07.11.24
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Bobby Harrington: Losing an All-World Person

Stan Drayton with Bobby Harrington talking about matching shirts at last month’s golf outing.

The last time I saw Bobby Harrington was at the Navy at Temple game and he walked up to me in Lot K and said: “Mike, we’re going to win this one. I have no doubt.”

“I don’t know, Bobby, Navy is pretty good.”

“Trust me. We’re winning this.”

Temple won, 34-16.

Haason Reddick with Bobby at last year’s Cherry and White game.

I didn’t get to see him after the game but messaged him on Facebook to congratulate him for being right.

“I just had a feeling,” he responded.

I had a feeling I would seeing Bobby Harrington again. His feeling was right. Mine was wrong.

A couple of days ago I woke up and saw a post on Facebook with a photo of Bobby holding a fish and a comment that said something to the effect that someone in the photo was in Heaven.

I assumed it was the fish. Later, I learned it was Bobby.

Hard to process that because, to me, Bobby Harrington was healthier than 90 percent of the people I know.

They must have meant someone else.

He worked out at the Swarthmore College track every day.

I will probably still be processing on opening day when I look around and he’s not in Lot K.

I posted on twitter that Harrington was a backup linebacker at Temple but an All-World person and I meant it. A walk-on at Temple, he worked his way from the scout team to second-team linebacker for both Bruce Arians and Jerry Berndt. While he wore No. 51 in his freshman year, he changed his number to 55 for the last three years and was known as 55 to most people.

His story is pretty well-known. He was addicted to drugs once but clean and sober for more than the last dozen years. He dedicated his life to helping people with similar problems cross the other side into a clean and sober life.

Who knows how many people he helped but it must have been in the thousands.

Knowing Bobby was an All-Catholic at Monsignor Bonner, I introduced him to another former All-Catholic quarterback, Bishop Egan’s Tony Russo, at one Cherry and White tailgate. Mr. Russo is the father of Anthony Russo, the fourth-leading passer in Owls’ history.

The two immediately hit it off and had a great conversation about Catholic League football that left my jaw open.

That’s the effect Bobby Harrington had on everyone, though.

To meet him the first time was to be his friend for life.

Bobby was always at Cherry and White, always at the practices reserved for football alumni and even made the golf outing last month.

He loved Temple football and Temple loved him back. He had a way to connect with the current players most alumni don’t and always looked at things positively.

Hopefully, he will be sending positive vibes to this year’s Owls from above he will “have a feeling” about a lot of Temple wins in 2024.

Monday: Hidden Figures

07.07.24
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5 Newcomers who could make a difference

It’s “Manheim Central” not “Mana” heim Central but these are RU educated people, not Temple.

Not a single Temple fan is holding up 128 fingers (120 borrowed) and saying “we’re No. 128” but that’s what Athlon Sports has the Owls ranked for the upcoming season.

Evan Simon during a spring game for Rutgers.

Sobering indeed, especially considering there are only 130 FBS teams.

The numbers other than 128 aren’t all that encouraging, either.

Temple had the No. 1 passer in the league in yards per game (E.J. Warner) but he’s at another team in the same conference now.

On defense, Temple was last in forced turnovers.

SO, if a difference is to be made, it’s only logical that it will come from the newcomers and not the guys who are left behind.

Since there doesn’t seem to be a newcomer at the quarterback position other than Rutgers’ transfer Evan Simon, we’re going to have to be happy with what we have.

Thanks to Stan Drayton, we have no choice.

Here are the five newcomers who could be impact players for Temple this year:

One, running back Antwain Littleton. When I make an argument that the Temple running game is going to be the best it has been since Ray Davis, people ask me about the offensive line. I think the offensive is going to be at least as good as last year but, if you look at Littleton, at 6-1, 245, he’s an offensive line all by himself. Those aggravating times where we saw Edward Saydee lose balance on a 3d and 1 and fall short of a first down are probably over.

