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05.08.25
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One outsider’s view of the Temple top 10

I don’t get the “7-6 record” in 2024 at the top of these stats. I wish it wasn’t 3-9.

In this age of no good reason, reason sometimes lacks logic.

An outsider takes a look at Temple football and gives his top 10 players and an insider, like me, looks at the same roster and comes up with another 10.

Take the outsiders with a grain of salt, though.

The guy in the above video puts Evan Simon at the top of his 10 but makes only a passing (no pun intended) mention of a newcomer who was the starting quarterback at Oregon State last year.

Gevani McCoy started nine games at quarterback for Oregon State. When was the last time Temple recruited a guy like that?

No bigger Evan Simon fan than me but I think Gevani McCoy has a real good chance to beat him out.

Do I think he does?

Let the field decide that.

Here’s my top 10 Temple players this year, knowing that it could (and probably will) be a different list at the end of the year:

  1. Gevani McCoy–You don’t bring in a starter from a recent P5 program to put him on the bench and he more fits the kind of the kind of pass-first, tuck-the-ball-away and run if nothing is there offense new head coach K.C. Keeler wants to run.
  2. Simon–A terrific player and a team leader who loves Temple and his teammates love him. I will never forget in a 52-6 blowout loss to Tulane, Simon fumbled the ball and crawled on all fours for five yards to cover a meaningless fumble. His teammates appreciated that. Hell, for someone who invested nearly four hours in watching that disaster, I appreciate that as a Temple fan. If McCoy–who allowed himself to be sacked 15 times last year in nine games–goes down, I have no doubt Simon can lead the Owls to a bowl game. Heck, if he beats McCoy out in the summer, I have no doubt Keeler will do the right thing for Temple and start Simon.
  3. Demereck Morris–This solid DT, a single-digit guy, transferred to Oklahoma State and decided that the grass isn’t always greener than the artificial ones at Chodoff Field.
  4. Antonio Jones–This wide receiver is tough as nails and, although listed as backup on the depth chart now, he doesn’t drop passes and can be a big play threat.
  5. Grayson Mains–This center from South Carolina was the anchor of the offensive line last year and should benefit from better coaching.
  6. John Adams–Should start opposite Jones as wide receiver. Showed his explosiveness in a 59-34 loss vs. USTA two years ago when he caught two touchdown passes and amassed 157 yards. Blocked a punt for a TD with his long arms that should have won the UConn game last year if the idiot in charge had called for a Sam Cunningham leap with Terrez Worthy instead of a tush push with a 160-pound backup quarterback.
  7. Worthy--Speaking of that, Keeler brought in Jay Ducker, who was the leading rusher at both Memphis and Sam Houston State before coming to Temple. More importantly to me, Worthy SHOULD have been the starter at Temple last year if Stan Drayton didn’t have a brain cramp and start E.J. Wilson in the first three games. Keeler’s only objection with Ducker’s great spring camp was his lack of finishing speed. Worthy has that.
  8. Ryder Kusch–The Canadian tight end was the star of spring practice for Temple, joining another foreign player (Peter Clarke, UK) as pleasant surprises. Both are immune to the transfer portal and the NIL since they can’t benefit from it so they will be here for the long haul
  9. Daniel Evert–also a tight end, Evert made a beautiful move in the middle of the field for a long touchdown against Army. If you want to jumpstart the old Temple-type running game, put Kusch and Evert in a two-tight end set and have more blockers at the point of attack than defenders.
  10. Ty Davis--Delaware’s best linebacker of last year is ready to step up and become Temple’s of this year.
04.10.25
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One way to beat the tariffs: Attend C&W

I own this sweatshirt now (true story).

Just out of curiosity, took an inventory on all the Temple swag hanging in my closet and counted 18 items from a “Al Golden worn gameday hoodie” to a black Temple football jacket given to me by a Temple wide receiver’s dad.

Looked at the labels. Fourteen of them were “Made in China.” The other four were “Made in the USA.”

Some cost me nothing. Some (like the AG sweatshirt I picked up in the offices of Temple football) cost me a pretty penny.

Most of them I got on Cherry and White Day at bargain basement prices.

