Tag Archives: football

08.24.25
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Temple football: Finally, Game Week

Since Wayne Hardin transitioned the Temple football Owls from what was then called the college division (roughly FCS) to the university division (FBS), football here could be broken into five eras:

One, The Hardin Years (1970-82)

Two, The Arians Years (1983-88)

Three, The Dark Ages (1991-2005)

Four, The Golden Rhule Era (2006-2016)

Five, A Mini-Dark Age (2017-2024)

Some pretty good times and a couple of rough patches.

There are signs with the season opener at UMass on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN+) that the Owls are coming out a rough patch and into good times and that’s encouraging because one of the lessons of the Golden Rhule Era should have been the Owls were not going back the dark ages.

After Al Golden righted the ship, the prevailing thought around here was that there was no reason for Temple to return to losing seasons and breaking even should have been the minimum standard for every season.

Nobody could have predicted that after being bowl eligible for nine of a 10-year period, they would slump to a 1-6 season followed by a lot of 3-9 ones.

What happened?

After Rhule, the university went away from the formula that caused the revival in the first place–instead of hiring coaches with local connections, the administration hired either big-time coordinators from elsewhere or “a fish out of water” head coach from the middle of the country.

By returning to the formula that worked, the Owls got the best of both worlds–a big-time winning head coach with Philadelphia roots.

Everything K.C. Keeler has done since his arrival in Philadelphia screams he gets Temple as a university and gets both this city and the Temple football program.

Now emerging from the dark tunnel into the sunlight begins and winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

The first game won’t be an easy one as the Owls have to take to the road to take on another revitalized program in UMass. Temple is a 4-point favorite and Vegas is usually pretty good so very few expect a blowout (although I wouldn’t mind the Owls getting one).

This is the type of confidence UMass fans have (LOL).

As much as the Owls expect to win, that’s how much the UMass fans expect to win because they, too, have a first-year coach who understands their region as much as Keeler does his. While this is head coach Joe Harasymiak’s first FBS head coaching job, he’s was a successful head coach at Maine. Many of their fans think they can win.

Still, Temple plays in a tougher conference and has a four-year head start recruiting a superior pedigree of players so the Owls have reason to be confident. The last time Temple played UMass, even a Stan Drayton-coached team came away with a 28-0 win.

With a better coach and better players, the Owls need to start fast and, after 231 days of hard work under a guy who knows what he’s doing, they are hungry to show how far they’ve come.

They’ll have that chance in six days.

Friday: Temple-UMass Preview

Saturday Night: Temple-UMass analysis

08.18.25
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Is Temple “Doomed” to Repeat History?

K.C. Keeler is hoping to bring the same kind of smiles to Owls as he did for three other teams.

Underestimating Temple football coach K.C. Keeler is done at your own peril.

At least that’s the lesson of history and we all know what Winston Churchill said about those who don’t learn from history being doomed to repeat it.

After the legendary Tubby Raymond posted a 5-6 record in his last year, K.C. Keeler improved that record to 11-4 the next season.

At Temple, football fans can only be lucky to be so doomed because Keeler has an interesting history of first years at schools as a head coach.

Keeler has been head coach in three places–Rowan University, the University of Delaware and Sam Houston State–and improved the team from the prior year in every place.

At all of those places the bar was set pretty high because former Philadelphia Eagles’ linebacker John Bunting passed the torch at Rowan (then Glassboro State) to Keeler after the 1992 season. That year, Bunting took the Profs to the Division III semifinals. The next year Keeler took that same team to the Division III title game.

An improvement right away, not a 3-5 year plan.

After the 2005 season, legendary Delaware coach Tubby Raymond decided to hang up the clipboard after a 5-6 season.

Things were looking pretty bleak for that program when Keeler took over in his first year and led the Blue Hens to an 11-4 record and a loss in the national championship game to future FBS member Appalachian State.

That’s a six-game improvement from the previous season. After that 5-6 season, a look through the wayback machine on the Delaware football message boards contained a lot of negativities about what Keeler could immediately bring. One fan said “I’d settle for one or two more wins” and another said “don’t expect much from Keeler in his first season. This is a complete rebuild.”

Sound familiar?

Think Temple fans would sign for a six-game improvement right now?

Remember a “complete rebuild” in 2025 is far different than a complete rebuild in 2006. Back in 2006, you had to settle for what you had in your building. There was no reaching out and grabbing this piece or that piece through the transfer portal and immediately improving the roster.

That dynamic also didn’t exist in 2014 when Keeler became the first-year coach at Sam Houston State and succeeded another legendary coach, Willie Fritz, who had the Bearkats in the FCS second round.

