03.30.20
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Lack of NCAA money another blow for G5

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Tough decisions for Temple in the past included dropping baseball. Who knows what the next decision for Temple will be?

As far away as five months is, you don’t have to be a Nosadramus to figure out Temple football attendance is going to be impacted somewhat from the residue of this pandemic.

People who once thought nothing of sitting in a crowded stadium will now think long and hard about making such a commitment.

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Those of us who have gotten into the habit of making Saturdays a college football day probably won’t be swayed if this thing dies down as expected.

Yet the effect of the pandemic on the pocketbook is already being felt, according to a recent story on footballscoop.com.

This is from that story:

The NCAA on Thursday announced it will distribute $225 million to Division I schools in June, a figure that was unanimously approved by the board of governors.

That figure is less than half of the budgeted $600 million the organization planned to send out, had the NCAA tournament been played.

Fifty million of that $225 figure will come from reserves, and the NCAA will use its $270 million event-cancellation insurance policy to pay off a line of credit that will cover the remainder of the money paid to schools.

While Division I schools are forced to deal with massive shortfalls, they get off easy compared to lower-level schools. From the NCAA:
Division II will receive 4.37% of actual revenues, currently projected to be $13.9 million for the division, which is a $30 million decrease from last year. Division III will receive 3.18% of actual revenues, currently projected to be $10.7 million for the division, which is a $22 million decrease from last year. These amounts will be used to fund national programs.”

As the author of the story, Zach Barnett, pointed out, the Power 5 schools who have vast reserves of money will survive but Group of Five schools like Temple and especially FCS and Division II will struggle. No one knows how much Temple was getting from this fund, but let’s assume half of what Temple gets from this source dries up. That’s money Temple was expecting to come in and won’t get now.

Football seems to be safe at Temple because the university committed to a long-term deal with the Eagles for use of Lincoln Financial Field. Other sports, though, could be on the chopping block and not just at Temple, but at all G5 schools.

In a sport where the rich seem to get richer and the poor get marginalized, this unfortunately par for the course over the last decade or so.

Wednesday: An April Anthology

Friday: A Year Without Cherry and White

03.27.20
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Comparing seasons: A soft 8-5

 

In the entire modern history of Temple football, the Owls have had eight seasons similar to the one they had in 2019.

The most similar one was the same 8-5 the Owls posted in the previous year, but the Owls also had a 9-4 season in 2011, an 8-4 season in 2010, a 9-4 season in 2009 and a 7-4 season in 1990.

The difference is a stark one.

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For Temple to be really successful in 2020, Rod Carey will have to put the ball in Ray Davis’ hands as much as Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins did with Ryquell Armstead

In none of those other seasons did the Owls suffer three blowout losses like they did in 2019. To me, despite the two wins over then top 25 teams, that’s a soft 8-5.

If Pat Kraft pulled Rod Carey into his office for a year-end review like most of us people in regular jobs have, that’s the one criticism he should have of his old Indiana football buddy.

“Rod, great job beating two top 25 teams but you’ve got to cut that blowout shit out.”

Somehow, though, I think Rod-with a $10 million buyout–is on cruise control at Temple and Kraft is offering no year-end reviews.

Take what Geoff Collins did vs. Carey in comparison. In my mind, Carey still retains bragging rights against Mr. Mayhem because he beat Collins Power 5 team with Group of Five talent, 24-2. If that changes this season in Atlanta, though, that all goes out the window.

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Today is our 11th anniversary on wordpress after switching from blogspot

Still, the Apples vs. Apples comparison–Temple talent under Collins vs. Temple talent under Carey–has to objectively go to Collins and that comes from a guy who was a lot tougher on Collins and his offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude than I ever was on Carey and Mike Uremovich.

Here’s why: Collins’ 8-5 season was way more competitive in the five losses than Carey’s 8-5 season was. Collins’ team led, 34-26, at halftime against a top 10 team on the road, UCF, before falling, 52-40. Carey’s team lost at home to the same talent, 63-21.

Carey also lost head-scratchers at SMU (45-21) and to a 6-6 UNC team (55-13). In both games, Temple was a 6.5-point underdog. It wasn’t just me that saw Temple as the underperforming team, it was the nation.

Our reasons have been chronicled in this space until our faces have turned Jadan Blue. Temple has been a run-first team under previous coaches and the Owls used their toughness along the offensive line and in the run game to extend opponents into the fourth quarter. Carey bringing a RPO to Temple from NIU has needlessly opened areas for the bad guys to exploit and run away from Temple. Nothing would open passing lanes for All-American potential receivers like Blue and Branden Mack than a strong running game led by Ray Davis. Nothing makes those passing windows tighter than a passive commitment to the run.

