Tag Archives: Temple football

12.02.20
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Getting The Old Gang Back

In a perfect world, Temple would be able to correct a mistake hit the reset button.

Perfect worlds in the era of five-year guaranteed contracts are few and far between but they are worth dreaming about.

Al Golden and Matt Rhule back in the day

It has been the view here for the better part of this horrible season that, even though Temple needs to make a head coaching change, a guaranteed contract ties its hands and we’re stuck with the current regime for the full five years.

For better or worse and it’s looking more like worse.

That’s where the perfect world comes into play.

If I could wave a magic wand and change things and give Temple the money it needs to hit the reset button, I’d do one thing:

Ask Al (Owl) Golden if he’s tired of being a position coach in the NFL.

While his staff would be totally up to him, Golden would probably be inclined to get the old gang back together, hire Ed Foley away from the Carolina Panthers to fix the Temple special teams (throw in the carrot of an assistant head coach title), make, say, Adam DiMichele the offensive coordinator and Gabe Infante the defensive coordinator, pluck current Georgia State strength coach Alex Derenthal away from that program and fill the staff in around the edges.

All the core members of Golden’s would-be staff love Temple football and know the Temple brand. The current carpetbaggers from the Midwest do not.

To me, he would be interested because being the head coach at Temple because it is “more prestigious” than being an NFL position coach, especially since position coaches are nomads. Matt Patricia, who was let go by the Lions last week, fired Golden a year ago. He latched onto the job of linebackers coach at Cincinnati, but who knows how long that will last? When Golden left Temple, that job paid $500,000. Thanks largely to him, it now pays $2 million.

In college, second acts sometimes do work out, look at Bill Snyder at Kansas State and (so far) Greg Schiano at Rutgers. Snyder finished 90-35 his first time around at KSU (including a 40-0 win over Temple in 1999), took a few years off and then came back after Ron Prince proved to be an utter failure. His second time around he was 69-49. Pretty good.

Golden is a competitive guy, a great recruiter and someone who might see his second act as a chance to prove he was a better coach for Temple than his prodigy, Matt Rhule.

Gruden: “The Temple Owls play as hard as anybody in the country.”

Also, it would restore the Temple “brand” that has left the building the last couple of years. Great special teams, great defense, emphasis on a punishing running game and explosive downfield passing plays off play-action fakes.

Right now, Temple has lost its way and it has a lot more to do with the heart of the program being removed and the only sickness that has affected the program appears to be more of a malaise than any recent pandemic.

The reset button needs to be hit and three years from now could be three years too late. Temple needs to spend money to make it and getting Al Golden back would restore a lot of shaken confidence and sell a lot of tickets in what promises to be a hard-sell offseason.

Saturday: Five Guys

11.26.20
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TU season: That was quick

This is how last season ended in Annapolis. It got much worse this season.

Well, that was quick.

A season that we thought would never start was over in a flash when the American Conference announced that the finale with visiting Cincinnati would be canceled and considered a “no contest.”

That’s curious because all week even the most ardent Temple supporters considered the upcoming game as a no contest. The season is gone, hopefully forgotten, but we doubt it.

“Why don’t these guys like me, Anthony?” “Coach, get Foley back, start blocking punts and returning kicks for touchdowns, give me a fullback and ditch the RPO and you’d be surprised how much the guys would love you.”

Temple football which, as late as the Memphis game, was the winningest AAC program in the history of championship league play, finished with a 1-6 record and now has lost eight of its last 10 games.

How did we get here?

To answer that question, another question has to be proposed.

Why did we hire Rod Carey?

Ostensibly, Carey was a rebound hire for then AD Dr. Pat Kraft. Spurned by Manny Diaz after 18 days, Kraft and Temple Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Kevin Clark reached to the most familiar place they could find and they plucked fellow Indiana grad Carey for the job. No national search, no finding the best guy, just satisfying the comfort level.

He was hired to basically hold serve. Not advance the program further, but at least not demolish it.

On the surface, it appeared to be a good hire because Carey came here with a 52-30 record as a FBS head coach and by hiring a head coach, and not an assistant, Temple just wanted to continue the success of the last guy, Geoff Collins.

If Temple took just one backward step under Carey, that disproved the entire theory of the hire.

Instead, Temple took one side step and one gigantic backward step.

