Tag Archives: nfl

05.11.25
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A King Solomon-like solution to Temple QB controversy

Gevani McCoy highlights at Oregon State last season.

Whatever happens in the summer camp when Gevani McCoy arrives to do battle with Evan Simon, Temple appears headed for a quarterback controversy.

While this happened a half-century of so ago at Temple, new head coach K.C. Keeler might need to pull out a more ancient solution, about 2,900 years earlier. When two women claimed to be the mother of a baby and wanted custody, they went to King Solomon. When Solomon suggested they split the baby and give one half to each, the real mother said give to the other one.

Marty Ginestra’s stats in Temple’s 1973 season were better (9 TDs, 0INTs) than newcomer Steve Joachim’s (11 TDs to 10 INTs) below. Interesting that as a PSU backup in 1971, Steve tossed 7 TDs vs. 3 INTs for Joe Paterno.

Solomon, in his wisdom, figured that gesture indicated who the real mother was and awarded the baby to the one who didn’t want it killed.

Or at least that’s the story.

Splitting the baby in the Simon/McCoy battle could be the way to go considering what happened a year ago.

Temple once split the baby, playing two QBs in the 8-2 season of 1973.

Through summer practices, then head coach Stan Drayton screamed up and down that the battle was even and he would announce the starter on the day of the Oklahoma opener. Drayton (wrongly) went with Forrest Brock, who must have been the greatest practice quarterback of all time because when he appeared in actual games, he looked like the worst QB in college football history.

On the other hand, in real games, Simon was pretty good–hitting his high-water mark in an 45-29 win over Utah State. Simon threw four touchdown passes in that one–all under pressure and into tight windows–while adding another one on the ground.

In hindsight, Drayton, if he was really torn, would have been better served by the King Solomon solution. Play each quarterback a few series in real games under real fire and then go with the hot hand.

Pretty sure that was Henry Hynoski.

Temple fans of a certain age might remember this kind of approach served the Owls well a half-century ago when another Hall of Fame coach, Wayne Hardin, welcomed a big-time transfer in from Penn State (Steve Joachim) to battle with a fairly good Simon-like holdover in Marty Ginestra.

Ginestra was the fan favorite in 1973, throwing nine touchdown passes, while Joachim tossed 10 TDs that same year. Temple wasn’t hurt by the shuffling as the Owls won eight games.

The real benefit wasn’t felt until a year later when Joachim tossed 20 touchdown passes and won the Maxwell Award as the best college football player in the nation for the 1974 Owls, who finished 9-1.

If the Owls get an eight-win season in a two-quarterback system and a Maxwell winner and 9-1 or better next year, Keeler would probably sign for that now.

This King Solomon guy evidently had a lot of wisdom. So did King Hardin.

05.08.25
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One outsider’s view of the Temple top 10

I don’t get the “7-6 record” in 2024 at the top of these stats. I wish it wasn’t 3-9.

In this age of no good reason, reason sometimes lacks logic.

An outsider takes a look at Temple football and gives his top 10 players and an insider, like me, looks at the same roster and comes up with another 10.

Take the outsiders with a grain of salt, though.

The guy in the above video puts Evan Simon at the top of his 10 but makes only a passing (no pun intended) mention of a newcomer who was the starting quarterback at Oregon State last year.

Gevani McCoy started nine games at quarterback for Oregon State. When was the last time Temple recruited a guy like that?

No bigger Evan Simon fan than me but I think Gevani McCoy has a real good chance to beat him out.

Do I think he does?

Let the field decide that.

Here’s my top 10 Temple players this year, knowing that it could (and probably will) be a different list at the end of the year:

  1. Gevani McCoy–You don’t bring in a starter from a recent P5 program to put him on the bench and he more fits the kind of the kind of pass-first, tuck-the-ball-away and run if nothing is there offense new head coach K.C. Keeler wants to run.
  2. Simon–A terrific player and a team leader who loves Temple and his teammates love him. I will never forget in a 52-6 blowout loss to Tulane, Simon fumbled the ball and crawled on all fours for five yards to cover a meaningless fumble. His teammates appreciated that. Hell, for someone who invested nearly four hours in watching that disaster, I appreciate that as a Temple fan. If McCoy–who allowed himself to be sacked 15 times last year in nine games–goes down, I have no doubt Simon can lead the Owls to a bowl game. Heck, if he beats McCoy out in the summer, I have no doubt Keeler will do the right thing for Temple and start Simon.
  3. Demereck Morris–This solid DT, a single-digit guy, transferred to Oklahoma State and decided that the grass isn’t always greener than the artificial ones at Chodoff Field.
  4. Antonio Jones–This wide receiver is tough as nails and, although listed as backup on the depth chart now, he doesn’t drop passes and can be a big play threat.
  5. Grayson Mains–This center from South Carolina was the anchor of the offensive line last year and should benefit from better coaching.
  6. John Adams–Should start opposite Jones as wide receiver. Showed his explosiveness in a 59-34 loss vs. USTA two years ago when he caught two touchdown passes and amassed 157 yards. Blocked a punt for a TD with his long arms that should have won the UConn game last year if the idiot in charge had called for a Sam Cunningham leap with Terrez Worthy instead of a tush push with a 160-pound backup quarterback.
  7. Worthy--Speaking of that, Keeler brought in Jay Ducker, who was the leading rusher at both Memphis and Sam Houston State before coming to Temple. More importantly to me, Worthy SHOULD have been the starter at Temple last year if Stan Drayton didn’t have a brain cramp and start E.J. Wilson in the first three games. Keeler’s only objection with Ducker’s great spring camp was his lack of finishing speed. Worthy has that.
  8. Ryder Kusch–The Canadian tight end was the star of spring practice for Temple, joining another foreign player (Peter Clarke, UK) as pleasant surprises. Both are immune to the transfer portal and the NIL since they can’t benefit from it so they will be here for the long haul
  9. Daniel Evert–also a tight end, Evert made a beautiful move in the middle of the field for a long touchdown against Army. If you want to jumpstart the old Temple-type running game, put Kusch and Evert in a two-tight end set and have more blockers at the point of attack than defenders.
  10. Ty Davis--Delaware’s best linebacker of last year is ready to step up and become Temple’s of this year.
05.01.25
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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
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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
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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

04.06.25
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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
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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
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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?

03.20.25
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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
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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)