Tag Archives: East Carolina football

11.01.25
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Somebody please bury the White helmets

When Penn State lost at Temple a mere decade ago, James Franklin made the major subject of his Monday press conference burying the game tape.

These helmets look good.

We don’t know where. It might be on a remote farm in State College.

If the Temple football Owls are lucky, K.C. Keeler will find at least a dog park in North Philly to bury about 105 helmets.

All White ones.

I didn’t remember Temple ever winning in the combo of White helmets and Cherry uniforms, but I did a deep dive over four years of American Conference highlight reels and did find one victory in that combination.

These helmets are better carried than worn. They look like total crap and the Owls don’t play well wearing them.

Oct. 19, 2024 when Stan Drayton’s Owls doubled up Tulsa, 20-10, at last year’s Homecoming.

That’s it.

We did find a win over Navy (2023) wearing White helmets with gray jerseys, but only one with White helmets and Cherry tops.

The uniform combination of White helmets and Cherry tops is 1-9 against all competition, most of them Ungodly blowouts like Saturday’s 45-14 loss to East Carolina.

The Owls have won with White helmets and White uniforms (UMass this year) but White helmets with any combination of Cherry are no bueno.

No only does it look like crap, the Owls almost always play like crap with the White helmets.

Now that’s probably not the reason why they played like crap on Saturday–you have to give some credit to the Pirates–but why risk it?

This is the only Temple helmet ESPN Gameday allows on the set.

Take me, for instance. Rocked the Temple No. 1 game jersey for a 55-7 win against Howard and then wore it again against Navy. The Owls looked good and played well in both games (wearing Cherry helmets).

Because of the Navy loss, retired it for this season for the gray Temple hoodie.

Now the gray Temple hoodie is retired, and I will pull out the Cherry hoodie for the Army game a week from now. Had to buy one on the concourse today ($85, 2XL).

At this rate, I will go broke.

Superstition notwithstanding, a great day up until 2 p.m. was ruined by what happened between 2 and 5 p.m. The defense that completely shut down a scoring machine in UTSA either didn’t show up or was too banged up to duplicate that effort.

The Owls were on the precipice of becoming bowl eligible and that’s something Keeler and company embraced that thought all week.

Now the next thought should be to win the next play, the next game, and not look at the scoreboard or the implications of it.

Leave it to the equipment crew to take a sledgehammer to those God-ugly White helmets. It might have had nothing to do with the latest loss, but even to tempt Karma on All Soul’s Day was probably not a good idea.

Monday: Last Chance Hotel

Friday: Army Preview

10.31.25
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Key to beating ECU: Temple’s pass rush

Except for the sarcastic “16 people” remark, this is a pretty good analysis.

Eight games into a season should compile enough evidence to determine whether a college football team is good.

Well, all the available metrics indicate that Temple is a pretty good college football team.

Damn good, coached by the winningest active head coach in football, K.C. Keeler. This week we learned coach Keeler reads TFF because he opened up Monday’s press conference by saying “there was no conspiracy to get Hunter Smith a touchdown.” (That was the subject of our Saturday night post, although we used the word “reward” and not conspiracy. No other analysis of the game brought up the Hunter Smith subject other than this space, so thanks K.C. for the shoutout.)

This might have been the year for Temple to play Penn State. ECU, though, is the Super Bowl for Temple now.

Saturday we should find out how good Temple is when the 5-3 Owls, 3-1 in conference host an East Carolina team that is somehow a 4.5-point favorite on the road (2 p.m., ESPN+).

That 4.5 means the nation doesn’t believe yet, even if Philadelphia might.

ECU is also good.

If the Owls are able to beat this team, it’s time to move them to the elite G5 level. That would be Temple winning at home against a team that was a 6.5-point favorite (UTSA), a one-point loss to another 6.5-point favorite (that should have been a win) and a win at home over a 4.5-point favorite (ECU).

Already, Thursday night provided some extra clues about how good Temple is because UTSA beat Tulane, 48-26, Tulane beat Northwestern (23-3) and Northwestern beat Penn State (22-21).

Metrics that matter. Everyone give Matt Gajewski’s YouTube page a thumb’s up and a like. This guy knows his stuff.

Oh yes. We forgot. Tulane beat ECU, 26-19.