COVID is being used as an excuse, but it’s really not. Had the Owls been handcuffed by the City of Philadelphia under, say, Al Golden, it probably would have taken him no more than two seconds to move the entire practice operation to Ambler, a place where he had two Cherry and White games. Instead, Carey basically said woe is me.

It was not unreasonable for the Owls to post eight wins a year and maybe get a championship every four or five years. Carey was able to do that his first season, but there were major red flags. One, 2018’s AAC Special Teams Player of the Year, Isaiah Wright, was effectively muzzled in 2019 and the entire special teams have been a disaster for two seasons.

Only two years ago before this staff came to town.

There seems to be no sense of urgency to improve that.

On top of that, for the first time in Temple history, starters–good ones–have left the program for greener pastures. Last year, was Quincy Roche (Miami) and Kenny Yeboah (Ole Miss). Many more than that to come. The team’s best running back and only “home run hitter” (Ray Davis) left the team in mid-season. We’ve heard the top two receivers, Jadan Blue and Branden Mack, are considering leaving and Ifeanyi Maijeh, a first-team All-AAC defensive tackle, told OwlsDaily.com he was “exploring his options.”

You don’t explore options if you intend to stay.

Arguably, they are three of the top five players on the team. When three of the top five players on the team leave a year after two of the top three leave, you know something is seriously wrong.

It’s as clear as the nose on Jimmy Durante’s face that the players DO NOT LIKE THIS GUY for whatever reason.

Could you see P.J. Walker, Tyler Matakevich or Haason Reddick leaving Matt Rhule? How about Mo Wilkerson or Adam DiMichele leaving Al Golden? Or Paul Palmer leaving Bruce Arians, even with a transfer portal?

Err, no.

Those were popular “players coaches.” Keeping the players here in the era of the portal is half the battle.

Hopefully, KJ is privy to information most of us do not know.

The other half of the battle is gameday coaching and locking down key areas of the team like special teams. Temple used to be “Special Teams U” and now is a national laughingstock in that area. That third of the team has been that way for two seasons and there is no sense of urgency to improve that area by a) finding great athletes to return punts and kickoffs; b) even attempting to block punts like the Owls used to do on the regular.

On defense, the Owls could not generate a pass rush post-Roche and company and could not stop anyone.

On offense, it was painfully obvious that the Owls have no AAC-caliber starting quarterbacks behind Anthony Russo and, if he leaves, Temple won’t be able to generate any offense at all next year. In other words, if Russo leaves (and we pray to God he won’t), Temple is bleeped.

Russo not being around and the special teams being neglected and the players leaving and others getting hurt added up to 1-6 this season and, however you look at the math next season, it’s going to get worse.

Only a new head of the math department can change things now. Does the Temple administration have the gonads to spend money to make money or will it be satisfied with a return to the dark ages of 5,000 fans rattling around in a 70,000-seat stadium?

Over the next couple of months, we will find out if they can put two and two together.

Saturday’s Best Bets: Going with former Temple Owl Alex Derenthal and his Georgia State squad in laying the 1 against visiting Georgia Southern at the former Turner Field in downtown Atlanta and Duke as a pick in a game across town at Georgia Tech.

Update: Went 3-0 against the spread for last week as Coastal beat App State, 34-23, to lay the 6.5, Liberty “only” lost to NC State by 1 (15-14) to cover that 3.5 and Georgia State easily laid the 3 with a 31-14 win over South Alabama. Now 6-3 against the spread for the season.

Update 2: Split the 11/28 games in Atlanta, now 7-4 against the spread for the season. Won on Georgia State, lost on Georgia Tech.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

Wednesday: Getting The Old Gang Back

Saturday: Five Guys

11.23.20
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Fizzy: It’s bad, but it’s been worse

Editor’s Note: The following story from Fizzy is one of the many reasons why I miss our talks at tailgates prior to games. Maybe next year.

Fizzy

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

Instead of critiquing the game, I will tell a treasured Temple football story.              

 It happened  in Delaware and no one could make this up.                                       

    Towards the end of the 1959 season, and amid a horrendous losing streak, we traveled down to play Delaware. Delaware was the top-ranked small college football team. 

    Our bus arrived around dinner time at a motel and went to our assigned rooms to drop off our bags, and immediately returned to the restaurant for a meal. As the guys finished, they drifted into a small lobby where a hotel guest was seated in front of a little black and television to watch the Friday Night Fights. The guest had a beer on a small table and some kind of scorecard. Some of us found seats, while the rest stood as we awaited the coaches.

