Tag Archives: Rod Carey

09.14.20
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CFB: More Chess than Checkers

The beauty of college football is that often a less talented team can beat a more talented team due to brains over brawn.

Take Louisiana’s Group of Five win on Saturday against Power 5 and No. 23-ranked host Iowa State.

The Rajun Cajuns won because of several well-designed plays. Iowa State relied too much on Brock Purdy’s arm and trying to run over the G5 team.

This P.J. Walker throwback pass across the field against USF (where he rolled right and threw across his body) worked for an easy six to Colin Thompson.

A few well-designed plays can be the difference between evenly matched teams and many more can be the difference in an upset. That was evident not only in Louisiana’s win, but Coastal Carolina’s 35-17 win at Kansas and Arkansas State’s 35-31 win at Kansas State.

There’s no way to convince me that the three winning teams had more talent than the three losing ones so it had to be coaching.

Such was the case on Saturday and such should and could be the case for Temple going forward this season. Under Wayne Hardin–and, to a lesser extent, Bruce Arians–Temple was able to win a lot of games by outsmarting teams.

Hardin used things like the wraparound draw, the halfback pass, the shovel pass (which worked for a touchdown for Coastal Carolina on Saturday) and the tight end to completely fool the opposition.

The times it didn’t work usually came against teams with overwhelming talent but most times it did because the Owls were 80-52-3 under Hardin.

Arians brought his own style of innovation to Temple and the play above where he completely fools Rutgers in 1988 was a perfect example. Arians had the tailback block down, leaving the fullback completely open in the flat for a touchdown. Because fullbacks usually block for tailbacks, and not the opposite way around, Nelson Herrera was left unaccounted for in the flat.

That brings me to Temple football recently which has been more like checkers than chess, a lot more brawn involved than brain. With only slight exceptions, I don’t remember Temple outsmarting many people in recent years. The First Philly Special–a throwback from wide receiver John Christopher to P.J. Walker–worked for a crucial first down in the 2015 Penn State game. The throwback pass to Kenny Yeboah in last year’s game was another and the fake out to Ventell Byrant (that resulted in Yeboah being wide open for six) in the 2018 Maryland game was a third.

That’s it.

Hopefully, the current Temple staff is using this extra time to go over some old innovative plays in the Edberg-Olson archives.

Putting them to work this season could not hurt and probably could help checkmate a few foes.

Of the things we want to see improvement on this year, innovation in the play-calling is near the top of the list.

Friday: 5 Ways This Season Will Be Different

09.07.20
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Did You Ever Get the Feeling?

Figuring out Temple football gave Matt Rhule this kind of living space

Every comedian has a shtick, a routine, style of performance associated with that particular person.

Temple football today reminds me of a 1950s and 60s comedian named George Goebel. He started a series of jokes with “Do you ever get the feeling?”

He had the whole comedy thing figured out in how it would work given his circumstances. He knew the room.

Matt Rhule definitely did not have the Temple football room figured out until after his first two years and, largely to figuring it out, he’s sitting on millions of dollars and, on top of that, trying to sell at $2.5 million home in Waco after moving on to the Panthers.

Rod Carey would do well taking notes.

Do you ever get the feeling that this is the year Carey figures how to succeed at Temple? I have my doubts but we shall see.

How did Rhule figure Temple out? After the first two years, he scrapped the spread and went to a more conventional pro offense using two backs. In this interview with USA Today’s Paul Myerberg, Rhule capsulated the Epiphany beautifully. The scheme fit the school. Temple TUFF, 10th and Diamond, run the ball, with two backs, make explosive plays off the play-action passing game, play great defense and special teams.

This the key quote in that story:

Said Rhule, “How do we differentiate ourselves? How do we make ourselves hard to prepare for? Put two backs on the field. Put two tight ends on the field.

“This is what your roots are. These kids have made themselves really tough. And that’s the only way we’ll ever win. By being a really, really tough football team.”

