Fizz’s plea did not fall on deaf ears

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Fizzy is among the many Owl fans who hope the team, like Anthony Russo here, is the last man standing when and if the AAC race concludes this fall. (Photo courtesy of Zamani Feelings)

Editor’s Note: A couple of weeks ago, Fizz sent one of the last letters to come across “interim” President Dick Englert’s desk prior to his retirement. It was his thoughts on the new season-ticket policy. He was largely pleased with the response from Temple administrators and the story follows.

By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub

My recent letter to Dr. Englert regarding new seating for football season ticket holders did not fall on deaf ears.

The afternoon I sent the letter, I got a call from Adam Miller, Senior Associate AD for Development. Even though he had a copy, I reiterated much of what I wrote. His response was the criteria for awarding seats was a fair one, based upon service to the school. We went back and forth and ended the amicable conversation without a solution.

When I sent the original letter, I copied our new AD, Fran Dunphy. Coach got right back to me, and we corresponded with two emails. He promised to look into the issue. Fran Dunphy will be a super AD.

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Fizzy here at the Boca Raton Bowl, where 6,000-plus Temple fans attended  

I then sent another email to Dr. Englert, bringing him up to date on what transpired.

With the horrible virus affecting everything, the issue I raised is probably trivial. And perhaps, there won’t even be a football season. If it were my decision, there wouldn’t be. It’s not worth one life or the contamination of one family. If I was a player, however, I’d freak out if the season was canceled.

Let’s hope a vaccine will come along quickly, and everything will be back to normal next year. If so, here are my thoughts.

  1. If the home side of the stadium is to be switched, then flip the seats. There are only a few people with season tickets on the other side now, and they knew they’d be on the opposite side when they bought their tickets. It’s not a problem.
  2. Temple is not Notre Dame, Alabama, or Auburn. We went through hell to sell as many season tickets as we have now. Why would you piss-off people when you don’t have too? Don’t make them go through this ridiculous formula to repurchase the seats they’ve had for years and separate them from friends. It will only hurt the bottom line and shrink the fan base.
  3. Recently, we were knocking on the door of the Power Five Conferences with wins over Penn State, and a shoulda, woulda, coulda, at home with Notre Dame. We slid back down because we lost five winnable games in the second half last year. If we want to fill the seats, then we need to win our share of the big games.

One last thrust. Taking season ticket holders out of their seats is only Temple’s second dumbest idea. Just think where we’d be right now if plans for a campus stadium had congealed. We’d have a $160,000,000 empty hole in the ground.

Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, “Common-Sense,” should be required reading for all administrators.

Friday: The Math and Temple football

Best of TFF: Streak No. 4 (30)

Editor’s Note: To close out our favorite month of the year and our vacation week, the final installment of this year’s Best of TFF is a tribute to a team that not only broke a 30-year bowl drought but led the Owls from a 20-game losing streak to national prominence in three years. This post chronicles the pure joy of selection night.

Click on above logo to order tickets through Temple.

Owls and Brian Sanford rejoice in one of the  greatest photos ever 

There’s a saying way older than I am that pretty much describes what happened yesterday at the Liacouras Center.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

That might come from an old Chinese Proverb, although some internet sources dispute it.

Until yesterday, I didn’t think much of the phrase.

“Yeah, right,” I always said. “The guy who wrote that never read a Gary Smith story in Sports Illustrated or never enjoyed morning coffee over a Bill Lyon column in the 1980s or never heard the beautiful word pictures as described by Vin Scully or Harry Kalas.”

Then I saw the photo in today’s Daily News by Charles Fox and that changed my mind.

That photo, which is credited to Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC and appears above this story, says it all.

The sheer joy on the faces of the wonderful kids who play football for Temple University is genuine and spontaneous and cannot be conveyed by mere words.

So I publish it here instead with a plea.

Nobody took a photo of us in the parking lot during that 2005 game against Miami, but it would have been a lot uglier than that beautiful shot. There were less than 10 of us left tailgating in the rain but, before we even heard about Al Golden, we had a dream that someone, someday would come and lead us back to a bowl game.

That day and that someone has come.

That’s why it’s important that all 21,046 of you who showed up for the last home game against Kent State purchase tickets for this “home” game in D.C.

