Tag Archives: Rod Carey

11.16.21
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Somewhere, Rod Carey’s got to be talking to himself


It’s impossible to find a single photo of Rod Carey laughing and joking with Temple players like Matt Rhule does here.

The game has passed Rod Carey by and somewhere, deep down, the Temple University head coach for the next couple of games has to know it.

For the last few weeks, Carey has been on a loop at these post-game press conferences with statements like “our offense didn’t give us a chance to win” or “our defense played well enough to win” or “we’ve got to coach better.”

Deep down, even if he doesn’t say it, Carey knows what really happened. In the offseason, he harped on the “next man up” mantra but, in college football, you run out of next men up who are good enough to replace the previous men.

If he was honest with himself, he’d come to this conclusion:

“I’ve never been a player’s coach and, since the portal came, this is the worst time to be a hard ass.”

Or:

“We lost 15 good players in the transfer portal and I just didn’t do a good enough job of replacing them. I guess I just rubbed those guys the wrong way but that’s just my personality.”

That’s the Gosh-honest truth, whether he wants to admit it or not.

Even Steve Addazio was popular with Temple players.

While Temple had a mass exodus of players leaving, plenty of other G5 schools had nobody leave. CUSA champion UAB had nobody leave for Power 5 schools. Sun Belt champion Coastal Carolina had nobody leave. AAC champion Cincinnati got more players in the transfer portal than it lost. Do you think Coastal quarterback Grayson McCall could have improved his draft status by transferring to a Power 5 school? Sure. But he was happy where he was and the way he was being used.

Not true for Anthony Russo, a pocket passer who this staff tried to remake into an RPO quarterback. It would be naive to think that players like Vince Picozzi, the team’s best offensive lineman last year, or Arnold Ebiketie, the team’s best pass rusher, felt they were being utilized to the best of their abilities as well. If they were, they might have stayed.

The difference not only was that those teams were championship caliber but had coaches who were popular enough with the players and fostered a culture where everybody–both the good players and the next men up–were all in. At Temple, only the next men up were all in and that was the downfall.

Think about it. There are plenty of photos of Temple players laughing and joking with Matt Rhule, Al Golden and Steve Addazio. I have not seen a single one of a group of Temple players laughing and joking with Carey. At Temple, under Golden, Rhule and Daz (and even Geoff Collins), football was both fun and business.

Under Carey, things are pretty grim and there are fewer grins.

Temple was the hardest-hit G5 school in the transfer portal by far and the reason is as plain as the nose on Rod Carey’s face. It has shown on the field.

In a place like Northern Illinois, there was no transfer portal, Carey could hold things together because those players had no options.

Now things have fallen apart and even Humpty Dumpty can’t put it back together again.

Do you think Temple has the same mass exodus of talent with, a popular players’ coach like Matt Rhule or Al Golden?

No.

That’s a lesson for the administration when they look at the type of personality they want to bring in to replace Carey at the end of the season.

For Carey, though, the days of his style of coaching might be over and, when he talks to himself at night, that’s probably a realization he’s come to as well.

Friday: Temple-Tulsa

11.14.21
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Temple Administration: Silence is deafening

Painting the end zones in that beautiful Cherry and White-colored design with a diamond outline and TEMPLE spelled out costs Temple University $40,000 every time they do it.

That’s one of the reasons the game against Houston on Saturday, a 37-8 loss, showed those colors only the second time this season. Coincidentally, that’s also the same amount of money it costs the university to write out a check to Rod Carey to coach the football team each week and that includes off months like January and February.

It is committed money, meaning that the uni agreed to pay it long before this disaster of a season occurred.

By not firing Carey either last week or this week, the silence coming from the administration is increasingly clear.

“We. Don’t. Have. The. Money.”

It’s deafening, really, and it was a lot louder than any cheering you could have heard in an otherwise empty stadium.

What self-respecting university allows itself to be embarrassed week after week–five weeks straight now–on national television without acting?

Temple, that’s who.

Not Texas Tech, not Akron, not TCU, Georgia Southern, LSU, UConn, and USC who found money to stop the bleeding this season.

Temple.

That’s about as embarrassing as anything we’ve seen on the field so far in the last three months and that’s pretty damn embarrassing.

That doesn’t mean Temple won’t find the money at the end of the season but why wait if it’s inevitable anyway?

That old saying “you’ve got to spend money to make money” is especially true the way college football currently is constructed. Already, Jadan Blue looked at the fact that he was just five catches short of breaking the school career record and said, “thanks, but no thanks” because he didn’t want to spend another week with Rod Carey. To think that he is the only good player on the roster who has come to that conclusion is really naive. Right now, the kids need a signal that the university knows there’s a problem with the coaching and help is on the way so hold tight and don’t leave.

