11.22.11
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Thanks(giving) for a special group of seniors

Derek Dennis, Wayne Tribue, Pat Boyle, John Palumbo are among the seniors on the OL.


One more win and this is the greatest senior class ever.


Some highlights of this class:

  • The 2011 Owl seniors are the winningest four-year class in school history.
  • All but two members of the starting offensive line are seniors.
  • They are the first class in school history to be bowl eligible in three consecutive years.
  • They have won more conference games than any other class in school history
  • They have recorded three consecutive winning seasons and out-scored opponents in four straight seasons.

On the subjects of how quickly time passes and Thanksgiving Day remembrances, we have reached a perfect confluence of that and the Temple University football seniors.
Friday is going to be a sad day for me because I will be seeing a group of seniors wear a Temple uniform for the last time.
It is a reminder of how fleeting life is and how so many players have come and gone but the legacy of this group already is very impressive.
 So I’m officially depressed.
 What do I usually do when I’m depressed?
 Eat a gallon of non-fat yogart?
No.
I’m going to play the lottery on Thursday night, Match 6. Since the numbers only go 1-49, I’m picking the numbers of each of the senior starters on defense (sorry, Morkeith Brown and Stephen Johnson, you are No. 85 and 53) plus two guys on offense. Adrian Robinson (43), Tahir Whitehead (2), Kee-Ayre Griffin (20), Kevin Kroboth (37), Joey Jones (26) and Rod Streater (18). If 2-18-20-26-37-43 come up, I win $900,000 and it’ll take a little sting off the next day.
Even as a near-millionaire, there’s still going to be some sadness.
This year will be even more depressing because the group includes the following names: TE Matt Balasavage (Lancaster, Pa.), DE Morris Blueford (Chesapeake, Va.), OL Pat Boyle (Towson, Md.), DE Morkeith Brown (Harrisburg, Pa.), OL Derek Dennis (Peekskill, N.Y.), DB Kee-ayre Griffin (East Orange, N.J.), LB Stephen Johnson (Norristown, Pa.), WR Joe Jones (Hollywood, Fla.), DB Kevin Kroboth (Nazareth, Pa.), OL John Palumbo (Lyndhurst, N.J.), DB Deonte Parker (Lakeland, Fla.), DE Adrian Robinson (Harrisburg, Pa.), TE Evan Rodriguez (North Bergen, N.J.), OL Jeremy Schonbrunner (Salisbury, Md.), QB Chester Stewart (Hanover, Md.), WR Rod Streater (Burlington, N.J.), OL Wayne Tribue (York, Pa.), LB Quinten White (Philadelphia, Pa.), and LB Tahir Whitehead (Newark, N.J.).
   A personal note about a couple of guys.
 I feel bad for Rod Streater because I feel he fits the profile of one of those “explosive” players who can make big plays down the field. Same with Joey Jones, who was one of Al Golden’s first-high profile recruits out of South Florida. Not getting the ball to Streats and Jones enough at Bowling Green probably cost the Owls a win there.

Adrian Robinson was a four-year starter and MVP of the Big 33 game and defensive MVP of the MAC. He set a terrific example for the Owls behind him by forgoing the pros this year and staying his senior year

Kee-Ayre Griffin was the subject of the only email Al Golden ever sent me. I congratulated Al on his first recruiting class and Al wrote back: “Mike, thanks, but we’re going after a guy right now from St. Peter’s Prep in North Jersey who would really big a big get. Wish us luck.” That guy is Kee-Ayre Griffin, who finally found his way here and was part of the building process from Day One. He was the last recruit of Golden’s first year.
    I’ll never forget the joy on the face of Morkeith Brown at the bowl selection party and how the entire team surrounded him in celebration (see upper right corner of the logo at the top of the page).
 Adrian Robinson was a four-year starter and MVP of the Big 33 game and defensive MVP of the MAC. He set a terrific example for the Owls behind him by forgoing the pros this year and staying his senior year. The pros will always been there and Robinson enhanced his draft status by staying. You only have four years in college. Cherish them and use all four of them.
Derek “Bone-Crusher” Dennis was a stalwart on the second-best offensive line I’ve ever seen at Temple and has completely erased the memory of him being the only Temple player in history to tackle another Temple player in the open field (at Army, 2008). Well, maybe not completely because it is a pretty funny memory (and a heckuva tackle of Adam DiMichele, by the way).

