Tag Archives: Quincy Patterson

09.11.23
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This is the week to avoid the trap

Down only 13-7 in the fourth quarter, Temple TUFF means grabbing this game and taking it away. That didn’t happen. Stan Drayton has to diagnose why and provide a pill to cure the Owls this week.

Most doctors will be able to diagnose a simple problem by asking you what the symptoms are, when did they happen and what changes in the diet might have caused the sickness.

Changing the lifestyle or a simple pill usually–not always–solves the problem.

Staying the course of a bad diet or habit usually exacerbates it.

The big temptation Temple head coach Stan Drayton has is to stick to the plan he brought into the season and make it work or determine if a 36-7 loss to a team that got shut out, 37-0, by Maryland two games ago is acceptable.

From this perspective, it isn’t. I’m not a doctor but I watched Wayne Hardin, Bruce Arians, Al Golden annd Matt Rhule work on some pretty sick teams so I’m confident that a change is needed right away. Watching Hardin coach all by himself was better than a 13-year stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

The symptoms are pretty clear, Temple has not been able to establish a running game and E.J. Warner subsequently has been under intense pressure.

The Owls have run out of offensive line pills but half the battle there was not having a running back with the ability to 1) Make people miss and 2) break tackles.

Temple has that pill in Joquez Smith. He separated himself from the other Temple backs on Saturday night. Take one Joquez and call me in the morning. That should cure the headache of a bad running game. This kid has the unique ability to get lost behind the offensive line and come out the other end. No other Temple back is that slippery. Put him in the game and give him 20 carries.

My guess is that he goes for over 100 yards against Norfolk State and gives Miami something to think about in two weeks.

The other “pill” is fixing the passing game.

Smith being in there certainly would open the lanes for Warner to throw deeper and that’s what he needs to do. Once Smith gets rolling, Warner can fake it into his belly and pull it out, freeze the linebackers and throw over the defense. Receivers like Dante Wright, Zae Baines and Amad Anderson need to get the ball in space downfield and work their magic. Five-yard outs ain’t doing it.

Temple has too many talented edge players to come away with just seven points against any team, even Big 10 ones.

If Warner can’t get these guys the ball with an improved running game, Quincy Patterson deserves a shot. Defenses will be looking for Patterson to run and with that threat, more lanes to throw will be open. If you can live with the stomach ache of five-yard outs all year, keep E.J. in the game. If you want a multi-dimensional offense, try a Quincy Patterson pill. It might be a placebo and it might not, but you will never know until you try.

Smith’s running will keep the defense off the field and nothing helps a defense that gave up 23 fourth-quarter points than an offense that controls the clock and moves the sticks.

Norfolk State will be the perfect game to make these changes. You can beat NS with Edward Saydee and doing the things you did to beat Akron but you can’t win an AAC title sticking to that plan.

It might be a bitter pill to take now but holding your nose and talking it gives your team the best chance to get over the malaise of a 36-7 loss that should have never happened. Bold changes are needed now, not next Tuesday.

Otherwise you fall into a trap that could lead to another 3-9 season.

Friday: The Biggest Worry of The Season

09.08.23
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Here’s a Thought: Have Quincy Patterson pass

Go through just about every single thread on the Rutgers’ fan base board and you will find a lot of predictions.

I found three to be particularly amusing:

Rutgers, 69-0. Rutgers 51-3 and, lastly but by no means least, Rutgers, 92-3. Not a single one picked Temple to win.

Rutgers’ fans full of themselves?

Shocked I tell ya. Shocked.

It’s pretty much the Mets’ fanbase of college football. They think their team is a whole lot better than it is.

Always have. Always will.

I do remember a game where I had a transistor radio in one hand and my program in the other walking into Rutgers Stadium in the otherwise regrettable Bobby Wallace Error.

Listening to the pre-game show, I heard the Rutgers’ color guy tell the Rutgers’ play-by-play guy this: “Let’s face it: Rutgers should never lose to Temple.”

“Who the hell do they think they are?” I thought, almost tossing my radio along the road.

Temple won that game, 48-14, and the quarterback for the Owls, Mike Frost, became a successful bartender on campus and later head manager of the Draught Horse.

A couple of years later, Temple was kicked out of the Big East for “non-competitiveness” but a less competitive team, Rutgers–who the Owls had beaten four-straight years–was allowed to stay.

