Tag Archives: asia

11.16.25
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The biggest Temple-Tulane game in 91 years

Last year, this story ranked the Sugar Bowl between “Temple” and Tulane as the 12th best of all time

Most of the time when Temple plays Tulane the Owls are either very good or Tulane is very bad.

Or, as we’ve seen over the last couple of years, Temple being bad and Tulane being good.

The twain never met until now.

It’s finally time to get revenge for that loss 91 years ago.

Now, on an unusually beautiful 60-degree day on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field (3:45 p.m. kickoff), both Temple and Tulane are pretty good and the stakes are higher than any other meeting between the two teams in a long time.

How long?

The last time that happened was 91 years ago when the two teams played in the first Sugar Bowl game, won by Tulane, 20-14. (They brought the same refs that officiated this year’s Army game.)

Tulane is playing for an American Conference championship a spot in the college football playoff. Temple is playing for a bowl game.

Both things mean just as much to each team as the other thing does so something has to give.

From the Temple game plan perspective, it’s time to pull out all of the stops.

Attacking your opponents’ weaknesses means unleashing Evan Simon on the 127th-ranked passing defense by throwing more than 30 passes.

That doesn’t mean to panic but it does mean a lot more “imaginative” plays than what we have seen through 10 games.

That means setting Kajiya Hollawayne up for the reverse pass by giving him the ball a few times a jet sweep. Only after a couple of successful jet sweeps, have the former four-star UCLA quarterback sucker the defense into him and use that arm to hit JoJo Bermudez in stride for six. Being a great coach means taking advantage of the unique talent of your players and, when you have a wide receiver with a 4* arm, not using that arm is coaching malpractice.

Should be a beautiful day to enjoy the last home game of the season, so Temple fans should make plans now to support these kids.

Also, trust in the numbers, which never lie.

Attacking your opponents’ weaknesses means unleashing Evan Simon on the 127th-ranked passing defense by having him throw more than 30 passes. UTSA’s Owen McCown demonstrated the wisdom of that approach by going 31-for-33 for 370 yards with no interceptions four touchdowns.

Not surprisingly, UTSA won that game against Tulane, 48-26.

Simon is a better quarterback than McCown, at least in our opinion, and that is also is matchup advantage Temple needs to lean on heavily. If Temple’s Mon-Friday practices emphasize all of that, it’ll be a pretty sweet “T for Temple U” afterward. If it’s the same/old, same/old we’ve seen on offense all year, that won’t do.

Bombs Over Baghdad. Or at least South Philly.

Friday: Temple-Tulane Preview

10.18.25
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Temple: Killing two monkeys with one rock

Took a philosophy course because I needed an easy elective due to pulling 60 hours a week putting out The Temple News back in the day.

(It was a daily then.)

Had a bearded professor who smoked a pipe in class and described a situation where two problems were solved at the same time.

I raised my sleep-deprived hand.

“You mean, like killing two birds with one stone?”

Chalk up another win to the Cherry helmets, which looked particularly good with the White uniforms today. Let’s keep the best helmets in college football going forward.

The guy with the beard took a puff of the pipe, stroked his beard, waited about 10 seconds, and said:

“What an unfortunate way of putting it, Mr. Gibson, but I guess you are right.”

It’s one thing killing birds with stones and it’s another thing to take out a couple of monkeys with a rock and that’s exactly what Temple’s football team did today.

Two monkeys off the Temple football back. One, the first road win since 2019 and, two, the first time the Owls have won more than three games since the season prior to that one.

All because of a 49-14 rout at Charlotte. (Should have been 56-14 because the Owls fell on a scoop that could have easily been a score, but we’ll let that slide.)

Kyle Pagan of Crossing Broad bet 2x as much as I did way back in July. God bless him and everyone who had confidence in this team.

Important milestones if you put your money where your mouth was back in July, like I did. Way back on May 28, I picked the Owls to win six games and get to a bowl.