I’m going to miss them all, whether they make me a millionaire or not on Thanksgiving.

 
A special message from Hooter:

Create your own Animation

11.21.11
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Benkin makes TU football fun to listen to again

Ron Menchine (left) and Dave Sims were terrific announcers for Temple football.

We take a break from all of this bowl talk (about five days premature, if you ask me) to get something off my chest that has been bugging me for over 20 years.
As a kid, I used to love listening to Harry Kalas do the Phillies and Charlie Swift and, later, Merrill Reese do the Eagles.
Some of my greatest sports moments have come from Harry the K saying “there is it, the No. 500 home run for Michael Jack Schmidt” and literally hearing the tears stream down his face over the enormity of the moment.
Ron Menchine was a terrific announcer for Temple back in the day as well.

Ed Benkin and I have only one thing in common and
that is a face for radio. Hire this guy immediately.

“There he goes, Henry Dynamo Hyno Hynoski, running over Pitt defenders like they were bowling pins. He looks like Bronco Nagurski our there.”
I didn’t know who Bronco Nagurski was at the time but I knew he must have been good because Ron Menchine said so.
Dave Sims, now at Westwood One, was a superb play-by-play guy for Temple in the 1990 season.
I miss Harry Kalas very much and I still enjoy Merrill, but our own Harry (Donahue) comes up small in comparison.
Very small.
Too much of this: “Owls make the tackle. There’s a fumble. Temple recovers! No check that, they didn’t..” Or: “The ball is INTERCEPTED! No, dropped.”
Or calling Temple’s kicker Bernard McManus. Or calling a bone-jarring hit a jone-barring hit.
I could go on and on but there is only so much bandwidth on the internet.
The last 20-plus years as a Temple fan have been a silent spring for me.
I try to avoid the radio as much as possible because it is just too frustrating to listen to anymore. Steve Joachim, I like. I know some people can’t take Steve but I think he knows offensive football inside and out and I don’t mind hearing his perspective.
Then Harry Donahue took a trip to Puerto Rico with the basketball team and, all of a sudden, Temple football announcing got good again.
Ed Benkin did a terrific job in Donahue’s place. He and Joachim were a nice tandem.
I don’t know Ed, personally. Heck, I’ve never even met the guy but I know he’s good. When I’m out jogging on a Saturday afternoon (and I’ve done that the two weeks Temple was playing on Wednesdays), I like to take my transitor radio and scoot around the dial.
I fell on some Princeton football games and thought, “who is this guy” doing the play-by-play?
He was that good.
It was no fluke he was good for Temple as well.
Benkin, a co-worker of Donahue’s at KYW, did a terrific job getting the down and distance right and who had the ball and who caught it, all the first time.
Important stuff when you are the eyes and ears of the fans on the other end of the dial.
Now, do I think Benkin has a shot getting the full-time job?
No.
Harry and Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw are long-time golfing buddies and I don’t think Bradshaw would have the gonads to tell Harry to take a hike.
I hope I’m wrong for the 270K alumni who would like to have an opportunity to listen to Temple football again without throwing the radio out the window.
Those transitor radios can get pretty expensive to replace.

11.19.11
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Temple beats another Big East target

Bernard Pierce would be a wise Owl to stay and get the Heisman he just jumped
over about five people to get in a top two spot next year. The pros will always be there.
The Heisman is his for the taking next year. The ball girl is pretty cute.