All of you and, hopefully, 21,000 more on top of that.

For maximum impact, please purchase your tickets through Temple University by clicking on the logo above. By buying through Temple, the university will be able to show future bowls that this fan base will travel and have concrete figures to back it up.

Please buy as many as you can and give to those who can make the short trip down I-95 and cheer on these great kids. Or you can wait until Monday morning at 10 a.m. and walk up to the Liacouras Center ticket window. The best seats are on the Temple (South) side 200, 300, 400 and 500 levels. Don’t buy the obstructed 100-level seats.

But buy them through Temple and don’t procrastinate like thousands of folks did only to be caught waiting in long lines at the ticket windows at the last home game.

Monday: Resumption of Regular Programming

Best of TFF: Streak No. 3 (74)

For our vacation week, we are running a three-part series on the most-read stories in Temple Football Forever history. Here is one on Bruce Arians’ reaction to the win over Penn State published in 2015, published three days after the 27-10 win that ended a 74-year losing streak to PSU:
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When Bruce Arians led the Arizona Cardinals to a late-season upset of the Seattle Seahawks two years ago, it was the final loss of the season for the Seahawks on the way to winning the Super Bowl. The question for Arians then was a natural one as someone in the press room asked him if that was his biggest win as a head coach. Arians paused for a second and said, no, his biggest win as a head coach came at Temple when the Owls broke a 39-year losing streak to Pittsburgh in the 1984 season.

So, of all the congratulatory messages pouring into third-year Temple head coach Matt Rhule after a 27-10 upset of Penn State on Saturday, the one posted by Arians on his twitter page was priceless:

Rhule had one-upped Arians in the sense that he broke a longer streak over another in-state rival in Penn State (after a 74-year drought), so the two men have been in the same shoes at the same place. No one knew more what a win over Penn State could do for the Temple program than Arians, who said the first question asked of him at his first Temple press conference was, “Why does Temple even play football?” Like the presser after the Seattle game two years ago, Arians paused before a thoughtful response: “To beat Penn State.” Arians came close twice, losing to nationally-ranked Nittany Lions’ teams, 23-18, in 1983 and 27-25 to what would become an 11-1 PSU team in 1984, but never quite got over the hump.

Now that Rhule did, Arians used both twitter and the phone to express his satisfaction with the result. Rhule took the call and said, “Yes sir, thank you sir.” to a guy who was a young coach at Temple once, too. Rhule said he did not know what else to say to the NFL coach of the year. Then Rhule went out to the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field and presented the game ball to another former Temple coach, College Football Hall of Fame member Wayne Hardin, who came close a few times against Penn State but, like Arians, could not get over the hump.

In the fraternity of college coaches, and the circle of life, all three coaches will now share a pretty neat memory forever because only those three fully understand the magnitude of the moment.

Best of TFF: Streak No. 2 (49)

Editor’s Note: This story was first published on the day after Temple’s championship win. It received nearly 900,000 page views, the second-most in TFF history. The title broke a championship draught that dated back to 1967 when the Owls won the old Middle Atlantic Conference championship. This is the second part in our three-part Best of TFF series that will end Friday.

The morning after arguably the greatest win in Temple football history, there are no words.

Literally no words are coming out of my mouth, at least in the sense of being able to talk this morning.

The throaty and hoarse condition is more than OK because it was the result of cheering for the Owls at beautiful Navy-Marine Corps Stadium as they captured what really is their first-ever major football championship. The 1967 MAC title was admirable, but that was a day when the school played to a level of football that was beneath their status even then as one of America’s great public universities.

NCAA FOOTBALL: DEC 03 AAC Championship - Navy v Temple

ANNAPOLIS, MD – DECEMBER 03: Temple Owls defensive back Nate Hairston (15) carries the ACC Championship placard  (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire)

So this was it.

Walking out of the stadium and into the concourse, I let out a very loud primal: “THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT!!”

Fortunately, I got a few high fives and smiles from my fellow Temple fans and not fitted for a straightjacket. It also put the voice out for 24 hours, maybe more.

