04.08.22
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Cherry and White: More ecstasy than the agony

A familiar face leads the 2013 team out during C&W day

One of the more exciting days every year for me is also one of the more conflicting ones.

There’s seldom a day I’ve walked away from a good three-hour visit to the campus I know and love in April without a good feeling about my Temple football Owls.

The last three years were the exception.

Three years ago, I walked away shaking my head in disgust as the coach who shall remain nameless showed a crowd of about 5,000 people at Broad and Master what it looks like for a running back or a punt returner to be hit by a foam rubber pad.

Really, Rod? (Whoops, I meant nameless.)

Covid caused me to miss the last two years–not because I came down with it (I did not)–but because out of an abundance of caution, there was no real public Cherry and White game. (I did take a train past practice on what would have been last year’s Cherry and White game but that doesn’t count.)

There will be one this year and it will be glorious.

How do I know?

Cherry and White timeline.

Because judging from new head coach Stan Drayton’s numerous public statements, he “gets it.” Having a real football game with real hitting, field goals, kickoffs and punt and kickoff returns is important to Temple fans because it was really all they have known prior to the disaster visited upon Philadelphia by a group of carpetbaggers from Illinois.

Maybe even a real final score.

Whatever happens, one group of “good guys” will beat another group of good guys.

If there are plenty of touchdown passes and long runs, we will exit worrying about the defense. If it’s a scoreless tie, we will spend many sleepless nights between now and Duke worrying about the offense.

The most important thing, though, will be the return of real football here for the first time in a long while.

In this space on the day before the April, 2015 Cherry and White game our headline was simply this: “Cherry and White this year is all about beating Penn State.”

Those Owls got that job done, both on that Saturday in April and another one in September. This year, it’s all about beating Duke and, whatever the final score Saturday, seeing Temple TUFF return again after a four-year hiatus will make that a viable possibility.

Monday: Cherry and White Recap

04.04.22
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For now, Dwan Mathis still The Man at Temple

Kobe Wilson knocks down Dwan Mathis’ pass during Saturday’s practice. (Photo courtesy Zamani Feelings.)

Season One of the big four-star transfer to Temple had mixed reviews.

Mixed might have been a generous way to describe the reviews of Dwan Mathis’ first year as the quarterback with the Temple football Owls.

One more scheduled practice before Cherry and White.

Those expecting the 2020 Georgia opening-day starter to become one of the better AAC quarterbacks right away were sorely disappointed. A lot of that wasn’t Dwan’s fault as he missed too much time with injuries.

Except for one glimpse of brilliance in a win over Memphis, Mathis underperformed. Six touchdown passes against only four interceptions won’t get any AAC all-star votes.

Now, new head coach Stan Drayton said after the eighth practice that he “is bringing other quarterbacks in” to compete for the job.

Before camp, Drayton said he would wait until after the Cherry and White game so evidently he has seen enough.

That leads to the question “who da man?” and, for now, the answer still has to be Dwan Mathis.

Mathis certainly has the talent to rise above whatever competition Drayton brings in here but he has to win the job fair and square. Shortly before camp last year, the coach who shall remain nameless said Mathis was going to be the starter.

Competition at all positions makes the team better and that seems to be Drayton’s thinking now.

According to the latest NCAA database, another former Georgia starter, J.T. Daniels, is still in the transfer portal but he was rumored to be leaning toward West Virginia. Sports Illustrated said former Florida starter Emory Jones is “open to everyone” and that could be an option for Drayton to consider. Jones has more experience than Mathis, having tossed 19 touchdown passes against 13 interceptions in limited time as the Gators’ QB. He’s a similar dual-threat quarterback, having run for more than 800 yards in Gainesville.

Drayton could also dip into the FCS ranks. There are a number of former starters there looking to be an FBS starter and Temple could provide that opportunity. That avenue worked for Western Kentucky. The Hilltopppers tabbed Bailey Zappe out of tiny Houston Baptist and he helped them turn a 5-7 season in 2020 into an 8-5 season in 2021 by tossing 60 touchdown passes. Now Zappe is projected to be as high as an NFL No. 2 draft choice.

