Tag Archives: football

01.10.25
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What Thursday’s semifinal said about the state of Temple football

Some TU fans say this guy can’t throw. This film indicates otherwise.

What a difference a decade makes …

That’s what we learned most from Thursday night’s 27-24 Notre Dame win over Penn State in a national football semifinal.

Temple’s Brandon Shippen, right, scores against Notre Dame’s Max Redfield, left, in the 2015 game.

Especially from the Temple football perspective.

One decade ago Temple routed Penn State, 27-10, in front of a strongly pro-Temple sellout crowd at Lincoln Financial Field.

About a month and 25 days later, No. 21-ranked Temple took No. 9-ranked Notre Dame down to the wire before safety Will Hayes jumped the wrong way allowing William Fuller with 1:07 left to catch the game-winning touchdown pass in a 24-20 ND win.

That crowd was more evenly split but another LFF sellout.

That game was the highest-rated game ever in the Philadelphia TV market for college football.

We will see by Friday whether that game withstood the test of time and beat Thursday’s night’s game in Philly.

Either way, that was a magical year for Temple and, to be honest, something we probably will never see again through no fault of Temple.

That’s the perfect way to illustrate where we are with Temple football. The big boys with the big money will always get the players and the Temples of the world will get the discarded scraps.

Even though K.C. Keeler is a great coach, the best he can hope to do is recruit P4 castoffs and make some noise in the G5.

That’s OK because even in that environment Temple can win and compete for G5 championships.

It’s not 2015 but it certainly beats the alternative.

Winning in football at the level Temple currently plays at should be the goal and not competing for national championships.

There are still a lot of good things that can be accomplished at that level, including energizing the alumni and getting them out to more games than just Homecoming.

Look at it this way: A few months ago people were talking about dropping football being a viable option at Temple.

No more.

All the Temple administration had to do was hire a definite college football Hall of Fame head coach in K.C. Keeler and then start recruiting players like the Michigan backup quarterback (Alex Orji) who visited Temple this week. My personal feeling is that he reminds me of Quincy Patterson and Walter Washington, a run/first, pass/second quarterback. In a fair QB battle, my money is on Evan Simon. Temple can win with Evan Simon. Not so sure about Alex Orji but if these coaches trust him, I trust them.

Temple is bringing in championship-level coaches not only in Keeler (who won national titles at Delaware and Sam Houston) but the offensive coordinator at Montana State and his OL coach.

Certainly better than the coaches we’ve had the last three years with the possible exceptions of Chris Wiesehan (OL), Tyree Foreman (RB) and Adam Schierer (ST). Those were objectively good coaches who got overruled by incompetent ones.

Keeler is bringing in his own guys and that’s exciting.

It’s also exciting that he’s bringing in P4 guys who were recruited at a high level but stuck behind better talent. They have a chip on their shoulder that will be on display game days.

They might not be able to win there but they can certainly win here.

We’ll always have 2015 and 2016 but getting back there isn’t realistic in the current environment. Getting back to respectability certainly is and that’s something we haven’t seen since 2019.

After 1-6, 3-9, 3-9, 3-9 and 3-9 it’s about damn time.

Monday: A Deep Dive Into Temple’s New Offense

01.02.25
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K.C. Keeler: Trust, but verify

K.C. Keeler’s New Year’s Eve message to Temple fans.

If you had to create a perfect Temple football coach in a petri dish, you would be hard pressed getting the DNA to replicate a K.C. Keeler.

Born North of Philadelphia, had success both East and South of Philadelphia with other teams, intimately familiar with the team in the middle who gave him his only loss in the 1979 season.

Hell, he wanted to go to Temple but head coach Wayne Hardin ran out of scholarships.

Not hard to trust K.C. Keeler as my football coach for the next few years.

That said, as Ronald Reagan might say of the Soviet Union when it made a nuclear weapons sweetheart deal with the U.S., “trust but verify.”

K.C. Keeler said his goal was to be in a bowl game immediately. If so, he needs to upgrade the roster via the transfer portal with about 20 solid FBS/FCS players right now.

For a guy who got a new job in December, he’s been pretty slow to make major moves on the coaching offensive side of the football or the transfer portal.

There are a couple of clues about the verify part.

