07.09.21
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Only one bigger opener than Rutgers

One of the great games in this fairly tight rivalry: Temple’s win in 1988

Arguably is one of the best words in the English language because we’re going to use it right here.

ARGUABLY the Temple vs. Rutgers opener on Thursday night, Sept. 2, is exceeded by only one other date:

Sept. 5, 2015.

That’s when the Owls beat down Penn State, 27-10, a score that was only somewhat respectable because Penn State grad Matt Rhule took three knees deep in PSU territory late in the fourth quarter and eschewed an almost certain touchdown that would have made it 34-10.

Nice catch by John Christopher

Most of us (including me) did not care one whit because of the euphoria of the moment, breaking a 74-year winless streak. Sticking around at the post-game tailgate until 9:30 was worth it, especially when the police tried to kick us out. A captain came over on his motorcycle and told his underlings: “Let these guys stay as long as they want. They waited a long time for this win.”

Before that, we saw Matt Rhule place a big wet kiss on 90-year-old Wayne Hardin’s cheek in honor of Wayne’s 10-7, 31-30 and 26-25 losses to the Nittany Lions. We also received a text from Bruce Arians saying “way to go Owls, I watched the whole game.”

Why would this year’s Rutgers’ game be nearly as important?

Put it this way: The Temple WINNING brand, which has been 73-54 since 2009, took a big hit with a 1-6 season last year.

The fans’ confidence is shaken.

Hopefully, not the team’s.

What isn’t arguable is that Rod Carey is a bum to MOST Temple fans now. If he beats Rutgers, he will be a hero. Is that fair? Maybe not. Is it true? Most definitely.

There are few FBS football schools as close geographically as Temple and Rutgers (52.1 miles). SMU and TCU (45.2 miles), UCLA and USC (13.2 miles), NIU and Northwestern (74 miles), and Maryland and Navy (30.4 miles) but that’s about it. The crowd for the 1988 Temple-Rutgers game (31,219) was the largest for any game in the history of the old Rutgers Stadium (1938-1994). This is a geographical rivalry and Temple has been the better team at least for seven of the last eight years.

Let’s put it this way. As recently as 2019, the Owls beat a Maryland team that clubbed Rutgers, 48-7.

Have the Owls fallen that far that fast?

A loss would reinforce the current national notion that the Owls are just outside of ESPN’s Bottom 10.

Hell, after all that Al Golden and Matt Rhule did to get this program back on track, Rutgers might be more important than the Penn State game.

Looking backward, I don’t believe that.

Looking forward, I sure do.

If they kick us out of the Piscataway parking lot at 9:30, that would be fine with me. By my calculations for a 6 p.m. start, that would give me 15 minutes of celebration time and a new outlook on the season.

Arguably, it would be worth it.

Monday: Looking at it from the Carey perspective

07.05.21
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One time stats are for winners

Delano Green shows the current Owls how the program used to treat punt returns back in the day.

Maybe the oldest adage in sports is that statistics are for losers.

Not always.

Not this year.

At least for Temple football.

This is the only red flag Temple fans should care about.

That’s because for the Owls to post a winning season, a lot of the current players and leaders are going to have to post not only their best numbers but numbers significantly above what they’ve done in the past.

The good news is that there is some solid history among the single-digit players.

If, say, Jadan Blue can just surpass his numbers from the 2019 season (95 catches, over 1,000 yards, four touchdowns) that is really all the contribution he needs to make.

I think he can do it, particularly if Randle Jones stays healthy on the other side. (Meaning Blue won’t face double-coverage.)

If, say, Will Rodgers III can get the nine sacks in G5 ball that he took a couple of years to do on the P5 level, the Owls’ pass rush will be significantly improved and it needs to be.

The bad news is that there is no history of the most important players on the field putting up numbers.

Specifically, we’re talking about the most important position on the field: Quarterback.

Through very little fault of his own, D’Wan Mathis had more interceptions than touchdown passes in his brief stint as the Georgia starter last year. (We won’t say NO fault of his own because if Mathis threw five touchdown passes and over 300 yards in his first game as starter, he would have been the quarterback for the next week and maybe several weeks after that.)

To me, the key stats for a winning Temple season are simply this:

Mathis has to better Anthony Russo’s best year: 21 touchdown passes, 11 interceptions in 2019. Who knows? Maybe Mathis tosses 30 touchdowns and throws only eight interceptions but he’s going to have to have a career year either way.

Also, the running backs (presumably R’Von Bonner and Iverson Clement) have to put up Bernard Pierce-type numbers (1,500 yards and 25 touchdowns). Since that’s two guys and Pierce was just one, that should be doable since the Owls’ offensive line.