If you want to beat these tariffs on Temple swag, I’d suggest cutting out a couple of hours and heading to Cherry and White for the 80-play scrimmage (2 p.m. Saturday) at the Edberg-Olson Football Complex. A terrific tradition and a chance to meet up with old friends that extends all the way back to 1928.

There’s always a lot of good used Temple football stuff at bargain basement prices.

Any new stuff maybe over the next four years will cost 10x as much.

That’s the tip part of this post.

Scenes from spring practice under K.C. Keeler.

The other part is to wear a Pancho because of the forecast rain.

A third part is to get ready for some “real” football because, in the last six years, a couple of the things we haven’t seen are actual kickoff and kickoff returns and field goals under pressure.

Temple head coach K.C. Keeler promised all three of those things this week and that’s important because game conditions include rain, shine and everything else.

Raw, damp, WC in the 30s sounds like a game at the Linc in November.

There will be no excuses in the fall when a rain game comes in October this is something to fall back on now.

Carl Hardin is going to have to kick field goals under any conditions so maybe Saturday will be a good primer. Quarterback Evan Simon has had a terrific spring and, to me, solidified the No. 1 job (no matter who they bring in) and another great day wouldn’t hurt. I was sold on the guy when in a 52-6 loss at Tulane, he crawled on the ground for five yards and fell on the football in a meaningless game like it was a grenade that would kill his teammates.

Now to the reason at the top of this post.

Whatever the case, buying Temple stuff at Wal-Mart probably won’t be advisable for at least the next three years so loading up now might save a lot of money.

Getting that fix for a Temple football addict is just an added bonus.

Monday: Thoughts after Cherry and White

11.22.24
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Temple-UTSA: You can’t make this stuff up

Wanted: Head football coach Temple University: If you watched the Owls on national TV Friday night, you know the opportunity that awaits you. A bunch of kids representing a great university played their asses off, only to to lose at UTSA, 51-27, because there were a lot of illegal shifts and illegal formations. If you know how to structure a practice to eliminate those kind of mistakes and put these wonderful young athletes in a better position to win, please contact Arthur Johnson at Temple University, Broad and Montgomery, Philadelphia, PA, 19122. Only successful head coaches need apply. Temple can’t make a mistake on another “promising” assistant because promises are often broken.

That pretty much summed up Temple’s effort in a 51-27 loss at UTSA on Friday night.

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1860131230026727765

The kids at Temple played as hard as they could but a lot of procedural errors held them back.

As we’ve said in this space many times over the past couple of months, illegal shifts and illegal formations don’t happen to teams playing Temple nearly as much as they do to Temple.

The reason for that is simple: Temple structures its so-called practices like a team that was coached by a career assistant coach, which is exactly what happened over the last three years.

A career winning head coach at any level knows how to structure a practice so those kinds of mistakes don’t show up on national TV.

So that’s the decision facing Arthur Johnson now.

Does he go out and get a “promising” assistant to be head coach or does he go out and get a guy who delivered for some other school what he promised.

I’ll go for the guy who delivered the goods and not someone who is promising to deliver.

Maybe the most remarkable moment of Friday night’s game was the interview of Johnson while a slow quarterback negotiated his way through the entire Temple team for a 75-yard touchdown.

You can’t make that kind of stuff up but there it was for the world to see.

It left Johnson speechless and the world laughing at Temple once again. So, if you are keeping score, the last four appearances on a major ESPN network, Temple gave up 55 points to SMU, 51 to Oklahoma, 52 to Tulane and 51 to UTSA.

Enough is enough.

Get a guy in here who knows how to stop someone and has proven it by delivering more W’s than L’s to the school he was at before Temple.

Monday: Russell Conwell’s Pick for Next Head Coach

11.17.24
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Temple can’t afford to roll the dice on another assistant coach

Temple can do a whole lot worse than re-hire former head coaches like Geoff Collins or Al Golden, currently two Power 4 DCs.

Had to chuckle when two games ago Temple head coach Stan Drayton said the Owls’ lack of an NIL a primary reason the team has been mired in 3-9 seasons.

Partially, yes. Primary, no.

