Tag Archives: Matt Rhule

03.17.15
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Football Must Now Help Basketball

This kind of student turnout is mandatory if the Owls ever want to be treated fairly.

This kind of student turnout is mandatory if the Owls ever want to be treated fairly.

The entire Temple campus is still stinging from the latest proof that college basketball is now as corrupt as college football.

The old terms used to be RPI, strength of schedule, injuries, how teams play down the stretch. Now the only thing that’s meaningful is the vague “eye test” which means, if you are not a Power 5 team, we cannot see you.

I created an open group in the Fox Sports bracket called "Temple Got Screwed." Anyone is invited to join.

I created an open group in the Fox Sports bracket called “Temple Got Screwed.” Anyone is invited to join.

The best way for Temple to become a Power 5 team is to win in football. No longer will 6-6 be acceptable. No longer will losses to Penn State be acceptable. A win over Notre Dame would hasten the call, as will filling the stadium for the other games. None of this is easy, but nothing worthwhile is.

By all NCAA criteria, Temple’s resume was superior to that of both UCLA and Indiana in every respect except the one that should not have mattered at all: Its athletic program was not a member of the Power 5, which has taken over the NCAA and remade it into its own playpen.

The NCAA’s No. 1 criteria is RPI, and Temple’s RPI of 34 was better than the RPI of Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, Iowa, UCLA and Oklahoma State, along with six other teams in the tournament. Another factor the NCAA says weighs heavily is how the team plays down the stretch, and Temple won 10 of its final 12 games, a superior run to most of the schools in the 68-team field, let alone the Power 5 schools.

Temple has a 25-point win over a No. 2 seed, Kansas, and none of the other bubble teams had a win like that on their resume. Only Kentucky has beaten Kansas by a bigger margin.

UCLA getting in over Temple was particularly galling. Temple’s record was 23-10, while UCLA’s was 20-13. Temple’s RPI was 34, while UCLA’s was 47; Temple’s record against the RPI top 100 was 8-8, while UCLA’s was 5-10. Temple’s best win against the RPI top 100 was Kansas (No. 2), while UCLA’s was against Utah (No. 20). Temple’s conference record was 13-5, while UCLA’s conference record was 11-7.

Most bracketologists dismissed Steve Alford’s team from the field altogether, but UCLA comfortably made the field of 68 while also avoiding a First Four game in Dayton. Most of those same bracketologists had Temple comfortably in the field.

Those experts assumed that the selection committee would follow its own guidelines, but failed to consider the fact that the Power 5 gets what it wants. That’s the reason why Sunday was a sad day not only for fans of Temple, but for all fair-minded sports fans.

Hmm. No mention of a stadium.

Hmm. No mention of a stadium.

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.

01.09.15
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Matakevich Winning Butkus Award Would Be Big Boost for Temple Football

Football fans of Temple can give their fingernails a rest. From standout linebacker Tyler Matakevich‘s twitter feed in December, it looked  like he would return for his senior season with the Owls in 2015.

Now that the deadline for declaring is about to pass, it’s all but official.

That’s no small commitment because, according to most mock drafts, Matakevich would be one of the top 10 linebackers selected in the NFL Draft if he decided to come out. Now that Matakevich has decided to do something for the Owls, Temple must decide to do something for him in promoting him for the Bednarik Award that goes to the nation’s best defender and Butkus Award that goes to the nation’s best linebacker.

I think he has a decent chance of winning the Butkus Award and that would be a big feather in the cap of Temple football. He doesn’t need to do anything superhuman to win it, either. Just keep doing what he’s been doing and help the Owls win two or more additional games in 2015 than they did in 2014. With Notre Dame and Penn State on the schedule and both figure to be highly rated TV games, his name is fast-tracked to the head of the LB class.

Temple did the same in 1986 for running back Paul Palmer, when the school came up with a clever comic book idea that promoted him for the Heisman Trophy. He did not win it, coming as close as possible — losing to Miami’s Vinny Testaverde and ahead of such luminaries as Oklahoma’s Brian Bosworth and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.

Matakevich is driven by a desire to get Temple to a bowl and sitting and watching others play seems to fuel the flames for next season.

Matakevich is one of the few players to earn all-conference honors in two conferences, the now-defunct Big East and current successor AAC. He also currently is the NCAA’s leading active leaders in tackles among all five divisions (FBS, FCS, and Divisions I through III). For his entire time at Temple, he has given the Owls his best.

Promoting him heavily for the Bednarik and Butkus is the least the Owls can do for him now.

12.02.14
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The Road Less Traveled

Tommy Tuberville (left) coached is an outstanding head coach.

Tommy Tuberville (left) is an outstanding head coach and we’ll just leave it at that.

The only good news for Temple football this week is that AAC rivals Tulsa and SMU are about to hire assistant coaches. UConn did last year.

They might turn out to be great hires. They might turn out to be busts. That’s exactly the point. Since those guys have no history of making final decisions CEOs are supposed to make, like timeouts during the heat of battle, we do not know if they will turn out to be Vince Lombardi or Mike Gottfried.

We warned Matt Rhule what Tuberville would do when Temple went empty backfield. Apparently, he didn't get the memo.

