Tag Archives: Temple football

01.07.17
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How Good Is Anthony Russo?

russo

Just after the Cincinnati game, a fellow Temple fan who I have known through the dark days said something that gave me pause.

“Without P.J. next year, we’re screwed,” he said.

“Nah,” I said, “(Anthony) Russo’s really good.”

“How do we know?” he said.

“I know.”

“How?”

“He was probably the best quarterback I’ve ever seen at the high school level.”

“That was HIGH SCHOOL,” he shot back.

“Relax, I know.”

…. And the discussion went on and on like that and he started pissing me off.

My real business, long before getting into this Temple football blogging thing as a side piece, was covering high school football for some 30 years for two local newspapers, the final 15 at the Philadelphia Inquirer. In that time, I’ve gotten very good at separating the wheat from the chaff.  I’ve watched 15 Russo games in person and several more on television.

He is the real deal from a great league, much like St. Joseph’s Prep’s Rich Gannon was the real deal before becoming a NFL MVP. I saw Matt Ryan play at Penn Charter and Tom Savage play at Cardinal O’Hara. Anthony Russo on the same level was significantly better than all three and I usually always side with the older guys. He is well-prepared for a great career at Temple.

Trust me, Russo is the wheat and everybody else is the chaff.

While all we know at this point is that Anthony Russo will battle Logan Marchi and Frank Nutile for the starting quarterback job at Temple next year, it really isn’t a fair fight from where I’m standing. It’s a little like Chuck Wepner against Ali (Muhammad, not Kareem). The kid not only has talent, but the moxie, the drive to succeed and the “it” factor other ex-Temple quarterbacks did not have.

Russo excelled at about the highest level of high school football there is. Temple has not recruited a quarterback on his level of achievement ever. A transfer, Steve Joachim, was certainly of his ability and skill set but that was a transfer who played in games for a Top 10 team (Penn State) before coming to Temple. Joachim was a good-enough athlete to be named first-team All-State in both basketball and football. He ended up winning the Maxwell Award as the national College Football Player of the Year at Temple (beating out Heisman winner Archie Griffin of Ohio State).

Russo is an Elite 11 quarterback, who independent of his 35 touchdown passes in his senior year for state champion Archbishop Wood, was given the stamp of approval by none other than Trent Dilfer, who is both an analyst and a quarterback guru. Even though Dilfer is a Super Bowl winner, he is much better at analyzing the quarterback position than playing it. Russo throws a great deep ball and his footwork and field vision is impeccable, allowing him to choose from multiple targets at the exact same time. The best thing about this kid is his humble personality. He does not assume he is better than everyone else and he is willing to compete for everything. Look who is the person (No. 15) at the end of this video congratulating P.J.:

Does this mean Russo will be better than P.J. right away? No, because other factors go into this equation like offensive line play but, by the end of four years, Russo will break a few of P.J.’s records and that will be a good thing for Temple. Another factor that concerns me is that he is opening against Notre Dame. I wish that opponent was Villanova so he could get his feet wet, but those are factors beyond Temple’s control. No worries, though, Anthony Russo will be just fine.

I’m betting on great and it is a house and farm bet. Hell, I’ll throw in the 2004 Chevy Cavalier with 138,000 miles on it.

My friend has agita for no good reason.

Monday: Cherry and White Bowls Matter

01.05.17
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How Do We Know About Collins?

geoffrey

Great story on Coachingsearch.com about Geoff Collins.

About a year ago, just about every Rutgers’ fan was singing the praises of getting an Urban Meyers’ disciple in then Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash.


“Over the last 4
years, I’ve helped
Matt (Rhule) with
key decisions within
the program; philosophy
shifts at different times.”
_ Geoff Collins

A few of those same fans are singing a different tune about Ash now. Rutgers lost to Michigan, 78-0; Ohio State, 58-0 and Penn State, 38-0 (yes, the same Penn State team that beat Temple by a measly touchdown). The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 2-10 season and some people are questioning his game day coaching ability. Even the media has joined in as NJ.com called the loss to Michigan State “all on Chris Ash.”

