Tag Archives: Rod Carey

09.19.19
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Behind Enemy Lines: A conversation with Bull Run

Stadium

A good panorama look at 29,016-seat Buffalo Stadium. Even though the North Campus is located in the residential suburb of Amherst, the neighbors supported building it in 1992.

This is a real Throwback Thursday post, back to the days when the Temple Owls were a member of the Mid-American Conference

My favorite of the competing MAC blogs back when Temple Football Forever was a member of that conference was Buffalo’s Bull Run.

It still is and its platform is SB Nation.

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We had a running and friendly exchange with Bull Run back then and we’re resuming it now in advance of Saturday’s 3:30 game (ESPNU) in Amherst, N.Y. Buffalo’s home stadium is located on the North Campus, which is a little like Temple putting its home stadium on the Owls’ North Campus (Ambler).

The driving engine behind that blog Tim Riordan, which is the same name of a former great Temple (and Philadelphia Stars of the USFL) quarterback. They are not related other than they were and are very good at what they do.

Bull Run mixes in coverage of the Bulls with some occasional humor that always makes it a fun read.

We threw these five questions out to Tim and he was kind enough to answer them:

How was the fan atmosphere at Liberty and was there any audible cursing in the stands at the right-wing religious institution?

 I was not at the game, sadly, but for a team which had been beaten as thoroughly through two games as the flames were the atmosphere seemed rather impressive. I”m going to guess that the honor code there probably kept the cursing to a minimum.

Temple’s attempts to build an on-campus stadium have been seemingly blocked by no more than 20 neighbors. With the Buffalo Stadium located in a residential area, did the neighbors try to stop it when it was built many years ago?

 

Well, UB’s stadium is on Campus and was built originally to help host the 1992 World University Games. It’s one of the reasons that the layout is so bad in the stadium, it was built for track and field. 
Other than the QB and TE, who were the key losses for the Bulls last season?

 

 Where to start? UB only returned seven or eight starters this season. In addition to Tyree and Mabry, we lost three receivers, two linebackers, three defensive backs, and an all-MAC center. Basically, offensive guards and tackles are the returning units.
It will be almost a completely new team you’re seeing this year.
Thoughts from a conference foe on Rod Carey, who is 5-0 against Buffalo?

 

The guy went 38-10 in the MAC, won four division titles and two conference championships. That’s more a statement of his competence than the fact he owned Buffalo. Though I will say last year he really out-coached Leipold at the half. 
Would Buffalo be interested in taking UConn’s place in the AAC since it brings a better current hoop and football program and a bigger TV market?

 

While it might not be the best financial move in terms of the non-revenue sports I would love the move for Buffalo. The New York to DC corridor is a huge location for our Alumni base, and Buffalo is getting more students from that Area than they do from Buffalo itself.
That along with the better depth you have in hoops would make a move to the AAC a no brainier for Buffalo. So if you have any pull with the folks at the American office, pass along a note for us.
Saturday: Game Day and Polls

 

09.14.19
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Game Day Forecast: Great weather, uncertain outcome

Temple is not getting much respect from the prognosticators.

Fanciers of sports talk radio pick up on the catchphrases of various successful hosts.

Mike Francesa of New York has “wait a minute, wait a minute!” but today’s signature that applies to the noon kickoff between host Temple and Maryland goes to another Mike, Missanelli, who says: “the line is telling me something.”

The opening line was Maryland favored by four.

It has since adjusted to around a touchdown.

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No rain, just a beautiful day for football

Shocking, because after last week, I thought the line would open with Temple a mid-teen double-digit dog.

The line should be telling you that Vegas feels that Temple is a whole lot better than Syracuse–which was ranked No. 21 last week–but elsewhere the signs are that there is little respect for the Owls.


“Maryland travels to Temple
this coming Saturday before
a well-placed bye week ahead
of its first significant
test: a nationally televised
home game on Sept. 27, a Friday
night, against Penn State”
_ Ross Dellenger, National College
Football writer
What?
Temple NOT a test?
Bulletin Board material

Only Sports Illustrated said to jump on the Owls but that was to cover, not to win, and I haven’t found a viable prediction service who is picking Temple to win outright.

