Owls must find a way to get weapons like Evan Rodriguez, Joe Jones, Jason Harper and James Nixon active and involved.
Special credit for Evan Rodriguez photo to Tom Schoenewald

McManus kicks game-winner
Temple at Akron
Kickoff: 8:30 p.m.
TV: ESPNU
Radio: WPHT, 1210AM

By Mike Gibson
A very wise man (an old Owl, actually) once told me that a good offensive coordinator is like a magician.
“He’ll be able to show you three shells and tell you where the ball is at and then lift it up, only to reveal the ball under another shell,” the Owl, err, man, said.
Over the last few weeks or so, Temple’s offense has been like that shell game.
Only over that time, the Owls showed their shells and the crowd watching guessed where the ball was pretty much all the time.
Not much magic there.
The No. 30 shell, otherwise known as Bernard Pierce, had the ball.
We knew it.
They knew it.
They could do nothing about it.
Miami (Ohio), though, was really the first team to figure out how to combat this offense.
Trailing, 31-13, the No. 1 way the RedHawks were able to get back into the game was sending 11 men to the No. 30 shell. That led to a lot of three-and-outs and a lot of opportunities for the RedHawks to get back into the game. They did, and even led, 32-21, with two minutes to go.
Temple won by countering with a pass on first down. They they ran it. Then they kicked a field goal.
Game over.
Seventh-straight win, 34-32.
The Owls travel to Akron (Friday night, 8:30 p.m., ESPNU) and the Zips will be able to read Miami’s blueprint to beat Temple by then.
Sell out for the run and dare Temple to pass.
That’s why it might bode Temple head coach Al Golden and Matt Rhule to come with a new Golden/Rhule, ala a Chinese Proverb:

If enemy figures your plan out, go with another plan.

In this case, though, the plan is not all that hard to devise.
Temple has a new quarterback, Chester Stewart, who was a winner while playing at DeMatha in Hyattsville, Md. In his senior year there, Stewart threw for 17 touchdowns and showed the kind of rollout ability to hit moving targets on the run that caused defensive coordinators headaches. He was a major reason why DeMatha went 10-0 and won the D.C. City Title his senior year.
If the Owls want to continue this impressive winning streak, they are going to have to incorporate Stewart, with Pierce, as a major part of this new plan.
Stewart can hit talented tight end Evan Rodriguez, who opened some eyes up in spring ball with his ability to catch and break tackles, in the soft spot of the zones 15, 20 and 30 yards downfield.
He can rear back after play-action fakes to Pierce and hit 4.3-40 sprinter James Nixon on a fly pattern deep down the center of the field.
He can throw 15-yard sideline slants to Joey Jones and Michael Campbell and Jason Harper and have those guys used their exceptional speed and talent to juke defenders and make extra RAC (run-after-catch) yards.
He can and he must, but it must be part of a show formulated by Rhule and approved by Golden.
You and I know what kind of talent those guys bring to this show, but the rest of the league doesn’t. Their talent has been kept under wraps.
So far.
That’s the beauty of this plan.
It might not mean 40 carries for Pierce (like two of the last three games), but it will be 25 or so more effective carries for The Franchise and a number of needed touches for the incredible edge weapons this team has.
The most impressive trick in this magic show is making a blueprint to beat Temple disappear.

