Tag Archives: Temple football

09.20.21
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Recent development: The Temple Curse

Ifeanyi Maijeh is warming the bench at Rutgers two years after being a first-team AAC performer at Temple.

For those Temple players who saw the performance of Isaiah Graham-Mobley and Khris Banks on Saturday and think grass is greener on the other side of the street, they might want to think again.

For every IGM and Banks, there are about five Quincy Roches or Ifeanyi Maijehs.

Call it The Temple Curse. Call it whatever you want but, since Matt Rhule left, it also applies to coaches who succeeded him.

First, we will stick with the players.

Linwood Crump will have to wait 1 more year to play for Daz.

Roche left Temple to go to Miami was considered “a 3-4 round” draft pick had he gone straight to the NFL from 10th and Diamond.

He left for Miami to ostensibly increase his draft standing but he really made it worse. Roche was drafted in the sixth round (not fourth) and to add insult to injury had to split his time on the field in his final year with two other defensive ends in Manny Diaz’s rotation.

He was cut by the Steelers and is now on their practice squad.

Had Roche remained at Temple and claimed a second consecutive AAC Defensive Player of the Year Award, chances are better than even that Roche would have been drafted no lower than four and a team with that kind of investment would have to think twice before cutting him.

Maijeh is a similar story. He was a first-team All-AAC defensive tackle in 2019 but used the portal to make his way to Rutgers where he has three whole tackles this season, all assists and no solo ones. His career definitely is on a downward trend and has been for some time. After that first season at Temple when he had 52 tackles and 6.5 sacks, he was putrid last year with only 15 tackles and no sacks.

Kenny Yeboah left Temple to go to Ole Miss but that didn’t help him in the draft, either. He wasn’t drafted and had to go to the NFL as an undrafted free agent. He was cut by the Jets and, like Roche, a practice squad player.

Anthony Russo left Temple to play in the Big 10 but it doesn’t look good for him, either, as Payton Thorne has been stellar. Russo got injured in meaningless mop-up time against Youngstown State and left the game in a walking boot. Had Russo remained at Temple he might have backed up D’Wan Mathis but more than certainly would have been ahead of true freshman Justin Lynch in the depth chart.

If that was Russo behind center on Saturday, do you think the Owls score “only” three points? I don’t. He put up a total of 58 as the starting QB against both Navy and Memphis last year and was playing a defense that allowed 28 points the week before to a far less talented UMass team.

Vandy running back Ra’Mahn Davis, who didn’t do squat in a 23-3 loss to East Tennessee (not regular Tennessee or even Middle Tennessee), was a victim of the Temple Curse as he is injured and for the season. He went the extra step of quitting in the middle of last season.

Cornerback Linwood Crump Jr. left the team to become almost a certain starter at Colorado State but he got injured in preseason and will not play this fall.

Somebody up there or down here or sideways doesn’t like players who leave Temple. So far so good for IGM and Banks but, if I’m them, my radar is up for cutback blocks or targeting next week.

Meanwhile, both Diaz and Geoff Collins are under fire at Miami and Georgia Tech and they might be dismissed before Rod Carey is because those schools routinely eat bad contracts and Temple does not.

Ironically, one of the stated reasons for this portal rule is if coaches could leave for another school without sitting out a year, players should be able to as well.

A simple solution for that (probably not holding up legally) would be for both coaches and players to have to sit out a year.

Now, it’s a free-for-all and MOST people are finding out that the grass is not greener on the other side of 10th Street.

Maybe that will stop the hemorrhaging of players in the future but it certainly doesn’t help Temple now.

Friday: The Wagner, err, Game

09.18.21
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Saturday against Wagner: Enjoy the (last) win

A friend of mine for many years who pretty much knows Temple sports inside out put the Rod Carey Era (Error) in perfect perspective when I posted that the Georgia Tech fans are upset with Geoff Collins.

“He’s the Milli of college football head coaches. I fear we hired the Vanilli.”

Reading that line caused me to spit out my morning coffee and laugh out loud.

