Some questions answered, some answers questioned and otherwise random thoughts from Cherry and White Day 2010:

1) It’s hard to make a decision about quarterback _ I liked all three quarterbacks, but no one really stood out on this day. Chester Stewart aired it out on the last play of the first half, but it didn’t come close to a receiver. I like the fact that CS competed. I also like the fact that Chester Stewart had no interceptions all last season. I liked Mike Gerardi’s poise. I thought that Chris Coyer had too many passes dropped. Slightest, if any, edge to Stewart on this one day. Great to see Vaughn Charlton out there competing at tight end and showing the a positive attitude and leadership he always displays. Gerardi looks like he’s been there before. He looks like he expects to start. Everybody tells me he has no shot at playing, but it’s always those guys you have to keep an eye on. The same people who poo-poo Mike Gerardi said Matt Brown wasn’t going to do didly and he got 155 on Ohio on the MAC East title game. I think this Mike Gerardi kid bears watching. If he doesn’t have the “it factor”, he’s damn close to having it. That’s all I’m going to say on the subject. None of the three QBs did enough, but I’d have to rate Stewart’s deep ball the best and Gerardi’s poise the best based on this one day. Coyer probably blows them away in the elusiveness category, but everytime someone touched him, that was ruled a sack and that’s just not fair to a guy who can duck out of danger and make positive yardage.
2) Event really is too big for the Edberg-Olsen Complex _ It’s saying something when the best seats in the house are in the high-rise apartment complex across the street. It’s got to be moved to Ambler next year. Bring the field up to standards. They have a nice horticulture program up there anyway. Put those students to work. I didn’t go up on the deck because some day that thing is going to collapse below the weight of too many people and I don’t want to be there when it does. Another reason to move it to Ambler.
3) Thank God Bernard Pierce didn’t get hurt _ It says something that all three quarterbacks were wearing the orange (“don’t hit me”) jersey, yet it was open season on next year’s Heisman Trophy winner (hopefully). I say take the orange jerseys off the quarterbacks next year, too.
4) Vaughn Carraway can catch after all _ The most heralded pass receiving recruit in a number of years finally found the field and the ball with a real nice interception. Hopefully, that’s a portent of things to come.
5) Liked the contributions of big DT Levi Brown,   DE Adrian Robinson, WR Rod Streater, WR Delano Green, Pierce (of course) and the pride of Wall Township (N.J.) High, Blaze Caponegro (two interceptions on tipped balls), among so many. Brandon McManus, the best kicker in the MAC, nailed about a 51-yarder, which was a good sign particularly in a 24mph crosswind. Didn’t like that there were so many tipped balls, but that can be worked on in the coming days.
Overriding thought was that I can’t wait until Sept. 3.

Today’s operative word is spin.
It’s a form of propoganda making a move or position more sellable.
There have been a few famous “spin doctors” in the arts and media over the years.
My favorite was a guy named Mike Flaherty, played by Michael J. Fox, in the sitcom Spin City. Flaherty, the deputy Mayor, specialized in getting the mayor out of trouble by spinning an issue that otherwise wasn’t flattering.
I could only think of one word when I heard the quotes coming from Al Golden’s lips about Vaughn Chartlon’s move to tight end on Wednesday.
Spin.
“Everybody was blown away,” Golden told Owlscoop.com. “Everybody was blown away by his vertical stretch, by how soft his hands were, and how well he ran with the ball after the catch. So of all the things that you guys ask me every day, it’s probably the biggest news, probably since I’ve been here.”
Yeah, right.
Hmm.
Charlton has played no other position than quarterback since Pee-Wee ball, yet Golden gives a glowing report on the potential of Charlton as a pass-catching and route-running Division IA tight end.
Basically, Golden is telling us _ exaggerating just a little for effect, here _ that we might have had a John Mackey or a Pete Retzlaff right here under our noses for four years without realizing it.
If that’s not spin, I don’t know what is.
I’m not buying it.
Listen, I’m on board with the decision, whether it was Golden’s or Charlton’s. Vaughn is a great kid and a terrific team leader.
A lot of people I’ve talked to say it doesn’t make sense because they’ve been grooming him to be quarterback for five years and he deserves a chance.
I’ve seen enough to know that they could groom him for five more years and he’ll never be half the quarterback Adam DiMichele was or Henry Burris was or Brian Broomell was.
Temple needs a playmaking quarterback who can make good throws (often) under pressure. I don’t think Charlton ever responded to pressure quite the way, say, DiMichele did. I don’t think Charlton ever put enough points on the scoreboard.

