Tag Archives: Rod Carey

05.01.20
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Owls poised to build on NFL draft success

 

Probably one of the wisest of many clever things former NFL coaching legend Bill Parcells said was this:

“You are what you’re record says you are.”


The interior push with
Ifeanyi and Dan to sack
opposing quarterbacks this
year could be the best we’ve
seen since Joe Klecko was
playing in the middle
all by himself

When it comes to projecting success at either the NFL level or the college level, clues are almost always left behind.

That’s why I got extremely excited when the Owls brought in Adam DiMichele from his junior college baseball hiatus in 2005. His Sto-Rox high school football record: 35 touchdown passes his senior year and an offer from Penn State. Not excited when one of his successors, Vaughn Charlton, brought with him nine touchdown passes his senior year at Avon Grove and a smattering of MAC offers in addition to his Temple one.

Just as I expected, DiMichele was an outstanding quarterback at Temple and Charlton, to be kind, was mediocre.

 

I remember at the time Charlton apologists were saying those stats were due to Avon Grove playing a “flex-bone” in the now-defunct Southern Chester County League.

Flex-bone, doggy bone, I said. If Charlton is competing in the SCCL and DiMichele in the WPIAL, Charlton would have to have 50 touchdown passes to be even compared to DiMichele.

I was right and so was Parcells. You are what you put on tape and in the stat sheet. There are exceptions but they are so rare they are not worth mentioning.

That’s why the Philadelphia Eagles’ first-round pick of Jalen Reagor was illuminating to Temple’s chances of making a splash in the NFL draft again last year. If Reagor’s “record” is a guide, the Owls could be poised to have their first offensive player chosen in the first round since Paul Palmer in 1987.

Jadan Blue’s 40-yard dash speed is 4.38 while Reagor was clocked at a 4.47. Reagor’s junior year stats vs. Blue’s junior year stats:

Reagor: 13 games, 72 catches, 1,061 yards, 9 touchdowns

Blue: 13 games, 95 catches, 1,067 yards,  4 touchdowns

Since Reagor’s “better” of his two years were his junior one, it’s a fair comparison. The bar is pretty low for Blue now since he had more than 20 catches and six yards than Reagor did and he’s faster and the same size (6-foot-1).

However, if Blue gets nine touchdowns or more and repeats or even gets close to his 2019 Owl stats, you can book it.

He will be a first-round pick.

My guess that there will be a season no later than spring of 2021 (still holding out hope for the fall, though) and my money is on Blue putting up close to those numbers again.

I can see three other possible Owl picks in the 2021 draft, quarterback Anthony Russo and defensive tackles Ifeanyi Maijeh and Dan Archibong.

Compare Russo’s 2019 stats to Green Bay Packers’ first-round pick Jordan Love:

Russo: (6-4, 235 pounds) 21 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 246 completions in 419 attempts; 

Love (6-4, 225): 20 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, 293 completions in 473 attempts

To put that even in a better perspective, Russo is playing in a far-tougher league. Almost every team in the AAC is tougher than any team in the Mountain West.  You can say all you want about Love’s “footwork” being better than Anthony’s, but the proof is in the stat pudding.

To me, Anthony can go 21-12 again and pick up two more wins and he’s between a 2-4 pick. Winning will cure all that. If he goes 30 and 5 with those wins, he’s a first-round pick. He can make all the throws and his maturity should cut down on his INTs.

Footwork smootwork.

I also think Maijeh’s defensive tackle teammate, Dan Archibong, has an excellent chance of being picked in the first seven rounds. The interior push with Ifeanyi and Dan to sack opposing quarterbacks this year could be the best we’ve seen since Joe Klecko was playing in the middle all by himself.

Beyond that, there will be a surprise. To me, Chapelle Russell was this year’s one. There are plenty of Owls with that same kind of potential. We won’t mention any names because I think it could be as many as a half-dozen. Not all six will rise above UDFAs but those with fire in their bellies and sacks and interceptions will.

Winning games will put those guys on the NFL radar faster than anything else.

Like Bill said, you are what your record is.

