Tag Archives: nfl

11.22.25
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Temple’s bowl hopes now rest on a 90/10 game

The Owls didn’t even attempt a throwback pass from Kayjia Hollawayne to JoJo Bermudez so they lost.

Way back in August, K.C. Keeler said he noticed something about the American Conference.

“I told our guys there are going to be a lot of 50/50 games in this league and our chances of winning those games will come down to how clean we play,” he said.

Demerick Morris, who once thought the grass was greener on the Oklahoma State side of the fence and spent some time practicing for Mike Gundy, came back to Temple once he heard K.C. Keeler had taken the job. He takes one last look at the green grass at the Linc after his final game at Temple. (Black and White Photo Courtesy of Zamani Feelings)

Unfortunately Temple’s last 50/50 game was at Army and the Owls are out of such games meaning that their hopes to shock the world and make a bowl game rest on a 90/10 game.

And they have the 10 in that equation.

Maybe the Tulane game was a 70/10 game and that was pretty much reflected in Saturday’s final score of 37-13. Tulane got a number of ridiculous calls by refs who were seemingly told by the league office that if there was a 50/50 call, give it to the Green Wave. We can’t say for sure but it looked that way.

Expect another Green–Mean–to get the same kind of deference in five days.

Really, the game at North Texas (Black Friday) looks more lopsided in the sense that the Owls will have to play a better quarterback and a better running back than anyone they’ve seen on Tulane and they will have to do it on the road against a 10-1 Mean Green team that needs that game to reach its first American Conference championship game.

Temple’s been to two of those and won one and that only seems like a hundred years ago and not less than a decade ago.

Not a LB, but DT’s Demerick Morris’ legacy at Temple will be that of the first guy who entered the transfer portal and returned to 10th and Diamond.

Still, the Owls themselves were once 5-3 so not making a bowl would be a huge disappointment. If that happens, I would feel sorry for all the Owls who worked so hard–especially a guy like DT Demerick Morris on the defensive side and QB Evan Simon on the offensive side.

For not only those guys but themselves, they need to find a way to play a perfect game on Friday, or this will be forever known as the Year of The Three Knees.

That is, if they had done what every other pro or college team would have done with 1:16 left and a first-and-goal at the 1 against Navy–take three knees and burn the Middies two final timeouts–kicking a FG from extra point distance to win with no more than 15-20 seconds left, they would be figuring out which bowl invite to take. That was not a close call. An otherwise great coaching staff had a brain cramp on that day.

That cramp will be forever etched in Temple Football history if the Owls don’t find a way to get it done Friday.

You don’t want to let that happen, but you might not have a choice because those guys have better Jimmies than your Joes.

Or Evans and Demericks.

Monday: The Fans Are Not To Blame

Friday: Mean Green-Owl Preview

11.20.25
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Temple wins if it pulls out all of the stops

Gary Segars says K.C. Keeler is always a good bet as an underdog. He’s usually right.

The phrase “pulling out all of the stops” means to use all available resources to achieve a desired outcome.

At least that’s what both the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English dictionaries say.

The good news is that Temple head coach K.C. Keeler is starting to get that term in the sense that he admitted that the two close losses to the service academies caused him some introspective in analyzing what one or two things he could have done to get him over those 1-point humps in losses.

If Kajiya Hollawayne throws a TD pass, you’ve got the Temple Football Forever guarantee of a win.

He was kind of referring to next year.

Here’s a thought: Do it now.

As an outside observer, we’re going to offer a couple of theories how that desired result could be achieved for Saturday’s Senior Day home game against 24th-ranked Tulane (3:45 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field).

One, keep doing what you are doing 97 percent of the time.

That means offensive coordinator’s Tyler Walker’s innovative motion offense, which involves a lot of moving parts causing defensive confusion. It also means Brian L. Smith’s core belief of pressure on the quarterback, ostensibly with the front five, but also including blitzes if needed. Make Jake Retzlaff as uncomfortable for the entire game as you did to UTSA’s Owen McCown in the second half a few weeks ago.

Speaking of McCown, take a page out of the book he used to beat Tulane, 48-26. Go 31-for-33 with 370 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions against that secondary.

To do that, you’ve got to give Evan Simon a chance to throw the ball at least 33 times against a banged-up cornerback room even more depleted than the one McCown faced three weeks ago.