Temple’s administration should follow the lead of one of its all-time record-setters and say “thanks but no thanks” to just one more day of Rod Carey.

If it costs the Owls not painting the end zones next year or the year after that, it’s a price that should be paid. Move the money around to stop this madness now.

Otherwise, they will have dug themselves a hole so deep that it will take them five years to field a team worthy of that name in the end zone.

Tuesday: Talking to himself

11.09.21
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In lieu of no press conference, we have this …

Temple employee caught both watching the clock and punching out early.

In lieu of no press conference coverage, a couple of housekeeping things will be covered in today’s post.

We really thought there was a 50/50 shot of Temple firing Rod Carey in a Monday noon press conference so not having one to write about is both disappointing and discouraging. Temple is moving at a snail’s pace on this important issue and, while disheartening, not surprising given Temple’s history.

This school doesn’t know how to fire a coach it seems.

So a couple of other topics to discuss.

One of the drawbacks of putting yourself out in a public space like this one is that people can accuse you of everything under the sun and have zero evidence to prove it.

Let’s just take a couple of things we were accused of last week.

One, that I called for Temple to drop down to the Patriot League in my last post.

(No, that was Fizzy.)

Two, I championed Rod Carey as head coach BEFORE he got the Temple job.

(No, I wanted Chris Creighton, Neal Brown and Lance Leipold.)

Of course, none of these people ever doing the accusing have the receipts.

We do.

This was the first paragraph that appeared last week:

  “EDITOR’S NOTE:     The following is Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub’s take on the current Temple football situation. (Aside: I could not disagree more with almost all of this but will hold off on my reasoning until after other posters react.) Since Fizzy is a loyal Owl and former player, I will defend his right to say this. ” _ Temple Football Forever, Nov. 1, 2021

“I could not disagree more with almost all of this … “

In what world is that an endorsement from me for Temple to drop to the Patriot League?

First, Temple should not go to the Patriot League nor should it play games at Franklin Field. That’s returning to the bad old days. When you’ve had fans who have seen Heaven, they won’t pick Hell as an alternative. Temple in the Patriot League or playing at Franklin Field wouldn’t draw flies nor could Temple attract good coaches or players for that slop.

“He tweeted out Doug Pederson would be a home run hire” was a criticism of this. Err, outside-the-box doesn’t mean home run. For the record, Al Golden=HR; Gabe Infante=Stand up triple; Gary Patterson=double high off the wall; Pederson=line drive single to right; Rod Carey=strikeout.

The problem with Temple is not the players. When Temple has a great coach (Wayne Hardin, Al Golden, Matt Rhule), it does extremely well with some very good teams. One of those teams will be honored at Saturday’s Houston game (noon, ESPN+), the 2009 Eagle Bank Bowl squad. Rhule had consecutive 10-win seasons. Even with mediocre coaches like Steve Addazio and Geoff Collins, Temple was able to win bowl games. Low key, Bruce Arians may have done the most remarkable job of all of them–two six-win seasons against two Top 10 schedules. To put that in perspective, Temple has not played a schedule any tougher than No. 74 since Golden arrived on campus 16 years ago. The 2016 Matt Rhule championship team played against the No. 87-toughest schedule in the country. Arians had no facilities compared to the teams he had to face.

So instead of getting a new league, it would seem to me the solution would be getting a great coach and returning to the Temple TUFF mentality of Golden and Rhule. There’s no way you can convince me that Al Golden would want the UCONN job over the Temple job, so not moving fast to get rid of Carey is really costing Temple the opportunity of plugging Golden back in here–if that’s what they want to do. Why not give yourself that option?

Second, this is the only thing I said about Carey BEFORE he got the Temple job (and here is the complete link to that story):

“Another named mentioned on Sunday, Northern Illinois’ Rod Carey, would be nowhere near as attractive as Leipold. Kraft played offensive line at Indiana. Carey played center at the same school. No doubt in my mind they know each other and that might have something to do with it. Geez, wish Pat played with Leipold because Carey is 0-6 in bowl games.” _ Temple Football Forever, Jan. 7, 2019

Of course, none of these people will ever correct the record so we have to do that here.

AFTER he got the job, I supported him only because I wanted him to win. The first time I realized it wouldn’t work out was the 55-13 loss to North Carolina in the Military Bowl and we wrote this that day. That came in the same year Temple lost to UCF, 63-21, and SMU, 45-21. That was stunning because in the decade previous Temple did not have a single year with three blowouts like that.

It has spiraled out of control since then, and while all the signals we are receiving say the administration has heard and gets it, the proof is doing something about it and yesterday may have been too late.

Waiting even one more day is postponing a needed housekeeping job on a messy front porch. Not only are the neighbors noticing, but so is the entire college football world.

