Tag Archives: Rod Carey

08.17.19
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Russo Picks Temple to Win AAC East

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The biggest news coming out the last couple of days about Temple football was not on the practice field where the team is working hard for the season opener in less than two weeks but because a Russo picked Temple to win the AAC East.

And it wasn’t even Anthony Russo.

Ralph D. Russo (no relation), the Associated Press’ long-time college football beat writer, picked Temple to win the AAC East.

That’s good news.


The most long-awaited
depth chart in the history
of Temple football (there
hasn’t been one since the
2016 season finale) will
be released on Aug. 26

 

The bad news is that he also picked Memphis to win the overall title but, since we’re still five months away from that potential matchup, the Owls can have a lot to say about both getting to that game and winning it.

First things first.

Russo didn’t detail his reasoning but he probably thinks the Owls would beat Memphis (and UCF) at home, lose to Cincy on the road, but probably set themselves up for a home rematch against the revenge-minded Tigers and lose. History, though, proves that teams playing against revenge have won the title (UCF over Memphis last year, despite the Tigers losing the regular-season game, 31-30) so the Owls don’t have to follow that script.

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It won’t be long now

Meanwhile, the Owls are writing their own foreward (this one spelled with an ‘e’ in the middle) of what could be a remarkable 2019 story.

To me, all of these predictions could get blown up with a key injury here or there so the predictions are pretty much made with minimal injury impact in mind so building depth is an important ingredient and that’s just what the Owls are doing now.

The most long-awaited depth chart in the history of Temple football (there hasn’t been one since the 2016 season finale) will be released on Aug. 26, but while there is hitting at practices, there is no tackling so expect a lot of the proven tacklers last year on defense to rise to the top of the depth chart this season as well.

That means on defense expect last year’s starters at corner, Linwood Crump Jr., and Ty Mason to be trying to fight off Harrison Hand–who started four games for a Power 5 team (Baylor)–to keep their jobs.

At safety, reports from OwlsDaily.com that DaeSean Winston is lining up as starter is particularly impressive since he did not get as many reps as Benny Walls, the other safety starter. The fact that they are both holding off Penn State backup Ayron Monroe (who played in all 12 regular-season games for the Nittany Lions) probably is a good sign for the quality of the safety group.

The fact that the five current linebackers (Shaun Bradley, Chapelle Russell, Sam Franklin, William Kwenkeu and Isaiah Graham-Mobley) are the strength of the team has been pretty much common knowledge since the end of last season. Franklin’s value is that he can play any defensive position (end, LB and safety) and can be moved all over the field as needed. Owls will be hurt by graduation at that position in that only IGM is an underclassman.

Probably the two key ingredients to winning college football games are getting to the bad guys’ quarterback and keeping the bad guys off your quarterback and the Owls should have no problem doing that with a group that includes starting ends Quincy Roche and Zack Mesday and interior linemen Dan Archibong and Karamo Dioubate. Dana Levine, who started three games before getting injured, is also back at DE along with junior college transfer Nickolas Madourie–who had an eye-popping 17.5 sacks in one season as a JUCO.

This defense has the potential to shut a lot of people down and with the abandonment of Geoff Collins’ Mayhem scheme–which left gaping holes in an attempt to ramp up turnovers–should be more fundamentally sound.

Monday: Thoughts on The Offense

08.12.19
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Temple Football Headlines We’d Like To See

Go to the college football tab on Philly.com and up will pop the following recent headlines:

  • Penn State transfer Ayron Monroe looking to make his mark at Temple;
  • Jager Gardner and Kyle Dobbins early front-runners in Temple running back race;
  • Anthony Russo Ready to Face Microscope As Temple starting quarterback
  • Manny Diaz Explains Why He Bailed on Temple Football

All fine, good headlines examining interesting topics pertaining to the program. Still, here are some other headlines and outlines we’d like to see in the future:

New Temple Board of Trustees Chair Mitchell Morgan Compares Building of Stadium to Morgan Hall: Morgan, a Temple grad, took over for departed chairman Patrick J. O’Connor, a Villanova graduate. The real estate developer needs to articulate that building a stadium on Temple’s property is no different than building Morgan Hall and more of an economic benefit to the neighborhood than a dorm would be in that game-day jobs and other perks would be made first available to neighborhood residents that do not exist in development of other Temple properties.

