Tag Archives: ncaa

04.16.26
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5 Biggest Surprises of Temple spring ball

North Allegheny is a great football school and Kolin Dinkins earned his scholarship to Penn State there.

The saying that applies here is that “to beat the man you’ve got to be the man” and it applies to at least three of the surprises from Temple spring football.

Thanks to the loyal followers of our site who put us at the top of all Word Press Blogs today for stats.

Yeah, I know the most important goal is to win the American Conference football championship and I’m onboard with that but a secondary goal that would wake up this entire region is to duplicate the feat of 2015 and beat Penn State.

For a lot of casual football (and not even college) fans, Penn State is The Man. Temple football would move Heaven and Earth (and many of the Joe Football Philadelphia fans) to boost attendance with a win in the second game of the season. (Yeah, I know beating Rhode Island is the focus now but let’s be real.)

Never believed it before, but three Penn State transfers did some convincing for me that it could be a rallying cry for the 2026 Temple Owls. They were not “The Man” at Penn State but they all could play a part in beating the man.

My hesitance has always been this: Temple is asking the third-string Penn State quarterback to beat the second-team Penn State quarterback behind him and that’s never a good plan. Now Penn State did what Temple wasn’t able to do and grab a big-time Iowa State transfer, Rocco Becht, that former Iowa State and current PSU head coach Matt Campbell brought with him for big bucks. Ethan Grunkemeyer, who stepped in as PSU starter (making Smolik a backup) when Allar went down, followed James Franklin to Virgina Tech.

According to our research, Jaxon Smolik will be the first player from Iowa in the 134-yard football history of Temple to play here. Might as well get the first-team All-State QB.

How delicious would it be for an Iowa native, Jaxon Smolik, to beat the big-time Iowa State star of last year? Hell, Smolik, a 2023 grad, was a bigger “person” on campus at Dowling Catholic High than Caitlin Clark, who was ahead of him for a year.

Smolik had an outstanding spring for Temple and tossed three touchdown passes in the Cherry and White game. As of now, he is way ahead of Washington State backup Ajani Sheppard and a bunch of guys who participated in spring ball. This blog is a big fan of Lamar Best and I hope he gets a chance to beat out Smolik for the No. 1 job when summer camp begins on June 1.

If, however, Smolik hold onto the job because of what he does against Best from June 1 to Sept. 1, there will be no bigger Jaxon Smolik fan than me.

That’s where the other two surprises come into play, other Penn State transfers safety/LB (Viper) Colin Dinkins, and tight end Joey Schlaffer. Dinkins is from a great Western Pennsylvania football school (North Allegheny) and Schlaffer is from a great soccer school (Exeter) in District 11.

Dinkins got on the field way more than Smolik (500 snaps, mostly on special teams) at Penn State and Schlaffer caught a touchdown pass in a 52-6 Penn State win over Villanova.

Now the Temple coaching staff found the sweet spot for Dinkins, a hybrid LB/safety position and Dinkins has proven virtually unblockable on QB blitzes. This is what head coach K.C. Keeler has said about Dinkins:

“He’s so damn dynamic, he’s making plays maybe shouldn’t be made,” Keeler said after the scrimmage. “He has a knack of blitzing and being disruptive.”

You think the winningest active Division I head coach (Keeler) isn’t going to find a way for Dinkins to be disruptive?

That leaves the other two big surprises of camp, Illinois transfer portal safety transfer Saboor Karriem and Temple holdover Luke Watson (OT).

Karriem made all of the plays in the first two weeks of camp and that should not have been surprising. He led Illinois with 10 tackles (seven solos) in a win over then No. 21 USC just seven months ago.

Watson was forced into a starting OT tackle role as a true freshman when Stan Drayton forgot to recruit enough tackles three years ago. Keeler with one of his few shots at Drayton: “Watson should have never started as a true freshman but he’s come into his own now.”