Two, quarterback Simon himself. If Forrest Brock, who was a large part of the reason Temple crapped the bed in a 55-0 loss to SMU last year, beats out Simon for the starting job, we will know what we suspected. Simon stinks. If, on the other hand, Simon clearly beats out Brock, maybe a horse racing analogy comes into play. Those of us who follow that sport know a Grade 3 horse who drops into an Allowance Optional Claiming race usually is a good bet. In this case, the Big 10 is a graded stakes while the AAC is an Allowance Optional Claiming race. Maybe those six interceptions against four touchdowns in the Big 10 translates to 12 and 4 on the good side in the AAC. Let’s face it. He’s not going to put up the numbers Warner did but I will take 12 and 4 over Warner’s 23 and 14 any day of the week. I don’t think we will see it but Drayton probably does and he’s getting paid a lot more than I am. For his sake, I hope he’s right.

That’s a heckuva troll job by Torey Richardson after this interception.

Three, cornerback Torey Richardson. The UTEP transfer actually stopped some top wide receivers at that level and, for Temple fans who had to hide their eyes on every first pass of the game last season, there is a real expectation that those long completions will now be long incompletions.

Four, safety Andreas Keaton. The Western Carolina transfer has a chance to be a difference-maker in the turnover equation. In three years with the Catamounts, Keaton started all 33 games and totaled 184 tackles, five interceptions, and 14 pass breakups. “The main thing with Temple was the relationships,” Keaton said. “Temple came easy. They showed me a great time. It seemed like a family. It just felt right… no bad vibes, everything was cool. There was a brotherhood. They do a great job doing that.” Matt Rhule left Western Carolina to come to Temple so if Keaton does as well, the Owls should be OK. “The players invited me with open arms,” he said.

Five, wide receiver Ian Stewart. Calling him a newcomer would be a misnomer, but he’s been plagued with injuries all of his career so he’s basically a newcomer. If he plays up to the single digit he’s been given, Temple might have the best wide receiver trio in the league with Dante Wright and Zae Banes. He’s going to have to stay out of the injury tent.

Is the talent enough to go from three wins to six?

Not according to the outsiders who objectively look at things. The insiders seem OK with the talent level and they will be the ones who either suffer the consequences or reap the rewards.

Friday: Hidden Genius

07.04.24
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Business as usual: We’re back baby

In 1984, Time Magazine estimated Bill Cosby’s net worth at $368 million. That same year, Cosby went on the field and hid a flag that an official threw against Bruce Arians’ Temple team. Fortunately, the ref laughed.

Sometimes you have to read between the lines to get a real handle on what someone is saying.

Reading too much between the lines is dangerous but this we do know.

Temple’s new President, John Fry, is on the record as being anti-football. According to a recent article in Football Scoop, which shouted out Temple Football Forever and got Fry’s quotes from a Philadelphia Inquirer story, he’s now anti-football ONLY at places not named Temple.

Hmm.

In the story, Fry says “Temple has a proud football tradition” and he has “no plans to end football.” He also says he has “no preconceived notions” about football at Temple.

Thanks to Zach Barnett of Football Scoop for the shoutout.

So we’re back in business, baby, but on notice.

This is where the reading between the lines part comes into play.

The comment I felt particularly interesting was the “no preconceived notions” part.

The implications are when he does get here–and that will be after Drexel names a President–he will start having “conceived notions.”

I imagine if another 3-9 season or worse comes while Fry is on board he will start building those notions.

So Temple football is on notice. Start winning and make it snappy. I find it particularly interesting that Temple’s recruiting class for 2025 is good but what about 2024? To paraphrase Terrell Owens, “where is my quarterback?” because we can’t say for sure “that’s my quarterback.”

If 2024 is not a good one, there might not be a 2025. When the E-O is on fire, you don’t bring out a garden house to wet it down. You need the whole damn fire department or, in this case, the whole damn transfer portal.

Where’s the urgency to win now?

No more 3-9 seasons in the future because those will be conceived notions built on the foundation of two-straight 3-9 seasons before that and one 1-6 season before that.

The university is investing a lot of money in football and has seen little return on it since Geoff Collins used Matt Rhule’s players to post consecutive winning seasons. Since the university invested $17 million into the E-O and a couple more million on Collins’ salary, and maybe a couple more on support staff, that was an acceptable return on the investment.

Happy Birthday to Temple Sports Hall of Famer Al Golden. Not an exaggeration that he saved Temple football at a time it needed saving. Born 16 days before the first Moon landing.

