Tag Archives: Temple football

12.06.15
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Two Ways to Look at This

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Look how far off the boundary corner is. One 3d and 3, Anderson had the same cushion on the other side  later in the game. Take it, and Owls have a new set of downs with 7:18 left and a possible 24-21 deficit.

 

There are two ways to look at Temple’s 24-13 loss to Houston on Saturday.

There is the Kumbaya view and the real world view. The Kumbaya view seems to have carried the day in the post-game Matt Rhule press conference and on much of social media. You know, “I’m proud of the kids” and “this is one of the greatest days in Temple football history” and “we’ve gone from point D to point A.”

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That’s born out of T-ball mentality. You know, there are no losers and everybody gets a trophy for participation. Little Johnny goes home with a pat on his head. The coaches are great. The kids are great. We’re all just so darn proud of everybody.

Kumbaya.

Ugh.

Then there is the real world view. You know, the “what the hell is going on out here?” view.

The last quarter was a cluster, err, bleep that made you wonder what goes on at the $17 million Edberg-Olson Complex the other six days of the week. In the last seven minutes, Temple showed itself either unwilling or incapable of running a functional two-minute drill that every high school, college and pro team seems to run efficiently.  (If you don’t believe it, take a look at the way St. Joseph’s Prep runs it. The offensive line sprints to the ball. Plays are called at the line, not looking over to the sidelines, with the emphasis on a short passing game to get out of bounds and stop the clock. Prep coach Gabe Infante is only seven blocks away. Invite him over this week.)

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That was a blown opportunity to win a championship due to a number of brain cramps by the coaching staff.  There is no guarantee that the Owls will be back in the title game next year and, if they aren’t, the coaches have no one but themselves to blame for a number of perplexing offensive miscues.  With four minutes left, they seemed incapable of running a true two-minute offense, taking precious seconds off the clock on every play by having the kids stare over to the sidelines for plays. Those 20, 30 seconds a play add up and, before you know it, the game is over.

That wasn’t the worst. This is the worst.

After closing the gap to 24-13 with 7:18 to go in the game, the Owls had a 3d and 3 at the Houston 38 but inexplicably attempted a long pass into the end zone. The call was made even more confounding because Houston was playing 10 yards off Temple wide receiver Robby Anderson on the play.  A simple pitch and catch would have moved the sticks.

Moving the sticks then would have cured a lot of earlier self-imposed ills. Early on, the players had just as much to do with it as the coaches did but after fighting back they deserved a coaching staff that was more focused. The Owls have been a team all year whose motto was to not beat themselves by turning the ball over, but on their first drive of the game, quarterback P.J. Walker threw an interception. That resulted in a 7-0 lead. The Owls were driving for a tying touchdown when Anderson—who caught 12 passes for 150 yards—was fighting for yardage and fumbled the ball on the Houston 5-yard-line. That led to a 10-0 lead.

Had the Owls moved the sticks on 3d and 3, instead of taking the shot into the end zone, they might have scored to make it 24-21 and that would have left seven minutes to bleep around with the dog stare offense. Instead, they followed that botched call with a clinic in mismanaging the clock and never had a chance to find out what would have happened.

While the physical errors by the unpaid amateurs could be forgiven, the mental ones by the well-paid professionals cannot.

Tomorrow:  Thoughts on the Bowl Lotto

Tuesday: …. But the Big Story on Action News Is …

Wednesday: Houston Photo Gallery

Thursday: One Wacky Throwback

Friday: Matakevich’s Special Moment on ESPN

Saturday: A Look at the Other AAC Bowls

Sunday: Welcome Criticism

Monday (12/12): 5 Things the Owls Have to Clean Up

Tuesday: The Fallacy of the Fall Off

Wednesday: The Problem With Watch Parties

Thursday: The Pitt-Navy Monkey Wrench

12.04.15
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Is It Saturday Yet?

 

We’re from Philadelphia and we fight, or something like that.

While we do not know which team will win on Saturday, fans of both Houston and Temple have confidence in their favorite players and rightly so.

Is it Saturday yet?

A lot of things make the Saturday matchup even more compelling than it being the first-ever G5 title game that results in a NY6 Bowl reward, but it starts with the unstoppable force (Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr.) meeting the immovable object (Temple linebacker Tyler Matakevich).  In games like this, it’s often the unknown guy who makes a big play or becomes the big player. File that thought away in the memory bank.

Right now, the known is Ward and Matakevich.

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Official watch party at Piazza. Crowd will probably not be this large. Hopefully, the sound will be up.

