Tag Archives: Colin Thompson

11.11.16
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Rest, Relaxation and TV Watching

Colin Thompson is almost always wide open on that TE throwback.

About two hours into raking the leaves the morning after Temple’s last game, my cute and somewhat younger neighbor Abby and her dog Roadie dropped by to say hello.

Abby saw my Temple sweatshirt and said: “So how did Temple do last night? I watched early and they had a 21-0 lead.”

“They scored on three of the first 14 plays and called it a night,” I said.

Abby detected a hint of disgust in my tone of voice.

“Not good, huh?” she said.

aacstandings

“I’m a perfectionist. I thought they were headed for triple digits. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with the win. It just should have been so much better.”

Roadie looked at me like he understood, not so sure about Abby.

At least Temple offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas probably thought along the same lines. After I shut off the TV the night before, I listened to Harry Donahue do the post-game show. Harry said Thomas was leaving the coach’s box and “looked very upset.”

I guess he’s a perfectionist, too, which gives me an enormous amount of hope for the balance of the season for the Owls. Twenty-one squat got the job done, but it was nowhere reflective of how much better Temple is than UConn and I thought the Owls let the Huskies off too easy. If Thomas applies a couple of simple fixes going forward, the Owls could be on Easy Street the rest of the way. Had Thomas been smiling ear-to-ear after the offense fell flat on its face for the final three quarters, I might be worried today.

The Owls get some needed rest this week, while we all go through Temple football withdrawal.

Thomas probably went back to the drawing board, played a little game of tic-tac-toe with the X’s and O’s and might have come to the same conclusion I did. P.J. Walker throwing over the middle and to the other side featuring the tight ends is probably something the Owls should have incorporated into their offense last Friday night and something that probably should be a part of the game plan for the balance of the season. One, P.J.  is extremely effective at moving the defense to the side where he rolls out, so that leaves the whole other side of the field open. Two, he sells that throwback pass to the tight end really well and he tosses it with impeccable touch.

That’s not just against UConn, but every team.

The Owls are tweaking today and off tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean Temple fans have nothing to do. There is a men’s Big 5 basketball game tonight against visiting LaSalle (7 p.m., ESPN News) to take in and, on Saturday, Tulsa being a 1.5-point favorite at Navy is one of two compelling league football games affecting Temple. My thought on this game is that Tulsa has an outstanding offense, but Navy chews up such large chunks of the clock that it might not mean enough and Navy wins this game outright. Also, South Florida is a three-point favorite at Memphis and the Tigers might have been emboldened by a 51-7 win at SMU last week. If Memphis takes down USF, the Owls will only have to win one of two to clinch AAC East.

So go Tigers and watch for the throwback to the tight end.

Tomorrow: Saturday Picks

Monday: How The East Will Be Won

10.14.14
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The Cavalry is Coming: Kirkwood and Thompson

NCAA Football: Hawaii at Navy

Keith Kirkwood’s last action was this touchdown reception against Navy in November. He only became eligible when Hawaii coach Norm Chow granted him his release last week, something Joe Paterno refused to do for Temple quarterback Adam DiMichele. Kirkwood gives Temple a terrific 1-2 punch at wide receiver with Jalen Fitzpatrick.

If Colonel Reno would have been close enough with his 7th Cavalry Brigade to save General Custer, the battle at Little Big Horn might have went the other way.

The Cavalry might not have been on the way for Custer, but it certainly is coming for head coach Matt Rhule and the Temple Owls in the form of impact players Colin Thompson and Keith Kirkwood. Football is often a battle of attrition, with the teams who win conference championships many times being the ones who suffer the fewest losses of starters due to injury.

Almost never do you hear of teams adding new players midway through the season who can make an immediate impact, but that’s the case with Temple adding five-star SEC tight end recruit Thompson and four-star wide receiving recruit Kirkwood. Both got spot duty for the Owls recently, but now appear to be ready to make a full-time impact on Friday night against Houston. Both have been declared eligible. Thompson is a transfer from Florida and Kirkwood is a transfer from Hawaii.

As John Kerry once said, “Help is on the way.”

It could have have come soon enough or at two positions of need. The Owls have not had a playmaking tight end this year or a tall wide receiver who reminds anyone of Robbie Anderson.

Thompson and Kirkwood could fill both needs and Temple will only have to wait a couple of days to find out if this Cavalry has arrived just in time to win this AAC football war. In fact, if you listen hard enough, you can hear the bugle call now:

07.23.14
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Kareem Ali Really Temple Made

Colin Thompson and Kareem Ali are the newest Owls.

Colin Thompson and Kareem Ali are the newest Owls.

Any time I get off the SEPTA Regional rail at Temple University station, which is quite often, I get to see an anonymous person with a painted Cherry and White face with glasses staring at me with the words “Temple Made” above his head.

Temple football now boasts of  ultimate “Temple Made” person soon to be on its roster, Kareem Ali. According to this great story by Matt Vender, Ali was conceived at Temple. He’s the first documented person to be literally Temple Made–though I’m sure there are a few undocumented ones.

Now he’s going to do his part to make Temple football a Made Man in the college football world.

When Al Golden was at Temple, he had a binder on how to build a program from the ground up and one of the chapters in it was recruiting. “Trust the film,” Golden would always say.

Golden was not bashful about his philosophy of recruiting. He believed that the key of going from the worst program in major college football to winning a non-BCS conference title like the MAC was getting a whole bunch of team leaders, captains of their high school teams from winning programs, then reaching up and grabbing as many as five guys every year who were offered by BCS programs. Golden never got a chance to win the MAC, but I believe he was only a year or two away when he left to go to Miami (Fla.)

Golden had a great school to sell, Temple, and he was a great salesman who was able to lure guys like Kee-Ayre Griffin away from Boston College and Adrian Robinson away from Pitt. Those guys helped fuel three consecutive winning seasons at Temple. When I dashed off an email congratulating Al on his first recruiting class, Al dashed one back: “Mike, we’re not done yet. We’re waiting on a guy from St. Peter’s Prep who could be our best recruit. Wish us luck.”

Griffin was that guy, the last recruit of Golden’s first-ever class and the first of five good recruiting chapters.

It now appears that Matt Rhule has memorized that chapter.

One day after getting Kareem Ali to de-commit from Maryland (Big 10), he got Colin Thompson to transfer from Florida (SEC).

I had been somewhat concerned last week that the Owls offered a guy who had only been offered by Duquesne, Coastal Carolina and St. Francis of Loretto but the recent additions of Ali and Thompson put the Owls back on the right recruiting track. You are going to need a lot of guys like Ali and Thompson to win an AAC title and, if they can convince guys like Shareef Miller to come on board, it won’t be long before the Owls are hoisting a trophy soon.

Mix those three guys with a couple more similar players, stir in a few high school captains from winning programs, trust the film, always call a quarterback sneak on fourth and three inches, bake and watch a championship team rise. At least that’s the fervent hope.