Keeler hasn’t announced a new offensive coordinator and that might be because one of the leading candidates, a running backs’ coach from Penn State, is currently otherwise occupied. If so, I’m more than willing to wait.

The transfer portal is another story.

Temple has been slow to pull the trigger. Maybe too slow.

Kinda hoping that Al Golden’s first national title was with Temple but, that being impossible, I am literally betting on him to take it all as ND’s DC and I made that bet 14 days ago.

Watching Notre Dame win its quarterfinal game on Thursday night against Georgia, 23-10, it was abundantly clear they did it on the backs of two transfer portal acquisitions: 1) Duke’s Riley Leonard and 2) Marshall’s Jayden Harrison.

Temple fans are all too familiar with Leonard, who led Duke to a 30-0 win over Temple in Stan Drayton’s first game.

Notre Dame went out and got a big-time P4 quarterback in Leonard.

Temple can’t do that but certainly a big-time FCS quarterback is within reach. In my humble opinion, I can ride or die with Evan Simon who has shown he is Temple tough. I can’t depend on either Forrest Brock or Tyler Douglas to be a capable AAC backup. Keeler has to show me he can either convince the Sam Houston starting quarterback to come here to compete for the job with Simon or get me a star-level FCS quarterback to do the same.

I love Evan Simon as my quarterback and I’m sure once Keeler sees him throw a few balls in practice he will feel the same way. The film is the film. All K.C. has to do is to watch the entire Utah State game. If Simon played against UConn, the Owls win by at least two touchdowns. I will never change my mind about that. Simon has been quoted as saying he loves Temple.

(For the record, Simon wins the job in my mind.)

Harrison was the No. 1 kickoff returner in the country for Marshall last year and ended up at ND as a portal transfer. His return the house to open the second half was maybe the key play in a national quarterfinal game. Temple hasn’t had a good kickoff returner since Isaiah Wright was named AAC’s Special Teams’ Player of the Year in 2018.

Does Keeler have to get me the No. 1 FBS kickoff returner in the country?

Hell no.

I’ll take the top FCS kickoff returner. I’ll take the top Division II kickoff returner.

Just don’t give me another JUCO like Stan Drayton has done.

The trust the level with a guy who has done it at Rowan, Delaware and Sam Houston State is off the charts.

The verify level will come with what we see in the next couple of weeks.

Hoping it’s a nuclear-type jawn like Reagan had with Gorbachev but as always in this space we will be honest with what we see.

12.30.24
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What Temple can take from Navy’s win

If Temple can keep a lot of players like Khalil Poteat, it should be OK next season.

About a year and a month ago, Temple got a terrific game from a quarterback and a linebacker and earned a 32-18 win over Navy.

A couple of days ago Navy completed a 10-win season with a win over an Oklahoma team that opened this season by beating Temple, 51-3.

The AAC’s image improved this bowl season. Now it’s time for Temple to contribute to that profile.

If anything, the juxtaposition shows how much fortunes can change in one year.

That’s because the transfer portal system both giveth and taketh away. The schools who decide to build their rosters with high school players will be left behind by the other schools who judiciously scour the portal to upgrade their rosters with 20 or so new players who can compete for starting spots.

So far, Temple head coach K.C. Keeler has talked about building a team through high school players and, as the lady on the video said, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”

Me when I heard K.C. wants to build his roster with high school players.

For now, let’s hope that is all that it is–talk.

However, if Keeler adds a couple of key players from, say, Sam Houston, a few all-star type players from FCS ranks and as many disaffected really good players from P4 schools who can’t get on the field there that’s the formula to do what Navy did–go from three wins (and dominated by a three-win team)–to, if not 10, then eight or nine wins.

Ironically, Navy got better not from an influx of new players but from being able to retain its roster. Temple can do the same but still needs to keep the good players like quarterback Evan Simon and a few others.

On the flip side, the Owls need to upgrade their offensive line with solid players from the portal (be it FCS, Sam Houston or P4) so Simon doesn’t spend next year running for his life.

That’s one of the reasons why the old staff got fired. They relied too much on JUCOs on the offensive line. The one player who fit the profile of the kind of guy they should target, a South Carolina transfer starter, was their most valuable offensive lineman. Really, the only good one.

