02.12.19
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A Trade That Benefits Both Ballclubs

Christy-Mathewson–Memorial-Stadium-Interior-Courtesy-of-Bucknell-Athletics

Bucknell might be able to entice Nicholls State to visit its 13,100-seat Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium on 8/31

On the floor level of the Wells Fargo Center, there were smiles all around Sunday afternoon for what Sixers’ general manager Elton Brand was able to pull off.

He immediately upgraded the Sixers with a megastar like Tobias Harris and some valuable pieces that upgraded the bench. Still, like any good trade, to get something Brand had to give something and those were mostly draft picks that are going to make the Clippers a more valuable franchise down the road.

The Sixers are playing for now. The Clippers are playing for the future. It was a trade that benefited both ballclubs considering their current circumstances.

oldperson

The reaction of most Temple fans when they first saw Bucknell on the schedule

That’s why current Temple athletic director Dr. Pat Kraft should be considering a trade for the football Owls. Getting Bucknell off the schedule would benefit the Bison from decimating their current roster due to injuries and would benefit Temple by getting it a possible Power 5 win the Owls might desperately need if they were fortunate enough to win the AAC.

“We just got a better today; a lot better,” Kraft said on the day he hired Rod Carey.

This whole dilemma reminds me of a conversation I had with Bill Bradshaw when he was named athletic director. He said he looked at the schedule and when he saw that Temple had a game the next season that did not make sense, he would immediately make calls to switch with other schools. Bradshaw saw it as a challenge and the conversations with other ADs eventually led him to schedule a series with Notre Dame.

Kraft needs to be as flexible now as Bradshaw was then.

The Owls need to win now and capitalize on it. Playing Bucknell does Temple zero good. It gives the Owls an extra (seventh instead of six) home games, but have Temple fans done anything over the last 40 years or so to deserve a seventh home game? I think not. If they were filling the Linc on a regular basis, they deserve an extra home game now and then. At best, Bucknell attracts 22K fans for an August 31 date.

Here are five possible trades Kraft could make now that would benefit both ballclubs:

Friday, Aug. 30

    • UMass at Rutgers _ This would be the ideal trade. Temple would bring 20K fans to Piscataway alone and Bucknell can go play at UMass, a much more competitive game for them. Some say Rutgers would be “afraid” to play big bad Temple. I say give them a call and find out for sure.

Saturday, Aug. 31

  • Montana State at Texas Tech _ Kraft has said in the past that “it’s hard to get games against (Power 5) teams because they don’t want to play us.” Hard to believe Texas Tech would risk a loss to an FCS power like Montana State and be “afraid” to play Temple. The guarantee Tech could give Temple to visit would pay for Bucknell to travel to Montana State.
  • Nicholls at Kansas State _ Last year, Nicholls went to Kansas and beat the Jayhawks. That has got to get the attention of the Wildcats, who might be wary of the same thing happening to them. Hard to believe new KSU coach Chris Klieman who won six of the last seven FCS titles at North Dakota State would be afraid of Temple. Have Bucknell travel to Nicholls and the Owls to the fake Manhattan.
  • Portland State at Arkansas _  Razorbacks’ head coach Chad Morris is familiar with Temple having coached against the Owls as SMU’s head coach. It might be easier selling Arkansas fans on an FBS opponent rather than Portland State. The trip to the West Coast to play Portland State might be more educational for the Bucknell kids than a trip to South Philadelphia.

  • Screenshot 2019-02-11 at 10.33.31 PM

    Curt Cignetti takes his JMU squad to WVA; he might be up for a swap of games with Bucknell so the Owls can return to the scene of this crime.

  • James Madison at West Virginia  _ While driving across the interstate might be a short trip for JMU fans, new James Madison football coach Curt Cignetti (a former Temple assistant) knows he has a better chance to make a first impression with a solid win over Bucknell than a road loss to Neal Brown in his first game as WVA head coach. Temple and WVA have a history that goes way back. James Madison would be a nice trip for the Bucknell kids.