Monday (5/4): 5 Best Next-Tier Wins

Friday (5/8): Smoking Out the Winner

Monday (5/11): Virtual Press Conference

Friday (5/15): Recruiting Patterns

Monday (5/18): Suspending Campaigns

 

 

 

04.20.20
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TU: One Step back, two steps forward?

pophead

Temple’s best two football eras came by hiring guys who were successful head coaches at other big-time programs, as witnessed by the BOT’s putting their money where their mouths were here to hire Pop Warner.

Every time Temple changes a head coach, and that’s far too many recently, we argue against a line of thinking in the AD’s office that Temple should take one step back for two steps forward.

That is, hiring a “promising coordinator” from a big-time program and essentially giving up one year so he learns on the job how to be a head coach and gives Temple a good back end of that contract to make up for the learning curve.

When Geoff Collins left, we argued that Temple was past all of that and the Owls could not survive this pattern of one bad year and a couple of good ones. Fortunately, it took Manny Diaz leaving after 18 days for Pat Kraft to adopt that strategy.

It worked in the sense that the Owls went sideways, not backward, in Rod Carey’s first season, unlike what they did in the inaugural seasons of Matt Rhule and Collins. While Collins went 6-6 in his first regular season, it represented a four-loss drop from the previous two with essentially the same talent.

Every new coach since Wayne Hardin left was either a failed head coach at the place before him (Jerry Berndt was 1-11 at Rice before coming to Temple) or a coordinator (Ron Dickerson, Clemson; Al Golden, Virginia; Steve Addazio, Florida; Rhule, Temple via New York Giants and Collins, Florida).

Screenshot 2020-04-19 at 11.46.30 AM

Bob Mizia (left) and Pete Righi with coach Wayne Hardin in 1975

 

Bobby Wallace doesn’t count because he was a Division II head coach and it could be argued jumping two divisions eliminates any game-day coaching advantages he might have had because the CEO aspect of a FBS job is so much different.

 

The only person who had a good first season was Addazio, and his inexperience as a head coach was somewhat ameliorated by his hiring key members of a staff coming off a national championship (Chuck Heater, Florida DC, and Scot Loeffler, Tim Tebow’s QB coach, among several).

Pop Warner had two regular winning seasons his first two years at Temple. So did Hardin. If Carey’s next regular season is a winning one, he will join that elite company.

Friday: Spring Football?

Monday: (4/27): Temple and The NFL Draft

Friday (5/1): 5 Best Next-Tier Wins

Monday (5/4): Suspending Campaigns

Friday (5/8): Virtual Press Conference

Monday (5/11): Recruiting Patterns

Friday (5/15): Smoking Out The Winners

 

04.17.20
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Once things return to normal, what next?

infante

Gabe Infante is a legendary high school football coach in Philadelphia.

In as perfect a world as possible for Temple football, Rod Carey would go from eight wins his first season to double digits his second and win two championships every six years along a couple of bowl games.

I’m not greedy enough to think Temple winning a championship every year is possible because a lot of schools like SMU, UCF and Cincinnati are also trying to do the same thing. Still, Temple is in a perfect geographic spot–the exact middle of 46 percent of the nation’s population–and should be able to pan enough gold from that mine to dominate the AAC.

The world has changed a lot in the past two months, but that doesn’t stop us from dreaming about what could be once everything gets back to normal. Everything will get back to some semblance of normal because the Spanish Flu–which killed far more people in 1918 than this virus will in 2020–did not last forever.

MO-gabe-infante-colin-lenton-940x540

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

After a year of watching Rod Carey, here is what I think is more likely to happen when things return to normal: Rod wins 6-7-8 games a year, probably doesn’t get Temple a championship and, as a consequence, does not become the hot prospect Al Golden, Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins were seen as. Temple, for its part, does what Temple always does: Keep mediocre coaches around forever.

There is, though, a possible third scenario where Carey makes Temple the NIU of the AAC and grabs a lot of championships and increases his 5-2 record against Big 10 teams to an even more healthy number. Maybe even wins a bowl game for once but that probably won’t happen at Temple if he delivers a title first (see Matt Rhule).

