Tag Archives: college football

10.24.24
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Can Temple football make a historic run?

People a long way away from Broad and Montgomery are noticing TU plays hard for Drayton.

Something is definitely happening with Temple football in the past few games.

The trend is definitely upward but there are still areas of concern like penalties and, more importantly, the ability to run the football.

Our master plan of turning $7 into $570 is two down and 10 to go and we don’t have to throw one ball out of bounds against UAB to do it.

The Owls seemed to have cleared up their turnover problem when they inserted Evan Simon as the starting quarterback for both Coastal Carolina and the Utah State games and Simon, despite playing three less games than E.J. Warner, has proven to be an upgrade over the son of the NFL Hall of Famer.

There’s no doubt that they play hard for Stan Drayton and others seemed to have noticed (see the above video).

Simon has 10 touchdown passes to three interceptions, while Warner has the same number of TD passes but nine interceptions–two that went for touchdowns. Simon’s passer rating is also double that of Warner.

Going into the season, nobody thought Temple upgraded the QB position, but the sample is large enough to now believe that Simon is a better quarterback than E.J. Warner. He is certainly better than Forrest Brock.

Now the question that begs to be asked: Does Temple go on a historic run starting on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+) at East Carolina?

To me, unlike the above video, a historic run would be one of two things: One, win them all or, two, win all of the rest with the exception of at Tulane.

5-7 has no particular appeal to me nor would it be historic.

A 6-6 or 7-5 record would.

Winning Drayton’s first road game as a Temple head coach would go a long way to answering that question.

Certainly, Vegas doesn’t believe in the Owls but that’s nothing new. Temple was a 6.5-point underdog but beat Utah State, 45-29.

These Owls are 7.5 dogs but are on the road and the nation doesn’t believe Drayton can win a road game.

Maybe this might be the time. It’s a tough environment but Temple teams have won there before.

ECU’s Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Would be nice to have this at 12th and Norris.

I’m not making any predictions, but I think this is no more than a field goal either way and Temple in 2024 has the best field goal kicker in the country, just like it did it 2012.

ECU has a new head coach and a lot of people think this will infuse energy into the Pirates. Maybe it will but maybe there will be a “Temple effect” with that hire. For the past three years, Temple has suffered Drayton learning to be a head coach on the job and maybe this is ECU’s turn as its head coach has never been a head coach on any level before.

Let the bad guys have a coach who makes first-time mistakes for a change.

That’s the hope.

Temple is only one of two ESPN+ games in the 2 p.m. window. Win, and get a great home crowd for FAU. That’s 8 a.m. Hawaii time. 🙂 Click over above image for a more readable view.

The Owls may have found their feature running back in Torrez Worthy. Feed the beast the ball and, even if he gets a lot of 2- and 3-yard carries, he’s eventually going to break one.

When he does, the offensive game plan should be to fake it into his belly and hit guys like Antonio Jones, Zae Baines and Dante Wright on the run.

Defensively, get after the passer and trust technique on pass defense. No face guarding and go after the ball, not the man, in the air.

None of that has been done to any Temple fan’s satisfaction so far but the Owls have fought and that’s the first step.

The next one is to get Drayton his first road win, run over to the Temple fans in the stands and sing T for Temple U after the game.

Only then make the move for the locker room and the larger celebration that will ensue.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

10.13.24
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Temple-Tulsa: Some reason for optimism

For about six weeks, give or take a bye week, the nation hated the Temple Owls.

We’re seeing something new this week.

The nation doesn’t hate Temple anymore.

They are neutral.

Baby steps.

For the first time this season, Temple is not an underdog in a football game. It is not a favorite, but it is not an underdog.

As you can see by the above graphic, Temple opened as a “pick-em” against Tulsa in Saturday’s 2 p.m. Homecoming Game. Tulsa might get a -1 in the next day or so, but I’m expecting Temple to settle in as a 1- or 2-point favorite by kickoff.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

Temple is notoriously good in Homecoming Games over the last 15 years or so. The Owls beat a ranked Memphis team twice on Homecoming, including in Rod Carey’s Farewell tour. Two years ago, Temple extended an unbeaten Rutgers team to the end, falling, 16-14, before a crowd of 34,654 mostly Temple fans.