Friday: Houston Temple Right and Wrong

Sunday: Game Analysis

Tuesday: Talking to Himself

(A firing press conference would change this schedule, of course)

11.06.21
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Temple: Getting the money together

At every other university in America, what has happened the last four weeks is the equivalent of any employee consistently yelling f-bombs at the customers, blowing off work for several straight weeks without an excuse, and making a mistake at Three Mile Island that releases enough nuclear energy to kill the entire population of Harrisburg.

In other words, an employee has bleeped up big time and you have to find a way to fire him.

This employee was responsible for causing the company 52-3, 34-14, 49-7 and 45-3 losses.

All the other universities fire the guy without blinking.

Hopefully, this guy has a suit ready to wear by Monday at noon.

At Temple, they’ve got to find the money. Fizzy suggested last week in this space to rob the $160,000,000 stadium fund to pay off the contract. It’s not that simple. That money was already committed by donors to build a stadium. If no stadium, it goes back to the donors. It doesn’t go to chemistry classes, basketball facilities, or even the community.

The problem new athletic director Arthur Johnson and university president Dr. Jason Wingard face involves making a few phone calls.

By our calculations, at least 10 Temple University alumni have given at least $1 million toward a new stadium. One of them is a frequent poster on this site.

Johnson has to contact at least seven of them in the next 24 hours and get a “yes” on the question if they are willing to move that money from “stadium” to “buyout” on the signature line.

If yes, the puff of white smoke will come out of the Sullivan Hall chimney and we will have a new pope, err, Temple football coach no later than Monday at noon. If not, we will have to do what Hirohito said after the second Atomic Bomb was dropped in WWII: “Endure the unendurable.” Then the Emperor meant unconditional surrender. Now it means waiting until the end of the season to rid us of the disaster that is Rod Carey.

That’s probably how tight Temple is with the money.

Our recommendation has been all along to make Gabe Infante the interim coach until the end of the season. If, by some miracle, Gabe wins a couple, award him the job. If not, involve Al Golden in the search–either as the new coach himself or finding a guy who can succeed here.

Either way, the bad employee must be removed and, if necessary, the money must be found. Saturday was the best evidence that enough is enough.

Tuesday: Point/Counterpoint
11.05.21
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Temple football: No promises, and now we know why

The only hope for Temple football rests in these two guys acting no later than Monday.

If Rod Carey seemed a little evasive about making predictions from the end of last season until now, we pretty much all know why.

Coaches usually don’t say how many wins they are shooting for but when asked from the spring until the start of this season what he was looking for, Carey simply said this:

“I don’t want to put a number on it. We want to be a team that plays hard and our fans can be proud of …”

WITN’s forecast for East Carolina …

Playing hard?

Hmm.

Lots of winless Temple teams played hard, but Owl fans were looking to turn around a 1-6 season, and playing hard alone was not going to get it done.

What we’ve seen so far in eight games is even a failure to deliver on that minimalistic promise.

Too many guys worked too hard to throw away the progress made for the decade before this disaster.

Hell, the 2-10 team of Matt Rhule’s first year played a lot harder than Carey’s current 3-5 squad. Like this year, Rhule beat a favored Memphis team but it was 41-21 on the road and not 34-31 at home. Rhule also beat Army at home, lost on the final play at Rutgers, 20-14 (not by 61-14) and did not have a single loss as embarrassing as Carey’s last three–52-3 to Cincinnati, 34-14 to USF and 49-7 to UCF.

Rhule’s home performance against UCF–a much better version of UCF than this current one–saw the Owls lose a heartbreaker, 39-36, on one of the greatest end zone catches ever seen at Lincoln Financial Field (pro or college).

Rhule then, like Carey now, had a young quarterback but the difference was Rhule’s quarterback showed improvement every week and Carey’s quarterback has not.

Not once did Owl fans run down behind the bench and chant “FIRE RHULE!” like they did “FIRE CAR-EY!!” last week (although one loud guy was often heard yelling FIRE PHIL SNOW! in the back row of Section 121 and even he stopped doing that by Year Three).

The players supported Rhule then. They did not support Carey last Saturday when the chanting happened. In fact, they seemed to encourage it with their smiles and nods to the fans. That old adage about losing the locker room? Hell, Carey has lost the bench.

Even in Rhule’s 2-10 season, the players behind the coaches interlocked their arms and swayed from side to side cheering their teammates on the field. That was the Temple tradition under Al Golden and restarted by Rhule.

Then, there was hope for the future and that hope turned out to be realized the next three seasons (six, 10 and 10 wins).

Now there is none. Even if the Owls pull out a miracle and manage a win, that should only buy Carey one more week. He often says his injured players are “week-to-week” but now he should be “week-to-week” as well. The players’ confidence seems to be shot.