Matakevich was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year and, in a 27-3 win over Connecticut to clinch the AAC East title, he widened the gap between his top competition for both the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Bronko Nagurski Award.

After the final game of the regular season for all of the schools, Matakevich is the clear leader from all of the available empirical evidence. One of his top competitors, Penn State end Carl Nassib, has missed the last two games with an injury.  Matakevich is up for the Bednark with Nassib and Shaq Lawson, while he is up for the Nagurski with both of those guys and two others. This is the complete list with updated stats:

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Clemson DE Shaq Lawson: The 6-foot-3, 275-pound junior has 48 tackles in 12 games, 19.5 for losses with 8.5 sacks and no fumble recoveries and no interceptions. He is the best player on one of the best defenses in the nation, but doesn’t produce in the all-important turnover area.

Carl Nassib, Penn State (DE):  The walk-on from Malvern Prep in the suburbs of Philadelphia has had a superb season for the Nittany Lions. In 10 games, Nassib has 46 tackles, 19.5 for losses, including 15.5 sacks. He also has one interception and returned it for 10 yards and forced six fumbles. He played only the first three snaps on Saturday against Michigan before being removed with an undisclosed injury.

Reggie Ragland, Alabama (LB):  In 12 games, the 6-2, 252-pound Ragland has 90 tackles, 6.5 for losses with 2.5 sacks, no interceptions and two forced fumbles. He almost has no impact, though, on the opponent’s passing game as he has no interceptions this season.

Jeremy Cash, Duke (SS):  The 6-2, 210-pound is projected as a strong safety on the next level, but has played both strong and free safety for the Blue Devils. This year, in 12 games, he has 100 tackles, 18 for losses with 2.5 sacks. After recording two interceptions a year ago, he has none this season.

Tyler Matakevich, Temple (LB):  No one seems to be nearly as qualified for the Nagurski hardware as does the 6-1, 232-pound Matakevich, who is only the sixth player in FBS history to record fourth-straight 100-tackle seasons. He is also the only player in college football this season to lead his team in tackles in every game. He has 118 tackles, 14.5 for losses, 4.5 sacks and five interceptions.

12.03.15
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Throwback Thursday: Temple-Houston

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When the Temple Owls land in the Wild Wild West today, they would be wise to take a page out of a long-forgotten Western called “Temple Houston” when they put the finishing touches on a game plan.

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Common scores indicate this is going to be close.

The Western lasted only two years on NBC television and it was about the son of Sam Houston, a lawyer named Temple.  It was a “Who Done It” on horseback, with Temple delving into clues and solving cases without the benefit of modern tools like video and DNA.

The Owls do not need video or DNA to know how to solve this case. The bad guy is Greg Ward Jr. and they know they have to arrest his  development. They also know that they have had a tough job with similarly mobile quarterbacks in the past and, if they expect to stop Ward, they cannot do the same thing they did against Quinton Flowers of USF and DeShone Kizer of Notre Dame.

They played both of those guys like pocket quarterbacks, often rushing three. What happened more often than not was the three-man rush was not getting to either guy and they were able to make plays downfield with their arms.

Even Temple Houston, played by Jeffrey Hunter, in his day would be able to solve this problem. The Owls need to utilize a 5-2.  Rotate the speedy Haason Reddick and Nate D. Smith at left end and do the same with Sharif Finch and Praise Martin-Oguike at right end. Put two-time Pennsylvania heavyweight wrestling champion Averee Robinson at nose guard where his gap leverage skills would cause a nightmare for the Houston center and flank him with Hershey Walton and Matt Ioannidis as the tackles.

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Those guys alone have the physical talent to overwhelm the Houston offensive line and disrupt things while in the backfield but, just in case, use one of the safeties as a spy in case Ward tries to escape the inevitable problems.

Temple Houston struggled in the TV ratings back in 1964 because it went opposite The Flintstones on ABC and Rawhide (Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates) on CBS. This Temple-Houston figures to have no such ratings’ problems because it is the nationally featured noon game on ABC and Philadelphia is the 4th-largest TV market. Houston is the 10th-largest TV market and there is plenty of interest in this game in the other AAC markets, all in the top 36.

While Temple has prided itself on doing what it does to get to this point, it will have to swallow some of that pride and tweak some things on defense to stop this quarterback. You don’t have to be a 19th-century sleuth to figure that out.  If you see a three-man rush, time to change the channel to something like reruns of Rawhide or The Flintstones.

12.02.15
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Twenty-Twenty Vision for the Houston Game

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Temple is going to have to hit Greg  Ward a little harder than this.

Before just about every Temple football game, I have tried to crunch the numbers, look at things from all angles, and come up with about as close to an objective opinion as I can get.