Transitive property notwithstanding a number of experts (see above video) have pointed out some metrics that give the Owls important advantages.

The Owls haven’t had a pass rush since the UTSA game and there is a good reason for that in since the guys who were the protagonists in that rush (Sekou Kromah and Sultan Badmus) have been banged and missed a lot of snaps. They are both back and should cause the ECU quarterback to run for his life, just as they did in the second half to Owen McCown of UTSA.

Kromah and Badmus are good to go and that couldn’t come at a better time for Temple.

All things being equal, the ECU offensive line is nowhere near as good as the UTSA line so if the Owls get consistent pressure on Kaitin Houser, he should wilt just like McCown did.

It would help if the 12,500 students who live on campus hop either hop on the subway for the 10-minute ride to Lincoln Financial Field or get one of the hundreds of free buses the university offers every gameday.

Make some noise to get that pass rush juiced. Stand up on every defensive third down.

This is an all-hands-on deck game both the players and the fans so that means players, coaches, alumni, students and Joe Philadelphia fans whose other hometown football team is on a bye this week are all one party on the same project.

Winning, and singing “T for Temple U” afterward.

This is the best chance to date for Temple to show the nation how far it has come in football under the winningest active coach in the NCAA.

Putting the bad guy’s quarterback on his backside early and often will be the key. Mr. Badmus and Mr. Kromah that is your assignment if you chose to accept it, but Mr. Haye, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Morris and others are free to join in as needed.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

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

10.04.19
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Turning out the lights on East Carolina

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woL1UVl9GRU

The lights went out with 3 minutes, 34 seconds left in Temple’s 27-17 win over host East Carolina but, to borrow a famous Don Meredith phrase, the party was over long before that.

The score was 27-10 at the time but, in reality, it seemed a lot more dominant game by the Owls than that.

It seems like first-year Temple coach Rod Carey has found the formula going forward: Heavy on the run game to open up passing lanes and light on the turnovers.

That’s the lesson of the unfortunate Buffalo loss. The Owls tried to do too much up there and, as a result, had too many turnovers and put their defense in too many bad spots.

No more.

Screenshot 2019-10-04 at 9.18.04 AM

When all is said and done, I think ECU will be a better team than Buffalo–it already owns a win over an Old Dominion team that played Virginia Tech pretty even–but that’s not as important as the Owls finding their own familiar identity.

Pound and ground and hit a few important plays in the passing game as a result of the bad guys being so intent on stopping the run. It limits turnovers, but probably doesn’t lead to some of the blowout wins we’ve seen in the past.

That’s a preview of the game plan with teams like Memphis and UCF ahead and probably the only way to win.

turn-out-the-5c3b25

Re’Mahn Davis solidified my view that he’s a big-time back. He had a career-high in rushing (157 yards) and he broke more tackles on every drive than Eagles’ tight end Zach Ertz has in a seven-year NFL career. He’s got a unique running style that I can’t quite pin down. He’s not as elusive as Heisman Trophy runner-up Paul Palmer nor as fast as state champion sprinter Bernard Pierce but he breaks tackles like no Temple running back I’ve seen recently. Maybe Montel Harris (351 yards, 7 touchdowns in a 2012 win over Army) is the closest comparison I can make.

I made a point out of watching Carey’s face coming off the field and it was the pained look of a guy who lost 27-17 and not won. That’s a good sign. That shows he’s a perfectionist and that’s what Temple football needs in the CEO spot. There were far too many penalties and the Owls are going to have to figure out a better way to keep the rush off Anthony Russo. To me, the best way is putting a fullback in as a lead blocker for Davis and Jager Gardner and also drop back to help in play-action pass protection for Russo. Ask Paul Palmer what helped him nearly get the Heisman and he will tell you fullback Shelley Poole. Wyatt Benson did the same for Pierce and Kenny Harper played that important role for Harris. Nick Sharga’s fullback blocks helped Jahad Thomas, Ryquell Armstead and teammates beat Penn State and win an AAC title. Temple has a long tradition of great fullbacks.

Carey will have to come to that conclusion for himself.

Meanwhile, winning a game in college football is hard enough and winning a game on the road is even harder so it is better to learn those lessons after a win than after a loss.