Some past Temple Homecoming Crowds .. .

Homecoming is the one time of the year where the “Prodigal Son” Temple fan returns for a game. They might not even like football, but it’s the No. 1 thing Temple does to network its 360,000 Temple alumni. They can’t get that kind of a crowd at a basketball game or a chemistry class or a Temple Hall of Fame ceremony.

They do get a big crowd at Homecoming.

The other element is that the Owls do look better. They hung with a UConn team that destroyed Buffalo, 47-3, and Buffalo beat MAC powerhouse Toledo, 30-15, on Saturday. They gave Army a much better game than Tulsa did, trailing by “only” 28-14 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Does it mean they will beat Tulsa? Err, no. But should they beat Tulsa?

Hell yes for their sake and for everybody who works at the E-O’s sakes.

Temple was 0-6 in Matt Rhule’s first season but did draw this significant pre-game tailgate crowd. They beat Army that day.

There is no new President at Buffalo or Toledo examining the future of the sport nor should it.

Temple, on the other hand, for its 45-29 win over Utah State and competing with UConn is still 1-5 and the bottom line has to get better.

Saturday in front of a lot of Temple eyes is a good place to start.

Now is the time for Stan Drayton and the Owls to win back a good portion of those fans. If they are sufficiently entertained, and get to enjoy a win, that will carry a lot of weight with the new President who comes aboard on Nov. 1.

If the Owls lose, though, those Prodigal Sons and Daughters won’t be looking back on the most recent Homecoming as a fond memory.

Friday: Tulsa Preview

10.10.24
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5 Guys Earning Their Paychecks

Saturday’s college football TV schedule

Watched the Coastal Carolina game on Thursday night at James Madison and a backup quarterback entered the game for Coastal down, 36-7.

His name was Noah Kim.

“Where did I hear that name before?” I thought.

Looked it up and found out that Kim was once the starting quarterback for Michigan State in five games and yet is now the BACKUP at Coastal.

Geez.

Do you think Kim would rather start at Temple than backup at Coastal?

I do.

Tim Beck, the head coach at Coastal, is doing his job because he had his quarterback room prepared for every eventuality.

Beck is making less than half ($1 million) of what Stan Drayton makes at Temple.

Despite the loss to James Madison on Thursday night, Coastal will probably make a bowl game.

Temple will probably not.

The reason is that Beck did a lot of offseason work in getting his quarterback room in order and, at least the way we see it, Drayton did not.

Drayton had to replace the fourth-leading Temple passer in history and “settled” for an unproven JUCO and a Rutgers’ backup who had four TD passes against seven interceptions in what has been so far an unremarkable FBS career. Temple beats UConn, 28-14, with Warner at QB and maybe Kim and a few others who don’t start for other G5 teams.

Beck has earned his million. Drayton has not earned his $2.5 million.

Here are four other Group of Five Guys who earned their pay this season (taking both the Army and Navy coaches out of the equation since Temple would never run the triple option):

Bryant Vincent, UL-Monroe _ At a paltry $365K per year, Vincent was able to recruit the quarterback we had been screaming in this space for Drayton to go after all winter, spring and summer (General Booty). Booty has had his moments for the Warhawks but is splitting time at the QB spot. Vincent served as the UAB interim head coach in 2022 but that school passed on him to go after Trent Dilfer. Bad move. Vincent beat Dilfer, 32-6, earlier this season with ULM talent. He also beat JMU last week, 21-16.

K.C. Keeler coached at both Delaware and Rowan, knows the Philadelphia area like the back of his hand, but was passed over twice when he applied for the Temple head coaching job. His brother, Kevin, was a longtime basketball coach at nearby Quakertown High (at the same time former Temple great Doug Shobert was the head football coach there).

