Tag Archives: Geoff Collins

02.06.17
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Keeping Up With the Joneses

In order to keep up with the Joneses in college football, new Temple football head coach Geoff Collins went out and got one.

One of the themes of Collins’ Signing Day press conference was an emphasis on the players that were already at Temple and filling in any holes that he might have come across in film study in the month after his introductory press conference.

With the signing of Mike Jones, the Owls filled a huge hole and his meshing with the team will be something to look at from now until Cherry and White Day, hopefully held at the new soccer complex. (No announcement yet, but the 2,000 additional seats there would make it a no-brainer.)

jonesstats

Mike Jones’ career stats

Maybe Collins killed  two holes with one new bird, because the Owls needed a starting cornerback opposite last year’s starter, Artrel Foster, and a game-breaking punt returner (for years ) and Jones seems to be the perfect guy to do both jobs.


While the class Collins
reeled in might have
been the weakest of
the post Bobby Wallace
Era, an argument can be
made that, in Jones,
the Owls might have signed
the single best talent
of any of their recent classes

While the class Collins reeled in might have been the weakest of the post Bobby Wallace Era, an argument can be made that, in Jones, the Owls might have signed the single best talent of any of their recent classes. (The only other player of his stature would have been Montel Harris, but that came at a time where the Owls were not expected to contend for anything. These Owls are.)

Also, what have the Owls lacked since Delano Green? A a guy who could flip the field on any given punt. The Owls went through one year where they gave up the punt as an offensive play when they used a possession receiver, John Christopher, to essentially fair catch the ball. He averaged a whopping 2.0 yards per return. Since then, they have been using starting DBs as punt returners for the last two seasons, so don’t expect Collins—whose philosophy is very similar to former head coach Matt Rhule–to ask Jones to back away from that challenge.

Jones also seems to be the most talented punt returner to come to Temple since Positive Man Green did the job in the Al Golden Era. On November 10, Jones returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown in a win over one-time Temple foe Delaware State. His return was the second-longest in NCCU history. That was not the only time Jones starred in a win over a former Temple foe, as, in 2013, he had two interceptions in a 40-13 win over Charlotte.

If you can flip the field with a dynamite punt returner, and Jones certainly is that, you give your team another great offensive play. On defense, he is a lock-down corner who ESPN NFL draft analyst Todd McShay said: “Mike Jones stands out to me as the best” of a list of late round draft choices. That was for this draft, in Philadelphia, in the spring of 2017. As it turns out, Jones will be in Philadelphia in the spring of 2017, but the reason will be to play football in order to move a few spots up the draft board.

Jones is doing a very smart thing by coming to Philadelphia, not for the draft but to show his talents as early as nationally televised game at Notre Dame in September. If Jones picks off a pair and takes one to the house, he will get noticed on a stage much larger than he has ever acted before.

Making impact plays against Notre Dame before a NBC television audience could be a perfect way to start a memorable final season.

Wednesday: Translating Signing Day

02.04.17
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The Curse of Russell Conwell

curse

Forget about the famous baseball curses cast on the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, which were only recently overcome.

There is one curse that is still alive in sports and that is the Curse of Russell Conwell.

Somewhere up there, Conwell has cast a curse on the last three coaches to leave his beloved Temple University and its football program.

russell

Al Golden left for Miami and was greeted with sanctions that made it impossible to win there. Steve Addazio has taken his three-yards-and-a-cloud of dust offense to Boston College and went winless in the ACC two years ago. The jury is still out on Addazio, but it is leaning toward a unanimous conviction. Matt Rhule left Temple no more than two months ago and could hit with sanctions that would make the ones Golden received looked like a slap on the wrist.

Whatever happens going forward, you could win a lot of money in Vegas betting against any of the three having a long winning career as a college football head coach.

These are the facts that we know to this date and it is not a pretty picture. New Temple head coach Geoff Collins would be wise to stare at this portrait and get some deep meaning out of it.