I won’t but I won’t pick Maryland to win, either, because I think there are too many variables going into this game.

First, Bucknell might be the worst FCS team in the history of college football and I don’t think that game adequately prepared the Owls for this one. That’s not on the kids or coaches but on the Temple administration. To me, even a full-contact scrimmage between the first and second Temple units under game conditions would have been a better way to prepare and certainly a game against another FBS team would have also been better. I’m still very concerned that not a single Temple running back was able to take a handoff from deep in his own territory and outrace that entire Bucknell team for a touchdown.

That’s one strike against Temple.

On the other hand, many of the key players who starred in last year’s victory for Temple–notably Kenny Yeboah, Anthony Russo, and Shaun Bradley.–have not gone anywhere and they all figure to be the same kind of a nightmare for the Terrapins that they were a year ago. Russo was great in his first-ever college start, finding Yeboah for a touchdown, while Bradley had a pick 6.

That’s one strike against Maryland.

The second strike could be coaching but that’s also up in the air. Temple should have an advantage there because Rod Carey entered this season with a 52-30 record as an FBS head coach while Mike Locksley entered this season as a 3-31 FBS head coach. Last week, Locksley had to outsmart only Dino Babers (19-20 as a head coach coming into this season). It should be tougher against Carey. Still, I have a question whether Carey is married to a read-option offense. If he is, that’s playing into Maryland hands by giving the Terrapins more possessions than they should have and, with that kind of speed, that’s a high hanging curveball. If he’s flexible enough to adjust to attack the Terrapins’ weakness–run defense–by establishing the run first and throwing off play-action fakes, that could be a home run for Temple.

This morning it’s the bottom of the ninth and one team is down to its final strike.

We won’t know who swings and misses until 3 p.m., but that’s what makes sports great and just maybe a big and loud home crowd becomes the kind of closer Mariano Rivera was.

Picks this week (record 0-0 against the spread, 0-0 straight up): North Carolina State laying the 6.5 at West Virginia, Penn State laying the 17 against visiting Pitt, Eastern Michigan getting 8 at Illinois, Iowa laying the 2.5 at Iowa State, Buffalo laying the 4.5 at Liberty and Georgia State getting 10.5 at Western Michigan

Tomorrow: Game Analysis

09.08.19
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Owls Know The Way to Beat Maryland

Perhaps no score in college football surprised the so-called experts more than Maryland’s 63-20 win over Syracuse on Saturday.

Sure, Maryland was a 2-point favorite at home against the No. 21-ranked Orange but Hurricane Dorian-type level of devastation was the thing that opened some eyes.

One thing the Terrapins established is they are a quick-strike team with plenty of speed on offense.


While Maryland has revenge
motivation that can’t be
discounted, Carey has all
the cards in his pocket in
terms of strategy. As a head
coach on the FBS level,
Carey is 53-30; as a head
coach on the FBS level,
Maryland coach Mike
Locksley is 5-31

Those three hours gave Temple head coach Rod Carey a pretty good template for devising a game plan to beat the Terrapins.

Like the old Dean Smith four-corners pre-clock era basketball offense of North Carolina, play keep-away.

The way to control a big-strike type team, as Maryland is, is to run the ball, control the clock, bring the safeties and the linebackers up to the line of scrimmage, and hit some key third-down plays in the play-action passing game. Keep the ball for at least eight minutes of each quarter and score some points and that limits the opportunities Maryland has to touch it.

While Maryland has revenge motivation that can’t be discounted, Carey has all the cards in his pocket in terms of strategy. As a head coach on the FBS level, Carey is 53-30; as a head coach on the FBS level, Maryland coach Mike Locksley is 5-31. Plus, the Owls had an extra week to prepare so Carey knows what the deal is. Last year, the Owls put their tight ends in motion as blockers for NFL fifth-round pick Ryquell Armstead, got some turnovers on defense, and came away with a 35-14 win.

