Tag Archives: ncaa

09.14.25
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Keeler: Owls didn’t meet the moment

This Cherry helmet is the best in college football. Let’s stick with that going forward.

In the grand scheme of things, this is about the 147th-most important thing that happened on Saturday but seeing Temple football come out in those God-awful-looking white helmets certainly didn’t meet the moment.

Not when you have the best helmet in college football sitting back home in the equipment room at 10th and Diamond.

Georgia Tech’s stadium with Atlanta as the backdrop is one of the best homefield advantages in the country.

When you look sharp, you play sharp and the Owls certainly didn’t look sharp.

Then the game started and it wasn’t long before first-year Temple head coach K.C. Keeler made the most perspicacious statement of the day.

Doing a first-quarter interview on ESPN2, Keeler said: “I thought we didn’t meet the moment.”

This time, he wasn’t talking about the equipment room.

There were plenty of moments the Owls didn’t meet but a few of them came on defense early when they hit Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer early and didn’t bring him down. Other times they touched him and he spun away.

A decent crowd on Saturday at the Linc would have looked way more impressive if Temple had an on-campus stadium like GT has.

A lot of that is traced to Mateer’s talent but when the Owls were touching quarterbacks–good quarterbacks with FBS starts under their belts in the first two games–they were bringing them down.

That was meeting the moment. Albeit the moment became bigger against better players on Saturday getting to Mateer and not putting him down didn’t meet the moment. He’s human. If hit hard enough, he goes down, too.

The Owls had a minus-6 deficit in the turnover battle in last year’s game and lost, 51-3. They stopped Oklahoma on third downs 13 of 14 times in that game and still lost by 48.

The Owls cleaned things up this year to have no turnovers and still lost by almost the same margin. That does not compute except that they didn’t do as good a job getting off the field defensively as last year’s team.

The formula to win wasn’t there against Oklahoma but the formula to stay in the game certainly was and the Owls didn’t have the right mix. Limit turnovers. Check. Repeat last year’s performance on third down. Not check.

Throw some trick plays in there to keep Oklahoma off-balance.

Definitely not check. Would have loved to seen Evan Simon toss a throwback pass to Hollawayne and have the former UCLA QB hit JoJo Bermudez for six on that first series. That would have fired everyone up. Instead, a couple of boring handoffs to Jay Ducker got nowhere.

OC Tyler Walker–who had a fantastic first two games–didn’t meet the moment, either.

You won 55-7 with these home helmets. Don’t mess with Karma. (Photo Courtesy Zamani Feelings)

A lot of national type guys–Chip Patterson of CBS sports and Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN–thought the Owls had a chance to stay in the game against the Sooners. Now that those national guys saw what happened, they are off the Owls. The Owls showed in the first two games that they are deep and talented along both lines but allowed themselves to get bullied by the Sooners.

I didn’t see that happening. Maybe neither Patterson nor Herbstreit did.

Maybe that’s what Keeler meant by not meeting the moment but they really have one more big-time moment to meet on Saturday at Georgia Tech.

Like Oklahoma, the Yellowjackets have a big-time quarterback in Haynes King. The lesson of Saturday is when they get their hands on him, they have to put him down.

That’s meeting the moment on the field.

Off the field, leaving the White helmets home might not help, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.

Friday: Georgia Tech Preview

09.13.25
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Oklahoma: The Best Team Money Can Buy

Somewhere along the last decade or so, college football has lost its way.

Oklahoma’s football team provided a pretty good example of that on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in a 42-3 win over the Temple Owls.

With a player reimbursement budget only about 100x–probably closer to 10,000x–higher than Temple’s, the Sooners proved you get what you pay for.

The lower bowl was pretty much full.

That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.

After World War II, the NCAA established the “Sanity Code,” principles that covered financial aid, recruitment and academic standards and were intended to ensure amateurism in college sports. The idea was to level the playing field, to make sure no school with more money would have an advantage over another school with less.

For a long time, it worked.

In 1987, the NCAA put its foot down and gave SMU the so-called “death penalty” for paying players.

Now, the only code is “The Insanity Code” otherwise known as the NIL and the transfer portal.

Owls have a much better chance against the UTSAs of the world than the Oklahomas or Georgia Techs.

