Tag Archives: AAC football

11.16.16
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Tell Me There’s a Chance

This is pretty much how I feel about the Cotton Bowl right now.

There’s a scene in the 2004 movie “Dumb and Dumber” where Jim Carrey asks a pretty girl to level straight with him and tell him if a guy like him and a girl like her can ever get together.

“Not good,” she says.

“Not good, like one out of a hundred?”

“I’d say, more like one in a million.”

“So you’re telling me there’s a chance?”

That’s kind of how I feel about Temple football’s chances of securing the G5 slot in the NY6 today.

tulaneweather

                                                It will be 70 in Philly on Saturday, but only 63 and windy in The Big Easy.

It’s a chance, not one in a million, but maybe one in 200 or 300, and that’s what I’m going to want to achieve first. We’re going to have to talk about “settling” later, but I’m not one of those people who say “don’t look past Tulane.” I’m looking past Tulane because the job of the kids and the coaches is not to look past Tulane.

Look past Tulane, and there’s East Carolina, the same ECU team that lost at home, 55-31, to SMU. That was the same SMU team that got smoked by Temple, 45-20 (and the Owls led, 35-0, at the half). So, yeah, I’m looking past ECU because it’s the kids’ job and the coaches’ job not to look past ECU and I am pretty confident that they are  as laser-focused on doing that job that they were on the Unfinished Business trip to New Orleans.

That brings us to the AAC title game against a more beatable foe, where it’s Navy or Tulsa, than the Houston team the Owls had to face a year ago.

Win there, and even then the Owls will need help but if Western Michigan or San Diego State falter, which is possible (look at the MAC championship game upsets over the last decade or so), and the Owls’ seven-game winning streak in essentially a Power 6 league, is as strong an argument for a high ranking as any other G5 team.

That would put the Owls in an extremely attractive bowl, the Cotton, against a marquee opponent. One of the possible opponents is LSU, another is Penn State. Since PSU-Temple will not be on the schedule for a long, long time (possibly ever), I vote for that game as the best-case end to the Temple season. (For those of you who say they try to avoid regular-season rematches in bowl games, Temple-Army is one of the projected games by a major news website so you can have that rematch, I want this one.)

While a game against someone like Wake Forest in Annapolis or Georgia in Birmingham is more likely and not all that unappealing, as long as there’s a chance to get a date the best-looking girl in the room, that’s what I’m going for now. That would give the Owls a league title, a top 25 ranking, and a chance to end the Penn State series with a win if that’s how the game falls.

That’s a pretty smoking-hot date.

Just do not give me Rosie O’Donnell (a MAC team) or Amy Schumer (a CUSA team) when you are telling me there’s a shot at Jessica Alba (NY6).

One in a million maybe not, but as long as there is a chance we can float that out there as a nice dream scenario. OK, now back to thinking about Tulane.

Friday: Trap Game My Butt

11.12.16
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A Day Without Owls, But Not Without Football

aacbowls

Going through severe Temple football withdrawal today, but heartened by the fact that the Owls needed this week to ice up those injuries and rest those weary bones for the final two legs of the regular-season trip.

The reward for finishing the “Unfinished Business” will be one of six bowls above, some sweet, some sour. Here are our picks this week.

picknov

Postscript: Miami won, 34-14 (not 35-14 as we predicted) and Penn State won, 45-31 (not 41-24 as we predicted). Air Force won, 49-46 and Navy got a push at 42-40. We lost outright on ECU, which got smoked, 55-31, by SMU.

09.19.16
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Recalibrating Expectations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ACx-bQnS5Q

Matt Rhule says the Owls can regroup and make a run for the AAC title. I pray he’s right and we’re wrong.

Just when they lost me, they reeled me back in on Saturday.

No, not the Temple Owls, who lost a game they should have won that day, but two groups of guys who played later in the day who might have proven Temple is a little better than I expected.

The Army West Point Knights and the Stony Brook Seawolves, who opened some eyes with pretty shocking performances a few hours after most Owl fans were bummed by the result in State College. They indicated that Temple might have played two very good teams before a subpar effort against PSU.