Carey Calls Collins ‘Goofy’ When He Releases His Depth Chart: The long-awaited date for a depth chart will be Aug. 26. That will be the first Temple depth chart anyone has seen since the 2016 Military Bowl as Temple fans had to deal with an “above-the-line” vagueness under former head coach Geoff Collins. “Geoff was goofy with that and some other things,” Temple coach Rod Carey said. “You won’t find us holding money down signs on third down, for instance.”

Carey Abandons Running Back By Committee Approach: “I said, and you can’t print this, ‘fuck it, ‘ I have the best running back in the league in Isaiah Wright and I’m not going to screw this up by trying to put someone else back there.’ “

Temple’s Kraft: No More FCS Games: In a unique approach designed to boost sagging season ticket sales for the Bucknell opener, Temple athletic director Pat Kraft says this will be Owl fans last chance to see an FCS team. “We’re actively looking to replace Idaho with a Power 5 team next season,” Kraft said, “and we’re no longer going to be playing FCS foes so this will be Temple fans last chance to see us against one of these type teams. We really don’t care what other AAC teams are doing with their non-conference schedules. We’re going to advance the Temple brand by playing only FBS foes going forward.”

Saturday: Defensive Depth Chart Thoughts

Monday: Offensive Depth Chart Thoughts

Saturday (8/24): What’s Out of Our Control?

Monday: (8/26): The Bully in the China Shop

Saturday (8/31): Game Day

Sunday (9/2): Resuming Regular Season Post schedule (Sun-Wed-Sat)

08.10.19
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Strange Offseason For AAC Gives Some Hints to Future

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Very few teams in the American Conference, heck, college football, had a stranger postseason than Temple.

First, Geoff Collins announces how excited he was for his team to play Duke in the Independence Bowl then, the next day exits stage right for Atlanta and Georiga Tech.

Then, athletic director Pat Kraft announces a national search and settles on a guy whose dad was Mayor of Miami and then, not surprisingly, the kid leaves for Miami about 18 days later.

Then some normalcy returned in the form of a proven FBS winning head coach (52-30) in Rod Carey. Yet, spring practice was an extension of the strangeness as the Owls did not have a spring “game” for the first time and had virtually no hitting in those 15 practices that extended from mid-March through mid-April.

Temple is back to full hitting now in summer camp.

Just because Temple had a weird offseason doesn’t mean the rest of the conference was immune to the elements.

  • UCF, the favorite, replaced its Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback with a big name, Brandon Wimbush, from Notre Dame. Darriel Mack Jr., the backup who led UCF past Memphis in the title game broke his ankle in a non-football workout so it looks like this is Wimbush’s job to keep.  Wimbush began last season as Notre Dame’s starter and has a lot to prove after being benched after the third game of last season. He passed for only 719 yards and threw six interceptions as opposed to four touchdowns. In 2017, he passed for 1,870 yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions.
  • Houston did what some was unthinkable for a Group of 5 school, hiring a fairly successful Power 5 head coach, Dana Holgerson, to replace Major Applewhite. This could work.
  • Tulane’s Willie Fritz has committed to a hybrid triple-option–closer to what Paul Johnson did at Georgia Tech than what Ken Niumatalolo is doing with Navy–that features more downfield passing. It caused the league numerous problems the last year and his team figures to be even more improved this season.
  • UConn not only exited the league–it will compete as a lame-duck this season–but virtually committed football suicide by going independent. The Huskies need only to look a few miles North to Massachusetts to see what that holds for their future.
  • Meanwhile, Cincinnati has the most “stable” year as the Bearcats not only beat Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl, they got to keep their head coach, Luke Fickell, who was one of the final two candidates for the West Virginia job. They also have Temple at home in what should be one of the games of the year in the AAC and benefit from four-straight No. 1 AAC recruiting classes.

If Cincy doesn’t win the league this year, a lot of people will be surprised but that’s why they play the games.

