Tag Archives: Temple football

02.14.16
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Temple Better Be Paying Attention

Cincinnati Enquirer blows cover off Bearcats' Big 12 bid.

Cincinnati Enquirer blows cover off Bearcats’ Big 12 bid.

Since it was too cold to go outside on Saturday, time is never wasted watching ESPN 30 for 30 episodes of the award-winning series. The Saturday one featuring the Big East particularly pertained to Temple.

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino hit the nail on the head when he said: “In all of those Big East meetings, everybody was swearing unity and allegiance to the Big East and the minute they were over, all of the athletic directors were on the phone trying to make deals with another conference.”

It is with that backdrop that Temple should be concerned with the Cincinnati Enquirer’s report today that the President of that university was in active talks with the Big 12 to get his team out of the American Athletic Conference (AAC).

Temple should be paying attention because, if it was not obvious before, it is every man (school) for himself and without Cincy and UConn, Temple could one day wake up and find itself in nothing more prestigious than Conference USA.

The Oklahoma President says that it is all about TV and, if so, Temple—not Cincy—holds the ace in this deck of cards and that’s something Neil D. Theobald and Pat Kraft should be hammering home. Temple should be looking out for Temple, period.

From the Enquirer’s report, it is clear that Cincy is taking that approach.

02.10.16
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AAC Needs To Step Up Its Game

aaceast

Every night a certain political commentary program ends its night with a Tip of The Day. Forget the fact that the “tip” isn’t really a tip but a closing thought by the anchor, but, after getting a good look at the AAC composite schedule (above) a tip is in order:

The AAC, if it is going to be a serious conference, needs to step up its game. It is not going to happen this year and, because of the way schedules are made years in advance, it may not even happen next year. But it needs to happen.

The South Carolina States, Tennessee-Martins, Towsons and, yes, even Stony Brooks have to be removed from the schedules, the sooner the better. It’s not like the AAC is a Power 5 conference and the in-conference games are not sooooo tough that the league’s members need to bake cupcakes for the early portion of their schedules.

The AAC needs to do what it did last year—play the ACC seven times and beat them four times in the regular season. That’s the way a conference builds a strong reputation, not beating up on the Tennessee-Martins of the world. Yet that’s the team Cincinnati opens with on Sept. 3.

Other head-scratching games opening week include South Carolina State at UCF, Maine at UConn, West Carolina at East Carolina and South Florida hosting Towson. Those could have been scheduled against P5 teams and the AAC needs to schedule those games and win them. (Yet, UConn deserves a lot of credit for scheduling three ACC opponents.)

Temple could set an example in the process by dumping the Stony Brook game (9/9). It would take some work by Dr. Pat Kraft, but it would be worth it. Have Stony Brook play Howard that day, then offer to go on the road to Rutgers, which is scheduled to play Howard that day. Rutgers is just arrogant enough to think it could beat Temple and, from Temple’s perspective, the game offers P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas—among others—a final chance to win there. It would also wipe out the bad taste of 2013 and give the Owls a chance for consecutive wins over Big 10 teams. It’s worth picking up a phone, making calls to Stony Brook, Howard and Rutgers and making this happen.

That’s the way a G5 conference builds a reputation, not by playing cupcakes but by seeking out the power schools and beating them. That’s how John Chaney built Temple into a national basketball power and lifted up the A10 in the process. Temple football can do the same for the G5.

02.09.16
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Ignorance And The Stadium

owland

Because Temple is an educational institution, I do not expect President Neil D. Theobald or Temple University to give up educating some very misinformed individuals on the subject of a proposed new on-campus football stadium.

I do, however, understand how difficult this must be for men of their intelligence.  Now I have serious doubts that this will ever get built because of Temple’s history of having been through this with the on-campus basketball facility. Peter J. Liacouras did not get that built until he threatened to move the entire campus to Ambler, but I don’t think Theobald has the chops or permissions to make a similar threat. The extortion demands from the city and community for this are going to make that robbery look like a simple pickpocket.

