01.22.09
by

Star of USA Today’s No. 1 high school team takes first classes at Temple

By Mike Gibson
One of the coolest things about new Temple football recruit Deonte Parker is that he once played for a team called the Lakeland (Fla.) Dreadnaughts.
Dreadnaughts, of British warship fame in World War I.
Another cool thing is that he once was a star at Lakeland when it was ranked No. 1 in the USA Today’s Super 25 high school teams. Here is an account of a win over Cape Corral (Fla.) that year.
That’s not the coolest thing about the 5-foot-11, 175-pound defensive back, though.
The coolest thing is that he was sitting behind a desk in classroom at Temple University on Tuesday, enrolled as a Temple student.



The only known
photo of Deonte Parker

That means he gets to kick butt not only in the classroom but on the practice field in a few weeks when spring practice begins at the Edberg-Olson Football Complex.
According to various reports yesterday and today on OwlsDaily.com, Parker is one of three new Temple players enrolled in the school and eligible for spring practice.
The other two are defensive end Alex Jackson (also from Florida) and defensive back Maurice Jones, last a cornerback at Hargrave Military Academy. Those are just the confirmed guys. We’re scouring the Temple class list for names of other probable Temple verbals already enrolled. Once we confirm some other names are enrolled and taking classes, we’ll include them here.
So far, only three guys in the current JUCO group.
They’ll join at least 22 high school guys when the official class is announced early in Feb.
All big-time guys.
All could have gone anywhere.
All chose Temple.

12.19.08
by

Golden’s Acres of Diamonds

Bernard Pierce’s highlight video.



Kadeem Custis (78) attracts a crowd of friends when he’s not bringing violence to the football.
South Philly Review photo

By Mike Gibson
Back in the day, as the kids like to say, Russell Conwell was even more of an icon on the national level than Bill Cosby is now.
In Conwell’s case, “The day” was about two centuries ago, before today’s 21st Century and before the 20th Century noted for a couple of big World Wars.
It was the latter part of the 19th Century, only a decade or so after Custer’s Last Stand at the Battle of Little Big Horn, and Conwell was a noted lecturer who packed them in across the country on a regular basis, long before TV and radio. One of his most famous talks was about a man who searched the world for wealth, only to come home and find “Acres of Diamonds” in his backyard.
Conwell also founded one of the largest and most respected universities in the country, a school that currently is the 6th largest educator of professionals in the nation and its 38th largest university.
He called it Temple University, after the Baptist Temple on campus that still stands.
Temple football coach Al Golden knows all about Russell Conwell. The night before he was named head coach in December of 2005, he stayed at the Conwell Inn and read up all about Conwell. He even mentioned the founder in his initial press conference.
Since then, Golden has remained true to the Conwellian philosophy when it comes to recruiting prospective student-athletes for the university.
To be sure, Golden travels pretty much all over the country for talent but pretty much settles on the great bulk of it within a couple of hours drive time to the school.
So it was on Thursday that Golden found a couple of diamonds in his backyard, plucking a couple of gems who could probably leave their front porches and be on the practice field in, oh, about 20 minutes.
Oh yeah.
They could have went anywhere.
They chose Temple.
One of the guys is a three-star lineman, Kadeem Custis, of Neumann-Goretti, a 6-5, 275-pound tackle who had standing offers from West Virginia, Pitt, Connecticut, Maryland and North Carolina State. He even made an official visit to West Virginia last week, one week after making an official visit to Temple. When he checked and rechecked his list, West Virginia kept coming up on the short end compared to spending the next four years in the city he loves so much.
You could say Custis’ Last Stand will be as an Owl, but we won’t. We’re calling it Custis’ next-to-last stand because we really feel he will get coached up to where he will have an opportunity to play on Sundays if he works hard.
Another guy is Glen Mills’ tailback Bernard Pierce, a 6-foot, 205-pound speedster who only ran for an eye-opening 1,534 yards and 26 touchdowns this season.
With those two, Golden hit the Mother Lode of Acres of Diamonds in a single day.
He’s not done, though.
Another player from Valley Forge, cornerback Kwame Johnson, committed this week.
They join three players from New Jersey who also committed in recent days, defensive end Aaron Hush (Piscataway), linebacker Marcus Green (Fanwood) and linebacker/fullback Blaze Caponegro of Wall Township.
Maybe Hudson Catholic’s Jason Hendricks commits today, tomorrow or the next.
If we forgot anyone, we apologize. We’ll get to profile everybody in the next month or so.
Meanwhile, for selfish purposes, we’d like to see a high-achieving quarterback with the ability of an Andrew Shoop (Danville) or Jeffrey Legree (Fork Union, Va., via Brooklyn) joining this group in the coming days. Temple has two very good quarterbacks now in Vaughn Charlton and Chester Stewart, along with St. Joseph’s Prep Mark Giubilato but we’d like to see five in the mix and a great one emerge by September.
Hopefully, both Legree and Shoop will be up for the Temple Challenge, as Cosby likes to call it.
If he were alive today, Conwell might have used his own “back-in-the-day” verbage to say the same thing and we think whatever he came up with would have been jaw-dropping.
Sort of like the commitment list Al Golden currently is putting together.

