by Mike Gibson

Duke-Temple: A unique storyline

When Pat Kraft went to look for a new head coach after Geoff Collins quit, he reportedly zeroed in on Texas A&M defensive coordinator Mike Elko.

Elko allowed his name to float in the new Temple head coaching conversation and days later accepted a pay raise to remain at Texas A&M.

Some say he used Temple.

Either way, the game on Sept. 2 offers probably the most unique storyline of the opening weekend.

Elko turns down Temple job, gets raise to stay put, and then Kraft turns to the other DC, Manny Diaz, who stuck around for all of 18 days.

That led to a panic hire of fellow Indiana football alum Rod Carey, who was just a bad fit here.

Good storyline but there’s more.

Since Carey took over Temple, the Owls and Duke had one decent year (2019) and two horrible seasons.

Duke and Temple both had three wins a year ago and, arguably, Duke had both a worse loss than anything Temple had (Charlotte) and probably not a win as impressive as the Owls owned (Memphis).

All that under the backdrop of probably the worst locker room atmosphere we’ve seen at Temple since the Bobby Wallace Era. There was an open rebellion of Temple players, leading to many more good ones leaving than could be replaced.

All offseason signs point to problems at Duke that do not exist at Temple. For instance, its starting quarterback transferred down (FIU) and now they have a competition for the top job between primarily a running quarterback and a passing one.

Sound familiar?

That’s the same scenario at Temple with Dwan Mathis and Quincy Patterson. The difference is that both Temple quarterbacks have started and won FBS games and the two at Duke have not.

Duke and Temple both lost their leading receivers (Jake Bobo to UCLA for Duke and Jadan Blue to Virginia Tech for Temple) so that area appears to be in Temple’s favor simply because the Owls were able to entice the guy who caught the game-winning touchdown pass against Duke (Adonicas Sanders) to come to Philadelphia.

On defense, Duke was ranked 130 among all 130 FBS teams last year. The Blue Devils allowed 40 points per game last year (and 518 yards per).

Although Duke is a 7-point favorite now, this is a very winnable game from the Temple perspective.

If the Owls pull it out, the story the next day could be Arthur Johnson’s first choice for Temple head coach was better than Pat Kraft’s first choice to replace Collins.

It would not come as a surprise, let’s put it that way.

Friday: Behind The Digits

10.25.21

by Mike Gibson

TU football word of the day: Malaise

.@CwSaydee 1-yd TD run. Tune in now on @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/IaWpV7yU4N
— Temple Football (@Temple_FB) October 24, 2021

The lack of a real celebration here tells a lot..

A pretty intelligent guy who often visits the Edberg Olson Complex and has a finger on the pulse of Temple football used a word that surprised me about the general vibe around the place.

Not last night, not last week, but way back in February.

“I’ve never seen the place so dead,” he said. “There’s a malaise around the program right now with all of the players leaving and a lot of those staying unhappy. Very few of the kids like the guy (Rod Carey). He’s no Matt. He’s not even Geoff (Collins). Practices use to be fun. Hell, lifting in the offseason used to be fun. There’s no fun anymore.”

Merriam-Webster’s definition of the word malaise: “a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify.”

Owls used to have fun in the snow in February.
No fun under Rod Carey.

Uh-oh, I thought.

That’s one of the reasons why I went out on a limb Feb. 11 in this space and predicted a 2-10 season. I was wrong by a game. It’s going to be 3-9.

Football is a game. It should be fun. At Temple, it’s not.

That much became abundantly clear when the Owls got pushed around on Saturday night by a 1-5 USF team that hadn’t won a conference game in two years.

This coaching staff had 15 days to prepare for that 1-5 team and came out with a game plan so puzzling that just about every Temple fan got scabs from scratching their heads. After a cornerback got ran down by a tight end on a muffed field goal, I thought, “no problem. We’re going to put Tavon Ruley in there and he’s going to need no more than one or two plays to get a 7-0 lead.”

No.

The much lighter Edward Saydee was in and stuffed on first and then they held on second down and the Owls threw an interception on the next play.

Nice drive.

The Owls didn’t adjust to a four-man front until the fourth quarter to stop the run and, by that time, it was far too late. The adjustment should have been in the first, not fourth, quarter.

You can tell a lot about a team by its body language.

The Owls seemed listless and there was nobody in the defensive huddle to fire up the troops.

Even when the Owls scored a touchdown, they were lifeless. There was almost no celebration. It was almost like a relief.

Malaise indeed.