Pete Stevens

     I can’t remember the fighters, but they were well-known. We were all quiet as we watched the introductions by the ring announcer. Just as he brought the fighters together in the middle of the ring, Head Coach Pete Stevens came thundering in. He looked around at us, and then the television. “What the hell is wrong with you guys,” he yelled. “We’re playing the number one team in the country tomorrow, and you idiots are watching boxing?” With that outburst, Pete stormed over to the television and turned it off. 

     The hotel guest stared at Pete like he was an alien from Mars. We, on the other hand, were trying our best not to laugh out loud. Many of us did not succeed, and Pete was getting irate. When he got that way, his face would turn a bright red, and now he could have taken over for Rudolph the reindeer. He glanced at some notes he took from his pocket, and that’s when line coach John Rogers walked up to Pete. “Pete, you turned off the guy’s television. He’s not one of our kids.”

The largest crowd in Delaware history watched TU win in 1973

     Startled, Pete turned and saw the guy looking at him and rushed over. “Oh, I’m so sorry, sir. I thought you were one of my players. Look, let me turn the television back on, and I’ll get you another beer.” Pete turned the set back on, and just as the picture finally came clear, the announcer said, “Ten! You’re out!”

         The room exploded. The man stood up, and I thought he would punch Pete, but he just shook his head and walked away. We couldn’t control ourselves, and Pete was infuriated. He pulled out another piece of paper and read off thirteen names (out of twenty-six). “These guys stay here. The rest of you go the hell back to your rooms because we don’t need you anyway.”

__________

     The game itself was a horror. All week, we had practiced a sort of a single-wing formation instead of our usual “T.” Our tailback was Charlie Lotson, later to be the football coach at Gratz high school. Unfortunately, it had rained for three days before game day. The field was a sea of mud, and the temperature was around 34 degrees. 

     Somehow, in the first quarter, we’d driven down to about the Delaware 30 yard-line. Charlie was looking for a receiver when he got hit. The ball plopped into the hands of Delaware’s all-American end, Mickey Heinecken, and he took it 70 yards for a touchdown. The rout was on.

      In the fourth quarter, our coaches finally gave up and put in the scrub team. We were the guys who had been sent to our rooms the night before. When we stood on the sideline ready to go in, we were missing our center, whose name was Moses. Moses was hiding on the bench under the large, all-weather jackets and didn’t want to go in. Two of the starters went down the bench from either end, yelling “Moses.” They found him and dragged him to the sideline. Shortly thereafter, a nose-tackle crashed over Moses and nailed me in the backfield for a three-yard loss. At least I got my uniform dirty.

     Later, on defense, I ended up about 10 yards from Delaware’s legendary coaches, Dave Nelson and Tubby Raymond. I stood and stared at them. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I said, “What the hell are you doing? The score is 55-0, and you still have your first team in?” They turned and walked away. One of the reasons they did that was back then; there were “Dunkel Ratings” each week. If you won by a large number, your rating went up. Oh, the final score was 62-0. 

     The only possible moral of the story is if you think things are bad now, remember the past. 

Friday: Cincy and Why We Did It

11.21.20
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TU Football: It’s going to get worse

Do you think these jackasses could have figured out a way not to kick it to No. 22?

As much as I like to dig through the boxes and find those Cherry and White colored glasses we’ve used in the past, this season has opened our eyes to a new reality.

Today’s hard truth. The Owls will finish 1-7 this year, probably should have been 0-8, and, next year, if they get a dozen games in, they won’t be more than 2-10 in the 2021 season.

If that.

Not unless they make a coaching change now, and with $6 million due the current coach, I don’t see that happening.

The result of that non-action is at least another mini-dark age for Temple football and Owl fans who have lived through one long dark age might not have the stomach for another.

As a once wise philosopher said, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”

A new coach–just throwing out names like Al Golden and Gabe Infante, for starters–could infuse new excitement and maybe keep the players around.

Did you see any excitement coming from the players in the closing two minutes as head coach Rod Carey took four consecutive delay of game penalties to get his ass out of there?

That’s a losing attitude. It’s nowhere near Temple TUFF and has very little to do with COVID.

