03.19.11
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Temple: The power of the ‘stache

Hopefully, some of coach Dunphy’s lucky ‘stache will rub off on coach Addazio.

I’ll be the first to admit that my favorite sport is football followed by baseball.
Basketball has always been a distant third.
Not these last couple of weeks, though.
I’ll also admit that I’ve been caught up in this run by the Temple men’s basketball Owls because of the prestige this brings our great university and because I got to know a few of the kids on the basketball team and met coach Fran Dunphy, who I’ve always admired.
I admire him not just because he’s a winner but you know he loves Temple. You know there’s no question he’s here to stay. I could never say the same about the football coach who preceded Addazio.
Heck, I don’t know if I can say that about Addazio yet.
Meet coach Dunphy just once and he will make you feel like the most important person in the room.
I often see coach Dunphy in the hallways at Lincoln Financial Field and always say “Hi Fran.”
He doesn’t know me from Adam but he always stops and says, “How ‘ya feelin’? All right?”
I talked to other Temple fans and they tell me they’ve had a similar experience.
I don’t know if coach Addazio is the football version of coach Dunphy but, geez, I hope he is.
If coach Addazio can do what coach Dunphy has done, three league championships in his first three years, then he will match what coach Dunphy has done from a regular-season perspective.
If coach Addazio can win three league championships in his first three years and then win the bowl game in the fourth, then his postseason will have matched what coach Dunphy did on Thursday.
Winning a first-round NCAA game is very much the equivalent of winning a bowl game, especially the kinds of bowls MAC teams are sent to.
I love the way the two interact in the above video, which has a corny premise but both took in good humor.
Whatever happens now for the hoops’ squad is gravy, but I like gravy.
Hopefully, Addazio will serve up delicious mashed MAC potatoes with the same kind of gravy on top.
Good luck, Fran.
Good luck, Steve.
Hopefully, Temple basketball will still be playing on a national stage when the football team opens up spring practice in four days.

03.12.11
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Boardwalk Bowl: Site of some great Owl wins

An actual photo from the 1984 Temple football win in A.C.

Today and tomorrow, some 10,550 fans are going to be packed into Boardwalk Hall, otherwise known as the Atlantic City Convention Center, to watch (hopefully) a couple of great Owl wins.
There’s no secret to Temple’s success there.
Mix in about 9,000 rabid Temple fans with some great coaching and you have three straight A-10 basketball titles.
Hopefully, that will be a fourth by Sunday.
Yet Temple football once held the spotlight there, too.
I was last there in the Orwellian Year of 1984 to watch Temple play an out-of-this-world football game.
That year, the Owls posted a great football win before a big and enthusiastic Temple following. It beat MAC champion Toledo (8-1-1 at the time) like a drum, 35-6.
Toledo went off to the California Bowl after that and Temple went home with a 6-5 record against the 10th toughest schedule in the country.
Atlantic City: Temple’s home away from home.

03.08.11
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Hardin belongs in the Hall of Fame

If it were not for Wayne Hardin, I probably would not have been a Temple football fan today.
If it were not for Wayne Hardin, I would not believe winning football was possible at Temple University.
Hardin was around, still is, and for that I am a fan and I am a believer.
The ballots were released yesterday for College Football’s Hall of Fame and there are nine coaches on it.
I don’t see a more deserving coach than coach Hardin.
Consider just these three facts, if you will:
1) Navy rose to No. 2 in the country with Wayne Hardin as head coach;
2) Temple rose to No. 17 in the country (both polls) with Wayne Hardin as a head coach.
3) Neither school has been anywhere near those rankings since.