Monday: 5 Temple Headlines We’d Like to See

 

 

08.05.19
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5 Goals Out of Summer Camp

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You can make up all the mock depth charts you want (as we have today) but the power of moving up the charts rests in what these young men do.

According to The Inquirer’s Marc Narducci, the highlight of the first day of Temple football summer camp was the handing out of single digits.

Count me among those loving Temple’s single-digit tradition–perhaps because it gets mentioned on every national telecast–but more significant highlights should be coming in the next four weeks.

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Owls have 2 votes in the coaches poll. Since you are not allowed to vote for your own team, I’m guessing Geoff Collins and Matt Rhule

Temple’s schedule is an odd one in that the Owls have nothing more than a practice game with Bucknell on the schedule on the last day of this month, followed by a too early bye week, then the real schedule.

These should be the 5 goals to accomplish in the next four weeks:

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Dan Archibong (photo by Zamani Feelings) is a good bet to earn a single digit.

Hitting

Few Cherry and White days were more disappointing than the past one. After watching a few drills that did not involve hitting, the fans left in droves. I was gone right after they practiced punt returns with the return guy catching the ball and running through a line of players who had no interest in touching him. That’s not football. After a 35-0 loss to Pitt in 1983, Bruce Arians brought the team out at 6 a.m. and had them hitting in full pads the next morning. “Dumb mistake by a rookie coach,” Bruce said at the end of that season. “We were out-hit that day. We got into a physical mentality in that practiced and we weren’t outhit the rest of the year.” Owls need to create that mentality early.

Depth

The Owls have a lot of promising players on the second units of both lines but few of those actually saw game action. They need to develop that depth this month.

wright

Solving the Running Back Dilemma

Head coach Rod Carey indicated that he’s open to moving Isaiah Wright into a full-time role at running back should no one emerge as a go-to guy. That beats what he said a week earlier when he indicated going to RB by committee was an option. Running back by committee is like having a baseball closer by committee. It never works. I like Jager Gardner as a backup but I don’t see him as an elite No. 1. Jeremy Jennings is fast, but he doesn’t have great open-field moves. Tyliek Raynor strikes me as a David Meggett-type third-down back. Maybe a true freshman will emerge like Bernard Pierce did in the weeks before the 2007 but, failing that, using Wright (where he has been used in the past) there will give the Owls the best running back in the league without hurting a deep and talented wide receiver corps.

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RPO: Blessing or a Curse?

Quarterback Anthony Russo talked about the Owls using more of a run-pass-option this year than in the past couple. That’s a blessing if the run option is to a running back instead of a quarterback. You won’t catch Bill Belichick using Tom Brady as a run option nor should Carey expose Russo to getting killed on similar plays. While Russo is no Tom Brady (yet), he is like Brady in that he’s more valuable as a dropback passer than as a run decoy. A good coach designs schemes to best utilize the talent he has, not the talent he wants and, for Temple this year, the RPOs should be delayed draws and an occasional swing pass out of the backfield and little else.

A place for Franklin

The Owls need to get Sam Franklin on the field and, with a linebacker corps that includes Chapelle Russell, Shaun Bradley, Isaiah Graham-Mobley and William Kenkewu, snaps will be limited there. He has an opportunity to play safety and that’s where he should line up.

Other than that, and getting the timing down, the Owls are all set to build on expectations that have them getting more votes in the coaches poll than Tennessee and Ole Miss.

Saturday: Around The League

Monday: 5 TUFB Headlines We’d Like to See

Saturday (8/17): Depth Chart Thoughts

08.02.19
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2019 Owls: Less Hype, More Hope

Summer Camp opened yesterday with all of the media stuff being taken care of on Thursday and, I must admit, while I’m always optimistic about the first day of real practice, the anticipation is on steroids this year.

That’s because, for the first time since the 1970 season, a Temple fan can state unequivocally that a new head coach will not have to learn on the job on Temple’s time and Temple’s dime.

Some of us know what happened the last time those circumstances converged.