So Keeler knows what he has to do. Keep a solid chunk of the current roster and upgrade with the top end of the 6,000 or so players who won’t find a home. He already has shown the chops for being able to coach them up.

First, he has to get them to coach them and we’ll be keeping an eye on those developments over the next four or so weeks.

12.22.24
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Clayton Barnes: The Howie Roseman of Temple

When there are 8,000+ players in the portal and only 2,000 or so keep their scholarships, finding 20 or so gems among the other 6,000 is the job for a guy like Clayton Barnes.

Anyone hanging out at the Cherry and White street sign (see above) looking for the white smoke to come out of the top of the Edberg-Olson Complex chimney might be disappointed today.

When the smoke clears, it doesn’t look like Temple football will have its offensive coordinator today or tomorrow.

From what we hear, the Kirk Ciarrocca talks have fallen through because, while Temple paid former OC Danny Langsdorf a half-million dollars to continually throw 2-yard passes, that doesn’t come close to what the Temple grad currently is making at Rutgers.

Meanwhile, an addition that was made last week might be more important.

New head coach K.C. Keeler is bringing in Clayton Barnes to be his “general manager”–the so-called “Howie Roseman of Temple” and that’s been something we’ve been advocating for in this space for the last three years.

Because, while Temple will never be able to offer big-time NIL money, scouring the portal for disaffected P4 players good enough to start at that level but stuck as backup players to future NFL players might be the key to that success.

Barnes, like Roseman, has a keen eye for talent and has been primarily responsible for feeding Keeler the kind of talent that overachieves. Barnes is a Texas A&M graduate who was in charge of evaluating recruits and managing the football scholarships for the past two seasons under Keeler.

He did a pretty good job putting the roster together two years ago and a better job at keeping them together before this current season as Sam Houston State had only one player exit the portal before the opening game, the lowest among all of the 134 FBS teams.

Temple had no such guy under Stan Drayton, instead relying on the staff to evaluate newcomers and sticking with the old model of recruiting high school players and JUCOs.

That was the kind of thinking that led to three-straight 3-9 seasons.

Barnes concentrated on upgrading the Bearkats’ roster with a hefty dose of P4 recruits.

That led to an improvement from 3-9 to 9-3 this regular season and a bowl championship.

That involves not only scrutiny of a player’s football skills but also character.

The football transfer portal is a financial windfall for only the top one percent, who move to the SEC or the Big 10.

Most of the other players are looking for a chance to start and to increase their own football profile, either for the NFL or for a possible move up the latter down the line.

Even more of the players–the great majority–looking for riches and end up out on the street, their scholarships lost and their football careers over.

That’s a lesson worth teaching not only the current Temple football roster but 20 or so newcomers who could upgrade what the Owls have now.

The fact that they have a Czar of the portal probably means the roster will be upgraded for the first time in at least three years, maybe more.

Friday: My Christmas List for Temple Football

12.16.24
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TFF and Temple football: Back in business

Brian Smith’s loss was felt by every Rice fan, unlike Everett Withers’ loss at TU (felt by only one).

Every once in a while, you get an unexpected expense.

Today’s was $145.44 because a bad Acer adapter sucked all of the life out of my battery, putting the laptop out of commission.

I only found out because I went to write Monday’s regular post and no numbers or punctuation marks were showing and then the screen went black.

Brian Smith’s defense held Navy’s Blake Horvath to 10-for-21, 121 yards and two interceptions in a 24-10 win this year. Everett Withers’ defense held Horvath and company to 38 points.

Having zero technical skills, I took it to an expert and he figured it out.

New charger and new battery put us back in business.

So, too, can the same be said of Temple football.

Having zero football skills, both new President John Fry and old AD Arthur Johnson found an expert who already is showing signs of recharging the program.

Unlike the last time, they got a pro and not some apprentice learning from another pro.

This pro, K.C. Keeler, already is making an impact with the Owls by hiring defensive coordinator Brian Smith from the Rice Owls.

Go to the Rice message boards and there is much gnashing of teeth over Smith’s loss. Smith, unlike the last Temple defensive coordinator, Everett Withers, is a proven point-stopper. We only know one Temple fan who felt the loss of Withers, OwlsDaily editor Shawn Pastor, who called him “a great asset to the program.”

