Steve Addazio talks in front of a girl in a dunk tank, while the Diamond Marching Band sounds better than ever in the background.

For at least the third time this summer, representatives of the Temple football team reached out to the Temple football fans.
It’s now high time for the Temple football fans to reach out to the Temple football team.
If one thing is critical for Temple’s success in the new Big East, it’s that the 271,000 living Temple alumni (we’ll give the dead ones a pass) embrace these wonderful representatives of Temple University.
Temple’s good name is riding on these guys and, ultimately, us.
Wayne Hardin once said that for Temple to fill the stadium, it will have to do so with Temple people. He pointed out then that there were 135,000 living alumni, 30,000 students, 12,500 fulltime employees.
Now the numbers are 271K and 39K for students and about the same number of employees as back in the Hardin days.
Looks like the “Joe Philadelphia” fans will be clinging to the Eagles for awhile but the “Temple people” have a more exciting and more local team to root for so they should do it.
While we need the old standby fans, the ones you see in Lot K every weekend, we need an infusion of new blood, too.
With an event in Ocean City, one in New York City, one in Los Angeles even, Steve Addazio has been reaching out to those fans for needed support.
Yesterday’s event was a “kill-two-birds-with-one-stone” deal at Xfinity Live.
Media Day (canceled earlier due to Garrett Reid’s passing) combined with the scheduled Fan Fest.
From all accounts, a good time was had by all.
Because my 2004 Chevy Cavalier kicked my butt before inspection yesterday ($683.50 for a front bumper at Classic Auto Worxx and $385 for rear breaks; don’t ever park in a Walmart lot), I was unable to attend. I did get around to an event in New York City and, of course, got a healthy dose of Vitamin A at the season-ticket holders party.
So the old Chevy is now fully inspected and ready for the season.
That’s when I’m most needed as a fan and when Temple’s fans, both old and new, are most needed.
One week to go.
The Villanova game attendance will send an early message to the Big East that our fans our ready. It could be the usual 32K but an upgrade in the 35-37K area would send that message. Villanova returned more tickets than ever this season, so it will have to be all Temple fans (as usual in this four-game series).
Let’s pack the house, get loud and stand more than sit this year.

Just came across this gem of a video above of Chris Coyer speaking to a pair of Big East media types on BE Media Day.
Coyer’s done a lot of growing up in less than a year, both on the field and off the field.
Gotta love the comment “thanks for having me” to those two guys.
You have about a 10-second ad to fight through, but the interview that comes afterward is worth the time, not so much for the routine questions but for the thoughtful answers.
Plus, Coyer speaks about coach Chuck Heater, the defense, and the comfort level such an outstanding defense gives the Owls but adding that it doesn’t affect how the offense approaches things.
As far as the latest scrimmage goes, head coach Steve Addazio said he is excited to have Coyer separate himself from the other two guys.
No surprise in that, but Daz also has hopes the other two will do some catching up.
I don’t care how Juice Granger and Kevin Newsome speak to the media, as long as they move the team and turn the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard into an adding machine just like I think guys like Coyer, Montel Harris, Matty Brown, Jalen Fitzpatrick and Alex Jackson will.
Aug. 31 can’t come soon enough.

A Tuesday sit down with Steve Addazio recently that sheds light on camp approach.

  Both Athlon and Phil Steele have the Owls in the basement.

In the same category of a somewhat older guy playing fullcourt basketball with 20-year-olds, falls the wisdom of putting too much faith in preseason college football magazines.
Both are pretty dumb.
I learned the former the hard way on Sunday shooting around on the neighborhood courts. I’ve always been able to shoot a basketball so every so often I like to take that skill for a spin around the block, like an cherished antique car sitting in the driveway, in order to keep the battery charged.
This Sunday, on the court next to me, there were seven 20-year-olds shooting around. They stopped to watch me as I hit nine three-pointers in a row.
One of them said they needed me to go a full four-on-four.
Against my better judgment and all the good voices inside my head, I said OK.
Shirts and skins, the oldest rivalry in sports. For mostly aesthetic purposes, they put the “old head” on the shirt team.
Since I’ve been running five miles a day this summer, I thought I could handle it. And I did for three hours of pure fun. I felt fine afterward, fine going home and fine going to bed.
The hard pounding and stopping on the basketball court took its toll and by 3 a.m. the next day, I could not get out of bed. Result: Knee injury.
Common sense said I should have told the kids no, but my pride said yes. Pride goeth before the fall, they say.
Same thing with college football magazines.

