Tag Archives: sports

05.15.25
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Temple football: We’re No. 4

Nobody is predicting that in a league with 14 teams Temple finishes No. 4.

Yet in that same league, Temple has a coach ranked No. 4.

A couple of days ago, the popular college football site Yardbarker ranked the top four coaches in the American Athletic Conference and new Temple coach K.C. Keeler was in the group.

Not surprising considering Keeler is the all-time winningest FCS coach and a lock to be the third Temple Owl ever inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame when he hangs up the clipboard.

What does this mean for the 2025 Temple football Owls?

Both a lot and a little.

Everyone knows in these terrible days of college football when money talks and bullshit walks, money means a lot.

Yet it doesn’t mean everything.

As a lifelong football fan, particularly of high schools and colleges, I’ve seen a lot of remarkable stories and wrote many of them.

As a sportswriter for The Doylestown Intelligencer in the 1980s, I covered perhaps the greatest high school football program of all time in Central Bucks West. The coach there, Mike Pettine Sr., a Villanova grad out of the same Conshohocken high school as legendary Temple baseball coach Skip Wilson, took a team of mostly 5-10, 170-pound white kids to multiple state championships. First, “mythical” ones when the PIAA did not conduct postseason playoffs and then reaffirming those in real state championship games in large school football playoffs. Pettine’s lifetime record: 364 wins, 42 losses and three ties, including 10 unbeaten seasons.

Amazing.

Mostly done with only about 700 boys in a school district split in half when Central Bucks East came onboard. I arranged a series between CB West and a big-time Catholic League power, Archbishop Ryan, and West won those games, 22-14 and 14-7. At the time, Ryan had 2,500 boys and West had 700.

“Hey, Mike, can you imagine how good we’d be with 2,500 boys?” assistant head coach Mike Carey said to Pettine as they walked off the field after the second win.

A few years earlier than that, watched as Wayne Hardin took the Temple Owls from a small school schedule to three consecutive close losses against a national championship contender in Penn State. Hardin was the real deal, having proven himself as the head coach at Navy, leaving the Middies to the No. 2 ranking in the country in the 1960s with a program that required a five-year service commitment after graduation.

I know what good coaches can do against insurmountable odds.

These guys aren’t Temple fans but they see what the college football world sees.

Maybe the NIL and transfer portal odds facing Keeler today are tougher than those facing Pettine and Hardin but I doubt it.

Hat tip to Finland for its support of TFF.

Unlike Stan Drayton and Rod Carey, Keeler has dipped into the portal and filled a lot of needs of this program by bringing in good players.

No doubt in my mind–like Pettine and Hardin–he can coach them up.

Others are noticing what a good hire this is for Temple.

Keeler doesn’t have to finish in the top four in the league but a top six finish isn’t out of the question.

That’s why this season is the most exciting one in at least half a decade. There is no sport where a great head coach makes an impact more than football on any level and we are witnessing it now.

Somewhere up there, Pettine and Hardin are looking down and nodding.

05.11.25
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A King Solomon-like solution to Temple QB controversy

Gevani McCoy highlights at Oregon State last season.

Whatever happens in the summer camp when Gevani McCoy arrives to do battle with Evan Simon, Temple appears headed for a quarterback controversy.

While this happened a half-century of so ago at Temple, new head coach K.C. Keeler might need to pull out a more ancient solution, about 2,900 years earlier. When two women claimed to be the mother of a baby and wanted custody, they went to King Solomon. When Solomon suggested they split the baby and give one half to each, the real mother said give to the other one.

Marty Ginestra’s stats in Temple’s 1973 season were better (9 TDs, 0INTs) than newcomer Steve Joachim’s (11 TDs to 10 INTs) below. Interesting that as a PSU backup in 1971, Steve tossed 7 TDs vs. 3 INTs for Joe Paterno.

Solomon, in his wisdom, figured that gesture indicated who the real mother was and awarded the baby to the one who didn’t want it killed.

Or at least that’s the story.

Splitting the baby in the Simon/McCoy battle could be the way to go considering what happened a year ago.

Temple once split the baby, playing two QBs in the 8-2 season of 1973.

Through summer practices, then head coach Stan Drayton screamed up and down that the battle was even and he would announce the starter on the day of the Oklahoma opener. Drayton (wrongly) went with Forrest Brock, who must have been the greatest practice quarterback of all time because when he appeared in actual games, he looked like the worst QB in college football history.

