Tag Archives: Temple football

04.02.21
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Fools Day Plus 1: Hope springs eternal

An example of a well-done AF joke is here about frequent poster and friend of Temple Football Forever Rob Vaughn.

At about this time every year on this site we’ve done our usual April Fool’s post.

Not this year.

Sometimes we crack ourselves up and, based on a lot of the comments attached below the past posts, some of those cracked a lot of you up.

Big 10 explores idea of adding Temple – Temple Football Forever (wordpress.com)

Addazio’s first 5-star recruit: Urban Meyer – Temple Football Forever (wordpress.com)

Robby Anderson: The Prodigal Son Returns – Temple Football Forever (wordpress.com)

Sky’s the limit for 6-11 walk-on freshman – Temple Football Forever (wordpress.com)

We’re glad it did.

Nothing funny (humorous) about the program this year but a lot of funny (odd) things about it.

Still, we have at least one “RutgersAl” on the Owlsdaily.com message board who really feels the Owls are going to win the AAC championship every year. (Rutgers Al would always go on the RU board and predict unbeaten seasons that usually ended up closer to 0-12 than 12-0.) A good 40 percent of the respondents agreed with our “Al” to some degree that the Owls do not face impeding gloom. Hope springs eternal, it would seem. To that, MH55–one of the more sane posters over there–replied with this:

“At the time of my post, 40% of those polled believe TU will be .500 or better. I have no idea how these folks think Temple has improved their roster to the tune of 5+ more wins. This team lost quite a bit of talent from its 1 win season and the depth is paper thin at many critical positions…”

Paper thin indeed.

Other than wide receiver and arguably offensive line, the 2021 Owls are paper thin at every other position group.

In a sport like football where guys go down all of the time, that is a recipe for disaster.

That begs a question.

Does the well-paid professional football staff at Temple even realize this or are they shuffling the papers knowing that their demise is inevitable?

Or are they kidding themselves?

On April’s Fools plus one, that is the funniest (odd, not humorous) joke of all.

Monday: Spring Practice Begins

03.29.21
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Selling Like Hot Cakes

Occasionally, you have to tip your hat to an entrepreneur like Joe Greenwood.

The former Temple great defensive back under Bruce Arians sometimes sells Temple-related stuff but he really hit the jackpot thanks to his old coach winning the Super Bowl.

He sold out a first mailing and a second mailing of the above T-shirts and sweatshirts (I got the black hoodie) highlighting the Temple/Tampa Bay connection: “Temple Bay Buccaneers.”

(Nice play on words.)

I don’t know the exact number of sales but it’s in the hundreds and will be seen all over Lot K this fall if fans are indeed allowed. I think Joe got so overwhelmed he’s done with the selling for now but I’m glad he provided them when he did. I would say they are selling like hot cakes but I don’t think even Perkins Pancake House had this much success with their product as Joe did with his.

The Temple schedule was a whole lot tougher under Arians than Carey.

It’s definitely a conversation-starter.

On one of my bike rides through the Pennypack on Saturday while proudly wearing my swag, I ran into an old Temple football player and we got to talking about the Bruce Arians legacy.

“Hey, Mike, you think Bruce Arians winning the Super Bowl will help Temple football?”

Good question.

No, probably because the current regime doesn’t keep or even celebrate past (or even present) Temple connections.

Hell, I definitely think Matt Rhule and Al Golden would have been able to exploit the Super Bowl success had they been here now instead of Rod Carey. A few days after Matt Rhule got the Temple job he asked me for Bruce Arians’ cell number and I had to ask former player Sheldon Morris for permission to give it to him (because that’s the only reason I had it). Sheldon said yes and Rhule and Arians struck up a cordial relationship that exists to this day.

I don’t think Carey values the Temple football history as much as he does, say, NIU’s and that’s pretty sad.

