Tag Archives: Dave Patenaude

10.24.17
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5 Quick Temple Football Fixes

sameold

The Owls should use this bye week to change the philosophy that led to 3-5.

What are we going to do without a weekend of Temple football?

To duplicate the kind of torture Temple fans experienced the last two weeks, we recommend stopping at the nearest police station and asking to be tased or making a trip across the Delaware and volunteering to be a waterboard subject at Fort Dix.

No thanks. I’ve had enough agony the last two weeks to last two years.

fixes

Losses to Army and UConn have been that painful.

If anything the last two weeks have taught the Temple football staff is to not allow the same thing to happen again. There are reasons the Owls are 3-5 and chief among them is an ill-advised offensive philosophy that caused the program to stray from what has worked here the last two years for something that might have worked at Coastal Carolina last year.

Are the Temple coaches sensible enough to understand that? Probably not, but this is the path from 3-5 to 6-6 and they better at least consider it or they risk not losing only this year but the next  five as well.

These five quick fixes that can be accomplished in the next nine days and implemented going forward:

Ditch the Spread
This team won the AAC championship last year by going fullback and play-action and that’s what this personnel is best suited to do. Put fullback Nick Sharga back there leading the way for a now healthy Ryquell Armstead and establish the run. Once that run is established, have Frankie “Juice” Nutile fake the ball into the belly of Armstead and pull it out. With opposing linebackers and safeties inching up to the line of scrimmage to defend the run, those great wide receivers—Ventell Byrant, Keith Kirkwood and Adonis Jennings—will be so wide open Nutile won’t know which one to pick out. That’s Temple football.

wright

Put Isaiah Wright at tailback
Wright in space in the open field is, as the announcers said on Saturday, a “touchdown waiting to happen.” To give Wright the kind of space he needs, run him at tailback. Throw him little swing passes out of the backfield or run screens for him. Use Wright–along with David Hood–as the change-of-pace backs when Armstead needs a break.

Goal-line offense
When the Owls get to the one, especially on first down, don’t try anything crazy like run out of the shotgun. Load Rock behind Sharga and pound the ball three times for six points. This team is built to run the ball at the goal. Doing anything else is asking for trouble. Owls lost the game against Army by coming away with nothing when they got to the one. They cannot let that happen again.

newfinch

Turn Sharif Finch Loose
Finch is the all-time leader in punts blocked at Temple for a reason. The Owls only have him for four more games and they should turn him loose on every punt the opposition attempts. They have been terrible on punt returns because there has been no blocking for Mike Jones, so they might as well be more aggressive and go after these punts.

No More Prevent Defense
Allowing Army to march down the field with no timeouts and 25 seconds left was a disgrace. The best pass defense, especially against a team uncomfortable with throwing the football, is putting the quarterback on his ass. If you can’t get there with four, send five. If you can’t get there with five send six. Just get there.

Anything less than these quick patches exposes your fans to a torture that makes the rack look like a feather-duster.

Thursday: Five Throwbacks

Saturday: Around The AAC

Monday: Game Week: An Attitude

Wednesday: Navy Preview

Friday: Game Analysis

Monday: The Kelly Solution

10.17.17
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Fizzy’s Corner: TU’s Regression

alumni

No truth to the rumor that Temple band alumni were playing taps for the season after that fiasco that some describe as a game on Saturday.

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub has played for Temple and coached subsequently. He’s seen the most well-coached Temple teams offensively (Wayne Hardin) and, now, the worst-coached Temple team, at least offensively, against UConn on Saturday. His recap follows.

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

I would like to begin with a quote from my teammate, Dick Gabel, a former superintendent of schools.  “Worst coaching experience since I played for Pete.”  He’s referring to our coach in 1959, Pete Stevens. (He was a fine gentleman, though.)

collinstwitter

Geoff Collins should whack Dave Patenaude like Tony Soprano whacked Ralph  Cifaretto for burning down the stable where his horse lived. (Figuratively, not literally, though. Patenaude has plenty of horses and has been killing  them with this ill-advised offense.)

After seven games and three woulda, coulda, shouldas, because of the offensive play calling, Dave Patenaude has proven to be an incompetent play caller with absolutely no instinct for the right play at the right time. Again, and this time twice, he’s failed to score from first and goal. That’s mostly because his first two plays are always run up the gut. He doesn’t understand that the only down you can really fool a defense in that situation, is first down, not third down. First down is when you should run the fake into the middle, and then there’s a multitude of options.