Two Hall of Fame Coaches


Hardin worked a miracle in Annapolis when it was nearly impossible to get numbers of great players to commit to Navy when the military demanded a five-year commitment.
He beat Army in four of the five years he faced the Cadets.
When Army’s defensive secondary was widely considered the No. 1 backfield in the nation, they were given the nickname “Chinese Bandits.”
For the game that year, Hardin had “Beat Army” written on the sides of the Navy helmets.
In Chinese.
Brilliant stuff.
Navy destroyed Army that day.
If one miracle wasn’t enough, he worked one in Philadelphia the next decade as head coach at Temple University, becoming the winningest coach in its history.
Before Temple played California in the Garden State Bowl, the Cal coaches wanted a film exchange with the Temple coaches. Hardin asked which coaches wanted the film.
He tailored the Temple game plan to what the Cal coaches saw in the film and did the opposite in the bowl game.
Temple led, 21-0, before Cal knew what Hardin was doing.
By then, it was too late.
Temple won, 28-17.
I never knew a man who was right about everything but the closest man who fit that description was Wayne Hardin.
“We’ll work toward getting Wayne Hardin into the College Football Hall of Fame because that’s where he deserves to be,” ex-Temple coach Al Golden said one month before his departure.
I hope Al hasn’t forgotten that promise and can take time out from his busy schedule to beat the drum for coach whenever he gets a chance.
I hope Steve Addazio does whatever he can do as well.
I’ve waited close to 30 years for another Wayne Hardin to arrive at Temple and I hope Steve Addazio is that guy and, while Bruce Arians and Al Golden did nice work, no one has come close to Hardin since.
Frankly, I don’t think anyone ever will.
Today’s coaches could learn a lot from the way Hardin prepared for a game.
Hardin could break down game film and attack a team’s weakness better than any coach I ever saw.
They say you need three certifiable miracles for Sainthood.

Well, Hardin has two documented ones and that’s all you should really need for the College Football Hall of Fame.

03.01.11
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Temple schedule 2011: A return to normalcy

Team exhales after holding their breaths for 60 minutes. This year, they should breathe easier.

Last year when the Temple football schedule was announced, I said I thought I never saw a physically and more psychologically challenging schedule.
The reason was that, right off the bat, the Owls faced a potentially season-ruining game in the first outing, the Mayor’s Cup against Villanova. Then they had to establish credibility in the MAC with a win over Central Michigan, then they had a revenge game against UConn and then the Holy Grail game (potentially program-defining win) against Penn State.

Temple 2011 Schedule
Date Opponent

Thur., Sept. 1 VILLANOVA, 7 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 10 *at Akron
Sat., Sept. 17 PENN STATE
Sat., Sept. 24 at Maryland
Sat., Oct. 1 *TOLEDO
Sat., Oct. 8 *at Ball State
Sat., Oct. 15 *BUFFALO [HC]
Sat., Oct. 22 *at Bowling Green
Sat., Oct. 29 BYE
Wed., Nov. 2 *at Ohio
Wed., Nov. 9 *MIAMI (Ohio)
Sat., Nov. 19 ARMY
Fri., Nov. 25 *KENT STATE
Fri., Dec. 2: MAC Championship Detroit, Mich

What a gauntlet 2010 was, starting with the pressure-cooker game with Villanova.
Lose that, like in 2009, and you lose the fan base for the entire season.
I must have had 200 Temple fans come up to me in the parking lot after that last-second loss to Villanova saying essentially the same thing:
“I’m not coming back. .. Al Golden is a fraud… …talks a big game but doesn’t deliver … same old Temple …”
Well, Al Golden wasn’t a fraud but about 199 of those Temple fans kept their word.
The only guy who came back was my friend, Tom, who kicked a car so hard cursing at Golden that he nearly broke his foot.
The others I never saw again.
I wrote at the time that I couldn’t blame them because to lose to Villanova, no matter how good the Wildcats were in 2009, was losing credibility in your hometown.
I’ve always said that Temple has a “hardcore” fan base of about 20K, who will be there through thick and thin. I’ve always said that Temple has a “soft core” fan base of about 20K more waiting for a reason to believe. So many of them lost that reason to believe that night.
They gained a measure of it back in the win last season, but I had a sense that the team and their fans were biting their fingernails the whole night fretting about the outcome.
Instead of punching Villanova silly and enjoying their physical superiority, the team played like it was walking on eggshells.
I want to see the Temple swagger back against Villanova this year.
That’s what it will take to get the Temple fan base back.
Beat the crap out of Villanova, then beat the crap out of Akron and then have a confident swagger going into Maryland and Penn State games.
It will take a lot to get the softcore fans back, like a win over both Villanova and Penn State.
That’s why I like this schedule.
There’s a return to normalcy.
That’s why the opener meant everything last year.
Don’t get me wrong. The opener means a lot this year, too but I don’t see the same kind of pressure.
Last year, Villanova had 16 starters returning from a national championship team and, unlike Temple, a championship quarterback.
Villanova loses that quarterback, plus its greatest playmaker since Brian Westbrook. Villanova also loses 16 starters.
Temple returns 13 starters and a lot of the replacements look more talented than some of the losses (Big Mo notwithstanding).
I see the Villanova game this year not as a pressure-cooker, but as a jumping off point to a great season.
I see a big win, a confidence builder, that could lead to bigger wins down the line.
At least that is the way it should play out..