What’s even sadder is longtime Temple loyalists like Fran Brown and Ed Foley have exited stage right and not necessarily on their own accord. Adam DiMichele, who really should be QB coach or offensive coordinator by now, doesn’t seem to have the same trust of this staff that he did with Rhule or even Geoff Collins.

What the Arians Super Bowl win does, though, is cement his legacy as a real good coach at Temple. I’ve been writing this blog for more than 15 years now and it’s well-documented here that Arians–by posting two winning seasons against a Top 10 schedule–performed a near-miracle at Temple considering he had nothing in terms of facilities.

Temple now plays schedules ranked in the high 80s. In the championship season of 2016, for instance, Temple played the 89th-ranked schedule in the country.

It’s a whole different ballgame.

Not only has Arians proven to be a great coach, he developed great coaches with a Temple pedigree and, in Nick Rapone, took a guy who was a great coach at Temple (twice) and made him a Super Bowl winner.

So the pride in Temple and Tampa Bay will be there for all to see in the fall. Greenwood and Arians left Temple on the same day, but they still bleed Cherry and White and that’s what the swag will best represent this fall.

Maybe the winning attitude will spread into Lincoln Financial Field where it is really needed after 1-6.

Friday: Hope Springs Eternal

03.25.21
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Trolling Temple Football Forever

Full disclosure: I shop at Costco instead of Walmart because I like the fact that Costco pays its employees $15 an hour.

I believe that’s a fair amount to spend on someone who puts his or her lives on the line dealing with the general public, now more literally than figuratively, sadly.

I don’t visit Walmart and run up and down the aisles and scream they suck and tell all of the other shoppers to go to Costco.

If I don’t like something, I just go elsewhere.

I fully expect if you don’t like Temple Football Forever, I will get the same treatment.

I hope I do.

I don’t do this to please the audience or to get subscriptions or twitter follows. I do this as a labor of love.

I love Temple football and want it to maintain the same kind of standard it achieved under Al Golden and Matt Rhule and often submit for your approval their blueprint for success and hope the current regime follows it. I want championships and despise 1-6 seasons and the avoidable reasons for it.

This post today is about someone who doesn’t feel the same way about TFF as I do Walmart or Costco.

Every time I post something, he posts a criticism. He might as well be pissing into the wind because I know his IP address (it’s Horsham) and I’ve banned him for life from this site even though he tries to post under many different aliases, some very famous Temple football-related names.

I feel sorry for the guy.

When I offered five questions for Rod Carey in my last post, he basically said go ask the guy the questions. My whole point was that the paid people following Temple don’t have the balls to go ask him in regular press conferences. What are they afraid of, that Rod Carey is going to beat them up for asking tough questions?

To not understand the difference between an opinion blogger and an objective journalist is a special kind of stupid.

The whole point of blogging is to offer opinions on how things might be better. It is not to cover the team per se. If this guy has his own, he is free to start his own blog.

To spend that much time and effort on negativity about what someone else says or writes who you clearly hate indicates to me he has no life or no life at least worth living. Just walk away, Renee. The very definition of being mentally ill is being obsessed with someone or something you don’t like. That is deeply disturbed territory.

I hope I never see this guy in Costco or he might be carrying an AR-15.

Monday: Resuming regular programming

03.22.21
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5 Questions and (possible) answers

Well, that was quick.

Weston Kramer, we hardly knew ye.

As soon as Kramer got to Philadelphia, he did a U-Turn. It was reminiscent of the time Matt Rhule hired Nick Rolovich to be his first offensive coordinator, only to see Rolovich accept the job one day and reconsider the next.

At least Kramer thought about it a little.

The All-MAC tackle decided on Feb. 18 to commit to Temple and then, a little over a month later, de-committed from that commitment, according to the twitter handle CFB Blitz.

Why?

Rod Carey’s got a lot of “splaining” to do.

