Scott Hartkorn’s great video over TU’s encounter with the other Huskies.

In a perfect world, this would be a good time for a nice bye for the Temple University football team.
Don’t get me wrong.
I hate byes.
A weekend without Temple football, to me, is a lost weekend.
Still, I can’t think of a better time in recent Temple football memory (starting with the Al Golden years) for a bye.

How good is Northern Illinois?
Well, the Huskies have won at Minnesota, 34-23. (Doesn’t it seem like yesterday when the Owls lost at Minnesota, 62-0?)
They have beaten North Dakota, 23-17.
They lost at Illinois, 28-22 (a team that gave Ohio State all it could handle).
They lost at Iowa State, 27-10 (a team that buried Texas Tech, 52-28).
They won at Akron, 50-14.
This is a very good team.

The Franchise, AKA Bernard Pierce, could certainly use an extra week to heal his ankle.
The team has just been through a gaunlet that included winning a trophy for football superiority in its hometown (a must game, if there ever was one), beating the perennial league power (Central Michigan), winning a grudge match against both a good football team (UConn) and a league (the Big East, with a lower case t) and winning at Army’s homecoming before 33,000 fans.
If a team ever needed a rest, it is the Owls.
So Al Golden gave them one.
Two days.
That’s it.
Now the Owls have to fly halfway across the country and play a Northern Illinois team that might be the best team they’ve played so far and that includes Penn State. (We don’t know that for sure so that’s why we’re using the word might. If Penn State beats Illinois by more than 28-22, Penn State will have been the best team on Temple’s schedule.)
There’s not much a belief that the Owls can beat this team at this time, if the nation’s bettors are any indication.
The Huskies opened as 1 1/2-point favorites on Sunday night. By Monday morning, it was 2 1/2. By Tuesday morning, it was 3 1/2. By this morning, it is 4.
A lot of that is the uncertainty over whether Bernard Pierce can play and how effectively he can play if he does.
Maybe at least a little of it is the bettors watching Chester Stewart game film.
Either way, it does not show a whole lot of confidence in the Owls.
Stewart is going to have to play better, avoid a Penn State-like three-pick performance  and his penchant for fumbling for the Owls to have a chance.
There’s very little in the game film to believe that he will.
Chester improved over the Penn State game, but the improvement was inches, not feet. He did fumble a ball that Army recovered late in the game, but that was not reviewed. Good for Temple that it wasn’t, but an indication that the bad habit hasn’t been shaken.
I think Temple’s best chance is to have both Bernie and the Bug back there in a two-man set and have the NIU defense on their heels.
Throw on first down to keep them on their heels more. Use play-action on second and third down. Get Joey Jones in there to run reverses and then have him throw off reverses.
It’s going to take a full bag of Matt Rhule’s tricks to win this one.
If the Owls can pull this off, on the road and  as tired mentally and beat up physically as they are, it will be their most impressive win of the season.

Temple fans got to experience a beautiful setting and a win Saturday.

Rather than feeling blue once they arrive later this week in Illinois to face a Northern Illinois team that won at Minnesota and is coming off a 50-point outburst in a win over Akron, Temple’s football players might be in a bit of a comfort zone once they arrive.
Heck, playing perhaps the first- or second-best team in the Mid-American Conference is  a challenge, but this season has been one step steeper than the other so far.
They are used to challenges and, in almost all cases, they’ve risen to it.
Nothing new to these Owls after what they’ve been through, the latest a come-from-behind 42-35 win at Army.
This is the dangest schedule I’ve ever seen Temple play.
Maybe not the toughest, but I don’t remember ever seeing a schedule where the next week’s challenge was tougher than the last one.
The Villanova game presented a huge monkey in the form of getting back the Mayor’s Cup and credibility in the old hometown.
Check.
Central Michigan meant slaying the reigning perennial champion in the league.
Check.
UConn might have been the biggest one of all, sending a message to the Big East that Temple, not Villanova, was the Philadelphia team they should have kept and should go after.
Check.
Penn State would have been a program-defining win and shocked the world, but who could forsee losing a Heisman Trophy candidate on the day when the quarterback would throw three picks?
Uncheck.
Now Army.
It’s almost impossible to fathom a Temple team scoring 29 straight points against a good team in front of 30,000 of their fans, but that’s what happened yesterday.
Check.
“It was the biggest win we’ve had since we’ve been here,” Al Golden said.
I believe him. I believe it, too.

