Tag Archives: football

09.11.26
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TU-PSU: Penn State is in trouble

“I wonder how many Temple fans will be in the stands?” Answer: A lot.

Since there are about eight million Penn State Youtubers and Temple has none, these are the thumbnails that have come across my recommended feed just in the last two days:

“Temple is in trouble.”

“The Penn State Pregame Show: Another blowout probable.”

“Huge Mismatch: Penn State-Temple 4 Things to Watch.”

Well, turnabout is fair play.

We’re going to be the only site on the internet this week with a specific headline: “Penn State is in Trouble.”

Not because we are picking our beloved Owls (we aren’t) but because the recent college football landscape is littered with road signs that could indicate Temple has a chance in Saturday’s high noon showdown at Lincoln Financial Field.

Red (or maybe Cherry) flags for Penn State fans.

Here are three:

Western Michigan at Michigan: The Broncos came into the Big House bigger underdogs than Temple is in its own house (28.5 to 24.5) and basically won that game with a similar roster to Temple. It can be argued that the Michigan roster is similar to Penn State. In fact, Athlon Sports ranks the Michigan roster as No. 11 in talent level to Penn State’s No. 20. The same rankings had Temple’s roster No. 76 and Western Michigan’s roster No. 79. The Linc is not The Big House nor even Beaver Stadium and, while there will be Penn State fans there, Temple fans will make some noise as they have made here:

That’s a lot of Cherry in the stands in the 2015 game. There will be a lot of Cherry tomorrow as well.

Can’t imagine the Big 10 refs putting another second on the clock in front of this Cherry-clad crowd if the Owls play as well as Western Michigan did.

“Penn State fans will be at the Linc but it ain’t Beaver Stadium,” Colby Dant said. “It ain’t the same vibe.”

“I like this Temple team,” he said. “It could be a good team.”

Oklahoma State at Tulsa: Oklahoma State, fueled by oil billionaires, purchased both the North Texas head coach pretty much the entire 11-1 North Texas team. They went into Tulsa and lost, 24-10. Who did Tulsa lose to at home last year? Temple.

UMass at Rutgers: Ostensibly, Rutgers is in the Big 10 and has won quite a few Big 10 games in recent years. It hasn’t beaten Penn State in this century, like Temple has, but it lost, 37-21 to a UMass team Temple beat within the last calendar year (42-10).

Penn State seems to think Temple is Marshall.

Temple is no Marshall. The Owls, unlike Marshall, have the winningest active head coach in the FBS in K.C. Keeler and, unlike Marshall, have a recent win over UTSA, which not only won a bowl game last year but destroyed Tulane, 48-26, in a year where Tulane made the CFB playoff and Penn State did not. Temple was the only team in the country, P4 or G5/6, to keep all of its starters. There is something to be said for loyalty over paid mercenaries and Western Michigan made that statement a week ago and Temple is about to deliver the same message now.

If Penn State goes into the Linc and thinks Temple is Marshall, the Nittany Lions are in trouble and judging from the way the PSU media is portraying the game, that should be the case. Players read all that garbage and, if they take it to heart, they will think they are in for a cakewalk. In the other building, the Temple players know the challenge and have read all the disrespect directed their way. Keeler said the Owls’ defensive line will be the “story of the conference” and maybe the first chapter of that story will be written on Saturday.

If somebody is in trouble, it might not be Temple. You read it here first.

And only.

Saturday: Game Analysis

09.07.26
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It’s called Cherry on Top for a reason

To me, the best Temple helmet would be the King Solomon Solution of splitting the baby, with T on one side and TEMPLE spelled out on the other.

The phrase “cherry on top” is used metaphorically to describe an extra element that improves an already positive situation.

It’s high time Temple football’s equipment room and hierarchy understood that simple concept.

Maybe, just maybe, Temple’s win over Rhode Island on Saturday was the last time Temple will ever wear white helmets at home.

Temple beat Penn State with the Cherry helmets, Cherry top, White pants–the best uniform combination in the country.

We can only hope because it’s a documented fact that almost every time the Owls wear White helmets over Cherry uniforms they lose and play like crap.

Rhode Island was the exception to the rule. There’s always one.

Take just the K.C. Keeler “Era” for example. The Owls got spanked by ECU, 45-14, and Oklahoma, 42-3, and UNT, 52-25, wearing. ….

You guessed it. White helmets.