Also, it would be nice if the Owls were proactive on special teams (blocked kicks, punt returns like Delano Green’s) instead of being passive which they have been for the past two years under Rod Carey.

They’ve had no stats of note on special teams since Ed Foley left town.

That might be a lot to ask but when you are picked to win only two games, you’ve got to do a lot more than the pundits expect to get the results the fans want.

The benchmarks have been set and they are stats that translate into winning, not losing.

Friday: Starting gates

07.02.21
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NIL: The rich getting richer

With each passing change of college football as we know it, you can excuse Temple sports fans not being overly excited.

As of yesterday, the NCAA adopted the latest reality: Name, Image and Likeness.

To me, it’s another in a series of changes that mean simply this: The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

It makes sense that the teams with the larger followings, like Duke in basketball, and Alabama in football, will have players who rake in the money over, say, the Temple’s and the Cincinnatis.

Fairness?

An even playing field?

Giving everyone an equal chance to win?

Bleep that, says the NCAA, which has reluctantly joined the call for paying the players through this method.

One of the barometers for this is social media following and, just for an example, I can’t imagine Temple basketball ever having a larger social media following than Duke (see above).

Or Temple football against any P5 team.

That 2016 American Conference football championship that Temple had now seems so far away.

Can the Owls win another AAC title?

Sure, but expecting the “amateurs” to compete with the “professionals” in a playoff with be damn near impossible. That 2016 Owls’ team would have been a worthy foe for anyone in a 12-team playoff. It lost by a touchdown at Big 10 champion Penn State despite 130 yards in home-cooking penalties. Have a rematch in a bowl game on a neutral field and things might have gone the other way.

Especially if Matt Rhule saw a playoff game against his alma mater as a better reason to stay at Temple for one more game than a meaningless bowl.

It would have been a mighty blow for the G5 to have one of its champions beat the Big 10 champion in a playoff game. Maybe the biggest boost ever for the G5.

We will never know.

Now Temple faces huge obstacles in the transfer portal and this Name, Image and Likeness development.

If this NIL thing works out the way we think it will, it might just be time for the G5 to break away and form its own organization with its own playoffs. Give similar sized schools with similar followings (and presuming players benefit the same with pay) an even playing field. I had been against that because I always thought that Temple could join the P5 but it seems like the P5 doesn’t want to share its money with anyone.

Except the players who commit to those schools and that’s sad.

Monday: Temple 2021 Measurables

06.28.21
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Victor Baga: A Life Well-lived

EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally scheduled in this space for today was a discussion of The Supreme Court’s latest decision on intercollegiate athletics. That seems rather meaningless now because Temple lost a truly great fan in former player Victor Baga. I had the honor of talking to Vic at the tailgates maybe 20 times over the last 10 years but felt this was a perfect opportunity to get a take on him by former teammate Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub. It follows in this space.

Fizzy on the beach

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

Sophomore Vic Baga arrived on the Temple football team my senior year and immediately began contributing on defense. We had a pretty close-knit group of seniors and some juniors, and Vic wasn’t my friend yet.

After I began teaching and coaching, I lost track of Vic and his activities for many years. Then, about forty years later, some of the guys got together at the original Nick’s Roast Beef after a Temple game, and Vic was there. We renewed acquaintance, but Vic still wasn’t my friend yet.

We then saw each other more frequently at different alumni functions and impromptu gatherings But it wasn’t until Vic’ss long-time girlfriend Leslie passed, did we begin to get close. Then, a teammate invited some of us down to Senile (Sea Isle) City for the weekend, and that’s where I got a chance to spend some time with Vic. After that, we would speak on the phone mostly every week, and Vic would keep me up-to-date on the happenings and health of our teammates. Our conversations were far-reaching, about personalities, politics, and sports.

One of the great things about our conversations wereVic thought most of my jokes were funny. You have to love a guy for that. When we got into our 80s, we naturally spent increasing amounts of time discussing our health and the health of our teammates and their wives. I knew Vic had breathing problems and was in and out of the VA, seeing doctors and getting tested. But we last talked on the Sunday before he passed, and Vic gave me no indication anything serious going on. But on Saturday I went to his funeral Mass. He went into the hospital on Friday and left us on June 18. It turns out he knew he had a severe problem but didn’t tell anyone.

Vic Baga was a warm and caring guy who loved his family, friends, and his dog. Before he moved from South Jersey, We’d often talk when he and his dog were on the beach, and he allowed his buddy to roam free.

All of us will dearly miss him.

