Tag Archives: ncaa-football

09.13.26
by

Plenty of good to like on Saturday

Pretty hard to get a White Out when there is this much Cherry in the stands.

After 24 hours of stewing over a game that should have been closer, a few things became clearer about Temple football from a 30,000-feet perspective.

Stop the count …

One, from a sheer physicality standpoint, the Owls on both sides of the football more than held their own with one of the most talented rosters in college football. What needs to be cleaned up is getting the Owls’ athletes in space to turn the scoreboard into an adding machine and that did not happen enough. The Toledo game (3 p.m. Saturday, CBS Sports Network) will determine if the Owls fix that issue.

Two, Penn State fans actually thought Lincoln Financial Field was going to look like this …

… when, in reality, it looked like the photo at the top of this post. Even Co-Pilot noticed:

For the most part, the 12,500 students who currently live on the Temple campus deserve a big thumbs up from this space because that’s the largest student involvement at a Temple game since Luke Butler led the Cherry Crusade in the Al Golden years. Strong student leadership led to scenes like this back then:

More of this, please, for the Army game and the rest of the season … this is when Luke Butler had the Cherry Crusade rocking.

If the students are going to show this kind of support for the rest of the season, the team should be in good shape because the players feed off that kind of energy. My only regret is that the Owls didn’t score more and we didn’t hear “T from Temple U” being sung from the stands enough because of it. A lot of Penn State fans were puffing their chests about their fan turnout but, for a team with seven-straight losing seasons, the Temple turnout was nothing to sneeze at. It’s easy to show up when your team has been in a bowl every year. It’s hard to show up when your team rarely sniffs a bowl. Memo to President John Fry: Close classes on the afternoon of the Army game so the kids can have some fun at LFF.

A lot of Penn State fans who thought the score was going to be 50-0 or worse left disappointed but their disappointment could wane if the Owls, say, won the American Conference title. More importantly, the disappointment of Temple fans. That means the Owls getting their athletes in space in one-on-one matchups. The best way to do create that space is to have a pass/run threat at quarterback who the defense has to account for and maybe even spy. After two weeks of watching these two quarterbacks, I have the nagging feeling that kind of dynamic runner and passer is maybe a year away from playing (Lamar Best). What we saw is the offense sputter after taking that lead into the second quarter. Interesting that in the 2015-win, Temple scored 27 straight points and in the 2026-win, Penn State scored 27 straight points. Both scores would have been 27-10 if the Owls just took the XP. Owls got great QB play from P.J. Walker that day, but neither of these two guys is P.J. Walker.

I hope I’m wrong and one of these two guys grab the job and show the kind of “it” factor in putting points on the board that Evan Simon had last year. There is not enough evidence of that yet.

That should be the goal and for the Owls to fight as hard as they did and refuse to be pushed around was the good that came from the loss.

That, and the students showing up. Good times ahead if that’s a trend and not an anomoly.

Friday: Toledo Preview

09.11.26
by

TU-PSU: Penn State is in trouble

“I wonder how many Temple fans will be in the stands?” Answer: A lot.

Since there are about eight million Penn State Youtubers and Temple has none, these are the thumbnails that have come across my recommended feed just in the last two days:

“Temple is in trouble.”

“The Penn State Pregame Show: Another blowout probable.”

“Huge Mismatch: Penn State-Temple 4 Things to Watch.”

Well, turnabout is fair play.

We’re going to be the only site on the internet this week with a specific headline: “Penn State is in Trouble.”

Not because we are picking our beloved Owls (we aren’t) but because the recent college football landscape is littered with road signs that could indicate Temple has a chance in Saturday’s high noon showdown at Lincoln Financial Field.

Red (or maybe Cherry) flags for Penn State fans.

Here are three:

Western Michigan at Michigan: The Broncos came into the Big House bigger underdogs than Temple is in its own house (28.5 to 24.5) and basically won that game with a similar roster to Temple. It can be argued that the Michigan roster is similar to Penn State. In fact, Athlon Sports ranks the Michigan roster as No. 11 in talent level to Penn State’s No. 20. The same rankings had Temple’s roster No. 76 and Western Michigan’s roster No. 79. The Linc is not The Big House nor even Beaver Stadium and, while there will be Penn State fans there, Temple fans will make some noise as they have made here:

That’s a lot of Cherry in the stands in the 2015 game. There will be a lot of Cherry tomorrow as well.

Can’t imagine the Big 10 refs putting another second on the clock in front of this Cherry-clad crowd if the Owls play as well as Western Michigan did.