Let’s analyze that. What does “put two backs on the field” mean? Two halfbacks? Two fullbacks? Three quarterbacks? It means exactly what he did: Put a fullback in front of a tailback, establish the run, bring the safeties and the linebackers up in run support and use deft play-faking to the backs in throwing to wide open receivers for explosive downfield plays. It was what we were pleading for him to do in this space for the first two years of the Rhule Era.

Carey, to me, is a good coach but Rhule made the leap to great when he went from to a more traditional NFL-style offense.

Temple has the offensive line to run such an offense, experienced, talented and averaging 300 pounds across the front. Use, say, Tayvon Ruley (6-0, 216) as a fullback in front of Ray Davis and that’s even an extra blocker at the point of attack for a shifty cutback runner. Throw one more blocker in the area of defenders and Davis has a bigger hole to cut through. The Owls have a quarterback known for an accurate and big arm and not for his legs. Those are the essential elements of a play-action focused offense, not an RPO one. Great coaches adjust to their personnel; they don’t make the personnel adjust to them.

Is Carey comfortable with just good or does he want to be great?

This season Temple fans should find out if the Owls play at least nine or more games. If Carey is still living in a modest home in South Jersey next year and driving a pickup truck, he will have done things his way and gone 4-4.

If, on the other hand, he reads the room better than a year ago, he will be 9-0 or 8-1 looking for a $2.5 million mansion somewhere, maybe even Waco.

It’s the difference between being good and great.

Now let’s go have a season and find out.

Friday: The AAC After Week One

09.04.20
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Special Teams are Like Umpires

Whether he wants to admit it or not, Rod Carey cannot say his special teams by delegation produced better results than any of Ed Foley’s special teams at Temple.

Special teams are like umpires. If you don’t notice them, they are great. If you do, they are like Angel Hernandez.

Terrible.

If you don’t notice them, they are John Libka–generally considered the best balls and strikes umpire in the game today.

Last year, Temple football’s special teams were closer to Hernandez than Libka.

After Brandon McManus kicked this game-winning field goal against UConn, head coach Steve Addazio said: “Our goal was to put the ball in the center of the field and let the best kicker in the country win it for us.” He did.

For about a decade before that, nobody really noticed Temple’s special teams. Maybe not coincidentally, that started in 2009 when head coach Al Golden also assumed the head coach of the special teams’ role.

When Steve Addazio took over for Golden, he promoted tight ends coach Ed Foley who made Temple’s special teams legendary for excellence. Foley was a guy who rose to his level of competence. He’s a very competent special teams’ coach, one of the best, but as an interim head coach he proved to be a bridge too far. There can be little doubt if Foley, say, won either the Wake Forest game or the Duke game as an interim, his chances of being Temple head coach today would have been far greater than they are now.

Last year, in an administrative move, Rod Carey took Foley from the field to an off-the-field role and that caused Foley to go to Baylor and now the Carolina Panthers.

The Owls were the Keystone Cops of AAC special teams and that stung Temple fans were used to Owls making big plays in that third of the game.

“If we’re great on defense and special teams, we’re going to be in every game,” Golden said in 2009. “That’s two-thirds of the team. I really felt that special teams was an area I had to take charge of myself.”

Maybe it was Carey’s fault for letting Foley go. All we know is that, under Foley, the kicking and return coverage games were great. With pretty much the same personnel last year, they were terrible. In order to gain trust of Owls fans, it’s going to have to improve this year.

Will we ever see this stat again under this staff? Got to hope so. In this case, we’re from Missouri (show me state) and they are from NIU.

Last year, the Owls couldn’t make a routine extra point at Cincinnati and that might have cost them the East title. A block was missed. Was that the fault of the new special teams “coaches” (Carey has a couple of coaches in charge)? Maybe not. But it didn’t happen on the regular under Foley.

Under Foley, Isaiah Wright was a dynamic punt and kickoff returner in 2018. Under Carey’s coach by committee in 2019, he was just another guy. Temple always flipped the field on kickoffs. Too often last year, the Owls started drives deep in their own territory. Maybe Foley would have been able to communicate how important it was for Wright to eschew the fair catches for the reward of a big play.

