Tag Archives: Miami football

01.14.24
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Some stat numbers for winners

Temple probably could get Reese Poffenbarger to flip from Miami to Temple without a NIL deal with Puffs.

Statistics are for losers, the old saying goes, but that depends upon your perspective.

The only numbers that really matter are wins and losses but often the numbers behind that bottom line have to be impressive.

Stan Drayton might not know who Reese Poffenbarger is but Reese Poffenbarger now knows who Stan Drayton is.

Temple has a situation right now that is best illustrated by numbers.

Quarterback A’s best college football season: 79 completions in 137 attempts for 777 yards, four touchdowns and six interceptions.

Quarterback B’s best college football season: 36 touchdowns, 14 interceptions, 3,614 yards out of 296 completions in 471 attempts.

Guess which one Temple has?

Quarterback A, Evan Simon, last year’s backup quarterback at Rutgers who put up his “best” year in 2022. The one where he had more interceptions than touchdown passes.

Until Saturday, Temple had no shot of getting Quarterback B but now at least has a realistic chance.

The question is does Temple even know it?

If the Owls do, we should know the answer in a few days.

If not, we might never know.

Reese Poffenbarger, the former Albany quarterback who put up those impressive stats, is Quarterback B.

Bernie Madoff, the King of Ponzi Schemes, had a rule for his subscribers: You are not allowed to ask questions. Just sit back and give him as much cash as you can gather, make a little money at the outset, and watch everything crash at the end.

If, in fact, Temple head coach Stan Drayton never even tries to go after Poffenbarger, the question that needs to be asked is why. Judging from the outlets who cover Temple football, that question will never be asked.

Malachi Nelson went from USC to Boise State last week. Tate Rodemaker went from Florida State to Southern Mississippi.

Poffenbarger, who suffered the indignity of being recruited over a day after he committed to Miami, now has options.

One of them should be Temple. Going from Albany to Temple–you can’t say Miami to Temple because Poffenbarger never enrolled in Coral Cables– would be a significant upgrade for Reese and something that would benefit both parties. Like Rodemaker and Nelson, Poffenbarger to Temple would be a wise decision because he can slot in as a starter without the threat of Drayton recruiting over him.

Add the numbers of both Quarterback A and B to the Temple quarterback room and there is a good chance the numbers that really matter (wins over losses) will add up for Poffenbarger, Drayton and Temple.

Friday: The Eagles and Temple

Monday: Learning from an AAC foe

09.18.23
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Miami and Temple go way back

For a couple of schools who are separated by over 1,000 miles of prime East Coast real estate, Temple and Miami football have a lot in common.

The Owls and the Hurricanes go way back when Temple was the powerhouse team and Miami was a team lucky to get on the Owls’ schedule back in 1930. The Miami players were so grateful for the game that they brought the Owls coconuts as gifts.

In return, the Owls beat the Coconuts out of Miami, 34-0. That year the Owls finished 7-3 and somehow squeezed in a crowd of 16,000 to see that game at Atlantic City’s Convention Hall.

The Owls haven’t beaten Miami in the 13 subsequent meetings but will take another swing on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN2) at Lincoln Financial Field.

If the Canes bring turnovers this time instead of coconuts, the Owls might have a chance. Miami comes into the game ranked No. 20 and the Owls are unranked but unranked teams have beaten ranked teams before and Group of Five teams have beaten Miami before. The Hurricanes lost to Florida International and Middle Tennessee in recent years and that fact has to give the Owls some hope.

Other things Miami and Temple have in common:

Vinny Testaverde and Paul Palmer with Brian Bosworth. All were wearing Cherry and White.

In 1986, the Hurricanes had the Heisman Trophy winner (Vinny Testaverde). The second-place finisher that year? Temple’s Paul Palmer.

Both teams tried to build on-campus stadiums. The Hurricanes’ proposed 8,000-seat stadium in 1926 was blown down by a literal Hurricane and plans to build it were scrapped. Temple held a meeting with the community to explain its Board of Trustees approved plan to build a 35,000-seat on campus stadium on March 18, 2018 and that was blown down by carbon dioxide emitted from the breaths of protestors at Mitten Hall. Plans to build that stadium apparently have been scrapped as well.

Both teams were originally members of the Big East Football Conference.

Temple’s field goal specialist, Camden Price, used to be Miami’s starting kicker.