They beat Howard, 55-7, UTSA, 27-21, and played spectacularly in a heartbreaking loss to Navy, 32-31, won on the road at Tulsa (32-31) wearing Cherry helmets.

On the road, the White helmets with the White uniforms can be excused. Putting that ugly White helmet on top of a great Cherry uniform at home is blasphemy.

This would be the best road uniform combo, the same one the Owls had at Tulsa last year.

I mentioned that to Athletic Director Arthur Johnson on Saturday and he told me he had nothing to do with the helmets. I brought up the subject with K.C. Keeler’s secretary (err, Executive Assistant), Nadia Harvin, and asked her to leave a note on K.C. Keeler’s desk to ixnay the White helmets, at least in home games. Nadia said we are the Cherry and White.

I then said nobody uses the phrase White on Top. It’s always Cherry on Top.

Almost all of the great moments in Temple history were accomplished with the Owls wearing Cherry helmets. The Owls beat Penn State in 2015 wearing Cherry. They went down to the wire against No. 9-ranked Notre Dame in the highest Philadelphia TV rated game ever wearing Cherry helmets. They won the Garden State Bowl (1979), the New Mexico Bowl (2011) and the Gasparilla Bowl (2017) wearing Cherry helmets.

Owls finished No. 17 in both final polls in 1979 with these sharp helmets.

That got us to thinking. When was the last time Temple won at home (BEFORE) Rhode Island wearing a White helmet over a Cherry uniform. It was the 2024 Homecoming win over Tulsa. Before that, it was the 20-13 win over East Carolina in 2013.

Few and far between but Karma isn’t the only reason why Temple should stick with one helmet color.

The kids have a word for how the Cherry helmets look and that’s tight. The White helmets are the opposite of that.

Maybe loose. To me, the word I most associate with the White helmets is hideous.

Temple’s brand is the Cherry helmet and the Owls should stick to it.

When Al Golden was hired as Temple coach, he addressed the subject.

The 1974 Owls had their preseason camp at the Cherry Hill Inn and not the White Hill Inn for a reason. This team won 14-straight games and wearing Cherry helmets every game certainly didn’t hurt.

“When I was at Penn State, I remembered those guys who wore the word TEMPLE on their helmets as the toughest-hitting team we played every season and I wanted to bring that tradition back,” he said.

So for the rest of Golden’s career the Owls played every game wearing the Cherry helmet with TEMPLE spelled out on the side.

When Golden left, that tradition went with him, too. It’s time to bring it back.

Friday: Penn State Preview

Saturday: Penn State Game Analysis

09.05.26
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An eye-opening opener against Rhode Island

Driving down Delaware Avenue, the all-news-all-the-time AM station gave its top Philadelphia stories on the hour.

“The top stories are Philadelphia reports four new West Nile Virus cases and the Temple Owls open their football season today.”

Odd juxtaposition of stories, but it was nice to see Temple football getting the same kind of billing as a health scare. Most times the local sports talk stations ignore the Owls, let alone the all-news station.

New season, new stories, so the task for the day was to judge whether the Owls would provide eye-popping results or eye-opening ones.

We’ll have to go with the latter in a workmanlike 38-14 win over visiting Rhode Island. Eye-popping would have been one of the quarterbacks throwing for six touchdowns, like the guy last year did in the opener. Eye-popping would have been for the defensive line to have a few sacks.

Neither happened.

Not great, not overly good, but just OK because, from the way K.C. Keeler talked over the last few months, he said that he has two quarterbacks who can win in this conference and maybe he’s correct but neither one knocked my socks off like Evan Simon did in the UMass game a year ago.

Don’t know if the Owls have one quarterback who can compete against this conference and certainly, on the results, did not see one who is capable of beating Penn State.

You would have hoped to see one of them take the job but neither did. John Madden’s old saying was “if you have two quarterbacks you have none” seemed to apply after the game because the Owls still have two quarterbacks.

The other concerning thing was the defensive line. Keeler said the line was so upgraded that it “could be the story of the year in this conference.”

Hell, it wasn’t even the story of the day because the Owls–although limiting Rhode Island to 97 yards on the ground–got no pressure on Rhode Island quarterback Tyler Budge, other than a single shoe-string sack by Kevin Hornbeak and one in the fourth quarter by Davier Bishop. Most of the time, URI rolled the pocket away from the rush and no doubt Penn State was taking notes.