When challenged by a poster on OwlsDaily.com about that way back in July, I put my money where my mouth was and bet the over 3.5 wins.

My response to his post was this: “If I had $100,000, I would have bet that but since I only bet what I can afford to lose, I put $50 on the Owls.”

I’m $57 richer today.

Would have been $100K richer if I had the money to bet back then.

My reasoning then was simple: One, the Owls upgraded not only at the head coaching level, but also at the key coordinator positions.

In 2025, I reasoned, the Owls would pick up one or two more wins because they wouldn’t have the plethora of pre-snap penalties they had in the three years under Stan Drayton and the three years before that under Rod Carey.

Building on that reasoning was the way K.C. Keeler approached his important role as CEO of the program, which meant plugging some roster holes with key pieces.

Add those two things and it was easy to come to the conclusion that Temple could make the jump from three to six.

Keeler, in my mind, already has proven himself to be the best head coach we’ve had here since Wayne Hardin. Ironically, that was the guy who told him that we didn’t have enough scholarships for him back in the late 1970s and then turned the conversation to golf.

Keeler didn’t want to talk golf but headed to Delaware.

Now he’s back where he should have been in the first place. In my opinion, he’s the best coach at Temple since Hardin because he’s had to do it with a transfer portal and NIL that Al Golden, Matt Rhule, Bruce Arians and even Hardin didn’t have to deal with. Arians deserves a lot of credit because he had two winning seasons against Top 10 schedules but he got to keep all his players then.

Temple ran into trouble after Golden and Rhule and Keeler has righted that ship.

Killing two monkeys with one stone is impressive enough.

If somehow he is able to run the table with this team and this schedule, a big Gorilla is in sight and that might be an American Conference championship game.

Let’s get greedy.

Monday: Tulsa Week

09.25.25
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Temple’s Secret Sauce: The American

Anyone who watched East Carolina dismantle defending American Conference champion Army on Thursday night had to come to the same conclusion I did:

This league–outside of Memphis–is nowhere near as good as it was last year.

Get rid of these white helmets and the Owls win 6 of their remaining 8 games.

Temple has eight games left, all in this conference. The secret sauce for the Owls’ success includes four things:

One, the AC isn’t as good as last year;

Two, Temple has the best head coach in the league;

Three, Temple might not have the best quarterback in the league (I think it might but the experts don’t) but it unquestionably has the best 1-2 QB combination.

Four, Temple doesn’t play Memphis (until, hopefully, the championship game).

Mix, stir, and this could be tasty.

What does this mean?

My glasses are not completely Cherry and White and I know some things can and will go wrong. That’s why no matter how well the Owls play in the final eight, I give them at least two losses.

Going into this season, nobody thought the Temple at Army game was in play.

I trust this guy with my team.

Now I think it is. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Temple is the favorite going into that November game.

First things first, though.

Here’s how the season will break down (and remember you read it here first):

If Temple is able to split the next two games at home (UTSA and Navy), it finishes 6-6.

If Temple is able to sweep those next two, it goes 8-4 and has an outside–really outside–chance of making it to the title game at Memphis.

Best helmets in college football

Either way, it’s a complete culture change to what we’ve seen the last six years.

The biggest news out of the Edberg Olson Complex this week was that RB Terrez Worthy, one of my favorite Owls, quit due to “mental health issues.” That came six months after one of my other favorite Owls, John Adams, quit due to pretty much the same thing.

I didn’t know that was a thing that you could self-diagnose but I have to respect those two guys.

I go to the doctor twice a year and am always shocked when one of the questions is: “Do you ever think of killing yourself?”

Err, no, but if Temple kept either Rod Carey or Stan Drayton more than three years, ask me next time.

This is the burden of Temple fans. Why do we have starters leave for “mental health issues” and never have walk-ons do the same?

Fortunately, both the mental and physical health of this team other than my favorite RB seems to be OK. Temple will not face a team nearly as good as either Oklahoma or Georgia Tech this year. How they handle that next level down determines the Owls’ fate.