All three of those coaches could have had a job at Temple for life—or at least a very long rope with to work with—but all three thought the grass was greener on the other side of the Chodoff Field fence.  In fact, there has been no grass on the other side of that fence, only dust. The only value in the move was monetary and money will not last forever.

Conwell, in some type of afterlife, must be working some serious Voodoo pins with Golden, Daz and Rhule bobble heads.

About the time Conwell founded Temple University, he was the best-known lecturer in the United States, playing to sellout crowds who wanted to hear his story of the man who traveled the world in search of riches only to find “Acres of Diamonds” in his own backyard.

Most of the Temple coaches who found substance in Conwell’s story went on to finish with better careers at Temple than they would have leaving on their own for far-off places. Harry Litwack went to a pair of Final Fours. Skip Wilson won over 1,000 baseball games without the benefit of warm-weather recruits. Under Wilson, the Owls went to a pair of College World Series. John Chaney made five Elite Eights. Wayne Hardin went 80-52-2 and made the College Football Hall of Fame. All made Temple their final stop on the coaching highway.

Those, by any standards, are success stories. Leave Temple or attempt to use this great institution as a stepping stone and the story will not have a happy ending. Compare and contrast those success stories to the ones facing the last three Temple football coaches who left on their own.

Maybe when Collins comes to that inevitable fork in the road, he will take a good look at the map and head down the road less (recently) traveled.  Russell Conwell may be watching from above.

Monday: Looking Ahead to Spring Ball

Wednesday: Press Conference Translations

02.02.17
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A Muted Celebration

Coach Collins helps Donald Hunt out with tape recorder placement.

Celebrations are supposed to big and loud things, like weddings, where you might hear the beat of the Electric Slide or the Funky Chicken.

Although work precluded my attendance, I cannot believe the “recruiting celebration” the Temple Owls held to commemorate the 2017 Signing Day Class was funky or electric. Muted would be the best word to describe it and, if there was a musical backdrop, and there was not, the song “Memories” by Barbra Streisand might have been more appropriate.


The good news about 2/1/17
is that the nuclear fallout
will not cause sickness for a
good three or four years
down the line. The bad news,
though, is to expect a lot
of vomiting and hair falling
out watching what could very
well be mediocre football
by then. Maybe Collins will
be around to see it;
maybe he won’t

While new head coach Geoff Collins was enthusiastic about the haul, the numbers suggested that this class did not meet up to recent Temple standards. Collins’ recruiting class was ranked 111th by 247.com, behind powerhouses Ohio and Tulane. In fact, it was the lowest ranking we could find among the Temple transition classes—in other words, the first classes of Al Golden, Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule–by a good bit.

While Collins’ real acumen as a recruiter will be determined next year, not  this one, this was not a good start because Golden, Addazio and Rhule came in under worse circumstances and came out with better classes. Golden, Addazio and Rhule did not have a championship trophy to waggle in front of recruits, only a promise that they would chase one. In addition to that, it is also fair to compare Collins to the other first-year AAC hires:

templerecruitingclass

So Collins deserves some criticism for this meager haul.

Rhule’s first partial recruiting class as head coach, leading into the 2013 season, was 247sports’ 80th-ranked class in the country. It came after a 4-7 season and coach Steve Addazio’s December departure for the same job at Boston College.

Last year, Temple made a splash on signing day by getting a commitment from Prep Charter defensive end Karamo Dioubate, who was rated a four-star prospect by Rivals.com. Rivals rated Temple’s 2016 recruiting class No. 60 in the Football Bowl Subdivision while Scout.com and 247sports.com rated it No. 76 and No. 58, respectively.

So there a body of evidence that suggests Collins tripped and fell flat on his face on this race to Signing Day.

braswell

This year is the first time since 2013 Temple doesn’t have at least one prospect rated as a four-star recruit.