Watson will anchor an experienced and talented offensive line that went toe-to-toe with some great talent Keeler brought into Philadelphia.

Surprises?

Sure.

But to beat the man, you’ve got to get the men and Temple has done enough to make any game a toss-up and that’s all fans can ask for at this point.

To be sure, by the second game, there will be at least three Owls as motivated to beat Penn State as the 40,000 Temple fans in attendance will be.

Monday: Slogan

04.09.26
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Cherry and White Game: Back to the Future?

This is the kind of Cherry and White Day that led to an upset of Penn State five months later. No white helmets in sight.
Bright and breezy, which means we might see a Carl Hardin 60-yard field goal on Saturday.

After the Super Bowl and March Madness, there is a dead spot in sports for me that doesn’t get filled in until Temple football’s Cherry and White game.

I mean, after baseball’s opening day, there are about 161 more games, most boring until something big happens.

So, being the movie buff I am, I thought which cultural movie icon did I miss that I need to see to fill the void? That was an easy answer in the wake of the death of probably the best Youtuber I have ever followed, Adam The Woo (real name David Adam Williams).

Adam was a big fan of Back to the Future. Having never seen that trilogy, I absorbed the first two over the weekend.

In one of them, BTF travels to the year 2015.

They saw flying cars, which didn’t happen, but missed out on Temple beating Penn State in football, which did happen. Robert Zemeckis didn’t know specifics, just generalities so he gets a pass.

Cherry and White game three years ago was cloudy, windy and in the mid-40s. We all froze our asses off. That won’t be the case this year.

Temple fans who travel to 10th and Diamond for this year’s Cherry and White game might experience a little back to the future on their own because now, like then, Penn State is coming to town and now, like then, Temple has a chance to put itself on the national map with an upset win.

There are other factors even Zemeckis couldn’t see back in 1985 when he made BTF (like the transfer portal and NIL) working against the Owls’ chances but there are others that are similar. Now, like then, Temple has a great head coach (Matt Rhule, K.C. Keeler) who had some experience as Owls’ head coaches under their belts. Now, like then, Penn State has a first-year head coach (James Franklin, Matt Campbell), who is coming over from Iowa State but feeling his way around in a new job for the first time.

Now, like then, Temple players have bought into their head coach. The thing I remember most from a fan perspective is that Rhule made a point of hitting all of the major tailgates to interact with the fans in the hours before kickoff and I hope Keeler does the same kind of networking. That was a contributing factor, albeit small, to Temple having a big homefield advantage on 9/5/15, where 2/3s of the 70,000 in attendance were wearing Cherry and White. If I had to ask Keeler one question it would not be who the quarterback is going to be or why the pass rush is going to be better, but why the hell does he approve White helmets?

Answer: There is no good reason.

White helmets have been Bad Karma for Temple football since 1884 and they need to go in the trash heap of history. Football-wise, the only thing we will learn is if the players have the same kind of urgency that 2015 group seemed to have. That group was coming off a 6-6 season. This one is coming off a 5-7 season that could just has easily been a 7-5 one except for one-point losses to the service academies.

Now, like then, the current players understand the quality of the opponent ahead and the urgency between April 11 and September that it takes to compete with them.

We got a sense for that urgency in April of 2015 and will eagerly see if we get the same vibe at 2 p.m. on Saturday that punched us in the gut a little over a decade ago.

Monday: Cherry and White Recap

04.05.26
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The Best Solution: A one-transfer rule

Lost in a lot of news involving war and Easter was an executive order signed by Donald Trump on Friday limiting college sports transfers to a one-and-done basis.

If one guy from one party does something in this politically charged environment, usually the Pavlovian response from the other party is to oppose it.

However, this is something I can get behind as a college football fan. Heck, as a college sports fan.

It should be a bipartisan issue.

There are three starters on both Michigan and UConn in Monday night’s championship basketball game who have played not at one, not at two, but at three schools. That’s ridiculous on its face value.