On the other hand, in real games, Simon was pretty good–hitting his high-water mark in an 45-29 win over Utah State. Simon threw four touchdown passes in that one–all under pressure and into tight windows–while adding another one on the ground.

In hindsight, Drayton, if he was really torn, would have been better served by the King Solomon solution. Play each quarterback a few series in real games under real fire and then go with the hot hand.

Pretty sure that was Henry Hynoski.

Temple fans of a certain age might remember this kind of approach served the Owls well a half-century ago when another Hall of Fame coach, Wayne Hardin, welcomed a big-time transfer in from Penn State (Steve Joachim) to battle with a fairly good Simon-like holdover in Marty Ginestra.

Ginestra was the fan favorite in 1973, throwing nine touchdown passes, while Joachim tossed 10 TDs that same year. Temple wasn’t hurt by the shuffling as the Owls won eight games.

The real benefit wasn’t felt until a year later when Joachim tossed 20 touchdown passes and won the Maxwell Award as the best college football player in the nation for the 1974 Owls, who finished 9-1.

If the Owls get an eight-win season in a two-quarterback system and a Maxwell winner and 9-1 or better next year, Keeler would probably sign for that now.

This King Solomon guy evidently had a lot of wisdom. So did King Hardin.

05.08.25
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One outsider’s view of the Temple top 10

I don’t get the “7-6 record” in 2024 at the top of these stats. I wish it wasn’t 3-9.

In this age of no good reason, reason sometimes lacks logic.

An outsider takes a look at Temple football and gives his top 10 players and an insider, like me, looks at the same roster and comes up with another 10.

Take the outsiders with a grain of salt, though.

The guy in the above video puts Evan Simon at the top of his 10 but makes only a passing (no pun intended) mention of a newcomer who was the starting quarterback at Oregon State last year.

Gevani McCoy started nine games at quarterback for Oregon State. When was the last time Temple recruited a guy like that?

No bigger Evan Simon fan than me but I think Gevani McCoy has a real good chance to beat him out.

Do I think he does?

Let the field decide that.

Here’s my top 10 Temple players this year, knowing that it could (and probably will) be a different list at the end of the year:

  1. Gevani McCoy–You don’t bring in a starter from a recent P5 program to put him on the bench and he more fits the kind of the kind of pass-first, tuck-the-ball-away and run if nothing is there offense new head coach K.C. Keeler wants to run.
  2. Simon–A terrific player and a team leader who loves Temple and his teammates love him. I will never forget in a 52-6 blowout loss to Tulane, Simon fumbled the ball and crawled on all fours for five yards to cover a meaningless fumble. His teammates appreciated that. Hell, for someone who invested nearly four hours in watching that disaster, I appreciate that as a Temple fan. If McCoy–who allowed himself to be sacked 15 times last year in nine games–goes down, I have no doubt Simon can lead the Owls to a bowl game. Heck, if he beats McCoy out in the summer, I have no doubt Keeler will do the right thing for Temple and start Simon.
  3. Demereck Morris–This solid DT, a single-digit guy, transferred to Oklahoma State and decided that the grass isn’t always greener than the artificial ones at Chodoff Field.
  4. Antonio Jones–This wide receiver is tough as nails and, although listed as backup on the depth chart now, he doesn’t drop passes and can be a big play threat.
  5. Grayson Mains–This center from South Carolina was the anchor of the offensive line last year and should benefit from better coaching.
  6. John Adams–Should start opposite Jones as wide receiver. Showed his explosiveness in a 59-34 loss vs. USTA two years ago when he caught two touchdown passes and amassed 157 yards. Blocked a punt for a TD with his long arms that should have won the UConn game last year if the idiot in charge had called for a Sam Cunningham leap with Terrez Worthy instead of a tush push with a 160-pound backup quarterback.
  7. Worthy--Speaking of that, Keeler brought in Jay Ducker, who was the leading rusher at both Memphis and Sam Houston State before coming to Temple. More importantly to me, Worthy SHOULD have been the starter at Temple last year if Stan Drayton didn’t have a brain cramp and start E.J. Wilson in the first three games. Keeler’s only objection with Ducker’s great spring camp was his lack of finishing speed. Worthy has that.
  8. Ryder Kusch–The Canadian tight end was the star of spring practice for Temple, joining another foreign player (Peter Clarke, UK) as pleasant surprises. Both are immune to the transfer portal and the NIL since they can’t benefit from it so they will be here for the long haul
  9. Daniel Evert–also a tight end, Evert made a beautiful move in the middle of the field for a long touchdown against Army. If you want to jumpstart the old Temple-type running game, put Kusch and Evert in a two-tight end set and have more blockers at the point of attack than defenders.
  10. Ty Davis--Delaware’s best linebacker of last year is ready to step up and become Temple’s of this year.
05.04.25
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Executive Order could level the playing field

Hell might have frozen over.