Since then, what we have seen is unacceptable.

It would be impossible for Fry to do to Temple what Drexel did to itself when it eliminated football if Stan Drayton could meet that minimum standard.

Right now, that’s the $21 million question only to be answered by either Drayton or his next big boss.

Monday: Some roster additions

06.30.24
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Owls: Screwed, blued and tattooed

One more day. As a big fan of summer and long days, Monday is a sad day for me. The sunset has been 8:33 p.m. since June 22 and will be for one more day until Tuesday, when it's 8:32. Means it really didn't get dark until 9 for more than a week now.
Jason Wingard (left) soaked in the Temple football tailgates. New President John Fry probably won’t.

One more day.

As a big fan of summer and long days, Monday is a sad day for me.

The sunset has been 8:33 p.m. since June 22 and will be for one more day until Tuesday, when it’s 8:32. Means it really didn’t get dark until 9 for more than a week now.

New Temple President John Fry thinks schools should not have football.

Loved these last three months because I was looking forward to the days getting longer. The good news is that we really won’t notice it until the middle of July because we only lose three or so minutes until then but it’s sad nonetheless. The other good news is that hope springs eternal every year.

BOT chairman Mitchell Morgan sent a clear signal by hiring former big-time football player Jason Wingard as President and now he’s sending a similar message by hiring a football hater.

Worse news is that the sun seems to be setting on Temple football with the apparent hiring of John Fry as the new President and there might not be a spring, if not by 2025, certainly by 2026.

Temple football is blued, screwed and tattooed.

Screwed, we’ve known about for a while. That means “cheated” and the Owls–along with the other 63 fellow G5 members–have been cheated out of the big boys’ club by NCAA rulings favoring the larger P5 schools.

Blued, means lost or being robbed and that certainly applies to all the players Temple developed over the last half-decade or so only to see them move to other schools.

Tattooed refers here to a beating with very rapid blows, in the same sense as a military tattoo, which is a rapid pattern on a drum. That interpretation is correct in the sense that this pattern has repeated itself over the last few years with no remedy in sight.

So the phrase literally means cheated, robbed and beaten.

Does Temple continue to go down this dark alley year after year to get its figurative wallet stolen or lumps on the head or does it go in another direction?

The Temple BOT seems to have made its decision by hiring an anti-football guy in Fry, who wrote a noted editorial decrying schools who try to succeed in big-time football.

Contrast that with their last hire, a Stanford tight end who was a teammate with U.S. Senator (D-New Jersey) Cory Booker at that school.

The BOT seemed to put the football bus in drive with the Jason Wingard hire and back to neutral by going to old standby Dick Englert. With Fry, it’s in reverse.

The BOT micro-manages Temple and this is sending a clear signal to the fans that it prefers a David Adamany-type over a Jason Wingard-type given the current state of college football.

Otherwise, they would not have signed off on a football-hater.

One more day until the sun sets a little later is sad but nowhere near as sad as one, maybe two, years before the sun sets on Temple football for good.

July 4: Business as Usual

Monday: Roster Additions

06.27.24
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Temple beating Oklahoma is a habit about to be broken

There is also a town named Temple in Pennsylvania.

If you need a reason to believe Temple might come up with a victory in late August at Oklahoma, providing some historical perspective might help.

Or not.

In the 1940s, a one-win Temple team beat the Sooners, 14-7, at Temple Stadium as a defensive back named Woodhouse made the decisive play, an interception.

After the victory over Penn State, national defensive player of the year Tyler Matakevich and his teammates made a pilgrimage to an old folks home in Blue Bell to present the late Mr. Woodhouse with the game ball.

Woodhouse was also the last living Temple player to participate in the 1941 win over Penn State, which was the last time the Owls beat the Nittany Lions.

Almost a generation later, in the middle of the John Chaney basketball era, Temple beat Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament in Florida.

The difference between those times and these times is what will be the ruination of college sports.

Then, there was such a thing called “student/athletes” and everyone–from the No. 1-ranked team in college football to the last-ranked team in college basketball–could only “pay” their players with room, board, books and tuition.

