A special “closed practice” for Penn State followed this initial practice for Villanova.
Only kidding, PSU fans.
Or not.
If Temple comes out in a single wing or a wildcat or a triple option on Sept. 19, you’ll know then.

While walking into the back of the large room reserved for Temple season-ticket holders at McFadden’s last night, I came across a couple of cool Temple football T-shirts.
One was gray with cherry lettering that said: Temple Football.
I saw Matt Rhule jogging wearing that in the late spring and put in the back of my mind that I had to have one of those shirts.
Another cool shirt was cherry with white lettering that also said Temple football.
Couldn’t buy either one, though.
I removed the last $20 bill I had in my wallet and was about to buy a couple until I was informed that they only had them in medium and small.
Tons and tons of them in medium and small and none in large or extra large.
What were they thinking?
The guy digging into the boxes looking for a shirt was wearing a name tag that indicated he was Gavin White Jr. who, like his dad and grandfather, seems to be a very nice guy.
It’s probably not his fault there were no large sizes, but you still have to wonder what went into the thought process when they loaded up the shirts on the Temple truck for the trip to McFadden’s.
“This is going to be all kids, right?” I could see the guy loading the boxes asking.
In reality, these crowds are always mostly older alumni (who, admittedly have put on a few pounds) and they probably should have left all the smalls and mediums at home.
Until then I wasn’t too concerned about some of the other news I heard about five minutes earlier that tickets to the inaugural Mayor’s Cup game with Villanova with one month to go are selling like hot cakes.
Hot cakes in the middle of the afternoon, that is.
The ticket folks at Temple seemed concerned but, quite frankly, I’m more concerned about whether we’re ready for a big walk-up crowd. We clearly were caught with our pants down in 2003, when up to 10,000 people went home after seeing long ticket lines at too few open booths.
From the standpoint of the game itself, it is the middle of the afternoon.
People aren’t thinking about the game right now.
It’s not in the news. There’s no feature stories on the players involved in the papers.

Nobody’s really thinking about it, except hardcore fans from both teams.
Wait until a couple of days before, when the Daily News and Inquirer write stories about it. Comcast is sure to run an obligatory story in its half-hour show after 27 minutes of covering its 30th straight Eagles’ practice.
Until then people won’t think about it.
My conventional wisdom is that if Temple can draw 21,000 for a Saturday afternoon Homecoming game in 2007 against Northern Illinois, it should put at least 30K in the seats for an attractive local opponent like Villanova on a coveted Thursday night date.
Fans now are thinking more about how to spend the last few weeks of summer.
Maybe one way to boost ticket sales for the Villanova game is to offer those cool Temple T-Shirts for free to fans who buy five or more ducats.
Maybe a large T-shirt to fans who purchase 10 or more.
“Would you like those tickets Supersized, sir?”
Then maybe the tickets would sell like hotcakes on a Sunday morning after church.
Whatever, I’m convinced this game is going to have a big walk-up crowd.
I just hope that the Temple staff is better prepared for the walk-up than they were for the shirt sale.

What if only one ticket window is open and 10,000 people are waiting in line Sept. 3? Just walk right by them with your ducats in hand if you click here:

By Mike Gibson
Anyone who was flooded out on the Schuylkill Expressway yesterday, probably remembered seeing one of the billboards the university rented.
For the school’s 125th anniversary, they are putting 125 facts about the school that most people don’t know but would find interesting.
It’s a marketing plan to get the Temple brand out there, but there are some really interesting facts involved.

Some of the obscure ones include:
• Three of the four members of Sister Sledge (“We are Family”) hold Temple degrees;
• Hall and Oates met while students at Temple;
• The Temple School of Dentistry receieves 4,500 applications for 125 available slots each year;

As it relates to football, though, the uni also notes that Bill Cosby lettered in both football and track and that the school played in the first Sugar Bowl game.
Interesting, but even more relevant to this year’s Owls is the following:
Temple is the 28th largest university in the United States;
Approximately 12,000 students live in and around the Main Campus and 33,000 full-time students overall;
Living Temple alumni number 260,000 in all 50 states, 250,000 of them within driving distance of an Owl game;

It’s time that a university in the top 30 in terms of size in the country has a football team in at least that upper echelon.
Once that happens, and we believe that string of winning seasons starts one month from today, it’s up to the alumni and the students to support them.
It all goes hand-in-hand.

The slogan was seen recently on a player’s wrist at the Ocean City (N.J.) Temple Football Fan Fest.
It’s Time.
With the Temple T.
I like it.The best slogans are short, simple, sweet and succinct and that one best fits this year’s Temple football team.
It’s Time to disabuse people of the outdated notion that Temple=bad football.
It’s Time to disabuse our own fans of taking shots at their own school’s football team.

Owlified has always been a stand-up guy.

