Tag Archives: Temple football

09.15.23
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Biggest worry of the season: Big Bodies

This $10 million addition to the E-O was built to win titles and not to lose to an FCS team.

Normally in this space on every Friday of the football season you will read a “real” preview of the next day’s game.

No such preview is needed today.

If my beloved Temple football Owls don’t take care of business and destroy Norfolk State, there is no reason to open up the Edberg Olson Football Complex on Monday. The university spent $7 million to build that complex in 2005 and $10 more million on improvements five years later to win FBS titles, not to lose to an FCS team.

Daz hugs Bill Bradshaw after beating Maryland 37-7 in 2011. These are the kinds of games Temple needs to schedule and win.

The reasoning is simple: Any team who loses to Marshall 55-3 and James Madison 63-7 last year deserves to lose to Temple by 48-7 or worse this one.

If we are not getting that kind of business done we should not be in this kind of business.

I will not be at the game because I’ve said for years that Temple should not be playing FCS teams and I will not pay a dime to see Temple play those teams. We will be back in attendance against Miami (9/23, 3:30) and hope to run into a lot of Temple fans there. (Aside to KJ–we’re no longer in that corner you saw us a couple of years ago, we are now alongside the primo row where the team walks into the game. Thank you, Arthur Johnson.)

Really convinced FIU will win outright over a UConn team that loses its starting QB for the season. NIU would have passed the eye test with the win over BC but the loss to SIU was the last straw. Akron passed the eye test for me against Temple so should not lose by 30 to Kentucky. NW’s 38-7 win over a decent UTEP team sold me on the Wildcats.

This Saturday, though, this 40+ year Owl fan will be watching from home (ESPN+, 2 p.m.) tomorrow and I am confident we will be able to deliver on this site a decent post-game report.

Temple’s main goal should be getting into a P5 conference and beating FCS teams does nothing to advance that goal. Scheduling and beating P5 teams does advance the football in that direction. The Owls beat Vanderbilt, 37-7, in 2014. They beat Penn State 27-10 in 2015. They beat Maryland 35-14 in 2018 and 20-17 in 2019. Those are the kinds of games they need to schedule and win.

Meanwhile, more pressing issues are at hand.

The biggest worry of the season is what we saw in the first few games: Temple is running out of big bodies on the offensive and defensive lines.

The Owls defensive line in particular got worn down in the fourth quarter at Rutgers, where a less-than-mediocre Big 10 team was able to score 23-straight points on them. Blowing that possible win really hurt.

Who to blame?

Certainly, the current staff is first in line. They should have known the Owls needed a lot more big bodies in the program that they were able to attract in the transfer portal. They should have over-recruited like an airline overbooks but didn’t.

Will it come back to bite them?

Geez, I hope not.

A possible fix that might work is a 3-5-3 defense–two DEs, a nose guard, five LBS (which we have plenty of) and three DBs.

Meanwhile, say a prayer that no one gets hurt along either line until after the AAC championship game is over in December.

If those prayers are answered, the Owls have a shot at being in that game.

If not, 6-6 will be a monumental struggle.

Let’s beat Norfolk State like a drum, go to the 3-5-3 defense and hope for the best.

Picks: Started out slow (3-3 against the spread). Would have definitely been 4-2 had Michael Pratt of Tulane played against Mississippi State. This week’s picks are above.

When you schedule Norfolk State, you don’t appear on “regular” TV. The Akron-Kentucky and VT-Rutgers games should be of particular interest to Temple fans. Owls are on ESPN+ at 2 p.m.

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.11.23
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This is the week to avoid the trap

Down only 13-7 in the fourth quarter, Temple TUFF means grabbing this game and taking it away. That didn’t happen. Stan Drayton has to diagnose why and provide a pill to cure the Owls this week.

Most doctors will be able to diagnose a simple problem by asking you what the symptoms are, when did they happen and what changes in the diet might have caused the sickness.

Changing the lifestyle or a simple pill usually–not always–solves the problem.

Staying the course of a bad diet or habit usually exacerbates it.

The big temptation Temple head coach Stan Drayton has is to stick to the plan he brought into the season and make it work or determine if a 36-7 loss to a team that got shut out, 37-0, by Maryland two games ago is acceptable.