If the Owls can find someone like that, the whole outlook changes around here and that’s a good thing because quarterback is the most important position on the field. If competition makes Mathis a better QB, the organization will be better off.

Friday: Cherry and White Preview

Monday: Cherry and White Recap

04.01.22
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Wingard speaks: Stadium is dead

Funny how a done deal goes from one perception of done to another.

Two of my very good friends, I will call them Mark and Dave (because those are their real first names) are about as anti-on-campus-stadium as anyone I’ve ever met.

Me?

Kinda riding the fence on this issue but would not have minded falling into the yard on the other side. My reasoning simply is this: Since the 1970s I haven’t seen a real home-field advantage for Temple football in my lifetime.

A great home-field advantage (once)

Yeah, the Penn State game in 2015 where 35K Temple fans went crazy while 35K Penn State fans sat on their hands was kinda it but not really. Probably the Tulane game a few weeks later game closest (Owls won, 48-14) before 35K fans, all but a couple of hundred rooting for Temple.

Give me the 1970s era West Virginia game where, in a 20K seat stadium, 14K fans were going crazy for the home team at Temple Stadium in a 39-36 win. Or maybe another game in the same decade where a sellout crowd of 20K in a 20K-seat stadium roared for Temple in a 34-7 win over Boston College.

I was at both games.

The first, as a kid, I walked out of Temple Stadium hearing the chants “We Want Nebraska!” on Bayard Strett walking back to the cars. (Nebraska was the No. 1 team in the country at the time; Temple just had beaten the No. 19 team.)

The second came as a sophomore at Temple when the Owls avenged their only loss of a 9-1 season with a 34-7 win over Boston College the next season, an 8-2 one for Wayne Hardin.

As an adult, I hoped to see a similar home-field advantage for my favorite sports team again. Nothing in the Temple fan department since (Franklin Field and LFF) ever compared to those days at Temple Stadium from the standpoint of the way TEMPLE FANS influenced the outcome of a football game.

After listening to Jason Wingard recently, I realized I probably won’t ever see anything like it again.

Sad, not for me necessarily but for the generations of Temple fans after me who never experienced anything like it.

Wingard has basically said (see the above video) that Temple has given up its previously stated dream of building an on-campus stadium and is satisfied with Lincoln Financial Field.

That’s OK to Mark and Dave who still blame Temple fans for not filling a 70K-seat stadium. To me, asking Temple to fill a 70K-seat stadium or even bring 40K consistently on a regular basis has never been a good business model considering that the concept of supply and demand rules the business world.

The Temple Board of Trustees, when it approved the plans for an OCS, cited that reality. Cutting the supply (of tickets) would increase the demand and Temple was much more likely to fill a 35K stadium than ever filling even half of a 70K-stadium.

At one time, the BOT was all-in on a stadium. When this story is written 100 years from now, they will say a great university of 40K students, 12K employees, and 250K alumni let 20 or so neighbors push them around.

Someone or some group got to Wingard and supplied the talking points.

That was probably the Board of Trustees.

Since the disastrous meeting with the “community” three years ago in March, obviously, the BOT has waived the white flag on the stadium. During Wingard’s interview before accepting the President’s job, that was probably communicated to him as well.

Wingard is simply toeing the company line. A lot of my fellow Temple fans are holding onto the “not at this time” statement as if there will be another time.

There won’t. Not under this President or the next or even the next one after that. You’ve got to bulldoze a lot of residences and create a lot of Temple “green space” before that happens.

Not good news for me but terrific news for fellow Temple fans who I respect like Mark and Dave. They like the creature comforts of the Linc and think an on-campus stadium would be a disaster.

