One of the greatest calls in Temple football history occurred just short of seven years and a month ago when the ESPN announcer said: “The Owls have their first lead of the night … and the only one they’ll need.”

That was after Keith Kirkwood made a great catch off a fake spike from P.J. Walker with 0:01 on the clock, giving Temple a 26-25 win at UCF.

Those were the days for Temple. Without that catch, there is no appearance in the AAC title game for the Owls and no championship.

As it was, the Owls got both.

All the Owls needed that day was that Kirkwood catch. All you need tomorrow to enjoy the game is this depth chart below.

The season starts tomorrow (2 p.m., ESPN+, Lincoln Financial Field) against an Akron team that is more than capable of beating Temple. Owl Nation have always been believers. The “regular nation” over the last three years has not and with good reason.

One, Rod Carey came to Philadelphia with a Midwestern arrogance and a “my-way-or-the-highway” approach and some of the best Temple players chose the highway.

That gutted the program for more than the three years Carey was here.

Two, Stan Drayton needed a full year to clean up that poisoned culture and what he did in a 3-9 season convinced many of the outsiders that he has changed it enough so that the Owls will be bowling.

For starters, Gary Segars of “Winning Cures Everything” has gone on record that the Owls will go 6-6 and be bowling (see above video). Segars, Parker Fleming and Kyle Hunter are able to take a step back and look at what is happening at Temple now and are impressed at the direction of the program. It is one of the best college Youtube channels on the internet. Most of the other channels still trot out that tired trope of Temple sucking.

Another, Bud Elliott, of CBS Sports has said “I think Temple can go bowling this year.”

From their lips to God’s ears.

Head coach Stan Drayton has said the goal is championships but did not say this year although that would be a welcome early development.

There are concerns but one is not the most important position on the field, quarterback. E.J. Warner has that “it” factor and, when you have that factor, “it” can carry the team a long way. If the unthinkable happens and E.J. goes down, backup Quincy Patterson can win a lot of games in the AAC. Hell, when he was with Virginia Tech, Patterson beat a UNC team that beat Temple, 55-13.

Are there concerns?

Sure.

You worry about a thin defensive line and cross your fingers that nobody on that unit goes down. Ironically, one of the guys who could have helped–Darian Varner–transferred to Wisconsin, where he currently is a backup DE. Ugh. When will these Temple players learn that the grass is never greener outside the Edberg-Olson Complex fence? Varner could be playing and helping at Temple right now. At Wisconsin, there is a very real chance he doesn’t get on the field.

Nobody expects Temple to go 12-0, though, and the players on the above chart should be able to deliver a winning season against a 127th-ranked schedule in the country. That won’t happen without a win over Akron tomorrow so the Owls would appreciate any hometown fan support on one of the nicest days of the year.

As that announcer said seven years ago, their only lead is the only one they will need. That applies if the the Owls take a 7-0 lead and add on to eventually send everyone home happy tomorrow.

It could be the start of something big.

Sunday: Game Analysis

If, and this is a big if, Temple posts a winning season this year, a lot of the “credit where credit is due” can be traced to this statement Temple football head coach Stan Drayton made at his Aug. 18, 2023 presser.

Talking about schemes Drayton hit the nail right on the head when he said this:

“We have to play to the strength of our players. That’s a daily deal. The strength of our players, not the strength of the scheme. That’s what we have to do. We have to be somewhat multiple. … we put our best 11 out there. Certain players come out there, the strength of our team might change.”

At least this year.

It’s pretty clear to anyone that five of the best 11 defensive players on the team are linebackers so the challenge is to keep those five guys on the field at all times. They are the best pass rushers and, in many cases, the best run-stoppers so the Owls should be at least be considering the 3-5-3 as their base defense. Two DE’s, a nose guard, five linebackers, one safety and two corners. It’s not the same 4-3 or 5-2 everybody else plays but Temple isn’t everybody else.

Of course, all coaches SAY they want to play to the strength of their players. Even the last guy, Rod Carey, said as much about the offensive side of the football yet he went out and did the exact opposite by running a read/option offense with a classic dropback passer in Anthony Russo.

As a result, he almost got Russo killed and did the offense no favors. Temple should have run an NFL offense with Russo at quarterback, not a college one.

Successful coaches follow up on what they say by doing it. Carey got cold feet and went with what worked for him at Northern Illinois.

If you look at some of the great Temple teams in the past, they had coaches who were willing to adapt the scheme–even change it–to fit the personnel.

After trying the spread offense for this first two years, Matt Rhule went to a running game with a blocking fullback (Nick Sharga) and that led to consecutive 10-win seasons. It was the same offense Rhule ran under Al Golden, who benefited from fullback Wyatt Benson’s blocking in front of tailback extraordinaire Bernard Pierce. Steve Addazio adopted that approach the next season and won Temple’s first bowl game in over 30 years.