Local edition of Lindy’s has Silas Redd on cover.

Every time I see one at the local Giant Super Market, I pick it up with the intent to buy it. I look for the Temple references. Giant had Lindy’s and Athlon (both $7.99) and a much thicker Phil Steele Yearly ($8.95). One of them, the Lindy’s edition in the store (not the one pictured left), had Silas Redd on the cover in Penn State uniform.
I know the Redd thing is a deadline issue, but it was still clueless to put him on the cover knowing that Penn State was hanging under a very dark cloud by presstime.
Just as clueless, they all say Temple is going to finish last in the Big East and they all point to the loss of the starters on both sides of the ball.
None of them say that, in many cases, the replacements are better. Sean Boyle, in my mind, is a better center than John Palumbo (no offense intended, Mr. Palumbo).
They all mention that Bernard Pierce is gone. They just give passing reference to both Matty Brown and Montel Harris, who could be (and empirical evidence shows is) better than Bernard Pierce. None of them mention that Brown was Temple’s No. 1 all-purpose runner last year (and Pierce was No. 2 in that category).
They all mention leading tackler Stephen Johnson leaving. None of them talk about his replacement, Nate D. Smith. I’m going out on a very strong limb here and writing that Nate D. Smith will have an outstanding year at MLB for the Owls. If he doesn’t lead them in tackles, it will be because all of the Big East running backs will be tackled by the linemen before they get to the linebackers.
None of them mention the Owls know what they are doing on offense this year, running a true spread with three true spread quarterbacks, after fumbling around a year trying to find an offense that best suited the needs of two QBs with limited skill sets.
None of them mention that the Owls have a great kicking game, with maybe the best punter and placekicker in the nation (Brandon McManus). None of them mention that Chuck Heater is considered among the best defensive coordinators in the country, which he is. None of them write that a great running game, quarterback and defense and kicking game are prime ingredients for championship teams. The current Owls appear to have all of those ingredients. A running game shortens the clock and a kicking game wins the battle of field position and maybe steals a close game or two with a long FG.
I know the Owls will be way better than last place in the Big East. I’m hoping for first. If they finish second, it will only be behind Cincinnati, not preseason favorite Louisville. I don’t think they will go any lower than that. Pride says I should buy the magazines and shove it in their faces at the end of the season.
Common sense says I should leave them on the rack.
This time, I listened to common sense.
I should have done that Sunday.

Love the Daz quote at the 5:50 mark.

Keith Pompey does a great job covering Temple football for Philly.com, but he wrote something that had me shaking my head (or smh as the kids write on social media).
To paraphrase him, he passed on head coach Steve Addazio’s concerns about the wide receiving corps “not making plays” but also added that Addazio praised both Ryan Alderman and Jalen Fitzpatrick, writing “that’s not a good sign because Fitzpatrick is a converted quarterback and Alderman is a walk-on. …”
Huh?
Converted quarterback?
Brian Broomell was converted from starting safety to starting quarterback and he only led the nation in passing efficiency for a 10-2 team in 1979.
Walk-on?
Some of the best players I’ve ever seen at Temple were walk-ons.
Err, does the name Matty Brown ring a bell?
I thought so.
I don’t remember Keith writing about the same thing visa ve Brown last year. Matty was by far the runaway winner of a poll on this website that asked who was  the No. 1 running back in Temple football history who epitomizes the term “Temple TUFF.”
The Rock has proved his worth in a stellar career at Temple. His touchdowns count for the same six points as Bernard Pierce’s.
The last time I checked, Alderman and Fitzpatrick were wide receivers and no one has questioned their ability to get separation and catch the ball.
So what, other than depth, is the problem here?
Chris Coyer’s touchdown passes to Ryan Alderman and Jalen Fitzpatrick will count for the same six points other Temple quarterback TD passes to Willie Marshall, Gerald “Sweet Feet” Lucear and Rod Streater have in the past.
I wonder if the lack of separation and “catching the ball” has anything to do with the fine play of the cornerbacks?
Probably.
The best quote I heard out of  the first week of two-a-days came from Addazio about the difference between last year and this year:
“We know exactly what we’re doing and how to do it,” Addazio said, referring to the offensive approach.
The quote appears on the 5:50 time stamp on the above video.
Last year, Daz “spent an awful lot of time last year with that” (his words) tailoring his offense around the skill set of Chester Stewart and Mike Gerardi, skill sets which were limited.
Now he has three quarterbacks who can do the same things in Coyer, Juice Granger and Kevin Newsome. All can run the spread and know how to do it and, as a result, the Owls are much farther along than they were last year.
That has me shaking my head up and down, not side to side.

