Tag Archives: Temple football

09.10.20
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Everybody plays before Temple

As I write this, I’m watching the UAB Blazers taking on the Miami Hurricanes in a college football game and shaking my head in the process.

You remember the ‘Canes. That was supposed to be Temple’s opener five days ago. That game was scrapped as the ACC decided to postpone the opening of the season.

Rumors were a month ago that Temple and Pitt tentatively agreed to play a game this weekend but that was also tabled because of the City of Philadelphia’s practice restrictions on Temple.


Imagine all of the
Penn State players
and fans sitting
home watching TU-Pitt

 

That’s the same city that placed no such practice restrictions on the other Lincoln Financial Field tenant, the Eagles, who are playing this weekend. COVID-19 must be much worse in North Philadelphia than South Philly. There really has not been a satisfactory answer to the question why the Eagles get different treatment from the city than the Owls in the area of practice restrictions. Pittsburgh, a city in the same state, placed no such restrictions on the Panthers.

The last time the Owls opened in October did not turn out well.

UAB’s athletic director is Mark Ingram, who was rumored to be a leading candidate for the Temple job before Fran Dunphy was chosen as a stop-gap measure. It seems to me that Ingram, who is familiar with Temple having been here before, would have been able to navigate the dilemma facing the Owls and facilitated a temporary practice move to Ambler so the Owls could get ready for Pitt.

Dunphy probably doesn’t think outside the box like that.

That game would have been a terrific middle finger to a rival of both teams, Penn State. Imagine all of the Penn State players and fans sitting at home watching Temple and Pitt play. That would have been sweet. It would have been, in my mind, a terrific game, with former Temple commit Kenny Pickett battling Anthony Russo in nice quarterback battle.

Another missed opportunity by the Temple administration.

Now with the Navy game moved to October every single AAC team will have played before the Owls. The record will show that the first fumble of the season will have come not in the Navy game, but in the AD’s office at the Star Complex, 15th and Montgomery.

Whether the Owls will recover is a question yet to be answered but the last time they started a season in October it didn’t turn out well for the Cherry and White. They finished 0-8.

Let’s all pray similar circumstances lead to opposite results this season but from where I sit, watching UAB and Miami and wondering why Temple isn’t playing, does not give me the warm and fuzzies.

Monday: Checkers and Chess

09.07.20
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Did You Ever Get the Feeling?

Figuring out Temple football gave Matt Rhule this kind of living space

Every comedian has a shtick, a routine, style of performance associated with that particular person.

Temple football today reminds me of a 1950s and 60s comedian named George Goebel. He started a series of jokes with “Do you ever get the feeling?”

He had the whole comedy thing figured out in how it would work given his circumstances. He knew the room.

Matt Rhule definitely did not have the Temple football room figured out until after his first two years and, largely to figuring it out, he’s sitting on millions of dollars and, on top of that, trying to sell at $2.5 million home in Waco after moving on to the Panthers.

Rod Carey would do well taking notes.

Do you ever get the feeling that this is the year Carey figures how to succeed at Temple? I have my doubts but we shall see.

How did Rhule figure Temple out? After the first two years, he scrapped the spread and went to a more conventional pro offense using two backs. In this interview with USA Today’s Paul Myerberg, Rhule capsulated the Epiphany beautifully. The scheme fit the school. Temple TUFF, 10th and Diamond, run the ball, with two backs, make explosive plays off the play-action passing game, play great defense and special teams.

This the key quote in that story:

Said Rhule, “How do we differentiate ourselves? How do we make ourselves hard to prepare for? Put two backs on the field. Put two tight ends on the field.

“This is what your roots are. These kids have made themselves really tough. And that’s the only way we’ll ever win. By being a really, really tough football team.”

Let’s analyze that. What does “put two backs on the field” mean? Two halfbacks? Two fullbacks? Three quarterbacks? It means exactly what he did: Put a fullback in front of a tailback, establish the run, bring the safeties and the linebackers up in run support and use deft play-faking to the backs in throwing to wide open receivers for explosive downfield plays. It was what we were pleading for him to do in this space for the first two years of the Rhule Era.