Bob Chesney, JMU _ After leading Holy Cross on a remarkable FCS run, Chesney probably would have accepted the Temple job that Drayton got three years ago, bringing with him quarterback Matt Sluka. Instead, Chesney waited and took a worse job from a purely pay standpoint (JMU). He hung 70 points on UNC defensive coordinator Geoff Collins. He is only making $550K there.

Tyson Helton, Western Kentucky _ At $800K per season, Helton would not even have to ask the $2.5-million Drayton to pick up the check for any lunch those two would have. Yet the Hilltoppers are 3-2, having beaten Toledo and losing by only a point at Power 4 Boston College.

K.C. Keeler, Sam Houston _ More than once a candidate for the Temple job, Keeler knows the Philadelphia area like the back of his hand having coached successfully at both Delaware and Rowan (N.J.). One story last week said that Sam Houston had the “lowest NIL money by far” in the FBS and yet the Bearcats are 5-1 with a rout of E.J. Warner’s Rice team and a win over a good Texas State team to their credit. Keeler made $600K in total pay in 2023.

Temple is paying Drayton $2.5 million to have a soaking wet 160-pound redshirt freshman backup quarterback try to do a tush push with the game, and a season, on the line.

The question everyone at Temple, from the newest fan to the newest President, has to ask now is why.

That kind of decision-making is not worth two cents, let alone $2.5 million, and a university that wants to get a return on investment has to look at guys who are doing more with a whole lot less.

10.05.24
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These kids deserve better coaches

This was one of those games where, after watching, had to get into the car and go for a drive to let off some steam.

By some miracle, nobody was killed or even injured by my driving but plenty of thoughts of the train wreck I had just witnessed caused the windows to steam up.

Temple losing to UConn, 29-20, (really, 23-20) on the last play of the game was bad enough but the way was much worse.

Temple was the better team for 59 minutes and 57 seconds and that was because of the kids.

It finished as the second-best team because of the coaches.

The coaches started their bumbling and stumbling early when they didn’t notice a punt went off a UConn helmet in the first quarter and Temple recovered. Any other professional coaching staff has someone watching for that, getting on the headset and telling head coach Stan Drayton to throw the challenge flag.

The nation noticed and so did the CBS Sports TV announcers.

Temple did none of that and gave up early points that would have made the ending moot.

Now what should have been moot but wasn’t. Second-and-goal inside the 1 with two more chances to punch across the win in the last minute and UConn having no time outs.

Should have been easy peasy for any coaching staff in America but the one employed by Temple.

First of all, running back Torrez Worthy was the guy who put you in a spot to win the game getting a second and less than a yard at the goal line. You ride or die with him. You don’t dick around giving the ball to anyone else. At worst, you fake it to him and then do a simple pitch and catch for the winning touchdown to a wide-open receiver in the end zone.

UConn was selling out for the run. It would have been an easy score.

Second, every single time backup quarterback Tyler Douglas came in the game he ran the football. You do not telegraph plays like that on the college level. You don’t do it in the pros. You don’t do it in high school. You don’t do it even do it in Pop Warner Football.

Stan Drayton was essentially telling the Huskies: “Hey guys, heads up, we’re going to run the ball.”

Piece of cake but the Temple coaching staff would rather eat a turd, and that’s exactly what they did.

Is he working for Temple or UConn?

If you are going to have Douglas come into the game, have him make a few throws to cause the defense to think.

There was no thinking involved on Saturday.

There really hasn’t been all season.

Or any of the last three years for that matter.

No doubt in my mind this was the most heartbreaking Temple loss since the Hail Mary that ended the game at Buffalo in 2007.

The difference between that time and this one was that those coaches led by Al Golden put the Owls in a position to win the game and a freak play ended it.

This was the game where the kids put the Owls in position to win and some Rick James-like super freaky play-calling by the coaches robbed them of a deserved celebration.

Inexcusable.

These kids deserve better coaches.

Whether they get them or not is a question only Temple decision-makers at the highest level can answer now.

Monday: Waiting for the Temple administration to do something

10.03.24
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Talking myself into a Temple win

For the better part of a week, you’ve heard all of the reasons why Temple should lose at UConn on Saturday.

