Tag Archives: food

09.04.26
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Rutgers game a cautionary tale for the Owls

Temple beat UMass, 42-10, in the opener last year. Rutgers s*it the bed in its opener last night.

Our “friends” at Rutgers had a rough opener on Thursday night, which might serve as a cautionary tale for our Temple Owls.

Rutgers entered its home game against UMass as a 28.5-favorite and lost.

Must admit it couldn’t happen to a nicer fan base.

(Not you, Joe, because there are exceptions to every rule and he is the most decent RU fan who regularly posts on this website.)

Yet I do remember holding my transistor radio and listening to this gem while walking past that bubble practice facility RU used to have on the way into a Temple game one night.

“Let’s face it. Rutgers should always blow out teams like Temple.”

Other guy: “Agreed.”

Me in real time: “Who the f*ck do they think they are?”

Temple won, 48-14, in Piscataway, behind a quarterback who became a legendary on-campus bartender (Mike Frost) and then part owner of the place.

(The post-game brewskis with my friend Joe Klecko never tasted better.)

That’s what great rivalries are made of and Temple-Rutgers was once that before the days of the geographically rivalry went by the wayside. Two schools 63 miles apart with huge alumni bases living in that 63-mile blueprint.

Rhode Island, the Owls’ foe (2 p.m., tomorrow) is not a rival but a team the Owls have a 12-0 overall record against and some memorable games. The Owls are 14.5-point favorites and the line moving from 10 to 14 in two days tells me something.

The wise guys like Temple and I like wise guys.

That’s not important in this context, though, because if UMass proved anything it’s that anybody anywhere can beat anybody anywhere if the T’s aren’t crossed and the I’s aren’t dotted.

Says here Rutgers had a hard time getting ink out of the pen, let alone dotting I’s and T’s.

Also says here that K.C. Keeler has cursive handwriting and has taken care of those factors.

As RU fans found out on Thursday night, you never know until the ball is kicked off and the lights are on but Keeler made a revealing statement to the team the other day that might have hit home.

“One of the betting websites, not that I ever quote betting websites, had this Temple-RU game as the ninth most likely upset between FCS and FBS teams,” Keeler said. “I told my guys that was the old Temple. This is the new Temple.”

Don’t know if Schiano had a similar message for his Knights but, if he did, it never got through.

This is what we do know.

Pro football focus had former Temple lineman Sekou Kromah with a 75.3 rating in Thursday night’s game, which was the highest among any Rutgers’ player, lineman or not.

One month ago Keeler told Kromah to look for another place to play because he was likely to be a backup here but told him we would take him back if he didn’t find a spot.

Let’s hope Keeler is right on both counts, that Kromah found a spot where he can play and this is the new Temple.

In about 24 hours, we will have our answer.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

08.21.25
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First things first: Single Digits

Must admit that the only thing that generated any interest in my watching the sad 2024 season of The Temple football Owls was The Evan Simon Story.

It might make for a pretty good movie someday.

Was miffed when then head coach Stan Drayton picked a JUCO quarterback over him to start the season at Oklahoma and then watched in horror as said JUCO (Forrest Brock) played like Forrest Tucker (F-Troop fame) and became, at least in my mind, the worst starting quarterback in Temple football history.

The miffing turned to anger when I saw Simon throw four touchdowns and run for another in a 45-29 win over Utah State. (Yes, the same Utah State that handed Hawaii a 55-10 loss and Hawaii is favored over P4 Stanford this weekend.)

Me, a mere fan who sits in the stands was right and the freaking CEO of the entire program who made $2 million more than me to watch this garbage was wrong. My first thought was that the Owls might have won as many as three more games (certainly one or two more) if Drayton had might the right decision.

I cheered my ass off when Layton Jordan sacked Evan Simon here in 2022. Little did I know I would become Simon’s biggest fan a couple years later.

That wasn’t when I became a big Evan Simon fan.

I became a big Evan Simon fan when, during the later stages of a 53-6 loss at Tulane, he fumbled the ball and crawled on his hands and knees for 5 yards at midfield to outfight four bigger faster and tougher Tulane defenders and recover the fumble. He sacrificed his body and health for the ball and, in some respects, for Temple University.