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11 wins could make this the most glorious of the glory years

Highly successful then ex-Navy head coach Wayne Hardin turned a 4-5-1 Temple team from 1969 into a 7-3 team his first season. In fact, he had six winning seasons in his first seven.

Chances are, Temple fans will sign for that from new head coach Rod Carey now.

The theme of this season so far is less hype, more hope. Gone is the swag and money downs replaced by sound fundamentals and speaking by deeds, not words.

The bar is a little higher for Carey this time but, then again, so is the available talent.

The quote of the day from Temple’s own in-house media day was this from Carey when asked if he thought the Owls could win the AAC: “I wouldn’t bet against them.” Carey also said he is open to using Isaiah Wright as the full-time running back should his other 10 options not work out.

He must be reading this blog. We’ll save you some time, Rod. The other guys are nowhere near the running back Wright is and the Owls are knee-deep in pretty damn good wide receivers. Just put Wright behind Anthony Russo and give him the ball 20 times a game and another few on swing passes out of the backfield and let him work his magic in space. He’s not needed at WR. The Owls have so many good ones that Freddie Johnson was switched to cornerback to give him a better chance to get on the field. Johnson made a lot of great plays as a WR for the Owls last year, including catching a touchdown pass on a fake field goal from backup quarterback Toddy Centeio.

As predicted in this space on March 14, both Wright (2) and Branden Mack (1)  and Sam Franklin earned single digits but we thought Zack Mesday and Dan Archibong would also earn the honor.  There are more digits to be awarded and, if I were to guess now, Mesday, Archibong, and Russo would be among the leading candidates. Too bad center Matt Hennessey can’t get one as NCAA rules on offensive linemen prohibit it. The versatile Franklin–who can and has played end, linebacker and safety with the Owls–will be a worthy successor to fullbacks Nick Sharga and Rob Ritrovato, wearing the No. 4.

That’s good news because they need to find a way to keep the tough and talented Franklin on the field and, with a plethora of linemen and linebackers, perhaps his best chance to start is at strong safety. There’s a ton of available, proven, talent on both sides of the ball with maybe the only question mark being the depth of both lines.

Injuries could turn a possible 10-win season into an eight-win one but lack of same could push that number to 11. The Owls cannot possibly afford to lose guys like Isaiah Wright, Anthony Russo, Matt Hennessey, Karamo Dioubate and Dan Archibong but an injury to anyone else and they are about two-deep even below the first team.

Guess what, though?

Every team in the AAC can say that and one, UCF, already had its devastating season-ending injury to quarterback McKenzie Milton, a Heisman candidate if this league ever had one. They are trying to replace him with Notre Dame transfer Brandon Wimbush and it might not be good enough.

The door is wide open for the Owls to walk through and, in Carey, they have a guy who has won multiple FBS championships and not a guy who is fumbling and stumbling around trying to figure out how to be a head coach like so many recent years.

That’s optimism on steroids.

Monday: 5 Goals to Accomplish This Month

07.29.19
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The handwriting is OFF the E-O Wall

Every coach who has walked through the halls of the $17 million Edberg-Olson Football Complex at Temple has put contributed something to both the architecture and the feel of the place.

Al Golden had the office extended so he could get a good view of the practice field. Steve Addazio put the pool tables in the new wing. Matt Rhule put the study halls next to the cafeteria. Geoff Collins put up legacy posters and fatheads as tributes to guys like Tyler Matakevich and P.J. Walker.

Rod Carey,  from what I’m hearing,  is taking a different approach.

He’s scrubbing the place clean.

All the tributes to the ex-players–except for the Matakevich and P.J. fatheads–have been taken down from the walls.

Not everyone is liking it. A room highlighting Haason Riddick’s ascent from Temple walk-on to first-round NFL draft choice has been removed. A collage featuring a dozen ex-Temple greats, including Heisman Trophy runner-up Paul Palmer and leading tackler for 30 years, linebacker Steve Conjar, is also gone.

One individual who is in and out often said this, one the condition of anonymity: “Everything was taken Down at EO except for the PJ and Tyler things on the windows. Walls are empty, (and they) took down Hassan NFL draft thing too.”