Prediction Tonight: Cincinnati getting 4.5 against visiting UCF.  Bearcats, UCF and Boise State are the leading candidates to get the G5 NY6 slot and the Bearcats have already made one statement for it by beating Marshall, 45-17, on the road. How was that a statement? Boise struggled to beat Marshall, 14-7, at home. UCF was unimpressive in losing to a middling ACC team like Pitt in OT. Bearcats win this outright, 27-21. Last week we were 4-3 against the spread (winning with ECU and Toledo as dogs and SMU and Cincy as favorites but losing on Maryland as a dog and UAB and Wake Forest as favorites. YTD: 17-5 straight up, 13-9 ATS.

Tomorrow: Key Saturday Games

10.02.19
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Game Night: Wright Time to put best feet forward

Forget about baseball for a moment since just about all of the ratings indicate much of America has, even in the postseason.

This is football season and there are two games on nationally Thursday night.

One is an NFL game.

Screenshot 2019-10-01 at 10.38.22 PM

The other is Temple football. Believe it or not, a large swath of the country doesn’t care much for the NFL but instead prefers college football and, for those folks, this is Temple’s chance to shine.

Maybe one or two times a year the university has a chance to put its front porch on the national stage without significant competition and one of them is Thursday (8 p.m., ESPN) at East Carolina. They won’t be seeing Temple as a chemistry class or a library or a band, but Temple as a football team.

So logic follows that maybe the Owls should put their best feet forward.

Or at least the best two feet they have: Isaiah Wright.

If there’s a common thread to the statements that Matt Rhule, Geoff Collins and Rod Carey have made about any Temple football player it’s various forms of this quote:

“We have to find a way to get the ball more to Isaiah Wright.”

Screenshot 2019-10-02 at 9.34.00 AM

As a freshman under Rhule, Wright caught 8 passes for 74 yards with zero touchdowns but was more involved as a runner by carrying the ball 42 times for 232 yards, including a touchdown at Tulane.

As a sophomore under Collins, Wright had 46 receptions for 668 yards and four touchdowns and 25 carries for 188 yards and another touchdown. Those numbers regressed to 33 catches for 368 yards and three touchdowns and 19 carries for 84 yards a year ago.

This year: Wright has 22 receptions for 201 yards and three touchdowns but just four carries for 42 yards.

What do those statistics tell you?

When the guy’s number is called, he delivers but his number has not been called nearly enough–particularly on running plays. This is a coaching problem, not a player problem, and has been for some time. Carey isn’t going to run Wright out of the Wildcat (and that makes sense because he doesn’t throw from it) but more jet sweeps after faking inside to Re’Mahn Davis could be just what the doctor ordered. The film shows a lot of movement–mostly with wide receiver Jadan Blue–on running plays, but not a whole lot of use with a handoff off that movement. Get Wright involved on a few of those jet sweeps and chances are everything else opens up.

No better time than Thursday when the university is putting its best figurative foot forward on potentially the biggest stage of the year to put its best literal two feet forward.

Friday: Game Analysis

 

10.08.17
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Cooking With Gas

Somewhere near the bottom of yesterday’s post, I wrote:

“If Temple wins 41-10, then we are cooking with gas.”

Well, it was 34-10, and probably would have been 41-10 had Geoff Collins not called off the dogs on the final six-minute drive.

So where does that leave us?

Cooking with gas, which means a lot of the more realistic goals for the season are in sight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O1LgD6s-Os

Before yesterday, it would have taken a lot to get a spark by rubbing two sticks together.

No one—not even me—expected the Owls to repeat as AAC champions, but, with six games remaining in a 3-3 season, a bowl game and a bowl win are something even the most pessimistic among us feel is possible.

Really, the only game I feel the Owls will be in over their heads is the UCF game, but they can win four or five of their last six. Five would get them to eight and that would be an outstanding season. Splitting the final six would be a minimum expectation.

There were plenty of things to be happy about and only a couple of questions but we’ll get to those in the Tuesday post.

