Tag Archives: Matt Rhule

03.04.16
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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

03.02.16
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The New Run Game Coordinator

Miami Dolphins 2010 Headshots

George DeLeone  poses for his 2010 NFL headshot. (Photo by NFL via Getty Images)

 

In a slow news month for Temple football, arguably the biggest news in February for the Owls was the addition of George DeLeone as run game coordinator. That was a position in college football that didn’t exist 20 years ago, but a quick google search indicates that there are plenty of current RGCs.

gardner

 

DeLeone, a former offensive coordinator at Temple, is a good person to be the first Temple football RGC in history.

When Al Golden hired DeLeone to be OC, I thought it was an ingenious move for a couple of reasons. First, Al was the youngest head coach in college football at the time, 35, and it does not help a young head coach to have an “old head” around to guide him through some of the rough spots.

Nothing was rougher than the tail end of the 20-game losing streak, but DeLeone was as responsible as anybody for it coming to a sweet end. In a 28-14 win over a Bowling Green team that had dropped 140 points combined on the Owls in consecutive seasons, the key play was a flea-flicker. Quarterback Adam DiMichele handed off to halfback Tim Brown, who pitched the ball back to DiMichele, who found a streaking Travis Sheldon for an easy touchdown. Mix in a Sheldon kickoff return and, wala, the streak was over.

DeLeone, I assume, is doing some diligent film study. If he does, he’s got to like the fact that Jager Gardner has the biggest upside in the running game and moving Jahad Thomas from tailback to the slot has to be intriguing. A guy just like Thomas, Jalen Fitzpatrick, caught a game-tying touchdown pass against DeLeone’s UConn team in 2012. Gardner could be the AAC’s most dominating back in 2016 if he is able to establish a rhythm.

Plus, there is always the flea-flicker.

I sincerely hope that DeLeone injects some of that same innovation to the Temple offense this fall.

Related:

Jager Gardner Key To 2016 Run Game

Friday: Why We Should Follow Tennessee Tech.

Sunday: The Saquon Barkley Narrative

Tuesday: Setting Time Aside for Triple Option

02.07.16
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Fizzy’s Evaluation On Mark

weinraub

Fizzy’s magnetic personality carried the day in Boca Raton.

One of the great things about being a Temple football fan back in the day is that you met literally every other Temple fan.

Every. Single. One.

In the parking lot of the Fake Miami (Ohio) game in 2005, I counted five fans about an hour before the game in Lot K. Five, the number after four and before six. This was the hour before the kickoff and it was including me. I’m sure there were more who made it in the stadium, but not many.



“As I sat totally
drenched in Boca
and watched the
horror unfold, I
saw the most
unimaginative major
college offense I’ve
ever seen. In the
whole first half,
we gained 65 yards,
and only 5 yards in
the second quarter.
As usual, the play
selection was abysmal.”
_ Former Owl player
Fizzy Weinraub

Things have changed for the better, thanks to people like Matt Rhule and Al Golden.

One of those fans is an unforgettable character named David Weinraub, except nobody calls him David and everybody calls him Fizzy. I have been honored to call him friend for at least a decade. He was a player under George Makris. As a young sportswriter, I covered another player under Makris, Bill Juzwiak, who was literally the funniest coach I ever covered. Juz was Fizz’s teammate, and after I shared a couple of stories with Fizz about him, we became fast tailgate friends.

Juzwiak coached William Tennent to a championship in the old Suburban One League and, if you know anything about William Tennent football, that’s a remarkable achievement.



” … the design of
Temple’s offense …
usually runs in
one direction,
straight ahead,
and there’s no
balance. There
are few reverses,
counters, traps,
misdirections,
bootlegs and
end-arounds.”
_ Former Owl player
Fizzy Weinraub

Juzwiak was just as funny after losses, maybe more, than he was after wins. At Norristown, the Panthers led, 7-6, at halftime and lost the game, 20-7. While a group of reporters were wrapping up with Juz, from the other side of the field the guy covering the game for the Norristown Times-Herald came running over to Juzwiak and said, out of the breath, the kid said, “Coach, coach, coach .. you led, 7-6, at halftime and fumbled seven times in the second half. What did you tell the team at halftime?”

Juzwiak looked the kid up and down and paused before saying: “I certainly didn’t tell them to fumble.”

Today’s take of the Temple season is from Juzwiak’s teammate, Fizzy, easily as funny and unforgettable as Juzwiak but someone who has a serious take on the season that every Temple fan and coach should take to heart.