Speaking of the goal line, how about the most bizarre play call I’ve ever seen. On fourth and one, he puts in the wildcat against a gap defense.  Not only does that make no sense, he then runs a slow developing fake to the outside, and when the tailback finally turns to run up the middle, he’s overwhelmed by the penetration.

 By the way, I’ve nicknamed his offense the Broad Street Offense.  That’s not because Temple is on Broad Street, but because Broad Street is one of the longest, straightest streets in the country.  Patenaude’s offense is almost always straight ahead.  I have to say almost now, because in our seventh game yesterday, he finally ran a reverse which gained thirty-five yards, and never came back to it.

There were a multitude of other coaching mistakes. There were twelve penalties, and this shows an undisciplined team, and that’s carried over from the beginning of the year. Then there was unbelievably poor clock management at the end of the first half, and at the end of the game. The coach let the clock run down despite having three timeouts available in the first half, and two in the second half.  It’s my guess they were afraid Connecticut would get a first down.  Is that a way to coach a game?  Last but not least, it took the coach until the second half to realize he had to blitz and get pressure on the quarterback.

I’m probably missing many more coaching mistakes, but I forgot to bring my notebook to the game.  I do know one thing, however.  To earn even a six-six record, Dave Patenaude cannot be allowed to call the offense.

Throwback Thursday: When Passing Wasn’t Fancy

 

09.29.17
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Houston: Does This Staff Have The Wright Stuff?

What are you waiting for, the bowl game?

It might be a little harsh, but the term brain dead about a first-year coaching staff occurred to me more than a few times during the Notre Dame debacle, the USF debacle and similar near-debacles against UMass and Villanova.

Last year’s championship staff figured out, early on, that getting the ball in the hands of a talent like Isaiah Wright might be a pretty good idea.

connection

Wright, playing part-time tailback, had 46 yards on seven carries in a 38-0 win over Stony Brook. Temple had nice tailback options in that game, including Jahad Thomas and Ryquell Armstead. Matt Rhule, a $7 million-per-year coach, chose Wright. Before you dismiss the Stony Brook program, it was in a tight game this year at South Florida in the fourth quarter.

Temple was not.

Rhule stated to the press that one of his priorities early in last season was getting the ball in the hands of the elusive Wright. They met across the long table in the coach’s office at the Edberg-Olson Complex and came to the conclusion they could use Wright as a wide receiver, a tailback and a Wildcat quarterback.

They only put the Wildcat package in BECAUSE they had him, not because they wanted to do it.

performance

“Operator? Please get me Waco, Texas; a listing for Glenn Thomas or Matt Rhule. Thanks.”

What did this new genius from Coastal Carolina do with Wright the last two games? Give him the ball four times in two games. For Louisville math majors, that’s two times in each game.

Ryquell Armstead is banged up and he looks slow behind an offensive line that returns three of its five starters. Those three starters blocked well all of last season, so it’s not on them. Having Wright in the backfield with his explosive first step and his multiple-cut abilities can only help whomever is the quarterback.

Getting the ball in his hands a lot more than two times might be the difference between victory or defeat on Saturday afternoon (noon start, be there or be square, that’s why we never give TV info for home games).

For the first four games, we’ve learned this staff is–to be overly kind–slow on the uptake. To me, you can maximize any slim chances you have against a 3-1 Houston team by the number of times you get the ball in the hands of your most explosive player on a team that, by the way, that has a number of explosive players still. His touches work at wide receiver, they work at running back and they work at Wildcat quarterback. He’s had only 10 so far and he’s produced 194 yards. Too few touches in my humble opinion. Give it to him double-digit times, and you open it up for guys like Armstead, Sharga, Keith Kirkwood, Adonis Jennings and Ventell Bryant.

Wright can THROW the ball on a dime from 70 yards and he can do a lot on CATCHING swing passes out of the backfield to beat a blitz or even a conventional rush. Geez, you would think this staff knows that by now. Certainly the other staff did.

If Wright gets the ball only two times again, we can officially declare this new staff brain dead and take them off life support. We will track each and every Wright touch against Houston and it will be the subject of our next Thursday post.

Geoff Collins, since you are the CEO of this organization, it’s ultimately your responsibility. This will not be on Dave Patenaude. You must tell him what to do and expect him to do it.

Sunday: Game Analysis

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

Thursday: Tracking The Wright Touches

09.25.17
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Fizzy’s Corner: Temple Puff

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                                                                     By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

There are three important things in football.  They are, coaching, coaching, and coaching.