We posted these same criticisms of Matt Rhule after his first two RPO years and he was flexible enough to change his style and increase his pay from $2.4 million per year in his final contract at Temple to $4.7 at Baylor and $6.3 at Carolina.

So far, Matt hasn’t cut us a residual check and we don’t want one.

All we want is for Temple to get back to being Temple. Run first, extend the game into the fourth quarter and not be embarrassed in losses. If Carey gets a pay raise for returning the Temple brand, we will kiss his ass incessantly and thank him without expecting anyting  in return.

If he’s too stubborn to change, he will never be successful here but a lot of 6-6 seasons will keep him around for a decade or so and pay him comfortably because Temple never fires mediocre coaches. To me, that’s not good enough.

Temple should always strive for excellence and reject medicority the same way it rejected failure more than a decade ago.

Monday: Another kick in the nuts to the G5

Wednesday: An April Anthology

Friday: Is That All There is?

03.23.20
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Temple Football: Business As Usual Six Feet Apart

The world stops occasionally for most of us but not for a Division I football player.

At least not a Division I football player who expects to be successful. Guys lift and run 365 days a year and those who don’t fall behind.

We assume that’s what guys like Jadan Blue, Anthony Russo and Ray Davis are doing right now even in this national health crisis with the rest of their teammates, only this time six feet apart. I would assume this can be done at the E-O but really lifting and running can be done anywhere.

They have to because they have to assume the guys from Miami are doing the same thing and they want to avoid beginning the next season the way they ended the last one. David Feeley, the strength coach there, was the strength coach at Temple and the Owls who were around then now he’s not letting up on the guys down there. The lifting and the running and the passing drills are done at least six feet apart.

That’s what we’re hoping for right now.

So we’ll soldier on here as well and try to keep posting a couple of times a week until summer camp starts.

What we do know is this: Miami has a substantial lead in terms of preparation against Temple on top of a substantial advantage in adding talent via the portal. Miami added a quarterback (D’Eriq King) who accounted for 50 touchdowns in his last full season at Houston and a defensive end from Temple who was a first-team All-American and turned down fourth-round NFL money (or above) to essentially do his part to beat his old teammates. The school that basically stole a head coach from Temple and a strength coach from Temple now has stolen an All-American from Temple.

That’s what we’re up against.

Temple has added crumbs in comparison while getting hit hard in the subtraction department. The preparation part is this: Miami was able to complete a full week of practices before suspending things while Temple was able to get in one day.

The Owls have to do a lot to catch up to both. Hopefully they will have the time to do it. All indications are that there will be an opening day but this time the opponent won’t be anything like Bucknell.

Friday: Comparing Successful Seasons

03.20.20
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Uncertainty is the word of the day

temple football fans,

Hopefully, someday this will be a return to normalcy

Got a call a couple of weeks ago from my new season-ticket representative.

“Mike, this is (named withheld) new season-ticket representative. How are you today? Just wanted to touch base if you want to renew your season tickets?”

“I think I’m going to hold off until after Cherry and White Day,” I said.

Then the next day came the news that there would be no Cherry and White Day on top of no March Madness on top of no opening day and that Temple football spring practice would be pushed back for two weeks.

Penn State fans and over-reaction

The opposite of social distancing

In the ensuing days after that, we’ve heard that there would be no spring practice, no spring sports and we might not see baseball until June.

Uncertainty is the word of the day and we are now faced with the real possibility that the season itself could be delayed.

The best-case scenario is that “the curve” of available treatment for the coronavirus will be flattened so that the health care system is not overwhelmed by the summer. That means increased social distancing in addition to constant washing of hands. This virus is super contagious so if you turn the light on to wash your hands, then wash your hands, then turn the light off, you can catch it with the second touch if you didn’t clean the switch surface.

Crazy.

So you’ve got to be constantly aware of your environment.

The most important thing is not sports now but getting to the other side and keeping as many of us healthy as possible. So if you can, quaranteen. If you can’t, wear gloves as much as possible and be aware of cleaning surfaces as well as hands.

That said, I can always renew the season tickets in August. The only good thing about Temple football in a 70K stadium is that practicing social distancing won’t be as hard this fall as, say, at Alabama.

Monday: Business As Usual 

 

03.16.20
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Temple football’s moving parts

NCAA Football: Florida at Miami

Scott Patchan was available for Temple until six days ago, when he decided to join Steve Addazio and Todd Centeio at Colorado State. At least Daz seems to have mastered the portal.