After that announcement, Temple beat Rutgers 20-17, on a Cap Poklemba field goal in the rain and that was a night when a terrific back named Tanardo Sharps ran 48 times for 246 yards. Once that game was over, the entire 55-man Owl traveling team went over and danced on the Rutgers’ Big East logo and sang “T for Temple U.” Joe Klecko and I tailgated with a small group of our friends before and after.

The beers never tasted better.

Now Temple plays Rutgers tomorrow (7:30 p.m., Big 10 Network) and a lot of those same assumptions are still in place.

Temple should never beat Rutgers (according to RU fans) despite the fact that Temple hung with two teams arguably better than RU in the final games of last season, Houston (42-35) and ECU (49-46). Owls lost both games in the last 1:22 but probably should have won both. At the same time, Rutgers was being beaten up by Penn State (55-10) and Maryland (37-0).

Yes, the same Penn State program that lost, 27-10, to Temple in 2015 and the same Maryland program that lost to Temple in consecutive pre-Covid seasons, 35-14 (in College Park) and 20-17. That last Temple win over the Terps came in the same year Maryland beat RU, 48-7.

But Rutgers should never lose to Temple. Right.

Beginning our official picks this week against the spread. Really like a Cincy team that put up 66 on Eastern Kentucky over a Pitt team that scored 45 on a worse Wofford team.

We do know two more things: Both Temple and Rutgers have highly paid professional coaches who have studied the tendencies of the opposite team so much that they are ready.

The team that throws a wrench into those preparations by showing the bad guys something they haven’t seen is probably the one that will win.

Throws being the operative word and Temple being that team.

If there has been one predictable pattern about the Owls for the last two years, it has been whenever backup quarterback Quincy Patterson comes into the game it’s almost always on short yardage situations and it pretty much is a run on every play call. Patterson always comes in about four plays a game and those four plays are always short-yardage runs.

That hasn’t fooled many people.

The one time Temple was courageous enough to break that pattern, Quincy threw a jump pass to the tight end for a touchdown in a 49-46 loss to bowl-bound East Carolina in the final game of last season. Temple head coach Stan Drayton has praised Patterson for the last nine months by saying his passing game has improved substantially. It’s time to let that baby exit the birth canal and for Stan to put his -8.5 money where his mouth is.

In order to beat a team like RU, Temple is going to have to show Greg Schiano what he hasn’t seen on film and what he has seen so far is a Patterson run. He hasn’t seen Patterson put that ball in the belly of a running back, pull it out and toss it downfield for six.

In a game where the line is single digits, a simple thing like a couple of well-timed Patterson passes in short yardage could be enough to put Temple over the top.

Any other surprises will have to be cooked up by the Temple coaches. They know what they’ve shown Schiano on tape so far. The more new wrinkles they show the better their chances will be.

Sunday: Game Analysis

06.02.23
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Going from National to Regional: The New Normal?

Current UAB head coach Trent Dilfer talks former Temple quarterback Anthony Russo.

Back in the 1950s, a guy named Art Linkletter made a mint on a show called “Kids Say the Darndest Things.”

He would stick a microphone in the face of a 5-year-old and if the kid said something funny that didn’t include the f-word, it made the TV.

Linkletter never had to hire a writer or put a script together because the kids made the money for him.

Today’s modern equivalent is social media and, when it comes to Temple football, it’s the fans, not the kids, who say the darndest things.

Anthony Russo produced 27 points in the Independence Bowl against Duke. The defense was the culprit that day, allowing 56 points.

Some of those darn things are true.

I’m not sure I know a poster on OwlsDaily named “PinballOwl93” but he nailed it after reading a piece by editor Shawn Pastor on a quarterback the Owls are recruiting named Chris Dietrich.

“Not in love with 11 TD with 12 INTs last year in High school. Like to see those INTs way lower because the college game will be moving much faster for him to make those quick reads.”

Fair enough.

That was followed by another comment by “Owlsilver:” “I wonder if this is the new normal with NIL. Going from “real” Elite 11s (Anthony Russo, Re’Al Mitchell, Dwan Mathis) to “regional” Elite 11s. #Sad.”

This is what a “national” Elite 11 quarterback looks like playing for Temple. We have yet to see what a “regional” Elite 11 quarterback looks like.

Right below that a guy who goes by the handle “R3Regioinal Rail” correctly pointed out that Quincy Patterson made the Elite 11. He failed to mention that Anthony Russo made the same Elite 11.

Russo became, at least statistically, the fourth-best quarterback in Temple history.