The offensive line that helped the Owls put up 500+ yards of total offense against Navy last year could only muster 369 yards against a FCS team, albeit a very good one. On Jaxon Smolik’s touchdown pass, he was hit and this offensive line can’t let that happen after giving Simon a clean pocket for most of last year. He didn’t really have a clean pocket all day, nor did Ajani Sheppard.

Another head-scratcher was that tight end Peter Clarke was rewarded for his loyalty by being only targeted twice. Clarke was a matchup nightmare last year and why the Owls only threw two passes his way was baffling. Let’s hope they are saving him for Penn State.

That’s the hope. Doubtful because offensive coordinator Tyler Walker showed a nice wrinkle on the first play of the game, and if he’s saving Clarke for Penn State, he probably would have saved that play for the Nittany Lions, too.

Peter Clarke was MIA through no fault of his own. (Photo courtesy of Zamani Feelings)

To me, if Clarke is going to be a first-team All-American he needs a 10-touchdown, 1,000-yard season. The opening game did not help that cause.

The highlight of the day was sophomore running back Keveun Mason rushing for 158 yards on 20 carries and that’s impressive because he lost the job to starter Sam Brown, who will be ready for Penn State. We were looking forward to seeing Brown play and, if he’s better than Mason, he must be very good. Also, the secondary had two pick 6s in a single game and that hasn’t happened at Temple since Chuck Heater was the defensive coordinator in 2011.

What we do know is for the Owls to have any chance against the better opponents ahead, they have to get some sacks on defense and someone is going to have emerge as a clear starting quarterback by winning the job outright.

That, and staying away from mosquito bites.

Monday: Cherry on Top

Friday: Penn State Preview

Saturday: Penn State game analysis

08.24.26
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Paul Darragh: Another Temple captain gone too soon

Had the BOT went through with its plans a decade ago, we’d all be tailgating at an on-campus stadium that might have looked like this. (Photo from the TempleAllSports twitter account)

Tailgating isn’t what it used to be.

For years, we’d have a solid crew of tailgaters who would reliably show up every single season.

Something happened since and, for the last three or so years, the normal “crew” would be missing one or two guys who we lost to passing away.

Some of them were real shocks, like John Belli.

Paul Darragh definitely was in that category, too.

Darragh wasn’t a regular but just an occasional visitor. He didn’t make it every Saturday, but he would be there every other year, and we’d see him pretty often on Cherry and White Day.

That’s the last time I saw him at a C and W game a couple of years ago. I won’t be seeing him again because he passed away at the all-too-young age of 63. I mentioned to him that I saw him make an interception on an old Youtube video.

Temple season ticket holders mingle with players and coaches on Saturday.

“I never had an interception, Mike,” Paul said.

I took his email and sent him the video and he got a kick out of it and thanked me for it.

“I completely forgot about it,” Paul wrote back.

Great guy.

Darragh might have been a regular tailgater except he had things to do on most Saturdays, like being the head coach at Bloomsburg University. He was named head coach on Dec. 6, 2013 and promptly went 10-2 his first season.

He was also an assistant coach at many places including Temple.

In his playing career, he was a three year starter at linebacker and captain of the 1983 Owls, Bruce Arians’ first Temple team. He also started the last two seasons of Wayne Hardin’s career.

In his post-coaching career, Darragh and most of us tailgaters would have returned to campus and enjoyed many Saturdays at the alma mater had the university stuck to its plans and built an on-campus stadium. Now it looks like there will never be an on-campus stadium as the area (15th and Norris) set aside was held for a few years and now is used by the university for other things. It’s amazing to me that the university spent $1 million for a rendering of the stadium by Moody Architecture yet an artificial intelligence tool (see above) did one for free that looks only about a million times better.

Maybe one day there will be a stadium on campus, but that day will probably be a lot closer to 50 years from now than five or 10. Of course, that talk could be revived if the Owls open the season with wins over Rhode Island and Penn State. It would take something that big to revive the project.

Doubtful that any of us will be around to see it but if it ever gets built, a tradition that included guys like Darragh will be the figurative foundation.

Friday: Less is More

Monday: Game Week

08.16.26
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The opener will be on us before we know it

Saboor Karriem goes for the tackle against Eagles’ No. 1 pick Makai Lemon. Both will be calling the same stadium home.
Hey, guess who follows Temple Football Forever? The father of Penn State starting quarterback, Rocco Becht. Anthony Becht was a great tight end at Monsignor Bonner and the New York Jets. Thanks for the follow.

