Tag Archives: Temple football

09.25.15
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Temple’s Dream Scenario

Hooter lifting the National Championship trophy. (Photoshop byChris Ventura from Rappid Development, a company run by recent Temple grads)

Hooter lifting the National Championship trophy.
(Photoshop by Chris Ventura from Rappid Development, a company run by recent Temple grads)

All of those “one-game-at-a-time” people please leave the room right now. As if what we’re about to discuss in the following paragraphs has any impact in Temple winning or losing a game on the field the rest of the way.

Are they all gone?

OK.

Now we can talk.

No one even put on the pads yesterday at Temple, but the Owls won by Memphis beating Cincinnati, 53-46, last night. The win drove another stake into Cincy’s hopes for winning the AAC East and put Temple squarely on the road to the AAC title game. Cincy looks like it will go on to a great season, either with Gunner Kiel or Hayden Moore as its quarterback. Memphis’ defense looks as vulnerable to Robby Anderson as it did in 2013. The only difference is that this time Robby has plenty of help.

Now onto the dream scenario: The BCS/Power 5 conglomerate has rigged the system by making it almost impossible for a Group of Five team like Temple to crash their national championship party.

The emphasis is on the word almost for a reason.

A Temple-Miami national semifinal would shut a lot of people up.

A Temple-Miami national semifinal would shut a lot of people up.

Temple is perhaps the only team in the G5 with a possibility of crashing the party due to having already beaten a team that can (but probably won’t) win the Big 10 championship coupled with another top 10 team in Notre Dame. So Temple is not just carrying the banner for 275,000 alumni, 39,000 students and 12,000 employees and the city of Philadelphia, but for the half of college football teams in the country being forced to play under a morally and financially corrupt system. If the Owls can break through the injustice, it would be a dream come true for those locked out of the P5.

The dream scenario would be this:

  • Temple runs the table and finishes 13-0 (12 regulars and the home win against Navy in the AAC title game);
  • Memphis beats everyone but Temple and Navy;
  • Cincinnati has a solid season to boost Temple’s rating, following its win over the fake Miami with a win over the real Miami;
  • The real Miami wins the ACC;
  • Penn State wins the Big 10;
  • Notre Dame finishes with one loss.

It would be impossible for the conglomerate to keep Temple out of the semifinal playoff under that scenario or even a scenario that fit all but one of those criteria. (For example, PSU can still have a great season but doesn’t have to win the Big 10.)

At 3-0 and with nine games left it is too early, but the fact that Temple fans can even dream this is really something special. So let the fans dream and the players and coaches take the one game at a time. Maybe the national semifinal game will be against Al Golden. (That would make the “Temple coach=Temple results” banners look really silly.) Now we can go.

All of those “one-game-at-a-time” people can return to the room right now.

fifteensked

Tomorrow: Saturday TV

09.24.15
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Fifteen Perfect Plays=73 Points

Matt Rhule has a test coming up on Friday and Rick Stockstill has all the questions and answers right on that sheet.

Matt Rhule has a test coming up on Friday and Rick Stockstill has all the questions and answers right on that sheet.

Sometimes you get the process, sometimes the process gets you.

Or, as in the case of Temple head coach Matt Rhule, looking over the shoulder of Middle Tennessee State coach Rick Stockstill while studying for his next test should reveal a more perfect process.

statistics

Hopefully, when breaking down Charlotte for next Friday’s road game, Rhule and his staff will take note of what Stockstill did in the first quarter of a 73-14 win over the 49ers. It was a gift-wrapped process that the Owls would do well to borrow for the nationally televised game (Friday, Oct. 2, 7:30, CBS Sports Network).

The Owls have shown stubbornness for sticking with their own process instead of using one that worked against their opponents previously. It was shown in the UMass when Colorado, despite facing eight in the box, ran at will on the Minutemen by taking the inside runs outside and it accounted for 390 yards of rushing and a comfortable 48-14 win.