Then I watched the Bowling Green vs. Western Michigan where Steve Addazio did the color and his former Temple OC, Scot Loeffler, is the head coach at Bowling Green.

Bowling Green and Temple is a similar level of G5 football and both teams have about the same NIL money in their coffers, which is pretty close to nothing.

Did not get the name of the play-by-play guy but hit “key plays” on Youtube and he must’ve said “he called these kind of plays for you at Temple” on about 11 of those 28 key plays. Good, imaginative, plays.

Don’t remember Loeffler ever blaming the lack of NIL for the performance of his team.

BG is atop the MAC with a 5-1 record, 6-4 overall. Played tough against Penn State this year (34-27 loss) and won at Georgia Tech last year.

This is what we wrote before the Manny Diaz hire.

Both teams with significant NIL advantages over Bowling Green.

Some coaches make excuses. Others just roll up their sleeves and get the job done.

Stan Drayton was in one category. Scot Loeffler is in another.

How did Temple end up with a career assistant coach in charge of a multi-million dollar program is the key lesson the school can learn and apply to next hire. How it ended up with a Midwestern head coach with no knowledge of Temple before that is another lesson.

No more assistant coaches. No more Midwestern fishes out of water.

A guy with Philly and Temple connections and a proven winner as a head coach is really the only way to go now.

There are plenty of guys who have head coaching experience and someone in charge of the hiring process should pull out a yellow legal pad and put some names at the top of the list.

I would shoot for the moon and work my way back to earth like Apollo 13 did.

One, Jon Gruden. Lived in Philly as an assistant coach for the Philadelphia Eagles for years. Very familiar with the Temple program and once said on draft night that “nobody plays tougher than Temple.” Has said he would like to coach a G5 program. Would bring star power to Temple. Probably would say yes. Would be a major splash hire, just like Pop Warner (1930) and Wayne Hardin (1970) were for Temple. That worked out pretty well.

Two, Al Golden. Already has done a more impossible job taking Temple off college football’s deathbed and applying CPR to the program. Already in the Temple Hall of Fame. Would bring in major money to a Temple NIL fund and have the support of past Temple players. Would probably say no but I’d make him say it.

Three, Gabe Infante. Currently the assistant head coach at Duke University and a former Temple assistant coach. Current Buffalo Bills’ and former Temple RB Ray Davis said of Temple while at Vandy that “Coach Infante is the only great coach on that staff.” Has multiple state titles as a head coach at St. Joseph’s Prep, which is only five blocks from the Temple main campus. He is the embodiment of Temple founder Russell Conwell’s “Acres of Diamonds” story. Huge recruiting ties to Philadelphia.

Four, Geoff Collins. Rubbed some the wrong way while here as a head coach but you can’t deny this simple fact: Of all the head coaches in Temple history, Collins is the only one who has coached multiple seasons and never had a losing one here. Can you imagine Arthur Johnson introducing Collins with this line at the next press conference: “Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the only head coach in Temple history who has never had a losing season and we fully expect that to continue after today.” Would jump at the opportunity to come back.

There are about six more head coaches with Temple ties who have won as head coaches elsewhere. Rolling the dice on another assistant who has never been a proven winning head coach is a crapshoot and the Owls might be down to one chip.

Friday: UTSA Preview

11.16.24
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The most consistent 3-9 team in college football history

In the midst of a long season, then Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach Andy Reid seemed frustrated by the questions of the media after a particularly ugly win and ended the press conference with these words:

“Enjoy the win.”

As Temple fans, we have no choice not to after an 18-15 overtime win over visiting Florida Atlantic that raised numerous red, or in this case, Cherry and White flags. It was the ugliest of ugly wins.

One, Temple struggled against an FAU team that got hammered by UConn, 48-14.

Temple should have won at UConn and was an ill-advised tush push away from doing so.

What happened in between?

You don’t need 12-0 seasons to bring this back to Temple. Just a new coach and a lot of 8-4 ones.

My view simply is this: Temple has been going through the motions since that spirited effort at UConn, knowing that it really wasn’t playing for anything but another 3-9 season.

After Saturday, that’s exactly what happened.