Palmer was less anonymous and expressed his displeasure with it on Facebook recently, more because he was miffed his Temple brothers from all eras were removed than for himself.

We thought it was a story good enough to write about and ask questions about and reached out to Temple beat writer, Marc Narducci, with it. Marc said he would ask Carey privately about it.

I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but I sure would like to hear Carey’s thinking behind it.

My feeling is as long as he doesn’t put up fatheads of Northern Illinois guys like Jordan Lynch and Garrett Wolfe, he can do pretty much whatever he wants but we would have liked to see those Temple legacy items remain.

Saturday: Camp Opens

Monday: 5 Things to Accomplish

Saturday: UConn Fans React

Monday (8/12): What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Sunday, Sept. 1: Return to the in-season Sunday-Wed-Friday in season schedule

 

07.27.19
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Carey on Foley: Plausible Deniability

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Carey’s litmus test going forward is to protect these other three guys and give them room to thrive.

A few weeks ago we wrote that Rod Carey had some “splaining to do” after the incident that caused Temple football to be jettisoned from a loyal soldier, Ed Foley.

The explanation came in a recent Marc Narducci story where Carey said that he had “too many offensive coaches on the field, including myself” and wanted to put a talented young defensive assistant, Tyler Yelk, on the field.

Narducci has been on fire recently, with a piece stating that Isaiah Wright wants an expanded role and another giving detail on Manny Diaz’s departure from Temple, but his stories detailing both sides of the Foley issue might have been the best of the summer.

Foley said he was leaving to go “with someone I trust and respect” and the implication was that he did not trust and respect Carey.

Then Narducci came back with Carey’s side of the story. 

A lot of fans, this one included, are still irked that Foley is gone but, given Carey’s explanation, it makes sense.

TLNXruN

Pretty much every Temple fan now watching how Carey treats our beloved trio of Adam DiMichele, Fran Brown and Gabe Infante.

One, Foley could have remained in an off-field capacity if he wanted and both men admitted that. Two, Temple did seem to be top-heavy with offensive coaches in a program that, as Carey has said, “hangs its hat on defense.”

Plausible deniability should Foley’s absence be felt this season. By that, I mean deniability that he’s trying to get rid of the Temple holdovers in favor of NIU guys. The litmus test going forward for Carey is to protect the other three guys (Fran Brown, Gabe Infante and Adam DiMichele) and give them a chance to thrive at Temple. Rod, we’re watching you. 

The bottom line is that Temple, which generally never had to worry about special teams, has one more thing to worry about now. That’s why Carey gets paid the big bucks, though, to make sure everything runs smoothly, including special teams.

The Owls have a serviceable kicker in Will Mobley, who did a nice job when Boston College transfer Aaron Boumerhi had a hip flexor last year. Boomer had the range, while Mobley was essentially a solid extra point kicker. They also have the nation’s best returner, Isaiah Wright, so the special teams should be OK.

Where I think Temple fans will really notice Foley gone is in the area of blocked punts, field goals, and extra points. Foley consistently had the Owls in the nation’s top 10 in those categories because he was an aggressive coach who went after kicks. There is little in Carey’s history to suggest NIU was anywhere near as consistent in that area as Temple was.

When Al Golden got here and brought Foley with him, he said special teams were as important as offense and defense and he practiced what he preached. Let’s hope Carey continues that tradition. 

Monday: Up Against The Walls

07.15.19
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Ed Foley: Gone, but Not Forgotten

In my lifetime which  (unfortunately) is getting to be sadly very long, there have been very few Temple sports lifers.

Sports Information Director Al Shrier, for one. Baseball coach Skip Wilson, for another. Basketball coach Harry Litwack. Fencing coach Dr. Nikki Franke. Athletic director Gavin White.

That’s maybe it.

Even the great John Chaney started somewhere else.

There have been no Temple football lifers and the last possible one, Ed Foley, has just left the Edberg-Olson building for a job at Baylor. Not even the great Wayne Hardin, who stayed here 13 years, could be considered a lifer.