The “trade” of Brian Smith for Everett Withers could go down as the second-best football swap in Philadelphia this year (the Eagles letting D’Andre Swift go to the Bears and acquiring Saquon Barkley was probably the best).

Since Withers’ primary job was a DC, and since Withers gave up 39.7 ppgs per game as a DC at FIU in 2021 and 38.7 and 35.7 the last two years at Temple, I’ll pass on that so-called asset.

Basically, he got both Butch Davis and Stan Drayton fired. (Drayton probably deserved more blame than Davis because he hired Withers after the FIU disaster.)

“You had one job!”

Some asset.

Keeler went for the best guy available, not the best friend he felt more comfortable with and Smith has the numbers to back it up.

Smith’s defense finished ninth in the nation in passing defense, 36th in total defense and held opponents to just 25.4 points per game, more than 10 points per game lower than Withers’ best figure this decade. Smith, unlike Withers, was nominated for the Frank Broyles Award as best assistant coach in the nation.

Smith held a very good Navy offense to just 10 points in a 24-10 Rice victory and his 3-4 defense is particularly effective against triple-option teams like Army and Navy because it puts a nose guard over the A gap (to stop the fullback) and emphasizes speed from sideline to string out the option.

An additional benefit of that scheme is that it’s harder to recruit big interior linemen like defensive tackles and nose guards and easier to find linebackers and that’s probably why Keeler is going to keep what he did at Sam Houston State.

When your football team is broken, got to put it a bag and take to an expert and then plug it back in the AAC outlet.

So far, the additional expense of buying out Drayton and Keeler (at SHS) and paying Keeler on top of that portends that the Owls will be back in the business of winning sooner than later.

Friday: The Letter

12.08.24
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One era begins, another one ends

EDITOR’S NOTE: Despite what you see to the left, the article below was written by Kevin Fitzpatrick, a long-time member of the Temple chain gang who is hanging up the poles (really handing them off, deciding to retire) after 38 years on the job. Thanks for your service, Kevin.

By Kevin Fitzpatrick

For the love of the game, I’ve been involved in Temple for 38 years on the chain crew.

No more.

My final game was two Saturdays ago.

First off I’d like to shout out to the many guys that have been on the crew over those
years. The current group is about half Philadelphia Catholic league grads (St Joe’s
Prep, North Catholic and Father Judge) and half South Jersey guys. A little less than
half are Temple grads (me included). I was invited on the crew by a co-worker whose
father, also on the crew, was going to miss time with a knee replacement. It was during
the Bruce Arains, Paul Palmer years. A great time to start. We played all the big time
Eastern programs, which at that time were much more relevant nationally too.

The venues were Veterans Stadium, Franklin Field and Lincoln Financial Field. The turf at the Vet
was really rough; my knees and back hurt from just standing on it for three and a half
hours. I can’t imagine being driven into the turf or sliding on it.
I was just happy to be close to the action. That’s why I titled this for the love of the
game. It is a different game up close. The speed is incredible. I got rolled up by a
player in my first game but never again, although there were many close calls.

The teams I saw included some of the best players of that era: Bruce Smith, Donovan
McNabb, Michael Vick, Matt Ryan and too many Penn State and Miami players to
mention. We were always at a disadvantage against those teams but played them
tougher than I’ve seen us play lesser teams the last few years. I don’t remember giving
up 50 or more points until the Bobby Wallace years. After we turned it around in the Al
Golden years and kept it going for a decade, I never thought I would see that garbage
again.

Our current situation with a new coach coming in makes me think of other coaches
I’ve seen and their approach to the game. Two that impressed me were Andy Talley of
Villanova and Joe Paterno of PSU. Both were CEO types that could watch the game
and pick apart a weakness in-game. They didn’t wait until halftime to make

adjustments.

They just turned around and told their coordinator or position coach what
they saw or what would work against that look. Talley had a knack for calling runs on
obvious passing downs and passes on running downs and making it work. Joe Paterno
could look at the opposing team and see who was just a yard or two from where they
should be and what would work against them. They also generally respected the refs
and would plant seeds about a missed call rather than berate the refs. That’s not the
norm. The language can get pretty bad on the field. One of our coaches, Steve
Addazio, called the refs every name in the book. But most of our coaches did not
berate the refs. Again the speed of the game makes it really difficult for the refs but
they usually do a great job. This year was an exception with many head scratching
calls.