While the Temple football Owls could have replaced Don Bosco (and Temple) grad Matt Hennessy and AAC Player of the Year Quincy Roche with a couple of standouts from this year’s opponents in the portal, Rod Carey has decided to move some chess pieces he already had to replace the ones he lost.

According to OwlsDaily.com, the Temple head coach has moved tackle Adam Klein to center.  That makes right tackle, a position of strength, weaker. Since Hennessy is an NFL player, that also means center is weaker.

It also doesn’t do much for your depth chart.

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Not much depth, but Owls will have the best coaching sweatshirt in the league.

Seems to me that getting Mike Maietti, another Don Bosco guy who made 33 Big 10 starters for Rutgers, would have stabilized the center position and allowed Klein to progress at right tackle, but that might be injecting too much logic into the planning.

As far as Quincy Roche’s replacement goes, Carey seems to be putting all of his eggs into the Emmanuel Walker basket. Walker played in five games for Wake Forest in a three-year career. Scott Patchan, who was still in the portal until six days ago, started 19 games for the Hurricanes and had 5.5 sacks last year. He probably would have relished the opportunity to outperform Roche in the Sept. 5 opener at Hard Rock Stadium but he, like Maietti, is water under the dam now.

Damn.

Since the Owls also lost Dana Levine and Zack Mesday, who started a lot of games, they are also thin on the other side with only Arnold Ebiteke having extensive playing time at the other end.

Presumably, that’s an area where the Owls will move some defensive players around to fill depth. Hopefully, the coaching staff knows what they are doing but, in the Owls’ Daily article, Carey said reaching into the portal is still a possibility.

Let’s hope so.

Friday: Uncertainty ahead

03.13.20
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Coronavirus puts Temple football on hold

Cherry and White kickoff now at 10 a.m.

Assuming the world hasn’t ended in a month, by the time Cherry and White Day would have been, the entire sports world is probably still stopped.

Temple has suspended classes and probably will have none by then. One of the first indicators of its impact on the sports world came a few days ago when the Ivy League jumped the gun and canceled its basketball tournaments, even though they could have played them in empty arenas. At the time, my initial reaction that it wasn’t fair to the Penn kids who had to fight their way to get to the No. 4 spot in the playoffs only to see the rug pulled out from under them. Then that became moot yesterday for Penn because the entire NCAA Tournament has been canceled, too.

If this makes certain we are all healthier in a month its all worth it as would be the decision by Temple to suspend its events.

The calendar will say Cherry and White Day occurred in 2019 and 2021 but list an open date in 2020. One hundred years from now kids will look at a Cherry and White program and ask their grandads what happened way back in 2020 and those guys will have to explain the coronavirus.

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From the Temple football alumni page, and administrator Joe Greenwood

I should know. I covered the 1984 Central and Northeast football game as a 20-something youngster and noticed the game started in 1884 but had no result in 1918. After filing the story, I went home and asked my dad at Thanksgiving Day dinner about what happened in 1918 and he said basically half the city died with a flu epidemic that year and all kinds of things were canceled. He was exaggerating, but not by much.

Maybe the powers-that-be are exaggerating now. Maybe not. We’ll leave that to the medical experts.

I know because of last year I won’t miss Cherry and White as much as I used to because it’s gotten more watered-down with each and every year.

Cherry and White Day has changed a lot since the days even of Al Golden and Matt Rhule. In those days, like the ones before it, there was an actual game being played and you could identify guys who had a chance to do something in the fall.

As recently as the 2017 “game” Jadan Blue caught three touchdown passes and had over 100 yards in receptions so those of us who were there were not surprised by his 2019 breakout season (after sitting out 2018).

Not much could be garnered from the Rod Carey approach of running a controlled practice last year, but what is important now is getting this thing back ontrack in a few weeks.

Miami has also suspended its spring practices, but they got a full week in compared to one day for Temple.

Hopefully, that’s not the difference come Sept. 5. Nor is the fact that Quincy Roche is playing for the bad guys instead of the good ones.

Monday: Surprising Newcomers

03.09.20
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5 Goals For Spring Practice

practice

Someone in the coaching office conference room is a yellow legal pad with a list of goals for spring practice that begins tomorrow.

Right now, we don’t know what’s on it or how many bullet points need to be covered but we hope it includes this five items, in no order of importance:

Generating a Pass Rush. With Quincy Roche on one end and Gregory Rousseau at the other end, we know that Miami is going to have one of the best edge rushing games in the country. It would be nice if the Owls could counter with an impressive one of their own in the opener. Hmm. Roche and Rousseau vs. who? Right now, Nickolos Madourie and Arnold Ebiketie/Manny Walker look like the starters with not much behind them. Owls are pretty set up the middle with Dan Archibong, Kris Banks and Ifianyi Maijeh. Maybe moving Archibong to his first position at Temple, end, will help.