That means someone will eat Carey’s hefty buyout ($10 million this year, $8 million next and $6.5 million after Year Three), Temple would get another championship and everybody will be happy.

What happens then?

Temple could go back to hiring promising coordinators or grab another successful MAC-level head coach.

Or do something different, like elevate an assistant.

IF they go in the latter direction, they could do a whole lot worse than Gabe Infante, who is local, knows the recruiting landscape in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and, for a decade, had the second-best coached football team on the planet in St. Joseph’s Prep. (I will concede that the Bill Belicheck teams of this century were better-coached in a tougher place to win, the NFL.) Side note: As a long-time afficianado of high school football, there was no better-coached, least-penalized team I’ve ever seen at that level than St. Joseph’s Prep. The Hawks’ offensive line sprinted to the line of scrimmage–every other team walked–and then would pummel the defensive line on each and every snap. That’s damn good coaching right there.

If Infante can take an inner-city school six  blocks from Temple to being the Pennsylvania power of this century, he can work wonders up the street with a lot more resources and a $17 million practice facility.

Something for Temple AD Pat Kraft to put in the back of his mind when things get back to normal.

Monday: Two Steps Back, One Step Forward

 

04.13.20
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The fallacy of the Pandemic

cherryhelmet

There’s no more serious a threat to college football than the current pandemic.

In 1918, all of the Philadelphia high school Thanksgiving Day games were canceled due to the Spanish Flu.

In 2020, there currently is a serious threat about the entire college–maybe even the NFL–season being canceled due to CORVID-19.

helmetstickers

Hopefully, the Owls will get some helmet stickers on ESPN this season

In my mind, that only happens if there is a recurrence after the social distancing ends in May. There are signs where other countries–particularly China and South Korea–are getting back to some form of normalcy so it logically follows that the U.S. will, too.

The fallacy part is that all of the teams are in the same boat and no one program has an advantage over the other. Take Miami and Temple for instance. Miami got a full week of hitting in before suspending its spring practices. Temple doesn’t hit and got one day in before suspending.

Miami is at least a week ahead of Temple, maybe more, and there’s nothing the Owls can do about it if the teams resume summer camp at the same time.

Also, the areas that were harder hit–the Northeast and the Southeast, for instance–probably will lag behind the other more rural areas of college football.

Every day we are hearing about this famous person or that famous person coming down with the illness. So far, we haven’t heard any Temple or Miami players coming down with it and we probably won’t due to health privacy protocols.

Nor do we need to hear about it.

For now, though, let’s just hope that no one on the Owls or anyone they play come down with it because any Temple win should be hard-earned and there should be no excuses coming from either side for personnel issues.

Otherwise, with Miami having that week of practice in the bag, that’s a head start that probably will not be overcome and that’s a legitimate reason for a possible loss, not an excuse.

Friday: Keeping An Eye on the Staff

Monday (4/20): Smoking Out the Winner

Friday: (4/24): Spring Football?

Monday: (4/27): Temple and The NFL Draft

Friday (5/1): Smoking Out The Winners

Monday (5/4): Suspending Campaigns

04.03.20
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Missing Cherry and White today

Cherry and White Day primer

When the football season starts, and I’m inclined to think it will, taking the one step back approach to take two steps forward probably will be at least one reason for it.

Unfortunately, the step back is tomorrow when the realization hits that there will be no Cherry and White Day.

Mitigation of crowds now is just one thing that hopefully will be able to allow such gatherings in September. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, among others, said team activities will have to start by July 1 in order to have a season. I’m not buying it. For years, the Ivy League didn’t allow team activities until August (not even spring football) and they were able to field football teams in the fall. It might be sloppy football, but I still think there will be football. Instead of hugs and handshakes in Lot K, there might be a lot more fistbumps and that’s OK. As long as my beloved Owls are on the field, that’s the most important thing.

Temple football spring game, Cherry and White game, Temple football,

Nothing newsworthy has come out of a spring game since Jadan Blue caught three touchdown passes in 2017.

There hasn’t been a Cherry and White game for a long time, but I do miss the day itself.  Aside from the commaderie with people you’ve gotten to know for years, the surrounding festivities have been well worth the trip itself.  For one, there is no better place to be Temple gear. Much of it will remain on the shelf like the $33 “Mayhem is Coming” T-Shirt purchased before Geoff Collins’ first game.