When Temple was getting ready to play Memphis, even after the loss to Navy, the Owls had the best regular-season AAC record of any team in the league’s championship era, better than UCF, Memphis, Cincy.

Once-proud program fading fast

Now they’ve slipped from No. 1 to No. 4 overall in just a few short weeks.

The snippets of failure have been there for all to see all year.

When the Owls blocked a field goal early in the game when they were competitive, did you a see one Owl–just one–even have an interest in picking that block off the ground and taking it the other way?

That’s coaching, or lack of it.

Lew Katz is long gone and there is nobody out there with his kind of coin who gives two hoots about Temple football with the will and the cash to buy out current head coach Rod Carey’s contract.

Why is it about to get worse?

Players, good players, the best players on the team, are openly talking about jumping ship. One inside E-O source told me that both Branden Mack and Jadan Blue are gone next year and, if they don’t get drafted, they are headed to P5 schools. The team’s only returning AAC first-team defensive player, a tackle, told OwlsDaily last week he is “exploring his options.”

Too much talent has left the building and even more is contemplating leaving in the offseason.

That leaves Temple with glorified scout team players as the face of its program for next year, and maybe the one after that, too.

You can talk about all the young guys getting playing time all you want, but these “young guys” were part of middle-of-the-pack recruiting classes and, if the “young guys” on Cincinnati, Memphis and UCF–all classes ranked higher than Temple’s the last three years–had a chance to play on Saturday, the odds of them playing a more competitive game than 28-3 are significantly higher.

Time to cut the losses and inject new energy into the program. Time and money, though, are two different things. If the Temple administration can’t find the money, they will tell us to be patient and have the time.

Those of us who went through this before don’t have time for that, not after we went through the same thing from 1991-2009. Fall is a beautiful season and we can find better things to do and, if we have to, we will.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

11.19.20
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ECU-Temple: A Fork in The Road

When late night TV wasn’t as political and arguably more funny, Johnny Carson had a few notable characters.

One of them was an infomercial guy named Art Fern who talked about forks in the road.

“How do you get there? Let me tell you friends, how do you get there! You take the San Diego Freeway to the Ventura Freeway. You drive to the Slauson Cutoff, get out of your car, cut off your Slauson, get back in your car, then you drive six miles till you see the Giant Neon Vice-Squad Cop. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Well, Saturday’s noon showdown against visiting East Carolina is the ultimate “Fork in the Road” game for Temple.

This is how Temple used to dominate East Carolina, with a fullback (Nick Sharga), leading the way for an elite tailback (Jahad Thomas). Now the Owls don’t even use a fullback and the elite tailback has seen enough of Rod Carey’s RPO offense to transfer out in the middle of the season.

The two teams have similar records (1-5 for Temple, 1-6 for ECU) but are seemingly headed in different directions. ECU has been on an upward swing against AAC opponents, certainly more competitive than Temple has been. The Owls have slowly been on the decline and their 1-5 is considerably less impressive than the Pirates.

Temple TUFF: Sharga (4) leads the way for Armstead (25)

COVID?

Everybody has COVID issues and the Owls have got to stop using that as an excuse and just win a damn game.

Consider this: In the last four games, the Owls have lost by double digits. In their last seven games of the 2019 season, the Owls lost four and three of them were by double-digits. Before now, the last time the Owls lost four consecutive games by double digits was in Steve Addazio’s final season, 2012, when they lost to Rutgers (35-10), Pitt (47-17), Louisville (45-17) and Cincinnati (34-10).

On the other hand, in two of its last three games, ECU has been more competitive than Temple in losses to some good teams–Tulsa (30-34) and Tulane (21-38) before being blown out by Cincinnati, 55-17. ECU beat South Florida by 20 and the Owls needed a miracle fumble left on the carpet to beat USF by two.

There’s no disgrace losing to Cincy, either. A lot of good teams have been blown out by the Bearcats this season and Temple won’t play Cincy until the final game next week.

Fork in the road indeed. Apparently ECU, under former James Madison head coach Mike Houston, is headed in the right direction while someone needs to tell Rod Carey Temple needs to upgrade its GPS system.

Is it any wonder, then, that the Pirates are a 3.5-favorite against a program that it has never beaten in American Conference play?

The Owls have a true freshman quarterback in Matt Duncan, but Tulane also had a true freshman quarterback and did not use that as an excuse. The Owls have rolled out two quarterbacks since Anthony Russo and, frankly, none is an acceptable AAC-level quarterback.

