Tag Archives: Anthony Russo

05.01.20
by

Owls poised to build on NFL draft success

 

Probably one of the wisest of many clever things former NFL coaching legend Bill Parcells said was this:

“You are what you’re record says you are.”


The interior push with
Ifeanyi and Dan to sack
opposing quarterbacks this
year could be the best we’ve
seen since Joe Klecko was
playing in the middle
all by himself

When it comes to projecting success at either the NFL level or the college level, clues are almost always left behind.

That’s why I got extremely excited when the Owls brought in Adam DiMichele from his junior college baseball hiatus in 2005. His Sto-Rox high school football record: 35 touchdown passes his senior year and an offer from Penn State. Not excited when one of his successors, Vaughn Charlton, brought with him nine touchdown passes his senior year at Avon Grove and a smattering of MAC offers in addition to his Temple one.

Just as I expected, DiMichele was an outstanding quarterback at Temple and Charlton, to be kind, was mediocre.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=127&v=gCAg4X0IBcE&feature=emb_logo

I remember at the time Charlton apologists were saying those stats were due to Avon Grove playing a “flex-bone” in the now-defunct Southern Chester County League.

Flex-bone, doggy bone, I said. If Charlton is competing in the SCCL and DiMichele in the WPIAL, Charlton would have to have 50 touchdown passes to be even compared to DiMichele.

I was right and so was Parcells. You are what you put on tape and in the stat sheet. There are exceptions but they are so rare they are not worth mentioning.

That’s why the Philadelphia Eagles’ first-round pick of Jalen Reagor was illuminating to Temple’s chances of making a splash in the NFL draft again last year. If Reagor’s “record” is a guide, the Owls could be poised to have their first offensive player chosen in the first round since Paul Palmer in 1987.

Jadan Blue’s 40-yard dash speed is 4.38 while Reagor was clocked at a 4.47. Reagor’s junior year stats vs. Blue’s junior year stats:

Reagor: 13 games, 72 catches, 1,061 yards, 9 touchdowns

Blue: 13 games, 95 catches, 1,067 yards,  4 touchdowns

Since Reagor’s “better” of his two years were his junior one, it’s a fair comparison. The bar is pretty low for Blue now since he had more than 20 catches and six yards than Reagor did and he’s faster and the same size (6-foot-1).

However, if Blue gets nine touchdowns or more and repeats or even gets close to his 2019 Owl stats, you can book it.

He will be a first-round pick.

My guess that there will be a season no later than spring of 2021 (still holding out hope for the fall, though) and my money is on Blue putting up close to those numbers again.

I can see three other possible Owl picks in the 2021 draft, quarterback Anthony Russo and defensive tackles Ifeanyi Maijeh and Dan Archibong.

Compare Russo’s 2019 stats to Green Bay Packers’ first-round pick Jordan Love:

Russo: (6-4, 235 pounds) 21 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 246 completions in 419 attempts; 

Love (6-4, 225): 20 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, 293 completions in 473 attempts

To put that even in a better perspective, Russo is playing in a far-tougher league. Almost every team in the AAC is tougher than any team in the Mountain West.  You can say all you want about Love’s “footwork” being better than Anthony’s, but the proof is in the stat pudding.

To me, Anthony can go 21-12 again and pick up two more wins and he’s between a 2-4 pick. Winning will cure all that. If he goes 30 and 5 with those wins, he’s a first-round pick. He can make all the throws and his maturity should cut down on his INTs.

Footwork smootwork.

I also think Maijeh’s defensive tackle teammate, Dan Archibong, has an excellent chance of being picked in the first seven rounds. The interior push with Ifeanyi and Dan to sack opposing quarterbacks this year could be the best we’ve seen since Joe Klecko was playing in the middle all by himself.

Beyond that, there will be a surprise. To me, Chapelle Russell was this year’s one. There are plenty of Owls with that same kind of potential. We won’t mention any names because I think it could be as many as a half-dozen. Not all six will rise above UDFAs but those with fire in their bellies and sacks and interceptions will.

Winning games will put those guys on the NFL radar faster than anything else.

Like Bill said, you are what your record is.