Just another question that will remain unanswered for awhile–or at least until the Philadelphia press assembles at spring practice in April

Head coach Rod Carey has a lot of questions to answer, some that will be asked, some that might not.

We can only guess what his answers will be now so we’re projecting what Carey might say:

1), What happened with Weston Kramer?

Carey: “Philadelphia can be a huge culture shock for Midwest guys. The bus dropped Weston off at 10th and Diamond and Wes wasn’t all that comfortable with the surroundings. We told him to give it a month and that’s just what he did. He packed his bags, we shook his hand (with gloves on, off course, for COVID protocols) and gave him a bus ticket home.”

2) Do you think your special teams are a problem?

Carey: “No, I actually think we were quite good on special teams in 2020. That situation where we had an extra point blocked and returned for two against Cincy didn’t happen last year, so that’s progress. This year our goal is to clean up those darn kickoffs that keep going out of bounds and two years from now we’ll address returning some punts. We’re not going to fix special teams in one year. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

3) Why do all the coaching departures/demotions seem to guys with Temple and local connections?

Carey: “Pat (Kraft) wanted me to keep (Ed) Foley, Adam DiMichele, Fran (Brown) and Gabe (Infante), so I did that. He didn’t say that I had to keep Ed as the special teams coach, so I moved him to an off-the-field capacity and Ed balked at that. Fran and I didn’t get along. Pat isn’t here anymore and Fran (Dunphy) says he doesn’t care what I do, so I’m working on getting Gabe and Adam off the field and hiring a couple more NIU guys.”

4) What would you consider a successful 2021 season?

Carey: “Well, we won one game in 2020, so two wins would be doubling the win total but we’d like to win more than two. Let’s leave it at that.”

5) What will be your message to the fans at the August season-ticket party?

Carey: “I don’t think we’re having one, thank God. I can imagine some of them are pretty upset with me right now.”

We’ll try to match up our projections with the real answers in a couple of weeks, although I’m not hopeful more than one of them will ever be asked.

Friday: Trolling Temple

03.15.21
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Special Teams clues abound for Temple

Temple’s special teams have pretty much been a humorless joke over the last two years.

You can learn a lot from thumbing through the bios in the latest Temple Football Media Guide.

If fixing teams is a priority–and it should be–the Temple coaches should be pouring over those lists to find guys with moves and speed who can help on that squad.

Does Temple football special teams coach Brett Diersen know backup wide receiver Kadas Reams has been clocked at 4.37 in the 40-yard dash?

Does he know defensive back Trey Blair played offense at Haverford High AND scored touchdown on both kickoff and punt returns as a senior?

You would think so but the Owls were content to have as their No. 1 punt returner last year a guy named Willie Erdman or came to the table with no such speed stats or history of success in the return game even at the high school level. It would be more accurate to call Erdman a “fair catch specialist” instead of a “punt return specialist.”

And both Reams and Blair were on the team last year.

Special teams used to be elite at Temple. Love to get back to those days again.

Knowing those facts, it’s not hard to come to a couple of conclusions: 1) they didn’t know and 2) they didn’t care.

Wide receiver Branden Mack blocked a punt under Geoff Gollins but was not on the punt return (don’t know if the Owls even have a punt block) team. He is 6-6 with a wingspan of 97 inches. Mack isn’t here anymore, but the Owls do have 6-6 guys with similar wingspans. It’s just logical to put your tallest and longest guys on your kick block teams. Steve Addazio’s Owls would not have won a game at UConn had he not put 6-6 wide receiver Deon Miller on special teams, where he blocked a field goal.

Having success in the special teams is knowing the, err, special talents of your personnel and using those talents to make plays. The Owls have shown no interest in two years about making dynamic plays in the special teams area and that needs to change starting when spring practice begins in two weeks.

We can talk about Diersen and his shortcomings all we want but the ultimate responsibility for the special teams success rests with the programs’ CEO, Rod Carey. If Carey is more comfortable with personal relationships with members of his staff than he is about getting the most of the talent he has, that’s a problem.