Army won at UTEP, 66-19, while Stony Brook took down No. 2 FCS Richmond, 42-14. Both were impressive wins for a number of reasons. Army was unstoppable on the road at a FBS team that won by 15 over another FBS team, New Mexico State, two weeks ago. Stony Brook, a team that was shut out by Temple, scored 42 points on a team that beat Power 5 Virginia, 37-20, in the first week of the season on the road. (UConn beat Virginia by a field goal on Saturday.)

So any recalibration of TEMPLE expectations has to include the total body of work, including the Army and Stony Brook games. There is also the distinct possibility that Penn State, Stony Brook and Army all finish with very good years so that has to be factored into a Temple recalibration.

unfinished

First the bad news because going into this season, I wrote that this was the team that had the best chance of breaking the Temple school record of 10 wins and finish with 11 wins. I wrote that expectation should be the MINIMUM expectation, with the maximum expectation that the team achieve its own stated goal of “Unfinished Business” which, to them, meant winning the overall AAC title.

I don’t think that is going to happen, not just based on the first three Temple games but because Houston has separated itself from the rest of the league. For Temple to get to 11 wins, it would have to win out and I also do not think that is going to happen, either.

Now, the good news because this season can still be a  success if the Owls can get to 10 wins again including a bowl win over a P5 team and that remains a realistic possibility. Hell, if that P5 team is Penn State,  I will sign for that game now.

Here’s how I see the rest of the season playing out:

Saturday: Temple 48, Charlotte 7. Charlotte is not only worse than Stony Brook, it is much worse. Charlotte allowed 70 points to Louisville and, while that is no disgrace, being beaten by Eastern Michigan, 37-19, is.

10/1: Temple 35, SMU 21. The Mustangs struggled to beat Jerry Falwell’s school, Liberty, on Saturday. No amount of praying will help them against Temple. 3-2.

10/6: Temple 21, Memphis 14. I had this as a win prior to the season, as a loss after Penn State and now as a win after the Army and Stony Brook results, but it is not going to be easy on the road. Memphis beat Kansas, which is probably a whole lot worse than Penn State and Army. 4-2.

10/15: Temple 28, UCF 19. This won’t be the blowout it was against an 0-12 UCF team last year, but if UCF can go from 0-12 to beat a 10-win Temple team, the Owls have got more problems than I think they do. 5-2.

10/21: South Florida 31, Temple 27. South Florida is, quite simply, a better team than Penn State and Phil Snow has two blind spots in his rear view mirror—the triple option and the dual-threat quarterback. Unless he spies Champ Chandler on Quinton Flowers, he is about to move into that left lane and get clobbered by that Mack Truck. Since Snow never follows our advice, mark USF down as a loss and no AAC title game this year. 5-3. (USF beat Syracuse by 22 and a poor NIU team, 48-17.)

10/29: Temple 24, Cincinnati 17.  Tommy Tuberville is beginning to show his coaching age with some strange calls on the field. The Owls will take this into the fourth quarter and finish him off. 6-3. (Cincy beat Purdue, but was hammered by Houston, 40-16.)

11/4: Temple 36, UConn 10: Temple beat Stony Brook, 38-0, which beat Richmond, 42-14. Richmond beat Virginia, 37-20. UConn beat Virginia, 13-10. While you usually cannot go on comparative scores, those margins are so stark they show there is a huge talent and speed gap between the Owls and the Huskies. UConn also barely beat a Maine team (in OT) that lost to Toledo, 45-3. 7-3. (UConn also lost to Navy in a close one.)

11/19: Temple 10, Tulane 3: Unless the Owls party hard on Bourbon Street, the defense shuts the Green Wave down.  8-3. (Tulane lost to Navy, 21-14.)

11/26: Temple 24, East Carolina 21: Not easy, but the Owls finish strong. 9-3. (East Carolina beat North Carolina State and lost to South Carolina.)

Since I do not think it will be good enough to even get in the championship game, the best the Owls can do is win the bowl game they are assigned to—they probably will not get a choice—and finish with consecutive 10-win season.