I’m betting that the immensely talented Evan Rodriguez is better equipped to put up those kind of numbers, if properly used

Temple’s program has reached the point where it needs to go from one Adam DiMichele to another Adam DiMIchele. There should never have been a disastrous drop in talent at that position, particularly when you have a recruiter as accomplished as Golden.
What happened, I think, is that both Chester Stewart and Chris Coyer (and possibly even Mike Gerardi) have passed Charlton on the depth chart.
The move to tight end was pure spin, a way to lessen the impact of the fall to the bottom of the depth chart.
If Chartlon catches 60 passes for 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns next season and blocks like Mike Ditka, I will admit I’m wrong.
I’m betting that the immensely talented Evan Rodriguez is better equipped to put up those kind of numbers, if properly used. Rodriguez’s backups are more likely to be named Matt Balasavage, Cody Booth and Alex Jackson than Vaughn Charlton.
And that’s no spin.

That’s me behind the railing trying to get a peak last year.

Watched a little bit of the North Carolina football spring day on ESPN last weekend.
I was interested in a quarterback that they kept bringing up as being a future star, Bryn Renner.
Virginia High school football fans will remember Renner being involved in quite a few battles with rival Oakton High and its star quarterback, Chris Coyer.
Experts put both quarterbacks pretty much on the same level and Coyer earned player of the year honors.
I’m sure any questions that North Carolina fans had about Renner’s arm or leadership skills were answered in the spring game. He had a productive day.
I’m wondering what questions will be answered about the Owls on Saturday in the 2 p.m. scrimmage at Chodoff Field.
Some I’m interested in, no particular order:
1) When will Coyer get to show his running skills?
I hope they allow the quarterbacks to get hit (I doubt it) because Coyer’s ability to make plays in the open field with his legs will separate him from the other three quarterbacks, in my humble opinion. All four quarterbacks can throw the ball. Owls need to be multi-dimensional at that position. The Catch-22 here is that you end up starting the same guy who started last year if all the Cherry and White game becomes is a glorified passing drill.

2) Has the Cherry and White Game gotten too big for the E-O?

My vote is yes because I arrived some two hours before last year’s game and could not find a spot in Lot 10. I had to park four blocks away at the Baptist Temple. If the game can’t be moved to Lincoln Financial Field, I vote for Ambler.
Or Northeast High.

3) Will we see an improved pass rush?

Not unless they take the orange jerseys off the quarterbacks (see No. 1).

4) How much action will Heisman Trophy candidate Bernard Pierce get?

My hunch is plenty, but not 40 carries. I’d say between 10-20 for C&W, shooting for 20-25 quality ones per game during the season.

5) Where is the best place to buy Temple gear?

Err, Cherry and White. You can’t buy good Temple stuff in any store not on campus, yet I get hundreds of comments from people throughout the year about “where’d you get that cool Temple (sweatshirt, T-Shirt, hat, etc.)?” I’d always say, truthfully, Cherry and White day. No other day compares when it comes to that stuff. Bring cash.

So here it is, an instant classic, based on the convergence of a report in New York Newsday concurrent with April Fool’s Day.
We picked it up and ran with it and, surprisingly, a number of people fell for it despite seeing the day of the post.
That’s the best kind of April Fool’s Joke anyway.

Blame Friday game on shore and Joe Banner, not in that order.

