Tag Archives: fitness

10.09.26
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Temple Homecomings: Big Crowds, Big Results

In a perfect world, Lincoln Financial Field would be packed with Temple fans on game days and the crowd would be so loud opposing teams would never be able to hear their offensive signals.

As everyone knows, the world is not perfect.

Err, make that the 2018 season … a 7-0 No. 21-ranked Cincy team came into Temple and could not hear due to the loud LFF Homecoming crowd and lost, 24-17.

Especially the college football world in the NIL and transfer portal era that disses the G5/G6 teams and, by extension, the fans of those teams.

For Temple fans, though, the closest thing to perfection every year comes on Homecoming where the Prodigal Sons and Daughters of the university return for their only game of the season to make some noise, sing T for Temple U loudly and proudly and usually have a good time.

This Homecoming shapes up better than most as UConn comes to town (3:45, ESPNU).

Why?

Lot K, the largest and closest Lot to LFF, is sold out and has been sold out for a full week. This year, the Owls helped the cause by playing Penn State tough and beating an unbeaten USF team on the road.

In the past, that Lot K sellout alone usually means an announced crowd in excess or at least close to 30,000.

Let’s take a look at some past Homecoming numbers:

The 2020 season was omitted due to Covid and, while the uni did have a Homecoming win (39-37 over USF), attendance was restricted due to the pandemic.

Temple announced a sold-out Lot K on Monday and that usually means a 30K-plus crowd. The only time the uni announced a pre-game sellout of Lot K, and the attendance fell below 30K was the 28,573 crowd against Memphis in 2021–a 34-31 Temple win over a top 20-ranked Tigers’ team.

Last year, the Owls sent home a nice crowd of 26,149 disappointed in a 31-30 loss to Navy when they got a first down on the 1 with 1:16 left and forgot to take three knees and kick the game-winning field goal (really, extra point) with roughly three seconds left.

That brain cramp cost them a bowl game and probably larger home crowds for the balance of the season.

I was at every single one of these games.

A smarter, tougher, more talented Owl team takes the field tomorrow against a perfect opponent for Homecoming, a regional rival (like Navy) in UConn in a game that should be competitive.

How competitive?

The teams have no common foe so it’s hard to tell but from the Kevin Bacon four degrees of separation theory there are clues.

One, Temple went to USF and won, 17-13. Two, USF went to Bowling Green and won, 14-6. Three, Bowling Green went to Miami (Ohio) and won, 24-20, and four, UConn went to that same Miami and lost, 24-21. If all of those teams can beat Miami and UConn can’t, what does that tell you?

Maybe a lot. Maybe not much.

Transitive Property isn’t perfect but it generally does give you a ballpark idea of where the teams stand and the bookmakers like Temple by four. If you think the bookmakers are full of crap, just remember that they liked UTSA to beat USF on Thursday night by seven and how much did UTSA win by?

Seven.

Four or more will only happen if the Prodigal Sons and Daughters of Temple scream their lungs out like they usually do this time every year.

Who knows?

Maybe the Owls will give them a good enough show to make them return for an encore. That should be the plan.

Saturday Near Midnight: UConn-TU Game Analysis

12.04.25
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A Signing Day that could not have gone better

Lamar Best could pull a Bear Bachmeier (BYU) and be 11-1 as a true freshman starting quarterback.

Based on what happened Wednesday inside the Edberg-Olson Practice Facility, Temple is going to have a pretty good football team in 2026.

Certainly, better than the 5-7 product we saw in 2025.

That’s because Temple signed the No. 1 recruiting class–objectively, because that was determined by the 247.com rankings–in the American Conference and 21 of those 32 signees will be enrolled in the school by January, giving them a head start both in the weight room and with the program’s culture.

Signing day 2025 could not have gone better because of that.

It was a history-making class for at least a couple of reasons.

At No. 63 nationally, it was the highest ranked class Temple has had since Steve Addazio was able to bring in the No. 54 class after the 2011 New Mexico Bowl win over Wyoming. (Prior to that, Al Golden brought in a No. 52 class after the 2009 Eagle Bank Bowl game against UCLA.)

That was all in the middle of an historic Temple bowl run, which saw the Owls attain bowl eligibility for nine of 11 seasons. By comparison, Temple hasn’t been eligible for a bowl this decade and it is a decade that is getting pretty old.

Clayton Barnes showed every Temple fan why K.C. Keeler wouldn’t have taken the Owl job if he didn’t come along. He is the Howie Roseman of college football.