On the way down to Lincoln Financial Field today, I turned on the radio to hear the latest sports news.
KYW-AM (1060) reported it this way:
“In new developments in the Penn State story, the NCAA has announced it is investigating Penn State and, it was learned, Joe Paterno has a treatable form of lung cancer.”
Thanks, KYW.

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
Army 0 0 7 7 14
TEMPLE 14 14 0 14 42
SCORING SUMMARY ARMY -TEMPLE
1st 12:06 TEMPLE BROWN, Matt 22 yd run (McMANUS, B. kick)
6 plays, 80 yards, TOP 2:54 0 – 7
00:26 TEMPLE PIERCE, Bernard 11 yd run (McMANUS, B. kick)
15 plays, 88 yards, TOP 7:40 0 – 14
2nd 04:30 TEMPLE PIERCE, Bernard 1 yd run (McMANUS, B. kick)
6 plays, 37 yards, TOP 3:47 0 – 21
01:07 TEMPLE JONES, Joe 36 yd pass from COYER, Chris (McMANUS, B. kick)
2 plays, 50 yards, TOP 0:18 0 – 28
3rd 02:59 ARMY Jenkins, Max 1 yd run (Carlton, Alex kick)
17 plays, 80 yards, TOP 8:08 7 – 28
4th 10:37 TEMPLE BROWN, Matt 52 yd run (McMANUS, B. kick)
1 play, 52 yards, TOP 0:09 7 – 35
07:30 ARMY Dixon, Larry 15 yd run (Carlton, Alex kick)
8 plays, 80 yards, TOP 3:07 14 – 35
05:11 TEMPLE PIERCE, Bernard 49 yd run (McMANUS, B. kick)
4 plays, 65 yards, TOP 2:13 14 – 42

I heard about the NCAA investigation on Tuesday and about Paterno’s lung cancer on Thursday.
By Monday, we should be hearing this:
“In college sports, Temple has just beaten Army, 42-14.”
Nothing like the latest news.
This just in, though.
Temple’s 42-14 win over Army represents the SECOND TIME this year that the Owls have scored 42 points against a school that was mentioned for Big East membership OVER Temple.
Hmm.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
Fortunately, Villanova couldn’t get its stadium act together and cooler heads prevailed at West Point before the Big East found itself with those two programs.
Meanwhile, in the heart of Big East country, in the nation’s fourth-largest TV market, Temple has put itself in a terrific spot to finish off another eight-plus win season for the third-straight year and it will finish averaging more than 30,000 fans per home game. TV ratings-wise, no big-city school does any better and that includes both USC and UCLA. The Owls have some marquee players, like Bernard Pierce (three touchdowns, 158 yards) and Matty Brown (two touchdowns, 133 yards). Pierce has set himself up quite nicely for a real Heisman Trophy run next year.

Wouldn’t that be great, seeing Bernard Pierce in a three-piece suit at the Downtown Athletic Club, in 2012?
Paul Palmer, who was there as Heisman runnerup in 1986, also was in attendance at the Temple game today.
That’s the kind of experience Bernard will remember for the rest of his life.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, though.
When you think that Army and Rutgers drew only 30,000 to Yankee Stadium (in the middle of both those fan bases’ footprint) last week and Temple drew 25,515 today, that makes it all the more impressive.
Temple football has a lot to offer, whether that be the Big East or a bowl game. Temple led Army, 28-0, at the half. Rutgers moved into first place in the Big East with a 20-3 win over Cincinnati today. Rutgers and Army were tied, 6-6, at the half exactly one week ago.
The key thing for Temple now is finishing strong, getting that bowl bid and winning the game.
That would be a first for the program in over 30 years and news worth reporting in real time, maybe even by KYW.

11.17.11
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MAC Blogger Roundtable Week 11

This week’s host is Mike Trumbell of The Chip Report, a Central Michigan blog.
His questions are followed by my answers:
1) CMU’s head coach, Dan Enos, complained about his team’s schedule
and playing 3 conference games in 12 days. Give your opinions on why
lopsided MAC scheduling continues to happen.