So I’m driving on I-76 today and thinking how It’s too bad I don’t have a digital camera.
(When I get enough donations to buy a camera and a portable computer called a netbook, so I can take Temple Football Forever on the road with me and post daily news and photos on the Owls, I will.)
Back to the desire for a digital camera, though.
I’m driving by at 50 mph in a monsoon today on the Schuylkill Expressway and I see a Temple billboard that proclaims “Friday, Sept. 3” as the date of the home football opener with Villanova.
It meant only one thing. Temple’s “negotiations” with the Eagles over its preferred date, Sept. 2, fell through.
Then I put two and two together and come up with four.
Oddly enough, that’s the starting time of the game but it’s not how this mostly mathematical equation was solved.
Two plus two equals 4 p.m. basically because Sept. 2, the date Temple AD Bill Bradshaw long sought as primo time for the game was denied the Owls by the landlord Eagles, leaving 4 as the only logical time for the game.
Hmm.
Temple could have played on the Saturday of the Labor Day weekend, when no one would have been in town. There’s this thing called The Shore and it’s a phenomena peculiar to Philadelphia that the town virtually empties out the weekend of Labor Day, leaving only the homeless and poor behind. Philadelphia is unique because The Shore (capital T, capital S) is only 50 miles away and Philadelphians see this weekend as their abosolutely last chance to get away before a long, cold, winter. The magnetic attraction of that to a region of 6 million people cannot be minimized.
So Saturday was out.
The Eagles could have done the “community” a favor and moved their game to Sept. 3 and allowed Temple and Villanova to play on the date best suited for a big college crowd. The Eagles being the Eagles could have gotten their 70K on either date but, no, the Eagles had to put the screws to Temple and Villanova.
“We want to play Thursday night,” was basically what Joe Banner told Bradshaw.
“But, Joe, you’ll get your crowd either night….”
“No, we still want to play Thursday night. Good luck, though.”
Typical Eagles.
The Phillies were already scheduled for Friday night (7).
Since two crowds in excess of 40,000 (hopefully for Temple, definitely for Phils) would be showing up at the same time, the Owls reluctantly were forced to pick 4 p.m.
It’s a stroke of genius, in my mind.
The Temple and Villanova fans get to arrive, say, at 2 p.m. for tailgating, taking all of the tailgate spots used by Phillies fans.
Phillies fans arrive at about 4, then start frantically texting “WTF?” messages to their fellow 20-somethings.
If there’s a silver lining to this scheduling nightmare, that’s it.
Now let’s get a crowd large enough to steal all of their parking spaces.
Better yet, let’s get them into our game first by offering half-priced tickets for those who show Phils’ stubs.

Every once in a while, I check in with what Al Golden has to say on Twitter.
You can, too.
It’s permanently on the sidebar of this website, about halfway down the right side.
According to Al’s latest tweet, the coaching staff is in the film room right now.
Here it is:
“Spring practice is getting close,” Al said. “Only a couple of weeks for the staff to fine tune and evaluate the film from the fall to improve the team.”

Evidently, they haven’t come out because the last tweet was on Feb. 22 and that was four days before the last big snowfall and that seems like a long time ago.
Well, we’ve been studying the film, too.
We’ve got high definition DVDs of many of the games and this is what I would do to improve the team:
1) Have a real competition for starting quarterback. Take the red shirts off and allow the guys to get hit. Allow them to run the ball against a live defense. Let them throw the ball with a guy in their face.
If somebody gets hurt, so be it.
They’ll have all summer to get healthy.
We’re going to need to find a gamer at that position and you don’t find that person in a seven-on-seven passing drill. Mike McGann was the greatest seven-on-seven practice passer I ever saw at Temple, yet when he got into the game he had this annoying habit of throwing to guys who weren’t wearing Cherry or White jerseys.