What determines the product on the field, though, will be the next signing day early in January when the Owls reap whatever they can sow from the transfer portal.

Probably the marquee pick of the 32 is St. Joseph’s (N.J.) Regional state champion quarterback Lamar Best, who played in a high school league every bit as good as the one current BYU true freshman Bear Bachmeier played at Murietta Valley (Calif.). Best not only knocked off national power Don Bosco in the state title game, he had a very similar sophomore season to Bachmeier in high school. Bachmeier threw for 2,853 yards and 26 touchdowns at Murietta while Best, then at Willingboro, threw for 2,607 and 35 touchdowns.

Whoever Temple brings in could very well lose the starting job to Best but the Owls probably won’t risk that scenario. To me, after an examination of both his film and the last true freshman Temple starter, P.J. Walker, he’s at least as good a passer but a far better runner. Walker was a true drop back passer in comparison to what Best can do with his legs.

The fact that neither head coach K.C. Keeler nor recruiting guru Clayton Barnes want to leave the results of the 2026 season on a true freshman indicates the soundness of their roster approach. They brought in two other great high school quarterbacks, Brody Norman and Brady Palmer.

The only “cinch” starter among the group appears to be Upper Moreland High punter extraordinaire Luke Sword. If he doesn’t punt much, the Owls are either scoring touchdowns or kicking field goals and those are the preferable options.

If nothing else happens, they will need an experienced winning No. 1 quarterback. Keeler said they will bring in two.

If this is Luke Sword’s first punt at Temple, I won’t be mad.

Refreshing to hear for Temple fans who were absolutely screwed by Rod Carey when Anthony Russo went down and felt the same level of de ja vu with Stan Drayton when E. J. Warner missed several games with an injury. Temple will never be one hit away from a season-ending injury with Keeler as head coach.

Whether that quarterback is from the P4, G5 or even the FCS, it doesn’t matter. If anyone doubts K.C. Keeler’s ability to do that, we only need to refer you to the acquisition of Gevani McCoy. That came days after the Owls lost current Heisman Trophy candidate Trinidad Chambliss to Ole Miss.

McCoy earned the admiration of every Temple fan in that he battled holdover Evan Simon to a virtual standoff before the opener at UMass, lost his job, and became a good soldier in supporting his teammates until the end.

Temple needs someone like that, who is good enough to beat out a true freshman with all the talent in the world or back him up as insurance in case he gets hurt. Someone with the character of a McCoy.

If nothing else happens, the floor is six wins. The ceiling with an experienced winning college quarterback is double digits.

If the next recruiting season (portal) is as exciting as the one concluded on Wednesday, Temple fans are in for a treat. They will need to get off the sugar high of the last treat and a month should be enough time.

Monday: Room At The Top

Friday: Burying The Lead

06.22.25
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The foreign element: Temple has a Pope, too

Darius Pope makes key touchdown catch in Delaware’s state championship 3A game.

Since May 8, Villanova has used having a Pope as a trump card on Temple and really everyone else.

Both schools have a Brunson basketball player as a famous graduate and but on that day Villanova added a Pope.

All recruiting roads lead to Temple

No more because Temple has a Pope, too, and he’ll probably do more for the Temple football program than the real Pope will do for his alma mater.

Darius Pope of Delaware became the latest of three players to turn down a solid Syracuse offer for a Temple one and it’s an, err, blessing.

That’s because for all of Fran Brown’s documented prowess as a recruiter, there’s a buzz around the Temple recruiting this June that hasn’t existed here in a long time and even a great recruiter like Brown seems powerless to stop the momentum.

Delaware isn’t a foreign country but one of the other gets who spurned ‘Cuse for Temple, Jude Okeleke, a Top 75 in the nation defensive tackle from Nigeria. The fact that he’s from Nigeria gives Temple a real solid shot to keep him from transferring to a P4 school because foreign students are not eligible for NIL money.

Yet.

No one knows what the future holds but Brown was a dynamite recruiter here, at Rutgers, Georgia and now Syracuse and whatever recruiting magic he has couldn’t keep three solid Syracuse offers under his spell.

The other Syracuse offer who opted for Temple was Antwan Rogers, a 6-5, 290-pound defensive end from Salem, N.J.

College Football Talk Daily rates Temple as doing one of the best three recruiting jobs in the nation with UCLA and Florida. That’s pretty heady company. CFB Talk has more than 40,000 followers on twitter/x so it carries some clout.