12.17.08
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Owls’ pass rush plans are Hush-Hush


By Mike Gibson
You can say that the Temple pass rush plans for next season are definitely Hush-Hush.
But you’d be only half right.
If, as expected, Piscataway (N.J.) High School’s Aaron Hush earns a spot in the defensive end rotation he’ll be half of the collapsing pocket from one side.
Two of the keys to winning in college football, minus turnovers, are putting the other guy’s quarterback on his backside and keeping your quarterback off his backside.

Coming soon … Jason Hendricks?
“(Temple) beat Tennessee in a really good game and the atmosphere was just awesome. The fans were just really loud and crazy. … right now I’m leaning very heavily toward committing to Temple.”
_Hudson (N.J.) Catholic tailback Jason Hendricks, Dec. 16, 2008, in an interview with Scout.com


Temple has addressed its needs along the offensive line for the past two seasons and should be in good shape from a protection standpoint in 2009.
Now, with some of the final slots left in this 25-man recruiting class, the Owls are coming at the problem from the other side.
Hush, the Home News Tribune Defensive Player of the Year, is one of the solutions. Hush gave a solid verbal to the Owls today.
He’s quick, he’s big (6-3, 240) and he’ll likely get in the face of Temple opposing quarterbacks all next year.
For sure, the Owls have some other pieces of the pass rush in place next year and Hush is just one more huge piece of the puzzle.
In fact, Hush might be the final word on what figures to be a very loud and nasty Owl defensive front.

12.11.08
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10 reasons why a football recruit should attend Temple