I hope they prove me wrong and run the table, and at least host the AAC title game, but concerns on the offensive and defensive lines make me doubt they will ever finish the Unfinished Business they had in mind when they thought of that slogan.

Wednesday: The End of An Era

Friday: A Meh Homecoming

 

08.12.16
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Beyond Unfinished Business

The linebacker corps is in good hands with 3 returning starters.

The bad news for all but one of the 127 teams is that nobody is going to win the national football championship like our neighbors, who shall remain nameless, won the national basketball title.

All but that one team, of course, and, at this point, it doesn’t look like it will be Temple. (However, if you want a nice $10,000 return on a measly $10 investment and believe in the Owls, sportsbook is taking bets.)

When the Owls made “Unfinished Business” their team slogan this year, they probably did not mean winning the national championship but the good news today is there is a whole list of ancillary goals that would finish the business.

tieins

AAC bowl tie-ins this season.

It starts with the American Athletic Conference championship, which is well within reach. All the Owls have to do to secure home field, presumably against Houston, is to run the table in their seven home games and not be upset on the road. They will probably be favored at Memphis and at UConn, two of their tougher road games. They can even afford a loss at Penn State and still achieve that goal. Home field should beget a win over USF (hey, it did in 2012) and a crowd of 40,000-plus rabid Temple fans in the AAC championship game could be the difference.

What about Beyond Unfinished Business?

Even if the Owls do not reach their No. 1 goal, there are a number of ways the business conducted this season could be better than the work done last year. Winning a school-record 11 games is within reach and that’s some nice work. Beyond that, though, the AAC has seven bowl tie-ins and the team’s (and especially the administration’s) goal has to be to get the Owls in a bowl game against a Power 5 team. Last year, Owls Daily editor Shawn Pastor reported that the administration was offered the Birmingham Bowl against Auburn and a bowl in Louisiana against Virginia Tech, but turned down both offers to play near a large alumni fan base in Florida.

Big mistake.

This year, “Unfinished Business” also means taking care of business once those offers are on the table. That means no “turning down” any of these three bowls should the Owls be offered one:

Birmingham Bowl Dec. 29, 2016

Birmingham, Ala. – vs. SEC

St. Petersburg Bowl Dec. 26, 2016

St. Petersburg, Fla. – vs. ACC

Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman Dec. 29, 2016

Annapolis, Md. – vs. ACC

The other bowl tie-ins are the Miami Beach Bowl and Bahamas Bowl (both versus MAC foes),  and the Boca Raton Bowl vs. Conference USA. Thanks, but no thanks. Been there, done that.

While winning the national championship would be nice, and winning the AAC the real deal, getting those 11 wins and beating a Power 5 team in a bowl would also qualify for Unfinished Business and be more than acceptable consolation prizes.

It all begins in a little over two weeks against Army and the focus then and every week hence is going to have to be laser-sharp, but  this is a business deal that should be profitable.

Monday: The Next Big Red One

08.05.16
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Media Day Takeaway: The U Word

 

It’s a new team and probably a better one than last year’s version.

Unfortunately, many of us have heard the “c” word and the “b” word and the “f” word but it took until AAC Media Day earlier this week for Temple football fans to hear the “u” word for the first time.

Unbeaten.

That’s a pretty sweet word and it rolled off quarterback Phillip Walker’s tongue like a double-layered cake.  As far as I can recall, that’s the first time a Temple player has uttered the “u” word in any formal setting, although I’m sure a couple of guys might have dreamed about it out loud during an off-season weightlifting session.

Asked by a media member what the team’s goals were, Phillip said: “League championship, unbeaten season …”

Unbeaten season? Why not?

aacchamps

For most of my adult life, I never associated “unbeaten season” with Temple as an achievable goal. This year it might be on that top shelf of reachable things.  At the very least, an unbeaten regular season is in play. A few months ago, I wrote I believed this team had all of the ingredients to break the school record for wins with 11 and that should be the minimum goal (with the maximum one being an AAC title).

