EA Sports likes Notre Dame, 14-9; we’ll go with 17-13. Love the Temple fight song being played in this simulation.

Time waits for no man, even if that man is as affable and amiable as Geoff Collins, Temple’s new head coach.

While Collins might not be ready to name a starter at quarterback, a couple of outlets already named one for him.

Your turn to pick the scores

EA Sports has Logan Marchi starting the Notre Dame game, while USA Today confidently predicts that Todd Centeio will be Temple’s starter.

Others closer to the program swear Frank Nutile will get the nod and this reporter hopes that all four players—all four—get a chance to show their stuff in a real game against real competition. If that never happened, Temple fans would not have gotten to see arguably the best quarterback of the last decade, Adam DiMichele, because he was a notoriously bad camp and spring ball quarterback who clicked once the lights went on during the regular season.

Well, in the spirit of time waiting for no man, at this time every year we like to look into our crystal ball and give a game-by-game breakdown and we’ve run out of patience waiting for a starter.

Last year, fans from opposing teams and members of the Fake News wrote “Temple will take a step back in 2016” from its 10-win season. Au contrare, we said, just the opposite. Last year was the step forward year, not the step back one. We predicted an 11-win season and an AAC championship. We did not get the 11-win season because the coach who claimed lifetime fidelity to Temple jumped ship and took his coaches with him, but there can be no doubt the season was a step forward with a title.

A victory over Florida in the Birmingham Bowl would be a satisfying end to a successful season.

In all fairness, in that prediction, we wrote that “next year (2017) will be the step back year and not this one” so, while it would be tempting to predict the Owls go 15-0 and win the national title, that would be, at best, intellectually dishonest.

EA Sports got it right with its simulation of the ND game. In my mind, this was going to be a low-scoring one and EA has Notre Dame winning, 14-9. We’ll go two touchdowns and a field goal for ND and two field goals and a touchdown for Temple. ND, 17-13. What most of the nation doesn’t know, but will know soon is that this Temple defense will be better the last two. The offense will determine the season.

Villanova at Temple (0-1), Sept. 9 _ If Temple only gets one touchdown in the opener, expect a new quarterback for this one. The last time the Owls hired a SEC coordinator to be head coach, he understood the importance of a beatdown of the crosstown rival and won two games, 42-7, and 41-10. While losing to ND can be considered acceptable, losing to Villanova cannot. Temple, 41-3. Temple is now 1-1.

UMass at Temple (1-1), Sept. 16 _ Too much drama in the last game between these two teams. Playing at home makes a world of difference here. Temple, 35-10.

Temple (2-1)  at USF, Sept. 21 _ Much as it pains me to say, Quintin Flowers and the Bulls have been circling this one on the calendar for a full year and they will be ready for the ambush. USF, 34-24.

Houston at Temple (2-2), Sept. 30 _ Never a big Major Applewhite fan and losing Greg Ward will adversely affect Houston more than the loss of P.J. Walker with Temple. Owls, 28-14.

Temple (3-2) at ECU, Oct. 7 _  ECU loses its best player, Zay Jones, to Buffalo of the NFL and, judging from its 37-10 loss to Temple last year, it needs more good players, not less. Temple, 27-14.

UConn at Temple (4-2), Oct. 14 _ UConn brings a new coach, Randy Edsall, and a new quarterback, David Pindell, into Philadelphia. Collins wanted Pindell, but Edsall got him.  This game will be closer than last year’s game. Temple, 21-17.

Temple (5-2) at Army, Oct. 21 _ A good sign for this one is that Collins has watched so much Temple film he can recall individual plays current Owls made from 2015 to now. At times, it seemed that Matt Rhule’s staff never opened a film projector and one of those times was in game prep for Army a year ago. If Collins watches as much film as we think he does, he will give Army a heavy dose of the running game on offense and plug the A gaps on defense with two tackles and a nose guard to bust the triple option at the point of attack. Temple, 63-23.

Navy at Temple (6-2), Nov. 3 _ The 5-2 defense that Temple employed at Army comes in handy against Navy. Temple, 31-19. (Interestingly, Phil Snow went mostly with a 5-2 in a 34-10 AAC title win over Navy with Averee Robinson and Freddy Booth-Lloyd alternating as the nose guard.)

Temple (7-2) at Cincinnati, Nov. 10 _ The Bearcats also have a new coach, but the culture of winning is not as entrenched as it is with the Owls. Temple, 30-7.