All  Locksley has to go by on Temple is a game film that showed a spread offense without a fullback or two tight ends and that’s pretty much what he’s planning to stop.

If Carey came out in two tight ends, and a fullback, pounded the ball behind running backs Jager Gardner and Re’Mahn Davis (with a healthy dose of Isaiah Wright misdirection), that’s something Maryland coaches would definitely not be prepared to face.

Running the ball behind extra blockers was also that strategy that Steve Addazio employed to beat Maryland, 38-7, in 2011:

As a bonus, it is also the best strategy for Temple in that the Owls’ strengths as a team are their offensive line, quarterbacks and linebackers. If Wright is the full-time running back, you could also say that position would be a strength of the team as well.

With Josh Jackson instead of turnover-prone Kasim Hunt at quarterback, this is not the same Maryland team that lost to Temple 35-14 a year ago in College Park, Md.

This isn’t the same Temple team, either.

It’s better-coached than it was a year behind a guy who is 4-2 against the Big 10.

Whether he goes 5-2 will be determined by his willingness to adjust his scheme to exploit the weakness of his opponent.

We will find that out in six days.

Tuesday: Owl Nation

Saturday: Game Day

09.07.19
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How good is Temple? Some clues today

footballs

The $2 million question that wasn’t really answered last week could be today.

“How good is Temple?”

It used to be a $64,000-dollar question in the 1950s (the name of a game show back then) but, due to inflation and the amount of money Temple coach Rod Carey is making, we’ll arbitrarily set it at his $2 million annual salary.

Screenshot 2019-09-06 at 3.05.41 PM

All that said, comparative scores are just speculation but it’s fun speculation and transitive property means little later in the season let alone this early  …

BUT …

I must admit despite the gaudy 56-14 score and the No. 1 national ranking in overall offense, I was a little leery about the win over Bucknell in that I thought Temple would have laid the kind of beating on the Bison that Maryland did to Howard (79-0) and Penn State did to Idaho (79-7). I thought Temple got first downs on too many third downs and not enough first downs after first downs. Bucknell’s tackling surprised me in that I did not think it would be able to tackle or get off blocks at all.

Screenshot 2019-09-06 at 3.07.24 PM

It may just be overreacting. It may be just because Carey is a “nicer guy” than Maryland’s Mike Locksley and Penn State’s James Franklin but part of my concern is that I think Howard and Idaho are better teams than Bucknell.

Certainly, Howard did something recently (two years ago) that Bucknell has never done and probably never will: Beat an FBS team in the P5 and G5 eras when it went out to UNLV and won. That year, UNLV followed up that 43-40 loss to Howard by beating Idaho (44-16), San Jose State (41-13), Fresno State (26-16) and Hawaii (31-23) so the Running Rebels were no scrubs.

Bucknell travels to Sacred Heart (6 p.m.) and if it struggles against that team on a 56-12 level, it’s not a real good sign for Temple.

Howard, on the other hand, travels to FCS power Youngstown State and, if the Penguins are able to hang a big number (maybe not 79-0) on Howard, it indicates that the Maryland win is less impressive than it was a week ago.

Those are just a couple of clues.

We really won’t know how good Temple is until next week when it hosts Maryland. Today, the Syracuse at Maryland game is one to watch and the Owls might as well root for the Terrapins because a Temple win over a team that beat Syracuse will be that much more impressive.

Buffalo at Penn State (Fox, 7:30) is also a game to watch. The Bulls were really hurt when quarterback Tyree Jackson left school a year early to pursue an NFL career and found himself on no roster after being cut by his hometown Buffalo squad. Let that be a lesson for any quarterback coming out. If you are not a first-round pick, it’s not worth it. I think Buffalo will be able to give PSU a better game than the 29.5 spread, something like 34-14 and could be a tough foe for the Owls in a couple of weeks.

Then there is another clue game in South Florida at Georgia Tech (2 p.m.) If South Florida (which got rocked by Wisconsin) is able to give GT a good game or even win, that bodes well for Temple at the end of the month because I think TU is significantly better than USF this season.