Some Temple people might say ratings do not mean much, but the top 25 classes usually mirror the top 25 teams in the final AP rankings so they must mean a lot. Rivals rated Temple’s 2017 outside of the Top 100, while Scout rated Temple No. 123 out of 129 FBS teams and 247 sports rated the Owls class No. 111. Three-star prospects Gary Brightwell (Arizona), Raheem Blackshear (Rutgers), Ja’Sir Taylor (Wake Forest), Marvin Beander (Norfolk State) and Rob Saulin (Baylor) all decommitted from Temple over the last month.

Losing recruits to Arizona and Wake Forest is no disgrace; losing one to Norfolk State and being pilfered of two commits by a self-proclaimed Temple fan for life is. I would have hated to see what Matt Rhule had done if he didn’t like Temple.

Collins should not have been expected to bring with him Florida recruits, like Rhule stole Temple recruits for Baylor, but he should have had at least the kind of coaching and player contacts that enabled him to flip a P5 or two Temple’s way. The good news about 2/1/17 is that the nuclear fallout will not cause sickness for a good three or four years down the line. The bad news, though, is to expect a lot of vomiting and hair falling out watching what could very well be mediocre football by then. Maybe Collins will be around to see it; maybe he won’t. You just do not throw away recruiting years if you want to keep the foundation of a program solid.

You can forgive some objective Temple fans for not being in a very celebratory mood yesterday. The ones who see this through Cherry and White colored glasses were on the dance floor. God bless their optimism and I sincerely hope He rewards it.

Saturday: The Curse of Russell Conwell

01.31.17
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Recruiting Celebration: Expect Fun

celebration

If Temple’s only “flip” off a championship season is a FCS one, the “recruiting celebration”  at the Student Pavilion will be somewhat muted.

Broken down to its very essence, football is just a game.

Games are supposed to be fun, and, at Temple in recent years, they have been. Winning begets fun and a fun approach begets more winning. Because former head coach Matt Rhule did not toss grenades over his shoulder on the way out and made sure the foundation was solid, Temple is set up to win for at least four more years.


There is no fun going
to a Big 10 school
and getting your head
beat in 78-0 and 58-0
every weekend. If you’ve
got to do the work
required of a big-time
college football player,
there should be a reward
for that work and,
at Temple, the reward
 is in the winning

So if a recruit is smart—and he has to be to get into Temple—he will gravitate to the place where he can win and have fun. We will know the full class only when all the signatures on the dotted line are faxed to the football offices around the nation tomorrow morning. We do not know those names right now, but we do know one thing.

The 20-25 guys who sign on the dotted line for head coach Geoff Collins will be among the 20 or so luckiest young men in America.

Temple, the reigning champion of the American Athletic Conference, is one of those places. The AAC has wins over Penn State, Florida State, Oklahoma, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Mississippi and North Carolina State in the last two years, so it’s already established a solid reputation.

There is no fun going to a Big 10 school and getting your head beat in 78-0 and 58-0 every weekend. If you’ve got to do the work required of a big-time college football player, there should be a reward for that work and, at Temple, the reward is in the winning.

Temple is experiencing a football revival not seen since the 1970s when winning and being coached by Wayne Hardin went hand-in-hand.

“I played for Temple University. At the time, we were a pretty good football team. But we weren’t a “football powerhouse”—we didn’t play in the Big 10 or nothing like that—but football for me in college was a lot of fun, just like most guys. I enjoyed my college career, I had a lot of great teammates and we did do well. “

Those were the words of Joe Klecko, written in 1990 in the book “The Sack Exchange: The Definitive History of the 1980s New York Jets.”

At 5 p.m., in the indoor practice facility on Broad Street, Collins will welcome Temple fans and unveil the signing class. With everything associated with Temple football these days, it should be fun and informative.

We will hold off on the judging part until all of the signatures are on the dotted line.

Thursday: Judgment Day

01.29.17
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5 Reasons To Get Excited About Geoff Collins

The only thing that would make Geoff Collins more appealing to Temple fans is that John Chaney’s love for, success at and loyalty to Temple rubs off on that handshake and exceeds any dollar signs tossed in front of him.

collins

We were not able to photoshop a Temperor hat on this graphic.

