07.03.20
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We’re No. 6!!!! (Or Not)

athlon

I’ll put my money down on this when I see Temple on the cover.

This is usually about the time I walk down the aisles of my local Giant and Weis Markets peruse the covers of the various college football guides.

Flipping about a third of the way through for most of them is where you come to the sections on AAC.

Most of them have the Temple football Owls, a successful program for over a decade by G5 standards, ranked No. 6 in the toughest G5 conference.

I’m not buying it. (Not just the magazine but the premise.)

IF … and that’s indeed an IF there is a next season with the current uptick in the health scare, Temple will not be No. 6. The Owls might not be No. 1 but I would put money on them being closer to No. 1 than No. 6 and that’s based on an objective look at the talent on the roster.

The reason is simple.

joke

I’ve seen the Owls ranked as high as No. 4 (Underdog Dynasty) to as low as No. 8 here (The Breakdown). Most of the major magazines have the Owls at No. 6 in the AAC.

The Owls have an outstanding offensive line, a first-team freshman All-American running back in Ray Davis and two great … and I’m NOT using hyperbole when I write this … wide receivers in Branden Mack and Jadan Blue. The stats are there for all to see. Blue not only led the Owls in catches (95), but he ranks No. 1 among all Owls of all time in that category in a single season. That covers a lot of ground, both figuratively and literally, considering Leslie Shephard and Steve Watson were outstanding receivers in the NFL. Despite that, Mack–a complementary 6-5 receiver to Blue’s 6-1–caught more touchdown passes (7-4).

Quarterback Anthony Russo is on target to break all but two of P.J. Walker’s Temple career records (yards and touchdown passes). IF he makes the same kind of improvement from junior year to senior (14 touchdowns, 14 interceptions to 21-12), he has an outside shot at collecting all of the records. How outstanding would that be? P.J. played four years; Anthony only three.

The returning interior defensive line is really good, led by Dan Archibong and Ifeanyi Maijeh. Some transfers and recruits have bolstered the interior wall so moving Archibong out to his original position (end) should be an option to help with the outside rush.

The Owls have one linebacker returning who was a bowl game MVP (William Kwenkeu) and another (Isaiah Graham-Mobley) who just might be a better NFL prospect than Eagles’ No. 5 pick Shaun Bradley. He was certainly on par with Bradley until he got injured halfway through the 2019 season.

Corners Christian Braswell, Ty Mason, and Linwood Crump Jr. are back and have had plenty of experience. Two (Braswell and Mason) have pick 6s in AAC games. Amir Tyler is a pretty good safety.

Plus, in head coach Rod Carey‘s seven years as head coach (six at NIU), he has never won fewer than eight games. He’s been able to plug enough holes and identify them to sustain excellence.

This is not a sixth-place team. It may not be the first-place one, either, as Cincinnati and UCF have more talent on paper, but it is one with a perception problem on the national scale fueled by a couple of dud bowl games.

Right now, perception is everything until the Owls have a chance to get on the field and prove the magazines wrong. Let’s hope they have a chance to do so.

Monday: That’s What I’m Talking About Willis

Saturday (7/11): You can’t really go home again

Monday (7/13): An idea that makes too much sense

Friday (7/18): Best of TFF (our annual one-week vacation begins)

 

06.29.20
by

Running out of time to set a date for football

Mike Aresco, AAC commissioner,

Mike Aresco seems confident the AAC will be playing football.

It looks like there are at least three possible outcomes for the resumption of college football this season:

  • One, the powers-that-be will confirm all football will start on time.
  • Two, the powers-that-be will announce a postponement, cancellation, or shortened season maybe even without fans.
  • Three, no date will be set at all and the season will resume as scheduled.

Whatever happens, it appears to be that we are running out of time to set a date but AAC commissioner Mike Aresco doesn’t seem concerned.

aresco

That’s important because, if there are going to be fans, they have to know whether to renew season tickets or not. There’s too much uncertainty out there and fragile fan bases–like most of the ones currently in the G5–are not going to make plans to renew if there is no announcement made.

That said, my money is now on No. 3.

First, Temple is already having voluntary workouts and most of the team will join for full workouts starting July 13. Second, the school already announced that it will have a combination of in-person and online classes this fall. The in-person element means that football can be played. It’s hard to justify college football if there are no students on campus.

