Tag Archives: Rod Carey

11.26.20
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TU season: That was quick

This is how last season ended in Annapolis. It got much worse this season.

Well, that was quick.

A season that we thought would never start was over in a flash when the American Conference announced that the finale with visiting Cincinnati would be canceled and considered a “no contest.”

That’s curious because all week even the most ardent Temple supporters considered the upcoming game as a no contest. The season is gone, hopefully forgotten, but we doubt it.

“Why don’t these guys like me, Anthony?” “Coach, get Foley back, start blocking punts and returning kicks for touchdowns, give me a fullback and ditch the RPO and you’d be surprised how much the guys would love you.”

Temple football which, as late as the Memphis game, was the winningest AAC program in the history of championship league play, finished with a 1-6 record and now has lost eight of its last 10 games.

How did we get here?

To answer that question, another question has to be proposed.

Why did we hire Rod Carey?

Ostensibly, Carey was a rebound hire for then AD Dr. Pat Kraft. Spurned by Manny Diaz after 18 days, Kraft and Temple Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Kevin Clark reached to the most familiar place they could find and they plucked fellow Indiana grad Carey for the job. No national search, no finding the best guy, just satisfying the comfort level.

He was hired to basically hold serve. Not advance the program further, but at least not demolish it.

On the surface, it appeared to be a good hire because Carey came here with a 52-30 record as a FBS head coach and by hiring a head coach, and not an assistant, Temple just wanted to continue the success of the last guy, Geoff Collins.

If Temple took just one backward step under Carey, that disproved the entire theory of the hire.

Instead, Temple took one side step and one gigantic backward step.

COVID is being used as an excuse, but it’s really not. Had the Owls been handcuffed by the City of Philadelphia under, say, Al Golden, it probably would have taken him no more than two seconds to move the entire practice operation to Ambler, a place where he had two Cherry and White games. Instead, Carey basically said woe is me.

It was not unreasonable for the Owls to post eight wins a year and maybe get a championship every four or five years. Carey was able to do that his first season, but there were major red flags. One, 2018’s AAC Special Teams Player of the Year, Isaiah Wright, was effectively muzzled in 2019 and the entire special teams have been a disaster for two seasons.

Only two years ago before this staff came to town.

There seems to be no sense of urgency to improve that.

On top of that, for the first time in Temple history, starters–good ones–have left the program for greener pastures. Last year, was Quincy Roche (Miami) and Kenny Yeboah (Ole Miss). Many more than that to come. The team’s best running back and only “home run hitter” (Ray Davis) left the team in mid-season. We’ve heard the top two receivers, Jadan Blue and Branden Mack, are considering leaving and Ifeanyi Maijeh, a first-team All-AAC defensive tackle, told OwlsDaily.com he was “exploring his options.”

You don’t explore options if you intend to stay.

Arguably, they are three of the top five players on the team. When three of the top five players on the team leave a year after two of the top three leave, you know something is seriously wrong.

It’s as clear as the nose on Jimmy Durante’s face that the players DO NOT LIKE THIS GUY for whatever reason.

Could you see P.J. Walker, Tyler Matakevich or Haason Reddick leaving Matt Rhule? How about Mo Wilkerson or Adam DiMichele leaving Al Golden? Or Paul Palmer leaving Bruce Arians, even with a transfer portal?

Err, no.

Those were popular “players coaches.” Keeping the players here in the era of the portal is half the battle.

Hopefully, KJ is privy to information most of us do not know.

The other half of the battle is gameday coaching and locking down key areas of the team like special teams. Temple used to be “Special Teams U” and now is a national laughingstock in that area. That third of the team has been that way for two seasons and there is no sense of urgency to improve that area by a) finding great athletes to return punts and kickoffs; b) even attempting to block punts like the Owls used to do on the regular.

On defense, the Owls could not generate a pass rush post-Roche and company and could not stop anyone.

On offense, it was painfully obvious that the Owls have no AAC-caliber starting quarterbacks behind Anthony Russo and, if he leaves, Temple won’t be able to generate any offense at all next year. In other words, if Russo leaves (and we pray to God he won’t), Temple is bleeped.