In this cyber world, you detect clues about what is happening by simply reading a man’s twitter feed and that is certainly true with new Temple football head coach Geoff Collins.

Taking out the retweets, the last five original Collins’ posts thank Under Armour (an apparel company) for a welcome package; another is about how he is proud of a former player (Brian Poole), for making the Super Bowl, a tribute to Temple academic excellence at and a posting a graphic about Temple TUFF.

Compare that to former head coach Matt Rhule’s last five tweets and all are welcoming new recruits.


While Saint Matt Rhule
might have been demoted
to a more middle class
part of Heaven by poaching
a pair of Temple recruits,
the fact that Collins did
not poach Florida recruits
is a good thing, not a bad
one. Even the vilified Steve
Addazio promised he would not
go after the Temple guys
he recruited on the way out
the E-O door and at least Daz
kept his promise. Taking two
Temple commits is unethical
and a pretty classless way
to thank a school that gave
you so much.

No one can really say that translates to Rhule recruiting success versus Collins’ recruiting success in essentially the same time frame, but the clues are the clues. Rhule has filled the 25 scholarships he has this year and most of them are three-star talents and above. Collins is sitting on 15 right now after having lost a couple of Temple commits, one a three-star.

Of the five things we can get excited about for our new coach, recruiting—at least this year and at least a few days ahead of National Signing Day—does not appear to be one of them. As Cubs’ fans used to say, wait until next year.

We’ve always wrote we’d be honest with you and this would not turn out to be Matt Rhule Pravda and we kept that promise and we will keep it that way with Collins. Had Collins brought with him a couple of Florida commits, like Rhule did with two Temple commits, we might be singing a different tune. You can talk all you want about this being Collins’ first recruiting class and most of them were Rhule’s guys but, to be fair, Rhule walked into the same new situation at Baylor and was more successful.

Addazio, Rhule and Al Golden’s first classes will probably all be rated higher than Collins’ first class.

We’re calling it as we see it and he did not hit that first recruiting drive straight down the middle.

There are, though, five things to get excited about :

rhulepromise

5—The Man Appears Principled

While Saint Matt Rhule might have been demoted to a more middle class part of Heaven by poaching a pair of Temple recruits, the fact that Collins did not poach Florida recruits is a good thing, not a bad one. Even the vilified Steve Addazio promised he would not go after the Temple guys he recruited on the way out the E-O door and at least Daz kept his promise. Taking two Temple commits is unethical a pretty classless way to thank a school that gave you so much. If Collins would have retaliated by taking two Baylor commits, that would have been impressive. Still, there is something to be said about the man not raiding his fellow employer.

4—He Was Rhule’s Boss

As Rhule’s boss, both at Albright and Western Carolina, you can assume that he had the answers and Rhule had the questions back then. Now Temple is getting the guy with the answers.

3—He Knows The Program

When he was hired, Collins said he followed the Temple program closely over the last four years and actually participated in key philosophical changes in the program. Since the only key philosophical change in the program was going from a spread with multiple wide receivers to a pro-type play action using a fullback, Collins can theoretically be credited for curing the Owls’ anemic offense. He will come in and hit the ground running, literally.

2—Hit Home Run With Key Assistants

Both Dave Patenaude (pronounced Patton Nude, which is not a pretty picture) and Taver Johnson seem to know what the plan is to take Temple the next level. Patenaude is going to continue to use the fullback and two tight ends, but add slinging the ball deep to the formula. Johnson should continue the success on the defensive side of the ball and was a better  DC at Miami (Ohio) than Phil Snow was at the same level (Eastern Michigan).

1—Game Day Coaching

This was a weakness of Rhule’s first two years. We do not know for sure, but Collins’ understanding of the program and the offensive and defensive philosophies sets him up as a better game day coach that Rhule was, who fumbled and stumbled in his first two seasons.

