Tag Archives: Jerry Berndt

08.01.25
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Keeler and Berndt: TU football’s Lincoln and Kennedy

Jerry Berndt outside McGonigle Hall the day he got hired by Temple.

Very few things cause a human brain to short-circuit but the comparisons between Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy after the latter was tragically assassinated boggled the mind of any student of history.

Here were just a few (there were many more):


Both Lincoln and Kennedy were second children, both boat captains, both elected to Congress in ’47 (18 for Lincoln, 19 for Kennedy) and both VP runners-up in a year ending with 56. Each was elected POTUS in a year ending with 60. Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln and Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy. Both Kennedy and Lincoln each contain seven letters.

Temple is probably safe from any Keeler vs. Berndt comparisons.



Each President in his 30s married a socially prominent 24-year-old woman who spoke French fluently.

While in the White House, each President had a family of three children, and both lost a child through death.

Temple football has a more modest comparison between new head coach K.C. Keeler and the architect of the 1990 turnaround, Jerry Berndt.

Temple hired both from a school based near Houston, as Berndt was hired after a head coaching stint at Rice and Keeler after a head coaching stint at Sam Houston State. Both Berndt and Keeler each contain, like Kennedy and Lincoln, the same amount of letters.

Our critique of the Diaz hire on Day One (of 18 days).

Both had success in the Philadelphia area prior to moving to Texas with Berndt winning an Ivy League football title at Penn and Keeler winning titles at Rowan and Delaware.

But if Temple fans even entertain the thought that Keeler will be a redux of Berndt, they should think again.

History supports Keeler in this comparison.

Temple hired Berndt coming off an 0-11 season at Rice. Temple hired Keeler off a 9-3 season at Sam Houston. That Berndt hiring existed long before this blog started but I mentioned to several fellow Temple fans at the time that hiring a guy coming off an 0-11 season was not only a major red flag, but pretty damn stupid.

Unfortunately, I was proven correct–as I was years later in my assessment of both the Manny Diaz and Stan Drayton hirings.

Terrez Worthy might beat out Jay Ducker for Temple’s featured back this season.

Both were negative gut feelings but Keeler has always been a positive one.

That should disabuse any Temple fan of a thought that the Keeler regime will include just one winning season and a lot of losing ones.

That, plus the fact that Keeler won everywhere he went and Berndt didn’t should bode well for the future.

Sometimes being a student of history pays off at the college football betting windows and this is probably one of those times.

We won’t find out until we cash the ticket in December but history is both our guide and our prognosticator and proven to repeat itself.

Monday: ECU and WVU break down Temple’s season

Friday: New Digs New Look

Monday (8/11): Will We Get a Depth Chart?

04.05.18
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New Uniforms?

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These uniforms are probably the best ones featuring the Temple ‘][‘ on the helmet

In the grand scheme of things, uniforms rate somewhat behind coaching, talent, practice facilities, stadiums and fan bases in terms of importance.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t important at all because they are.

During one of the great Temple wins recently—an overtime win at UConn in 2012 that made the Owls 2-0 in a one-time BCS league—it was with great pride that I noted that the Owls did it wearing what I thought was their best uniform combination:

Cherry pants, white stripes, white jerseys, cherry helmets.slight

They played well and looked good.

It is against that backdrop that I cringed when I heard Temple was getting new uniforms by the end of this month.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

At Temple, it ain’t broke but fixing it could break it.

All over the NCAA, I see teams with awful-looking so-called “modern” uniforms—Maryland comes in the 2011 Temple game comes to mind here—getting their asses kicked by more traditional uniforms.

Temple’s uniforms have remained pretty much the same through the years.

When Al Golden got here, he eliminated the Temple ][ on the helmets for a very good reason because he felt the “football brand” at Temple when he played at Penn State represented toughness and that brand was having TEMPLE spelled out across the helmets.

NCAA FOOTBALL: OCT 31 Temple at Navy

That brand was created by Wayne Hardin in 1970.

“We want people to know who were are,” Hardin said. “We’re Temple. We’re spelling it on the helmets so they won’t forget who we are. There are plenty of schools that have T’s on the helmet but not many that spell the name.”