I had Temple beating Tulane, 37-9. Temple won, 49-10. I had Temple beating ECU, 24-10. Temple won, 24-14. I had Temple LOSING to Notre Dame, 21-17. Temple lost, 24-20. I had Temple beating UConn, 29-10. Temple won, 27-3. For all of the other games, nothing added up so I did not make any predictions.

For this all-important Houston game, I have crunched all the numbers, looked at things about objectively as I can, and have come away with one score and one score only and  I know it  is wrong.

Twenty-twenty, that’s right, 20-20.

I cannot get past that score.

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OK, who is getting  tickets for $20?

Houston is a 7-point favorite and the teams have played six common foes. Temple has beaten those foes by exactly three more points than Houston has. Give Houston the three points for home field advantage that Vegas usually gives home teams and it is even Steven.

Unfortunately, as much as I’d like a Temple blowout, I think it enters overtime and it will probably come down to Mr. Dependable, sophomore Austin Jones, calmly lining up and hitting a field goal and giving Temple a 23-20 lead.

Will Tyler Matakevich and company hold?

I, quite frankly, do not know. I will say this:  How fitting would it be for a tipped ball to land in the hands of Matakevich in the end zone? Somebody’s got to tip the ball and I cannot for the life of me know who will.

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to me and you but I can’t make a prediction for this game in good faith. I don’t have the same strong feeling I had for ND, Tulane, ECU and UConn and I had a numb feeling for the other games.

So I guess we will all have to tune in and see if the final is 23-20 or 26-20. It should make for riveting television about 3:07 p.m. on Saturday. That’s my prediction and I’m sticking to it.

Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday

Friday: The Tyler Sweepstakes

Saturday:  The Robby Anderson Effect

12.01.15
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Jahad, Bernard and Paul

This ridiculously great spin move (0:19) says it all about Jahad Thomas.

They call Penn State linebacker U and Brigham Young has an earned reputation for producing quarterbacks, along with Miami of Ohio for coaches but, after a couple of years of a drought, Temple is back to being Tailback U.

The Owls have Jahad Thomas to thank for that. I had to smile when I saw a post on Facebook that said Jahad is better than Bernard Pierce and laugh out loud when the same person posted that he was better than Paul Palmer.

Let’s pump the brakes a little on that one.

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My guess is that the person who wrote that probably was not old enough to see Paul Palmer play. I’ve seen both, and while Jahad is good, Paul Palmer was in a different stratosphere.

There’s no shame in not being as good as Paul Palmer. Heck, no running back in college football in the year of 1986 was as good as Paul Palmer. I’m pretty sure even Jahad would admit there are plenty of running backs as good as he is in college football this year.

Temple is Tailback U. thanks to guys like Palmer, Zach Dixon, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Duckett, Tanardo Sharps, Stacy Mack, Sid Morse, Elmarko Jackson, Pierce, Montel Harris and, now, Thomas.  I’m sure I missed a back or two.

That’s a pretty good lineage.

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Jahad Thomas celebrates with Dion Dawkins.

Right now, I’d rate Jahad behind only Paul and Bernard and that’s high praise indeed. Bernard was capable of a high-end game (268, 2 TDs in a 2008 win at Navy) and I haven’t seen that nearly 300-yard type game from Jahad yet.

He’s got another year, so I’m confident he has it in him.

As early as last year on this site, we were calling for Thomas to be the featured back behind a fullback named Kenny Harper. Unfortunately, Temple’s offense was so ass backwards last year it used a fullback as a tailback and the tailback who gained 152 yards against Tulsa was in Witness Protection the rest of the season. Better late than never because the role of fullback this year is being played by Nick Sharga, the witness protection guy, Thomas, is in plain view and Temple is back to being Temple.

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From our season wrapup story, Dec. 14, 2014.

If the Owls are going to beat Houston for the AAC championship on Saturday in a noon showdown (ABC and we’d love to see the ratings for that one), they are going to have to do it by feeding the rock to Thomas on a steady basis. Right now, head coach Matt Rhule has to be working on a game plan that involves as many carries for Thomas as passes for P.J. Walker. We’re talking 20-30 touches for Jahad and 20-30 passes for Walker. Temple is a great offensive team when Jahad gets 20-25 carries, P.J. throws 20-25 balls and Robby Anderson and Romond Deloatch catch touchdown passes. Temple gets in trouble when it has to throw the ball nearly 50 times, like UMass.

Put the ball in the hands of those playmakers, and I like Temple’s chances. Of course, that’s assuming that there is time to put together a detailed game plan.

