Tag Archives: god

10.11.25
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First- and second-guessing turned out to be the same

With 1 minute, 16 seconds left in a 24-24 game, Temple quarterback Evan Simon hit Kajiya Hollawayne at Navy the 1 and Hollawayne was fortunate enough not to score.

I say fortunate because that gave Temple some time to play with and an opportunity to burn Navy’s last two time outs.

A gift, really.

No way the team on the right should have lost to the team on the left.

There were a couple of Navy fans in front of me and I leaned over to one and said:

“If I’m you guys, I would let Temple score here. If I’m Temple, I take three knees, make Navy take two timeouts and kick a field goal to win the game.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

America’s next Military leaders never had an opportunity to pull a France and surrender because Temple scored a touchdown on the next play and it looked like the Midshipmen, as they have all night, put up a fight.

That meant Temple gave the ball back to Navy with that 1:16 still on the clock.

I leaned over to my Navy fan friend and said, “That’s too much time with this quarterback.”

He tried to console me.

“Temple has a good quarterback, too,” he said.

“Yeah, I know but it won’t make much difference because he’s probably not going to get the ball back.”

We all know what happened after that. Blake Horvath, who in my mind is every bit the quarterback (and probably more) than Oklahoma’s John Mateer in the Heisman Trophy race, did what Heisman Trophy winners do and negotiate the length of the field.

Navy, 32-31, game, set and match.

By my calculations, a first-down knee and a second-down knee kills both Navy timeouts. A third-down knee takes the clock to about 40 seconds or less.

A fourth-down FG from extra point distance wins the game, 27-24.

Or at least gives the ball back to Horvath with 40 seconds and no timeouts as opposed to 1:16 and two timeouts left.

Maybe Horvath takes the ball all the way down the field. Maybe he doesn’t but, what he actually did with those 40 seconds was to get the ball to midfield.

That’s where the game would have ended all things considered.

Afterward, Temple head coach K.C. Keeler said he “wasn’t comfortable” with taking knees and anything could happen but, to me, after a first down on the 1, you can pretty much safely take a step back and down the ball without a disaster.

The alternative was worse.

Keeler also said there would be second-guessing and “I get that” but, when the second-guessing also includes the first guessing a Mike Philadelphia had with a Joe Annapolis guy while this was unfolding, that’s where I don’t buy it.

I’m thinking we weren’t the only two people in the stadium having that same discussion with 1:16 left.

Every NFL team would have done the same thing which means great coaches, even Hall of Fame ones like Keeler, occasionally make mental mistakes.

Just like the one a pitcher for the Hometown baseball team made a couple of nights ago. This hurts a whole lot worse.

Monday: Game Week

12.22.23
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Postgame Show: Temple’s Final Hail Mary

The most impressive thing about this video is Kevin Copp being at the E-O on 7 p.m. Wednesday night and in Hawaii by 2 p.m. Eastern time the next afternoon. Call him the Padre Pio of the Owls.

Unless something changes, it’s not hard to envision the final 30 seconds of Temple’s opening half at Oklahoma roughly nine months from now including a meaningless Hail Mary.

Evan Simon goes back to pass at midfield and before he gets a chance to throw, is swarmed under by a host of Oklahoma Sooners.

Temple runs off the field in Norman, down, 43-0, with the announcers saying the clock will run continuously in the second half.

Temple fans turn off the TV in disgust and head for a run or a bike ride on a beautiful August afternoon.

A couple of things COULD happen between now and then to make that halftime score more respectable–say, 28-13 instead of 43-0–but Wednesday night’s signing day show gave no indication that would be the case.

Just from watching Stan Drayton, I got the distinct impression this whole signing day was one big recruiting Hail Mary.

If this one falls incomplete, and Temple finishes with another three-win season, I could see the Temple Board of Trustees saying we don’t like the way college football is going and we’re not going to compete in it anymore. We don’t like paying a coach $2.5 million-a-year who got beat by 12 coaches over the last TWO seasons making LESS money.

Signing Darian Varner and Reece Poffenbarger would probably put Temple in the middle of this pack.

The ROI doesn’t make sense.

I’m somewhat surprised they haven’t come to that conclusion now but Drayton and the program have been given a stay of execution.

They don’t have good appeal lawyers judging from this recruiting class.

While all over the AAC teams were bringing in five to 10 Power 5 recruits and supplementing those by more FCS players and only one or two JUCOs, Temple signed more JUCOs than any other team in the conference.

It’s just not logical that JUCOs can beat guys who were recruited to win national championships but this is the logic Drayton and staff are going with right now.

There is a reason why the Alabamas and Georgias and Washingtons and Michigans have recruiting classes ranked near the top of the top 10 every year and finish in the same place on the football field. The highly ranked recruits produce on the field and the coaches who don’t give up 39.8 points-per-game in their last two stops–which Everett Withers has–tend to stop the teams they are playing.

So by going with JUCOs and sticking with Withers, Temple is throwing a Hail Mary pass.

A high wobbly dying quail and not the kind of tight spirals we’ve been used to seeing E.J. Warner tossing.

A couple of things can change that dynamic. Temple can get Darian Varner back because he has entered the portal and Temple’s biggest defensive need is putting the bad guys’ quarterback on his ass. Temple can also upgrade the quarterback position from Simon to Albany’s Reece Poffenbarger.

Unlike Simon, Poffenbarger can make big-time plays, avoid the rush and hurt teams with his feet. He entered the portal yesterday and probably the first team that shows him love will be shown love in return.

Does Danny Langsdorf even know that? Does Drayton?

We will soon find out if they can add a starting quarterback LIKE Poffenbarger or a pass-rusher Prodigal Son like Warner.

If they don’t, these great Temple fans will have to figure on doing something else on Saturday afternoons for the next 20 or so years. That’s probably how long it will take for college football to return to the old transfer and money rules.

By then, Temple could be NYU or The University of Chicago. A great school that once had a great football program.

Don’t let that happen, Stan and Danny.

Monday: Off for Christmas

Friday: From One Owl To Another