They are as entitled to their opinions as I am to mine. To me, I’ve always felt that Temple deserves to have an on-campus stadium as much as the marquee schools in other cities (Boston College in Boston, Georgia Tech in Atlanta, USF in Tampa, UAB in Birmingham, etc.) deserve to have on-campus stadiums as well. Those schools never let neighborhood opposition stop them from building anything they want on their own property nor should Temple.

In the 2012 NCAA tournament basketball win over North Carolina State, a million-dollar Temple contributor told Mark that the on-campus stadium was a “done deal.”

Yeah it’s done, but not in the way that guy (RIP) described.

Maybe someday 100 years from now when I’m long gone and watching Temple play in the ACC from the clouds above, I will heard a loud “Let’s Go Temple!” chant from a packed on-campus stadium.

That will not happen in my lifetime or most of yours.

If Wingard’s statement reflected anything, it’s a done deal.

Done bad, not done good.

Monday: Who da man?

Friday: Pre-Cherry and White

Monday (4/11): Post Cherry and White

03.25.22
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Cherry and White: A Tradition Unlike Any Other

About the same time the best golfers in the world will be teeing up in Georgia for the penultimate round of that sport’s best tournament, two colors will be teeing it off at 10th and Diamond.

The Cherry and The White.

Jim Nance likes to call the former thing: “A Tradition Like Any Other.”

This is about the latter thing.

Maybe golf fanatic Nance is right, but do you know a sports tradition that has–within the last 20 years or so–been played in at least six places and been part of a transition from bottom to (nearly) top as Temple football’s Cherry and White game?

I didn’t think so.

In the last 20 years, Temple’s Cherry and White football game has been played in 1) The Old Temple Stadium (2004), 2) Ambler (2006), 3) Cardinal O’Hara (2008), 4) Lincoln Financial Field (2010), 5) the soccer/field hockey complex (three times recently) and the 6) Edberg-Olson Football Complex (five times)?

Find me a moveable tradition like that and we can start the conversation about any other traditions.

It’s OK, too.

Accessible by train from anywhere in the Philly region

This year (April 9) the game will be played at the E-O. The back-to-the-future theme is necessitated because the other place is booked. The Temple nationally-ranked women’s lacrosse team is playing on the same day at the $22 million facilities at Broad and, somewhat ironically, Master.

If they draw a 1,000-person crowd, it will be good for them.

About 10 blocks North and three blocks East, anywhere between 4-5,000 people will be attending the Cherry and White football festivities.

It’ll be different this year and in a good way.

Old-timers like me remember when it was a “real game” with tackling and a final score. New Temple head coach Stan Drayton has promised that much because “this is really important to Temple alumni that we play it as a game and we will.”

The last three years were glorified drills like hitting a running back with a tackling dummy. That sense of urgency carried over to the games in the fall.

Game used to be broadcast by Philly radio legends Bill Campbell and Steve Fredericks.

This time, the simulation will be real and it will be a welcome change because we’ve seen the very same process during Cherry and White Days presided over by successful coaches like Wayne Hardin, Bruce Arians, Al Golden and Matt Rhule. Whatever we watched the past three seasons did not work.

All of the prior Temple guys believed that the fall process included meaningful business in front of the fans on Cherry and White Day.

The fact that the new guy believes that, too, is a good sign for the fall and makes attendance by serious Owl fans mandatory.

This is a damn good tradition that needs to be restored unlike any other. April 9 it will be.

Monday: What’s Happening Here

Friday: Wingard speaks

03.21.22
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Forecasting: Data tops Feelings every time

On the day Stan Drayton signed on the dotted line to be the new head coach of Temple football, the most-often heard question from the fan base was about how fast he could turn around the won/lost record.

Too soon?

Yes, and even now, a couple of weeks into practice, it is too soon to tell.

The reason simple: Data tops Feelings every time.

We’re not talking about Zamani Feelings, the Owls’ terrific team photographer. If a guy named Joe Data tried to match him shot for shot, he’d air ball every photo.

I thought about data while filling out my NCAA brackets last week.

Some Temple football team stats at the end of last season.