While the Executive Order probably won’t survive a court challenge, a codified version of the order through legistlation might and that’s probably the only way to save college football now.

At least for schools like Temple.

That’s something both Democrats and Republicans can get behind.

Say, if this gets passed as legislation, one transfer per five years can end a lot of this craziness. Back in the “old days” the fact that athletes had to sit out a year if they transferred pretty much made that kind of thing a rarity.

Under this proposal, a second transfer would be allowed after earning a four-year degree and that would be OK with me. This transferring every year should stop. It won’t end the other crazy element of college football–play-for-pay–but it will stop the musical chairs aspect of college sports we see every transfer portal season.

Also, Incarnate Word has a starting quarterback, T.J. Finley, who will be in his seventh year this season with his seventh team. Finley is giving a middle finger to the NCAA rules as is now, meaning there are no rules.

Everybody who plays or played any sport knows that there should be rules and they should be followed. That means both off the field and on the field.

We’ve always had on-the-field rules. For the last decade, we’ve had very few off-the-field ones.

That needs to be fixed or we risk losing all of the fans from half of the 134 FBS football schools.

Friday: Cherry and White Preview

03.05.26
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Now’s the time to predict 2026: A one-game improvement

I can’t believe Parker Navarro is still in the portal but I know Temple is the perfect place for him.

Going into this transfer portal season we outlined the “type” of quarterback Temple needed to get in order to compete for the American Conference championship.

That quarterback was an FCS superstar or a capable “star” FBS quarterback looking for a tick up in competition.

Temple, for all of its transfer portal successes, failed to get that guy. Instead, they got a couple of guys who only proved that they couldn’t get on the field for P4-type teams. Not only didn’t they get a proven FBS starter, but in terms of receipts, they didn’t get someone with the pedigree of Evan Simon (starter at Rutgers) nor Gevani McCoy (starter at Oregon State), last year’s 1-2 punch.

So while they improved at a lot of positions they regressed at the most important position on the field.

Not good.

So, sadly, I don’t see the Owls competing for an American Conference title but there is room for improvement and I do see the Owls improving incrementally.

At my age, that isn’t fast enough but I will take the small wins when I can get them.

Why are we not waiting until May? It looks like all the players are in place now and they will compete only against themselves between now and Cherry and White Day.

Parker Navarro, a quarterback who does fit all the qualifications of an AAC championship quarterback, is still in the portal.

It doesn’t have to be Navarro, whose eligibility issue is up in the air but someone like him.

We can only hope but I think Temple is done at QB. I hope I’m wrong.

We predict 6-6 without Navarro or someone like him.

With an inexperienced starter, or someone like him, I see the Owls winning 9-10 games and getting into the AAC championship game.

I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Temple is done and going with six quarterbacks. None to me have the “it” factor with the possible exception of Lamar Best, who arrives in July.

So we’re going under the assumption that Temple is done at the quarterback position.

I see the Owls beating Rhode Island (55-10), losing to Penn State (35-14), beating Toledo (17-13), losing to Army (24-21), losing at South Florida (55-24), beating UConn (17-10), beating Charlotte (48-23), losing at East Carolina (36-19), losing at Navy (17-14), beating UAB (21-14), beating Rice (28-17) and losing at Memphis (35-21).

That’s 6-6 and the very definition of mediocrity. As Wayne Hardin once said, “mediocrity is not my cup of tea.”

Nor mine.

An experienced guy is out there. With him, I see a more competitive game against Penn State, wins at USF at home vs. Army and at Navy and a possible win at Memphis. That’s not 6-6 nor mediocrity.

Go get him or expect meh when “yeah” should have been the Year Two goal all along.

Monday: 5 Things We’d Like to See From Spring Ball

Friday: The New Bowl System and Temple

03.01.26
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One area Owls are in good hands: Feet

While there are some concerns about gameday experience on the quarterback level, there is at least one area where the Owls are in good hands.