Recently, one guy who claims he’s a Temple fan, wants Temple to win and runs a Temple-themed website, made a crack about an independent website’s prediction that Temple will win the MAC East.
The crack was something along the lines about that website’s writer smoking the evil weed if it thought Temple had a chance to win anything.
Yet the New York Times Quad Blog thinks the same thing.
I guess the smoke pipe gets passed around there, the nation’s most respected journalistic institution, too.
Dennis Dodd, probably one of the best college football writers online (CBS Sportsline) also picks Temple to win the MAC East so I guess he’s growing some funny stuff in his back yard, too.
Why is it sooooooo hard for someone who pretends to know something about Temple football to wrap his mind around the thought that maybe this team is ready to win the MAC East?

Were they not only a Hail Mary from doing the same thing last year?
Short answer: Yes. A win at Buffalo would have tied Temple in the MAC East with Buffalo and given the Owls the first tie-breaker (head-to-head). It would have been Temple, not Buffalo, playing Ball State for the title last year yet guys like that have selected amnesia when it comes to TU football.
It’s Time to win and to shut these people up permanently.
It’s Past Time.

Owlified’s Excellent Temple Basketball Blog

So the new logo that adorns this site today prominently features it.
Many thanks go to Dave Gerson, who designed the logo you see at the top of this page.
Gerson, who goes by the name Owlified on Temple message boards, is a junior at Central Bucks East High School in Buckinhgam and he has done more for Temple sports in his 16 years than 99 percent of the kids already enrolled.
Temple’s admissions department should seek out this kid and hand him a full academic ride now.
If you go to the Temple games, you’ve seen him. Dave wears the Travis Sheldon jersey and he’s a stand-up guy.
We need 30,000 students with Dave Gerson’s fervor and love for the Owls.
It’s Time.

Our friends at Over The Pylon, a blog that covers Ball State, came with with some impressive research the other day.
It caused me to raise an eyebrow.
According to their figures, citing a U.S. Department of Education website, Temple is No. 1 in the Mid-American Conference in revenues.
Temple is $3 million ahead of second-place Kent State.
Now that’ll make your head spin.
Not that Temple is No. 1 in revenues _ the Owls, after all, drew 70,000 for a home game two years ago _ but that Kent State is No. 2.
Those Temple fans who made the trip to Kent State last year will swear to you that there were no more than 400 Kent State fans in attendance.
Seriously, though, it’s got to make you wonder what’ll happen once Al Golden is able to put a winning product on the field and that should be soon.
Very soon.

Owls have spent the last few days getting their brand name out.

By Mike Gibson
Al Golden has had to feel like a juggler in the last few days.
From the highly successful Al Golden Football Camp, to the Temple Owls’ recent appearances on Independence Mall for a practice and Ocean City for a fanfest, the responsibilities of the head coach extend well beyond his office or the field below.
He’s got to be part travel secretary, part football coach and it’s a tougher job at Temple than most places because the Owls are battling for both visibility and respectability.
Even though he reached the advanced age of 40 a week or so ago, the coach is constantly keeping up with new technology to keep the Temple football brand name out there. He even joined twitter in the past few days and wouldn’t getting daily Temple football updates on your cell phone in that manner from the Temple football coach be a hoot? Or a tweet?

“The Temple football team is a credit to Philadelphia and deserves to be rewarded with all of their hard work both on and off the field with a special season in 2009. Good luck, Owls, and a final piece of advice to the 260,000 living Temple alumni (along with 33K full-time students and 12K full-time employees): GET OUT AND BUY TICKETS TO SUPPORT THESE GUYS.”
_ My comment on Philly.com

Occasionally, though, something happens to make all of the ancillary things worthwhile.
The Temple football team won the Wanamaker Award for community service to Philadelphia. With the Phillies winning the other top award given at the banquet, the focus was on both Temple football and the world champion Phillies.
Not a bad pairing.
In the story running in the Daily News earlier this week, writer Ed Barkowitz focused on Temple’s football team as much as the Phillies.
This caused me to write the following response on Phillies.com:

The Temple football team is a credit to Philadelphia and deserves to be rewarded with all of their hard work both on and off the field with a special season in 2009. Good luck, Owls, and a final piece of advice to the 260,000 living Temple alumni (along with 33K full-time students and 12K full-time employees): GET OUT AND BUY TICKETS TO SUPPORT THESE GUYS.
Now is the time to put your money where you mouth is if you haven’t already done so. Please donate $5 or $10 here if you want a daily internet voice for Temple football and its players.
Also, If you’ve never bought Temple tickets, buy season tickets now. Even if you’ve been to one or two games in the past, make a commitment to be at every game in this most important season.
It’s as easy as a click away:

Happy Birtday to Al Golden, head football coach, Temple University, who is 40 today.
He was born on July 4, 1969.
What we’d like to give Al is:
1. 40,000 TEMPLE fans (plus 2,500 ‘Nova) fans for a crowd of 42,500 for the HOME opener;
2. A 12-0 regular-season record, which would include wins over rivals Villanova and Penn State;
3. A return trip (for Temple) to the Sugar Bowl as the lone non-BCS representative;
4. A bowl win.

I think Al wouldn’t mind waiting six or so months for those belated presents to be unwrapped.
Heck, that would be a good birthday present for me and my fellow living 259,999 Temple alumni as well.
OK, I won’t get greedy.
I’ll take one of the four gifts above as long as it is No. 2. For the work Al Golden has put in for this university, though, he deserves to unwrap all four.