The positives:

  • Logan Marchi finally played like the quarterback Dave Patenaude thought he was with two touchdown passes and over 300 yards of passing. There is some promise there and plenty of room to improve.
  • Keith Kirkwood’s one-handed catch on a crucial third down was another ESPN Sports Center highlight.
  • The defense showed a relentless pass rush, led by senior Jacob Martin.
  • Walk-on fullback Rob Ritrovato showed that the position will not die with the graduation of Nick Sharga, who was strangely AWOL during this game but played well (as he usually does) the few opportunities he got.
  • Third-down back David Hood showed that he can ball on first and second down as well and he has an uncanny knack for staying on his feet after the first hit, even using his hands to regain his balance.
  • Unlike the better part of the last three years, when Temple got a comfortable lead, the second-string quarterback was allowed to come in and he moved the team. That is a nice insurance policy should any injury to the starter take place. Let’s face it, had P.J. Walker gone down in any game last year, there would have been no championship season. Marchi’s development probably wouldn’t have been stunted had he had the same game reps in the last two seasons.

Since Temple beat ECU, 34-10, and ECU beat UConn, 41-38, that bodes well for a nice Homecoming if the team continues to improve. (Heck, even Lafayette—a team that Villanova smoked, 59-0, beat a Holy Cross team UConn struggled against.)

The pre-game burgers should be tasting pretty good and, if the Owls play next week like they did this one, so should the post-game ones. After that, it’s about improving each game.

Fire up the Kerosene.

Tuesday: Missing Without Action

11.25.16
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ECU: Throttle The Known

This was Zay Jones versus Temple last season.

A couple of great Temple coaches have shown at least there are two ways to build a respected program.

John Chaney did it in basketball by playing the best non-conference opposition and paying particular attention to stopping the player or thing that makes the opponent formidable. Matt Rhule has done it with a slightly less challenging schedule and not so much of a focus on the foe but on the “process” and not worry all that much about what the bad guys are doing.

attitude

Both have worked pretty much, but the Owls would be wise to take a page from old Doylestown Intelligencer colleague Steve Wattenberg’s terrific “Winning Is an Attitude” book about Chaney in preparation for an all-important game on Saturday night (7:30, don’t worry about TV, just be there) with visiting East Carolina. In that book, Chaney said the key to the Owls’ success was defensive preparation and “stopping the known over the unknown.” By that, Chaney meant studying what the opponent does well by taking that away and mixing in accentuating what you do well. Chaney would concentrate on taking away the opponent’s top threat and challenge lesser threats to beat him. On his side, he would yell at players who took shots when people like Eddie Jones, Rick Brunson and Aaron McKie (among others) could have had better ones.

That was a formula that took Temple to the top of the basketball world.

word

It is a philosophy Rhule would be wise to adopt against ECU on Saturday. East Carolina wide receiver Zay Jones is good enough to hurt the Owls, but he won’t do it if the Owls’ can cover him with a corner and rotate safety Sean Chandler to his side of the field for help coverage.  That’s the known. If the Owls are going to get hurt, they should take away the known and challenge the unknown to beat them. If the unknown was any good, that guy would be talked about as a future NFL staple. Other than Jones, no such player exists on the Pirates’ squad.

If Temple football has had an Achilles’ heel over the last three or four years, it has been the occasional lapse in preparation as shown in this year’s loss to Army and other losses in the past.

The Owls had eight months to prepare for the triple option and came up with a defensive game plan that defied common sense, let alone football sense.

Sometime common sense in the best currency and that will be the case on Saturday night. Jones is the all-time Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) leader in receptions with 392. The old mark of 387 was set by former ECU standout Justin Hardy, now with the Atlanta Falcons. This season he has 151 receptions for 1,685 yards and eight touchdowns. With four more catches, he will tie the FBS single-season mark set by Freddie Barnes. You do not have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the Pirates will try to get Jones going early. By rotating Chandler—who himself has terrific ball skills—over to help, the Owls might be able to come up with a pick six or two.

Sometimes, the “process” includes being able to borrow from other successful processes and the one the Owls should pilfer this week is from a guy who is a part of their own Acres of Diamonds.

Sunday: Game Analysis

10.23.15
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ESPN: Temple Has No Chance of Beating Notre Dame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQbDo81zZn4

Kickout blocks like Nick Sharga’s on Jahad Thomas’ first TD are something we’ve been talking about for two years on this site. Great to see the Owls adopt those principles on a regular basis this season.

standings

Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, I have heard the names Danny Kanell and Joey Galloway before but they were always no more than background noise until last night.