The Huskies hammered fellow AAC member FAU, 48-14 and are coming off a 47-3 win over a relatively good Buffalo team.

They also hung with an unbeaten Duke team.

Bleep that.

Stan Drayton owes it to all of these ex-Temple players who owned UConn to deliver with a win on Saturday. Rather roll out Evan Simon with a bad shoulder than Forrest Brock with two good ones.

Trying to talk myself into a Temple win on Saturday (3:30 p.m., CBS Sports TV), there are a few reasons to come to the conclusion that Temple might win this game.

One, Temple beat Utah State, 45-29, a team that traveled to Connecticut and won last year. Two, Temple hung with Coastal Carolina in a 28-20 loss and there’s is no doubt in my mind that Coastal is a better team than UConn and probably a better team than Duke.

Three, UConn lost to Maryland, 50-7, and Maryland “only” beat Temple’s Philadelphia FCS crosstown rival Villanova, 38-20. Got to believe Temple, even with all of its problems, is better than Villanova. In Dante Wright, Antonio Jones and Zae Baines, Temple has three playmaking wide receivers who have NFL skills.

In running back Antwain Littleton, Temple has a guy who can break out at any time if the pass sets up the run. He’s Mr. Inside and Torrez Worthy is Mr. Outside.

In a 17-14 overtime win at 5.5-point favorite UConn in 2012, current ESPN analyst and then Temple head coach Steve Addazio said: “Our intention was to get the ball in the middle of the field for the best kicker in the country to win the game and that’s what happened.”

The “best kicker in the country” then was Brandon McManus and he did just that.

A dozen years later, Temple might again have the best kicker in the country in Maddux Trujillo. It might have to come down to that, maybe in overtime.

Our $10 bet will return $236 if all of the above happens. Looks like we are on our way to two wins so far. Would stay away from the Temple game with a 10-foot pole if the Owls are stupid enough to roll Forrest Brock out there.

Fingers crossed.

All offseason we’ve been told by Temple coaches that this team is a far better team than the 3-9 team Temple fielded last year and there were plenty of reasons to believe them.

Matchup-wise, Temple has a better chance against UConn than it did against Army in that the Huskies like to throw the ball and Temple has good edge pass rushers in Diwan Black and Tre Thomas. Andreas Keaton is a great safety and Torrey Richardson and Jaylen Lewis are good cover corners.

The Owls upgraded not only their depth but arguably 21 of the 22 starters. The one area they failed was quarterback but Evan Simon’s six-touchdown performance against Utah State caused many (raising my hand here) to believe he’s an upgrade over E.J. Warner.

If he plays, and as of right now there is a 50/50 shot, Temple has a good chance to get its first road win under Stan Drayton.

Ever.

If he doesn’t, no shot.

The flip side of this argument is the Temple coaching staff.

Quarterback Forrest Brock and running back E.J. Wilson must be the greatest practice players in history, but they don’t pass the eye test in actual games and the fact that Temple coaches have given both so much playing time in an indictment of their player evaluation skills.

It does cause one to pause over other possible evaluations. Is Tyler Douglas better than first-game starter Brock? Probably. Is Worthy better than Wilson? Definitely.

We need to see more of Worthy, who is definitely a gamer.

My feeling is that if you are going to run all of the RPO stuff offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf wants to run, Douglas is the better quarterback than all three. Put it this way. John Harbaugh wouldn’t run RPO with the Ravens if he had Tom Brady at quarterback. His offense is perfect for Lamar Jackson.

Temple has done a piss/poor job of scheming to the talents of their players so maybe put players in there who fit the scheme.

Better late than never and if Temple figures all of this out in the next 24 hours, it could be a terrific bus ride back from Storrs.

And set up the Owls for a sensational Homecoming.

If not, it’s a Bataan Death March to the end of Stan Drayton’s head coaching career.

He’s too good a guy to deserve that fate and the players love him so it’s time for the coaches to play the right players and those right players to do right by the coaches.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

09.29.24
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Begging to differ: This is not fixable

This was 10-on-11 blocking but looked like 42-on-11. Things like illegal shifts, too many men in the backfield, offsides, illegal formations are fixable but how is this fixable?