That’s the 11-best high school quarterbacks in the country, not the region, and prior Temple staffs deserve credit for luring that kind of talent to North Broad Street.

Those two could have picked any school.

They chose Temple (well, after Virginia Tech, North Dakota State, and Rutgers) but they chose Temple.

Gotta wonder if Owlsilver is right, though.

Dietrich was an “Elite 11 Northeast Regional” quarterback. Russo, Dwan Mathis, Patterson, and Re’Al Mitchell (who just missed out on an Elite 11 invite but still ended up at Temple) for a while represented a different level.

What’s next? Going after “Elite South of Northeast” regional quarterbacks? Elite 11 always meant just that, Elite and, I don’t think any other G5 has had the same kind of recent success recruiting national Elite 11 quarterbacks that Temple had.

Are the days of Temple luring that kind of talent over or do we celebrate the potential signing of someone who tossed 11 touchdown passes against 12 interceptions on the high school level? In my 50 years of following Temple football, I have never once heard of the Owls ever recruiting a quarterback who had more interceptions than touchdown passes.

I love this staff but they’ve got to do better than that.

In the 50s, kids said the darndest things that were both true and funny on national TV.

Nowadays maybe those kids are on fan message boards and the truth isn’t as funny as it might represent the new normal with this NIL and transfer portal nonsense.

Monday: A Debate Worth Having

12.26.22
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5 Plays We’d Like to Have Back

Quincy Patterson right after scoring against Rutgers. We think he would have gotten the first down against ECU. (Photos Courtesy Zamani Feelings.)

Over time, the players who Stan Drayton added to the Temple University football fold will contribute in their own way to the future success of the Owls.

What was apparent with the 24 new signees is that Drayton and company have a plan to address the needs of the organization and those needs might be fixed judging on five 2022 plays we’d like to have back, in no particular order:

The Tipped Pass _ The tipped pass against Rutgers that resulted an interception that beat the Owls, 16-14, before a large Homecoming Crowd wasn’t the result as much of E.J. Warner’s small stature as it was of a pass rush that got up on him too fast. The Owls addressed that need with some beef on the offensive line, including California JUCO Diego Barajas (6-6, 300), St. Peter’s Prep’s Eric King (6-3, 314), Wyoming Seminary’s Melvin Siani (6-4, 275) Clearwater Central Catholic’s Kevin Terry (6-5, 260), and St. Mark’s Luke Watson (6-5, 272).

The 1st and Goal Call _ More of a coaching problem than a recruiting one, that could be chalked up to Everett Withers taking over at the Navy game. With the Owls down by 3, a great catch by Amad Anderson set them up in ideal position to go ahead and win the game in the final minute (against a triple-option team) with a touchdown, not a field goal. First and goal at the Navy 5 and you’ve got to use some imagination there. They had trouble moving the ball all day on the ground and yet the first play was a handoff into the middle of the line for no gain. Had they rolled Warner away from the rush and tried a throwback pass to the tight end across the field, that probably would have resulted in 1) a touchdown; 2) a holding call in the end zone and Temple probably wins that game, 24-20, instead of losing it 27-20 in overtime. Maybe the new offensive linemen help but better awareness of play call and personnel was probably more responsible for that loss.

The 3d and 1 Call _ Against ECU, trying a pass at midfield on a 3d-and-1 play was a real head scratcher. The Owls have a 6-4, 252-pound player who might have gotten the first down with a quarterback sneak but decided not to use that skill set. Had to think Drayton, by calling a pass on third down, had already decided it was four-down territory but, after a Mike Houston timeout, changed his mind and punted. Bad news both ways because, by that time, Drayton knew he was kicking it to a team that already scored more than 40 points. A team that doesn’t have confidence in getting a yard down by running on third down probably deserves to lose and the Owls did that day. A championship team can’t be forced to pass on 3d and 1 going forward.

The Kickoff Return _ In the same ECU game, the third-down call would have been moot had they not given up a kickoff return for a touchdown. While the special teams covered relatively well, every other team in the league had a kicker who was at least 70 percent on touchbacks. Temple only had 28 percent of its kickoffs driven through the end zone and that’s a problem that needs to be addressed. There are plenty of kickers who can boot it consistently through the end zone. Temple is aware of the problem as they tried to recruit Hawaii specialist Kyler Halvorsen. If they can’t get him, they need to get someone of his caliber.