Friday: Play to Play

Monday: Temple measurables

06.25.21
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Sam Fraley: A player to root for …

If Sam Fraley does his job well for Temple’s football team this fall, nobody will notice and that’s a good thing.

That’s because Fraley has a chance to be the Owls’ long snapper and that’s a position that’s been a disaster ever since the Lerch Brothers left town.

I have a personal reason to root for Sam because he is the son of a former colleague at The Philadelphia Bulletin, Gerry Fraley, who unfortunately will not be around to see him play at Temple. I got to The Bulletin a little before him, working high school sports under Bob Savitt and Julius Thompson but got to know him through my Bulletin friends.

Sam Fraley

Sam, his son, also shares my middle name: Gerard. (Which was Sam’s first name.) He’s not only had to overcome a rare disorder (see video above) but his dad died two years ago so he’s had a lot to deal with and deserves any success that comes his way.

Gerry passed away at the young age of 64 in 2019 after becoming one of the best sports writers in the country. When the Bulletin folded, he left for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and then the Dallas Morning News. He was President of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Gerry’s Phillies coverage was unmatched.

Later, when I would cover the Phillies a few springs for the Doylestown Intelligencer in Fraley’s home town of Clearwater, Gerry and I would have several late-night conversations after I filed my stories underneath the old Jack Russell Stadium. No nicer guy in the business. We drove to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City to catch up with Pete Rose. When we both approached Steve Carlton in the locker room in Clearwater, he waved us off.

Carlton growled. We laughed.

At least we tried.

Now his son has made it to Philadelphia.

Chances are Temple has never had a player from Redwood City, California but Fraley has Temple and Philadelphia running through his blood.

Back when Gerry was writing up a storm about the Phillies for The Bulletin, the competing Daily News had an all-star staff of columnists (Tom Cushman, Mark Whicker, Stan Hochman) and Temple’s own Dick “Hoops” Weiss to cover The Big Five and other fellow Temple News former sports editors, Phil Jasner, to cover the Sixers, and Hall of Famer Ray Didinger to cover the Eagles.

The Bulletin had Sandy Grady as a columnist and The Inquirer countered with Frank Dolson and Bill Lyon.

Those were the halcyon days of sports writing in Philadelphia. The DN cost 25 cents and I probably would have paid $10 per issue. Now the DN costs $2.95 and it’s probably not worth 25 cents.

According to Owlsports.com, the school’s official roster lists Fraley as wearing No. 46.

I will be looking for him through my binoculars and rooting for him. For his sake, I hope I’m the only one who notices.

Somewhere, I think Gerry would understand that take.

Monday: Pay to Play?

06.21.21
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CFP playoff proposal a positive for Temple

A reading of the latest college football playoff proposal that goes before the university Presidents promises something for Temple football.

Relevancy.

At least more relevancy than the limbo that has existed since the end of the 2016 season.

If you accept the premise that the powers-that-be at Temple want to fix a football program that has gone 9-11 over the last two seasons (and I do, more on that later), than just getting Temple back to its 2015-2016 level of excellence promises relevant post-season participation.

That’s because a careful reading of the proposal mentions this important phrase:

“The six highest-ranked conference champions are guaranteed a spot.”

Wait. What?

Every playoff proposal we’ve seen since the beginning only guaranteed the Power 5 conferences a spot and made no such guarantee for Group of Five teams.

Since there are only five P5 conferences, it seems logical that most (really, every) year, the American Athletic Conference champion would be guaranteed a spot.

Take last year for instance. Cincinnati was the fifth highest-ranked champ (ahead of PAC-10 champ Oregon) and Coastal Carolina was the sixth-highest ranked champion, also ahead of Oregon.

Temple, though, has to commit to a return to the same kind of excellence that put it in AAC championship games in consecutive years.

The fact that the Board of Trustees hired a football guy, former Stanford player Dr. Jason Wingard, is a big hint the football guys are still in charge of the BOT. Maybe Wingard can get the stadium proposal moving forward, but I’d rather see Temple winning the AAC championship again than any stadium.

What good did it do Akron building a beautiful new stadium and lose like crazy after starting to play games in it?

Nothing.

Lombardi said it best: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

If Rod Carey doesn’t move the program in a significant direction upward (and we’re not talking four-five wins here), Wingard must look elsewhere because time is of the essence.

The earliest the new playoff can happen is 2023. Temple plays Oklahoma in 2024 and Penn State in 2026. The Owls have to be competitive with those kind of programs again, just like they were with PSU and Notre Dame in 2015-16.

Either Carey is going to get his act together and win now or another guy should get a chance. There is no time to waste.