Monday (5/4): 5 Best Next-Tier Wins

Friday (5/8): Smoking Out the Winner

Monday (5/11): Virtual Press Conference

Friday (5/15): Recruiting Patterns

Monday (5/18): Suspending Campaigns

 

 

 

03.02.20
by

Flip side: Why 2020 Could Be a Step Forward

The Rutgers Al of Miami, coach Coop, is still not completely sold on Manny.

From the moment the season ended, it’s been nothing but bad news for the Temple football program.

Other than the expected losses, players with returning eligibility left for the NFL (2) and other FBS teams (2).

Pessissmism, not optimism, have understandably reigned.

Still, all is not lost. There are several reasons for optimism left in no particular order and we’ll go with just five names:

disclosure

Manny Diaz. Despite having three top 10 national recruiting classes in the last six years, Diaz took that talent and lost six games, including crosstown rival FIU (which had six classes rated lower than Temple prior to last season). If Diaz “coaches” Miami (with D’Eriq King at quarterback and Quincy Roche at DE) to a loss against visiting Temple, the season momentum could be off and running for the Owls.

Anthony Russo. Even in an ill-suited offense (for him), Russo improved from 14 touchdowns and 14 interceptions to 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. If he makes even the same kind of improvement this season, that will be 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions. No Temple quarterback has ever had that kind of season, even in a 10-2 season (Brian Broomell), a 10-3 season (P.J. Walker) and a 9-1 season (Steve Joachim). Gotta think that 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions get the Owls at least 10 wins.

russo

Ray Davis. Maybe 900-plus yards from a true freshman running back will convince this coaching staff to put more emphasis on the running game, even with an RPO approach. If it does, that sets up success in the passing game.

Jadan Blue. Three years ago, Blue had over 100 yards and three touchdown receptions in what might have been the last “true” Cherry and White game of the century. People who saw that performance knew we had something then. His record-breaking season in 2019 cemented that perception. If Blue even has a “slightly” better season in 2020, he could be a first-team All-American. His style of play reminds me a lot of Gerard “Sweet Feet” Lucear, a former great Owl wide receiver from Georgia. With him as the “speed” receiver and Branden Mack as the “possession” receiver (with a whole lot of speed), Temple’s passing game could be lethal.

Nikolos Madourie. Who? At Temple these days, you’ve got to check the official roster daily to see if the guy’s still here. (Madourie still is.) He could be the impact pass rusher Roche was. For comparison’s sake (recognizing the levels of play are different, though), Roche was named AAC Defensive Player of the Year with 13.5 sacks. Madourie, a 6-6, 240-pound player from Sunrise, Fla,., had 15.5 sacks his last year of JUCO ball. If he gets, say, 13.5 this year, he will be more than an acceptable replacement for Roche especially since guys like Dan Archibong, Ifeanyi Maijeh and Kris Banks are going to provide a good push up the middle.

You want optimism? That’s the best we can do now, a week before the start of spring practice.

Otherwise, we live in Philadelphia but our mindset is in the Show Me state of Missouri.

Friday: A Look at Depth

 

01.01.20
by

2020: New Year, New Solutions

rodster

“Hey, just got off the phone with Matt Rhule and he came up with a pretty good idea: what do you think of me going to a play-action passing game instead of the read-option in 2020?”

The night before every senior day, I look down the list of guys leaving and think “wow, we’re losing this guy and that guy. … how are we going to survive next season?”

This year was different.


You don’t see Bill Belichick
asking Tom Brady to run a read
option and that’s part of the
reason why he’s the greatest coach
in our lifetime and other coaches
are 0-7 in bowl games

I was struck with how few impact players Temple was losing. Sure, there were the linebackers–Shaun Bradley, Chapelle Russell and Sam Franklin–but William Kwenkeu (the defensive MVP of the 2017 Gasparilla Bowl) took a redshirt and Isaiah Graham-Mobley–the best linebacker on the team when he went down for the season–should be fully recovered from his injury. That mitigates the losses at the linebacker position.

Matt Hennessy, the best center in the country, was a redshirt junior as was one of the best pass-rushers in the country, Quincy Roche. The Owls had a pretty good tight end returning on that day in Kenny Yeboah.

