By Mike Gibson
Come April 18, there will be a press conference at the Edberg-Olson Football Complex on the campus of Temple University.
The purpose: To announce ‘Mission Possible’ in conjunction with a general review of spring football practice.
Former Temple coach Wayne Hardin will be there. So will current head coach Al Golden.
The Mission they’ve chosen to accept: Fill Lincoln Financial Field for the Aug. 31 home opener with Navy.
Hardin and Golden are on board.
So are the vast resources of Temple University.
So, too, is Navy, an organization with a pretty good track record for accomplishing missions, possible and impossible.
There’s a great photo of Wayne Hardin celebrating with a couple of famous Navy players after a football win in the early 1960s circulating on the internet.
I asked coach Hardin about it the other day.
“I don’t know what game that was,” he said. “Probably Army.”
Those bonds have lasted a long time.
Recently, Hardin’s Navy players threw him an 80th birthday party in South Carolina.
Some of them mentioned that idea last year while talking to him in Florida.
“They said they want to throw me a birthday party,” Hardin said. “I said that’s not necessary.”
But throw they did and in style. Phone calls were made.
Everyone contacted came.
At least 65 former Navy players threw Hardin a party at a lavish South Carolina golf resort.
“I wish you could have been there,” Hardin said. “It was terrific. We got together at Hickory Knob State Park (S.C.) March 19-21.”
Two of the movers and shakers were Jim Maxfield and Jim Stewart.
“There were no words for it,” Hardin said. “(Representatives) of all classes and their wives were there. It was just a great tribute and I was really appreciative.”
Now Hardin is turning his energy (if he hasn’t already) to the April 18 press conference.
“I went to the (Temple) Homecoming game against Bowling Green,” Hardin said. “I may have brought them some luck. I looked in the stands and thought, “Oh man. We’re going to have to fill this stadium somehow.’
“So I committed to doing my part to helping them fill the stadium for the opening game next year. At the time, I didn’t even know who it was against. Maybe it was a sign that we’re going to get this done.”
So Hardin went to the top of the stadium and scribbled down on a notepad some ideas to fill the stadium.
He even went into the president’s box.
“She (Ann Weaver Hart) is a very impressive person,” Hardin said. “She looked at my list and nodded her head in agreement with my ideas (for filling up the stadium).
“When she got to the part of free tuition for a semester, she said, “My husband and I will pick that up.’ She didn’t even bat an eye.
“I mean, what father, knowing that his kid is going to have a chance for free tuition for a semester for attending a football game isn’t going to make sure that kid is there?”
Hardin’s other ideas will be announced on April 18 but this is a cooperative brainstorming effort.
“The bottom line,” Hardin said, “is that Temple is a school with 250,000 alumni living within an hour or two of the stadium and 34,000 full-time students. We should be able to fill that stadium with Temple people alone. All I’m asking for is you to give me one day of your year.”
With Temple fans hawking tickets from one end of I-95 and Hardin’s old Navy friends pushing from the other end, he just might be able to pull this off.

Dear Joe,
As you may or may not know, former Temple football coach Wayne Hardin is up for inclusion into the current class of the college football Hall of Fame.
Coach Hardin’s accomplishments in the realm of Philadelphia and national college and even pro football and have made him indeed worthy of induction. He’s the last head coach to win a pro football title within the city limits of Philadelphia, doing so for the Philadelphia Bulldogs of the then Continental League in 1966. (When the USFL Stars won it, they did it on the road and as the Baltimore/Philadelphia Stars.)
Coach Hardin is 80 years old now and wants to do a lot of things but none more important to him than filling Lincoln Financial Field for Temple’s Aug. 30 regular-season opener with Navy.
Coach Hardin went on WPHT-AM, 1210, a 50,000-watt station heard both here and Annapolis, and “guaranteed” a crowd of 66,000 for the home opener _ a feat that would put Philadelphia on the college football map quicker than any single football victory could.