“Penn State fans will be at the Linc but it ain’t Beaver Stadium,” Colby Dant said. “It ain’t the same vibe.”

“I like this Temple team,” he said. “It could be a good team.”

Oklahoma State at Tulsa: Oklahoma State, fueled by oil billionaires, purchased both the North Texas head coach pretty much the entire 11-1 North Texas team. They went into Tulsa and lost, 24-10. Who did Tulsa lose to at home last year? Temple.

UMass at Rutgers: Ostensibly, Rutgers is in the Big 10 and has won quite a few Big 10 games in recent years. It hasn’t beaten Penn State in this century, like Temple has, but it lost, 37-21 to a UMass team Temple beat within the last calendar year (42-10).

Penn State seems to think Temple is Marshall.

Temple is no Marshall. The Owls, unlike Marshall, have the winningest active head coach in the FBS in K.C. Keeler and, unlike Marshall, have a recent win over UTSA, which not only won a bowl game last year but destroyed Tulane, 48-26, in a year where Tulane made the CFB playoff and Penn State did not. Temple was the only team in the country, P4 or G5/6, to keep all of its starters. There is something to be said for loyalty over paid mercenaries and Western Michigan made that statement a week ago and Temple is about to deliver the same message now.

If Penn State goes into the Linc and thinks Temple is Marshall, the Nittany Lions are in trouble and judging from the way the PSU media is portraying the game, that should be the case. Players read all that garbage and, if they take it to heart, they will think they are in for a cakewalk. In the other building, the Temple players know the challenge and have read all the disrespect directed their way. Keeler said the Owls’ defensive line will be the “story of the conference” and maybe the first chapter of that story will be written on Saturday.

If somebody is in trouble, it might not be Temple. You read it here first.

And only.

Saturday: Game Analysis

09.05.26
by

An eye-opening opener against Rhode Island

Driving down Delaware Avenue, the all-news-all-the-time AM station gave its top Philadelphia stories on the hour.

“The top stories are Philadelphia reports four new West Nile Virus cases and the Temple Owls open their football season today.”

Odd juxtaposition of stories, but it was nice to see Temple football getting the same kind of billing as a health scare. Most times the local sports talk stations ignore the Owls, let alone the all-news station.

New season, new stories, so the task for the day was to judge whether the Owls would provide eye-popping results or eye-opening ones.

We’ll have to go with the latter in a workmanlike 38-14 win over visiting Rhode Island. Eye-popping would have been one of the quarterbacks throwing for six touchdowns, like the guy last year did in the opener. Eye-popping would have been for the defensive line to have a few sacks.

Neither happened.

Not great, not overly good, but just OK because, from the way K.C. Keeler talked over the last few months, he said that he has two quarterbacks who can win in this conference and maybe he’s correct but neither one knocked my socks off like Evan Simon did in the UMass game a year ago.

Don’t know if the Owls have one quarterback who can compete against this conference and certainly, on the results, did not see one who is capable of beating Penn State.

You would have hoped to see one of them take the job but neither did. John Madden’s old saying was “if you have two quarterbacks you have none” seemed to apply after the game because the Owls still have two quarterbacks.

The other concerning thing was the defensive line. Keeler said the line was so upgraded that it “could be the story of the year in this conference.”

Hell, it wasn’t even the story of the day because the Owls–although limiting Rhode Island to 97 yards on the ground–got no pressure on Rhode Island quarterback Tyler Budge, other than a single shoe-string sack by Kevin Hornbeak and one in the fourth quarter by Davier Bishop. Most of the time, URI rolled the pocket away from the rush and no doubt Penn State was taking notes.

The offensive line that helped the Owls put up 500+ yards of total offense against Navy last year could only muster 369 yards against a FCS team, albeit a very good one. On Jaxon Smolik’s touchdown pass, he was hit and this offensive line can’t let that happen after giving Simon a clean pocket for most of last year. He didn’t really have a clean pocket all day, nor did Ajani Sheppard.

Another head-scratcher was that tight end Peter Clarke was rewarded for his loyalty by being only targeted twice. Clarke was a matchup nightmare last year and why the Owls only threw two passes his way was baffling. Let’s hope they are saving him for Penn State.

That’s the hope. Doubtful because offensive coordinator Tyler Walker showed a nice wrinkle on the first play of the game, and if he’s saving Clarke for Penn State, he probably would have saved that play for the Nittany Lions, too.