Sorry the Miami recap is so late.
Something called a real job and sleep (too little of it) got in the way.
Back to game day.
If the three hours of Temple football aren’t the fastest in all of sports, then the three hours of pre-game tailgating rate a close second.
In between, I almost tripped over a wire in a tent where a couple of great young alumni fans had a portable heater (it was really appreciated, by the way) but I showed the kind of balance that made me the Bernard Pierce (well, more like Shelley Poole) of my 125-pound Far Northeast traveling team back in the day.
(If I only had their speed …)
And a good time was had by all ….
I saw a lot to like, less to dislike and, for the first time this season, I saw a head coach who showed me some cajones by making a move that had to be made.
All that said, I just want to say this:
How about ‘dem OWLboys!
How about ‘dat OWL Golden?
Some thumbs ups, some thumbs downs:
MARK D’ONOFRIO _ The last three years, I’ve become convinced that Mark D’Onofrio is the one of the best defensive coordinators in all of college football. If he isn’t the best, he’s the best no one knows about. No bigger MDO fan than me, but I think this bend-but-don’t-break approach is absolute garbage. It killed us against Villanova. It almost got us killed against Fake Miami. I’ve been saying this all year and it bears repeating. Get to the g-damn quarterback. If you can’t get there with four, send five. If you can’t get there with five, send six. If you can’t get there with six, send seven. If you can’t get there with seven, send eight. Chances are almost 100 percent that you will get to the QB if you send eight. In the 2 percent event that you don’t, I have confidence that Marquise Liverpool, Jacquain Jarrett and Dominique Harris are talented enough, athletic enough and fast enough to keep the damage in front of them.
AL GOLDEN _ Just an incredible ballsy move to pull the quarterback. You might ask what’s so incredible about pulling the starting QB after a 5 for 17, 37 yards, 2 picks, 0 TDs? I say it is incredible. How many QBs have been pulled after winning six straight games? It says that a 5 for 17 and 2 picks is an unacceptable performance level and it sends a message to the rest of the team that everybody’s performance is under review and that you must play to a high standard to keep your job.

LFF SECURITY _ Specifically, CSC Security, which holds a contract from LFF. A can of beer, smuggled in some some kids, “rolled” (or was placed, I prefer to think rolled) under the seat of an older lady sitting on the Temple side. She comes to the games every year. She never does nothing but cheer, but CSC security guards approached her, saw the can of beer under her seat, and asked her to leave. She refused to leave so they forcibly removed her to the protests of all around her. CSC guards would take no input from the crowd, they just acted as judge, jury and executioner. Big men, CSC. Kicking out an old lady. Temple should hunt that lady down and give her two free season tickets for next season.
MATT RHULE _ Nobody wants to give the ball to The Franchise more than I do, but 40 times a game? C’mon, Matt. What if he gets hurt? What’s Plan B? Let’s play off some effective BP runs by rolling out Chester and hitting talented guys like James Nixon, Evan Rodriguez, Steve Manieri, Joey Jones, Michael Campbell in that soft spot of both sidelines 15-20 yards down the field. Guess what? You make those throws and you might open up more stuff underneath for The Franchise. I bet you’ll see him go 70 that much more when defenses don’t know which shell the ball is under.
VAUGHN CHARLTON _ Yeah, you read that right, Vaughn Charlton. He’s the captain of the team and the ultimate team player. What a superb job he did selling the fake FG and scoring the touchdown. Temple doesn’t win that game without that play from Charlton. I love the fact that this kid took Chris Coyer under his wing in the early stages of summer ball and said, “He’s just a tremendous quarterback. I’m looking forward to getting to know him.” The two are roommates and, I assume, friends. If that’s not leadership, I don’t know what is.
THE FANS _ Although the crowd was 13,897, the fans were into it. The SEPTA strike killed the crowd from a couple of different levels. Our students rely on that mode to get to the games. Heck, a lot of our alumni do, too. Plus, the city was gridlocked for hours before the game. No one wanted to fight that traffic. (I did, and was stuck on I-95 for an hour.) Still, I got to the game with three hours to spare and made the pre-game tailgate. Once inside the stadium, thank God a talented young photographer, Ryan Porter (you’ve seen his work on this site), took the night off and ended up seated next to me. When I started a “Let’s Go TEM-PLE” cheer he joined in and that got our entire section going. When I yelled (more than once but less than 40 times) “GIVE THE BALL TO THE FRANCHISE!” a couple of guys, complete strangers, joined in and yelled that with me. Then they came down to our row and joined me and Ryan with some full-throtted cheering the rest of the game. Other fans in different sections picked up their game, too. That’s my dream. To not only get 40,000 into Temple games on a regular basis but to get them active and involved.
That’s the Promised Land I see on the other side of the mountain for Temple football.
I hope I get there with you.