Feet.

With both starting kicker Carl Hardin coming back and starting punter Dante Atton as well, the Owls have plenty of gameday experience and clutch plays under their belts at least in that part of special teams.

Hardin, a redshirt junior from Raleigh, N.C., only missed three field goals–a 61-yarder at Georgia Tech, a 45-yarder at Army and a 38-yarder against Navy.

Ironically, had he hit two of those field goals in games against the service academies, the Owls would have been in a pretty nice bowl game somewhere and would have at least had a better chance to finish 7-5 in the regular season.

So even good players have things to work on but, conversely, his successful 51-yarder at Tulsa was the reason the Owls were able to pull that game out.

Hardin’s performance wasn’t a surprise to anyone who watched the Owls in practice and former kicker Maddox Trujillo told K.C. Keeler on his way out that Hardin was not only the second-best kicker on the Owls, but the second-best kicker in the entire league. Hard to argue with Maddox on those points as Hardin finished the year 11-for14 on field goals and 40 for 40 on extra points. Plus, he solved one of the most maddening problems of the Stan Drayton Era–kicking the ball out of bounds.

That used to happen multiple times a game under Drayton but last year happened only once in 2025.

As far as depth, backup kicker Lucas Glassburn–who made his only XP attempt for the Owls in 2025–hit the portal and transferred to New Hampshire, where he will be the starter and Darren Wu moves into Glassburn’s spot at Temple. Wu was Lafayette’s top kicker before transferring to Temple last season.

The punter, Atton, is even more well-known as he is the only returning first-team All-American at any position in Temple football history (not even Paul Palmer and Joe Klecko were first-team All-Americans as underclassmen). Atton pinned opponents inside the 20 a record 27 times.

If things work out the way head coach K.C. Keeler wants, the stats from both Hardin and Atton won’t be as gaudy this year as the goal is to score touchdowns, not field goals nor even punt the ball. (When E.J. Warner was quarterback in 2023, the Owls went two consecutive games without punting.)

It’s nice to know, though, the Owls can milk a clock down to 20 or so seconds in a tie game and win it on a short field goal if needed.

Friday: Now’s The Time

Monday: 5 Things We’d Like to See in Spring Ball

02.22.26
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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

02.19.26
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Biggest difference between K.C. and Adam Fisher: Clayton Barnes

Imagine a football team of all punters.

Or all running backs.

Or at least a preponderance of one “type” of player.

That’s Temple basketball right now. I see a lot of guard types and very little in the area of post players and power forwards.

Not surprisingly, that program is floundering after three straight losses in a weak basketball league.

When Al Golden applied CPR to resuscitate Temple football from the dead in 2005, he brought with him a binder. The first chapter was his philosophy of building a team back in the days when college football was pure:

“I want to sign one player at each position ever year, including a punter and a kicker,” Al said. “If you do that every year, you get to develop the depth that you need.”

Looking at Temple basketball this year, I see a lot of one “type” of player and very little roster balance.

Obviously, the philosophy of past Temple football head coach Golden and current head coach K.C. Keeler is pretty much the same in the sense that each position needs depth and position integrity should be respected.

To me, the greatest basketball team ever was the 1967-68 Sixers. The primary reason why is because it had the best player at the most important position (center, Wilt Chamberlain) and prototype players at every other position (Luke Jackson, power forward; Chet Walker, finesse forward; Hal Greer, shooting guard and Wali Jones point guard).

The perfect team with perfect balance.

Where is the Wilt “type” on this Temple basketball team? Nowhere. Nor the Jackson type. Nor the Chet Walker type or the Greer type or Jones type.

Not asking for anyone near their ability but I am asking for someone at least capable of filling those types of roles.

It appears to be a collection of misfits and the fault of that belongs to the CEO.

That’s the difference between Temple football and Temple basketball.