The playing field was completely level.

On that the last Friday night in August, please do not adjust your TV screens.

What you will be seeing is real.

Every time the Sooners get the ball, the field will be tilted down.

Every time the Owls get the ball, they will be playing upfield.

Welcome to the world of the NIL and transfer portal.

Oklahoma gets the all-star transfers from the P5 and G5, already proven players.

Temple gets the hopefuls from the JUCO ranks, guys who want to prove themselves.

The nation has noticed.

In May, the line opened at 39.5.

Now, it’s up to 40.5.

There is no reason to believe it will move downward, only upward, as Temple refuses to recruit any of the five big-time quarterbacks remaining in the portal.

Don’t ask me why Temple has refused to dip into the portal after picking up Evan Simon from Rutgers and Clifton McDowell from Montana. Maybe after McDowell left for the obscurity of McNeese State, Temple head coach Stan Drayton promised Simon the Owls were not interested in anyone else.

Temple fans should take no solace in the fact that the Owls were 36.5 underdogs to 1998 and beat Virginia Tech, 28-24, on the road.

Back then, the Tech players and the Temple players were getting paid the same.

The NIL isn’t dropping $4 million dollars on the Okie players to lose to a Temple team that might be getting a couple of players getting 100k at best.

If that.

Although that would be a delicious way to open the season, not only for Temple fans but for fans of every underdog team.

My prediction remains the same: 66-7, Okie, though nothing would please me more than to write an apologetic post on the first Saturday of September saying I was off by 60 points in the Temple direction.

Pretty hard for the new anti-football Temple President to drop football after a win over Oklahoma.

Monday: Screwed, blued and tattooed

06.23.24
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Temple recruiting: A risky strategy

Antwain Littleton II after being the No. 1 reason why Maryland beat Michigan State.

Are the Temple coaches playing five-dimensional chess while the rest of the AAC plays checkers?

Geez, you’ve got to hope so.

Masterman, a Public League magnet school located only a few blocks south of Temple, fields a perennial national chess powerhouse but a lot of those kids would be hard-pressed to figure out Temple’s next move on the AAC recruiting board.

On the surface, it looks like Stan Drayton’s “plan” was to recruit a lot of JUCOs to fill holes–namely on both sides of the line–and sprinkle a P5 transfer here and there.

Meanwhile, the rest of the AAC is filling their holes with accomplished P5 and FCS transfers and, in the case of Rice, stealing a big-time quarterback from a fellow league member.

It appears Temple has replaced that big-time quarterback with a game manager.

Looks like the rest of the AAC has their strategy in a row and Temple is all over the map but maybe, just maybe, this unusual plan works.

If it does, it will look something like this:

Antwain Littleton, the sprinkle P5 transfer, will have a breakout year behind a lot of accomplished JUCO transfers and Temple holdovers looking to prove people wrong.

With a running game for the first time since NFL draft pick Ray Davis was here, Rutgers’ transfer QB Evan Simon becomes a game-manager and hits an explosive downfield play-action pass here and there to keep the defense on their heels. Maybe Simon is tall enough to see over defenses and avoid those pesky Pick 6s that caused the Owls losses at USF and at home to Rutgers in recent years.

He certainly doesn’t have the high ceiling E.J. Warner had here but he might not have to if Littleton runs over the AAC.

On defense, the Owls’ go two-deep on the line for the first time since D.J. Eliot was here and get after the passer enough to cause turnovers. Temple was last in the nation in turnover ratio last year and moving up just to the middle of the pack will make the defense twice as good.

Nobody expects Temple to go from a three-win season to a nine-win season but going from three to six should be doable no matter how risky the strategy looks now.

Stan Drayton, it’s your move.

Friday: Historical Perspective

06.20.24
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Gone too soon: College Football

Steve Levy delivered the line of the week on ESPN during a Tuesday break in the Stanley Cup finals from the Bristol studios:

“The Say Hey Kid, is gone. Too soon. Willie Mays has passed away tonight at the age of 93.”

Say what?

Say hey.

Too soon?

With all due respect, I’d sign for 93 and I might do it on my 92d birthday.

You know what’s gone too soon?

College football.