You can’t have a turnover machine at that position or someone who can’t duck out of a pass rush and make positive yards.
The Owls need more than a “game manager” at that position this year. They need a “game changer.”
I think they’ll find one. God, I hope so.
At last count, they have Vaughn Charlton, Chester Stewart, Chris Coyer, Mike Gerardi at the top of the depth chart. They have other guys who have played the position in high school either already here or coming in, like Aaron Haas, Matt Falcone, Andre Coble, Connor Reilly.
2) Get the gang of 100 players in a circle and ask who snapped the ball in high school. Ask them to have their high school coaches send film of them snapping. Pick the best three and have a competition. If one, two or three are excellent or even good, make long-snapping a part of their daily routine (even five minutes). Long-snapping is a routine play at about 118 other Division IA schools. Let’s make it that way again at Temple.
3) Improve the pass rush. I’m a big fan of blitz packages that send more than one linebacker or safety on certain down-and-distance situations. Temple needs to turn up the heat on opposing quarterbacks. Adrian Robinson is the best pass-rusher in the league, but wouldn’t it be nice to consistently collapse the pocket with another “Adrian Robinson” coming from the other side.
If I’m Mark D’Onofrio, I’m seriously considering going to a
3-4 with Amara Kamara and Robinson returning to their natural outside linebacker positions and using Robinson as a “rush” linebacker, like the Giants did with Lawrence Taylor. Moving Robinson all over the field will make him harder to find.
I’d use Big Mo Wilkerson as one defensive end, Levi Brown as the nose guard and Kadeem Custis as the other defensive end and rotate guys in after that. Imagine, if you will, what a nightmare, say, Chris Whitney’s life would be if he had two 6-5 athletic guys coming at him from both DE positions and still had to account for Robinson’s presence? I’m liking it already. I want to see Whitney and every other quarterback who plays Temple hit the ground hard multiple times before being able to release the ball.
I’m hoping that is the plan Al Golden and staff have come up with between Feb. 22d and now.
The time to implement it would be in a few days when spring practice starts.

(some dates and times unofficial 🙂 )
Fri., Sept. 3: VILLANOVA Lincoln Financial Field, 5 p.m.

Thu., Sept. 9: *CENTRAL MICHIGAN Lincoln Financial Field, 7 p.m.

Sat., Sept. 18 CONNECTICUT Lincoln Financial Field, 12

Sat., Sept. 25 at Penn State University Park, Pa., 3:30

Sat., Oct. 2 at Army West Point, N.Y., 12

Sat., Oct. 9 *at Northern Illinois DeKalb, Ill., 1

Sat., Oct. 16 *BOWLING GREEN Lincoln Financial Field, 12

Sat., Oct. 23 *at Buffalo Buffalo, N.Y., 12

Sat., Oct. 30 *AKRON Lincoln Financial Field, 2

Sat., Nov. 6 *at Kent State Kent, Ohio, 1

Tues., Nov. 16 *OHIO Lincoln Financial Field 8 p.m. ESPN2

Tues., Nov. 23 *at Miami (Ohio) Oxford, Ohio 7 p.m. ESPN2

I don’t know about you, but I’ve given up on circling wins and losses on a schedule a long time ago.
It was about the season that Jeff Garcia replaced an injured Donovan McNabb and took the Eagles on a six-game winning streak.
That was the year the Birds were at Giants, at Redskins and at Cowboys all in consecutive weeks.
All the talking heads had the Eagles losing all three.
When McNabb got hurt, they all said it was over.
Wrong on all counts.
The Eagles won all three and did it without McNabb.
Who knows what the future holds for any team, although it appears the Owls are swifter, stronger, more talented and more experienced than any other team in their league.
I wouldn’t bet against them.
When this schedule came out, though, I thought this was the perfect for me schedule because:
1) I hate byes
2) It opens up with three straight home games.
After the way the team opened up last year against Villanova, don’t think that they aren’t excited about getting that bad memory out of their heads forever.
I think they will.
If they do, it sets up a well-attended next two games.
If they win those, the attendance momentum will just continue.
Picture, for example, the EagleBank Bowl experience in terms of a roaring loud crowd and a real homefield advantage and you’ll get what I’m talking about. At the EBB, I saw a loud, involved, Temple crowd. It stunned UCLA and it sure stunned a lot of us who had season tickets for the past 30 years.
A good start brings that kind of excitement back in a way nothing else can.
I’m selfish about the byes. I know they sometimes help heal an injured team, but I don’t see the use in them.
Kids are, what, between 18-22, and they should be able to play every week.
Plus, the Owls get 10 days between a couple of games so it shouldn’t hurt them too much.
I hate byes because that means a week without Temple football and my autumns have been consumed with the Owls.
That’s why this is the perfect schedule for me.
I get to talk, breathe, blog and live Temple football each week.
It’s a good schedule.
Bring it on, the sooner the better.