One of many we’ve seen in the last two years.

Opening two books would help: the American Coaches Association’s Complete Guide to Special Teams and one other.

The Temple Football Media Guide.

Friday: Sports Talk and Temple Football

03.12.21
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Spring practice: Admitting a problem

Because Thursday was the first 70-degree day in an otherwise ridiculously horrible winter, I got out on the Lectric E Bike and went for a spin on the Pennypack Trail.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew Temple was playing basketball in the AAC tournament, but that’s no longer a priority.

It hasn’t been for some time. I watched a couple of games earlier this season and came away so uninspired by this team, I tuned them out.

Getting out and enjoying the day is the priority over Temple basketball.

Instead of Harry Donahue and John Baum, my playlist on the headphones included Post Malone, Dua Lupa, Arianna Grande mixed in with a little Earth, Wind and Fire, Harry Chapin and Bryan Adams.

Temple basketball never entered my mind until I got home in the middle of the afternoon and read this post from a longtime fixture (who predates even me) on the Temple football sideline:

“Great game Temple BB. Looks like the future is bright for this team.”

Wow, I thought.

Temple won.

Then I opened my phone.

“Tap for updates.”

I tapped.

Temple lost to a 9-12 team.

That did not compute.

I thought Temple played a great game. I thought the future was bright.

Instead, a once nationally renowned program lost to a 9-12 team and one of our long-time fans thought that was an encouraging sign.

Have our expectations fallen that low?

That’s a little like, after a loss to Wagner this fall, the same guy says: “Great game, Temple FB. The future is bright for this team.”

Exaggerating for effect, but you get the drift.

The first step toward fixing a problem is admitting you have one and the two marquee sports at Temple are two big problems right now.

That’s why, somewhere between spring bike rides, I will be checking in on spring practice that begins in a couple of weeks.

Does Temple football head coach Rod Carey believe his special teams are horrific or does he believe they are on their way to getting fixed?

To me, special teams should be two things: Dynamic and dependable.

The dynamic part will be putting a punt returner back there who has sub 4.5-speed and the moves of Timmy and Matty Brown and someone who is able to make the first guy miss and pick up at least. … AT LEAST … the equivalent of a first-down (10-yard gain or above) on every punt return. In the absence of that, a jailbreak punt block would be nice.

The dependable part would be no blocked extra points returned for two (as in Cincy circa 2019) or kickoffs out of bounds (too many times to mention in 2020).

We haven’t seen either dynamic or dependable in the two years of the Rod Carey Regime and that’s the No. 1 thing that needs to be fixed this spring.

If he refuses to admit he has a problem, it will never be fixed and that’s why tuning out of Temple football should be as easy as tuning out of Temple basketball was yesterday.

Of course, the priority here is getting my favorite sports team by far (Temple football) fixed because that’s what the fall should be all about. Hopefully, the current staff cares enough about their careers to understand the problem and address it. Otherwise, they will have punched their ticket out of Philadelphia.

Monday: How to address it?

Friday: Trolling Costco

03.08.21
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TU Fans: Fair-weather or all-weather?

For someone who hates to get up early, the thing I missed most about the 2020 was getting up at 5:30 or so a half-dozen times a year and making my way to Lincoln Financial Field by no later than 8 or 9.

I’ve been doing that for the better part of 40 years now and to suspend that routine seemed strange.

It was strange.

No one was happier to see the tailgate expand from seven to seven (or more) thousand than the late Dan Glammer, who passed away at the tender age of 46 shortly after seeing the Owls play in the Eagle Bank Bowl.

I thought about that when someone accused me of being a “fair-weather fan” because of this post last week.

I remember tailgating near the end of one season where the Owls went 0-11 under Bobby Wallace and the pre-game tailgate at Lot K included Ted DeLapp, Rick Gabe, Nittany Owl, a guy named Fred, the late Dan Glammer, Lazygote and me.