Tuesday: What To Expect

01.21.17
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Fly On The Wall

Maybe someday Pat Kraft will shed some light on what went on in the Collins’ interview.

As he usually does, 920 The Jersey’s Zach Gelb, a  Temple-Made sports talk radio host with a great future, asks the best questions at Temple press conferences.

During the introduction of Geoff Collins, Gelb asked Collins if he could guarantee Temple football recruits if he would be here four years from now when they graduated.  It was one of the few questions that Collins did not handle with the dexterity of an Ozzie Smith.

gelb

Zach Gelb

Collins let that question go off the back of his glove into left field when he said all he was interested in was the here and now and that’s what he would tell recruits.

To me, that was an E6 on one of the few hardball questions Collins had to field that day.

Although I appreciated the honesty, if I were Collins I would have lied (if indeed it was a lie) my ass off and told him, of course, if this place is good enough for the John Chaneys and the Wayne Hardins of the world, it is good enough for me. I plan to be here for the long haul and make Temple football a national power.

That would have served two purposes, assuaging a couple of very important groups: The current recruiting class and the players in the program already. The first group is being told by the bad guys—the other coaches seeking Temple commits—that Collins is here only short-term and would bail after the first overachieving season and the second group has been already burned by a head coach who said it would take the perfect job for him to leave Temple.

Baylor’s a nice job, but with impending sanctions, it is far from a perfect one and there are many objective people on the outside—not necessarily Temple ones—who feel that Rhule had a better chance of succeeding at Temple than he does with the pair of handcuffs he has to put on to get the job done in Waco.

That leaves the next big question.

If Gelb, or really anyone, gets a chance, he should find someone who was in the room with Collins when he was being interviewed by the Temple Board of Trustees and ask if the same question ever came up as a condition of him getting the job.  By now, Temple should be extremely sensitive to coaches like Steve Addazio—and to a much lesser extent Rhule and Al Golden—using it and moving on.

Oh, to be a fly in the wall hearing the answer to that question. I hope that question was asked in the vetting process, but there is also a chance that it was not.

Perhaps athletic director Dr. Pat Kraft is best equipped to supply the answer and we know the perfect guy to ask him.

Monday: Temple’s Montana to Rice

01.17.17
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Patenaude’s Pudding

 

With apologies to Bill Cosby, the proof about anyone is in the pudding and we’re not talking Jello here.

Not what they say, but what they do, and, for that, any Temple fan has got to love new offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude.

patenaudebox

The first words out of Patenaude’s mouth in the above interview with the always prepared Morgyn Seigfried were this: “Well, right out of the gate, we’re going right back to the things that have been great here, Temple TUFF, being physical, coming down hill, running the ball, play-action.”

That’s the “what they say” part; we’ll get to the “what they do part” a little later.

If those were the first words out of his mouth in an interview with me, my next two words would have been: “You’re hired.”

According to no less an authority than departed head coach Matt Rhule, the Owls have an NFL fullback, Nick Sharga, and, as long as they have him, they might as well use his unique talents to open up the run game for both the tailbacks and, maybe at least 3-4 times a game, for himself. Establishing the run brings the linebackers and the safeties up closer to the line of scrimmage and makes them suckers for the play-action pass. New quarterback Anthony Russo is going to need that extra second or two play action gives him next year because main quarterback protection, left tackle Dion Dawkins, is off to some lucky team as an NFL first-rounder. Deftly fake it into the belly of, say, Ryquell Armstead, after Armstead rips open a patented (or, in this case, Patenauded) 20-yard run, and Russo will have Temple receivers running so free through the secondary he will not know which one to pick out.

You don’t fix what isn’t broken and, to his credit, Patenaude recognizes that the system Matt Rhule has run from an offensive perspective was never broken. Two tight ends, a fullback, smash-mouth football, play-action, is ingrained in the Temple TUFF mentality and sets the Owls apart from every other team in the AAC. It also helps them eat clock and keep the defense fresh and, if you check the scores the last two years you have noticed that Temple is the only team that plays defense on a consistent basis in the AAC.

