Tag Archives: nfl

05.01.25
by

Getting a little ahead of ourselves here but …

Under a great coach like Bruce Arians, Temple lost to PSU by scores of 27-25 and 23-18.

Getting a little ahead of ourselves here because the focus should always be on the next game but new Temple head coach K.C. Keeler is building a team of guys with chips on their shoulders.

Good, talented, guys, who have played a lower level of football but finally have a chance to get on a larger stage at Temple.

Question: Can you beat a team like Penn State with a group of guys who have a chip on their shoulders?

As one of The Three Stooges would say, “Certainly.” It definitely happened in 2015.

The next game with that same team is 2026. This is 2025.

We know. We know.

Colin Chase’s most recent film. He is now an Owl.

The focus should be on UMass but Keeler is faced with the task of playing a big-time P4 team in one year and he is putting together a group of talented guys.

Since the Cherry and White game, Keeler has signed a dozen transfer portal guys who can make a difference both now and a year from now.

The latest included a pair of wide receivers, including Jo Jo Bermudez and Colin Chase.

Bermudez is the third big-time player who eschewed Delaware for Temple, including the Blue Hens’ top running back recruit and best linebacker and, now, best wide receiver. Temple football doesn’t lose players to a program like Delaware but compare and contrast that to Temple losing a Penn State transfer guard in basketball to Delaware.

Bermudez’s high school coach once called him “the best football player in the state of New Jersey.” That was at a time when the Philadelphia Eagles’ first-round draft choice, Jihaad Campbell, was playing for a high school less than 20 miles away.

Ugh.

If that isn’t the best illustration for the job K.C. Keeler is doing at Temple visa ve Adam Fisher, I don’t know what is.

I don’t think $75 is low but that’s life on a fixed income.

Above is a screenshot of an article I wrote for Calkins Newspapers in 1986. At the time, those three newspapers (Bucks County Courier Times, Burlington County Times and Doylestown Intelligencer) had a combined daily circulation of 170,000 subscribers (better than the 2025 Philadelphia Inquirer).

Those were the halcyon days of daily newspapers.

Now people get their news other ways.

The big news at Temple these days is football is hot and basketball not so much.

We’d like to see both thrive but this says more for a good A.J. Johnson hire vs. a bad one.

Beating Penn State is a pipe dream in today’s current monetary environment, but a group of motivated guys with chips on their shoulders can move mountains.

We saw a mountain move once a decade ago. Keeler might be hooking another mountain up to a tow truck.

It should be fun to watch in two years and maybe more fun this one.

04.27.25
by

Ground Game: New pieces stand out

Hunter Smith’s high school recruiting film.

Recruiting guru Lou Adler is credited for saying it first:

“The best predictor of future performance is past performance.”

Adler said it in his capacity of recruiting business talent, but it also applies to football talent.

Last week, the Temple football Owls probably grabbed their starting quarterback in Gevani McCoy, although Evan Simon might have something to say about that.

Around the same time, the Owls appeared to have fixed their run game depth by adding Hunter Smith.

This is where the past performance comes into play.

With the addition of Smith, this is what Temple’s running back room looks like: Jay Ducker, the one-time leading rusher in the MAC is pairing with the one-time Louisiana-Monroe rushing leader in Smith.

Smith led the Warhawks with 507 rushing yards in 2023 before suffering an ACL injury. Ducker led the MAC in rushing two years earlier (2021) with 1,184 yards.

Temple head coach K.C. Keeler said Ducker had a “good camp” for the Owls in the spring but said Ducker needs to turn a lot of those yards he got into touchdowns and improve his closing speed. That opens the door for holdover Torrez Worthy to grab the job as he is the fastest back (4.49-40) since Ray Davis in the 2019 season. Davis now plays for the Buffalo Bills.

A red flag for both newcomers is that speed, as both scored just three touchdowns. Worthy outran the entire Tulane team for Temple’s only highlight in a 52-6 loss last year so if he wins the job, it will be by speed alone. A dark horse to win the job is another speedster, De’Carlos Young. Joquez Smith also had a 142-yard game for Temple two years ago so he’s in the mix as well.

At a number of positions, Keeler has brought in more significant transfer portal talent since Cherry and White Day than both Rod Carey and Stan Drayton did in the past six years.

The running back room is a perfect example of that.

Still, Worthy, Young (who hasn’t had a chance yet) and Joquez Smith have not produced the same kind of numbers at the FBS level as Ducker and Smith so the Owls appear to be in capable hands with those two.

At least past performance says so.

Friday: Getting a handle

04.14.25
by

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

04.06.25
by

A return to some coaching competency this spring

Take this from a guy who has been all but two of the last 40 or so Cherry and White games: This one as all the makings for being one of the best.