After watching a replay of the game, we counted only 15 plays used by MTSU the entire game. Most of the 73 points the Blue Raiders scored were set up by 15 perfect plays, but we will concentrate on the first two scores in a 42-7 first quarter. Both were seam routes to the tight end, right over the middle, the same kind of play Chris Coyer scored on at Memphis in 2013. Those two TE plays basically broke the game open and had the 49ers’ heads spinning, allowing the other 13 to work on a semi-regular basis. The other 13 were mostly variations of crossing passes over the middle, deep wheel routes, tight end screens, and pitches to the tailback on the edge.

Jordan Parker, a tailback, attacked the soft middle of the Charlotte defense for 140 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries. Parker also was effective on wheel routes out of the backfield—a play where the quarterback rolls to one side and hits the running back down the other.

player

The Owls have that wheel route in their playbook, as fans will remember P.J. Walker hit Jamie Gilmore in the hands with a perfect pass that would have been six against Memphis a year ago. They should dust it off for this game.

While UMass was susceptible to the run, Charlotte is the opposite—susceptible to the big play.

The beauty of those plays is the Owls have the athletes and the offense to execute them rather flawlessly.  Kip Patton is a guy who has the body of a tight end and the speed of a wide receiver and, if the 49ers had a problem covering tight end Terry Pettis, they are going to have more than their hands full with Patton. Establish the run on the first couple of plays, put the ball in the belly of the tailback, pull it out and then find Patton free over the seam. The 49ers have trouble covering the middle of the field and that’s an area the Owls should exploit. Pettis scored on touchdown receptions of 75 and 76 yards. Pettis’ 75-yard touchdown catch was the first of three one-play drives, also proving that the 49ers are susceptible to big plays. The Owls have plenty of those in their arsenal, too, and crossing patterns over the middle to Robby Anderson and Adonis Jennings should be open all night. MTSU wide receiver Ed’Marques Batties, a player with a similar skill set to Anderson, finished five receptions for 120 yards and three touchdowns and most of those were the result of deep crossing patterns over the middle.

Whatever Stockstill did, Temple should do. You cannot argue with 73 points.  When it is over, “Matt” can send Rick a thank-you card.

Tomorrow: AAC Football Night on ESPN

Saturday: College Football TV Guide

Sunday: Game Week Begins

Monday: Unpublished Temple Photos of Interest

sellout

09.23.15
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5 Other Games of Interest to Owl Fans

The American Trophy heads to Memphis this week.

The thought just occurred to me that the top game of interest to Temple fans on Saturday, UMass at Notre Dame (covered in yesterday’s post), might be interrupted a few times. It is on one of the three major local channels at 3:30, right smack in the middle of the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia.

Geez, I hope Channel 10 has more respect for the region’s 1.4 million Catholics than that. When Notre Dame is on, they do not want any interruptions.

Just in case, though, keep the remote control handy. Here are the other Saturday games of interest to Temple fans (with earlier games added at the end).

Boston College's Alumni Stadium would be a nice model for TU to copy.

Boston College’s Alumni Stadium would be a nice model for TU to copy.

SATURDAY

Navy at UCONN (-8), noon, CBS Sports Network,

If Memphis does not win the AAC West, Navy will. Last week, I predicted Navy would beat East Carolina, 38-17. I was wrong. Navy won, 45-21.  Close enough. UConn was impressive in holding No. 18 Missouri to just nine points on the road, but that doesn’t erase giving up 15 to Villanova and 17 to Army. Navy should score 27 in this one and win, 27-14.

Northern Illinois at Boston College (-4), 1, ESPN3

This is only important because of Fraudazzio’s involvement with Boston College. Northern Illinois is coming off a 20-13 loss at Ohio State and BC is only favored because it is a P5 team at home. Anyone who watches BC can see that Addazio’s century-old approach to offense has not changed. Northern Illinois with the upset, 30-16. If the Owls do not make a BCS bowl, a matchup with BC in Yankee Stadium might make for a good storyline.

Virginia Tech at East Carolina (+7.5), 3:30, ABC or ESPN 2

ECU is probably a lot closer to the team that struggled to beat Towson and was blown out by Navy than the one that lost by a touchdown at Florida. Virginia Tech should win this won by about 20-10 on the road, slightly covering the spread. Right now, this is listed as an either/or game, but fans better hope this is on ESPN 2 because Channel 6 is going to be breaking in with Pope coverage every five minutes.