So true.

The song Milli and Vanilli got caught for being fakes on was “Blame it on the Rain.”

Our Vanilli blamed a 28-3 loss on the refs yesterday.

Really, Rod?

I could see blaming a 10-7 or maybe … maybe .. a 14-3 loss on the refs but 28-3?

We are seeing the last vestiges of a head coach in trouble.

I learned a few things I suspected but did not know for sure yesterday.

The least important one was that I could not take sunscreen into the stadium so as burned up as I was on the inside that’s how it showed on the outside.

The other three are way more important.

President Wingard, please heed these words.

One, the era of the hard-ass coach is over.

Two, the schemes on both the offensive and defensive sides are ass-backwards.

Three, when you have shitty special teams and WIN the toss, please do not … I repeat DO NOT … defer for the second half. I would rather see an onsides kick than a regular one in that situation but prefer to give my offense the ball over anything else.

That kickoff return killed any home-field advantage the Owls might have had.

When freaking UMASS gives BC a better game than Temple does, you know you have COACHING problems.

Let’s take No. 1 first. Getting to know the parents in the parking lot two years ago I got the vibe that almost every kid in the program “wanted” to transfer because they didn’t, in their words, “feel” Carey.

In other words, those kids–mostly good kids from good families–saw the direction Carey was taking the program and were not on board. The kids who could take the portal route did but those who couldn’t remained. There are a lot of good kids and good players here suffering as a result. They had been through winning programs under Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins and saw a decline under Carey. So did pretty much every Temple fan.

In order to win at Temple, you can’t be a “my-way-or-the-highway” guy. You’ve got to be a coach the players BOTH love and respect. The players loved Matt Rhule and Al Golden but more importantly respected both.

You would not see the hemorrhaging of players that we have seen under Carey with either or those two guys or a number of guys who are good players’ coaches.

You can be both–a players’ coach and a respected one.

Carey is neither.

The only reason why Temple will win 60-0 this weekend is the players. Certainly not the coaches. That’s how much better Temple’s players are than Wagner’s ones. Maybe a little more. Maybe a little less but I doubt the swing will be more than 20 points either way.

Enjoy it.

It will be the last one for a long time.

The way Temple played on Saturday, I don’t see the Owls beating either USF or Navy and those are the only two hopes for wins remaining on the schedule. Navy has a far better coaching staff and USF has Florida players. Even if the Owls win both of those games, are you satisfied with four wins?

I didn’t think so.

The next move is up to the President and the Temple Board of Trustees, if they care enough to bring us back to where we were three years ago.

If they don’t, all the work that got us to where we were in 2005 until 2019 will be for naught and throwing away that work of mostly two good coaches and men would be heartbreaking.

Monday: The Temple Curse

Friday: Wagner

09.17.21
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BC-Temple: So many story lines, so little time

Saturday’s big question will be if Kraft’s feet can actually leave the ground on a BC touchdown

If you are walking around Lot K tomorrow, like I will be, you can be excused about having the feeling of de ja vu.

Shooting the breeze with Pat Kraft about football?

Check.

Walking around the Lot and seeing the affable family and friends of Khris Banks and Isaiah Graham-Mobley?

Check.

Shaking hands before the game with Boomer (Aaron Boumerhi)?

Check.

Been there, done that.

The last time many thousands of Temple fans saw the team this was the collective look after a 55-13 loss to an ACC team. Maybe these Owls can produce a smile around 3:15 p.m. Saturday.

Except for them being the good guys, they are now the bad guys.

How did the world ever turn upside down?

Welcome to college football, 2021.

In a perfect world, the good guys would stay the good guys and the bad guys would stay the bad ones.

Whatever you feel about Kraft, the current AD at Boston College and the former one at Temple, I don’t remember a single athletic director not named Gavin White who you could walk up to and get an HONEST opinion about the game of football from.

This exchange between me and Pat in Lot K circa Geoff Collins and Dave Patenaude comes to mind:

Me: “Pat, you’re going to have to talk to Geoff about Patenaude. I have no idea what he’s doing.”