This post was first published a few days after Al Golden’s first sit-down interview as a Temple head coach and it was Channel 3 Sports Director Beasley Reece who pulled off the coup. … in the middle of this recruiting stretch drive, it bears repeating today …
By Mike Gibson
A former big-time college and later NFL player, Beasley Reece has seen his share of pitches from the best recruiters.
So Reece, the sports director at KYW-TV Channel 3, knew what questions to ask and what answers a prospective recruit would want to hear during a Christmas Night interview with new Temple football coach Al Golden.
Reece asked, then listened.
When it was over, he took a deep breath and said
“wow.”
That spoke volumes.
What he did next in front of millions of potential viewers spoke even more.
“Coach, you sold me,” Reece said, reaching out to shake Golden’s hand. “Where do I sign?”
Golden broke out into a big smile.
“We’d love to have you.”
Sold.
One member of the crusty, mostly anti-Temple-football, Philadelphia media.
Selling the kids should be easy by comparison.
There are plenty of good reasons for a potential football recruit to attend Temple.
Here are just 10:
10. Facilities. Without question, the top facilities
for a prospective football athlete in the Mid-American Conference. A chance to play
in the best stadium in America, the $521 million
Lincoln Financial Field. A chance to practice in a
relatively new Edberg-Olson Complex, a $7 million
facility that includes weight rooms, locker rooms,
football offices and a brand new $500,000 spongy sprinturf field.
9. City. Philadelphia has been called the “next great
American city” by National Geographic Magazine. That
is particularly true for college-age kids. The city is
alive with nightlife, particularly in hotbed areas
like South Street and Manyunk. Philadelphia, along
with other great college towns like San Diego, Calif.,
and Austin, Texas, is so hot that it was chosen as a
Mecca for a Real World series on MTV. The young, hip producers MTV employs are paid a lot of money to pick the right towns for this series and they don’t make mistakes. As Paris Hilton
would say, that’s hot. So is Philly.
8. Campus. Over a $1 billion in investment in
buildings and infrastructure on the main Temple campus in the last 10 years alone. Peter J. Liacouras’ dream of a “Temple Town” is becoming a reality. There’s the
elegant Conwell Inn on campus, offering the amenities of a great hotel. There’s a terrific campus bar and restaurant in the Draught Horse. There’s an understated bar in Max’s on Liacouras Walk. And there are 10,000 students living on campus, making it
come alive at night with excitement.
7. Academics. Temple has a solid reputation
academically and from that standpoint alone is the most prestigious university in the Mid-American Conference. Its Fox Business School is ranked in the top 10 in the nation in several categories and its School of Communications and Theater is ranked in the
top 10 in America. Temple is the 6th largest educator
of professionals in the United States. Its School of
Dentistry is considered the best in the East. U.S. News and World Report in its December, 2005 issue rated Temple University as the “most desirable destination school” among any urban school in the nation, beating out such high-profile schools as Boston College, UCLA and USC. It said Temple’s location so close to downtown Philadelphia was one of its greatest appeals to “regular” students. It cited 2004 figures showing Temple had the most applications of any school in the nation from suburban students seeking a city experience. According, the report added, Temple had a higher rate of applications to available spots than any non-Ivy League school in the nation. Heady stuff, no pun intended.
6. Networking. With over 250,000 mostly professional
alumni living within short driving distance of the
school, there are numerous opportunities to network
with alumni already working in the student’s chosen
field.
5. Fourth-largest media market offers a successful
Temple team opportunity for national recognition. A
winning Temple football team could easily become the
national “feel good” story of the year, much like the
recent “feel good” story that St. Joseph’s University
basketball has become. Chance for local media recognition.
4. Youthful, enthused, coaching staff. It is a coaching staff that relates well and communicates well with kids, excited about its new journey from the bottom of the world to the top.
3. Beautiful women and girls. Lots of them at any school with over 30,000 full-time students, especially at Temple, where 55 percent of the student, err, body is women. They could have gone anywhere; they chose Temple. Great college town experience, somewhat like Boston. Plenty of women not only at Temple, but at Penn, Drexel, Villanova, St. Joseph’s, LaSalle and Phladelphia University.
2. Television coverage. Most of the games will be on
TV and many of the MAC games will be on ESPN. Believe it or not, notwithstanding the last 15 years, Temple football has had a great tradition with long stretches of success and any current recruits would be the foundation for restoring that greatness. There is a fan base of 250,000 current Temple University alumni living in the metropolitian area, plus 30,000 full-time students dying for a reason to support their football team again. Winning would give them that reason. Watch how fast the Linc fills up if it happens. You can book it.
1. Transportation hub. A short drive from anywhere on the population-rich East Coast. Easy to get to by train, bus or plane. Easy for family and friends to watch any Owl home game. Philadelphia is a great
place to visit, an easy place to get to and there is
no more fan-friendly stadium than Lincoln Financial
Field.
Temple. It just makes more and more sense to become an Owl.

12.09.08
by

Adam DiMichele: We may never see his like again

Adam DiMichele's fake kneeldown at the end of the first half at Navy that ended in a long-bomb touchdown to Bruce Francis will always be remembered as one of the greatest Temple plays of all time.

Adam DiMichele’s fake kneeldown at the end of the first half at Navy that ended in a long-bomb touchdown to Bruce Francis will always be remembered as one of the greatest Temple plays of all time.

Adam DiMichele will be missed by all Temple fans.

By Mike Gibson
OK, I’ll be the first to admit it.
I’ve been spoiled for the past three years.
I’ve never once wished for a quarterback change at Temple University when No. 13 was on the field.
The thought never even entered my head.
Not once.


It’s hard to
put your
finger on
it, but I
knew from
the first time
I saw Adam
DiMichele
in a Temple
uniform that
he was the
perfect quarterback
for me and my team.

