired of losing, too. Many of us have the want-to for doing all of those things, Ali has the how-to.

Already, he has become my favorite Temple Owl, following in the footsteps of guys like Kenny Harper, Donny Klein, Paul Palmer and Bernard Pierce.

Temple Recruiting Last Three Years 

Year National Rank Rivals National Rank Scout Conference Rank Scout
2015 75 93 7
2014 59 74 4
2013 85 87 8

Klein might be an odd name for some, but not for me. The Temple center immediately became my favorite player when Temple played at Rutgers after getting kicked out of the Big East. The Owls trailed, 14-3, at halftime and Klein went on a profanity-filled rant: “I’ve never lost to f-ing Rutgers and I’m not about to lose to f-ing Rutgers now” pounding his helmet on the floor. Those were not empty words as Klein’s borderline fanatical blocking opened up huge holes for Tanardo Sharps in the rain and mud and Sharps gained 215 yards on 43 carries as the Owls won, 20-17. That’s the kind of fire, emotion, intensity and desire I’d like the see the Owls play with all of the time.

Those are the kinds of players Temple cannot get enough of and I have the feeling they got at least one more of those kinds of leaders yesterday.

Here are the rest:

Ryquell Armstead RB, Fr. 5-11, 205, Millville, N.J.

Jeremiah Atoki DB, Fr. 6-2, 190, Vineland, N.J.

Josiah Bronson DL, Fr. 6-5, 265, Covington, Wash.

Chapelle Cook LB, Fr. 6-1,214, Lakewood, N.J.

Jovahn Fair OL, Fr. 6-3, 283, Akron, Oh.

Jager Gardner RB, Fr. 6-2, 205, Black Mountain, N.C.

Daishaun Grimes LB, Fr. 6-2, 190, St. Cloud, Fla.

Benson Israel OL, Fr. 6-1, 316, Spring Valley, N.Y.

DeAndre Kelly DL, Fr. 6-3, 238, Hyattsville, Md.

Dana Levine DL, Fr. 6-4, 213, Hallandale Beach, Fla.

Roy Pugh TE, Fr. 6-4,196, South Orange, N.J. .

Jake Robinson TE, Fr. 6-3, 208, Haddonfield, N.J.

T.J. Simmons RB, Fr. 6-1, 195, Lakeland, Fla.

Cortrelle Simpson WR, Fr. 5-10, 175 Indian Head, Md.

Greg Webb DL, R-So. 6-1, 312, Sicklerville, N.J.

Taiyir Wilson LB, Fr. 6-2, 210, Collegeville, Pa.

Dawayne Young DL, Fr. 6-3, 280, Philadelphia, Pa.

MID YEAR TRANSFERS

Kareem Ali, Jr. DB, Fr. 5-11, 175, Sicklerville, N.J.

Logan Marchi QB, Fr. 6-1, 170, Bristol, Conn.

William Updegrove LB, Fr. 6-2, 230, Berwick, Pa

02.03.15
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The Temple Spin Zone

Click here to get into the Temple Spin Zone. It is a lot like the old Twilight Zone, with a little less reality.

Click here to get into the Temple Spin Zone. It is a lot like the old Twilight Zone, with a little less reality. Not surprisingly, the show opens with Sean Padden’s microphone turned off. If you can lip read, it’s a great show.

Fox News has its Bill O’Reilly No-Spin Zone and Temple football will have its spin zone on Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. on National Signing Day.

It is considered a major no-no in the journalism business to call a subject you regularly cover by his first name. Par for the course or the MRAs at Owlscoop.com, though.

It is considered a major no-no in the journalism business to call a subject you regularly cover by his first name. Par for the course for the MRAs at Owlscoop.com, though.

No one can say how the Owls’ coaching staff will spin it, but pretty much everyone agrees that there will be a spin involved. There can be no other conclusion based on the way the Owls handled their other recruiting classes. The theme of past signing days I attended was Al Golden saying we were No. 1 in the MAC by all objective analysis and Temple’s goal is to be No. 1 in everything, recruiting, workouts, gameday, etc. Instead, this will be one of the lowest-ranked recruiting classes in recent years, with Temple ranked No. 102 in the country by one of the two major recruiting websites. Sixth in the AAC by one, eighth–behind Mensa-level Navy–by another.

It came down to the wire.

It came down to the wire.

I do not know how to spin that, but I guess that Temple will bring up all of the examples of two-star guys who came to 10th and Diamond and made it to the NFL. For every one of those guys, though, Al Golden was able to get a guy heavily recruited by a BCS team like Boston College (Kee-Ayre Griffin) or Pitt (Adrian Robinson) who really made a contribution at Temple.

Bernard Pierce, who I called “The Franchise” for his three years here, was a two-star who Golden was able to stash away at a reform school (Glen Mills). This is the way you build winning teams: Get five guys who the big boys want, stash a couple of guys away, and then do a tremendous job watching the film.

That’s what Golden did.