These are five trades that would benefit both Temple and Bucknell and all of the above schools. Like any good trade, it involves working the phones and that’s what Dr. Pat Kraft should be doing in the next couple of months.

If it worked for Elton Brand, and the Sixers,  it can work for Pat Kraft and the football team five miles up Broad Street.

Thursday: A Closer Look at the Schedule

02.09.19
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5 Intriguing Names In The New Class

The University of Temple is cringeworthy, but KBS is already here. 

One of the reasons why you don’t see Group of Five teams having the same kind of sustained success that say, Alabama, Clemson and Georgia have, is illustrated perfectly by what happened to Temple football this year and far too many years.

Coaching change interrupts any recruiting momentum and that is felt not necessarily the next year but three or four years down the road.

templelove

Got to love the Temple Love in this photo by the KBS family

While Temple can and probably will have a good year in 2019, the 2021 season might be the most impacted by the Owls bagging only 18 recruits. According to Scout.com, their recruiting class completed on Wednesday is ranked 102d.

That’s bad for a Sun Belt or a MAC school. It’s terrible for an AAC school.

Still, that doesn’t mean there is a lack of talent in this group. Nobody here can tell you who among this group will be a star but I’ve always been from the school of thought that the best predictor for future success is measured in past success and, based on that criterion alone, here are the five most talented guys:

Kennique Bonner Steward QB 6-3 215 Huntersville, N.C. William A. Hough _  OK, going to say it right now, this guy is going to be The Man on campus after Anthony Russo and Trad Beatty. He throws the ball on a dime and has the kind of escapability past Rod Carey quarterbacks have possessed and he has excelled on the big stage as shown by this big Hough High victory.
M.J. Griffin DB 6-1 189 Ypsilanti, Mich. Saline. _ Any time a Temple commit gets Power 5 offers, that has to open some eyes and that’s certainly the case with Griffin. Part of the reason he chose Temple was that he’s from a city and loves the city environment.

Edward Saydee ATH 5-11 189 Philadelphia, Pa. William Penn Charter _ Reminds me a little of Bernard Pierce coming out of Glen Mills and that’s high praise indeed. Has good vision once he hits the hole and appears to be the same kind of one-cut runner Pierce was. More importantly, his measurables are Pierce-like (Bernard was 6-0, 180 out of high school with a 10.8 in the 100-meters and Edward is 5-11, 189 with the same 10.8.)
Kwesi Evans WR 6-3 198 Parkville, Md. St. Frances Academy _  Nobody knows Evans better than new Temple running backs’ coach Gabe Infante. The national high school coach of the year needed an act of God (literally) to complete an unbeaten state championship season due to lightning with six minutes left in the third quarter. St. Frances was up, 13-7 when the game was called. No other high school team came within 20 points of the Philadelphia squad all year. For St. Frances, Evans caught a touchdown pass in that game.

Wisdom Quarshie DL 6-3 310 Sicklerville, N.J. St. Joseph (Hammonton) _ Because of a need for depth on the defensive line, a player like Quarshie with his size and toughness has a chance to get snaps right away.

As exciting as it will be to see the above players develop, keep an eye on a wide receiver named Joshua Youngblood at Kansas State. He was a solid Temple commit until Geoff Collins left and waivered when Manny Diaz came in and was lost completely when Carey arrived and succumbed to a late effort by Kansas State. This kid in my mind will become a big-time star but that’s life in the G5 when coaching changes happen every couple of years.

Tuesday: A Trade That Elton Brand Would Be Proud to Make

Thursday: Delving Into The Schedule

Saturday: A New Lease on Life For Some Owls

Monday (2/18): The Real Pitchers and Catchers

02.07.19
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A Different Kind of Signing Day

 

Zamani Feelings found this gem of a video and sent it to us … enjoy.. over 20 years ago.