That leaves the other three percent of the time, which will probably determine the outcome of this most important Temple game in a decade.

Temple, especially on the offensive side of the ball, has done very little to “fool” the opposition in terms of “using all available resources to achieve a desired outcome.”

The last few games showed that Keeler and Company are starting to get it in terms that they used a third-string quarterback on a number of surprise packages that called for a QB run or a QB pass.

When the Army defense recognizes No. 14 is a backup QB and calls the reverse pass before it happens, that’s probably not the kind of play you want to use.

Ditch that. Ditch the entire Tyler Douglas package.

“Great throw Kajiya. I was saving this play for Senior Day.”

You will know Temple is going to win this game maybe early as the first offensive play from scrimmage. That’s been almost always a boring straight handoff to Jay Ducker. Let this one be a Jet Sweep to Kajiya Hollawayne. I don’t care if he gains 3 yards, 12 yards or goes to the house, it will be a successful play for Temple.

I know Hollawayne is a 4*star quarterback recruit from UCLA. You might know he is a 4* QB recruit from UCLA and both Keeler and Walker might know that, but it’s highly doubtful Tulane does. That Jet Sweep sets up another Jet Sweep down the road where the Tulane corners come up on run coverage and allow Hollawayne to use that 4* arm to hit JoJo Bermudez in stride for six points.

This is how open Bermudez would be on that kind of pass:

Especially since Temple hasn’t used that play all year.

To date.

That’s one of our 3 percent suggestions.

Here’s another: Temple hasn’t used the “tush push” or “Brotherly Shove” so far.

Doug Pederson said he got “The Philly Special” from watching this Temple play against Penn State in 2015. Nothing more Philly than Temple. The Owls have a long history of winning big games on trick plays.

Do it with 6-6, 265-pound tight end Peter Clarke doing the pushing for one or two 4th-and-1s.

You know what that sets up?

Certainly not a pass, but a “fake tush push” to “Temple’s Saquon Barkley” a pitch the speedy Keveun Mason, for maybe another six points.

Those dozen points might make a difference for the seniors who deserve one after three long years with this program.

Pulling out all the stops hasn’t been tried once this season, especially in the two 1-point losses.

Now that approach deserves the kind of chance it hasn’t been given for the first 10 games.

Very, Very Late Saturday Night (since I will be at the stadium until 9): Game Analysis

11.09.25
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Time to throw caution (and footballs) to the wind

K.C. Keeler did this interview two days before the Army game and he says better days are ahead, we’re just trying to figure out if those better days are this month or next year.

Over the next bye week, the Temple coaches are going to have to decide how to best get one or two wins in their final two shots.

A defense that allowed only 14 points against Army should be competitive enough.

Trust Evan Simon’s arm to do more than lead the Diamond Marching Band and we might revisit this great moment after the Tulane game.

Remember, this is an Army offense that scored 24 on Kansas State and 17 on Tulane–one of the two remaining teams on Temple’s schedule–so it could be said if they perform that way over the final two games, they put the Owls in a good spot to win one of the two games and become bowl eligible.

There do appear, though, to be cracks on offense and those should be fixable over the bye week.

The Owls so far have maintained a balance of running and passing but maybe after a further review of the situation they should realize how fortunate they are to have a quarterback who has thrown for 22 touchdowns against only one interception and incorporate more of the offense around him. After the Tulsa game, K.C. Keeler said his OC (Tyler Walker) told him he thought the Owls’ offense was better when it was “more aggressive.”

I agree. Yet the Owls’ offense was anything but aggressive in a 14-13 loss at Army on Saturday.

Time to reset that.

Evan Simon, to me, seems to be the type of guy who can turn the scoreboard into an adding machine if he gets the chance and maybe Temple gives him that over the final two games.

We can only hope.

Time to throw caution to the wind and that means filling the air with footballs at least at a higher rate than throughout the season so far.

Unless Kajiya Hollawayne’s four-star arm is broken, I’d like to see him throw one touchdown pass on a reverse before he leaves Temple.

Temple has explosiveness on the edge in players like JoJo Bermudez and Kajiya Hollawayne and reliable pass catchers in Colin Chase and a fantastic tight end room led by Peter Clarke. Hollawayne–a former quarterback at UCLA– should be the guy tossing the throwback pass, not a backup quarterback that the defense can recognize right away. In fact, maybe it’s advisable to ditch that entire Tyler Douglas package.