That’s the vibe the Owls take on the plane ride to East Carolina today for a 3 p.m. game tomorrow (ESPN+).

This game has 35-7 written all over it and it would be a shock if the game was more competitive than, say, the 29-14 score ECU beat USF by last week.

When this thing comes to a merciful close in a month, Carey will say “COVID, COVID, blah, blah, blah” and say the kids played hard but just made too many mistakes. He will remind you that he never promised anything but playing hard and he will lie and tell you they did that.

You will know the real reason why Carey lowered expectations is that he didn’t bring in the required number of great transfer portal players needed to turn a 1-6 season around and too many good players from even that team left.

You knew it then. Deep down he did, too.

Now we know why he never promised anything of substance. There have to be consequences for losing and waiting until the end of the season will make a bad situation much worse. Before the transfer portal, it was perfectly acceptable to wait until the end of the season to evaluate coaches. The transfer portal has changed everything. Schools like Texas Tech, TCU, and even Akron are realizing the urgency of acting in mid-season. Temple must get with the times.

Dr. Wingard and Mr. Johnson, you are on a clock that starts around 6 p.m. Saturday. Owl Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Picks This Week: AIR FORCE -2 at Army; MARSHALL -1 at FAU, SAN JOSE ST. -10.5 at Nevada and WAKE FOREST +2.5 at UNC.

Last week: Went 2-2 bringing our record against the spread to 20-16-1 for the season.

Sunday: Game Analysis

Tuesday: Counterpoint

11.03.21
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Fizzy: Back to the Future?

                                                                                        EDITOR’S NOTE:     The following is Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub’s take on the current Temple football situation. (Aside: I could not disagree more with almost all of this but will hold off on my reasoning until after other posters react.) Since Fizzy is a loyal Owl and former player, I will defend his right to say this. 

                               

  By: Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Fizzy

At the beginning of the football season, Mike Jensen of the Inquirer did a comprehensive analysis of the Temple sports program. It was a very accurate picture of current problems. Once more, the football program is in crisis.     

     I say, once more, because I’ve seen all the ups and downs since I finished playing Temple football in 1961. (I arrived on the varsity in 1959 to experience the tail-end of a long losing streak.) Over the past sixty years, I’ve witnessed the school almost dropping football and then rising to beat Penn State (my biggest sports thrill) and a woulda, coulda, shoulda, against Notre Dame. In basketball, there was a time when no one wanted to play us in the first round of the NCAA or NIT tournaments. Now basketball is mediocre, and football is in the toilet.

      My comments are not meant to disparage any player on the football team. I know how hard you’re trying because I’ve been in the same situation. So my advice to the players is to play as hard as possible, have fun and enjoy each other’s friendship. Hopefully, those friendships will last a lifetime.

Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl, where 6,000-plus Temple fans attended.

     Before we continue, I’d like to remind you that when Temple decided to enter the American Athletic Conference (AAC), they dropped some sports, including baseball, because of the high costs of playing in the south and southwest. On the flip side, Temple received a share of significant conference television money for football and basketball (approximately $7 million), which helped pay those bills. But now, the AAC is losing Houston, Cincinnati, and Central Florida and adding six more southern schools with historically less successful football programs. I don’t know if the television money will stay the same.

      I’ll come back to the league situation later. Let’s now analyze the coaching situation.

     The most crucial factor in a successful college sports program is coaching. Great coaches attract great players and assistant coaches, and they usually make good on-the-field decisions. Aaron McKie may prove to be a great coach; the jury is still out. But, unfortunately, Rod Carey has been a failure. After his first two seasons, 14 players transferred to other schools, a probable NCAA record that will live in infamy. Eleven of those transfers were starters, including the starting quarterback and the star kicker. I want to point out that when players transfer, most of the time, it’s because they’re not getting playing time, and they’re seeking greener pastures. I don’t know why all those starters transferred, but I don’t believe they would leave a great coach and a winning program. It tortures me to watch former Temple guys playing for Penn State and Boston College. The Temple football team now has no depth.

     Maybe, the search committee hired Carey as a knee-jerk reaction to having Manny Diaz quit after just two weeks in Philadelphia, but Carey made major mistakes almost as soon as he got to Temple. The AAC was a step-up in level for him. Instead of looking at some of Temple’s successful assistant coaches or others who knew the AAC competition, or some bright coaches who could bring in new ideas, he brought over most of his staff from Northern Illinois. Being a loyal boss is great, but Carey’s first responsibility was to Temple. Carey only kept two Temple coaches because they were already under contract. Ed Foley, the special teams’ coach, and Gabe Infante, the running-backs coach. Subsequently, he fired Foley from the field to bring over one last guy from Northern Illinois. 