The Owls were aggressive on special teams for a decade, going after blocked punts and field goals. High risk, high reward. The philosophy changed to no risk no reward last year. Disappointing. If you’ve got no athletes, that’s probably the way to go but Temple has always had athletes out the wazoo, notably but not limited to 6-5 wide receivers like Branden Mack with a 91-inch wingspan who liked to block punts. They played scared on special teams. That might be the NIU way but that’s the opposite of Temple TUFF.

Now the rebuilding of the Owls’ special teams begins. The Owls recruited a couple of high-profile kickers and Will Mobley’s job appears to be in jeopardy. Rory Bell has a longer leg (Mobley a very reliable extra point kicker) and a pedigree for success at the high school level.

Looks like to me Bell is the guy for kicking. For punting, Adam Berry had his moments and most were not good. Did not like his body language after failing to field a snap or shanking a punt. Hopefully, he has matured but thanks to recruiting, the Owls now have some other options.

Golden was right. This is 1/3 of the team and deserves attention. It did not get that last year. If the Owls are going to be successful in this department, we will not notice this aspect of the team at all.

Monday: Did You Ever Get The Feeling?

07.20.20
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A summer project for Fran Dunphy

fran

Temple fans might be thanking Fran Dunphy if he replaces Miami, Idaho, and UMass with West Virginia, BYU and Villanova.

Right now, if Fran Dunphy is taking his new role as a new athletic director seriously, he’s sitting down at his kitchen table in Avalon, N.J., trying to get the Temple football Owls four football dates.

dropkick

That’s because the AAC has shown no signs of joining the Big 10 and limiting games to conference ones only. Independents like UConn and UMass will probably have to join the Ivy League and cancel schedules entirely. The strong rumor is the ACC will soon join the Big 10 and go conference only, too, so that leaves three games Dunphy has to tentatively replace:

  • Sept. 5, at Miami
  • Sept. 12, Idaho
  • Sept. 19, Rutgers
  • Oct. 10, UMASS

If Dunphy attacks the position with zeal, he was sitting at the kitchen table yesterday with the 2015 Temple-PSU game on in the background (ESPU, noon) with printouts of the composite 2020 FBS college football schedule trying to replace those dates. Hopefully, he has the phone numbers of the other 126 FBS athletic directors.

Sure, it would be contingent upon several things (like the season being played for one), but what would Dunphy and Temple have to lose by scheduling games based on contingency?

To me, it’s the wise Owl thing to do right now.

The Miami game is probably out even if the ACC decides to play its nonconference games. Miami practice has been suspended due to an outbreak of the virus on that team and no one knows if the Hurricanes will be able or even allowed to compete.

Assuming the ACC and Big 10 are out, on Sept. 5, that gives the Owls an attractive group of opponents to select. Villanova, where Dunphy has a home the other six months a year, is a possibility. The CAA has canceled its season but Villanova has indicated that it will look to fill its entire season with an independent schedule. Good luck with that. My choice for Dunphy is West Virginia. Florida State would not go to West Virginia but Temple will.

Rutgers has to be replaced (Sept. 19) as well.

The Owls also have to have contingencies for the independents, UMass and Idaho. The Sept. 12 game with Idaho can easily be replaced with BYU, which is probably the only independent other than Notre Dame that will be able to get games. BYU was scheduled to play a home game against Michigan State, but that’s out. Temple could easily replace the Spartans on that date.

The final date for the Owls is Oct. 10 against UMass. If UMass can’t play that day, Villanova should be available. (I realize there is a group of Temple fans who don’t want to play Villanova but with a competent FBS head coach, which Geoff Collins wasn’t on the day he lost to the Wildcats, Temple should never lose to Villanova. Say what you will about Rod Carey, but’s it’s indisputable he’s a competent FBS head coach.)

Of course, Dunphy could have been doing other things yesterday like taking the Catamaran for a spin around Townsends Inlet, but we can only hope for Temple’s sake that he is on the job now.

If he didn’t do it yesterday, there’s always next weekend.

Friday: Our Annual Week of  Vacation begins (July 24-31, best of TFF runs on Friday, Monday and Thursday)

 

 

 

 

07.06.20
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Recruiting 2021: That’s What I’m Talking About

 

There are none so blind as refuse to see.