ECU's Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Let's hope the Owls come up with a better name, like The Apollo of Temple.

ECU’s Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Let’s hope the Owls come up with a better name, like The Apollo of Temple.

THURSDAY

Cincinnati at Memphis (-7), 7:30, ESPN

Probably the game of the year so far in the AAC pits West preseason favorite Memphis against East preseason favorite Cincinnati. Memphis blew out Kansas, scoring 55 points, but probably had a more impressive win at Bowling Green, 44-41, last week. That was more impressive because Bowling Green was coming off a 48-27 win at Maryland, the same Terps’ team that beat South Florida, 35-17, a week ago. Temple fans might like Cincy to get another loss to drive the Bearcats further down in the East standings, but would be also consoled by a Cincy win by knowing the Owls would be considered the defacto top dogs in the AAC. Gunner Kiel suffered a head injury and is day-to-day. Memphis wins this, 35-24.

FRIDAY

Boise State at Virginia (+2.5), 8, ESPN

Only important for Temple down the road because, if the Owls keep taking care of business, a Boise State team that lost only to BYU could be up against the Owls for a BCS bid. Unfortunately, I do not see Boise State losing this one. Boise State, 20-17.

Tomorrow: Fifteen Perfect Plays

09.22.15
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On a Weekend without TU, Irish vs. UMass Will Have to Do

Umass at Notre Dame, NBC 10, Saturday, 3:30

Umass at Notre Dame, PHL 17, Saturday, 3:30

There’s a football coach named Kelly who is an innovator, known for his game day skills and has done spectacular jobs in more than one college football locale.

His first name is not Chip.



Here’s the third false
narrative floating around:
Umass might be better than
we thought and we should
have been prepared to be
in a game the entire day.
UMass stinks.
You can boldface that,
underline it, italicize it. 

We will soon find out if Temple’s curious offensive game plan at Massachusetts on Saturday was the right approach because, right now, Brian Kelly is formulating his own game plan. Just a guess, but we’re figuring he will be borrowing a lot more from Colorado head coach Mike McIntryre—curiously enough, a former Temple assistant—than the current Temple brain trust.

Just another guess: Notre Dame will have a lot closer to the 390 rushing yards than the 67 Temple was able to put up against the Minutemen.

One of the false narratives floating around out there is that, because UMass was stacking eight in the box, Temple had no choice but to throw the ball and that was the reason the Owls were able to get 390 passing yards and also the reason they had no chance at 390 running yards. Well, does anyone really believe that UMass did not stack the box with eight once Colorado proved it could gouge the Minutemen? A careful review of the Colorado-UMass game tape showed that the Minutemen did the same thing to Colorado but the Buffaloes stuck with their plan of running the ball. McIntyre knew that running the ball accomplishes two things—scoring points and killing clock, keeping Blake Frohnapfel off the field.

Another false narrative floating around is that Temple eschewed the run because its offensive line isn’t as good as Colorado’s. Well, Colorado lost to Hawaii and the Temple offensive line was good enough to run on both Penn State and Cincinnati—far more formidable opponents than Hawaii. The Owls could have and should have bashed UMass, too. That game is over, but hopefully the commitment to the run the Owls showed in the first two games is not. In order to win out until ND, the Owls must go back to establishing the run.

Here’s the third false narrative floating around: Umass might be better than we thought and we should have been prepared to be in a game the entire day. UMass stinks. You can boldface that, underline it, italicize it. A mediocre Colorado team proved that two weeks ago and Notre Dame will prove it again on Saturday. Temple should have put this game away at 14-0 by going up 21-0.

One of the interesting story lines of Saturday’s game (3:30 p.m., NBC 10) will be how Kelly approaches this game plan. Does he throw the ball all over the lot or make a commitment to the run, no matter what Mark Whipple does? Without Temple football, it will be the next most compelling game to watch.

Heck, the Owls might find a few tricks they can use against Notre Dame that lead to some treats on Halloween.

Tomorrow: Five Other Bye Week Games

Thursday: Fifteen Perfect Plays

09.20.15
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Lessons Learned From Dodging A Bullet

At the height of his popularity and veneer of invincibility, Muhammad Ali granted a pug boxer from Bayonne, N.J. a shot.