Temple summer practice, football,

Game planning for Miami. With that kind of opening opponent looming, it’s never to early to have a game plan for them. Better now to design quick passes ,wraparound draws, and screens to mitigate that pass rush and catch the Hurricanes flat-flooted.

Establishing the run. What worked at NIU (err, RPO) does not necessarily work at Temple. Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins recruited this team to establish the run and make big plays off play-action fakes and Rod Carey should think long and hard about developing an approach suited to the personnel already here. Ray Davis is probably the second-best running back in the league (only behind Memphis Kenneth Gainswell) and should be more featured in this offense.

Fixing special teams. Carey will tell you that the special teams were not a disaster last year, but Temple fans have eyes and they have ears. From what we saw, they were a disaster. Temple needs to improve both the return and kicking aspects of special teams, although the coverage was passable. Will Mobley is a reliable short-range kicker but do you trust him when you need a 50-yarder to win and the game is tied, 14-14? Temple had the special teams’ player of the year, Isaiah Wright, in 2018 and turned him into a fair-catch artist in 2019. That’s a head-scratcher. Temple needs to make the punt return an offensive play again.

Clock management. If the coaching staff is honest watching film from 55-13, 45-21 and 63-21 losses, they were the direct result of stopping the clock on incomplete passes, giving teams with far greater speed a lot more plays to do damage. In the past, particularly under Matt Rhule and Al Golden, the Temple offensive philosophy has been to chew up the clock with a running game and extend the game into the fourth quarter. That worked pretty well with Temple TUFF players. Clock management and an effective running game go hand in hand and the earlier this staff realizes that, the better the chances to avoid those kind of blowouts in 2020.

Friday: The Case for Cherry and White

 

03.06.20
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Spring Depth Building

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“If I could ever figure out a way to run an offense without an RPO, I think we could turn the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard into an adding machine. Establish the run, play action fakes to Ray Davis and guys would be open all over the place.”

One of the things some Temple fans did to pass the time deep into the third quarter of the bowl game when the realization that going to Annapolis was a wasted trip was to thumb through the official game souvenir program ($10).

Raising my hand here and putting all of the possible backups in bold below. The caveat here is that there are always other spring names who surprise will will not be listed.

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Even with the unexpected departures, the Owls are not completely screwed in the depth department.

They have their starting quarterback (Anthony Russo) back, but lost second-teamer Todd Centeio to the portal and Colorado State. Still, a number of people remarked how good Trad Beatty has looked so Centeio might not be a big loss.

On the offensive line, they have both left tackles (junior Isaac Moore and sophomore Victor Stoffel) back as well as both right guards (seniors Joe Hooper and Leon Pinto) and both right tackles (junior Adam Klein and sophomore David Nwagowugwu). The backup center (Griffin Sestili) returns as does the backup left guard junior J.D. Gomez.

That means Beatty will have to be ready and the Owls need to find a backup to Gomez and Setiili if indeed those two earn the starting jobs. Remember, Vince Picozzi–an outstanding guard who was injured in November–could return as the starting right guard or starting center, helping build depth elsewhere.

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Trad Beatty (11) is one play away from being needed.

The receivers (Jadan Blue and Branden Mack) are perhaps the best ever at Temple and the depth is also outstanding (Jose Barbon and Randle Jones).

Both tight ends (David Martin-Robinson and Aaron Jarman) return.

There is a depth problem at running back as the Owls are set with starter Ray Davis but it would have been nice to pick up a portal as insurance and to take some of the load off Davis. That’s probably not happening now, so someone will have to emerge from a group that includes or is not limited to Tayvon Ruley, Kyle Dobbins and Edward Saydee.

On defense, the starters probably will be Manny walker and Nickolos Madourie (ends), and Dan Archibong and Ifeanyi Maijeh (tackles) with linebacker starters of Isaiah Graham-Mobley, William Kwenkeu and Audrey Isaacs. One of the safeties should be Cheltenham grad George Reid with the other probably being Amir Tyler. Christian Braswell, Ty Mason and Freddie Johnson return.

But depth on defense could be a problem as only Kris Banks (tackle) and Arnold Ebiketie (end) seeing significant playing time along the front wall and nobody at linebacker behind the current projected starters. Keyvone Bruton has plenty of playing time at safety and will return and also Linwood Crump Jr. returns at cornerback after an injury that kept him out of the North Carolina game.