Friday: A player to root for

Monday: Pay to Play

06.18.21
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Open Letter to Dr. Jason Wingard

Dr. Wingard needs to be to Rod Carey what Robert DeNero was to Gaylord Focker in Meet the Parents.

Dr. Jason Wingard

President

Temple University

Sullivan Hall

Broad and Montgomery Aves.

Philadelphia, PA 19122

Dear Dr. Wingard,

Congratulations on getting the top job at Temple.

In my mind, Temple University could not have made a better choice. I hope to meet you at the tailgates this fall. Please stop by and say hello to the Bruce Arians’ former players (back of Lot K by the fence closest to Citizens Bank Park) and the Wayne Hardin guys (farther away against the same fence but in the very corner).

Although I do not know you know or even heard about you before (my bad), if someone gave me a pen and paper and told me what my wish list was for the next Temple President I would have written this:

Football guy

Philadelphia guy

Academic guy

Excellence guy

You checked all of those boxes.

If you think this is a negative review, please let me know. I don’t think I could have been any more positive.

I really don’t know who else would have been better, maybe former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell but he’s getting up there and has health issues.

To me, your hire best reflected the priorities of not only the Temple Board of Trustees but the university as a whole.

The BOT has stated it wants a stadium and maybe you can help negotiate the political mine field and get this done so Temple, like just about every other great public university, has a stadium where the alumni can reconnect with campus at least six times a year.

That’s not as important as the excellence part.

As former Chancellor Peter J. Liacouras has stated, the football program is the front porch of the university. He is on record as saying this:

Nothing would put Temple on the forefront of the nation than a winning championship football program. We all saw that in 2015 when the Owls put a 27-10 beatdown on Penn State and took a 7-0 record (and a No. 21 national ranking) into a Halloween Night matchup with No. 9. Notre Dame. That game came down to the wire and remains today the No. 1-watched college football game in the history of Philadelphia TV.

You cannot buy that kind of advertising. Not with a million nor a billion dollars and I doubt very seriously a trillion dollars.

That’s why it’s important you watch the success of the football program very closely this fall. If Rod Carey has a winning season, he deserves to stay.

Simple as that.

A great CEO accepts no excuses. Not Covid, not the year after COVID, not anything.

Win and stay. Lose and go.

If not, Temple needs to look in another direction and find a dynamic person to be the front porch of the university’s CEO. There’s a big buyout involved but, as in any business, you need to spend money to make money. There’s a guy out there. Al Golden is the only one who has proven he can do it here but there are many more talented individuals who can do this job on the same level as Golden and Matt Rhule.

Maybe even better.

That’s should be Temple’s Golden Rule. There are many great people out there who can do spectacular jobs. You can’t be President and head coach at the same time, but there can be a guy with similar ability in both important jobs.

Not you, but someone like you. The fact that Temple found you means that Temple can find HIM.

Signed,

Mike Gibson

Editor and Publisher

Temple Football Forever

(graduate, SCAT)

Monday: The Playoffs

06.14.21
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Underrated win: Temple 29, Virginia Tech 13

The complete Oyster Bowl game, which was only uploaded to Youtube four days ago by Zamani Feelings.

Of all the football wins in Temple history, one of the under-the-radar ones came in 1986 when the Owls beat Virginia Tech, 29-13, in what was then known as The Oyster Bowl.

Paul Palmer and Matty Baker get together 35 years after the Oyster Bowl.

The Oyster Bowl–like the Mirage Bowl in Japan–was one of two “bowl games” the Owls participated in during the regular season and the win was impressive both in Temple’s dominance of the “home” team and how good Virginia Tech was that season.

We were reminded of that win after seeing a photo yesterday of Matty Baker, the quarterback from that era, and Paul Palmer, the star of the game. The two reunited at Temple on Sunday. Baker was a redshirt freshman that year who made the trip but did not play. Baker did play 11 games as a backup the next season and became the Temple starter in 1988. (Lee Saltz was the Temple quarterback in the Oyster Bowl and was credited for a touchdown toss on a shovel pass that gave the Owls a 7-0 lead. Great call by Arians. Saltz also connected with 4.3 sprinter Keith Gloster on a perfectly thrown 52-yard touchdown bomb.)

Palmer ran for 239 yards, the most Virginia Tech allowed to a single player in its history until that point.

Temple finished that 1986 season 6-5 and that day handed Virginia Tech one of its only two losses of the season. That season the Hokies finished their season by beating North Carolina State (8-3-1), 25-24, in the Peach Bowl–which was one of the top bowl games in 1986.

The only other loss Virginia Tech had that season was to Cincinnati in its opener. Virginia Tech beat an 8-2-2 Clemson team, in addition to Virginia, West Virginia, Syracuse, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, among others. They also tied South Carolina.