Maybe instead of handing the ball off to Jay Ducker, Keveun Mason and Hunter Smith, involve those guys more in the screen game to keep the pass rush off Simon and then take some deep shots. Run the ball but make it closer to 40 percent of the time instead of 50. Hell, I wouldn’t mind if it was 30 percent of the time.

This is the kind of approach that both Tulane and North Texas haven’t seen on film and they might not be ready for it. Simon isn’t going to be around forever so Temple should put his ability to good use over the final couple of games. If I’m going to try for a bowl game, I want the ball in the hands of my best player wearing that Cherry helmet most of the time.

It’s worth a shot or the final two games could be a repeat of ECU and nobody wants to see that.

Friday: Avoiding Heartbreak

11.08.25
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Flirting with a bowl game was nice while it lasted

For most of the upcoming bye week, what we are going to be hearing from both the Temple coaches and players (and maybe some fans) is that the Owls can win one of their two final remaining games and reach bowl eligibility.

A lot of people (raising my hand here) who have watched this team know what we saw over the last 10 games and come to a competing conclusion.

The Temple fan section in one end zone at the game today.

The flirtation with a bowl was nice, but it’s probably over.

Nobody would like to see the Owls win one of their two remaining games (hell, both would be preferable) more than me but wishing and hoping isn’t going to make it happen and the Owls’ one-point losses to the service academies set them up for having to beat better teams than both Army and Navy.

That will be a nearly impossible task.

Both the Navy and Army games taught the Owls a valuable lesson in the way to close out a football game going forward.

Had the Owls did against Navy what Army did against them–slide at the 2 and milk the clock to end the game–we’d be talking about which bowl game we wanted to attend. The Navy game, a 32-31 loss, should have been a win had the Owls taken three knees and kicked the game-winning field goal.

Army quarterback Cale Hellums illustrated that point with an exclamation mark when he slid at the 2 in a 14-13 win on Saturday. He could have done what Temple head coach K.C. Keeler elected to do a couple of weeks ago and score but that would have given Evan Simon the same kind of time to beat his team that Keeler gave Blake Horvath and Navy.

It was almost like Cale turned to K.C. and said, “This is what you guys should have done against Navy.”

The Owls played dumb football then. Army played smart football today. The hard reality is for all of the great compliments Keeler had about kicker Carl Hardin is that he missed makeable field goals (45 and 38 yards) against both service academies. Just one would have put the Owls in a bowl game. Keeler said Hardin can hit it from 60, but I’d rather have a consistent kicker from 45 and in than the threat of hitting one from 60. Give me a guy like Cap Poklemba–who went 5-for-5 in field goals at Pitt–over someone who might hit it from 60.

After the Tulsa win, Keeler said OC Tyler Walker told him the Owls’ offense was better when it played aggressive. They were anything but aggressive against Army. They should have thrown downfield on 75 percent of the plays against a team that couldn’t defend the pass.

Instead, they relied on the run way too much. If the Army defense is good at anything, it’s playing against a run they see every day in practice. The few times Temple threw the ball on Saturday it was successful.

Clock management is an important thing going forward for next year not this one because it likely won’t be an issue over the final two games.

What will be an issue in the final two games is the same one we witnessed two weeks ago against East Carolina, a roster gap that can’t be bridged by getting all the injured players back over the bye week. Make no mistake about it, the rosters of North Texas and Tulane are every bit as good as the ECU roster.

After that ECU game, Keeler alluded to that issue by saying “we’re not there yet” in the area of talent.

Expect all the quotes over the next week to be of the “we can do it” variety but the quotes over the two weeks after that being of the “we’re not there yet” realm. Or “those guys have had a couple years to build the roster and we’ve had only one.”

You know what I’d like to hear?

“Tyler said to me we’ve got a great QB so let’s put the ball in his hands the final two weeks and that got us a couple wins nobody expected,” Keeler might say.

Doubt we’d hear anything like that, though.

Damn.

When that happens, the story of the 2025 season will be so close yet so far away. Maybe no more than one foot far right twice with the kicker being it should have never come down to one.

Monday: Caution to the Wind

11.02.25
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Last Chance for Bowl: A win at Army

Temple was down 28-3 and still spoiled Army’s Homecoming 15 years ago (wearing Cherry helmets).

The schedule says Temple has three shots at gaining bowl eligibility.