Born in 1869 with a game at Rutgers with visiting Princeton, the game should have lasted until at least 2069. Unless you are in the SEC or the Big 10, I very much doubt it will.

Temple football allowed a few loud mouths derail its only chance to grab a P5 spot.

It died with the NIL and the transfer portal and not just for Temple. It died for every G5 school with the possible exception of Memphis, who might eventually slip its way into the big boy club. (I even think it is too late for the Tigers.)

Forget Temple football, which is what we almost exclusively talk about on this site. The other 63 teams playing the same level of G5 football do not have a chance to make a significant impact on the national level for a long time, maybe ever.

The NFL is a fair system and college football fans in big cities will soon realize that and abandon college football. The NFL lifts up its lowest teams with a draft that gives those teams a chance to succeed.

College football tells its lowest teams to go to hell.

What do the fans of those teams do?

Hope and pray.

Neither has ever been a good plan.

The BEST plan for Temple was the one I heard a decade ago at a Cherry and White game.

“Mike, the ACC told us that if we built a stadium, it would be LIKELY that we’d get an invitation,” a source told me that day.

That source was no random guy. It was a member of the 18-person Board of Trusteees.

Made sense because the next season Temple, located in the 4th-largest TV market, had the largest attendance in the AAC.

So what did Temple do?

Fast track a stadium only to back away when a handful of neighbors objected.

Would Navy have backed away on Navy-Marine Corps Stadium or Georgia Tech backed away on Bobby Dodds Stadium if Annapolis or Atlanta objected?

Probably not.

Because Philadelphia politics is a special kind of corrupt (on a level with New York City’s 19th century Tammany Hall), Temple threw up its hands.

Now here we are in an NIL and a transfer portal world where Temple can’t afford players or can’t even afford to get TEMPLE painted on the field.

The end is near and there is no Hail Mary (congressional action) in sight.

Willie Mays lived long enough. College football died way too soon.

Monday: Running over the AAC

06.16.24
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QBs: The Best of The Rest

Some pretty good questions led to some funny (curious, not hah-hah) answers and one last week on the OwlsDaily.com message board was one that many Temple football fans are asking.

“Are the Owls still looking for a transfer portal quarterback?”

Had to laugh at the response, which was basically they are still looking for a quarterback but not going to take one just for the sake of taking one.

How is that different from what they did with the RU backup?

Since E.J. Warner left in December, the Owls let a lot of good quarterbacks get away to programs who are still perceived to be inferior or backup jobs at P5 schools. Two come to mind immediately: Reese Poffenbarger (from Albany to Miami) and General Booty from Oklahoma to UL-Monroe.

Sean Boyle is still one of the remaining uncommitted quarterbacks in the portal.

Yes, UL Freaking Monroe.

Both had the kind of background and accomplishments none of the current occupants of the QB room have at Temple.

As soon as Cam Ward was signed by Miami, the Temple coaches should have been all over Poffenbarger convincing him that a year as a starter at Temple was preferable over a year as a backup at Miami. Hell, if he really wanted to play for the Canes, he could have done that next year after Ward left for the NFL.

Seems to me to be a wasted year.

Sean Boyle warming up for West Virginia last year.

As far as Booty goes, the former Texas first-team all-state quarterback probably would have liked to have a shot at his former Oklahoma team on Aug. 30 instead of being sentenced to a year in Monroe, Louisiana. He would have not only been supremely motivated in Temple’s opener but might have brought the Sooner playbook with him and given it to Temple DC Everett Withers (assuming EW knows how to read it).

Water under the bridge now but the bridge to QB success still exists for Temple.

West Virginia’s Sean Boyle is available and, if that name sounds familiar to Owl fans, it should. Sean was a great offensive lineman for Al Golden and, while this Sean Boyle is not related, he brings an impressive background. He was an original Charlotte commit before flipping to West Virginia so he’s not adverse to playing in the AAC. He’s what the Owls need with an inexperienced OL, a guy who is able to make plays with his feet as well as his arm.

Other quarterbacks still in the portal include Oregon State’s Travis Throckmorton, Appalachian State’s Charles Wright and South Carolina’s Tanner Bailey.