One thing we do know about Temple football: In the post-pandemic, post-NIL and post-transfer portal era, it is the most consistent 3-9 football program in FBS history. No school has ever finished 3-9 in even three-straight seasons without firing a coach and Temple will finish with four-straight 3-9s and the emphasis is on finish.

This is one of about 10 guys who can bring Temple football back to respect on a national scale.

One 3-9 Rod Carey season was followed by three 3-9 Stan Drayton seasons and that’s exactly how this thing is going to finish. Don’t give me any bunk about Temple having a chance against either North Texas or UTSA because it doesn’t.

North Texas and UTSA are only light years ahead of FAU and, by association, Temple.

Those two programs may be comparable to UConn but a Temple team playing out the string now and playing for something like it did in the UConn game are two different things.

Temple president John Fry is on the fly list (in this case, not a “no-Fry” list) to UTSA and he will be in the house for the Owls’ final game against North Texas. What he is likely to see is about a 35-14 loss in San Antonio and a 47-17 loss back in Philadelphia.

After that, the question he will present to the BOT is does Temple want to invest in an arms’ race in college football by paying players exorbitant money or does it want to fold up the tent entirely?

Winning would certainly help restore Temple’s image and bring fans back but it would take not only that investment but another significant one in a head coach who knows what he’s doing. That’s the case I would make to Fry if I had a chance to talk to him because a good football team can energize the entire Temple community (see above video).

I can also understand his point of view as a bean-counter.

That’s a lot of scratch and a school invested in doing other things like campus security and a hospital system that hemorrhages money might say the dollar is stretched too far.

If so, Temple’s football most recent legacy will be a maddening consistent 3-9 Final Four seasons.

Enjoy the win.

It might be the last one.

Monday: Debunking an NIL theory

10.19.24
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Beautiful day, ugly (but needed) win

Having been to the last half-century of Temple football Homecomings, what happened on Saturday might have been the most impressive of them all.

OK, maybe I fibbed.

This overflow lot of mostly Temple students was completely full after the main lots were sold out. Those kids missed a helluva game. (Photo courtesy of me)

The 2015 Homecoming against Tulane was more impressive, simply because Temple fans filled the entire lower bowl in a 48-14 win. They even did a wave across the entire stadium.

On a gorgeous Philly day (74, sunny, no wind) this one was like that one in the sense that the crowd outside the stadium was at least as impressive on Saturday as the one back in 2015.

The difference was that time 35,145 made it inside the stadium and this time only 18,871 did. The flip side of that was Temple was 6-0 then and 1-5 now so maybe the fans deserve more credit. No doubt in my mind if Temple was 5-1 instead of 1-5, a dozen thousand or more people would have wanted to go inside.

Weather-wise, it doesn’t get better in Philadelphia on any Oct. 19. A month from now we will be here freezing our asses off against North Texas.

Yes, there were about as many people who partied the whole day in the lots as the people who made it inside in a 20-10 Temple win.

10 for 104 is way too much

The honey needed to attract those bees inside going forward for Temple is to turn a 17-0 lead into a 34-0 win and the Owls have shown they don’t know how to execute that killer instinct yet.

Penalties were the big reason why, at least in the second half.

On offense, whenever the Owls had a big play, they had a holding penalty.

On defense, whenever they made a big stop in the second half it was either a PI (pass interference) or defensive holding.

That’s why Tulsa–arguably the worst team in the AAC–was able to cause those fans who made it inside (raising my hand here) to bite our fingers until about the 2:40 mark of the fourth quarter.

Eliminating the penalties is the way to beat these teams like East Carolina and FAU coming up. Continuing with this season-long trend is a formula for joining Tulsa at the bottom of the league standings.

If Temple ever wants to get those fans to go from the parking lot and into the stadium, it is going to have to clean up now what should have been done in spring and summer practices.

You could say that about a lot of things, including the swing and miss on who should have been the starting quarterback at both Oklahoma and Navy.

A lot of things that need to be cleaned up by now should have been done by Aug. 31 and that’s on Stan Drayton. Whether it costs him his job or not will depend on his sense of urgency now.