Just like Cherry and White Day and the season ticket-holder celebration, the first Wednesday in February has been a staple of the calendar of many Temple football fans.

Not this year.

Last month, I made a call to the athletic department asking if there was any sign-up deadline for fans attending this year’s event.

“We’re not having one this year,” the friendly but somewhat sad voice on the other end said.

next

I was only slightly surprised because the Owls were hosting UConn in basketball last night and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to kill two birds, basketball and football, with one stone.

While the disastrous Manny Diaz hiring was a big part of this year’s reason, February signing days at Temple could go the way of the Dodo Bird.

You saw it coming two years ago when Geoff Collins pretty much wrapped up his class by the Bad Boy Mowers’ Bowl. He held a signing day on St. Petersburg Beach and that was that. They still had a February signing day, though, mostly for the fans to catch up. No catching up needed this year because no significant news was made between the first and second signing day.

This, like the anti-climatic bowl game,  could be the new norm at Temple.

Group of Five schools now have pretty much targeted the early December date as their primary target date. The reasoning is that if you have to wait on a player until February that player is probably waiting on a Power 5 offer anyway. If a player doesn’t want to be here, he’s probably not going to be a good player here.

The Owls were able to get 18 signatures on the dotted line by December and partly because Collins was handing out scholarships like candy to role players in a week or two before he left, they are now one over the 85 scholarship limit. That’s a problem The Minister of Mayhem left for Rod Carey to deal with.

In the meantime, hardcore Temple fans have one more free day on their schedule. Maybe next year’s ceremony will be held on the beach while preparing for a more meaningful bowl game.

We can only hope.

Five Players Already Enrolled:

Kennique Bonner Steward QB 6-3 215 Huntersville, N.C. William A. Hough
Re’Mahn Davis RB 5-9 222 San Francisco, Calif. Blair Academy
M.J. Griffin DB 6-1 189 Ypsilanti, Mich. Saline
Yvandy Rigby LB 6-2 205 Egg Harbor Twp., N.J. Egg Harbor Twp./Milford
Victor Stoffel OL 6-8 282 Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm International

Not enrolled but expected by July: 

Simon Abedimungu DL 6-5 221 Rockville, Md. Richard Montgomery
Mahmud Dioubate ATH 6-2 180 Philadelphia, Pa. John Bartram
Jermaine Donaldson OL 6-4 300 Voorhees, N.J. Eastern Regional
Kwesi Evans WR 6-3 198 Parkville, Md. St. Frances Academy
Chris Fowx OL 6-6 300 Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Archbishop Stepinac
De’Von Fox WR 5-10 173 Maple Heights, Ohio Maple Heights
Thomas Joe-Kamara DB 6-0 191 Dayton, N.J. South Brunswick
Jordan Magee LB 6-3 208 Dover, Del. Dover
Wisdom Quarshie DL 6-3 310 Sicklerville, N.J. St. Joseph (Hammonton)
Edward Saydee ATH 5-11 189 Philadelphia, Pa. William Penn Charter
Jacoby Sharpe DL 6-3 240 Sugar Hill, Ga. Lanier
Nate Wyatt DB 6-1 176 Somerset, N.J. St. Joseph (Metuchen)

Saturday: Five Newbies To Watch (and one who got away)

 

02.05.19
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Dear Rod: Just My Two Cents

wamo

Editor’s Note: Pretty much every time I felt Temple did the right thing on a coaching hire, I dashed off a note to the new coach congratulating him on the gig. That meant only Al Golden and Matt Rhule got letters. Al sent me a note telling me that he was still waiting on a player who could turn out to be the best in his first class, Kee-Ayre Griffin, and asking me to wish him luck. Matt called me and we had a very cordial and nice 35-minute conversation and he picked my brain on which Temple fans to network with and how to build support. Haven’t heard from Rod yet, but will keep his thoughts under wraps until after he’s gone when I do. If it’s after six years with four division and two league titles, it will be a successful run. We typed this on a word processor and sent it in an old-fashioned, stamped envelope. He should have received it last Thursday.