Duncan’s got to put the big boy pants on and lead the Owls to a win or this entire program is about to go down the wrong road and hit a wall. If they total their ride, it will be a long time before they get back on the road to respectability again.

Friday night pick: Usually never go for a 32.5-point favorite, but really like a solid FAU Owls’ squad to lay the wood on UMass.

Saturday picks: Coastal Carolina laying the 6.5 against visiting App. State, Liberty getting the 3.5 at NC State, and Georgia State laying 3 at South Alabama.

Update: Evened the season record at 3-3 by going 2-1 against the spread. FAU easily covered the 8.5 as did Wisconsin the 3.5. Only loss was Nebraska beating PSU. LT and Rice postponed due to COVID. Record this week: 2-1. Overall: 3-3.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

11.16.20
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Fizz’s state of the Temple Football Union address

Editor’s Note: I want to thank Fizz for getting this in so soon. I thought I wouldn’t be able to get to it until Tuesday for Wednesday. I think he was being facetious about the buying out of the contract part at the end because, based on my preliminary calculations, we are about $5,000,985.50 short right now.

Fizzy

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

I want to begin by congratulating Central Florida coach Josh Heupel for pulling his starters after the third quarter. It showed so much class and good sense. Most other coaches would have run up the score, but he didn’t and saved his first-teamers from possible injury.

     Next, I want to apologize to Mike Gibson for not getting him my copy on Sunday after the game. Part of the problem was I just stared at the screen because I couldn’t think of anything to say that I hadn’t said before.

The TU 1958 unis

     I’ve been associated with Temple football for sixty-two years. It started in 1958 when I was a walk-on with a half-scholarship. After my freshman year, I got full tuition, and it was worth the immense sum of $375.00 per semester. Therefore, for a total of $2,250, I acquired all the blows to my head, which helped me become what I am today.

     As I’ve said just about everything before, I’m only going to make a few quick comments. Temple has had the ball in good field position for three straight games and over a minute left on the clock at halftime. In each of those games, Temple chose to run out the clock. Down 21 – 3, against Central Florida, they didn’t try to score.

     Who coaches like this? Is this what they do in Northern Illinois? Perhaps it’s so cold up there; they want to get back in the locker room. The Central Florida game, however, was played in Florida. Maybe there were lots of flies.

     As a former coach, I saw a few other things that annoyed the hell out of me. Throughout the game, the Temple players were chatting up the opposition. Why? You’re losing; concentrate on the game. Play ball!

     On an underthrown pass in the third quarter, our receiver stood and watched instead of coming back and trying to knock the ball away. Also, defenders continually throw their shoulders at the runner instead of tackling the proper way. 

      You might say these aren’t a big deal. To me, though, it shows a lack of discipline and an acceptance of losing.

     I’ve watched the Temple football program go up, down, and sideways through my many years. My opinion is the program is now quickly deteriorating.  Yes, I usually criticize the coaching strategy. However, when two of our best players choose to leave the program for greener pastures, it scares the hell out of me. Usually, when players transfer, it’s because they don’t get enough playing time. These guys were starters.

     The main reason programs go up, down, and sideways is coaching. Coach Carey is in the second year of a five-year contract. For me, last season was terribly disappointing with all the second-half blowouts. The proof of that pudding is six guys from that team are now playing in the NFL. So I’ve started a fund to buy out the remainder of his three years for 4.5 million dollars. Here are the pledges I’ve received so far.

Teammate Rick Walsh – $5    

Teammate Vic Baga – $6.50

Classmate Don Rosenberg  – $5

There’s also a commitment from another teammate who’d like to stay anonymous and is currently indisposed. He said he’d match anything we raise. If you’d like to pledge, please contact Mike Gibson.

Thursday: ECU

11.14.20
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TU Football 2020: Tragicomedy

A play containing both elements of tragedy and comedy is called a tragicomedy and, after six games, that’s is probably the best word to describe Temple’s 2020 football season.

Tragedy, because an inordinate number of players have gotten either sick or injured and an undermanned team going into the season just cannot afford that.

This is the guy who turned Temple’s special teams from No. 1 in the nation to No. 130, but he’s a friend of Rod Carey, so that’s got to count for something.