No need to wear that now since Mayhem never came and it sure has left.

Others are keepers, though. At one of the Al Golden “games” I was able to purchase a game-worn Temple football jersey from the Big East days and another Temple sweatshirt for more than reasonable prices–even lower than the Mayhem shirt–and support the program at the same time.

Last year, at the Olympic facility, there were a number of tables set up with a lot of interesting items. The “football” itself? Err, not so interesting. I left after a punt return drill early in what would have been the “second half” when the “tacklers” waved at the ball carrier with tackling dummies. No wonder we sucked at punt returns in the fall. Still, though, it was a must-see day for festivities, if not for the football portion. I really haven’t seen a good Temple spring game since Al Golden was here and he was trying to establish a culture of toughness that would carry over to the fall.

We’ll have to wait until next year for that, though, and that’s a small price to pay if we’re going to see real games come September.

Monday: An ex-Temple player to root for

Saturday: A Look Ahead at Miami

 

03.27.20
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Comparing seasons: A soft 8-5

 

In the entire modern history of Temple football, the Owls have had eight seasons similar to the one they had in 2019.

The most similar one was the same 8-5 the Owls posted in the previous year, but the Owls also had a 9-4 season in 2011, an 8-4 season in 2010, a 9-4 season in 2009 and a 7-4 season in 1990.

The difference is a stark one.

armsteadcherry

For Temple to be really successful in 2020, Rod Carey will have to put the ball in Ray Davis’ hands as much as Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins did with Ryquell Armstead

In none of those other seasons did the Owls suffer three blowout losses like they did in 2019. To me, despite the two wins over then top 25 teams, that’s a soft 8-5.

If Pat Kraft pulled Rod Carey into his office for a year-end review like most of us people in regular jobs have, that’s the one criticism he should have of his old Indiana football buddy.

“Rod, great job beating two top 25 teams but you’ve got to cut that blowout shit out.”

Somehow, though, I think Rod-with a $10 million buyout–is on cruise control at Temple and Kraft is offering no year-end reviews.

Take what Geoff Collins did vs. Carey in comparison. In my mind, Carey still retains bragging rights against Mr. Mayhem because he beat Collins Power 5 team with Group of Five talent, 24-2. If that changes this season in Atlanta, though, that all goes out the window.

Screenshot 2020-03-26 at 11.12.30 PM

Today is our 11th anniversary on wordpress after switching from blogspot

Still, the Apples vs. Apples comparison–Temple talent under Collins vs. Temple talent under Carey–has to objectively go to Collins and that comes from a guy who was a lot tougher on Collins and his offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude than I ever was on Carey and Mike Uremovich.

Here’s why: Collins’ 8-5 season was way more competitive in the five losses than Carey’s 8-5 season was. Collins’ team led, 34-26, at halftime against a top 10 team on the road, UCF, before falling, 52-40. Carey’s team lost at home to the same talent, 63-21.

Carey also lost head-scratchers at SMU (45-21) and to a 6-6 UNC team (55-13). In both games, Temple was a 6.5-point underdog. It wasn’t just me that saw Temple as the underperforming team, it was the nation.

Our reasons have been chronicled in this space until our faces have turned Jadan Blue. Temple has been a run-first team under previous coaches and the Owls used their toughness along the offensive line and in the run game to extend opponents into the fourth quarter. Carey bringing a RPO to Temple from NIU has needlessly opened areas for the bad guys to exploit and run away from Temple. Nothing would open passing lanes for All-American potential receivers like Blue and Branden Mack than a strong running game led by Ray Davis. Nothing makes those passing windows tighter than a passive commitment to the run.

We posted these same criticisms of Matt Rhule after his first two RPO years and he was flexible enough to change his style and increase his pay from $2.4 million per year in his final contract at Temple to $4.7 at Baylor and $6.3 at Carolina.

So far, Matt hasn’t cut us a residual check and we don’t want one.