Owl Nation …. Photo courtesy of Owlsports.com

MAC sack leader Adrian Robinson
Temple-Miami
Thursday, Nov. 5
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m.
Line: Temple by 17 1/2
Records: Owls 6-2, Miami 1-8
Radio: WHAT-AM, 1340
TV: None

Now that the Phillies have lost to the Yankees, there is no excuse for Owl Nation.

Show up and represent for one of the hottest college football teams in the country, YOUR Temple Owls.

Could there have been anything worse for Temple football than for the Owls to be playing a live game against the seventh game of the World Series in a town crazed for one of the participants on a cold night when the buses and subways aren’t running?

That would have been a Doomsday Scenario for Temple attendance on the same level of a loss to Villanova.

Well, if you don’t have a car, it might be tough to get to the Linc but the university is offering free bus rides to all interested students.

So there is no excuse whatsoever for the 10,000 students who live on campus.

It’s time for the 260,000 living Temple alumni to get with the (football) program as well, since most of us have cars and can take up to five other people with us.

The football team has done their part and they are working hard to do more for our great university. They have goals far beyond what they have already accomplished.

You can help them by showing up Thursday night and showing that you care.

There are few teams playing Football Bowl Subdivision ball who need fans, a following, a crowd more than Temple does but too often crap out of the Owls’ control conspires against them.

Now that the Owls are winning and the Phillies have lost, both Temple’s on-and-off-field luck is changing for good.

Gosh, I certainly hope so.

Consider past happenings that have helped ruin the attendance:
The Catch That Was (but ruled wasn’t) _ Bruce Francis caught a ball two years ago at UConn that would have boosted 2007 attendance immeasurably. Yet a Big East (yes, Big East) replay official ruled a catch wasn’t a catch.
The Philadelphia Hurricane _ Hurricanes never hit Philadelphia, right? Wrong. The UConn rematch of 2008 was much ballyhooed and promoted with billboards. A crowd of close to 30,000 was expected but a legitimate Catergory One Hurricane (Hanna) rolled through Philadelphia just in time for a Saturday noon kickoff. On the nightly news 12 hours earlier, John Bolaris reported, “No, Temple won’t be playing tomorrow. No way in this weather.” Bolaris signed off before anyone could correct that boozo that football games are played in all kinds of weather. People turned off the TV and stayed away, many thinking there would not even be a game. The fact that 17,000 die-hards attended and cheered their butts off was remarkable.
The Hail Mary _ It’s thrown hundreds of times and knocked down hundreds of times. One or two times every 40 or so years, somebody gets lucky. Buffalo got lucky. Temple attendance suffered the rest of the year.
The Navy fumble _ Everybody else takes a knee in the situation the Owls found themselves in last year in Annapolis. Temple decided to run a play instead, ala Miracle of the Meadowlands. So what happened? Miracle in Annapolis.
The Villanova Debacle _ I saw literally hundreds of people, guys I haven’t seen in years, in the pre-game parking lot of this year’s Sept. 3 game who told me how excited they were to be playing Villanova again. Almost to a man, all of them offered a caveat. “If we don’t beat the crap out of this team, I won’t be back,” they said. “I mean it.” I haven’t seen a single one of them back since. That was an attendance-killer for the rest of the season, no matter what the Owls did after it. I was stunned at the depth of feeling going into the stadium and even more convinced that folks were serious about what they said when I walked out of the stadium that night. People felt that strongly about beating Villanova.
The Army Nor’easter _ Owls expected a huge crowd, about 25,000, for Homecoming against Army in October. Unfortunately, a Nor’easter picked Temple’s Homecoming to ruin that day. Crowd would have been about 25K with nice weather. It turned out to be 14K and a lot of alumni just skipped Homecoming rather than deal with the wind, rain and cold.
Temple finally deserves to reap the rewards of being the biggest, most interesting, sports story in town.
Sorry to see the Phillies lose but the alternative would have been ugly for the Owls.
Now our fans can make it a beautiful night by doing nothing more strenuous than getting off their butts to get to the game and standing and cheering for three hours at the game.
It’s not much to ask.

