Karma comes to Poteat, Kromah, and Badmas

K.C. Keeler trusted Sekou Kromah enough to take him to AAC Media Day with Evan Simon. Kromah stabbed Keeler in the back by entering the portal and now he is completely out of college football. Blame the white helmets. They are bad news both on and off the field. That’s the very definition of Karma.

Hard to believe three of Temple’s best defensive linemen in the 2025 season dipped their toes in the transfer portal.

One, Sultan Badmus, ended up in an objectively (not subjectively) worse place than Temple (Arkansas State).

The other two (Khalil Poteat and Kromah) are probably out of eligibility due to the courts clamping down on some previous lose eligibility requirements for JUCO players.

Hard to believe, Harry (Donahue) because the courts had been so inclined to give unlimited eligibility to a lot of players.

Had they remained at Temple, the fact that a staff led by the current winningest active Division I head coach (K.C. Keeler) going to bat for them might have convinced the court to grant their JUCO appeals and at least given Badmas a more high-profile landing spot than Arkansas State. Had Badmus landed at the real Arkansas (and not the State part) that would have been an upgrade from Temple.-

Even in a 5-7 rebuild, Temple would have probably beaten the 2025 version of Arkansas State (yeah, we know they made a bowl) but three touchdowns. They might beat the 2026 version by six touchdowns.

Pretty much oblivion for Badmus now when he could have gone out on a high note.

Sad, because a Badmus pressure in the UTSA game led to his tipped ball and a Temple interception deep in Owl territory of a 27-21 win. Sad, also because Poteat and Kromah generated the second-half pressures that made life miserable for UTSA quarterback Owen McCown.

Jadan Blue did all kinds of good things at Temple. He didn’t do anything at Virginia Tech.

Badmas was probably thinking Arkansas after he decided to go into the portal. Going from Temple to Arkansas State is a little like going from Syracuse to Buffalo.

Swing and a miss.

To drop down to a less prestigious G5 league than the American definitely was an impulsive move. He blew his chance to have a great game against Penn State at home before a split crowd of 70K fans and instead his NFL tape will rest on what he does at TCU, the same 70K fans all rooting for the bad (but not Badmus) guys. There is no way you can tell me Arkansas State is paying him more than Temple would have in the NIL. Say, for argument, that Temple was willing to pay $100,000 and Arky State $150,000. No way that should have been enough to move from the best G5 league to the third best.

So Karma is playing a part again for another player who left Temple.

We all know what happened to Jadan Blue. He went from being an NFL prospect at WR and the leading pass catcher in Temple history to transferring to Virginia Tech and catching only 10 passes the next season. He completely dropped off the NFL radar.

Karma again.

Stay at Temple, play for a great coach like Keeler, and put yourself on the NFL Draft radar.

Leave, seek riches elsewhere, and you could end up homeless.

It’s a cautionary tale for current Temple players and moreso for future ones.

Monday: The Replacements

Temple leaves fans with a good taste in their mouths

Gameday at Lincoln Financial Field is going to be fun again, maybe for the first time in 10 years.

The last word in this space yesterday was that we expected to eat some sort of delicious cake at around 6:30 p.m. today.

Well, we were off only by about 17 minutes.

The game ended at exactly 6:47 p.m., Eastern, and the double-layered Cherry and White cake with ice cream on the top was well worth the wait.

Best part of this is from 0:38 timestamp on…

Temple went into Amherst and not only won but won 42-10.

We didn’t expect the Cherry on top of this White cake but, thanks to the leadership of K.C. Keeler and Evan Simon, our bellies are full right now.

So ends a 20-game losing streak in the first year of a Temple head coach and, if that number sounds familiar, that happened roughly 20 years ago in the middle of Al Golden’s first season. That was a real 20-game losing streak and Golden stopped the bleeding with a 28-14 win over Bowling Green that day.

This was a little less real but no less embarrassing 20-game road losing streak that is, thankfully, over.

Those of us sitting in the stands back in 2006 knew it was the start of something special and those of us who had the pleasure of watching today have a similar feeling in the pit of our stomachs. Not heartburn, but a stomach that just ingested something Cherry and White and delicious.

Like a cake.

Poteat’s sack of Rose here turned the game around. (Photo Courtesy Zamani Feelings)

After 20-straight road losses, Temple has a road win and similarities between the two times abound.

Golden led the Owls to a nine-game winning two years later before bolting for Miami.

He made gamedays fun again at Lincoln Financial Field. Instead of bitching and moaning about this call and that call and that hire and this one, the pre-game talk turned to winning.

Then, Golden was 36 and we all knew in the back of our heads he was eyeing the next-big thing.

Keeler is 65 and his roots are planted here and less likely to leave and that’s one of the reasons why this time is even more exciting than that time.

The last time a Philadelphia football team above the high school level played a meaningful game they won it by sacking the quarterback at crucial times. This Philadelphia team did the same in the next game with Khalil Poteat providing the kind of sack that reminded Owl/Eagle fans of Jalen Carter.

Temple Football Forever way back on 8/29/25

UMass couldn’t handle the Temple D-Line pretty much the way the Chiefs couldn’t handle the Eagles’ D-Line. Keeler pretty much said it would be that way two weeks ago when he noted that “this is the deepest D-Line I ever had. We have 9-10 guys who can really play.”

A week later, Keeler said the same thing about his O-Line, “I’ve never seen a position group improve as much as our O-Line” perhaps referring to the “iron sharpens iron” of playing against an elite D-Line. The OL gave Evan Simon time to throw for six touchdown passes and gave Jay Ducker space to rush for over 100 yards in his Temple debut.

The Eagles proved on Super Bowl Sunday that games are won in the trenches and the other birds who play home games in that same stadium seem to have adopted that formula.

Either way, the food at the tailgates is going to taste better for the first time in a long while and the dessert afterward is promising, too.

Leave some room for both.

Monday: Five Takeaways From The Game

Friday: Howard Preview

Late Saturday Night: Howard Game Analysis

Monday: 5 Trick Plays for Okie