Since the NIL and the transfer portal, though, paying players is legal and that’s a sad state of affairs.

As former Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer once said, “NIL stands for Now It’s Legal.” That was my second-favorite quote of this new era (error, really) of football.

That’s great for the Oklahomas of the world and terrible for the Temples.

All that was on display at LFF on Saturday afternoon.

Through no fault of the Temple kids or the Temple coaches, a bigger, faster, stronger Sooner team dominated the Owls and put on display the widening gap between the haves and the have nots.

My favorite quote was what I saw on twitter a few weeks ago by a P4 fan who said, “it’s all fun and games until Mark Zuckerberg takes an interest in Temple football.”

What he meant was the man with the deepest pockets wins and the only way to show how ridiculous the NIL is would be for some billionaire to fund a historically downtrodden program.

At this point, I don’t really care if it’s Temple, Troy, South Alabama or Kent State. Just would love to see a billionaire back one of those programs and have them win the natty every year. I wonder how fast the so-called “blue bloods” would scrap the current system if that happened.

For Temple, neither Zuckerberg nor a Saudi billionaire is walking through that door any time soon.

The reason a No. 21-ranked Temple was able to stay with a No. 9-ranked Notre Dame on national TV a decade ago was because the Owls were able to recruit good players, put them in a rigorous offseason training program and retain them.

For one a few nights in 2015 and 2016, Owl fans were in Heaven.

No more.

Now a team like Temple will probably forever be stuck in the Purgatory of being outclassed by P4 and with its only hope of competing being against similarly situated schools. The best the Owls can hope for is to compete for bowl games every year and maybe challenge for a league title every five years or so.

Because Georgia Tech–next week’s opponent–has many of the same advantages over Temple that Oklahoma has, the real season begins in two weeks. That playing field in Atlanta will be tilted in the home team’s direction, too.

It’s not what the NCAA had in mind when it set the rules.

Now there are no rules other than the guy with the most money wins.

That’s not the sport I signed up to be a fan of when I was in college so many years ago but it’s the one I’m watching now.

If things don’t change soon, the NFL business model–which gives all teams an equal chance–looks more appealing every day for the few entertainment dollars I have left. College football would be wise to study it.

Monday: The Moment Too Big

Saturday: Georgia Tech Preview

08.18.25
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Is Temple “Doomed” to Repeat History?

K.C. Keeler is hoping to bring the same kind of smiles to Owls as he did for three other teams.

Underestimating Temple football coach K.C. Keeler is done at your own peril.

At least that’s the lesson of history and we all know what Winston Churchill said about those who don’t learn from history being doomed to repeat it.

After the legendary Tubby Raymond posted a 5-6 record in his last year, K.C. Keeler improved that record to 11-4 the next season.

At Temple, football fans can only be lucky to be so doomed because Keeler has an interesting history of first years at schools as a head coach.

Keeler has been head coach in three places–Rowan University, the University of Delaware and Sam Houston State–and improved the team from the prior year in every place.

At all of those places the bar was set pretty high because former Philadelphia Eagles’ linebacker John Bunting passed the torch at Rowan (then Glassboro State) to Keeler after the 1992 season. That year, Bunting took the Profs to the Division III semifinals. The next year Keeler took that same team to the Division III title game.

An improvement right away, not a 3-5 year plan.

After the 2005 season, legendary Delaware coach Tubby Raymond decided to hang up the clipboard after a 5-6 season.

Things were looking pretty bleak for that program when Keeler took over in his first year and led the Blue Hens to an 11-4 record and a loss in the national championship game to future FBS member Appalachian State.

That’s a six-game improvement from the previous season. After that 5-6 season, a look through the wayback machine on the Delaware football message boards contained a lot of negativities about what Keeler could immediately bring. One fan said “I’d settle for one or two more wins” and another said “don’t expect much from Keeler in his first season. This is a complete rebuild.”

Sound familiar?

Think Temple fans would sign for a six-game improvement right now?

Remember a “complete rebuild” in 2025 is far different than a complete rebuild in 2006. Back in 2006, you had to settle for what you had in your building. There was no reaching out and grabbing this piece or that piece through the transfer portal and immediately improving the roster.