Then they had to open their mouths after what might not have been the biggest win in Temple football history but the biggest one for a lot of us who have followed the program for the last 30 plus years. Temple 24, East Carolina 14.

One of the ESPN hosts asked Kanell what chance Temple had of beating Notre Dame next week.

“Zero chance,” Kanell said.

“Yeah, no chance,” Galloway said.

Another slow start, but a wonderful finish for the Owls and Jahad Thomas.

Another slow start, but a wonderful finish for the Owls and Jahad Thomas.

Then more background noise, blah, blah, blah.

Galloway and Kanell are just two people, but they were the immediate face of ESPN after the first time Temple went 7-0, so you can pretty much say ESPN says the Owls have no chance.

Temple has a chance to beat Notre Dame. I cannot put a number on it, but it’s certainly not zero and it is certainly not “no chance.”  Let’s put it this way: If Memphis has a chance at beating Ole Miss, Temple has a chance of beating Notre Dame. Ole Miss is every bit as good as Notre Dame, maybe better. Temple is every bit as good as Memphis, maybe better. Oh what? Memphis did beat Ole Miss?

As Emily Latilla might say, “Never mind.”

The Owls were pretty much who we thought they were last night—an incredibly resilient team that fights hard through slow starts and answers the bell at crunch time. They have a lot of interesting weapons and two players on offense, Robby Anderson and Jahad Thomas, who are as good at their positions as anyone in the country and that includes Notre Dame. P.J. Walker can be my quarterback any day of the week and most nights. They have a defense that will shut people down, and often out, for long stretches of any game.

They are now 7-0 for the first time in their history and the first thing ESPN did was not praise them, but bury them.

Temple will show up in eight days to play Notre Dame and to say the atmosphere will be electric is really understating the energy factor. It’ll be more nuclear than electric. Let what happens on the field determine who has a chance to do what, not a couple of clowns in a studio.

10.22.15
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Game Day: Some Deep Galactic Thoughts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnH4MJ95DJ0

Some crazy stars and asteroids are aligning soon, and we’re not really sure what they mean, if anything, about the outcome to tonight’s Temple at ECU game.

What I have learned on the ABC Evening News with David Muir is that an Asteroid is coming within close proximity of the Earth on Halloween Night. Since I have purchased one of those $20 Millionaire lotto raffle tickets drawn that night, it would be my luck to win a million at 7 p.m. and have the earth smashed into by an Asteroid at, oh, about 11:30 p.m.

If, however, a 7-0 Temple team were to beat a 6-1 Notre Dame team five minutes earlier, I could not have picked a better way to go–so maybe that Asteroid means the Owls will beat the Pirates tonight. Omen quotient: Temple win.

Fans watching the game on ESPN2 tonight will be treated to live cuts to Temple fans cheering on the Owls at Shorty's Flatiron Bar in NYC.

Fans watching the game on ESPN2 tonight will be treated to live cuts to Temple fans cheering on the Owls at Shorty’s Flatiron Bar in NYC.

Some other galactic omens:

  • Last year, East Carolina was unbeaten and ranked No. 21 coming into Philadelphia to play Temple and lost to the 4-3 Owls. Tonight, Temple is unbeaten, ranked No. 22 and playing a 4-3 team in Greenville. Hopefully, that doesn’t mean history repeats itself for the 4-3 and unbeaten squads. Not even Bill O’Reilly can spin this one positively. Omen quotient: Temple loss.
  • Both teams have won a game they’d like to do over: Temple beating UMass, 25-23, and East Carolina beating Towson, 28-20. UMass is bad, but it’s 10x better than Towson. Omen quotient: Temple win.
  • Last trip to North Carolina: Temple’s 37-3 win at Charlotte looks better in light of Charlotte extending Old Dominion to a 37-34 game last week. A lot of projections have Old Dominion in a bowl game. Omen quotient: Temple win.
  • ESPN is going to send a film crew to New York City to shoot a group of Temple fans watching the game at Shorty’s Flatiron, 66 Madison Avenue, Manhattan. ESPN is owned by the same company that owns ABC, Disney. ABC is doing the Temple vs. Notre Dame game primetime in nine nights. There is nothing more this Mickey Mouse operation (and we say that positively) would like than to be shooting shots of screaming happy Owl fans after Temple touchdowns. Omen quotient: Temple win.
  • Matt Rhule channeled his inner Joe Maddon before the game: “As Joe Maddon says, if the pleasure outweighs the pressure, you’re good. I don’t want the pressure to be too much.” The Cubs got swept, 4-0. Much more interested in what Terry Collins had to say. Omen quotient: Temple loss.