Pat: “Mike, you and me both. He’s got me scratching my head every week.”

Most athletic directors would shrug their shoulders and say that’s the head coaches bailiwick.

This guy was an honest, good, man. He still is.

For the first time in two years, this beautiful tradition returns tomorrow.

When Kraft hired Manny Diaz to replace Collins at Temple, I screamed bloody murder in this space. I wrote then that Diaz, who was the son of the ex-Mayor of Miami, would be gone as soon as Mark Richt left.

I thought it would be a year or so.

Little did I know it would be 18 days.

Kraft never held it against me. He respected my opinion.

Now seeing what Diaz has done with Miami talent, I know Temple has dodged a huge bullet.

When he hired Rod Carey, I wrote that I thought Buffalo’s Lance Leipold or Eastern Michigan’s Chris Creighton might have been a better choice but, if Rod beats Boston College on Saturday (and I pray he will), Kraft might ironically be responsible for an embarrassing BC loss. I was for Leipold and Creighton because they did more with less than Carey did but Carey beating’s BC’s butt will prove my sorry ass wrong.

And, ironically, Pat Kraft right.

Geez, I hope so.

Hope doesn’t get me the AAC title or even a bowl game so I think BC will win this one and the 16-point spread sounds about right. The last time we saw Carey coach against an ACC team turned into a 55-13 loss and a lot of Temple fans walking out of the stadium disgusted.

The caveat there is we saw some life with the Owls last week.

The Owls showed a pulse and a lot of Temple TUFF in a 45-24 win over Akron. They got a good pass rush from their Power 5 transfers and an ESPN highlight reel play from Wake Forest portal guy Manny Walker. Temple needs a big pass rush, solid run stoppage and the kind of turnover-free football from Justin Lynch they got last week. Keep D’Wan Mathis on the bench and have him regain his swag against Wagner next week. That’s my vote. Have Justin play four games and save his redshirt unless he Wally Pipps Mathis in a big win over BC.

Put it this way: Temple had five turnovers in a 61-14 Week One loss and zero turnovers in a 45-24 win a week ago.

Football ain’t rocket science. It never was. Protect the football, rush the bad guys’ quarterback, win the damn game.

Whatever happens, it will be good to see Temple fans cheering the Owls and singing “T for Temple U” after every touchdown again. Temple drew 69,176 fans for its 2015 home opener, 35,004 fans or its 2016 opener and 35,117 for its 2017 home opener. It won two of those three games and attendance for the rest of the season suffered because of its shocking home opening loss to Army in 2016 and soared after wins the other two opening games. Win this one and the fans will keep coming back.

For once, it would be nice if the good guys would show the bad guys they made the wrong choice.

Picks this week: TULANE plus 14.5 at Ole Miss (Tulane gave Oklahoma all it wanted and Okie is better than Ole Miss); WYOMING -6.5 vs. Ball State; NORTHWESTERN -2.5 at Duke; TULSA +27.5 at The Ohio State; PURDUE +7.5 at Notre Dame (Purdue is considerably better than the Toledo and FSU teams ND beat and already has a win over a decent Oregon State squad); MICHIGAN STATE +6.5 at Miami. I think Purdue not only covers but wins the game outright, something on the order of 24-21.

9/21 update: Tulane let me down, but Wyoming easily covered, Northwestern lost, Tulsa covered, Purdue lost and Michigan State not only covered but won outright. So so far for the season 7-4-1 against the spread.

9/17 Update: Last week, predicted Pitt by five (it won by 7), Purdue 51-0 (it won 49-0), NIU by 4 (it lost by seven, a push) Nebraska by four (it won by 25), App. State by 3 (it lost by two) and BYU by one (it both won and covered).

Season to date: 4-2 straight up, 4-1-1 ATS

Sunday: Game Analysis

Monday: The Temple Curse

09.13.21
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Beating BC anyway you can

It was only three years ago Temple last played Boston College.