That dynamic also didn’t exist in 2014 when Keeler became the first-year coach at Sam Houston State and succeeded another legendary coach, Willie Fritz, who had the Bearkats in the FCS second round.

Keeler did one better than Fritz, getting the Bearkats to the FCS semifinals in his first year.

Three first years better than the prior one.

Those who say this is a “complete rebuild” shouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t learn enough about Keeler’s past history to be doomed by underestimating it.

That’s one Temple of Doom that should put smiles on the faces of Owls everywhere, maybe even the doubters in our midst.

Friday: First Things First

Monday: Game Week

06.08.25
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Temple football’s No. 1 target commits

By all accounts, the gathering on June 3d between Temple fans and new head coach K.C. Keeler broke all records for an Owl event in the offseason in terms of attendance.

The buzz both inside and outside the Wissahickon Brewing Company was positive enough to get people to buy season tickets and have those people get other people to buy season tickets. The impact should show in fannies in the seats come September.

Keeler offered a few interesting nuggets in the sense that “we’re probably done” with the transfer portal for this cycle and concentrating instead on high school recruits.

Already, those dividends are paying off.

It didn’t take more than a few days for arguably Temple’s No. 1 target, a quarterback from North Carolina named Brody Norman, to commit. Five days to be exact because Norman announced on his twitter feed at exactly 7:41 p.m. on Sunday night he was an Owl.

There’s definitely an Anthony Russo-type vibe to the the Norman signing in it’s been a very long time since Temple signed a quarterback with gaudy stats like this.

As a senior at Archbishop Wood, Russo had 35 touchdown passes vs. only four interceptions for Steve Devlin’s state championship Vikings. Russo had just visited with then LSU head coach Les Miles in the Archbishop Wood cafeteria when then Temple head coach Matt Rhule got Russo to switch his Rutgers’ commitment for the Owls. Russo finished in the top four of Temple’s all-time quarterbacks from a statistical standpoint and probably would have worked his way up the ladder had then head coach Rod Carey not tried to make an option quarterback out of a drop back passer.

Temple sports set a record for an offseason event with a big crowd on Tuesday night to listen to K.C. Keeler

That was a whole different time in college football when G5 teams routinely out recruited regional P5 rivals because there wasn’t a whole lot of money to throw around and the G5 team could offer immediate playing time.

Keeler pulled off his own heist with the Norman recruit, taking advantage of the current state of college football when many P4 teams eschew recruiting high school players in favor of raiding other P4 team’s ready-made quarterback in the transfer portal.

With Norman, P4’s loss is Temple’s gain.

Norman had 32 touchdown passes in the junior year at Mooresville, N.C. His team finished 11-2 and won its league championship.

Who knows how many he will have this upcoming season but that fact that he won’t be distracted by having to deal with recruiters should help him focus on his high school season and padding those high school numbers.

Like Russo, the most important statistic for a quarterback is a championship pedigree followed by number of touchdown passes vs. interceptions.

Norman passes the smell test on both counts.

He obviously loves Philadelphia and, while he won’t arrive on campus for another couple of years, Philadelphia will no doubt love him back.

Friday: Sunday’s other three commits

Monday: Seeing double

05.04.25
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Executive Order could level the playing field

Hell might have frozen over.

There is an issue out there where the Democrats and Republicans might come to an agreement.

This is probably the best-case scenario for G5 teams like Temple.

A talk at the University of Alabama commencement between President Trump, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban and former Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville could produce something needed in college football.

An even playing field, which would be something both Democrats and Republicans–and basically all fans of college football–can agree on right now.

If nothing changes, the playing field Temple plays on next year against Penn State will be tilted heavily in the Lions’ direction. That probably would have happened anyway. Hell, it happened since the 1975 renewal of the series but, unlike those first days, we have a situation now where Penn State can steal Temple’s one or two best players from this year–if it wanted to–and Temple could steal no one from Penn State and that field would be so far uphill the Owls would never have a chance.

There are no details of what such an executive order would entail but both Saban and Tuberville stressed in their conversations with the President that the “playing field needed to be leveled.”

They didn’t say how.