“I love that kid,” I said to my friend, Mark, during the 28-14 win over Bowling Green three years ago.
“You have to,” Mark said. “Who wouldn’t love Adam DiMichele?”
Nothing kinky, mind you, but I love him as a (very) older brother or as a proud father.
Quarterback is a very strange position.
You either have it or you don’t.
It’s hard to put your finger on it, but I knew from the first time I saw Adam DiMichele in a Temple uniform that he was the perfect quarterback for me and my team.
He had all the qualities I ever wanted in a quarterback:
Arm?
Check.
Heart?
Check.
Courage?
Check.
Overlaping skills like moxie, determination, leadership?
Check, check, check.
Athleticism, escapability?
Check, check.
I made the list in my head and could put an emphatic checkmark next to each wonderful quality under Adam DiMichele’s name.
Check, check, check, check, check.

I slumped back in my seat. All these years of asking why the other team always had a better quarterback than Temple were over.

Wow.
I slumped back in my seat. All these years of asking why the other team always had a better quarterback than Temple were over.
There were other problems, but I was always confident in my quarterback.
For sure, there were similar stretches in other years, like when Walter Washington came or Henry Burris was here but not three years like this.
I don’t remember ever having three years of this level of confidence in the leader on the field.
I knew those days would be over once and now they are.
I don’t have that same level of confidence anymore.
I don’t know if I ever will.
I’ve never yelled from my seat in the stands for some kid to be pulled from the game, but I will admit I thought a few times it might be a better idea for Chester Stewart to sit and watch the Homecoming Day game from the bench and let Vaughn Charlton have a shot.
After the 7-3 loss to Western Michigan and after Stewart missed a wide-open Bruce Francis by 10 yards for what would have been a third time, I saw enough.
As I walked into the concourse, the first person I saw was Vaughn Charlton.
Not the kid, the dad.
“They should have burned the redshirt,” I said.

I wasn’t looking for a response nor did I get one. I just walked away, knowing that a precious game was frittered away.
The most important position on the field is quarterback and I would have liked to see how a year older and wiser Vaughn Charlton would have responded to the challenge at a time his team needed him the most, after DiMichele went down.
I didn’t see it. All I know is that, right now, I can’t picture either Vaughn Charlton or Chester Stewart throwing six touchdowns in a game, like Adam DiMichele did two weeks ago.
I don’t know if either one of them has the qualities down the line that Adam DiMichele does.
I hope they do, but hope doesn’t get me to a bowl game.

On the other hand, DiMichele came to Temple as the WPIAL’s all-time passing leader and, in his senior year alone at Sto-Rox, tossed 36 touchdown passes for 2,706 yards.
Charlton’s senior year at Avon Grove?
Nine TD passes, 1,337 yards.
Stewart’s senior high school numbers were slightly better than Charlton’s but not half as good as DiMichele’s: 72 for 134, 1,348 yards and 17 touchdowns.
What was that coach Bill Parcells said?
“You are what your record says you are.”
Well, with quarterbacks, you pretty much are what your stats say you are.
Adam DiMichele proved that. So did every other previous great Temple quarterback.
None of them came here and achieved at a high level without doing the same exact thing in high school or JUCO ball. Walter Washington (Jacksonville Mainland), Burris (Spiro, Okla.), Matty Baker (Central York), Brian Broomell (Sterling, N.J.) and Steve Joachim (Haverford High) and Doug Shobert (Central Bucks) were big-time high school superstars.

So was Adam DiMichele. It’s a good blueprint to look for when Temple recruits its next-great quarterback.

12.04.08
by

Al Golden only has eyes for TU


Al Golden looks very happy to be at Temple these days.
By Mike Gibson
We were promised a statement from coach Al Golden on the rumors of his being involved with the Syracuse job.
Instead, all we got from the Temple media relations department was this lousy two-line statement from athletic director Bill Bradshaw.
We’re still waiting for elaboration from Golden, but it’s crystal clear from the statement that Al Golden only has eyes for TU.
We hope.

What we wish Al said …
“I’m never leaving Temple,” Golden said in a prepared statement. “Temple football is my life. I will not be satisfied until I win a national championship here and fill Lincoln Financial Field with happy Owl fans on a regular basis who can, to paraphrase Michelle Obama, for the first time in their adult lives be proud of their university’s football team. One man can make a difference for an entire university. I want to be that man for this university. That fuels my fire. I’m stoked about the possibilities next season can bring for this great school, city and the fans.”