Sometime late Saturday I received this text from a long-time Temple fan:

“Hey, did you see Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec went down with a wrist injury?”

Yeah, I did.

My initial reaction was that I wanted him to play so opposing fans and naysayers of Temple won’t say “yeah, but Jurkovec didn’t play” in the still unlikely event the Owls would win.

“I don’t want to win like that,” I typed back.

That was my initial reaction but after sleeping on the question I really don’t care if he plays or not.

I HOPE Temple plays to its potential, maybe gets a few breaks and pulls out the win. If one of those breaks is Jurkovec’s bum wrist, so be it. Temple will have to play with its backup QB, too, so I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for the bad guys.

That’s how sorely Temple needs some breaks especially after getting a series of bad ones the last couple of years, especially in that all-important first home game.

Plenty of other teams are getting breaks and maybe it’s about time Temple gets some.

Really, the first couple of weeks in college football has restored a lot of the faith in the game that I had lost with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

First, UC-Davis won at Tulsa.

Then, South Dakota State won at Colorado State.

Then, East Tennessee State destroyed Vanderbilt and Montana won at Washington.

And, finally, Jacksonville State took advantage of a Hail Mary and won at Florida State.

The latter three wins, where FCS teams beat high-profile Power 5 teams, were particularly encouraging. None of those teams even recruit on the level of Temple, let alone the teams they were able to beat.

https://twitter.com/TUFFRecruiting/status/1437088879199211526

If those teams can make their own breaks over teams whose recruiting rankings are significantly higher, then so can Temple. Hell, Akron was far more competitive in its games last year than UMass was and destroyed a Bowling Green team, 31-3, that UMass would have probably lost to a season ago.

A year ago, a former classmate of mine suggested it was pure folly for Temple to ever entertain the notion that it can beat Boston College because, he said, “they recruit on a whole different level than Temple.”

I pointed out to him that the Boston College team that got destroyed by Cincinnati, 37-8, in 2019 couldn’t compete with a Cincy team that barely beat Temple (15-13).

“Yeah, well that was before they had Jurkovec,” he said.

Well, I really don’t care if they have Jurkovec or not as long as the pixie dust sprinkled on Montana, SDSU, ETSU, Jacksonville State nd UC-Davis finds its way to Lincoln Financial Field. There seems to be a lot of that dust around this season for some reason and Temple could use it dropping down from a cloud in South Philly between noon-3 on Saturday.

If so, Temple wins, with or without Jurkovec.

Friday: BC Preview

09.12.21
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Now comes the hard part

Plenty of people who make millions on college football had Temple pegged for two wins before the first projection of the college football season in May.

Somewhere, a few months later, that was adjusted to 2.5 due to a lot of Temple money coming into the betting parlors.

Still, the thought was this:

Temple would beat both Akron and Wagner and the .5 covered the books in the event of a win over, say, USF.

With Temple’s 45-24 win over Akron yesterday, the conventional thinking is “now comes the hard part.”

Maybe.

But, really, how hard?

Gasparilla Bowl defensive MVP William Kwenkeu (35) had two sacks in the win over FIU in 2017. His game against Akron yesterday might have been just as impressive.

Boston College had a similar win over UMass, which Vegas generally considers is a team not even as good as Akron.

If the Owls can beat Boston College on Saturday, the entire vibe changes inside the $17 million dollar Edberg-Olson Complex.

Maybe the vibe has already changed.

Consider this: Justin Lynch is the FIRST quarterback we’ve found in the entire history of Temple football (playing the sport since 1884) who WON a game as a true freshman starting his first game. (Hell, for MOST of those years, true freshmen were ineligible to even play but what Lynch did was impressive nonetheless.)

He was much more than a game manager. A lot of pretty good “veteran” quarterbacks (Lee Saltz for one) never had a day this good: 19 for 23, 245 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

If the Akron game becomes a confidence-builder and a building block for Lynch, he becomes a much more relaxed quarterback against Boston College and that can only bode well for the Owls’ chances in their home opener.