Keeler did one better than Fritz, getting the Bearkats to the FCS semifinals in his first year.

Three first years better than the prior one.

Those who say this is a “complete rebuild” shouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t learn enough about Keeler’s past history to be doomed by underestimating it.

That’s one Temple of Doom that should put smiles on the faces of Owls everywhere, maybe even the doubters in our midst.

Friday: First Things First

Monday: Game Week

08.14.25
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Behind The Lines: NYP Finds Value in Temple

One of the themes first-year Temple head coach K.C. Keeler keeps bringing up at team meetings is to shoot for the top and not settle for incremental goals like winning one or two more games than last year’s team.

Keeler has repeatedly mentioned going for the championship this year and now he has a nice slideshow to drive home that point in the next team meeting because someone well outside of the E-O has mentioned Temple and the AAC title in the same breath.

On Thursday, the New York Post floated the possibility of Temple winning the AAC title.

In football.

This year, not some fictious year three or five years down the road.

My response: Why not?

College football can change from year to year.

Carl Hardin shares his surname with the greatest Temple head coach of all time, Wayne. He’s been sensational both in the spring and summer practices as Temple’s placekicker.

No greater example of that than Southern Mississippi. Pretty much the entire Marshall team which won the title in its league transferred to Southern Mississippi, which plays in the same league, following their head coach, Charles Huff.

That’s the way of the world in this transfer portal era. My feeling is that team will go from worst to first because of the coaching decision that university made.

Temple going from third worst to first due to the same reason might be mildly surprising, but not out of thr realm of possibility.

Keeler brought only the best running back on the Sam Houston State team, Jay Ducker, with him to Temple on the player level. On the staff level, he brought the architect of that 9-3 roster, General Manager Clayton Barnes.

Barnes and Keeler upgraded the Owls in every single area where they needed starter or depth.

They have two high-level AAC quarterbacks in Evan Simon and Gevani McCoy, a defensive line that goes 9-10 deep (Keeler’s words) and two star receivers (Colin Chase and JoJo Bermudez) to replace the Owls’ best wide receiver of the last three years, the oft-injured Dante Wright.

Are there areas of concern for Temple?

Sure.

The offensive line is pretty much the one that had Simon running for his life all last fall but with a new strength coach, a better offensive line coach and a better overall scheme, that one perceived weakness can be masked.

We will see.

Everywhere else–with the possible exception of placekicking–Temple has improved significantly. Even there, current Indianapolis Colts’ kicker Maddux Trijillo called his replacement, Carl Hardin, the second-best kicker in the AAC last year.

That, combined with the fact that the league is nowhere near as good as it was a year ago, means there is a lane for Temple to shock the world. It’s a small lane but, with Keeler in charge, there is a way Temple can squeeze through.

People are noticing, even a guy who writes for a paper 90 miles away.

Let’s hope we can call him a genius come December.

Monday: Some Interesting First Years

Friday (8/22): First Things First

Monday (8/25): Game Week

08.07.25
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New digs: Temple should start planning now

An artist rendering of what the new domed Eagles’ Stadium will look like.

For anyone who was around when Jeffrey Lurie tried to stiff Temple out of playing at Lincoln Financial Field way back when it opened in 2003, his latest plans should be viewed as a Five Alarm Fire.

Temple BOT chair Mitchell Morgan could be the key for getting November and December games at the Bank for the Owls.

Lurie only relented and allowed Temple in when the state of Pennsylvania reminded him that as part of the city and state’s funding of the Linc was the stipulation that Temple, one of three state schools (along with Pitt and Penn State) be allowed to play there. Lurie paid a third of the $521 million tab, while the City and State paid two thirds.

The state and the city threatened to take Lurie to court to allow Temple to play there and Lurie didn’t have the stomach to fight on two fronts.

That won’t be the case with Lurie’s current plans.

What are they?

Lurie floated the idea last month of building a new “Eagles Stadium” at a place yet-to-be-determined. Unless it is in Center City or North Philly, the Owls have virtually no chance of playing there.

Since Governor Josh Shapiro has ruled out state funding and the city has empty pockets, this new project will be funded entirely by the Eagles.

For anyone who remotely entertains the idea that Lurie would welcome Temple as a tenant, we have some condo space to sell in a Florida flood zone.

In other words, it ain’t happening.

Temple has to find another place to play or at least start the planning process now.

My preference has always been an on-campus stadium. A student body that has 12,500 students living on campus should have a football stadium on campus. LFF, which is a fantastic stadium, is way too big for Temple’s purposes. Creating a demand for tickets should be a priority and it’s just logical that the demand for tickets in a 35K stadium would be double the demand for tickets in a 70K stadium.