     Infante had been a wildly successful high school coach but had only one year of college experience at Temple. Foley, however, was an accomplished college special teams coach and a significant cog in Temple’s recruiting program. Losing Foley left Temple with no one who had firm, long-term connections with local high school coaches, and Temple’s recruiting suffered immediately. As a result, some recruits from this area who might have come to Temple are now at Rutgers and other nearby schools.

     But that wasn’t the only significant effect of firing Foley. In the last two and a half seasons, poor play by Temple’s special teams has been a crucial factor in many losses. 

    Many Temple fans thought Rod Carey’s first year was good, resulting in an 8-5 record. But I thought they should have lost only two games (at the most) with their outstanding talent. Six players from that team went on to sign NFL contracts. Last year, the COVID affected season resulted in a 1-6 record. To be fair, Coach Carey said two of those games shouldn’t have been played because COVID sidelined too many guys. Okay, so let’s say they won one of those games. Their record would still be two wins and five losses. 

     This season, Temple has already lost to Rutgers by 47 points, lost by 25 points to Boston College, who didn’t have their starting quarterback, or it would have been more, and lowly South Florida by 20 points. (This was South Florida’s first conference win in two years.) However, they beat lower football level Wagner and Akron, who lost their starting quarterback in the first half. UCF beat Temple by 42 points, and Cincinnati won 52-3. Temple did play a good game against Memphis, winning 34-31,

     Temple Football during Fizzy’s playing days.

During Carey’s tenure (and before), I’ve analyzed Temple coaching decisions after each game and posted the write-up on the web. About Carey, I’ve had three consistent complaints. Most importantly, Carey’s teams don’t significantly adjust in the second half. Next, they don’t show enough different defense formations to confuse the offense. The last and a minor one is they run out the clock when trailing near the end of the first half in good field position. (Who does this?) Finally, I got so tired of writing the same things; I stopped. Admittedly, however, I don’t know anything about Carey’s relationships with the players. Perhaps that’s more important than all of the above.

    Jensen, in his earlier article, went back and analyzed the records of many previous Temple coaches. His primary conclusion was that the third year of a coach’s tenure was the fairest time to measure their competence. This season is Rod Carey’s third year, and Temple’s already been destroyed by five teams who play at the AAC Conference level. So not only is the handwriting on the wall, the paint is dry. The time to fire Rod Carey is immediately after the last game. Letting him have a fourth season might put Temple beyond recovery.

Did you say Temple can’t afford to buy out his contract? Nuts! Remember the giddy, unrealistic school administrators and fans who wanted Temple to build a football stadium on campus for $160,000,000? Just take a few of those bucks and spread out the loss. But only do that if you want to keep football and find a great coach. If so, Temple has to make a decision and a statement.    

 Okay, if Temple fires Rod Carey, where do they find the next head coach? That guy is already here. The man who has the most potential to be a great college football coach is current running-backs coach Gabe Infante. Infante has four Pennsylvania State Championships under his belt as a high school head coach at St. Joe’s Prep and won the Don Shula – NFL Award for the High School Coach of the Year. Wow! I don’t know of any football coach, ever, who won four state championships in nine years. Infante was a great high school coach. In addition, he’s now had three years of college coaching experience, worked in recruiting, and now knows the area coaches well. He deserves a shot. And just think, he’s a local guy; if he became a successful coach, he might even stay at Temple.   

     Before we move on, let’s consider attendance. Temple provides an excellent education for a reasonable price. It helps drive the heartbeat of Philadelphia. But is the athletic program an integral part of the undergraduate experience? Compared to the Power Five conferences, where some schools get 70,000 fans to go to each game, probably not for some Temple students. After all, Temple is a city school where about half the full-time students live at home and work. So even during successful football years, it’s challenging to get on-campus students to take the free transportation down to the stadium or walk across the street for home basketball games. I estimate that even with an outstanding football team and a top Power Five opponent, the most Temple can draw to the LINC is approximately 27,000 to 32,000 fans. When Temple filled the stadium, the other 25,000 were Penn State or Notre Dame fans or came to see those teams play.

     And even though football and basketball are not crucial to many students, I believe sports add to the college experience, attract applications, and keep alumni active and donating.

     So it is what it is, and what should Temple do? Jensen listed some options; drop football, step down to a weaker conference, stay in the AAC as they will probably add new schools, or play independently. On Sunday, October 24, 2021, Jensen did a follow-up article recommending Temple get out of the AAC. It will be almost a total south/southwest conference that doesn’t care about Temple. He also said there isn’t any place to go in the Football Bowl Series (FBS) right now as geographically closer conferences don’t fit. Finally, Jensen pointed out the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) was always Temple’s goal, but the ACC doesn’t want Temple. All his statements are factual. But without an alternative, Jensen recommends Temple get out of the AAC. Is Mike Jensen insinuating only a few of us would notice if Temple dropped football? 