When I won the Philadelphia Inquirer’s 2011 NCAA March Madness pool, it was 10 percent knowledge and 90 percent consulting and cross-checking the two full agate pages of every team’s score from every game. I haven’t been able to find a single newspaper that does that since. Holding a couple of broadsheet pages certainly beats going back and forth and clicking on each team.

This “best win, worst loss” capsule is for the birds when back then I could have easily identified five best wins and five worst losses just by turning my head. That really made all the difference. Easiest $2,400 I ever made, non-taxable and delivered in cash in a brown paper bag at Westy’s Tavern, 15th and Callowhill, after the 2 a.m deadline. (It was a very nervous early morning walk over to the parking garage.) Since then, the paper’s staff went from about 500 writers across all departments to about 1/10th that many so I don’t think the current haul compares.

The point is the more data you have at your disposal the better the forecasting.

What we do know about Temple football and the most recent data available is that cross-checking most of it doesn’t bode well for the 2022 won/loss record.

Of the 130 FBS teams, the Owls finished 112th in passing yards, 115th in rushing yards, and 122 in points against. The Owls special teams were 98th.

Ugh, as in ugly.

In other words, Drayton and staff have their work cut out for them this spring.

There is plenty of room for improvement and maybe too much room.

Still, a variable not on any NCAA stat sheet is the era of good Feelings Drayton has ushered in at 10th and Diamond. The Owls have improved the offensive and defensive lines and running game. They’ve probably fallen off in the area of pass receiving, having lost two good players in Jadan Blue and Randle Jones.

They haven’t improved the quarterbacking since they are probably one injury from a complete disaster and probably need to bring in an accomplished QB portal guy sooner than later and those guys are going fast.

While it’s still too soon to forecast any 2022 won/lost record, as Yogi Berra might say: “It’s getting late early.”

Friday: A Tradition Unlike Any Other

03.18.22
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5 Guys Who Should Thrive Under Drayton

During the second half of his third spring ball press conference, only a few sentences in, new Temple head football coach Stan Drayton singled out a position group a lot of fans might not have given a lot of thought to before now.

Tight ends.

https://twitter.com/Temple_FB/status/1503732761294630914

That said a lot because, up until now, wide receiver seemed to be a much deeper position but Drayton bemoaned the early lack of leadership in that group and heaped some praise on the tight ends.

There is some logic to that.

David Martin-Robinson is a 6-5, 255 redshirt junior and has always performed when he number was called. He, in my mind, is a leader. He leads a group at TEs at least three deep who could cause damage to opposing defenses this fall.

So were Randle Jones and Jadan Blue for the wide receivers.

Robinson is one of the five guys who should thrive under Drayton because, even at this early stage in practice, Drayton is understanding a basic philosophy we’ve preached here for over a decade: Coach to the talent you have, not the talent you want.

The coach who shall remain nameless forced round pegs (an NIU system) into square holes (Temple talent) for much of his three years.

Jose Barbon in the 2019 win over a Maryland team that beat Rutgers, 48-7.

Now, at least from what Drayton says, the square pegs are going into the square holes. You read here first that DMR will be a first-team all-AAC player at TE this year.

Here are four others who could challenge for league honors under this sensible system:

Jose Barbon, wide receiver _ The 6-0, 185-pound receiver filled in admirably whenever Jones and Blue went down with injuries over the last two years and caught a lot of difficult balls in traffic. He seems a logical starter at one of the WR positions and should shine.

Ronnie Stevenson, wide receiver _ The Owls have lacked a red zone lob pass threat since Branden Mack left and the 6-5 Stevenson with reliable hands provides that threat.