Carey, to me, is a good coach but Rhule made the leap to great when he went from to a more traditional NFL-style offense.

Temple has the offensive line to run such an offense, experienced, talented and averaging 300 pounds across the front. Use, say, Tayvon Ruley (6-0, 216) as a fullback in front of Ray Davis and that’s even an extra blocker at the point of attack for a shifty cutback runner. Throw one more blocker in the area of defenders and Davis has a bigger hole to cut through. The Owls have a quarterback known for an accurate and big arm and not for his legs. Those are the essential elements of a play-action focused offense, not an RPO one. Great coaches adjust to their personnel; they don’t make the personnel adjust to them.

Is Carey comfortable with just good or does he want to be great?

This season Temple fans should find out if the Owls play at least nine or more games. If Carey is still living in a modest home in South Jersey next year and driving a pickup truck, he will have done things his way and gone 4-4.

If, on the other hand, he reads the room better than a year ago, he will be 9-0 or 8-1 looking for a $2.5 million mansion somewhere, maybe even Waco.

It’s the difference between being good and great.

Now let’s go have a season and find out.

Friday: The AAC After Week One

09.04.20
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Special Teams are Like Umpires

Whether he wants to admit it or not, Rod Carey cannot say his special teams by delegation produced better results than any of Ed Foley’s special teams at Temple.

Special teams are like umpires. If you don’t notice them, they are great. If you do, they are like Angel Hernandez.

Terrible.

If you don’t notice them, they are John Libka–generally considered the best balls and strikes umpire in the game today.

Last year, Temple football’s special teams were closer to Hernandez than Libka.

After Brandon McManus kicked this game-winning field goal against UConn, head coach Steve Addazio said: “Our goal was to put the ball in the center of the field and let the best kicker in the country win it for us.” He did.

For about a decade before that, nobody really noticed Temple’s special teams. Maybe not coincidentally, that started in 2009 when head coach Al Golden also assumed the head coach of the special teams’ role.

When Steve Addazio took over for Golden, he promoted tight ends coach Ed Foley who made Temple’s special teams legendary for excellence. Foley was a guy who rose to his level of competence. He’s a very competent special teams’ coach, one of the best, but as an interim head coach he proved to be a bridge too far. There can be little doubt if Foley, say, won either the Wake Forest game or the Duke game as an interim, his chances of being Temple head coach today would have been far greater than they are now.

Last year, in an administrative move, Rod Carey took Foley from the field to an off-the-field role and that caused Foley to go to Baylor and now the Carolina Panthers.

The Owls were the Keystone Cops of AAC special teams and that stung Temple fans were used to Owls making big plays in that third of the game.

“If we’re great on defense and special teams, we’re going to be in every game,” Golden said in 2009. “That’s two-thirds of the team. I really felt that special teams was an area I had to take charge of myself.”

Maybe it was Carey’s fault for letting Foley go. All we know is that, under Foley, the kicking and return coverage games were great. With pretty much the same personnel last year, they were terrible. In order to gain trust of Owls fans, it’s going to have to improve this year.

Will we ever see this stat again under this staff? Got to hope so. In this case, we’re from Missouri (show me state) and they are from NIU.

Last year, the Owls couldn’t make a routine extra point at Cincinnati and that might have cost them the East title. A block was missed. Was that the fault of the new special teams “coaches” (Carey has a couple of coaches in charge)? Maybe not. But it didn’t happen on the regular under Foley.

Under Foley, Isaiah Wright was a dynamic punt and kickoff returner in 2018. Under Carey’s coach by committee in 2019, he was just another guy. Temple always flipped the field on kickoffs. Too often last year, the Owls started drives deep in their own territory. Maybe Foley would have been able to communicate how important it was for Wright to eschew the fair catches for the reward of a big play.

The Owls were aggressive on special teams for a decade, going after blocked punts and field goals. High risk, high reward. The philosophy changed to no risk no reward last year. Disappointing. If you’ve got no athletes, that’s probably the way to go but Temple has always had athletes out the wazoo, notably but not limited to 6-5 wide receivers like Branden Mack with a 91-inch wingspan who liked to block punts. They played scared on special teams. That might be the NIU way but that’s the opposite of Temple TUFF.