That holdup aside, it seems, to me, that there are two important issues here.

One is represented by Anna in this video.

This very naïve person needs a simple economics lesson: “Temple is telling us they can’t afford $15 an hour and now all of a sudden they have $100 million for a stadium.” The $100 million is from moving the LFF money and private donations. Try going to a big donor and saying, “Err, doc, change of plans. No stadium, but can we use your $3 million contribution to raise Temple workers to $15 an hour?” Somewhat surprised Doug Shimell lets these statements to unchallenged. Maybe Jesse Watters of The O’Reilly Factor should be doing these interviews, not a local freelance hack like Shimell.

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The second issue is a similar one, but slightly different. I read about 85 comments after the proposed stadium story and I cannot believe how dense people can be.

Many of them write Temple can spend the $100 million earmarked for the stadium on academics. The only reason that anywhere close to $100 million will be raised (as well at the current LFF rent) is for football. These are donors who can do whatever they please with their hard-earned money. They are galvanized by the thought of a stadium on campus. They don’t want to give to build another chemistry lab. It’s either $100 mil for a stadium or 0 for anything else.

These small-minded individuals who are doing the protesting now can get jobs for Temple asking the same people to give to academics and they will get the same response, probably a hangup click.

When will they get it through their enormously thick skulls that this money isn’t for a stadium OR academics, but it’s for a stadium or nothing? If their skulls are that thick, Temple must redo the entrance examination and weed out this stupidity before they get to the registration desk. Being able to pass Logic 101 should be the base requirement before admission to Temple University.

That’s the reality.

02.07.16
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Fizzy’s Evaluation On Mark

weinraub

Fizzy’s magnetic personality carried the day in Boca Raton.

One of the great things about being a Temple football fan back in the day is that you met literally every other Temple fan.

Every. Single. One.

In the parking lot of the Fake Miami (Ohio) game in 2005, I counted five fans about an hour before the game in Lot K. Five, the number after four and before six. This was the hour before the kickoff and it was including me. I’m sure there were more who made it in the stadium, but not many.



“As I sat totally
drenched in Boca
and watched the
horror unfold, I
saw the most
unimaginative major
college offense I’ve
ever seen. In the
whole first half,
we gained 65 yards,
and only 5 yards in
the second quarter.
As usual, the play
selection was abysmal.”
_ Former Owl player
Fizzy Weinraub

Things have changed for the better, thanks to people like Matt Rhule and Al Golden.

One of those fans is an unforgettable character named David Weinraub, except nobody calls him David and everybody calls him Fizzy. I have been honored to call him friend for at least a decade. He was a player under George Makris. As a young sportswriter, I covered another player under Makris, Bill Juzwiak, who was literally the funniest coach I ever covered. Juz was Fizz’s teammate, and after I shared a couple of stories with Fizz about him, we became fast tailgate friends.

Juzwiak coached William Tennent to a championship in the old Suburban One League and, if you know anything about William Tennent football, that’s a remarkable achievement.



” … the design of
Temple’s offense …
usually runs in
one direction,
straight ahead,
and there’s no
balance. There
are few reverses,
counters, traps,
misdirections,
bootlegs and
end-arounds.”
_ Former Owl player
Fizzy Weinraub

Juzwiak was just as funny after losses, maybe more, than he was after wins. At Norristown, the Panthers led, 7-6, at halftime and lost the game, 20-7. While a group of reporters were wrapping up with Juz, from the other side of the field the guy covering the game for the Norristown Times-Herald came running over to Juzwiak and said, out of the breath, the kid said, “Coach, coach, coach .. you led, 7-6, at halftime and fumbled seven times in the second half. What did you tell the team at halftime?”

Juzwiak looked the kid up and down and paused before saying: “I certainly didn’t tell them to fumble.”

Today’s take of the Temple season is from Juzwiak’s teammate, Fizzy, easily as funny and unforgettable as Juzwiak but someone who has a serious take on the season that every Temple fan and coach should take to heart.