Mix in the best head coach in the league and some magic can happen. Not going to say eight wins or six wins but, given the competition ahead vs. the competition behind, color me optimistic.

That means Cherry helmets, not White ones.

Monday: Game Week

09.11.25
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Huge Temple crowd expected Saturday

Everyone please subscribe to Gary’s website. This is the best college football prediction website.

By now, everyone should know that artificial intelligence is pretty much ahead of the crowd.

In Temple’s case, literally.

KJ predicts Okie 31-3. This was his prediction two days before Temple beat Penn State, 27-10. Sorry KJ.

Without knowing anyone in the Temple ticket office or the Philadelphia Eagles ticket office, I took to chat GPT and Grok and asked how many tickets were left for Temple hosting Oklahoma (high noon, ESPN2).

Here’s what they were able to tell us.

One, there are only a couple of thousand tickets left in a 70K-seat stadium. Two, only five percent of the tickets sold are from outside the tri-state (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware) area.

What AI didn’t say was how many sections were open for sale but, given the demand, it only makes sense to open as many sections as possible.

We won’t find out until Saturday but what we do know is that given the proximity of the ticket sales to Lincoln Financial Field and the unlikelihood of Oklahoma fans living in the nation’s fourth-largest TV market, it will be a heavily pro-Temple crowd. Lot K–the largest Philadelphia Eagles’ parking lot–sold out by Wednesday. Even for the 2016 opener against Army, which drew 34,271, that didn’t happen until the day of that night game. Lots M and O are open for now. Since the Phillies are playing a night game on Saturday, CBP lots should be open also.

Now it might be 60K or it might be 35K, but we do know it will be loud and proud.

No one expected this result, either.

We don’t know if that’s enough to push this team across the finish line but it can’t hurt. There are many things that make me like Temple’s chances but one indicator is that Temple’s defense–with the worst head coach in history–was able to limit Oklahoma to 1-for-13 on third downs last year.

Another is that the Temple quarterback responsible for five of the six turnovers in last year’s game between the teams is on the trash heap of history and the guy who was denied that chance, Evan Simon, will get a chance to make history.

Who knows?

Desmond Ridder blaming Cincy’s first loss of the 2017 season on the loud Temple crowd.

They might even let him conduct the world-famous Temple University Diamond Marching Band again if he’s able to do it.

Temple is two-deep in quality along the defensive line and, yet, K.C. Keeler called his offensive line the most improved unit on his team.

These lines won’t be bullied.

No predictions but I will not be surprised if Temple wins outright because Oklahoma is expecting to play in a high school-like atmosphere and has no idea that a 7-0 Cincinnati team in 2017 came into LFF and came out with an overtime loss because it couldn’t hear its signals.

This stadium can be very loud and unfriendly for visitors and it needs to be on Saturday afternoon.

After that, let the chips fall where they may.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

07.17.25
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Keeler: An A in Marketing 101

Jon Gruden has always been a big-time supporter of Temple football.

Until somebody proves that this was someone else’s idea, I’m going to give new Temple head football coach K.C. Keeler his first grade in a known Temple University course.

Marketing 101, which used to exist in the Temple School of Communications when I was at 13th and Norris in the last century, would have handed him an A for his special project this week:

Sending a box of swag to Jon Gruden, who is now working for Barstool Sports.

If Keeler didn’t send that box, I’m almost certain he would have signed off on the deal and, to me, that’s as good as walking down to the post office, weighing the damn thing, and sending it off.

Since I was a Journalism major and not a Marketing one, did not see too much benefit in adding Marketing 101 to my electives. Instead, I took Economics 101, where I met and became great friends with one of the best Temple professors of all time, Sam Wilson.

Don’t know how I got an A in that class but maybe understanding what Wilson was telling me and being able to communicate those concepts in a paper made a difference.

Whatever, Keeler’s box of swag to Gruden deserves the same grade.