We looked around the lot not five hours before the game but more like five minutes and we were it. That was it on that rainy pre-game against Miami (Ohio). Seven guys. Maybe more in the Jetro Lot a couple of blocks away where the late Wes Sornisky was holding court with a few ex-Temple players.

Now it’s grown exponentially but those days were never to be forgotten. The pre-game talk that day was that we were going to hire a coach to bring us to the Promised Land. One guy mentioned Rick Neuheisel. Fred brought up Frank Solich. One guy mentioned John Latina.

None of us have ever heard of Al Golden at that point.

It turned out he was the right choice.

We all came back every week during a 20-game losing streak because we knew that, under a good coach, Temple football–despite paltry facilities in those days–could thrive.

It turned out we were right. Because largely of Al Golden, Temple went from being laughed at to being respected and he was the coach the Owls needed at that time.

My point then, as it is now, is that once we came out of the Dark Ages, we should have a minimal expectation of never returning to them. Everyone there nodded in agreement. Temple football should never have zero, 1 or 2-win seasons again.

Those fans there that day were the all-weather fans, not the fair-weathered ones. None of us expected Temple to win the championship every year, but winning seasons (or at least non-losing ones) should be the standard going forward.

A 1-6 season opened some eyes, even though a lot of us got up just before noon on days we were used to getting up at 5:30. Some blamed COVID, but I thought that excuse was too easy. COVID didn’t cause four kickoffs to go out of bounds (two in a row). COVID didn’t cause a pandemic of fair catches. COVID didn’t cause the Owls to throw a pass short of the goal line on a critical two-point conversion at Navy when they had a 6-6 receiver covered by a 5-10 corner in the back of the end zone.

The standard remains and that’s why 2021 is important to keeping whatever fan base Temple football has left or even have a chance at expanding it.

Friday: Dynamic and Dependable

03.01.21
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Season ticket deadline: Why the rush?

It would be nice to see these kind of crowds back but nothing is guaranteed for 2021.

The plan as rolled out by the Temple football season ticket office was to set a deadline for Feb. 26.

I let it slide.

I don’t think I’m the only one.

Looking at it from a sheer marketing perspective, the product they are trying to sell is just not a good one right now.

Hmm.

Do I want to sit in a seat and watch another 1-6 (or 2-5) start and suffer like I did from 1991-2008?

No.

Been there, done that.

Hell, I might wait until after the Rutgers’ game and re-up. Beat Rutgers and I am all in and that bar would have been a very low one as recently as two years ago.

Furthermore, do we really know if fans will be allowed in the stands?

Just as importantly, will tailgating be allowed in Lot K or FDR Park? The tailgating experience is at least 50 percent of being there in good years, about 90 percent of it in the bad old days. Right now, 2020 was the bad old days and I’m hoping it was an outlier but the signs are not encouraging. Tailgating is not guaranteed for 2021.

I certainly hope so and think so, but I don’t KNOW so. That alone is enough to postpone any decision on season tickets until the effect of the vaccine on the entire pandemic is determined, maybe even as late as August.

If the ticket office was smart, they would have moveable deadlines and not have set the one that just expired. It’s going to be hard enough to sell tickets this season.

Making it easier to sell them should supersede any arbitrary deadline.

Friday: The Bounty Bowl and Temple

02.22.21
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UCF’s coaching hire is bad news for Temple

If the Enemy of My Enemy is a bad hire, and the AAC has had a few of those, don’t look to Gus Malzahn as falling on his face at UCF.

Geez, as a Temple fan, I hope he does what Charley Strong did moving over from a great coach at Louisville to a lousy one at Texas before falling on his face at USF. Dana Holgerson had five-straight winning seasons at West Virginia before putting up a lackluster 7-13 loss the last two years at Houston.