Comedy, because we already knew Temple’s special teams were the Keystone Cops last year and nothing that has happened this year has changed that. The program says Brett Diersen is both the “outside linebackers coach/special teams coordinator” but he might as well be Charlie Chaplin. Special teams are not supposed to made your opponent laugh, but that’s what Temple’s have done for nearly two years under CEO Rod Carey. Outside linebackers aren’t much better, but this is the guy Carey jettisoned Temple legendary ST coach Ed Foley for and he had that aspect of the team on auto pilot for nearly a decade.

You can’t have both tragedy and comedy in both areas and be a successful football team and the Owls proved that for the fifth time this season in a 38-13 loss at Central Florida on Saturday night.

What is Rod Carey football when it comes to special teams?

Rod Carey football is having a slow white guy return punts and I can say that because I’m a slow white guy. The difference being that I’m a boomer and Carey has slow white guys in their 20s returning punts. In a school with athletes out the wazoo like Temple, there should be at least 10 in the football program who can both catch a punt and make the first guy miss, let alone the rest of the student body of nearly 40,000 full-time students.

Carey is obviously satisfied with just catching the ball and getting the offense started. That would be understandable if the Temple offense could do anything, but it can’t. You’ve got to make the punt return a dangerous offensive play, just like it used to be at Temple when guys like Matty Brown, Delano Green and even Isaiah Wright (the Wright of Geoff Collins, not Carey) were the returners.

What is Rod Carey football?

Rod Carey football is not even going after the punt when the UCF punter has to kick with his foot near the back of the end zone. Every other recent Temple coach would have had a jailbreak punt block on in that situation.

Not Rod Carey. Why make the punter uncomfortable when you can just let him get off a 50-yard punt?

Rod Carey football is kicking a field goal down 38-10 for window dressing when he could have rolled his quarterback out on a run/pass option for a touchdown with eight minutes left.

Rod Carey football is not challenging a call when his freshman wide receiver makes a spectacular catch with his foot inbounds with four minutes left.

If there’s one constant about Carey’s approach to the game is that he plays it way too passive and his team has adopted the personality of their head coach.

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

11.12.20
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Temple-UCF: Inside the War Room

Gotta wonder what happens when all the Temple coaches get together to game plan the next opponent on the schedule.

Since what happens in the Coaches Conference Room at the E-O is not televised, we can only imagine.

Full disclosure: After watching the first few Temple games, I’m convinced they don’t even game plan for an opponent.

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that they were so embarrassed they lost 62-21 to UCF at home last year and they don’t want that history to repeat itself before a national TV audience (ESPN-U, 7:30 p.m.) on Saturday night.

Rod Carey: “Fellas, we’re feeling a little heat here. Temple fans are used to winning and my plan to use this fall as an extension of spring practice probably isn’t working. I got hammered by an anonymous fan on Temple Football Forever Thursday. I want to win. You want to win. Anyone have any ideas how we extend the game to the fourth quarter Saturday night and steal it then?”

Mike Uremovich: “Rod, you know what we did at Northern. We played the RPO every game and accepted the results.”

Rod: “Gabe, any ideas?”

Gabe Infante: “We are playing into their hands that way. If we run the RPO, they don’t respect the quarterback’s ability to run the ball, and they are going to come after Anthony on the next two downs. He will probably either get sacked or throw incompletions. Not Anthony’s fault at all, but asking him to run is not his forte and probably will result in giving Dillon Gabriel about a zillion more possessions than he needs to have.”

Rod: “What do we do to avoid that?”

Gabe: “When I was the head coach at (St. Joseph’s) Prep, we played a lot of nationally ranked Florida teams with much more speed than us but we always beat them.”

Rod: “How?”

Gabe Infante after beating Florida’s top-ranked high school team.

Gabe: “Put two tight ends on the field, put a fullback on the field, line up in run formations on first down. They’ve seen our film. They expect the run on first down. Fake them out by throwing short passes, run on second down, keep the sticks and clock moving. Take a chance every now and then with a fake to our tailback, followed by a deep ball. Keep the defense off balance. Those high-octane offenses never saw the ball. We had eight-minute drives each quarter. We’d get seven points one quarter, three points the next, seven at the beginning of the third and, before you know it, we had a 17-0 lead and they were playing catch up. We’re from Philly, 17th and Thompson, and that’s only five blocks west and five blocks south from this room we’re in now. We used our toughness to our advantage.”