TFF: Luck of the draw. I’ve talked to some of the guys on the team about the two nine-day layoffs for the Owls and they all want to play every week, spaced out equally, but would do not object to games breaking up the boredom of late-season practices. I’m sure the league is going to try to spread out this kind of scheduling so that every team takes a turn.

2) Do these basketball scores Toledo and NIU have been putting up
reflect positively or negatively on the MAC?
TFF: I think positively. It was the water-cooler talk the next day in work and I’m sure just not at my place. So much for defense wins championships.

3) What are your thoughts on the weekday, ESPN MAC schedule? Does TV
exposure outweigh attendance?
TFF: I think the TV exposure has been great for the MAC, since most of the games have been highly competitive.

4) What play has made the biggest difference (positive or negative) in
your respective team’s season?
TFF: Brazil’s bobbled catch at Ohio that was ruled a completion. Replays showed he never had control AND was out of bounds, but mysteriously replay official refused to overturn the call. That was a negative play. Positive play was Temple quarterback Chester Stewart calling a confused timeout after two failed series in Ohio, earning him a permanent seat on the bench and perhaps sparing Temple a four-game losing streak to close out the season.

Rank em:
1) Northern Illinois
2) Toledo
3) Ohio
4) Temple
5) Western Michigan
6) Ball State
7) Eastern Michigan
8) Bowling Green
9) Central Michigan
10) Miami
11) Kent State
12) Buffalo
13) Akron

11.16.11
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The highs and lows of Temple fans

Temple fans came disguised as empty seats last week.
Photo by Matt Breen

Almost two years to the day after giving me my proudest moment as a Temple fan, my fellow Temple fans gave me a not-so-proud moment a week ago tonight.
Not unexpected, just not proud.
First, the good part.
Eagle Bank Bowl, Dec. 29, 2009. Of the 23,000 fans in attendance on a night where wind-chills reached sub-zero temperatures, 20,000 were Temple fans and they were all loud and proud.
Just before Matty Brown scored Temple’s second touchdown of the evening, a familiar “Let’s Go TEM-PLE!” chant started from my section (lower level, 50-yard-line) at RFK Stadium.
It got louder.
“Let’s Go TEM-PLE!”
Then, finally, a rhythmic “LET’S GO TEM-PLE” literally shook RFK from its rickety foundation.
We all looked around.
The lower deck, the upper deck, both sides of the field, everyone was on their feet screaming “Let’s Go TEM-PLE!” from the top of their lungs.
I think the fans willed Matty into the end zone.

It was an imperfect storm that led to the fan apathy. First off, you can’t lose to a gosh-awful team like Bowling Green and let the starting quarterback remain in that game after 135 straight three-and-outs.


I said to my friend, Nick, “buddy, take this in. We may never see something like this again at a Temple game.”
Sadly, we never have.
Sure, there have been other great moments, like when 40K Temple fans sounded like 100K fans to Penn State’s 17K fans, who sounded like 1K fans, this season.
They needed to be rewarded with a victory.
At this year’s Villanova game and Penn State game, the atmosphere was, as Steve Addazio said, electric.
If you are going to be considered for a BCS Conference, that electricity has to stay on all the time.
At the Miami game, the atmosphere was befitting an electrocution.
It’s not like I didn’t see this coming from, oh, about 400 miles away.
It was an imperfect storm that led to the fan apathy.
First off, you can’t lose to a gosh-awful team like Bowling Green and let the starting quarterback remain in that game after 135 straight three-and-outs. There’s got to be more of a sense of urgency to move the ball against a defense ranked No. 10 in a 13-team league.

Perfect football weather forecast for Saturday (1 p.m.)