I thik in many respects this opponent was even tougher than Penn State was because the Owls had to get that one out of their heads and, at the same time, focus on how to stop a difficult offense in a short work week.
Now Northern Illinois.
They don’t seem to be getting any easier, do they?
Maybe this schedule provides just the focus these Owls need to avoid pitfalls.
Great job by Matt Brown, but also a great job by Mark D’Onofrio making the necessary adjustments to shut down Army’s sophisticated scheme. Quarterback Chester Stewart played better, didn’t panic, didn’t throw into reads. Maybe he learned something watching Penn State game film. Still holds the ball too much like a loaf of bread for my taste, but maybe some more film study will rid him of that bad habit.
And who knew Joey Jones could throw the tightest spiral of the day?
The schedule has demanded the team and the fans focus on the next challenge and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Apparently, neither do they.

Walking out of the Penn State game on Saturday, someone wearing Penn State blue told me not to worry.
“Who do you have next week?” the man asked.
“Army, at Army,” I said.
“You should spank them pretty good.”
“I don’t think they can spank anyone right now,” I said. “I don’t think they’ve found the paddle.”
Mixing metaphors, I really don’t think they’ve found the trigger to their offense.

Bernard Pierce says he’s a fast healer, but  unless he went to Lourdes, I don’t think he’ll be able to play this week.

They have all kinds of weapons and plenty of gunpowder, but I question whether they have the right guy to light the fuse.
Tom Leonard had a great line earlier this week, tossing in another metaphor.
“He’s got a gun for an arm but he has no scope.”
Everyone said I should not judge Chester Stewart on the basis of the Penn State game because the Lions are too good.
Fair enough, but the four-game body of work is not all-that-impressive, either.
Sure, there was the game-winning drive against Villanova and the 62-yard touchdown pass to Michael Campbell.
Those were two drives out of 28 Temple drives that night.
Where was Chester the other 26?
That’s a fair question. To say he disappeared would not be an unfair answer.
Thirteen points against a Central Michigan team that Northwestern put up 30 on is not all that impressive, either.
UConn?
The Owls were down, 16-14, when Adrian Robinson stole the game.
They added to that total behind Delano Green and Bernard Pierce, not Chester Stewart.
I didn’t see very many big plays from Chester in that game, either.
Against Penn State, I saw a true freshman quarterback play like a redshirt junior and a redshirt junior play like a true freshman. A program-defining win theirs for the taking and only a 46-yard, three-interception performance prevented them from taking it.
Forgive me for not enjoying that.
So do I expect Chester to break out against Army and throw for 300 and three touchdowns?
That’s neither fair nor realistic.
I would not be surprised to see the Owls to be impotent on offense once again, especially if The Franchise (see crutches above) doesn’t take the field. Although Army’s 24-0 win over North Texas doesn’t look all that impressive on paper, North Texas won at Florida International (the same FIU that took Rutgers down to the wire) and North Texas lost excruiatiingly close games to in-state rivals Texas A&M and Rice. Army led at Duke, 35-7, before winning that one, 35-21. Before you dismiss Duke, the Blue Devils scored 48 points on Wake Forest. This Army team can score and ballhawk.
If the game is low scoring, this is a game Army can win. If Temple can only put up 13 against Central Michigan, will it put up a lot more than 13 at Army?
I doubt it.
Yeah, I’m worried.