Rod: “Sounds good but we run the RPO. That’s what we do.”

Gabe: “That’s precisely the point. That’s what they do. They are more comfortable with us doing what they do, throwing passes, stopping the clock, giving them more possessions. I’d say let’s make them uncomfortable and keep our defense off the field. I’m the running backs coach but I’m all for helping our defense any way I can.”

Rod: “Mike, what do you think?”

Mike: “We didn’t do that at NIU, Rod. I’m not comfortable with a fullback and two tight ends.”

Rod: “That settles it. We’re going to do what we do and let the chips fall where they may.”

Gabe: “But, Rod, the chips haven’t fallen our way so far, let’s try other chips.”

Rod: “Gabe, I love you, man, but this is what got me to 52-30 at NIU and I’m sticking with the plan Saturday night. Meeting adjourned.”

(Coaches get up leaving the room while Adam DiMichele can heard mumbling under his breath: “That’s also what got us beat 62-21 last year.”)

Rod: “Adam, did you say anything?”

Adam: “No, nothing, Rod.”

Rod: “OK, let’s do this. Let’s beat them at their game.”

Picks this week: Went 1-2 opening week against the spread and skipped last week, but like a few games on the docket this weekend. First, Friday night the Florida Atlantic Owls covering the 8.5 spread at nearby FIU. On Saturday, taking Wisconsin to cover the 3.5 at Michigan and Penn State the same number at Nebraska. For the final game, going for Louisiana Tech to cover the 1.5 against the visiting Rice Owls. All favorites this week, no underdogs.

Update: Evened the season record at 3-3 by going 2-1 against the spread. FAU easily covered the 8.5 as did Wisconsin the 3.5. Only loss was Nebraska beating PSU. LT and Rice postponed due to COVID. Record this week: 2-1. Overall: 3-3.

Saturday Night: Game Analysis

11.11.20
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An Anonymous Fan has chimed in on the state of the program

Unlike the Trump anonymous op-ed guy, the below is written by a passionate fan, not an insider.

Editor’s Note: It’s very rare that we get an email with this much thought, no insults, and this on-point about the Temple football program. Since I agree with 99 percent of what this young man says, I will print it unedited in its entirely. (The only part I don’t agree is giving over the keys of the program to untested Fran Brown but that’s his opinion so I left it in. He did not want to use his name so I’m going to keep it out.) The “young lady” he refers to below is Morgyn Siegfield, who now works for the University of Kansas.

By Anonymous

I really haven’t felt a need in a long time to express my dismay about
the Temple football program.  But as my sucko-meter has gone off
multiple times this year, I have some things I need to get off my chest.

Look, I wasn’t crazy about Geoff Collins; I always had the sense that he was
learning on the job. But one thing he did well was relate to his
players and the public.  I just never realized how important it was
and is until I saw Rod Carey.

Let’s recap the many ways he has sucked so far, shall we:

1) In an early interview with Owl Sports (with a young lady whose name
I forget), he was asked about “Temple Tuff.”   It was a softball
question that the interviewer threw at him to let him affirm Temple’s
brand. His answer: something to the effect of, “Where I come from, you
don’t say you’re tough, you just are.”  That was the first indication
to me that
this guy was a schmuck.

He had previously said publicly how excited he was to be the new coach
of the Temple football team, going as far as saying that Kraft could
make his buyout sum as much as he wanted.  He was expressing his
gratitude and suggesting, ostensibly, that he was going to be here for
a long time.  And what does this douchenozzle say in his interview
with Owl Sports?  At the first chance he gets to affirm the Temple
brand, a phrase the legendary John Chaney invented, he basically says,
“meh, whatever.”

2) He fires Ed Foley.  WTF????  Everyone likes Ed Foley.  If anyone is
Temple, it’s Ed Foley.  He was here from nearly the beginning with Al
Golden, I think.  Did he have a little bit of Matt Foley in him?
Sure. But he was a really good coach.   Our special teams under him
were special!!!

So what does Carey do?  He fires Foley, which must have been handled
poorly as Foley felt a need to express his disgust via social media,
and then decides they don’t need a special teams coach.  Only problem
is they ended up really sucking on special teams!!  Then, the
following season, Captain Mayonnaise assigns one of his lackey’s to be
the new special team coach.  As if we didn’t notice!