Russo not being around and the special teams being neglected and the players leaving and others getting hurt added up to 1-6 this season and, however you look at the math next season, it’s going to get worse.

Only a new head of the math department can change things now. Does the Temple administration have the gonads to spend money to make money or will it be satisfied with a return to the dark ages of 5,000 fans rattling around in a 70,000-seat stadium?

Over the next couple of months, we will find out if they can put two and two together.

Saturday’s Best Bets: Going with former Temple Owl Alex Derenthal and his Georgia State squad in laying the 1 against visiting Georgia Southern at the former Turner Field in downtown Atlanta and Duke as a pick in a game across town at Georgia Tech.

Update: Went 3-0 against the spread for last week as Coastal beat App State, 34-23, to lay the 6.5, Liberty “only” lost to NC State by 1 (15-14) to cover that 3.5 and Georgia State easily laid the 3 with a 31-14 win over South Alabama. Now 6-3 against the spread for the season.

Update 2: Split the 11/28 games in Atlanta, now 7-4 against the spread for the season. Won on Georgia State, lost on Georgia Tech.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

Wednesday: Getting The Old Gang Back

Saturday: Five Guys

11.21.20
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TU Football: It’s going to get worse

Do you think these jackasses could have figured out a way not to kick it to No. 22?

As much as I like to dig through the boxes and find those Cherry and White colored glasses we’ve used in the past, this season has opened our eyes to a new reality.

Today’s hard truth. The Owls will finish 1-7 this year, probably should have been 0-8, and, next year, if they get a dozen games in, they won’t be more than 2-10 in the 2021 season.

If that.

Not unless they make a coaching change now, and with $6 million due the current coach, I don’t see that happening.

The result of that non-action is at least another mini-dark age for Temple football and Owl fans who have lived through one long dark age might not have the stomach for another.

As a once wise philosopher said, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”

A new coach–just throwing out names like Al Golden and Gabe Infante, for starters–could infuse new excitement and maybe keep the players around.

Did you see any excitement coming from the players in the closing two minutes as head coach Rod Carey took four consecutive delay of game penalties to get his ass out of there?

That’s a losing attitude. It’s nowhere near Temple TUFF and has very little to do with COVID.

When Temple was getting ready to play Memphis, even after the loss to Navy, the Owls had the best regular-season AAC record of any team in the league’s championship era, better than UCF, Memphis, Cincy.

Once-proud program fading fast

Now they’ve slipped from No. 1 to No. 4 overall in just a few short weeks.

The snippets of failure have been there for all to see all year.

When the Owls blocked a field goal early in the game when they were competitive, did you a see one Owl–just one–even have an interest in picking that block off the ground and taking it the other way?

That’s coaching, or lack of it.

Lew Katz is long gone and there is nobody out there with his kind of coin who gives two hoots about Temple football with the will and the cash to buy out current head coach Rod Carey’s contract.

Why is it about to get worse?

Players, good players, the best players on the team, are openly talking about jumping ship. One inside E-O source told me that both Branden Mack and Jadan Blue are gone next year and, if they don’t get drafted, they are headed to P5 schools. The team’s only returning AAC first-team defensive player, a tackle, told OwlsDaily last week he is “exploring his options.”

Too much talent has left the building and even more is contemplating leaving in the offseason.

That leaves Temple with glorified scout team players as the face of its program for next year, and maybe the one after that, too.

You can talk about all the young guys getting playing time all you want, but these “young guys” were part of middle-of-the-pack recruiting classes and, if the “young guys” on Cincinnati, Memphis and UCF–all classes ranked higher than Temple’s the last three years–had a chance to play on Saturday, the odds of them playing a more competitive game than 28-3 are significantly higher.

Time to cut the losses and inject new energy into the program. Time and money, though, are two different things. If the Temple administration can’t find the money, they will tell us to be patient and have the time.

