Tag Archives: sports

04.03.25
by

Cherry and White: Another casualty of the madness

About the same time the best golfers in the world will be teeing up in Georgia for the penultimate round of that sport’s best tournament, two colors will be teeing it off at 10th and Diamond.

The Cherry and The White.

Jim Nance likes to call the former thing: “A Tradition Like Any Other.”

That’s why anyone mulling over whether or not they should attend this year should go.

The Masters will go on for many years to come.

The Cherry and White game will probably not.

Another casualty of the madness–and the sickness–that plagues college sports in general and college football in particular.

New Temple head coach K.C. Keeler floated the idea that this might be the last Cherry and White game ever and if he decides to end it, I agree with him.

What a great tradition, though.

Maybe golf fanatic Nance is right, but do you know a sports tradition that has–within the last 20 years or so–been played in at least six places and been part of a transition from bottom to (nearly) top as Temple football’s Cherry and White game?

I didn’t think so.

In the last 20 years, Temple’s Cherry and White football game has been played in 1) The Old Temple Stadium (2004), 2) Ambler (2006), 3) Cardinal O’Hara (2008), 4) Lincoln Financial Field (2010), 5) the soccer/field hockey complex (three times recently) and the 6) Edberg-Olson Football Complex (five times)?

Find me a moveable tradition like that and we can start the conversation about any other traditions.

It’s OK, too.

Accessible by train from anywhere in the Philly region

This year (April 12) the game will be played at the E-O. It’s also been played at Broad and Master, a $22 million “minor sports” site.

About 4-5,000 people will be attending the Cherry and White football festivities.

It’ll be different this year and in a bad way because of all the nostalgia.

Old-timers like me remember when it was a “real game” with tackling and a final score. Keeler has promised that much because “this is really important to Temple alumni that we play it as a game and we will.”

The last three years were glorified drills like hitting a running back with a tackling dummy. That sense of urgency carried over to the games in the fall.

Game used to be broadcast by Philly radio legends Bill Campbell and Steve Fredericks.

This time, the simulation will be real and it will be a welcome change because we’ve seen the very same process during Cherry and White Days presided over by successful coaches like Wayne Hardin, Bruce Arians, Al Golden and Matt Rhule. Whatever we watched the past three seasons did not work.

Hate, hate, hate to do this but our subscription prices for Getty Images and WordPress hosting have gone up and we need to cover that or entertain a pause on this blog until the fall. If you can’t contribute, no problem. If you can, we will know that we have the audience to continue

All of the prior Temple guys believed that the fall process included meaningful business in front of the fans on Cherry and White Day.

The fact that the new guy believes that, too, is a good sign for the fall and makes attendance by serious Owl fans mandatory.

This is a damn good tradition that will, sadly, come to an end until any sanity is restored to college football and that day is so far off I can confidently say I won’t be here to see it with you.

In between, though, we need to do what we have to do to get Temple football to the other side and, if ending the showcasing of our players for other teams to steal is over I’m all for it.

Monday: What’s Happening Here

03.30.25
by

Temple should give thumbs down to Penn State

Maybe an unpopular opinion here, but Temple should probably say no to Penn State’s offer of a joint practice.

Maybe even a joint spring game.

There are a couple of good reasons for that.

One, Temple has nothing to gain.

Two, Temple has a lot to lose.

Penn State gave Temple two transfer quarterbacks, one was Kevin Newsome (above) and the other won the Maxwell Trophy as the best college football player in the nation (Steve Joachim). But there was no NIL then.

I’ve always said the Cherry and White game spring game was a maddening affair because the good guys always played the good guys. Thought it would make sense for Temple to bring in a team from a similar-sized FBS league (not its own) and play a “real game” against them to get a better gauge of where they are and what they have to do to get better.

In the Cherry and White game, if the offense did well you really didn’t know if that was because the defense was bad and the offense was good or that the offense was really good because the defense was also decent.

Kevin Newsome went from second team QB at PSU to third-team QB at TU but he wrote this great song.

One year, the Owls had a transfer from Shippensburg gain over 100 yards in its spring game. Turns out he was a bust when the real season began in the fall. That was a year the Owls had a bad defense.

Penn State would have been great, say, a dozen years ago.

Now Penn State routinely raids Temple-sized schools, including Temple itself, when it plucked Arnold Ebiketie from the Owls and put him on their DL.

Temple and PSU play in a “real game” in 2026. That should be enough.

James Franklin probably won’t walk over to one or two Temple players that he likes after a Cherry/Blue scrimmage and shake their hands and whisper something into their ears but why even give him that chance?