The problem with Senior Days in the changing world of college football is that you can’t judge what you are losing and what you are gaining on those days alone. Hennessy and Yeboah won’t be back and neither will Roche, who decided his chances to be drafted would be higher with a Power 5 team than his Temple brothers and entered the portal. Harrison Hand also left early for the NFL draft.

A Power 5 program that recruits four- and five-star players can survive that kind of bleeding of the talent base. Temple cannot.

Two steps forward one Senior Day, three steps back after the season is over. A pretty good argument can be made that the Owls lost more this season with their junior class than their senior one, given the replacements they have at linebacker.

The year 2020 is here but, with the New Year come new challenges. For the Temple staff, it’s replacing the seniors who invariably leave and the surprising number of juniors who leave or left.

Screenshot 2019-12-04 at 10.26.18 PM

Will we ever see this stat again under this staff? Got to hope so, but it doesn’t look good at this point.

With the New Year, whether the Owls can surpass what has been an eight-win season will be determined by how they address special teams, and the quarterback and center positions.

Temple built its reputation in the past on special teams. This year, the Owls did not block kicks nor did they return them. Is the philosophy to do nothing? If so, that needs to be changed from the top down.

At quarterback, the dilemma is simply this. They have one quarterback who can’t run and one quarterback who can’t pass yet they are asking the passer to run and the runner to pass. (Todd Centeio’s miss of a wide-open Branden Mack for an easy touchdown against UNC wasn’t his first of the season.)

Making Vince Picozzi the starting center fixes one spot.

At quarterback, the simple fix is this: Don’t ask the passer to run. Scrap the read option, go with a lot of H-back/tight end blocking motion and design an offense around the passer. Consider using Tayvon Ruley as a blocking fullback who gets an occasional carry. Establish the run first behind Ray Davis, then have explosive downfield plays in the passing game off play-action. Once the run is established, a deft fake to Davis will freeze the linebackers and safeties Temple receivers would be running so free Anthony Russo wouldn’t know which one to pick out. That would make Russo a much more effective quarterback. Bring Centeio in to run the Wildcat and as the short snapper to throw fakes off punts. (Remember when Temple used to fake punts for touchdowns?)

You don’t see Bill Belichick asking Tom Brady to run a read option and that’s part of the reason why he’s the greatest coach in our lifetime and other coaches are 0-7 in bowl games.

Saturday: Four Portals

12.26.19
by

TU-UNC: So it comes down to this

bagger

So it comes down to this.

All those videos of weightlifting in the offseason, two coaching signing ceremonies, practicing in the snow and all the other work comes down to one chance to shine on national television against a Power 5 foe.


Also, if the Owls come
out in anything other
than Cherry and White
in pre-game warmups,
call the bookies and
put all your chips on
blue. Since and including
the historic win over Penn
State, the Owls have played
66 games. They have worn
some combination of Cherry
and White in 51 of those games
where they are 40-11. In the
others, wearing black or gray,
they are 3-12

Temple could not have asked for more than this, a date with a respected ACC team on ESPN behind what by all accounts should be a large Owl crowd.

Nobody in the national media with the exception of AP beat writer Ralph Russo picked the Owls to play for the AAC championship. Even this site, which often dons the Cherry and White-colored glasses, picked Cincinnati to win the East and the Owls to finish third behind UCF.

That’s exactly what happened.

In those cases in the past, the third-place team in an AAC division was “designated for assignment” meaning a Florida bowl against a directional CUSA or Sun Belt foe.

Temple drew a pretty good straw in UNC, a team that not only beat South Carolina (which beat Georgia) but came within a point of knocking off No. 2 Clemson. This is a tall order the Owls will face (high noon, tomorrow, ESPN) but, if they play more like they did against Memphis and Georgia Tech than they did against SMU and UCF, they have a good chance.

Who knows?

Screenshot 2019-12-09 at 8.57.34 AM

I certainly don’t.

If the line is, to quote Mike Missanelli, “telling you something” it is telling you Temple. North Carolina opened as a 5 1/2-point favorite and that line has dropped steadily to 5 and now 4 1/2 points. That’s a lot of money going in Temple’s direction.