That’s not to say that Temple’s recruiting rivals the quality of UCLA and Florida, but for its competition, Temple now stands out.

It might not show in the final recruiting rankings of the 2026 class, but there’s a lot of quality in it for the Owls and the fact that the Owls beat out P4 schools for commits bodes well for the long-term future.

Pope is one of many future Owls who will make their impacts in the 2026 season and beyond but, while new head coach K.C. Keeler was concentrating on the long-term this month, he hasn’t forgotten short-term needs.

Temple got a quality guy in running back/wide receiver Tylik Mitchell of Southern Nash in N.C., whose 10.78 in the 100-meter dash was .2 faster than that of Bernard Pierce in the PIAA state championship meet when he competed for Glen Mills. Pierce was a football player who excelled in track and was ready to go, becoming an instant starter for Al Golden at running back. His 268 yards and two touchdowns beat a 10-2 bowl-winning Navy team as a true freshman and, had he played in the second half against both Penn State and UCLA, the Owls of 2009 might have won both of those games. As it was, Pierce became a third-round draft choice in the NFL

Many feel that Mitchell has the kinds of moves and speed that could make him an instant starter at Temple, either at WR or RB–but probably at WR because there is a greater need there.

That’s a lot to ask of a true freshman but he seems to have the talent and will arrive in a month. That’s the same kind of time frame it took Pierce to get noticed.

Having a Pope helps in 2026 but a Mitchell does the same thing now.

Keeler and his staff are cooking in recruiting and others outside of Temple are liking the smell from the 10th and Diamond kitchen.

Friday: Temple’s Next Famous Names:

Monday: Short vs. Long-Term

05.29.25
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USF site: Keeler could be a home run hire

Temple being No. 1 in the new hire department only bodes well for the 2025 Owls.

There’s an old saying among a group of hikers who encounter a bear on a trail.

Since bears can run between 30-40 mph and the fastest humans only 15mph, the math doesn’t math for the two-legged mammals.

The saying simply is this:

The USF website “Green, Gold and Bold” gives the highest mark for football hires to Temple.

“You don’t have to outrun a bear. All you have to do is outrun the slowest hiker.”

When it comes to the AAC, the football foes are humans. Reach up to the P4 and most of those are bears.

So it was important the other day to scour one of the fellow “human” websites and find out what others are thinking of Temple football.

Most of them are positive that Keeler can push one or two of the other new head coaches into the path of any AAC bears and make a legitimate run toward respectability.

Here’s what the USF site, Green Gold and Bold, had to say about the Keeler hire: “Keeler is 271-112-1. The cupboard may be bare at Temple, but it probably won’t be for long. Give Temple an “A” for this hire.”

A couple of things here.

One, the cupboard WAS bare but Keeler and his staff made so many key offseason acquisitions that cannot be said now. He got the leading rusher from three schools–Memphis, Northern Illinois and Sam Houston–to come to Temple and assume that same role. He was able to keep Temple’s best rusher, Terrez Worthy, from last year to remain at Temple after he flirted with Tarleton State. The Jay Ducker/Worthy battle will be one to watch. No cupboard bare at the RB position.

Two, he upgraded the quarterback position by enticing the starting quarterback from last year at Oregon State to come to Temple. He also upgraded depth in the position by keeping Temple’s only good quarterback from last year, Evan Simon. (My prediction here is that Evan wins the job outright from Gevani McCoy because Keeler is a fair man who will realize that on his own when that battle is played out at 10th and Diamond in August.) There are at least two tasty choices in the cupboard at the most important position on the field. I won’t be mad if either McCoy or Simon start for the Owls. I was mad that the worst quarterback in football history, Forrest Brock, started for the Owls last season.

Three, the Owls’ best interior defensive lineman, Demerick Morris, transferred to Oklahoma State (presumably for NIL money) before having second thoughts and returning to Temple.

Morris is the only single-digit Owl to leave for another school and return to Temple. That is history in the making.

Playing for a Hall of Fame coach must have had a lot to do with it because I can’t imagine Temple had a bag of money to throw his way.

Saying Temple got an A for the hire and an F for roster implies that the hire has nothing to do with improving the roster. Inheriting a bad roster without an alternative was what new coaches did a decade ago in the pre-transfer portal era.

Improvising and adjusting that roster upward is what good new coaches do now. South Florida noticed what a lot of Temple fans did last December in the coaching department, while, at the same time, ignoring what he did after he was hired.

A for the former, F for the latter.

Monday: Networking