Tag Archives: Temple football

11.04.18
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Fizzy’s Corner: Another Blown Chance

owlstudents

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub, a former Temple player and later a coach, teacher, and writer, offers his thoughts on the UCF game.

 

                                           By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

When Peter Pan asked Tinker Bell where they were, she answered, “Why Peter, we’re in Never-Never Land.”

If you came away from the Central Florida (CF) game satisfied we were competitive but didn’t win, shame on you. I’m glad you’re not my coach.  This Temple team has unquestionably established they have top -25 talent, and yet, we now have a 1 & 2 record against ranked teams.  Overall, in woulda, coulda, shoulda land, (that’s the next island over from Never-Never Land) we are 8 & 0.  Unrealistic you say?  Bollocks!

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Against CF, the play calling in the first half was nothing short of spectacular, with lots of play-action on first down, and the fake field goal was something to behold.  Without question, Russo has provided the arm and the leadership we’ve needed for so long.  Time after time, Russo kept a drove alive with his legs and could teach Carson Wentz when and how to slide. Armstead ran healthy for awhile (Let’s not get back into that, because I’ll never forgive Collins.) and we went into half-time with the lead against one of the most explosive offenses in the country.

In the third quarter, however, the strategy seemingly changed and Mr. Hyde once more emerged in the offensive coordinator’s box. We ran the ball on every first down until the last two, (We could have run off the pass like we did in the first half.)  and it looked like the coaches were trying to use the clock to keep the ball away from CF.  In doing so, we gave up the momentum and put Russo in third and have-to pass situations.  This allowed the defense to ratchet up the pressure and force some throws and they got some sacks, and CF regained the lead.  Mr. Mo is a thin-skinned guy.  If he comes to the dance with you and then you give him the cold shoulder, rarely does he come back. I’ve watched teams in every sport start to be conservative and run the clock with the lead. Invariably, that leads to doom, especially when you’re playing a team like CF.  You need every point you can get.

Still, late in the fourth quarter, we could have pulled it out.  But we self-destructed on two motion penalties in succession at the goal line, and then missed the field goal.  How does that happen?  Congratulations to the CF quarterback Milton though, who put the game away with a terrific falling-down throw for the touchdown.  We ended up a day late, and a dollar short. Over the course of this season, we are now four dollars short. Oh, and a few more things.  Three times I watched the pass patterns when we had triple wide-outs on the right.  Each time, all three guys just went straight.  There were no crosses or picks.  Hello?  At first and goal and after a short gain, we came right back to Armstead the second time and got stuffed again.  We ran a trick play in the first half by splitting the offense, and it worked.  Why not another split play, where you do something off the first half play?  Of course, I’ve given up on asking for some misdirection, a reverse, and (gulp), maybe even a “Philly-Philly”.

Now to the defense.

CF’s speed was exceptional, and they killed us with the run.  As we always lined up in the 4-3, they knew just how to block.  The runner would start with a few steps in one direction, before cutting back the other way.  Those initial steps would set up a double team at the designated hole, and the uncovered lineman would come out and pick off a linebacker.  With their speed, “POP,” the runner was into the secondary necessitating difficult open field tackles.

As I’ve asked before, does it take a genius to coach a number of different alignments?  Why can’t we have five down lineman hitting different gaps or even six with someone backing off? Or what about the scheme we used to use where everyone stood up, danced around and hit a designated gap when the ball was snapped?  Anything to confuse the blocking.  Of course, we could blitz the hell out of them and take our chances.  We rarely blitzed and they scored fifty-two points anyway.

Well, you say, what about the horrible officiating?  I’m just getting to that.

I don’t often get into the bad calls since they usually even out.  However, this officiating was a total disgrace and one-sided.  The first was on the pass on CF’s first possession. The receiver clearly had his foot on the line, and one official called it out of bounds. And yet, no official thought to stop for the replay and our head coach didn’t throw his red flag.  They scored on that drive.  After that, they called a bogus holding penalty on us, and overlooked a CF takedown right in front of the referee, on a play which set up a touchdown. They called a ridiculous 15-yard penalty on Armstead after the tackler got halfway up and then came down hard on him again, and another for our receiver spinning the ball after his reception.  In a game like this, you don’t call those chicken-shit penalties.  The last doozie was the interference call at the goal line when there was hardly any contact and our defensive back turned properly and batted the ball down.  I thought the bad calls caused 21 points; either when they stopped our drives or continued theirs.