If Temple wins a championship with a heavy dose of Jahad Thomas, it will be a fitting tribute to a great lineage of tailbacks who led up to this moment.

11.29.15
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The Elephant in the Room

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Mike Schmidt said something about Philadelphia being the only place you could experience the ecstasy of victory one night and the agony of reading about it in the paper the next day.

Saturday night was pretty ecstasy-filled, a lot of hugs among the fans who sat through losses to Fordham not so long ago and even had Fordham—Fordham, this is—fans yell, “Bleep you, Temple!” as they drove out the exits of Lot K.

And, at the time, we couldn’t say a damn thing.

That all changed last night with Temple fans on top of the world after winning the AAC East title and I thought the good feeling would last for a long, long time—or at least until the “real” championship next week at Houston.

toldyou

“I told you guys he ain’t no different from me.”

It lasted for no longer than the hour it took me to get home.

Flipping open the laptop, I expected to read about the ecstasy of winning, but the first headline I saw was about the head coach leaving for Missouri.  When I heard that it was Missouri, I thought of former Phils’ outfielder Jeff Stone, who was from Missouri but never outside that state until his first training camp at Clearwater. After a 3-for-4 night at Jack Russell Stadium, Stone looked up at the moon and said: “That’s a beautiful moon. Would that be the same moon we have back in Missouri?”

The entire Phils’ press corps broke up and Stone had that look on his face wondering what he said that was funny.

When I heard Missouri, I thought: “Would that be the same Missouri that walked out and threatened not to play a football game?”

Yeah, it would be that Missouri. The problem, to me, is not Matt Rhule but the eat-your-young mentality of the NCAA. If coaches, like kids, were forced to sit out a year before transferring, a lot of this destructive “coaching carousel” talk would be muted.

Everybody says this morning to chill and that Matt Rhule is not going anywhere but I don’t like what I heard after the game. Would it have killed him to say, “I am Temple’s head coach for as long as this wonderful university will have me.”

Evidently, it would have killed him, and that’s what is troubling this morning. We were all told that this guy was different, that he was no Daz or no Golden and that he wanted to sign a 20-year contract.  There’s still time to mute the talk and I hope he is reaching for the remote right now.

Otherwise, this whole week is going to be one big distraction talking about big fat elephants when the focus should be on getting a chip.

11.28.15
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The Final (Home) Chapter of #LeaveNoDoubt

No one knows if Bryant Shirreffs will play for against Temple for UConn tonight (7 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field), but the general consensus is that Shirreffs is the more athletic of the two Huskies’ quarterbacks.

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It should not surprise former Temple head coach Wayne Hardin. Shirreffs’ grandfather, Jack, was a star two-way end some of Hardin’s great Navy teams in the late 1950s and will no doubt be in attendance on Saturday night. Shirreffs is organizing a golf outing with Hardin’s ex-Temple and ex-Navy players for the coach’s 90th birthday.

The Temple-Shirreffs’ connection doesn’t end there as Bryant has a brother, Evan, who was recruited by former Temple head coach Al Golden and is at Miami.

Whatever happens, the Shirreffs and UConn will be there for the final home chapter of Temple’s #LeaveNoDoubt season. A year ago, a senior halfback who should have been fullback named Kenny Harper told his teammates to Leave No Doubt next season and that became this season’s battle cry. Temple has never worried about what the opposition does, only what it will do, and it will take that mantra into tonight.

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Right now, UConn head coach Bob Diaco is using the old “day-to-day” designation regarding Shirreffs and it could be an important one because there is a significant dropoff between No. 1 and No. 2.  Shirreffs, a sophomore, has started all 11 games for the 6-5 Huskies but took a blow to the head on the second series of the 20-17 win over Houston. He has completed 158 of 262 passes for nine touchdowns and seven interceptions, amassing 1,992 yards. Boyle went 12 for 22 for 110 yards.

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Another injury that might be just as important is UConn tight end Tommy Myers, who will not play on Saturday. The Huskies like to utilize two tight ends almost as much as Temple and they might have to scale back an already limited package.

Fun fact: UConn beat Villanova, 20-15, but not as bad as Ivy League co-champion Penn did (24-13).

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11.27.15
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Nick Sharga is Temple’s Unsung Hero

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Nick Sharga has been the kickout block for Jahad Thomas all season.

Somewhere along the line on Saturday night, if head coach Matt Rhule keeps a promise, Nick Sharga will carry the football for Temple’s 25th-ranked football team and it will be an appropriate reward for the team’s most unsung hero.