My guess is that it refers to an even playing field among the P4 powers, not including the G5 schools. That would probably mean no transfers allowed between P4 schools and an even distribution of NIL money among the power conference schools.

However, an executive order distributing an even amount of NIL money over the 130 schools would certainly help Temple and that’s what we have to hope for even if it’s a pipe dream.

Certainly an EO would face a strenuous court test but it might move a Congress that had no prior interest in college football to move to help the have-nots. Can’t imagine Congress would get behind the 20 or so schools who want to take all of the money so this probably is a bipartisan issue.

That’s a move Democrats would get behind and certainly Tuberville and Saban understand the inequity that currently exists.

What we do know is the status quo isn’t helping Temple or any other G5 schools so a shakeup is positive news.

My vote: A 145 percent tariff on the P4 to help the G5. Not gonna happen, but we can always dream.

04.17.25
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What most people don’t understand about college sports

After reading this, tell me where Temple gets the money to pay football or basketball players who are already getting scholarships worth almost $100,000?

The response never fails.

Every time I write something about the evils of the NIL and the transfer portal, I invariably get this response either on twitter, the comments below or facebook:

“These colleges make millions off the backs of the players. They deserve to be paid.”

Err, no.

The Ohio States and the Penn States make millions.

The Temples, the Kent States, the Georgia States, the Troys, the Sam Houstons, etc. don’t.

There are plenty more of the latter group than the former one.

Temple has to sell its ability to put players in the NFL and it has a strong history of that.

As many of 100 (or more) of the FBS schools LOSE money on football. Should those players be forced to pay back the schools who employ them?

No.

But to say these players deserve millions because universities makes millions is a misnomer because there is no bounty.

Look at Temple.

This week Temple president John Fry wrote a university-wide email (see above) about how Temple is strapped for cash and how the school is going to have to tighten that belt even more.

Temple isn’t the only school in that boat.

Ryder Kusch shows Reece Clark how playing tight end is done.

Maybe Memphis and Boise State make money on football.

I doubt that any other G5 schools do.

Temple did a lot of hard work recruiting a quarterback who was set to visit the school today. He canceled the visit and committed to Ole Miss on Tuesday. Temple lost a tight end (Reece Clark) today who entered the portal. Good for him. I don’t think he’s going to find any real money elsewhere. Let’s be real here. Clark is a nice player. He was outplayed in the spring by Ryder Kusch. Clark is a tweener. Not big enough to play tight end or fast enough to play wide receiver. He’s like a 6-3 forward in high school basketball. He didn’t light up the stat sheet for a 3-9 team. Doubt that any 9-3 teams are going to offer him money. He’s got to be realistic about his own ability. Instead, he’s probably listening to an agent.

He’s more likely to drop to FCS than continue to play at the highest level.

Better for Temple because head coach K.C. Keeler said that you are either all in or all out and Clark is all out. Now Keeler is building a team that is all in and that can only benefit Temple.

Although this number changes every day, there were only 1,452 FBS scholarships available as of 10 p.m. Thursday night. The math ain’t mathing for 90+ percent of these kids but don’t expect an “agent” to tell them that.

Ole Miss has money to pay football players.

Temple doesn’t.

Neither does almost every other G5 school yet a lot of G5 schools find a way to compete. One of those schools was Sam Houston, which won 9 games and a bowl game.

Its head coach?

K.C. Keeler.

It’s a lot tougher to win with players who are getting paid the old-fashioned way but there’s a lot to be said about building a culture where everyone is pretty much getting the same thing and there’s no locker room bickering why this one guy gets this and this other guy doesn’t get that.

Maybe that isn’t all of the Keeler winning formula, but it certainly is a big part of it.

Until some multi-billionaire Saudi horse racing aficionado wants to see what kind of havoc his disposable income can wreak on college football by backing Temple, spare me on the “kids deserve to get paid” angle.

Monday: An Intriguing Prospect

04.14.25
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Cherry and White: Tough love and defense

K.C. Keeler tells the team if anyone enters the portal, he’s not taking them back. (Photo by Anthony Getz)

Defense and field goals dominated the 2025 Cherry and White game and one more thing.

Tough love.

Quarterback Tyler Douglas did nothing wrong on this pass but it ended up being a Pick 6.