Peter Clarke was MIA through no fault of his own. (Photo courtesy of Zamani Feelings)

To me, if Clarke is going to be a first-team All-American he needs a 10-touchdown, 1,000-yard season. The opening game did not help that cause.

The highlight of the day was sophomore running back Keveun Mason rushing for 158 yards on 20 carries and that’s impressive because he lost the job to starter Sam Brown, who will be ready for Penn State. We were looking forward to seeing Brown play and, if he’s better than Mason, he must be very good. Also, the secondary had two pick 6s in a single game and that hasn’t happened at Temple since Chuck Heater was the defensive coordinator in 2011.

What we do know is for the Owls to have any chance against the better opponents ahead, they have to get some sacks on defense and someone is going to have emerge as a clear starting quarterback by winning the job outright.

That, and staying away from mosquito bites.

Monday: Cherry on Top

Friday: Penn State Preview

Saturday: Penn State game analysis

05.03.26
by

A fluid situation: Temple’s home schedule

Up until a few days ago, the last weekend of September was already planned.

Tailgate on Saturday morning, a game on Saturday afternoon.

Then the schedule makers changed things up by moving the Saturday afternoon home game against Army to a Friday night game.

There are good and bad things about that Friday night (9/25) date.

First the good.

Temple gets a chance to open some eyes on national TV against a respected opponent.

Then the bad.

From Temple’s perspective, an extra practice day against Army is always a good thing especially considering that the Owls have to travel to Toledo on Sept. 19, which is exactly one week after the home Penn State game.

Not an ideal situation, so maybe head coach K.C. Keeler will set aside a practice day per week to install defensive principles against Army and Navy.

Whatever problems Temple had against Army were offensive-related, not defensive, in a 14-13 loss. You limit Army to 14 and you should be able to win the game. My feeling last year was Temple didn’t take advantage of its passing game and played into Army’s hands.

Maybe that approach changes this year. We’ll see.

Evan Simon threw for over 300 yards against Navy but didn’t get that same chance because Army capitalized on the time of possession. He uncharacteristically overthrew tight end Peter Clarke in the end zone and that would have given the Owls the win.

Also problematic in the Army game a year ago was a 45-yard field goal miss by Carl Hardin. You get so few scoring opportunities against Army, you have to cash it and Temple missed two big chances there.

The realization in this day and ago is that the schedule is so fluid fans will have to rearrange any plans they have given the time of games and day of games. That’s all due to TV controlling things.

It’s not ideal but it’s all part of the imperfect college football world we live in today.

Friday: A Second All-American

Monday: Legacy Pecking Order

03.19.26
by

Karma comes to Poteat, Kromah, and Badmas

K.C. Keeler trusted Sekou Kromah enough to take him to AAC Media Day with Evan Simon. Kromah stabbed Keeler in the back by entering the portal and now he is completely out of college football. Blame the white helmets. They are bad news both on and off the field. That’s the very definition of Karma.

Hard to believe three of Temple’s best defensive linemen in the 2025 season dipped their toes in the transfer portal.

One, Sultan Badmus, ended up in an objectively (not subjectively) worse place than Temple (Arkansas State).

The other two (Khalil Poteat and Kromah) are probably out of eligibility due to the courts clamping down on some previous lose eligibility requirements for JUCO players.

Hard to believe, Harry (Donahue) because the courts had been so inclined to give unlimited eligibility to a lot of players.

Had they remained at Temple, the fact that a staff led by the current winningest active Division I head coach (K.C. Keeler) going to bat for them might have convinced the court to grant their JUCO appeals and at least given Badmas a more high-profile landing spot than Arkansas State. Had Badmus landed at the real Arkansas (and not the State part) that would have been an upgrade from Temple.-

Even in a 5-7 rebuild, Temple would have probably beaten the 2025 version of Arkansas State (yeah, we know they made a bowl) but three touchdowns. They might beat the 2026 version by six touchdowns.

Pretty much oblivion for Badmus now when he could have gone out on a high note.

Sad, because a Badmus pressure in the UTSA game led to his tipped ball and a Temple interception deep in Owl territory of a 27-21 win. Sad, also because Poteat and Kromah generated the second-half pressures that made life miserable for UTSA quarterback Owen McCown.

Jadan Blue did all kinds of good things at Temple. He didn’t do anything at Virginia Tech.

Badmas was probably thinking Arkansas after he decided to go into the portal. Going from Temple to Arkansas State is a little like going from Syracuse to Buffalo.

