Temple Football For Dummies

There is so much misinformation out there online about Temple football that we thought we’d set the record straight, at least for internet search purposes, for the next week or so.

This is not for Temple football fans, who know better, but for the great unwashed out there like that Notre Dame Bleacher Report guy who probably still thinks Bobby Wallace is the head coach.
Misconception No. 1
Temple football is among the worst programs in college football.

Answer: Not so. In fact, Temple is among the upper half of college football programs over the last five years. The Owls have been bowl eligible for three of the last four years and, except for the flukiest of Hail Mary plays (Buffalo, 2008), would have been bowl eligible four of the last five.

In 2010, they were denied a bowl despite having an 8-4 record and beating a champion from a then BCS league (UConn, which also beat Notre Dame that year). Temple beat that team by two touchdowns.
Misconception No. 2
Temple will be worse this year than last because it lost its head coach to Boston College.

Answer: Heck, we’ll just let this Florida fan give you the answer here. Boston College actually did Temple a favor by taking Steve Addazio off its hands. Describing Addazio’s offensive philosophy as “three-yards-in-a-cloud-of-dust” is doing a disservice to two yards. It was more like one yard in a cloud of dust. No one has told Addazio that it’s actually legal to throw on first and second downs. Any Florida or Temple fan can tell you that. In six months, every Boston College fan will say the same thing, too.
Misconception No. 3
Temple has no players.

*Temple and Notre Dame also played South Florida, although not in the same season. South Florida beat Notre Dame, 23-20, in 2011, and Temple turned around and beat South Florida, 36-27, in the 2012 season.

Answer: The Owls have plenty of players and new head coach Matt Rhule, who recruited almost every one of them, is finally putting them in the best position to win.
The Owls have a tough and physical defensive line, led by end Sean Daniels and interior defenders Kamal Johnson, Levi Brown and Shahid Paulhill. In linebackers Blaze Caponegro, Nate D. Smith and Tyler Matakevich, they probably have the best starters combined with subs in the AAC. Anthony Robey is a future NFL pro at one corner.
Misconception No. 4
Temple no longer has a running back with the talent of Bernard Pierce, Matt Brown or Montel Harris.
Answer: Not true. Kenny Harper has the most experience, but Zaire Williams comes with a higher recruiting pedigree than Pierce and Brown had.  Jamie Gilmore, who was Scout.com’s No. 7 all-purpose running back in the nation the year he was recruited out North Marion (Fla.), is a third-down back who likely inherits the Matt Brown role.
Temple has plenty of weapons on offense, led by quarterbacks Connor Reilly, Juice Granger and P.J. Walker (last year’s Player of the Year in New Jersey) and slot receivers Khalif Herbin (2011’s Player of the Year in New Jersey) and Jalen Fitzpatrick, who started as a quarterback of the Pennsylvania team in the Big 33 Game. Owls have a triple-threat (run, pass, catch) H-Back in Chris Coyer and a playmaking tight end, Romond DeLoatch, who can get deep.
Misconception No. 5
Since Temple lost kicker Brandon McManus to the Indianapolis Colts, the Owls have no kickers.
Answer: Also not true. They have one of the highest-rated punters in the country, Paul Layton, a transfer from the University of Albany. One of their two freshmen placekickers, Jim Cooper, Jr., was a first-team All-American and holds the New Jersey record for career field goals (38). The other freshman kicker, Nick Visco, holds the Philadelphia record (all kickers over 100 years) for points scored.

Tomorrow: Back to regular programming

Monday: The Depth Chart Finally Released