Those of us who went through this before don’t have time for that, not after we went through the same thing from 1991-2009. Fall is a beautiful season and we can find better things to do and, if we have to, we will.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

11.19.20
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ECU-Temple: A Fork in The Road

When late night TV wasn’t as political and arguably more funny, Johnny Carson had a few notable characters.

One of them was an infomercial guy named Art Fern who talked about forks in the road.

“How do you get there? Let me tell you friends, how do you get there! You take the San Diego Freeway to the Ventura Freeway. You drive to the Slauson Cutoff, get out of your car, cut off your Slauson, get back in your car, then you drive six miles till you see the Giant Neon Vice-Squad Cop. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Well, Saturday’s noon showdown against visiting East Carolina is the ultimate “Fork in the Road” game for Temple.

This is how Temple used to dominate East Carolina, with a fullback (Nick Sharga), leading the way for an elite tailback (Jahad Thomas). Now the Owls don’t even use a fullback and the elite tailback has seen enough of Rod Carey’s RPO offense to transfer out in the middle of the season.

The two teams have similar records (1-5 for Temple, 1-6 for ECU) but are seemingly headed in different directions. ECU has been on an upward swing against AAC opponents, certainly more competitive than Temple has been. The Owls have slowly been on the decline and their 1-5 is considerably less impressive than the Pirates.

Temple TUFF: Sharga (4) leads the way for Armstead (25)

COVID?

Everybody has COVID issues and the Owls have got to stop using that as an excuse and just win a damn game.

Consider this: In the last four games, the Owls have lost by double digits. In their last seven games of the 2019 season, the Owls lost four and three of them were by double-digits. Before now, the last time the Owls lost four consecutive games by double digits was in Steve Addazio’s final season, 2012, when they lost to Rutgers (35-10), Pitt (47-17), Louisville (45-17) and Cincinnati (34-10).

On the other hand, in two of its last three games, ECU has been more competitive than Temple in losses to some good teams–Tulsa (30-34) and Tulane (21-38) before being blown out by Cincinnati, 55-17. ECU beat South Florida by 20 and the Owls needed a miracle fumble left on the carpet to beat USF by two.

There’s no disgrace losing to Cincy, either. A lot of good teams have been blown out by the Bearcats this season and Temple won’t play Cincy until the final game next week.

Fork in the road indeed. Apparently ECU, under former James Madison head coach Mike Houston, is headed in the right direction while someone needs to tell Rod Carey Temple needs to upgrade its GPS system.

Is it any wonder, then, that the Pirates are a 3.5-favorite against a program that it has never beaten in American Conference play?

The Owls have a true freshman quarterback in Matt Duncan, but Tulane also had a true freshman quarterback and did not use that as an excuse. The Owls have rolled out two quarterbacks since Anthony Russo and, frankly, none is an acceptable AAC-level quarterback.

Duncan’s got to put the big boy pants on and lead the Owls to a win or this entire program is about to go down the wrong road and hit a wall. If they total their ride, it will be a long time before they get back on the road to respectability again.

Friday night pick: Usually never go for a 32.5-point favorite, but really like a solid FAU Owls’ squad to lay the wood on UMass.

Saturday picks: Coastal Carolina laying the 6.5 against visiting App. State, Liberty getting the 3.5 at NC State, and Georgia State laying 3 at South Alabama.

Update: Evened the season record at 3-3 by going 2-1 against the spread. FAU easily covered the 8.5 as did Wisconsin the 3.5. Only loss was Nebraska beating PSU. LT and Rice postponed due to COVID. Record this week: 2-1. Overall: 3-3.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

11.14.20
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TU Football 2020: Tragicomedy

A play containing both elements of tragedy and comedy is called a tragicomedy and, after six games, that’s is probably the best word to describe Temple’s 2020 football season.

Tragedy, because an inordinate number of players have gotten either sick or injured and an undermanned team going into the season just cannot afford that.

This is the guy who turned Temple’s special teams from No. 1 in the nation to No. 130, but he’s a friend of Rod Carey, so that’s got to count for something.