The question was posed to a young Bernard Pierce in the locker room at Lincoln Financial Field a couple of weeks ago.

“Dude, do you realize you have a chance to break Paul Palmer’s records?”
“Who’s Paul Palmer?” Pierce said.
What some longtime Temple fans might see as blasphemy was really an innocent remark that illustrated, more than anything else, how young Bernard Pierce is.
The true freshman wasn’t even born yet when the kid known as Boo-Boo was in a heated battle with Vinny Testaverde for the 1986 Heisman Trophy.

On Halloween, Bernard Pierce came dressed up as Paul Palmer.
Chances are, Pierce will get to know Boo-Boo well in the coming months and years as each record Palmer set falls.
Temple beats Villanova by AT LEAST 20 points with this sure-handed young superstar getting 20 or more carries, rather than the six he had in the opener.
You’d have to be Stevie Wonder not to see that.
Today, Pierce rushed for 267 yards and two spectacular touchdowns as the Owls overcame an anemic passing attack to beat Navy, 27-24, otherwise known as the best team on their schedule not named Penn State. He did a good impersonation of Paul Palmer on Halloween, becoming the first Owl runner since Boo-Boo to rush for over 200 yards in consecutive games.

Numbers don’t lie
Bernard Pierce:
29 carries
267 yards
2 touchdowns
Vaughn Charlton:
5 for 17
37 yards
0 touchdowns
2 interceptions

The fact that the Owls could not throw the ball and hit open receivers (check the film, they were running open through the Navy secondary all day) only makes what Pierce did all that more impressive.
As the game went on, Navy’s defense loaded up in the box to stop Pierce.
Didn’t matter.
He was too quick, too strong, too fast.
The Owls’ offensive line, which averages 310 pounds across the front, also deserves a lot of credit. They knocked Navy off the ball like bowling pins. There is a photo accompanying this story that shows Pierce running through a hole and the Temple line knocking Navy off the ball in the background.
There is still much work to be done for this Owls’ team to reach its potential.
The passing game, which really has alternated between bad and worse (today was worse), needs to be fixed.
I’ve been saying that for eight weeks, but no one wants to fix it.
It’s tempting to say leave well enough alone, but I won’t join that crowd.
Why not make something real good better, if you can? Why not play off Pierce’s runs by throwing touchdown passes to James Nixon, Michael Campbell, Steve Manieri and Evan Rodriguez?
Those guys are doing their jobs by getting open, just like Pierce does his job by punishing linebackers and running past safeties.
You’ve got to be able to get someone in there who can throw the ball effectively.
Some hard decisions about personnel are going to have to be made at that position.
To win the championship, the Owls need to make Pierce more of a weapon by fixing the firing mechanism.
Who’s Paul Palmer, yes, but another question could be:
Where’s Matty Baker?

“Give the ball to The Franchise, that’s what I’ve been telling coach all along,” Steve Manieri seems to be saying to Bernard Pierce.

Mark Beier and the Toledo radio broadcast team threw some many bouquets in Temple’s direction Saturday night, you didn’t know which ones to catch and which ones to send to the niece’s wedding.
Beier talked about the size and the fierceness of Temple’s offensive line and the overall speed of the Temple defense.
Something Beier said in the fourth quarter of Temple’s 40-24 win at Toledo really caught my ear, though.
“I haven’t seen a running back of this caliber in the Mid-American Conference in a long, long time,” said Beier, whose radio call also streams worldwide on a MAC access channel with video.
Color man Tom Duncan agreed.
Beier was, of course, talking about Temple freshman Bernard Pierce, whose amazing recovery from being carried off in a stretcher last week in the Army game is nothing more than Lourdes-like.