All with better upsides than Evan Simon and Forrest Brock. This is not a question of who has the most NIL money. Almost all of the 130 teams have their starters by now but Temple’s biggest carrot is offering one of the few starting positions left and it is a buyer’s market for the Owls, not a seller’s one because this is desperation time for the players still remaining in the portal. Why Temple hasn’t been buying is a head-scratcher.

As far as quarterbacks go, Stan Drayton has fallen on the ball since Warner left and it would not be shocking if he didn’t pull the trigger on a portal guy now.

These guys are in the portal today but may be gone tomorrow. Time’s a wasting and why Drayton hasn’t jumped on one of these quarterbacks is a pretty good question.

There are no funny answers.

06.13.24
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Temple: Hall of Famers in Consecutive Years

Got the word on Thursday that Merrill Reese, the great Philadelphia Eagles play-by-play guy, will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this summer.

That gives Temple back-to-back Pro Football Hall of Famers in consecutive years.

Don’t know if the Hall keeps stats on that but, even if they do, that puts Temple in some pretty exclusive company.

Can’t imagine there were consecutive years where more than a handful of schools had consecutive Hall of Famers.

Reese’s story is pretty interesting.

Merrill Reese talks about his Temple experience.

He did Temple football games as a play-by-play guy when WRTI (where has was Sports Director) had the exclusive radio rights. He also did a few games here and there on both radio and TV at Temple before he caught on as THE iconic voice of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Not AN iconic voice.

THE iconic voice.

He started working with Charlie Swift on the Eagles games but, sadly, Swift committed suicide by gun on Springfield Avenue in front of Cardinal O’Hara and Reese then became the No. 1 play-by-play guy and his sidekicks included Eagles like Stan Walters and Mike Quick.

With Joe Klecko getting his spot in the Hall last year, this is a pretty big feather in the cap for Temple–more the university than the football program.

Hopefully, like Joe, Merrill will include some Temple remarks in his acceptance speech.

Not the one about the end of the season being the highlight, though.

Unless Stan Drayton dips into the portal and gets a QB, that would probably apply to the end of THIS season.

Monday: The Best of The Rest

06.09.24
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State of The TU Football Union: Stuck in 1987

Thanks to Joe Tolstoy, who released this video yesterday, the first time I’ve seen it in 37 years.

The closest thing to a Temple football State of the Union address is what head coach Stan Drayton had to give to a group of supporters at the 1912 Club last week.

The biggest takeaway was Drayton’s statement that he expects the Owls will be a “totally different football team.”

Sometimes, different doesn’t mean better but Drayton went on to say that the team will be bigger, faster, stronger with greater depth on both sides.

Drayton will not be judged on what he says, though, but what he does. He knows the bottom line has to go from three wins to six wins. Or better. Three to four wins or three to five wins won’t cut it. This is his third year. Time’s a wasting.

Temple fans will see a five-win season as a fifth-straight losing one, not a significant bump from a trifecta of three-win seasons.

So, what has he DONE so far?

It looks like he’s used 1987 solutions (recruiting JUCOS to fill key holes in the lineup) when the 2024 solution is to get P4 backups looking for playing time. Drayton has done that with RB Antwain Littleton, who made an impact at Maryland, but with few other spots on the roster.

So far, no quarterback in sight with nearly the explosive ability of E.J. Warner and that’s a piece that doesn’t look like it’s coming.

What worked in 1987 probably won’t work in 2024 but that’s on Drayton.

The advantage Drayton has over back then is that his schedule is ranked No. 127.

The 1987 Owls of Bruce Arians also had three wins but played the 10th-toughest schedule in the country and won at No. 16 Pitt, 24-21, beat Toledo (13-12) and played relatively competitively in a 27-13 loss at No. 14 Penn State. (Pitt lost to Temple that year but shut out Penn State, 10-0.)

Back then, Arians filled areas of need with JUCOs.

Now Drayton, who played Division III in those days, is reaching back and going with an old solution in a brave new world.

He’s going to try to do it with mostly JUCOs.

That’s the State of the Temple football union and, while it doesn’t look good now, Drayton will look like a genius if the formula works.

For his sake, and Temple’s, I hope next year’s State of the Union address takeaway will be “I told you so.”