Dear Rod,

Belated congratulations for getting the Temple head coaching job from a 40-year season ticket holder and Temple alumn.
I wanted to send this right away but knew you were engrossed in hitting the ground running with recruiting and staffing obligations but I was there in the room on the day you introduced and was impressed in a way that I was not on prior coaching introductions.
I have a vested interest in you succeeding because, ever since Al Golden left, I’ve always felt that the Temple head coaching model should be hiring a successful FBS head coach and you certainly fit that description.
Golden was what Temple needed in 2005–someone who knew how to build a program from the ground up–with a binder full of ideas on how to do it.
wright
Once he left five years later, the program was already established and 20,000 Temple fans drove down I95 from Philadelphia to watch the Owls play UCLA in the Eagle Bank Bowl.
Since then, it’s been a succession of coordinators with eyes on a higher prize than Temple. These kids are the prize and they deserve the stability someone like you can give them and that’s the same kind of stability you gave those kids at Northern Illinois.
I have a strong feeling you will hit the ground running because this is a ready-made team with very little in the way of holes to be filled.
With the Owls seven-deep at the wide receiver position, nothing would help you hit the ground running (pun intended) than making Isaiah Wright a lead tailback.
Just my two cents. I’m sure others will offer their two cents as well. It comes with the territory, as you well know.
Again, congratulations. As underwhelmed I was the day Manny Diaz was hired, that’s how overwhelmed I was on your day.
Good luck,
Mike Gibson
Thursday: Who’s Coming and Who’s Staying?
Saturday: The Second Recruiting Day
02.02.19
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Three Identical Strangers: TU, NIU, Miami

wamo

Hopefully, Rod Carey keeps the Cherry helmets this fall

Nothing I see on TV usually blows my mind.

Like everything, there are always exceptions to the rule and the recent CNN documentary “Three Identical Strangers” falls into that category. Without getting deep into it, it was about three young men separated at birth on July 12, 1961, intentionally by an adoption agency as a case study for the effects of nurturing versus naturing.

The college football version of that show is far less intense and intrusive but the study elements are close this fall. The case studies will be separated not by 100 miles or less but by about 500 miles West and 1,000 miles south of Philadelphia.

Proven coaching or talent. Young, unproven coaching or talent.

The question in the fall of 2019 will be: Given the somewhat equal talent in three separate settings does a proven head coach produce a more desirable result (winning) than a hot assistant?

My theory is that Temple football dodged two big bullets over the last decade, separated by one letter.

Daz and Diaz.

Had Steve Addazio stayed at Temple, the Owls probably would have tapped out at the seven-win mark, a number that has concerned the powers-that-be at Boston College so much that they worked in an eight-win minimum into his contract extension this season.

Manny Diaz would have been a college football version of one-and-done but never got to that point. Temple did not need to hire another head coach for one year only to see him leave because, at some point, the instability has to take a toll on recruiting.

“You don’t want to go there,” the bad guys will begin to tell recruits, “they change coaches every year.”

That begs the question: Why can’t Temple have both excellence and stability?

Rod Carey, who by any account, gave Northern Illinois that for the last six years, shows a lot of signs of being the real deal. If the Owls dodged a bullet with Daz and Diaz, they may have the benefit of getting a lot of ammunition from Carey for their weapons.

The lab experiment for this theory will take place in three places: Philadelphia, DeKalb, and Miami.

Only one of the schools hired a proven winner as a head coach. The others took a flyer on unproven assistants as Baltimore Ravens’ running back coach Thomas Hammock was hired by NIU and Diaz went back to Miami.

Interestingly enough, all three schools return 14 starters from the 2018 squads. If the Owls are able to record the most wins of the three schools, the data won’t be complete on this experiment but will certainly point to a brighter future in Philadelphia than those other towns.