We can only imagine what that statement would have said so we have formulated what we wanted to hear Al say and put it in the box to the left.
It’s time for Al to concentrate on the considerable tasks at hand.
There are signs that he’s doing just that, signing a big-time kicker, Brendan McManus, who was wanted by several BCS schools. It’s easy to see why McManus was so sought-after. Of his 70 kickoffs, 58 went through the end zone.
I don’t remember one Temple kickoff going through the end zone this season.
Since the Owls could be down to two serviceable quarterbacks, Vaughn Charlton and Chester Stewart, we’re hoping a big target (or two) will be mobile JUCO quarterbacks who can throw on the run.
We’ll see.

11.30.08
by

Temple 27, Akron 6: The Best Video of the Season

By Mike Gibson
Without a doubt, the best video short of the season.
Gotta love the blocking on Marcellus Griggs’ two touchdown runs and the misdirection the Owls used on his second touchdown (vintage Delaware Wing-T).
Also, great catch by Jason Harper, who has really embraced his role as the team’s next Bruce Francis. Notice he landed on the 2, but the MAC refs _ in all their infinite wisdom _ marked the ball on the 4.
Great interception by Kevin Kroboth, the surprise of this year’s recruiting class. I’ve got to believe that even Kevin, though, might be second-guessing his path to the goal on the interception because a fat guy, Akron’s No. 71, shows up in the picture late. Had Kevin cut it toward the fat guy, he would have been gone.
Love the scoreboard opening and the mugging of the seniors for the camera in it.
All in all, a very good day and a great job by video czar Mike Adkins.

11.29.08
by

So much for the MAC "experts"

Temple players, in a classy move, thank the fans after the final game.

By Mike Gibson
I dreaded going into the final two games with a loss to lowly Kent State because there’s really nothing satisfying to me about finishing with a losing record.
You can say that five wins this year, compared to four last year, is progress but I never really saw it that way.
I expected a win and wanted to taste a win, but I didn’t expect to be satisfied walking out of the stadium in a season that has been, to me, mostly disheartening.
Satisfaction is what I got, though.
Not with the season, but with the 27-6 win over Akron. This was a Zips’ team which won at Syracuse, 42-28, and lost to Big East power Cincinnati, 17-15.
For the first time since Bruce Arians, the Owls scored more points in a season than they got scored upon them.
For the first time since Jerry Berndt, they won as many as five games.



Muhammed Wilkerson does what the Owls should have done to Drew Willy at Buffalo on the last play: Get in the QB’s face.
(Akron Beacon-Journal photo)

The part of me who was disheartened with the season was also heartened by watching the Owls celebrate afterward.
They stood and participated in a raucous rendition of “T for Temple U” only to see Bruce Francis, in my estimation the greatest Temple receiver of all time, sent in the direction of a ladder in front of the band by coach Al Golden.
Francis then climbed to the top rung of the ladder and directed the band for a “T For Temple U” encore.
The team and the thousands of Temple fans who remained afterward to soak it all in went nuts.
I couldn’t help but thinking then that these kids deserved much more than 5-7 and played much better, much better, than any 5-7 team in the country. Had their braintrust showed a little better on-the-fly decision-making skills, these team could have been 9-3.
That’s all that was needed.
Not luck. Not Devine intervention. Just good, sensible, late-game, decision-making.
I chalk it up to Golden learning on the job.
He’s a smart-enough guy that he won’t make those same mistakes a second time.
But they came at a hard price for these wonderful kids who represented Temple University so well.
So the win was satisfying for in some respects but nowhere near as satisfying as this:
Almost all of the MAC so-called experts picked Temple to finish fifth in the MAC East.
No one picked Temple to finish second, but that’s just where the Owls finished in the final Mid-American Conference standings, in a second-place tie with Bowling Green.
That, to me, was satisfying.
Not as satisfying as a winning season would have been, but satisfying.
Don’t expect any of these “experts” to pick Temple to finish above fourth place next year, though. All but one of the MAC beat writers who participated in a pre-season poll picked Temple to finish fifth in the MAC East. (Seems like they were all copying off the other’s guys paper.)
Their blinding loyalty to the “old-line” MAC teams and their hatred of newcomer Temple obscures anything close to journalistic integrity.
The fact that they have been exposed as frauds today is, well, satisfying.
There’s no other word for it.