We warned Matt Rhule what Tuberville would do when Temple went empty backfield. Apparently, he didn’t get the memo. Tuberville’s jailhouse blitz against an empty backfield resulted in a fumble that led to one of two Cincy touchdowns.

Cincinnati football was once where Temple football is now. In fact, it was much worse. Despite the loss on Saturday and four games prior to that, Temple STILL holds a 9-7-1 all-time lead in the series.

Now, though, Cincinnati it is in a much better place. A good exercise today would be examining just how the Bearcats got where they are now, from struggling to draw 10,000 a game in a pro football town to averaging over 30,000 and winning three of the last four titles in the history of the old Big East Conference and having enough of their own funds and fans to build their own state-of-the-art stadium.

Temple used to regularly kick Cincinnati's ass.

Temple used to regularly kick Cincinnati’s ass.

At some point, the athletic administration decided to take the guessing game out of the coaching hiring—forgive my use of this word– process. They decided to say “bleep it, we’re just going to hire the best head coach available.”

And it’s been a spectacularly successful strategy. From Brian Kelly to Butch Jones to Tommy Tuberville, all Cincinnati has done is hire guys who have won someplace else as a head coach before on a similar FBS level. It might result in a quicker turnover rate than an institution would want, but the tradeoff of wins and championships is more than worth it and kids, being as resilient as they are, have a knack of getting over the number of coaching changes if the result is more winning.

If Tommy Tuberville moves on, chances are Cincinnati will just go out and get the best FBS head coach available and, while the players might cry for five minutes, the school will be laughing all the way to the bank.

In the AAC today, it apparently is the road less traveled but the one with the promise of far fewer potholes ahead. It might be a lesson Temple has to learn in three years, if the program is still here by then.

bothered

11.21.14
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Denial: A Broken Water Main at 10th and Diamond

That old saying that “Denial is More than a River in Egypt” apparently extends all the way to 10th and Diamond and that’s at least 10 long blocks from nearly any body of water, unless you are counting broken water mains.

At least that’s my most disappointing takeaway from Matt Rhule’s post-game comments after the Penn State loss above in the latest edition of Matt Rhule Weekly, especially the remarks about P.J. Walker’s play.

Rhule said P.J. is going to have to stop throwing interceptions and that’s reasonable but I really have to ask if Rhule is seeing the same things on the interceptions I am and a lot of Temple fans are—a guy who has to duck out of a rush like Houdini out of a straitjacket just in time see every receiver covered. The poor kid is just trying to make a play on most of those interceptions because he’s getting no separation and plenty of pressure.

Putting this on P.J. is really a heavy dose of denial by Rhule, even though he also adds in the qualifier “it’s on us as coaches, too.”  Yet the coaches have done nothing to make things easier for the most talented quarterback who has come to North Philadelphia since Adam DiMichele.

Harvard checking in, hopefully head coach Tim Murphy who completed an unbeaten season on Saturday.

Harvard checking in, hopefully head coach Tim Murphy who completed an unbeaten season on Saturday.

If he thinks things are going to get better if P.J. “just stops throwing interceptions” then he’s only kidding himself. There is a much larger issue here.

This whole offense is a cluster-bleep disaster delivered to Philadelphia by FedEx direct from Chattanooga, the last stop of his current OC. A trifecta of no running game, no wide receiver separation and no quarterback protection.

These problems are not insurmountable and that’s where Rhule should step in and assert his authority. Establish the run with the left side of the offensive line, behind future NFL tackle Dion Dawkins and future NFL center Kyle Friend. Give P.J. a blocking fullback, both to help in the run and pass protection. (Yes, I know Kenny Harper is on crutches, but if he can’t go, Marc Tyson can do the job.) Make P.J. a little more comfortable by featuring old state championship high school teammate Jahad Thomas—in federal witness protection since 157 rushing yards against Tulsa–as the tailback behind those blocks and someone to dump a screen pass off to in times of trouble.

Stop with the empty backfields and the three wides, four if you split out the tight end like Marcus Satterfield has been doing since ECU. Bring Colin Thompson, who blocks like a really good offensive lineman, in for max protect and to flare out for easy peezy outlet passes. (If you don’t know what those are, see Chester Stewart to Evan Rodriguez, Maryland game, 2011.) Use plenty of play-action, sticking the ball into Jahad’s belly and pulling it out, to bring the linebackers and safeties up in run support and give the receivers a better chance to get open. ROLL P.J. OUT AWAY FROM THE RUSH, where he’s made some of his best throws this season.

Tommy Tuberville is a damn good coach. Here’s an easy prediction to make: Every time Temple goes into an empty backfield, Tuberville will send more rushers than Temple can block and the end result will not be pretty. So maybe the Owls should never show the empty backfield look. Tuberville has Temple film. He’s salivating at the prospect of sending his best linebacker, ironically named Nick Temple, through the A gap, for sacks and tipped balls. Every time Temple goes “dog stare” into an empty backfield, Tuberville knows what defense to call.

Yes, P.J. Walker has to stop throwing interceptions but Rhule—not Satterfield, since he’s the CEO—has to at least give him more help. There’s no Robbie Anderson anymore and Temple cannot be running the same Robbie Anderson offense, especially in these last two most important games of the season.

It hasn’t worked for 10 games and that should be more than enough of a sample to dictate real change.

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.