I would change the name of his blog to something with pizazz that incorporates the name Fizzy (Fizzy’s Pizzis?), but his serious take of the season is right here and it is worth a read.

02.06.16
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The Impact of Karamo Dioubate

Matt Rhule gets the phone call from Karamo at the 2:15 mark.

 

According to a name origin website, Karamo denotes an extravagant, ambitious nature with the desire for financial prominence.

If those qualities come through at Temple for the next three years, Karamo Dioubate will use a lot of the former to get to the goal of the latter and we will all be richer for it.  One day Temple recruiting will reach the level where there will be no under-the-radar guys and a lot of ICBMs coming in with nuclear-tipped warheads every signing day.

Until then, Temple will have to settle for rolling out an occasional Atom Bomb to drop on the bad guys.

dioubate

Karamo at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Temple got a couple of those weapons and, for purposes of this story, we will concentrate on the Hydrogen Bomb called Dioubate. This is just the kind of weapon along the defensive front line that the Owls need to unleash on Penn State as soon as possible and that could be as early as the second game.

He’s that good.

It’s one thing to “trust the film” but it’s quite another when the film is trusted not only by the staff at Temple, but the more highly-paid ones at Alabama, Penn State,  Michigan State and South Carolina. When it comes to Dioubate, they see what you see, a pretty polished and unstoppable lineman far advanced beyond his years. Now Dioubate will have to cram a lot of learning into a short summer camp, but he certainly has the physical tools to do it.



Imagine using Sharif
Finch and Michael
Dogbe—forced to play
out of position
last year as a
tackle—at the ends,
using the gap
leverage skills
of two-time
Pennsylvania state
heavyweight wrestling
champion Averee
Robinson as nose
guard and flanking
Arob with Greg Webb
and Dioubate at tackle

They say great coaches are the guys who build a scheme around their talent and Phil Snow is a smart enough guy to know that he’s got the physical talent to run a 5-2 scheme as opposed to last year’s 4-3.

Imagine using Sharif Finch and Michael Dogbe—forced to play out of position last year as a tackle—at the ends, using the gap leverage skills of two-time Pennsylvania state heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson as nose guard and flanking Arob with Greg Webb and Dioubate at tackle. That’s a defensive line that is not only going to stop the run, but make quite a few visits to the quarterback, and make plays in the flat, ala Finch against Penn State last year. That’s not even mentioning other potential DL starters like Haason Reddick, Freddie Booth-Lloyd, Josiah Bronson and Jacob Martin (who was one of the 39,000 Temple students who had a sack against Christian Hackenberg last year).

With that accomplished, the Owls could return two starters at linebacker, Avery Williams and Stephaun Marshall, and have another LB starter, Jared Alwan, to rotate in for plays. Williams and Marshall are so tough they earned single-digit numbers and probably will do so again.  I like having two proven single-digit guys playing both linebacker positions in a 5-2.

The safeties could be a couple of guys, Delvon Randall and Nate L. Smith, who saw plenty of playing time a year ago and the corners will be Sean Chandler—the only player in the nation to return two pick 6’’s last year—and Kareem Ali Jr. (Or Artrel Foster or Nate Hairston.)

With that line making things relatively easy for the six guys behind them, it is not a huge stretch to conclude that this could be a record-setting defense next season. Every year, there are true freshmen who step onto the field and make big-time plays all over the place. Those true freshmen usually are in the SEC.

Now, with Dioubate, Temple finally has one and it opens up an extravagant, ambitious world with a rich future and a whole lot of post-game tailgates where the beer will taste like champagne.

Love to see the PSU analysts drool over a Temple recruit and the arrogance they had at the time that none of their players would decommit.

02.04.16
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5 Under-The-Radar Guys

Matt Rhule talks about big things ahead for Temple football.

The day started at 8 a.m. with a live two-and-a-half hour show from the Edberg-Olson facility and ended with a flat tire outside of Buffalo Wild Wings in Northeast Philadelphia. As Ice Cube says when he doesn’t have to use his AK, today was a good day. Karamo Dioubate got the flat tire and that had to deflate the crowd of over 200 who came to see him. Once the tire was inflated, Dioubate—a four-star defensive lineman from Prep Charter—pumped up the crowd by announcing he would come to Temple. Just a great recruiting day for Matt Rhule and Temple.

reading

Rivals’ updated recruiting rankings as of 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

Dioubate had offers, not just interest, from Penn State, South Carolina, Rutgers and Temple. Watching his film, it is pretty apparent that he can skip the redshirt year and go right into making plays all over the field. Dioubate, you know about. These five guys, you might not.

