by Mike Gibson

What The Eff?

Hands off our players.

Kip (80) gets TU love after scoring.

Anyone who read this blurb on Philly.com had to have one reaction: “What the Eff?”

Kip Patton was that rare talent end who had the speed and the athleticism of a wide receiver in a tight end’s body.

There is a rest of the story, as Paul Harvey might say, that neither the article mentioned nor any of the first 24 comments suggested. Patton is transferring from Temple to Tennessee Tech and the new Tennessee Tech head coach is his former offensive coordinator at TU, Marcus Satterfield.

The optics of this are just not good.

I’m sure Satterfield will deny any charges that he is “poaching” a Temple player, but it sure looks like that. If Patton was transferring to Tennessee or Vanderbilt or even Tennessee-Martin, I would understand it. But transferring to Tennessee Tech should not have been allowed. Where there’s smoke, though, there’s fire as Temple walk-on Yeedee Thaenrat—a former Father Judge player and Rutgers’ commit—is following Satterfield to TT.

The last time I worried about a Temple player leaving with a Temple coach that player was P.J. Walker and that coach was Steve Addazio, who recruited him to Temple. At the time, I hoped that Daz would have enough integrity to keep his paws off Walker or any other Temple recruit that year. Much to his credit, Daz did have that much decency.

The same cannot be said for Satterfield, no matter how innocent (or guilty) this transfer might be. All the best to Patton, but the optics of this situation is very bad for Temple University, Tennessee Tech and Satterfield himself.

What the Eff, indeed.

Wednesday: Temple’s No. 1 Foe Not On Schedule

03.04.16

by Mike Gibson

Tennessee Tech’s Season Could Provide Useful Clues

field

Normally, the only football team Temple fans follow in Tennessee is conference rival Memphis.

Now, there are at least a couple of good reasons to follow another one: Tennessee Tech and it is not strictly because at least two former high-profile Temple football assistants are on the staff, and one is head coach Marcus Satterfield.

There are a couple of interesting subplots involved here because Satterfield was a wide-open spread guy who wanted to put five wide receivers on the field every time he could. Head coach Matt Rhule reined him in with a more conventional approach this season, emphasizing the run game. I always had that feeling that Satterfield would send five wides out every time Rhule would turn his back to talk to the defense but, fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Much.

If Satterfield spreads the ball all over the place for TT, we will know that there was a basic difference in offensive philosophy between Rhule and his former coordinator. Since the TT games are not on TV, we will try to judge that by YouTube. Maybe the Golden Eagles will have the “Dog Stare” offense. Geez, I hope Temple streamlines that out of the playbook.

Another subplot is the appearance of Tyree Foreman as running backs coach for Satterfield. Foreman and Temple had a parting of the ways two years ago and the rumor was that Rhule fired him. Now he’s back with Satterfield, who obviously had a difference of opinion.

We will find out a lot about what happened at Temple the last couple of years by looking at the way TT runs things. Either way, good luck to Marcus in whatever he does. The feeling here is that, for Temple at least, the addition by subtraction will be noticeable.

Sunday: The Curious Saquon Barkley Narrative

Tuesday: The Triple Option

Thursday: Ash Wednesday at Matt Rhule Camp

Saturday: Possible Fullback Replacements for Nick Sharga

08.13.15

by Mike Gibson

Temple Football’s Papal Immunity

Marcus Satterfield talks about adopting the two backs, two TEs, philosophy.

The Pope might be Infallible, but Temple football is immune to all of this Popeageddon craziness going on these days and that is something to be thankful for.

The Football Gods smiled upon the Owls and gave Temple a bye week at the right time for a change. Three years ago, the Owls had three bye weeks and that’s two too many. Getting a bye week the weekend the Pope visits and therefore an off day on Saturday, Sept. 26^th, is an, err, blessing.

When Channel 6, WPVI, 6abc or whatever you want to call it, leading the charge, TV is going to be pretty unwatchable that weekend. Do not plan on watching a college football game on that station because there are probably going to be numerous interruptions—probably a few while the ball is in the air—of the Pontiff doing routine things like leaving the hotel or talking to Jim Gardner.

It’s getting to be a little out of hand when they break into regular programming in August to say something like “be prepared to walk.”

Duh?
https://www.onlinecountdowns.com/w/179043

The Eagles will be out of town figuratively and the Temple students should be out of town literally because the school will be closed on Friday, Sept. 25. The students will probably take the opportunity to go home, even if home is Doylestown, Downingtown or Delmar. They probably would not have returned for a football game, if one was scheduled.

If this scheduling was intended, it was pure genius on Temple’s part. If not, call it Papal Immunity.