In order to sweeten the storyline, Ali noted that Chuck Wepner had a bleeding problem and promised that he could win with all body blows and to never touch Wepner’s face.

Saturday’s Temple at UMass game was a little like that fight, with the Temple game plan being remarkably similar to Ali’s.  The Minutemen were coming off a game where their run defense bled for 390 yards in a 48-14 loss to Colorado and allowed two 100-yard rushers. Temple had the nation’s third-leading rusher, Jahad Thomas.

Football is not rocket science, but everybody at the E-0 seemingly wants to be Wernher Von Freaking Braun.

If any team was set up to be punched in the face, it was Massachusetts but, the Owls, like so many other times in the last three years, outsmarted  themselves by throwing the ball on their first 2d and five situation of the game and then again on their first 2d and three opportunity, which came early in the second half. Even if that play fails, you are more likely than not facing a third and 1 or a third and 2 on the next one. Then you go Temple Tuff again and punch them in the mouth.

Punching them in the face with a run on 2d and five probably would have been the better call here.

Punching them in the face with a run on 2d and five probably would have been the better call here.

Sometimes, the game plan is there right in front of your face for the entire world to see but, for some reason, Temple chose not to see it. A game that should not have been that close was and there were a number of reasons for that, but chief among them was not taking a page out of Colorado’s book.

Being Temple Tuff means a lot of things, but what it should mean is punching a team in the face with a history of face bleeding and the Owls got away from that mantra. Being Temple smart means a lot of things, but it should mean not being too proud to borrow a game plan that worked against the same opponent a week earlier.

Middle Tennessee State scored 74 points on Charlotte yesterday. Hopefully, the Owls are not too proud to break that film down and borrow what worked for the Blue Raiders and, just maybe, score 75.

Otherwise, another pug fighter who doesn’t deserve it will be given a chance to go 15 rounds with a much superior foe.

Related:

http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2015/09/18/feeding-jahad-thomas-should-help-temple-football-break-36-year-unranked-famine/

http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/2015/09/20/poor-game-plan-cost-temple-football-a-spot-in-the-top-25/

09.19.15
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Gameday: Leave No Doubt

New York Jets' head coach Todd Bowles rocks the Temple gear on Friday night's show.

New York Jets’ head coach Todd Bowles rocks the Temple gear on Friday night’s show.

If you are tuning into ESPN College Football’s Gameday this morning looking for extensive talk about  Temple, don’t bother. The Owls will have to take care of business not only today against UMASS, but also in the four weeks after that just to get something other than the casual mention they got this morning.

Money talks, bullbleep walks is the saying and, when it comes to college football, the most important thermometer to measure the temperature of the sport is ESPN’s College Gameday Show. Simply put, if you are a fan of a Power Five team, they talk about your squad. If your team is in the Group of Five, they do not.

There is little wonder, then, when it comes time for the musical chairs to start again, a relatively small number of the current G5 teams are pressing their noses against the window like a shopper on Black Friday waiting for the doors to open.  To be sure, networks like ESPN have a vested interest in talking about only the big conferences because TV contracts have been signed far into the future. In college football, though, the issue runs a little deeper than that because there is a substantial fear that sometime within the next decade, the teams in the Power 5 will break away and make the rest of the schools in the NCAA as irrelevant in college football as today’s Ivy League is.

espn college gameday,

That’s why, for schools like UConn, Boise State, Cincinnati, Houston and Temple – the top G5 candidates for P5 expansion — how football does this year and next is so important. In college football today, it’s all about TV markets and eyeballs, and at least three of those schools (Houston, Temple and Cincinnati) can deliver both a decent football program and a big-time market. For Boise State and UConn, it’s not so much about the markets as it is about the programs. Boise State might have the most consistent football program of the five, but the TV market is so small that it’s irrelevant. UConn has a terrible football program, but a great basketball one.

Cincinnati and Temple are comparatively strong in both sports and Temple can deliver the largest available TV market of any of the five top G5 schools, the nation’s fourth-rated one. There are P5 teams in the New York market (Rutgers), the Chicago market (Northwestern and Notre Dame) and the third-ranked market, Los Angeles (UCLA and USC), but none in the fourth. Temple would complete a chain that includes the fifth-ranked market, Dallas-Fort Worth, which has Waco suburb member Baylor. Houston is No. 10, while UConn (Hartford-New Haven) is No. 30 and Cincinnati 34.