I was tempted to go to twitter and constantly hit refresh with search items Sunday like “Rod Carey” and “Temple football” hoping for an announcement of a press conference at Sullivan Hall to fire the head coach. I didn’t bother because I know how Temple leadership makes major decisions.

History shows it’s deliberately and often too late to solve the problem. Just like the school’s football coach, they wait until the fourth quarter to solve a problem that should have been taken care of in the first.

There’s another word for that.

Inertia.

Friday: UCF Preview

07.19.21

by Mike Gibson

What would Geoff Collins do?

**According to the website coacheshotseat.com, two former Temple guys sit at Nos. 14 and 15, respectively.**

While there seems to be some debate about how rosy the future is for Rod Carey at Temple, there is less debate about current Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins had he remained at Temple.

It would not have ended well.

Hell, my best guess has been since December of 2019 that it won’t end well for Carey here but Collins didn’t tee things up for Rod like Matt Rhule did for Geoff.

Carey probably has one more year, maybe two, to post a winning season at Temple or he’s out of here.

Collins would have been on a shorter leash had he remained here simply because his contract would have been up.

Collins recruited primarily from the South, eschewed local connections, and his two classes were mediocre at best.

Had he remained here would he have been able to switch gears like Carey did in the offseason, promote Gabe Infante and hire a guy like Preston Brown?

Doubtful.

So, in my mind and probably in a lot of other minds, Temple is slightly better off with Carey than Collins.

Put it this way: Carey beat Collins, 24-2, with AAC talent while Collins had the benefit of ACC recruiting classes.

Knowing Temple as I do, Carey will probably be able to survive a 2-4 win season as most of the experts expect the Owls to have. Look at it this way: Did Steve Addazio survive a four-win season at Temple?

He sure did until Boston College took the Owls off the hook.

Temple rarely fires head coaches who it owes money to and I doubt they’d start with Carey.

Collins, on the other hand, is feeling the heat in Atlanta and that comes with the Power 5 territory.

Maybe he can make a move to solidify his job by capitalizing on the new NIL rule, but that remains to be seen. The fans there are restless and a story published over the weekend illustrated why.

That’s Georgia Tech’s problem, not Temple’s. We have our own, of course, but things could have been worse.

Friday-Monday: Off the Grid (we’ll be in the Poconos this weekend and our only internet will be by phone so no stories)

Friday, July 30: Summer camp preview

05.21.21

by Mike Gibson

5 Famous Temple coaching lines

**Rod Carey’s best Temple highlight was beating Geoff Collins. We expected more and hope to get it.**

Pouring over the things Rod Carey has said since his arrival at Temple I was quite frankly stunned by this statement repeated many times over the last few months or so:

“We dealt with Covid and, quite frankly, Covid won,” Carey said.

That got me to thinking.

If Carey goes 2-10 this year (as expected by most of the outside experts), that will probably be the one statement he will be remembered for here. That’s because even with a lame duck Temple administration and questionable athletic leadership, I cannot imagine Carey surviving a 2-10 season at Temple.

Could it happen?

Sure, because his current boss survived a 9-22 season Temple. The difference, though, is that boss gave Temple three-straight league championships and this one did not.

The other difference is that schools from metro AAC cities like Memphis and Cincy and Tulsa also had to deal with Covid and were able to wrestle Covid to the ground.

Was the City of Philadelphia’s response to Covid more draconian than Memphis, Cincy or Tulsa? Perhaps but not enough to be the difference between Cincy’s 8-0 and Temple’s 1-6.

If Carey loses this season, he’s going to have to come up with a different excuse or that quote is what he will be forever remembered here.

Let’s go over what the prior Temple coaches will be remembered for saying, in no particular order:

Steve Addazio: “”I love the feel of Philadelphia. This place fits my personality . The more I’m here, the more excited I am.”

Translation: Boston also fits my personality, especially after a 4-7 season.

Al Golden: “We’re going to build a house of brick, not straw. “

Translation: Thanks, Al. You were one of the few Temple coaches who delivered what he said he would deliver. Golden could have taken a shortcut and recruited a team of JUCO All-Americans who might have gotten him the UCLA job after year one or two but he recruited from the ground up and it took him five years to right the ship.

Matt Rhule: “For me, it means a promise has been fulfilled. Temple University has been unbelievable to my family and I. Ten years we have spent here, and it has been nothing but class. Tremendous people from the Board of Trustees to the administration to the people I work with day-to-day in athletics. The people who have stood by my side. The true thing for me is to have these players who call themselves champions because that is the way they live their lives. When you win this conference, you have done something special. This is a fantastic conference with great teams from top to bottom. We have tremendous respect for everyone that we play. We can say that we did it. That is the accomplishment.”