To be fair, Temple has done the same with a couple of Penn State players–quarterback Kevin Newsome comes to mind–but they usually have been Penn State backups who became Temple backups.

Those were trades that only benefited one ballclub, not both. New Temple coach K.C. Keeler seems to realize that, as he said he is considering the offer but hasn’t decided yet.

For a future spring game opponent, Temple probably should look south to take on someone its own size outside its own league and playing the same level of football.

A team like Sam Houston or even Delaware makes a lot more sense at this point than someone like Penn State, however enticing a spring game involving the Nittany Lions might be to Temple fans.

Friday: The Last One Ever?

03.27.25
by

Something positive: Keeler is holding it together

Last year, Stan Drayton allowed Rock, Paper and Scissors between Forrest Brock and Evan Simon to determine the first-team QB reps. Now Rock, Paper and Scissors doesn’t decide anything. Thanks to K.C. Keeler for that.

Let’s face it: College sports is a complete bleep show now.

More players entered the NCAA Division I basketball portal than ever on Thursday (we would give you the exact number but it was 1,700 at noon and 1,887 at 4 p.m. and probably over 2,000 now), including basically the entire Temple University men’s basketball team.

The Scotus decision on the NCAA vs. Alston in 2021 caused complete anarchy in college sports. The transfer portal preceded that but there was very little movement because there was no big money thrown around. Kids used the portal for the reason it was intended–to get playing time at another school when they weren’t getting it at their own.

Have to wonder if Whizzer White–an All-American football player in an era where amateurs dominated college sports–would have agreed with his colleagues if he had lived long enough to remain on the court.

Temple’s major sports have struggled since because the grads are not as deep-pocketed as the products of the SEC and Big 10 schools.

While coaches like Adam Fisher, Stan Drayton, Aaron McKie and Rod Carey haven’t been able to keep a semblance of sanity, probably the most impressive aspect of the first few months is that new head coach K.C. Keeler is holding things together. Make no mistake about it. Demerick Morris can play in the NFL. He is THAT good. He came to the correct conclusion that can be done for a championship coach. He dipped his toe into the water and went to Oklahoma State before deciding he made a mistake.

Maybe it was because of Keeler’s reputation. Maybe it was because of something else, like Keeler sitting down and having a heart-to-heart conversation with every single one of Temple’s scholarship players.

Still, what is unmistakable is Keeler is holding it together at Temple in a way Drayton, Carey and now Fisher haven’t demonstrated.

That’s an improvement in an era where chaos now reigns.

Less chaos probably means more wins for Temple.

Monday: What the awards tell you

Friday: The Last Cherry and White Game Ever?

03.20.25
by

Next step: Some Temple football laughs

One of the best celebrations in recent Temple football history was this one in the lobby of The Liacouras Center when it was announced Temple would be returning to a bowl game for the first time in 30 years. That was fun.

When I was the sports editor of The Temple News and Wayne Hardin was well into his 13-year tenure as head coach, I asked him if he thought football should be fun.

“Good question, Mike,” he said. “I’ll tell you what I’ve always thought about that. The only fun in football is winning.”

The genesis of the question came from talking to so many guys who played under him who said his hard practices made the actual games fun because they were so prepared.

Thought about that the other day when, after the first “official” practice of the K.C. Keeler Era, the new Temple head coach said one of his early challenges was to get the guys to laugh.

Owls rejoice on the field after winning at UConn 17-14 in OT in 2012.

Pretty much said the team is too serious and noted the reasons for that was they were beat down by so many consecutive 3-9 seasons (three under Stan Drayton, one under Rod Carey).

Keeler didn’t have to say it but he is from the Wayne Hardin School of Football and probably believes the same things Wayne did. (After all, the only reason he ended up at Delaware instead of Temple when he played was because Hardin ran out of scholarships.)

The way to get these guys to loosen up and laugh is to win a few games and, if they have to be serious about it now, that can only bode well for the future.

Two College Football Hall of Fame coaches and the same philosophy about having fun.

Robby Anderson and Temple fans had smiles on their faces after beating Penn State in 2015.

Hard practices are followed by games in which the team knows exactly what they are supposed to do in critical situations.

Having fun is part of the deal.

Football, after all is a game, and in a game you are supposed to have fun.

When somebody keeps beating the crap out of you, it’s hard to enjoy anything.

Now the Owls are getting the hard work in this spring to determine a couple of things: One, who on the current roster is good enough to win now and, two, what are the holes the coaching staff needs to fill to help those guys achieve that.