Coach said there was one caveat, though.
The game needed to be on Thursday, Aug. 30. Anyone who has grown up in Philadelphia, and spent his entire life here, knows the town virtually empties the Friday of the Labor Day weekend with people mostly headed “down the shore” for one last long weekend before a long, cold winter. There is virtually no shot Temple gets what current Al Golden calls an “unprecedented crowd” on any other night but Thursday.
Fortunately, Temple AD Bill Bradshaw worked out the details and announced that Thursday would be the date for the opener.

The date is set on Owlsports.com, the school’s official athletic website.
It’s even on the Lincoln Financial Field website, which I got to by clicking on a philadelphiaeagles.com link.
Now there are some earthquake-sized rumblings that you want to take back the date for a relatively meaningless preseason Eagles’ game. When we were kids, we’d call that Indian-giving. That’s probably not politically correct now, so I’ll call it Caveman-giving.
The Eagles are basically the only sports organization in this town that can survive by playing on Friday night that weekend. You’ll get your crowd whether you play Thursday or Friday.
The Eagles can take the hit.
Temple can’t.
Please, as a favor to coach Hardin _ the only coach in the history of college football to take Navy AND Temple to top 20 final regular season rankings _ abide by the agreement which allowed Temple to announce the Thursday night date.
The Eagles would be helping both the fans of Temple and Navy (for example, allowing Navy reserve personnel ample time to get to weekend drills) and gain an enormous amount of public relations good will by keeping the Thursday date for Temple clear, making coach Hardin and coach Golden realize their dreams of an unprecedented Temple crowd.
Thanks for taking time out from your busy schedule to read this letter.
Sincerely,
Mike Gibson
Editor and Publisher
Temple Football Forever
(Longtime season ticket-holder of both Eagles and Owls)

Adam DiMichele played baseball, basketball and football at all-state levels
By Mike Gibson
Adam DiMichele has been in Philadelphia less than one year, but he’s said and done all of the right things.
“Our time will come,” DiMichele said of the Temple football Owls early last season, not in a hopeful way, but in a manner-of-fact way, like he was talking about daylight following nightfall.

At the end of the season, DiMichele was just as convinced as ever that the Owls would be a big story in college sports, sooner than later, and happy about the good fortune that landed him in the first chapters of it.
This is an unwritten best-selling book that has 100 protagonists, the uniformed Owls plus their coaching staff.
DiMichele could end up being the lead character before it goes to print.
“I have no regrets,” DiMichele said. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
His latest statement came without even opening his mouth.
At least publicly.

DiMichele is no longer listed on the baseball team.
That’s a huge statement about Adam’s commitment to Temple football and speaks volumes about his future contribution to his new school.
Temple needs him as a football quarterback more than it needs him as a baseball pitcher.
Yet DiMichele’s future very well could be as a
baseball player. He hasn’t given up on baseball, just put it off for another year.
Committing to football and spring practice is the ultimate example of giving one up for the team.
Temple is ready to win this year and DiMichele is ready to lead this team into battle. Nothing would accelerate that process faster than a good quarterback committed to becoming a great one.
There are few Temple quarterbacks I’ve liked more than DiMichele.
Tim Riordan and Matty Baker for their toughness.
That’s about it.
DiMichele has those same gritty qualities.
People will say, “Well, what about Steve Joachim? Wasn’t he the college football player of the year at Temple?”
Yes he was.
And like DiMichele was all-state in football and basketball (at Haverford High). Yet Joachim was more Mike Schmidt than Pete Rose, skating by on his talent.
There’s no denying DiMichele’s vast talent, but there are intangibles with DiMichele, Baker and Riordan I didn’t see in Joachim.
He’s good enough to be named Pittsburgh Area Player of the Year in basketball, good enough to have been drafted by the major leagues out of high school in baseball and, like Joachim, good enough to have been signed as a football player by Penn State.
He’s all kinds of special.
Plus he’s Pete Rose in terms of competitiveness.
Give me Pete Rose over Mike Schmidt any day, especially at the quarterback position.
Like Riordan, he bounces up after a big hit and shakes it off.
Like Baker, he can make the big throw at the biggest time.
With DiMichele, the best is yet to come.
He’s shaken off two years of football rust and still looked pretty good in my mind. It’s scary to see how good he can become with his first spring practice under his belt.
“I call him Roy Hobbs because he’s a natural,” Temple head coach Al Golden said. “I’ve always said that the hardest thing to do in college football is to recruit a Division I quarterback. We have at least one.”
It was obvious he was talking about Adam DiMichele.
Now, in this off-season, without even saying a word, Adam DiMichele is doing his own talking.
I, for one, like what I’m hearing.