Comedy, because we already knew Temple’s special teams were the Keystone Cops last year and nothing that has happened this year has changed that. The program says Brett Diersen is both the “outside linebackers coach/special teams coordinator” but he might as well be Charlie Chaplin. Special teams are not supposed to made your opponent laugh, but that’s what Temple’s have done for nearly two years under CEO Rod Carey. Outside linebackers aren’t much better, but this is the guy Carey jettisoned Temple legendary ST coach Ed Foley for and he had that aspect of the team on auto pilot for nearly a decade.

You can’t have both tragedy and comedy in both areas and be a successful football team and the Owls proved that for the fifth time this season in a 38-13 loss at Central Florida on Saturday night.

What is Rod Carey football when it comes to special teams?

Rod Carey football is having a slow white guy return punts and I can say that because I’m a slow white guy. The difference being that I’m a boomer and Carey has slow white guys in their 20s returning punts. In a school with athletes out the wazoo like Temple, there should be at least 10 in the football program who can both catch a punt and make the first guy miss, let alone the rest of the student body of nearly 40,000 full-time students.

Carey is obviously satisfied with just catching the ball and getting the offense started. That would be understandable if the Temple offense could do anything, but it can’t. You’ve got to make the punt return a dangerous offensive play, just like it used to be at Temple when guys like Matty Brown, Delano Green and even Isaiah Wright (the Wright of Geoff Collins, not Carey) were the returners.

What is Rod Carey football?

Rod Carey football is not even going after the punt when the UCF punter has to kick with his foot near the back of the end zone. Every other recent Temple coach would have had a jailbreak punt block on in that situation.

Not Rod Carey. Why make the punter uncomfortable when you can just let him get off a 50-yard punt?

Rod Carey football is kicking a field goal down 38-10 for window dressing when he could have rolled his quarterback out on a run/pass option for a touchdown with eight minutes left.

Rod Carey football is not challenging a call when his freshman wide receiver makes a spectacular catch with his foot inbounds with four minutes left.

If there’s one constant about Carey’s approach to the game is that he plays it way too passive and his team has adopted the personality of their head coach.

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

11.12.20
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Temple-UCF: Inside the War Room

Gotta wonder what happens when all the Temple coaches get together to game plan the next opponent on the schedule.

Since what happens in the Coaches Conference Room at the E-O is not televised, we can only imagine.

Full disclosure: After watching the first few Temple games, I’m convinced they don’t even game plan for an opponent.

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that they were so embarrassed they lost 62-21 to UCF at home last year and they don’t want that history to repeat itself before a national TV audience (ESPN-U, 7:30 p.m.) on Saturday night.

Rod Carey: “Fellas, we’re feeling a little heat here. Temple fans are used to winning and my plan to use this fall as an extension of spring practice probably isn’t working. I got hammered by an anonymous fan on Temple Football Forever Thursday. I want to win. You want to win. Anyone have any ideas how we extend the game to the fourth quarter Saturday night and steal it then?”

Mike Uremovich: “Rod, you know what we did at Northern. We played the RPO every game and accepted the results.”

Rod: “Gabe, any ideas?”

Gabe Infante: “We are playing into their hands that way. If we run the RPO, they don’t respect the quarterback’s ability to run the ball, and they are going to come after Anthony on the next two downs. He will probably either get sacked or throw incompletions. Not Anthony’s fault at all, but asking him to run is not his forte and probably will result in giving Dillon Gabriel about a zillion more possessions than he needs to have.”

Rod: “What do we do to avoid that?”

Gabe: “When I was the head coach at (St. Joseph’s) Prep, we played a lot of nationally ranked Florida teams with much more speed than us but we always beat them.”

Rod: “How?”

Gabe Infante after beating Florida’s top-ranked high school team.

Gabe: “Put two tight ends on the field, put a fullback on the field, line up in run formations on first down. They’ve seen our film. They expect the run on first down. Fake them out by throwing short passes, run on second down, keep the sticks and clock moving. Take a chance every now and then with a fake to our tailback, followed by a deep ball. Keep the defense off balance. Those high-octane offenses never saw the ball. We had eight-minute drives each quarter. We’d get seven points one quarter, three points the next, seven at the beginning of the third and, before you know it, we had a 17-0 lead and they were playing catch up. We’re from Philly, 17th and Thompson, and that’s only five blocks west and five blocks south from this room we’re in now. We used our toughness to our advantage.”