A common theme on twitter or other social media platforms is Temple should direct football money into basketball. To me, that’s throwing good money after bad. I don’t have much hope for the future of Temple basketball unless it takes a Temple football leadership turn, but I have plenty of hope for Temple football and that’s where the good money should go.

Temple football apparently understands that each position requires a player with a different skill set than the position next to it or the position on the other side of the ball.

To me, Fisher is a good enough coach to win four straight games in an AAC tournament but not a good enough CEO to put a capable roster together.

Keeler is both a good enough coach to win and a great CEO because he understands he can’t do it alone. To me, that the biggest difference between the two not only is experience in the winning department, but a basic knowledge in this transfer portal era that help is needed in the area of building a balanced roster to win in the modern day AAC.

That’s where Temple football GM Clayton Barnes comes into the picture.

When Keeler was hired, his first quote was that “I wouldn’t have taken this job if Clayton Barnes didn’t agree to come with me” and that quote was telling. Keeler is an old school guy willing to adjust to new school approaches and Barnes, for the most part, has those answers on the football side. Surely, there is a basketball guy out there who knows how to put a college roster together.

On the basketball side, the sooner Fisher finds a “Barnes type” will determine his future at the school.

02.02.26
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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
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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

01.02.26
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What the Trinidad Chambliss story tells Temple fans

On the surface, Trinidad Chambliss’ story doesn’t say much about Temple football.

Underneath the surface, though, it tells everything about the future.

Why?

Because Temple did a very much un-Temple-like thing last February in offering Ferris State national Division II championship quarterback Trinidad Chambliss $300,000 to come here and compete for a starting job.

He accepted, and the Friday press conference was all set before Ole Miss swooped in with a $600,000 backup offer.

Bad news for Temple but good news for Ole Miss because he eventually earned the starting job and put his Rebels into the national semifinals.

What does it say about Temple?

It tells you that both head coach K.C. Keeler and General Manager Clayton Barnes have keen eyes for talent. There is a Trinidad Chambliss out there–whether he’s in JUCO, Division II or FCS–and the same eyes that saw the Ferris State quarterback will identify the next Temple one.

Maybe not Chambliss good. Maybe better. Maybe worse but there are no maybes about the eyes scouting that future Temple signal-caller.

“Their quarterback is just incredible,” Georgia’s Kirby Smart said.

Yeah, that’s what both Keeler and Barnes identified on the film a year ago today.

They were excited to get Chambliss and Chambliss was excited to come here before Ole Miss swooped in and got him.

Shit happens.

One team’s shit (Temple’s) is another team’s title (Ole Miss) but that doesn’t diminish the talent evaluation skills of Keeler or Barnes and that’s where Temple is at an advantage in this transfer portal season. Another thought is that Temple is so committed to winning in football that it put its money ($300,000) where its mouth was. Keeler knew that Evan Simon needed some competition and, while he whiffed on the first choice (Chambliss), he hit a solid double into the gap on his second (Gevani McCoy). If that’s not enough, here’s another Keeler/Barnes collaboration: They almost got Drew Mestemaker to commit to Sam Houston before Mestemaker decided to follow a high school teammate to North Texas.

Eye for talent indeed.

Four eyes to be exact.

They made a significant investment (roughly $100,000) in McCoy. They didn’t ask me for a contribution to cover the NIL but, if had the extra cash, I would have forked it over. That’s how much confidence I have in them.

Think about this: If Simon went down, Temple goes from 5-7 without him to 1-11 without a McCoy. If Simon goes down, and McCoy is the backup, Temple wins the same number of games.

That’s how this thing is supposed to work with a great head coach. One injury to a key player shouldn’t take out your season.

Nobody knows more than the CEO and the GM that Temple needs a Chambliss, Simon and McCoy.

Nearly getting Chambliss last year but getting thisclose means they will get someone good enough to compete for an American Conference title thisyear.

Those are the guys working the film room and that’s enough for me.

It should be for every Temple fan.

Monday: Reviewing Our Predictions