From left, Hardin, The Manhattan Project, Kennedy

“This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth, ” President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961
By Mike Gibson
Forget about the degree of difficulty with The Kennedy Project or The Manhattan Project or even The Alan Parsons Project.
The Wayne Hardin Project could make them all seem like child’s play in comparison.
Back in 1961, when Kennedy stood before Congress and said that “this nation should commit itself” to putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade, there were a lot of “huh?” looks in the gallery.
“Moon? You mean that same moon that’s up in the sky?”
In the early 1940s, when a group of scientists said they were committed to splitting the atom, people said:
“What, are you crazy? Do you know how small that thing is?”
That’s sort of the same reaction Hardin got when he went on the Temple football post-game show in November and “guaranteed” to put 66,000, mostly Temple, fans in the stands for the 2007 home opener against Navy at Lincoln Financial Field.
Guaranteed.
Hardin assured Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw, the moderator of the show, that he wasn’t kidding.
“We’re going to do all we can to help you,” Bradshaw said.
Hardin offered one caveat.
“We’re going to try to play this game on the Thursday before Labor Day,” Hardin said. “I’ve given Bill that job now. He’ll get to work on it Monday.”
Bradshaw worked and worked and worked some more. Sometime, in December, Bradshaw almost gave up, saying “it appears the Eagles want that date.”
Yet he did not give up.
“We’re not going to abandon the idea of Thursday night yet,” Bradshaw wrote in an email in December.
Bradshaw hammered away on the problem for months and finally delivered his end of the bargain today with the announcement that the Owls now have that date.
Jeff Lurie and Joe Banner wanted to keep it for the possiblity of an Eagles-Jets’ game.
The Eagles were originally going to play that night and were unwilling to budge.
Bradshaw conjoled and pleaded, even begged, for the game, saying that it would help the Eagles, Temple, Navy and the city.
The city got on Temple’s side and convinced Lurie and Banner that it would best serve their community relations if they helped Temple out with this special night.
Mostly, though, it was Bradshaw who kept his word to Hardin that he would help. He didn’t give up and neither did Temple. Getting Thursday night is huge and, if you’ve been a Philadelphian for any length of time, you know why. The city virtually empties on the Friday of the holiday weekend, the last chance for folks to go “down the shore” before the long, cold winter.
Playing on Thursday night was the only shot Temple had of getting a crowd that weekend.
Now it’s up to Hardin to keep his word to Bradshaw.
Will Hardin be able to deliver?
Folks who’ve known Hardin for years say don’t sell him short, even on something this ambitious.
“If you think he can’t do it, you just don’t know coach Hardin,” long-time friend Kevin Touhey wrote in December.
Hardin was the guy who took the Temple job after it struggled against the Gettysburgs and Kings Points and Xaviers and looked people in the eye and said: “We’re going to be playing Penn State and Pitt and we’re going to go toe-to-toe with them. We’re going to be in a bowl game.”
Plenty of eyebrows raised, but few nods of belief.
Yet Hardin delivered. Temple played one of the greatest Penn State teams ever, the 1978 squad, toe-to-toe. Temple was nationally ranked. Temple went to a bowl game.
If anyone can do this, Hardin can.
Nothing gets The Wayne Hardin Project off to a running start like a Feb. announcent.
Now Billboards can be made, commercials can be filmed and radio spots can be written.
Hardin is still a compelling figure, both in this town and the Baltimore/D.C. area. He was, after all, the last Navy head coach to have that team in a major bowl and ranked in the top 10, as high as No. 2.
Hardin is counting on his Navy and Temple friends to deliver on some favors. Hardin already has convinced incoming recruit Corwin Acker, among others. “Our first game next year is against Navy,” Acker said. “We have a sold-out crowd, 68,000 people. I can’t wait to play in front of all those people.”
If Hardin is able to pull this off, taking Navy to No. 2 in the country or Temple to No. 17 in both major polls will seem easy by comparison.
He deserves the benefit of the doubt and all the help we can give him.