For three of the last four games, really three of the last dozen, Temple head coach Stan Drayton looked the assembled media in the eye and said what ailed his team in losses was “fixable.”

We beg to differ.

Maybe the penalties are fixable but what we have seen too much this season doesn’t appear to be.

Army pushed the Owls’ defense aside like they were bowling pins. At times, it looked like Army had 42 guys blocking 11 guys and not 11-on-11.

How is that fixable?

It would be one thing if that was the only time the Owls looked like that, but they also looked that way against Navy and also looked that way against Oklahoma. Yes, they stopped Oklahoma on 11 of 12 third-down opportunities but whenever the Sooners needed a first down on fourth down, they got it.

Oklahoma is a Power 4 team and that can be excused.

Looking the same way against two Group of Five teams is inexcusable.

Next up is at UConn on Saturday (3:30 p.m., CBS Sports).

UConn just finished beating Buffalo, 47-3, in the same stadium and an argument can be made that Buffalo, not just UConn, is clearly a better team than Temple.

Buffalo beat NIU, which beat Notre Dame. That was not just a one-off as NIU lost by only a touchdown at North Carolina State on Saturday. Buffalo played Missouri, another SEC team, a lot more competitively than the Owls did Oklahoma.

Has Temple done anything as impressive as Buffalo, which came into Storrs with a 3-1 record?

No.

Other than all of the above, everything is just peachy at 10th and Diamond.

For its part, UConn hung with Duke in a 26-21 loss. (It also lost to Maryland, 50-7.) UConn also beat FAU, 48-14. (For comparison, Army “only” beat FAU, 24-7.)

It has a professional head coach in Jim Mora, Jr. who was a winner as a head coach before coming to UConn.

Temple cannot make the same claim.

That’s not to say that UConn is going to ramrod Temple, 47-3, but the general public is not believing in the Owls right now. At noon on Sunday, the line opened with the Huskies favored by 11 and jumped up to 13.5 just two hours.

That’s a lot of money riding on the Huskies.

Can you blame the betting public?

Army outgained the Owls, 417 to minus -5.

Temple is a team that cannot run the football, cannot stop the run and can’t protect the quarterback. In the rare cases they have protected the quarterback, he can do damage but those cases and too few and far between.

None of those things appear fixable now, no matter what Drayton says in post-game press conferences.

He has one chance to prove himself right and the public wrong and it’s coming up on Saturday.

Friday: UConn Preview

09.26.24
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Everett Withers strikes again

Any good vibes after Utah State were destroyed by a terrible defensive game plan.

When Stan Drayton gets fired by new Temple president John Fry at the end of this season, one major CEO decision will be the only reason why he was sent packing.

Undeserved loyalty.

After his second unacceptable 3-9 season in 2023, Drayton promised to review the entire operation “including the coaches” and, instead of getting rid of the guy who was responsible for the worst Temple defense in history, DC Everett Withers, decided to jettison a couple of lower-level assistant coaches.

After a 42-14 loss to Army on Thursday night, a third-straight embarrassment on ESPN in front of the entire nation (coming off 55-0 to SMU and 51-3 to what turning out is a not-as-good-as-expected Oklahoma team), it’s clear that being a buddy of Drayton is good for Withers and terrible for Temple.

Hiring your buddy is the No. 1 thing that has ailed Temple football since Matt Rhule left in 2016 and nobody is a bigger buddy than Withers. Athletic director Pat Kraft, who played football at Indiana, hired his buddy Rod Carey, who also played football at Indiana at roughly the same time.

New Temple AD Arthur Johnson, the Texas football director of operations, hired buddy Stan Drayton, who was the Texas RB coach when he was there. Drayton hired longtime buddy Withers to be his DC despite Withers giving up 40 ppg as a DC at FIU in 2021.

Ugh.

The beat goes on and those black eyes belong to Temple fans who deserve better.