02.22.11
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Daz: ‘Scot will call the plays’

The Heisman “campaign” may be low-key this year, but nonetheless Scot Loeffler would be one wise Owl if he fueled the Owls’ offense with BP oil.

Google “Steve Addazio” on the internet and what you are likely to find is a litany of ramblings from Florida fans, justified or not, complaining about how Steve Addazio “called the plays” for the 2010 Gators.
Steve Addazio has become a synonym of offensive incompentence in their eyes.
I think it’s a pretty unfair characterization given that the buck always stopped with Saint Urban Meyer.
So Florida fans are going to love this latest pronoucement from Addazio’s lips:
“Scot will call the plays,” Daz said on Meet and Greet Day last week.



 Scot (one T) is new offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler, a quarterback genius who developed Tom Brady and Chad Henne at Michigan and Tim Tebow at Florida.
Loeffler is a big-time offensive mind who knows how to move the football, probably through osmosis, by now.

“Dude, my boy from Temple Football Forever told
coach Daz to give the ball to No. 30. That seals i t.
I’m putting you down for 20 TDs and 2,011 yards in 2011.”
Addazio, on the other hand, is a life-long offensive line coach who appears to be more at home in the trenches. If he’s comfortable with making Scot Loeffler the offensive head coach and Chuck Heater the defensive head coach, that makes me comfortable, too.
After meeting Daz for the first time last week, I must admit I was, err, Dazzled.
My sense is that he’s probably more suited to being a CEO/Motivator than someone who wants to be micromanaging each individual facet of his organization.
That’s got to be good for Temple because being a big-time football head coach is too large a job if you can’t hire people you can trust. See Andy Reid and his less-than-stellar NFL draft day record as a case in point.
If all Addazio does is leave the offense up to Loeffler and the defense up to Chuck Heater and take care of the CEO duties and motivates the hell out of the Owls, this  should be the best season yet.
The same guy Florida fans hated so much could be the very one Owl fans come to love.
With the exception of a failure to recruit a high-profile tailback to spell Bernard Pierce, he’s pushed all the right buttons so far.
There’s only one more button to be pushed.
The last thing I told him was to give the ball to No. 30.
He laughed out loud, that hearty belly laugh that I never heard from Al Golden.
Like any good CEO, I hope he processed the tip and passed it along to Scot.
02.17.11
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Golden Dome, Meet Bell Tower

Potentially, one of the more bizarre press conferences in college football history will take place today at 3 p.m. at the Fox Gittis Room, Liacouras Center.
In attendance will be John DiCarlo, Owlscoop.com; Bill Bradshaw, Temple AD; Steve Addazio, Temple football coach and Larry Dougherty, SID.
I don’t think they’ll need more seats than four, although there could be a few curious passersby standing in the background.
I’ll try to sum it up here, so none of you will have to skip work to attend:
Dougherty:  (Tapping the speakers.) Testing. One. Two. OK, we’re here to announce that Temple football is playing Notre Dame in beginning in the 2014 season. We’ll be playing in Philadelphia that year, then there the following year and playing one more game an undetermined year, as early as 2013, in South Bend. At this point, I’d like to introduce Temple AD Bill Bradshaw. Bill?

Bradshaw: Thank you all for coming. I just want to say that this is an exciting time for Temple football and announcing this game is exciting for me, personally, as well as the city of Philadelphia. This brings the Temple brand across the country for three years and we’re going to have a great crowd for our 2014 game. I’d like to announce a special deal for the 2014 game. To get a ticket to the Notre Dame-Temple game you must be a full season-ticket holder. By my estimation, we could average 70,000 tickets sold for the six home games of the 2014 season. I really feel sorry for the Notre Dame fans who won’t be able to experience the beauty of Lincoln Financial Field that day, but our goal is to fill the stadium with Temple fans and I think that’s the best way to do it.  I would like head coach Steve Addazio to say a few words.
Addazio: I echo what Bill said. In fact, I wake up the echos.