Swing and a miss.

To drop down to a less prestigious G5 league than the American definitely was an impulsive move. He blew his chance to have a great game against Penn State at home before a split crowd of 70K fans and instead his NFL tape will rest on what he does at TCU, the same 70K fans all rooting for the bad (but not Badmus) guys. There is no way you can tell me Arkansas State is paying him more than Temple would have in the NIL. Say, for argument, that Temple was willing to pay $100,000 and Arky State $150,000. No way that should have been enough to move from the best G5 league to the third best.

So Karma is playing a part again for another player who left Temple.

We all know what happened to Jadan Blue. He went from being an NFL prospect at WR and the leading pass catcher in Temple history to transferring to Virginia Tech and catching only 10 passes the next season. He completely dropped off the NFL radar.

Karma again.

Stay at Temple, play for a great coach like Keeler, and put yourself on the NFL Draft radar.

Leave, seek riches elsewhere, and you could end up homeless.

It’s a cautionary tale for current Temple players and moreso for future ones.

Monday: The Replacements

03.12.26
by

If K.C.’s history is a guide, TU is in for a good season

They say the best predictor of future success is past success and, if that’s true, Temple football is in for a very good 2026 season.

Head coach K.C. Keeler has had a very good history in all of the jobs he had previously of assessing the situation, adapting to the environment in the first season and improving it the next.

Look at it this way.

Spring ball in Philadelphia: 80 degrees on Wednesday, snowing and 34 on Thursday. Owls are getting prepared for games in early September and late November on consecutive days.

In his second year at Rowan College, Keeler went 6-3.

In his second year at Delaware, he went 15-1 and won the FCS national championship.

In his second year at Sam Houston State, he went 11-4 and made the FCS quarterfinals.

All but the Rowan job–his first–represented a significant improvement on the first season. That may have been in part to Keeler learning how to be a head coach on the job after replacing former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker John Bunting.

Keeler proved he was a fast learner.

Temple finished 5-7 in Keeler’s first season at Temple which was particularly impressive in that the program was coming off four-consecutive 3-9 seasons.

When you look at it, though, it should have been 7-5 because normally reliable place-kicker Carl Hardin missed 38- and 45-yard field goals in 32-31 and 14-13 losses. Take the Navy game, for instance. If Hardin had made that first-half 38-yarder, the Owls would have had a 27-24 lead with 1:16 left on the Navy 1 and that touchdown Jay Ducker scored would have made it 34-24 and rendered Blake Horvath’s heroics meaningless.

Ironically, those were two of the only three misses Hardin had in an 11-for-14 season that included a game-winning extra point and a late 51-yard FG at Tulsa.

So there. Maybe Hardin hits all 14 FGs this season.

The goal this year is not to take games down to field goals and instead score enough early touchdowns for those 34-24 leads. To that end, Keeler has not only recruited the No. 1 incoming freshman class in the American Conference but also brought in the No. 1 transfer portal class in that league. On top of that, he retained all of the starters who did not graduate.

That’s not an accident. That is the product of someone who knows what he’s doing.

Monday: Under Attack

02.22.26
by

Solving some of the little problems with college football

Usually, in a nondescript week in February, nothing happens in college football.

This is not that week as the NCAA rules committee meets to discuss a couple of significant changes that will probably be implemented. (They’ll also discuss a few things that won’t.)

One, the targeting rule where a player from the second half of one game is penalized by sitting out the first half of the next game. That rule never made much sense since the next game could come after a bye week or even a month of bowl preparation. That begs another question, though: Is targeting only going to be enforced in the first half? That’s something the committee will have to deal with.

Me?

Get rid of any rule that involves a half and just kick a player out of the game where the infraction occurs.

That would involve some King Solomon-like judgment so we will see what happens.

The second rule likely to be addressed is the non-enforcement of wearing shorts instead of pants. That rule is in the books and hasn’t been enforced. The penalty is likely to be 15 yards. Seems to be an easy rule to follow because equipment guys can hang out only long pants.

Duh?

Unfortunately, when it comes to college football only the minor issues are addressed.

To me, the biggest impediment to fair play hasn’t been addressed and probably won’t: 1) Why the largest schools with the largest fan followings can buy a championship leaving the poorer schools behind and 2) there is no two.

Failing a return to room, board and tuition, a more equitable way of solving this problem would also be a King Solomon-type solution: Split the baby in half.