The point being the 100 percent praise Ash received a year ago mollified considerably after watching the guy with the clipboard in his hands.


If those decisions
were to utilize
the fullback to
jump start an ailing
running game and ditch
the four wides and
go to a play-action
passing game, expect
Temple to head to
a NY6 bowl under Collins

Geoff Collins has received universal praise as Temple’s new hire, just like Ash did a year ago at Rutgers, so the question some fans might ask about Collins is “How do we know he won’t be a Chris Ash?”

You know, like another hot assistant, like UConn’s Bob Diaco—the national college football assistant coach of the year in 2012 with Notre Dame—who falls on his face as a head coach. Heck, we don’t know if Ash will join Diaco but a 2-10 first season with one of the wins over Howard doesn’t engender a lot of confidence among the North Jersey faithful. What they have learned in East Hartford and Piscataway is being the greatest assistant coach in the world does not automatically translate to being a great head coach. They are two different jobs and even Matt Rhule had a rocky first couple of years. For every assistant who turns into a great head coach like Rhule, there are 10 guys like Diaco who need to get fired. Head coaches who move from one place where they did well as a head coach to another have a higher rate of success. Those are the guys P5 schools can afford to hire.

As far as assistants go, the answer is we do not know, but the weight of the evidence is in Collins’ favor over Ash or Diaco.

goldenash

RU fans wanted Golden over Ash in this poll.

The truth is, with an assistant coach, you never know but there are a couple of things with Collins that give him a little more street cred than say, an Ash or a Diaco. One, the Temple program is in much better shape, player-wise, than the Rutgers or UConn. Two, no less of an authority on Temple football than Matt Rhule himself said the hire of Collins was a “home run” and, three, in two coaching stops along with way, Collins was Rhule’s boss, not the other way around. Rhule learned from Collins. Four, Collins was a coordinator, not a “co-coordinator” like Ash, so you know the Florida Mayhem defense was his production and there are no blurred lines on who contributed what. Collins already has been a coach at Temple of sorts over the last four years as “helped Matt with key decisions within the program” according to this interview.

If those decisions were to utilize the fullback to jump start an ailing running game and ditch the four wides and go to a play-action passing game, expect Temple to head to a NY6 bowl under Collins.

Now all Collins has to do is perform on game day and, from what he has done in the days leading up to his first one, all systems are go for a great liftoff.

01.03.17
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Staff: Quality Over Speed

spouses

This helmet won seven-straight games between a black helmet loss and a white helmet one.

There is a long stretch of empty offices between the ones occupied by Ed Foley, the other two holdovers (Chris Wiesehan, Frisman Jackson) and head coach Geoff Collins at the Edberg-Olson Complex.

Already, Dave Patenaude has taken over the offensive coordinator’s office that Glenn Thomas used to occupy and the leading candidate to replace defensive coordinator Phil Snow is reportedly Florida defensive backs’ coach Torrian Gray. The only holdup seems to be Collins talking Gray into taking the job and the fact that Gray is a Lakeland (Fla.) native reluctant to leave. The process seems a little bit slower in comparison to past Temple head coaches (for instance, by this time in 2011, Steve Addazio had pilfered Chuck Heater and Scot Loeffler from the national champion Florida staff) but, hopefully, Collins is taking his time to sort through the 457 text messages he got asking him for a job.

spouse

If Geoff Collins recruits coaches and players like he recruits spouses, Owls should be in good shape.

If Randy Shannon, as expected, gets the Florida DC job, though, moving up to Temple DC would be a nice move for Gray. One monkey wrench Florida head coach Jim McElwain could throw in is to make Shannon and Gray co-coordinators, which means that Collins will have to look elsewhere.

If that’s the case, so far, so good because quality beats quantity every day of the week and Temple should not settle for less. These are much tougher decisions for Collins than, say, going with the Cherry helmet at the top of this post. That one should be a no-brainer.