First-year Temple head coach K.C. Keeler channeled his inner John Chaney when he made clear to any Owls considering the transfer portal he would not take them back. Keeler’s reasoning was sound. “Now that you have been with me, I told them if they go in the portal, we’re not taking them back,” he said.

The thinking there is this is the first time a lot of these Temple kids played for a Hall of Fame coach and they might be intrigued where he can lead them and the team.

Chaney did a similar thing long before the portal, telling anyone who transferred that they were not welcomed back. The famous quote was, “If you tell me you don’t love me, it’s over.”

It worked back then because Chaney had both the carrot and the stick.

We’ll see if it works now.

It was a bold move back then. It is even more today because there might be more money on the other side. Then again, there might not. More players who go into the portal find zero money and no scholarships on the other side than those who go in and expect to get rich.

Joe Greenwood (left) and College Hall of Fame running back Paul Palmer rock their letterwinner jackets.

For now, it’s a buyer’s market for the teams, not the players. Only the top 1 percent of the players in the portal get any real money and that’s from only the top 20 or so college football powerhouses.

So anyone who played on a 3-9 team would be wise to stay put and keep their scholarship.

As far as the game itself, the Owls went 5-for-5 in field goals but a point of emphasis will be to finish off those drives with touchdowns and not field goals. While Keeler praised newcomer Jay Ducker (21 carries for 66 yards), he also noted that Ducker needs to improve his finishing speed. If he doesn’t, Keeler has a nice insurance policy in Torrez Worthy, who is one of the fastest backs in the AAC. Worthy outran the whole Tulane team in the lone highlight of a 52-6 loss last year.

Keeler also said that Evan Simon “had a great spring” but that he’s “bringing in another quarterback” to compete for the starting job. My feeling here is that Simon is a good enough quarterback to produce a winning season at Temple but the fact that Temple doesn’t have another quarterback good enough to produce a winning season is the very reason Keeler should go after a similar level quarterback.

Defensively, Keeler said the line is “7-8 deep” and they should be able to stop people in this league given the personnel already here. Offensively, he said “iron sharpens iron” and how good the DL was all spring made the OL the most improved aspect of the team. Those of us who saw Simon running for his life last fall will have to see that to believe that against live competition. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to get a tackle who can protect Simon’s blindside.

Another reason they will hit the portal for a QB is his offensive staff is used to a running quarterback and nothing puts pressure on a modern defense than a quarterback who can move the sticks both running and passing.

Those are hard to come by and the competition for one should be furious. Sort of like it was on Saturday.

Friday: An intriguing prospect

03.27.25
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Something positive: Keeler is holding it together

Last year, Stan Drayton allowed Rock, Paper and Scissors between Forrest Brock and Evan Simon to determine the first-team QB reps. Now Rock, Paper and Scissors doesn’t decide anything. Thanks to K.C. Keeler for that.

Let’s face it: College sports is a complete bleep show now.

More players entered the NCAA Division I basketball portal than ever on Thursday (we would give you the exact number but it was 1,700 at noon and 1,887 at 4 p.m. and probably over 2,000 now), including basically the entire Temple University men’s basketball team.

The Scotus decision on the NCAA vs. Alston in 2021 caused complete anarchy in college sports. The transfer portal preceded that but there was very little movement because there was no big money thrown around. Kids used the portal for the reason it was intended–to get playing time at another school when they weren’t getting it at their own.

Have to wonder if Whizzer White–an All-American football player in an era where amateurs dominated college sports–would have agreed with his colleagues if he had lived long enough to remain on the court.

Temple’s major sports have struggled since because the grads are not as deep-pocketed as the products of the SEC and Big 10 schools.

While coaches like Adam Fisher, Stan Drayton, Aaron McKie and Rod Carey haven’t been able to keep a semblance of sanity, probably the most impressive aspect of the first few months is that new head coach K.C. Keeler is holding things together. Make no mistake about it. Demerick Morris can play in the NFL. He is THAT good. He came to the correct conclusion that can be done for a championship coach. He dipped his toe into the water and went to Oklahoma State before deciding he made a mistake.