One of the things about getting older is having pains in places where you’ve never had them before.

Because I had a pain in my leg I couldn’t identify other than it being nerve-related, I mentioned that to my physician and he referred me to a neurologist. That was way back in April.

Made the appointment the next day and the “earliest” he could see me was Aug. 13.

“Geez, that seems like years away,” I told the person who answered the phone.

“That’s the earliest we have.”

That’s the U.S. Healthcare system in a nutshell.

Long story short, that time between April and August lasted what seemed like five minutes simply because the late spring and summer is my favorite time of the year.

So it goes with Temple’s football opener against visiting Rhode Island on Sept. 5.

If the time between April and August seemed like five minutes, the time between now and kickoff will be like a minute.

Or shorter.

Nobody knows that better than Temple head football coach K.C. Keeler, whose Owls conducted their first preseason scrimmage on Saturday.

One of the strongest areas of the team is the safeties and defensive coordinator Brian L. Smith calls it the deepest part of the defense.

Among the starters is expected to be Illinois transfer Saboor Karriem, who comes to Philadelphia with CVS type receipts. He started and had the most tackles in a 34-32 Big 10 win over USC last year, notching seven solo tackles and three assists. While there are concerns about the bright lights in big games at both the quarterback and cornerback positions at Temple, there are no such concerns about the safeties and linebackers, who played well for the Owls and other teams last year.

Recently, Karriem was “mic’d” up by the Temple video staff and his best quote was, “I miss my brothers, but I have 115 (other) brothers (here).”

Because of the uncertainty at quarterback, it looks like the Owls will have to lean on the defense for most of their success this year.

Fortunately. the defense is showing signs of being up to the task in summer ball so far but the proof will come on Sept. 5.

“Rhode Island Sept. 5 at 2 p.m., that’s it,” Karriem said.

It might seem a long way off now but it’ll be upon us in a minute. That’s the way these things work, both in life and in football.

08.06.26
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Bruce Arians in HOF: Temple righting a wrong

Bruce Arians leaving his South Jersey home with photos of Bear Bryant and his Temple kids.

In an interview in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2009, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz threw in this casual remark about Bruce Arians:

“Firing Bruce Arians was the biggest mistake Temple football ever made.”

Ball recognizes ball and Ferentz is ball. Not a friend of Arians specifically but a member of the same coaching fraternity, Ferentz was able to spot a school that overstepped the bounds when it came to firing a head coach. The story was about colleges too quick to pull the trigger on firing head coaches and the first person to come into Ferentz’s mind was Arians.

That was 23 years after the offense was committed.

Temple University righted a wrong today by including Bruce Arians into its Hall of Fame 2027 Hall of Fame class.

Ferentz will be entering his 28th season as head coach at Iowa and, if Ferentz was right, Arians might–and we use that word “might” loosely–be entering his 43d year as head coach at Temple.

In my mind, most of them would have been pretty damn glorious. I know because I covered Temple football all five of the Arians years. I am still friends with most of his players in those days, including the GOAT (Paul Palmer) and super nice guys like Joe Greenwood, Sheldon Morris, Mike Hinnant, and Eddie Parker.

Arians was loyal to Temple and Temple should have been loyal to him. In 1986, Arians turned down an offer to be head coach of his alma mater, Virginia Tech, to remain at Temple, saying, “I can’t leave my guys at Temple.”

Frank Beamer took that job instead and stayed at Virginia Tech pretty much the exact same length Arians should have remained with the Owls.

Look at his five years at Temple.

He had two winning (6-5) seasons with the Owls against a Top 10 schedule. Compare that to the revered Matt Rhule, who had two winning seasons against schedules ranked No. 84 and No. 91, respectively.

Me, with Arians players (from left) Kevin Jones, Pat Powell and Mike Hinnant

Love the championship Matt gave Temple, but there is no comparison.

After a 17-10 loss at Delaware, Arians called a mandatory full-contact scrimmage at 5 a.m. on the Sunday after that Saturday on Geasy Field. “We didn’t lose a game after that,” Bruce said. (Partially right. Temple won five out of six after that scrimmage.)

Arians beat Pitt in three of his five seasons. He came closer than anyone would expect against Alabama, Georgia and Florida State.

Bruce’s letter to me after I congratulated him on signing Dick Beck, who becamed captain of his 1988 team.