No, that headline is not a typo and I know Temple lost to Penn State, 22-13, not, 31-30, on Saturday.
I came across this terrific video the other day while preparing for the Penn State vs. Temple game.
I looked at it again tonight.
It’s from the 1976 Temple vs. Penn State game, a 31-30 final with the bad guys, as usual, on top.
Temple coach Wayne Hardin went for two to win it (there was no overtime in those days) and the ball agonizingly went off the Temple player’s fingertips.
One of the things that struck me about it was how well Terry Gregory passed in that game and how well-conceived the offensive game plan was.
That was 1976, but the way Temple passed the ball in the 2010 game, you’d think we were back in the single wing days now and not then.
Terry Gregory was not even the 10th-best Wayne Hardin quarterback in my humble opinion but Hardin could recognize good quarterbacks when he saw them. Steve Joachim, Marty Ginestra, Frank DiMaggio, Tim Riordan, Lee Saltz, Brian Broomell, etc., all were better quarterbacks than Gregory. Why was Temple able to get those guys then and not now?
Call it what you will but Al Golden has struggled with identifying good quarterbacks or at least putting good ones on the field. He lucked into his best QB, Adam DiMichele, when Alex DiMichele was recruited as a fullback by former coach Bobby Wallace.
Since then, the Temple quarterback play as been spotty at best and that’s probably a generous characterization of it.
I think it’s pretty obvious the 1976 Penn State team was better than the 2010 Lions, so Gregory lighting them up for 300 plus yards was impressive.
My Kingdom for a Terry Gregory-type quarterback now.
Or an Adam DiMichele.

Subliminal message No. 1 for AG

UNIVERSITY PARK _ I had three overriding thoughts after this long day and a three-hour tease they called a game today:
1) Forty-six yards through the air ain’t cutting it. I don’t know if it’s Matt Rhule’s fault or Al Golden’s fault or Chester Stewart’s fault, but 46 yards through the air ain’t cutting it and it’s got to be fixed. After the Navy game last year, I mused out loud if Al Golden had the err, intestinal fortitude, to make a quarterback change. It turned out he did and I applauded him for it. How many coaches have the stones to remove a quarterback who has won six straight games for underperforming?  It turned out Al Golden did. Vaughn Charlton’s numbers against Navy last year were 5 for 17, 36 yards, two INTs. Chester Stewart’s numbers against Penn State on Saturday mirrored those, except he threw one more INT. I’m sure Chester is a nice kid, just like Vaughn is but now, like then, I think it’s time for a quarterback change. If Mike Gerardi or Chris Coyer can’t get me 200 yards in the air against Army, we’ve got to rethink our quarterback recruiting. But I think either one of them gets two bills against Army. Chester Stewart is a one bill quarterback, if that. You just can’t win over the long haul in major college football these days without a viable passing attack and Temple did not display a viable passing attack in any of the first four games.

Subliminal message No. 2 for AG.

2) Temple is just not any better than an above-average team without The Franchise in there. When TF (or BP) is in there, Owls are a great team. Without him, Owls struggle and I mean struggle to win the MAC (and probably fall short). Keep our fingers crossed that BP returns next week or the week after. Matt Brown is a great third-down back, but he’s not a feature back. It’s no coincidence that, with St. Bernard/The Franchise/Bernie’s MAC Show in there, Temple had a lead. When he left, it all went to the crapper. That’s pretty much the way the season has played out so far.
3) Unless a miracle happens, the best-case-scenario for Temple fans is two straight trips to Detroit, one for the MAC title and one for the bowl sponsored by a Pizza company. I only have one word for that. Ugh. I will make one but not both trips. I just have to figure out which one. Probably the MAC title tilt, since I want to see the Owls prance around Ford Field with the MAC trophy secured. I’m sure the walk from the parking lot to the indoor stadium will be too cold for at least one Temple fan to make either trip.

I can tell you somewhat fewer than this number are in the stadium now.

UNIVERSITY PARK _ My relationship with Black Shoe Diaries doesn’t go back as far as my relationship with Penn State fans, but both are solid and based on mutual respect.