There is an issue out there where the Democrats and Republicans might come to an agreement.

This is probably the best-case scenario for G5 teams like Temple.

A talk at the University of Alabama commencement between President Trump, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban and former Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville could produce something needed in college football.

An even playing field, which would be something both Democrats and Republicans–and basically all fans of college football–can agree on right now.

If nothing changes, the playing field Temple plays on next year against Penn State will be tilted heavily in the Lions’ direction. That probably would have happened anyway. Hell, it happened since the 1975 renewal of the series but, unlike those first days, we have a situation now where Penn State can steal Temple’s one or two best players from this year–if it wanted to–and Temple could steal no one from Penn State and that field would be so far uphill the Owls would never have a chance.

There are no details of what such an executive order would entail but both Saban and Tuberville stressed in their conversations with the President that the “playing field needed to be leveled.”

They didn’t say how.

My guess is that it refers to an even playing field among the P4 powers, not including the G5 schools. That would probably mean no transfers allowed between P4 schools and an even distribution of NIL money among the power conference schools.

However, an executive order distributing an even amount of NIL money over the 130 schools would certainly help Temple and that’s what we have to hope for even if it’s a pipe dream.

Certainly an EO would face a strenuous court test but it might move a Congress that had no prior interest in college football to move to help the have-nots. Can’t imagine Congress would get behind the 20 or so schools who want to take all of the money so this probably is a bipartisan issue.

That’s a move Democrats would get behind and certainly Tuberville and Saban understand the inequity that currently exists.

What we do know is the status quo isn’t helping Temple or any other G5 schools so a shakeup is positive news.

My vote: A 145 percent tariff on the P4 to help the G5. Not gonna happen, but we can always dream.

05.01.25
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Getting a little ahead of ourselves here but …

Under a great coach like Bruce Arians, Temple lost to PSU by scores of 27-25 and 23-18.

Getting a little ahead of ourselves here because the focus should always be on the next game but new Temple head coach K.C. Keeler is building a team of guys with chips on their shoulders.

Good, talented, guys, who have played a lower level of football but finally have a chance to get on a larger stage at Temple.

Question: Can you beat a team like Penn State with a group of guys who have a chip on their shoulders?

As one of The Three Stooges would say, “Certainly.” It definitely happened in 2015.

The next game with that same team is 2026. This is 2025.

We know. We know.

Colin Chase’s most recent film. He is now an Owl.

The focus should be on UMass but Keeler is faced with the task of playing a big-time P4 team in one year and he is putting together a group of talented guys.

Since the Cherry and White game, Keeler has signed a dozen transfer portal guys who can make a difference both now and a year from now.

The latest included a pair of wide receivers, including Jo Jo Bermudez and Colin Chase.

Bermudez is the third big-time player who eschewed Delaware for Temple, including the Blue Hens’ top running back recruit and best linebacker and, now, best wide receiver. Temple football doesn’t lose players to a program like Delaware but compare and contrast that to Temple losing a Penn State transfer guard in basketball to Delaware.

Bermudez’s high school coach once called him “the best football player in the state of New Jersey.” That was at a time when the Philadelphia Eagles’ first-round draft choice, Jihaad Campbell, was playing for a high school less than 20 miles away.

Ugh.

If that isn’t the best illustration for the job K.C. Keeler is doing at Temple visa ve Adam Fisher, I don’t know what is.

I don’t think $75 is low but that’s life on a fixed income.

Above is a screenshot of an article I wrote for Calkins Newspapers in 1986. At the time, those three newspapers (Bucks County Courier Times, Burlington County Times and Doylestown Intelligencer) had a combined daily circulation of 170,000 subscribers (better than the 2025 Philadelphia Inquirer).

Those were the halcyon days of daily newspapers.

Now people get their news other ways.

The big news at Temple these days is football is hot and basketball not so much.

We’d like to see both thrive but this says more for a good A.J. Johnson hire vs. a bad one.

Beating Penn State is a pipe dream in today’s current monetary environment, but a group of motivated guys with chips on their shoulders can move mountains.

We saw a mountain move once a decade ago. Keeler might be hooking another mountain up to a tow truck.