(Nervous laughter.)
Seriously, I coached at Notre Dame so I know all about the place. Notre Dame is the biggest name in college football and we want Temple to be the biggest name someday.
Bradshaw: Let’s open it up for questions.
DiCarlo: How did this come to fruition?
Bradshaw: We asked them. We wanted a home-and-home. They laughed. Then I said, OK, we’ll settle for a 2-for-1. Then they said they wanted the first two to be at Notre Dame. I said, “You didn’t think I was born yesterday, did you? You’ll just walk out on us after the second game like Navy did. Make us the middle game and you’ve got a deal.” Then we shook on it.
Dougherty: Any more questions? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?
(More nervous laughter.)
John, help me out here.
DiCarlo: No, I’m good.
Dougherty: I just want to invite all of those in the room to our meet and greet with Steve Addazio in … what time is it, Bill? …
Bradshaw: 3:07, Larry.
Dougherty: …in two hours and 23 minutes. Thanks for coming. 
02.16.11
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TU-ND press conference a head-scratcher

If you say “big football announcement” it better mean a new conference.

Like a lot of people, I’m a creature of habit.
I get up a certain time.
I go to the gym a certain time.
I go to work a certain time.
I even blog at a certain time.
Always the same times for each task.
On big occasions, I’m able to rearrange my schedule.




TU and ND: Two schools with Subway Alumni

That’s why I was excited a couple of weeks ago to hear about the Steve Addazio Meet and Greet, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 17, at 5:30.
Geez, I thought. I’m off Thursdays. I can go to the gym at my regular time and treat this Thursday like I’m going to work, except I’m meeting the new Temple head football coach instead.
Then I got this email from Temple University yesterday:
“Major announcement concerning Temple Football at 3 p.m., Fox Gittis Room, Liacouras Center.”
Well, that does it.
I’ve got to get there a couple hours earlier than I planned. Whatever needs to be said will be said between 3-3:30 p.m.
Then, I thought:
“Geez, what am I going to do between 3:30 and 5:30?”
(I didn’t feel like going to the Draught Horse or Maxi’s for an early Happy Hour and I certainly didn’t need two hours to browse the bookstore.)
All sorts of things raced through my head, but I narrowed it to these three, in no particular order:
1) Temple is moving to Conference USA for football only;
2) Temple is getting a practice bubble;
3) Temple is scheduling Notre Dame.

C-USA BOWL TIE-INS

Bowl (Site) Time (CT) Network

AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.) 2:30p ESPN

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas) 11:00a ESPN

Military Bowl (Washington, D.C.) 1:30p ESPN

Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl (Honolulu, Hawai’i) 7:00p ESPN

Beef O’Brady’s Bowl (St. Petersburg, Fla.) 7:00p ESPN

Carriers New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, La.) 7:00p ESPN

Certainly, ONLY No. 1 rises to the level of having its own press conference, separate and apart from the Addazio Meet and Greet. If Temple held a news conference to announce a practice bubble or a scheduling agreement, it would hold itself up for ridicule and I don’t like it when my school is ridiculed. No school in the history of college football has ever held a press conference to announce a scheduling agreement. Scheduling agreements, even with schools like Notre Dame, usually are released on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper and double-spaced, not the subject of press conferences.
Now Conference USA is, as Bum Phillips once said, is a horse of a whole other fire department.
No. 1 would be REALLY big news. Nos. 2 and 3, very good news, but those could be addressed at 5:30.
I made a few calls and was disappointed.
The news is not Temple to Conference USA or The Big East.
It’s No. 3.
Yeah, that’s right. Temple is holding a press conference to announce that it signed a 2-for-1 deal with Notre Dame.
Temple at Notre Dame in 2013. Notre Dame at Temple in 2014. Temple at Notre Dame in 2015.
That’s all the news there is to print.
What was it cops say at the scene of the accident?
“There’s nothing more to see, you can move along folks.”
That’s pretty much how I feel now.
When you say “major announcement” I expect a major announcement.
This is a good announcement, not a “major announcement.”
Great news, mind you, but not big enough to make me waste a couple of hours. Certainly not big enough for its own separate press conference.
That settles it.
I will see everyone at 5:30 then.