Another positive sign is that the team’s stars on both sides of the ball took over when they needed to on Saturday. Down, 14-0, Randle Jones took a jet sweep to the house. Two years ago, Carey called Jones a “flat-out stud” but he really wasn’t able to show it except on the opening play of the SMU game last year. Jones has been hampered by injuries.

Now healthy, Jones is a difference-maker.

So is William Kwenkeu on the other side of the ball.

Only the die-hard Owl fans know that William was the “defensive MVP’ in the Owls 28-3 win over FIU in the Gasparilla Bowl way back in 2017 and he’s still here four years later.

Thank God.

Not all Owl fans stuck around for the thrilling conclusion.

His scoop and score was the other key play in the game.

With the announcers talking about Temple in a “malaise” those two plays took Temple right out of it and back into a Temple TUFF mode.

Does it last?

A win on Saturday will be hard, but nothing worth achieving ever is easy.

Maybe the home crowd makes a difference. If so, a lot of Temple football haters can rip up their betting slips.

Monday: Not Like That

09.10.21
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How important is Temple at Akron?

How important is the Temple at Akron football game?

Important, and also not important at all.

If you are Rod Carey, it’s very important.

A loss continues a decline in his performance as head coach and puts him on the road to inevitable dismissal at the end of this or next season. A convincing win combined with a highly unlikely win over Boston College next week makes him 2-1 and might turn around the clubhouse to set it on the path to five or six wins, but realistically no more.

If you are a hardcore and objective Temple football fan like me, really not important at all. We’ve been saying in this space since February that the apparent “plan” for Carey as the program’s CEO was to largely rely on the backups to the players who were most responsible for a 1-6 season in 2020 to turn around fortunes in 2021.

Look at these five blocks. THAT’S Temple TUFF.

That was a recipe, in our minds, for a 2-10 season and that’s only if you beat Akron (3:30 p.m., Saturday, ESPN+).

A respected poster here, KJ, says 1-11 and doesn’t think there’s a chance to beat Akron.

We will see.

Put it this way. The Akron team the Owls are a 6.5-point favorite over beat Bowling Green, 31-3, last year to close out the season. Bowling Green is pretty bad but lost to Tennessee last week by a similar score (38-6). Akron lost to Auburn by pretty much the same score Temple lost to Rutgers and most college football fans will tell you without hesitation that Auburn is better than Rutgers.

When 13 mostly impact players leave, it’s your job as the CEO to bring in 13 better players from P5 programs. The best Carey could do is six P5 players and their impact is largely suspect. He didn’t do his job in the offseason and, as a result, might have dug his own grave.

That photo in the middle of this post tells you all you need to know about how far Temple has fallen in the last decade. In 2011, with an all-out commitment to the run, Temple hammered host Akron, 41-3. Look at those five blocks in that photo. Pretty much pancakes.

That’s the definition of Temple TUFF.

That’s a football identity. Knock people off their feet, establish the run, and then make big plays in the play-action passing game. Catch the ball and advance it on special teams and make big plays off the returns. Don’t be afraid to both return or block kicks. Under Rod Carey, a secured fair catch is considered a successful special teams’ play. Blocking a punt or a field goal? Out of the question.

That’s not Temple TUFF.

Temple really has no identity pretty much since Matt Rhule left. The Owls try to fool people with the RPO (run/pass/option) and end up fooling no one but themselves.

John Chaney once said “winning is an attitude” but so is losing and that’s why this quote from one Temple player after a 61-14 loss is so disturbing: “Rutgers wanted it more than we did.”

If you go 1-6 and your next chance to prove that 1-6 was bogus is almost a year away, you should want something a lot more than a 3-6 team did. There’s no reason anyone else should want something more.

Rutgers, at least in that sense, was a lot more important than Akron and the Owls might have showed us who we thought they were that day.