Now onto the “powers-that-be.” In college football, that certainly is not the NCAA. Football is controlled by the Power 5 conferences who basically tell the NCAA what to do.

If the Power 5 decides to play, and all indications are that it will, the G5 will fall in line.

So while it would be nice to know a summertime date where something is written that all systems are go, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the season will happen as scheduled and without significant comment.

Right now, those “powers” are hoping that the virus doesn’t spiral out of control between now and September so making a formal announcement now probably won’t happen. Plan to attend the games, but don’t be surprised if they aren’t there.

Saturday: Is Temple really No. 6?

Monday: That’s what I’m talking about

Saturday (7/11): You can’t really go home again

06.26.20
by

Tulane has the right approach

Tulane v Temple

Temple goes on the road to play Tulane, which has two road P5 games.

Even though Temple beat a very good Tulane team last year, there is no denying the Green Wave is on the rise.

This year, if there is this year, they are poised to take advantage.

Tulane’s non-conference schedule has been ranked No. 1 by college football expert Tom Fornelli in the AAC and that’s probably the model Temple should pursue in the not-too-distant future.

Cincinnati v Tulane

Consider this: Tulane returns 14 of 22 starters from a bowl team and runs a unique zone bluff option type offense that is easier to pass off than, say, Army and Navy. It’s an offense few teams run and makes Tulane a tough team to prepare for in a one-week situation. Most P5 teams go up against a read-option and facing a different style makes it a tough team to prepare against.

Temple used to be that way as the Owls ran power football with a fullback for most of the Matt Rhule and Al Golden years. Since P5 teams didn’t see that style, the Owls had a fair share of success against more talented foes.

This is my favorite Rhule quote about Temple football from a Paul Myerberg piece in USA Today:

“”HOW DO WE DIFFERENTIATE OURSELVES? HOW DO WE MAKE OURSELVES HARD TO PREPARE FOR? PUT TWO BACKS ON THE FIELD. PUT TWO TIGHT ENDS ON THE FIELD. THIS IS WHAT YOUR ROOTS ARE. THESE KIDS HAVE MADE THEMSELVES REALLY TOUGH. AND THAT’S THE ONLY WAY WE’LL EVER WIN. BY BEING A REALLY, REALLY TOUGH FOOTBALL TEAM.”” _ MATT RHULE

Now it appears Tulane has adopted its own way to make it a difficult-to-prepare-for opponent.

Tulane goes on the road against Northwestern and Mississippi State and I like that scheduling. Both are P5 teams but both are beatable and winning those games would be a boost to the entire conference and not just Tulane.

Temple plays a home game against P5 bottom-feeder Rutgers and a road game against much-improved (at least from a personnel standpoint) Miami. However, if the Owls bring that read-option style to Miami with a classic pocket passer in Anthony Russo, they are going to get hammered by outside pass rushers Quincy Roche and Gregory Rousseau, who could both go in the first round of the NFL draft. Establish an inside running game to avoid those two ends and then throwing off play-fakes would probably mitigate the rush. Does Rod Carey go outside of his comfort zone to attack the weakness of his opponent?

We didn’t see much evidence of last in his last game.

Hopefully, his next game plan is the polar opposite of that one.

Monday: Drop dead date

 

06.22.20
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How Dunphy can hit it out of the park

dunphy

Interesting choice of the word “earned” in this OwlsDaily headline.

Back in the mid-1960s, Fran Dunphy spent most of his springs as the shortstop of the LaSalle University baseball team. His second baseman in the double-play combination was former Temple University athletic director Bill Bradshaw.

Since it was a short fence at McCartney Stadium, we can assume Dunphy (and maybe even Bradshaw) hit a few out of the park.

Temple University names William Bradshaw new Director of Athletics.

Bradshaw continued his prolific home run hitting, at least in a figurative sense, at Temple as AD. It’s not a stretch to say that he saved the football program with the hirings of Al Golden and Matt Rhule and, even though he popped out with Steve Addazio (who won a bowl game), a 2-for-3 day at the hiring plate is a good performance in this sport.