History says something else. Temple coach Rod Carey does well against the Big 10 in regular-season games (5-2) but not so much against anybody in bowl games (0-6). He doesn’t have much of a history at all against AAC teams. His predecessor at Northern Illinois, Dave Doreen, the head coach at North Carolina State, just came off a 41-10 loss to the Tar Heels so let’s hope those two are no longer talking. Maybe Carey’s dismal bowl history is because of how he handles the month of extra practices. Or maybe he’s just due for a win.

We will find out in less than 24 hours but my hunch, as it is before every Temple game, is that if the Owls can exploit some of the opponents’ weaknesses and enhance their own strengths, they will come out on top.

North Carolina is 24th in the nation in average passing yards per game behind a future Heisman Trophy candidate in freshman Sam Howell (285 ypg). It is 41st in rushing yardage. If the Owls behind Quincy Roche and company can get to Howell early and often, that mitigates a UNC strength and forces them to use a running game that has been mediocre at best.

Plus, the Owls themselves should run the ball to set up the pass and not vice-versa but that’s a theme we’ve been preaching here for all year but Carey hasn’t listened. Only in the second half after Carey fed Ray Davis, did the Owls have any success in the passing game in a crucial loss to Cincinnati. They threw the ball 26 of the first 34 plays at Cincy and that’s a recipe for disaster. Maybe try running 26 of the first 34 plays tomorrow.

It could not hurt.

Feeding the beast early and often behind Matt Hennessy probably doubles the chances that Anthony Russo is effective in the play-action passing game.

Also, if the Owls come out in anything other than Cherry and White in pre-game warmups, call the bookies and put all your chips on blue. Since and including the historic win over Penn State, the Owls have played 66 games. They have worn some combination of Cherry and White in 51 of those games where they are 40-11. In the others, wearing black or gray, they are 3-12.

When it comes to predicting these unpredictable bowls, the color of the unis could be as viable an indicator as any matchups.

Saturday: Game Analysis

Monday: Season Analysis

 

11.28.19
by

Two Guys To Be Thankful For This Season

rodster
“Even if I was with the Patriots, I’d be asking Tom Brady to read the option and run every once in a while. Yeah, I know it probably wouldn’t work there, either, but that’s the only offense Mike knows how to run.”

There are plenty of things to be thankful for as Thanksgiving rolls around today. This season flew by and there is at least one more chance to get together with my football friends on Saturday, so there’s one thing.

Maybe a bowl game if it’s in D.C. or NYC as well.

Keeping this post to football, though, I’m thankful for two people this year what I believe is far too much criticism on social media: Our quarterback and head coach.

First the quarterback.

Screenshot 2019-11-26 at 9.23.17 AM

Adam DiMichele’s first two full years at Temple were 2006 and 2007

As Temple fans, we can pretty much agree on the following:

Steve Joachim, Henry Burris, P.J. Walker, and Adam DiMichele were great quarterbacks wearing the Cherry and White.

Screenshot 2019-11-26 at 9.13.49 AM

Anthony Russo’s first two full seasons at Temple compares favorably with any of the great quarterbacks at the school, even with a full game left in the regular season.

Guess what?

Anthony Russo’s first two years at quarterback–with a full game to go–stacks up with the first two years of any of those above quarterbacks and he still has another year to go, so that’s something to be thankful for.

Screenshot 2019-11-26 at 9.12.07 AM

Henry Burris’ first two full years at Temple were 1994 and 1995

I’d love to see Russo run a similar offense to Joachim (the veer), Burris, Walker and DiMichele (NFL-type pro sets) but his stats in variations of the spread have been pretty darn good. Give him a more traditional NFL-type offense than a college one and he would thrive. Nobody asks those NFL quarterbacks to run with the exceptions being the Jacksons and the Wilsons.

To me, the No. 1 stat for a quarterback is wins and losses. Russo was 7-2 last year as a starter (losses to Villanova and Buffalo went to Frank Nutile and the win over UConn to Todd Centeio) and is 7-3 this season and about to finish 8-3. That’s 15-5 and only Joachim, the Maxwell Award winner as a national college football player of the year (1974) was better in his two seasons (17-3).

No other quarterback was close in modern Temple history and that’s pretty rarified air.