Unless they go out and beat Akron, 61-14. I’m hoping that’s the case but not counting or even expecting it. A 13-10 win elicits a “meh” but certainly is more acceptable than a 13-10 loss. I’m tired of hearing excuses about “playing hard” and correcting “fixable errors” like having two of the same numbers on the field at the same time. Do you think on one of those two bus trips to Rutgers someone, anyone, would have mentioned out loud that we have two No. 39s on an 81-man travel roster? That’s the kind of stuff that should be taken care of before the fact, not after. Losing programs make mental errors like that. Winning programs don’t. Winning is the only important thing.

I hold Temple football to the standard Al Golden and Matt Rhule established and nothing else is important to me at all.

If the Temple University administration has a pulse, it would have a similar definition of important.

Sunday: Game Analysis

Monday: Not Like That

Picks this week: Pitt 35, Tennessee 30 (Pitt favored by 3), Northern Illinois 24, Wyoming 20 (Wyoming favored by 7),

Purdue 51, UConn 0 (Purdue favored by 34), Nebraska 21, Buffalo 17 (Nebraska favored by 14), Appalachian State 17, Miami 14 (Miami favored by 14) and BYU 17, UTAH 16 (Utah favored by 7).

Season to date: 0-0 against the spread, 0-0 straight up.

Update: Predicted Pitt by five (it won by 7), Purdue 51-0 (it won 49-0), NIU by 4 (it lost by seven, a push) Nebraska by four (it won by 25), App. State by 3 (it lost by three) and BYU by one (it both won and covered).

Season to date: 4-2 straight up, 4-1-1 ATS

09.06.21
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Meanwhile, for Temple, timing is everything

In 1599, William Shakespeare first used the phrase “timing is everything” in his play Julius Caesar.

Tell Temple football fans about it.

Especially over the last five days.

That’s true both in a micro sense and a macro one.

Micro because a week ago today we talked about a driving rain at Rutgers on Thursday night being the great point-spread equalizer should the game be played in its scheduled time slot. We mentioned 32-point underdog Navy beating Penn State, 7-6, in a driving rainstorm in 1974. That year, Navy finished 4-7 and Penn State 10-2.

Instead of a simple rainstorm, we got a 100-year flood and there was no great point-spread equalizer because it was pushed to a perfect weather Saturday. Had the game been played on Thursday, Rutgers would have probably won but it would not have been 61-14.

That’s micro.

The macro came to bite Temple in the ass with another aspect of its scheduling with Rutgers. The Owls and Scarlet Knights went eight years without a game and, in the space of those eight years, Temple was 49-36 and Rutgers 21-58.

Think Temple could have won a lot of games against Rutgers had it been on the schedule those eight years?

Definitely.

Certainly in 2019 when the Owls beat Maryland, 20-17, at Lincoln Financial Field and, later that same year, the Terrapins traveled to Rutgers and won, 48-7. Temple finished 8-5 that year; Rutgers 2-10.

Nothing, though, in the macro world of timing hurt Temple than the news that broke Friday and will probably be confirmed sometime this week.

The Big 12 expanded and took Houston, UCF, Cincinnati and BYU.

This means a lot more to Temple’s long-term football future than any 61-14 loss.

Had the Big 12 imploded in, say, 2017 and not 2021, there’s a real good chance Temple would have been one of those four schools because the Owls were coming off two double-digit winning years where they led the league in average attendance in one year (2015) and proved they could deliver the Philadelphia TV market when their game against Notre Dame was the highest-rated ever college football game in prime time TV in Philly.

Mind you, Notre Dame and Penn State were on prime time TV in the Philly market five times before that so Temple, not Penn State, proved to be the team that could deliver those kind of numbers in the market.

Since Philadelphia is the nation’s fourth-largest market, it is the largest one currently without a P5 team. Holding the market, though, is one of many factors the Big 12 considered and what happened since 2016 has killed Temple’s chances, maybe for good.

The Owls picked a terrible time to go 1-6 last year and the perception of the Owls as a P5 target slipped precipitously. Nobody is picking Temple coming off a 1-6.