When it comes to Temple football today at least, you cannot think in terms of a national championship—the deck is stacked against G5 teams in an unfair system—so what happened yesterday was the pinnacle of Temple football success. Thousands of Temple fans, easily in excess of 10,000 Temple fans, made Navy’s 15-game home winning streak a moot point by turning that stadium into a Temple home field advantage and to get to that mountaintop and look down from it is incredibly satisfying.

Hey, it’s a pretty spectacular pinnacle. The only thing that would have made it better was a G5 slot in a New Year’s Six bowl against Penn State, but that’s not happening for a number of reasons that are not important today. (Objectively, would you take a team for the Cotton Bowl that has won seven straight against this schedule and beat a Navy team, 34-10, over a Western Michigan team that struggled to beat a four-loss Ohio team? I would but I don’t expect the bowl committee to be that objective. I can also grudingly see the WMU argument.)

What is important is that the Owls have gone from being a perennial Bottom 10 team and laughed at nationally to being ranked in the Top 25 for two straight years and going to a title game one year and winning it the next. When you think of the success P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas have had here, there is a Twilight Zone quality to the parallel between this success and their success at Elizabeth (N.J.). In their freshman year at Elizabeth, they won one game; in their freshman year at Temple they won two games. In their sophomore year at both schools, they won six games. In their junior year at both schools, they reached the title game and lost and, in their senior year at both schools, they lifted the ultimate hardware together.

Truly amazing and I will miss both of those guys.

Back on Cherry and White Day, I wrote that this team will be better than last year’s team while people on other websites—notably, Rutgers and Penn State fan boards—insisted that Temple would take a step back. I was consistent in my belief that this was the STEP FORWARD year, not the step back one, and that belief was rooted in knowledge that both the defense and offense were significantly upgraded despite graduation losses. Only a Temple fan who follows the team closely would know that, not the know-it-alls who make assumptions on subjects they have no idea what they are talking about.

Today at noon, the Owls will know where they will go for a bowl game. They can finish the season in the top 25 and set the record for most wins in Temple football history.

It won’t be the cake because we saw that yesterday, but it will be the Cherry on top of that white cake and it will be delicious even going down past what promises to be a future sore throat.

A summer project for Fran Dunphy

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Temple fans might be thanking Fran Dunphy if he replaces Miami, Idaho, and UMass with West Virginia, BYU and Villanova.

Right now, if Fran Dunphy is taking his new role as a new athletic director seriously, he’s sitting down at his kitchen table in Avalon, N.J., trying to get the Temple football Owls four football dates.

dropkick

That’s because the AAC has shown no signs of joining the Big 10 and limiting games to conference ones only. Independents like UConn and UMass will probably have to join the Ivy League and cancel schedules entirely. The strong rumor is the ACC will soon join the Big 10 and go conference only, too, so that leaves three games Dunphy has to tentatively replace:

  • Sept. 5, at Miami
  • Sept. 12, Idaho
  • Sept. 19, Rutgers
  • Oct. 10, UMASS

If Dunphy attacks the position with zeal, he was sitting at the kitchen table yesterday with the 2015 Temple-PSU game on in the background (ESPU, noon) with printouts of the composite 2020 FBS college football schedule trying to replace those dates. Hopefully, he has the phone numbers of the other 126 FBS athletic directors.

Sure, it would be contingent upon several things (like the season being played for one), but what would Dunphy and Temple have to lose by scheduling games based on contingency?

To me, it’s the wise Owl thing to do right now.

The Miami game is probably out even if the ACC decides to play its nonconference games. Miami practice has been suspended due to an outbreak of the virus on that team and no one knows if the Hurricanes will be able or even allowed to compete.

Assuming the ACC and Big 10 are out, on Sept. 5, that gives the Owls an attractive group of opponents to select. Villanova, where Dunphy has a home the other six months a year, is a possibility. The CAA has canceled its season but Villanova has indicated that it will look to fill its entire season with an independent schedule. Good luck with that. My choice for Dunphy is West Virginia. Florida State would not go to West Virginia but Temple will.

Rutgers has to be replaced (Sept. 19) as well.

The Owls also have to have contingencies for the independents, UMass and Idaho. The Sept. 12 game with Idaho can easily be replaced with BYU, which is probably the only independent other than Notre Dame that will be able to get games. BYU was scheduled to play a home game against Michigan State, but that’s out. Temple could easily replace the Spartans on that date.