I would change the name of his blog to something with pizazz that incorporates the name Fizzy (Fizzy’s Pizzis?), but his serious take of the season is right here and it is worth a read.

02.06.16
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The Impact of Karamo Dioubate

Matt Rhule gets the phone call from Karamo at the 2:15 mark.

 

According to a name origin website, Karamo denotes an extravagant, ambitious nature with the desire for financial prominence.

If those qualities come through at Temple for the next three years, Karamo Dioubate will use a lot of the former to get to the goal of the latter and we will all be richer for it.  One day Temple recruiting will reach the level where there will be no under-the-radar guys and a lot of ICBMs coming in with nuclear-tipped warheads every signing day.

Until then, Temple will have to settle for rolling out an occasional Atom Bomb to drop on the bad guys.

dioubate

Karamo at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Temple got a couple of those weapons and, for purposes of this story, we will concentrate on the Hydrogen Bomb called Dioubate. This is just the kind of weapon along the defensive front line that the Owls need to unleash on Penn State as soon as possible and that could be as early as the second game.

He’s that good.

It’s one thing to “trust the film” but it’s quite another when the film is trusted not only by the staff at Temple, but the more highly-paid ones at Alabama, Penn State,  Michigan State and South Carolina. When it comes to Dioubate, they see what you see, a pretty polished and unstoppable lineman far advanced beyond his years. Now Dioubate will have to cram a lot of learning into a short summer camp, but he certainly has the physical tools to do it.



Imagine using Sharif
Finch and Michael
Dogbe—forced to play
out of position
last year as a
tackle—at the ends,
using the gap
leverage skills
of two-time
Pennsylvania state
heavyweight wrestling
champion Averee
Robinson as nose
guard and flanking
Arob with Greg Webb
and Dioubate at tackle

They say great coaches are the guys who build a scheme around their talent and Phil Snow is a smart enough guy to know that he’s got the physical talent to run a 5-2 scheme as opposed to last year’s 4-3.

Imagine using Sharif Finch and Michael Dogbe—forced to play out of position last year as a tackle—at the ends, using the gap leverage skills of two-time Pennsylvania state heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson as nose guard and flanking Arob with Greg Webb and Dioubate at tackle. That’s a defensive line that is not only going to stop the run, but make quite a few visits to the quarterback, and make plays in the flat, ala Finch against Penn State last year. That’s not even mentioning other potential DL starters like Haason Reddick, Freddie Booth-Lloyd, Josiah Bronson and Jacob Martin (who was one of the 39,000 Temple students who had a sack against Christian Hackenberg last year).

With that accomplished, the Owls could return two starters at linebacker, Avery Williams and Stephaun Marshall, and have another LB starter, Jared Alwan, to rotate in for plays. Williams and Marshall are so tough they earned single-digit numbers and probably will do so again.  I like having two proven single-digit guys playing both linebacker positions in a 5-2.

The safeties could be a couple of guys, Delvon Randall and Nate L. Smith, who saw plenty of playing time a year ago and the corners will be Sean Chandler—the only player in the nation to return two pick 6’’s last year—and Kareem Ali Jr. (Or Artrel Foster or Nate Hairston.)

With that line making things relatively easy for the six guys behind them, it is not a huge stretch to conclude that this could be a record-setting defense next season. Every year, there are true freshmen who step onto the field and make big-time plays all over the place. Those true freshmen usually are in the SEC.

Now, with Dioubate, Temple finally has one and it opens up an extravagant, ambitious world with a rich future and a whole lot of post-game tailgates where the beer will taste like champagne.

Love to see the PSU analysts drool over a Temple recruit and the arrogance they had at the time that none of their players would decommit.

02.05.16
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Wide Receivers Lost and Found

wrchart

Win some, lose some.

The Owls lost Darnell Salomon to USF and Dae’Lun Darien to Penn State, but gained Freddie Johnson, Randle Jones and Isaiah Wright.