More importantly, once the ship was righted, he signed contracts with Notre Dame and Penn State that increased Temple football’s profile nationally and he was directly responsible for the night that Temple set the record (that probably won’t be broken) for  the number of TV sets in the nation’s fourth-largest market glued to a college football game.

So Fran needs to get on the phone with his old buddy today or tomorrow if he’s going to make a difference in this job.

“Bill, what’s up?”

“Fran, congratulations on the AD job.”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you about. I don’t want to be known as a placeholder. I want to be a guy who makes a positive difference at Temple in this job.”

“Fran, here’s what you do. Get on the phone with Lafayette, Norfolk State, Coastal Carolina and rip up those contracts and tell them you are going to help them get games with Penn and Villanova.”

“Then what?”

“Then go through the list of Power 5 schools who are not at the top right now, I’m talking about the Indianas and the West Virginias, and schedule games with them. Try to get home and homes but, if you have to, settle for two for ones. It’ll help Temple get into the Power 5 to win those games. Hell, I’ll even help you try to get Notre Dame back on the schedule if you want.”

“Thanks, Bill. One more thing.”

“What’s that, Fran?”

“How about getting baseball back?”

“Let’s not get crazy. One thing at a time.”

Friday: What the other AAC teams are doing

 

06.20.20
by

Jonesy: A Sad Loss

gameface

This is how I will always remember Temple police officer Jim Jones, with a game face on game day.

That great writer and philosopher Billy Joel probably wasn’t the first guy to express the thought but it is forever engrained in pop culture in one of his songs:

“Only the good die young.”

rodster

Don’t know about “only” but it sure seems like a disproportionate distribution of the grim reaper and the latest person taken away from us was officer Jim Jones a week ago. He was born in 1971, so that would have made him 49.

Either way, too young.

I hesitated this long to write about it because I only saw and talked to the man (basically) twice a year: The season-ticket party and the bowl game. He would interact with the fans pretty much at those points and he was always the nicest guy you’d ever talk to.

The other times you’d see him he, like the team, had their game faces on and that was, of course, on game day.

He was the first guy leading the team into the stadium and he knew his No. 1 responsibility was to keep them safe and he did that to perfection.

gersonmessage

That’s how I will always remember him but he was much closer to the players, coaches and guys in the program and those are the people I feel for today. This above tribute written by Temple assistant director of football operations Dave Gerson, a lifelong Owl fan, reflected closeness better than anything I could write here.

The fact that just one police officer protected an entire team of 115-plus always astounded me. They are going to have to replace Jonesy with a battalion of officers and it won’t be enough.

2914d-franster

Monday: One Way Fran Can Knock it Out of the Park

Friday: Hat tip to these AAC teams

Monday (6/29): Drop Dead Date

 

 

06.15.20
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A couple of special additions

If one play turned around the Temple season, it was a Keystone Cops’ like extra point that was not only blocked but taken back all the way for two points at Cincinnati.

That miss was in no way the fault of kicker Will Mobley because careful review of that replay showed a guard missing his block that allowed a hand to get through.

rory

Still, those two points were the difference between a Temple lead in a game the Owls had to win. They really should have won that game in Cincinnati because a lead would have dictated the approach in the fourth quarter.

Whatever, it highlighted a problem with the Owls that needed to be fixed. The Owls have not had an impact kicker since Aaron Boumerhi helped save the 2016 season. That was the year Austin Jones busted his leg on a cheap shot at Memphis. Going into that game, Jones–who transferred to Alabama and obscurity (Quincy Roche take note)– hit a Temple record 17-straight field goals.

Why do we bring all of this up?

First, placekicking has pretty much never been an area to worry about. The Owls have been blessed from guys like Nick Mike-Mayer to Don Bitterlich to Cap Poklemba to Brandon McManus to Jones and Boomer.

Lately?

Not so much.

Mobley is a pretty reliable extra-point type kicker but do you trust him with a 44-yarder with 30 seconds left in a big spot?

bellster

Gotta love that all of Rory’s family and friends already have their Temple swag.

He’s never shown that deep leg threat.

Two kickers Rod Carey is bringing in this year, though, do. Carey watched the same film you and I did and is doing something about it.