Translation: That’s all Temple fans could ever ask for and Matt Rhule will be forever remembered as an icon because of that title.

Geoff Collins: “We will compete for championships, we will provide a world-class student-athlete experience and education, and we will represent the community with pride.”

Translation: Competing for championships doesn’t mean winning one, like Rhule did.

That brings us to our favorite quote this week from Temple offensive lineman Isaac Moore, courtesy of OwlsDaily and a tip of the hat to that site’s Shawn Pastor: “It’s Temple. You cannot lose here. Everyone knows that.”

Thanks, Isaac, for providing the mantra going forward.

Since that best represents my fervent hope for the fall of 2021, that’s my favorite Temple quote of the year. If losing to Covid in 2020 means refusing to lose in 2021, that’s a trade I’m willing to accept.

Monday: Setting the Bar

10.01.19

by Mike Gibson

Fizzy: A new month and a short wait

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub, a weekly contributor, is a former Temple player who once dated Bill Cosby’s college girlfriend while both were teammates (but not while she was Cos’ girl). Maybe he’ll write about that later this season. 🙂

By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

The summer after Jayson Werth jumped to the Washington nationals, I saw the best sign of all times in the stands. “Was it Werth it?” the sign read. I wonder if coach Collins has any of those thoughts today? Of course, he had a few million other reasons to consider.

weinraub

Before I get to a brief review of the Georgia Tech game, I’d like us all to consider a mystery of life question. How is it Temple can secure so much outstanding talent when supposedly, we’re being out-recruited by all the schools that get the three- and four-star high school athletes? Surely, we’ve had more talent than Maryland and Georgia Tech, two of the lousiest Power Five teams. And Buffalo, who beat us the last two years, also seems to support this question.

Screenshot 2019-10-01 at 8.44.19 AM

Other than the top six or eight teams in the country who have unbelievable depth, there’s been a great evening out of the talent. On any given Saturday, the outcome of a game between any other of the 115 top football schools many times comes down to the coaching and/or one or two significant plays or errors. One answer obviously is that it’s very difficult to predict which players are going to succeed at the next level. Another reason is that more talent is getting into college than ever before. That’s because, if we’re honest, a coach of a big-time football program can now get just about any recruit he wants to be admitted to his university. (See the number of people who are going to jail because they bribed coaches to say their kid was an athlete.) Lastly, it’s as it’s always been, great coaches attract great talent. So for whatever the reason, Temple has been most fortunate. It remains to be seen if Coach Carey can continue this recruiting success.

Now to the game.

This was a woulda, coulda, shoulda game for Georgia Tech. Their very costly quarterback fumbles turned the game around. The first was one foot from the end zone, the other was at the tail end of a very successful drive towards the Temple goal. Had they scored on both of those occasions, and not given us a lengthy fumble recovery for a touchdown, the game would have been a nail biter. On the other hand, our defense kept them scoreless on at least five trips into our red zone. So, congratulations to our defense once again.

As I’m the world’s greatest football nitpicker, I could isolate on a number of things. But this is going to be Fizzy light. I would like to congratulate wide receiver Branden Mack and quarterback Anthony Russo for finally running the hook pass just past the first-down chains, successfully. The offensive line did a hell of a job, and running back Re’Mahn Davis timed his bounces to the outside perfectly. Before he was hobbled, Jager Gardner really pounded inside.

However, one bootleg or keeper wasn’t called for Russo, although they were wide open all day and we’ve still yet to see a speed sweep by Wright, or gasp, a reverse. I still look forward to the day when Russo is damn near perfect.

It’s now conference time. Take a nap on Thursday afternoon.

additional editor’s note… and now for shits and giggles …

Thursday: Game Night

Friday: Game Analysis

09.29.19

by Mike Gibson

Georgia Tech fans now know the feeling

About 11 a.m. yesterday at the dimly-lit City Hall subway stop, I ran into a group of smiling Georgia Tech fans eagerly anticipating a win over the Temple Owls.

Nice people, but I had to shake my head knowing what I know about their head coach and offensive coordinator and what I know about my current guy.

Carey towers over Collins in more ways than one

In one corner, you had those guys, mostly coaches who came from the ranks of the FCS to jump into FBS ball for the first time at Temple. In their first game at Temple, a 16-13 win over Villanova, the defensive line jumped offsides three-straight times.