  1. Sam Franklin, DB, 6-3, 200

We haa a Benjamin and a Franklin now, both Sams. Franklin is coming and Benjamin is going as No. 10, Sam Benjamin, announced his was transferring to Rhode Island. Franklin is arriving from Inverness, Fla. He played at Citrus High and probably will play DB for the Owls.

radar

  1. Shaun Bradley, LB, 6-2, 220

Bradley, unlike the other “Shawn” Bradley who made it to Philadelphia, is not 7-foot-7. Unlike that Bradley, he is very coordinated. Bradley is a mid-year enrollee who played running back and defensive back at Rancocas Valley (N.J.) High. He brings big-time speed to the LB position, as evidenced by his RB numbers his senior year at RV: 1,467 yards and 22 touchdowns.

  1. Quincy Roche, DL, 6-4, 210

Played defensive line and tight end at New Town High in Owings Mills, Md. He broke the school record in sacks with 19 and was part of the state championship team in basketball. He has the kind of size, speed and athleticism to get to the quarterback and projects as a 2017 starter.  Will have to put on some weight to play the line, so could be a redshirt candidate.

  1. Chris Tucker, DE, 6-3, 245, Jackson

Played fullback and defensive end for head coach Blake Butler at Trinity Christian Academy in Jackson, Tenn. and, as a senior, racked up 79 total tackles, 52 solo, with 16 tackles for loss. Looking at his film, he seems to instinctively come off blocks which might account for the 16 tackles in the enemy’s backfield.

  1. Steve Petrick, TE, 6-5, 230, Norwin High

Anyone who looks at a photo of Steve and former Temple tight end Steve Manieri will do a double-take. They look like the same person. On the field, they look very much like the same player. Manieri came to Temple at 6-5, but he had to spend years in the weight room to bulk up to 230. Petrick is already there. Manieri made it to the NFL. With the same kind of work ethic, this Steve can, too.

Tomorrow: The WRs Lost and Found

0204161320-00

02.02.16
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Groundhog Day And Temple Stadium

ambit

Theobald might want to call Ambit Architecture and have something that looks like these two photos from the outside with a view of the city from one end  from the inside (small photo below)

theo

About 24 hours ago, Temple president Neil D. Theobald and athletic director Pat Kraft showed up at the Student Activities Center to talk about a stadium. They did not wear top hats or pull a rodent out of the cafeteria to tell if there would be six more years of stadium talk, but it certainly seemed that way.

owlet

Something like this with smaller decks built deep into the ground (entrance at the top of the first deck) and the seats on top of the field and some view of the city would be perfect.

In March of 2012, a member of Temple Board of Trustees told a long-time athletics supporter that a stadium was a “done deal.” That was at a basketball win over North Carolina State in the NCAA Tournament, but that was three years ago and nothing was done in this deal.

Mark that down as three wasted years.

accounts

Now, three years later, Theobald and Kraft marked the first time any Temple officials appeared before one or two reporters to talk about it and the guess here is that by next Groundhog Day, they will still be talking and not a single shovel will break the ground. Who knows how many years after that will we eventually see a stadium at Broad and Norris. My guess is well into the next decade, if at all.

 

Temple has several significant hurdles to jump over, the first being “the community”, the second the city and the third the unions.

What we will hear is a lot of what we heard yesterday—a lot of loud shouting and not much in the way of intelligent discourse.  By all accounts, there were about 200 students there and 180 wanted to hear what Theo and Kraft had to say. Because 20 or so did not, every answer was shouted down. That seems to be the way discussions go nowadays. The people who do not want something do not want to hear answers to questions, only to hear themselves.

misonceptions

That’s unfortunate because it doesn’t help their cause, however just it might be, going forward.

Temple will hire an architectural firm at Monday’s special BOT meeting (3:30 p.m., Sullivan Hall, Feinstein Lounge) and here are just a couple of words of advice, borrowed from someone we know but will just call him “Matt.” If you are going to build a stadium, do it the right way. That means any architectural firm will have to draw a stadium that includes seatbacks (no bleachers), 3D video screens, seats right on top of the action (not sloped back), and a mostly closed bowl to maximize the noise and make it a real home field advantage for the Owls.

If the architectural firm does not deliver those things for $100 million, either increase the budget or sign a 20-year renewal at the Linc. There are no other options.

Tomorrow: The 5 Best Things About This Signing Class

01.08.16
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Lurie Doesn’t Have to Look Far For Best Guy

chipmatt

“This is a pretty sweet gig, Matt, you should think about it.”