Summary

And still, we woulda, coulda, shoulda won the game. We have top twenty-five talent, but not top twenty-five coaching.  Our coaches must learn how to win and embrace momentum or we’ll stay in Never-Never Land forever.  If you think CF had a wide-open offense, wait till you see the play calls from Major Applewhite.  (I knew him when he was only a lieutenant.)  He’s taken all the plays we called in pickup two-touch games on the street and put them in his offense.  And South Florida ain’t far behind.

Temple must allow Russo to do his thing for sixty minutes, not thirty or forty-five.  By the time he’s a senior, he’ll be on some magazine covers.  The defense needs to do some different things.

Tomorrow: The Bright Side

Wednesday: The Dark Side

Friday: The Houston Side

Sunday: Game Analysis

11.02.18
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Losing at UCF’s Game

At track meets, one of the most entertaining events is the “thrower’s relay” where a group of discus, javelin and shot put throwers show off their running skills on the track.

There are reasons those guys throw the discus, javelin and shot put. They are just as integral to the team’s success as the guys on the track, but that “unofficial” race is always good for laughs because those guys aren’t meant to be there.

Throwers don’t compete against runners and vice versa.

Unless you are counting Temple’s 52-40 loss at UCF.

The game was a winnable one if the Temple of 2015 and 2016 was on the field, forcing the UCF guys to play Temple’s game–run the ball with an elite tailback behind a fullback and chew up each quarter with eight-minute-type scoring drives against the 91st-ranked rushing defense in the nation and limit UCF possessions to a bare minimum.

Instead, Temple’s “throwers” tried to beat UCF’s track guys at their own game and no team in America can get in a track meet with them. Temple, rather than run the clock down to single digits before snapping on each play, snapped the ball in the high 20s almost every down.

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White helmets made the record 12-12 after UCF

On a night when UCF’s longest scoring drive was 2 minutes, 55 seconds, that’s not a sound game plan.

Temple’s only chance was to use lead blockers for running backs Ryquell Armstead and Jager Gardner and chew up the clock and keep the ball out of the hands of UCF Heisman Trophy candidate Milton McKenzie.

The 2018 Owls, while setting a school record for total yards, pretty much failed to utilize the one game plan that could have won them the game. The 2016 Owls would probably would have won this game with Armstead following Nick Sharga through the hole and the punishing body blows would have had a cumulative effect later in the game.

There were no body blows because Temple fell into the trap of playing UCF’s game, which is to run a track meet. This time, Armstead got 149 yards on 27 carries while hobbled in an empty backfield, and you’ve got to wonder what he would have done if he had a caravan of blockers (H-backs, fullbacks and tight ends) in addition to offensive linemen. My strong hunch is that this Temple team would have fared much better on the scoreboard playing the 2016 version of Temple TUFF offensive football. That version chewed up clock with running plays, kept the sticks moving with play-action, and helped the defense stay fresh.

This version gave the ball to UCF and way too many snaps to Milton and did not help the Owl defense at all. It was a dark night for the tuckered Darkside Defense.

Statistics pretty much favored Temple except in the area of penalties where the Owls racked up 15 penalties for 149 yards, some undeserved, but most deserved. Matt Rhule would have gone ballistic if the 2016 Ventell Bryant spun the ball after catching it, but Geoff Collins had a few words with Ventell after he drew a 15-yard penalty for it. Ventell did the same thing after catching a touchdown pass in the end zone, but the same refs who saw fit to penalize him the first time overlooked it the second (probably because he did not do it in front of a UCF player).

Don’t know what Temple was thinking when it drew up a game plan to get in a track meet with track athletes but, last night, statistics were for losers. I would trade all of those school records for a reversal of the scoreboard in a heartbeat.