BP’s numbers:
40 carries=game
212 yards=game
3 touchdowns=game
766 yards=season
9 TDs=season

Pierce rushed for 212 yards and three touchdowns and now has 766 yards on 135 carries, despite getting only six carries against Villanova. Pierce now has a team-high nine touchdowns and already has bettered Paul Palmer’s records for touchdowns (6) and yards (628) by a freshman.
Oh.
Did we mention Palmer finished as a runnerup to Vinny Testaverde for the 1986 Heisman?
Thought I’d mention that.
Temple has now won five straight games for the first time since 1979. The Owls (5-2, 4-0) are also in the MAC East driver’s seat, affirming predictions by both the New York Times and CBS Sportsline prior to the season.
Meanwhile, the Toledo game was a tale of two stars with bum shoulders.
One could play. One didn’t.
“It’s doubtful,” Temple coach Al Golden said when asked if Pierce would play Wednesday.
Five minutes later, in the same presser, Golden said: “I don’t have any doubt, Aaron Opelt will be playing quarterback on Saturday night for Toledo.”
Well, guess what happened?
Pierce’s broken shoulder was fixed and Golden’s doubt-meter was broken.
Or maybe Al was just playing possum.
Whatever, I don’t think Toledo wins that game with Opelt AND Pierce playing.
Then again, I don’t think Temple wins that game without Pierce.
That’s how good Pierce was.
When you have a running back like Pierce, you can manage the game off him and that’s what Temple quarterback Vaughn Charlton did so well on Saturday night.
Vaughn threw a nice touchdown pass that Michael Campbell caught, another ball that Michael Campbell probably should have caught for six (it would have been a really good catch, though) and another flair that went for another touchdown to Jason Harper, who only makes positive things happen every time his number is called.
Pierce went out for a blow late in the fourth quarter and they handed the ball to Lamar McPherson, who promptly went down on the same kind of play Pierce was falling forward for eight yards a pop.
“You can see the difference between Pierce and everybody else,” Beier said.
Whatever they rubbed on his shoulders this week, must’ve worked.
I wonder if they got the bottle overnighted from France.
Whatever, it was the Elixer the Owls needed and one they will have to keep in the medicine shelf the rest of the way.

The best pass defense is putting Opelt on his ass all night long.
By Mike Gibson
I got one of those campus-wides alerts from Temple University security the other day.
It warned students “not to get too rowdy” in their celebrations after big wins.
For a second, maybe even a minute, I thought they were talking about the Temple University football team’s four-game winning streak and some anticipated poll-climbing by exhuberant students after win No. 5.
Then I thought about the Phillies.

Oh, never mind, I thought.
We’ve got a long way to go. I’d love to see Temple students identify with their fellow Temple students (playing for them, by the way) than with a group of 25 professionals playing for an entire region.
Maybe that’s just me.
But it will take more than a four-game winning streak, or even a fiver, for that to happen.
The worse part is that I don’t see a five-game winning streak in this team.
I’ve got this nasty feeling in my gut and have had it for a few days.
The streak ends at No. 4, I fear.
It’s part gut (I’ve been taking Pepto-Bismol for it, but to no avail) and part based on these realities as I see them:

• Despite having great receivers all over the place, we’ve not been able to develop a passing game anyone fears or has reason to fear for six games;
• We went 0 for 9 on third downs in the final three quarters against an EMU team that got torched for 56 the next week. Not good. Not good at all.
• We have tight ends lining up in the backfield, when they should be where Pop Warner designed them to be _ on the line of scrimmage;
• We have no fullback, either to serve as a lead blocker for the tailback or to protect our quarterback on blindside blitzes. We need a fullback and that’s painfully obvious.
• We face a quarterback, Aaron Opelt, whose specialty is picking secondaries apart if he has time.
• We have not shown the gonads to pressure the quarterback on every down. We play a more bend-but-don’t-break defense that plays into the hands of quarterbacks who have time to throw. The best pass defense is putting the QB on his backside. You can’t see open receivers if you are running for your life.
• The best running back we’ve had since Paul Palmer is hurt. He may be cleared to play, but he’s still hurt.