Our last two coaches show that different approaches don’t always give different
results. Coach Carey was a screamer and was hard on the players hard creating a very tense
team. Coach Drayton was more positive, and player focused yet they got the same
results.


The tendency when something goes wrong is to blame the coach but remember they
are working with 18-23 year olds. What were you like at that age?

All in all I loved my time on the chain crew and will end with some of the lasting
memories from my time on the field.

Best play: Michael Vick weaved through our entire defense back and forth at the Vet for
a 70-80 yard touchdown run.
Fastest get off at the snap: Dan Klecko, who left O linemen grasping at air.
Couldn’t believe he got up: Walter Washington was lifted into the air and slammed to the
turf with the defender placing all his weight on him, yet the QB got up slowly and didn’t
leave the field.
Most impressive game and best offensive player I saw for the Owls: Paul Palmer and
his then record 300+ rushing yards vs ECU

Best defensive Owl: tie between Lance Johnstone and Tyler Matakevich
Best game ( as if there is any doubt) : beating Penn State at the Linc, with the Notre
Dame game a close second.


Here’s hoping Coach Keeler can make some similar memories for future chain crews.

12.05.24
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A primer for new head coach K.C. Keeler

An open letter to K.C. Keeler:

Dear K.C.,

First of let me congratulate you on getting the job.

You were on my “wish list” for Temple head coaches. For the record, not the first, but certainly high up there.

I’m not here to give you any recommendations on the football side. You’ve got that part locked up.

The Temple side, to me, and a lot of fans, is just as important. Getting a lay of the land and the Edberg-Olson facility, the people and the traditions of Temple, are nearly as important.

K.C. Keeler now has the best administrative assistant in the country. Just ask Bruce Arians, Al Golden, Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins.

One, the people:

Getting to know and love Nadia Harvin, your administrative assistant, who has been with every coach since Bruce Arians. She’s a legend. She’s in the Temple Hall of Fame. Pick up the phone and call Bruce and ask about Nadia. Pick up the phone and call Matt Rhule. Pick up the phone and call Geoff Collins.

Also, it might not hurt to call the people who might have hurt you back in 1979 if you get a chance. Mike Curcio, who, like you, was a linebacker in the 1979 Temple-Delaware game, would be a good start. Like you, Mike Curcio played with the Philadelphia Eagles for awhile. Steve Conjar, the all-time leading tackler who played in that same 1979 game, also hosts the biggest tailgate in Lot K.

As far as the players, I would make a special effort to keep quarterback Evan Simon and running back Torrez Worthy. Simon, who said last week “I love Temple” probably needs only someone important to tell him they love him. I will say this: He’s got the most moxie I’ve seen in a Temple quarterback since Adam DiMichele. He knows how to get rid of the ball and when to get rid of it. Watch his tape vs. Utah State. Kid made 10 great throws under hellacious pressure, five for touchdowns, to win the game 45-29.

Dave Gerson, from a younger generation, is also a Temple treasure. Get to know him. No greater Temple fan. Nobody loves Temple football more. Nobody will be able to introduce you to people who love Temple quicker than Dave.

Two, the coaches:

I know you know Adam Scheier. To me, he’s one of the best special teams coaches in the country. I would keep him. The kids love him and the Temple special teams have been one of the few highlights over the last three seasons.

Chris Wiesehan, the offensive line coach, had great offensive lines under Rhule and Geoff Collins. He didn’t have a great offensive line under Stan Drayton but, like Bill Parcells used to say, he didn’t shop for the groceries under Drayton. Stan got him Aldi’s stuff. Rhule and Collins took him to Whole Foods.

Please stay away from Everett Withers and Danny Langsdorf.

This is the way a Temple team SHOULD celebrate a win.

Three, the traditions:

The “tradition” at Temple is that, after every Temple win, the team stands and sings the Alma Mater respectfully and then goes crazy singing “T for Temple U.” For reasons only Drayton knows, they stood respectfully with the band and sung the Alma Mater but broke ranks and went to the locker room before “T for Temple U.” That’s a no-no. “T for Temple U” is the main course. The Alma Mater is the appetizer.