Now the Owls find themselves in a watered-down AAC with probably a lot less coming than the $7 million TV money they get per year. Bad timing since they are on the hook to pay an underperforming head coach $2 million per for three more years.

Bad luck for the Owls, definitely, but even worse timing. The loss of dollars coming in tie the administration’s hands long-term.

If Bill Shakespeare were around, he’d probably say we’re heading for a winter of our discontent and it might be more than one.

Friday: Akron Preview

Sunday: Game Analysis

Monday: Not Like That

09.04.21
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TU football: Proving law of diminishing returns

Anyone who had Sam Wilson’s Economics 101 Class knows the law of diminishing returns all too well.

Now Rod Carey might be starting to understand it.

Temple spoiled a 130-or-so round trip to Rutgers for most of the 100 to 200 Owl fans who made the trip not necessarily by losing the game by the ignominious score a 61-14 but by what Carey has done since he arrived on campus.

Ignore one-third of the game of football.

Diminishing returns, also called law of diminishing returns or principle of diminishing marginal productivity, is an economic law stating that if one input in the production of a commodity is increased while all other inputs are held fixed, a point will eventually be reached at which additions of the input yield progressively smaller, or diminishing, increases in output.

Carey said he got rid of the best special team’s coach in the country, Ed Foley, because he wanted “an extra coach on the field on defense.” How is that coach working out after the Owls allowed 62 and 55 against UCF and UNC two years ago, 47 points to SMU and 41 points to Memphis and 61 against Rutgers today?

The commodity that was increased in this case was the perception that Temple had somehow improved from a 1-6 season by a) being able to practice more) and b) a team bonding preseason in the Bronx.

That perception was shattered on Saturday because at best the Owls’ other inputs remain fixed or were significantly decreased.

We wrote in this space many times in the offseason that the Owls lost too many good players and did not bring enough in to offset the losses. These were not malcontents who left the program. They were good, mostly local, kids stuck in an ill-fitting system and valuable starting players who never “felt” a connection with a largely midwestern staff.

My biggest fear was that the Owls would be only favored in two games–Akron and Wagner–and probably finish 2-10.

That’s looking more and more like the case now and beating Akron turned from a given to an if over the last 24 hours. Two and 10 five years removed from a 10-2 regular season would be a disaster.

If so, the university has to put the big boy pants on and do what every other university has done–eat the contract of the head coach and find a better fit.

Because this is Temple, and we all know the history of Temple all too well, that’s probably not happening. When was the last time the university fired a high-profile coach of one of its two major sports with money still on the table? That happens everywhere else.

Not here.

Temple never eats contracts.

Temple Football Forever: Feb. 11, 2021

Temple would rather lose than pay two contracts even though the administration would be better off following another Sam Wilson economic maxim: Spend money to make money. (I was a journalism major but that class was a damn good elective. I got an A. Carey would have probably gotten an F.)

So what happens?

We are left with a head football coach who completely ignores one-third of the game of football.

Special teams.

Last year we were promised special teams would get better.

They got worse.

Former Owl and Dallas Cowboy Ventell Bryant offers his three-word analysis on the game.

Al Golden said special teams are just as important as offense and defense and he had terrific punt and kickoff returners who flipped the field. On the other side of special teams, he blocked punts and field goals. That tradition continued under Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins. The one constant under all of those guys was that the special teams keys were given to Ed Foley and none of the previous head coaches had to worry about that car crashing.

This year the coaching staff said they had fixed those problems.

Don’t tell us, show us. What they’ve shown us in three years is abundantly clear.

This team doesn’t even try to return punts or kickoffs, or block kicks.

What did we see on Saturday?

A punt returner who routinely allowed the ball to bounce far behind him without advancing it and a kickoff returner who failed to secure the ball. That led to two early touchdowns by Rutgers and the rout was on after that. (Hell, we could mention this team’s penchant for kicking the ball straight to dynamite returners but we’re too depressed to do that.)