From a talent standpoint versus their respective leagues, there is not much to chose from the three experimental samples.

By December, someone should be able to write a pretty good case study.

Tuesday: Dear Rod Letter

Thursday: Who’s Coming and Going?

Saturday: Signing Day No. 2

Tuesday (2/12): Plugging Holes

 

01.31.19
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Carey Only Needs Cliff Notes

skyview

After the spring game is a perfect time for Carey to network with Temple fans

Al Golden came with his binder.

Rod Carey needs only Cliff Notes to prep for his first year as Temple’s head football coach.


Not since Bernard Pierce
left a year early has a
Temple coaching staff had
such a pressing need at
tailback. They need to find
an elite talent who scares
defenses and, in Wright,
they have that

Back in the day before Google,  Cliff Notes was a small reference guide you used to use only as a last resort when you forgot to read Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace between junior and senior years of high school.  (We’re speaking hypothetically here if Mr. Lefty Ervin, my World Cultures teacher, is reading this.)

Golden had to build a program from the ground up and was well-positioned to do it.

There was one chapter in that binder Golden could not possibly write until maybe now and that was learning to be a head coach on the fly.

Carey has that part down.  He’s not as likely to make first-time mistakes as Golden, Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins were and did, costing the Owls some crucial wins. Golden had a lot of good stuff in that large black binder, including a full list of extensive East Coast High school recruiting contacts and a sound philosophy of targeting high school captains on successful teams. It worked to stock Temple with three No. 1 MAC recruiting classes that were the basis for consecutive nine and eight-win seasons.

Carey doesn’t have to do any of that heavy book lifting, just pick up a Cliff Notes.

cliff

All he needs to do now is get to know Temple, its fans and, most importantly, its players. The essence of great coaching is to put the talent you have and not the talent you want to best use.

To me, that’s the beauty of keeping holdovers like Ed Foley and Adam DiMichele. They, probably more than anyone else, should be able to advise Carey that the Owls are seven-deep at the wide receiver position and can afford to move Isaiah Wright to the tailback spot that Ryquell Armstead filled so well over the last three years. Not since Bernard Pierce left a year early has a Temple coaching staff had such a pressing need at tailback. They need to find an elite talent who scares defenses and, in Wright, they have that. Addazio replaced Pierce with, ironically enough, Boston College transfer Montel Harris. Carey has an Acre of Diamond in his own backyard in Wright.

screenshot 2019-01-30 at 9.16.42 am

Other than that, Carey needs to use the time after the Cherry and White game to press the flesh in the Temple Towers lot and get out and meet the long-time fans and ex-players who form the core of the Temple fan base. He’s got to make the rounds after the football part is over and introduce himself to the Bruce Arians’ players’ group, led by Sheldon Morris and Joe Greenwood, then make a stop and talk to the Wayne Hardin group, led by Steve Conjar. In between, he’s got to show the younger fans, the Owlbulance group, that he welcomes them as well.

screenshot 2019-01-30 at 10.55.47 pm

Collins was an engaging enough guy but thought Temple football began and ended with Al Golden and that was a major flaw. Rhule and Golden understood there was a rich and successful Temple football history long before 2005 and tapped into that for the benefit of the program.

Somehow, if Collins had come with a manual on Temple like Golden did with his binder, he would have been more successful and connected better with the Temple family. Carey has that chance and doesn’t even have to read War and Peace to be fully briefed.

Saturday: This Year’s Lab Experiment

01.29.19
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Great And Minimal Expectations

In college football, every year is a new year and the expectations are adjusted based on a number of variables.

The math can be somewhat complicated but it always includes a variable of this formula=returning talent + coaching – minus competition.

To me, considering all of the above variables, the minimum expectation would be for Temple to have the same eight regular-season wins next year as it did this year.

Maybe more.

Anything more than eight would be great.

Minimal is eight.

