To: Dr. Jason Wingard

President, Temple University

Sullivan Hall

Broad Street and Montgomery Avenues

Philadelphia, PA 19122

Dear President Wingard,

You’ve played big-time college football.

You, more than anyone else, know a couple of simple Football 101 facts:

One, when a team refuses to pass but gouges your defense on runs, you put eight men in the box and dare them to pass.

Two, when you get a first-and-goal early in the game on the bad guy’s 3-yard line, you put your POWER back in the game, not your scatback. Tavon Ruley would have produced a 7-0 lead. Edward Saydee is a good back but not the guy you want in there when you want to move bodies.

Three, when your highly-paid coaching staff refuses to understand those basic football concepts,, it’s time to get another highly-paid coaching staff.

That’s pretty much the story in a nutshell of Saturday night’s USF 34-14 win over our beloved Temple Owls.

You know it.

Your fans know it.

Your coaching staff is clueless.

These people are from Northern Illinois. They don’t understand Temple. They hate Philadelphia. They can’t fathom Temple TUFF. They never will.

They were 1-6 last season. They will finish 3-9 this season.

It’s time for a change.

The sooner the better.

Yes, buying out the remaining three years of a coach who makes $2 million per year will cost the university major coin but put it this way.

You cannot sell this staff to the fanbase next year. Spend money, replace the guy, sell maybe 10x as many season tickets over the next 12 months.

Keep him for another year and you might not sell more than 400 season tickets in a 70,000-seat stadium for the 2022 season. This university doesn’t deserve that national embarrassment. People in Philadelphia are knowledgeable about the game. They can’t stomach three-men fronts against run-only offenses. They can’t stomach a guy who is so unpopular with his players that they routinely leave for other pastures.

Bring back Al Golden, who has proven he can win here, or give the job to a more hungry guy who is popular with the players like Gabe Infante.

You came to Temple promising bold leadership. Nothing would send a bolder leadership message to the 300,000-plus Temple alumni that you won’t accept the performance of this coaching staff.

Spend money to make money.

Fire Rod Carey no later than Monday. If you can get into the office on Sunday, that would even be better. I don’t speak for my 300,000 fellow Temple alumni nor the 40,000 current full-time students or 12,500 employees but I’m confident the great majority agree with me today.

Don’t wait until Arthur Johnson arrives in his office Nov. 1. You can fill him in on the details once he gets settled.

We cannot wait until the end of the season.

Sincerely,

Mike Gibson

Editor and Publisher

Temple Football Forever

Monday: Word of the day

Friday: UCF Preview

Sunday: Game Analysis

Dr. Jason Wingard played on this Stanford team in 1992.

Temple University football fans and Dr. Jason Wingard already have at least one thing in common:

Experiencing the sheer joy of celebrating a dominating football win over Penn State in a 10-win season.

Wingard’s win, a 24-3 bowl game trophy, came in the 1992 season. Temple fans, of course, will always remember 9/5/15, a 27-10 season-opening win over Penn State. The Cardinal finished 10-3 in 1992, the Owls 10-4 in 2015.

Wingard’s career football stats were modest–a catch for five yards in that 1992 season–but he’s listed as playing on all 12 games that season. My best guess is that he was an offensive lineman because, despite being a track star at West Chester Henderson, he also has no interception or tackle stats at Stanford. He was listed as a 1992 pre-season All-American and pre-season All-Americans usually have stats on college football reference’s site (unless they are offensive linemen).

Whatever, he’s one great catch as the next Temple University president.

That’s because going into the search I thought having a football guy would be important for the school’s search for national excellence. That’s because if you’ve ever put on a uniform, you are a competitive guy and want to win. Since his dad graduated from Temple, he’s a legacy pick. He’s from the suburbs, lives in Philadelphia now (Chestnut Hill) and probably knows the political lay of the land. If there’s a guy who can pull off a stadium, it’s him.

From Wingard’s first press conference, he mentioned a desire for Temple to be excellent in both academics and athletics.

As past President Peter J. Liacouras noted, the two are not mutually exclusive. You can be great in both.

Stanford is and, from all indications, Temple will be.

If he refuses to accept one-win seasons going forward, he has my support.

One of the interesting articles Dr. Wingard wrote as entitled “Want Millenials to Stay? Invest in Corporate Learning.”

Maybe he will be able to write a future piece on getting Gen Z’s to stay in a certain G5 college football program.

“How to succeed in college football’s transfer portal? Hire a winning charismatic head coach who not only wins but relates well to the players.”

That’s the kind of one catch Temple needs most now. The clock is ticking.

Monday: Oyster Crackers