The Clock _ At Houston, the Owls had a first down with 2:13 left in the game. They scored with 1:22 left on a fourth-down pass to Zae Baines. If they had done a better job killing more than that minute or so between the downs, Baines might have scored with 22 seconds left, rather than 1:22 and Clayton Tune’s job might have been that much harder.

Those plays were the difference between a bowl bid and a second-consecutive 3-9 season. The Owls addressed some of the issues from a personnel standpoint last Wednesday, but they still need a kickoff specialist and a big-time running back.

Fortunately, the Owls have four scholarships left and the portal is still open.

Friday: Numbers Game

10.21.22
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Game over, season over

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwEUB1BQeY

If you’ve learned one lesson from every football game, it’s a good thing.

Temple learned four big lessons on Friday night in another embarrassment on national television, a 27-16 loss to visiting Tulsa and it is only a good thing if the Owls do something about it.

One, to win in big-time college football, you need a dual-threat quarterback.

Another, enough of Edward Saydee at running back. He’s just not fast enough or good enough to be the feature back at a school whose recent history includes Ryquell Armstrong, Jahad Thomas, Bernard Pierce, Matty Brown, Tanardo Sharps, Stacy Mack, Jason McKie, Sid Morse and Paul Palmer.

Four, drop the Temple TUFF moniker at least until you can put the “greater than” sign in front of the Navy moniker.

Navy tough > Temple tough.

The last lesson might have been the most important one of the night because, evaluating all of the available analytics, Navy was behind Tulsa in the next most-likely possible Temple win. After all, Delaware–a one-time whipping boy for Wayne Hardin–beat Navy, 14-7, in the first game of the season.

Navy has gotten much better with each game. Temple has gotten much worse.

That’s mostly coaching.

Ken Niumatalolo is a great coach. The jury is still out on Stan Drayton before we can answer that question truthfully. Navy held Tulsa to 25 rushing yards that day and Temple gave up more than 300 yards on Friday night.

If Navy can beat Tulsa, 53-21, and Temple can’t, what does that tell you about the rest of the season?

That Temple is going to finish 2-10, that’s what. That was even lower than the Whale Shit expectations of Vegas, which had the Owls at 2.5 wins.

Hate to take off the Cherry and White glasses, but that’s the truth.

On Saturday the fifth, South Florida comes to town. Do you really see the Owls hanging with a USF team that lost close games against ranked Cincinnati and Florida?

I don’t.

Very few others do.

Drayton can talk all he wants about each game being a “learning experience” but a lot of that learning should have been done before the season, not during it.

For example, the coaching staff should know down by 24-16 to go for the extra point and not the two-point conversion halfway through the fourth quarter. Going for the two, as Andre Ware correctly pointed out, should be reserved for the tying touchdown, not the penultimate one if that was indeed the mindset behind the decision. Even then, got to go for the extra point there and the extra point after the next touchdown to send the game into overtime. That’s Coaching 101.

When the coaches have to learn to do their jobs during the season, not before it, how can the players expect to learn their jobs?

The answer to those questions and the ones posted initially should be fairly obvious to any logical football fan.

Monday: Excuses or Reasons?

Saturday’s college football TV schedule
09.02.22
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Temple at Duke: Confident, not cocky

Don’t bet your house, but taking Temple might get you another farm if you have a spare farm.

Given the dwindling number of Temple fans still living who spent a significant amount of time around the two most successful Owl major sports coaches in history (raising my hand here as one), it’s pretty apparent the general approach both would take tonight.

Defend and attack the known. Don’t worry about the unknown.

Wayne Hardin and John Chaney took that approach and, if Stan Drayton does tonight (ACC Network, 7:30 p.m.), I fully expect Temple to be a winner.

Don’t see Temple scoring 38 but certainly think the Owls outscore Duke by double digits.

Confident, not cocky. In other words, don’t bet the house but if you have a farm to spare, it’s worth the investment.

That’s because we don’t know a lot but we do know a couple of important things:

One, the Duke quarterback starter, Riley Leonard, has started exactly one FBS game in his career and is a three-star recruit.

Two, both Temple quarterbacks, starter D’Wan Mathis and backup Quincy Patterson, were four-star recruits. Between the two, those players have 17 college football starts, 10 at the FBS level. Patterson is 9-1 in all of his starts at the two levels.

Mathis rose to the occasion when Drayton brought in Patterson to compete with him in summer camp and is playing the best football of his career according to insiders who have watched every August practice. Put it this way, highly paid coaching staffs at Iowa State, Michigan State, Ohio State and Georgia evaluated Mathis and put their salaries on the line by offering scholarships to him. Mathis at one point accepted offers from all schools before bouncing around and ending up at Temple.