Reality suggests only one.

This week at Army (noon, CBS Sports Network).

Head coach K.C. Keeler pretty much said so during his post-game press conference on Saturday when he said “we’re not there yet” when talking about the physical gap between his team and East Carolina.

Temple’s Montel Harris is all smiles after getting congratulated by Army captain Nate Coombs for gaining 351 yards and scoring 7 touchdowns in Temple’s 63-32 win in 2012, the last victory for the Owls at Army.

Leading up to Saturday’s 45-14 loss, he said it was a “50-50” game like so many in the league.

It wasn’t.

What happened?

Well, the Owls didn’t play as well as they did in the loss to Navy or the wins at Charlotte and Tulsa. East Carolina is closer in ability to Tulane and North Texas–Temple’s final two opponents–than Army is so this could very well be Temple’s last chance at bowl eligibility.

Army is probably closer in ability to Navy or Tulsa than it is to Charlotte, so this could be the last so-called “50-50” game on the schedule.

The Owls would probably be wise to look at it that way.

The Army team honors Temple by hanging around for “T for Temple U” after the 2012 win.

Army opened as a 5.5-point favorite over Temple at 2 on Sunday and the “public” bet enough money on the home side to push that up to 6.5.

Still, both Tulane and North Texas will probably be double-digit favorites over the Owls.

Can the Owls beat Army?

Sure, because Tarleton State, a FCS team that lost to Abilene Christian, beat Army. Abilene Christian lost at Tulsa, 35-7, who the Owls beat two weeks ago.

Transitive property means only so much because the Owls beating UTSA suggested that the game against East Carolina would be similar talent vs. similar talent.

The problem for Temple is does the Temple that showed up vs. Navy and Charlotte show up at Army or do the Owls who showed up–or didn’t show up–last Saturday show up next Saturday?

A lot will be determined by how much the injury factor played into the ECU loss and how much that factor lingers over into the Army game.

Can Jay Ducker duplicate or even come close to the 351 yards Montel Harris had in 2012 or even the 228 yards the 5-foot-5 Matty Brown had in 2010?

I’ll settle for 100, which would set up a lot of play/action passing from Evan Simon.

Or that long-awaited throwback pass from former UCLA quarterback Kajiya Hollawayne to JoJo Bermudez for six we’ve been talking about for nine weeks.

To get to a bowl, it’s time to pull out all of the stops because this could be the last one on a bowl-eligible train that might bypass the Tulane and North Texas stations.

Friday: Army Preview

10.25.25
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Learning lessons in a win goes down easier

A couple of weeks ago, the Temple football Owls learned a hard lesson in a bitter loss.

Today, they learned the same kind of lesson in a win, a remarkable 38-37 overtime one at Tulsa that has to rank with one of the top college football games in Week 9.

Give me the second option any day of the week.

Put both lessons up on a blackboard, add one plus two and come up some basic arithmetic that could result in the Owls controlling their own destiny–as much as they can–to get to the American Conference title game.

First, the old news. Temple head coach K.C. Keeler probably learned that taking three knees with a first-and-goal at the 1-inch line and then kicking a field goal with either no (or very little time) on the clock for the bad guys was the preferable option to scoring too soon and giving Navy time to do damage.

Water under the dam and a damn hard way to lose a game.

Today, he learned that trying to reward a guy with a touchdown after a long run is definitely not preferable to giving it to your Mr. Inside (Jay Ducker) after your Mr. Outside (Hunter Smith) put you in a similar spot at the 1-yard line.

That’s why Ducker is Mr. Inside and Smith is Mr. Outside. They both have specific roles on this team and the play-calling took both out of their roles.

Ducker is the inside run specialist but it looked like Temple OC Tyler Walker was trying to “reward” Smith for his effort with a touchdown and Ducker never got back in the game on that series. One, Smith had to be gassed after that long run yet he got the next carry. Two, Ducker is the better runner between tackles.

To me, that was the key to the game being a 31-14 Temple win and a 38-37 Temple win (or worse) because Tulsa made that a 14-point swing. Stopping the “sure” seven of Temple and scoring seven on its own on the next series.

Afterward, Keeler said he was “doing other things” and that Walker was responsible for those four ill-fated calls. That would have made it 21-7, Temple. Instead, the Hurricane used that goal-line stand as momentum to go up, 17-14.