02.14.11
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The Steve Addazio Meet and Greet

The Gator and the Hooter

… Important days ahead for Temple football: Thursday, Feb. 17, The Steve Addazio Meet and Greet … March 23 … opening day of football practice … Saturday, April 16, Cherry and White game …. Thursday night, Sept. 3, Temple 55, Villanova 3 …

My friends who have met Steve Addazio says the man is infectious, so I guess I’ll have to use the Dial Anti-bacterial soap I have in my gym bag before meeting coach for the first time on Thursday.
Err, maybe not.
“Mike, I mean his enthusiasm is infectious,” my friend, Ted, said.
I usually don’t make very many Temple basketball games (I did see the win over Georgetown, though), but I will be going this Thursday, 5:30-6:30, for the Steve Addazio Meet and Greet. So, since I’m there, I will go see the Owls play Richmond in an important hoops game that night.
Al Golden was very good with these types of things and I hear that Addazio is even better.
All I really care about, though, is Steve pounding the heck out of Villanova to jump-start our season and he and his Owligator staff finding a way to beat Penn State with Temple talent.
That’s what it will take to shake a Temple fan base that has been encrusted deep into the Earth’s core for the last 30 years. Not even a million meet and greets can match what those six hours of football can do.
The university has released this on the night’s events:
Join fellow Temple fans for a meet and greet with Temple’s new head football coach: Steve Addazio.

Temple Athletics: Meet and Greet with Coach Addazio

Thursday, Feb. 17
5:30-6:30 PM

Liacouras Center, Fox-Gittis Room
1776 N. Broad St.
Philadelphia
Light refreshments will be provided.

Steve Addazio – Announced as Temple’s new football coach on Dec. 23, 2010, Addazio helped the University of Florida win two BCS National Championships in the last five years (2006 and 2008). He is Temple’s 25th head football coach and most recently served as the associate head coach and offensive coordinator for the Gators during the 2010 season.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Deadline for registering for this meet and greet is Tuesday, Feb. 15. Email: denise.fitzpatrick@temple.edu

NOTE: All attendees at this event can receive a voucher entitling them to a group priced ticket ($10 upper level, $15 lower level) to that evening’s Temple-Richmond men’s basketball game at the Liacouras Center! Attendance at the meet and greet is required to receive the ticket voucher.

02.10.11
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Loeffler completes Owligator coaching Trinity

Loeffler completes the Owligator Holy Trinity

If Groundhog Day was last Wednesday, you can call this Wednesday Owligator Day.
As good as last Wednesday was recruiting for the Owls, Owligator Day beats Groundhog Day by a good bit.
That’s because Temple signed Scot Loeffler as offensive coordinator on Wednesday, completing the “Holy Trinity” of Gator coaches who will be roaming the sidelines at Temple.
Steve Addazio, head coach.
Chuck Heater, defensive coordinator.
Scot Loeffler, offensive coordinator/quarterbacks’ coach.
Think about it.
Temple’s head coach is a guy who was HEAD coach (yes, head coach) at Florida to be its head coach. (I know it’s a technicality but Addazio was head coach for three months while Urban Meyer was on sick leave.) I really think Daz’s personality is more suited to being a head coach than an offensive coordinator in terms of being a CEO-type and a motivator. We won’t know for sure until he beats up Villanova like Muhammad Ali beat up Chuck Wepner, but Temple is getting a guy who could be a gem as a head coach.
Temple is also getting a guy who was co-defensive coordinator at Florida to be its defensive coordinator. (“Head coach of the defense,” Addazio said.)
Now Temple is also getting a guy who was at least partly responsible for the development of Tom Brady, Chad Henne and Brian Griese as Michigan quarterbacks because he there when all three were at Michigan.
Oh yeah.
 He was Tim Tebow’s quarterback’s coach, too.
Temple is sending a message to the rest of the college football world that its football program is in capable hands by completing this Holy Trinity of Owligators.

The Loeffler File:
• Led a Florida quarterback unit that led the nation in pass efficiency (167.3) in 2009. They passed for 3,305 yards for 28 touchdowns with just five interceptions. Florida ranked second in the SEC in passing offense with an average of 236.1 yards per game.