If you can win 11, you can win 12 and that’s what Phillip Walker is talking about. Every year, I’ve been following Temple, the Owls usually lose a game or two they should not or win a game or two they should not. To reach an unbeaten season, though, pattern will have to be broken. This year might be the year. (The exception was the 1979 team, which lost to only two top 10 teams by a grand total of 16 points. Also, the 1974 team lost only to a much higher-ranked Boston College team.)

First, they will take a lot of confidence from a 2-0 start into Penn State. They will also take a proven four-year starting quarterback there against an untested rookie. Win there, and that opens a wide path for 7-0 going into USF, which is at home this year. Forty thousand crazed Temple fans can make a difference in that one. I don’t buy this fallacy that USF has “too much” for Temple this year. USF lost to Western Kentucky, so let’s pump the brakes on comparing them to Alabama. Of course, Temple lost to Toledo.

Win there, and it’s an Autobahn ride to 12-0.

Since all of the above puts the title game in Philly, 13-0 is also possible. Now 14-0 or 15-0, that might be another shelf no vertical leap can reach but it is fun thinking about.

Monday: Roster Thoughts

02.10.16
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AAC Needs To Step Up Its Game

aaceast

Every night a certain political commentary program ends its night with a Tip of The Day. Forget the fact that the “tip” isn’t really a tip but a closing thought by the anchor, but, after getting a good look at the AAC composite schedule (above) a tip is in order:

The AAC, if it is going to be a serious conference, needs to step up its game. It is not going to happen this year and, because of the way schedules are made years in advance, it may not even happen next year. But it needs to happen.

The South Carolina States, Tennessee-Martins, Towsons and, yes, even Stony Brooks have to be removed from the schedules, the sooner the better. It’s not like the AAC is a Power 5 conference and the in-conference games are not sooooo tough that the league’s members need to bake cupcakes for the early portion of their schedules.

The AAC needs to do what it did last year—play the ACC seven times and beat them four times in the regular season. That’s the way a conference builds a strong reputation, not beating up on the Tennessee-Martins of the world. Yet that’s the team Cincinnati opens with on Sept. 3.

Other head-scratching games opening week include South Carolina State at UCF, Maine at UConn, West Carolina at East Carolina and South Florida hosting Towson. Those could have been scheduled against P5 teams and the AAC needs to schedule those games and win them. (Yet, UConn deserves a lot of credit for scheduling three ACC opponents.)

Temple could set an example in the process by dumping the Stony Brook game (9/9). It would take some work by Dr. Pat Kraft, but it would be worth it. Have Stony Brook play Howard that day, then offer to go on the road to Rutgers, which is scheduled to play Howard that day. Rutgers is just arrogant enough to think it could beat Temple and, from Temple’s perspective, the game offers P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas—among others—a final chance to win there. It would also wipe out the bad taste of 2013 and give the Owls a chance for consecutive wins over Big 10 teams. It’s worth picking up a phone, making calls to Stony Brook, Howard and Rutgers and making this happen.

That’s the way a G5 conference builds a reputation, not by playing cupcakes but by seeking out the power schools and beating them. That’s how John Chaney built Temple into a national basketball power and lifted up the A10 in the process. Temple football can do the same for the G5.

01.22.16
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Add Snowmageddon To Temple’s Luck

snowmageddon

Being a Temple sports fan, I’m used to a number of odd things happening at strange times that seem to stunt the Owls’ growth in the two marquee sports.

Add this latest Snowmageddon Episode to Temple’s dumb luck.

Arguably, it is probably the biggest recruiting weekend of the season with Temple trying to close the deal on some high-profile football recruits and the forecast of a crippling blizzard cannot help things. Sure, once in a blue moon you will find a kid from Florida who loves the snow and thinks it is the greatest thing in the world and decides to commit on the spot.

Ninety-nine percent of the other people living on the planet do not think that way.

templethings

It was a good idea in the first place because the Temple basketball team was going to host unbeaten AAC rival SMU on Saturday night in a game that figured to pack the Liacouras Center and show the recruits a packed house of spirited Temple fans. Now, that game is moved to Sunday and probably will not have nearly the same atmosphere.