     We could get into a long discussion about whether any college should play football and its corresponding value to the educational program. Actually, though, it comes down to making money. Most schools playing football in the power-five conferences attract many fans and make lots of money. But then, there’s everyone else. When the AAC and many other conferences outside the power-five are on television, the cameras hardly ever pan the entire stadium. That’s because there aren’t many people there. So these schools are playing for the TV money and hoping their program can eventually migrate to one of the big conferences.  

      Because the football program is in failure, Temple has a big decision to make. Right now, Temple is ranked 119 out of 130 schools in the FBS. First, does Temple want to rebuild the FBS football program? If so, they shouldn’t play as an independent right now, as there will be little or no television money to offset the expense of the sports program and only a few teams to play. Playing in a weaker conference also drastically reduces TV money. 

      So if Temple wanted to stay on track, it would make no sense to become independent or step the program down. Temple can compete for recruits because it has a super practice field with first-class locker rooms, weight training, study, and medical rehab facilities to attract athletes. However, after getting a new coach, I predict that Temple would take at least three years of outstanding recruiting to return to its previous highest level. If it did, the next big problem would come to the forefront once more. Would that successful coach stay or be lured away by big money? That’s always a risk, no matter what. 

     As I’ve been around the program for more than 60 years, here are my conclusions:

  1. Yes, it was terrific to play football at the highest level and be ranked.
  2. It was quite an experience to tail-gate at the LINC and see thousands of students, alumni, and fans wearing school colors.
  3. I loved seeing teammates and classmates attend some games, become active, and contribute money. 

     But over the last 100 years, Temple has never been able to sustain the top level in either football or basketball. Perhaps it can’t afford all the costs that accompany such programs, such as the large staff and excessive coaching salaries, because it can’t get the return on investment the power-five schools get. Also, so much depends on finding a great coach and assistant coaches and keeping them. And maybe, being a city school in North Philly with all that implies, magnifies the problems.    

    Therefore, common sense tells me Temple should step back to the Patriot League or the Colonial Athletic Conference.  The alternative is to stay in the AAC and get your butt kicked for the next three years while trying to rebuild. 

     There are many competitive teams in those leagues (look up the schools), and most are only a bus ride away. So then, Temple could give up the $6,000,000 per year lease at the LINC, cut the coaching and support staffs, play football games at Franklin Field, and be highly competitive versus nearby rivals. Further, Temple could restore the baseball team and other teams it cut when it entered the AAC. If the basketball team won the league championship, it would go to the NCAA tournament. If the football team improved, it could schedule one or two games a year with a power-five opponent. 

     Temple needs to get a new football coach, join the Patriot League or Colonial conference, and play football games at Franklin Field. College sports should be for Temple students, not administrators and alumni.

Friday: ECU Preview

Sunday: Game Analysis

Tuesday: Counterpoint (unless Temple holds a Monday presser to fire Rod Carey)

11.01.21
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Carey: The Big Announcement?

This piece could rival Tolstoy’s War and Peace in number of pages. Good luck, Mike.

As far as splashes on the first day of the job go, Arthur Johnson’s as Temple University’s new athletic director could be epic today.

If he does what he SHOULD do, it will be.

So far this season, six college football coaches have already been fired. TCU’s Gary Patterson is No. 6.

Does Temple make Rod Carey Lucky Number Seven today?

Temple sports history says no, but Johnson is from Texas where they do things on a big scale and don’t tolerate fools, so there is a chance.

Put it this way: New President Jason Wingard read the riot act to the entire athletic department, including Carey, prior to the Akron game and the message was simply that Temple won’t tolerate anything but excellence.

Since then, except for what now looks like an outlier against Memphis, the football program has been a national embarrassment.

Maybe Wingard was waiting to get his guy in place to prove that he was serious and Johnson certainly is his guy.

Naming Gabe Infante the interim head coach, making Preston Brown the assistant head coach and keeping the position coaches seems to be a perfect temporary solution. Fire the head coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Hold a press conference and tell the entire Temple community that the school will leave no stone unturned to find the best head coach available. Tell the players and the recruits to hold off on the portal and decommitting for a while, the cavalry is coming to rescue them.

At least one former Temple player talks about the current state of the program here.

Maybe Johnson feels comfortable in bringing in someone from Texas like Patterson. He could do a whole lot worse. The guy was unbeaten (13-0) in 2010 and would not face unreasonable expectations in Philadelphia. They would build a statue for him if he can win 10.

There is, though, a not-so-secret formula to win at Temple and it eschews the big-name type for the hungry younger guy.