Then, you can’t lose to an Ohio team that LOST to teams YOU beat by scores of 42-0 and 34-0.
On the heels of both of those laid eggs, you can’t have a home game on TV to give a lazy and fragile fan base an excuse to be lazy and fragile.
All of those factors led to a poor showing at the gate.
Army is an attractive opponent and hopefully the win over Miami has restored some of the fans shaken belief. Keeping the game off TV is just as important.
This is a bowl game for Temple, as is next week’s game versus Kent State because, without wins in both, there will be no bowl.
I said to one of my tailgating buddies a couple of hours before the Miami game: “This is bad. I don’t expect more than 15,000.”
When at least half of my other tailgating buddies, people who show up for every game that’s not on TV, are missing, you know it’s bad.
I expect a good and representative Temple crowd on Saturday, something between 21-27K.
I’m hoping that nobody sits on their hands when someone starts a “Let’s Go TEM-PLE” cheer.
We need to get that electricity turned on again.
Where’s that damn switch?

11.14.11
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Survive and advance time for Owls

They do allow you to give the ball to the fullback and Wyatt Benson can run.

Survive and advance.
You can toss out all the scenarios you want about Temple having a chance at winning the MAC East if so-and-so beats such-and-such but, simply put, we’ve reached the “survive and advance” part of the season for Temple.
Win and live another day.

“Please tell Daz to stop using you as a fullback. Toss left, toss right.
Screen passes. Sweeps. That’s The Franchise I know.”

Photo by Ryan Porter

Lose and there will be no postseason, even though there will be another game to play.
Getting to a bowl game seems possible, even probable, for Temple should the Owls go 8-4 again.
You can forget about a bowl with a 7-5 Temple team.
Lose to Army and it’s over.
Yeah, you can say lose to Army and beat Kent and Ohio loses to Miami (and Buffalo finishes ahead of Bowling Green) and the Owls could win the MAC East.
That’s way too many variables to leave in other folks’ hands.
That’s why I’m hoping that Temple goes balls out in practice this week for Army.
Prepare for that option, which I have full confidence Chuck Heater is doing right now.

Joe Jones: Reverses, throwback passes.

Work on getting Bernard Pierce up to speed (and by speed we mean tweaking the offensive package so that he goes right and left and not up the middle).
If you want to run up the middle, hand the ball off to the fullback.
Get Chris Coyer more comfortable in his role, which means to stick the ball into Bernard Pierce’s belly and quickly pull it out and make a pass downfield to an open Temple Owl.
Work on the reverses with Joey Jones and throw in a trick play (a throwback pass from Jones to Coyer) or two (a halfback pass by Bernard Pierce). Heck, both Jones and Pierce can throw the ball (they both have a touchdown pass in their careers).
Army knows Jones can throw the ball. His touchdown pass, a nice tight spiral at Army, was Temple’s best forward pass last season.
Maybe even fullback Wyatt Benson will get the ball once or twice a game. As good a blocker as he is (and he’s a terrific one), he was a stud running back in high school at Haverford School.
Army hasn’t seen that part of his game on film yet.
When it is survive and advance, you pull out all of the stops.
Hopefully, that’s what practice will be all about this week.

11.13.11
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Time for watching JJ today

If you were hit by JJ, you’d go play baseball, too.

Heck, my favorite college football player is Bernard Pierce.
Didn’t get to see him on Wednesday night (except for yelling encouragement from the sidelines).
Damn.
My favorite pro player is DeSean Jackson.
Won’t get to see him today (suspended for missing a team meeting).
Damn.
But my two favorite teams are the Temple football Owls and the Philadelphia football Eagles (in that order) and I will get to mix both of those starting today (1 p.m., Fox).
That’s because former Temple Owl Jaiquawn Jarrett gets his first pro start.
Go JJ.
Go Birds.
(Both Eagles and Owls.)
Then I’ll go work off the Applebee’s Oriental Chicken salad I’m planning to eat while watching the game.