UCF at Temple (8-2), Nov. 18 _ Scott Frost has UCF improved, so this won’t be easy but Temple TUFFs it out, 21-20, on a late Austin Jones’ field goal.

Temple (9-2) at Tulsa, Nov. 25 _ With the AAC West on the line, Tulsa’s offense is just too much for Collins’ Mayhem defense. Tulsa wins the shootout and gets to play USF in the title game. Tulsa, 31-27.

IF Collins loves the Temple kids as much as he says he does, he stays through the Birmingham Bowl and completes a successful season with a 27-20 win over his former SEC team, Florida. The Owls might rather play Baylor, BC or Penn State but those opportunities will not be on the table. An SEC opponent like Florida would present an appealing story line. The Owls finish the regular season 9-3 and sneak into the final Top 25 poll, making them a real Top 25 program and not a self-proclaimed one.

For Collins, that opens up some interesting options.

His name becomes a hot one for after the 2018 season. Maybe he breaks the mold and becomes the guy who figures out that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the 10th and Diamond fence. Or maybe the maddening cycle continues and Ed Foley coaches the 2018 bowl game. If that’s the case, football bowl time at Temple unfortunately takes on the feel of Groundhog Day once again.

Friday: Eye Of The Needle

Monday: Game Week Begins (Can You Believe It?)

There’s a spot right there in the pocket to put the starter’s name.

Now we know why Geoff Collins wears that ubiquitous vest all the time.

He needs to keep something important close to it. Somewhere in one of those pockets is the name of the starting quarterback for Temple against Notre Dame on September 2. One of these days, maybe this week, Collins will pull a name out of a pocket and tell the press.

Or not.

He doesn’t have to name one until maybe an hour before kickoff, but the guess here it will be sometime before that. One thing is certain: No one will ever be comparing Collins’ vest to Al Shrier’s briefcase. The legendary Owl has never disclosed that information and maybe won’t ever.

Collins has to tell NBC-TV who his starter at quarterback will be.

Depending upon whom you talk to, the Temple head coach  is down to two quarterbacks who are “above the line.”

(That’s the new Temple football nomenclature for depth chart, since the new regime doesn’t believe in them. Above the line refers to guys who will play in the actual games.)

A few of the alumni—who had full access—say it’s Frank Nutile and Todd Centeio.

One of the reporters I respect enormously, Shawn Pastor of OwlsDaily.com, say it’s Logan Marchi and Frank Nutile. Pastor and the rest of the media had only second-half access.

The guy whose opinion counts the most, Geoff Collins, isn’t mentioning names.

Yet.

He will by the end of the week, which is one week later than the ideal time offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude set a month or so ago. At that time, Patenaude said that “you would like to name your starter two weeks before the opener” and Saturday was two weeks.

More kicking the can down the road.

This can has been kicked so far down the road on Broad Street over the last seven months that it probably has reached the Naval Yard by now.  At first, we thought we might have a starter come out of spring camp. That did not happen for a number of reasons, chief among them that no one created the necessary separation to be The Guy.

No worries.

Patenaude has always said from the jump that this was never a case of not having someone who was good enough, but having four guys who are good enough to be a championship Top 25 (at least regular season, until Temple can figure out this bowl thing) starting quarterback. Even though he’s coming to Temple seeing only Coastal Carolina quarterbacks, I tend to believe that reasoning.

Collins, for his part, pretty much said the same thing in his post-Franklin Field scrimmage talk with reporters on Saturday. He also let something slip: “We have packages ready for Toddy.” To me, that means two things. Centeio will not be redshirted and “Toddy” will be second team. You usually don’t have “packages ready” for the first-team quarterback.

Unless that means Toddy is taking a job at UPS during his redshirt season and I don’t think he will get one judging from what Collins says.

That leaves the first-team “above the line” guy and we should find that out in a week. After seven months of watching that can kicked down the road, it should be nice to pick it up and take a look inside for a change.

Or it that crunched up tin can might have been in Collins’ vest pocket all along.

Wednesday: Our Game-By-Game Analysis

Friday: The Eye of The Needle

Monday: Game Week (Can You Believe It?)

They could have held this party in a phone booth 20 years ago.

As careers go, I’m so glad I got into the writing end of the media than the photographic one.

Exhibit A was the annual Season Ticket Holder Party at the Pavilion.