Figure it this way:

The talent level is at least as good as it was a season ago. Anthony Russo might be Temple’s first drafted quarterback since Steve Joachim was a sixth-round choice in 1975.  He has an NFL skill set and only needs to reduce the interceptions and add to the touchdowns to draw interest.

The challenge would be replacing Rock Armstead as the tailback. I was always a Jager Gardner fan but, to me, if you haven’t shown you can do it by your senior year, it’s time to look in a new direction. Gardner hasn’t shown enough.

There is no doubt in my mind that Isaiah Wright can do the job on the same or higher level than Rock did and that’s where the coaching comes into play.

The Owls spent the past two seasons misusing a lot of their talent. They had two great fullbacks, Nick Sharga and Rob Ritrovato, who the last coaching staff refused to use and they had a great defensive end, Karamo Dioubate, that they insisted on using inside. Dioubate, when he was recruited, was ranked by one scouting service as the No. 5 high school DE in the nation. When was the last time Temple recruited a position player ranked that high? Maybe Paulsboro quarterback Kevin Harvey, but that was it. Dioubate deserves a chance to be unleashed on the quarterback from his more comfortable position.

So maybe a full FBS staff–like the one Rod Carey already has in the fold–is able to come to these conclusions quicker than the heavy FCS staff Geoff Collins had.

We shall see.

Competition?

There’s no doubt in my mind that Cincinnati–which brought 35 true and redshirt freshmen with them on the travel squad to Philly–will be favored this year and UCF should not miss a beat with Brandon Wimbush at quarterback.

That leaves Temple No. 3 in the East and that’s a fair minimum goal for the Owls to achieve.

That would be the first indication that Carey is a solid choice.

If they can somehow win the league title, Carey will be a better choice than even I thought he was and I thought he was the better of the two coaching choices Pat Kraft made in December.

Thursday: Carey’s Cliff Notes

01.25.19
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Russo’s First Full Season: Pretty Darn Good

russo

When you think of great Temple quarterbacks in the era of FBS football, the names of Steve Joachim, Henry Burris, P.J. Walker, and Brian Broomell come to mind.

All had decent first years as a Temple quarterback.

Few of them had better first seasons than the current Temple quarterback, Anthony Russo.

A lot of them had the advantage of getting their feet wet for a few plays in a year or two before their first one.

noticemeister

Russo and P.J. Walker were the only ones whose heads were plunged into the water for the full baptism and both came out of it pretty well.

To me, the most important statistic that a quarterback can have is wins, followed by touchdowns vs. interceptions and passing rating in that order. Russo had seven wins (would have been eight had he not been forced to sit out of the UConn game with a hand injury) and his 14 touchdowns and 14 interceptions ratio would have been boosted by anything from five to six touchdown passes against that porous Huskie secondary. Certainly, Anthony wasn’t perfect but his first season ranks with the best in Temple history.

I thought about that a lot over the last few days because one of the few harsh critics of Anthony’s play is a former Temple quarterback who doesn’t belong with the famous. Infamous, maybe. Certainly not famous so he shall remain nameless. This quarterback’s first full season at Temple: Three touchdown passes, nine interceptions.

‘Nuff said.

I told him that, if I was him, Russo would be the last guy I’d be criticizing and left it at that.

Some interesting tidbits here are that Joachim played in 11 games with Penn State in the 1971 season, completing 16 of 41 passes for seven touchdowns and only three interceptions before transferring to Temple. Broomell was the Owls’ starting strong safety on defense as a true freshman in the 1976 season only to be eased into a backup quarterback role in 1977 before being named the true starter in 1978. He led the 1979 team to a 10-2 overall record and a final No. 17 ranking in both major polls. Broomell led the nation in passing efficiency that year.