Time will tell, but I like that trade for a couple of reasons.

keithgloster

Keith Gloster

Ideally, Temple rarely has the perfect combination of receivers on the field at the same time. It happened only a couple of times in my memory. Willie Marshall was a Robbie Anderson-type wide receiver in the Bruce Arians’ Era, made all the more dangerous by a 4.3 speedster named Keith Gloster lined up in the slot. Marshall was a 6-foot-3 guy with a 37-inch vertical leap, whose specialty was catching passes in the red zone and over the middle. Gloster opened the middle for Marshall by stretching the field and going deep. A similar situation also existed in the Wayne Hardin years with Rich Drayton and Gerald “Sweet Feet” Lucear and maybe to a lesser extent far later with Bruce Francis and Travis Sheldon under Al Golden.

In the past couple of seasons, though, Temple’s been top-heavy in the same type of receivers—tall guys who are effective in the red zone but rarely stretch the field.

By all accounts, Dae’Lun is the same type of player Romond Deloatch, Anderson, Ventell Bryant and Keith Kirkwood are today–guys who are fairly reliable, have good hands, make plays over the middle but won’t necessarily stretch the field.

In Isaiah Wright, though, the Owls have a “best of both worlds” player, a guy who can make the big catch over the middle and take it to the house and, if Johnson or Jones turns out to be on the other of the field, his presence even makes Wright more dangerous. Other recruits could fill that role,  or maybe someone on the current squad, like 4.3 sprinter Cortrelle Simpson.

Temple fans will probably be following the progress of Darien from afar and Salomon from a relatively closer spot, USF. The numbers say Salomon will have the best career, but he’s had discipline and character issues that make his future far from a slam dunk. So Wright, Jones and Johnson could be just what they needed all along.

Willie Marshall and Keith Gloster should be especially proud.

Tomorrow: Karamo Dioubate

02.04.16
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5 Under-The-Radar Guys

Matt Rhule talks about big things ahead for Temple football.

The day started at 8 a.m. with a live two-and-a-half hour show from the Edberg-Olson facility and ended with a flat tire outside of Buffalo Wild Wings in Northeast Philadelphia. As Ice Cube says when he doesn’t have to use his AK, today was a good day. Karamo Dioubate got the flat tire and that had to deflate the crowd of over 200 who came to see him. Once the tire was inflated, Dioubate—a four-star defensive lineman from Prep Charter—pumped up the crowd by announcing he would come to Temple. Just a great recruiting day for Matt Rhule and Temple.

reading

Rivals’ updated recruiting rankings as of 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

Dioubate had offers, not just interest, from Penn State, South Carolina, Rutgers and Temple. Watching his film, it is pretty apparent that he can skip the redshirt year and go right into making plays all over the field. Dioubate, you know about. These five guys, you might not.

  1. Sam Franklin, DB, 6-3, 200

We haa a Benjamin and a Franklin now, both Sams. Franklin is coming and Benjamin is going as No. 10, Sam Benjamin, announced his was transferring to Rhode Island. Franklin is arriving from Inverness, Fla. He played at Citrus High and probably will play DB for the Owls.

radar

  1. Shaun Bradley, LB, 6-2, 220

Bradley, unlike the other “Shawn” Bradley who made it to Philadelphia, is not 7-foot-7. Unlike that Bradley, he is very coordinated. Bradley is a mid-year enrollee who played running back and defensive back at Rancocas Valley (N.J.) High. He brings big-time speed to the LB position, as evidenced by his RB numbers his senior year at RV: 1,467 yards and 22 touchdowns.

  1. Quincy Roche, DL, 6-4, 210

Played defensive line and tight end at New Town High in Owings Mills, Md. He broke the school record in sacks with 19 and was part of the state championship team in basketball. He has the kind of size, speed and athleticism to get to the quarterback and projects as a 2017 starter.  Will have to put on some weight to play the line, so could be a redshirt candidate.