A game to watch with absolutely no impact on Temple is freaking East Stroudsburg at Wagner (6 p.m.). Wagner lost to UConn, 24-21, last week. If ESU beats Wagner, you might be able to make an argument that Bucknell is better than Uconn.

In the end, it’s the Owls who have to take care of their own business but stock in that business could go up or down depending upon some of today’s results.

Sunday: Temple knows the way to beat Maryland

Tuesday: Temple Nation

Saturday: Gameday Thoughts

 

09.05.19
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A treat, a jump shot, and a color highlight new Temple players

People of a certain age remember the Rice A Roni jingle “the San Francisco treat” but few people ever remember a player from San Francisco making an impact as a football player at Temple.

Re’Mahn Davis is that one and only player.

The Frisco native had 90 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns in a 56-12 win over Bucknell in the opener and may just be the running back who allows Isaiah Wright to concentrate on his wide receiver and special teams duties.

We shall see.

To me, there were a lot of impressive first-timers out there getting extensive action for the Owls but none more than a color (Jadan Blue), a jump shot pronounced MY JAY and a treat from San Francisco named Davis.

What we do know is that he was the most talked-about freshman by his older teammates since Bernard Pierce lugged the pigskin before the 2009 season. Pierce had a pretty good year then, rushing for 1,361 yards and 16 touchdowns. Still, Davis had the better opener this time because Pierce’s debut against Villanova was six carries for 44 yards.

gardner

Jager Gardner took this handoff from P.J. Walker against SMU for 94 yards, the longest run from scrimmage in Temple football history

Going into the season, Temple coach Rod Carey pretty much indicated that Davis and veteran senior Jager Gardner were on the same level. Since Gardner scored a pair of touchdowns as well, that equality was borne out during the game.

There is still time for one to separate himself from the other and, in order to beat Maryland, one will have to.

Gardner was always seen as someone with enormous potential–he still holds the longest run from scrimmage (94 yards) in the Temple football history playbook–but has been never above pedestrian backing up guys like Jahad Thomas and Ryquell Armstead.

Maybe he will do that this year but the time clock for college running backs is usually this: If a true freshman and a senior are even, playing time usually goes to the younger player. Davis rushed for 60 yards and a touchdown and caught two passes for 78 yards and an additional score.

It’s been that way in the history of college football.

Gardner can change all that with a couple of long runs for touchdowns against Maryland but he is running out of time.

The fallback plan has always been Wright, who spent a full week in summer camp at the running back position. The hope is that plan will not have to be dusted off and used, but the reality is that Wright is a game-breaking talent and the Owls are plenty deep with game-breaking talent at wide receiver. Blue, who caught a pass from Frank Nutile against Villanova last year, had his first significant action since catching a pair of touchdown passes in the 2017 Cherry and White game with 10 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown. He missed that fall season with an injury but could play a major role this season.

On defense, the guy who really impressed has a name perfectly suited for basketball, not football. Ifeany Maijeh (last name pronounced my jay) won the starting defensive tackle position against Karamo Dioubate and finished with five tackles, two for a loss and a sack. Dioubate–rated the No. 5 defensive end recruit in the nation coming out of high school–also had a sack.

Still, the same school of thought applies to the Maijeh/Dioubate competition as it does the Davis/Gardner one. If it’s close, the tie goes to the younger runner.

So the next couple of games are most crucial for the older guys who have to do something in the games to separate themselves.

That kind of competition can only help the team as a whole.

Saturday: Bye Weeks Clues

09.03.19
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Fizzy: The Bucknell Game

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Fizzy likes what he’s seen from coach Carey and staff so far.

Editor’s Note: Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub is one of the few ex-players we know at Temple who has actually played in a game against Bucknell. His review of the latest gridiron clash between the two schools follows.

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

The day after Temple announced the hiring of Rod Carey, I got this message from a friend who lives in Boulder, Co.  “TEMPLE DID WHAT???”