11.12.11
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Teams to root for today: UB, SMU, Rutgers

Even in this age of instant communication, it’s going to be hard to find the score of the Buffalo at Eastern Michigan game.
First off, it’s never on KYW-AM (they only give top 10 scores) and it’s not on over the air TV (even pay cable) anywhere.
But it is on the internet and, for Temple fans, provides a rooting element.
All these teams would do Temple a big favor by winning:

Hooter is more endearing.

BUFFALO at Eastern Michigan (1 p.m., MAC all-access) _ If the Bulls finish ahead of Bowling Green in the standings, they provide a positive backup tie-breaker for Temple should it finish in a three-way tie with Miami and Ohio. Eastern Michigan is a three-point favorite. The game is on internet only. Buffalo’s got a chance. It beat Ohio.

She’d be perfect for me
if she was 20 years older
and I had $1 million

Navy at SMU (3:30, FSN) _ Southern Methodist football players wrote a letter to the school newspapers complaining about the lack of enthusiasm by their own fans in a win over TCU. They must be looking at the coeds and not on the field of play. Navy has to win all three of its remaining games (at SMU, at San Jose State and vs. Army) to qualify for a bowl Temple could be looking at attending (D.C., likely) and SMU is the toughest of the three. SMU is a seven-point favorite.

Cos and Hall and Oates are more famous.

RUTGERS vs. Army (3:30, Yankee Stadium, CBS College Sports) _ Same deal with Navy as Army has to win all three of its remaining games to qualify for a bowl. If Temple LOSES to Army, it still has a chance to qualify for a final bowl slot if Army loses today. Hopefully, both Rutgers and ESPECIALLY Temple beats Army. The Black Knights of the Hudson have proven to be a tough out on occasion this year, losing at Miami (Ohio) by only a touchdown and beating Northwestern, 21-14. Northwestern, you’ll recall, won AT Nebraska last week. Rutgers is an eight-point favorite.

11.12.11
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Bradley, Addazio and the MAC Roundtable


In the interview process, dynamo (left) always beats wet noodle.

One of the unexpected perks of blogging about Temple football is the people who reach out to me and try to fill in some questions that I have to help me keep the general TU football community relatively well-informed.
Some of them are well-connected people.
Around Dec. 23d, I was scratching my head when the name Steve Addazio came up as the guy who got the Temple head coaching job. All I heard for a week was Tom Bradley was the leading candidate and then with about five furlongs left, Addazio comes charging at the finish line and nips Bradley at the tape.

Graphic by Tim Riordan (not the ex-TU QB)

Or so I thought.
I, quite frankly, wasn’t excited about either one and I never even heard of Addazio.
Then I got an email from someone who was in the room when both Addazio and Bradley were interviewed.
“Mike, it wasn’t even close,” the man wrote. “Bradley came in and had the personality of a wet noodle and this guy [Addazio] was a dynamo. It was an easy choice.”
I watched the “wet noodle” Thursday in his first press conference as a head coach at Penn State and I understood just exactly how the Temple search committee felt.
All I could imagine was Lew Katz or somebody asking him what his “expectations” are for the Temple football program and Bradley saying “the expectations are the expectations” which he seemed to be saying like 100 times on Thursday.
No thanks, Tom.
Thanks for coming to Philadelphia and don’t let the door hit you in the backside on the way out.
I need more specificity than that.
I got it with Addazio and I’m pretty confident Temple made the right choice.
Since the penultimate day before Christmas, Addazio has been that dynamo.
Knowing what I know now, I’m glad to have a guy with that kind of personality leading my team. Also knowing what Bradley probably has known for 15 years, I don’t want anybody like that near my team.
This week, I’m hosting the MAC Blogger Roundtable and just like Addazio, both Tim Riordan (Buffalo) and B.J. Fischer (Bowling Green) are blogging dynamos and wasted little time in answering the questions.
Riordan is always the first across the finish line and his answers are here.
Fischer came in a couple of hours behind. One of the more interesting things in B.J.’s blog is that a Bowling Green alumn gave $10 million to athletics. I thought only Karl Smith had that kind of money to give Bowling Green.
I’ll add the rest after this paragraph when the ballots are counted:
Let’s Go Rockets

11.10.11
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Temple becomes bowl eligible

Any Eagle fan can tell you what the first words out of a famous Temple football father’s mouth will be after a win.
Andy Reid will clear his throat, cough a couple of times, and say:
“First off, any win in the National Football League is a good win.”