 

If Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, is to be believed, then he really does not have to look far to find the next coach of his team. Lurie can grab a pair of binoculars, walk outside of his office at Lincoln Financial Field, and look four miles up North Broad Street. If he can see past City Hall, his guy is just north of there.

That’s where he will find Matt Rhule, the current head coach of the Temple Owls, who seems to fit all of the criteria Lurie outlined when he described his vision for the next Eagles’ coach. If Lurie was carrying a notepad around, Rhule certainly would earn a lot of checkmarks.

Smart, strategic, thinker? Check. Communicator who understands Philadelphia fan base? Check. Attention to detail and NFL experience? Check. Personal style of leadership that relates to players? Check.

No one knows if the NFL is in Rhule’s future, but he gave a clue in a four-hour appearance on 97.5 Thursday. A caller asked him if he’d rather have the Alabama job or the New York Giants’ job and he didn’t flinch. “Giants,” he said. “Temple is the only college job I want.”

Matt's communications skills passed the ultimate test with Sam Ponder.

Matt’s communications skills passed the ultimate test with Sam Ponder.

With all the clowns Lurie is bringing in for an interview–including a Chicago Bears’ assistant who is four years younger–he’d be crazy for not picking up  the phone and making a local call before the Giants do.

Lurie said he wanted a smart, strategic, thinker, who looks out for the long-term interests of the organization, and Rhule certainly has proven to be that in taking the Owls from 2-10 to 10-4 in three years. He did it by recruiting two- and three-star athletes, giving most of them a red-shirt year to get stronger and faster and he sacrificed short-term gain for long-term goals.  There are no redshirts in the NFL, but the thought process should be appreciated.

Lurie also said he wanted a communicator and anyone who saw Rhule talking to Sam Ponder on ESPN College Football’s Game Day knows Rhule certainly is that. He wanted someone who knows what it is like to coach the Eagles, and understands the fan base of Philadelphia, and Rhule gets a checkmark for that as well. If you can concentrate enough to give a coherent answer while looking at Samantha, you are a great communicator.

Lurie mentioned attention to detail and, as an assistant to Tom Coughlin in 2012 with the New York Giants, Rhule said that was his biggest takeaway, an attention to detail. Lastly, Lurie wants a personal style of leadership that relates to players and is not aloof.

With those comments, Lurie made clear he was looking for the anti-Chip Kelly—in other words, Matt Rhule.

01.05.16
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The Case for Mike Locksley

recruiter

Ten years of exemplary service at Maryland makes Mike a good fit here.

The  least popular individual on a football team when an offense is misfiring is usually the coordinator, so that’s why there were few tears shed on Sunday afternoon by Temple football fans when the news broke that Marcus Satterfield was leaving to take the head coaching job at Tennessee Tech.

After a 7-0 start, the Owls stumbled to a 3-4 finish and the fingers pointed directly to Satterfield, whose offense produced 17 and 13 points in the last two losses. Temple looked incapable of running a hurry-up offense in the AACchampionship loss to Houston, and Satterfield’s call of throwing into the end zone on third-and-3 with Temple down 24-13 and driving at the Cougar 38-yard-line with 7:18 left was widely second-guessed. That’s because the Cougars were giving Owls wide receiver Robby Anderson a 10-yard cushion at the line of scrimmage and a simple pitch and catch could have moved the sticks.

Satterfield bore the brunt of the blame but likely would have survived, because head coach Matt Rhule is widely considered “too nice a guy” to fire assistants. The process that Rhule likes to talk about broke down on one side of the ball late in the season and needs to be fixed.

Fortunately for Rhule, convergence of both time and circumstance has made a more qualified replacement available. Just last week new Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin said offensive coordinator and interim head coach Mike Locksley will not be retained. Unlike head coaching contracts, contracts for college assistants usually are not guaranteed meaning Locksley needs a job. Rhule so happens to have one available, and he should grab Locksley before someone else does. Locksley is a big believer in the play-action passing game Temple likes to run and has put up numbers using a similar system in the past. Locksley was OC for a Maryland team that averaged 28.5 points per game in its inaugural Big 10 season (2014), the most points the school was able to produce since 2010 (32.5). Locksley is also a top recruiter, at three schools — Maryland, Illinois and Florida. While at Florida, he engineered two top 10 recruiting classes in each of his two seasons as recruiting coordinator.

Locksley has plenty of recruiting contacts in an area where Temple usually recruits heavily called the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The Owls could give Locksley the keys to both the offense and the DMV recruiting area and trust the process once again.