All we want is for Temple to get back to being Temple. Run first, extend the game into the fourth quarter and not be embarrassed in losses. If Carey gets a pay raise for returning the Temple brand, we will kiss his ass incessantly and thank him without expecting anyting  in return.

If he’s too stubborn to change, he will never be successful here but a lot of 6-6 seasons will keep him around for a decade or so and pay him comfortably because Temple never fires mediocre coaches. To me, that’s not good enough.

Temple should always strive for excellence and reject medicority the same way it rejected failure more than a decade ago.

Monday: Another kick in the nuts to the G5

Wednesday: An April Anthology

Friday: Is That All There is?

03.23.20
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Temple Football: Business As Usual Six Feet Apart

The world stops occasionally for most of us but not for a Division I football player.

At least not a Division I football player who expects to be successful. Guys lift and run 365 days a year and those who don’t fall behind.

We assume that’s what guys like Jadan Blue, Anthony Russo and Ray Davis are doing right now even in this national health crisis with the rest of their teammates, only this time six feet apart. I would assume this can be done at the E-O but really lifting and running can be done anywhere.

They have to because they have to assume the guys from Miami are doing the same thing and they want to avoid beginning the next season the way they ended the last one. David Feeley, the strength coach there, was the strength coach at Temple and the Owls who were around then now he’s not letting up on the guys down there. The lifting and the running and the passing drills are done at least six feet apart.

That’s what we’re hoping for right now.

So we’ll soldier on here as well and try to keep posting a couple of times a week until summer camp starts.

What we do know is this: Miami has a substantial lead in terms of preparation against Temple on top of a substantial advantage in adding talent via the portal. Miami added a quarterback (D’Eriq King) who accounted for 50 touchdowns in his last full season at Houston and a defensive end from Temple who was a first-team All-American and turned down fourth-round NFL money (or above) to essentially do his part to beat his old teammates. The school that basically stole a head coach from Temple and a strength coach from Temple now has stolen an All-American from Temple.

That’s what we’re up against.

Temple has added crumbs in comparison while getting hit hard in the subtraction department. The preparation part is this: Miami was able to complete a full week of practices before suspending things while Temple was able to get in one day.

The Owls have to do a lot to catch up to both. Hopefully they will have the time to do it. All indications are that there will be an opening day but this time the opponent won’t be anything like Bucknell.

Friday: Comparing Successful Seasons

03.20.20
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Uncertainty is the word of the day

temple football fans,

Hopefully, someday this will be a return to normalcy

Got a call a couple of weeks ago from my new season-ticket representative.

“Mike, this is (named withheld) new season-ticket representative. How are you today? Just wanted to touch base if you want to renew your season tickets?”

“I think I’m going to hold off until after Cherry and White Day,” I said.

Then the next day came the news that there would be no Cherry and White Day on top of no March Madness on top of no opening day and that Temple football spring practice would be pushed back for two weeks.

Penn State fans and over-reaction

The opposite of social distancing

In the ensuing days after that, we’ve heard that there would be no spring practice, no spring sports and we might not see baseball until June.

Uncertainty is the word of the day and we are now faced with the real possibility that the season itself could be delayed.

The best-case scenario is that “the curve” of available treatment for the coronavirus will be flattened so that the health care system is not overwhelmed by the summer. That means increased social distancing in addition to constant washing of hands. This virus is super contagious so if you turn the light on to wash your hands, then wash your hands, then turn the light off, you can catch it with the second touch if you didn’t clean the switch surface.

Crazy.

So you’ve got to be constantly aware of your environment.

The most important thing is not sports now but getting to the other side and keeping as many of us healthy as possible. So if you can, quaranteen. If you can’t, wear gloves as much as possible and be aware of cleaning surfaces as well as hands.

That said, I can always renew the season tickets in August. The only good thing about Temple football in a 70K stadium is that practicing social distancing won’t be as hard this fall as, say, at Alabama.

Monday: Business As Usual 

 

03.16.20
by

Temple football’s moving parts

NCAA Football: Florida at Miami

Scott Patchan was available for Temple until six days ago, when he decided to join Steve Addazio and Todd Centeio at Colorado State. At least Daz seems to have mastered the portal.