By Mike Gibson
Five minutes after Daryl Robinson’s high school career ended, a man leaned on that two foot fence that surrounds Frankford High’s field and kept yelling one thing over and over again in the direction of Robinson.
“YOOOO Daryl,” the man said, “Notre Dame, Daryl. Notre Dame.”
He was like so many Notre Dame fans in Philadelphia: Big and fat and obnoxious. So many of them look the same, it is eerie. Middle aged white men with white hair about 100 pounds overweight and wearing Notre Dame gear from head to toe. You could pen a cartoon about this guy and everybody would recognize the type immediately.
He looks like mayoral candidate Bob Brady, but wasn’t Bob Brady.
A Philadelphian, probably an Eagles’ fan, latching onto a Division IA team 500 miles west of a town where there already is a Division IA team that desperately needs his support.
“Yooo Daryl,” the man kept saying while Daryl was being interviewed, “Notre Dame. Notre Dame.”
Daryl just shook his head from side to side, indicating no, and smiled.
It had gotten around the school the weeks before that Notre Dame was in town trying to woo Robinson from his Temple commitment.
This seemed to excite all of the big, fat Notre Dame fans who were North Catholic alumni.
They pressured Robinson with yells and less subtle means.
In a move that speaks volumes for his character and his future, Robinson kept his word to Temple.
The big, fat guys represent what is wrong with college sports, specifically football, these days.
A school works hard to get a verbal, then other schools come in late and are the beneficiary of the hard work of the initial school. In other words, the stealing of verbals. Temple had at least two stolen this recruiting season.
This only hurts the mid-majors and the up-and-coming programs. The established programs feed off the work of younger, more hungry, coaching staffs and the cycle of the same teams having success repeats itself.
This cycle needs to be broken now.
Temple coach Al Golden talked about it on a radio show.
He’s in favor of an early signing period.
So is Villanova head coach Andy Talley, who had three of his verbals stolen by Division IA schools as well.
So am I.
So should any fair-minded fan.
More importantly, so should the NCAA.

From left, Jared Williams, Jamal Schulters, Kee-Ayre Griffin
By Mike Gibson
When he took over the head coaching job, Al Golden said the one thing fans will notice about him and his staff is a well-thought-out plan for Temple football success.
With today’s class of 25 and two holdovers from last year, Golden’s plan is crystal clear:
Speed kills.
Two classes, both lightning quick at all positions on the field.
One kid from the prior regime, Travis Shelton, has “Devin Hester-type” speed and, in case you don’t know what that is, Hester is the fastest football player in the world.
Or at least tied for that distinction with his cousin, Travis, who both have been clocked in a 4.27 blur.
Temple has Travis for two more years and, with this class, more of the same kind of speed for three years beyond that.
Daryl Robinson is the fastest player in Philadelphia high school history and he runs “only” a 4.37.
This team has the potential to literally run away from the rest of the Mid-American Conference in a couple of years.
If all goes right, maybe sooner. Temple appears to be incredibly deep and talented at running back right now, where a number of performers are capable of being “the guy” including
Jamal Schulters, one of the most recent acquisitions. Or it could be Kee-Ayre Griffin, who will finally arrive after being initially heralded as the jewel of the 2006 class.
“After I decided on Temple, a lot of schools still tried to come after me,” Robinson said on Tuesday. “My commitment to Temple was always strong.”
So was the commitment of the rest, including a running back named Jared Williams and a defensive end pass-rushing specialist named Muhammad Wilkerson. This
Muhammad is a mountain of a man who opposing quarterbacks are going to, whether they are like or not.
Even the interior linemen, people like Derek Dennis, are incredibly fast and athletic for their size.
Schools like Miami of Florida and the University of Southern California have proven plans for success with a foundation of speed.
Al Golden has spent the last two years acquiring that kind of speed.
It should be fun watching it kill for the next four years.