Now the rebuilding of the Owls’ special teams begins. The Owls recruited a couple of high-profile kickers and Will Mobley’s job appears to be in jeopardy. Rory Bell has a longer leg (Mobley a very reliable extra point kicker) and a pedigree for success at the high school level.

Looks like to me Bell is the guy for kicking. For punting, Adam Berry had his moments and most were not good. Did not like his body language after failing to field a snap or shanking a punt. Hopefully, he has matured but thanks to recruiting, the Owls now have some other options.

Golden was right. This is 1/3 of the team and deserves attention. It did not get that last year. If the Owls are going to be successful in this department, we will not notice this aspect of the team at all.

Monday: Did You Ever Get The Feeling?

08.24.20
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The Math Just Got Easier for Russo

Who would have thought that both of these guys would finish 1-2 in stats as a Temple quarterback?

As far as we could determine, this quote about numbers and people was first attributed to Matt Holloway, but we’re sure someone slipped it into a figure of speech sometime before then.


If the quarterback position
was meant for
a runner then we’d
still be playing
the single wing
 

“Numbers don’t lie, people do.”

The numbers for Anthony Russo to pass P.J. Walker as the consensus all-time best Temple quarterback were challenging coming into this season. Even with a full season this year, and that’s doubtful, Russo would have to pull 40 touchdown passes to knock off the toughest record ahead of him: Walker’s career touchdown list. Not impossible, since LSU’s Joe Burrow tossed 60 touchdowns last season, but not likely, either.

Now, though, with Russo stating in an OwlsDaily.com story quoting Anthony that he will be back for not only 2020 and 2021, all of Walker’s records become not only fair game but well within reach, especially his career yard total of 10,669. (OwlsDaily.com is well worth the subscription.)

That’s assuming a lot of things, though, among them that the current coaching staff is not so wedded to a read-option that it might ditch the better passer for the better runner. They do that to their own peril, though, and coaching staffs usually don’t commit career suicide. If the quarterback position was meant for a runner, then we’d still be playing the single wing.

Interesting that Russo had 10 more TD passes in two years than Mike McGann had in five (medical redshirt).

The other assumption is that the Owls will get a minimum eight and a maximum dozen games in this season and that could be problematic considering the science, politics and general angst over public health in relation to big-time sports.

All that aside, though, all Russo will have to do the next two seasons is do what he did in the 2019 regular season in touchdown passes (21) and yards (2,861) and he will have two significant career quarterback records at a school that began playing football two centuries ago.

He already has 15 wins in nearly two full regular seasons (missing the first two and the final UConn game in 2018). Walker had four full seasons with two wins his first year, six his second and 10 each in his junior and senior seasons. If Russo goes 15-6 in the next two regular seasons (we’re not counting bowl games because only a handful of Temple quarterbacks have played in one), he beats what in my mind is the most important stat a quarterback can have.

The “people lying” part of this equation was on display on the same OwlsDaily board when someone wrote: “Russo had a better season in 2018 than 2019.”

Huh?

He had 14 touchdowns against 14 interceptions in 2018 vs. 21 and 11 in 2019. The numbers said he got better, not worse.

Since people often lie when they move their lips and the numbers on the page always remain the same, I will take the latter over the former when discussing anyone’s legacy.

If Russo’s passing remains as on target the next two years as the last two, that legacy will be unsurpassed.

Friday: Projected Offensive Starters

Monday: Projected Defensive Starters

08.21.20
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Possible replacements: CUSA, Sun Belt

Mike Aresco says the AAC is committed to a 12-game schedule.

The commissioner’s member schools do not seem as sure. Temple interim athletic director Fran Dunphy was quoted as saying by OwlsDaily.com that the school is more likely to add “one or two” rather than “three or four” non-conference opponents.

That said, Dunphy also noted that he is pretty much leaving this up to his director of football operations so there is some hope of movement behind the scenes to get the Owls replacement games.

FBS schedules.com lists “TBA” for several dates on the Temple schedule and those include the opening weekend of 9/5 and subsequent September dates of the 12th and the 19.