The real tasty part of the Patenaude Pudding, though, is the results. At Coastal Carolina, the Grenadier offense under him had virtually the same number of yards and touchdowns running as it did passing. When an offense does that, it is like a shell game where the defense doesn’t know what shell the ball is under or who to tackle.

That’s the best kind of desert and it will be served to Temple fans this fall in tasty helpings. If it works, get ready for some delicious offensive numbers this fall.

Thursday: Eye Of The Needle

Saturday: Fly On The Wall

01.15.17
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Helicopter Recruiting

Did not like the way this chopper took off. Ed Foley must have been flying.

Helicopter Parenting is a term that has been around for a while and it means a parent or parents who take an excessive interest in the lives of their children, almost to an unhealthy level.

helicopterparent

Geoff Collins thanks God he landed safe and sound.

A much more recent phrase is Helicopter Recruiting, and that has an entirely different connotation. What might be unhealthy parenting usually translates into healthy recruiting and recruits almost universally love to be recruited that way.

Plus, it enables a coach to get to a lot of places on the same day.

Count new Temple football head coach Geoff Collins as a devotee of Helicopter Recruiting, something old coach Matt Rhule did not particularly like.

The first coach from the area who did this was Greg Schiano at Rutgers eight years ago and it produced some outstanding recruiting classes for the Scarlet Knights.

Right now, Temple fans will settle for Collins holding serve with most of Rhule’s 16 committed recruits and that apparently is the plan. If Collins can poach a couple of Power 5 recruits, something that Rhule and Al Golden seemed to do toward Signing Day, that can only be considered a bonus.

Really, Collins cannot be fairly judged by this recruiting class. We hear he’s a great recruiter, but that will be determined by his next class, not his first. One recruit we can talk about is Florida quarterback Todd Centeio because he already is enrolled at Temple and in the luxurious Morgan Hall. He’s a three-star and undoubtedly will give the other quarterbacks a run for their money.

Todd Centeio already is enrolled at Temple.

We usually do not like to talk about specific recruits in this space because of two reasons. One, these guys have not signed their names on the dotted lines yet and, two, the NCAA has specific rules against contacting recruits and we adhere to them.

If such news breaks our way, we’ll report it but, for now, we will leave the Helicopter recruiting to a good pilot named Geoff Collins.

Tuesday: The Patenaude Effect

01.11.17
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New DC Johnson Has Been Here Before

taver

The last time Taver Johnson attended a Temple game the crowd was 1/15th this large.

The last time Temple fans saw Taver Johnson in action as a defensive coordinator, the Owls’ program was in the gutter and in desperate need of intervention.

Probably none of them remember him.

Then, Johnson was the DC at Miami (Ohio) and there was an announced crowd of 11,257 (“missing about 9,000 no-shows”  according to an AP story on the game) in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field but, in reality, you could count the crowd in about 20 minutes and probably come up with one third of that number. Outside, before the game, there were five fans tailgating in the rain in Lot K waiting for the game to begin right up to a half-hour before kickoff.

johnson

Taver Johnson’s last stop was Purdue.

Five, as in the number that comes after four and before six, and the day will go down in Temple football infamy, Oct. 29, 2005. The entire lot was empty except for those five fans.

In all fairness, in those days there was a larger group of Temple tailgaters a couple of lots over at the Jethro Lot but those five in two cars were all that showed in Lot K that  rainy day.

The gloomy rain was a fitting backdrop for a program that hit rock bottom with only two directions apparent: Up or out. The talk of tailgate that day was speculating on the miracle man  who could save the program because then coach Bobby Wallace had already announced he was not coming back at the end of the year, nudged out by the administration. Rick Neuheisel’s name came up, as did Frank Solich’s. Al Golden was an unknown at the time to any of the five Temple fans left.