Trey Blair, running back _ The redshirt freshman was a superstar quarterback at Haverford High and the best punt and kickoff returner in that school’s history. Temple hasn’t had a dangerous punt or kickoff returner since Isaiah Wright was the 2018 AAC Special Teams Player of the Year and there may be a STPY Award for Blair in the future, if not this year, then maybe next. We screamed for Big 33 starting quarterback Jalen Fitzpatrick to throw a pass for Temple in this space for over a year and, when Matt Rhule relented, his first pass went for 86 yards and a touchdown against SMU. We did the same for the last staff with Blair and they were as blind as Stevie Wonder on the specific talent of their players. If Drayton allows Blair to throw a halfback pass, it will be for six. We won’t guarantee it but it’s got a 50/50 shot.

Adam Klein, offensive tackle _ The 6-5, 290-pound redshirt senior from Episcopal Academy has played here on a high level so long consider this: His blocking probably was the key factor in Ryquell Armstrong’s seven-touchdown performance in a 59-49 win at Houston. The RPO system the last guy championed probably didn’t highlight Klein’s run-blocking prowess but the downhill running game that made Drayton a Little All-American at Allegheny College will probably take hold at Temple. He earned his first career start in Sept. of 2018 against Tulsa and has been a fixture on the line since. Downhill blocking in the running game is his forte and that’s a philosophy Drayton can get behind here.

At least we can hope.

More on that after we take in the Cherry and White game on April 9.

Monday: Data vs. Feelings

Friday: A Tradition Unlike Any Other

03.14.22
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5 Newcomers who could make a difference

One of the hazards of being a big college football fan is that, due to the transfer portal, one of your favorite players on your favorite team could be here today and gone tomorrow.

At least that’s what it was under the old guy.

Lancine Turay will also be wearing No. 58 for the Owls.

Temple football, under Stan Drayton, seems to have stabilized things because the new guy has done a pretty good job of bolting the exit door to the Edberg-Olson Football Complex completely shut. Since the PR guys have always done a good job keeping the roster on Owlsports.com up to date, we’re going to assume that everybody who is on paper will show up for practice tomorrow.

Five guys usually don’t make as much of a difference on a 100-man football roster as do five guys on a basketball roster but we’re going to list five newcomers today who could make a big difference for the 2022 Owls. By newcomers, we’re talking about guys who have not seen the field for any significant time so far, even if they have been walking around the practice facility.

In no particular order, they are:

Nazir Burnett, a redshirt sophomore WR _ Since he only played against Wagner, we will call him a newcomer. He played wide receiver for coach Jeff Weachter at Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg and was rated the No. 24 player in the state of Pennsylvania by 247Sports. With Jadan Blue gone to Virginia Tech, the Georgia Tech transfer should get an opportunity to catch a lot of balls. As a high school senior in 2018, Burnett caught 78 passes for 1,746 yards and an insane number of touchdowns (25). By comparison, the all-time single-season TD record for a WR at Temple is by Bruce Francis (15, 2008), which was the exact same number of TD catches Burnett had as a JUNIOR.

Iverson Clement,, a redshirt junior RB _ Got into a little dispute with the old head coach and strength coach, which is probably a plus and not a minus considering the cancer in the locker room those older guys were. In good graces with Drayton, Clement had 46 career touchdowns and 3,404 yards for his New Jersey High school career before signing at Florida.

Xach Gill, a redshirt senior DT _ Drayton has already noticed the 6-5, 295-pound tackle (hard not to) by singling him out for praise. One of the few Owls who have started a Power 5 game (at Wake Forest and for North Carolina), he immediately upgrades an area of need for Temple. A first-team All-State, he had 18 sacks (not simulated, but real) as a high school senior in North Carolina.

Lancine Turay, a redshirt junior DE/DT _ Another DL transfer from North Carolina, Turay gives the Owls needed size (6-6, 270) and length. Originally out of New Jersey, he’s got good genes as his brother, Kemoko, plays defensive end for the Indianapolis Colts. Lancine was rated as the 32d prospect in the entire state of New Jersey by 247Sports and had nine sacks his senior year.