That ship, though, has sailed in a corrupt city that will always allow a Councilman to veto a project in his district. (My feeling is Temple has just as much right to build anything it wants on its own property as a school in any other city. Look at Georgia Tech’s stadium below. It also is in the middle of a residential neighborhood but was welcomed by the neighbors when it was built a century ago.)

If Georgia Tech can have this in Atlanta, Temple should have the same in Philadelphia.

So Temple has to explore other options.

With Temple Board of Trustees chair Mitchell Morgan as a part owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, some combination of Citizens Bank Park and another stadium should be explored. Temple should explore scheduling September games at the Bank but not October ones as those are baseball playoff dates.

Failing that play, say, two games at Franklin Field in September and October and two games at the soccer stadium in Chester in those same months and play the final two home games at Citizens Bank Park.

Slot CBP for any possible AAC title game in December.

Temple should start planning now because once Lurie comes out with the announcement it will almost definitely not include the Owls.

Monday: Depth Chart Clues

Friday (8/15): Behind The Lines

07.03.25
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New Temple Unis: A Solid B

Al Golden, whose 56th birthday is today, brought back both the striped pants and TEMPLE on the helmet.

One of the things a lot of new Temple coaches do is try to change the uniforms.

Some get it right.

Some swing and miss.

Some get close.

New Temple football coach K.C. Keeler is in the third category.

I had hoped to give the new Temple uniform reveal which came three days ago an A.

Got to admit I’m a little disappointed to hand out a B, but I have to be honest.

It’s not an exaggeration to say Al Golden saved Temple football, both from an on-field standpoint and a uniform standpoint.

Only two Temple football coaches in my lifetime nailed the new uniform assignment and both were among the best, Wayne Hardin and Al Golden. (Happy Birthday to Temple Hall of Fame head coach Al Golden and a sincere thank you from TFF for saving the program.)

Hardin turned the old Owl the side of the helmet into TEMPLE on both sides.

“A lot of people wear Ts on the side of the helmets,” Hardin said in 1971. “Tennessee, Texas Tech and Texas A&M, among others. We don’t want to be confused with anyone. We’re TEMPLE and we’re proud to wear the name on our helmets.”

That theme returned in Al Golden’s second season when he decided to put TEMPLE back on the helmets.

“When I played at Penn State, we played a lot of teams that hit us pretty hard,” Golden said. “We played Notre Dame. We played USC. Nobody hit us as hard as those guys wearing TEMPLE on the side of their helmets. I wanted to return to that kind of tradition.”

Helmets through the years. The only decent ones were TEMPLE and the T.

So Golden, like Hardin, put TEMPLE back on the helmets.

That’s kinda what I was hoping for Keeler.

Not being a perfectionist, all I wanted was for the team’s football logo (TEMPLE) to share the school’s logo (T).

Split the baby is what we’ve been writing about for the last decade.

A King Solomon-style solution would be for one side of the helmets to be TEMPLE and the other side of the helmet to be the school’s familiar T logo.

Keeler made a step in the right direction with putting the T on both sides of the helmet. Maybe next year he’ll consult with King Solomon. For now, getting rid of the stupid numbers on the helmet is a huge step in the right direction. There was never a need to have numbers both on the front and back of the jerseys AND the helmets.

Steve Addazio made the most egregious change in the helmet when it removed the TEMPLE of Al Golden to the T of the school.

He was out after two years. I would have fired him for the helmet change but fortunately BC took him off Temple’s hands after a 4-7 Owl season in 2012.

Keeler’s unis–while not the pure dark Cherry colors or having the TEMPLE on the helmet–aren’t perfect, but they are a step toward perfect.

Kinda like the program on the field at this point and we’ll have another reveal this time next year so there’s always hope that the grade could be upgraded to an A.

King Solomon is counting on it.

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

06.19.25
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Temple returns to recruiting footprint

Another year around the sun came and went on June 19th for this reporter and it was my annual reminder that the expiration date invisibly stamped on my forehead is rapidly approaching.

In a sense, Temple Football Forever, too. We don’t know the date and probably don’t want to at this point.

Yet while this website won’t last forever, what new head K.C. Keeler did this week was a sign that Temple football as a program will last, if not forever, a long time.

If Keeler keeps this kind of recruiting up, chances are he will be talking about Temple going from one year with a lot of losses to one year with a lot of wins like he did here at SHS last year.

That’s because he stepped away from the nasty habits of the last three head coaches and returned to the Owls’ recruiting footprint.

Bruce Arians once said it was simply metro Philadelphia, South Jersey, the Lehigh Valley and the D.C./Virginia corridor that included Norfolk and Richmond.