In fact, everything from the transfer portal to the recruiting of 2026 high school kids he deserves an A.

Keeler isn’t riding from the seat of his pants here. He’s done his homework, much like I did in the Wilson economics class.

Keeler has been a “home run” hire for Temple IMHO. The proof of the pudding will be on Saturdays in the fall. I don’t require that proof to be 12 wins but I do require that proof to be 4-6.

What he has done so far for Temple is to shock me in a positive manner and getting to that 6 or above would be par for this course.

That said, I never wrote here that Keeler was the “only” guy who could perform CPR on Temple football. In this space, after Stan Drayton was fired, we campaigned for Jon Gruden to get the job.

My point was that there was no one person who could do the job that both Drayton and Rod Carey were incapable of doing, but many persons.

Gruden was one.

Keeler is another.

Plenty of other guys could have done it, too.

If, after watching the video in this post, you can’t say Gruden would have done a great job on selling Temple to recruits, you are not paying attention.

That said, Keeler reaching out to him proves Keeler has the right stuff. In fact, everything he has done so far has proven the same thing. Maybe Keeler brings some things to the table that Gruden would not have. From this perspective, he’s passed the eye test in every single endeavor.

At this point, as a Temple fan, that’s all you can ask for.

Monday: The AAC Reacts

07.03.25
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New Temple Unis: A Solid B

Al Golden, whose 56th birthday is today, brought back both the striped pants and TEMPLE on the helmet.

One of the things a lot of new Temple coaches do is try to change the uniforms.

Some get it right.

Some swing and miss.

Some get close.

New Temple football coach K.C. Keeler is in the third category.

I had hoped to give the new Temple uniform reveal which came three days ago an A.

Got to admit I’m a little disappointed to hand out a B, but I have to be honest.

It’s not an exaggeration to say Al Golden saved Temple football, both from an on-field standpoint and a uniform standpoint.

Only two Temple football coaches in my lifetime nailed the new uniform assignment and both were among the best, Wayne Hardin and Al Golden. (Happy Birthday to Temple Hall of Fame head coach Al Golden and a sincere thank you from TFF for saving the program.)

Hardin turned the old Owl the side of the helmet into TEMPLE on both sides.

“A lot of people wear Ts on the side of the helmets,” Hardin said in 1971. “Tennessee, Texas Tech and Texas A&M, among others. We don’t want to be confused with anyone. We’re TEMPLE and we’re proud to wear the name on our helmets.”

That theme returned in Al Golden’s second season when he decided to put TEMPLE back on the helmets.

“When I played at Penn State, we played a lot of teams that hit us pretty hard,” Golden said. “We played Notre Dame. We played USC. Nobody hit us as hard as those guys wearing TEMPLE on the side of their helmets. I wanted to return to that kind of tradition.”

Helmets through the years. The only decent ones were TEMPLE and the T.

So Golden, like Hardin, put TEMPLE back on the helmets.

That’s kinda what I was hoping for Keeler.

Not being a perfectionist, all I wanted was for the team’s football logo (TEMPLE) to share the school’s logo (T).

Split the baby is what we’ve been writing about for the last decade.

A King Solomon-style solution would be for one side of the helmets to be TEMPLE and the other side of the helmet to be the school’s familiar T logo.

Keeler made a step in the right direction with putting the T on both sides of the helmet. Maybe next year he’ll consult with King Solomon. For now, getting rid of the stupid numbers on the helmet is a huge step in the right direction. There was never a need to have numbers both on the front and back of the jerseys AND the helmets.

Steve Addazio made the most egregious change in the helmet when it removed the TEMPLE of Al Golden to the T of the school.

He was out after two years. I would have fired him for the helmet change but fortunately BC took him off Temple’s hands after a 4-7 Owl season in 2012.

Keeler’s unis–while not the pure dark Cherry colors or having the TEMPLE on the helmet–aren’t perfect, but they are a step toward perfect.