Ironically, this snow is not going to be a good first  impression because it had not snowed all winter—not even a flake—and the winter had been relatively mild with quite a few 50- and 60-degree days. You can tell the recruits that all you want, but they see what they see.

Logistically, it is just not going to be a good thing. Even though the recruits will be on campus, other things are routinely planned on recruiting weekends that will just not go off—like trips to Lincoln Financial Field and Center City.

There is always the hope that things go well and the Owls pull in the haul they expected, but the snow will not be their friend this weekend.

In another development, Penn State–a place where it snows all the time–is hosting Temple recruit Dae’Lun Darien this weekend.

The forecast there is a coating to an inch.

12.12.15
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5 Other AAC Bowl Matchups Worth Watching

USATSI_8974880_149008644_lowres

Where is the T, M and P?

 

Just four months ago, the AAC was lumped as just another Group of 5 football conference trying to make its way in a Power 5 world. Then the AAC won some big games, with Temple beating Penn State and Memphis beating Mississippi, finished 4-3 against a P5 conference (the ACC) and separated itself from the pack. Now it can enhance its image by winning these five bowl games.

b

  1. Miami Beach: USF vs. Western Kentucky

The big storyline in this game (2:30 p.m., EDT, Dec. 21, ESPN), is Willie Taggart’s old recruits, the ones who play for 11-2 WKU, going up against his newer 8-4 South Florida recruits. Despite the game being played in South Florida, the Hilltoppers are slight favorites and a lot of that has to do with the motivation on one side against an less-motivated group on the other. Plus, WKU’s Jeff Brohm probably is a better game day coach than Taggart.

c

  1. Birmingham: Memphis vs. Auburn

The fact that the 9-3 Memphis Tigers are a slight underdog against the 6-6 Auburn Tigers is a product of this being a home game for Auburn. In reality, Memphis is a team that beat Mississippi by 13 points and should have no problem handling an overvalued Auburn team that has an edge in SEC name recognition and little else. The game is Dec. 30th on ESPN at noon.

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  1. Hawaii: Cincinnati vs. San Diego St.

The Bearcats have one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Gunner Kiel, who has played significantly better in the second half of the season since coming off a concussion. The 7-5 Bearcats’ most impressive showing was a 33-30 loss at champion Houston. SDSU, which is 10-3, is a slight underdog in this game (Dec. 24, 8 p.m., ESPN).

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  1. Military Bowl: Pitt vs. Navy

In what is a home game for 9-2 Navy, played at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium, this game serves as a showcase for someone who should have won the Heisman Award, Navy Midshipmen quarterback Keenan Reynolds, against a successful Power 5 team in 8-4 Pitt. This is probably too tough a spot for the four-point underdog Panthers.

f

  1. Peach Bowl: Houston vs. Florida State

The one takeaway from Houston’s 24-13 win over Temple in the title game was two takeaways, an interception and a fumble, which were really the difference between Temple being there and Houston taking the spot. The fact that the Owls had to play a perfect game to beat the Cougars probably bodes well for the touchdown underdog in the Dec. 31 game (noon, ESPN). The AAC can make its ultimate statement winning this game.

09.30.15
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The Big Cleanup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDUTSSd0F7Y

I thought “Matt” gave way too much credit to UMass in this presser.

Probably the biggest cleanup in Philadelphia history came over the weekend, when an army of people knocked down barricades and grandstands and swept away a whole bunch of garbage from the Pope’s visit.

The second biggest cleanup, hopefully, was occurring at roughly the same time on Sunday night and Monday afternoon when the Temple Owls had to address some major issues leading up to Friday’s 7 p.m. at Charlotte (CBS Sports Network).

Here are five things that needed to be addressed:

Penn State v Temple

  1. The Run Game

The Owls took the nation’s third-leading rusher, Jahad Thomas, into the game against UMass and came out with a 67-yard rushing effort against a defense that gave up 390 yards to Colorado and 457 yards to Notre Dame. Colorado is a mediocre team, as proven by its loss to Hawaii. It looked like the Owls overreacted to the Minutemen’s stunts and abandoned the run game too early. That cannot happen going forward. If the run game isn’t working inside, the coaches have to take the run game outside.