It should be fun to watch in two years and maybe more fun this one.

04.27.25
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Ground Game: New pieces stand out

Hunter Smith’s high school recruiting film.

Recruiting guru Lou Adler is credited for saying it first:

“The best predictor of future performance is past performance.”

Adler said it in his capacity of recruiting business talent, but it also applies to football talent.

Last week, the Temple football Owls probably grabbed their starting quarterback in Gevani McCoy, although Evan Simon might have something to say about that.

Around the same time, the Owls appeared to have fixed their run game depth by adding Hunter Smith.

This is where the past performance comes into play.

With the addition of Smith, this is what Temple’s running back room looks like: Jay Ducker, the one-time leading rusher in the MAC is pairing with the one-time Louisiana-Monroe rushing leader in Smith.

Smith led the Warhawks with 507 rushing yards in 2023 before suffering an ACL injury. Ducker led the MAC in rushing two years earlier (2021) with 1,184 yards.

Temple head coach K.C. Keeler said Ducker had a “good camp” for the Owls in the spring but said Ducker needs to turn a lot of those yards he got into touchdowns and improve his closing speed. That opens the door for holdover Torrez Worthy to grab the job as he is the fastest back (4.49-40) since Ray Davis in the 2019 season. Davis now plays for the Buffalo Bills.

A red flag for both newcomers is that speed, as both scored just three touchdowns. Worthy outran the entire Tulane team for Temple’s only highlight in a 52-6 loss last year so if he wins the job, it will be by speed alone. A dark horse to win the job is another speedster, De’Carlos Young. Joquez Smith also had a 142-yard game for Temple two years ago so he’s in the mix as well.

At a number of positions, Keeler has brought in more significant transfer portal talent since Cherry and White Day than both Rod Carey and Stan Drayton did in the past six years.

The running back room is a perfect example of that.

Still, Worthy, Young (who hasn’t had a chance yet) and Joquez Smith have not produced the same kind of numbers at the FBS level as Ducker and Smith so the Owls appear to be in capable hands with those two.

At least past performance says so.

Friday: Getting a handle

04.20.25
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The flip side of the portal: Getting a P4 recruit

For a school like Temple, there are always two sides to the transfer portal.

One side, the bad one, is recruiting and developing talent for another team to steal.

The good side of this coin–often ignored–is that the transfer portal opens the Owls to acquire football talent they might not otherwise have a chance to get out of high school.

Take Cedar Creek’s Jo Jo Bermudez for instance. Temple has expressed an interest in him and he has expressed an interest in Temple.

It’s a trade that would benefit both since the Owls seem thin at wide receiver and Bermudez has a good chance of earning a starting job.

He set a South Jersey receiving record for yardage with 1,992 in his senior year of high school. His recruiting was down to the Big 10 (Rutgers) and the Big 12 (Cincinnati) and ultimately chose the Bearcats. While he didn’t play for the Bearcats, he transferred to Delaware and became their best wide receiver and caught a touchdown pass against Villanova in November.

Temple used to win recruiting battles with P4 schools but that was a long time ago and in a different era of college football. Al Golden’s first recruit was to beat out Boston College and Rutgers for the services of Kee-Ayre Griffin, who became both a starting running back and a starting quarterback for Golden. Matt Rhule beat out LSU and Rutgers for the services of Anthony Russo. Golden also stole Adrian Robinson from Pitt, among others.

Temple really hasn’t gotten that type of guy since Rhule left, although the transfer portal has sent players from Texas A&M, Florida, Penn State and other places to Temple. Most of them were backups who never made an impact at Temple but a player like Diwan Black was an exception last year.

Maybe Bermudez could fit into that category this year.

Now, if the Owls are able to land Bermudez, they would upgrade the talent in the room and competition only makes the team better.

Kajiya Hollawayne, Xavier Irvin and Tyler Stewart were running with the first team in the spring and that’s a little surprising because John Adams and Antonio Jones made the most big plays in actual games last year.

Right now, my starters are Adams and Jones at wide receiver and Ryder Kusch at tight end but with most teams playing three receivers, there is plenty of room for Bermudez to make an impact.

It’s the flip side of the transfer portal coin and could bring in a talent that the Owls would have had little chance of landing coming out of high school.

04.17.25
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What most people don’t understand about college sports

After reading this, tell me where Temple gets the money to pay football or basketball players who are already getting scholarships worth almost $100,000?

The response never fails.