Kinda like the program on the field at this point and we’ll have another reveal this time next year so there’s always hope that the grade could be upgraded to an A.

King Solomon is counting on it.

06.26.25
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Objectively, the best Temple recruiting month ever

The Owls already here hit the weight room on the hottest day in Philly since 2012.

A couple of famous names who signed on the dotted line illustrated what we’ve been thinking for a couple of weeks.

Objectively, this 2026 recruiting class is the best Temple one since 2007 and the credit must be given to a full court press the K.C. Keeler staff did this month.

Also objectively, this is the best recruiting month ever.

In an era where the G5 never beats the P5 (or P4 now), at least five recruits came down to two choices:

Temple and Syracuse.

Like the old Bill Cosby ad said, “they could have gone anywhere. They chose Temple.”

Now to the two famous names that haven’t been discussed in this space before:

Duane Johnson Jr. and Hanks.

Not Tom Hanks, but Alex Hanks, who is one of the Syracuse flips as a 6-1, 195-pound safety. The recruiting site 247 has him turning down a ‘Cuse offer on June 20 to commit to Temple.

The other is Duane Johnson Jr., who is no relation to the “other” Dwayne Johnson Jr.–better known as The Rock–who played his high school football in Bethlehem, Pa. and college at Miami (where he played against Temple). This Duane Johnson Jr. is FROM Miami and, like the other Johnson, a 6-3, 190-pound linebacker at the high school level. The Rock bulked up to 6-3, 290 and became a DE at Miami before becoming a superstar in wrestling and movies.

Temple’s Duane Johnson turned down offers from his hometown FIU and Bowling Green to come to 10th and Diamond.

Temple’s 2026 recruiting company as of 6/26/25.

Another player we haven’t mentioned here previously is Josh Nengite of Susquehanna Township (Pa.), and the attached announcement here gives a clue as to why he–and the other 23 June commits–picked Temple: “The goals for the program and how we are going to accomplish them.”

Keeler and his staffed are locked in with that message.

For all of this excitement about Temple’s 2026 recruiting class, 247 still has the Owls–with 24 commits–rated as No. 76 nationally. Historically, that ranks behind Al Golden’s second class at Temple (2007), which ranked No. 1 in the MAC and No. 52 in both the Rivals.com and Scout.com national rankings. That translated to a 2009 appearance in the Eagle Bank Bowl against a UCLA team that had a No. 3 recruiting ranking in 2007.

Bad, because only 64 teams play in the so-called Power 5. Good, because of the other 66 teams in FBS, Temple is rated No. 12.

Good, because Keeler’s 2026 class is rated ahead of Nebraska, Auburn, Virginia, Missouri and Virginia Tech.

The other consideration here is that Temple’s Fab Five that turned down ‘Cuse turned down a very good staff with a great history of recruiting for a staff with a vision for the future. It’s one thing that new head coach K.C. Keeler already has a proven eye for talent. It’s validation when an entirely different staff sees the same thing. So maybe that 76 is closer to 66 because no other G5 program is grabbing that many P4 offers, at least thumbing through the other AAC offer sheets.

No one knows if our Duane Johnson will approach the fame of the other Dwayne Johnson or our Hanks will make a football impact that Tom Hanks made on the world stage.

What we do know is that they will join a group of guys who have been vetted by dozens of eyeballs on two highly paid and well-respected staffs 500 miles apart and now will be playing before a lot more eyeballs in the largest stadium in the AAC.

Chances are pretty good those Lincoln Financial Field eyeballs will like what they see.

Monday: Immediate vs. Future

06.01.25
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Networking: Rebuilding the fan base

All three “major” Temple sports coaches will be attending this event tomorrow night, but I’m guessing Keeler will be the one drawing the crowd.

One of the recurring responses on the OwlsDaily.com website to any enthusiasm about K.C. Keeler being hired is the question how that translate to fannies in the seats?

Good question.

It is one that Temple head coach will try to answer Tuesday night (6) at a networking event (Wissahickon Brewing Company) in the East Falls section of Philadelphia.