Single Digit

The single digit tradition has been disrespected for at least the last three years, maybe more. Too many single digit Owls have left for other schools, causing something like this to happen when another team’s game is broadcast: “You know he’s tough because, when he was at Temple, he was a single digit.” That makes every Temple fan ill. You know the cure: No more single digits until your last year of eligibility at Temple.

Mark Bright was one of the best players on a team that gave K.C. Keeler his only loss in 1979.

Four, bring back the running game via the fullback:

In the 1979 Temple-Delaware game, the best player was fullback Mark Bright, from William Tennent High. The Temple tradition has always been to establish the running game with a fullback, then make explosive downfield plays in the passing game off play-action. The Hallmark of the last five years 1-6, 3-9, 3-9, 3-9 and 3-9 has been no running game. The reason is that all of those recent coaches have tried to establish a short-passing game first. All that has done is make Temple one of the worst rushing teams in the country and keep its defense on the field.

Five, The Community:

I don’t have to tell you that the Philadelphia Catholic League is the best high school football league in the country. People like Rich Gannon (St. Joe’s Prep, Delaware, NFL MVP), Frank Wycheck, Al Atkinson, Heisman Trophy winner John Cappelletti, Anthony Becht, the Pawlowski twins (Ken and Jim), Marvin Harrison Jr., John Runyon Jr., D’Andre Swift, etc. all played in the Catholic League. Hire someone like Father Judge’s Frank McArdle to keep that pipleline alive.

OK, I lied.

Maybe the coaches part and the running game part came under the substance of a football subject.

Everything else is solid advice.

Good luck, and welcome home.

Mike Gibson

Editor and Publisher, Temple Football Forever

Monday: The Temple Chain Gang

Friday: The Reaction

Monday: The Letter

12.03.24
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Temple football has a winner in town

Former FSU All-American QB Danny Kanell nods his head in agreement as Chip, Tom and Bud Elliott compliment Temple on the choice of K.C. Keeler to coach the Owls.

One day after being named one of CBS Sports’ “Coaches of the Week” for Week 14 in college football for a Texas team, K.C. Keeler was standing at a podium 1,000 miles away in Philadelphia talking about leading a Pennsylvania team.

Things move fast when you beat other teams to the hiring punch as Temple seems to have done.

Keeler didn’t open his press conference like Buddy Ryan did with the Eagles in 1986 by saying “you’ve got a winner in town.” He didn’t have to because, as a real winner (Bill Parcells) once said, “you are what your record says you are.”

Unlike 1986, Philadelphia–and most importantly Temple–has a winner in town.

Keeler’s wife, Janice was back in Texas selling their house in Huntsville. They already have another house 40 minutes from Philadelphia that they’ve maintained since leaving for Texas.

Keeler’s opening press conference brought something even the press conferences of Al Golden, Matt Rhule, Steve Addazio, Geoff Collins and Rod Carey never did.

A winning pedigree in post-season football.

Ryan was 0-3 in playoff games as Eagles’ coach. Carey was 0-7 in bowl games both at Northern Illinois and Temple.

Keeler’s post-season exploits are chronicled elsewhere in this post. You don’t have to google him. He’ll get you to the postseason and he will win his fair share there.

That’s kind of where Temple is at now.

K.C. Keeler under the goal post where the best field goal kicker in the nation this year practiced his craft every single day.

The arms’ race is such in college football that really the best the Owls can hope for–barring putting the NIL genie back in the bottle–is playing in great bowl games and winning in the postseason. Maybe grabbing an AAC title every five years, tops.

A great school like Temple should expect to be in the top 80 of college football teams every year when only 134 teams are playing at the FBS level. The Owls should expect to win their share of postseason bowl games.

Do that and the fans come back, especially after four-straight 3-9 seasons. Making Lincoln Financial Field a happening place again requires only consistent winning. Al Golden proved that. So did Matt Rhule.

K.C. Keeler’s postseason record screams winner.

Keeler has a history of doing that, too, even against teams with greater resources. With no NIL, Keeler’s Sam Houston State destroyed a Rice team that beat Navy. That was the same Navy team that beat Temple, 38-11.