Can’t do that going forward against anyone and, hopefully, this hard lesson was learned.

When the Owls wear Cherry helmets, they usually don’t lose.

Fortunately, the Owls survived because my favorite Temple quarterback (now officially of all time, supplanting Adam DiMichele, sorry Adam), Evan Simon, threw five touchdown passes and, once again, no interceptions.

For those counting, that’s 21 touchdown passes against zero (that’s right, zero) interceptions for the season. Simon is only two touchdowns from tying E.J. Warner’s record for touchdown passes at Temple (23) and is almost a sure bet to eclipse it. Look who is on that list. One, is the son of a Super Bowl winning QB (Warner) and Brian Broomell (who had 22 TD passes) is QB of a Temple team that finished No. 17 in the nation in 1979 and beat two other bowl teams, West Virginia and Syracuse. Another (Steve Joachim, 20 TDs in 1974) only won the Maxwell Award as the best college football player in the nation, beating Heisman winner Archie Griffin.

Now back to Simon, who is going in the books as better than all of them.

This was the sequence that turned a potential blowout for Temple into an overtime game. I get that you are trying to reward a guy who had a 72-yard run with a touchdown but, if after the first play, he doesn’t score, give it to your inside run specialist.

That won’t be the first time he’s ever beaten Warner because, in 2022, Simon was the winning quarterback in a 16-14 Rutgers’ win at Temple. The key play was when Temple’s tiny quarterback tried to throw over a lineman who tipped it and took it the other way for 6.

The hard lesson that day for Temple was if you are a vertically challenged quarterback, don’t throw when a big guy is coming at you with outstretched arms.

The hard lessons the last two times for K.C. Keeler and his staff include a smarter approach when you get to the bad guy’s 1-yard line.

How they apply those lessons will go a long way in determining whether the Owls reach “just” a bowl or something much sweeter.

Much, much sweeter.

Monday: The scenarios

10.24.25
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Keeler has a chance to challenge Hardin’s start

Probably the best look behind the scenes at Wayne Hardin and Temple Stadium that I’ve ever seen.

Only one new Temple coach started his career with the Philadelphia school winning roughly twice as many games as he lost.

That was the great Wayne Hardin, a College Football Hall of Famer who continued his great career here in 1970 and finished 18-9-1 over his first three years at Temple.

Nobody else started at Temple so successfully.

Tomorrow’s high at Tulsa is 59 but there is plenty of wet weather in the forecast.

Not Bruce Arians. Not Al Golden. Not Matt Rhule.

To me, and pretty much everyone else, K.C. Keeler is a sure-fire bet to join Hardin in the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta for what he’s done before he got here.

That was the way with Hardin, too, who had Navy as the No. 2 team in the nation in 1962.

Yet what Hardin did at Temple might have been more impressive.

Same with Keeler at Temple because his best may be yet to come.

Top teams in the country in turnover margin.

Keeler got his 275th career win on Saturday, 49-14, at Charlotte.

In his first season, the Owls are 4-3 with a shot to finish 9-3. Amazing in the sense that they were 3-9 for the last four years and 1-6 the year before that.

Even more amazing that they were only a missed false start away from being unbeaten in the American Conference and having their championship destiny in their own hands.

Now they are going to need help to knock Navy out of a tie-breaker situation.

It all starts on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN+) at Tulsa. Temple has no chance in that game if it is thinking about 9-3 or even looking at the scoreboard.

K.C. Keeler tells the story about being recruited by Wayne Hardin in the late 1970s.

It does have a chance if it does all the “Hardin-like” things Keeler has been preaching all season. One, don’t look at the scoreboard. Two, concentrate on the next play. Three, “do your job” on the next play and not go outside that job by “trying to make a play.”

These things have been what Keeler has been preaching all year and, for the most part, the Owls have answered his prayers.

Saturday at Tulsa will provide a challenge because the Owls will have to overcome some weather issues. There is a good chance of rain, a high temperature of 59 degrees, and even some thunderstorms in the area. That’s advantage Temple because the Owls No. 4 in the country in turnover margin and Tulsa is No. 109. On a rainy day, that ball is slippery and the team who values it most has the advantage.

You can add 4 wins to that total.

The Owls have experience in that area as the home game against Howard was delayed by a half hour by thunderstorms in Philadelphia and the game at Georgia Tech was also delayed by the same thing. The Owls remained focused at home, not so focused on the road, but the lessons learned in Atlanta should be applied in Tulsa.