Give me one other head coach at Temple who beat a P4 team in three of five seasons.

You can’t because I can’t.

In his introductory press conference at Temple, one anti-Temple football journalist asked this question, “Why does Temple even play football?”

Arians shot back: “To beat Penn State.”

The Temple fans at Mitten Hall in 1983 went wild.

Nobody was happier when that really happened than Arians, who was the only ex-Temple head coach to have an extended phone conversation with Rhule.

Matt had already talked to Wayne Hardin in person after that game, kissed him on the cheek and handed him the game ball.

Ball recognizes ball and hopefully Kirk Ferentz will notice what Temple did on Thursday. No doubt Wayne Hardin will be smiling from above.

Monday: Back to the Future

08.03.26
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Keeler’s biggest coaching gamble: The QB position

James Franklin speaks highly of Jaxon Smolik in this video.

To hear K.C. Keeler tell it at American Conference Media Day, the Temple quarterback starting job is not settled law as practice starts in earnest this week.

In fact, it looks like a two-man battle between Cherry and White game star Jaxon Smolik and a guy who might fit offensive coordinator Tyler Walker’s scheme even better–Ajani Sheppard.

Both are long on talent and short on playing time and that’s why the quarterback position is Keeler’s biggest gamble at Temple, maybe in his entire coaching career. Last year, Keeler had two proven FBS starters to choose from in Evan Simon and Gevani McCoy.

This year he has none.

Well-paid staffs at Penn State, Rutgers and Washington State got a close-up look at the two current Temple options and decided, no, let’s not give either one an extended look in a real game.

That gives one pause.

As long as Jaxon is wearing a Cherry, and not White, helmet at Temple, he should put up big numbers. Those White helmets are bad luck.

Practice, yes. Not a game. You know what Allen Iverson thinks about that.

If it’s Smolik, and he gets the early nod it as it appears he will, he comes with endorsements.

It’s all a matter of trust at this point. Temple fans have to decide whether they trust Keeler and, in a way, Virginia Tech head coach James Franklin.

Franklin?

Yes.

A year ago, then head Penn State coach Franklin said he wasn’t “blowing smoke” or engaging in “coach talk” when he said that Smolik was looking good and that the PSU battle for the second spot behind Drew Allar would go on for an extended period of time.

If he was blowing smoke or engaging in coachspeak, Temple is in trouble.

There is some evidence that at one point Keeler thought that, too, as his first option was Saginaw State starting quarterback Mason McKenzie, who almost came here, but decided the lure of being a P4 starter was more enticing than playing for the winningest active head coach in college football. McKenzie would not have been a sure thing at Temple but he came with real game receipts that neither Smolik nor Sheppard have.

That forced Temple to Plan B and Smolik, who was Penn State’s Plan C. Or Sheppard, who was once the Plan B at both Washington State and Rutgers.

Now both are A and 1A at Temple and, like it or not, Keeler is faced with the task of beating a team in the second game of the season with that team’s third-team quarterback from last season.

Not ideal, but it wouldn’t be the first time Keeler has done more with less so this big gamble will be the most intriguing story line of the season.

Friday: Finally Getting His Due

07.19.26
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Temple football focus should be on nothing but Rhode Island

Took a week off to recharge the batteries.

That was the plan.

Little did I know that would be literally.

In this case, not recharge but replace.

In the middle of three days where you couldn’t go outside and breathe without inhaling five packs of cigarettes in an hour, I turned over the engine only to find out my car wouldn’t start.

The final season poll. Rhode Island kept most of its players, including its all-league quarterback, and is ranked No. 9 in the FCS 2026 preseason poll. If the Owls don’t bring violence to this game, they could lose.

Three years of turning that key and never worrying about starting the car were out the window. Called Triple AAA and a guy named “Jack” came by and dumped a new battery in my car.

That was a $247 expense I didn’t count on but I need that car to go to work, doctors and shopping so reluctantly pulled the $247 out of my wallet and handed Jack a $10 trip for his trouble.

My high school basketball coach, George Paull (RIP), once told me, “the only thing I know about cars is that you turn the key and away you go.”

Me, too.

Most times.

Doylestown’s John Fonash had a 96-yard punt return after Temple got a three-and-out on the opening series in this 28-0 win in 1965.

K.C. Keeler has the keys to the Temple football vehicle and he better set the GPS for Rhode Island. (Yeah, we know they are coming here but in terms of preparation that’s the direction he should go.)