11.25.08
by

Temple 55, EMU 52: A short video


This video is only 12 seconds long but pretty much tells the story of how Temple’s offense clicked Saturday against EMU in a 55-52 win. As you can see, Adam DiMichele had to run around to make a play before getting hit. He did that on five of his six touchdown throws. The offensive line didn’t give him a whole lot of time to throw.

11.23.08
by

No defense for a 55-52 score

By Mike Gibson
I had a glimpse today of what kind of sports fan I would have been had I lived 2,000 years ago.
At the Temple game in the late stages of a 55-52 win over Eastern Michigan, I friend of mine who claims he has been “entertained” all year by the football Owls, turned to me and said:
“C’mon, tell me you weren’t entertained by this?”
“No,” I said.
Pausing only for a second, I added:
“I would have been entertained by a 55-3 win, but I’m not entertained when I know we can do better than this.”
“We’re not there yet,” my friend said of that kind of dominance.
Well, then, I’ll take 55-14.

I come from
the school that
says the best
pass defense
is putting a
quarterback on
his backside.
If you can’t
get that done
with a
conventional
4-3 or 5-2
front, then
it’s time
to send a
linebacker
as well

Don’t get me wrong.
I loved the win. I loved how my favorite Owl, No. 82, Bruce Francis, abused the Eagles’ secondary for four touchdowns. I love the seven touchdowns by my second favorite Owl, Adam DiMichele, six by passes, and one by run.
I was the one guy in the stands yelling for them to throw it to No. 82 on a fairly consistent basis.
(It’s not rocket science.)
I love the intimidation factor of our special teams and returner Travis Shelton.
But to be completely entertained, I would have liked to see our No. 1 unit coming into the season play at least to their potential.
Had I lived in the days of the Roman Coliseum and knowing how much I love animals, I might have been entertained by the Lions who killed every murderer, rapist or traitor on a given Roman Holiday.
I probably wouldn’t have been as entertained had the bad guys killed a few animals.
That’s pretty much how I feel about Temple football these days. I want blood. Bad-guy blood. To me, any team who doesn’t wear Cherry and White are the bad guys.
The Owls came into the season with the returning No. 1 defense in the MAC intact.
I expected, no demanded, that they at least repeat that same standard this season as well. Instead, they were ranked No. 6 coming into the game. I know there are some injuries back there, but not for this kind of drop off.



“Adam, disregard Rhule’s play call and throw it to No. 82!”
Darryl Rule photo

I did not understand why the No. 1 defense in the MAC was able to give up 41 points to a Kent State team every other MAC team pretty much handled, but I got a clue by watching our defense today.
We weren’t attacking. We were reacting.
I come from the school that says the best pass defense is putting a quarterback on his backside.
If you can’t get that done with a conventional 4-3 or 5-2 front, then it’s time to send a linebacker as well. If you can’t get pressure on the quarterback with a conventional front and a linebacker, then send two linebackers. If you still can’t get pressure, send linebackers and safeties. Send more than they can block and send them from every conceivable angle.
If you don’t know what that looks like, grab a Eagles-Steelers DVD off the NFL network from earlier this season.
Or at least look at how Mark D’Onofrio’s defense played last season.
Keep getting in the quarterback’s face, put him on the ground and make him feel pain. Or at least make him uncomfortable enough to throw the ball away earlier than he wants to.
I saw none of that against Eastern Michigan quarterback Andy Schmitt, who put the ball up 76 times. Except for the time linebacker John Haley got to him on a blindside blitz, I didn’t see Schmitt uncomfortable at all.
“We’ve need to straighten some things out on defense,” Temple head coach Al Golden said late Saturday afternoon. “We’re not playing the way we’re capable on defense.”
Last year, the Owls were an attacking defense, getting in the face of every quarterback they played on a pretty consistent basis.
If Golden is looking at what he can do in five days to improve things, getting back to that core philosophy might be a good place to start.