Tag Archives: gambling

12.11.25
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No more conventional thinking about Temple

Evan Simon (left) is leaving, but all signs point to pass rusher extraordinaire Sekou Kromah returning after surgery. Temple will miss Simon but hopefully the white helmets will also leave with his graduation.

At the most optimistic level, the conventional thinking about Temple football last year going into this one would have been to double the output of Stan Drayton, reach 6-6, and get to a bowl.

The Owls came oh so close. Three Victory Formation Knees short and a game-winning field goal against Navy close.

After that, all things being equal, Year Two in the K.C. Keeler Era would have been an 8-4 type season and falling just short of an American Conference title.

All things are not equal anymore.

With all of the great coaches leaving in the conference, there is no more room for conventional thinking about Temple in 2026.

We’re not saying an American Conference championship is the floor, but it is certainly a realistic ceiling.

Shocking that Temple is dealing with the new CFB reality.

Why?

Because with K.C. Keeler, Temple now has the maybe best head coach in the league. On top of that, Temple has done a pretty good job of retaining players.

Head coaches from Memphis, Tulane, South Florida have left for greener pastures, both literally and figuratively.

Keeler is still here. Arguably, Jeff Monken is a better head coach but Keeler and Navy head coach Brian Newberry are at least in the conversation for No. 2.

If Keeler wins the title in 2026, there is no conversation.

His culture is starting to take hold.

The Owls signed Giakoby Hills to a two-year contract. They offered Trinidad Chambliss $300,000 to play quarterback last year and Chambliss accepted and was set to announce on a Friday in Feb. before Ole Miss swooped in with a $600,000 offer. A week later, they grabbed the starting quarterback from Oregon State, Gevani McCoy, as an insurance policy.

Keeler needs to replace Kajiya Hollawayne (11) with a 4.4-40 type speedster and away we go.

Since Evan Simon didn’t get into a wreck, they didn’t need to use that policy but Keeler demonstrated a foresight that neither Rod Carey nor Stan Drayton had. Both were willing to blow up Temple seasons with an injury to the starter and both did.

Keeler sees the big picture.

The Owls’ No. 1 priority is to get an experienced winning transfer portal quarterback here and Keeler is on record as saying he will bring in two.

What does that look like?

Without naming names, it probably means a proven FBS starting winning quarterback as the first signee and a proven winning FCS starting quarterback as the second.

If the Owls were in the battle for Chambliss, and they were, and McCoy, who they got, expect something better in a month.

With Clayton Barnes handing the procurement of the players and Keeler handling the coaching end, Temple is in good hands.

If that happens, bleep an 8-4 season. A 10-2 one and a conference title is firmly in the crosshairs. Aim, ready, fire.

Monday: The Quote We Need

08.30.25
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Temple leaves fans with a good taste in their mouths

Gameday at Lincoln Financial Field is going to be fun again, maybe for the first time in 10 years.

The last word in this space yesterday was that we expected to eat some sort of delicious cake at around 6:30 p.m. today.

Well, we were off only by about 17 minutes.

The game ended at exactly 6:47 p.m., Eastern, and the double-layered Cherry and White cake with ice cream on the top was well worth the wait.

Best part of this is from 0:38 timestamp on…

Temple went into Amherst and not only won but won 42-10.

We didn’t expect the Cherry on top of this White cake but, thanks to the leadership of K.C. Keeler and Evan Simon, our bellies are full right now.

So ends a 20-game losing streak in the first year of a Temple head coach and, if that number sounds familiar, that happened roughly 20 years ago in the middle of Al Golden’s first season. That was a real 20-game losing streak and Golden stopped the bleeding with a 28-14 win over Bowling Green that day.

This was a little less real but no less embarrassing 20-game road losing streak that is, thankfully, over.

Those of us sitting in the stands back in 2006 knew it was the start of something special and those of us who had the pleasure of watching today have a similar feeling in the pit of our stomachs. Not heartburn, but a stomach that just ingested something Cherry and White and delicious.

Like a cake.

Poteat’s sack of Rose here turned the game around. (Photo Courtesy Zamani Feelings)

After 20-straight road losses, Temple has a road win and similarities between the two times abound.

Golden led the Owls to a nine-game winning two years later before bolting for Miami.

He made gamedays fun again at Lincoln Financial Field. Instead of bitching and moaning about this call and that call and that hire and this one, the pre-game talk turned to winning.

Then, Golden was 36 and we all knew in the back of our heads he was eyeing the next-big thing.

Keeler is 65 and his roots are planted here and less likely to leave and that’s one of the reasons why this time is even more exciting than that time.

The last time a Philadelphia football team above the high school level played a meaningful game they won it by sacking the quarterback at crucial times. This Philadelphia team did the same in the next game with Khalil Poteat providing the kind of sack that reminded Owl/Eagle fans of Jalen Carter.

Temple Football Forever way back on 8/29/25

UMass couldn’t handle the Temple D-Line pretty much the way the Chiefs couldn’t handle the Eagles’ D-Line. Keeler pretty much said it would be that way two weeks ago when he noted that “this is the deepest D-Line I ever had. We have 9-10 guys who can really play.”

A week later, Keeler said the same thing about his O-Line, “I’ve never seen a position group improve as much as our O-Line” perhaps referring to the “iron sharpens iron” of playing against an elite D-Line. The OL gave Evan Simon time to throw for six touchdown passes and gave Jay Ducker space to rush for over 100 yards in his Temple debut.

The Eagles proved on Super Bowl Sunday that games are won in the trenches and the other birds who play home games in that same stadium seem to have adopted that formula.

Either way, the food at the tailgates is going to taste better for the first time in a long while and the dessert afterward is promising, too.

Leave some room for both.

Monday: Five Takeaways From The Game

Friday: Howard Preview

Late Saturday Night: Howard Game Analysis

Monday: 5 Trick Plays for Okie

01.17.25
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A Temple nugget for the national title game

Tip of the hat to TFF reader and CBS Sports talk show host Zach Gelb for this idea.

High-profile TV games involve big-time announcers and a lot of research from highly-paid TV teams yet nobody hits 1.000 or even .400.

Some even strike out.

Case-in-point was Sunday’s NFL Wild Card game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers.

For all of the millions of dollars Tom Brady, Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi make none knew that the Packers’ kicker who missed his first field goal in that game (Brandon McManus) played his college ball in the same stadium.

Joe Jones (26) watches Ryan Day explain the “chop” technique. He caught at TD pass against Army that week.

Got to go with “knew” because that’s a nugget that should have been tossed out somewhere along the line. Certainly worthy enough to mention in the game-day broadcast.

Here’s a helpful hint for Monday’s announcers in the national championship game: There is a Temple angle more than worthy to be pursued.

Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit are those guys.

Huge news for the Owls. Way better than Tarleton State. Wake me up the next time the Tarleton State fans storm the court after beating the No. 18 team in the country.

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden is inarguably the one person who is responsible for turning the Temple program from a 19-season loser to a consistent winner and he is the Notre Dame defensive coordinator.

Golden was smart enough to hire a guy named Ryan Day as his wide receivers’ coach.

Now the two are on opposite sides of the field in Monday’s national title game.

While the fake Miami (Ohio) might have been previously earned the reputation of “Cradle of Coaches” that doesn’t apply to this year’s national title game.

Temple is the only school that earns that distinction on this night and in this game.

It deserves to be either mentioned or highlighted in a pre-game piece.

Hopefully, they won’t swing and miss like the NFL crew did on Sunday.

Monday: Five Most Impactful Guys