Patenaude, the former offensive coordinator at Coastal Carolina, is known for a roughly equal distribution between rushing and passing yards there and that bodes well for the Owls to keep their play-action passing game which features a significant dose of fullback blocking.

Defense should also not be a concern because Collins was arguably the best defensive coordinator in college football last year and should have a significant say on that side of the football.

As far as Temple, Rhule seems to have raided virtually the entire staff. Even Rob Dvoracek, whose name has not been reported going to Dallas, even is joining Baylor. (I got that nugget from his mother at the Military Bowl.) Also joining Rhule is former Cardinal O’Hara running back Damiere Shaw, another guy who rose through the graduate assistant ranks. Another student assistant, Mike Wallace, is leaving to join Thomas, Rhule and Phil Snow.

When it comes to coaching staffs, only the G5 schools seem to get significantly raided by the P5 schools and not the other way around.

Still, Collins has enough coaching contacts scattered throughout the nation—even more than Rhule—to find a decent staff. He should be given the time to find the best.

Thursday: How Do We Know?

01.01.17
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The Three Things

temperor

In order to improve Temple football, Geoff Collins will be talking about three things and they won’t be the Temperors (who we readily admit are people, not things).

When Collins recovers from both a well-deserved birthday and New Year’s Eve celebration (both on the same day), he will get to work on his next project as head coach of Temple University’s football team. That is,  to sit down with each of the 105 scholarship players in the program and ask them what the three things they most like about the program and the three things that can most be improved.

As a service to any players who feel potentially stumped by this exercise, we offer a Cliff Notes’ cheat sheet.

sharga

The 3 Most Likeable Things

1) Emphasis On Defense

Very much like Navy with the triple option, Temple has carved out a unique identity as a program. The Owls win by playing great defense, an emphasis on special teams and running the football. Defense does indeed win championships and Temple really is the only team that played defense in the AAC on a consistent basis. The Owls have finished in the top 10 in defenses four of the last six years and, in a league that has high-scoring teams but few that play defense, that identity sets them apart from the rest. That’s an identity that should be embraced with newfound Mayhem.

nick

2) Offense Plays Off Run

Helping out the defense was an emphasis on the running game, which controlled the clock and kept the defense fresh. Off the running game, the Owls were able to make explosive plays in the passing game by faking the ball into the belly of one their two 918-yard rushers (Ryquell Armstead, Jahad Thomas), bringing the linebackers and safeties up to the line of scrimmage and tossing the ball over the outstretched arms of those same defenders. It is a winning formula. The Owls should keep it.

3) Use Of The Fullback

Temple is one of the very few teams in the country that utilizes the fullback in the running game. While Nick Sharga is here, the Owls should use him leading the tailback on toss sweeps behind their best lineman to suppress the will of the opposition. In a 46-30 win over USF, Sharga led the way for Armstead to gain 200 yards and his blocking was so fierce he had the USF defensive backs running away from him to avoid contact in the second half. Reward him with a carry or two or three a game. He can knock over defenders just as well with the ball in his hands as without.

Three Improvements

1) Coaching Stability

This has to be the first thing on the minds of the kids, the bleeding of coaches out the door of the E-O what seems every couple of years now. While actions are more important than words, words are important now. Instead of saying things like “I love South Philly macaroni” or “I would sign a 15-year contract here if Bill would let me” try to be the one coach who sets himself apart from the rest. One way to do it is to say something like “I believe in the sanctity of contracts and I will be here for as long as my contract says” or to tell recruits “I will definitely be here when you graduate.” Then make those words your bond. Certainly beats saying “I deal in the here and now.”

springer

2)  Cherry and White Game

For years, the Cherry and White game has been played in the cramped confines of the practice facility. Now that the brand new soccer complex is available four blocks away, it should be moved there. The place seats significantly more people than the Edberg Olson complex and people will not have to be straining for a view of the game. USF plays spring football games at its soccer facility and Temple should do the same.

helmetgif

Hopefully, the Owls will wear the distinctive Cherry T .