Rory Bell of Wilmington (Ohio) is outstanding as is Souderton kicker William Leyland.

Bell was ranked No. 2 in the nation by one of the scouting services, Game Winning kicking.

Leyland was named the kicker for the East squad for the Big 33 game that unfortunately will not be played due to the pandemic.

Both have big legs and can win a game and both will come as PWO (preferred walk-ons).

May the best man win, err, a scholarship. The Owls already have won getting both on the roster.

Now let’s hope the Owls can tighten up all the loose ends on their special teams to give these guys a shot to shine.

 

06.13.20
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Some early stat predictions

russopj

Anthony Russo (circled) needs to improve by only two touchdown passes to break the single-season record held by both Adam DiMichele and P.J. Walker (above).

Weekly phone calls from Temple trying to sell season tickets is one indication that a full season will be announced soon.

How soon?

Your guess is as good as mine.

The school recently announced it will have both online and in-person classes and the second part of that pretty much confirms the requirement for a football season.

So here goes some early (on-the-record) stat predictions based on a full 12-game regular season (not including a potential bowl game):

We’ll repost this after the season to see how right we were but going on record is important.

grayunis

Quarterback

Anthony Russo is poised for an outstanding senior season. Even if he has a merely “good” one, he will break at least a couple of career passing records at Temple.

His sophomore season stats were these:

Fourteen touchdown passes, and the same number of interceptions. He had 2,563 yards in 2018; 2,861 in 2019. The record is 3,295 by P.J. Walker in that championship season (2016).

He improved those numbers by seven and three, both on the good side, in 2019 regular-season stats and, based on that math, we’re going for these predictions for 2020:

Prediction: 28 touchdowns, 8 interceptions and it’s not a reach that he will become the first Temple quarterback ever to have a 3,296-yard season so we will go for that. LSU’s Joe Burrows went from 19 touchdown passes to 60 his senior year, so it’s not out of the question that Anthony throws for 39 and ties the career record (74) of  Walker, but we’re not getting that crazy. We’ll take just the same improvement he made last year for next year.

If P.J. (who started the better part of four years to Russo’s three) still holds the career touchdown record, that’s perfectly understandable. The other two records are within reach, though.

Receivers: (Jadan Blue and Branden Mack):

Blue set single-season records for Temple in both receptions (95) and yards (1,097). That was a terrific improvement from his 2018 season. He did, however, only have four touchdown receptions and those numbers are going to have to improve to get attention of NFL scouts looking for impact-makers. So we’re going to go with fewer receptions (90) and yards (1,007) but we’re going to add five more touchdown receptions:

kwenkeu

William Kwenkeu (35) revives his Gasparilla Bowl MVP performance by leading the Owls in tackles this season.

Prediction: Blue, 90 receptions, 1,007 yards, and nine touchdown receptions.

Mack had seven touchdown catches and is taller (6-5 to 6-1) so we’re going to give him those seven and raise his number of receptions from 44 to 61 and his yards from 667 to 897.

Running backs

Ray Davis had 900 rushing yards in his first season as a freshman.

Prediction: He will raise that to 1,000 yards and 20 touchdowns his second season simply because Rod Carey and staff will realize they have a big-time playmaker on their hands and won’t make the same mistake of game-planning 26 passing plays in the first 34 snaps from scrimmage (see Cincinnati game, 2019).

Defense

Sacks: Interior tackle Ifeanyi Maijeh will lead with 9.

Interceptions: Safety Amir Tyler with 5.

Tackles: Linebacker William Kwenkeu with 88.

Tackles for loss: Linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley with 11.

OK, those are guesses. Guys will have to remain healthy and, as always, someone will come from nowhere to surprise everyone. My guess is that a DE named Nickolos  Madourie  (who had 17.5 sacks as a JUCO in a single season) will be just one of those guys and there could be many. Graham-Mobley could lead in overall tackles and Kwenkeu–who had two sacks in a bowl game–could lead in tackles for losses.

That’s part of what makes college football great and that’s why we hope there is a concrete announcement saying we will have it soon. Save this post and clip it and hammer me if I’m wrong in December.

If I’m above 50/50, I will take it. More important is getting to those double-digit wins which will mean the profile of all the above guys will rise considerably more than anything they can put on the stat sheet.