Let me explain.

weinraub

Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl with a few  friends

My friend Erik, in Boulder, was an alum of Northern Illinois University (NIU), and two of his college buddies still lived there and went to all their football games.  Erik would get a weekly message during football season from his buddies, who were not at all happy with Carey’s play calling.  Basically, they said he was a run-oriented guy who rarely did imaginative things.  Erik predicted I was going to go crazy watching and writing about Carey’s offense.  So all winter long, I was dreading Temple’s first game, expecting to see a boring offensive game plan that wouldn’t make use of all our inherent talent.

Just one more qualifier, please.  Long ago, a West Philly High student was asking me about my career.  When I got done a brief summary, he looked up and thoughtfully said, “Weinraub, you older than shit!”

That I am, and I’ve seen so many Philly football coaches at all levels, I couldn’t begin to list all their names.  In two weeks, I knew Andy Reid couldn’t call plays in the Pop Warner league.  I saw so many Temple coaches way over their heads and continually call time outs because they couldn’t get the plays in on time. Then, more often than not, run the ball up the middle. Many of these coaches didn’t make use of their talent and even had students carrying posters running up and down the sideline signaling in the plays.  Those coaches learned on-the-job and at our expense. Lots of times, Temple players won games despite their coaches.

Screenshot 2019-09-03 at 9.05.06 AM

Well, that was then.  Yesterday, however, I was the most surprised fan at the LINC.  Yes, it was only an overwhelmed Bucknell team, but I saw a flawless offense.  There was no hesitation on play calls.  We started out throwing the ball and then mixed everything up continually.  The shovel pass for the first touchdown was a beautiful call.  Later, we went to an up-tempo, no-huddle scheme that rocked Bucknell’s defense.  And guess what?  After all my years of bitching, I saw an offense make excellent use of misdirections.  As promised, Carey got our all-American special teams player (Wright), the ball in every conceivable fashion.  I was thoroughly impressed because I saw an offense truly designed around the skills of our talented players.  Coach Carey and offensive coordinator Mike Uremovich, are to be congratulated.  The coaching staff showed how years of working together pay off.

I do have one coaching complaint. Can you explain to me why Russo and the first-team offense was on the field and risking injury into the fourth quarter?

The only player negatives revolve around Anthony Russo.  Many times, our outstanding quarterback looked directly at his primary receiver as soon as he got the snap.  Perhaps that had a hand in the pick-six interception?  Also, would someone please teach him how to slide?  (If we had a baseball team, that coach could do the job. Wait, maybe our baseball team is playing in our new 160 million dollar campus stadium. Duh!)

Today, I’m not going to get into the defense because I really want to see how they do against stiffer competition.  However, I believe it was only once they had to call a timeout to set the formation near our goal line.

To sum up, color me thrilled.  I hope yesterday wasn’t a mirage.

Thursday: The Newbies

Saturday: Things to Look for

 

 

 

09.01.19
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Bucknell: The Horse that had to be put down

As a recent horse racing aficionado, I’ve learned that I enjoy going to see the ponies for more than monetary reasons:

First and foremost, I don’t want to see any of the horses hurt so that’s my first and really only fervent hope.

Second, it would be nice to see my horse win. Third, I enjoy seeing great athletes compete against one another and the thoroughbreds are great athletes. With that in mind,  full disclosure: I had no interest in seeing a horse go down like I knew Bucknell would so I skipped the game and had better things to do on a Labor Day weekend. I did check the ESPN+ feed (at $4.99 ESPN+) is the best buy in sports. To me, the great thing about going to a sporting event is the competitiveness. I knew there would be no competitiveness here. Great athletes against so-so athletes do nothing to move the competitiveness meter.

My horse won against this claimer.

The other horse had to be put down.

I  knew it would happen. You knew it would happen.

It didn’t have to happen but the Temple administration allowed it to happen.

Same thing with the Maryland administration that allowed a 79-0 win over Howard to happen.

The season really starts in two weeks against Maryland and the Owls will have to establish a running game that they did not even try against Bucknell.

Or at least not enough.