He has a history of turning loaves into fishes and he’s going to have to take that approach with Temple.

Keeler’s familiarity with Temple will help as he talked about playing three games in his college career and losing twice to the Owls, including in Delaware’s national championship 13-1 season (1979).

“Then lens through I look at it is Temple was a great program at one time,” Keeler said. “This is a great university. It can even be greater.”

It got greater on a very cold December Tuesday morning in Philadelphia. Now all that remains is to determine how great.

Friday: The Letter Keepers

Monday: The Reaction

12.01.24
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Keeler: A pick Temple fans can get behind

Wherever he’s been, K.C. Keeler has developed great relationships with his players and Temple should be no different. I defy anyone to find a similar photo of Rod Carey or Stan Drayton celebrating like this on the field with their players.

After a couple of head-scratching decisions on its last two football CEOs, Temple University finally went in a more logical direction by picking K.C. Keeler to lead the Owls’ football fortunes today.

More like a head-nodding decision than a head-scratching one.

It’s about time and maybe just in time.

That’s because the last two guys were hired by ADs tied to their picks: Pat Kraft played football at around the same time at Indiana that Rod Carey did–they missed each other by one year but both played the same position at Indiana (center).

Arthur Johnson’s first high-profile pick at Temple was to hire a guy he saw walking around the University of Texas football building every day: Running backs’ coach Stan Drayton.

One was a head coach. The other was an assistant.

Hard to believe that you claim to conduct a national search for a head coach and end up with a guy who worked in the same building you did and that’s exactly what happened with the Johnson/Drayton relationship.

Carey had success in the Midwest with little knowledge of Temple and Philadelphia. Drayton hadn’t coached in Philadelphia since the 1980s but for Penn and Villanova. Neither is Temple or even close. Drayton had to learn to be a head coach while on Temple’s dime and Temple’s time and that rarely works out.

This time, Johnson hired a guy he didn’t know personally but a winner at every place he’s been. That’s important because, before Keeler, no one ever proved they could win at Rowan. At Sam Houston and Delaware, he benefitted from following legends in Willie Fritz and Tubby Raymond. Keeler can take all of those lessons learned to a place where multiple men have proven they can win: Wayne Hardin, Bruce Arians, Al Golden, Matt Rhule and, to a lesser extent, Steve Addazio and Geoff Collins.

The blueprint for winning at Temple is simple: Establish relationships within a great recruiting base (46 percent of the nation’s population is within a five-hour drive of Philadelphia) and recruit the hell out of that base. Establish the run and have explosive plays in the downfield passing game off play/action fakes.

The last three years we’ve pulled our hair out watching Temple teams try to establish the short passing game first. That’s not Temple TUFF. It never was. It never will be. As a result, Temple couldn’t generate anything on the ground or keep its defense off the field.

Temple needs some big offensive linemen who were recruited and developed by P4 schools but find themselves as backups through no fault of their own. It also needs to scour the ranks of FCS schools and get players who should have been recruited at a higher level.

In the transfer portal and NIL era, that means getting disaffected guys who went off for riches at P4 schools only to find themselves riding the pine elsewhere. All of those kids have a chip on their shoulders and Temple football in the past has thrived when giving kids a chance to play against good competition.

Let’s face it: Temple isn’t going win an NIL bidding war for players, but it does offer an opportunity to play right away and, in Keeler, is picking a guy who thrived despite having the lowest NIL in the nation at Sam Houston State.

At Temple, a lot of the rich grads who could have supported football either tragically died in a plane crash (Lew Katz) or got involved in legal troubles (Bill Cosby) or had a dispute with his fellow pop legend (John Oates). Oates likes Temple football, Darryl Hall doesn’t.

Not a whole lot of deep pockets in an alumni base that had to scrouge to find SEPTA tokens to get to school every day.

Keeler is free to concentrate on a quick rebuild at Temple right now.

After beating Liberty last week, Keeler needed only Western Kentucky to lose to earn a spot in the CUSA title game. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for Temple, Western Kentucky won and Keeler can hop on the recruiting trail for Temple.