Deon Miller makes nice catch for touchdown.

That’s pretty much how I feel about the Mid-American Conference these days.
Any win in the MAC is a good win and Temple’s 24-21 bowl-eligible-qualifying win over gritty Miami (Ohio) was a good way to cap one of the most beautiful November days and nights, weather-wise, I can ever remember in my nearly half-century of living in Philadelphia.
The game was not as perfect, mind you, but pretty much what I expected.
Pretty much what all the Temple fans I talked to in the pre-game tailgate expected, too.
“Twelve-and-a-half points is way too high,” I said to pretty much everyone.
“Yeah,” pretty much everyone replied.
I thought the defense recaptured a little bit of the swagger it lost in the last couple of weeks (heck, it was hard to blame the defense for the Bowling Green loss) and the offense did just enough.
Game-plan wise, I would have liked to seen more first down play-action passes and not being forced into a situation where you HAVE to pass on third down all the time. I don’t think Temple mixed it up particularly well on offense. Then again, compared to last year’s offensive game plan, it was pure genius.

Dream remains alive
The ONLY scenario Temple can win the MAC East:
(Updated 11:35 a.m., 11/11/11)
Temple wins over Kent
Ohio loses to Miami (assuming it beats BGSU)
(TU, Miami and Ohio all tied
with 5-3 records but TU wins
on basis of second criteria)
Note: If Ohio loses to BGSU but not Miami, Ohio wins tie-breaker
source: MAC League Offices

There were a couple of silly penalties, one a late hit out of bounds and one an offsides, but those things can be fixed in the next week or so of practice.
I was heartened to hear that people behind me were getting text messages from folks watching at home that their enjoyment of watching the Temple game was curtailed because ESPN cut in for a Joe Paterno press conference.
Good.
There is no reason to be living within an hour’s drive of the stadium for a Temple home game and watch on TV. If my friends from Palmerton sitting behind me can get by one night of the year on four hours worth of sleep, then so can the Philadelphia couch potatoes who give Temple a bad fan reputation by staying home. I hope they missed a lot of exciting plays because I saw them all. I know Temple has a “softcore” fan base who stay at home and watch every time the Owls are on local TV (ratings indicate it), but that part of the fan base does the team and school irreparable harm by doing so. You can’t talk about being in a BCS conference and not travel to a home game.
End of rant.
From a personal standpoint, a highlight of mine was finally getting to meet my favorite player’s Mom.
I have three favorite players from the current era, Adrian Robinson, Adam DiMichele and Bernard Pierce, but Pierce is The Franchise in my mind and therefore my favorite. Heck, speaking as someone who saw Paul Palmer play every game, he’s flat-out better than Boo-Boo and that’s the highest compliment I can ever give anyone. He’s faster than Paul Palmer, has better moves and vision in the open field and can deliver more punishment to tacklers. The only facet of Paul’s game that was better was his durability.
So Pierce is my favorite Temple player and he has been since his freshman year.
Tammy is Bernard Pierce’s mom and while it was sad to see BP not playing (he should be back against Army), it was good to see the entire Pierce family just as wrapped up in the Owls as they would be if he was out there.
Hopefully, when The Franchise finally gets out there, Scot Loeffler will tweak the package for him just enough to get Pierce the ball in open space and not utilize him on “fullback-type”  draws so much. Pitchouts to the wide side of the field and screen passes ought to make Bernard Pierce lethal once again.
Still, you can’t say enough about the relief effort of tough hombre Matty Brown. If it wasn’t for Matty’s 120 yards, there would be no three-point win over a good team.
Even Andy Reid would agree.
Time’s yours.