  1. Killer Instinct

When it was 14-0, Temple, got to find a way to make it 21-0 against these inferior teams like UMass. If Temple TUFF really means anything, you have to put more helmets on their helmets and knock them back off the ball. If that means putting Nick Sharga in at fullback running lead interference for the tailbacks, so be it. Head coach Matt Rhule said “it’s going to be 17-17” but against teams like UMass and Charlotte, it should never be 17-17. Temple has much, much too much talent to b be playing the likes of UMass 17-all at half. Newsflash: UMass is not going to win the MAC in this century or maybe even the next one.

sharif

  1. Turnovers

The Owls have to find a way to limit their turnovers in the passing game and one of the ways to do that is to cut the number of throws from 48 against UMass to the more manageable 15-for-20 P.J. Walker had against Penn State. To do that, they have to establish the run first, then throw off play-action. That brings the LBs and safeties close to the line of scrimmage and more susceptible to the play-fake.

  1. Big Plays on Defense

The Owls gave up big plays on defense because they could not get to the quarterback against UMass. Getting to the quarterback is the key to limiting the big plays. They do not have to sack every quarterback 10 times like Penn State, but at least get in the QB’s face so he does not get a good look downfield.

  1. Negative Plays on Offense

The Owls lead the country with 15 negative plays on offense. One way to negate that is to take more shots down field—again off play fakes to the running backs. Robby Anderson was extremely effective making those kind of explosive downfield plays in the passing game and it is high time that he returns to that role. The best way to get Robby involved is to fake it into the belly of Jahad, pull the damn ball out and find Robby streaking down the left sideline.

08.24.15
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Twelve days and counting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSEUf5S9O-Q

Every year something happens at Temple football camp that makes fans take a step back or at least raise an eyebrow or two.

Twelve days and counting to Penn State and these developments fall into that category:

  • Frank Nutile has supplanted Logan Marchi as the No. 2 quarterback. This is interesting only in that Marchi’s game has been compared to “Johnny Manziel Lite.” Nutile appears to be the better play-action quarterback and that is why he is moving up. P.J. Walker appears to have his mojo back and is the clear No. 1.
  • Play-action will go through the tight ends, not the fullbacks. The Owls probably will not have a fullback, so their additional blocker at the point of attack will be an extra tight end. The plan, a sound one in concept, is to establish the run with that extra blocker on the OL, then fake into the belly of a tailback to bring the LBs and safeties up to the line. Hopefully, that creates separation for big-play receivers like Robby Anderson and Adonis Jennings.
  • Averee Robinson is running with the ones. With Matt Ioannidis, Nate D. Smith, Jacob Martin and Michael Dogbe on the line, Robinson has worked his way into the top unit. Wearing No. 43, I look for Robinson—who had five sacks in the 2014 spring game—to have a big season. It’s vitally important that the Owls put Christian Hackenberg on his ass early and often and I expect Robinson to play a big part in that  game plan.
  • There is one and only one question I’d like to ask Matt Rhule in one of those pressers: What is wrong with putting the very elusive duo of Nate L. Smith and Kareem Ali Jr. back there to handle punts over exposing your No. 1 offensive threat to extra unnecessary hits? Love the toughness and reliable hands John Christopher brings, but his 2.0-yards-per-punt-return was a wasted year on what has been traditionally a very positive play at Temple . Smith averaged 21 yards per return a year ago, but only got one chance. That’s extremely puzzling.
  • Matt Rhule does not appear to trust the freshman RBs. The fact that Jahad Thomas is running with the ones as the tailback has to be OK from the standpoint that putting the ball on the ground is going to be unacceptable. Thomas has a lower ceiling than T.J. Simmons or Jager Gardner, but he is more dependable with the football and P.J. Walker trusts him. If the Owls need explosiveness later on, expect Gardner to be the go-to guy.

It’s less than two weeks and the Owls appear to be ready. Hopefully, Penn State will not know what hits them.