Screenshot 2019-11-26 at 10.35.50 PM

Steve Joachim’s first two (and only) seasons at Temple were 1973 and 1974. Surprisingly, he had a much better passer rating at Penn State (162.5) than he did at Temple (141.7).

The next most important stat is touchdown/interception ratio and Russo improved on his 14/14 line with 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions this season.

In the area of cold statistics, Russo completed 418 passes in 721 attempts for 5,049 yards with 33 touchdowns and 25 interceptions. Compare that to Joachim’s first two seasons (208 completions in 380 attempts, 3,262 yards with 31 touchdowns and 23 interceptions).

Henry Burris and Adam DiMichele could not compete in the area of wins but put up some impressive, albeit, inferior statistics to Russo. Henry, a legend in the CFL, completed 354 passes in 709 attempts for 4,720 yards with the same amount of touchdowns (33) but four more interceptions.  ADM? 273-443, 3,113, 22 touchdowns and 22 interceptions in his first two full seasons.

P.J. Walker had 20 touchdowns to 8 interceptions in his first season but never had a better TD/INT ratio after that. He did throw for nearly 3,000 yards in each of the years after Rhule ditched the spread option for more of a pro-style attack using a fullback. That led to a championship appearance one year and an outright championship the next. There is still time for Russo to do that but he will need to get some help from Carey in the form of an offense more suited to his passing skills than his running ones.

Screenshot 2019-11-28 at 10.47.40 AM

P.J. Walker went from 20 TDs and 8 INTS to a sophomore slump of 13/15. He threw for nearly 3,000 yards ONLY after Rhule switched to a fullback-oriented play-action passing game in P.J’s final two seasons.

For someone who remembers and cringes thinking about the quarterbacks of the Al Golden Era and before that, I’m glad that Anthony Russo is my quarterback.

Carey has deservedly received some criticism here because he did not tailor his offense to the talents of his players but I’m also glad he’s my head coach for one reason.

Manny Diaz could have been.

Screenshot 2019-11-26 at 11.06.53 PM

This was our blog post on the day Temple hired Manny Diaz. We were off only about 348 days.

Diaz lost to a team, FIU, last week that lost to both Tulane (42-14) and FAU (37-7). He lost to a Georgia Tech team that Carey beat 24-2.


I have to laugh at the
criticism of both guys,
Russo and Carey. Guess what?
Jalen Hurt and Nick Saban
are not walking through that
door to quarterback and coach
Temple. If you don’t like
Carey as Temple coach, who
would you have hired instead?
Chris Creighton? Lance Leipold?
I don’t think either would
have done appreciatively
better here.

Despite my criticism of Carey’s blind spot (not running a play-action run-oriented offense to open up passing lanes for Russo), I’m also glad he’s my coach because there is no way Temple beats Georgia Tech, Memphis and Maryland with Diaz as my coach.

I have to laugh at the criticism of both guys, Russo and Carey. Guess what? Jalen Hurt and Nick Saban are not walking through that door to quarterback and coach Temple. If you don’t like Carey as Temple coach, who would you have hired instead? Chris Creighton? Lance Leipold? I don’t think either would have done appreciatively better here.

To me, if Carey had run a pro set with a fullback and two tight ends and established the running game against Cincy, Russo would have had plenty of time to find receivers on play-action fakes and thrown four touchdown passes in a 40-15 win instead of a 15-13 loss. Scoring points on Cincy with the talent Temple has on offense (Russo, Ray Davis, Jager Gardner, Jadan Blue, Isaiah Wright, Branden Mack, Kenny Yeboah, etc.) should not have been that hard. The system has to be designed around the talent and this system does not do that. That’s what I believe now and that’s what I believed after Matt Rhule’s first two years of doing the same exact thing before Matt adopted our suggestions in Year Three. (Matt admitted to me in a phone call that he read this blog the entire year he was an assistant at the New York Giants. I doubt he stopped once he became Temple head coach.)

Maybe Carey will have a similar Ephinany after his first year like Rhule did after his second. I think Rhule was more pliable but I hope Carey surprises me.

Is there room for improvement for both coach and player?

Yes.