In other words, pool all of the TV money from all of the contracts and all of the leagues into one pile, give half to the schools and the other half to a fund that equally spreads the NIL money over 136 schools so that Kent State, the bottom team, has a fighting chance against Indiana, the top team. That would lift up everyone for the benefit of the college game. Yet you won’t ever get the Big 10 or the SEC to agree to that.

Until that happens, if you want to see a team win on any given day you have to wait until Sunday for the NFL. The days of G5 teams upsetting P4 teams are probably over, and we are all poorer for it.

Friday: Under construction

02.02.26
by

The day K.C. Keeler beat Curt Cignetti

Buried in a covid season that forced the FCS to schedule spring ball was one of the few losses national championship Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti had in the last five years.

Buried in a covid season that forced the FCS to schedule spring ball was one of the few losses national championship Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti had in the last five years.
K.C. Keeler beat Curt Cignetti in the FCS semifinals and went on to win the natty in 2021 at SHS.

K.C. Keeler got the 2021 win, coaching his Sam Houston State team to a 38-35 triumph in a FCS playoff semifinal against Cignetti’s James Madison team despite being down, 24-3, at halftime.

That’s a lot of halftime adjustments.

What does it mean for Temple moving forward?

Keeler showed that given his ability to improvise and adjust, once he gets “his guys” here, the future is bright for the Owls.

Put it this way: Temple outscored a lot of good teams in the second half (North Texas, Georgia Tech and UTSA) but got wins in only one of them: UTSA.

That was Keeler working with Stan Drayton’s guys.

The only “Keeler guy” brought in with him was Jay Ducker, who nearly became Temple’s first 1,000-yard back since Ray Davis in 2019.

Cignetti talks with Oregon coach Dan Lanning, who was a former Keeler assistant at Sam Houston State.

Now Keeler is identifying more talent to fit what schemes he, OC Tyler Walker and DC Brian Smith want to run and some improvement from Year One to Year Two can be expected. For example, he’s brought in for the first time all of his quarterbacks and they all have a proven level of mobility at least better than last year’s starter Evan Simon. Walker always wanted to use the quarterbacks’ legs as a weapon, and he will have that option this year. He had to scale back on that part of the playbook in 2025.

If any of them display Simon’s accuracy and leadership abilities to go with that mobility, that is the guy who will win the job.

That’s really when halftime adjustments kick into play, getting your Jimmies closer in ability to their Joes and having a coach like Keeler who has matched wits with the best in the business, including Cignetti.

Ironically, Cignetti–a former Temple QB coach–could never dream during that postgame handshake five years ago that Keeler would one day work at the same school.

Maybe the next time they meet, if they ever do, they can trade 10th and Diamond and 12th and Norris War stories.

For now, though, Keeler has won the last battle and that should be impressive enough for Temple fans.

Friday: Closer to Spring Ball

01.26.26
by

Temple football makes G5 history in a good way

The headline in the Philadelphia Inquirer addressed the biggest piece of news: Roster retention.

Those of a certain age in Philadelphia sports remember the biggest literal balancing act in history, Karl Wallenda, who walked across the top of Veterans Stadium on a high wire without a net.

Temple head coach K.C. Keeler is of that certain age and now he is in charge of a figurative high-wire act that is almost as impressive, navigating a transfer portal without the net of SEC or Big 10 type money.

Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that Temple football hasn’t done very much of anything since the transfer portal’s arrival in 2017.

That was one year after the Owls hoisted a championship trophy and the Owls struggled not only with opponents on the field but a revolving door at the $17 million Edberg Olson Practice facility.

No more.

Keeler said a lot of interesting things six days ago in his transfer portal wrap, but none more interesting than this quote: “We were one of the few G5 teams to keep our all starters.”

Hmm.

That got me thinking.

“Few?”

Nobody in the G5 keeps their starters anymore so we had to dig deep to find out if the key word was “few” or “any” and the latter turned out to be true.

A G5 team without P4 money in the era of the transfer portal is the kind of balancing act we see here.

Temple was the ONLY G5 team that kept all of its starters out of the transfer portal–with a qualifier. The starters applied to only the last game of the season and not guys who started single games before that.

Then we went over the rosters of G5 teams since 2017 and couldn’t find a single team that was able to keep all of its starters from the final game of the previous season from hitting the transfer portal.

Of course, Temple lost quite a few starters the more traditional way (graduation and expired eligibility) but, in this era of the G5 being used as a farm system for the P4, what Keeler and company have done is very impressive.