Screenshot 2019-08-31 at 4.49.35 PM

That they can do it was established because this is the same offensive line that hammered Houston for 59 points a year ago and they have a promising freshman in Re’Mahn Davis and an improved senior in Jager Gardner to block for.

What they did against Bucknell is something that they should not be doing–at least twice giving an NFL prospect in Anthony Russo a chance to run in a run/pass option. I don’t know who designed those type of plays but those pages need to be ripped out of the playbook immediately if not sooner. First, as much as I love Anthony as my quarterback–and that’s at least as much love that I had for P.J. Walker–he is no threat to run. Second, if head coach Rod Carey gets my quarterback killed on a similar play, I will never forgive him.

Nor probably will any Owl fans.

Temple TUFF means establishing the run and throwing the pass off play-action.

What we saw on Saturday was a team trying to establish the run off the pass and that is ass-backward.

Hopefully, that’s something Carey saved for his back pocket against Maryland.

If not, the Owls probably won’t achieve their potential.

To me, as I wrote on Friday, beating this team 65-14 would have been just about right. Since it was “only” 56-12, there is a lot to work on in two weeks.

More than I thought because Howard is better than Bucknell.

Tuesday: Fizzy’s Corner

Thursday: The Newbies

Saturday: Things to Look For

 

 

 

 

08.30.19
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Game Day Minus-1: A Smelly Old Shoe

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Here’s the list of good things we can see the Owls do for the first time under Rod Carey tomorrow:

Hit people.

That’s it.

For the first time in my memory of Temple football and that’s, err, 40-plus years, we have gone through an entire spring and summer practice without anyone wearing Cherry or White getting hit.

That’s only a little exaggeration because although there have been some sleds hit and some people blocked, there hasn’t been a single tackle to the ground under Carey so far in any practice or scrimmage.

Screenshot 2019-08-29 at 11.44.59 PM

You can flip Harrison Hand and Freddie Johnson on this list since Carey has indicated that Hand will probably start.

It was all done in the hope of limiting injuries, but it is a gamble nonetheless. In his first season at Temple, Bruce Arians had plenty of hitting before his first game–a 17-6 win over Syracuse at Franklin Field–but none the week before a 35-0 loss to Pitt.

“Dumb mistake by a rookie head coach,” Arians said.

After that game, the Owls had their most physical practice of the season and Arians never let the pedal off the hitting medal in his five years on the job.

Different strokes for different folks and college football’s rules for practicing have changed significantly since the 80s but we will see hitting Saturday (3 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field, ESPN+). At stake is the old shoe, which must be pretty smelly because it’s been in McGonigle Hall and Edberg-Olson Hall for over 50 years.

But back what happened after Arians had his own epiphany on hitting in practices.

The Owls went on to beat Pitt three of the next four seasons under Arians and have two winning seasons against what was then rated as a top-10 national schedule.

The Owls will learn pretty much nothing from the exercise as they enter the game as a 40-point favorite and I fully expect them to challenge the team’s 82 points scored in an 82-28 win over Bucknell in 1966. Last year, Bucknell lost to both Penn (34-17) and Villanova (49-7) and a professionally coached Temple team should exceed those numbers by a lot.

This is a professionally coached Temple team but they won’t get to 82, probably because Carey will probably do something creative like take three knees on the 1 a few times in the fourth quarter if the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard is about to break.

In a game that probably should have never been scheduled, Temple 65, Bucknell 14.

At least the hitting should knock some rust off before Maryland.

We won’t find that out for sure until Sept. 14.

Sunday: Game Analysis

Wednesday: Most Impressive Rookies

08.26.19
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Game Week: The Bully in the China Shop

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I’ve been against our great university playing Bucknell in football.

Basketball, yes.

Football, no.

I was against it when it was first announced and urged several times for the university to swap the game out for a more appropriate foe.

squirrel

Yet, the game remained on the schedule and, as one editor of a Temple sports website likes to say, “it is what it is.”