Keeler has been reaching out to Temple fans at other places (golf tournaments, Maxi’s Bar on campus, etc.) and there will be more.

Does it translate to fannies in the seats?

Yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that hiring a Hall of Fame head coach like Keeler naturally sells tickets.

No, in the sense that we’re not going to see 60,000 Temple fans in the stands JUST because Temple has a high-profile head coach.

Weather should be great to talk Temple sports over a few brewskis in this outdoor space tomorrow night.

Like everything, the proof is in the pudding. Nobody is going to buy the pudding until it’s so good it creates a demand for the pudding.

In other words, if the Owls win at UMass to open the season and beat Howard and give Oklahoma a good game, that translates to fannies in the seats for the rest of the season. Wish I could go but am working that night. If any fan goes, I hope someone brings up our ideal of bringing the tush push back to Temple using DL and former high school quarterback Colin Greene as the tusher and tight end Peter Clarke as the pusher.

That’s what happens when a fan base goes to the Military Bowl one year after an eight-win regular season and the next few goes 1-6, followed by a whole bunch of 3-9s.

This fan base is beaten down and it’s going to take some time to get off the mat.

It helps that Keeler has been pounding the pavement for players in the transfer portal. It also helps that he’s reaching out a hand to lift up some fans who have been down on the mat for way too long.

Friday: Location

Monday: No. 1 Target

12.12.24
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The reviews are in and they are all good

The reviews are in on the new Temple head football coach and let’s just say they are a lot better than the reviews a certain McDonald’s in Altoona received this week.

Validation is always a good thing, and the Temple brass received plenty of it in the 10 or so days since hiring K.C. Keeler away from Sam Houston State.

That got me to thinking about the reaction to past Temple hires. I can’t remember a single time there was this much positive reaction to a Temple football head coaching hire since Wayne Hardin. Places like The New York Times raved about Temple hiring Hardin, who had Navy as the No. 2 team in the country in the 1962 season and won a pro championship later with the Philadelphia Bulldogs of the Continental League in 1966.

We all know what happened when Hardin decided to return to Philadelphia four years later.

Hardin became the winningest coach in Temple history, had four-straight winning seasons, won Temple’s first bowl game ever and was a mere 16 points from an unbeaten season in 1979 which would have almost assuredly gave Temple and Philadelphia a mythical national football championship.

In a way, Keeler decided to return to Philadelphia earlier this month and that’s a comparison that bodes well for Temple.

Keeler knows those bullet points all too well since his only disappointment in that 1979 season came at the hands of Temple. Keeler was a linebacker whose only loss in a 13-1 year was a 31-14 one to Hardin’s Temple team.

This is not a Temple fan. It is a WVU fan who was thrilled by the hiring of Rich Rodriguez.

That Delaware team didn’t have a “mythical” national championship then. It had a real one at the next level down from Temple and the national powers (now FCS).

Keeler, more than anyone else, knows how great Temple can be in this sport.

After hiring Keeler, Temple fans need to reflect on what they’ve seen over the last three years of the Stan Drayton Regime. Plenty of sub-level G5 talent, plus numerous games where the head-scratching moments came when Temple was either offsides, had false starts, illegal formations and linemen downfield.

Sam Houston fans never saw that kind of stuff and that’s why Temple hired K.C. Keeler nearly a dozen days ago.

Since then, Keeler has gotten to work revamping the coaching staff and making strides to do the same with the roster. Temple is the only team mentioned for a backup Ohio State linebacker who returned a pick six for a touchdown three months ago against Akron.

That’s the kind of player Temple needs. That’s the kind of player we’ve been preaching that Temple go after the last two years, guys who can play at the P4 level but are stuck behind other NFL players.

What did the previous staff do?

Go after JUCO players. The past staff was stuck in the 1980s, where the only way they knew how to fill immediate needs was to get JUCO players.

When you do that, you get JUCO results.