The blueprints for Temple football’s decade-long transformation from 2006 chump to 2016 champ were in the Edberg-Olson Complex for all to see and it appears, after some rummaging through the files in the attic, Rod Carey’s staff have found them in one important area: Recruiting.

After a hiatus of Geoff Collins making a failed run through the South to fuel Temple with largely suspects, the Owls have gotten back to the prospect formula that worked so well for Al Golden and Matt Rhule:

Recruit Mid-Atlantic and DMV (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) hard but, more importantly, get a significant number of players who have Power 5 offers. For Golden and Rhule, that breakdown was roughly this: 10-15 three stars and above with solid P5 offers with the rest of the class at least two stars and trusting the film on the others.

That’s what I’m talkin’ about, Willis.

 

Two stars like Tyler Matakevich (consensus national defensive player of the year as a senior) and Haason Reddick (a first-round NFL draft choice) were coached into five stars by the time they left.

Still, you can’t coach every two-star into a five-star and your chances are a lot better when your base is three.

betting

We won’t get into every recruit, but running back Johnny Martin III is rated near the top of RBs in New Jersey and strong side defensive end Jordan Laudato of West Chester Henderson was rated as high as the No. 2 DE in the state of Pennsylvania. The Owls’ most recent commitment, safety Christian Abraham (St. Joseph’s, Montvale, N.J.) is in the top 30 of defensive players in that state.  Justin Lynch (Mount Carmel, Chicago) is the brother of a quarterback (Jordan) who was a Heisman Trophy finalist at Rod Carey’s former school, NIU. He was the leader of a state championship team in Illinois a year ago. In horse racing, good bloodlines almost always mean triple crown contenders. I like Lynch’s future at Temple. He was one of the few who didn’t have a P5 offer, but his film is among the most impressive.

According to Scout.com, Temple now has 10 “hard commitments” and not a single one is lower than a three-star. Almost all had Power 5 offers (not just interest) in hand by commitment day. That’s the best recruiting start we’ve seen in a long while.

Even more importantly, the Owls have been building trust and relationships centered particularly around running backs coach Gabe Infante. Recruits have gone out of their way to praise Infante and he seems to be thriving in a role once played by Fran Brown.

Friday: One of Dick Englert’s last letters from a fan

06.26.20
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Tulane has the right approach

Tulane v Temple

Temple goes on the road to play Tulane, which has two road P5 games.

Even though Temple beat a very good Tulane team last year, there is no denying the Green Wave is on the rise.

This year, if there is this year, they are poised to take advantage.

Tulane’s non-conference schedule has been ranked No. 1 by college football expert Tom Fornelli in the AAC and that’s probably the model Temple should pursue in the not-too-distant future.

Cincinnati v Tulane

Consider this: Tulane returns 14 of 22 starters from a bowl team and runs a unique zone bluff option type offense that is easier to pass off than, say, Army and Navy. It’s an offense few teams run and makes Tulane a tough team to prepare for in a one-week situation. Most P5 teams go up against a read-option and facing a different style makes it a tough team to prepare against.

Temple used to be that way as the Owls ran power football with a fullback for most of the Matt Rhule and Al Golden years. Since P5 teams didn’t see that style, the Owls had a fair share of success against more talented foes.

This is my favorite Rhule quote about Temple football from a Paul Myerberg piece in USA Today:

“”HOW DO WE DIFFERENTIATE OURSELVES? HOW DO WE MAKE OURSELVES HARD TO PREPARE FOR? PUT TWO BACKS ON THE FIELD. PUT TWO TIGHT ENDS ON THE FIELD. THIS IS WHAT YOUR ROOTS ARE. THESE KIDS HAVE MADE THEMSELVES REALLY TOUGH. AND THAT’S THE ONLY WAY WE’LL EVER WIN. BY BEING A REALLY, REALLY TOUGH FOOTBALL TEAM.”” _ MATT RHULE

Now it appears Tulane has adopted its own way to make it a difficult-to-prepare-for opponent.