Whatever happens, all of those schools are on the outside looking in because ESPN College Gameday is not talking about them now. The G5 is dying and the evidence is on TV every Saturday morning for all to see.

Temple has a chance to pump some life into it by going 7-0 into the Notre Dame game, but the Irish will have to keep their end of the bargain by beating Georgia Tech today. So those are at least two teams to root for, another would be Penn State to add further legitimacy to the opening-day win. If you are a G5 team like the Owls are, a lot of dominoes have to fall your way.

Depth Charts

Here is the depth chart for UMASS with no changes from last week and the depth chart for Temple follows below.

chart

09.18.15
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One-Word Game Plan: Pound

Visual proof that Mike Sielski, who wasn't at the game, went on WHIP and flat-out lied. Written proof below.

Visual proof that Mike Sielski went on WHIP and flat-out lied. Written proof below.

There might or might not be a LaSalle University bias against the recent success of the Temple football team, but the evidence is there that at least a jealously exists among members of the media who were graduates of that institution.

Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski wrote a curiously timed column that implied the Owls’ paid the devil for the win over Penn State by cutting seven sports to benefit football. He neglected to do two things that every good journalist does—reach out to get the other side of the story and fact-check his assumptions. Had he done the first, he would have been able to kill two birds with one stone.  He would have been informed that not a single penny of the cuts went to football and had been reinvested into the other Olympic sports.

Sielski compounded his problems by going on the Zach Gelb Show on the Temple student radio station WHIP with this uninformed statement, “let’s be real, there were a lot more Penn State fans there” to Gelb, who, to his credit, shot back and said the stands were a sea of Cherry. Sielski, who wasn’t there, let the issue die but it was easy to picture him smirking and thinking at the other end of the line: “This is just some naive kid who sees the world through Cherry-colored glasses.”

Too bad his colleague, Mike Jensen (who was there), waited a couple of days before objectively settling the issue with this line from a column he wrote on the Owls:

jensen

The case on LaSalle’s jealously might have been closed with those few words until Temple fans picked up the Daily News yesterday and saw David Murphy’s “best bet” in the weekly predictions was UMass to cover the 10.5 against the Owls. You know Murphy is hoping and praying he is right.  Coincidently or not, Murphy went to the same college Sielski did. There’s not a whole lot of objective football analysis out there to indicate that UMass will even be in the game tomorrow against the Owls and certainly far less to make them a “best bet.”

More proof.

More proof.

Wishful thinking on his part, yes, and maybe a huge case of football-envy from guy whose school dropped football over a decade ago.

The Owls cannot afford to stub their toes the next few weeks for a number of reasons, the above two being relatively unimportant given the bigger picture, but they should know that, if they do, there are a lot of unscrupulous people just waiting to pound on them.

So, in a word, the game plan tomorrow against UMass: Pound. Pound the rock to keep Blake Frohnapfel off the field and, when the Minuteman quarterback finally gets on the field, pound him like they pounded Christian Hackenberg.

Because, Temple should know now, there are folks waiting to pound on the Owls should they misstep and many of them are consumed by jealously even in their own hometown.

Tomorrow: ESPN Gameday and Depth Charts

09.17.15
by

What Were They Thinking?

As long as the Owls don't let the hype get to their heads, this game should be over by halftime.

As long as the Owls don’t let the hype get to their heads, this game should be over by halftime.

Sometimes, quoting a Deity sums everything up in a nice tight box with a ribbon on top: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Or, at least in this case, write.

Under the “what were they thinking” comes this little prediction from a University of Massachusetts’ fan named Daniel Malone disguised as a journalist: “I think the fan turnout at Gillette will be strong, helping UMass earn its first home win of the year.”

First off, even though the article was written a month ago, going off what he knew from last year it doesn’t make any sense. UMass was 3-9 last year in a weaker conference. Temple was 6-6 and a “strong” fan turnout at Gillette is about 12,000 spaced out in a 70,000-seat stadium. That faux “crowd” didn’t figure to intimidate anyone even then.