Every time I write something about the evils of the NIL and the transfer portal, I invariably get this response either on twitter, the comments below or facebook:

“These colleges make millions off the backs of the players. They deserve to be paid.”

Err, no.

The Ohio States and the Penn States make millions.

The Temples, the Kent States, the Georgia States, the Troys, the Sam Houstons, etc. don’t.

There are plenty more of the latter group than the former one.

Temple has to sell its ability to put players in the NFL and it has a strong history of that.

As many of 100 (or more) of the FBS schools LOSE money on football. Should those players be forced to pay back the schools who employ them?

No.

But to say these players deserve millions because universities makes millions is a misnomer because there is no bounty.

Look at Temple.

This week Temple president John Fry wrote a university-wide email (see above) about how Temple is strapped for cash and how the school is going to have to tighten that belt even more.

Temple isn’t the only school in that boat.

Ryder Kusch shows Reece Clark how playing tight end is done.

Maybe Memphis and Boise State make money on football.

I doubt that any other G5 schools do.

Temple did a lot of hard work recruiting a quarterback who was set to visit the school today. He canceled the visit and committed to Ole Miss on Tuesday. Temple lost a tight end (Reece Clark) today who entered the portal. Good for him. I don’t think he’s going to find any real money elsewhere. Let’s be real here. Clark is a nice player. He was outplayed in the spring by Ryder Kusch. Clark is a tweener. Not big enough to play tight end or fast enough to play wide receiver. He’s like a 6-3 forward in high school basketball. He didn’t light up the stat sheet for a 3-9 team. Doubt that any 9-3 teams are going to offer him money. He’s got to be realistic about his own ability. Instead, he’s probably listening to an agent.

He’s more likely to drop to FCS than continue to play at the highest level.

Better for Temple because head coach K.C. Keeler said that you are either all in or all out and Clark is all out. Now Keeler is building a team that is all in and that can only benefit Temple.

Although this number changes every day, there were only 1,452 FBS scholarships available as of 10 p.m. Thursday night. The math ain’t mathing for 90+ percent of these kids but don’t expect an “agent” to tell them that.

Ole Miss has money to pay football players.

Temple doesn’t.

Neither does almost every other G5 school yet a lot of G5 schools find a way to compete. One of those schools was Sam Houston, which won 9 games and a bowl game.

Its head coach?

K.C. Keeler.

It’s a lot tougher to win with players who are getting paid the old-fashioned way but there’s a lot to be said about building a culture where everyone is pretty much getting the same thing and there’s no locker room bickering why this one guy gets this and this other guy doesn’t get that.

Maybe that isn’t all of the Keeler winning formula, but it certainly is a big part of it.

Until some multi-billionaire Saudi horse racing aficionado wants to see what kind of havoc his disposable income can wreak on college football by backing Temple, spare me on the “kids deserve to get paid” angle.

Monday: An Intriguing Prospect

04.14.25
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Cherry and White: Tough love and defense

K.C. Keeler tells the team if anyone enters the portal, he’s not taking them back. (Photo by Anthony Getz)

Defense and field goals dominated the 2025 Cherry and White game and one more thing.

Tough love.

Quarterback Tyler Douglas did nothing wrong on this pass but it ended up being a Pick 6.

First-year Temple head coach K.C. Keeler channeled his inner John Chaney when he made clear to any Owls considering the transfer portal he would not take them back. Keeler’s reasoning was sound. “Now that you have been with me, I told them if they go in the portal, we’re not taking them back,” he said.

The thinking there is this is the first time a lot of these Temple kids played for a Hall of Fame coach and they might be intrigued where he can lead them and the team.

Chaney did a similar thing long before the portal, telling anyone who transferred that they were not welcomed back. The famous quote was, “If you tell me you don’t love me, it’s over.”

It worked back then because Chaney had both the carrot and the stick.

We’ll see if it works now.

It was a bold move back then. It is even more today because there might be more money on the other side. Then again, there might not. More players who go into the portal find zero money and no scholarships on the other side than those who go in and expect to get rich.

Joe Greenwood (left) and College Hall of Fame running back Paul Palmer rock their letterwinner jackets.

For now, it’s a buyer’s market for the teams, not the players. Only the top 1 percent of the players in the portal get any real money and that’s from only the top 20 or so college football powerhouses.

So anyone who played on a 3-9 team would be wise to stay put and keep their scholarship.