You don’t get rid
of one of the best
special teams coaches
in the country who is
admired and respected
at Temple by everyone,
alumni, fans, current
and ex-players,
without some pushback

Foley did not start at Temple, but I certainly thought he would finish here. After being a 7-15 head coach at Fordham, he arrived at Temple with Al Golden and helped resuscitate a brain dead program by breathing some CPR into it.

On April Fool’s Day, 2017, he filmed the video at the top of this post with Kevin Copp and said: “I don’t want to really be anywhere else.” I believed him then. I believe him now.

As a recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach for Golden, he helped recruit three of the top five MAC classes and that led to Temple getting a promotion to the Big East (now the AAC). As special teams coach for Steve Addazio, Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins, he had the Owls’ consistently rated in the top 10 in blocked punts and field goals.

This guy loved Temple. He loved Philadelphia. He wasn’t my choice to be head coach either time because a 7-15 record in his previous head coaching job does not represent the credentials needed to do the same job at Temple. He was not a great head coach as a 14.5-point favorite in an interim capacity against Wake Forest in 2016. Against Duke, he again proved my point that you can be the best assistant coach in the history of the world and a terrible game-day head coach. In fact, he proved that at Fordham when his 7-15 was sandwiched between two of the most successful head coaches in that school’s history, Dave Clawson and Joe Moorhead.

Still, he did everything that was asked of him at Temple and more. I know for a fact that he turned down an assistant coaching job at Purdue a couple of years ago to stay at Temple and he probably turned down other offers I did not know about.

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So that’s why it was so shocking to hear the news–first reported by Owlscoop.com–that Foley left to join Rhule in an off-the-field capacity at Baylor. He was already in an off-the-field capacity at Temple the last few months so it seemed odd to leave one job at a place he loved for another in a place he was unfamiliar with.

Maybe this quote in Saturday’s Marc Narducci story explained everything: “I don’t have an official title, but will be working with somebody I like and trust,” Foley said about Rhule.

Hmm. Translation: “I don’t like and trust Rod Carey.”

That seems to be abundantly clear. In the same story, Narducci said Carey was “unavailable for comment.” Unavailable for comment? Who is he, Howard Hughes?

Look, I LOVE the Rod Carey hire and I understand that he’s got to live and die with his own hires but this isn’t a good look. Foley has been able to get along with a divergent list of personalties, from Golden to Daz to Rhule to Collins and do it in a professional manner. You don’t get rid of one of the best special teams coaches in the country (face it, giving him a paper-pushing job is getting rid of him), a guy who is admired and respected at Temple by everyone, alumni, fans, current and ex-players, without some pushback. Especially when you bring in a guy from SMU whose special teams weren’t rated as highly as Foley’s. I have never run into a single person who said a negative word about Ed Foley the man. That is a truly rare individual.

Let’s hope Carey is able to explain this in a satisfactory manner sometime in the near future. Right now, it doesn’t pass the smell test.

In fact, it reeks.

Saturday: AAC Media Day

Monday: AAC Head-Scratchers

06.29.19
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Latest hit piece: Keep Temple’s name out of your mouth

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No big fan of Donovan McNabb here, but his take on a controversy with Terrell Owens in 2005 applies to David Jones’ latest hit piece on Temple football almost 15 years later.

“Keep my name out of your mouth.”

Instead of “my” substitute “Temple’s” and it becomes a perfect retort.

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Jones, who writes for Penn Live, had a strange take on UConn’s exit to the Big East (and apparent de-emphasis of football). He lumped UConn and Temple together, saying Temple should also de-emphasize football and insinuated that it should rejoin the A-10 at the expense of a football affiliation with the AAC.

That is a weak take on so many levels we’ll just concentrate on some here:

  • One, UConn is coming off a decade of failure in football while Temple has enjoyed a decade of sustained success.
  • Two, Temple is not trying to get into the P5. Sure, it would love a P5 invite but I think even the most optimistic Temple fans are not expecting one in the next decade. G5 football is a significant upgrade over FCS, though, and a proven spot where Temple can thrive. If Dave is saying the entire G5 should give up and drop to FCS, that’s one thing but I don’t think he’s saying that.
  • Three, Temple earned in addition to the millions off its AAC football contract, $6 million with the Manny Diaz buyout and $2.6 million with the Geoff Collins’ buyout. Rod Carey’s buyout is $10 million. Owls are not going to leave that money on the table by dropping to FCS.
  • Four, the AAC as currently constituted, is a better basketball conference than the A10 as currently constituted.