The final date for the Owls is Oct. 10 against UMass. If UMass can’t play that day, Villanova should be available. (I realize there is a group of Temple fans who don’t want to play Villanova but with a competent FBS head coach, which Geoff Collins wasn’t on the day he lost to the Wildcats, Temple should never lose to Villanova. Say what you will about Rod Carey, but’s it’s indisputable he’s a competent FBS head coach.)

Of course, Dunphy could have been doing other things yesterday like taking the Catamaran for a spin around Townsends Inlet, but we can only hope for Temple’s sake that he is on the job now.

If he didn’t do it yesterday, there’s always next weekend.

Friday: Our Annual Week of  Vacation begins (July 24-31, best of TFF runs on Friday, Monday and Thursday)

 

 

 

 

So far, only the shouting is over

 

That saying “it’s all over but the shouting” takes on a new meaning this fall.

Football might not be over, but the shouting could be.

Yesterday, the office of Gov. Tom Wolf said many college and professional teams have submitted plans to ask for a waiver to allow fans to attend.

Got to think that Temple, Pitt, and Penn State (along with the Eagles and Steelers) were among those teams.

templefans

Before social distancing …

Right now, I think there will be a season but it could be anything from “made for TV only” to a fan limit that would ensure social distancing.

Anecdotally, I’ve been going to supermarkets and other places enforcing social distancing and wearing masks. If it can work since March for those places, similar protocols should be able to enforce at Temple games.

Eagles?

Not so much. I guess it could work if they could figure out a way to limit the attendance to 20K, but I don’t know how they can do it without disaffecting a lot of loyal season ticket-holders.

Now back to the shouting part.

It’s going to be hard to cheer for the Owls through those darn masks so improvising and adjusting could be the order of the day. Disposable gloves and pounding on the seats could provide some sort of home-field advantage.

Looks like the opener at Miami won’t get played because those cheaters (stealing Manny Diaz and Quincy Roche, for starters) have been hit hard by back luck (see above video). Don’t wish that on them, but was never keen on the Owls having to face Roche again and really disappointed that he chose to play for a 2020 opponent of the Owls so I will shed no tear if that game is canceled.

I will if the other games are canceled, particularly if protocols that satisfy the science can be followed.

If you can go to a store wearing a mask, gloves and stand on those markers six feet apart, there should be a way to do the same for 20K fans in a 70K stadium.

I have my doubts but college football and pro football are buying time to figure this thing out. Even if it’s just on TV, I will take it. If that means the shouting is over, too, that’s a price we will have to pay for a season.

Monday: A Revamped AAC Schedule

 

Geography: An Idea That Makes Too Much Sense

si

Pat Forde’s ideas in SI about college football realignment make sense now and probably will make sense 100 years from now.

One of my favorite things as a kid was to get out every map I could find (there were no google ones then) and find places of interest.

By the time I was 10, I virtually memorized every city and town in the United States. When I moved from one grade school to another, the “new kid” would win all of the Geography bees.

Knowing Geography, unlike, say, Algebra makes sense and can be put to good use for your entire life.

Penn State v Temple

Penn State-Temple would pack the Linc every other year.

The powers-that-be in college football have lost their way and a recent article by Pat Forde in Sports Illustrated beautifully pointed out why.

The Big 10 was a good idea for the land grant colleges of the midwest, not so much for Penn State, Maryland and Rutgers.

The Southwest Conference was a great idea for the Texas schools.

The Southeast Conference makes sense for Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida.

Forde has Temple in a “Yankee Conference” with UConn and UMass and Navy, but the ideal scenario for the Owls would be to lump them with the other two FBS schools in Pennsylvania and the other large media markets in the East.

For Temple, the ideal scenario would to be in with schools from the traditional East (Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Maryland, Syracuse, West Virginia, Boston College, maybe even Navy).

That’s not going to happen now but it makes sense for a lot of reasons.

  • Rivalries: Penn State and Pitt and Maryland vs. Navy and Temple vs. Rutgers and Pitt and West Virginia, among others.
  • Travel costs: Football isn’t the only sport and having all an-East conference would cut costs considerably.
  • Attendance: Just from a Temple football standpoint, a steady diet of games against Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State and Pitt would kick the current average up from 28K to 38K or more easily.
  • TV markets: A Big East type conference would have the No. 1 market (New York), the No. 4 one, Philadelphia and the No. 10 one (D.C.)  It would be a catalyst for driving up revenue in any cable network competition.