That’s why next year is an important one for both and a major reason we should give thanks today and be excited about the future.

Saturday: Two Proper Sendoffs

Sunday: Game Analysis

11.16.19
by

Game Day: Swan Song or Fight Song?

There are not a whole lot of believers in the Temple Owls today, as evidenced by our friend Andy Gresh (above) from the league office all but picking Tulane.

He’s not the only one.

footballs

Despite a forecast with wind chills in the 20s and a team from the South coming up North, Vegas had the Green Wave starting as a 3.5-point favorite and that went up to 4 the next and as high as 6 before settling on the 5.5 as we write this post.

That’s a lot of public money moving to the Tulane side.

If the public is right, then today represents a swan song of sorts for the Owls football season. They now have a realistic path to win the AAC East. With a loss, they will not and have to be forced to settle for the same kind of meaningless bowl game they have been in for the last five seasons.

If the public is wrong, though, they can be–to borrow a phrase from Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront–“A contender.”

This game could rest on a couple of observations we’ve been making pretty much the whole season. 1) Does this staff even believe in the concept of establishing a run game? 2) Why does this staff insist on running an RPO that minimizes the strength of their best quarterback?

Nobody is going to buy Anthony Russo as a running threat, so why even run those plays for him? He’s a much more effective guy after the run game is established and with the linebackers and the safeties cheating up to stop the run and him passing over it.

You would think by the 10th game internal film study would have convinced this largely proven championship staff that the personnel here is not the same as the personnel at Northern Illinois nor should the scheme be the same.

So far, not all of the light switches have been turned on in the coaching office on that issue–at least not to our satisfaction.

On a cold day where the Owls need to monopolize the clock and the ball on offense and get about three turnovers defense, we shall soon find out if the experts in the league office or the public is right or Temple TUFF merges with Temple SMART for a satisfying version of ‘][‘ For Temple U about 3:10 p.m. or so.

Sunday: Game Analysis

10.29.19
by

Temple vs. UCF: Disgraceful and Inept

temple-ucf-matchup

Editor’s Note: Fizzy, a former Temple player,  just about every one of the other 29,000 fans in attendance, was shocked and appalled by the Owls’ poor play on Saturday night. His summary follows. 

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

Today’s analysis will be brief.  That’s because everything I said about SMU, could be an accurate comment about the UCF game.  So take last week’s out of the trash bin and read it again.

And therein lies the problem.  Nothing ever changes with this coaching staff.  The weaknesses we showed against Buffalo, were capitalized on by SMU and UCF.  We stay in the four-three with man to man coverage, despite our total inability to operate that defense successfully.

weinraub

Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl, where the Owls will probably return if they only win one more game.

I would like to take some time here to apologize.  As we ran out to a  5- 1 record, I kept talking about how much more talent we had than the teams we beat. Well, yes Doris, that was true then, but it’s not now.  When we got to the really good football programs, everything changed. Now, most of the good programs have talent that is equal to, or better than ours. I should have known that.

So what that means is the coaching staff has to innovate. On defense, there are many different alignments I can think of that would upset the blocking schemes. Some would put more pressure on the QB, (we had none) and some would throw many unusual zones and combo zones and man-to-man pass defense up so the QB could no be sure of our alignment, and still bring pressure.  In our three losses, we have been beaten for at least nine long touchdown passes and six long runs.  Our defense stinks.  If you can’t pressure the QB and you can’t defend long, what’s left?

On offense, we also show no imagination as we have basically been stymied. Forget the terrible play calls in many situations.  If it’s broke, fix it!  Try a hurry-up or unbalanced line with two backs in the backfield.  Try a power I, or go to one of the split formations.  Damn, go to a single wing for a few series, anything to make the defense uncomfortable.  Put Centeio and Russo together, so there are two passing threats.  I don’t want to hear the coaches say, “Well that’s our offense and they have to stop it.”  Guess what?  They have stopped it.  You have to do something different if we are not to be further embarrassed for the rest of our schedule.

In short, if our coaching staff doesn’t innovate on both offense and defense, well, I’m not going to sit out in the cold.  It was bad enough I left with eight minutes into the third quarter last night.  A friend offered us seats upstairs in an enclosed box, and I didn’t want to throw-up on the nice seats.