The thought process is a lot of these “big-time” Power 5 guys who are forced to resuscitate their careers at the G5 level don’t put in the energy that got them there in the first place.

I don’t see that with Malzahn simply because he was a G5 head coach before taking the Auburn job at Arkansas State and knows what it takes to win at this level. Malzahn was 9-3 with a Sun Belt championship at Arkansas State and that punched his ticket to Auburn, where he merely was 65-38 (including 39-27 against SEC teams).

Like the NFL mantra for drafting (‘always pick the best available player”), picking the best available head coach is always a good philosophy. Did Temple pick the best available head coach when it selected Rod Carey? No, his Indiana connections with Pat Kraft and Temple CFO Kevin Clark made him the most comfortable pick available.

The difference between Auburn and Temple is that the Auburn administration didn’t blink at spending $21.5 million to buy out a 65-38 head coach but Temple is blinking like a broken tail light at spending $6 million to buy out a 9-11 head coach.

UCF picked the best head coach available and it might be the best hire in G5 history.

Could he fall on his face like Strong and, so far, Holgersen?

Possibly, but there is nothing in Malzahn’s history to show he won’t be anything but successful.

In that case, he is the friend of my enemy and that’s not a good thing for the Owls.

02.18.21
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Temple football: What could go right?

Temple went from having the most dynamic special teams in the country to terrible in Rod Carey’s two seasons

On the surface, Temple football looks like a dumpster fire right now.

The Fire Chief allowed his best firefighters to walk for other departments and the hiring process to find capable replacements is going slower than expected.

That’s the surface.

Is there anything underneath?

At least Rod Carey will have the best hoodie in the AAC

Well, put it this way. The entire Temple coaching staff was responsible for multiple championships in a FBS league and five wins–presumably with lesser talent–over Big 10 teams against only two losses.

Maybe they know something we don’t know.

For Temple to turn a 1-6 season into a 6-or-better-win season, maybe this is what they are thinking:

One, everyone remains healthy. The first units on offense and defense are fairly impressive yet there are big holes to fill on the offensive line and defensive line but normal attrition for injuries has to be factored into the equation. Look at what happened in the championship year of 2016, for example. When Austin Jones, who had kicked 17-straight successful field goals, went down, Aaron Boumerhi took over that job and did not miss a beat. Averee Robinson got injured at nose tackle and Freddy Booth-Lloyd went in and locked down the Navy fullback in a 34-10 AAC title win. Does Temple have that kind of depth? I don’t see it, but maybe they do.

Two, a renewed emphasis on the running game. With the RPO system, it seems the Owls could never get out of their own way on offense. Temple football has always been establishing the run first, then throwing off fakes to it. If by adding Iverson Clement and Ra’Von Bonner convinces them to establish the run first, then the Owls should be a much more explosive team. Put it this way: If EITHER Clement or Bonner get 1,000 yards and 20 or more touchdowns rushing, Temple wins at least six games. Does this staff have that kind of commitment to the run? Doubt it, but maybe that’s the thinking at the E-O right now.

Three, Duece Mathis in a system that he’s comfortable in, thrives. If Mathis plays like a SEC starter, and starts finding Jadan Blue and Randle Jones for explosive plays in the passing game, the Owls will be hard to stop. Anthony Russo’s best full regular season at Temple was 21 touchdown passes against just 11 interceptions. If, say, Mathis does 22 touchdowns versus 10 interceptions (in other words, just a little better than Russo), the Owls will be successful.

Four, an aggressive approach to special teams. For two years, Rod Carey has been more than content to view the fair catch as a positive special teams’ play. That’s got to end. If the Owls don’t return kicks, they should block them. It’s got to be one or the other. Giving up positive plays on one third of the team never helps but that’s not been this staff’s DNA dating back through their time at NIU.

That’s it. That’s the path to a winning season. Maybe that’s the thought process at the E-O. If it is, it would be a welcome change.

Monday: The Enemy of My Enemy