Tag Archives: AAC football

08.04.15
by

Dropping a Bomb on Penn State

In honor of Robby Anderson becoming eligible, we can only think of one song appropriate to the occasion.

Technically, it will not be until around 6:30 p.m. on the night of Sept. 5 before Temple fans learn whether their long Commonwealth nightmare is over. Substantively, though, they learned the result yesterday when Robby Anderson was declared eligible.

That's a 44-inch vertical, great hands, escapability an 4.5 speed.

Temple tested a smaller nuclear device last week when it learned Pitt transfer Adonis Jennings was declared eligible. Monday’s news about Anderson was one of those megaton Hydrogen-type jawns and the Nittany Lions have no idea of what is about to hit them..

We will not paraphrase former U.S. President Gerald Ford by calling the failure to beat Penn State a long national nightmare but, since 1941, it certainly has been a Commonwealth (of Pennsylvania) nightmare. We should all wake from that slumber in one month and one day, thanks to the special talents of one Mr. Anderson.

Temple tested a smaller nuclear device last week when it learned Pitt transfer Adonis Jennings was declared eligible. Monday’s news about Anderson was one of those megaton Hydrogen-type jawns and the Nittany Lions have no idea of what is about to hit them.

After carefully observing both Anderson in 2013 and the Penn State secondary last season, I have come to the conclusion—sad for them, good for the Owls—that the Nittany Lions cannot stop Anderson or even hope to contain him. Anything Jennings can add to this mix is just a bonus. Anderson should help open a Temple offense that was closed tighter than one of those Kansas silos.

Anderson’s eligibility is huge because is a proven big-play receiver, not only in the AAC, but from a national standpoint. His 18.7-yards-per-catch average was second in all of college football in the 2013 season. His three touchdown receptions in a 41-21 win at Memphis was an exclamation point in a five-game season that saw him catch nine touchdown passes from true freshman quarterback P.J. Walker.

Walker, who started the same number of games at quarterback, finished with 20 touchdown passes and only eight interceptions. Without Anderson, who flunked out of school in January of 2014, Walker looked to be out of his comfort zone a year ago and suffered a sophomore slump in which he only had 12 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions. The news about Anderson came four days after Temple learned that the NCAA granted Pitt transfer Adonis Jennings, a four-star wide receiver recruit, a hardship waiver to become immediately eligible.

To be sure, there were signs this was coming over the last few weeks or so. A wide receiver transfer from Hawaii, Keith Kirkwood, who wore No. 19 last year, changed his number from 19 to 89 last week and Anderson attended a couple of team charity functions wearing his familiar No. 19.

As it turned out, those were clues to a mystery that was solved on Monday and will be the talk of AAC Media Day. More importantly, although there is still a lot of work to do over the next month, the confidence level of Temple fans going into a Penn State game has never been higher.

02.19.15
by

Thoughts on the 2015 Schedule

fifteensked

There is an accepted process in the business world of annual evaluations based on the creed of “up or out.” That usually applies to everyone but the job performances of meteorologists and Temple football head coaches over the last 30 or so years.

The 2015 football schedule was released this morning and the first thought those in charge at Temple has to be start running football like the multi-million dollar business it is. Six and six after 2-10 was up and now anything less than seven should be out.

There is no one on that schedule Temple cannot beat, there are a couple of teams on that schedule that Temple probably will not beat and the rest of the schedule largely consists of teams Temple can and should beat. Another positive is the fact that there is only one bye on the schedule. Three byes were way too much last season.

I think the talent is in place to win at least eight games but, given what I’ve seen from my seat in the stands the last two years, seven should be acceptable. Six wins again definitely is not.

There are going to be a couple of times teams Temple should beat win and, hopefully, at least that many times the other way around.

There is a Dec. 5 AAC championship game and the goal should be no less than to make that game in Philadelphia and win it.

12.09.14
by

This Should Be Temple

Central Michigan gets to do this over Temple? Thanks, Aresco. 

There is a photo of AAC commissioner Mike Aresco flipping a coin while the toss is called at a Temple football game. There could be no more perfect vision of what happened to Temple’s slim bowl hopes than that image.