Pointing my cell phone as steady as I could at head coach Geoff Collins, I recorded this statement:

“People asked me tonight since I was from the SEC, that this was probably not as good as the SEC. Let me tell you this was better than anything in the SEC.”

I tried to download the video to post here only to get this message:

“Can’t attach file over 25 MB.”

It’s all Greek to me.

My keepsake (I know, terrible photo)

Oh well. Taking the video seemed like a good idea at the time because Collins can hold the interest of a crowd maybe even better than his predecessor, Matt Rhule.

Collins, as always, seemed pretty sincere. Maybe they don’t have season-ticket-holder parties in the SEC but Temple’s season ticket-holder party went from a small-time deal in the Bobby Wallace days to filling every inch of an indoor football field with fans last night.

I finally got to meet the man last night and I was very impressed with him.

I told him how much I thought Nick Sharga needed to be involved in the offense this year, particularly with his blocking, and Collins agreed and one-upped me by saying that Nick not only blocks but gets in a healthy share of carries every practice. To me, you can talk about the quarterback all you want but if Sharga isn’t back there to be the last line of defense against a blitzing linebacker, the quarterback is probably going to end up on his back side. Before Sharga got here, that was pretty much the fate of P.J. Walker his first two years on the job. Rhule’s spread offense was a disaster because every time Walker went empty backfield, opposing coaches routinely blitzed one more player than the Owls could block and Walker had to run for his life.

Hopefully, Collins won’t make the same mistake by exposing an inexperienced quarterback to limited pocket protections.

We talked about coach Hardin and Collins said he was thrilled the coach made it to the Saturday practice before he passed, but I dared not ask him who the starting quarterback would be. Collins made clear before the first of two scrimmages that he would not decide who the quarterback would be until the second scrimmage and we’re just not there yet. I’m sure others asked the question, though.

I told him jokingly they could have held the season-ticket party in a phone booth in the 1980s and he laughed and said he was aware the program has come a long way. (Heck, he was the Albright College defensive coordinator in nearby Reading in the 1980s so he probably knew the Temple fan landscape in those days well.)

Speaking of ringing in the New Year, the season ticket holders were given a terrific keepsake in a quality championship ring.

I told Scott Walcoff, the associate AD, that whoever came up with that idea is a genius. Scott gave all the credit to his boss, Pat Kraft. Walcoff said that fans who still want the ring should keep an eye out because the university will make it available on a limited basis and it still might be available for those who purchase season tickets between now and the Villanova game. This is a quality item, far better than the kind of thing you might find in a cracker jack box. To borrow a phrase from Abraham Lincoln, “it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.” The fans who have been through more thin than thick but remained true to the program are champions in my mind.

Believe me, it’s worth it, but don’t take the accompanying photo as proof.

Photography was never my strong suit.

Friday: Perception Versus Reality

Can Taver and Dave do the job as coordinators? We should find out soon.

From the way things look at the Edberg-Olson Complex, summer football practice began a long time ago.

Still, new head coach Geoff Collins has set the “official” start of practice for Monday, which coincides with Media Day. There are still some unresolved questions left over from spring practice and among them are these:

5. Can The Coordinators Do The Job?

This is a question that the fans will not know for sure until September, but one that Geoff Collins should know by now. Taver Johnson has never been given these kind of reins at the FBS level, where he has been a position coach exclusively. However, Temple fans can take some solace in the fact that they have the best DC in the SEC as their head coach. Collins will be able to find the right buttons to push should Johnson’s hands stray. Dave Patenaude is a proven FCS product, but sometimes that does not translate to this level. He will get more benefit of the doubt than Johnson, though, simply because he has produced points in bundles.

4. Will the OL be Temple TUFF?

A lot of things went wrong in a 34-26 loss to Wake Forest in the Military Bowl, but the most alarming thing might have been the way the Temple offensive line was pushed around. They did not get any help from a defensive coaching staff that missed eight practices to recruit for Baylor and put them in a 31-6 hole. That meant a lot of pass blocking and very little run-blocking and WF head coach Dave Clawson saw that flaw and exploited it. Still, they have to become a lot tougher by the Notre Dame game.

3. What role will Jager Gardner play?

Everyone knows that Ryquell Armstead will be one of, if not THE, best backs in the AAC but the Owls have a Diamond in the rough in Gardner, who has a world of talent. Will he slide into the role that Jahad Thomas played or will that role fall to Tyliek Raynor? This is a position worth watching, especially if Nick Sharga is back there for his minimum 15 plays to block for those guys again.