Tulane goes on the road against Northwestern and Mississippi State and I like that scheduling. Both are P5 teams but both are beatable and winning those games would be a boost to the entire conference and not just Tulane.

Temple plays a home game against P5 bottom-feeder Rutgers and a road game against much-improved (at least from a personnel standpoint) Miami. However, if the Owls bring that read-option style to Miami with a classic pocket passer in Anthony Russo, they are going to get hammered by outside pass rushers Quincy Roche and Gregory Rousseau, who could both go in the first round of the NFL draft. Establish an inside running game to avoid those two ends and then throwing off play-fakes would probably mitigate the rush. Does Rod Carey go outside of his comfort zone to attack the weakness of his opponent?

We didn’t see much evidence of last in his last game.

Hopefully, his next game plan is the polar opposite of that one.

Monday: Drop dead date

 

06.15.20
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A couple of special additions

If one play turned around the Temple season, it was a Keystone Cops’ like extra point that was not only blocked but taken back all the way for two points at Cincinnati.

That miss was in no way the fault of kicker Will Mobley because careful review of that replay showed a guard missing his block that allowed a hand to get through.

rory

Still, those two points were the difference between a Temple lead in a game the Owls had to win. They really should have won that game in Cincinnati because a lead would have dictated the approach in the fourth quarter.

Whatever, it highlighted a problem with the Owls that needed to be fixed. The Owls have not had an impact kicker since Aaron Boumerhi helped save the 2016 season. That was the year Austin Jones busted his leg on a cheap shot at Memphis. Going into that game, Jones–who transferred to Alabama and obscurity (Quincy Roche take note)– hit a Temple record 17-straight field goals.

Why do we bring all of this up?

First, placekicking has pretty much never been an area to worry about. The Owls have been blessed from guys like Nick Mike-Mayer to Don Bitterlich to Cap Poklemba to Brandon McManus to Jones and Boomer.

Lately?

Not so much.

Mobley is a pretty reliable extra-point type kicker but do you trust him with a 44-yarder with 30 seconds left in a big spot?

bellster

Gotta love that all of Rory’s family and friends already have their Temple swag.

He’s never shown that deep leg threat.

Two kickers Rod Carey is bringing in this year, though, do. Carey watched the same film you and I did and is doing something about it.

Rory Bell of Wilmington (Ohio) is outstanding as is Souderton kicker William Leyland.

Bell was ranked No. 2 in the nation by one of the scouting services, Game Winning kicking.

Leyland was named the kicker for the East squad for the Big 33 game that unfortunately will not be played due to the pandemic.

Both have big legs and can win a game and both will come as PWO (preferred walk-ons).

May the best man win, err, a scholarship. The Owls already have won getting both on the roster.

Now let’s hope the Owls can tighten up all the loose ends on their special teams to give these guys a shot to shine.

 

05.30.20
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Upgrades and Downgrades

arnold

Arnold Ebiketie (47) is the only returning defensive end for the Owls but Wake Forest transfer Manny Walker has a couple of P5 starts under his belt.

Walking away from the late December debacle Temple football was primarily responsible for, it was pretty apparent that the Owls needed to improve in a couple of areas:

  • Game planning
  • Pass defense
  • Pass Rushing
  • Offensive line

We won’t know about the game planning until about halftime of the Miami game if there is such a game but it is apparent the Owls improved in one of the key areas with the acquisition of a Northern Illinois center and a Dayton guard.

Offensive line.

Michael Niese got his number called on NFL draft day and it wasn’t to be selected but showed him pancaking a defender on the way to a Dayton touchdown while another Dayton guy was drafted. All the reports on Mike are that he is a high Power 5-level offensive guard talent who was stuck in the FCS. He should earn a starting spot for the Temple Owls. He certainly has the size (6-4, 273) to play the position at this level and he was all-conference for Dayton the last two seasons.

He deserves a larger stage and he will get it at Temple.

downgrade

There are plenty of players like that, notably two of the last three quarterbacks who played for North Dakota State. One, Carson Wentz, is playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. The other, Trey Lance, is coming off his first season as a starter with 28 touchdown passes, 2,717 yards, and zero (that’s right, 0) interceptions. That’s insane. If there is anything good about the portal, it’s that Temple can grab good players off FCS squads to help them. Brian Westbrook would have come in handy about 20 years ago for instance.