Maybe it was because of Keeler’s reputation. Maybe it was because of something else, like Keeler sitting down and having a heart-to-heart conversation with every single one of Temple’s scholarship players.

Still, what is unmistakable is Keeler is holding it together at Temple in a way Drayton, Carey and now Fisher haven’t demonstrated.

That’s an improvement in an era where chaos now reigns.

Less chaos probably means more wins for Temple.

Monday: What the awards tell you

Friday: The Last Cherry and White Game Ever?

03.16.25
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Only one way to convince the doubters

Watching the NCAA basketball selection Sunday reaffirmed my doubts about the future of college sports.

You pay to win.

After years of complaining about Cinderellas getting access to the 68-team tournament, the Power 4 finally devised a way to keep out what they see as deplorables.

NIL and transfer portal.

Each year there are less and less Cinderella types and more and more of the bluebloods. The SEC got a record 14 teams in the tournament. The ACC got a team with a Quad 1 record of 1-11.

One and eleven against the best dozen teams on the schedule.

When it comes to Temple football, the outlook is slightly different because college football’s rough equivalent of March Madness is a 12-team tournament and the way things have been structured for awhile, the Temples of the world are not getting into something like that.

All new Temple head coach K.C. Keeler has to do, though, is to make the top 80 teams in the country to create some excitement around here. There are 130 FBS teams and 80 of them make bowl games and that’s a reasonable expectation for Temple football.

After four-straight 3-9 seasons and a 1-6 season before that, getting to a bowl game is going to feel like winning the national championship around here. The top 40 of those bowl teams pay to play but the bottom 40 get there through grit, guile and organization.

So far, Keeler has shown signs of improvement in that latter area yet there are doubters among Temple fans. Some say he’s “too old” and doesn’t fit the profile of a young hungry coach fans were used to under Matt Rhule and Al Golden.

Those were different times, though, where the “young and hungry” coach could recruit high school players, put them in the weight room for a year and redshirt them for another year before they would be ready to shine. Now try that and the player is gone after the “shine” year and Temple gets out of the deal is developing a kid for another program.

One day, maybe far into the future, a more equitable system might be in place but we have our doubts about that.

What we have no doubt about is that Keeler is the right guy for Temple at this time but we won’t know for sure until December.

If he’s able to pull it off, it will be worth the wait.

Next step: Humor

03.14.25
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Temple: One season over, one begins

Like many Temple fans, watched the finale of the Adam Fisher Story on Thursday night as the men’s basketball team lost to Tulsa.

Unacceptable.

Temple is a great school in the only World Heritage City in the United States with nearly 40,000 full-time students and many more famous alumni than Tulsa and Tulsa is in the middle of bum-bleep Oklahoma with only 3,200 full-time students.

If there is a legitimate leadership council at Temple, heads should roll.

That’s a discussion for another time and probably the next Board of Trustees meeting at Sullivan Hall.

One season is over and one is beginning.

Temple is led on the football side by a CEO who proved he knows what he is doing at three separate schools.

There is no reason to believe that won’t happen at a fourth.

On the other hand, Fisher’s major claim to fame was editing videos for Jim Larranaga at Miami.

Pretty wide gap between the two hires.

K.C. Keeler’s first week as a Temple head coach at an “official” spring practice will end tomorrow and there is a lot of good to say about his production.

Temple’s “Employee of the Week” showed an impressive grasp of the personnel under his disposal.

As a hard-core Temple fan for the last four years, I’ve studied the roster pretty well and think I have a firm handle on the ability of the holdovers.

In his first press conference as Temple’s head coach, Keeler demonstrated an “off-the-charts” kind of knowledge of the individual skills of every player who every reporter asked him about. That proves to me he both already studied the film and had an honest sit-down with all 105 scholarship players in the program.

Now all that needs left to be done is a clean evaluation of a month of practice and a further determination of what must be done in the transfer portal to plug a hole here and there.

That’s the kind of knowledge that Stan Drayton never showed in his three years here.

Will it translate into more wins?

That will all be determined by how Keeler’s staff fills the 10 or so holes that will inevitably need to be filled after spring practice is concluded.

Put it this way: I have a lot more confidence in a football guy leading my football program than a video guy leading my basketball program.

Monday: Doubting Thomases