3) Don’t Tempt Karma

There should be a uniform code on uniforms because that’s what the word means. Not the ones the Owls wear most of the time (Cherry helmets with the ‘][‘ with white or cherry tops), but the ones that bring nothing but bad luck. The Owls won seven-straight games wearing the distinctive Cherry helmets with the White ‘][‘ but then, for some reason, decided to wear white helmets in a 34-26 loss to Wake Forest. They wore black helmets in their previous loss, at Memphis. Whatever is done with the uniforms, ditch the White and Black helmets and go Cherry. We are the Cherry and White, not the White and Cherry or the Black and Cherry. The school is blessed with the best dominant color in all of sports. Let’s accentuate it and keep the helmet brand the same or at least keep the color of the helmets the same and spell out TEMPLE on the side.

Tuesday: The Staff

12.30.16
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That Championship Season

This game turned the season around.

If anyone deserves a shout out for nailing Temple’s season, it is The Sporting News which bucked the trend of most publications and predicted the Owls would win the overall AAC championship.

This site also felt that was an achievable goal and insisted all along  the accepted notion that Temple would “take a step back” from last year’s 10-4 record was not only the incorrect but preposterous.

sportingnewsowls

We’re No. 1

Since Cherry and White Day, our usual benchmark for getting a feel for the fall, we’ve been beating the drums that the Owls would win the overall AAC title despite the fact that most so-called experts had Houston and South Florida in the title game. We also thought that this team would set the school record for wins (11) and they probably would have had they had a full coaching staff over the last three weeks leading up to the bowl game.

Several months later, The Sporting News agreed with us and picked the Owls to win the whole thing.

The reasoning was simple. The areas where the Owls lost NFL talent (line, linebacker and wide receiver) were the three strongest areas on the team. In fact, the entire speed of the defense was significantly upgraded and, since the Achilles Heel of the 2015 Owls was mobile quarterbacks, we thought the overall speed of the defense would be enough to contain the mobile quarterbacks.

That’s exactly what happened.


… On defense, the players
were still looking to the
sideline for a defensive call
when the ball was snapped.
Obviously, the result of the
defensive coaches missing eight
practices between Dec. 4 and 27.
Those are breach-of-contract
numbers, but there probably
is nothing the Temple
administration can do
about it now. Those bandits
have already left for Waco.

Any overall analysis of the season has to be viewed from that backstory. It was a championship season in a pretty good league and that achievement can never be taken away from these Owls. (For all of the bowl failures, do not forget that Houston clobbered Louisville and Oklahoma and AAC also-rans UConn and ECU registered Power 5 wins over Virginia and North Carolina State, respectively. Navy beat Notre Dame as well. This is a great league.)

In our analysis, we were also realistic calling next year the “Step Back Year” and not this one. We’ll get to that in a later post, but “know-it-alls” on the other boards simply saw the names Temple lost and did not know about the talent in the system was already there to replace them. People who were close to the team knew, as did reporters who did their research like The Sporting News’ guy.

It was a season that had the greatest “drive” in Temple history, a 70-yard one with 32 seconds left and no time outs that resulted in a 26-25 win at UCF. From there, the Owls steamrolled everyone, including a USF team that beat South Carolina, another P5 team, yesterday, and a Navy team that was coming off consecutive games where it scored 75 and 66 points. Navy did not lose its best player until it trailed, 21-0, but even Roger Staubach wasn’t taking that team back from three touchdowns against that defense.

Really, the team Wake Forest saw wasn’t the same team because coaching means so much and, no matter how highly anyone thinks of Ed Foley, he is a 7-15 FCS head coach for a reason. Even Stevie Wonder can see you run your two backs who gained 918 yards each behind your fullback following your NFL first-round tackle, not to the weak side of the field. For some reason, Foley ran all the running plays to the weak side of his line and, as a result, they were mostly stuffed. On defense, the players were still looking to the sideline for a defensive call when the ball was snapped. Obviously, the result of the defensive coaches missing eight practices between Dec. 4 and 27. Those are breach-of-contract numbers, but there probably is nothing the Temple administration can do about it now. Those bandits have already left for Waco.