My sense of the matter is that he was probably just jealous and felt
threatened by the relationships Foley had cultivated with the team and
university.  A confident man uses that to his advantage, he doesn’t
fire the guy.  My guess is it probably impacted player morale and
trust, too.

3) He not only gets rid of Foley, but he gets rid of the “Wildboys”
nickname that had been a holdover from past defensive lines dating
back to the Matt Rhule era.  Collins had the smarts to keep it.  He
probably realized the players on the defensive line liked it.  So here
comes Carey saying, “There’s a new sheriff in town, and we’re getting
rid of that tradition.”

“Hey, look, if you grant an interview, I want to be in the room just to make sure you don’t say anything to make me look bad.“

Right move:  Getting rid of signs and charts on the sideline

Wrong move:  Getting rid of a tradition that was started in the Matt Rhule era

4)  He gets into a public spat (at least on social media) with the
Imhotep coach.  I think it started with his mishandling of a Tyreek
Rainer situation, and things blew up from there.  Hey good luck
recruiting Imhotep after that!  This has traditionally been a hard
school to pull a recruit from so maybe you could argue that the damage
was minimal.

 But he just strikes me as a yokel with zero ability to politic.

5) Good players start transferring out.  Kenny Yeboah, Quincy
Roche and, now, Ray Davis.  All three of these guys are very good
players with potential NFL chops.  I’m almost certain Roche will be a
second or third rounder, (even with a low sack total this year.)
Losing these guys can’t be a good look for your program.  I don’t
recall Temple coaching staffs from the past losing a high caliber
player like Roche. That’s just irresponsible.  And guess what?  Don’t
be surprised if Ifenyi Maijeh is next!  In his last interview, he
mentioned that he has options after this season.  He didn’t specify,
but he also seemed a little bothered.  This is a subjective
interpretation, but that’s how I saw it.

6) He seems to be very rigid in his protocol for player interviews.
If you go to the Temple website to look at football related videos,
you’ll see that the player interviews are chaperoned, if you will, by
the coaches.  In other words, a journalist asks a question, and then
the coach connects the player to the question.  My conclusion:  It
looks and feels like the coaching staff is paranoid that these kids
are going to say something wrong or bad about them.  Again, I don’t
recall this ever being done in the past.  Who knows, maybe his
rigidity and paranoia is symptomatic of the reason some of these kids
are transferring out?

7) And look at the product we see today.  This team is a shell of
themselves.  Yes, injuries and covid cases have impacted them.  But
it’s also impacted the teams they’re playing.  And the loss of these
three transfers is totally on Carey.  The defense is just crap; they
can’t stop anyone.  And that’s on Carey, too.

His QB, Russo, who was recruited by Matt Rhule, has looked good.  He’s
been able to score the football.  And I give Carey a little credit for
his offensive line maneuvers (utilizing lighter players / zone), but
that’s it.  This team is blah. They’re just not very good. They
reflect the personality of their coach.

They’re semi-good.  They’re quasi-good. They’re the margarine of good.
They’re the Diet Coke of good, just one calorie, not good enough.

Mike, Carey is just not a good fit.  I get it; Kraft was under a lot
of pressure to hire someone.  And Carey was available.  But I tell ya,
I really liked Fran Brown.  In my opinion, people made too much of him
not being ready because he hadn’t been a coordinator.  Well, you know
what, there was another guy who hadn’t been a coordinator before he
got the job at the University of Minnesota, and his name is PJ Fleck.
How’d that work out for them?

And Fran Brown can recruit!  We’d have all of these NJ recruits right
now if Kraft would have made the bold decision to hire Fran Brown.
And I suspect none of those guys would have transferred out with Fran
as the coach. Fran’s strength is his people skills.  He was the
perfect choice.  He’s young.  He’s charismatic.  He’s local. This is
his recruiting footprint.  It is absolute nonsense, if not racist to
suggest he was too young or needed more seasoning as a coordinator.

Another guy to consider for the job is Kurt Sirocco.  He went to
Temple (didn’t play because of injury), got both of his degrees here,
and got his coaching start here.  He’s now doing quite well at U of
Minnesota as their Offensive Coordinator.  I suspect his name will be
tossed around for head coach openings in the near future.

But going forward, I suspect that Fran Dunphy, being the gentleman
that he is, will give Carey every chance to right the ship.  So we
could be stuck with this guy for another two years, at least.  Ugh.

Friday: UCF Preview