Sharga, a 6-2, 235-pound redshirt sophomore, is just the kind of player teams need more of and just the kind of player Rhule has built a respected program upon. Three weeks ago, Rhule said the team is going to give him the ball at some point and, with one more regular-season game left, that time will probably be on Saturday night (7 p.m.) against visiting Connecticut.

Nick Sharga, Temple,

A handoff to the fullback would be a fitting reward for Sharga, who has led the way through the hole for tailback Jahad Thomas all season. The only thing that has stood in the way of Sharga being a two-way starter an All-American linebacker named Tyler Matakevich, but there can be no doubt that Sharga already has played a huge role in the team’s 9-2 record. When Matakevich takes his considerable talents to the NFL next year, Sharga will slide over into his “Mike” linebacker position and the Owls probably will not suffer a significant drop off.

While no one plays 60 minutes anymore, Sharga is a throwback in that he starts on offense at the fullback position and is a backup linebacker on defense.  In a 31-12 win over then No. 23 Memphis last week, Sharga played 20 plays on offense, 15 plays on defense and five on special teams and that’s just not done in big-time college football anymore.

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I hope that damp means dew not rain.

Matakevich is one of the three finalists for the Chuck Bednarik Award, given to the nation’s top defensive player. Bednarik, like Matakevich, played his home college football games in Philadelphia but, unlike Matakevich, was the last of the 60-minute men. Sharga  isn’t a 60-minute guy, but he’s getting there.

Sharga injured his ACL his senior year of high school, ended up at Division II West Virginia Wesleyan, put some outstanding film together and decided to walk-on at Temple last year. In spring ball this season, he made plays all over the field and his teammates voted him a single-digit number (4) awarded to the nine toughest players on the Temple team.

If he gets the ball on Saturday and runs far with it, no one will be surprised because of how far he’s run to get to this point.

11.26.15
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5 Things to Watch on Saturday Night

Part of Temple head coach Matt Rhule’s message to Justin Fuente that became clear after a 31-12 win over Memphis on Saturday is that the plays Fuente prepared for were not necessarily the ones the Owls would use. The Owls either scored or set up scores on plays that they had not used or did not execute earlier in the year. That’s a good thing, and shows that former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Bob Diaco has a lot of things to think about while preparing for Saturday’s game (7 p.m.) at  Lincoln Financial Field.

  1. Return of the Tight End

The Owls have three special talents at the tight end position and they used them all against Memphis. Colin Thompson, a Florida transfer, caught a seam pass over the middle for 43 yards; Saladeem Major released from a two-second block and found himself wide open in the flat for another score and Kip Patton scored on the same tight end reverse play that would have been perfect for Chris Coyer in 2013. In fact, we called for that play a few times in this space and thought that Coyer’s ability as a passer on the same play would have resulted in a few touchdowns. Now, maybe Patton will get to throw a pass off the same play he scored.

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  1. The Deloatch Effect

All Romond Deloatch does is, as Buddy Ryan once said of Cris Carter, is catch touchdowns. At the time, Ryan meant it as a backhanded compliment, thinking that Carter did not catch enough passes in the middle of the field. Yet, with big games coming up, Deloatch is going to be an effective red zone target, using his great hands and 6-4 frame. The attention that Robby Anderson gets on the other side of the field is going to make him particularly dangerous.

  1. Attendance

All Temple has to do to win the AAC attendance title is to draw more than Memphis does for its game against SMU. The Owls have the slimmest of leads, averaging 47,343 per game to Memphis’ 46,547. The Owls can still draw a few hundred less than Memphis and win the attendance title, but the fans should take a page from the team and #LeaveNoDoubt. If you are planning on watching this game on TV and live near Philadelphia, one word of advice: Don’t. The kids feed off the energy of a loud crowd and all hands should be on deck.

  1. Mass Substitutions

Defensive coordinator Phil Snow said one of the problems in giving up too many points to both SMU and said he ran in defensive players in waves. This is good for the Owls for a couple of reasons. One, it keeps the team fresh late in the season, and, two, many of these players are youngsters like redshirt freshman DT Freddy Booth-Lloyd who are getting valuable experience. Booth-Lloyd made the initial hit on Paxton Lynch’s failed QB sneak.

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No one would be happier for Tyler Matakevich than Steve Conjar.

 

  1. Closing in on a record

With 462 career tackles, Tyler Matakevich is closing in on the remarkable school tackle record of 492 held by Steve Conjar (1979-1981). Matakevich can do it, but it becomes a lot more manageable task if he had three games, not two. To get that extra game, the Owls have to beat UConn. That’s why the fans adhering to the suggestion of No. 3 is so important.

Tomorrow: 60 Minutes