Trust me, the 2 p.m. kickoff for the Cherry and White should be one of the best. If not best, certainly among the most interesting.

I’ve been to the worst.

The worst was the “game” at Lincoln Financial Field in 2017 when 1,000 fans rattling around in a 70K stadium looked like a couple hundred.

A few years before that almost to the day I stood on the top bleacher at the Diamond Street end zone with an umbrella over my head and ducking behind the 6-foot-4 guy standing on the bleacher below me to get a view of Logan Marchi throwing two interceptions off his back foot. He was BY FAR … FAR … the worst of the four quarterbacks playing that day but somehow he started the opener at Notre Dame and was only able to put up 16 points in the next game against a team Rhode Island scorched for 20 points.

Weather forecast says “rain likely” but we are still six days away.

It sucked big time.

Anything will be better than those two games because for the first time since maybe Steve Addazio was here, there will be a lot of coaches who know what they were doing. (Not that Daz did but he brought with him the core staff of the 2010 Florida Gator squad and it was neat to see the professionalism with which they operated.)

Here are the five things I’m looking for:

Hope

You might say I’m a dreamer but, as the Beatles would say, I’m not the only one. New head coach K.C. Keeler did a lot with little at Rowan, Delaware and Sam Houston and his charge is to do the same at Temple.

Weather

Mid-April is always a crapshoot in Philadelphia. The forecast calls for rain but we are six days away and that can change.

Coaching

Last year, it was a clusterbleep because then head coach Stan Drayton stuck with a guy who gave up 38 ppg in his two prior stints as DC. Not surprising Everett Withers went out at Temple doing the same thing and cost his buddy a fourth season. Now there is a new defensive philosophy. Don’t sell that short because D.J. Eliot proved you could do more with the same players if they were coached differently. Brian Smith probably will prove the same thing. In the spring, they’ve been showing 5-2-4, 3-3-5 and 4-3-4 looks, which shows Smith is flexible.

Evan Simon is sacked by Temple in the 2022 Rutgers’ game

Position Battles

This might be the most important. We all know that Evan Simon No. 1 and Tyler Douglas is No. 2 at quarterback. Is the separation so wide at quarterback that Keeler brings a No. 2 from the portal or is Keeler so wedded to a running quarterback that he jumps over both and brings in a No. 1? Another battle to watch is the one between newcomer Jay Ducker (who started at both Memphis and Sam Houston) and Torrez Worthy, who might have been a 1,000-yard rusher at Temple last year if so-called “running back guru” Drayton didn’t dick around and start E.J. Wilson the first few games.

Special Teams

Both last year’s staff and this year’s staff say the second-best kicker in the AAC was Carl Hardin, who happened to be behind Maddox Trujillo. Yet Hardin MISSED two field goals in the last scrimmage (while also making two) and it’s hard to make a case he’s as reliable as Maddox was now. If he finishes up with a couple of makes and no misses, that’s going to put a lot of minds at ease. Also, does Temple continue with the rugby style punts?

Friday: Farewell to a Tradition

Monday: Takeaways from Cherry and White

03.30.25
by

Temple should give thumbs down to Penn State

Maybe an unpopular opinion here, but Temple should probably say no to Penn State’s offer of a joint practice.

Maybe even a joint spring game.

There are a couple of good reasons for that.

One, Temple has nothing to gain.

Two, Temple has a lot to lose.

Penn State gave Temple two transfer quarterbacks, one was Kevin Newsome (above) and the other won the Maxwell Trophy as the best college football player in the nation (Steve Joachim). But there was no NIL then.

I’ve always said the Cherry and White game spring game was a maddening affair because the good guys always played the good guys. Thought it would make sense for Temple to bring in a team from a similar-sized FBS league (not its own) and play a “real game” against them to get a better gauge of where they are and what they have to do to get better.

In the Cherry and White game, if the offense did well you really didn’t know if that was because the defense was bad and the offense was good or that the offense was really good because the defense was also decent.

Kevin Newsome went from second team QB at PSU to third-team QB at TU but he wrote this great song.

One year, the Owls had a transfer from Shippensburg gain over 100 yards in its spring game. Turns out he was a bust when the real season began in the fall. That was a year the Owls had a bad defense.

Penn State would have been great, say, a dozen years ago.

Now Penn State routinely raids Temple-sized schools, including Temple itself, when it plucked Arnold Ebiketie from the Owls and put him on their DL.

Temple and PSU play in a “real game” in 2026. That should be enough.

James Franklin probably won’t walk over to one or two Temple players that he likes after a Cherry/Blue scrimmage and shake their hands and whisper something into their ears but why even give him that chance?

To be fair, Temple has done the same with a couple of Penn State players–quarterback Kevin Newsome comes to mind–but they usually have been Penn State backups who became Temple backups.