Knowing what we know now, though,  it will hardly would phase a Temple team that played in front of a near-capacity bandbox of nearly 40,000 fans in Cincinnati a week ago.

Not very much thought went into this pick, obviously.

Not very much thought went into this pick, obviously.

Secondly, much has changed in the first two weeks. The Owls have pummeled a Big 10 team, Penn State, that many had winning 10 games before the season started. Then they had a 34-12 lead into the fourth quarter over a Cincinnati team that was the consensus preseason favorite to win the AAC. As a point of reference, last year, a 6-6 Penn State team beat UMass, 48-7.  Other than Penn State, the two teams had one common opponent a year ago, Vanderbilt. The Owls handled Vandy, 37-7. UMass lost to Vandy, 34-31.The Minutemen lost to Boston College (30-7), the fake Miami (42-41), Akron (30-6) and Buffalo (41-21).

UMass lost its only game of this season to Colorado, 48-14.

Yes, a strong fan turnout will be the difference in this one.

Not.

Tomorrow: A one-word game plan.

Saturday: ESPN Gameday and Depth Charts

Sunday: Game Analysis

Monday: Photo Essay

09.16.15
by

Time Travel, Temple Style

return

Time travel is supposed to be impossible, something only Rod Taylor and Alan Young did in the great H.G. Wells’ inspired movie, The Time Machine.

Well, for any Temple fan motivated to make the six-hour trip to Foxboro, it will be like sitting in that time machine and punching the coordinates for 2005 or maybe 2006. The University of Massachusetts’ football program now is where Temple’s was then in more ways than one. The Minutemen are 10 years behind Temple, and it’s not just on the field of play.

In 2005, Temple football made regular appearances in bottom 25 (and 10) polls; now UMass does.

In 2005, Temple football made regular appearances in bottom 25 (and 10) polls; now UMass does.

UMass will have a nice little tailgate thing going on, with maybe a couple of thousand hardcore fans but nothing like the 30,000 fans Temple gets these days for tailgating. Once inside the stadium, about 15,000 UMass fans will look like a couple of hundred in the cavernous Gillette Stadium and the home field advantage will be pretty much negligible. It will be nothing like the 12,500 Temple students and 25,000 more Temple alumni that gave the Owls a solid home field advantage in a packed Lincoln Financial Field on opening day against Penn State.

UMass as a program will be coming off a bottom-feeder year in a bottom-feeder league, the MAC, and not a bowl-eligible year in a big-market league like Temple did. Now, Temple is knocking on the door of the real top 25, while UMass is firmly entrenched in the bottom 25, like Temple was back then.

A typical UMass crowd these days.

A typical UMass crowd these days.

UMass fans have a similar bond with Temple fans of a decade ago based on the road experience, too. Ten years ago, Temple fans had to sit in front of their computers—some with dial-up connections—to watch road games flicker on and off on the MAC access network. Now, all Temple road games are on real television. The only exception to that rule is this week at UMass.

In other words, the experience will be Temple football, circa 2005.

Or, in just one word, Hell.

College football Hell, the same Hell the Owls escaped from with a 2012 invitation to the then Big East. Time and circumstances allowed the Owls to hit the forward button on the time machine, but those same ingredients are working against upward mobility for the Minutemen. The MAC only accepted UMass as a travel partner for Temple. When Temple left for the Big East, the MAC had no need for UMass. The school and the MAC parted ways by “mutual agreement” but the MAC had all of the leverage here and now UMass is left out in the cold of independence, an almost certain death sentence.

When you are rejected by the MAC, there is no place to go but down.

Maybe there is hope for UMass in the next round of major conference expansion. There is no room in the AAC Inn now. Once Temple or UConn or Cincy is, say, promoted to the ACC or the Big 12, something in the AAC might open for the Minutemen but, right now, it looks like they are stuck in football Hell.

There’s no forward button on this Time Machine for the Minutemen but, once the Owls escape Gillette, they can safely return to 2015 with UMass still stuck in 2005.

If anyone can understand where UMass is now, it is the Temple fans who will make the trip on Saturday. If they experience a strong feeling of de ja vu, they will know why.

Tomorrow: What Were They Thinking