One game at a time. One play at a time.

Seven years after the above video was made, Hardin had Keeler in his office on a recruiting visit. The Owls ran out of scholarships that day, but Keeler is where he belongs now.

Beating Tulsa tomorrow opens another door. There are four more doors to bust down after that.

A 9-3 start is implausible but not impossible. Wayne Hardin showed the way in 1972.

K.C. Keeler is doing the same almost 60 years later. The fact that the two were in the same room once talking about coming to Temple is a pretty neat thing indeed.

Late Saturday Night: Tulsa Game Analysis

10.16.25
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Temple-Charlotte: Long past time for a trick play

Halfway through the season one thing Temple fans know about both offensive coordinator Tyler Walker and head coach K.C. Keeler is that they don’t like trick plays.

Walker has shown an innovative offense with a lot of motion that causes both defensive coordinators and defenses in general to scratch their heads.

CBS Sports and Emory Hunt made Temple a highlight game and like the Owls. Great photo of Temple center Grayson Mains here. The Owls’ offensive line led the way for 518 yards of total offense against Navy and deserved the win.

What he hasn’t shown is a “trick play” and, by that I mean, a throwback pass to Kajiya Hollawayne (a quarterback at UCLA), who draws the defense to him and leaves JoJo Bermudez wide open on the other side of the field for six.

Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN+) would be a good time to dust that one off because the Owls need a booster shot after being made sick by a heartbreaking loss to Navy.

When asked about trick plays two weeks ago, Keeler said he was hesitant to use them “when we’re not playing well.”

He didn’t say anything about the first play of the game.

Not going to be an easy game for the Owls because it’s Charlotte’s Homecoming in this compact 15,000-seat stadium.

The Owls have played six games and, on five of them, the first play of the game has been a standard handoff to Jay Ducker. I know that. You know that. The bad guys certainly know that.

None of those handoffs have gone for more than 3 yards.

Why not fake that handoff to Ducker, toss a throwback to Hollawayne and have the former UCLA quarterback hit Bermudez in stride for six?

Why not indeed?

This is how wide open JoJo Bermudez would be on a throwback pass from Hollawayne.

That would get the sideline pumped.

Mentioned this to Evan Simon’s dad the last couple of tailgates and he agreed. Also brought it up with Grayson Mains’ dad and he didn’t hate the idea.

Don’t know if these dads enough pull with their kids for them to draw this up in the dirt like a sandlot play but it wouldn’t be a bad idea for this game particularly.

This team is hurting (hell, I’m still hurting) from the toughest of tough losses and getting off to a spectacular start would just be what the doctor ordered.

That doesn’t mean a 3-yard handoff to Jay Ducker.

Showing the world that the Owls have bounced back means a touchdown on the first play of the game. Nothing ventured nothing gained is a great saying for a good reason.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

10.11.25
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First- and second-guessing turned out to be the same

With 1 minute, 16 seconds left in a 24-24 game, Temple quarterback Evan Simon hit Kajiya Hollawayne at Navy the 1 and Hollawayne was fortunate enough not to score.

I say fortunate because that gave Temple some time to play with and an opportunity to burn Navy’s last two time outs.

A gift, really.

No way the team on the right should have lost to the team on the left.

There were a couple of Navy fans in front of me and I leaned over to one and said:

“If I’m you guys, I would let Temple score here. If I’m Temple, I take three knees, make Navy take two timeouts and kick a field goal to win the game.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

America’s next Military leaders never had an opportunity to pull a France and surrender because Temple scored a touchdown on the next play and it looked like the Midshipmen, as they have all night, put up a fight.

That meant Temple gave the ball back to Navy with that 1:16 still on the clock.

I leaned over to my Navy fan friend and said, “That’s too much time with this quarterback.”

He tried to console me.

“Temple has a good quarterback, too,” he said.

“Yeah, I know but it won’t make much difference because he’s probably not going to get the ball back.”

We all know what happened after that. Blake Horvath, who in my mind is every bit the quarterback (and probably more) than Oklahoma’s John Mateer in the Heisman Trophy race, did what Heisman Trophy winners do and negotiate the length of the field.

Navy, 32-31, game, set and match.

By my calculations, a first-down knee and a second-down knee kills both Navy timeouts. A third-down knee takes the clock to about 40 seconds or less.