Rod: “Sounds good but we run the RPO. That’s what we do.”

Gabe: “That’s precisely the point. That’s what they do. They are more comfortable with us doing what they do, throwing passes, stopping the clock, giving them more possessions. I’d say let’s make them uncomfortable and keep our defense off the field. I’m the running backs coach but I’m all for helping our defense any way I can.”

Rod: “Mike, what do you think?”

Mike: “We didn’t do that at NIU, Rod. I’m not comfortable with a fullback and two tight ends.”

Rod: “That settles it. We’re going to do what we do and let the chips fall where they may.”

Gabe: “But, Rod, the chips haven’t fallen our way so far, let’s try other chips.”

Rod: “Gabe, I love you, man, but this is what got me to 52-30 at NIU and I’m sticking with the plan Saturday night. Meeting adjourned.”

(Coaches get up leaving the room while Adam DiMichele can heard mumbling under his breath: “That’s also what got us beat 62-21 last year.”)

Rod: “Adam, did you say anything?”

Adam: “No, nothing, Rod.”

Rod: “OK, let’s do this. Let’s beat them at their game.”

Picks this week: Went 1-2 opening week against the spread and skipped last week, but like a few games on the docket this weekend. First, Friday night the Florida Atlantic Owls covering the 8.5 spread at nearby FIU. On Saturday, taking Wisconsin to cover the 3.5 at Michigan and Penn State the same number at Nebraska. For the final game, going for Louisiana Tech to cover the 1.5 against the visiting Rice Owls. All favorites this week, no underdogs.

Update: Evened the season record at 3-3 by going 2-1 against the spread. FAU easily covered the 8.5 as did Wisconsin the 3.5. Only loss was Nebraska beating PSU. LT and Rice postponed due to COVID. Record this week: 2-1. Overall: 3-3.

Saturday Night: Game Analysis

11.11.20
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An Anonymous Fan has chimed in on the state of the program

Unlike the Trump anonymous op-ed guy, the below is written by a passionate fan, not an insider.

Editor’s Note: It’s very rare that we get an email with this much thought, no insults, and this on-point about the Temple football program. Since I agree with 99 percent of what this young man says, I will print it unedited in its entirely. (The only part I don’t agree is giving over the keys of the program to untested Fran Brown but that’s his opinion so I left it in. He did not want to use his name so I’m going to keep it out.) The “young lady” he refers to below is Morgyn Siegfield, who now works for the University of Kansas.

By Anonymous

I really haven’t felt a need in a long time to express my dismay about
the Temple football program.  But as my sucko-meter has gone off
multiple times this year, I have some things I need to get off my chest.

Look, I wasn’t crazy about Geoff Collins; I always had the sense that he was
learning on the job. But one thing he did well was relate to his
players and the public.  I just never realized how important it was
and is until I saw Rod Carey.

Let’s recap the many ways he has sucked so far, shall we:

1) In an early interview with Owl Sports (with a young lady whose name
I forget), he was asked about “Temple Tuff.”   It was a softball
question that the interviewer threw at him to let him affirm Temple’s
brand. His answer: something to the effect of, “Where I come from, you
don’t say you’re tough, you just are.”  That was the first indication
to me that
this guy was a schmuck.

He had previously said publicly how excited he was to be the new coach
of the Temple football team, going as far as saying that Kraft could
make his buyout sum as much as he wanted.  He was expressing his
gratitude and suggesting, ostensibly, that he was going to be here for
a long time.  And what does this douchenozzle say in his interview
with Owl Sports?  At the first chance he gets to affirm the Temple
brand, a phrase the legendary John Chaney invented, he basically says,
“meh, whatever.”

2) He fires Ed Foley.  WTF????  Everyone likes Ed Foley.  If anyone is
Temple, it’s Ed Foley.  He was here from nearly the beginning with Al
Golden, I think.  Did he have a little bit of Matt Foley in him?
Sure. But he was a really good coach.   Our special teams under him
were special!!!