Al Golden reaffirmed that when he arrived on the scene, correctly pointing out that Temple is smack dab in the middle of 46 percent of the nation’s population.

“If you drew a 250-mile circle around Temple, that’s well within a five-hour drive for any family who wants to send their kids here,” Golden said. “That’s 46 percent of the nation’s population and you should be able to find 25 great players from that many kids.”

Arians went 6-5 twice against a Top 10 schedule with that philosophy.

Golden ended 20 years of Temple misery adopting it.

What do Arians (York), Golden (Colts Neck, N.J.), Matt Rhule (State College) and Keeler (Emmaus) all have in common? They played their high school football within 250 miles of Temple.

What do Geoff Collins, Rod Carey, and Stan Drayton have in common?

They did not.

Daron Harris makes returning kickoff and punts for touchdowns look easy, like this one against Imhotep.

Now with a slew of local recruits signed recently, Keeler apparently has decided that blueprint makes sense for him, too.

Among those guys are a 6-4, 315-pound offensive tackle from Strath Haven named Billy Brown, an All-Philadelphia Catholic League tight end named J. P. Oates and defensive backs Daron Harris of Chester and Dylan Abram of Monsignor Bonner.

Temple might not be back this year, but rest assured Keeler’s plan is to return the Owls to those kinds of days.

That’s not all.

Defensive tackle Jude Okeleke (pronounced OAK-LEAK-EEE) turned down a solid offer from Fran Brown and Syracuse to commit to Temple this week, saying “I’m home.” While not a Philly-area recruit, it’s nice to know that Okeleke considers Philadelphia home. Technically, he is within that 250-mile footprint, having played at the Taft School in Watertown, Conn. Better yet, he is considered one of the top 75 DT prospects in the country. Being from Nigeria and not able to earn NIL money, Temple gets the added benefit of probably keeping him for four years.

Brown was a first-team Philadelphia Inquirer OT playing in 2023 before moving onto Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. last fall.

Oates was a first-team All-PCL tight end for a 10-0 regular season LaSalle High team last year, catching 47 passes for 576 yards and five touchdowns.

Harris was called “one of the top athletes in the state” by Chester head coach Dennis Shaw, scoring 28 touchdowns for the Clippers in a variety of ways (5 rushing, 7 kick returns and 2 interception returns).

Abram was all-PCL and had five interceptions for Bonner after returning to his original school from Philly Public League power Imhotep.

None of this proves Temple football is back to the winning days of Arians, Golden and Matt Rhule but usually a good blueprint leads to a solid foundation.

History always repeats itself and, while we’re all getting older, all evidence points to Temple football getting better.

Monday: The Foreign Component

06.15.25
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Seeing double: A Brady Palmer vs. Brady Palmer matchup

The “other” Brady Palmer committed to Cal on the same weekend the “good” Brady Palmer committed to Temple. No relation.

Seeing double is what could happen if Temple and California decided to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of a Garden State Bowl matchup with an intersectional football game during the 2029 season.

That’s because, in addition to the Golden Anniversary, it could feature maybe the first college football game where the starters at quarterback for both teams have the same first and last names.

Brady Palmer.

That’s because on the same exact weekend in 2025 the two 2026 grads of the same name committed to Temple and Cal, respectively.

You can’t make this up and we certainly didn’t so both schools should roll with the good fortune. How could a network resist a Brady Palmer vs. Brady Palmer matchup, especially if both are able to secure the starting jobs at their respective schools? Brady Palmer vs. Brady Palmer with Paul Palmer handling the color on Temple radio.

It’s too good to pass up.

The 1979 matchup featured the nation’s top-rated quarterback in passing efficiency, Brian Broomell, vs. Cal’s Rich Campbell, who later played in the NFL.

Temple won, 28-17, before 40,000 fans at Giants Stadium.

Both are highly rated quarterbacks and Temple’s Palmer is an Elite 11 one, joining the ranks of recent Temple quarterbacks who made the Elite 11 (Anthony Russo and Re’Al Mitchell were the others). He was the starter at St. Francis High School in Wheaton, Ill. and now transferred to national powerhouse St. Thomas Acquinas (Fl.) for his senior year. In Illinois, Palmer threw for 33 touchdown passes and reportedly clocked a 4.5 in the 40-yard dash, which would make him exactly as fast as former Temple great running back Bernard Pierce.

The California Brady Palmer threw for 16 touchdowns against just five interceptions for Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) in the 2024 season. To be fair, his offer sheet was more impressive than the Temple Brady Palmer as he turned down scholarships from Utah and TCU to sign with Cal.