We can now compare Withers to another former Temple DC in Phil Snow.

In the opening game against Army in 2016, Snow stubbornly kept his base 4-3 defense and the Owls fell, 29-16.

Before the AAC title game against a better triple-option team, Navy, Snow studied the Army film and came to the conclusion that the reason the Owls lost that opener was because he left the “A gap” uncovered.

Before the Owls faced Navy in the title game, he also noticed that SMU left the same middle uncovered and Navy won in Dallas, 75-31, a couple of weeks before the title game against Temple. Snow decided the secret sauce for Temple to win was to alternate Averee Robinson and Freddy Booth-Lloyd at nose tackle, take away the fullback dive, and force the triple option from sideline to sideline.

Mostly, Robinson, a three-time Pennsylvania state heavyweight wrestling champion who not only destroyed the Navy center but stopped the Navy fullback every time for no gain. That left superior athletes like Haasan Reddick and Sean Chandler chasing the pitchman and forcing him out of bounds or, better yet, punching the ball free for Temple turnovers.

That’s what I’m talking about Willis.

That worked for a 34-10 championship win.

Withers?

Played the same base defense against Army on Thursday night that he played a couple of weeks ago in a 38-11 loss to Navy.

My only bet on this game was that the over would be accomplished because Withers likes to clock in a 9 a.m. and clock out at 5 p.m. and won’t do anything to change his base defense to scheme against the strength of the opponent.

This guy doesn’t give a shit about Temple, only the paycheck he gets from it.

Drayton, on the other hand loves Temple, but is also blinded by his love for mentor Withers.

It will be his downfall.

I was right once again. I wish to hell I was wrong.

What’s the definition of insanity?

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

What Drayton should have done at the end of last season is sever his relationship with Withers and gone out and replaced him with the best FCS defensive coordinator in the country.

Drayton might be more comfortable shooting the shit with Withers on Friday morning over the office copier than some stranger who might have shut down Army but Temple fans are the ones squirming now.

Unless Drayton does something drastic like replace Withers with linebacker coach Chris Woods next week, the new Temple president will notice and decide to do something about it. Woods was a successful DC in the USFL. Withers hasn’t been a successful DC since one game in the 1980s.

Unfortunately, Drayton is too nice a guy and we all know what Leo Durocher said about nice guys.

They finish last.

Monday: Avoiding the inevitable

12.17.23
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Wednesday’s Recruiting Show: Lipstick on a Pig

The hierarchy of talent in college football has been established over the past 50 or so years.

You don’t have to be Nick Saban to know where to get talent from in this age of the transfer portal.

One, P5. Two, G5, Three FCS, four Division I, five Division II and six Division III.

There is a seventh level of football talent below all of that and it’s called JUCO.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one is worth a million. Here, Layton Jordan sacks future Owl quarterback Evan Simon. Jordan, under D.J. Eliot’s scheme, thrived, setting a Temple record with three defensive touchdowns and terrorizing opposing quarterbacks. Under Everett Withers, Jordan more often than not dropped back five yards into pass coverage in no-man’s land where he couldn’t use his talent to sack QBs or cause turnovers. Simon since this lost his job to a quarterback that led RU to a 103d offensive ranking out of 133 teams.

Guess where the bulk of Stan Drayton’s third recruiting class is coming from this year?

Well, you won’t have to guess because we already know it’s JUCO but some Wednesday night must-see TV viewing comes on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. That’s where the Temple football recruiting plan will be unveiled for Owl fans to see on the Temple football signing show.

Whatever Drayton says, and it will be a lot, he will be holding a figurative drawing of a pig in one hand and a roll of lipstick in the other hand and trying to make the most of an ugly situation.

Bring a hanky because we might be witnessing the end of a once-great (at least in the Wayne Hardin years, some of the Bruce Arians’ years and most of the Al Golden and Matt Rhule years) program. Get ready to dab a view tears because, even from the few FBS-level recruits we do know of, there is no indication that the Owls got better in key positions.

Don’t give me Temple can’t get players because of the NIL because a lot of teams in the same NIL boat (South Alabama, New Mexico State, Troy, Ohio and Toledo) are getting enough players to thrive.