Those coaches who were here last year wanted to fill holes but had no idea how. These ones do.

After years of gloom and doom post-game, it will be good to see the smiles on the faces of both Temple players and fans again.

If not this spring, then certainly this fall.

Monday: A Needed Change

03.16.25
by

Only one way to convince the doubters

Watching the NCAA basketball selection Sunday reaffirmed my doubts about the future of college sports.

You pay to win.

After years of complaining about Cinderellas getting access to the 68-team tournament, the Power 4 finally devised a way to keep out what they see as deplorables.

NIL and transfer portal.

Each year there are less and less Cinderella types and more and more of the bluebloods. The SEC got a record 14 teams in the tournament. The ACC got a team with a Quad 1 record of 1-11.

One and eleven against the best dozen teams on the schedule.

When it comes to Temple football, the outlook is slightly different because college football’s rough equivalent of March Madness is a 12-team tournament and the way things have been structured for awhile, the Temples of the world are not getting into something like that.

All new Temple head coach K.C. Keeler has to do, though, is to make the top 80 teams in the country to create some excitement around here. There are 130 FBS teams and 80 of them make bowl games and that’s a reasonable expectation for Temple football.

After four-straight 3-9 seasons and a 1-6 season before that, getting to a bowl game is going to feel like winning the national championship around here. The top 40 of those bowl teams pay to play but the bottom 40 get there through grit, guile and organization.

So far, Keeler has shown signs of improvement in that latter area yet there are doubters among Temple fans. Some say he’s “too old” and doesn’t fit the profile of a young hungry coach fans were used to under Matt Rhule and Al Golden.

Those were different times, though, where the “young and hungry” coach could recruit high school players, put them in the weight room for a year and redshirt them for another year before they would be ready to shine. Now try that and the player is gone after the “shine” year and Temple gets out of the deal is developing a kid for another program.

One day, maybe far into the future, a more equitable system might be in place but we have our doubts about that.

What we have no doubt about is that Keeler is the right guy for Temple at this time but we won’t know for sure until December.

If he’s able to pull it off, it will be worth the wait.

Next step: Humor

03.14.25
by

Temple: One season over, one begins

Like many Temple fans, watched the finale of the Adam Fisher Story on Thursday night as the men’s basketball team lost to Tulsa.

Unacceptable.

Temple is a great school in the only World Heritage City in the United States with nearly 40,000 full-time students and many more famous alumni than Tulsa and Tulsa is in the middle of bum-bleep Oklahoma with only 3,200 full-time students.

If there is a legitimate leadership council at Temple, heads should roll.

That’s a discussion for another time and probably the next Board of Trustees meeting at Sullivan Hall.

One season is over and one is beginning.

Temple is led on the football side by a CEO who proved he knows what he is doing at three separate schools.

There is no reason to believe that won’t happen at a fourth.

On the other hand, Fisher’s major claim to fame was editing videos for Jim Larranaga at Miami.

Pretty wide gap between the two hires.

K.C. Keeler’s first week as a Temple head coach at an “official” spring practice will end tomorrow and there is a lot of good to say about his production.

Temple’s “Employee of the Week” showed an impressive grasp of the personnel under his disposal.

As a hard-core Temple fan for the last four years, I’ve studied the roster pretty well and think I have a firm handle on the ability of the holdovers.

In his first press conference as Temple’s head coach, Keeler demonstrated an “off-the-charts” kind of knowledge of the individual skills of every player who every reporter asked him about. That proves to me he both already studied the film and had an honest sit-down with all 105 scholarship players in the program.

Now all that needs left to be done is a clean evaluation of a month of practice and a further determination of what must be done in the transfer portal to plug a hole here and there.

That’s the kind of knowledge that Stan Drayton never showed in his three years here.

Will it translate into more wins?

That will all be determined by how Keeler’s staff fills the 10 or so holes that will inevitably need to be filled after spring practice is concluded.

Put it this way: I have a lot more confidence in a football guy leading my football program than a video guy leading my basketball program.

Monday: Doubting Thomases

03.10.25
by

Spring Football Returns to Temple tomorrow

While spring practice officially starts tomorrow, the Owls have been hard at work all winter at the indoor facility. Temperatures approaching 70 degrees on Tuesday no doubt will push practice outside.

Some things change and some remain the same, even in the transfer portal/NIL environment.

