OWLS ROLL TO 49-17 VICTORY
PALMER’S RUNNING RIPS W. MICHIGAN
Sep 14, 1986
By Chuck Newman, Inquirer Staff Writer
KALAMAZOO, Mich. _ Midway through the first quarter of yesterday’s Temple- Western Michigan football game, a passenger train passed alongside Waldo Stadium and sounded its shrill whistle.
However, the warning blast was too late for Western Michigan , which already trailed 14-0 en route to a 49-17 shellacking.
The Owls’ easy victory was a morale-booster in the wake of their opening- game pounding at Penn State. The Broncos’ two touchdowns came against Temple’s deep subs in the second half.
Temple quarterback Lee Saltz ran his career passing yardage to 3,957, bettering the school mark of 3,913, set by Doug Shobert (1970-72).
But it was Paul Palmer who provided the bulk of the offense, collecting 175 yards in 20 carries before retiring from the game late in the third period.
Palmer may not be one of the leading Heisman Trophy candidates, but it’s unlikely that any of his competitors will get to 100 yards as quickly in one game as he did yesterday.
Palmer had 100 yards after his first four carries, getting there with 7 minutes, 30 seconds left in the first period on a 34-yard touchdown run up the
gut on a draw play.
The 5-foot, 9-inch, 180-pound senior enjoyed a 149-yard first half, but coach Bruce Arians was not about to let him try to run up 300 yards at the expense of embarrassing the Broncos (0-2) – especially after Palmer’s cranky hip acted up.
“I did think he could have a very big day,” Arians said. “But it wouldn’t have been fair to Western Michigan or to Paul.”
“When we looked at the films (before the game), we thought we could pretty well do what we wanted to do against them,” Palmer said. “I mean, if we executed correctly.”
The Owls, for the most part, executed meticulously both on offense and defense.
Saltz completed 8 of 12 passes for 111 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown pass to Stan Palys.
Palmer had TD runs of 55, 34 and 3 yards – it was the fourth three-TD day of his career – and was helped by a big blocking effort by fullback Shelley Poole.
“Shelley was destroying people,” Arians said.
Palmer, who went into the day leading the NCAA in all-purpose yards after gaining 268 against Penn State, yesterday racked up 203 more, including 28 on a kickoff return, raising his total to 471.
“I think it was a normal Paul Palmer day,” Arians said. “He really didn’t do anything that I haven’t seen before.”
The Temple defense was not to be denied, either. The Owls harassed Western Michigan quarterback Chris Conklin into a miserable day, sacking him four times. Conklin was 10 for 21 for 174 yards, but 156 of those came in the second half, when the Owls substituted liberally. Temple also held the Broncos to 107 yards on the ground.
“They really came after us, and we have to do a better job of protecting,” Western Michigan coach Jack Harbaugh said. “Temple has a lot of great players.”
The only Temple negative was a sprained knee suffered by starting defensive tackle Mike Swanson, who is expected to be out for at least three weeks.
“We did what we came here to do,” Arians said. “We wanted to win and win decisively. We wanted to have some fun, and we did that. Now we have a chance for a special season.”
After being staggered by a 43-yard return of their opening kickoff, the Owls yielded a first down that put Western Michigan at the Temple 43-yard line. However, the Owls then got a break when a delay-of-game penalty wiped out a 7-yard gain by the Broncos.
The call killed the drive and the Broncos.
Temple needed only two plays to go ahead after Western Michigan punted.
Saltz, faking a handoff to Palmer, found Willie Marshall racing up the right sideline and hit him for a 38-yard gain. The play would have gone all the way had not Broncos safety Willer Berrios lassoed Marshall by the shirttail.
No matter. On the next play, Palmer swept left, got a wipeout block from Poole and hip-faked safety Denny Robinson. Fifty-five yards later, the score was 6-0. It became 7-0 when Bill Wright kicked the extra point.
Temple’s next possession lasted only five plays. Palmer started it with a 2-yard gain and ended it with his 34-yard scoring run.
The Owls didn’t score again until Palmer went in from 3 yards out with 17 seconds remaining until intermission. The touchdown capped a 7-yard, two-play mini-drive that was spawned when freshman Loranzo Square recovered a muffed fumble.
But things got worse for Western Michigan before it could reach the safety of the locker room. Temple defensive back Terry Wright picked off a desperation throw by Conklin at the Broncos’ 20 and made it to the end zone after what seemed like an impossible journey through a maze of potential tacklers up a narrow alley along the right sideline.
The Owls made the score 35-0 on an 80-yard drive meticulously engineered by Saltz at the outset of the second half, and Western Michigan didn’t end the shutout until John Creek kicked a 34-yard field goal with 6:28 left in the third period.