Aresco essentially tossed away Temple’s only hope at a bowl for a little coin when he sold the AAC ‘s sixth and final bowl tie-in to CUSA back in April. The sale dropped the AAC’s bowl tie-in number from six to five and almost assured that a bowl qualifier from outside the conference’s top five would stay at home. Because of that, Temple head coach Matt Rhule had to know there was not a bowl game on the line before his team hit the field in what turned out to be a 10-3 win at Tulane on Saturday night. From the way Rhule talked on Sunday night, though, he sounded like he was shocked the 6-6 Owls were not picked.

He should not have been.

Mike Aresco, AAC commissioner, selling away Temple's bid for no more than a couple of coins.

Mike Aresco, AAC commissioner, selling away Temple’s bid for no more than a couple of coins.

Temple’s bowl chances were dashed the day Aresco sold the rights to the conference’s sixth bowl tie-in, the Bahamas Bowl, to CUSA. It was a monumental blunder.

Temple’s major reason for leaving the MAC was getting more opportunities for a bowl, and now the conference they land in sells a bowl where Temple would have appeared and one of those teams, Central Michigan, is a MAC school.

Any Temple fans up for a couple of winter days in the Bahamas? Sorry, we sold that bowl. The AAC should have known it was better to have too many bowl tie-ins than too few. It was a hard lesson for the young AAC to learn, and the biggest victims of that decision were the Temple players who will be lifting weights when they should be lifting playbooks.

12.06.14
by

Plenty to Play For, Just Not a Bowl

Sadly, the final gameday of the season.

Sadly, the final gameday of the season.

There are a lot of people who live in a fantasy world who believe that a team without a significant fan base and no bowl tie-in is going to somehow magically appear in a bowl if it becomes qualified because of things like TV ratings and conference affiliations.

Count me out of that group.

There’s plenty to play for, though, tonight when Temple travels to Tulane (7:30).  The game is on a real ESPN network (the duece), not ESPN3 or ESPN News or ESPNU so there will be a significant potential audience out there. The Owls will be playing to avoid a third-straight losing season and that is important.

The fact that Temple has done nothing about an abysmal punt return game is symptomatic of a larger overall leadership problem.

The fact that Temple has done nothing about an abysmal punt return game is symptomatic of a larger overall leadership problem.

There is just not a bowl game on the line.

Temple is not going to a bowl game with a win on Saturday, even if it is a 63-point effort like the one it had three years ago in West Point. Temple’s elimination game was two weeks ago, not today, and the Owls rolled out an uninspired offensive game plan against Cincinnati that belied that sense of urgency. Forget the calls for a play-action passing game and some semblance of a running game. Why didn’t Temple even TRY to use a slippery punt returner like Nate L. Smith instead of John Christopher to at least artificially pump some juice into the team?

Temple got zero yards from its punt return game … again.  It got nothing from its run game … again.

Those are two things fans should hope at least are addressed tonight.

Temple’s bowl chances might have been dashed before the season even started when American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco “sold” the rights to the conference’s sixth bowl tie-in to none other than CUSA. It was a monumental blunder.

The irony of this is dripping.  Temple’s 8-4 team did not get into a bowl because the MAC had too few tie-ins and its 6-6 team will not get into a bowl because conferences like the MAC and CUSA have too many. This kind of stuff happens only to Temple. You cannot make this stuff up. Temple’s major reason for leaving the MAC was getting more opportunities for a bowl and now the conference they go to sell a bowl where Temple would have appeared.

Any Temple fans up for a couple of winter days in the Bahamas? Sorry, we sold that bowl.

In the same category was UCF’s miracle win over ECU on Thursday night. Temple had a slight chance of backing into the fifth tie-in if Memphis moved up to a BCS game but, for that to happen, Memphis would have had to win the league outright and Fresno State would have had to knock Boise State out in the Mountain West title game. A head-scratching UCF Hail Mary allowed UCF to share the title with Memphis and eliminated even that sliver of Temple hope.

So, in a sense, Temple was beaten again by a Hail Mary pass, leaving winning tonight and at least some momentum into next season as the best the Owls can reasonably hope to accomplish.

Even given that, only a backroom Hail Mary in a smoke-filled room on Bowl Selection Sunday can extend this season beyond today and those kind of plays never go Temple’s way.

12.04.14
by

Throwback Thursday: Temple vs. Tulane

Programs for this Saturday's game will probably go for higher than 25 cents.

Programs for this Saturday’s game will probably go for higher than 25 cents.