That brand continued until Jerry Berndt brought the T back because Penn, the Philadelphia team he formerly coached, had a P on it.

To me,  that wasn’t a very good reason.

Golden brought TEMPLE back on the helmet and that lasted until a bald-headed guy who shall remain nameless brought the T back. I’m OK with the ‘][‘ because it is the school brand but not OK with an entirely new look because it is supposed to be attractive to recruits.

Something tells me the new uniforms are going to be closer to a Maryland-type monstrosity—the Under Armour CEO is a Maryland grad—than a more traditional Temple look.

Whatever it is, if the word TEMPLE comes back on the helmet, that would be an acceptable step forward and a fitting tribute to the Hardin Era.

Monday: Spring Phenoms Old and New

Wednesday: The Scrimmage

Friday: 5 Things To Look For At Cherry and White

02.24.15
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Giving “Matt” a Contract Extension Would be Insane

matt rhule, temple football,

Howard Smith-USA Today Sports

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, Temple University giving a contract extension to third-year head football coach Matt Rhule would certainly come under that rather large umbrella. Temple, in the past, has extended non-winning coaches like Jerry Berndt, Ron Dickerson and Bobby Wallace and those extensions have set the program back at least 30 years.

Granted, the man has endeared himself to many influential alumni with his effusive personality and perceived commitment to his job. He has also been a very good recruiter. One important item on his resume is lacking: A winning season. Until then, the Board of Trustees would be wise to refrain from offering him a contract extension. It is believed that Rhule signed a five-year deal in December of 2012 that gave him a $1.2-million per season.

If so, he is being handsomely paid to go 2-10 and 6-6. Lately, some Temple people—maybe overly impressed by two consecutive No. 4-ranked recruiting classes in an 11-team American Athletic Conference—clamored for an extension. One post on a fan website made by a Philadelphia tavern owner who may have been sampling too much of his own product was entitled: “This kid Matt Rhule” and was particularly amusing because he wrote that Rhule was getting it done with no stadium and the worst facilities in the entire conference. … “if this admin (administration) isn’t staying up late to extend him, I hope he takes one of the many offers on his table.”

On that website, the editor there does not refer to him as Rhule or as the Temple head football coach but only by “Matt.” It’s almost like David Muir on the ABC Evening News saying, “after this message, we will have some excerpts from Barrack’s press conference.” Or Walter Cronkite back in the day saying, “here’s what Lyndon had to say about the Selma march.”

First of all, Rhule currently is 8-16 with the best, not the worst, facilities in the entire conference. In 2014, Temple added a $10 million wing to its already existing $7 million football practice facility. The school bent over backward to refurbish a $4.2-million building three blocks away for a football-dedicated indoor practice facility. (Other sports use it, but football gets first dibs.) Bruce Arians almost passed out when he saw the lay of the land last year. Temple plays in a $521 million stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, which is, by about $400 million, the most expensive stadium in the AAC. Many of these so-called great recruits Rhule was able to attract have gone on record as saying that being able to play in the same stadium the Philadelphia Eagles play sealed the deal.

Second, there are no offers on the table for an 8-16 coach who has on his resume a loss to 2013’s worst FBS team, Idaho, and an FCS team, Fordham, which in the same season lost to a horrid Lafayette program located 40 miles directly north of Philadelphia. I can just picture the Notre Dame President, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, saying, “geez, if Brian Kelly leaves for the NFL, let’s get this Matt Rhule guy from Temple.” Or not.

Third, giving an extension to a non-Power 5 coach makes no sense. If the guy wants to leave before the contract is up, he’s going to leave for a Power 5 job. That’s what happened to Temple when Al Golden left for Miami. It’s what is going to happen to any Group of 5 school. No G5 coach has ever said they cannot leave their job for an SEC or Big 10 job because they already have an existing contract.

If Temple finally makes a decision for a long-term commitment to Rhule, it should be after at least one winning season and probably two but not before. Anything less is just bad business at best and pure insanity at worst.