From this perspective, it isn’t. I’m not a doctor but I watched Wayne Hardin, Bruce Arians, Al Golden annd Matt Rhule work on some pretty sick teams so I’m confident that a change is needed right away. Watching Hardin coach all by himself was better than a 13-year stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

The symptoms are pretty clear, Temple has not been able to establish a running game and E.J. Warner subsequently has been under intense pressure.

The Owls have run out of offensive line pills but half the battle there was not having a running back with the ability to 1) Make people miss and 2) break tackles.

Temple has that pill in Joquez Smith. He separated himself from the other Temple backs on Saturday night. Take one Joquez and call me in the morning. That should cure the headache of a bad running game. This kid has the unique ability to get lost behind the offensive line and come out the other end. No other Temple back is that slippery. Put him in the game and give him 20 carries.

My guess is that he goes for over 100 yards against Norfolk State and gives Miami something to think about in two weeks.

The other “pill” is fixing the passing game.

Smith being in there certainly would open the lanes for Warner to throw deeper and that’s what he needs to do. Once Smith gets rolling, Warner can fake it into his belly and pull it out, freeze the linebackers and throw over the defense. Receivers like Dante Wright, Zae Baines and Amad Anderson need to get the ball in space downfield and work their magic. Five-yard outs ain’t doing it.

Temple has too many talented edge players to come away with just seven points against any team, even Big 10 ones.

If Warner can’t get these guys the ball with an improved running game, Quincy Patterson deserves a shot. Defenses will be looking for Patterson to run and with that threat, more lanes to throw will be open. If you can live with the stomach ache of five-yard outs all year, keep E.J. in the game. If you want a multi-dimensional offense, try a Quincy Patterson pill. It might be a placebo and it might not, but you will never know until you try.

Smith’s running will keep the defense off the field and nothing helps a defense that gave up 23 fourth-quarter points than an offense that controls the clock and moves the sticks.

Norfolk State will be the perfect game to make these changes. You can beat NS with Edward Saydee and doing the things you did to beat Akron but you can’t win an AAC title sticking to that plan.

It might be a bitter pill to take now but holding your nose and talking it gives your team the best chance to get over the malaise of a 36-7 loss that should have never happened. Bold changes are needed now, not next Tuesday.

Otherwise you fall into a trap that could lead to another 3-9 season.

Friday: The Biggest Worry of The Season

09.09.23
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Rutgers: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward?

These days are over, unfortunately

We don’t like to say “I told you so” in this space but, at least in two specific instances over the last few days, we told you so.

Our last post was about Quincy Patterson coming in to “pass” the ball instead of running it. Even the headline of the post was: “HERE’S A THOUGHT: HOW ABOUT HAVING QUINCY PATTERSON PASS?”

What did Stan Drayton do in the first half of a 36-7 loss to Rutgers on Saturday night?

Do the same damn thing he’s done for 99 percent of the time he’s brought Patterson into the game: Try to run.

No. 24 is the future of an improved Owls’ running game.

It’s telegraphing the play to the opponent and Rutgers’ head coach Greg Schiano didn’t need a Navajo codebreaker to determine what Patterson was going to do. Drayton had Patterson run the ball–and like most coaches before him–Schiano was able to stop it.

Who knows had Patterson been allowed to pass if the Owls would have been seven points closer but it would have been something Rutgers would have been unprepared for and the Owls needed those points at that time. ECU sent the house in last year’s final game “knowing” Patterson was going to run it but Drayton fooled them by having QP take one step forward as to run and then one step back for a touchdown pass. Would have been nice to pull that ace out in the RU game.

As it was, the Owls were shut out in the first half, 13-0.

New Temple rule: If a quarterback gets shut out again in the first half, a new quarterback should come into the game.

Thirty minutes is plenty of time to score a point and that’s the quarterback’s job.

Patterson passes there and Temple maybe scores and goes down 13-7. Warner’s second-half touchdown pass would have made it 14-13, good guys. Since the TD pass came in fourth quarter, that’s a full 45 minutes of shutout football Drayton gave Warner.

Too much. Waaaaaaay too much.

The second “I told you so” moment came when true freshman Joquez Smith came into the game. Last week, we wrote that “No. 24 needed a shot” because none of the other backs displayed the ability to make a tackler miss in the opener against Akron.

He got his chance and proved that he was so much better than the upperclassmen options Temple has.

If Stan Drayton learns a couple of lessons here, it will be one step back and two steps forward for Temple.