Carey said he got rid of the best special team’s coach in the country, Ed Foley, because he wanted “an extra coach on the field on defense.” How is that coach working out after the Owls allowed 62 and 55 against UCF and UNC two years ago, 47 points to SMU and 41 points to Memphis last year and 61 against Rutgers today?

Err, probably not as planned.

The loss of Foley for an “extra defensive coach on the field” is about as good a definition of diminishing returns as we’ve ever seen.

Monday: Meanwhile ….

09.02.21
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Postponement just another obstacle for Owls

Now that tonight’s game with Rutgers has been postponed to Saturday at noon, the football Gods have thrown another obstacle at the Owls.

Using walk-on quarterbacks as starters?

Check (see Kamal Gray last year).

City of Philadelphia closing your practices?

Check.

Transfer portal taking six starters away and putting them at other schools?

Check.

Now it appears that the Owls are headed back to Philadelphia after spending the last 24 hours in Piscataway.

One practice and 24 hours from now, they are back on the road to the same place.

Can they overcome?

They were facing a daunting task as it was even if the game was played on Thursday night. The RU team they would be facing went to Michigan State and won its opener last year.

Now the Owls have to do it while on a physical and an emotional yo-yo.

Their fans who were planning to watch on TV might not get that chance now, as all TV network time slots for football seem to be taken by the scheduled Saturday noon games.

One thing is certain: If they overcome this to win Saturday, it’s a good omen for the rest of the season.

Sunday: My day in Piscatway

08.30.21
by

Temple-Rutgers: Only the weather is certain

Temple fans will be standing in Sections 118 and 119

Over the last few days, the betting line for the Temple at Rutgers opener has fluctuated between 14.5 points four days ago and 12.5 this morning.

Tomorrow, it could be 13.5 and Rutgers will probably remain favored until the opening kickoff.

Still, if anyone tells you they know what’s going to happen, they are just fooling themselves.

No Temple game in my recent memory is more unpredictable than this one. The Owls have a five-star quarterback under center, D’Wan Mathis, who first committed to Michigan State, then Ohio State and then Georgia.

He started the opener last year for the Bulldogs and played more like a two-star.

If he plays like the guy recruited by MSU, OSU and Georgia, Rutgers could be in trouble. Those staffs are paid millions for evaluating big-time talent and they all loved him.

If he plays like he did in last year’s opener, Temple could be in trouble.

Ironically, the weather is the only thing seemingly certain for Thursday night (6 p.m. kickoff, Big 10 Network).

It could get between moderately wet and really wet between 6-10 p.m. in Piscataway. The middle of that spaghetti plot on the left has whatever is left of Hurricane Ida pretty much over New Jersey between 7 a.m. Thursday and 7 a.m. Friday. The midpoint of those two times roughly corresponds with the three-plus hours the Owls and the Scarlet Knights will be battling.

Best way to get to Piscataway from Philly is to take SEPTA Regional Rail to the Trenton Transit Center and, from there, it’s only a 39-minute ride to the New Brunswick Station (the 1:24 estimate includes leaving Temple U.). RU offers buses right outside NBS to the game starting 3 hours before kickoff.

If Temple running backs’ coach Gabe Infante is as good as we think he is (and we think he’s a gem), the emphasis the next couple days of practice will be for his group to hold the ball high and tight.

We already know defensive coordinator Jeff Knowles placed Priority No. 1 on getting turnovers because he said so four weeks ago. The Owls have been practicing stripping the ball, going after fumbles and tipping the ball and getting interceptions on deflections. That’s been as or more important than stopping the run and getting to the quarterback.

Which team holds onto the ball and takes it away probably will decide this game.

Not touchdown passes.

Not rushing stats or first downs.

And definitely not point spreads.

Turnovers.

If the weather is as impactful as the cone of certainty suggests, this will probably be a low-scoring game, something on the order of 10-6, 14-7, even 17-7. We probably won’t see either quarterback throw for five touchdowns or 300 yards but might see a running back get 200.

Whatever, don’t forget the umbrella.

Friday: Game Analysis