Darvon Hubbard, a redshirt sophomore RB _ Coming all the way from Arizona by way of Texas A&M, Hubbard might be the fastest Owl since Bernard Pierce brought his state champion 100-meter (10.8) speed to Temple from Glen Mills. He averaged seven yards a carry as a high school senior and is pretty fresh since he only had 99 carries (for over 1,000) yards in his last full year of football. Probably is the best bet to take a long run to the house since the Owls did not get a single one of those from any of their running backs last year.

Friday: Five Veterans Who Should Thrive

03.11.22
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Temple Football: Hope springs eternal

Fall football is the main course, complete with the mashed potatoes, meat and all the sides like tailgating Temple fans have come to know and love.

Spring football is an acquired taste, more like an appetizer than a full meal.

Fans starving for football love both and, for Temple fans, the menu changes starting this morning when the Owls begin a month of drills at the $17 million Edberg Olson Football Complex.

People ask me why I occasionally throw in the price tag of something that started as a significant $7 million investment in 2003 and included a $10 million add-on in 2011.

Simple.

The $10 million addition to the E-O under construction in 2010.

That kind of investment shows the commitment from the top on down at Temple to a winning football program from the Board of Trustees. There are not many current AAC practice facilities better than Temple’s if you include the indoor one at 15th and Montgomery. Add a $200 million commitment to building a football stadium on campus the Temple brass appears all-in on football.

What has happened since the neighbors pushed back three years ago today in a March meeting that was more madness than the NCAA tournament was troubling but the fact that the face of Temple leadership now more reflects the face of the community is a sign that those at the top understand the goals remain unchanged.

Now the football part.

Temple needs to win this year.

You and I and everyone who follows the program know that.

The $17 million (err, $217 million) question is whether the old guy has set things so far back that the new guy can’t make an impact his first year.

That won’t be answered in the next month, but some clues should give an insight into the future.

To me, the biggest key to winning in football is protecting your quarterback and putting the other guy’s quarterback on his ass and Temple did a piss-poor job in both areas last year and, if there is a No. 1 goal of this coaching staff in the next four weeks, it is fixing both.

To me, “simulated pressures” won’t get the second task done but D.J. Eliot deserves a chance to show that philosophy leads to real pressures.

Offensively, the Owls have some talent on the line and should be better able to protect the quarterback if they establish a running game first. Darvon Hubbard and Iverson Clement following an experienced line gives them the chance to do that. Under the last guy, the scheme to run the football behind guys who didn’t have the speed to break a long run was a failed philosophy.

New philosophies will be in place starting today. If there is a real Cherry and White game on April 9 with hitting and long runs, that will be a good sign that Temple TUFF is back.

Light a candle and pray those changes will be obvious once we see a real Cherry and White game for the first time since 2018.

Monday: 5 Newcomers to Watch

03.07.22
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Outside perception: We’re No. 119

The good news today is that the “outside world” sees Temple football as improving under first-year head coach Stan Drayton.

The bad news is that the improvement is so incremental to be negligible.

We’re No. 119.

Last year we were No. 121.

As former co-defensive coordinator, Ola Adams has said many times on Twitter: “Start small and build.”

Going from No. 119 to 121 to starting too small and building too slow, but that’s where ESPN’s Bill Connelly projects the Owls to be in 2022.

Pretty sure those close to the program now aren’t expecting moving two spots up a 130-team FBS totem pole nor are we.

Still, it’s easy to see why the outside world feels that way.

Interesting that Temple is rated below Navy but has an 8 percent better chance of making a bowl.

The Owls have a roster good enough to only win three games under a head coach who was cancer in the locker room.

They’ve cut the cancer out, the roster has bought what the new guy is selling but is that good enough to move from 121 to 80?

Eighty isn’t asking for much because that’s how many teams make bowl games. Eighty out of 130 is the lower half of the second group of FBS teams. Temple should demand that even in an off-year. Yet everybody on the outside seems to think that’s a bridge too far for Temple after 1-6 and 3-9 seasons.

Another way to look at this is Connelly’s projections are usually solid and fact-based but he published a story earlier this month that projected linebacker George Reid as one of the Owls stars.