“That was when I got the feeling this entire staff was learning on the job on Temple’s dime,” I told Temple AD Pat Kraft before the Maryland game.

They still are after a 24-2 loss to Temple.

In the other corner, you had a professional FULLY FBS staff mostly from Northern Illinois, who produced multiple league championships at pretty much the same level Temple plays.

When the doors to train opened, knowing the managers in both corners of this fight, I was never more confident about an outcome.

Now Georgia Tech fans know how we felt after losses to Villanova and Buffalo to start last season.

Last week, the Owls suffered their own embarrassing loss, another one to Buffalo, but the last time we saw Rod Carey he promised to fix what ailed the Owls and he devised a clever game plan that accentuated the run and allowed the offense to manage the game and allow the defense to do its thing.

Re’Mahn Davis rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns and the Owls controlled the clock and won the turnover battle. Football is a simple game. You protect the ball, control the clock to keep the defense rested and you usually win. It would be nice to see a downhill runner like Davis following a fullback through the hole, but you can’t argue with Carey’s results.

That was the game plan and it was executed to perfection. That’s what championship staffs do.

Still, you’ve got to feel for the other guys and gals sometimes. I’ve been there and I’m glad Carey, and not Collins, is here.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

09.28.19

by Mike Gibson

Game Day: Revisionist History

Maybe the Owls’ defense will finally show Collins what Mayhem looks like this afternoon.

You never like to say a guy is lying but, for two years, Geoff Collins stretched the truth a lot of his time at Temple University.

None more than earlier this week in the formal press conference leading up to today’s game (3:30, Lincoln Financial Field) when he answered a question this way:
On whether there’s familiarity in the Temple roster after being the coach there previously:

“The entire two-deep either played for us for the last two years or we recruited them.”

Hmm.

Not exactly a lie, but not exactly the truth either. The truth part is that “the entire two-deep either played for us” is correct. That’s to be expected, though. What was Collins supposed to do when he arrived at Temple? Play guys who weren’t there previously? The recruited part? Not so much.

Screenshot 2019-09-27 at 10.01.13 PM

Checking the two-deep released in the pre-game notes against the recruiting charts of both Scout.com and Rivals.com, as many as 17 starters in today’s game were recruited not by Collins but by Matt Rhule and one (Harrison Hand) was recruited by Rod Carey.

Less even last year when only two starters–both offensive line tackles–were recruited by Collins.

When he arrived, Collins promised defensive Mayhem. If you count your own players not staying home on cutback running plays as Mayhem, he delivered. If not, and I don’t, Mayhem never arrived.

Pre-game watching at the Steve Conjar tailgate …

OK, Geoff, whatever you say.

The bottom line of the Collins Era at Temple is that he underachieved with the talent he inherited and wasn’t the dynamic recruiter everyone expected him to be when he arrived in Philadelphia. Rhule, who won 10 games in consecutive years, left Collins with 10-win talent both seasons and Collins underachieved by roughly five games.

Just a Cherry-colored tank top or t-shirt needed today. Hopefully, everybody goes in from the tailgates and cheers their lungs off for the Owls.

That’s not to say Collins–an engaging bull-crapper, no doubt–won’t be able to sweet-talk recruits to attend Georgia Tech.

It is to say that it did not happen for him here.

For Temple to win today, it will have to do something that Rhule put a premium on–protecting the football. The Owls have to treat it like Gold and, if they win the turnover battle, they should be all right. That should be the lesson of Buffalo going forward.

Something tells me Carey understands that better than the snake oil salesman who is someone else’s problem now.

Post-game watching at the Steve Conjar tailgate (although I think he will be packed up long before the 10 p.m. game)

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

Thursday: ECU Preview

Friday: Game Analysis

09.26.19

by Mike Gibson

Patenaude: Just what the doctor ordered

Let’s face it: The Temple Owls looked sick last week against Buffalo and they need a prescription to look like their old selves–or at least the Rosey-cheeked (Cherry-cheeked?) group that played against Maryland.

A Dave Patenaude pill washed down by a little of Geoff Collins’ swag juice might be just what the doctor ordered and that should be delivered at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) when Georgia Tech head coach Collins and his offensive coordinator Patenaude come to town.

At least that’s what Vegas thinks as the Owls were installed as a 9.5-point favorite and that rose to double-digits quickly.

Football is a strange game with an odd-shaped ball that takes funny bounces so it cannot be predicted from a mathematical standpoint. If that were the case, Syracuse, which beat Liberty (24-0) and lost to a Maryland-team (63-20) with Liberty beating Buffalo (35-17) would have meant Temple over Buffalo by 85 points.