This year, the Owls’ strength on defense is their linebackers and on offense is their tight ends.

It’s up to CEO Drayton to put his words into deeds to accentuate those positives. In less than two weeks, we will know if he means what he says.

Clicked through a list of available videos free to Amazon Prime members and landed on a surprisingly good film about the invasion of Iwo Jima on Friday night.

In it, the money quote was from a soldier who said they didn’t try to win the battle for their country but for their fellow soldiers. They didn’t want to let the guy down in their foxhole or the next foxhole.

That, to me, is the No. 1 motivational factor for the Temple football players this fall. A rising tide (Temple wins) lifts all boats (players’ NFL futures) and that would seem to me to be the motivation for the kids, not to win it for dear Old Temple. So they are playing for each other and that’s OK, too.

Whatever floats your boat works for me.

For fans like me, though (and I assume you) it’s been a tough three years.

Temple was 1-6, 3-9, 3-9.

That’s not the Temple football I knew and loved through my school years or the one I got used to from roughly 2007-2018.

So, for me, the motivation is getting back to the old days.

Not winning for Dear Old Temple but getting back to that level of respect Temple had.

While looking for a particular story in the New York Times archives researching Joe Klecko, I came across the gem at the top of this post. Temple was the lead story in the national pre-game preview in the New York Times. Headline: “Temple Picked to Win Again.”

At least two “money quotes” in those few paragraphs.

Here’s one: “They have arrived. They have made great strides toward being No. 1 in the East, definitely think they are on a par with Penn State.” _ Holy Cross head coach Ed Doherty.

The very next quote is from NYT writer Gordon S. White: “Penn State, the long-time power in Eastern football, has been trailing Temple in the weekly vote for the Lambert Trophy this season.”

We might never see a year where Temple leads Penn State for several weeks as the top team in the East again, but it’s certainly possible that the Owls return to the AAC championship game like they did in consecutive seasons less than a decade ago.

In fact, one college football magazine picked the Owls to win the title the same year after they appeared in the championship game. The Owls lost to Houston in 2015 but came back to hammer No. 22-ranked Navy the next, proving that prediction right.

Something like that 2015 year this year and the 2016 the next would be perfect but the overall goal should be at the minimum to return to a bowl.

Regardless of the motivation that gets them there.

Friday: 5 Individual Stats We’d Like to See

Monday: Credit Where Credit is Due

From a ticked-off Charlotte coach wondering why he was picked for last to a Memphis coach saying he respects every AAC program, one theme emerged as probably the saving grace for a team like Temple:

There is no one dominant team in the league. That much was apparent at AAC Media Day last week.

Temple can finish first and, although I doubt it can finish last, it could finish near the bottom.

Don’t worry about who is picked to finish first at this point because Cincinnati was picked to finish first last year and Tulane seventh and the seventh pick finished first. If that holds true again, then North Texas will probably will it all.

The team that develops a winning culture probably has the best chance.

Temple’s culture under Drayton is 1,000 percent better than under the former guy but it can’t be considered a winning culture yet when your most impressive games were last-minute losses against bowl teams Houston and ECU.

Winning has to be the only thing this year.

Memphis is picked to be one of the top four teams in the league but Temple took a 3-0 deficit into the fourth quarter of that game last year before things fell apart.

Sean Hennigan might be one of the top quarterbacks in the AAC but is he really better than E. J. Warner?

Warner’s last two games were significantly more impressive than Hennigan’s final two and this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league.

If Warner explodes and Hennigan flatlines, Temple can surge past Memphis.

While it only seems like the college football world that includes the transfer portal and the NIL may have passed Temple by, there is also some solace that it has passed nearly every other G5 team by and that includes all 14 teams in the still best G5 league.

To me, it all comes down to Stan Drayton because it comes down to Everett Withers. If the defense Withers puts on the field, err, withers like the last five college defenses he led, then Drayton must have a Plan B in his back pocket.

The hire made zero sense initially except for the Drayton/Withers comfort factor. Does Drayton respect Withers so much that he refuses to pull the trigger to replace him if the Owls hemorrhage points the first two games? Or has he identified a rising star defensive staffer who can rally the team going forward?

Giving up 30 points to Akron in the opener should raise all kinds of red flags for Drayton. Or Withers can see the handwriting on the wall and do what’s necessary now to make sure his defense is ready for anything. Playing downhill and attacking the quarterback is what Temple defenses have been all about for all but the last couple of years and the Owls need to get back to real pressures and not simulated ones.

It’s up to Withers.

Or it’s up to Drayton to put his foot down. When it comes to old friends, that can be a tricky proposition.

Friday: The Boss of Bosses