If he trots out Edward Saydee as his feature back and brings Quincy Patterson in only for short-yardage runs at the goal line again next week, it will be three steps backward. One step for the blowout and two steps for not recognizing Joquez can run and Quincy can throw.

Three steps in the opposite direction Temple cannot afford to make.

E.J. Warner is a good college quarterback. He is not a great one. At least not yet.

He needs to develop a sense of urgency and having Patterson clicking at his heels gives Temple the kind of run/pass option most of the other good college teams have. You can’t allow any college quarterback that many three-and-outs.

Zero points in the first half should have been enough to pull the trigger on Warner and give Patterson a shot.

Drayton deserves some props for putting Smith in the game. He is the future.

If Warner keeps getting shut out in subsequent first halves, he will have to make similar hard and necessary decisions.

That’s the only way Temple takes two steps forward from this big step back.

Monday: This Is The Week

09.08.23
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Here’s a Thought: Have Quincy Patterson pass

Go through just about every single thread on the Rutgers’ fan base board and you will find a lot of predictions.

I found three to be particularly amusing:

Rutgers, 69-0. Rutgers 51-3 and, lastly but by no means least, Rutgers, 92-3. Not a single one picked Temple to win.

Rutgers’ fans full of themselves?

Shocked I tell ya. Shocked.

It’s pretty much the Mets’ fanbase of college football. They think their team is a whole lot better than it is.

Always have. Always will.

I do remember a game where I had a transistor radio in one hand and my program in the other walking into Rutgers Stadium in the otherwise regrettable Bobby Wallace Error.

Listening to the pre-game show, I heard the Rutgers’ color guy tell the Rutgers’ play-by-play guy this: “Let’s face it: Rutgers should never lose to Temple.”

“Who the hell do they think they are?” I thought, almost tossing my radio along the road.

Temple won that game, 48-14, and the quarterback for the Owls, Mike Frost, became a successful bartender on campus and later head manager of the Draught Horse.

A couple of years later, Temple was kicked out of the Big East for “non-competitiveness” but a less competitive team, Rutgers–who the Owls had beaten four-straight years–was allowed to stay.

After that announcement, Temple beat Rutgers 20-17, on a Cap Poklemba field goal in the rain and that was a night when a terrific back named Tanardo Sharps ran 48 times for 246 yards. Once that game was over, the entire 55-man Owl traveling team went over and danced on the Rutgers’ Big East logo and sang “T for Temple U.” Joe Klecko and I tailgated with a small group of our friends before and after.

The beers never tasted better.

Now Temple plays Rutgers tomorrow (7:30 p.m., Big 10 Network) and a lot of those same assumptions are still in place.

Temple should never beat Rutgers (according to RU fans) despite the fact that Temple hung with two teams arguably better than RU in the final games of last season, Houston (42-35) and ECU (49-46). Owls lost both games in the last 1:22 but probably should have won both. At the same time, Rutgers was being beaten up by Penn State (55-10) and Maryland (37-0).

Yes, the same Penn State program that lost, 27-10, to Temple in 2015 and the same Maryland program that lost to Temple in consecutive pre-Covid seasons, 35-14 (in College Park) and 20-17. That last Temple win over the Terps came in the same year Maryland beat RU, 48-7.

But Rutgers should never lose to Temple. Right.

Beginning our official picks this week against the spread. Really like a Cincy team that put up 66 on Eastern Kentucky over a Pitt team that scored 45 on a worse Wofford team.

We do know two more things: Both Temple and Rutgers have highly paid professional coaches who have studied the tendencies of the opposite team so much that they are ready.

The team that throws a wrench into those preparations by showing the bad guys something they haven’t seen is probably the one that will win.

Throws being the operative word and Temple being that team.

If there has been one predictable pattern about the Owls for the last two years, it has been whenever backup quarterback Quincy Patterson comes into the game it’s almost always on short yardage situations and it pretty much is a run on every play call. Patterson always comes in about four plays a game and those four plays are always short-yardage runs.

That hasn’t fooled many people.

The one time Temple was courageous enough to break that pattern, Quincy threw a jump pass to the tight end for a touchdown in a 49-46 loss to bowl-bound East Carolina in the final game of last season. Temple head coach Stan Drayton has praised Patterson for the last nine months by saying his passing game has improved substantially. It’s time to let that baby exit the birth canal and for Stan to put his -8.5 money where his mouth is.