The spin tomorrow will probably be “we watched the film, trust us.”  That’s OK, too, if Temple is able to land T.J. Simmons of Lakeland (Fla.) and Adrienne Talan, a linebacker who is between Nebraska and Temple. I would love to get the Canadian defensive end, Mathieu Betts, who is between Temple and Purdue. If Rhule is able to pull off those three, the spin becomes easier to swallow. Love the legacy recruit, Kareem Ali. Jr., and the kid he was able to bring with him, Greg Webb. I believe both of those guys could earn starting jobs next season. That would upgrade the talent level of a team which already returns 20 starters and set the minimum bar for Rhule wins at eight. A healthy Simmons following a fullback, say Rob Dvoracek, could do some serious damage against Penn State. Simmons following last year’s offensive line without a lead blocker like Dvoracek would not nearly be as effective. Remember, Pierce, Matty Brown and Montel Harris followed great  blocking fullbacks  through the hole and enabled Temple to set up an effective passing  game.  Don’t try to tell that to Rhule, though, who thinks his “process”  of no running game, no pass protection and no wide receiver separation can prevail against any opponent. There’s a lot of spin in that gameday coaching process, too.

This is not a Golden class, though. At best, it is a Silver one, maybe a Bronze. I’d rather have the top-rated class the AAC, like Golden had in the MAC for three-straight years. If Simmons is 100 percent—and that’s a big if—he could be better than Bernard Pierce. Having his announcement rescheduled for 7 a.m. is a big positive for Temple, which does not currently have a franchise running back on the roster.

Keep your fingers crossed and set the alarm for 6:55.

01.31.15
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Temple Finally Joins the Big Time

It’s never too late for Young Jeezy to put in a good word for Temple.

Usually, the only thing on TV in the middle of the afternoon on a mid-week day is a soap opera.

That and work is why I do not watch television on a week day afternoon. One soap opera on Wednesday, though, is must-see TV and that’s when Temple football finally hits the big-time on ESPNU. Every year, ESPNU reserves about a dozen spots for players who wait until signing day to make their announcements on live television. ESPNU’s only requirement is that the player must not have made his intentions known prior to the live announcement and he must be at least a four-star recruit as named by one of the two major recruiting websites, Rivals or Scout.

Usually, it is involves a guy who is about to pick between, say, a Florida or an Auburn. He looks at one hat, lifts it up, puts it down, and then finally puts the hat on of the school he where he chooses to spend the next four years playing football and getting an education. Since ESPNU started this charade a few years ago, I wanted Temple to be part of the show.

Now I have my wish.  That’s where Temple, Marshall and T.J. Simmons come into play.

Julu Smith’s signing day last year.

This will perhaps be the last time either school will have this opportunity because I believe the Power 5 schools will be paying players by the next show and, unless Temple can  find a route to the Power 5 capital, we won’t see this kind of drama again.

I hope I’m wrong, but I do not see this ending well for Temple because Simmons’ primary Marshall recruiter is Sean Cronin and Cronin is not the biggest Matt Rhule fan. I can see a lot of “negative recruiting” involved with Cronin’s knowledge of Temple and Rhule and, if negativity did  not work in getting someone’s vote, we would never see a negative political campaign ad (and that’s all we see).

Either way, tune in between 3:30 and 4 on ESPNU. For the first–and maybe last–time, it’s must-see afternoon TV.

Related:

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x984739541/Simmons-visiting-MU-this-weekend

01.09.15
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Matakevich Winning Butkus Award Would Be Big Boost for Temple Football

Football fans of Temple can give their fingernails a rest. From standout linebacker Tyler Matakevich‘s twitter feed in December, it looked  like he would return for his senior season with the Owls in 2015.

Now that the deadline for declaring is about to pass, it’s all but official.

That’s no small commitment because, according to most mock drafts, Matakevich would be one of the top 10 linebackers selected in the NFL Draft if he decided to come out. Now that Matakevich has decided to do something for the Owls, Temple must decide to do something for him in promoting him for the Bednarik Award that goes to the nation’s best defender and Butkus Award that goes to the nation’s best linebacker.

I think he has a decent chance of winning the Butkus Award and that would be a big feather in the cap of Temple football. He doesn’t need to do anything superhuman to win it, either. Just keep doing what he’s been doing and help the Owls win two or more additional games in 2015 than they did in 2014. With Notre Dame and Penn State on the schedule and both figure to be highly rated TV games, his name is fast-tracked to the head of the LB class.

Temple did the same in 1986 for running back Paul Palmer, when the school came up with a clever comic book idea that promoted him for the Heisman Trophy. He did not win it, coming as close as possible — losing to Miami’s Vinny Testaverde and ahead of such luminaries as Oklahoma’s Brian Bosworth and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.

Matakevich is driven by a desire to get Temple to a bowl and sitting and watching others play seems to fuel the flames for next season.

Matakevich is one of the few players to earn all-conference honors in two conferences, the now-defunct Big East and current successor AAC. He also currently is the NCAA’s leading active leaders in tackles among all five divisions (FBS, FCS, and Divisions I through III). For his entire time at Temple, he has given the Owls his best.

Promoting him heavily for the Bednarik and Butkus is the least the Owls can do for him now.