A fourth-down FG from extra point distance wins the game, 27-24.

Or at least gives the ball back to Horvath with 40 seconds and no timeouts as opposed to 1:16 and two timeouts left.

Maybe Horvath takes the ball all the way down the field. Maybe he doesn’t but, what he actually did with those 40 seconds was to get the ball to midfield.

That’s where the game would have ended all things considered.

Afterward, Temple head coach K.C. Keeler said he “wasn’t comfortable” with taking knees and anything could happen but, to me, after a first down on the 1, you can pretty much safely take a step back and down the ball without a disaster.

The alternative was worse.

Keeler also said there would be second-guessing and “I get that” but, when the second-guessing also includes the first guessing a Mike Philadelphia had with a Joe Annapolis guy while this was unfolding, that’s where I don’t buy it.

I’m thinking we weren’t the only two people in the stadium having that same discussion with 1:16 left.

Every NFL team would have done the same thing which means great coaches, even Hall of Fame ones like Keeler, occasionally make mental mistakes.

Just like the one a pitcher for the Hometown baseball team made a couple of nights ago. This hurts a whole lot worse.

Monday: Game Week

10.09.25
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K.C. Keeler is the last hope for Philly Sports

On probably one of the worst nights in Philadelphia sports history, we are on the eve of … maybe … one of the best ones in Temple football history.

The Phillies lost on a monumental brain cramp by a relief pitcher who didn’t even know what a 10-year-old Little Leaguer knows. The Eagles were blown out by the worst team in the NFL one year away from being the best team in the NFL.

If all the Temple alumni and students head inside instead of hanging out to tailgate, they will make the difference for the kids on the field.

K.C. Keeler might be Philadelphia sports’ best hope.

There is a vulnerable unbeaten college football team left and it’s up to the Temple Owls to hand them a loss. Navy (5-0) is in town (4 p.m., ESPN2) and every Temple fan within an hour of the stadium needs to put down the remote and head to Lincoln Financial Field.

Yeah, I know the Joe Sixpack guy living at 8th and Bigler doesn’t care much about Temple football but this is all Philadelphia has right now and you’ve got to take the wins where you can get them.

We’re focusing on Keeler right now because he not only beat a UTSA team that hung with a potential national champion this year (Texas A&M) but he has the Owls buttoned down in areas that even the Phillies or Eagles neglected in the last few weeks.

As much as Jalen Hurts looks disinterested in winning (or even making a play), that’s how invested Temple quarterback Evan Simon is in winning. Put it this way: Does Hurts sleep at the Eagles practice facility? No. Does Simon sleep at Temple’s?

Yes.

In a town that appreciates that kind of commitment, Temple is this weekend’s only hope.

There is a big Navy presence in town this week with the 250th anniversary of the Naval Academy with the festivities centered on Philadelphia, not Annapolis.

Yet there is a bigger Temple presence in this town because the Owls are expecting around 30,000 of their own fans for Homecoming.

Say, a crowd of 30K Temple fans vs. a crowd of 12K Navy fans.

That’s the ceiling. The floor is 20K Temple, 15K Navy.

Either way, the Linc should be rocking. It doesn’t matter whether the announced crowd is 35K or 42K.

The “buttoned down” part is that Temple hired the Rice DC who held Navy to its lowest point total in 2024 in a 24-10 Rice win. Brian L. Smith knows how to stop a triple option and he’s been preaching gap integrity for two weeks.

Navy head coach Brian Newberry said as much this week when he said that Smith is the kryptonite to the Navy offensive scheme and that Temple has better athletes than Rice which makes this Saturday scary for the Midshipmen. The Owls need to contain Navy quarterback Brian Horvath, who loves throwing it to No. 22 (Eli Heidenrich). He can outrun Air Force’s corners but he won’t be able to outrun Temple’s.

If the Owls listen, and do their jobs and take care of their assigned gaps, the Owls win. If they go outside their jobs and “try to make a play” they lose.

It’s as simple as picking a ball up and throwing it to first base. The Phillies nor Eagles got that message Thursday night.

In a day or so, if the Owls do, Philadelphia sports gets to celebrate a big win and K.C. Keeler becomes a Hometown Hero.

For a guy who is from here and for a school that was always here, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Very Late Saturday Night (pushing Midnight): Game Analysis