• Guided Tim Tebow in his final season at Florida, during which he passed for 2,895 yards and 21 touchdowns, finishing his senior year with a passing efficiency of 164.17. The quarterback left Florida with five NCAA, 14 SEC and 28 UF records
• Led the Michigan quarterbacks for six seasons, guiding second-round draft pick Chad Henne. Under the tutelage of Loeffler, Henne became the first true freshman QB to lead his team to a Big Ten title and start in a BCS bowl game. Henne set school marks in career passing yards (9,715), touchdowns (87), completions (828) and attempts (1,387).
• Helped develop John Navarre into the team’s first All-Big Ten first-team quarterback since 1997.
• Helped guide two NFL quarterbacks in Tom Brady and Brian Griese as a graduate and student assistant at Michigan and was a part of the Wolverine staff during the 1997 undefeated season and National Championship title.

With these three hirings, it becomes abundantly clear that Temple is serious about big-time football because these are big-time guys.
Why am I so excited about this?
First off, addition by subtraction.
I’ve been hearing rumors for the better part of a month now that Addazio might have been planning to keep Matt Rhule as offensive coordinator.
Been there, done that.
Rhule had a lot of beautiful square parts he tried to plug into round holes last year.
He had a Heisman Trophy back (at least, talent-wise if not durability-wise) in Bernard Pierce, great wide receivers in Rod Streater, Michael Campbell, Joey Jones, an all-MAC first-team tight end in Evan Rodriguez and a capable backup in Alex Jackson … and … AND …a New Jersey high school first-team all-state quarterback in Mike Gerardi … and … AND … an offensive line that averaged 318 yards across the front.
Yet he (or head coach Al Golden) doesn’t play the all-state QB until the middle of the season, yet he (or Golden)  alternates the Heisman Trophy guy with a 5-5, 150-pound back and doesn’t even attempt to do what worked so well in 2009. That is, establish the run behind a great back and throw off play-action. If they had done that, MAC secondaries would have bitten hard enough on the ball fake that Owl receivers would have been so wide open the toughest decision would have been which one to pick out.
With Brown out there, except for the UConn game and the first half of the Penn State game, Pierce was never allowed to establish a rhythm.
As a result, save for those rare exceptions, Temple’s offense was a clusterbleep from the opening play of the Villanova game until the final play of the Miami game.
You score three points against The Fake Miami with that talent?
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Loeffler was on campus doing some quality control analysis on Monday and Tuesday.
On Wednesday, he accepted the job.
Evidently, he saw he had a lot of good moving parts to work with. Maybe he made the assessment, like I have, that a big-time backup needs to be developed with Pierce-like size and speed. Maybe Myron Myles is that guy. Maybe Nate Smith is that guy. But we need to find that guy badly.
By Villanova, with a pair of fresh and capable eyes he should be able to find the square holes for those square pegs.
Owligators.
I like the sound of that nickname for our all-star coaching staff.

02.08.11
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This just in … Donte Dotson

This post falls under the category of “this just in …” hence, the headline above.
Donte Dotson, a 5-foot-8 wide receiver from Milford Academy (Conn.) via Florida, faxed his letter of intent with the Owls after 4 p.m. on National Signing Day.
Stuff happens when you schedule a press conference so it doesn’t conflict with a night time basketball game, so Donte’s bio never made it with the post below listing all the Temple recruits.

I was kinda hoping for a late pickup to be a big-time running back of Bernard Pierce SIZE and talent, but evidently coach Steve Addazio is really serious about finding some big-time explosiveness in the passing game and willing to roll the schollies on one position.

We can only hope Bernard Pierce stays healthy this year, because I see a Grand Canyon-like dropoff between first- and second-string tailback talent should he not. We found out in the final two games that the expiration date of a 5-5, 150-pound running back is about eight games into a 12-game season.

The press conference started at 4, so Dotson did not make the booklet handed out to the fans that afternoon.
Here’s his bio:
Postgraduate: Played wide receiver for one season for coach Bill Chaplick at Milford Academy … had 41 receptions for 693 yards and five touchdowns during the 2010 season … averaged 16.9 yards per reception … also rushed 12 times for 131 yards … earned coaches’ offensive player of the game accolades twice and specialist of the game once.

High School: Played quarterback for coach Adam Ratkevich at Deerfield Beach HS … 2009 first-team Sun-Sentinel All-County honoree … two-time Miami Herald first-team All-County selection as an athlete … as a senior, rushed for 1,026 yards and passed for 1,068 yards and 11 touchdowns while leading the Bucks to the district title … team finished the regular season at 7-3