Let the Big 10 have the midwest schools and the SEC and PAC-12 thrive but at some point, maybe long after even the current students at Temple are gone, someone should wise up and let geography dictate the college football landscape for everyone. Money dictates everything but what happens 50 years from now if the cable money runs out? Do the conferences return to a more regional landscape? Hope so.

Right now, this current setup does not benefit Temple nor many of the traditional Eastern schools.

Friday: Only The Shouting Is Over (Probably)

Monday: A Revamped AAC Schedule

An objection to ticket policy

 

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Dick Englert with some season ticket holders

Editor’s Note: In the final days and maybe even hours of Dick Englert’s tenure as interim President at Temple, this is one of the final letters to come across his desk. Since the subject is Temple football in general and season tickets in particular, Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub wanted to share it here. 

fizz

Dear Dr. Englert,

           I want you to imagine you’ve been a season ticket holder for Owls football or basketball for thirty, or forty, or fifty years. Sometimes, it was tough to put that money out, but you wanted to support the program. Buying season tickets was your way of showing that support, even if it meant pinching the penny somewhere else. You took pride in bringing your kids and grand-kids to the games. Some of them even matriculated to Temple.

          Then the Coronavirus hits, and everything goes topsy/turvy.  Under this social distancing circumstance, you’re trying to decide if it makes medical sense to repurchase tickets this year, but you pick up the phone, prepared to do your duty.

           The young lady tells you how they’re going to spread the fans out around the lower level of the stadium.  When you ask about the best seats, she tells you that those folks who have given more money to the Owl Club and the University will get top priority. Therefore, people who sat between the forties for decades and developed friendships at those games now have to sit in or near the end-zone. And, it’s the same deal for basketball.

           Giving priority to more prominent donors has to rank as one of the most stupid decisions the University has ever made. You embarrassed the hell out of fans who’ve purchased tickets and remained loyal for decades. Seating priority should go to those who have purchased season tickets the longest. It seems you’re purposely trying to upset folks with your money-grubbing strategies, and this policy will only result in diminishing the fan base.

            Now let’s assume there’s no virus next year. For football, the intent is to move the Owl fans to the other side of the stadium. Once again, you’ll probably distribute seats on the same short-sighted basis.

           That’s not my only gripe. It seems that hardly a week goes by without a solicitation for contributions by Temple. I get emails from different schools as well as various programs and the general fund. If you’d cut your development staff to the bare bones, save all those salaries, and have only one campaign, Temple would probably come out ahead.

I’m a very upset Owl who won’t be buying tickets.

Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub, Ed.D.

Temple 62/69

Football Letter Winner

Monday: An idea that makes too much sense

Recruiting 2021: That’s What I’m Talking About

 

There are none so blind as refuse to see.

The blueprints for Temple football’s decade-long transformation from 2006 chump to 2016 champ were in the Edberg-Olson Complex for all to see and it appears, after some rummaging through the files in the attic, Rod Carey’s staff have found them in one important area: Recruiting.

After a hiatus of Geoff Collins making a failed run through the South to fuel Temple with largely suspects, the Owls have gotten back to the prospect formula that worked so well for Al Golden and Matt Rhule:

Recruit Mid-Atlantic and DMV (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) hard but, more importantly, get a significant number of players who have Power 5 offers. For Golden and Rhule, that breakdown was roughly this: 10-15 three stars and above with solid P5 offers with the rest of the class at least two stars and trusting the film on the others.

That’s what I’m talkin’ about, Willis.

 

Two stars like Tyler Matakevich (consensus national defensive player of the year as a senior) and Haason Reddick (a first-round NFL draft choice) were coached into five stars by the time they left.