It didn’t work out that way because it’s hard to give an X factor to overconfidence or a Y factor to turnovers or a Z factor to three dropped third-down passes.

Still, the variables involved with Patenaude and, to a lesser extent, Collins are pretty rigid and well-known in Temple land and have carried over to Atlanta.

performance

Patenaude with the approval of Collins overhauled a highly successful Temple pro-type (at least the same pro-type run by Bill Belichick in Boston) and turned it into a spread ill-advised to suit the talents of the team he inherited all because that’s what “everybody else” does or because that’s what he did at Coastal Carolina. He probably should have won nine regular-season games his first year (instead of six) using the Matt Rhule system and at least 10 his second year but underachieved both years. In the 40-plus years I’ve followed Temple football, Patenaude was the worst coordinator-level coach here I’ve ever seen and there was not even a close second.

National people who don’t know better think Collins did a great job here. Local people here, not so much.

So what has he done in Atlanta?

He repeats the same mistake again, trying to force-fit square pegs into round holes.

Both have a team that was exclusively recruited to run a triple-option and have now turned it into a college spread because (you guessed it) “everybody else does it.” Great generals know if they have a strong infantry and weak cavalry they don’t design an attack based on the kind of cavalry they hope to have. Instead, they accentuate the infantry in any battleplan. Similarly, great coaches like Belichick don’t do things because everybody else does it. They do things to fit their personnel and make it work with flawless execution. If Patenaude and Collins were great coaches, they would recruit the personnel they want to fit their offense first and make it work only when those guys are ready to play and not the other way around. They would try to make some form of a triple-option work until then.

Rod Carey proved last week that he wasn’t perfect (really, no one is). I’m still no more thrilled that he has Anthony Russo run a read-option offense than I would be if Belichick did the same with Tom Brady. Overall, though, I’m glad he’s the doctor to nurse this team back to health and those guys on the other sideline holding up silly money down placards are the cure.

At least that’s what my instincts tell me. We will find out for sure in 48 hours.

Predictions early this week (to get the Maryland-PSU game in): MARYLAND getting 6.5 against visiting Penn State, WAKE FOREST giving 6.5 against visiting Boston College, SMU giving 7 at South Florida, EAST CAROLINA getting 3 at Old Dominion, UAB giving 2 at Western Kentucky, TOLEDO getting 3.5 over visiting BYU, CINCINNATI giving 3 at Marshall. Last week: 5-0 against the spread with Coastal Carolina covering the 17 against UMass (winning, 62-28), Old Dominion covering the 30-point underdog status at Virginia (losing, 28-17), Boston College covering the 7 at Rutgers (winning, 30-16), Indiana covering the 27 against UConn (winning, 38-3) and Iowa State covering the 29.5 against Louisiana-Monroe (winning, 72-20). Season so far: 12-4 straight up, 6-5 against the spread.

Saturday: Game Day

Sunday: Game Analysis

08.12.19

by Mike Gibson

Temple Football Headlines We’d Like To See

Go to the college football tab on Philly.com and up will pop the following recent headlines:

Penn State transfer Ayron Monroe looking to make his mark at Temple;
Jager Gardner and Kyle Dobbins early front-runners in Temple running back race;
Anthony Russo Ready to Face Microscope As Temple starting quarterback
Manny Diaz Explains Why He Bailed on Temple Football

All fine, good headlines examining interesting topics pertaining to the program. Still, here are some other headlines and outlines we’d like to see in the future:

New Temple Board of Trustees Chair Mitchell Morgan Compares Building of Stadium to Morgan Hall: Morgan, a Temple grad, took over for departed chairman Patrick J. O’Connor, a Villanova graduate. The real estate developer needs to articulate that building a stadium on Temple’s property is no different than building Morgan Hall and more of an economic benefit to the neighborhood than a dorm would be in that game-day jobs and other perks would be made first available to neighborhood residents that do not exist in development of other Temple properties.

Carey Calls Collins ‘Goofy’ When He Releases His Depth Chart: The long-awaited date for a depth chart will be Aug. 26. That will be the first Temple depth chart anyone has seen since the 2016 Military Bowl as Temple fans had to deal with an “above-the-line” vagueness under former head coach Geoff Collins. “Geoff was goofy with that and some other things,” Temple coach Rod Carey said. “You won’t find us holding money down signs on third down, for instance.”