That’s Temple TUFF.

On Thursday, Simon was rewarded not for that but what he has done since and his leadership of this team as being one of the new single digits. One of the other single digits was a punter, Dante Atton. Let’s hope this is one single digit the Owls never have to use.

The big story is Simon, though.

There are two ways to look at this.

One, it’s an indication Simon will start at UMass in about a week.

Two, new head coach K.C. Keeler is throwing a bone to Simon with the single digit for his leadership and accepting last year’s Oregon State starting quarterback, Gevani McCoy, into the fold.

I don’t know. We will find out the answer to that question in eight days.

This I do know: Both are AAC championship level quarterbacks and Temple can win with both and need both to win.

I only know one who I can be sure will crawl forward on his hands and knees for a full 5 yards to recover a fumble. I can hope the other guy has the same level of courage.

Or never fumbles.

If Simon gets the job and wins a championship, though, that would rival “Rudy” for the best college football film ever made.

Monday: Game Week

08.10.25
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Temple Depth Chart: Punching Back

Two heavyweight champions and Temple fans, boxer Tex Cobb (left) and Ted DeLapp.

About this time last week, being a summer-lover like I am, started getting a little depressed about entering the last month of–at least in my mind–the best three months of the year.

Also, while the stats for Temple Football Forever were higher than any previous summer, the money coming into the website never matched the money going out.

Then came home to this post from in my mind the greatest single Temple football fan I’ve ever known: Ted DeLapp:

Nothing to pick up your spirits like knowing someone is reading this blog and appreciating it. Around the same time, we got our first three donations in over a month so our readers were putting their money where their mouths were.

Really appreciate it and it will make a difference going forward.

Ourlads’ Guide’s view of Temple’s offense. I would put Luke Watson as first-team LT (now that Kevin Terry is injured), Colin Chase and JoJo Bermudez as WRs (John Adams is gone) and Worthy second team. Also note that McCoy should be at No. 2 at QB and moving up. Wouldn’t be surprised if Worthy/and or McCoy start at UMass, those positions are that close.

Better days are yet to come.

We hit a low ebb in Temple fandom at the end of the 2004 season when Ted, me, heavyweight fighter Randall “Tex” Cobb, Rick Gabe, Fred the Owl Club President, and a couple of other Temple fans were the last remaining tailgaters in an empty Lot K. While there were more Miami fans than Temple ones that day, always felt that if we were unfortunate enough to get in a fight with them, Cobb could take on five or six by himself. Punching back was something the team wasn’t doing, but the few fans left always were.

Pretty good summary of the defense, but would flip Badmus and Poteat and we understand Ordonez is moving up the depth chart fast.

That’s it. About five fans tailgating before being spanked by the Fake Miami, 41-10.

The pre-game conversation was a debate whether we wanted an up-and-comer like Al Golden or some big name out of a job at that point like Rick Neuheisel.

Fortunately, Temple made the right choice then and we certainly feel Temple has made the right choice now. Then, Golden was the man of the moment for Temple. Now, K.C. Keeler is that guy.

Keeler has assembled a roster that includes a defensive line that he called “the deepest I’ve ever had” and DC Brian Smith added that it is a deeper defense than any of his seven previous ones at Rice. The last few days have been dedicated to shuffling all that talent and putting it into some form.

That’s what depth charts are for.

Offensively, Temple has two good quarterbacks for the first time since the Matt Rhule Era (Evan Simon, Gevani McCoy) and three running backs who made the Doak Walker Watch list for best RB in the country–Terrez Worthy, Jay Ducker and Joquez Smith–the most in Temple history.

Ourlads’ Guide is one of the few websites outside of Temple that takes a stab at the current depth chart.

Defensively, they did a pretty good job but we won’t know until the official depth chart is released the week of Aug. 25.

Offensively, they need to update a few things but keeping track of 136 depth charts is an almost impossible task.

Yes, the summer is coming to an end but watching a competitive Temple football team for the first time in six years would be a pretty good consolation prize.

Finally, after being a punching bag for the last six years, Temple is showing signs of punching back. If Tex Cobb is still watching the Owls, our guess is that he will be smiling.

Friday: Behind The Lines