So what does Carey do?  He fires Foley, which must have been handled
poorly as Foley felt a need to express his disgust via social media,
and then decides they don’t need a special teams coach.  Only problem
is they ended up really sucking on special teams!!  Then, the
following season, Captain Mayonnaise assigns one of his lackey’s to be
the new special team coach.  As if we didn’t notice!

My sense of the matter is that he was probably just jealous and felt
threatened by the relationships Foley had cultivated with the team and
university.  A confident man uses that to his advantage, he doesn’t
fire the guy.  My guess is it probably impacted player morale and
trust, too.

3) He not only gets rid of Foley, but he gets rid of the “Wildboys”
nickname that had been a holdover from past defensive lines dating
back to the Matt Rhule era.  Collins had the smarts to keep it.  He
probably realized the players on the defensive line liked it.  So here
comes Carey saying, “There’s a new sheriff in town, and we’re getting
rid of that tradition.”

“Hey, look, if you grant an interview, I want to be in the room just to make sure you don’t say anything to make me look bad.“

Right move:  Getting rid of signs and charts on the sideline

Wrong move:  Getting rid of a tradition that was started in the Matt Rhule era

4)  He gets into a public spat (at least on social media) with the
Imhotep coach.  I think it started with his mishandling of a Tyreek
Rainer situation, and things blew up from there.  Hey good luck
recruiting Imhotep after that!  This has traditionally been a hard
school to pull a recruit from so maybe you could argue that the damage
was minimal.

 But he just strikes me as a yokel with zero ability to politic.

5) Good players start transferring out.  Kenny Yeboah, Quincy
Roche and, now, Ray Davis.  All three of these guys are very good
players with potential NFL chops.  I’m almost certain Roche will be a
second or third rounder, (even with a low sack total this year.)
Losing these guys can’t be a good look for your program.  I don’t
recall Temple coaching staffs from the past losing a high caliber
player like Roche. That’s just irresponsible.  And guess what?  Don’t
be surprised if Ifenyi Maijeh is next!  In his last interview, he
mentioned that he has options after this season.  He didn’t specify,
but he also seemed a little bothered.  This is a subjective
interpretation, but that’s how I saw it.

6) He seems to be very rigid in his protocol for player interviews.
If you go to the Temple website to look at football related videos,
you’ll see that the player interviews are chaperoned, if you will, by
the coaches.  In other words, a journalist asks a question, and then
the coach connects the player to the question.  My conclusion:  It
looks and feels like the coaching staff is paranoid that these kids
are going to say something wrong or bad about them.  Again, I don’t
recall this ever being done in the past.  Who knows, maybe his
rigidity and paranoia is symptomatic of the reason some of these kids
are transferring out?

7) And look at the product we see today.  This team is a shell of
themselves.  Yes, injuries and covid cases have impacted them.  But
it’s also impacted the teams they’re playing.  And the loss of these
three transfers is totally on Carey.  The defense is just crap; they
can’t stop anyone.  And that’s on Carey, too.

His QB, Russo, who was recruited by Matt Rhule, has looked good.  He’s
been able to score the football.  And I give Carey a little credit for
his offensive line maneuvers (utilizing lighter players / zone), but
that’s it.  This team is blah. They’re just not very good. They
reflect the personality of their coach.

They’re semi-good.  They’re quasi-good. They’re the margarine of good.
They’re the Diet Coke of good, just one calorie, not good enough.

Mike, Carey is just not a good fit.  I get it; Kraft was under a lot
of pressure to hire someone.  And Carey was available.  But I tell ya,
I really liked Fran Brown.  In my opinion, people made too much of him
not being ready because he hadn’t been a coordinator.  Well, you know
what, there was another guy who hadn’t been a coordinator before he
got the job at the University of Minnesota, and his name is PJ Fleck.
How’d that work out for them?