Carey Abandons Running Back By Committee Approach: “I said, and you can’t print this, ‘fuck it, ‘ I have the best running back in the league in Isaiah Wright and I’m not going to screw this up by trying to put someone else back there.’ “

Temple’s Kraft: No More FCS Games: In a unique approach designed to boost sagging season ticket sales for the Bucknell opener, Temple athletic director Pat Kraft says this will be Owl fans last chance to see an FCS team. “We’re actively looking to replace Idaho with a Power 5 team next season,” Kraft said, “and we’re no longer going to be playing FCS foes so this will be Temple fans last chance to see us against one of these type teams. We really don’t care what other AAC teams are doing with their non-conference schedules. We’re going to advance the Temple brand by playing only FBS foes going forward.”

Saturday: Defensive Depth Chart Thoughts

Monday: Offensive Depth Chart Thoughts

Saturday (8/24): What’s Out of Our Control?

Monday: (8/26): The Bully in the China Shop

Saturday (8/31): Game Day

Sunday (9/2): Resuming Regular Season Post schedule (Sun-Wed-Sat)

05.05.19

by Mike Gibson

TFF: Banned by Collins

The promised Mayhem was just another Collins’ lie.

In the two years observing Geoff Collins up close, we can sum him up in a few words:

More style than substance.

He always struck me
as Steve Addazio 2.0
with one eye on the
coach’s exit door
the entire two years
he was here

At least that’s my take and, after talking to a lot of former Temple football players who played mostly for substance coaches, that’s pretty much a universal take on him, too.

Now we can add another personality trait to Collins:

Thin-skinned.

I’m not much of a twitter guy. I’m on it only because of the business associated with this blog. I’ve never asked a single person to follow me and I never will but, much to my amazement, I have 378 followers.

Thankful for them all.

I’m a lot more selective in people I follow and only follow 238 but one of the people was Collins because he was a savvy social media guy and I wanted to hear what he had to say. I never interacted with @CoachCollins on twitter, just followed him. Never said a word to him on twitter or reacted to any of his posts.

So consider my surprise a few days ago when I checked Collins out on twitter for the first time since he quit Temple only to see this:

Screenshot 2019-05-04 at 1.08.45 PM

I can only assume that since I’ve never said anything to Collins on social media that he is blocking Temple Football Forever instead.

Forever.

I’ve been told I’m not the only Temple fan blocked by Collins on twitter but the difference between me and them is that most of those guys have said something to Collins on Twitter so I’ve got to assume that something was written in this space has gotten under Collins’ skin.

To that I say good.

For one, I’m glad he’s gone. He’s a terrible game-day coach and his offensive coordinator was the most ill-fitted coach, assistant or head, in Temple history. As game day coaches of the last decade go, Matt Rhule was No. 1, Al Golden No. 2, Steve Addazio No. 3 and Collins fourth. When you are a worse game day coach than Al and Steve, that’s not good.

Mostly, though, it’s about credibility.

Really the only time I ever talked to Collins was at the first season ticket-holder party when I asked him to do me one favor.

“What’s that?” he said.

“Make Nick Sharga an every-down fullback.”

“Don’t worry. I’m the fullback coach and we’re going to use him more than they used him last year.”

Since “last year” was the year Sharga pretty much led the team to the AAC championship as a three-down fullback, I was satisfied with that answer.

Collins, of course, lied. Now we know he followed this blog and was upset with its contents. My biggest problem with him in his first year was he pissed away any chance Temple had of repeating its AAC title by abandoning the very offense that its players were recruited to execute. Tailback with a lead fullback blocker, establish the run and make explosive downfield plays in the passing game off play-action fakes. Instead, he eschewed the “best fullback in the nation” (his words) by playing him one down a series, if that. Now he’s going to screw up his first season at Georgia Tech by doing the same thing. Making an entire team recruited to play the triple option run Dave Patenaude’s version (pass first, run second) of the read-option. If that’s not a formula for disaster, I don’t know what is. Georgia Tech fans, you can’t say you have not been warned.

So he’s a certified liar who was more schtick than substance and now we can add the trifecta of being thin-skinned. He always struck me as Steve Addazio 2.0 with one eye on the coach’s exit door the entire two years he was here. In fact, pretty much a year and a month ago we predicted that Collins would be headed to Georgia Tech with this post on March 7, 2018.

From what I’ve seen of Rod Carey so far, he hasn’t displayed any of those negative traits. Temple football is better off with Carey both on Sept. 28 and every other day going forward.

Tuesday: The Newbies

Friday: The Listerine Bowl