Tag Archives: ACC

08.24.25
by

Temple football: Finally, Game Week

Since Wayne Hardin transitioned the Temple football Owls from what was then called the college division (roughly FCS) to the university division (FBS), football here could be broken into five eras:

One, The Hardin Years (1970-82)

Two, The Arians Years (1983-88)

Three, The Dark Ages (1991-2005)

Four, The Golden Rhule Era (2006-2016)

Five, A Mini-Dark Age (2017-2024)

Some pretty good times and a couple of rough patches.

There are signs with the season opener at UMass on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN+) that the Owls are coming out a rough patch and into good times and that’s encouraging because one of the lessons of the Golden Rhule Era should have been the Owls were not going back the dark ages.

After Al Golden righted the ship, the prevailing thought around here was that there was no reason for Temple to return to losing seasons and breaking even should have been the minimum standard for every season.

Nobody could have predicted that after being bowl eligible for nine of a 10-year period, they would slump to a 1-6 season followed by a lot of 3-9 ones.

What happened?

After Rhule, the university went away from the formula that caused the revival in the first place–instead of hiring coaches with local connections, the administration hired either big-time coordinators from elsewhere or “a fish out of water” head coach from the middle of the country.

By returning to the formula that worked, the Owls got the best of both worlds–a big-time winning head coach with Philadelphia roots.

Everything K.C. Keeler has done since his arrival in Philadelphia screams he gets Temple as a university and gets both this city and the Temple football program.

Now emerging from the dark tunnel into the sunlight begins and winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

The first game won’t be an easy one as the Owls have to take to the road to take on another revitalized program in UMass. Temple is a 4-point favorite and Vegas is usually pretty good so very few expect a blowout (although I wouldn’t mind the Owls getting one).

This is the type of confidence UMass fans have (LOL).

As much as the Owls expect to win, that’s how much the UMass fans expect to win because they, too, have a first-year coach who understands their region as much as Keeler does his. While this is head coach Joe Harasymiak’s first FBS head coaching job, he’s was a successful head coach at Maine. Many of their fans think they can win.

Still, Temple plays in a tougher conference and has a four-year head start recruiting a superior pedigree of players so the Owls have reason to be confident. The last time Temple played UMass, even a Stan Drayton-coached team came away with a 28-0 win.

With a better coach and better players, the Owls need to start fast and, after 231 days of hard work under a guy who knows what he’s doing, they are hungry to show how far they’ve come.

They’ll have that chance in six days.

Friday: Temple-UMass Preview

Saturday Night: Temple-UMass analysis

04.20.25
by

The flip side of the portal: Getting a P4 recruit

For a school like Temple, there are always two sides to the transfer portal.

One side, the bad one, is recruiting and developing talent for another team to steal.

The good side of this coin–often ignored–is that the transfer portal opens the Owls to acquire football talent they might not otherwise have a chance to get out of high school.

Take Cedar Creek’s Jo Jo Bermudez for instance. Temple has expressed an interest in him and he has expressed an interest in Temple.

It’s a trade that would benefit both since the Owls seem thin at wide receiver and Bermudez has a good chance of earning a starting job.

He set a South Jersey receiving record for yardage with 1,992 in his senior year of high school. His recruiting was down to the Big 10 (Rutgers) and the Big 12 (Cincinnati) and ultimately chose the Bearcats. While he didn’t play for the Bearcats, he transferred to Delaware and became their best wide receiver and caught a touchdown pass against Villanova in November.

Temple used to win recruiting battles with P4 schools but that was a long time ago and in a different era of college football. Al Golden’s first recruit was to beat out Boston College and Rutgers for the services of Kee-Ayre Griffin, who became both a starting running back and a starting quarterback for Golden. Matt Rhule beat out LSU and Rutgers for the services of Anthony Russo. Golden also stole Adrian Robinson from Pitt, among others.

Temple really hasn’t gotten that type of guy since Rhule left, although the transfer portal has sent players from Texas A&M, Florida, Penn State and other places to Temple. Most of them were backups who never made an impact at Temple but a player like Diwan Black was an exception last year.

Maybe Bermudez could fit into that category this year.

Now, if the Owls are able to land Bermudez, they would upgrade the talent in the room and competition only makes the team better.

Kajiya Hollawayne, Xavier Irvin and Tyler Stewart were running with the first team in the spring and that’s a little surprising because John Adams and Antonio Jones made the most big plays in actual games last year.

Right now, my starters are Adams and Jones at wide receiver and Ryder Kusch at tight end but with most teams playing three receivers, there is plenty of room for Bermudez to make an impact.

It’s the flip side of the transfer portal coin and could bring in a talent that the Owls would have had little chance of landing coming out of high school.

11.03.24
by

Will Temple have a press conference if it finishes 2-10?

Stan talks about the American Conference here but doesn’t make any promises about the bottom line.

Even though Temple football didn’t play over the weekend, the results on the field elsewhere in the American Conference don’t paint a rosy picture for the bottom line.

Tulsa, a team Temple beat, was manhandled by a bad UAB team. UTSA, a team that some thought was a possible win down the line, beat Memphis in the same stadium the Owls have to visit.

So the Tulsa win may have been overvalued and, while the team might have had thoughts of a win at UTSA, that becomes less likely by the way the Roadrunners looked against Memphis.

Two and 10 is a definitely possibility now and you’ve got to wonder if Temple will even do what “normal” schools do when a coach goes 3-9, 3-9, and 2-10: Hold a press conference and bring in another head coach.

That’s not a given.

Drayton was optimistic going into the season as the above video shows but the results are the results.

“I’m excited about this football team,” Drayton said three months ago. “This off-season we were able to put together a roster that enhanced our football team.”

That may be so, but the bottom line is the bottom line. You have to win. Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.

Why is Temple 2-6 if the roster is enhanced? Doesn’t that seem to imply it is the coaching?

“We had some major voids in the defensive line and the offensive line,” Drayton said back in July. “We’ve gotten bigger. We’re not trying to find excuses. We’re setting some standards that are really high.”

The Owls head to Tulane, which has only lost to Oklahoma and Kansas State, as 25.5-point underdogs. Tulane probably is the most physically talented team the Owls will have faced all season, with the possible exception of Oklahoma.

IF … and this is a big IF … the Owls have one win left in them, it looks like maybe a home win against FAU but Tom Herman also is thinking the same thing about Temple.

Drayton can avoid that departing press conference by beating FAU, UTSA and North Texas but now that seems as likely as those teams beating Alabama, Georgia and Texas.

The gap appears to be that large.

A normal school would have a press conference to say something to the effect that Drayton is a great guy but the number on the left hand side of the win column never exceeded the number on the right side and that’s why we have to move on.

It will be impossible to sell any season tickets coming off 1-6, 3-9, 3-9, 3-9, and 2-10 years. The crowds have eroded from respectable to nearly non-existent over those years. This is a fan base that got used to going to bowls on a regular basis between 2009 and 2019. These fans can take one or two years of building, but not five consecutive ones.

You know that. I know that. The question is, “Does Temple know that?”

Or does Temple even care?

While that press conference three months ago was nice, the one at the end of the year appears to be a necessity now.

Friday: Tulane Preview