Monday: A Different Kind of Homecoming

10.03.24
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Talking myself into a Temple win

For the better part of a week, you’ve heard all of the reasons why Temple should lose at UConn on Saturday.

The Huskies hammered fellow AAC member FAU, 48-14 and are coming off a 47-3 win over a relatively good Buffalo team.

They also hung with an unbeaten Duke team.

Bleep that.

Stan Drayton owes it to all of these ex-Temple players who owned UConn to deliver with a win on Saturday. Rather roll out Evan Simon with a bad shoulder than Forrest Brock with two good ones.

Trying to talk myself into a Temple win on Saturday (3:30 p.m., CBS Sports TV), there are a few reasons to come to the conclusion that Temple might win this game.

One, Temple beat Utah State, 45-29, a team that traveled to Connecticut and won last year. Two, Temple hung with Coastal Carolina in a 28-20 loss and there’s is no doubt in my mind that Coastal is a better team than UConn and probably a better team than Duke.

Three, UConn lost to Maryland, 50-7, and Maryland “only” beat Temple’s Philadelphia FCS crosstown rival Villanova, 38-20. Got to believe Temple, even with all of its problems, is better than Villanova. In Dante Wright, Antonio Jones and Zae Baines, Temple has three playmaking wide receivers who have NFL skills.

In running back Antwain Littleton, Temple has a guy who can break out at any time if the pass sets up the run. He’s Mr. Inside and Torrez Worthy is Mr. Outside.

In a 17-14 overtime win at 5.5-point favorite UConn in 2012, current ESPN analyst and then Temple head coach Steve Addazio said: “Our intention was to get the ball in the middle of the field for the best kicker in the country to win the game and that’s what happened.”

The “best kicker in the country” then was Brandon McManus and he did just that.

A dozen years later, Temple might again have the best kicker in the country in Maddux Trujillo. It might have to come down to that, maybe in overtime.

Our $10 bet will return $236 if all of the above happens. Looks like we are on our way to two wins so far. Would stay away from the Temple game with a 10-foot pole if the Owls are stupid enough to roll Forrest Brock out there.

Fingers crossed.

All offseason we’ve been told by Temple coaches that this team is a far better team than the 3-9 team Temple fielded last year and there were plenty of reasons to believe them.

Matchup-wise, Temple has a better chance against UConn than it did against Army in that the Huskies like to throw the ball and Temple has good edge pass rushers in Diwan Black and Tre Thomas. Andreas Keaton is a great safety and Torrey Richardson and Jaylen Lewis are good cover corners.

The Owls upgraded not only their depth but arguably 21 of the 22 starters. The one area they failed was quarterback but Evan Simon’s six-touchdown performance against Utah State caused many (raising my hand here) to believe he’s an upgrade over E.J. Warner.

If he plays, and as of right now there is a 50/50 shot, Temple has a good chance to get its first road win under Stan Drayton.

Ever.

If he doesn’t, no shot.

The flip side of this argument is the Temple coaching staff.

Quarterback Forrest Brock and running back E.J. Wilson must be the greatest practice players in history, but they don’t pass the eye test in actual games and the fact that Temple coaches have given both so much playing time in an indictment of their player evaluation skills.

It does cause one to pause over other possible evaluations. Is Tyler Douglas better than first-game starter Brock? Probably. Is Worthy better than Wilson? Definitely.

We need to see more of Worthy, who is definitely a gamer.

My feeling is that if you are going to run all of the RPO stuff offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf wants to run, Douglas is the better quarterback than all three. Put it this way. John Harbaugh wouldn’t run RPO with the Ravens if he had Tom Brady at quarterback. His offense is perfect for Lamar Jackson.

Temple has done a piss/poor job of scheming to the talents of their players so maybe put players in there who fit the scheme.

Better late than never and if Temple figures all of this out in the next 24 hours, it could be a terrific bus ride back from Storrs.

And set up the Owls for a sensational Homecoming.

If not, it’s a Bataan Death March to the end of Stan Drayton’s head coaching career.

He’s too good a guy to deserve that fate and the players love him so it’s time for the coaches to play the right players and those right players to do right by the coaches.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis