Tag Archives: Matt Rhule

10.28.14
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Same S*it, Different Saturday

Phil Snow

Phil Snow

If anyone spent some time listening to the AAC coaches conference call on Monday, it’s pretty safe to sum up the Temple game plan against East Carolina in four simple words:

Same S*it, Different Saturday.

That’s because Temple head coach Matt Rhule included in his summary this sentence: “I think we always have to take a step back, catch our breath (and) not listen to anyone on the outside tell us what’s wrong.”
Anyone on the outside …. Temple football should have such problems.

Looks like Kenny Harper will be spending more time on the sidelines watching scenes like this than being P.J.'s protection as a blocking fullback.

Looks like Kenny Harper will be spending more time on the sidelines watching scenes like this than being P.J.’s protection as a blocking fullback.

Thanks largely to two-straight deflating losses coming off a 2-10 season, there is no “outside” when it comes to Temple football. Despite having three 24-hour sports talk stations, there has not been a single call taken on the air to talk about Temple football this season and probably few ever. Meanwhile, the town dissects every play in every Eagles’ game like it’s a frog in biology class.

The newspapers and internet are not any better. There is no critical coverage of Temple football in the Philadelphia Daily News or Philadelphia Inquirer, no columnist suggesting opinions on why the team was blown out in two-straight games. The coverage is pretty much straight forward game stories and an occasional feature.

The internet sites who follow Temple football, Owlscoop and Owlsdaily, range from being lapdogs for Rhule (Owlscoop) or right down the middle (Owlsdaily). The message boards on both sites seem to clamor for four more years of “patience” even if those four years are all losing ones.



“I think we always have to take
a step back, catch our breath
(and) not listen to anyone on
the outside tell us what’s wrong.”
_ Matt Rhule

Temple football has lapsed into irrelevance in its own city, quickly to be followed by apathy unless something big happens soon like a win over ECU or Penn State—with the emphasis on soon.
“Not to listen to anyone on the outside,” Rhule said.

What outside? There is no “outside” unless he’s talking about this site. If he is, we can assume Temple will be doing the same things this weekend that got it blown out in the last two.
So, as a favor to the fans who cannot bear to watch this train wreck anymore and are skipping the ECU game, we will give you a few of the offensive highlights now:

• Temple will give a half-hearted attempt to establish the run game with Jahad Thomas in the pistol behind P.J. Walker. When he gains one and two yards on his first two carries, it will abandon the run game and blame the blockers. “We have to do a better job blocking,” Rhule will say. “I will talk to them on Monday about it.” Nobody will remind Rhule he said the same thing after the prior two games.

• Temple will throw no less than five (5) two-yard passes on third-and-eight to a slow possession receiver, hoping he can break five tackles before getting to the sticks. None of them will work.

• Temple will not attempt a single toss sweep with Jahad Thomas running behind dynamic blockers in fullback Kenny Harper and tight end Colin Thompson. “I suggested to Marcus that was something we tried and worked to the tune of 268 yards and two touchdowns for Bernard Pierce behind Wyatt Benson and Steve Manieri at Navy,” Rhule would say after the game. “Marcus told me he never ran those kind of plays at Tennessee-Chattanooga and he’s not comfortable calling them and we left it at that.”

• Temple will line up three wides most of the time, but ECU will pick up all three in its nickel package and P.J. Walker will have no blocking back to protect him and one-half second to pick from three well-covered receivers. “P.J. is just going to have to thread the needle better,” Rhule will say afterward.

• The best blocking fullback in the AAC, Kenny Harper, will spend most of the day on the sidelines Saturday, waving a towel and cheering his teammates on as a backup tailback. “I thought Kenny showed great leadership on the sidelines,” Rhule will say afterward. “Even when it got to be 70-21, he was waving that towel higher than ever.”

  • Lincoln Financial Field security will mistake Temple defensive coordinator Phil Snow for a homeless man and attempt to remove him from the sidelines before Temple coaches intervene. Meanwhile, the Temple coaches will miss an ECU touchdown.

• Temple will fair catch five punts and start all of its possessions from inside the 20 because Rhule forgets that Temple once had dynamic tackle-avoiding and ankle-breaking punt returners like Delano Green who made that an offensive play.

Yes, keep doing what you are doing. That sounds like a plan. Not a good one, but a plan nonetheless and, when Temple fans begin the long and too familiar death march up the steps at the end of the third quarter, they will be mumbling one thing over and over again:

“Same S*it, Different Saturday.” This time without the asterisk.

09.24.14
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Takeaways from Matt Rhule Press Conference

While winning has been, is and will always remain the No. 1 focus of any football program, we often forget the contributions of individuals to the program as a whole and that’s why Matt Rhule’s discussion of Ed Foley was the highlight of his most recent press conference.

There were just a handful of people who held Temple football together during some difficult times—Rhule himself being one in the transition to Steve Addazio—and Foley and Chuck Heater also played a big-time role in holding the program together just before the handoff to Rhule.

You need guys like that and that’s why recognizing Foley with the game ball on Saturday, two days after his father passed away, was a nice gesture. Also interesting was the fact that the entire Boston College football staff, led by Addazio, went to the funeral. Best wishes to coach Foley.

Other highlights from the press conference:

Those four fingers mean something at Temple. Often you see teams holding up the No. 4 at the start of the fourth quarter. Usually, it’s a meaningless gesture because everyone does it. Not at Temple because  it’s backed up by some pretty solid play in the fourth quarter this season. Must be a product of the conditioning program.

P.J. Not Happy. Even though he has a 64 percent completion rate and double the touchdowns to interceptions, P.J. Walker is unhappy with his QB play so far. That demonstrates the kind of standard P.J. wants to set at the position. We all know what P.J. can do. We have enough body of work. Still think he’s going to exceed his 20 TD passes of last year.

Derrick Thomas Could be the Breakout WR. According to Rhule, Thomas is close to making some explosive plays in the passing game. If he does, we can finally say, “Robbie Who?” Let’s hope he does. Here’s a preview of what is coming soon to a field near you (don’t worry about the stats, Bishop Maginn rarely passes the ball):

Sam Benjamin Punt Block Specialist. Looks like Benjamin has a knack to block punts, both in practice and in games. Temple hasn’t had one of those guys in a long, long time (a LB named Bruce Gordon also had that knack but that might have been 25 years ago). Now if we can only convince 7-foot basketball player Devonte Watson (he of the 97-inch wingspan and 41-inch vertical leap) to be the FG-block specialist, no one would ever be able to get a kick off against Temple.

Not Getting Over Navy. “And won’t for a long, long time,” Rhule said. That’s what I like to hear, a coach who stews over a loss as much (or more) than I do and I stew over every loss. Hopefully, coach Rhule talks to coach Wayne Hardin soon because he told both my and my friend, Fizzy Weinraub, an interesting and foolproof method to stop Navy’s triple option on Saturday.

09.23.14
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Will We Finally See a Few Play-Action Passes?

Nick Foles fakes it to Shady here and finds a window to Jeremy Maclin. The same would work if P.J. Harper starts using Kenny Harper's belly.

Nick Foles fakes it to Shady here and finds a window to Jordan Matthews. The same would work if P.J. Harper starts using Kenny Harper’s belly and finds, say, Jalen Fitzpatrick.

Watching the first three games, either in person or on TV, something occurred to me: I have not seen a true play-action pass this season.
Most of the Owls’ offense against both Navy and Vanderbilt consisted of flare passes left and right and deep passes into double-coverage. A true play-action pass, the kind that is the meat and potatoes of the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense (above), has been missing. To me, faking it into Kenny Harper’s belly, leaving Kenny in as an extra blocker, is a win-win for Temple. It causes the linebackers to crowd the line of scrimmage and respect the run and creates open passing windows for P.J. Walker. Those windows, particularly in the open area in the middle of the field 15-30 yards down field, have been slammed shut because Temple almost never shows a play-action look. Plus, Harper staying in as a blocker protects Temple’s most valuable commodity, P.J. Walker.

Troubling Temple Stats

 

Total Off. 3d down conv. Passing Off. Rushing Offense
95th nat/7th AAC 121 nat/10th AAC 89th nat/7th AAC 75th nat/10th AAC
 

Maybe I was missing something so I viewed the entire Delaware State replay (fast-forwarding through the commercial breaks).  I found one “semi” play-action, where P.J. faked in the general direction of a running back. It’s hard to sell a run that way. Gotta stick it in the runner’s belly and pull it out (see above, where that created a window for Nick Foles to hit Jordan Matthews). As it is now, P.J. has no windows to throw into and the results are not as pretty as they should be.
Also like to see one of the speedier Temple backs, say Jamie Gilmore, FOLLOW Harper through a hole. That way, he gets the benefit not only from offensive line blocks but from Harper’s dynamic blocking ability. If the Owls need the tough yardage inside, make the fake to Gilmore one way and give it to Harper up the middle.
Again, a win-win for Temple.

More play-action passing might not raise those national offensive stats, but as they say about a cold and chicken soup, it could not hurt.

and another example of how faking to Harper could help pry open a window for Fitzpatrick ....

and another example of how faking to Harper could help pry open a window for Fitzpatrick ….

09.17.14
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Taking Care of Business

Matt Rhule’s press conference this week.

One of those little annoyances about Temple football is the inability to sustain a weekly highlight show in the Philadelphia market.

Penn State has one. Notre Dame has one. Even Rutgers has one. Temple, which has 155,000 of its 275,000 graduates still living in the Philadelphia TV market, does not–unless you are counting the Temple TV station (Channel 55 on Comcast) in Philadelphia. While tossing and turning and thinking about Fordham and Idaho at 4 a.m. this morning, I went through the channels looking for a replay of The Roosevelts (PBS, every night this week) and found Matt Rhule’s press conference instead.

Hopefully, the producers of that show will put a microphone in the crowd because you cannot hear a single question being posed.

Maybe if Temple goes to a bowl, the highlights’ show returns to Comcast next season.

That’s one order of business that needs to be taken care of and it won’t be accomplished without a big win over Delaware State. I’m not one of those Temple fans who writes “I’ll settle for a one-point win.” I’m settling for a big win–about 44-7 would be nice, 63-0 would be better.

I’m on record as saying Matt Rhule would be better for this program than Steve Addazio ever would have been, but he’s got to start doing some of the things that Daz made routine–including putting away these lesser opponents. When Daz arrived, the uni needed him to take care of business against Villanova and he did that twice by 42-7 and 41-10 scores. Against a service academy with strict academic admissions standards and a five-year post-graduate commitment, Army, Daz put up 63 points by throwing just five passes. Temple, with no such tight restrictions, should have been recruiting at a level for the past five years that made beating these service academies routine.

Rhule and the Owls need to take care of business starting Saturday.

Press Conference Notes: Somewhat surprised that we won’t be seeing Zaire Williams any time soon, but I hope that his problems are all injury related and he makes a big comeback …. doesn’t look like the Owl coaches took any time watching the Eagles’ game Monday night to see how the Eagles used 5-6, 170-pound Darren Sproles. Too bad because that’s the best way to use Khalif Herbin, who was drafted No. 1 by his teammates in the Cherry and White Day Draft. The kids know who can play and who can’t. Too bad the coaches don’t seem to know. My biggest fear is that for the second year in a row the most unique offensive talent for Temple will be lost on an island of inactivity. Call it Slot Receiver Island for Herbin; last year it was Tight End Island for Chris Coyer. It’s No-Man’s Land for Temple. Just like to see five … five .. Darren Sproles-like carries from scrimmage for Herbin on Saturday. If he does nothing, put him back in No Man’s Land … What are they afraid of? …. Good interview with Temple center Kyle Friend on Temple TV this week. They asked him about goals and he said winning every play should be the focus. Seems humble for the best center in the AAC and a great leader for the Owls to follow. .. looks like David Hood will get some carries this week. Owls need to find an explosive guy who can take it to the house at RB.

08.19.14
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Scouting Vanderbilt: Let’s Hope Temple Does, Too

Hopefully, the Owls' plan includes attacking Vanderbilt's weaknesses, which are the DL and DBs, and staying away from the strengths (LBs).

Hopefully, the Owls’ plan includes attacking Vanderbilt’s weaknesses, which are the DL and DBs, and staying away from the strengths (LBs).

There was so much head-scratching in an underachieving season last year that just about every Temple football fan still has scars on the heads.

From the shotgun handoff on 4th and three inches at Rutgers to the use of a punter to kick an extra point—when you had a perfectly good backup kicker to do it—Owl fans were “wtf’ing” all season.


Play-action brings the linebackers up for run support
and dumping the ball over their heads could create
major run-after-catch opportunities for players like
Herbin and John Christopher. Keeping a dynamic blocker
like Harper in after faking the ball into his gut
can only help P.J. Walker’s protection.

Arguably, nothing compared to the way Temple was perceived to have scouted the opposition. At times, it appeared the Owls never popped in any opponents’ film before taking the field against them. The Owls passed the ball against the worst rush defense in the nation, Idaho, and failed to commit to the run against a FCS defensive line (Fordham) that averaged 247 pounds across the front. The next week, a St. Francis of Loretto back with considerably less talent than any of the top three Temple backs, Kyle Harbridge, gained 297 yards on 29 carries against that same defense. Either the Red Flashes have a bunch of Mensa members on their coaching staff or they just took the Fordham depth chart, put the DL weights into a calculator, divided by 4, and devised a rational game plan to attack the Rams. Since the scouting budget at SFL is minuscule, I’m guessing the latter.