Still, you can’t coach every two-star into a five-star and your chances are a lot better when your base is three.

betting

We won’t get into every recruit, but running back Johnny Martin III is rated near the top of RBs in New Jersey and strong side defensive end Jordan Laudato of West Chester Henderson was rated as high as the No. 2 DE in the state of Pennsylvania. The Owls’ most recent commitment, safety Christian Abraham (St. Joseph’s, Montvale, N.J.) is in the top 30 of defensive players in that state.  Justin Lynch (Mount Carmel, Chicago) is the brother of a quarterback (Jordan) who was a Heisman Trophy finalist at Rod Carey’s former school, NIU. He was the leader of a state championship team in Illinois a year ago. In horse racing, good bloodlines almost always mean triple crown contenders. I like Lynch’s future at Temple. He was one of the few who didn’t have a P5 offer, but his film is among the most impressive.

According to Scout.com, Temple now has 10 “hard commitments” and not a single one is lower than a three-star. Almost all had Power 5 offers (not just interest) in hand by commitment day. That’s the best recruiting start we’ve seen in a long while.

Even more importantly, the Owls have been building trust and relationships centered particularly around running backs coach Gabe Infante. Recruits have gone out of their way to praise Infante and he seems to be thriving in a role once played by Fran Brown.

Friday: One of Dick Englert’s last letters from a fan

We’re No. 6!!!! (Or Not)

athlon

I’ll put my money down on this when I see Temple on the cover.

This is usually about the time I walk down the aisles of my local Giant and Weis Markets peruse the covers of the various college football guides.

Flipping about a third of the way through for most of them is where you come to the sections on AAC.

Most of them have the Temple football Owls, a successful program for over a decade by G5 standards, ranked No. 6 in the toughest G5 conference.

I’m not buying it. (Not just the magazine but the premise.)

IF … and that’s indeed an IF there is a next season with the current uptick in the health scare, Temple will not be No. 6. The Owls might not be No. 1 but I would put money on them being closer to No. 1 than No. 6 and that’s based on an objective look at the talent on the roster.

The reason is simple.

joke

I’ve seen the Owls ranked as high as No. 4 (Underdog Dynasty) to as low as No. 8 here (The Breakdown). Most of the major magazines have the Owls at No. 6 in the AAC.

The Owls have an outstanding offensive line, a first-team freshman All-American running back in Ray Davis and two great … and I’m NOT using hyperbole when I write this … wide receivers in Branden Mack and Jadan Blue. The stats are there for all to see. Blue not only led the Owls in catches (95), but he ranks No. 1 among all Owls of all time in that category in a single season. That covers a lot of ground, both figuratively and literally, considering Leslie Shephard and Steve Watson were outstanding receivers in the NFL. Despite that, Mack–a complementary 6-5 receiver to Blue’s 6-1–caught more touchdown passes (7-4).

Quarterback Anthony Russo is on target to break all but two of P.J. Walker’s Temple career records (yards and touchdown passes). IF he makes the same kind of improvement from junior year to senior (14 touchdowns, 14 interceptions to 21-12), he has an outside shot at collecting all of the records. How outstanding would that be? P.J. played four years; Anthony only three.

The returning interior defensive line is really good, led by Dan Archibong and Ifeanyi Maijeh. Some transfers and recruits have bolstered the interior wall so moving Archibong out to his original position (end) should be an option to help with the outside rush.

The Owls have one linebacker returning who was a bowl game MVP (William Kwenkeu) and another (Isaiah Graham-Mobley) who just might be a better NFL prospect than Eagles’ No. 5 pick Shaun Bradley. He was certainly on par with Bradley until he got injured halfway through the 2019 season.

Corners Christian Braswell, Ty Mason, and Linwood Crump Jr. are back and have had plenty of experience. Two (Braswell and Mason) have pick 6s in AAC games. Amir Tyler is a pretty good safety.

Plus, in head coach Rod Carey‘s seven years as head coach (six at NIU), he has never won fewer than eight games. He’s been able to plug enough holes and identify them to sustain excellence.

This is not a sixth-place team. It may not be the first-place one, either, as Cincinnati and UCF have more talent on paper, but it is one with a perception problem on the national scale fueled by a couple of dud bowl games.

Right now, perception is everything until the Owls have a chance to get on the field and prove the magazines wrong. Let’s hope they have a chance to do so.

Monday: That’s What I’m Talking About Willis

Saturday (7/11): You can’t really go home again

Monday (7/13): An idea that makes too much sense

Friday (7/18): Best of TFF (our annual one-week vacation begins)