    Joe Maddon

    Joe Maddon

  • Jahad Thomas mentioned two words that have never been uttered by a Temple player before: “National championship” in response to a question from Mike Kern about what would constitute notable accomplishments. “A conference championship, an undefeated season, a national championship—things of that nature,” Thomas said. Well, we were just hoping the Owls weren’t looking ahead to Notre Dame, let alone nine games down the road. Omen quotient: Temple loss.

Hopefully, just an innocent remark and not bad Karma but we won’t find that out until around 10:30. Meanwhile, keep an eye on the sky.

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

10.21.15
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5 Keys That Could Unlock a Big Win at ECU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxgLfqoPp8I&feature=youtu.be

Matt Rhule has some good ideas on getting his team to relax.

The odds makers who reside in Las Vegas have made East Carolina University a favorite over the visiting Temple Owls (tomorrow night, 7 p.m., ESPN2) and the reasons are mostly because Temple (6-0) is coming off a short week with a big game coming up in Notre Dame and the Pirates are a very good home team. There are a couple of things wrong with that thinking, though. ECU (4-3) is also coming off a short week and, while it is a good home team, Temple showed enough grit to survive a similar road test at Cincinnati earlier this season. Also, the Owls are wise enough to know that Notre Dame, while big, is nowhere near as important as the ECU game is to them. The matchups also seem to be in Temple’s favor as ECU is weak against the run and Temple has proven to be a formidable rushing team. The game is played on the field, though, not in Las Vegas, and if the Owls do these five things, they should be just fine.

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  1. Commit to the Run

ECU gives up 188 yards per game on the ground. The Owls have not seen that kind of porous run-stopping since UMass. Mark Whipple had a good game plan against the Owls, stacking the box with eight. Instead of check-mating that with two tight ends and a fullback, the Owls played into Whipple’s hands by throwing the ball 48 times. They got away from their identity and threw a couple of costly picks that allowed an inferior team to hang around for three hours. They must stay within themselves, throwing the ball 20-30 times. If they have to, they must put more helmets on ECU helmets and knock them back off the ball.

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  1. Rush the Passer

The Pirates employ two quarterbacks, one a passer and one a runner. The Owls need to blitz the passer and contain their lanes on the runner.  James Summers (No. 11) is the runner. Fellow junior Blake Kemp is the passer. Kemp has a problem with turnovers and, if the Owls treat him with the same respect they treated Christian Hackenberg with (none), they should be able to force a couple of turnovers. The old saying in football is that when you have two quarterbacks you have none and the Owls need to show why that saying is true.

  1. Block a Punt

This was Sam Benjamin’s specialty last season. No. 10 blocked two punts in the UCF game a year ago and one in the Charlotte game this season. Now, Adonis Jennings has joined the punt-blocking party, using his length and athleticism to block a punt against UCF last week. With Benjamin coming from the side and Jennings from the middle, blocking a punt would take pressure off a return game which has been shaky the last couple of weeks.

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  1. Play-Action Passing

When P.J. Walker throws 20-30 passes (and not the 48 he threw against UMass), the Owls can have an explosive downfield passing game. They must rip the “out” pattern—the one that went for a Pick 6 against UCF—out of the playbook, though. Once they get Jahad Thomas going in the run game, faking it to Thomas should find receivers like Jennings, Robby Anderson, Ventell Bryant and John Christopher finding open seams over the middle.

  1. Protect the Ball

Easy to say, hard to do, but head coach Matt Rhule hit on it in his Tuesday press conference when he said the ball is going to come free on things like a bad snap or bad bounce but just fall on it and do not try to pick it up. Falling on it allows the offense—with its impressive arsenal of offensive weapons—to live another day. If the Owls protect the ball, they will likely live a day at 7-0—which would be their first-ever day with that record.

As Rhule says, just go play.