Now game week starts and Temple fans hope things  are different this season.

Vanderbilt is the opponent in a week and its new coach, Derek Mason, likes to play a 3-4 defense and Owl fans can only hope the Owls have spent the summer devising a good plan to attack it. The Commodores return only 10 starters, the second-fewest in the SEC. No SEC returns a smaller percentage of last year’s total offense, so the Owl defense should have a better chance stopping it  than, say, they did a year ago at Notre Dame.

Still, as good as Vanderbilt was under current Penn State coach James Franklin, it lost to Missouri by a 51-28 score and Texas A&M by a 56-24 score. Temple should have beaten a UCF team that blew out Baylor.

The Owls should also look at what UCLA did under head coach Karl Dorrell because Dorrell will serve as Mason’s offensive coordinator this season. Hint: It’s a West Coast offense and probably not a good one (this from Bruins’ Report):

During his five seasons with the Bruins, Dorrell went 35-27, losing six or more games in all but one campaign as his teams largely struggled to execute his version of the West Coast offense. The lone exception was in 2005, when a veteran team featuring running back Maurice Jones-Drew and tight end Marcedes Lewis posted a 10-2 record.

The Commodores lose Jordan Matthews to the Eagles, but they still have a playmaking wide receiver in sophomore Jordan Cunningham (15 receptions, 123  yards). Other than that, a whole bunch of new guys.


TFF’s keys to the game:
1. Khalif Herbin must have 15 touches (5 runs, 5 catches, 5 returns)
2. Play-action to set up intermediate passes for big RAC opportunites
3. Trust your 2 best players (Kyle Friend and P.J. Walker) on 4th and inches
4. Generate pass rush along front 4 

Vandy’s strength is the offensive line, losing only all-conference left tackle Wes Johnson.

Its two top running backs are Jerron Seymour (716 yards, 14 touchdowns) and a scatback-type in Brian Kimbrow (341 yards). Seymour is a very similar runner to Kenny Harper—good for 8-yard bursts in the red zone but lacks the capability of taking a handoff at the 20 and going 80 to the house. A Matt Brown or a Bernard Pierce (and a Khalif Herbin) do have that capability.

The Vandy defense returns only three starters, all linebackers, so Temple would do well with play-action fakes and rollouts and dumping the intermediate passes over the linebackers’ heads. Those three starters are Kyle Woestmann, Caleb Azubike and Darreon Herring. Play-action brings the linebackers up for run support and dumping the ball over their heads could create major run-after-catch opportunities for players like Herbin and John Christopher. Keeping a dynamic blocker like Harper in after faking the ball into his gut can only help P.J. Walker‘s protection.

Vandy’s special teams will struggle without Murderleg (Carey Spear), whose days are numbered at Eagles’ camp because he cannot even beat out Dead Leg (Alex Henery).

Khalif Herbin will be able to do serious damage on punt and kickoff returns, if he is given the chance.

Hopefully, while scouting Vanderbilt, Temple coaches will remember that Owl name—and the name of St. Francis of Loretto’s Kyle Harbridge—as a reminder (to quote Andy Reid)  that they need to do a better job at not only scouting foes, but taking advantage of their weaknesses.

Time’s yours.

08.13.14
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Winning Is An Attitude

Coach Rhule gives good news on Jabo Lee and makes other comments after 11th practice.

 

One of the many reasons why I love John Chaney because he refused to back down.

He’d take Temple on the road against the best teams and he’d win a lot of those battles. He instilled the mantra “Winning is an Attitude.”

I’ve got to like what I’m hearing out of the E-O so far this season. Khalif Herbin’s tweet was my favorite: “Temple University will not lose a football game.”

Matt Rhule also said he expects to go to a bowl “this season.”

I expect all 85 players on scholarship and a few more not on scholarship would consider this season a failure if the team does not make a bowl game.

Our fans should take the same attitude.

Anything less is a losing attitude and not reaching that minimum goal of a bowl game should deem this season a failure to every fan living in reality. The “reality” is that this league is more New Conference USA than Old Big East and that Temple’s last seven recruiting classes would have been ranked in the top half of CUSA and one, the 2012 class, would have been the top class in CUSA. Temple should be able to beat teams like Tulane, Tulsa, Memphis and East Carolina right now. The Owls already have proven they can beat teams like Navy and Uconn in the not-too-distant past. That’s the reality.

Winning is an attitude and so is losing. Maybe John Chaney can come down and say a few words before Vanderbilt.