It is the next game on the schedule and it must not only be won but dominated. With all of this talk about bullying in schools today, my school is forced into the role of a bully (by its own administration) and it is not a good look. This has all the makings of a body bag game and we haven’t seen that since eight Rutgers players were carted off the field in a 20-17 loss to Temple in Piscataway (2002). This one doesn’t figure to be anywhere near as competitive as that one was nor should it be. I know a lot of people will be bringing up Villanova but Villanova is able to recruit the kinds of athletes Bucknell is unable to recruit and Temple now, unlike then, has a competent head coach who has no history of losing to FCS teams.

I would enjoy much more a trip to Penn State and the hope for an upset there on Saturday than the knowledge that Temple is going to probably hurt someone pretty bad at home.

What does Temple gain from beating Bucknell, 82-28, in a repeat of the 1966 game? Other than a statue of a boot, nothing.

That, and the fact summer (by far the best of the four seasons IMHO) is over, is the bad news.

bucknell

The good news is that football season is back and that’s not a bad consolation. Seeing our beloved Owls in a rare August game is another bonus. 

If there is any other good news, we will finally get a chance to see Rod Carey’s Temple team hit someone–they still have tackling to the ground in college football, right?–and Owl fans will get to see if there is any rust by the lack of tackling in the spring and summer.

The important thing is getting ready for Maryland in a few weeks and beating Georgia Tech on the way to an AAC title run.

If all of those things happen and the Owls finish unbeaten, playing and beating Bucknell might be worth it but I doubt it.

Friday: Game Day Minus-1

Sunday: Game Analysis and a return to the three-post weekly schedule

 

08.24.19
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New BOT chair hints stadium “out of our control”

oldstadium

The original Temple Stadium at Pickering and Cheltenham Aves.

What’s out of our control?

For Temple football, injuries to the offensive line or quarterback could turn a potential championship season into another mediocre bowl run.

That’s out of our control.

Yet, in a recent interview in the Temple News, new Temple University Board of Trustees chairman Mitchell Morgan hinted that something else also important to the future of the program was “out of our control” and that is a place to play.

This is what Morgan, a real estate developer who helped bring to fruition Morgan Hall (one of the best student residences in the country), had to say about an on-campus football stadium in a recent Temple News interview:

 

“It would be great to have an on-campus stadium,” he added. “But if it’s not in the cards, then we will find another place to play football, but it’s out of our control.”

Since everyone in the administration refuses to even comment on the stadium issue pretty much since last March’s (2018) disastrous meeting with the community at Mitten Hall, that statement is about as revealing as anything. Even athletic director Pat Kraft, in an interview with CBS radio’s Zach Gelb, pulled a Sargent Schultz when he said “I really don’t know anything” about where a stadium stands. New head coach Rod Carey hasn’t uttered a word about the proposed stadium, at least in print, and former coach Geoff Collins’ only statement was that he would help the university in any way he could. I doubt Manny Diaz even knew the uni was considering a stadium. Matt Rhule said he was in favor of a stadium “if done right” and Al Golden was the first coach to bring up how important building an on-campus stadium was back in 2006.

Those aren’t the top guys, though. Mitchell Morgan now is.

newstadium

The current proposed location at 15th and Norris seems to be a no-go for a stadium

” … but if it’s not in the cards, then we will find another place to play football, but it’s out of our control.”

That’s an important comment from the top guy because Temple currently has no place to play football next year and that’s troubling. The hope is that Jeffrey Lurie extends the Lincoln Financial Field lease, but that has not happened yet and both Franklin Field and Chester are unacceptable options, one where the Owls would not have control and the other where 18,000 seating is just too small for a team that averaged 28,765 fans last year.

The irony is that this really is in Temple’s control if it wanted to think big. The university already plays almost 100 intercollegiate events at its $22 million Olympic stadium complex at Broad and Masters and it would be able to shoe-horn a 35,000 seat stadium into that spot if it wanted. Those neighbors probably would trade six events a year for the 100 and moving the Olympic teams back to 15th and Norris would not require shutting down 15th Street, which is the major obstacle.

It’s a King Solomon-like solution that the university apparently does not want to pursue but it’s certainly one that is within its control.

Monday: Finally, Game Week Is Here