Here are some of, in my mind, the first full years of the very best of the best Temple quarterbacks:

fullsters

Tomorrow: Great and Minimal Expectations

Thursday: Cliff Notes For Carey

01.23.19
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5 Things We Won’t Miss About Mr. Mayhem

maymeister

The promised Mayhem really never arrived in the form of a national top-ranked defense.

Sometimes you have to look back to look forward.

Today is one of those times.

Geoff Collins is now Georgia Tech’s problem.

In my mind, at least, he earned no higher than a “C” grade in his two years at Temple. The Mayhem promised really never materialized and his defensive reputation never transferred with him to Temple, where the Owls were torched for 52, 45 and 49 points in three important games, only one of which was a win. He had 10-win talent in his first season and won seven and probably an even better team in his second and won eight. A good grade (B) would have resulted in more wins than that. A great grade would have been beating the teams he should have beaten and won a game or two against teams he  was not favored to beat.

To me, the essential questions after the Collins’ departure is, “Do you believe Collins was JUST a good coach for Temple and do you believe there are better coaches than Collins for Temple?”

The answer to both questions is yes and I believe Rod Carey is part of an unidentified number of available head coaches who would be BETTER for Temple than Collins was. (I also believe guys like Chris Creighton and Lance Leipold would have been better, but we will never know.) What we do know is that a staff at James Madison University, led by current ECU head coach Mike Houston, was able to beat Villanova with JMU talent 37-0 only a couple of weeks after Collins’ staff lost to the same team, 19-17, with Temple talent.

Whether Carey is better will be determined in December, not before. These are five things that we will not miss about Collins:

above

Above The Line

For a number of great reasons, the tradition of the Temple depth chart will return and not something vague as the “above the line” concept of Collins. I have not talked to a single ex-Temple player who ever thought getting rid of a depth chart was a good idea. Mike Curcio, a great Temple linebacker who later played with the Philadelphia Eagles, told me nothing motivated him to become a starter than seeing his name as No. 3 on the TU linebacker depth chart. Above the line served no useful purpose. Now the players know where they stand and what they have to do to move up the depth chart and that’s a good thing.

moneydowns

Money Downs

Nothing made more a mockery of the money down thing than for Temple to be rated No. 129 in third-down conversions halfway through the season than to see “money down” signs on third down. While the Owls improved after that, they were in debt most of the season.

An Offensive Abomination

Nick Sharga’s lead blocking as a fullback for tailbacks Jahad Thomas and Ryquell Armstead was as big a reason as any for the 2016 Owls winning the AAC title. The two combined for nearly 2,000 yards of rushing and Armstead scored 14 touchdowns, 13 of them behind devastating Sharga blocks. Before the 2017 season, Collins promised that “we are going to use (Sharga) even more than they did last year” and that “I’m his fullback coach; he’s the best fullback in the country.” Yet Collins stood idly by and did nothing as his OC, Dave Patenaude, eliminated the fullback position at Temple. Patenaude was probably the most ill-suited coach for Temple, head or assistant, since Jerry Berndt. His passing on first-and-goal after Isaiah Wright was tripped up at the 1 cost the Owls a win at Army in 2017. His passing on first-and-goal at the Navy 7 with 1:28 left and the Middies with no timeouts left resulted in an interception and a near-loss. His game-calling against Villanova directly resulted in one loss and nearly another. Only 45 offensive touchdowns on a 2018 team that included Anthony Russo, Ventell Byrant, Armstead, Wright, Branden Mack and Rob Ritrovato was malfeasance of the highest order. Atlanta is going to love this guy.

WWE Superstars at Practice

Collins had WWE Super Star Titus O’Neil visit practice in the week before the 2017 Villanova game. I can’t imagine how that helped the Owls avoid three-straight offsides penalties that the defense incurred in that game.

Less Talk, More Action

At Rod Carey’s first press conference, he said that good football teams don’t talk about being tough they just are. Collins talked a lot about juice. The hope here is that the juice will be seen and not heard.