As with most Group of Five teams, the Owls are in good shape among the first 22. Spring practice, which begins on Tuesday, will be all about building a respectable second 22.

Monday: Five Goals of Spring Practice

03.02.20
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Flip side: Why 2020 Could Be a Step Forward

The Rutgers Al of Miami, coach Coop, is still not completely sold on Manny.

From the moment the season ended, it’s been nothing but bad news for the Temple football program.

Other than the expected losses, players with returning eligibility left for the NFL (2) and other FBS teams (2).

Pessissmism, not optimism, have understandably reigned.

Still, all is not lost. There are several reasons for optimism left in no particular order and we’ll go with just five names:

disclosure

Manny Diaz. Despite having three top 10 national recruiting classes in the last six years, Diaz took that talent and lost six games, including crosstown rival FIU (which had six classes rated lower than Temple prior to last season). If Diaz “coaches” Miami (with D’Eriq King at quarterback and Quincy Roche at DE) to a loss against visiting Temple, the season momentum could be off and running for the Owls.

Anthony Russo. Even in an ill-suited offense (for him), Russo improved from 14 touchdowns and 14 interceptions to 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. If he makes even the same kind of improvement this season, that will be 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions. No Temple quarterback has ever had that kind of season, even in a 10-2 season (Brian Broomell), a 10-3 season (P.J. Walker) and a 9-1 season (Steve Joachim). Gotta think that 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions get the Owls at least 10 wins.

russo

Ray Davis. Maybe 900-plus yards from a true freshman running back will convince this coaching staff to put more emphasis on the running game, even with an RPO approach. If it does, that sets up success in the passing game.

Jadan Blue. Three years ago, Blue had over 100 yards and three touchdown receptions in what might have been the last “true” Cherry and White game of the century. People who saw that performance knew we had something then. His record-breaking season in 2019 cemented that perception. If Blue even has a “slightly” better season in 2020, he could be a first-team All-American. His style of play reminds me a lot of Gerard “Sweet Feet” Lucear, a former great Owl wide receiver from Georgia. With him as the “speed” receiver and Branden Mack as the “possession” receiver (with a whole lot of speed), Temple’s passing game could be lethal.

Nikolos Madourie. Who? At Temple these days, you’ve got to check the official roster daily to see if the guy’s still here. (Madourie still is.) He could be the impact pass rusher Roche was. For comparison’s sake (recognizing the levels of play are different, though), Roche was named AAC Defensive Player of the Year with 13.5 sacks. Madourie, a 6-6, 240-pound player from Sunrise, Fla,., had 15.5 sacks his last year of JUCO ball. If he gets, say, 13.5 this year, he will be more than an acceptable replacement for Roche especially since guys like Dan Archibong, Ifeanyi Maijeh and Kris Banks are going to provide a good push up the middle.

You want optimism? That’s the best we can do now, a week before the start of spring practice.

Otherwise, we live in Philadelphia but our mindset is in the Show Me state of Missouri.

Friday: A Look at Depth

 

02.28.20
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Why 2020 Could Be a Step Back

 

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In our last post, we’ve noted that ESPN college football analytics guy Bill Connelly is likely to stick a 6-6 prediction on the 2020 Temple football Owls.

After consecutive eight-win seasons piggybacked on top of consecutive double-digit-win seasons, that’s just another step back after a pretty good run.

From the perspective of this fan, it’s hard to argue with Connelly.

A lot of things happened since the end of the year, including four pretty valuable players with Temple eligibility left giving up that eligibility for, in no particular order, the NFL, the first Temple opponent on next season’s schedule, and Ole Miss.

It’s hard enough for a team to overcome expected losses (senior leadership) when you pile on top of that the four best juniors on the team.

When there are only 129 FBS teams and ESPN predicts you to be the 72d-best one, you don’t have to be Andrew Yang to know that you are closer to the bottom than the top. That’s a pretty bitter pill to swallow after 36 wins in the past four seasons so, yes, that’s a huge step back after steps forward.

On top of that, the head coach, Rod Carey, in a recent interview said nothing would fundamentally change in the offensive and defensive philosophy of the team. When asked in that same interview if he was concerned about the number of talented players jumping ship, he brushed it off by saying: “We want people who want to be here.”

Extrapolate that logic just a little bit by imagining this: If your entire first team left for “greener” pastures and the scout team wanted to stay, are you really better off?

Err, no.

For 2020 expectations to rise, the talent pool has to get better and the Owls went from an Olympic-sized one to a kiddy pool. An awful lot of good coaching will be needed to overcome those losses.

Monday: Possible Reasons for Optimism