After Tulane came back from a two-touchdown deficit to beat Temple, 20-14, in the first Sugar Bowl, then Temple head coach Pop Warner said:

“We lost to a fine squad,” Warner said, “but our boys presented themselves well. Perhaps someday we will return.”

Like MacArthur said, “we have returned” even though it is 80 years later against the same opponent in the same town with either a lot or nothing on the line.

drop3

It’s not quite the Sugar Bowl, but it’s a few blocks away and will have all the limelight that comes with Saturday night nationally televised ESPN2 game. Even if the Owls are able to beat Tulane—and they have dropped from a 4.5 favorite to open to a 3-point favorite today—they are far from a lock to make a bowl game. The Owls have to hope 19-point favorite Oklahoma takes care of business against Oklahoma State in a rivalry game (3:30) earlier that afternoon and teams like Ohio, Middle Tennessee and UAB-Birmingham are passed over. It is not an ideal situation, especially when two analysts came on College Football Gameday making a pitch for UAB Birmingham being a great bowl story since it is dropping football.

Yulman Stadium ... site of the "Sugar Bowl" rematch.

Yulman Stadium … site of the “Sugar Bowl” rematch.

Temple, though, simply has to do something it has not done for weeks—take care of business. We’ve tried all season to give the Owls a roadmap to get things done but the Owls’ inexperienced coaching staff has been too stubborn in a belief of a flawed “process” to change. We don’t expect any change now, but still would like to the Owls attempt to establish the run behind a blocking fullback and a quick and talented tailback like Jahad Thomas, then throw off play-action. P.J. Walker has been struggling in the 3-4 wide sets and it only makes sense to provide him with some sort of max protect scheme so he can at least have time to fake to a running back and look down the field.

Common sense does not appear to be on the horizon, though, based on the process of the past few weeks. Tulane plays a nine-man front and would be susceptible to play-action, but to expect that now would be too much to ask. So get your popcorn ready and sit back expect to see 3-4 wide receivers attack a nine-man front and hope Temple’s defense can overcome that kind of convoluted gameplan.

As Terrell Owens might say, “It’s gonna be a show” but the entertainment value could be questionable.

Pop Warner would probably be turning over in his grave, perhaps muttering something about how he would have never hired an offensive coordinator from Tennessee-Chattanooga.

11.19.14
by

Two Weeks to Get Something (Different) Done

This is what Temple fans have been seeing all year, no separation between the wr (left) and the corner.

This is what Temple fans have been seeing all year, no separation between the wr (left) and the defender.

When it comes to people saying intelligent things, it’s hard to beat what Albert Einstein once said about the definition of insanity being doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.

If Temple loses out, and I think the chances of that happening are about even right now, that quote will be the story of the season—at least on the offensive side of the ball. For 10 games, the Owls have gotten no wide receiver separation and no quarterback protection from their three- and four-wide receiver sets, yet go through the “process” of sticking with those ill-advised formations in the hopes the process eventually clicks. Newflash: It’s not going to click.

In this photo, the left side of the Owl line is doing a good job blocking, but things break down on the right for P.J. when one guy cannot hold his block. Why not establish the run first to the left, then give P.J. time to throw with play action? Mystifying.

In this photo, the left side of the Owl line is doing a good job blocking, but things break down on the right for P.J. when one guy cannot hold his block. Why not establish the run first to the left, then give P.J. time to throw with play action? Mystifying. P.J. has no time and is sacked by No. 91.

After 10 games of futility, I do not see this process leading to different results. Two weeks to try something different. Max protect for a beleaguered—yet very talented—quarterback and give him some time to throw down the field. Establish at least a semblance of running. Throw off play action to give the receivers a chance at separation. Make some of the LBs and safeties come up to support the run and then dump the ball over their heads to for big run-after-catch opportunities.

Almost two weeks to get something done. Something different, not more insanity in Games 11 and 12 that we saw in 1-10.

Albert Einstein would no doubt approve.

In this photo, Temple rushes so few players against Hackenburg, 6 PSU blockers can occupy 3 Temple rushers. Ugh. Must be part of the "process." The passive approach on defense opened up the "A" gap for No. 22 and he has a big gain on this play.

In this photo, Temple rushes so few players against Hackenburg, 6 PSU blockers can occupy 3 Temple rushers. Ugh. Must be part of the “process.” The passive approach on defense opened up the “A” gap for No. 22 and he has a big gain on this play.