And Fran Brown can recruit!  We’d have all of these NJ recruits right
now if Kraft would have made the bold decision to hire Fran Brown.
And I suspect none of those guys would have transferred out with Fran
as the coach. Fran’s strength is his people skills.  He was the
perfect choice.  He’s young.  He’s charismatic.  He’s local. This is
his recruiting footprint.  It is absolute nonsense, if not racist to
suggest he was too young or needed more seasoning as a coordinator.

Another guy to consider for the job is Kurt Sirocco.  He went to
Temple (didn’t play because of injury), got both of his degrees here,
and got his coaching start here.  He’s now doing quite well at U of
Minnesota as their Offensive Coordinator.  I suspect his name will be
tossed around for head coach openings in the near future.

But going forward, I suspect that Fran Dunphy, being the gentleman
that he is, will give Carey every chance to right the ship.  So we
could be stuck with this guy for another two years, at least.  Ugh.

Friday: UCF Preview

11.09.20
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Fizzy: Once again, TU comes up short

This is when there was a lot of hitting in practice and pride six days a week leading up to game day where it was shown on the field and it was Temple handing out the 47-23 beatings.

Editor’s Note: Former Temple football player Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub brings the perspective not only of a player but a lifetime of coaching football, teaching and writing. He breaks down the SMU game here.

 

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

Once again, the collapse began at the last possession before the half. The ball was at the 40, and Temple faced a first and 25, with about 1:43 left on the clock. There was plenty of time to throw a few passes downfield and attempt to score. Maybe you’d get a penalty or a big gain. Inexplicably, Temple tried to run out the clock (they failed) and gave momentum over to SMU.

      Once again, a team destroyed Temple in the second half. It’s the seventh time since the arrival of coach Rod Carey that Temple collapsed after intermission. It seems the only thing the Temple coaches adjust at half-time is their shorts.

     Once again, Temple had a first and goal, and a chance to gain the lead. This time it was in the third quarter. They ran on first down. They ran on second down. They ran on third down and had to kick a field goal. Not even Woody Hayes at Ohio State would have run three times. The coaches still haven’t learned that first down is when you innovate. 

     You’ll notice each of the above paragraphs began with, “once again.” I’m so tired of making the same comments over and over. 

Somewhere the sun is shining,

somewhere the skies are blue

But not with the Temple football group,

because our team is knee-deep in poop

Friday: UCF

11.07.20
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Temple: No incentive to win

After the first play, it was all downhill for Temple.

There are 127 FBS teams who opted into playing this season despite a global pandemic.

Just about every coaching staff is taking this season seriously.

Then there’s Temple.

“I know your right shoulder is hurt but can you throw with your left hand?.“

In a 47-23 loss to SMU on Saturday, the latest in a growing number of embarrassments for a once-proud football program, we saw this:

  • A quarterback (Trad Beatty) who arguably slid past the yard marker (you could make a case either way) for a first down in the first half, was ruled short, and Temple did nothing to challenge. The ESPN+ announcers said it was worth a challenge and it probably was.
  • A shotgun formation on fourth and 1 yard and a predictable loss with the ball snapped so deep. (Every fifth grade Geometry student can tell you the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.)
  • A kicking game that hasn’t even been addressed (missing an extra point and getting two more kickoffs hit out of bounds) despite it being an ongoing problem;
  • No quarterback holding on any kicks, eliminating even the chance of a fake.
  • Punts on fourth down late in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach when those could have been used as a teaching down for the offense.
  • Quarterback auditions during a game for the second straight week that should have been done during practice.

What does all of the above prove?

Temple is playing this entire 2020 season like it’s an extension of spring practice and not a meaningful business enterprise which, when you boil it down to basics, college football is a business and the business is winning.

Like many businesses that serve the public this terrible year, Temple is about to go bankrupt with that approach.

The Owls had more time to prepare for a triple option than both BYU and Air Force did and crapped the bed in that game. They could have invited the best minds in college football known for stopping triple options (say, the Air Force and BYU coaching staffs) but decided, “well, we can stop them doing things our way.”

Err, no. BYU and Air Force held Navy to 3 and 7 points, respectively. It would have been nice to at least review the film of those games and apply the same approach. Instead, Temple did the opposite of those schools and “held” Navy to 31.