I’ve been coming up here for 30 plus years and have gotten nothing but first-class treatment from Penn State fans. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had my Temple sweatshirt or jersey on and been invited to Penn State-run tailgates. I’ve made a lot of great Penn State friends over the years that way.
Once inside the stadium, it’s been the same thing. Penn State fans are tremendous fans.
Black Shoe Diaries found me about five years ago and we’ve had this question and answer session once a year every year since.
My thanks to Mike of BSD for the great questions and for keeping the comments on topic.
I do not tolerate personal attacks on my website and it’s good to have people out there like Mike and Shawn Pastor (Owlsdaily.com) and John DiCarlo (Owlscoop.com) who won’t tolerate personal attacks on theirs.
Today is all about the game. That’s all real Temple fans should be thinking about.
Is it the biggest game in Temple history?
No and yes.
No, because losing it wouldn’t be as big a blow to the solar plexes as losing to UConn would have been (Big East explusion, Big East refs, etc.).
Yes, because Temple would have the most to gain from this win over any other in its history. Win this one and the regional respect soars through the roof. Win this one and it clears the table for 12-0.
The benefits of 12-0 are enormous.
Can you say Rose Bowl?
Can you say Heisman Trophy?
I thought you could.
Go Owls.
(No prediction other than 24-21, either way.)

Way back on June 24, I hesistated to write this post because I knew Temple’s first three games were a mine-field.
I knew Temple could just as easily be 0-3 going into Penn State as 3-0.
Even most Temple fans I knew thought the Owls would be 2-1.
I went ahead and wrote the post anyway because I felt this was the year Temple is best-equipped to beat Penn State and it focused on what beating the Lions would mean to the Owls and their long-suffering fans.
Now that the Owls have zig-zagged their way through the mine field, this game should be fun.
The Owls can win this game.If there’s any pressure, it’s not on them but the Lions.
The Lions have quarterback issues.
Temple’s got a good defense.
If Bernard Pierce gets in a groove, the Owls can shorter the game on offense with some clock-consuming drives.
The Owls have a terrific punter and a great place-kicker.
They have six returning all-league players back on defense, so they should be able to contain a Penn State offense that had trouble sustaining drives even against Kent State. Despite the fact that defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio has not been as aggressive as I would like in rushing the passer, I think he’s figured out one of the best ways to win is rattling the true freshman into interceptions and fumbles. So maybe the Owls will change up and bring the heat this week. I trust D’Onofrio whatever he does.  He might be the best coach on the field Saturday.
Chester Stewart, the Owls’ quarterback, has improved slightly with each game and that’s a good sign.
Yeah, this is the year.
Will they get it done?
Hard to say.
This looks to me like a 24-21 game either way.
In that case, I’m glad Brandon McManus is on Temple’s side.

One of the great things about having a job like this, operating a successful, independent and award-winning blog, is that you don’t have to answer to anyone.
It’s a little like the job Joe Paterno has.

Kamara nominated for special award
Temple linebacker Amara Kamara (No. 56) has been recognized for his efforts off the playing field. He is a member of the 2010 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team®, which recognizes players for their outstanding community service work.

A total of 112 players across all collegiate levels of the sport were
nominated for the award by sports information directors on behalf of
their teams, and Kamara was one of 22 players selected. His impressive
resume of community service accomplishments follows:

• A strong advocate for bone marrow donor awareness, he assisted in the
  registration of 1,270 new marrow donor registrations – the largest donor turnout in the history of the program.
• Coached over 500 kids grades K-12 on football techniques at three
  different youth football camps
• Named the 2010 male recipient of the Athletic Department’s Temple
  Teammates Award and the 2010 T.E.A.M. Award, designated for
  student-athletes that have demonstrated leadership and exceptional
  community service efforts.

The 2010 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team® features two 11-player teams,   one for the Football Bowl Subdivision (Div. I-A) and the other for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, Divisions II, III and NAIA. All players, including Kamara, will be invited to New Orleans in January to participate in a special community service project before the 2011 Allstate® Sugar Bowl.