He can make plays with his arm and his feet. Big-time players make big-time plays and Mathis has that quality. Leonard, on the other hand, is a pro-style quarterback who might be a more stationary target for pass rushers than either Mathis or Patterson. Might? More like is.

Patterson, in one of his three FBS starts for Virginia Tech, put up 47 points in a wire-to-wire spectacular performance against a North Carolina team that held an eight-win Temple team to just 13 points.

On the flip side, Drayton has said the strength of the Temple team so far is a defensive line led by a very good coach in Antoine Smith. Last year, Smith’s Colorado State defensive line finished in the top 10 in sacks and Smith says this Temple line is more talented.

If this version of the “Wild Boyz” can get after Leonard, put him on the ground, separate him from the football and cause a couple of picks, I cannot envision a scenario where Temple loses this game.

When Temple won at Vanderbilt, 37-7, to open the 2014 season, relentless pressure by a defensive line led by Averee Robinson caused the Vandy quarterback to hear footsteps the entire game.

That Temple team was coming off a two-win season. This one is coming off a three-win season but is invigorated by the new coaching staff. This 2022 Duke game has a 2014 kind of Vandy vibe. This game could be a 24-21 type deal but I think the defensive pressure the Owls put on Leonard enables them to win the game rather comfortably.

That takes care of the defensive piece.

Offensively, you’ve got to like the two players Temple has holding the reins better.

In horse racing, if two horses have relatively the same odds, the play is to go for the one with the better jockey. It doesn’t work all the time but it’s a safer play.

Temple has two better jockeys than the one Duke has and that’s a significant known.

We don’t know a lot about this game but we know enough. We’re guessing Drayton does, too.

Temple 27, Duke 17.

Confident, not cocky.

You read it here first.

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

08.26.22
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What Mathis being named starter means …

About this time five months ago, new Temple head coach Stan Drayton gave tepid praise to incumbent quarterback starter D’Wan Mathis, saying this:

“We’re going to bring in some guys to compete with him.”

If Mathis can become a fan favorite in Georgia, he can do that in Philadelphia too.

That was after the Cherry and White game. Nice game for Mathis, but nothing special.

True to his word, Drayton brought in those guys–Elijah Warner and former Virginia Tech starter Quincy Patterson–and, after a healthy competition, Mathis retained his job.

At least for the Duke opener.

Thursday, Mathis was named the starter for the Duke game one week from tonight and that can only mean one thing.

Former Michigan State, Ohio State, and Georgia commit D’Wan Mathis is shown here starting the 2020 opener for Georgia.

Mathis, a former Elite 11 four-star quarterback, rose to the occasion to beat out Patterson, a former Elite 11 four-star quarterback.

We’ve checked the game notes of the other 10 AAC teams and none of them have an Elite 11 quarterback.

Temple now has two.

Duke has none and that’s one reason why you’ve got to like Temple’s chances a week from now (7:30 p.m., ACC Network).

It’s not even fair to say Mathis showed flashes of his Elite 11 quality in the 2021 season.

He showed flash as in one, the Memphis game. If Mathis showed flashes, maybe the Owls steal a win or two in the other AAC games. It was a damn good flash (35-for-49, three touchdowns) but it was a one-and-done nonetheless.

We needed to see more and it’s an even better sign that Drayton needed to see more.

Now he has.

Maybe he’s a guy who needs a fire lit under him and, in Patterson, that’s a lot of lighter fluid.

Patterson went 7-0 as a North Dakota State starter last year and, except for Cincinnati, you can make a strong argument that North Dakota State would have beaten every other AAC team, including Houston and UCF.

He’s a nice insurance policy to have should Mathis falter.

So far, Mathis has shown no signs of faltering and that’s a good thing. This is the third-straight year that Mathis has won a starting job. He started for Georgia in the 2020 home opener and Temple in the 2021 opener at Rutgers, beating out another Elite 11 quarterback (Re’al Mitchell) for the honor.

Memphis was objectively a better team than Duke last year so is 35-for-49 and three touchdowns out of the question next week?

Certainly not and, if Mathis puts up those numbers again, the Owls are guaranteed to have a nice flight home.

Monday: All’s Quiet on The Southern Front

Friday: Temple-Duke Preview

Saturday: Duke Game Analysis