Now Temple football recharges the batteries starting today with the focus on directing that trip to the Rhode Island game.

Rhode Island?

Yes. Unlike Temple, RI has a tune-up game at Merrimack the last week of August and that factors into an already problematic opener for the Owls.

Because as tough as the Temple schedule is, the Owls didn’t schedule Howard as a tune-up game the first week of September. They scheduled a Top 10 FCS team and we all know the success FCS teams have against FBS teams in recent years, especially in the opening week of the season.

Temple knows for sure.

The key to beating Rhode Island will be Temple’s defense bringing violence to the football with emphasis on punching that ball out and going the other way with it.

In 2009, the Owls won nine-straight FBS games after losing to eventual FCS champion Villanova in the opener. While hoisting that FCS national title trophy, then Villanova head coach Andy Talley gave special thanks to Temple, calling the Owls, “the best team we faced all year.”

Then Temple head coach Al Golden would have rather had the win than the compliment, yet that Temple team was the first Temple bowl team in 30 years and gave Rick Neuheisel’s UCLA squad all it could handle in a 31-21 loss at the Eagle Bank Bowl.

This Rhode Island team has something in common with that Villanova team in that it kept almost all of its starters. The Rams only lost their All-American kicker to Louisville.

Yet they retained their most important two players, quarterback Devin Farrell and wide receiver Marquis Buchanan, who were sought after by many FBS schools. Farrell threw for 3,745 passing yards to earn third team All-American status while Buchanan was a first-team All-American with 1,124 receiving yards.

Go to Seat Geek.com for some pretty good seats at a great deal. Better yet, buy Temple season tickets, go to the free season ticket holder party and get locked in for great seats the rest of the year, especially the nearly sold-out Penn State at Temple game.

Farrell gives the Rams something the Owls don’t have–an experienced college starting quarterback while Jaxon Smolik–if he wins the job as expected–gives Temple something Rhode Island doesn’t have, a 4* high school recruit at that same position.

Something’s got to give and how much violence Keeler can convince the other 21 Temple starters to bring to the football between now and then will determine the outcome.

It probably won’t be the 55-7 FCS win the Owls experienced last year, but figure on a 34-14 type of outcome if the battery starts when Keeler turns the key.

07.16.26
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A Temple Football Championship: There are no words

Editor’s Note: Every once in a while, I get asked why I write this site and my answer is winning. We get barely (and I do mean barely) enough contributions to keep this website alive yet winning remains the goal. Winning games, yes, but winning championships more. This is the one time in my lifetime of being a Temple fan I was there in person to watch Temple football win a championship. Yet winning remains the goal. When it happens, I’m usually speechless but I’ll try to come up with something. There are no words but I summoned some and they are below.

The morning after arguably the greatest win in Temple football history, there are no words.

Literally no words are coming out of my mouth, at least in the sense of being able to talk this morning.

The throaty and hoarse condition is more than OK because it was the result of cheering for the Owls at beautiful Navy-Marine Corps Stadium as they captured what really is their first-ever major football championship. The 1967 MAC title was admirable, but that was a day when the school played to a level of football that was beneath their status even then as one of America’s great public universities.

So this was it.

ride
I sat in the same aisle across from this trophy on the way home (thanks to Matt Rhule for arranging my seat). I couldn’t stop staring at it.

Walking out of the stadium and into the concourse, I let out a very loud primal: “THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT!!”

Fortunately, I got a few high fives and smiles from my fellow Temple fans and not fitted for a straightjacket. It also put the voice out for 24 hours, maybe more.

When it comes to Temple football today at least, you cannot think in terms of a national championship—the deck is stacked against G5 teams in an unfair system—so what happened yesterday was the pinnacle of Temple football success. Thousands of Temple fans, easily in excess of 10,000 Temple fans, made Navy’s 15-game home winning streak a moot point by turning that stadium into a Temple home field advantage and to get to that mountaintop and look down from it is incredibly satisfying.

Hey, it’s a pretty spectacular pinnacle. The only thing that would have made it better was a G5 slot in a New Year’s Six bowl against Penn State, but that’s not happening for a number of reasons that are not important today. (Objectively, would you take a team for the Cotton Bowl that has won seven straight against this schedule and beat a Navy team, 34-10, over a Western Michigan team that struggled to beat a four-loss Ohio team? I would but I don’t expect the bowl committee to be that objective. I can also grudingly see the WMU argument.)