He’s successful. He’s won coach-of-the-year awards. He doesn’t have to answer to anyone.
I admire the guy. I really do. He’s one of my favorite people in sports.
Like everyone else, Joe has a bad day. So what if he snaps out on a reporter now and then? The reporter can cry and scream and whine until he’s blue in the face and Joe can just ignore him.
Nobody’s going to fire Joe Paterno. He can coach until 100 if he wants to and he can say whatever he wants.
But that doesn’t mean the signs of slippage  go unnoticed. Take Tuesday’s press conference, for instance. Maybe Joe had a bad day, but he forgot the focus of at least one Temple question and his UConn-Michigan score was off by only 16 points.
No biggies, but food for thought.
 Here’s just one question from the official transcript:
 Q. Temple’s running back Bernard Pierce, what does he present for your defense this week? COACH PATERNO: “I think the whole Temple team presents a problem. Al Golden, he has two other kids that played for us, that are on his staff, one is defensive coordinator (Mark D’Onofrio), one is the offensive coordinator (Matt Rhule). And I think they’re very, very sound. They’ve gotten better each year. The kid you’re talking about is a fine linebacker. Does a lot of things really well. And they ask him to do a lot of things. But they’ve got a couple other people, they’ve got a couple of down kids who are big offensively.”
 Err, Joe, the kid they were talking about, Pierce, isn’t a linebacker but a tailback. Wait. There’s more. PATERNO: “They’ve played a couple of good teams since. Central Michigan is a good team and Villanova is ranked the best in their division (FCS) by far. And they beat them in a tough ball game. And they had a tough one with a good Connecticut team, (which) lost by four points to Michigan.”
Err, Joe, UConn lost to Michigan by 20, not four.
I saw this transcript and got to wondering if this slippage might result in a mistake or two during the heat of the battle on Saturday afternoon against Temple.
Joe’s been a pretty sharp guy for 50 plus years there, but the knife gets dull for everyone at a certain point.
In a game as close as Temple and Penn State might be on Saturday, every edge helps.
I’ve got to believe a 41-year-old Al Golden might be a little sharper than a guy more than twice his age.
The last time Temple avoiding losing on a football field to Penn State, a 7-7  tie, the Owls’ quarterback was named Gavin White, Jr., who later became athletic director.
The year was 1950. Robin Roberts and Curt Simmons, not Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels, were the Phillies aces.
And that guy with the glasses on the Penn State side of the field, the quarterback coach for Rip Engle, was none other than someone named Joe Paterno.
You’ve got to admire his durability. When you think about him being a coach on the sideline in Philadelphia when across town Chuck Bednarik was playing his ROOKIE year with the Eagles, that’s truly amazing.
Way to go, Joe.

The late great Hal Holbrook had a great line in the movie “All The President’s Men.”
“Follow the money,” he told Woodward and Bernstein, played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
Follow the money.
That’s pretty much how I feel today.
I never bet Temple games. There’s too much heart involved and not enough head.
In a perfect world, where all the refs and the replay judges were robots and not hired by conferences, I really believe Temple would win today, something like, 28-21.
This is far from a perfect world, this college football thing. When you have BCS schools controlling the fate of non-BCS schools, that’s corrupt. When conferences take their “own” officials on the road with them, that’s corrupt.
So college football is, in large part, corrupt.
Too many strange decisions are made on the field by people who are supposed to be robots.
Follow the money.
This line opened with UConn giving 4 1/2 points. It ballooned to 6 1/2 points in a day or so.
Do the bettors know something we don’t?
I wouldn’t put it past them.
So I think this game is going to go UConn’s way, maybe 24-17, with a Temple touchdown or two called back by Big East refs. Maybe Temple will get called for breaking the huddle with 12 players (when it has a no-huddle offense).

Some fair games to bet on:
(favorites underlined)
North Carolina will cover the 1 1/2 over visiting Georgia Tech
East Carolina will cover the 19 1/2 at Virginia Tech
Alabama will cover the 24 at Duke
Central Michigan will cover the 10 at Eastern Michigan
Toledo will cover the 3 1/2  at Western Michigan
Troy will cover the 3 1/2 at Ala.-Birmingham

Maybe something else highly questionable will happen.
This is one game that begs for a Mountain West crew, but the Big East and its damn corrupt self will be here.
If Temple wins, it restores my faith in humanity.
If Temple loses without any touchdowns or big plays called back, I can accept that and will tip my cap to the Huskies.
If Temple loses with question marks, I will raise my postgame glass to the late Hal Holbrook and say, “you were right, pal.”
Or, in his case, Hal.