Temple should be able to do the same.

Let’s start with the MOST key position: Quarterback.

Unless Holy Cross quarterback Matt Sluka (who is still unsigned) walks through that E-O door in the next two days, it appears the Owls DOWNGRADED when their No. 1 offseason priority was to UPGRADE over E.J. Warner.

“Our E.J” (Drayton’s very words three weeks ago) appears to have made a lateral move within the conference when he was reported on Sunday to sign with fellow AAC member Rice. This comes a year after former Temple linebacker Kobe Wilson made a lateral move to another conference member. Huge statement by both Temple Owls on how they viewed Drayton’s possibility of future success here.

The bottom line in the Simon/Warner swap is that anyone with 20/20 vision the last time those two quarterbacks faced one another will tell you Warner, in his first collegiate start, was the better of the two quarterbacks that day in a 16-14 loss to Rutgers.

Warner only put up more impressive numbers as he got his feet wet. Simon flatlined and lost his starting job to a starting quarterback who could lead the Knights to a 103d offensive ranking of out 133 teams in 2023.

So, bottom line, was a coach with the pedigree of Greg Schiano thought the 103d-ranked quarterback was better than the guy Temple got.

That guy starts against Oklahoma on Aug. 31.

Unless Drayton can find Sluka’s phone number in the next day or two. (Hint: It’s in the Worcester, Mass. phone book.)

Friday: The Post-Game Show

08.17.20
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Aug. 17th: College football’s rain delay

In this space usually, on this date, there would be speculation of who looks good in summer camp and who is winning the battle of positions.

Not this year.

The Temple football Owls are practicing but not in the usual sense of intense hitting and contact so nobody is really standing out.

walt

Walter Washington probably knocked more defenders out of games than any quarterback in Temple history.

This basically is Temple’s–and the rest of the roughly half of college football deciding to play as of now–rain delay, waiting for the go-ahead for full-contact practices and a return to normalcy and maybe even an imminent announcement of a  replacement game for Miami (Sept. 5).

When the Phillies went to rain delay, the broadcast jumped to past highlights and this is what we’re going to do today.

Last week, photographer extraordinaire Zamani Feelings found this tape on the 2004 Temple-Syracuse game and send me a message with the link. Zamani is slowly but surely building the kind of video library Temple football needs on Youtube so please support his page by subscribing and liking here. Also, if anyone has any Temple film or tapes of games please forward them to him so this can be a one-stop source for Temple fans. He has more games on another Youtube site.

I sat down on the first rainy afternoon I could find and watched the entire thing.

Plenty of thoughts on this game but these came to mind off the top of my head:

1) Walter Washington breaks Paul Palmer’s record for season TDs in this game with 16; if you want to see what “beast mode” really means, check out this tape. Washington, who turned down a solid offer from Nebraska to come to Temple, could not be stopped and, at times, it looked like Syracuse defenders wanted no part of him.

2) The 16-touchdown record made me really appreciate what Bernard Pierce did seven years later (27 TDs in a single season);

3) Great job by ESPN’s Dave Sims on the play-by-play and one of the reasons why I think Dave is the best to ever call a Temple game (he even threw in the fact that Washington’s bench press
of 475 was the 6th-highest on the team). Sims was the Owls’ radio play-by-play guy in the 1990 season when the team went 7-4 and won at Wisconsin. He is now the Seattle Mariners’ play-by-play guy and does NFL games on Westwood One radio.

4) Even in a “down” season, Temple football provides great memories.

5) Syracuse could have tied for first place in the old Big East by winning this game because West Virginia lost to Boston College on the same day.

6) Sad that Washington, who could have used that extra year at Temple to hone the passing portion of his game, decided to leave early for the pros.

Rain delay over and now all we’re waiting on is to see if the radar to the West has cleared up or the umpires have called the game.

Let’s hope it’s the former or Zamani will be working extra hard on that Wayback machine.

Friday: Possible replacements

Monday: Projected Defensive starters