Temple defensive lineman, Allan Haye, was once a defensive lineman for Miami.

Miami hired two Temple coaches, Al Golden in 2010 and Manny Diaz in 2018. Temple erected a billboard on Interstate 76 to welcome Diaz as its new head coach. Eighteen days later, Diaz reneged on his Temple contract to take the same job at Miami.

Temple almost hired current Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, who was considered the front-runner for the job in 2012 until he called then athletic director Bill Bradshaw from the Philadelphia International Airport asking “directions to Temple” for his interview. That call caused Bradshaw to pause and take the advice of then assistant AD Al Shrier who said, “Bill, listen to me. Hire Matt Rhule.”

Bradshaw listened and told Cristobal to get back on the plane. Rhule didn’t need directions to Temple and produced consecutive 10-win seasons for the Owls, including Temple hosting ESPN’s College Game Day on Halloween of 2015.

If the Owls beat Miami on Saturday, it will be the most significant thing they’ve done since that day.

If the Canes bring the turnovers, the Owls should return the coconuts. It’s the least they can do.

Friday: Defying All Logic

05.15.23
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Miami fans respond to Temple Football Forever

A couple of days ago, the Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey ended his press conference with the statement: “Game Seven is going to be a war and, if I had to go to war, these are the guys I want to go to war with.”

Yeah, it was a war only if the one you were thinking about was Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Like the Sixers on Sunday, that war lasted about 39 minutes.

Miami vs. Temple football might be a war and it might not. Let’s hope it’s more like Japan vs. the U.S. for four quarters, err, years, in the 1940s. I’ll sign for Temple being the one to drop the Atom Bomb. Now just so Miami fans don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying Temple WILL be the one to drop the bomb. Hell, Miami could blow the Owls out but it would be a nuclear-type “jawn” for Temple to beat Miami so let’s hope Stan Drayton is working on his own Manhattan Project.

Unlike that war with Japan, no sneak attack is necessary.

Already a little border dispute has flared up with one Miami Youtuber firing back at Temple Football Forever.

The ORIGINAL headline was misleading in that he said TFF claimed Miami should “fear” Temple. If you can find a single sentence or even phrase proving we wrote Miami should “fear” Temple, then you win 100 bucks. (Credit to Coop for changing that headline yesterday to “called out” instead of feared.)

Nowhere did we ever say that but reading comprehension evidently isn’t a strongsuit for Miami fans.

For a game between a Group of Five team and a Power 5 team, though, there are enough storylines for two weeks of pre-game stories.

Not only did Miami hire (and fire) two ex-Temple coaches, Temple passed on the current Miami coach, Mario Cristobal, who finished second in a two-man race to current Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule for the Temple head coaching job in 2012.

At that time, Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw was said to be leaning to hire Cristobal but had an Ephinay when Cristobal called Bradshaw from Philadelphia International Airport asking for directions to Temple.

At the press conference introducing Rhule as the Temple head coach, Bradshaw said one of the candidates called for directions to Temple from the airport. He didn’t say who during the actual Rhule press conference but when pressed by a couple of writers afterward he said it was Cristobal asking for directions to Temple from the airport. “I figured if the guy didn’t care enough to research this for himself, he wasn’t our guy. Matt was the guy who wanted the job the most.”

Rhule was the guy who got Temple consecutive 10-win seasons, a blowout win over Penn State and a college football game day in Philadelphia so Bradshaw made the right call.

As far as Miami “outclassing” Temple, the same thing could have been thought by teams from Vanderbilt in 2014 (a 37-7 Temple win) or Penn State the next year (a 27-10 Temple win) or Maryland in back-to-back years (Temple by 35-14 and 20-17) or Georgia Tech in 2019 (a 24-2 Temple win) or even Maryland in 2011 at Maryland (a 38-7 win for Temple).

Who did Georgia Tech beat the same year it lost to Temple, 24-2?

None other than the Miami Hurricanes, 28-21.

The same year Temple beat Maryland 38-7 who did Maryland beat 32-24 two weeks prior?

Also the Miami Hurricanes.

I’m sure the vloggers for all of those schools–if they had any back then–put those games in the win category for Vandy, PSU and Maryland. Never count your chickens before they are hatched or your wars before they are won.

If Temple-Miami is more of a war than a skirmish, Stan Drayton would have proven to be an even better choice than Rhule was.

Conversely, leaving Cristobal at the Philadelphia airport could even look better now than it did back then.

Friday: Temple in the press

Monday: The G5 Magna Carta

Friday: Temple Cleanup Day

07.17.20
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So far, only the shouting is over

 

That saying “it’s all over but the shouting” takes on a new meaning this fall.

Football might not be over, but the shouting could be.

Yesterday, the office of Gov. Tom Wolf said many college and professional teams have submitted plans to ask for a waiver to allow fans to attend.

Got to think that Temple, Pitt, and Penn State (along with the Eagles and Steelers) were among those teams.

templefans

Before social distancing …

Right now, I think there will be a season but it could be anything from “made for TV only” to a fan limit that would ensure social distancing.

Anecdotally, I’ve been going to supermarkets and other places enforcing social distancing and wearing masks. If it can work since March for those places, similar protocols should be able to enforce at Temple games.

Eagles?

Not so much. I guess it could work if they could figure out a way to limit the attendance to 20K, but I don’t know how they can do it without disaffecting a lot of loyal season ticket-holders.

Now back to the shouting part.

It’s going to be hard to cheer for the Owls through those darn masks so improvising and adjusting could be the order of the day. Disposable gloves and pounding on the seats could provide some sort of home-field advantage.

Looks like the opener at Miami won’t get played because those cheaters (stealing Manny Diaz and Quincy Roche, for starters) have been hit hard by back luck (see above video). Don’t wish that on them, but was never keen on the Owls having to face Roche again and really disappointed that he chose to play for a 2020 opponent of the Owls so I will shed no tear if that game is canceled.

I will if the other games are canceled, particularly if protocols that satisfy the science can be followed.

If you can go to a store wearing a mask, gloves and stand on those markers six feet apart, there should be a way to do the same for 20K fans in a 70K stadium.

I have my doubts but college football and pro football are buying time to figure this thing out. Even if it’s just on TV, I will take it. If that means the shouting is over, too, that’s a price we will have to pay for a season.

Monday: A Revamped AAC Schedule

 

04.11.20
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Real Temple football (Kinda sorta)

 

In the movie Westerns, the good guys always won.

The robbers would come into town on their horses, rob the banks, get away and then the sheriffs would hunt them down and either shoot them or send them to trial for a hanging. In those days, the trials would last a couple of weeks and there were be no appeals.

Nowadays, in college football, the bad guys almost always win.

billboard

These days the robber barrons are the larger schools who get the best recruits, steal the small town coaches and now–with the transfer portal–steal the small town best players for the big schools down the road.


Still, the portal facts
are that Miami got
Houston’s best player
in the 2018 season and
Miami got Temple’s best
player from the 2019
season and Temple got
nobody’s best player
from any season.
It’s got to have an
impact in a real game,
not just a video one, right?

We don’t know if we’re going to see things play out that way this season but, on Friday night, we got a preview in the way of a “simulated game” between Temple and Miami on a Miami fan website called “Coach Copp.”

The good guys lost, 64-17.

Now let’s just say this is a video game and video games in the past have been proven to be wrong. This was CPU vs. CPU with 2020 rosters for each team but, from the Temple standpoint, there were a couple of red flags. One, “Mike Mitchell” (a scout team player) was the Temple leading rusher despite the fact that Ray Davis played. Two, Jadan Blue–in my mind a potential first-team All-American wide receiver–had only one catch for seven yards. Anthony Russo was pulled for Toddy Centeio but the computer forgot Toddy was at Colorado State, not Temple. Temple even had a fullback in the game on goal line offense with 29 seconds left in the first quarter and we know that’s not going to happen under Rod Carey.

So there.

Beyond that, without any real sports to watch, it was at least something and Miami fans were all happy. Let’s hope the Temple players watch this and use it as bulletin board material and reaffirm themselves to proving that video wrong. Still, the portal facts are that Miami got Houston’s best player in the 2018 season and Miami got Temple’s best player from the 2019 season and Temple got nobody’s best player from any season. It’s got to have an impact in a real game, not just a video one, right?

Maybe not.

Friday night’s simulation small reminder that the good guys don’t always win and, in college football, the good guys are falling behind the bad ones each and every passing day.

Hopefully, the Temple players are determined to watch this video simulation every day before lifting and running and it will light a fire under them to prove games are decided on the field and not by computers.

Monday: The Pandemic Fallacy

Friday: The Case for Grooming

Monday (4/20): Smoking Out the Winner