Tom Leonard’s cellphone photo of the TU side of the field.

Belated EagleBank Bowl Thoughts
EBB was without a doubt the most memorable TUFB experience in my 18 or so years following the program. My wife and I arrived in DC the night before the game. Hotel was in an excellent downtown location, although under renovation. Spent the night bopping in and out of restaurants and bars.

Numbers of folks dressed in in TU garb and cherry and white climbed as the evening went on. Woke up on gameday with a slight case of the Irish flu, but nonetheless happily pushed on to the Metro station en route to the Armory, where I stepped into a zone of TU pre-game energy of historic proportions. The band, video footage, combination of familiar and new faces, and overall level of downright giddiness for TUFB was delightful. I spoke with TU faculty and administrators, alumni and students, folks with family ties to TU, and some who had no affiliation with TU whatsoever–which I found particularly pleasing. A couple guys behind me in line were from James Madison U. They travelled to DC simply to behold an easily accessible bowl game, and touted that JMU had FBS aspirations. The indoor tailgate was an exceptional experience. Zero regrets. I even got a photo (soon to be framed, with no spousal objection) with the UCLA cheerleaders (ok, technically dance team or pep team or something, but it worked for me).

As gametime neared, I strategically applied the lasted techno heating elements into shoes and pockets; checked that tickets were in hand, and hastily gulped down the final Absolute and Cranberry (scotch was unavailable) of the afternoon while working towards the exit. The throngs of fans channeling into RFK was a beauty to behold.

There were a lot of TUFB fans at RFK. A lot. I was especially pleased to see so many unfamiliar, aged faces. These weren’t students or die hards, these were Temple folks who have perhaps exhibited sporadic interest here and there but hadn’t previously been uniformily motivated. Folks around me were looking in their program for names and asking about “that #22” and posing questions about next year’s QB, and such. Novice aside, they displayed the same excitement about TUFB as the rest of us. In a word, refreshing. Prior to the game, I was concerned that perhaps 6 or 7K faithful would show. AG referenced 16K. Not sure where got that figure, but he should know. 16K passes the test, at least my test. We have the coach and the talent, but I questioned the alumni. There is hope.

No reason to comment on the game. Nothing new to share. The experience, however, was novel. And worthy of comment.
Tom Leonard
long-time Temple football fan
“Hootsalotisme” on OwlsDaily.com

If you type in “how loaded is loaded” into a google search engine these days, the first result will be this very thoughtful and well-researched post by MH55 on Owlscoop.com.
Before this post goes into oblivion caused by Rivals.com’s limited serving capacity, we thought we would store it here.

MH55 got the idea, I presume, from the night of the bowl party.
Three or four of the boosters who had a chance to speak to Golden that night said that Golden used the words “we’re loaded” for next year and followed that up with big cat-eating-the-canary grin.
A knowledgeable Temple football fan knew that before Golden said so, but it’s nice to get some affirmation from the top guy.
MH55 did one better, loading up on names and positions.
It was one of two great posts on Temple football this offseason that deserve to be preserved for posterity.
The other was written by Tom Leonard, Hootsalotisme, on the OwlsDaily.com board about the EagleBank Bowl experience.