In order to beat a team like RU, Temple is going to have to show Greg Schiano what he hasn’t seen on film and what he has seen so far is a Patterson run. He hasn’t seen Patterson put that ball in the belly of a running back, pull it out and toss it downfield for six.

In a game where the line is single digits, a simple thing like a couple of well-timed Patterson passes in short yardage could be enough to put Temple over the top.

Any other surprises will have to be cooked up by the Temple coaches. They know what they’ve shown Schiano on tape so far. The more new wrinkles they show the better their chances will be.

Sunday: Game Analysis

09.04.23
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Know Your Opponent: Rutgers

There are a couple of ways to look at the puzzling line released about an hour after Rutgers handed fellow Big 10 foe Northwestern a 24-7 defeat on Sunday.

The Week Two line showed Rutgers ONLY a 10-point favorite over visiting Temple (Saturday night, 7:30, Big 10 Network).

You could take the Mike Missanelli approach or the Occam’s Razor approach.

Missanelli was a fixture in Philadelphia on the radio with the best sports talk show for about 20 years straight. When a puzzling line came out, Mike would say “that line is telling me something” and go the other way.

More often than not, when Mike took that line of reasoning, he cashed in with a winning ticket.

Or there is the other way, the Occam’s Razor Theory. Simply stated, if the line seems too good to be true go for the simpler explanation and jump on it.

I’m going with Occam’s Razor and taking Cincy getting 7, Tulsa getting 30 and Memphis laying 21.

It doesn’t make any sense that a Big 10 team that won by double digits over another Big 10 team is ONLY favored by a touchdown and a field goal to beat an AAC team that struggled to beat a MAC team.

Easy money, right?

Missanelli would probably disagree.

One, that same Rutgers’ team struggled to win at Temple last year, 16-14, as a 17-point favorite and Vegas was fooled once by this matchup and probably doesn’t want to be fooled again.

Two, Temple has a quarterback with the “it” factor in E.J. Warner and Rutgers, in Gavin Wimsatt, does not have a guy who has proven to be capable taking over a game like Warner has a few times.

Yes, we know Warner just had an “OK” game against Akron but we also know he is capable of doing much better.

Three, the line is and NEVER has been meant to “predict” games but ensure that pretty much an even number of money is wagered on both teams. If more money is bet on RU in the next two days than TU, expect that line to go up a bit.

Who wins?

The next few days will show if the Occam method or the Missanelli method has been adopted by the betting public.

Saturday night will be the true test to show which theory is right.

Friday: Predictable Patterns

09.02.23
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5 Takeaways From Opening Day

Watched the complete post-game press conference from Stan Drayton and will say one thing about the guy.

He was a lot happier with a 24-21 win than I would have been if I was a head coach.

Pretty hard for me to stomach that freaking Rod Carey, with inferior talent, can beat Akron, 45-24, and Drayton can’t.

Win and advance, I guess that’s the philosophy but I will say this: IF I’m Rutgers (and thank God I’ve never been Rutgers), I would not be concerned with Temple right now.

Hell, if I’m Temple–and I’ve been Temple all my life–I am so unconvinced that Temple will win this next game that I’ve canceled my trip to Piscataway next week.

Prove me wrong, Stan and the Owls.

The logic simply is this: If you can only beat a 2-10 MAC team, 24-21, you are not going to beat a Big 10 team no matter what kind of Big 10 team that is.

Five other takeaways:

The Edward Saydee wearing No. 2 looked a lot like the Edward Saydee wearing No. 23.

One, where was Edward Saydee? All offseason, we heard that Saydee improved so much that he could be a dominant back for the Owls. What we saw was what we saw last year. He had a hard time getting past the first guy who hit him. Darvon Hubbard did just a little better. Let’s see what No. 24 (Joquez Smith) can do next game. The kid deserves a shot.

Two, E.J. Warner was the Lafayette Warner not the ECU one . If you thought Warner was going to resume what he did in the last game (574 yards, 5TDs) against East Carolina, think again. He was closer to the game manager he turned out to be in his first extended duty against Lafayette and not the confident difference-maker he was against ECU. He needs to be that difference-maker at RU, throwing the ball deep to set up the intermediate stuff. He did not throw it deep nearly enough. The way to fix E.J.? Throw the bomb. Put some fear in the defense. Temple tried zero bombs against Akron.