On the other hand, that Palmer was not an Elite 11 quarterback.

This one is and we can settle the issue of who is better with a Garden State Bowl rematch in 2029.

Friday: Home Cooking

06.08.25
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Temple football’s No. 1 target commits

By all accounts, the gathering on June 3d between Temple fans and new head coach K.C. Keeler broke all records for an Owl event in the offseason in terms of attendance.

The buzz both inside and outside the Wissahickon Brewing Company was positive enough to get people to buy season tickets and have those people get other people to buy season tickets. The impact should show in fannies in the seats come September.

Keeler offered a few interesting nuggets in the sense that “we’re probably done” with the transfer portal for this cycle and concentrating instead on high school recruits.

Already, those dividends are paying off.

It didn’t take more than a few days for arguably Temple’s No. 1 target, a quarterback from North Carolina named Brody Norman, to commit. Five days to be exact because Norman announced on his twitter feed at exactly 7:41 p.m. on Sunday night he was an Owl.

There’s definitely an Anthony Russo-type vibe to the the Norman signing in it’s been a very long time since Temple signed a quarterback with gaudy stats like this.

As a senior at Archbishop Wood, Russo had 35 touchdown passes vs. only four interceptions for Steve Devlin’s state championship Vikings. Russo had just visited with then LSU head coach Les Miles in the Archbishop Wood cafeteria when then Temple head coach Matt Rhule got Russo to switch his Rutgers’ commitment for the Owls. Russo finished in the top four of Temple’s all-time quarterbacks from a statistical standpoint and probably would have worked his way up the ladder had then head coach Rod Carey not tried to make an option quarterback out of a drop back passer.

Temple sports set a record for an offseason event with a big crowd on Tuesday night to listen to K.C. Keeler

That was a whole different time in college football when G5 teams routinely out recruited regional P5 rivals because there wasn’t a whole lot of money to throw around and the G5 team could offer immediate playing time.

Keeler pulled off his own heist with the Norman recruit, taking advantage of the current state of college football when many P4 teams eschew recruiting high school players in favor of raiding other P4 team’s ready-made quarterback in the transfer portal.

With Norman, P4’s loss is Temple’s gain.

Norman had 32 touchdown passes in the junior year at Mooresville, N.C. His team finished 11-2 and won its league championship.

Who knows how many he will have this upcoming season but that fact that he won’t be distracted by having to deal with recruiters should help him focus on his high school season and padding those high school numbers.

Like Russo, the most important statistic for a quarterback is a championship pedigree followed by number of touchdown passes vs. interceptions.

Norman passes the smell test on both counts.

He obviously loves Philadelphia and, while he won’t arrive on campus for another couple of years, Philadelphia will no doubt love him back.

Friday: Sunday’s other three commits

Monday: Seeing double

06.05.25
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Temple football: Location, location, location

First-year Temple head football coach K.C. Keeler is proving the old real estate adage:

Location, Location, Location.

At this time last year, then Temple head coach Stan Drayton was starting the second week of his two-week vacation in Houston, Tex (his house there)., texting the two reporters who cover Temple football on a regular basis that everything back home was cool because he was in constant contact with the senior leadership group.

Contrast that to what happened on Tuesday night when Keeler met with a couple hundred Temple fans at the Wissahickon Brewing Company.

That’s in Philadelphia, not Houston.

In that time, Keeler showed a grasp of the Temple personnel that Drayton never had.

There, he called last year’s starting quarterback, Evan Simon, “a dude” and incoming quarterback Gevani McCoy a guy who could win the job based on his history as a starter at both Oregon State and Idaho (two teams who have beaten Temple in the last 30 years). Drayton, on the other hand, fumbled his quarterback situation by naming the worst quarterback in Temple history, Forrest Brock, as the starter in the Oklahoma game over a Temple quarterback, Evan Simon, who started and did decently well in Big 10 games.

K.C. Keeler comes approved by Hooter.

Drayton, a running back guru, fumbled the ball.

Keeler, on the other hand, seems to have a grasp on his QB situation by even floating the idea of a two-quarterback system.

Afterward, Keeler left–not for Houston–but for his home here. This weekend, he might go as far as his longstanding home at Rehoboth Beach, Del., which is exactly 1,535 miles from Houston and only 121 miles from Philadelphia.

No need to have the team leadership group on standby. He can be at 10th and Diamond in a hurry.

Keeler dropped a couple of jokes–not staged, but based on his first few months here–that had the Temple fans in stitches on Tuesday and left the definite impression he was not going anywhere and he was large and in charge.

I don’t know about you but that’s comforting to me.

Monday: The No. 1 Target