So here’s where we are.  We’ve been on national TV twice, and laid an egg both times. The offensive coaching in particular, has been totally abysmal.  This display of a not well thought-out offense, coupled with stupid play calling, is seriously going to inhibit our recruiting efforts.  What high school offensive star will want to come here?

  1. After a turnover on the SF 39, Patenaude ran three running plays.
  2. After scoring on a great defensive play, do we try an onside kick?
  3. Then trailing at the end of the first half and having stopped SF, do we call a time-out to stop the clock with almost two minutes left?  No, when we got the ball back, we ran out the clock.Maybe I don’t understand, are we trying to win here?
  4. Trailing by 26 with two minutes left in the third quarter, Patenaude runs the ball on first and second down in good field position. I guess we wanted to hold the score down.
  5. What about the fake field goal?  It seems no one was aware it was a fake but the QB.

I don’t know what he did at Inter-Coastel Waterway, but this is a junior high offense.  Everything is straight ahead and completely predictable. Yes, I know, Marchi had a terrible night, as did some of our receivers.  But it’s really tough to throw with an all out rush coming most of the time, because the offensive coordinator keeps putting you in third and long.

The defense held out pretty well in the first quarter and a half, but they obviously spent too much time on the field. I wonder if they would have continued to be successful if the offense was eating clock.  Once again, this offense needs to be wide-open and throwing the hell out of the ball with quick slants, outs and hooks, and then going long. What about mis-direction, has Patenaude heard about that innovation?

Right now, our football program seems to have returned to the depths.  Coach Collins, you must do something radical.

Wednesday: If Not Now, When?

Friday: From Plain to Plain Ugly

 

07.05.17
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Summer Practice: Picking Up That Can

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As a matter of comparison, what has happened at the quarterback position since the departure of P.J. Walker has been simply a case of kicking the can down the road.

More precisely, four cans.

This summer’s practice isn’t all about picking up the can with the best ingredients but it will be the most intriguing development.

Collins, correctly, postponed the decision on starter until the summer practice that begins in a couple of weeks.

It probably won’t be announced on the first or second week, but probably settled on by the third or fourth week. No one would be surprised if it was revealed a few days before the Sept. 2 game at Notre Dame. Game notes being what they are, and a national television audience being what it is, the crew of the game probably would want to do their homework on the Temple starter on something other than the morning of the game. So don’t expect a game day surprise.

As it sits now, I cannot tell you who will start.

Collins probably couldn’t either.

That’s because no one really has separated themselves from the other in the four weeks of spring practice. Will it happen in the summer? Possibly, but it’s also possible that the talent level will be so close other factors have to be considered.

In Toddy Centeio, the true freshman from Florida, the Owls have a high upside guy. Maybe the highest. Still, when was the last time a true freshman led a team to a P5 or a G5 title? That’s probably the best reason for a redshirt year that includes time leading the scout team, building up muscles in the weight room and loading the head with modern offensive concepts in the film room.

That leaves Anthony Russo, Logan Marchi and Frank Nutile.

In Russo, the Owls not only have their highest-ranked quarterback recruit since Ron Dickerson was able to convince Kevin Harvey to take his Parade All-American certificate to Temple, but one of the top three recruits of any school from one of the three big Philadelphia City Leagues. Russo has a better pedigree that even a couple of NFL MVPs, Rich Gannon (St. Joseph’s Prep, Delaware) and Matty Ryan (Penn Charter, Boston College). Both Gannon and Ryan had 20 touchdown passes in their final year of high school play; Russo had 35. Same level of competition.

The Owls could go to Nutile, a game manager type who was nowhere near as effective a high school quarterback as Russo.

The appeal of Marchi is that he has the mobility none of the other three have and he’s a year farther along than Russo. Given offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude’s stated fondness for a dual threat quarterback, Marchi might be the slight clubhouse leader at this point.

Collins and Patenaude will kick these cans down the interstate as long as they can, but somewhere between here and South Bend they will have to settle on one. Right now, they would prefer one of the guys to be so much better than the other three that the player, not the coach, decides.

That’s what summer practice is for but it’s also to make the tough coaching calls if a player doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity.

Friday: Class Warfare

Monday: House Money

 

 

05.26.17
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Spread This

spreadthis

This should be the only spread at the E-O until Sharga graduates.

If you’ve listened to several of the interviews Dave Patenaude gave over the offseason, included in his comments are several references to wanting to keep the Temple offensive identity, which is to run the football behind the fullback and keep defenses honest with play-fakes to the halfback resulting in explosive downfield plays in the passing game.

So far, so good.