This was a season that saw P.J. Walker orchestrate a 70-yard drive with no timeouts and 32 seconds left that resulted in the first win of a seven-game winning streak. It saw a kicker who had a nation-leading 17-straight made field goals go down, only to be replaced by a freshman who was money. For the Owls, it was like Joey Coyle finding all that money that fell off a Brinks’ Truck as it, too, it was totally unexpected.

Nothing that happened this week should take anything away from that. It was a championship season, THE championship season. We’ll have to wait until next year to see what TSN writes, but we’ll try to get a feel for the 2017 season in the months ahead. Meanwhile, TSN can say they told you so.

So can we.

Sunday: The Three Things

Tuesday: The Coaching Staff

12.29.16
by

Fizzy: Adventures in Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Land

sunset

Every once in a while, we submit the extraordinary insight of a former Temple football player, Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub. Fizz graced us with this analysis of the game. Enjoy.

By:  Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

For the third year in a row, we end up in despair.  Two years ago, we lost out three in a row.  Last year, we lost a winnable game in Houston, and then a horribly coached and played game against Toledo.  This past Tuesday, after a terrific conference championship, we lost to Wake Forest.  There were three major reasons for this loss, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator, and the NCAA.

When I watch a game, I mentally grade the coaching.  That’s because the players will always make great plays and poor plays, and many in-between.  The refs will also be inconsistent, and that’s to be expected.  What shouldn’t ever happen, is that the coaches screw it up.  That’s what happened.

Yes, Phil Snow coached a highly rated defense this year.  Despite the fact he always drove me crazy when he’d go to a three-man  rush when the opponent had a third and long, the defense was fine.  It wasn’t even satisfactory on Tuesday.

Wake found a weakness early on, and Snow never adjusted.  Wake would come up to the line, look to the sideline for the called play, and then adjust their formation.  After Wake’s adjustment, Temple would look to their sideline for their defensive call.  Yo Phil, while you were sending in the call, Wake Forest was already running the damn play.  Over and over, even into the fourth quarter this was happening and a major contributor to the Wake Forest tight end catching and running down the middle of the field without a Temple defender in sight.

How do you fix it? Well, it’s simple.  You let your defensive captain make the call on the field.  We have two guys on the defense who will probably be playing on Sunday.  They should be trusted to make the call.  When I was playing in high school (in a previous century), we had four different defenses, and the captain made the call.

Moving on to the offense, I could never tell if it was Matt Rhule, who dictated the mostly conservative play calling, or the offensive coordinator.  But in the AAC, it didn’t matter because we had more talent than mostly everyone, and we’d overwhelm the other teams in the second half.  It mattered Tuesday though.

Wake was consistently blitzing up the middle, yet we ran no real screens, no middle screens, no jet sweeps, which would have put Jahad outside their rush, or flares to Jahad after a quick fake.  Over and over on first down, we called the straight hand-off to our running back into the teeth of the blitz.  All this did was put us in second and third and long, so they could bring great pressure on Walker.

Four times we were in the red zone, and two of those times the first play was the direct hand-off which got stuffed.  We ended-up having to kick four field goals, despite two, first and goal situations.  Yes, I know; Phillip took some horrible sacks. However, those sacks were after we were already in second, and third and long situations.

Now let’s review the NCAA bullshit rules that allow schools to poach each other’s coaches.  Mike Jensen from the Inquirer and I, tried to fight this nonsense four years ago. I even wrote a letter to the NCAA, and got a politician’s reply from the Executive V.P. that any rule change would have to be initiated by the schools themselves.  The NCAA won’t ever force a change because they fear the Power 5 will simply form their own association.

There’s an easy solution for the problem.  Simply move the signing day back to March 1st, and mandate that all the coaches who are leaving must coach in championship and bowl games.   It’s grossly unfair to the players and their schools for the current piracy to continue.  How much did the coaching turmoil affect Temple?  For sure, it couldn’t have helped, and it was a definite factor in keeping us from finishing in the top 25.