  1. Chris Tucker, DE, 6-3, 245, Jackson

Played fullback and defensive end for head coach Blake Butler at Trinity Christian Academy in Jackson, Tenn. and, as a senior, racked up 79 total tackles, 52 solo, with 16 tackles for loss. Looking at his film, he seems to instinctively come off blocks which might account for the 16 tackles in the enemy’s backfield.

  1. Steve Petrick, TE, 6-5, 230, Norwin High

Anyone who looks at a photo of Steve and former Temple tight end Steve Manieri will do a double-take. They look like the same person. On the field, they look very much like the same player. Manieri came to Temple at 6-5, but he had to spend years in the weight room to bulk up to 230. Petrick is already there. Manieri made it to the NFL. With the same kind of work ethic, this Steve can, too.

Tomorrow: The WRs Lost and Found

0204161320-00

01.24.16
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5 Questions You Will Never Hear Pravda Ask

pravda-bg

On a snowy Saturday, while shoveling out of our driveway, a number of rhetorical questions occurred to us. Rhetorical, because they are the kinds of questions Pravda never asks once of Chairman Matt and probably will never ask. On the way out to the garage to pick up the shovel and the rock salt, I perused Pravda for some of the latest recruiting updates. There was one long posted update by one of the editors there and every word was glowing. In fact, I don’t remember a single word being written negatively about recruiting there in three years. One of the posters over there last week called a recruit “a reach” but prefaced that with the obligatory “I know we’re not allowed to be negative here. ….”

I wonder what gave him that impression?  It would have been nice to hear the answers to just one of these five questions:

gelb

Zach Gelb

  1. What happened to the hurry-up offense in Houston?

Only Zach Gelb of the reporters in Houston highlighted the Owls’ atrocious clock management in the 24-13 loss in the AAC championship game. Gelb dutifully reported he asked Matt Rhule, Jahad Thomas, P.J. Walker and Marcus Satterfield about it and said nothing was wrong, yet even Stevie Wonder could see wasting 20 seconds on every play call was very wrong. The fact that nobody else asked about it was also very wrong. We still have not heard a satisfactory answer. It could be about time we did.

stadium

  1. What did you mean by you are in favor of a stadium if they “do it right?”

Rhule has been quoted that he is in favor of an on-campus stadium “if they do it right.” One would presume that spending “only” $100 million is probably not conducive to doing it right.  A simple question to Matt on signing day is “what is your vision of a stadium done right?” A good answer might be comfortable 40,000 seating with a couple of state-of-the-art replay scoreboards and that’s probably not possible with the frugal price tag.

airhockey

  1. Would there be less air hockey at the next bowl?

Air hockey, touring the Everglades, bowling, liberal curfews and beach volleyball were all part of the Boca Raton Bowl experience. What wasn’t part of it was hoisting that bowl trophy at the end of the game. It was a learning experience for the first-year bowl staff, so maybe there will be a more business-like approach at the next one. It would be nice to get that on the record soon.

  1. If Missouri wasn’t a distraction, why did Tyler Matakevich say it was?

Rhule said his pre-AAC championship experience being interviewed for the Missouri job was not a distraction but Tyler Matakevich said on 6abc tv that Sunday afternoon that “it’s just another thing we have to block out and concentrate on the bowl.” If it wasn’t a distraction, there would be no need to block it out. Probably would have been better to tell Missouri no right away and say something like “I’m the Temple coach and the only thing I’m thinking about is winning a championship.” Instead, the “I can’t tell what the future holds” and “this is not about me” quotes let the papers talk about just that for two days when the focus should have been on the team and the school’s first shot at a title.

  1. If you had to put your finger on one thing, what was the main cause of the 3-4 finish?

This is something the staff will have to figure out in the offseason and inoculate against next season. It would be nice to know if they have identified the problem now so they can address it in the next few months.

01.22.16
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Add Snowmageddon To Temple’s Luck

snowmageddon

Being a Temple sports fan, I’m used to a number of odd things happening at strange times that seem to stunt the Owls’ growth in the two marquee sports.

Add this latest Snowmageddon Episode to Temple’s dumb luck.