It speaks to the culture Keeler has been able to develop in a single year.

It also says something about the culture before that as Rod Carey was a “my way or the highway” guy and Stan Drayton was pretty much a fatalist when it came to losing players.

Temple could have the top TE in the country in 2026 with Peter Clarke.

Keeler tells the players to keep the main thing the main thing during the season–concentrating on winning–and that he and General Manager Clayton Barnes will figure out the side thing once the season is over. Also, Keeler gave last year’s players the kind of rope they didn’t get this year because, he said, “of the coaching change.”

Then, after the spring game, he shut the faucet off, saying that “now that the players have gotten to know me, once they enter the portal they are not coming back.”

There are exceptions to every rule and, this year, third-string quarterback Tyler Douglas was one. One he was told he didn’t fit into the QB plans, he hit the portal. At the same time, Keeler told him if he was willing to switch to WR, he would be welcome back.

Douglas came back and will battle for a WR slot. Keeler gave tight end Peter Clarke–ranked among the top 10 in the country at his position–a lot of credit in both keeping the locker room together and recruiting a few key transfer portal recruits.

Of course, roster retention on a 5-7 team is a double-edged sword, You want to keep starters and allow the backups to have other places to play all while at the same time upgrading the roster through both high school recruiting and the transfer portal.

Temple appears to have struck that balance and, in its own way, a kind of high-wire act more impressive than Wallenda’s.

Friday: Trust but Verify

Monday: A Coaching Matchup to Remember

01.09.26
by

The New Reality: Is it sustainable?

From my seat at the Army game this year, I decided that Temple is going to have to find a way to beat the academies on a regular basis to have any success in this league. I was only able to attend due to the generosity of TFF readership. If you want me to attend a road game in 2026, please consider a small contribution today.

After watching one of the classic Fiesta Bowl games of all time, there is a reminder out there that not all that long ago Temple beat one of the two teams in that game by a couple touchdowns.

UConn was that team and Temple beat them, 30-16, a few weeks before that.

Both teams finished the regular season the same 8-4 record but the Huskies ended up in the Fiesta Bowl and the Owls bowless because one team was in the Big East (replacing Temple) and the other in the MAC.

That was exactly 15 years ago and college football has changed a lot since then.

Not for the better.

Short answer for players: You’re as fucked as the fans are and probably more because they have a regular job and you don’t. My advice: If you have a scholarship, room, board and cost of attendance, please keep it and stay at the school who showed you loyalty in the first place.

Temple was able to beat a Fiesta Bowl team back then because the playing field was relatively even as the Owls were able to identify top high school talent and keep those guys through all four years.

Now, no matter how good a job K.C. Keeler does on that end, he risks (and no doubt will) lose the best of that talent either the next year or the year after that.

The players don’t seem to notice how they are being played for suckers and that’s that sad thing. According to Rivals247.com, 3,156 players entered the portal last year at this time and only 1,511 found new spots. What happened to the others guys? In chasing riches, they ended up out on the street and losing a very valuable scholarship, room, board and cost of attendance … which, in the G5, usually averages about $3,500 a player.

The players (among them, a lot of really good ones) who lose it all in chasing the money and end up out on the street would be a terrific story for Dateline, 60 Minutes or any of those other news magazine shows but nobody seems interested in that cautionary story.

That leaves the fans holding the bag for players who make incredibly bad decisions due to predatory agents.

When you lose the fans, you lose the sport.

I don’t think it’s sustainable because North Texas lost its entire team after going 11-1 and will have to rebuild all over again.

Temple, on the other hand, is on the rise but what happens if the Owls overachieve and go 11-1?

They likely lose the entire team and start over again.

It’s not just a Temple problem or a North Texas problem. It’s a Tulane problem. It’s a Memphis problem. It’s a USF problem.

Ironically, it’s not an Army or Navy problem because those two schools have the Kryptonite that kills the NIL and transfer portal.

Yet for any team to win consistently in this league they have to figure out a way to beat Army and Navy by loading the box and selling out for the run. That usually goes against most coaching instincts.

And, after doing that, have a contingency plan on how to rebuild quicker than the competition.

Unless Congress acts and protects the smaller schools, that means a lot of winning seasons followed by a lot of losing ones and a wash, rinse and repeat cycle. Hard to build a loyal home fanbase that way.

Do you see a Congress that protects the big guy in other endeavors ever sticking up for the little guy in college football?

I don’t.

To Congress, I say: Surprise me.

Monday: Temple’s Secret Weapon