Very little of this is attributable to COVID, the City of Philadelphia or injuries. Most of it has to do with the incompetence of the coaching staff and, frankly, a lackadaisical attitude. When you are making $2 million a year for three more years with a $10 million buyout, there is a decreased sense of urgency and that’s what we’re seeing now.

Schools that don’t produce as many NFL players as Temple does have the same problems with COVID but have found a way to succeed. Forget about the teams Temple is looking up at in its own conference (err, everyone). Liberty is 7-0. Coastal Carolina is 6-0. Marshall is 6-0. Hell, even Nevada and San Jose State are 3-0.

Can we get one of those coaching staffs?

The business of college football is flourishing everywhere but Philadelphia largely because winning is no longer a priority here. It’s a sad thing to see.

If it reminds you of a bygone time of nearly 20 years ago, it should. I don’t want to go back to it. Neither should you and, more importantly, the powers-that-be at Temple who were around then.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

11.03.20
by

Temple defense: The unspoken truth

It’s real bad when South Alabama gives Tulane a better game than Temple does.

How bad is it?

It’s bad.

Really bad.

Even when Anthony Russo gets back to fix the offense, and sadly that’s not this week, the unspoken truth about Temple football is that the defense cannot be fixed.

It’s this bad:

Temple’s defense gave up 37 points to South Florida, a team that scored only 27 on The Citadel, 13 against Tulsa and 24 against East Carolina.

Temple’s defense gave up 38 points to a Tulane team that could score only 27 on South Alabama and 24 on Navy. South Alabama? That noted power which lost to UAB, 42-10?

Yep.

Temple’s defense gave up 31 points to a Navy team that could only score three against BYU and 7 against Air Force.

If Rod Carey falters, looming in the shadows behind him is Gabe Infante

And very little of the above had to do with COVID, because much of the evidence had been there before head coach Rod Carey could pull that excuse.

What did Quincy Roche know and when did he know it?

It would be nice if the AAC Defensive Player of the Year had stayed at Temple to bolster a virtually non-existent pass rush, but he did not and Temple did not get an adequate replacement for him. Did Roche have a problem with Rod Carey? Or Jeff Knowles? Or Walter Stewart?

Carey went into the season shrugging off the personnel departures like Roche, quarterback Toddy Centeio and tight end Kenny Yeboah, saying “we want to go with the guys who want to be here.”

Think about that point and extrapolate it for a second. If the entire starting offense and defense wanted to leave but the scout teams on both sides of the ball want to stay, do you really want to go with the guys who want to be here?

Why do only the good guys want to leave?

Do you think the Owls would have done better than three points if Toddy was still here?

I do.

The evidence is that the offense is an AAC high-quality one when Russo is in the game, scoring 29 against both Navy and Memphis and 32 (one was a defensive score) against USF. That’s on the high end of opponents against those teams.

Three points with two backup quarterbacks against a poor defense like Tulane is inexcusable, but it matters little if the defense cannot keep people off the scoreboard and nothing we’ve seen thus far provides any evidence that will change.

That’s the unspoken truth about this season.

Until maybe now.

Friday: SMU preview

11.02.20
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Loss leaves Fizzy speechless

The difference between Midwestern nice and Philly fans is this NIU fan apologizes.

Editor’s Note: Like many of us, a 38-3 loss to a Tulane team that barely beat South Alabama left a lot of Temple fans speechless and Fizzy was one of them. He could understandably muster up only a few words in the form of this poem

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

I watched the game in disbelief,

as our football program crashed on a reef

Yes, there were injuries and infections galore,

but I couldn’t help shuddering at the final score

We couldn’t tally on the air or ground,

and somewhere an offense needs to be found

A freshman quarterback killed us with passes,

our coverages and strategies stuck in molasses.

I’ve watched Temple football for over sixty years,

and this downward spiral has me literally in tears

The many excuses simply won’t float,

All I can say is make sure you vote.

Tuesday: How bad is it?

Friday: SMU