Thursday: Some Explaining To Do

Saturday: Game Day Without The Owls

10.27.19
by

That’s no way to play the game in Philly

There were a couple of good things to say about Saturday night.

Neither, unfortunately, had anything to do with what happened on the field.

One, the rain held off until after everybody was gone which was about midway through the third quarter. Two, it was warmer than expected for a night game in late October in Philadelphia.

That’s about it.

Temple football's Khalif and Wyatt

Bernard Pierce (30) thanks his fullback Wyatt Benson (44) and tight end Evan Rodriguez (88) in the good old days when Temple used fullbacks and tight ends to lead the way for great tailbacks, control the clock and keep the ball out of the hands of spread offense teams.

The game itself was a 62-21 shit show with Temple trying to out-UCF the Knights at their own game.

Good teams make you play their game and not fall into the trap of playing the other guy’s game. This was about as bad a game plan as we’ve seen since Matt Rhule’s first year. He eventually learned to go back to his instincts, which was to ditch the spread for a pro-style game.

We don’t even know what Rod Carey’s instincts are but they were the wrong ones on the past two Saturdays.

The way Temple football became relevant over the last decade was to run the ball behind fullbacks and tight ends, shorten the game, have long drives, keep your defense and the opposing offense off the field. That’s the kind of game that Philadelphia fans love.

We’ve seen less and less of that DNA this year and it was particularly on display in the last two weeks.

Unless something changes drastically, Temple football will lose whatever relevance it has in the American Athletic Conference as the years go along.

Screenshot 2019-10-27 at 1.47.25 AM

For some reason unbeknownst to me, a Northern Illinois staff that used the RPO offense has force-fed that same offense on a Temple roster better suited to run a power football game.

Great coaches tailor their schemes to the talent that they have and not the talent that they want, even if they were more comfortable doing something elsewhere.

Run the ball behind H-blocks, tight ends and, yes, even a fullback, and the chances are that UCF doesn’t have the ball enough to score even half of the 62 points it finished with on Saturday night. Instead, the Owls try to do things ass-backward this year, try to establish the run off the pass instead of the other way around.

Bill Belichick doesn’t run Tom Brady out of an RPO nor should Rod Carey do the same with Anthony Russo. You don’t see the Detroit Lions running an RPO for Matthew Stafford. That’s a crazy offense that minimizes what you can get out of a quarterback with a strong arm.

The Temple DNA has been to load up a great tailback behind a great offensive line, establish the run, and open up lanes in the passing game with play-action fakes.

That’s what made Temple the winningest team (tied with Memphis) in the league until last week. That’s Temple TUFF.  Knock people off the ball, control the clock, and make plays in the passing game off play-action fakes to the running backs. When you have key injuries in a number of areas (center, defensive tackles, safety), you build a scheme around shortening the game and slowing the game down when playing a fast-break team.

That did not happen on Saturday night and I don’t know if this coaching staff will ever improvise and adjust. Unless they do, we’re looking at a six-win season and that’s medicority in a season that was supposed to be a lot better.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

10.22.19
by

SMU: Could’ve, Would’ve Should’ve

footballs

Editor’s Note: Former Temple player Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub posts his thoughts in this space every Tuesday. 

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

Last week, I said I still was waiting for Anthony Russo to have a great game.  Guess what?  He had that great game against SMU, but his receivers were somewhere else.  He was 18 – 32 with at least seven drops.  Three of those drops were probable touchdowns and the others would have been key first downs.  Despite everything else, if we caught the ball, it would have been a tight contest.

weinraub

What does a coach do about this lack of concentration?  Drill, drill, drill! One suggestion is to substitute different colored tennis balls for the football, and the receiver has to call out the color – contact allowed.  There are probably 100 other drills that may help.

While we’re discussing the offense, I really thought the play calling was exceptionally conservative.  On most of the third and fourth and shorts, everything was one back, up-the-gut – no trickery, nothing going back the other way. On other occasions, the passes were short of the first-down marker or dumps in the backfield.  Rolling out Russo and Centeio may have helped.  I still don’t understand why Russo doesn’t keep the ball on an RPO or bootleg once in a while, and if I see the quick screen to the outside one more time, I’m gonna scream.