Already, a number of top Drayton recruits have reaffirmed their commitments to the new staff to play for Temple. There seems to be a renewed enthusiasm in the Edberg-Olson Center. Now all that remains is for Keeler to convince top returning players like Evan Simon and Torrez Worthy to remain on board. Once Keeler grabs Simon at the press conference and tell him he’s going to give him an offensive line that would keep him upright, Simon might stay.

Keeler knows how to navigate the portal without an infusion of NIL money, and while some Saudi billionaire hopping on board would be nice, Temple had to find a guy like that to bridge the gap. Keeler has won with guys who haven’t made money and there’s no reason to expect he can’t do the same in the future.

Keeler would do well to keep certain members of this staff, including OL coach Chris Wiesehan, running backs coach Tyree Foreman and linebackers coach Chris Woods. Wiesehan and Foreman were here with other staffs while Temple was winning and can offer helpful hints to Keeler how things were done then vs. how things have been done over the last three seasons.

Plus, Keeler is very familiar with the Temple brand. He was a linebacker on the 1979 Delaware team that lost to Temple, 31-14. That was the Blue Hens only loss on the way to the Division II (now FCS) championship. Those Owls he lost to were just 16 points from a 12-0 season and a possible mythical national championship of their own.

Keeler can share old war stories with his fellow linebackers of that era on the other side of the ball, Steve Conjar and Mike Curcio and possibly get them on board to drum up alumni NIL support.

After beating Liberty, Keeler went on national TV for an interview and his Philadelphia accent sounded more genuine than the really good one Tina Fey used to mimic on SNL.

This guy knows Philly. He knows Temple. More importantly, he knows how to win.

Temple hasn’t had a guy like that in a long time.

Welcome home.

Wednesday: The Press Conference

11.28.24
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North Texas at Temple: No “D” in Owls

There is both humor and truth to this. Nothing would end all this transfer portal and NIL nonsense faster than for a Saudi man to invest $10 billion in Temple football’s NIL fund. Watch how fast the rest of the college world shuts down the NIL if Temple wins three national championships in a row. The Saudi man would get a good laugh out of it, though.

Any thoughts of an upset for Temple in the high noon season finale (ESPN+) at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday probably went out the window a week ago.

That’s when the Owls gave up 51 points.

The last coach who called the Temple game his Super Bowl was the Utah State coach this year. He lost, 45-29.

To have a chance to win in college football a respectable defense is a must and the Owls haven’t been respectable since holding Tulsa to 10 points in a 20-10 win.

That was back on Oct. 19, a long time ago. We wrote in this space on that beautiful 70-degree day that “we all be freezing our asses off a month from now at the North Texas game.”

And we will as the temperatures won’t escape the 30s.

Since then, Temple has given up 56 (ECU), 52 (Tulane) and 51 (UTSA).

The lone outlier was the 15 points given up against FAU.

There is no “D” in Temple and even no “D” in Owls. That’s something the next coach is going to have to fix because to have a chance to win at football or even break even, you can’t be giving up the 35+ points per game Everett Withers has in his two years as DC.

There was some hope that a change in the DC to Chris Woods last week would have stopped some of the bleeding but it was apparent that it was the Jimmy and Joe’s as much as the X’s and O’s because the Owls could not sustain a pass rush.

North Texas has called this game its “Super Bowl” and there is a good reason why. The Mean Green have lost five in a row after a hot start and needs the win for a 6-6 record and a bowl game.

Of course, the last coach who proclaimed the Temple game as his team’s Super Bowl was Utah State’s and Temple won that one, 45-29. So there’s that. If it’s a Super Bowl, it will probably be the least-attended one in history as no more than 5-10K fans are expected to rattle around in a 70K stadium.

Still, the incentives seem to be all on North Texas’ side here.

All Temple has to play for is a 4-7 season after three-straight 3-9 ones (one Rod Carey 3-9 followed by two Stan Drayton 3-9s). That’s not what Drayton promised when he was hired and that’s why he was fired.

Now the Owls are faced with an almost impossible task of stopping a team that played Army and Tulane a lot tougher than Temple did.

The football is odd-shaped and can take a lot of funny bounces but for Temple to even be competitive in this one would require a defense that has shown the capability to stop someone.

The Owls aren’t going to get that until a new coach comes in and, with him, a lot of Jimmy and Joe’s who can strike fear into an offense and put a quarterback on his ass.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

Monday: Season Analysis