Then the new offensive coordinator throws in a curse word: Spread Offense.

emptyset

Under this kind of empty set, AAC defenses routinely audibled into a blitz  and often sacked P.J. Walker.

Actually, that’s two curse words but who’s counting?

If there is one thing Matt Rhule learned after his first two seasons (8-16), he said it was that the spread was something that rubbed against every fiber in his football body but indicated he was intoxicated by watching the big-time teams play that way.

“That’s just not the way Temple plays football,” he said before the 2015 season. “The sooner I came to realize that, the better off we were at the end of last season. Under Al (Golden), we were a run-first, utilizing the fullback  type of team and we forced the linebackers and safeties up so we could make big plays in the passing game. That’s who I am. That’s the way I coach and I got talked out of that.”

Rhule would not say who did the talking, but the speculation squarely centered on offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield. Once Rhule put his foot down, the Owls had back-to-back 10-win seasons.


With the run established,
linebackers and safeties
freeze for a split second
with that kind of fake and
Owl receivers would be so
open Russo won’t know which
one to pick out. With a
fullback like Sharga and
tailbacks like Ryquell Armstead
and Jager Gardner,
that’s the only way to play

Temple’s identity as a team which sets up explosive plays in the passing game off the fear of the run is as much the school’s own as Navy’s triple-option is today. To mess with that is to play with fire.

Plus, the Owls have the best fullback in college football, Nick Sharga, for one more year. While they have him, they should use him as another offensive lineman to open up the running game and occasionally running over linebackers with the ball in his hands. Under that scenario, the linebackers and the safeties inch up to the line of scrimmage to protect against the run and are susceptible to the kind of deft play-fakes a quarterback like Anthony Russo makes easily. With the run established, linebackers and safeties freeze for a split second with that kind of fake and Owl receivers would be so open Russo won’t know which one to pick out. With a fullback like Sharga and tailbacks like Ryquell Armstead and Jager Gardner, that’s the only way to play.

If they are really thinking about uttering curse words like “spread offense” 2018 might be a good time to tinker with that concept.

Not before.

Monday: 5 Reasons Why Owls Will Win AAC Title

Wednesday: Power 5 Misconceptions

Friday: The Big Cheese

01.17.17
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Patenaude’s Pudding

 

With apologies to Bill Cosby, the proof about anyone is in the pudding and we’re not talking Jello here.

Not what they say, but what they do, and, for that, any Temple fan has got to love new offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude.

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The first words out of Patenaude’s mouth in the above interview with the always prepared Morgyn Seigfried were this: “Well, right out of the gate, we’re going right back to the things that have been great here, Temple TUFF, being physical, coming down hill, running the ball, play-action.”

That’s the “what they say” part; we’ll get to the “what they do part” a little later.

If those were the first words out of his mouth in an interview with me, my next two words would have been: “You’re hired.”

According to no less an authority than departed head coach Matt Rhule, the Owls have an NFL fullback, Nick Sharga, and, as long as they have him, they might as well use his unique talents to open up the run game for both the tailbacks and, maybe at least 3-4 times a game, for himself. Establishing the run brings the linebackers and the safeties up closer to the line of scrimmage and makes them suckers for the play-action pass. New quarterback Anthony Russo is going to need that extra second or two play action gives him next year because main quarterback protection, left tackle Dion Dawkins, is off to some lucky team as an NFL first-rounder. Deftly fake it into the belly of, say, Ryquell Armstead, after Armstead rips open a patented (or, in this case, Patenauded) 20-yard run, and Russo will have Temple receivers running so free through the secondary he will not know which one to pick out.

You don’t fix what isn’t broken and, to his credit, Patenaude recognizes that the system Matt Rhule has run from an offensive perspective was never broken. Two tight ends, a fullback, smash-mouth football, play-action, is ingrained in the Temple TUFF mentality and sets the Owls apart from every other team in the AAC. It also helps them eat clock and keep the defense fresh and, if you check the scores the last two years you have noticed that Temple is the only team that plays defense on a consistent basis in the AAC.

The real tasty part of the Patenaude Pudding, though, is the results. At Coastal Carolina, the Grenadier offense under him had virtually the same number of yards and touchdowns running as it did passing. When an offense does that, it is like a shell game where the defense doesn’t know what shell the ball is under or who to tackle.

That’s the best kind of desert and it will be served to Temple fans this fall in tasty helpings. If it works, get ready for some delicious offensive numbers this fall.

Thursday: Eye Of The Needle

Saturday: Fly On The Wall