The most-anticipated home season in my lifetime opens in about 25 days. Get your tickets now.

As I see it, there are more answers than questions to be found in the next 25 days Temple’s football team has  to prepare for the opening game against Villanova (Aug. 31, be there a couple of hours before kickoff, even if you have to go straight from work).
That doesn’t mean there are no questions that have to be answered in the next 25 days.
1) Who is here?

These are the guys the Owls are going to war with. I like the list.

Fortunately, the important pieces in the puzzle have arrived on campus. Montel Harris will be wearing No. 8 and head coach Steve Addazio says he is fully recovered from a knee injury. If so, that represents an upgrade over the departed “franchise” Bernard Pierce. No bigger BP fan than me (that’s well-documented by searching the name Bernard Pierce in the box at the top of this blog), but can you imagine BP having the same career in the ACC that Harris had? I think the answer to that is a clear no. My fervent hope is to see Harris go for 252 and five touchdowns in a 52-28 win over Rutgers, like he did in a 52-28 win over North Carolina State. Remember, BP got a lot of those yards in the MAC. As much as ACC football gets minimized, not even the biggest Big East fan can say their conference is a better football one than the ACC. I see two “true” freshman either starting or competing to start and those are Khalif Herbin (No. 27, slot receiver) on offense and Nate L. Smith (No. 1, free safety) on defense. They are here, too, and incredible playmakers. Matty Brown is an NFL-level third-down back and kickoff returner. Having a healthy Harris here enables him to showcase those skills. The Owls lose nothing by making Herbin the kickoff and punt returner, either.
2) What about the offensive line?
Only two guys who have started games in the past, Sean Boyle (center) and Martin Wallace (tackle) return but part-time 2010 starter Alex Jackson also returns and is a good blocker and I have confidence that Addazio and offensive line coach Justin Frye will be able to bring two guards and a tackle up to speed in 25 days. There is no better offensive line coach in the country than Addazio (even his Florida detractors will admit that). Remember, there is some good backup talent there. Adam Metz, for example, was a Big 33 starter.
3) What about the pass rush?
Moving John Youboty from inside to outside should help. Sean Daniels, the second-leading sacker from the 2010 season, needs to become the other starter at end to get a push from both sides. The interior wall, anchored by pre-season All Big-East tackle Levi Brown, is in good shape.
4) What about the depth?
Without a doubt, the biggest concern going into the Big East season is injuries. The Owls drop off considerably after the first two units. At times, they drop off considerably after one unit. For example, if they lose starting kicker and punter Brandon McManus, they go from potentially an eight-win team to an eight-loss team because field goals and field position will decide so many close games and all 11 games figure to be close. I’ll call McManus “bubble boy” because they need to keep him in a bubble to achieve their dreams. I don’t want him laying out a runner like he did on a 2010 kickoff vs. Connecticut. I want him running off the field. We all know he’s Temple TUFF. We need him to be Temple HEALTHY.
5) What about the backline defense?
If linebacker Nate D. Smith plays like he did in the spring, he gives Temple an upgrade over NFL-bound Stephen Johnson. That’s a big statement, but Johnson did not have the kind of spring in 2011 that Smith had in 2012. Another potential upgrade is Nate L. Smith at free safety over Kevin Kroboth, a steady and heady safety who didn’t make mistakes but also didn’t make many game-changing  plays. Nate L. Smith is a game-changer. I like the two starting linebackers returning, Blaze Caponegro and Ahkeem Smith as well as returning starter Justin Gildea at strong safety and lock-down left corner Anthony Robey.
Twenty-five days and five questions.
We should know the answers by Aug. 31.