I say go for it. If other AAC schools get 12 games, then the Owls should go for that standard, too.

Right now, it doesn’t look likely that Army will be one of the opponents as the Black Knights have already filled the same exact open dates Temple has with Middle Tennessee State (9/5), Louisiana Monroe (9/12), BYU (9/19), Abilene-Christian (10/3) and Mercer (10/10).

Still, the Owls should take a page out of the Army playbook (not the triple option) and find replacement schools in both the Sun Belt and Conference USA. Both of those leagues–unlike the ACC and SEC for example–are committed to a 12-game schedule and the departure of the Mountain West and MAC in particular and, to a lesser extent, the Big 10 and PAC-12, have made it difficult for member schools to find a game.

Temple is available and should reach out to those schools with open dates. Right now, there are multiple foes available for the Owls to choose from but they need to get on the stick and announce those replacements before it’s too late.

Every other AAC school is scrambling and he who hesitates will be lost.

Let’s hope the Owls can add more than one or two or the rust of not playing an actual foe won’t help in the current opener against Navy.

Monday: The Math Gets Easier For Anthony Russo

Friday: Projected Offensive Starters

Monday (8/31): Projected Defensive Starters

08.17.20
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Aug. 17th: College football’s rain delay

In this space usually, on this date, there would be speculation of who looks good in summer camp and who is winning the battle of positions.

Not this year.

The Temple football Owls are practicing but not in the usual sense of intense hitting and contact so nobody is really standing out.

walt

Walter Washington probably knocked more defenders out of games than any quarterback in Temple history.

This basically is Temple’s–and the rest of the roughly half of college football deciding to play as of now–rain delay, waiting for the go-ahead for full-contact practices and a return to normalcy and maybe even an imminent announcement of a  replacement game for Miami (Sept. 5).

When the Phillies went to rain delay, the broadcast jumped to past highlights and this is what we’re going to do today.

Last week, photographer extraordinaire Zamani Feelings found this tape on the 2004 Temple-Syracuse game and send me a message with the link. Zamani is slowly but surely building the kind of video library Temple football needs on Youtube so please support his page by subscribing and liking here. Also, if anyone has any Temple film or tapes of games please forward them to him so this can be a one-stop source for Temple fans. He has more games on another Youtube site.

I sat down on the first rainy afternoon I could find and watched the entire thing.

Plenty of thoughts on this game but these came to mind off the top of my head:

1) Walter Washington breaks Paul Palmer’s record for season TDs in this game with 16; if you want to see what “beast mode” really means, check out this tape. Washington, who turned down a solid offer from Nebraska to come to Temple, could not be stopped and, at times, it looked like Syracuse defenders wanted no part of him.

2) The 16-touchdown record made me really appreciate what Bernard Pierce did seven years later (27 TDs in a single season);

3) Great job by ESPN’s Dave Sims on the play-by-play and one of the reasons why I think Dave is the best to ever call a Temple game (he even threw in the fact that Washington’s bench press
of 475 was the 6th-highest on the team). Sims was the Owls’ radio play-by-play guy in the 1990 season when the team went 7-4 and won at Wisconsin. He is now the Seattle Mariners’ play-by-play guy and does NFL games on Westwood One radio.

4) Even in a “down” season, Temple football provides great memories.

5) Syracuse could have tied for first place in the old Big East by winning this game because West Virginia lost to Boston College on the same day.

6) Sad that Washington, who could have used that extra year at Temple to hone the passing portion of his game, decided to leave early for the pros.

Rain delay over and now all we’re waiting on is to see if the radar to the West has cleared up or the umpires have called the game.

Let’s hope it’s the former or Zamani will be working extra hard on that Wayback machine.

Friday: Possible replacements

Monday: Projected Defensive starters

08.10.20
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A sliver of a silver lining

Throwback Thursday: TU beats No. 4-ranked Pitt

Penn State might not need a foe, but Pitt does

When we last left this episode of “As the Pandemic Turns” the Owls’ former conference, the MAC, dropped football (for at least a year) and rumblings were the Big 10 presidents were leaning in the same direction.

Hard to believe, Harry, but the AAC and the rest of the, err, “P6” forge ahead.

