by Mike Gibson

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.

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

by Mike Gibson

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