Monday: A Potentially Special Addition

 

06.08.20
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Pat Kraft Post-Mortem: Amiable

patkraft

Back in the day while working in the sports department of the Doylestown Intelligencer,  a column accompanied forecasting the weekend’s high school football games and an adjective attached to my name piqued my curiosity.

Lou Sessinger, then a wordsmith for the op-ed page  whose turn it was that week to write the column, turned this phrase when coming to talking about me in the piece: “the amiable Mike Gibson picks CB West to beat North Penn, CB East to beat Souderton and Quakertown to upset Upper Merion.”

Penn State v Temple

Pat Kraft (with tie) on the way down from setting the athletic director vertical leap record at Temple in a 27-10 win over Penn State.

Hmm. Not used to people writing nice things about me in print, I was fascinated by the adjective.

The only thing I knew about amiable was that it meant something good so I scrambled for my pocket Merriam-Webster dictionary.

“Friendly, sociable, and congenial.”

I thought about the word last week when Pat Kraft left Temple for Boston College. He was competent enough for most but, for me, his legacy will be how amiable he was.

Was he the best athletic director ever at Temple?

photo

From a football standpoint, and that’s what we care about here, I would think you have to rate Bill Bradshaw and Ernie Casale above him. Bradshaw hired both Al Golden and Matt Rhule (and, to be fair, Steve Addazio) and signed contracts with Power 5 schools like Penn State and Notre Dame that were beneficial to Temple. Unlike Kraft, Bradshaw eschewed a formula that included multiple FCS opponents for a more Power 5 lean.

Casale hired one of the best head coaches in the country, Wayne Hardin, to bring the Owls from essentially an FCS status to national prominence. He was such a mover and shaker that he formed what was then the East Coast Conference (which the press dubbed the ECC or Ernie Casale Conference).

Both of those guys were amiable enough but Kraft took amiability to another level. He sought out fans, gave his opinion, listened to theirs, and was friendly to everyone.

“Friendly, sociable, and congenial.”

That was Pat Kraft at Temple and I’m sure it will be Pat Kraft at Boston College.

I would talk to Pat a few times every year and would come away more impressed each time about his knowledge of football and commitment to excellence. We disagreed on the schedule, but it was a friendly disagreement.

What we did agree on was a commitment to excellence. One football Saturday morning I congratulated him on firing a men’s soccer coach who hovered for a decade around .500.

“That’s mediocre,” Pat said. “I’m never going to accept mediocrity at Temple.”

If he brings that level of acceptance to BC along with his natural amiability, that school should be in good shape.

Saturday: Some Early Stat Predictions

 

06.05.20
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An interview primer for TU’s next AD

zamani

This could be Temple after winning the Cotton Bowl under the next AD. (Photo courtesy of Zamani Feelings.)

Because Pat Kraft agreed to remain on at Temple until July 1 to ease the transition in the athletic department at Temple University, the Board of Trustees now has some time to get the right fit for its next sports steward.

Let’s hope it’s put to good use.

Screenshot 2020-06-03 at 9.36.12 PM

UAB athletic director Mark Ingram could be THE GUY for Temple.

Simply, the next AD has to be one to sell the BOT that the vision of Temple University is to join the other 64 great universities in the Power 5.

Playing Wagner, Lafayette, Rhode Island and Norfolk State in football is blurring that vision and not providing the right prescription for 2020 and beyond.

That’s why this interview process is the most important one. Asking the right questions and getting the right answers so here is how that process could go. THE GUY will be able to provide those answers.

BOT: I’ve heard you want the job. Sell us on why you are the guy.

THE GUY: Temple belongs in the top 65, not the bottom 65, and everything I’m going to do is designed to get us there. First, while I know Pat and like Pat, I’m was and always will be against playing the Stony Brooks and the Bucknells and I let him know that.

BOT: Why?

THE GUY: Let me give you an example. In 2016, we won the AAC and probably should have been in the Cotton Bowl but Western Michigan got that spot. If, say, instead of beating Stony Brook 38-0 at home that year, we win at Florida State, 35-14, we’d probably get that Cotton Bowl. Since we gave Penn State a better game on the road that year than Wisconsin did in the Big 10 title game at a neutral site, we probably had a decent chance at winning the Cotton Bowl. That’s one thing.

