You could muster a lot more optimism around here if Ricky Slade, Scott Patchan and Michael Maietti were joining the family for spring practice in a few weeks.

Assuming Rod Carey is done recruiting, at least three players–perhaps more–who could tangibly help Temple football have gone elsewhere or will go elsewhere.

Michael Maietti, a center from Don Bosco who started 33 games in the Big 10 and was good enough on an awful Rutgers’ team to be named to the Rimington Watch list (best center in the country), signed with Long Island University.
 
Long Island University. I’m only aware they have a football team because they played Villanova last season.

Now the Owls will probably have to move guard Vince Picozzi to a position where he never played before coming off a surgery that will force him to miss the entire spring. Maybe Leon Pinto or Wisdom Quarshie. Nice players, but do they have the credentials and the experience of a Maietti?

Err, no.

You can want to be here all you want but it’s the coaching staff’s job to upgrade the talent that is here.

Maietti was so excited about a rare (only) RU touchdown against Maryland, he inadvertently punched his quarterback in the face last season. Maybe Carey didn’t want to sign him because he was Maietti would knock out Anthony Russo.

Josh Pederson would have represented a huge upgrade at TE from Kenny Yeboah and add a large family to the Temple fan base

The thought here is that with the uncertainty at the center position facing Temple this season, Maietti would have been a better replacement than anyone on the current roster, but that’s on Carey.

So, too, are the failures to address depth at the running back position. As of this writing, Ricky Slade–formerly the No. 1 running back recruit prospect in the nation–is still stuck in the portal after telling Penn State coaches he was entering it in late January.

Scott Patchan, a defensive end from Miami with multiple starts in the ACC and would have filled an area of need for Temple, is still in limbo. Do you think this guy would be motivated to outperform Quincy Roche at Hard Rock Stadium on Sept 5?

Josh Pederson, a tight end from Louisiana Monroe, entered the transfer portal and would have been a nice replacement for Kenny Yeboah in that he had more catches, more yards and more touchdowns than Yeboah last year but, after getting no interest, decided to remain at ULM. Do you think he would have liked to play a year in his dad’s stadium in front of family and friends?

A quick check of their twitter feeds late Sunday afternoon indicates that both Patchan and Slade still haven’t signed elsewhere.

Who knows if Carey even reached out to these guys, but he would have been derelict in his duty if he did not. Nobody can really believe a Big 10 player would have signed at LIU if Temple was an option, especially considering that Big 10 player saw what Temple did for former Don Bosco teammate Matt Hennessy, who will be entering the NFL draft.

If Carey did not reach out to Maietti and will can now assume he did not, he probably didn’t reach out to Slade or Patchan. Manny Emmanuel, a DE who did sign with Temple, was much less productive at Wake Forest than Patchan was at The U.

Would Al Golden, a Penn State grad and former Miami head coach who probably knows of Slade and Patchan and who can walk into Don Bosco and everyone knows who he is, have done his homework on these guys? Probably.

Would a Midwestern-based staff without those kinds of New Jersey and Pennsylvania recruiting connections be so inclined? Probably not.

Temple doesn’t need wide receivers or quarterbacks or defensive backs, but it certainly needs centers, tight ends, defensive ends, and running backs. The fact that this coaching staff addressed non-issues and ignored real issues should be setting off all kinds of alarms.

Friday: Spring Practice

Monday (2/24): How Others View Temple