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On defense, I believe we gave up four long touchdown passes.  That shows we can’t cover speed man-to-man, especially if the QB has time.  (I thought we didn’t blitz nearly enough.)  Therefore, we need an alternative defensive scheme.  A scheme that both puts pressure on the QB, and also plays a deceiving zone. One way might be to have five guys playing the run with all sorts of blitzes, while six guys play a zone.  If six guys are playing zone, that zone could have many different looks.  It could be a 4-2, 3-3, 1-5, etc.  Most importantly, there has to be deep help for the corners.  C’mon guys!  You have almost more coachers than my 1959 team had players.  Innovate!  What you’re doing isn’t gonna get you to the league championship game, despite our talent.

In summary, we got the crap kicked out of us by a really well-coached and quarterbacked team.  However, one league loss doesn’t sink a season.  Can we come back?  Central Florida will fill the air with footballs.

Thursday:   Changing Things Up

Saturday: Game Night

Sunday: Game Analysis

10.19.19
by

TU-SMU: Losing Is Fundamental

Football is a simple game.

Throw the ball. Run the ball. Catch the ball. Block. Tackle. Be disciplined to the whistle. Cover your man.

They are called fundamentals.

Temple did only one of them right on Saturday in a 45-21 loss to SMU.

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The record wearing Cherry and White during the same time frame is 24-7

Quarterback Anthony Russo did all that he could to get the Owls a win but to quote Gabrielle Bundchen-Brady after a rare Super Bowl loss by the New England Patriots, “my husband can’t throw the ball and catch it, too.” After watching the game a second time (fast-forwarding through the drops), Russo would have had at a minimum … minimum, a four-touchdown, 351-yard passing game if just seven of the nine drops were caught.

That should be enough to win in college football.

It was a disappointing loss in a lot of ways for the Owls but certainly their troubles at catching the ball ranked right at the top BECAUSE this was not expected. Sure, the Owls dropped three completions that would have gone for first downs in a loss at Buffalo but the rest of the season they’ve been pretty sure-handed.


Even if it means
tweaking the spread
option by using two
tight ends to block
for tailbacks Davis
and Jager Gardner,
it’s worth it to chew
up clock and bring the
safeties and linebackers
up to the line of
scrimmage and make them
vulnerable to play-action
fakes. That’s what the
Temple TUFF brand
was built upon

They needed to continue that tendency against SMU and, for some reason, they did not. Maybe the Owls failed to pack the stick’em and left it home at the Edberg-Olson facility. Whatever the explanation, their normally dependable hands failed them, particularly early when it could have made a big difference.

Their slow start took them out of a game plan that would have served them a lot better. They should have run the ball behind Re’Mahn Davis to create passing lanes for Russo. That has been Temple’s Modus Operandi for the past few years with a variety of running backs not named Davis and it really needs to be a priority going forward, certainly against a UCF team that, like SMU, can throw the ball and put points on the board in bunches. Even if it means tweaking the spread option by using two tight ends to block for tailbacks Davis and Jager Gardner, it’s worth it to chew up clock and bring the safeties and linebackers up to the line of scrimmage and make them vulnerable to play-action fakes. That’s what the Temple TUFF brand was built upon. “We’re going to run the ball and we’re going to knock you back and there’s nothing you can do to stop us.” Not what it has turned out to be this year: “We’re going to run a read-option with a classic pro passer and hope it works.” SMU did a nice job to stop the run early, but would it have been as nice a job with two tight ends leading the way and a little jet sweep motion thrown in? I’m sold on Rod Carey but he definitely has a blind spot in this area. Maybe some bifocals will help.

The blocking and tackling also were not good nor was the discipline after the whistle, particularly after the game was out of reach and that probably had a lot to do with frustration.

Fundamentals and approaches can be worked on, though, and have little to do with the talent at hand which is good enough to win. It’s already proven to be good enough talent to beat Memphis, which just might be better than SMU.

Winning was fundamental a week ago.

So, too, was losing on Saturday.

How well the Owls address their largely correctable fundamental errors this week will determine if this ends up being a 10- or 6-win season.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner