Tag Archives: Adam Fisher

11.17.23
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Saturday: A clash of coaching styles

Temple has more talent than a 3-7 team should have. Coaching, not so much.

From about 1 p.m. in the afternoon on Saturday until a little past 6 in the evening, Temple fans will be able to gauge a couple different coaching philosophies.

At 1, Adam Fisher takes his unbeaten basketball Owls to the Liacouras Center where they will host Columbia.

What did Fisher say in his first press conference?

“I’m here to win right away.”

A couple of hours later, Stan Drayton will take his 3-7 football Owls to Birmingham in an effort to avoid another 3-9 season. Make no mistake, if the Owls don’t win tomorrow (3 p.m., ESPN+), they will finish a miserable 3-9 for the third-straight miserable season. The last guy who finished 1-6 and 3-9 got his ass fired.

What did Drayton say in his first press conference?

“We want to chase greatness.”

Well, Fisher is winning right away and Drayton is still chasing.

Greatness is way ahead of Drayton, almost lapping him on the track. Fisher is just where he wants to be, winning right away.

Our picks this week: SMU covering against Memphis, Navy covering the 2.5 against ECU, Army getting the 4.5 against Coastal and FAU to keep it closer than 9.5 against Tulane.

Sometimes setting the expectations and announcing an urgency to win pays off. We won’t know if it pays off for Fisher for at least a couple of months, but this “chasing” bleep has got to stop and the sooner the better. Fisher went out in the portal and got guys he thought would be able to win right away.

At some point, if you are chasing greatness you’ve got to show the few remaining paying customers that you are at least gaining on it.

Ultimately, when the story of this season is written, the Owls’ offseason failure to improve a running game that finished 129th (out of 131 teams) in 2022 will prove to be their undoing.

From the end of last season to the beginning of this one, we harped in this space that there were great running backs to be had from places like Ball State, Western Michigan, Liberty and even freaking Alcorn State available and ready to transfer to Temple in the portal and watched while the Owls were perfectly content to settle for the freshman running back from Tampa and the holdovers from last season that put them 129 on the totem pole.

That’s how you got to 129 in the first place. Get me at least two 1,000-yard backs in the portal. All the Owls did was get another E.J. (Wilson, not Warner) who had half the yards Edward Saydee had.

That’s not getting it done in the portal.

Worse, a great defensive end hit the transfer portal for the Big 10. The move there was to get three great defensive ends from lower levels. All the Owls did was get Davon Hood from East Tennessee. Nice pickup, but needed to attract two more Hoods to the hood.

That’s how you end up chasing the faster guys ahead of you. Go get me four Jamaican 400-meter relay guys and suddenly those guys are chasing you. That’s what you had all offseason to do. Fisher was pounding the pavement. Drayton might not have been getting a cheesesteak at Richie’s but he didn’t wear out any shoe leather, either.

Temple needs a Howie Roseman of the portal and it’s obvious the Owls don’t have that.

If the Owls beat UAB, an argument could be made that 4-8 is better than 3-9.

Not buying it.

Kyle Hunter picked up this tidbit: UAB is worst in the country in kickoff return yardage allowed. I wonder if this Temple coaching staff is even aware of this? If they are, tell Sam Martin to return those kickoffs. He might be able to recapture that magic and take one to the house like he did earlier this season.

If the Owls are clicking on all cylinders and leading late in the game, expect UAB head coach Trent Dilfer to be going ballistic and yelling at both coaches and players.

I have yet to see Drayton yell at an assistant coach, specifically his precious friend, Everett Withers, for their shortcomings and there have been many.

A guy named Settle might be playing basketball for the Owls but the football Owls certainly appear to settle for losing way too much.

Sometimes you get what you demand.

It’s high time Temple football demands more winning and less chasing.

Tomorrow would be a good day to start.

Late Saturday Night: UAB Game Analysis

07.03.23
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What could go right: Uttering a three-letter word

This headline caught my attention last week. Temple football should have the same sense of urgency.

My buying the paper routine has changed in the last 15 or so years, ever since the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News downsized on both quality and quantity of local coverage.

Usually, I’ll page through the paper and if there’s something that interests me, I will pluck down the three bucks.

It might be once a month.

The other day I saw a major Temple head coach utter a word I haven’t seen a major Temple head coach say in about eight years.

“Win.”

I immediately purchased the paper.

It was new basketball coach Adam Fisher and he put the word win out there and it was right away, not three years down the road. I like the way this guy thinks and maybe the leaders of the other major sport at Temple should incorporate that level of urgency.

Win is a three-letter word but, to hear recent major Temple head coaches speak, you would think it’s a four-letter one.

Temple has to get back to those days when others expected the Owls to win and they went out and did.

Stan Drayton had a press conference in December of 2021 and the closest he came to mentioning the word win or winning was this quote: “And we will develop a trust that will form an unbreakable brotherhood and once we develop that, we’ve got championships coming to Temple.”

No timeline just an abstract promise of championships to come. He didn’t say 2022 or 2023 but “to come.” There was a lot of “we want to be tough” and “we want to compete” but the word win was noticeably absent.

Understandable in that Drayton didn’t want to promise too much too soon but this year should be different. The facts are that the Owls came close to beating Rutgers, East Carolina, and Houston exactly one year after not coming close against any of those three teams the prior year.

Now the goal has to be holding serve on the three wins they got the last couple of years and breaking serve by turning those three losses into wins. Maybe picking up one or two more. (They don’t play Houston this year but beating a similarly good team like UTSA at home would suffice.)

Right away, not next year or two years down the road.

They have a playmaker at the most important position on the field in quarterback E.J. Warner and seven starters back on defense. They’ve given Warner an important weapon in wide receiver Dante Wright and that’s with the second-half improvement of receivers like Amad Anderson and Zae Baines.

It’s OK to expect to win and raising expectations to win should be one three-letter word that the Owls should no longer treat like a four-letter one.

Friday: Numbers crunching