So Temple fans, here we are again.  A new head coach is on board, and there will be new coordinators.  Will we improve?  I’ll let you know after the Notre Dame game.  On the plus side, I did get to see a win  over Penn State last year, and a conference championship this year.

Tomorrow: Season Analysis

 

12.28.16
by

Divided Loyalties

P.J. has got to put the ball near a receiver’s hands on the final play.

After Temple won the AAC championship, we wrote that the Owls already had the cake and the bowl game would be the Cherry on top of the cake.

There will be no Cherry thanks to a bunch of Baylor defensive coaches who thought they could serve two masters.

Now we have seen three Temple teams win 10 games and there can be no doubt the 1979 team is by far the best team of the three, having finished No. 17 in the nation and being only 15 points away from a 12-0 season against a significantly tougher schedule than the last two 10-win teams. An 11-win Temple team might have an argument, but that point is moot now.

What ailed the Owls the last two years is the distractions of the haves and have-nots in college football’s hierarchy.

G5 schools, specifically AAC schools, have had to deal with these distractions while the P5 schools do not. Temple stumbled to the finish line last year because it had to hear rumors about its coach leaving prior to a league championship game. Houston had no such distractions and won the title. This year, the Owls won the league title largely because head coach Matt Rhule was able to keep any discussions between his agent and Baylor quiet until after the title was secured.

The distractions, though, caught up to the Owls in the 34-26 bowl loss to Wake Forest. The No. 3 defense in the nation should not be allowing 34 points to the second weakest offense in the ACC.

We now know why because the defensive coaches missing eight practices between Dec. 4 and now was a huge red flag. It was obvious that Dave Clawson coached the pants off Temple, specifically in finding the vulnerability in the Owls’ defense to seam passes to the tight ends and the fullback early. A defensive staff out recruiting for Baylor had no answers for that on game day because there was nothing going on in the days leading up to game day.

Coaching means more in football than in any other sport. The team that is better-prepared will beat the team that is lackadaisical in preparations every time. On offense, the Owls have a first-round pick at tackle and they insisted on running the ball to the right side. Since the first-round pick lines up on the left side, the running game was going down the wrong way on a one-way street. As a result, the Owls had a minus 21 rushing yards.

That’s coaching and that is very poor coaching.

The difference between the 1979 team and these last two 10-win teams was that they had no such distractions to close out the season and a masterful coaching staff totally dedicated to helping the Temple kids and not with their minds elsewhere. Twenty six points should have been enough to beat this team.

When the field is tilted one way, nights like last night in Annapolis are going to happen.  It is a shame it is going to cost the school a precious Top 25 finish.

If Geoff Collins can do the kids one favor next year, it will be to allow them to finish the season under a coaching staff that gives them undivided attention and love and let the results fall where they may.

Friday: Season Analysis

Sunday: The Three Things

12.26.16
by

Finished Business

Brandon does a great job here encapsulating the fan experience in Annapolis. Just look at the amount of Cherry in this video and double it tomorrow.

A little over a year ago, linebacker Tyler Matakevich set the agenda for this season much like a running back named Kenny Harper set it the year prior.

Fighting back the tears, Matakevich said this was not the way he pictured the way his Temple career would end and that his biggest message to the seniors was that they had to do whatever was necessary to ensure that what happened to him did not happen to them. Leave No Doubt was Harper’s plea to Matakevich’s group about an appearance in a bowl game.

finished

Matakevich raised those stakes with the next group, so Unfinished Business was born as the slogan of choice for the 2016 season.

So far, they have taken care of business by returning to the championship game and doing what Matakevich and his teammates were not able to do and that was to win it this time.