This could be a 35-20 Toledo win, unless Temple fixes a non-existent passing game or blitzes from the opening toss.
That’s what my gut tells me.
Of course, my hope is that Vaughn Charlton throws for 350, four touchdowns, no picks and that Bernard Pierce plays and picks up his usual buck twenty-five.
My gut has been wrong before, as recently as a couple of days ago.
Jimmy Rollins came to the plate.
“Game’s over,” I told a crowded newsroom, mostly due to my gut but thinking a little reverse Black Cat. “I’ve never seen this guy come up with a real big clutch hit in the playoffs.”
Next pitch, gapper.
Let’s hope the Owls prove my gut wrong again.
Now excuse me while I take two more Pepto-Bismols.

Nice job on that sack, Big Mo (Muhammad Wilkerson).

By Mike Gibson
The year was 1985.
The top-rated television program was “The Cosby Show.”
A gallon of gas was 69 cents.
The No. 1 song in the country on Oct. 17 was by a group from Norway, Ah-a, “Take on Me.”
That day, the Temple University football team was coming off its fourth win in a row, a 45-16 thumping of William and Mary. That was after wins on the road against East Carolina (21-7) and Cincinnati (28-16) and a 14-13 win at home against Rutgers.
Temple has not won four straight.
Until now.
I was struck by something Al Golden said before all this winning stuff started happening four weeks ago.
“Once we start winning, it’s going to continue for a long time,” Golden said. “That’s the way this thing is built.”
It was a telling quote and an unforgettable one.
Four straight wins have now followed and this latest one probably is the most impressive from where I stand.
I’m getting used to this winning, but it doesn’t mean I’m taking it for granted.
I saw a couple of people leaving on Saturday and I mentioned to my friend, “I’m not leaving early. I want to go over and sing the fight song with the team. I want to savor every last drop of this.”

“Once we start winning, it’s going to continue for a long time. That’s the way this thing is built.”

He understood where I was coming from.
I tasted the sewer water of losing for too long. Now I want to taste the sweet nectar of winning.
If Golden is right, and I have no reason to doubt him, I’m going to be hanging around for a lot of fight songs and I can’t think of anything better.
Saturday Temple beat an Army team that beat an SEC team, Vanderbilt, last week.
Army is very well-coached by Rich Ellerson (although you couldn’t tell it at times on Saturday) and the Cadets are going to beat a lot of teams.
In fact, I would not be surprised if the Cadets don’t beat Rutgers at beautiful Michie Stadium on Friday night because they play a style of defense that all teams should play.
Blitz, blitz and more blitz.
They put eight in the box and they come after the quarterback, hoping the reward (turnovers) outweighs any risk.
I can’t see Rutgers’ quarterback Tom Savage, a true freshman, thriving against that defense at all.
I like the philosophy and the scheme.
I also like the fact that these wonderful kids who play football for Temple University perserved against it.
Was it a masterpiece?
No.

Post of The Week
Occassionally, we will see a post that blows us over with its logic and perception and we’ll use it here. I found this one under a “Matt Rhule” thread on Owlscoop.com and I’m using it in its entirety.
First off, absolutely thrilled we won again. I have never seen 4 straight wins as a Temple fan, at least any that I can remember.
That said, Im going to temper my complaints and hope the future doesn’t place so much pressure on our defense. I do not understand our offensive philosophy, if we even have one. I havent identified it other than we are absolutely terrific on short yardage. How many times have we seen Temple stalled on 4th and one/goal in our lifetimes. Not this year.

But what is up with the passing attack? There are simply too many athletes on this team to have such an anemic aerial attack. Particularly our 2nd half offense. Army thought so much of it they went for it on 4th and inches from their 25w 9 mins left? Wow, insanity imo.

I went back and looked at the drive chart. Temple didnt complete a single pass on 1st down yesterday. Why cant we incorporate more simple passes like slip screens and outs? Once again, we threw two deep balls, one was caught for a touchdown and one was missed for a wide open touchdown. Maybe a couple sacks were intended to be deep balls?