Those were trades that only benefited one ballclub, not both. New Temple coach K.C. Keeler seems to realize that, as he said he is considering the offer but hasn’t decided yet.

For a future spring game opponent, Temple probably should look south to take on someone its own size outside its own league and playing the same level of football.

A team like Sam Houston or even Delaware makes a lot more sense at this point than someone like Penn State, however enticing a spring game involving the Nittany Lions might be to Temple fans.

Friday: The Last One Ever?

03.27.25
by

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?

03.20.25
by

Next step: Some Temple football laughs

One of the best celebrations in recent Temple football history was this one in the lobby of The Liacouras Center when it was announced Temple would be returning to a bowl game for the first time in 30 years. That was fun.

When I was the sports editor of The Temple News and Wayne Hardin was well into his 13-year tenure as head coach, I asked him if he thought football should be fun.

“Good question, Mike,” he said. “I’ll tell you what I’ve always thought about that. The only fun in football is winning.”

The genesis of the question came from talking to so many guys who played under him who said his hard practices made the actual games fun because they were so prepared.

Thought about that the other day when, after the first “official” practice of the K.C. Keeler Era, the new Temple head coach said one of his early challenges was to get the guys to laugh.

Owls rejoice on the field after winning at UConn 17-14 in OT in 2012.

Pretty much said the team is too serious and noted the reasons for that was they were beat down by so many consecutive 3-9 seasons (three under Stan Drayton, one under Rod Carey).

Keeler didn’t have to say it but he is from the Wayne Hardin School of Football and probably believes the same things Wayne did. (After all, the only reason he ended up at Delaware instead of Temple when he played was because Hardin ran out of scholarships.)

The way to get these guys to loosen up and laugh is to win a few games and, if they have to be serious about it now, that can only bode well for the future.

Two College Football Hall of Fame coaches and the same philosophy about having fun.

Robby Anderson and Temple fans had smiles on their faces after beating Penn State in 2015.

Hard practices are followed by games in which the team knows exactly what they are supposed to do in critical situations.

Having fun is part of the deal.

Football, after all is a game, and in a game you are supposed to have fun.

When somebody keeps beating the crap out of you, it’s hard to enjoy anything.

Now the Owls are getting the hard work in this spring to determine a couple of things: One, who on the current roster is good enough to win now and, two, what are the holes the coaching staff needs to fill to help those guys achieve that.

Those coaches who were here last year wanted to fill holes but had no idea how. These ones do.

After years of gloom and doom post-game, it will be good to see the smiles on the faces of both Temple players and fans again.

If not this spring, then certainly this fall.

Monday: A Needed Change

03.07.25
by

Delaware: Schedule them and beat them

Temple not only got Delaware’s best current player but stole its best recruit as well.

When a first-year Temple head coach named Wayne Hardin was asked about scheduling Villanova, he came up with his succinct response:

“I’m all for scheduling them and beating them.”

Another first-year Temple coach, K.C. Keeler, would be wise to adopt the same policy in the near future about not only the Wildcats, but his alma mater.

Temple puts fannies in the seats in Delaware and the Blue Hens would do the same in Philly.

Hardin pretty much did both in his 13-year Temple career. He also believed in scheduling smaller school power Delaware and doing the same.

Temple hasn’t scheduled Delaware since Bruce Arians ended that series by saying: “I’m all for scheduling smaller schools but not when you are the biggest game of their season.”

Now, with a former Delaware head coach and the Blue Hens moving up to FBS, it’s time to renew this longstanding rivalry.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

Wayne Hardin’s record against Delaware and legendary coach Tubby Raymond was 8-4, proving that when both teams have a legendary head coach, Temple is the better football school.

One, the storyline.

Former Delaware player and legendary head coach K.C. Keeler is now the head coach of Temple. Keeler stole not only the best Delaware player in the transfer portal but the Blue Hens’ best recruit this year so there’s that.

Two, fannies in the seats.

What visiting team STILL holds the Delaware single-game attendance record?

Temple.

Delaware hailed the acquisition of RB Keveun Mason. He is now at Temple.

That was set when a Joe Klecko-led Owls’ team spanked the Blue Hens, 31-8, before a record crowd.

Temple needs fannies in the seats and visiting Delaware would bring a significant amount (maybe 30-40 percent) of a crowd that could exceed 30,000 at Lincoln Financial Field.

Delaware has asked to play Temple before but the Owls (rightly) demanded a 2-for-1 deal. Delaware wanted a 1-for-1. Temple said thanks but no thanks.

Now that Delaware has joined FBS, maybe the Owls can relent and settle for a home-and-home.

That’s a deal that makes sense for both ballclubs.

Kind of like the Eagles sending Nolan Smith to Cleveland for Myles Garrett. Cleveland gets younger at the same position without losing a whole lot of talent and Philly gets a possible two- and three-peat.