Friday: Comparing First Seasons

 

01.21.19
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Red Flags and The Carey Hiring

This is the only (somewhat) Red Flag I care about.

It would not be a Temple coaching search, post-Al Golden at least, to find a red flag or two on the field.

We found several in the short-lived hiring of Manny Diaz that had to do with him never being a head coach before, lack of knowledge and recruiting ties in the Northeast, never having coached north of Jacksonville and having a father who was Mayor of Miami. All those flags pointed in the direction of a U-Turn back South, although we thought it might be a year, not 17 days.


Rod Carey isn’t perfect,
nor without red flags,
but he has won before
in a difficult league
and his green flags
seem to outnumber
his red ones

Steve Addazio, the Florida assistant, was perhaps the most-hated man in Gainesville when he took the Temple job.

Matt Rhule was a guy who the players lobbied for twice before he was awarded the Temple job.  Dick Vermeil said about fans lobbying for the backup quarterback when Ron Jaworski was struggling: “If you listen to the fans, soon you’ll be sitting next to them.”  That pretty much applies to athletic directors listening to players.

Geoff Collins’ Mayhem defense was torched against Tennessee, Alabama and Florida State in the weeks before he was hired at Temple.

The reality is that Hardin was as close to perfection as you can get and any Temple fans who remember him have been spoiled. Golden had a pass in that he was given an impossible job–end a 20-game losing streak and rid the program of malcontents, all while bringing up the APR.

Now Rod Carey comes aboard and his only red flag was that a significant portion of the Northern Illinois’ fanbase was happy to see him go.  I haven’t been able to find a single columnist or beat writer who covered NIU criticize him, but a lot of fans did not hold him in high esteem.

this

nation

Interesting that the middle fan could not spell DeKalb

The Temple Red Flag File

JERRY BERNDT _ For some reason, Temple President Peter J. Liacouras was enamored with Berndt, who never had a real record as a winning head coach before. RED FLAG: He was 0-11 with the Owls (Rice Owls) the year before he was hired by the Temple Owls. He also got to go 1-10 with the Temple Owls, making him the only head coach in history to go a combined 1-21 for two teams named the Owls. Berndt could not recruit his way out of a paper bag.

RON DICKERSON _ Joe Paterno, no big lover of Temple football (thank God in retrospect), urged Dickerson not to take the Temple job. When Dickerson was adamant about taking it, Joe supported Dickerson, saying that “Ron is the best defensive coordinator in the country.” RED FLAG: The “best defensive coordinator in the country” allowed 55 points in his last regular-season game, after moving from Penn State to Clemson. Dickerson was in over his head as a CEO. He could recruit, but he couldn’t coach his way out of the same paper bag Berndt recruited from.

BOBBY WALLACE _ The man won three Division II titles, but those were Division II titles, taking the scraps of players not wanted by the big Southern schools like Auburn and Alabama. Because he was hooked into the Southern recruiting system, he found some good players for that level. Those kind of players would never work for Temple and Wallace found out that the hard way. RED FLAG: He didn’t have the level of drive or commitment needed to succeed at football’s highest level, no desire to live in the Northeast and Temple wasted eight years of their fans’ lives as a result.

With Carey, the red flag (note singular) does not seem to be as egregious as the ones with the above coaches and it seems to be something at least he has owned.

His first words upon hearing Pat Kraft’s glowing introduction:

“That was more nice things said about me than I’ve heard in the last six years,” Carey said.

Maybe those NIU fans were spoiled. Maybe Carey has learned from any perceived flaws.

It’s hard to imagine a Temple fanbase happy to see a coach leave who has won four division and two league titles in six years. Rod Carey isn’t perfect, nor without red flags, but he has won before in a difficult league and his green flags seem to outnumber his red ones.

Wednesday: 5 Things We Won’t Miss About Mr. Mayhem

Friday: Comparing First Years

Monday: Minimal Expectations

Wednesday: This Year’s Lab Experiment

Friday: A Primer