Arguably, it is probably the biggest recruiting weekend of the season with Temple trying to close the deal on some high-profile football recruits and the forecast of a crippling blizzard cannot help things. Sure, once in a blue moon you will find a kid from Florida who loves the snow and thinks it is the greatest thing in the world and decides to commit on the spot.

Ninety-nine percent of the other people living on the planet do not think that way.

templethings

It was a good idea in the first place because the Temple basketball team was going to host unbeaten AAC rival SMU on Saturday night in a game that figured to pack the Liacouras Center and show the recruits a packed house of spirited Temple fans. Now, that game is moved to Sunday and probably will not have nearly the same atmosphere.

Ironically, this snow is not going to be a good first  impression because it had not snowed all winter—not even a flake—and the winter had been relatively mild with quite a few 50- and 60-degree days. You can tell the recruits that all you want, but they see what they see.

Logistically, it is just not going to be a good thing. Even though the recruits will be on campus, other things are routinely planned on recruiting weekends that will just not go off—like trips to Lincoln Financial Field and Center City.

There is always the hope that things go well and the Owls pull in the haul they expected, but the snow will not be their friend this weekend.

In another development, Penn State–a place where it snows all the time–is hosting Temple recruit Dae’Lun Darien this weekend.

The forecast there is a coating to an inch.

01.21.16
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Top 5 Recruits On TFF Wish List

karamo

Should be No 1 target.

With one week left in the recruiting process, there are a number of guys the Temple coaching staff is still involved with but, in our minds, if the Owls get three of these five guys, the 2016 recruiting class goes from decent to great. This is just our list, not Temple’s, but from a public perception standpoint, getting most of these guys would be quite a haul.

KelvinHarmon

  1. Kelvin Harmon, WR

The Palmyra (N.J.) native currently is uncommitted, and his most recent offer was from Virginia Tech. The All-American wide receiver has 165 catches for 2,674 yards and 36 career touchdowns. He’s a longshot for Temple, chiefly because he had the foresight to pick a visit to Miami (Fla.) this weekend during a snowstorm.

sebastian

  1. Sebastian Silva, LB

Silva, a teammate of Anthony Russo at Archbishop Wood, is under-recruited, much like Tyler Matakevich was coming out of high school. He is a clone of Matakevich (6-0, 215) only stronger in both the bench press and dead lift now and 1.5 seconds faster in the 40-yard dash. If Temple thinks this kid is coming as a preferred walk-on, they are making a big mistake because he has a full ride to a couple of FCS schools and his family does not have the money to pay his way through Temple. He is more than worth the scholarship. It’s amazing when a high school senior has measurables superior to the National Player of the Year, but it’s true.

  1. Tyliek Raynor, RB

Amazingly, Raynor, from Imhotep Charter, missed most of the season with an injury and his backup, Mike Waters, scored 44 touchdowns to become the Philadelphia Inquirer Player of the Year. If Raynor is good enough to beat THAT guy out, he deserves a scholarship to Temple. He is an Arizona decommit and he runs a 4.3 40 with the moves of a Bernard Pierce or a Paul Palmer. He would fit in well at Temple.

tymiroliver

  1. Tymir Oliver, DL

With the last two picks, the Owls really need to go after lineman and Oliver, from West Catholic, is one of the two best remaining on the board. He has an official visit to Illinois this weekend and it’s hard to believe that playing for Bill Cubit will be more appealing than playing for a charismatic guy like Matt Rhule. This is where Rhule will have to earn his recent pay raise and close the deal.  Oliver is a Rutgers’ decommit.

 

  1. Karamo Dioubate, DL

Dioubate, a 4-star tackle from Prep Charter, decommitted from Penn State and is said to have had three visits to Temple since the decommit day. Only one, of course, was official, but it would seem to indicate that Dioubate has the kind of comfort level with his possible future Owl teammates that does not exist elsewhere. He is also involved with Michigan State. He would be for the Owls’ line what Anthony Russo was to the quarterback position.