Temple is holding its preseason camp and plans are for a full season so far. The SEC, Big 12, PAC-12 and ACC also seem committed to forging ahead with a limited schedule.

If there is a season, fans are not likely to attend and this will be a studio season only.

Where’s the silver lining?

Penn State v Temple

Nothing more satisfying than beating a P5 school as Robby Anderson and fans here celebrate after PSU win.

Since there is no incentive for six or seven home games, the Owls can (and probably should) go on the road to fill out less attractive home dates (Idaho, Rutgers for example) with more attractive opponents.

There are two camps of Temple fans when playing P5 schools. One group who feel the Owls can no longer compete against those opponents (bolstered by arguments supplied in the last two bowl games) and another group who feel that the only way for the Owls to join the big boys is to compete and beat them.

I’m in the latter group.

The Owls were 3.5-point favorites over Duke and probably lost that game largely due to the staff leaving for Georgia Tech. (I know many of them stayed to coach the game but a lot of time paid for by Temple was spent recruiting for Georgia Tech.)

There was no excuse for a thumping last year to North Carolina so these Owls should get another chance to play with a chip on their collective shoulders. Pitt is one of those schools that lost a game on a date the Owls did and could be looking for a home opponent. There are several other P5s, plus BYU, which is a G5 school with a high profile, under similar scheduling dilemmas. Since this season is largely a TV production, networks who pay the freight like ESPN could be looking to pair high-profile G5 schools, like Temple, against other P5 schools who might have refused to play the Owls in the past.

Yet this was a team with the talent to beat Georgia Tech and Maryland during the regular season and has done well against Power 5 teams during recent past regular seasons, including a 37-7 win at Vanderbilt and a 27-10 win over Penn State. If there was ever a season to schedule four Power 5 teams and break up the Pat Kraft scheduling formula of playing two patsies and two P5s, this is such a season. Interim athletic director Fran Dunphy said the Owls are actively looking for non-conference replacements. Since the patsies aren’t playing this year, that points to the Power 5s.

It would be great to see the Owls find four P5s needing a home game and giving these players an opportunity for four wins.

If there’s a silver lining for this season, that’s it.

Even if it’s a sliver of one.

Friday: The Next Big Announcement

08.07.20
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The math and Temple football

 

So far so good for Temple football fans.

Preparations for the season are going as planned and there has been no outbreak reported among the Owls as with, say, Rutgers up the road.

We could be UConn or Rutgers now and, while I’m glad we’re not, this is a fluid situation.

That said if you get the feeling–as I do–that we are walking on eggshells and something could crack in the next few weeks–join the club.

So far, here are the numbers:

rodster

Speaking of numbers, my money is on Anthony Russo going from 15 to a single digit very, very soon

 

0

Chance of playing Miami on Sept. 5. The edict has come down from the ACC: No football before Sept. 7. The Hurricanes–who have their own COVID-19 problems–have shown no inclination of asking for a league dispensation and officially canceled the game yesterday. Owls need to find a 9/5 opponent stat.

4

As of yesterday, that’s the number of weeks from the opener. New athletic director Fran Dunphy probably is shopping around for a replacement game with Miami now. There are several attractive schools from which to chose and some of them might even come here.

1

The number of FBS schools already dropping the season. That, of course, does not count the Ivy League, Patriot League and the Colonial, which are FCS. UConn has become the first school on this level to cancel the season. That affects Temple since the Huskies were mentioned as a possible replacement for both the Idaho and Miami games. That option no longer exists.

5

The magic number to get to a bowl game lowered from six. While this isn’t official yet if the majority of the 80 bowl games are played, it’s hard to believe that there will be 40 teams with at least six wins so five could be that figure since conferences like the Big 10 and ACC have either eliminated or reduced non-conference games.

Right now, commissioner Mike Aresco has committed the AAC to eight league and four non-conference games. That seems a little ambitious to me but let’s hope he and the league can pull it off.

Fans or no let’s hope the Owls can get out there and be happy and healthy in the process.

Monday: Silver Lining

 

 

08.03.20
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Fizz’s plea did not fall on deaf ears

russo

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.

weinraub

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

07.31.20
by

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