Monday: Football Season is Here (Kinda/Sorta)

02.14.25
by

Not long until we see greatness at work

An argument can be made, maybe for the first time since 1983, Temple football fans will have a chance to watch greatness at work fairly soon.

Arguably, because while Bruce Arians, Al Golden and Matt Rhule did some great work for Temple since Wayne Hardin retired that year, all were “learning on the job” types who did their better work after getting acclimated to the demands of being a first-time head coach.

When Hardin first stepped foot on campus in 1970, he was not only a championship pro football coach with the Philadelphia Bulldogs, he was one of the five best college football coaches in the nation before that.

In 1961 at Navy, Hardin had the Middies ranked No. 2 in the country. That was an amazing, incredible accomplishment in the year that Navy players were ineligible to play in the NFL due to a five-year service requirement.

Wayne Hardin’s proven dominance over Tubby Raymond and UD.

You think the NIL and the transfer portal are hard?

Try walking into Roger Staubach’s house and telling him he can play at Navy for the next four years but won’t be able to play for any NFL team until he’s 26.

That’s exactly the sales pitch Hardin had for him and he was able to sell it.

Staubach not only bought it but got a Heisman Trophy as a result, as did his teammate and future Temple football radio analyst Joe Bellino. Hardin was a pretty good salesman.

Then Temple hired him in 1971, which was like Temple of today hiring Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman a decade from now.

Hardin is in the College Football Hall of Fame now and no doubt current Temple head coach K.C. Keeler will join him in a few years. After all, Keeler is already the winningest FCS coach in history and that’s probably enough. No one is likely to catch him since the FCS coaches on his heels probably will get FBS jobs.

Keeler has to do something Hardin never had to and that was navigate the choppy waters that are both the NIL and the transfer portal.

Nobody has a better understand of the genius of Hardin than Keeler, who was recruited by him but the Owls overcommitted on scholarships that season so Keeler ended up at Delaware.

Keeler understands the history of Hardin’s battles with legendary UD coach Tubby Raymond, where Hardin went 8-4 against him including a 31-8 win at Delaware before the (still) largest crowd in Delaware history and a 31-14 win over an otherwise 12-0 Delaware team that Keeler played on in 1979.

Hardin proved he could win at Temple.

Keeler already proved he could do it at a tougher place (Sam Houston State), leading that program from an FCS national champion team to a 9-3 FBS team in no time.

He will apply that same kind of blueprint to Temple starting with the first spring practice on March 11. That’s less than one month from now.

If you see greatness at work, take notes. Or you can watch this space because we will be doing exactly that.

Monday: Difference between want to and how to

Friday: That’s my quarterback

Monday: The AAC Schedule

02.10.25
by

Temple now has three Howie Roseman’s

Khalil Ahmad will reportedly go from being recruiting coordinator at Penn State to a high-profile football job at Temple.

What’s better than one Howie Roseman?

Three of them.

While Jalen Hurts received the MVP of the Super Bowl on Sunday night after a 40-22 demolishing of the Kansas City Chiefs, most inside football guys will tell you that the real MVP this year was Roseman, the general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Put it this way: After last year’s total collapse, it was Roseman’s job to retool both the roster and the coaching staff and hit went 4-for-4 with both.

He got a couple of No. 1-type picks in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean and both provided good coverage and sure tackling on the back end of the defense the team didn’t have a year ago. Plus, he signed what turned out to be the best linebacker in football in Zach Baun and re-signed C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

Kyle Pollock.

Then he fixed the coaching piece by hiring a pair of proven coordinators in Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio.

Mix the coaching with the new players and a team that couldn’t tackle anyone at the end of last year could not be blocked.

Temple football fixed that coaching piece a few months ago when it fired Stan Drayton and replaced him with a Hall of Fame head coach in K.C. Keeler.

Now with Keeler’s hiring of Khalil Ahmad to a “high-ranking” front office role at Temple, the Owls do not have one Howie Roseman but three.

The other two are Clayton Barnes and Old Dominion’s Kyle Pollock.

All will have a “Howie Roseman” type role with the Owls, scouring the transfer portal for overlooked talent like Baun was in the NFL.

Ahman is Penn State’s recruiting director so he knows what he’s doing. Barnes was the portal guy at Sam Houston State and helped build a roster than gave Keeler a 9-3 record this year and Pollock’s job description is “associate general manager for personnel and roster improvement.”

Sounds to me like the days of reaching for JUCO talent are over and Temple is going to make some real inroads into acquiring talent that could win right away.

One Howie Roseman turned out well for the Eagles.

Maybe three of them will do the same for the other Lincoln Financial Field football tenant.

Friday: A tale of three Temple programs