Here’s MH55’s in its entirely (quotes around MH55’s words):
“I still haven’t heard Al Golden actually say “We’re Loaded” but it sure looks that way when you consider experience, size and talent. Its still hard to believe the caliber of talent AG has amassed when one considers how desperate we were when he took the job and he’s operating in a battlezone of BCS Schools. Here’s the roster w games played in (XX)

Defensive Line:
Eli Joseph (36)
Kamara (35)
Robinson (25)
Blueford (24)
Wilkerson (24)
Morkeith Brown (21)
Custis (10)
Frenk (1)
Nwasike
Wise

Red Shirts

Levi Brown
Shahid Paulhill
Kamal Johnson
Geoffrey Prather
Tyreek Spain

Recruits
Caray wrestling, honors star, ARob heir
Daniels-keeping talent local
Hush-Sopranos 1st team all state
Newman-PaPreps Predicts Pro
Weaver-will play on TV in summer all star game

Linebackers
P Joseph (27)
Martin (25)
Whitehead (13)
Namude (12)
Q White (10)
M Green (12)
St Johnson

Red Shirts
Caponegro
Onukwuesi
Beatty
Van Norton
Zach Kane (U Mia X)

Recruits
Adewole-Chose Best MAC Offer
Benson-All SEPA LB
N Smith-NJ Friend says a future star

Defensive Backs
Jarrett (37)
Liverpool (37)
Griffin (23)
Gildea (12)
Kroboth (11)
Mo Jones (12)
Falcone (12)
K Johnson (8)
J Williams (2)

Red Shirts
Terrell (2)
Deonte Parker
Byron Parker
M Gould

Recruits
Burns _ Only had 2 BCS Offers
Goods _ Track Star
Robey _ Speed merchant begins the Norristown pipeline

Quarterbacks

Charlton (28)
Stewart (20)
Gerardi (1)

Red Shirts
Coyer
Bryan Morris

Recruits
Reilly-Baseball, Brains and Big Plays

Running Backs

Pierce (12)
Brown (11)

Red Shirts
A Smith (6)

Recruits
Myron Ross-Could be a stud

TE
Balasavage (20)
Rodriguez (13)
Pekarski (1)

Red Shirts
Booth
A Jackson
Parthemore
L Turner
Brookhart
Recruits

T Johnson-Probably lucky to be at Temple Since he didnt Receive any BCS Offers possibly because he committed to Temple or maybe he’s just a mediocre player that we shouldn’t even mention

Wide Receivers
D Green (37)
Crudup (33)
Campbell (31)
Nixon (25)
Jones (25)
Hutchinson (18)
Bynum (14)
Carraway (9)
Hammond (1)
Baker

Red Shirt
Anthony Parker Boyd (North Car X)
Ryan Alderman
R Streater JuCo

Recruits
Belt-our Andre Rison?
Coble-No to Tobacco Road
Miller-Superb Athlete
Shine-Cali Find
Silvera-BE Capable Temple Ready

Offensive Line
Morris (32)
Madison (28)
Dennis (27)
Tribue (25)
Sean Boyle (25)
Palumbo (22)
Caputo (19)
Brown (17)
Pat Boyle (17)
Schonnbruner (9)
Whittingham (4)
Yuan (1)

Red Shirts
Martin Wallace (Northeastern X) 6’6 295
Scott Roorda 6’3 318
Cody Bohler 6’7 305
Evan Regas 6’4 313
Sean Pearson 6’5 312
Daryl Pringle 6’6 315

Recruits
Centapiempo 6’7 315 Just started FB for Kicks
Grant 6’6 340-Fork Union Crusher
Metz 6’5 310-1st local OL/ BCS Talent to choose TU
Walton 6’4 320-One Bad Ass Chef”

It should be noted that the above words from the first quote to the last quote were all MH55’s. He was speaking sacastically about TE recruit Tyler Johnson, a rebuff to a small minority of Temple fans who think anybody who doesn’t have a boatload of BCS offers isn’t any good.
EBB experience continues at the Linc:
Get your season tickets now