I also noticed there were at least two occassions when James Nixon was in single coverage and Army called a timeout. Teams fear that guy but guess how many balls he caught yesterday? Im also happy to see our RS’d highly touted WR recruit Vaughn Carraway makes such an excellent decoy. Maybe Rhule has a thing about two guys with the same name handling the ball. I’d sure hate to see this wonderful season derailed…

Go Owls
MH55

The Owls have to get better on offense. They have to get better protection for Vaughn Charlton. They have to have somebody (whether it be Joey Jones, Lamar McPherson, Kee-ayre Griffin or even Ahkeem Smith) step up and do a reasonable impersonation of Bernard Pierce for a game or two.
They have to get a clutch player like Jason Harper more involved and team leaders like him and Steve Manieri are going to have to keep making great plays like they did on Saturday. (Man, I was sooooooo happy to see Jason Harper reach the end zone for the first of what I hope is many times this season.)
Still, they can’t be leaving plays on the field like they have been during this four-game winning streak.
They get so few opportunities to make plays, they’ve got to cash in when they have them. They can’t be dropping long bombs from Chester Stewart or Vaughn Charlton anymore.
The Owls are coming up against a stretch of teams with quarterbacks, like Aaron Opelt of Toledo, who can make plays and put up a whole lot of points.
They are going to get into a track meet (think EMU last year) with one of these teams and the offense must be ready to win a game or two, like the defense has won these last four.
Nobody knows that more than Al Golden and company so while you and I can just hope the offense comes around, that’ll be the focus this week. Tinkering with these great weapons, putting the gunpowder in and fiddling with the trigger.
It’s a process, Golden likes to say, and it’s all about getting better every day and having fun, too.
Like Wayne Hardin used to say, the only way to have fun in football is to win.
I’m having fun right now. It looked like the kids on the field were having fun, too.
I don’t know where this road leads, but let’s concentrate on both enjoying the journey and getting better every step of the way.
The quality of the journey is directly correlated to the getting better.

It’s Homecoming, so weather be damned, show up and cheer.

Good for football, bad for tailgating.

By Mike Gibson
You can use a couple of words to describe Saturday.
Homecoming is one of them.
Luck is another one, as in bad luck because the Owls drew the short straw from the weatherman for their Homecoming Day game.
Rain and cold come to mind.
So does mud, if it rains enough.
So does the under, as in over/under, which is 39.
So while all of those words are descriptive ones, defense is the operative word on Saturday.

My 5 plays against an 8-man front guaranteed to move the ball:
1. Bernard Pierce left, right and up the middle _ Not on every down, mind you. If it’s not working on first down, pass on second. Don’t put yourself and 3d and longs.
2. The Chester Stewart Throwback Pass _ When Chester Stewart comes into the game, use his specialized talent to throw the ball deep to James Nixon, suckering that 8-man front up to him and leaving Nixon 40 yards open behind the defense.
3. Five, not one, cracks at Nixon _ All on play-action, all after significant gains by Bernard Pierce. That’s when you sell play-action, not on 3d and longs. Throwing the deep ball only once a game to Nixon is borderline criminal. He’s good for at least two touchdowns a game if you throw him 3 to 5 deep balls.
4. The jump pass to the tight end _ It works near the goal line, ala Chester Stewart to Steve Manieri last season at Miami. Fake to Pierce, jump pass to an open Manieri or an open Evan Rodriguez.
5. Screen passes to third-down back Kee-Ayre Griffin _ Give KAG some room to roam against the Army secondary and loosen up that eight-man front from time to time.