OWLS END SEASON IN HIGH GEAR
PALMER’S RUNNING SPARKS 35-6 WIN
Dec 01, 1984
By Chuck Newman, Inquirer Staff Writer
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. _ Bruce Arians was talking as much about next season as about the season that had ended only 20 minutes earlier. That made sense, given the performance that his Temple football team had given last night.
The Owls completed the rescue of what at one time had appeared to be another disastrous season by demolishing California Bowl-bound Toledo , 35-6, before an overflow crowd of 15,586 spectators in the confines of Convention Hall last night. They did it with gusto, finishing with a 6-5 record.
Sophomore running back Paul Palmer, expected to have a big season but almost a rumor for the first eight games, led Temple with a career-high 148 yards and a touchdown. He had plenty of company in the hero department, as sophomore quarterback Lee Saltz completed 7 of 14 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns, and junior defensive back Todd Bowles staged a one-man assault on the Toledo passing attack.
Then there was freshman Keith Gloster, who motored under a 74-yard scoring bomb from Saltz, finally fulfilling the promise that had been expected all season.
Arians mentioned all of them in his postgame comments, but not before citing the team, especially some seniors. “I’m very proud of a bunch of seniors who could have quit six or eight weeks ago but didn’t,” he said. ”They hung in there, believed in us and led a bunch of young players to a helluva football team.”
The Owls finished 1984 strong after eight weeks of adversity, much of it self-inflicted. The win over Mid-American Conference champion Toledo (8-2-1) was the Owls’ third straight and gave Temple its first winning season since 1979.
The victory was accomplished against a team that was ranked No. 2 nationally in points per game allowed (9.9) and fifth-best against the rush (94.3 yards per start).
And it was done decisively. The Owls rushed for 247 yards and rolled up not only a big point total but 421 yards in total offense in defeating their second bowl-bound opponent (West Virginia is going to the Bluebonnet Bowl) of the season. So you could understand Arians’ emotion.
“I just wish right now we had three or four more football games,” he said. “We’re looking forward to next season. There were just so many bright spots.”
Palmer was certainly one. The 5-foot-9, 168-pounder, who went into the season with big expectations after a 638-yard freshman year, finished with 985 yards. He collected 408 in the final three games against Cincinnati, West Virginia and Toledo .
Palmer also said he would like the season to be a bit longer. “By the middle of the season, I began thinking that some of the things that were happening to the team were my fault. I think it would be nice if we now got a chance to play a couple of more bowl teams.”
Palmer was in the middle of the Owls’ first two touchdown drives, ones that came after the defense had to stop four Toledo drives into Temple territory.
The Rockets scored first on a 49-yard field goal by Dave Walker and held a 3-0 lead as the Owls started their first scoring march at the end of the first period.
Palmer started the drive with four straight carries, eating up 27 yards, and Saltz finished the drive with a 26-yard bullet over the middle to receiver Willie Marshall.
Jim Cooper’s extra point made it 7-3, but Toledo closed to 7-6 on Walker’s 23-yard field goal 6 minutes, 59 seconds into the second period.
The Owls countered with an 80-yard, 10-play march, Palmer getting it started with a 12-yard blast and fullback Shelley Poole ending it with a 22- yard bolt over the middle on a draw play with 3:36 left in the half.
The Owls had to repel two drives into their territory at the start of the second half but then demoralized the Rockets with a 97-yard, four-play drive that ended spectacularly when Saltz unloaded a bomb that Gloster, a 5-9, 140- pound receiver who grew up in the shadows of a New Jersey drag strip, ran under to complete a 74-yard scoring play.
“Then things started to go downhill,” Toledo coach Dan Simrell said. “Temple has Big 10-type talent.”
That play made the Owls’ margin 21-6, but another big play soon followed. Bowles, who had destroyed two Rockets pass receivers after catches on two consecutive plays, rushed in from his roverback spot on the right side and ambushed Toledo quarterback A. J. Sager from behind, forcing his pass to pop into the air.
Owls linebacker Bob Pilkauskas, refusing the fair catch, took the ball in flight and went 20 yards to the end zone as Temple went on to a 28-6 advantage.
Owls safety Anthony Young, an all-America candidate, set up Temple at the Toledo 44 with a 17-yard punt return early in the final period, and the Owls made no mistakes. Palmer – who else? – started the drive with a 6-yard run, picked up 34 yards of the drive and finished it with a 2-yard bolt around the right side.
“I think we have turned the corner,” Arians said. “But it’s a long backstretch. And there are three pretty good horses in front of us at the start of next year.”
He meant Penn State, Boston College and Brigham Young – the Owls’ first three 1985 opponents.
Even that thought didn’t have that much of an effect on Arians. Not right after last night’s performance.

By Mike Gibson
One of my pet peeves is the negative hysterics of too many Temple fans.
For short, I will call the syndrome the Negative H Disease.
“Why would HE want to come here to coach? Why would HE want to come here to play?”
Perhaps our own worst enemy is our negative fans who remind me a lot of Don Casey.
When I was sports editor of the Temple News, I wrote a column asking why Temple never got the player of the year in either the Philadelphia Public or Catholic Leagues.
Don Casey called me into his office.
“Who’s going to be the player of the year in Catholic League this year?” he asked me.
“Dallas Comegys of Roman,” I said.
“Why in hell would Dallas Comegys want to come here?” Casey said.
“Did you ask him?” I said.
“No, it’s just a waste of my time.”
I sprinted back to the Temple News to write a column and included those quotes.
At the end of the column, I called for the firing of Don Casey and I asked my own question:
“Why not hire a guy with Philadelphia ties, who is respected in Philadelphia, who will go after the great Public and Catholic League players? Why not hire John Chaney?”
That was the end of my column.
Peter J. Liacouras saw me the next day and said it was a great column.
A few months later, John Chaney was the head coach at Temple University.
The next two Public League players of the year, Nate Blackwell (Southern) and Howie Evans (West Philadelphia) committed to Temple University.
We can get a great coach for football, too.
You can hyphenate that or put an exclamation point on it.
It’s as true now for football as it was for basketball then.

Dave,
Just in case you don’t understand the placing:
1) Bernard’s “halogram” =upper left;
2) Morkeith Brown (yes, that’s Morkeith) going crazy=upper right;
3) Temple end zone (lower left)
4) your photo … an Owlified photo of Temple 21, UCLA 7
=lower right

Same logo words out background for Temple Football Forever,
same color schemes… I’m just taking out the Al golden and Joe Jones photos… thank you and take your time … no rush…. Mike

upper left
lower left

lower right

Bruce Arians, Temple’s head coach from 1983-88

now Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive coordinator