While the Temple football Owls could have replaced Don Bosco (and Temple) grad Matt Hennessy and AAC Player of the Year Quincy Roche with a couple of standouts from this year’s opponents in the portal, Rod Carey has decided to move some chess pieces he already had to replace the ones he lost.

According to OwlsDaily.com, the Temple head coach has moved tackle Adam Klein to center.  That makes right tackle, a position of strength, weaker. Since Hennessy is an NFL player, that also means center is weaker.

It also doesn’t do much for your depth chart.

1183267127.jpg.0

Not much depth, but Owls will have the best coaching sweatshirt in the league.

Seems to me that getting Mike Maietti, another Don Bosco guy who made 33 Big 10 starters for Rutgers, would have stabilized the center position and allowed Klein to progress at right tackle, but that might be injecting too much logic into the planning.

As far as Quincy Roche’s replacement goes, Carey seems to be putting all of his eggs into the Emmanuel Walker basket. Walker played in five games for Wake Forest in a three-year career. Scott Patchan, who was still in the portal until six days ago, started 19 games for the Hurricanes and had 5.5 sacks last year. He probably would have relished the opportunity to outperform Roche in the Sept. 5 opener at Hard Rock Stadium but he, like Maietti, is water under the dam now.

Damn.

Since the Owls also lost Dana Levine and Zack Mesday, who started a lot of games, they are also thin on the other side with only Arnold Ebiteke having extensive playing time at the other end.

Presumably, that’s an area where the Owls will move some defensive players around to fill depth. Hopefully, the coaching staff knows what they are doing but, in the Owls’ Daily article, Carey said reaching into the portal is still a possibility.

Let’s hope so.

Friday: Uncertainty ahead

03.13.20
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Coronavirus puts Temple football on hold

Cherry and White kickoff now at 10 a.m.

Assuming the world hasn’t ended in a month, by the time Cherry and White Day would have been, the entire sports world is probably still stopped.

Temple has suspended classes and probably will have none by then. One of the first indicators of its impact on the sports world came a few days ago when the Ivy League jumped the gun and canceled its basketball tournaments, even though they could have played them in empty arenas. At the time, my initial reaction that it wasn’t fair to the Penn kids who had to fight their way to get to the No. 4 spot in the playoffs only to see the rug pulled out from under them. Then that became moot yesterday for Penn because the entire NCAA Tournament has been canceled, too.

If this makes certain we are all healthier in a month its all worth it as would be the decision by Temple to suspend its events.

The calendar will say Cherry and White Day occurred in 2019 and 2021 but list an open date in 2020. One hundred years from now kids will look at a Cherry and White program and ask their grandads what happened way back in 2020 and those guys will have to explain the coronavirus.

Screenshot 2020-03-13 at 12.40.43 PM

From the Temple football alumni page, and administrator Joe Greenwood

I should know. I covered the 1984 Central and Northeast football game as a 20-something youngster and noticed the game started in 1884 but had no result in 1918. After filing the story, I went home and asked my dad at Thanksgiving Day dinner about what happened in 1918 and he said basically half the city died with a flu epidemic that year and all kinds of things were canceled. He was exaggerating, but not by much.

Maybe the powers-that-be are exaggerating now. Maybe not. We’ll leave that to the medical experts.

I know because of last year I won’t miss Cherry and White as much as I used to because it’s gotten more watered-down with each and every year.

Cherry and White Day has changed a lot since the days even of Al Golden and Matt Rhule. In those days, like the ones before it, there was an actual game being played and you could identify guys who had a chance to do something in the fall.

As recently as the 2017 “game” Jadan Blue caught three touchdown passes and had over 100 yards in receptions so those of us who were there were not surprised by his 2019 breakout season (after sitting out 2018).

Not much could be garnered from the Rod Carey approach of running a controlled practice last year, but what is important now is getting this thing back ontrack in a few weeks.

Miami has also suspended its spring practices, but they got a full week in compared to one day for Temple.

Hopefully, that’s not the difference come Sept. 5. Nor is the fact that Quincy Roche is playing for the bad guys instead of the good ones.

Monday: Surprising Newcomers