2. Who Will Emerge at Linebacker?

The Owls have an overabundance of good-to-great defensive linemen (really, two-deep at every position) and are set at the four secondary positions with some high-end talent. At linebacker, however, they have lost all three starters. One of the solutions for Collins and Johnson would be to switch from a 4-3 to a 5-2 to get another great player on the field and mitigate losses at linebacker. Another would be for three players to emerge as suitable replacements for Avery Williams, Steph Marshall and Jared Alwan. Since Jared Folks split time with Alwan at the end of the season, he’s the logical top choice. The other two spots are wide open. I vote for Sharga being the Owls’ 2017 version of Holy Cross’ Gordie Lockbaum, playing 15 plays on offense and 15 plays on defense. The best fullback in the country probably is also the best linebacker on the team and by a good bit.

1. Who Will Be Under Center?

We all know the center will be Matt Hennessy, but under center is the top question of camp. The first two guys on the field to celebrate the AAC championship were Anthony Russo and Frank Nutile, but Todd Centeio and Logan Marchi have an equal shot. Centeio would really benefit from a redshirt year, as Collins would be wise to study what happened to the last true freshman Temple threw on the field at Notre Dame, kicker Jim Cooper, Jr. Coop was spooked by what happened when he missed two chip shot field goals and an extra point—after kicking great all summer—and Collins would not want to be responsible for ruining Centeio’s career by throwing him to the wolves that early.

Monday: Media Day Primer for Coach Collins

Wednesday: Analyzing Media Day Answers

Friday: Where Are They Now, Recruit Edition

If Collins’ first year ends the same way Daz’s did, Temple fans would probably sign for that Beginner’s Luck now.

When it comes to speculating on the kind of Beginner’s Luck Geoff Collins might have compared to, say, Matt Rhule, Steve Addazio or Al Golden, the old Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Branch Rickey quote comes to mind:

“Luck is the residue of design.”

Arguably, Golden, Rhule and Addazio all had a good design going into their first seasons but there is something about this Collins guy that stands out—at least in my mind.

Golden had a 32-page binder on how to build a football program from the ground up, everything from recruiting to dealing with the press and parents and hiring a coaching staff. He started behind the eight-ball, though, as he was following an 0-11 season by Bobby Wallace and had a lot of leftover JUCOs in program.

So Al gets a pass.

Addazio succeeded Golden and Collins reminds me more of Daz than Rhule or Golden in the sense that he seems to have a workable plan that would lead to success in the first year. Addazio wanted to run the ball and had a big offensive line and a high NFL draft pick in Bernard Pierce. With that, and with Chris Coyer at quarterback, the Owls won their first bowl game in 30 years.

Things fell apart for Daz in Year Two when the Owls graduated to the Big East and he stubbornly stuck with the run against better personnel groups that were geared to stop it.

Rhule was all over the map in his first year, and probably went against logic by promoting Connor Reilly over the bowl-winning quarterback he still had on the roster. Many of us felt Rhule had six-win talent his first year and his head-scratching decisions both with personnel and in-game were learning on the job and the 2013 Owls were the Guinea Pigs.

Now Collins has come in with perhaps the best and deepest receiving corps in Temple history, a fine defensive line and secondary and a four quarterbacks who should not be THAT much of a dropoff from P.J. Walker. The receivers will help this new quarterback, whoever he might be. The lead running back, Ryquell Armstead, is outstanding, and that should help as well. The only question marks are the offensive line and linebackers, but they were quite good in the spring. What the OL lacks in talent, it makes up in experience and what the LBs lack in experience, they make up in talent.

Collins has a formula for success and a lot of pathways to it.  He has closely studied past Temple game film in a way other Temple coaches have not. Just last week, Collins said Sharif Finch was the best player on the field in a 2015 win over Penn State. If he’s going back and watching 2015 game film, his preparation and design is probably outstanding and comparable to what Daz’s staff—which had several key members of a national championship Florida team—did his first season.

As Temple center John Palumbo told his dad during Addazio’s first season, “Dad, it’s night and day between these guys and Golden. These are SEC coaches. They know what they are doing.”

Collins, a SEC coach, probably knows what he’s doing, too.

That’s why my gut tells me.

It could be indigestion, but I doubt it.