Infante fits that profile. He is extremely popular with the players and was National High School Coach of the Year in 2018. He reminds fans of qualities of past Temple successful head coaches. One, a local guy wired into Mid-Atlantic recruiting. Two, an accomplished head coach who has been the CEO of a championship program. Three, a hungry go-getter type. The same players who probably will be going through the motions against East Carolina this week under Carey will be flying around and trying to make plays for Infante.

For a sure thing, though, Johnson could place a phone call to Cincinnati and gauge Al Golden’s interest in Chapter Two at Temple. Golden has already won here and has the formula for Temple TUFF secret sauce. Even if AG says no, Johnson can ask him about candidates who he feels certain could succeed here. It would be a productive phone call either way.

Or Johnson can do nothing on his first day on the job here. Push a few papers, make a few phone calls, shake a few hands.

We’re kinda used to that around here.

Doing what TCU and Texas Tech just did would be a most welcome and pleasant surprise.

Wednesday: Fizzy

Friday: ECU Preview

10.30.21
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Rod Carey: Excuses, not reasons

Not now, but maybe tomorrow or Monday. We can only hope.

Another blowout Temple loss, and more excuses from head coach Rod Carey.

Just to be clear: Excuses are not reasons.

Not valid ones anyway.

The latest Carey excuse after a 49-7 loss to UCF was this:

“Obviously when you beat yourselves against a good football team like that, the score is going to reflect what it did today,” Carey said.

Thanks, Rod.

Temple fans chanted for Rod Carey to be fired and Temple players agreed with them. What is the Temple administration waiting for?

After the USF game, he said this:

“So obviously we just got beat bad, that’s the only way to put it.  They took it to us tonight and we’ve got to do better as coaches, we’ve got to do better as players, and we’ve got to get back to work at it.”

After the Cincy game, he said this:

“So obviously I’m upset with the outcome. I’m upset with the second half especially. We did not play well. And they’re a really good team on top of it. So when you do not play well against good teams, that happens. So really disappointing. I thought that first half we gave ourselves a shot after giving them a free touchdown there. So it’s just what it is. We’ve got to get back to work. We’ve got to keep improving. And the bye week comes at a good time for us and we’ll go from there.”

Thanks to OwlsDaily.com for those quotes.

Sense a pattern here?

I do.

The same pattern and the same excuses will continue until the Owls finish 3-9 and close out the season.

The post-season press conference probably will be an amalgamation of all of those quotes contained in one disgusting paragraph.

My overwhelming thought today is why bother?

Arthur Johnson sitting with his son. He needs to teach the kid a life lesson that dad doesn’t accept bullbleep.

New Temple athletic director Arthur Johnson was spotted sitting on a folding chair and listening to those same quotes we outlined here now.

If Johnson was paying any attention, they sounded remarkably similar to the excuses Carey gave after earlier games.

A good CEO doesn’t accept excuses from a bad employee. He just thanks the employee for his services, asks for the key to the office and finds someone who doesn’t make excuses.

In the five years Al Golden spent here, he made zero excuses and solved many problems. If I’m Johnson, I’d place a phone call to Golden either Sunday or Monday and gauge his interest. If he says no, I’d pick his brain and get suggestions on the next guy.

What I won’t do?

Sit in the back on a folding chair and listen to Carey’s bullshit one more week.

Monday: A Big Announcement

10.29.21
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TU-UCF: What the last six days tells you

This graphic illustrates the difference between Warren Ruggierio and Mike Uremovich

As a Temple fan who just watched a mediocre East Carolina team dismantle South Florida on Thursday night, I came away with one overwhelming prevailing feeling.

We’re fucked.

Excuse the language. If I had a Youtube or Facebook account, I would probably be kicked off the platform but I’m given a little more lattitde on my own site.

Put it this way: East Carolina needed a freak late score to beat that terrific powerhouse Charleston Southern, 31-28, and absolutely hammered a team that the Temple coaching staff had no clue how to stop. Honestly, before a few weeks ago, I did not know Charleston Southern had a football team but looking into its season so far, it has lost to Monmouth (41-14), Robert Morris (31-24) and the team that made Bobby Wallace famous, North Alabama (45-22). Monmouth lost to Princeton of the Ivy League.

I’m glad Temple doesn’t have Princeton on the schedule this season. It’s already too embarrassing and, if Dr. Jason Wingard doesn’t dismiss this staff between now and the end of the season, he’s culpable in bringing Temple down to that level.

Temple is 15-2 in painted end zone games; probably 15-3 after Saturday.

Everyone talks about how Temple’s defense, led by Jeff Knowles, could not stop USF but at least an equal blame has to got to Mike Uremovich’s offense. The Owls could only manage 34 plays and under 17 minutes of offense under Uremovich’s tutorship. That produced a whopping 14 points.

