Tag Archives: Temple football

08.09.14
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Coach Rhule Talks After First Scrimmage

Amazing how all of Philadelphia is buzzing about a “fake” game involving the Eagles when we are only 19 days away from the first college or pro football game involving a “real” Philadelphia team.

Temple is that team and there are 19 days remaining to shocking the world and getting its chance to beat an SEC team. Has Temple really ever beaten an SEC team? I cannot recall one, maybe Doc Chodoff can.

Temple never beat an ACC team before 2011 when the Owls went down to Maryland and won, 38-7, so great things can be done. Temple beat a Big 10 team, Wisconsin, on the road in 1990. Temple beat a PAC-10 team in California in a 1979 bowl game. SEC? Don’t remember. MAC winning teams? Bruce Arians was 5-0 against them.

So here we are 19 days away from showtime and a lot of wide receivers are banged up. Coach Rhule talks about “Matty” and that is Matt Eaton, the true freshman, who seems to be rising above the other true freshman wideouts. Looks like another true freshman, Sean Chandler, has a chance to start at one corner.

Today’s “oh no” moment was to hear that the kicking game was not up to par and that one of the kicks was blocked. Unless 7-footer Devonte Watson has joined the team and is doing the kick blocking, that cannot be good news.

Sad to hear that Jabo Lee is injured again. Would like to see Khalif Herbin now get some snaps at running back. Vanderbilt has no tape on Khalif Herbin and would likely be stunned how elusive he is in the open field. Getting a 5-7 slot receiver the ball in the open field could be more problematic than just handing off to this terrific talent. So scared Herbin is going to be this year’s underused nuclear weapon. Hope coach Rhule proves me wrong.

Temple beating Vanderbilt would finally open some eyes in Philadelphia and at least shed a little bit of the spotlight on 10th and Diamond. Right now, it’s all on the Nova Care Complex.

Hit “mute” before watching this … I can easily envision No. 7 of Temple being Khalif Herbin and doing to Vanderbilt what Tim Brown does here (hopefully, not with the Owls behind 24-0):

 

 

08.06.14
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Coach Rhule Talkin’ About Practice

When it comes to talking about practice, I’m a lot like Allen Iverson. Fast-forward me to Aug. 28 as soon as possible.

You will not find me at the E-O at any of the practices because I’m just not that interested in them. I realize they are a necessary evil to be able to get the job done in the real games and the real games is where they matter.

Still, occasionally it’s interesting to hear some of the developments in the early practices.

Shabazz Ahmed, last year’s starter at defensive end, has been moved to the offensive side of the ball to bolster the OL depth.

There very well could be two Nate Smiths starting on defensive as old dependable Nate D. Smith will hold down his LB spot but Nate L. Smith–who led the state of Pennsylvania in interceptions in 2011–could be moving into a starting spot, according to Matt Rhule.

Khalif Herbin has been very good and I believe the key to the success of the offense will be lining him up on more than one spot on the field. I hope they are able to get the ball into his hands more than the typical 5-7 times a slot receiver is  “targeted” (let alone hit) with a pass per game. To accomplish that goal, I hope Khalif handles punts and kickoffs and is the kind of third-down, change-of-pace, back that got Matty Brown significant playing time as a true freshman.

Other than that, as Jose from Norristown would say, no word on which of the incoming freshman emerges as the speedy and tall target that Robbie Anderson was last season. I hope that development is on the next Matt Rhule tape.

07.30.14
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Coach Rhule At AAC Media Day

A few things to take from this interview, one that means nothing, the others that mean everything.
First, the nothing part. Nothing ages a man like being either a President of the United States or a Temple head football coach.
I did not notice a single gray hair on the head of Mr. Obama or Mr. Rhule before they took either job. Now there are plenty of both. Al Golden addressed that problem with Grecian Formula.

Now onto the meaningful observations:
Coach Rhule is a very good guy and I would like nothing more than to see him succeed on the job, despite my documented and numerous reservations in the past. He’s a good representative of Temple University.
Rhule seems to have a handle on the team’s problems, the pass rush coming immediately to mind. Moving faster linebackers to ends, where they can use that speed to seek out and destroy enemy quarterbacks, is the key to the defense.
Kiser Terry is now a 285-pound tackle. He used to be a 240-pound end.
The offense will try to spread the ball all over the field and get the ball in numerous guy’s hands. That’s a good thing, if Khalif Herbin is used both as a halfback and a slot back.
Of all the “outside” interviewers, this guy Mark Rogers came into this short interview well-prepared. If only the Temple football beat writer for the Inquirer, John Mitchell, knew as much about Temple football as this guy.
Wonder what coach was looking at in the beginning of the interview? Must have been something distracting him.