Temple had a big hole in center when Matt Hennessy went in the third round of the draft to the Atlanta Falcons and did not fill it by spring camp but used the quarantine time to acquire All-MAC center C.J. Perez in the portal. With Niese replacing Jovahn Fair and Perez replacing Hennessy, the Owls not only shored up a couple of positions but allowed for more depth along the line because they won’t have to move people around to fill areas of need.

westbrook

Villanova’s Brian Westbrook representing Temple.

If this gives quarterback Anthony Russo an extra nanosecond in the pocket to make a decision, it’s a big plus. I’ve got to think that Anthony’s 21 touchdowns versus 11 interceptions will improve too, say, 25 and 8, and that would make a difference in the win/loss total.

Their pass-rushing got worse, not better, with the loss of AAC Player of the Year Quincy Roche in the portal to Miami but they did acquire Manny Walker, a DE from Wake Forest, in the portal and Arnold Ebiketie logged a lot of time on the field in the last five games at the other DE. Still, that’s a thin area and maybe some thought of moving Dan Archibong back to end, a spot he started at, could be a consideration if tackles like Kris Banks continue to develop.

Overall, it looks like coach Rod Carey has some pretty good personnel to work with on defense but he must emphasize success in the running game first for both his offense to work and to help keep his defense off the field.

Has he figured this out on his own or is he too set in his ways to change?

We won’t know that for a few months at least.

Monday: A Game to Mark on Calendar

Saturday: Significant Stat Predictions

Monday (6/8): Drop dead date

 

05.23.20
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Recruiting looking up for Carey

National High School Coach of the Year Gabe Infante will have a positive impact on both Temple’s game plans and recruiting

People who were wondering what the Temple football coaches were doing since spring practice was cut short can rest easy now because it’s obvious that they haven’t been.

The Temple coaches obviously have been working and working hard.

Rod Carey dipped into his past to pick up a center and now the Owls have a marquee running back for the future.

The 2021 class now includes one of the best running backs in South Jersey, Blackwood’s Johnny Martin and the Owls were able to land a big-time portal transfer from Northern Illinois, center C.J. Perez, to fit an area of need.

Also, Gonzaga (D.C.) defensive back Jalen McMurray turned down multiple Power 5 offers to attend Temple on a firm commitment (“I won’t listen to other offers”) and Iowa State’s No. 2 quarterback, Re-Al Mitchell, is a portal transfer.

Impressive indeed as I don’t recall even great recruiters like Al Golden and Matt Rhule getting a similar haul in the space of one month. Rod Carey is a damn good gameday coach, even if I disagree with his RPO offense, but him getting players eschewing the Power 5 for Temple was always a huge question for me.

Not anymore.

Already, the recruiting prowess of running backs coach Gabe Infante is starting to show. Infante has been a legendary high school head coach in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey and, when he was hired, it was thought he would be able to bring in a motherlode of talent from both sides of the river.

It took more time than I thought but better late than never.

To me, if Carey ever left, Al Golden would be a nice replacement but Infante might be an even better one. Golden can recruit and CEO but Infante can recruit and game-day head coach way better than Al. CEO? That’s a question but he was a damn good CEO at St. Joseph’s Prep.

It took him a little time to get his feet wet, but now it appears his persuasive powers helped him land someone who a few Power 5 schools were after. Just look at this quote from Martin, as told to 247 sports recruiting guru Brian Dohn.

If the kind of relationship-building skills Infante showed with Martin manifests itself in future recruits, the Owls could be moving up the rankings. Right now, their class is in the middle of the AAC pack (fifth) and they are an unacceptable 83 overall.

Something tells me by filling in areas of immediate need, as with Perez, and future need, as with Martin, the 2021 class will finish closer to 50 nationally and in the top three in the conference when all is said and done.

Not ideal, but you can win with those kinds of numbers, and,  with a head coach with an FBS record of 60-36, you can win a lot.