Two problems with that:

Reid gave up football last month and, while a nice player, I don’t know anyone in the program who said he was a “star” or even projected as one. I’m not all that sure he would even start if he came back.

Connelly never even mentioned a running back transfer from Texas A&M, Darvon Hubbard, who figures to be an immediate upgrade nor mention a Florida transfer at the same position, Iverson Clement, who fell out of favor with the prior staff and is back in the good graces of the new one. The Owls didn’t have a single home run hitter in the backfield last year. Now they have two.

They should be strong at linebacker and in the secondary and be decent on the offensive line. They need to upgrade the defensive line because they, quite frankly, stunk at getting after the quarterback and stopping the run.

In the era of the transfer portal, there are a lot of moving parts. There are still a bunch of good players in the portal now and, if Drayton feels the Owls have an area of need after spring practice, there are better players available.

Spring practice starts Friday and, while the outside evaluation of Temple is important, what the coaches decide about the roster this spring will dictate the results this fall.

If the outside world is right again, the Temple program is in a whole lot of trouble. The good news is that the inside world can do a lot to change perceptions between now and then.

Friday: Line Play

03.04.22
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Marching into the most important spring practice

Bad weather was no excuse for the Owls to shut down in the winter of 2017, like it was in the winter of 2021

A year ago at roughly this time, we outlined a rather grim but damn close to perfect 2021 season forecast.

We went through every game and saw only two wins for our most beloved sports team: The Temple football Owls.

We were only off by one game.

The coach who shall remain nameless gets no credit for exceeding our expectations because our reasoning was this: 1) because he brought in only six starters from the transfer portal and needed to bring in 15 starters, he failed in the offseason. 2) He lost the locker room that was already here.

Spring practice begins in a week

Another valued poster here, KJ, chimed in with a 1-11 prediction. I take no joy that I was 33 percent closer to being right than he was simply because the win over Memphis proved to be an outlier. Every other game, even the 41-7 one over Wagner, proved him to be more right than me. (Temple should have beaten the worst team in FCS by 82-7, not 41-7.)

Now what?

Signs of life are beginning to show at the $17 million Edberg-Olson Facility in that the Owls are lifting weights and running at a level we have not seen since Geoff Collins and Nick Sharga practiced in the snow in the January and February of 2017.

What happened then?

The Owls followed up a 10-win championship season with an acceptable but still underachieving 7-6 and a Gasparilla Bowl win over Butch Davis and FIU.

Underachieving because Matt Rhule left Collins with 10-win talent. Acceptable, because Collins was learning how to be a head coach for Georgia Tech on Temple’s time and Temple’s dime and his first-year loss to Villanova was an example of an entrenched good staff taking their ums and beating Temple’s better ums due to a coaching staff learning on the job. The Temple kids deserved better coaching that year.

This much we will give The Minister of Mayhem. His 8-5 in 2018 was way more impressive than the coach who shall remain nameless’ 8-5 the next season. Beating Cincinnati and fewer blowouts were the difference.

My guess and gut feeling is that new Temple coach Stan Drayton is closer to Collins than he is to the nameless guy simply because he got the team to buy in the same way Collins did and the opposite way the nameless guy did. He, unlike nameless, will be learning on the job but he, unlike nameless, has the respect and love of the kids and that cannot be underestimated.

Still, there is a learning curve for him as well. Collins’ curve was high and outside. Let’s hope Drayton’s curve catches the corner of the plate. John Chaney always liked to talk about the known and the unknown. Both Collins then and Drayton now are unknowns and that, at last to me, poses some concern.

Spring practice begins on March 11. It might not be the most important spring practice ever but certainly is the most important in at least five years.

If you see a real Cherry and White game, with hitting and punt returns and football excitement and fewer routine drills, that will be a good sign that 2022 will be closer to 2017 than 2021.

Until then, we will reserve a game-by-game forecast.

What Drayton has done to this point buys him that much wiggle room.

Monday: Outside Noise