As far as the game itself, the Owls went 5-for-5 in field goals but a point of emphasis will be to finish off those drives with touchdowns and not field goals. While Keeler praised newcomer Jay Ducker (21 carries for 66 yards), he also noted that Ducker needs to improve his finishing speed. If he doesn’t, Keeler has a nice insurance policy in Torrez Worthy, who is one of the fastest backs in the AAC. Worthy outran the whole Tulane team in the lone highlight of a 52-6 loss last year.

Keeler also said that Evan Simon “had a great spring” but that he’s “bringing in another quarterback” to compete for the starting job. My feeling here is that Simon is a good enough quarterback to produce a winning season at Temple but the fact that Temple doesn’t have another quarterback good enough to produce a winning season is the very reason Keeler should go after a similar level quarterback.

Defensively, Keeler said the line is “7-8 deep” and they should be able to stop people in this league given the personnel already here. Offensively, he said “iron sharpens iron” and how good the DL was all spring made the OL the most improved aspect of the team. Those of us who saw Simon running for his life last fall will have to see that to believe that against live competition. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to get a tackle who can protect Simon’s blindside.

Another reason they will hit the portal for a QB is his offensive staff is used to a running quarterback and nothing puts pressure on a modern defense than a quarterback who can move the sticks both running and passing.

Those are hard to come by and the competition for one should be furious. Sort of like it was on Saturday.

Friday: An intriguing prospect

04.06.25
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A return to some coaching competency this spring

Take this from a guy who has been all but two of the last 40 or so Cherry and White games: This one as all the makings for being one of the best.

Trust me, the 2 p.m. kickoff for the Cherry and White should be one of the best. If not best, certainly among the most interesting.

I’ve been to the worst.

The worst was the “game” at Lincoln Financial Field in 2017 when 1,000 fans rattling around in a 70K stadium looked like a couple hundred.

A few years before that almost to the day I stood on the top bleacher at the Diamond Street end zone with an umbrella over my head and ducking behind the 6-foot-4 guy standing on the bleacher below me to get a view of Logan Marchi throwing two interceptions off his back foot. He was BY FAR … FAR … the worst of the four quarterbacks playing that day but somehow he started the opener at Notre Dame and was only able to put up 16 points in the next game against a team Rhode Island scorched for 20 points.

Weather forecast says “rain likely” but we are still six days away.

It sucked big time.

Anything will be better than those two games because for the first time since maybe Steve Addazio was here, there will be a lot of coaches who know what they were doing. (Not that Daz did but he brought with him the core staff of the 2010 Florida Gator squad and it was neat to see the professionalism with which they operated.)

Here are the five things I’m looking for:

Hope

You might say I’m a dreamer but, as the Beatles would say, I’m not the only one. New head coach K.C. Keeler did a lot with little at Rowan, Delaware and Sam Houston and his charge is to do the same at Temple.

Weather

Mid-April is always a crapshoot in Philadelphia. The forecast calls for rain but we are six days away and that can change.

Coaching

Last year, it was a clusterbleep because then head coach Stan Drayton stuck with a guy who gave up 38 ppg in his two prior stints as DC. Not surprising Everett Withers went out at Temple doing the same thing and cost his buddy a fourth season. Now there is a new defensive philosophy. Don’t sell that short because D.J. Eliot proved you could do more with the same players if they were coached differently. Brian Smith probably will prove the same thing. In the spring, they’ve been showing 5-2-4, 3-3-5 and 4-3-4 looks, which shows Smith is flexible.

Evan Simon is sacked by Temple in the 2022 Rutgers’ game

Position Battles

This might be the most important. We all know that Evan Simon No. 1 and Tyler Douglas is No. 2 at quarterback. Is the separation so wide at quarterback that Keeler brings a No. 2 from the portal or is Keeler so wedded to a running quarterback that he jumps over both and brings in a No. 1? Another battle to watch is the one between newcomer Jay Ducker (who started at both Memphis and Sam Houston) and Torrez Worthy, who might have been a 1,000-yard rusher at Temple last year if so-called “running back guru” Drayton didn’t dick around and start E.J. Wilson the first few games.

Special Teams

Both last year’s staff and this year’s staff say the second-best kicker in the AAC was Carl Hardin, who happened to be behind Maddox Trujillo. Yet Hardin MISSED two field goals in the last scrimmage (while also making two) and it’s hard to make a case he’s as reliable as Maddox was now. If he finishes up with a couple of makes and no misses, that’s going to put a lot of minds at ease. Also, does Temple continue with the rugby style punts?

Friday: Farewell to a Tradition

Monday: Takeaways from Cherry and White