Why would Temple, which enjoys terrific football TV ratings and a steady uptick in football attendance, jeopardize any part of its football franchise to ostensibly prop up its basketball one?

I don’t know what his point was. Should Temple drop out of the G5 and the AAC even though it has the most regular-season league football wins since 2015? (More than UCF, Houston, Memphis and USF). That’s a little like the Dems asking Joe Biden to drop out before the first debate (although maybe he should drop out now after it). G5 is not big-time football but it’s certainly better for Temple than an A10 basketball/FCS football combo. (Good luck drawing flies in FCS football to the Linc.)

Plus, there is absolutely no assurance that investing in basketball at the expense of football would improve that product. Why not pursue excellence in the two marquee sports?

In college athletics, you can both walk and chew gum at the same time.

Temple can and should do both and ignore the haters who keep putting the Owls’ name in their mouths.

Monday: Our one week of vacation a year (and five best-of-TFF columns M-F)

July 8: A partnership that works

July 11: Roll call

 

 

05.29.19
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Temple’s recruiting reset button

footballs

You’ll be reading a lot about politics (though not here) in the next year and one of those things might be about this political candidate or that one hitting the “reset button.”

That got me to thinking about what all these coaching changes Temple has had in the last half-decade or so has done to recruiting. AMR (after Matt Rhule), both Geoff Collins and even Rod Carey now have had classes where they could at best provide a band-aid here and band-aid there in areas the Owls need immediate help.

That is an apt characterization of the first recruiting classes of both.

Now Carey, with a $10 million buyout that even a Power 5 school would think twice before eating, has an opportunity to hit the recruiting reset button. Let’s hope he takes it because a couple of band-aid-type classes thrown in every few years depletes the roster and a depleted roster eventually shows up on the field. The latest promising addition is running back Jeremiah Nelson and he put a lot of good moves on film, both at Iona Prep and Nassau County Community College.

 

Carey certainly has his own recruiting ideas from six successful seasons at Northern Illinois but Temple needs to aspire to get a higher level of recruit and has the geography to do it. NIU wasn’t located in the middle of 46 percent of the nation’s population, as Temple is, so the formula for the Owls would be 1-5 projects that the staff really likes on film and the rest three- and four-star prospects that not only the Temple staff likes but every paid P5 staff out there likes.

Trust, but verify.

e3b93-goldenhope
“My recruiting philosophy is simply this: Recruit an entire team every year. Eleven guys on defense, 11 guys on offense and a couple of specialists and you are never going to leave yourself short.” _ Al Golden

Temple has a lot to sell. Twenty-four current players in the NFL speaks well for the opportunity to play one part of your career in an NFL stadium and finish up the rest of it in another NFL stadium. That, plus the fact that Temple is a proven winner. Since 2015, the Owls have won one AAC title, appeared in another and have won more AAC football games than anyone else, including UCF, USF and Memphis. Plus, the school is nationally known as the sixth-largest educator of professionals so that sheepskin is something to fall back on should a pro football career not be in the offing. It’s in the middle of an exciting city and, unlike, say, Penn State,  not situated in the middle of nowhere. That appeals to “regular students” and it should also appeal to dynamic football players.

Fortunately, Carey has a gem like Fran Brown to head up the recruiting effort. In recruiting, Brown is the starting pitcher and Carey has to be the closer. Brown knows how Al Golden and Rhule build this team from the national bottom 10 to respectability.

“My recruiting philosophy is simply this,” Golden said when he got the Temple job. “Recruit an entire team every year. Eleven guys on defense, 11 guys on offense and a couple of specialists and you are never going to leave yourself short.”

That kind of sound thinking is the Cherry and White reset button Temple recruiting needs to hit now.

Saturday: The Long Game

Wednesday: The Bright Side