Three, the longest line since Notre Dame turned into a dud. _ Plenty of Temple fans in the parking lot but my friend Mark correctly said: “They aren’t going into the game.” Must have been only one open window because I remarked to former Temple bowl-winning quarterback Chris Coyer “this is the longest line I’ve seen going into the game since Notre Dame.” Disgraceful crowd of 12,456. Winning cures everything and one win over Akron isn’t going to hit that sweet spot.

A win is a win but the Owls need to throw some bombs to open up the offense enough to beat Rutgers. There will be no short passing game without that threat.

Four, Layton Jordan showed up when he needed to _ Jordan, who in my mind is the best football player on the team, got the key sack of a 14-0 Temple second half. Shocked he didn’t get a single digit. If he makes plays to beat Rutgers, he deserves one.

Five, nobody expected to beat Akron by 30 _ One of my comments pre-game was that “I’d settle for a 30-24 win.” Why? Like Temple, the light turned on for Akron in the last two games of 2022. One was a 44-12 win over perennial MAC power Northern Illinois. The other was a one-point loss to a bowl team, Buffalo, 23-22.

This wasn’t Wagner or Bucknell or Delaware State or Stony Brook. This was a real team with a great head coach and the good guys won while, at the same time, lowering the expectations for Temple fans down the road.

Rutgers will walk into next week expecting an easy win. If what the Owls did today sets the trap better than a 55-13 win over Akron would have, I will sign for it.

Not expecting it, but someone hand me a pen.

Monday: Know Your Foe

    09.01.23
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    T Minus One Day: Temple Owls Take the Field

    The full Gary Segars video can only be seen through by clicking on the link below. Well worth a watch.

    One of the greatest calls in Temple football history occurred just short of seven years and a month ago when the ESPN announcer said: “The Owls have their first lead of the night … and the only one they’ll need.”

    No nicer day for football than tomorrow.

    That was after Keith Kirkwood made a great catch off a fake spike from P.J. Walker with 0:01 on the clock, giving Temple a 26-25 win at UCF.

    Those were the days for Temple. Without that catch, there is no appearance in the AAC title game for the Owls and no championship.

    As it was, the Owls got both.

    All the Owls needed that day was that Kirkwood catch. All you need tomorrow to enjoy the game is this depth chart below.

    No need to spend $10 on a program tomorrow. Print this out and bring it to the game.

    The season starts tomorrow (2 p.m., ESPN+, Lincoln Financial Field) against an Akron team that is more than capable of beating Temple. Owl Nation have always been believers. The “regular nation” over the last three years has not and with good reason.

    One, Rod Carey came to Philadelphia with a Midwestern arrogance and a “my-way-or-the-highway” approach and some of the best Temple players chose the highway.

    That gutted the program for more than the three years Carey was here.

    Two, Stan Drayton needed a full year to clean up that poisoned culture and what he did in a 3-9 season convinced many of the outsiders that he has changed it enough so that the Owls will be bowling.

    For starters, Gary Segars of “Winning Cures Everything” has gone on record that the Owls will go 6-6 and be bowling (see above video). Segars, Parker Fleming and Kyle Hunter are able to take a step back and look at what is happening at Temple now and are impressed at the direction of the program. It is one of the best college Youtube channels on the internet. Most of the other channels still trot out that tired trope of Temple sucking.

    Another, Bud Elliott, of CBS Sports has said “I think Temple can go bowling this year.”

    From their lips to God’s ears.

    Head coach Stan Drayton has said the goal is championships but did not say this year although that would be a welcome early development.

    There are concerns but one is not the most important position on the field, quarterback. E.J. Warner has that “it” factor and, when you have that factor, “it” can carry the team a long way. If the unthinkable happens and E.J. goes down, backup Quincy Patterson can win a lot of games in the AAC. Hell, when he was with Virginia Tech, Patterson beat a UNC team that beat Temple, 55-13.

    Are there concerns?

    Sure.

    You worry about a thin defensive line and cross your fingers that nobody on that unit goes down. Ironically, one of the guys who could have helped–Darian Varner–transferred to Wisconsin, where he currently is a backup DE. Ugh. When will these Temple players learn that the grass is never greener outside the Edberg-Olson Complex fence? Varner could be playing and helping at Temple right now. At Wisconsin, there is a very real chance he doesn’t get on the field.