Now only one checkmark is left on the “to-do” list and that is win the bowl game tomorrow (3:30, ESPN) against Power 5 member Wake Forest.  The teams have two common foes, with both Wake (21-13) and Temple (28-13) losing at home to Army. The other foe is Tulane, who the Owls beat, 31-0, on the road, and Wake struggled for a 7-3 win at home.

games

Since the Army result was pretty much the same, the Tulane result probably is one of the main reasons why the Owls are 12-point favorites now. Still, the Demon Deacons (6-6) have done some other things that deserve respect, including beating Syracuse, 28-9, and winning at Duke and Indiana. The Owls do not have much of an opportunity to pick up Power 5 wins, and this is one of them in a conference they feel they are a better fit for than the AAC.

While they appear to be blocked from upward mobility for at least a few years, they want to be able to establish a brand in front of a league audience that does not get to see them play much.

More importantly, they want to complete the most impressive trifecta in Temple football history—a league championship, a school-record 11 wins and a top 25 finish. While the 1979 team that finished No. 17 in the country probably will remain the most high-profile Owls’ team of all-time, this team has an outside chance of also finishing in the top 20.

The question is how much will losing their head coach means psychologically, physically, and game plan wise against a stable coaching staff? The guess here is at least a little but not enough for Wake Forest to overcome a significant talent advantage on both sides of the ball. Plus, there should be enough crazy loud Cherry and White fans to help carry them across the Finished Business line. Matt Rhule deserves credit for permitting Phil Snow to help Ed Foley and the kids close this thing out.

The legacy that this group could set for generations at Temple should be enough to turn last year’s tears into smiles that will last a lifetime.

 

Wednesday: Game Analysis 

12.24.16
by

The Clawson Cutoff

clawsoncutoff.png

Dave Clawson was a very good hire for Wake Forest.

The very entertaining Johnny Carson Show used to have a regular feature back in the day called “Carnac the Magnificent” where it gave the answer to the question first.

On another bit, the Art Fern one, he would give directions to a fake store, he would say, “Go to the Slauson Cutoff.”

Temple’s “Slauson Cutoff” is really a Clawson Cutoff, because the one advantage Wake Forest will have over Temple (3:30, Tuesday) is the continuity of coaching and that begins and ends with Dave Clawson, the head coach of the Demon Deacons.

On paper, that is not a good matchup for the Owls.

Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer called for the Owls to hire Clawson over Matt Rhule in 2012 and, while it looks like he was wrong, that’s only to people who think Rhule was the only person in the world who could have steered Temple football in the right direction.

mikejensen

A tweet from Mike Jensen four years ago.

I also think Clawson could have done the same thing and, in reality, he has done a terrific job at Wake Forest. I’m in the minority of Temple fans who think there are a handful of really great coaches out there who Temple  could have hired who would have done the same thing for the school Matt Rhule did.

Maybe better. Certainly better than starting 2-10 and 6-6.

That’s OK, because we will never really know.

All we do know now is that Clawson, really, is the only thing standing between Temple and a school-record 11 wins.

Most objective college football observers know that Temple has significantly better on-field talent than Wake Forest. If you take the coaches away and have the kids play a pickup game, Temple probably wins this one something like 41-13.

Putting the coaches that we know of in there and this becomes a significantly closer game.

All we know about Foley is that he is a good guy who followed a highly successful Clawson Era by going 7-15 at Fordham as a head coach and getting fired. So far, in the lead up to this game, Foley has been saying all of the right things about being a “competitive guy” and concentrating on the game, but we cannot know for sure until the final gun sounds on Tuesday. Clawson, unlike Foley, is a proven head coach.

This is one game where we will find how much coaching impacts a college football game. The formula for a Temple win equals the better kids plus a Foley who learned something a year ago against Toledo is superior to a Clawson who has worse kids but a better head on his shoulders.

That’s the thought here and the hope.

Unfortunately, it won’t be anywhere near 41-13 but a helluva lot closer to 21-13 and that is my call for the Owls because coaching means about 20 points in a college football game. This is not baseball, where a manager only impacts about 10 of 162 games a season.

Football is the most important sport when it comes to coaching.  We will find out how important, oh, about 6:30 on Tuesday.

Monday: Game Preview