They could not beat Temple because of the brilliant coaching of Bruce Arians and the elusiveness of Palmer.

As far as under-the-radar wins by winning Temple teams, it has to be near the top of the list.

Friday: A Letter

06.11.21
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Wingard: One catch at Stanford, one catch for Temple

Dr. Jason Wingard played on this Stanford team in 1992.

Temple University football fans and Dr. Jason Wingard already have at least one thing in common:

Experiencing the sheer joy of celebrating a dominating football win over Penn State in a 10-win season.

Dr. Wingard (left) with former Eagle Troy Vincent

Wingard’s win, a 24-3 bowl game trophy, came in the 1992 season. Temple fans, of course, will always remember 9/5/15, a 27-10 season-opening win over Penn State. The Cardinal finished 10-3 in 1992, the Owls 10-4 in 2015.

Wingard’s career football stats were modest–a catch for five yards in that 1992 season–but he’s listed as playing on all 12 games that season. My best guess is that he was an offensive lineman because, despite being a track star at West Chester Henderson, he also has no interception or tackle stats at Stanford. He was listed as a 1992 pre-season All-American and pre-season All-Americans usually have stats on college football reference’s site (unless they are offensive linemen).

Jason Wingard’s career stats at Stanford.

Whatever, he’s one great catch as the next Temple University president.

That’s because going into the search I thought having a football guy would be important for the school’s search for national excellence. That’s because if you’ve ever put on a uniform, you are a competitive guy and want to win. Since his dad graduated from Temple, he’s a legacy pick. He’s from the suburbs, lives in Philadelphia now (Chestnut Hill) and probably knows the political lay of the land. If there’s a guy who can pull off a stadium, it’s him.

From Wingard’s first press conference, he mentioned a desire for Temple to be excellent in both academics and athletics.

As past President Peter J. Liacouras noted, the two are not mutually exclusive. You can be great in both.

Stanford is and, from all indications, Temple will be.

If he refuses to accept one-win seasons going forward, he has my support.

One of the interesting articles Dr. Wingard wrote as entitled “Want Millenials to Stay? Invest in Corporate Learning.”

Maybe he will be able to write a future piece on getting Gen Z’s to stay in a certain G5 college football program.

“How to succeed in college football’s transfer portal? Hire a winning charismatic head coach who not only wins but relates well to the players.”

That’s the kind of one catch Temple needs most now. The clock is ticking.

Monday: Oyster Crackers

06.07.21
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A sucker bet or a sure thing?

This is how far we’ve fallen in six years.

One of the popular topics over on the OwlsDaily.com message board is about the over/under win total involving our very own Temple Owls.

The 2.5 wins posted by Vegas seems an insult to a lot of Owl fans used to winning (pre-pandemic) an average of over eight games for the previous decade.

Yet some of the responses are sad and amusing in a way.

One of the fans said: “at 2.5 I will make a small wager” and another said “four wins is doable.”

I had to shake my head. That’s the kind of stuff I’m used to reading on the Rutgers’ board over the last decade or so, not the Temple one.

This is what Temple football has become, perception-wise, after two Rod Carey seasons.

Even the Owls’ own fans have some doubts and the expectations of even the most optimistic are rather low.

I hit the 2-4-3 trifecta on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday and came away with a paltry $43. The same winning $2 bet in 2019 (thanks to a tip from The Daily News’ Dick Jerardi) cashed me $637.50. (The difference being eight horses vs. 18 and only five good ones among the eight.)

I’ll stick with the horses.

Temple winning three or four games holds no particular appeal to me, not after being so close to a couple of 10-win seasons.

Talk of the “hope” of winning four games reminds me of the Bobby Wallace days and I so wanted to forget about them.

Temple’s expectations should be much higher than that.

I’m not even sure Carey or his staff have high expectations because I have not read a single quote from either the head coach or any members of his staff even mentioning a winning season or a championship. All I’ve seen from Carey is that we want to “field a team that plays hard that our fans will be proud of ….”

That’s pretty damn vague and designed to tamp down any expectations.

I’m sure a lot of 1-11 Temple teams played hard in the past but didn’t have the, err, horses.

As far as the bet itself, I don’t see–at least at this juncture–Temple being favored in any game other than Wagner and Akron so that’s one good reason to stay away. Put it this way: Temple was an inexplicable unforced error away from being 0-7 last year, lost 15 players and gained nine and more of the 15 were proven than most of the nine coming into the E-O.

It’s neither a sucker bet nor a sure thing but low expectations should be have been a thing of the past century, not the current one.

Friday: Opening Clues