    Nobody expects Temple to go 12-0, though, and the players on the above chart should be able to deliver a winning season against a 127th-ranked schedule in the country. That won’t happen without a win over Akron tomorrow so the Owls would appreciate any hometown fan support on one of the nicest days of the year.

    As that announcer said seven years ago, their only lead is the only one they will need. That applies if the the Owls take a 7-0 lead and add on to eventually send everyone home happy tomorrow.

    It could be the start of something big.

    Sunday: Game Analysis

    08.28.23
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    Game Week: Know your opponent (Akron)

    This is what happened the last time Temple played Akron.
    Got to love the great Temple single digits of the past watching this ceremony on the screen via Zoom.

    For how Week One of the college football season goes, there were plenty of clues left by what happened in Week Zero.

    Vegas pretty much got every game right with only Notre Dame significantly exceeding expectations from a line perspective (although it should have known that Navy getting rid of a great coach like Ken Niumatalolo would have a deleterious effect on that program).

    What does that mean for Temple’s opening game against Akron (2 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field)?

    Give or take just a few points, the Owls SHOULD win by about 10.

    Should and that’s only if both teams play up to their potential.

    The only question is what kind of 10-point win: 17-7, 24-14, 35-25 or 45-35.

    Take the over.

    What do we know about Akron?

    Joe Moorhead’s team went out with a bang last year, winning at Northern Illinois, 44-12, and losing by a point at a good Buffalo team, 23-22. Akron quarterback D.J. Irons was an All-MAC player, joined on that team by his No. 1 target, receiver Alex Adams.

    Moorhead’s teams usually score a lot of points and Everett Withers’ defenses usually give up a lot of points, so that’s certainly has to be Temple’s biggest concern going into the game.

    The good news for the Owls is that they have a quarterback with the “it” factor in E.J. Warner. The “it” factor is simply this: He has total command of the offense, abundant talent and a knack for getting the ball in the right spots at the right times. In Amad Anderson and Dante Wright, he has explosive perimeter receivers. In tight ends Jordan Smith and David Martin-Robinson, two dependable receivers although one is more of a reliable stick-mover and the other is a threat to take it to the house.

    They complement each other well.

    The running game has improved so much that its No. 1 protagonist, Edward Saydee, earned a single digit. We’ll believe it when we see it. (Not the single digit, but the improvement.)

    The Owls have nine returning starters on defense and if Withers is able to put that kind of talent in the right places at the right times, tackles for losses could ensue.

    This opener is no Wagner or Bucknell for the Owls, a gimmie tuneup. There is a real threat the Owls could lose this game and that should have them on their toes.

    Yet this is the kind of team Temple must beat if it has any designs on a bowl game because all but one of the teams on the Owls’ schedule is better than Akron.

    Still, Akron must be respected or the Owls will lose.

    Consider this: The Northern Illinois team that Akron beat, 44-12, was the same NIU team that lost at Tulsa, 38-35. Tulsa turned around two weeks later and beat Temple in Philadelphia, 29-16.

    If that’s not a sobering enough fact, Moorhead already took a less talented team into Philly and won a decade ago.

    In Temple’s defense, the ECU and Houston teams the Owls should have finished off at the end of last season were much better than anyone Akron played all of last year.

    Maybe Vegas didn’t input all of the available data. Maybe it did. Let’s hope they nail the TU outcome the way they nailed most of their picks over Week Zero.

    Friday: Game Preview

    Sunday: Game Analysis

    08.25.23
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    Bulletin Board Material for Everett Withers?

    The website Wager Talk places any blame for TU failures this year on Everett Withers.

    Don’t know what motivates new Temple football defensive coordinator Everett Withers but do know one thing:

    He was a competitive enough guy to have made it all the way to the NFL as a player so when someone tells him he can’t do something or they are not confident in him doing something, the competitive juices usually flow the other way.

    Withers trying to answer the question what kind of offense Joe Moorhead runs.

    That was Withers the player, though.

    If Withers, 59, the coach is the same way, Temple should be in good shape.

    The website Wager Talk is not a big fan of Withers. Nor am I.

    My concerns about him are well-documented in this space and have been since he was hired by Stan Drayton to take charge of 1/3d of the team in March.

    One, in his last sole role as defensive coordinator–not all that long ago in 2021 for FIU–his defense hemorrhaged points like a motorcycle rider does blood falling off his bike at 60 mph without a helmet.