Meanwhile, against a better defense on the same day with approximately the same number of plays and minutes, Wake Forest scored 70 points on a good Army team.

No escaping the conclusion that University of Delaware grad Warren Ruggiero is a better offensive coach than Uremovich, who is only here because he is cozy with Rod Carey. Am I missing something here? Do you see any innovation or creativity in Temple’s offense? Why hasn’t Uremovich used a terrific high school quarterback, Trey Blair, to throw a halfback pass yet? Is he saving it for the bowl game? News flash: This team ain’t making a bowl. Why do we see Edward Saydee in there on first-and-goal from the 3 instead of the pile-driving Tavon Ruley?

More blame goes his way season-wise, at least from my perspective, than Knowles because he’s got too many weapons to be producing too few points. In Randle Jones and Jadan Blue, he’s got NFL receivers. In Ruley, he’s got a power back who should be gold in the red zone but is seldom used there. In Amad Anderson, he’s got a big-time productive wide receiver at Purdue who has about 1/10th of that production here. In Dwan Mathis, he has Temple’s first four-star quarterback since Kevin Harvey. In Kyle Dobbins, he made the only back who scored three touchdowns in a game for Temple disappear after that game.

Don’t get me started on the special teams coach. I haven’t seen a punt block or a return to the house since Geoff Collins was here.

As disappointing as 4-3 UCF is, there is no way a 3-4 Temple team isn’t more disappointing.

At least UCF is missing superstar quarterback Dillon Gabriel.

There is no similar excuse for Temple.

The wise guys in Vegas have UCF as “only” a 10.5 favorite.

The “wiser” guys in Philadelphia who have watched not only Temple against USF but ECU against that same team know better.

Temple’s coaches have no idea what they are doing but savvy Philadelphia football fans already knew that.

The Vegas wise guys evidently need another Saturday to convince them.

Picks this week: Going to use some underdogs to rebound from my only poor week. Going with unbeaten SMU (+1) to win at Houston, VIRGINIA TECH getting 4.5 at the fighting Geoff Collins’ (GT), NAVY getting 11 at Tulsa and ILLINOIS getting 2 over visiting Rutgers.

Last week: Won on Ohio State, lost in WMU, UMASS and NC STate bringing our record ATS to 18-14-1.

Sunday: Game Analysis

10.25.21
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TU football word of the day: Malaise

The lack of a real celebration here tells a lot..

A pretty intelligent guy who often visits the Edberg Olson Complex and has a finger on the pulse of Temple football used a word that surprised me about the general vibe around the place.

Not last night, not last week, but way back in February.

“I’ve never seen the place so dead,” he said. “There’s a malaise around the program right now with all of the players leaving and a lot of those staying unhappy. Very few of the kids like the guy (Rod Carey). He’s no Matt. He’s not even Geoff (Collins). Practices use to be fun. Hell, lifting in the offseason used to be fun. There’s no fun anymore.”

Merriam-Webster’s definition of the word malaise: “a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify.”

Owls used to have fun in the snow in February.
No fun under Rod Carey.

Uh-oh, I thought.

That’s one of the reasons why I went out on a limb Feb. 11 in this space and predicted a 2-10 season. I was wrong by a game. It’s going to be 3-9.

Football is a game. It should be fun. At Temple, it’s not.

That much became abundantly clear when the Owls got pushed around on Saturday night by a 1-5 USF team that hadn’t won a conference game in two years.

This coaching staff had 15 days to prepare for that 1-5 team and came out with a game plan so puzzling that just about every Temple fan got scabs from scratching their heads. After a cornerback got ran down by a tight end on a muffed field goal, I thought, “no problem. We’re going to put Tavon Ruley in there and he’s going to need no more than one or two plays to get a 7-0 lead.”

No.

The much lighter Edward Saydee was in and stuffed on first and then they held on second down and the Owls threw an interception on the next play.

Nice drive.

The Owls didn’t adjust to a four-man front until the fourth quarter to stop the run and, by that time, it was far too late. The adjustment should have been in the first, not fourth, quarter.

You can tell a lot about a team by its body language.

The Owls seemed listless and there was nobody in the defensive huddle to fire up the troops.

Even when the Owls scored a touchdown, they were lifeless. There was almost no celebration. It was almost like a relief.

Malaise indeed.

I was tempted to go to twitter and constantly hit refresh with search items Sunday like “Rod Carey” and “Temple football” hoping for an announcement of a press conference at Sullivan Hall to fire the head coach. I didn’t bother because I know how Temple leadership makes major decisions.

History shows it’s deliberately and often too late to solve the problem. Just like the school’s football coach, they wait until the fourth quarter to solve a problem that should have been taken care of in the first.

There’s another word for that.

Inertia.

Friday: UCF Preview