Tomorrow: A Recruiting Overview

11.27.15
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Nick Sharga is Temple’s Unsung Hero

thenickster

Nick Sharga has been the kickout block for Jahad Thomas all season.

Somewhere along the line on Saturday night, if head coach Matt Rhule keeps a promise, Nick Sharga will carry the football for Temple’s 25th-ranked football team and it will be an appropriate reward for the team’s most unsung hero.

Sharga, a 6-2, 235-pound redshirt sophomore, is just the kind of player teams need more of and just the kind of player Rhule has built a respected program upon. Three weeks ago, Rhule said the team is going to give him the ball at some point and, with one more regular-season game left, that time will probably be on Saturday night (7 p.m.) against visiting Connecticut.

Nick Sharga, Temple,

A handoff to the fullback would be a fitting reward for Sharga, who has led the way through the hole for tailback Jahad Thomas all season. The only thing that has stood in the way of Sharga being a two-way starter an All-American linebacker named Tyler Matakevich, but there can be no doubt that Sharga already has played a huge role in the team’s 9-2 record. When Matakevich takes his considerable talents to the NFL next year, Sharga will slide over into his “Mike” linebacker position and the Owls probably will not suffer a significant drop off.

While no one plays 60 minutes anymore, Sharga is a throwback in that he starts on offense at the fullback position and is a backup linebacker on defense.  In a 31-12 win over then No. 23 Memphis last week, Sharga played 20 plays on offense, 15 plays on defense and five on special teams and that’s just not done in big-time college football anymore.

damp

I hope that damp means dew not rain.

Matakevich is one of the three finalists for the Chuck Bednarik Award, given to the nation’s top defensive player. Bednarik, like Matakevich, played his home college football games in Philadelphia but, unlike Matakevich, was the last of the 60-minute men. Sharga  isn’t a 60-minute guy, but he’s getting there.

Sharga injured his ACL his senior year of high school, ended up at Division II West Virginia Wesleyan, put some outstanding film together and decided to walk-on at Temple last year. In spring ball this season, he made plays all over the field and his teammates voted him a single-digit number (4) awarded to the nine toughest players on the Temple team.

If he gets the ball on Saturday and runs far with it, no one will be surprised because of how far he’s run to get to this point.

11.20.15
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The Audacity of Hope

briefcase

The greatest briefcase in the history of sports.

Someday, soon I hope, Al Shrier is going to finally spill the beans of what is in that iconic briefcase of his. It’s the biggest secret in Temple sports history.

I saw it many times in the 1970s, but those who came before me said the greatest Sports Information Director any school has ever had possessed that same item in the 1950s. He still has it now and still carries it around.

What reminded me of Shrier’s briefcase were the powers of organization in developing a plan. Mr. Shrier as I called him during my years at Temple, some as sports editor of The Temple News (which he also was about 25 years before me), was impeccably organized. I hope Temple head football coach Matt Rhule has a plan beyond what I have heard so far or saw the last couple of weeks to fix his defense. If he keeps it in a briefcase and carries it around, that’s fine, too.

trophy

AAC title trophy will be in the parking lot on Saturday. A little tweaking in the defensive game plan could make sure it arrives at the E-O on 12/6.

So far, all I’ve heard is the Audacity of Hope.

Hope, that by saying a few words to the seniors that will make it all better. First my eyes hurt watching the Owls try to rush three against Quinton Flowers, then my ears hurt shortly after I heard the “game plan” was to assemble the seniors at one end of the field and tell them that you have confidence in them providing enough leadership for a win on Saturday. I would hope our game plan is more sophisticated than that. Maybe I won’t be able to talk after Saturday, completing the ailment Trifecta.

Football’s a simple game. Rush the passer, protect yours, establish the run, throw off play action, limit mistakes. Seems to me the best way to do that is play to your strengths. Temple has five outstanding starting players on the defensive line and plenty of solid depth there. Keep them all in the game for the same time (5-2, instead of 4-3 or 3-8) to rush the passer and help stop the run. That way, you do not have to blitz but you have that option because you have one of the best blitzing linebackers in Temple history. I hope to see a Temple team flying around Paxton Lynch all day like Killer Bees and never again to see a three-man pass rush. The former is the best way to force fumbles and interceptions; the latter is the best way to get picked apart by a first-round NFL draft pick.

If Temple utilizes its personnel better than Memphis, it will do a lot more to advance the cause of winning than getting a group of wonderful seniors together and saying, “C’mon guys.”

We all know these kids have the will to win, but there has got to be a how-to as well. Maybe coach Rhule has it stashed away in Al’s briefcase. That’s OK, as long as he uses it.

uconn