By Mike Gibson
If you listen to coach Al Golden, and I try to do that every chance I get, whether it’s on signing day or Fan Fest or Cherry and White day, whenever, you will become conversant in what I call Goldenspeak.
“Core values” … you’ll hear that a lot.
“Going forward” … that’s another favorite catch phrase of his, so is “it’s all part of the process.”
There are a few more, but I won’t write a Golden/English Dictionary here.
The point being that before all of that, Golden came up with a phrase he thought enough of to put on the wall at Edberg-Olson Hall.
“Hunting a MAC title with local talent.”
It’s become a core value, if you will, of the program, err, going forward. So much so that it has appeared in the school’s football media guide the past few years.
What you won’t hear Golden say is that he’s going after this Holy Grail, this MAC title, with BCS-level talent.

“Let’s face it, guys, Temple is a Big East team playing in the MAC. Their talent level made us look like a high school team.”
_ Akron fan’s post on ZipsNation.org
after Temple’s 56-17 win last year

If Hunting for a Title with Local talent is the program’s self-proclaimed headline, then “by the way, we’re playing with BCS-level players in a non-BCS league” has to be some kind of subhead.
I know it’s not as catchy, but it’s true.
It’s like the guy wrote on the Akron message board, ZipsNation.org, after Temple thumped Akron, 56-17, last year.
“Let’s face it, guys,” the long-time Akron fan said, “Temple is a Big East team playing in the MAC. Their talent level made us look like a high school team.”
The implication was clear and so were the on-field results.
While Akron might beat out Kent State or a player, Temple is beating out Vanderbilt.
While Kent State might beat out Ohio for a player, Temple is beating out Maryland and Michigan State.
You only need to stop at the A’s, B’s and C’s of the signing brochure to find that out.
I did a story for the Philadelphia Inquirer today on a couple of basketball players from Friends’ Central, who received offers from Temple and other big-time schools. Before that goes into the paper, you have to fact-check those claims against the Scout.com database. Soout.com will say “yes’ if a player has been offered and “no” if he has not. It’s a pretty cut-and-dried system, the best there is.
I thought about that while thumbing through the pages of the 2010 signing class brochure the other day.
I followed the same routine Temple’s football signees and the claims made in the brochure, with only one or two exceptions, were verified by Scout.com’s system. That’s pretty good when talking about 27 incoming freshmen.
Niyi Adewole, a linebacker from Upper Darby, had an offer from Vanderbilt, as did Myron Ross, a running back from Wissahickon.
Antonio Belt, a wide receiver from Forestville, Md., “selected Temple over Maryland and Michigan State.”
Wyatt Benson, a linebacker from Haverford School, picked Temple over “Stanford and Pitt.”
Brian Burns, a defensive back and former next-door neighor to Benson in Southwest Philly, “selected Temple over West Virginia and Rutgers.”
Taray Carey, a defensive end from Whitehall, picked Temple over UConn and Boston College.
Those are just the A’s, B’s and C’s. It’s like that all the way down to defensive tackle Dante Weaver, who the brochure says picked Temple over Rutgers and Maryland.
Lsst year, the Owls signed a quarterback, Chris Coyer (pictured), on the night Ohio State extended him a conditional verbal offer (you visit us, we will offer). Temple was on Coyer for months and OSU arrived on the scene in the last day.
Coyer said, basically, “thanks, guys, but no thanks I made my mind up. I’m going to Temple.”
Now, after a year of fine-tuning, the Coyer quarterback Stealth Fighter is shined and polished and ready to leave the E-O hanger to wreck havoc on the rest of the MAC.
He could have gone to Ohio State, much like many of his teammates could have gone to more recognized schools.
Good schools with good football programs.
They could have gone anywhere.
They chose Temple.
Bill Cosby, who made that commercial famous some 20 years ago, should be proud.
So should every Temple fan.