I know. I was one of them. The other four shall remain nameless, but they have all witnessed a rebirth in the program and the tailgate atmosphere that is truly remarkable. The Owls were able to start crawling out of the gutter a  couple of months later when a Virginia assistant coach named Al Golden, also a DC, was named head coach.

Johnson’s defense was impressive in a 41-14 win over the Owls, but so was every other defense that played against the Owls that year. That was the ninth loss in an 0-11 season on the way to 20-straight losses.

Now Johnson is back and will roam the sidelines in the same capacity this year as DC of the Owls. Ironically, same sideline, too, because the “home” side for Temple was the other side of the Linc in those days.

It seems like a good hire for new head coach Geoff Collins. In that year of 2005, Johnson presided over a Miami defense that spearheaded a 7-4 record. In addition to “holding” Temple to two touchdowns, his defense limited Cincinnati to 16 points, Buffalo to 13 and Ohio to 10.

That was Johnson’s only experience as a FBS defensive coordinator.  His most recent experience was Purdue defensive backs’ coach the last two years and that was the same Purdue team that gave up 63 points to Penn State. Still, he brings a mostly P5 coaching set to Temple and that has to be a plus because he will go on the recruiting trail looking for a P5 skill set. He was at Arkansas (linebackers and cornerbacks) in 2012 and 2013 and coached the cornerbacks at Ohio State from 2007-2012.

He even served as interim head coach of the Razorbacks.

When he finally roams the sidelines, he will see a whole other side of Temple, both on the field and in the stands, that he saw the first time and the impression should be a favorable one. We can only hope those fans have a favorable impression of the work Johnson does in their view, but we won’t know for sure until about midway through the 2017 season.

Friday: God and The Power 5

01.09.17
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Cherry and White Bowls Matter

NCAA Football: Military Bowl-Temple vs Wake Forest

These are the disturbing images Owls have seen walking off the field the last two seasons.

rockets

The next time someone tells you a bowl game is a meaningless post-season exhibition game, tell them the story of the last two Temple football seasons.

Each time, the Owls flushed down the toilet the priceless ring of a Top 25 finish by losing to underdogs.

That meant that Vegas had faith in the Owls—1.5 favorites over Toledo and 12.5 favorites over Wake Forest—but that circumstances prevented the Owls from winning and appearing in the Top 25 for two straight seasons. Vegas is usually right, so something went terribly wrong for the Owls at the end of the last two seasons.

If that weren’t enough in and of itself (it is), consider this: Top 25 voters the next year, for the most part, are lazy journalists who just list the teams who were from the Top 25 the year before. Those teams have a built-in advantage over the rest of the other 102 FBS teams because, once in that Top 25 club, you have to play your way out. It is much harder to play your way in from the outside.

That’s the way college football works.

Had the Owls, No. 24 in the CFB poll, beat Wake Forest, they would have likely risen above fellow state school Pittsburgh, the No. 23 team, that lost to Northwestern in the Pinstripe Bowl. Had they beaten Wake Forest coming off a win over Toledo the year prior, they would have established themselves as a more permanent Top 25 presence and that perception in a pro town like Philadelphia would have been invaluable.

We now know why that did not happen. The Owls went heavy on the fun and sun in Boca two bowls ago and, this year, the entire defensive staff missed eight practices leading up to the bowl game.

A Temple program that hemorrhages coaches out the door of the E-O is doomed to this fate, unless new coach Geoff Collins sticks around for a few years. He almost certainly is assured to be here through a bowl game next year and this is where the Owls must make their move for 2018, by establishing themselves in the Top 25 with a bowl win and setting themselves up for upward mobility a year after that.

The Owls should be in a bowl next season and, once there, the entire Temple community from the Board of Trustees to the football element must realize how valuable it is to win this time. That should be the “unfinished business” Collins makes sure is transacted next year under, hopefully, a new and more original slogan.

 

Wednesday: Waiting For A Puff of Gray Smoke

Friday: God And The Power 5

Sunday: Threading The Needle