Defense, as in DEE-FENSE.
Both Army and Temple have good defenses and the one that dominates on Saturday will win the game.
Whatever advantage the Owls have with speed on the edges (James Nixon and Jason Harper in the passing game and Bernard Pierce in the running game) figures to be negated by the cold, windy and muddy conditions.
The latest forecast is for a high of 47 degrees with wind and light rain.
If the rain is light enough, then maybe the field conditions will be acceptable.
Maybe Bernard Pierce will finally be able to break that long run and show that world class speed of his in the 100-meter dash.
Whatever, I don’t see the two teams combining for 39 points and I don’t see anything outside of a 13-6, 14-7, 17-7 game.
I hope I’m wrong and the Owls break out and Vaughn Charlton finally hits more than his seemingly self-imposed quota of connecting on only one long bomb a game.
I hope the Owls win 44-11, but I don’t see it.
This is one of those strap-it-in-games, with a high emphasis on ball security and good execution on things like punt protection that come as second nature to 99 percent of the Division I teams out there.
One external thing that would help the Owls is a whole bunch of their fans participating and yelling DEE-FENSE, DEE-FENSE, for a full three hours in real time.
That’s the catchword for Saturday.
If you are a Temple fan and you sit on your hands and stay silent, you give away the homefield advantage and that might be the difference in the game. At the end of the year, if the Owls are at six wins and lose this game, this will be the difference between a bowl or no bowl so let’s do all we can to win this one.
That means players, coaches AND fans.
Don’t be afraid to get up and yell DEE-FENSE all day.
Unless Bernard Pierce and or Vaughn Charlton have the ball, of course.

Dickerson’s high school film (above) and Pierce’s high school film (below).

Pierce is a guy who was Pennsylvania state high school indoor champion in the 60-meter dash and then pulled the impressive double of of winning the state 100-meter dash … that translates to one juke and plenty of 40-, 50- and 70-yard touchdown runs coming soon to a stadium near you

By Mike Gibson
As if Temple’s football team didn’t present the Mid-American Conference with enough problems early in the season, the league has looked up and found another unforseen one coming from Philadelphia.
Bernard Pierce, a 6-foot, 212-pound true freshman, has done something no other running back in the history of Temple football has done _ rush for over 100 yards in each of his first three full starts.
Before you dismiss that as a byproduct of history, that includes a Heisman Trophy runner-up in Paul Palmer, who was also an NFL first-round draft choice.
It includes a guy like Todd McNair, a pretty good running back in the NFL who is now an assistant coach at Southern Cal.
It includes a guy named Sherman Myers, from Coatesville, who scored four touchdowns on on the ground in a 1979 Temple 49-17 rout of Syracuse.
It also includes recent NFLers like Stacey Mack and Jason McKie.
There are plenty of good running backs who have played at the school.
None did what Bernard Pierce has done.
But then again none may be as good when all is said and done.
Pierce is a guy who was Pennsylvania state high school indoor champion in the 60-meter dash and then pulled the impressive double of of winning the state 100-meter dash in the spring season.That’s scary enough against track guys.
Against football guys, it translates to one juke and plenty of 40-, 50- and 70-yard touchdown runs coming soon to a stadium near you.
“We thought he could be special,” is the way Temple coach Al Golden describes it.
The Temple student rooting section, which sometimes numbers in the 10s of thousands, has taken to Pierce already.
“SAINT BERN-ARD,” the students chant in unison.
So the inevitable question arises.
“Who does he remind you of?”
Not really any of the Temple backs, I thought.
Well, he really doesn’t remind me all that much of Paul Palmer. Paul could break tackles, sure, but not as well as Bernard. What Bernard doesn’t do as well as Paul is to make tacklers miss, with a little juke here and a jibe thbere, but it’s still early.
Hmm. Who?
People who watched Temple practice in the summer came up with one name.
Eric Dickerson.
It’s what I thought when I saw Pierce for the first time in the Villanova game.
Dickerson was the kind of guy who would approach the hole, take about a half-second to mull his options against the defense, then attack the weakest part of it.
So, I thought, that pretty much was Pierce, a modern-day Eric Dickerson.
I thought me and the other Temple fans were the only ones who thought that until I heard the Buffalo announcers.
“He kind of reminds you of Eric Dickerson,” one of them said during the Owls’ 37-13 win three weeks ago.
Then the Eastern Michigan announcer said the same thing.
“He runs like Eric Dickerson,” he said.
That’s all I needed to know.
We’re all in agreement then.
There is a new Eric Dickerson and he runs the football for Temple University.
That has a nice ring (and a lot of truth) to it.