What is important is that the Owls have gone from being a perennial Bottom 10 team and laughed at nationally to being ranked in the Top 25 for two straight years and going to a title game one year and winning it the next. When you think of the success P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas have had here, there is a Twilight Zone quality to the parallel between this success and their success at Elizabeth (N.J.). In their freshman year at Elizabeth, they won one game; in their freshman year at Temple they won two games. In their sophomore year at both schools, they won six games. In their junior year at both schools, they reached the title game and lost and, in their senior year at both schools, they lifted the ultimate hardware together.

“Get a Dub?”

Truly amazing and I will miss both of those guys.

The Navy team Temple held to 10 points scored 75 on SMU, 28 on Notre Dame, 45 on an 11-2 USF team, 46 on Houston, 42 on Tulane and 66 on ECU.

Back on Cherry and White Day, I wrote that this team will be better than last year’s team while people on other websites—notably, Rutgers and Penn State fan boards—insisted that Temple would take a step back. I was consistent in my belief that this was the STEP FORWARD year, not the step back one, and that belief was rooted in knowledge that both the defense and offense were significantly upgraded despite graduation losses. Only a Temple fan who follows the team closely would know that, not the know-it-alls who make assumptions on subjects they have no idea what they are talking about.

Today at noon, the Owls will know where they will go for a bowl game. They can finish the season in the top 25 and set the record for most wins in Temple football history.

It won’t be the cake because we saw that yesterday, but it will be the Cherry on top of that white cake and it will be delicious even going down past what promises to be a future sore throat.

Postscript: For the comments to the original post click here:

Monday: Regular Programming

Friday: American Conference Media Day

07.05.26
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Temple’s Mount Rushmore of Coaches

There’s been a lot of talk about Mount Rushmore lately and, while not getting into the context of that discussion, that got me to thinking about Temple’s Mount Rushmore.

Coaches, specifically.

On my Facebook memory feed, I came across a preview of the 1977 College World Series (baseball, of course) that listed Temple as one of the two favorites.

Matt McArdle, a former Temple football safety for the 1979 Garden State Bowl team, responded by saying his brother (John) was the third baseman of that team and we both said that Skip Wilson was responsible for Temple being the most dominant baseball team in the “traditional” East for much of the 1970s.

“Definitely on Temple’s Coaching Mount Rushmore, for sure,” I responded.

With only four spots on that mountain, that caused me to think who would take the other three positions on that mountain.

I came to three men: John Chaney, Pop Warner and Wayne Hardin.

Bruce Arians deserves an honorable mention for both his loyalty and two winning seasons against Top 10 schedules.

Then I asked Chat GPT to make an image of that mountain and, while Chat GPT can do a lot of impressive things, it can’t draw. It had Wilson and Hardin looking like twins and Chaney really not looking like himself.

Warner came closest, probably because of the Stetson hat he wore in the 1930s.

The post got a lot more engagement than I thought it would have with hoop guru Mike Jensen saying I should replace Warner with Harry Litwack. My thought was that if there was a fifth spot on the mountain, he’d definitely be it but the Sugar Bowl appearance gave Warner the nod.

Then I got a lot of people saying Olympic sports coaches like Fred Turoff (gymnastics) and women’s coaches like Tina Sloan Green, Dawn Staley and Nikki Franke belong there.

That’s all well and good but this is a football blog and not a Temple sports blog and we gave both Wilson and Chaney exemptions due to Wilson’s 1,000 wins and Chaney having the most Elite 8 appearances until Michigan State’s coach broke that record.

Let someone start a Temple women’s sports blog–I have neither the expertise nor interest in doing so–and get their own mountain to play with.

As far as football, at least three guys deserve honorable mention–Al Golden, Matt Rhule and Bruce Arians–but didn’t make the final cut for a number of reasons. While Arians showed the requisite loyalty (he turned down an offer to be head coach at Virginia Tech to remain at Temple), he didn’t have enough wins. (Yet his two winning seasons against top 10 schedules was about as impressive as anything a Temple coach has done.) Golden, while deserving credit for bringing Temple football back from the dead, interviewed for the UCLA job after his second season and Rhule, despite two 10-win seasons, didn’t stay for the bowl game that would have set the Temple record.

Longevity has its virtue and that virtue is etched in stone.

Even if it’s only chiseled by Chat GPT and not Gutzon Borglum.