By Mike Gibson
There are all kinds of good recruiting stories out there.
In fact, with this incoming class of 25 new Temple Owls, there are probably 25 good stories.
For now, though, we’ll concentrate on the interesting case of one Chester Stewart.
Temple offered a scholarship to this kid without ever looking at a video.
Stewart finished his senior season with stats you wouldn’t normally find being produced by a big-time prospect (1,076 yards, 17 TDs).
In fact, Stewart attended a camp for quarterbacks last spring and Al Golden liked him enough to offer him a scholarship on the spot.
The story, or so it goes, was that Golden looked on as Stewart completed 10 straight passes in a seven-on-seven (no pads, no rush) drill and offered him a scholarship on the spot.
I usually like to see my quarterbacks in a real game with a real rush putting up real numbers, like Sto-Rox’s Adam DiMichele (2,967 yards, 36 TDs his senior year) but I’m going to have to trust Golden on this one.
Stewart accepted.
Golden didn’t look at not even one image of film.
He just liked what he saw in the one day at 11th and Diamond.
Stewart, who never took a snap at quarterback in a varsity game before this season, made Golden look, well, golden with his one year as a high school varsity quarterback.
He led DeMatha to an unbeaten season and threw the deciding TD pass in front of 9,000 fans for the D.C. Metropolitan championship.
Even more impressive about this young man is the strength of his character.
After committing to Temple, Stewart remained steadfast in that commitment despite being wooed by more high-profile programs. Temple made a commitment to Stewart and Stewart, in turn, made good on his commitment to Temple.
It’s with those kind of people that Temple will eventually turn this thing around.
We hope.

Joe Jones was Broward County’s top tailback.

By Mike Gibson
It’s not that often a three-star running back falls into your lap during the last few days of the recruiting process.
If what Owlscoop.com is reporting today turns out to be true, that’s just what happened to Temple University.
Joe Jones, from Broward County, Florida _ perhaps the nation’s top county, along with nearby Dade _ for Division IA talent, committed to the Owls today.
The Internet is full of accolades for Jones (see player No. 9 on this link), a 4.4 speedster who received solid offers from both Central Florida and South Florida and interest from even more high-profile schools.
The Miami Herald called Jones “one of the hottest recruits in South Florida.” Go to the bottom of this link for that evaluation.
Jones’ Temple selling point: Immediate playing time and the charisma of the young coaching staff, led by Al Golden.
This is a HUGE get by Golden, perhaps the No. 1 or No. 2 one by the coaching staff in this already impressive class.
Perhaps more importantly, this is a solid decision by this young man who has enough belief in his athletic ability that he’s going to be able to make an impact right away.
He will and so will the Owls.

By Mike Gibson
Quick.
Name the only school with projected starters on both teams in the upcoming Super Bowl.
USC?
Nah.
Notre Dame?
Nice try.
Ohio State?
Getting closer.
Penn State?
Still getting closer.
Rutgers?
Nah, you went too far.
Temple?
Got it.
Temple is the only school in the nation with projected starters on both teams in this year’s Super Bowl.
Raheem Brock (pictured) is listed as a starter for the Indianapolis Colts at defensive end.
Jason McKie is listed as a starter for the Bears at fullback.
And even Colts’ utility man, an all-time pass rusher at Temple like his dad, is getting some props.
“Who would have thought (Dan) Klecko would be our leading touchdown receiver in the playoffs?” Indy quarterback Payton Manning said after the Colts beat the Pats, 38-34, in the AFC championship game.
Who would have thunk it?
Temple players are no strangers to Super Bowls.
In the past, Anthony Anderson (running back) and Randy Grossman (tight end) played for great Steeler teams and Dan Klecko himself has been to one Super Bowl (de-activated for another) with the Patriots.
Alshermond Singleton played for Tampa Bay in its recent Super Bowl win.
We could go on and on but won’t.
Often, the Super Bowl MVP isn’t the star of the team but a guy who comes to the forefront.
Maybe it will happen for Raheem, Dan or Jason.
The message is clear to every kid in every corner of the United States: If you want to go to the Super Bowl, play for Temple.
Good luck to the Owls in this year’s Super Bowl and to those who sign on the dotted line with the Owls in a few days, the future Super Bowl representatives from what will be a winning career at Lincoln Financial Field.