    Two, he was sole DC at Austin Peay (1989), Louisville (1995-97), Minnesota (2007), North Carolina (2008-10), and FIU (2021) and doesn’t have a great record in any of those places.

    With UNC in 2008, his teams gave up double-digit points in every single game with the exception of a 28-7 win over Georgia Tech. In 2009, the Tar Heels’ best defensive effort was a 19-6 win over Duke (every other FBS game giving up double digits) and in 2010 they did not hold a single team to 10 points or less.

    In fact, you have to go back all the way to 1995 when Withers shut out an FBS team.

    College football offenses have changed a lot since 1995.

    Just as an example, Chuck Heater–who is without a job right now–shut out FBS teams in consecutive weeks for the 2011 Temple team. That was 16 years after Withers shut anyone out and more than a decade ago.

    To say it’s a concern for this Temple fan is an understatement. However, it’s not a concern for head football coach Stan Drayton so if the Owls give up 30 or more against Akron, it should be on the CEO, not the DC, to step in and fix things. Withers is Drayton’s buddy and evidently Drayton’s comfort factor with Withers outweighed any thought about hiring a DC with a better track record.

    Akron head coach Joe Moorhead has proven he can put points on the board with lesser talent than Temple before (Fordham, 31 points, 2013) so that should set off all kinds of alarms inside the Edberg-Olson Football Complex.

    Withers would have to be living in a bubble right now if he’s not aware of criticism over his record stopping modern college football offenses.

    If I’m him, I’m in the E-O until midnight studying every single damn play Akron ran in scoring 28, 44 and 22 points in its last three games of 2022 and devising a plan to stop the 10 most successful ones. I’d be hitting that rewind button a million times and taking notes and delivering them to Jordan Magee and Layton Jordan and company next week. In practice, I’m making sure those guys know what’s coming and are ready for it. I’d make sure they are in the right spots and, if they are not, I’ll be asking the scout team to rerun the play until the defense gets it right.

    Somebody saying you can’t do something should be a motivating factor to prove them wrong. We will find out if that applies to Everett Withers in a week and a day.

    Monday: Game Week

    08.21.23
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    Drayton deserves credit for one statement

    If, and this is a big if, Temple posts a winning season this year, a lot of the “credit where credit is due” can be traced to this statement Temple football head coach Stan Drayton made at his Aug. 18, 2023 presser.

    Talking about schemes Drayton hit the nail right on the head when he said this:

    “We have to play to the strength of our players. That’s a daily deal. The strength of our players, not the strength of the scheme. That’s what we have to do. We have to be somewhat multiple. … we put our best 11 out there. Certain players come out there, the strength of our team might change.”

    Hopefully, Stan is explaining the 3-5-3 defense or double tight end offense to the team here.

    At least this year.

    It’s pretty clear to anyone that five of the best 11 defensive players on the team are linebackers so the challenge is to keep those five guys on the field at all times. They are the best pass rushers and, in many cases, the best run-stoppers so the Owls should be at least be considering the 3-5-3 as their base defense. Two DE’s, a nose guard, five linebackers, one safety and two corners. It’s not the same 4-3 or 5-2 everybody else plays but Temple isn’t everybody else.

    Of course, all coaches SAY they want to play to the strength of their players. Even the last guy, Rod Carey, said as much about the offensive side of the football yet he went out and did the exact opposite by running a read/option offense with a classic dropback passer in Anthony Russo.

    As a result, he almost got Russo killed and did the offense no favors. Temple should have run an NFL offense with Russo at quarterback, not a college one.

    Successful coaches follow up on what they say by doing it. Carey got cold feet and went with what worked for him at Northern Illinois.

    If you look at some of the great Temple teams in the past, they had coaches who were willing to adapt the scheme–even change it–to fit the personnel.

    After trying the spread offense for this first two years, Matt Rhule went to a running game with a blocking fullback (Nick Sharga) and that led to consecutive 10-win seasons. It was the same offense Rhule ran under Al Golden, who benefited from fullback Wyatt Benson’s blocking in front of tailback extraordinaire Bernard Pierce. Steve Addazio adopted that approach the next season and won Temple’s first bowl game in over 30 years.

    This year, the Owls’ strength on defense is their linebackers and on offense is their tight ends.

    It’s up to CEO Drayton to put his words into deeds to accentuate those positives. In less than two weeks, we will know if he means what he says.