If you want to get big-time results, you’ve got to go after big-time players and Keeler understands that. Winning the portal means as much as winning the NFL draft and Keeler was so good at that a year ago that he lost only one player in the portal on the way to a 9-3 season.

There are plenty of big-time players in the portal, and plenty of guys who are looking for an opportunity to show themselves over a NIL payday. Temple needs to go after that type of hungry player and nobody more than Keeler understands that reality.

Others are noticing and that cannot be a bad thing and we haven’t had that happen in a half century.

Monday: The Letter

11.07.24
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Temple-Tulane comes down to a question of trust

This could have been at 12th and Norris had Lewis Katz had not gone way too soon.

Back in 2014 when Temple was beating Vanderbilt on the road, 37-7, fellow AAC member Tulane was opening Yulman Stadium.

It was a 30K on-campus stadium for a school used to playing in a big NFL stadium and it revitalized campus life and the football component.

In Philadelphia at the same time, Temple’s Board of Trustees was going in the same direction, approving a 35K on-campus stadium that had all the same intentions of Yulman Stadium, only bigger and better. Yulman was a big-time donor.

On Memorial Day of that same year, Lewis Katz died in a private jet crash.

What Yulman was to Tulane, Katz was to Temple.

Who knows?

Jon Sumrall is a great head coach. Stan Drayton is not. Temple needs a guy like this.

Maybe the Temple Stadium would have been named Katz Stadium and maybe Temple’s upward trajectory would have continued well past the Matt Rhule years.

Now Katz is gone Temple plays Tulane on Saturday (4 p.m., ESPNU). Katz had a lot to do with both the hiring of Steve Addazio (bowl winner) and Matt Rhule (AAC conference champion) as the head of the athletics committee at Temple both times.

Had Katz lived, do you think he would have hired guys like Geoff Collins, Manny Diaz, Rod Carey and Stan Drayton?

I don’t think so but we will never know.

Saturday’s game comes down to a matter of trust.

Do you trust Temple with Drayton and his sieve-like DC Everett Withers or do you trust a guy who made Troy a national power (Jon Sumrall)?

Not a betting man when it comes to the school I love but, if I was, I would lay the 25.5 points on the Green Wave and not blink an eye.

At Troy, Sumrall was a guy like current Temple OL coach Chris Wiesehan–an assistant who had the blueprint of success at that school drawn up by current West Virginia head coach Neal Brown. Wiesehan has all the secrets of Geoff Collins and Matt Rhule, two guys he worked under, at Temple.

When Brown went to the Moutaineers, Troy said, hey, we have a diamond in our own backyard in Sumrall. We don’t need to go elsewhere.

Sumrall took those receipts and made Troy better.

Now he parlayed that into a better job at Tulane, bringing with him his DC and OC and faces a RB head coach in Drayton and a DC who hasn’t been able to stop anyone in the last two decades. It’s Homecoming there. In a packed on-campus stadium that revitalized Tulane football from a few thousand fans rattling around the New Orleans Superdome to a college experience students will remember the rest of their lives.

Tulane went out and hired a head coach who proved he could get it done.

As a head coach, not a running back coach.

Who would you take?

I’ll be rooting hard for my team but I don’t trust my coaches. Have no doubt that my kids will play hard but I don’t see a DC who has ever believed in putting the other quarterback on his ass to my satisfaction. In fact, he lets every QB Temple faces pick his defense apart. Bruce Arians famously said while head coach at Temple that the best pass defense is putting the other quarterback on his ass. Everett Withers’ philosophy is to drop way to many guys into pass coverage and never risk sending way too many guys to force sacks and fumbles.

That’s a passive defensive philosophy and definitely not Temple TUFF.

Hate to say this, I trust the bad guys’ coaches a lot more.

Tulane 48, Temple 10 is about the right prediction. Praying for Temple to win, 24-23, but God might be saying: “Mike, hey, I’m God, but I can only do so much.”

Late Saturday Night: Tulane game analysis