07.23.14
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Kareem Ali Really Temple Made

Colin Thompson and Kareem Ali are the newest Owls.

Colin Thompson and Kareem Ali are the newest Owls.

Any time I get off the SEPTA Regional rail at Temple University station, which is quite often, I get to see an anonymous person with a painted Cherry and White face with glasses staring at me with the words “Temple Made” above his head.

Temple football now boasts of  ultimate “Temple Made” person soon to be on its roster, Kareem Ali. According to this great story by Matt Vender, Ali was conceived at Temple. He’s the first documented person to be literally Temple Made–though I’m sure there are a few undocumented ones.

Now he’s going to do his part to make Temple football a Made Man in the college football world.

When Al Golden was at Temple, he had a binder on how to build a program from the ground up and one of the chapters in it was recruiting. “Trust the film,” Golden would always say.

Golden was not bashful about his philosophy of recruiting. He believed that the key of going from the worst program in major college football to winning a non-BCS conference title like the MAC was getting a whole bunch of team leaders, captains of their high school teams from winning programs, then reaching up and grabbing as many as five guys every year who were offered by BCS programs. Golden never got a chance to win the MAC, but I believe he was only a year or two away when he left to go to Miami (Fla.)

Golden had a great school to sell, Temple, and he was a great salesman who was able to lure guys like Kee-Ayre Griffin away from Boston College and Adrian Robinson away from Pitt. Those guys helped fuel three consecutive winning seasons at Temple. When I dashed off an email congratulating Al on his first recruiting class, Al dashed one back: “Mike, we’re not done yet. We’re waiting on a guy from St. Peter’s Prep who could be our best recruit. Wish us luck.”

Griffin was that guy, the last recruit of Golden’s first-ever class and the first of five good recruiting chapters.

It now appears that Matt Rhule has memorized that chapter.

One day after getting Kareem Ali to de-commit from Maryland (Big 10), he got Colin Thompson to transfer from Florida (SEC).

I had been somewhat concerned last week that the Owls offered a guy who had only been offered by Duquesne, Coastal Carolina and St. Francis of Loretto but the recent additions of Ali and Thompson put the Owls back on the right recruiting track. You are going to need a lot of guys like Ali and Thompson to win an AAC title and, if they can convince guys like Shareef Miller to come on board, it won’t be long before the Owls are hoisting a trophy soon.

Mix those three guys with a couple more similar players, stir in a few high school captains from winning programs, trust the film, always call a quarterback sneak on fourth and three inches, bake and watch a championship team rise. At least that’s the fervent hope.

07.01.14
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Temple Football: Just How Good Is Recruiting?

Shareef Miller, Temple football,

Adding Shareef Miller could be the domino that moves Temple football recruiting from good to great

Social media is a great tool to follow college football recruiting and, if you have been following twitter in the past few days, there has been a significant buzz regarding Temple football.

Some of the top recruits not only in the region are seriously talking about committing to the Owls and if that gets done, head coach Matt Rhule will be in better position to do what he was  brought in to do—win games.

Because for all the buzz surrounding Rhule’s second recruiting class, it was still ranked behind Steve Addazio’s 2012 class nationally and the second-best recruiting class in Temple history. It was still ranked No. 4 in the AAC—impressive for a 2-10 school but maybe not good enough to get the job done.

If some the people mentioning Temple on their twitter feeds—most notably George Washington High School’s Shareef Miller—make an early commitment to the school, they can be the Pied Piper leading other four- and five-star recruits to the Philadelphia school.

I’ve always thought that Temple could become the new U (like Miami of Florida became), enticing urban talent to stay home and build something new and exciting, just like the Florida kids did for the Hurricanes.

But it has got to turn from talk in the newspaper article here into reality.

Plus, if you go from a national championship staff at Florida (offensive coordinator Steve Addazio, defensive coordinator Chuck Heater, quarterbacks’ coach Scot Loeffler)  to guys Rhule hired from Tennessee Chattanooga  (Marcus Satterfield)  and Eastern Michigan (Phil Snow), the game day credibility just doesn’t measure up. We all saw what happened on game day last year and it was not pretty.

Daz had his faults, but no one with a shred of credibility can say his 2011 staff was less qualified than Rhule’s 2014 staff.

I’ll never forget what John Palumbo told his father after Daz’s first spring camp: “Dad, I thought Golden was good but these guys from Florida are big-time SEC coaches and it is not even close.”

Until Matt Rhule wins on a consistent basis, it will stay that far apart. Getting some four- and five-star recruits in here might begin to make a difference but until these guys sign on the dotted line, it’s just talk.

The earlier talk the talk becomes walk the walk the better. All it takes is one guy. He might already be here, too.