Those who attended the men’s basketball home finale against North Texas on Sunday (a 66-61 win) saw a senior day that honored more players who didn’t spend four years at Temple than did. That’s sad because watching the journey of these players from freshmen to seniors was always a fun part for fans.

On the football side, things are just beginning as K.C. Keeler’s first spring practice begins tomorrow (March 11).

There are five big days in college football and the opening of spring practice is one of them. Opening of summer camp is another, as is the first signing day and the regular opening day.

The fifth one for a school like Temple has to be bowl selection Sunday because the top 80 teams in a 130-team FBS make it. A couple of bad coaching hires and Temple has been outside that loop for the past six years and that’s a disgrace.

The Owls decided to find someone who knew what he was doing rather than a guy (Stan Drayton) who they HOPED knew what he was doing.

More Temple fans follow football than the next two most popular sports combined, as this poll on OwlsDaily.com proved.

Already, Keeler has made an important spring practice decision in that the Owls are going to have their Cherry and White game. That’s important because with this new hire is a new enthusiasm for the sport at Temple and getting people out in April to see the new staff at work can only help drive up season tickets.

Hopefully, Keeler has checked out the game film for important players like running back Torrez Worthy (who came into his own in the second half of last season) and quarterback Evan Simon, who proved to be Temple TUFF despite a playing behind a line who didn’t give him much protection.

As important as the work is on the field in the next month, it’ll probably be even more important to scour the portal to get some pass rushers and pass protectors on both sides of the line.

That’s because we don’t get to see players developing from freshman to seniors anymore. While that’s sad, if you get a ready-to-play guy into the program by summer, there’s an opportunity now for an upgraded roster that did not exist back then.

03.07.25
by

Delaware: Schedule them and beat them

Temple not only got Delaware’s best current player but stole its best recruit as well.

When a first-year Temple head coach named Wayne Hardin was asked about scheduling Villanova, he came up with his succinct response:

“I’m all for scheduling them and beating them.”

Another first-year Temple coach, K.C. Keeler, would be wise to adopt the same policy in the near future about not only the Wildcats, but his alma mater.

Temple puts fannies in the seats in Delaware and the Blue Hens would do the same in Philly.

Hardin pretty much did both in his 13-year Temple career. He also believed in scheduling smaller school power Delaware and doing the same.

Temple hasn’t scheduled Delaware since Bruce Arians ended that series by saying: “I’m all for scheduling smaller schools but not when you are the biggest game of their season.”

Now, with a former Delaware head coach and the Blue Hens moving up to FBS, it’s time to renew this longstanding rivalry.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

Wayne Hardin’s record against Delaware and legendary coach Tubby Raymond was 8-4, proving that when both teams have a legendary head coach, Temple is the better football school.

One, the storyline.

Former Delaware player and legendary head coach K.C. Keeler is now the head coach of Temple. Keeler stole not only the best Delaware player in the transfer portal but the Blue Hens’ best recruit this year so there’s that.

Two, fannies in the seats.

What visiting team STILL holds the Delaware single-game attendance record?

Temple.

Delaware hailed the acquisition of RB Keveun Mason. He is now at Temple.

That was set when a Joe Klecko-led Owls’ team spanked the Blue Hens, 31-8, before a record crowd.

Temple needs fannies in the seats and visiting Delaware would bring a significant amount (maybe 30-40 percent) of a crowd that could exceed 30,000 at Lincoln Financial Field.

Delaware has asked to play Temple before but the Owls (rightly) demanded a 2-for-1 deal. Delaware wanted a 1-for-1. Temple said thanks but no thanks.

Now that Delaware has joined FBS, maybe the Owls can relent and settle for a home-and-home.

That’s a deal that makes sense for both ballclubs.

Kind of like the Eagles sending Nolan Smith to Cleveland for Myles Garrett. Cleveland gets younger at the same position without losing a whole lot of talent and Philly gets a possible two- and three-peat.

Monday: Football Season is Here (Kinda/Sorta)

02.27.25
by

Football: The Game where coaching matters most

Some great stuff about hockey here but advance to the 41-minute mark for the Keeler comments.

There has been a procession of coaches at Temple throughout the past few years and most gave passing props to the school’s football history or former stars.

Geoff Collins was the most clueless.

Temple’s only Heisman Trophy runner-up, Paul Palmer, applauds the hire of K.C. Keeler. (He hasn’t aged a bit since 1986.)

At a Temple alumni function that coincided with one of his first spring practices, Collins walked up to a bunch of Temple football alumni who were wearing varsity jackets. Collins assumed they were high school coaches who he also invited to the same practice.