BOT: What’s the other?

THE GUY: The other is what happens in the future if we strike lightning in the bottle and go 12-0. If a couple of those 12 are Lafayette and Rhode Island, we have no shot at the college football playoff. The first thing I’m going to do is get out of those types of contracts, have one less home game and start picking up 2-for-1s with P5 schools. That’s going to benefit us in the long run. If we substitute two road P5 wins for those FCS wins, we become the first G5 team invited to the four-team playoff. Say, instead of beating Rhode Island, 59-0, and Lafayette, 55-12, we go to Indiana and beat Purdue, 30-19 and take down Washington State, 23-18, in Pullman, that’s the difference.

BOT: Why does that benefit us?

THE GUY: Our attendance goes up from a 28,000 average to nearly 50K and our TV ratings in the largest available market to the Power 5 also doubles. When the next round of expansion comes in 2023, we get invited and the rest of the G5 becomes marginalized and forced to have their own championship, a minor league of college football. Temple in my mind is not minor league nor should it be in yours. We have a small opening in that window and I’m going to pry open that window for us and get us all to the other side.

BOT: Gentlemen, as Bill Bradshaw wrote on that yellow legal pad some 15 years ago, this is our guy. Congratulations, Mark, you start on July 2.

Monday: The Kraft Post-Mortem

Saturday: Some Early Stat Predictions

Monday (6/15): A special addition

Saturday (6/20): A sad subtraction

Monday: (6/22): How other AAC approach schedules

Saturday (6/27): Drop Dead Date

06.01.20
by

A game to circle on the calendar

banks

Every team has its know-it-all fans.

Then there are Rutgers’ fans.


Now let’s address
the other “fact”
he threw out: “They
lose two starters
at receiver.”
That’s true only
if you substitute
the word “lose”
with “return”

I don’t know if it’s because of their proximity to New York or the toxicity of New Jersey landfills near Piscataway but, per capita, the knowledge they have versus the knowledge they think they have outweighs any other fan group who has played Temple in my lifetime.

They think they are better than they are and they think they are entitled to being better than they are.

At least with Penn State fans they have something to back it up with. There are exceptions to every rule. Joe P. seems to be a reasonable Rutgers’ fan but he is the exception rather than the rule.

Take this fan for instance. His handle on Rivals is Cubuffsdoug and under it is “All-American.” Yes, he’s an All-American jackass. To me this guy sums up the typical Rutgers’ fan:

cubuffsdoug

This is the Mr. Know it All=Mr. Know Nothing that represents the Rutgers’ fan base.

Temple does not return “something like” two starters on defense.

SEPT

You know that. I know that.

He doesn’t.

Nor do many of his fellow know-it-all fans.

Doug pulled that number out of his ass because I’m holding the North Carolina game program and Temple’s defensive starters in that game included tackles Dan Archibong, Ifeanyi Maijeh, linebacker William Kwenkeu, safety Amir Tyler and cornerback Christian Braswell. All return for the 2020 season. Kwenkeu, a linebacker, was the defensive MVP  in the 2017 Gasparilla Bowl. Plus, another starter, linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley, will return after missing the last six games with an injury.

That’s six starters on defense. Six starters are not “something like” two no matter how you spin it.

Now let’s address the other “fact” he threw out: “They lose two starters at receiver.”

That’s true only if you substitute the word “lose” with “return.” In starters Branden Mack and Jadan Blue, the Owls return their all-time single-season record-setting receiver (Blue) and a guy who had the second-most catches and most touchdown catches on the team (Mack.) It’s a dynamic duo that any Big 10 team would be hard-pressed to match, let alone Rutgers.

Temple beat a team (Maryland) by three points that beat Rutgers by 41 points. Yet they think that by replacing the old coach with the new one, they can make up a 44-point difference. I don’t think so but I don’t pretend to be a know-it-all.

Right now, the Rutgers’ game is on the calendar for September 19. It’s worth circling to shut up know-it-all fans like that one.

Friday: A Primer for the Next AD

Monday: Some Early Stat Predictions

Saturday: When will we ever learn?