I’m not asking to win national championships at Temple but I’m asking to win a lot and the month of May, 2020, has been a terrific step in that direction. It’s nice to know the coaches are earning their coronavirus paychecks.

Monday: Suspending Campaigns

 

05.11.20
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Virtual Press Conference: Rod Carey

Everything is virtual these days.

Virtual graduations.

Virtual games.

Even a virtual Kentucky Derby showdown between Seattle Slew, Affirmed and Secretariat (spoiler alert: Secretariat won).

There are even actual newscasts seeming virtual with reporters and weather people working from home.

Temple head coach Rod Carey gave his thoughts on the NFL draft from home via Skype to reporters from Jeff Skversky to Fran Duffy, two guys with deep Temple connections.

Maybe it’s time for a Carey press conference on the state of the program where no reporters have to show up and the folding chairs for the press don’t have to be six feet apart.

NCAA Football: Florida at Miami

Scott Patchan could have filled an area of need for Temple.

If there was one, these would be the five questions I’d ask Rod:

You brought the RPO offense from NIU but Temple has used play-action and a power running game to post consecutive 10-win seasons and recruited that type of personnel. What was your thinking behind that?

What Rod would probably say: “Really, that’s the only offense we were comfortable running at NIU and Mike (Uremovich) doesn’t know how to run anything else.”

What we hope he would say: “Yeah, that was a mistake. We took a long look at the film and we’re going do try to establish the run first and have explosive plays in the passing game of play fakes. When you have a guy with a great arm like Anthony, you can’t be exposing him to decisions on whether or not to run the ball. Plus, Ray Davis and our OL gives us a chance to establish the run. Once that happens, I can see a lot of success off play-action to guys like Jadan and Branden.”

carey

What did Quincy Roche say to you when he transferred to Miami and what did you say to him? 

What Rod would probably say: “We have a rule that once you are in the portal, you are off the team. We wished him good luck.”

What we hope he would say: “We pointed out that Haasan and Muhammad were first-round defensive linemen picks out of Temple and told him there was no reason he couldn’t follow in their footsteps. Plus, we showed him how much progress he made in one year under Walter (Stewart) and if that was repeated next year, the sky would be the limit.”

Temple fans haven’t watched their team beaten 55-13, 63-21, and 45-21 in the same season in a long time. What do you attribute those lopsided games to?

What Rod would probably say: “We had a lot of bad luck, turnovers, missed assignments, things like that. We just let those games get away from us. Matt (Hennessy) didn’t play in the UCF game and that hurt us.”

What we hope he would say: “That kind of alludes to what I said above. Temple has been known in the past as a tough team that runs the ball, controls the clock, shortens the game, and wins it in the fourth quarter. That’s what we have to get back to and that’s where we hope to be in 2020. I’m still kicking myself for throwing the ball 26 times in the first 34 plays at Cincinnati. If we had flipped that, like we started to do in the second half, we would have won that game.”

Did you show any interest in available portal players Scott Patchan (Miami DE who ended up at Colorado State) or Ricky Slade (Penn State running back who is still in the portal)?

What Rod will probably say: “We were only interested in guys who wanted to be here. Manny Walker, for example, wanted to be here.”

What we hope he would say: “We know we had holes at DE and RB and looked at every available guy. We tried to sell Scott on proving to Miami they gave up on him too soon but he wanted to go play for Steve Addazio.”

You mentioned after the NFL draft that Temple is already cashing in on the NFL success with potential recruits? Which recruits with Power 5 offers have committed since the NFL draft?

What Rod will probably say: “I can’t tell you names but I can say we got a few guys who MAC schools offered and we hope to get more.”

What we hope Rod would say: “We got a few guys who saw the NFL stuff, want to play in the NFL, and said Temple was a proven place to achieve that dream. We convinced Muhammad and Haason to make those calls and that really helped us with recruits. We got one guy with an offer from the SEC, one from the Big 10 and one from the Big 12. We’re going to release those names soon.”

Friday (5/15): Advantages of a shortened season

Monday (5/18): Recruiting Patterns

Friday (5/22): Suspending Campaigns