“Hey, I’m Geoff Collins, where do you coach?” he said to one.

That one was Temple football Hall of Famer and arguably GOAT Paul Palmer (really, the only other GOAT is Joe Klecko but since this is just for Temple stuff and not for pro football stuff, Palmer’s got to be the guy).

Swing and miss by Collins right in his first at-bat.

Palmer was way too humble to say “I’m Paul Palmer, the greatest Temple player of all time” so instead he said he coached at Haddon Heights (N.J.), which was also true.

Collins had no idea who he was talking to that day.

Al Golden and Matt Rhule both understood and respected Temple history. Golden said when he played at Penn State no team hit him as hard as Temple so he went back to TEMPLE on the helmets to honor that time. Rhule adopted many of the Temple traditions passed on to him by his former boss.

Temple has played football since 1894 and never hired a national championship coach who got that title in Division I or above. That all changed in December and the impact should be felt on the field.

Steve Addazio was the guy who got rid of the greatest helmet in Temple history and put the block T back on it so he also swung and missed on traditions.

When it comes to Temple football, Collins wasn’t the only tone deaf guy but he certainly holds a spot in the Tone Deaf Hall of Fame.

The same certainly cannot be said about new head Temple football coach K.C. Keeler. He not only recognized Temple right away, but said the only reason he didn’t end up at Temple was because Wayne Hardin ran out of scholarships and so he ended up at Delaware.

Good stuff and, yes, he knows who Paul Palmer is.

Came across this great podcast by former Temple tight end Bryant Garvin and Temple fan Monty Moss (give it a like and a sub) talking about Temple’s new coaching hire and Palmer endorses Keeler for all of the right reasons.

Palmer talks about not only what Keeler did at Rowan, Delaware and Sam Houston but his commitment to all three institutions. He makes the very valid point that Keeler is in his mid-60s and that’s not an age where you think about moving on but one where leaving a legacy is more important.

Why not make that legacy at the school where you wanted to be as a 17-year-old kid?

Keeler brings with him all the “how to” stuff he brought to those other schools but the “want to” stuff has always been there with Temple.

The Temple GOAT understands that. The rest of Temple Nation is about to find out.

Monday: An under-the-radar recruit

02.24.25
by

Football in February: Reasons for optimism

While one major sports team at Temple University appears to be imploding, there will be a “Football in February” event held by the only other major sports team at Temple.

K.C. Keeler will be appearing at Maxi’s today to answer all your questions and outline his plan to bring immediate respectability to Temple on a national level that we really haven’t seen around here since the first four games of the AAC basketball tournament in 2024.

Temple hoops had a great opportunity to build off that national momentum but blew it as new acquisitions never panned out.

Since I have a “real job” that I have to be at the time, I won’t be able to attend but if I could ask him a couple of questions these would be it:

“One, since you talked to OwlsDaily.com editor Shawn Pastor about 10 days ago and said you haven’t watched any film on the current Owls, did you get a chance to do so subsequently?

“Two, what were you pleasantly surprised by and what areas of concern do you have going into spring practice in a couple of weeks?

That’s pretty much it.

If not, why not and do you plan to check out the game film of the guys who showed enough loyalty to the school and the program to stay?

The community outreach could not have come at a better time and we’re not talking about 5 p.m. on a Monday afternoon. We’re talking about the overall malaise this winter with Temple sports.

The Temple basketball Owls started their conference season with a 4-1 record followed by a 6-3 record and are now sitting at 6-9 in the AAC. They were the only team to beat Memphis in the conference at one time.

Now a complete implosion has occurred.

One site that covers Temple basketball after an 80-64 loss at UAB used the term “moral victory” even while suggesting that it wasn’t. Hell, that was no moral victory. It was an immoral loss. I clapped back on that suggesting that a Pearson Hall rec team of non-scholarship athletes could have lost to UAB 80-16 or so and there’s not a whole much of a difference in national perspective between 80-64 and 80-16.

Not good and maybe there are some lessons to be learned on the football side.

A second-year hoop coach relied on high-profile transfers from Penn State and St. Joseph’s who never panned out and maybe better vetting should have been involved. Maybe some semblance of hustle on defense could have helped.

It doesn’t even look like the basketball team is trying on defense (not to mention rebounding) and that’s never a good look.

Now Keeler appears to be focused not only on talent but on vetting and coaching and playing defense with a modicum of heart, which will always keep you in the game in any sport.

Keeler will explain all that and more this afternoon and maybe for the first time in a long time, Temple fans will leave a venue with smiles on their faces.