It was a valiant effort against a great team with a lot of nice stats but the only stat that matters is 52-40.

It is the only one that ever does.

Sunday: Fizzy’s Corner

Monday: The Bright Side

 

 

11.01.18
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Elephants and Zebras

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“If I give you guys candy, will you promise not to ask about my 92d-ranked total offense?”

There will be a big Elephant in the room—or, in this case, stadium—tonight when Temple faces No. 9 Central Florida on ESPN (tonight, 7:30).

They will be in the form of another great African animal, Zebras.

If there are some, err, questionable calls by officiating, it should be understandable but certainly not forgivable.

Make no mistake, the American Athletic Conference would prefer for UCF to beat Temple. When that prefer turns into want, that’s where the problem arrives.

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Cincy fans were salty about this call but photo shows a possession and a foot drag.

The Owls will have to face the ninth-ranked team in the country (though, curiously, not in the FBS playoff top 10 as released Tuesday night). They will have 43,000 fans rooting against them. Their task is hard enough without having the six guys who can make the most impactful decisions making incorrect ones.

It might not even be a conscious bias, but a subconscious one. These officials are employed by the league and know the league would look good with another NY6 bowl and UCF is this league’s best hope for that. Temple, with losses to Buffalo and Villanova, is all but eliminated from a NY6 spot even if the Owls run the table. There may be mulligans in golf, but there are none in college football and that’s why the Owls should have approached those first two games as if they were league championship ones.

This one is. If the Owls win, they have a clear shot to the league title game and can even absorb a loss to Houston next week and win their division if they beat USF and UConn at home. This would be the key win that unlocks that opportunity for the Owls.

The officials, though, know that a UCF win helps the league more.

So is, say, Isaiah Wright takes a kickoff back 95 yards for an apparent score and a late flag comes out on the UCF 5, the reason will be apparent.

The flip side of this argument is that the conference probably also preferred Cincinnati to win last week in Philadelphia but that was in Philly and this is in Orlando and that’s a big difference.

So Elephants and Zebras could be as important as Owls and Knights tonight. If, however, nobody notices the officials, then that’s the way it should be.

10.30.18
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UCF: Owls Need Prescription From MD

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Rock Armstead needs to get the ball 25 times for the Owls to win.

In many ways, Temple’s task of beating Central Florida reminds me of the famous quote of British General “Bad Boy” Browning in Cornelius Ryan’s excellent book “A Bridge Too Far” when the General turns to his superior, General Bernard Montgomery, and says: “I think we may have gone a Bridge Too Far.”

At first, glance, expecting the Owls to win in Central Florida’s environment may be a bridge too far Thursday night (7:30, ESPN). That’s only if the Owls have the same kind of offensive game plan Montgomery employed in trying to take the bridge at Arnhem in World War II–trying to use paratroopers against two divisions of German Armor or, as the British spell it, Armour.

Not a good plan.

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Similarly, if Brigadier General Dave Patenaude takes the same offensive approach he has in the past three games–mostly passes to the sidelines and fades to the end zone–he’s going to get slaughtered like Monty did in the Battle of Market Garden. Fades and sideline routes are the Temple equivalent of paratroopers.

This time, the key to the game is matching Armor with Armor.

For the Owls to win, they have to assume that Heisman Trophy candidate Milton McKenzie is going to play and set their game plan around their own star, Ryquell Armstead, who must play for the Owls to have any chance. I have no inside info but did watch him bounce around on the sidelines 10 days ago and he had no limp and was moving around pretty well. Plus, he’s single-digit TUFF.


Since Patenaude doesn’t
believe in using the
fullback as a lead
blocker, he is going
to have to dust off
the Maryland game plan
and put the tight ends
in motion to create just
the tiny holes Rock needs
to rip off 2-, 3-, 4-
and 7-yard type runs
against the 91st-ranked
FBS run defense

Give the ball to Rock Armstead–we’ll call him Tank for this game–and help him out by giving him as many lead blockers as possible. Since Patenaude doesn’t believe in using the fullback as a lead blocker, he is going to have to dust off the Maryland game plan and put the tight ends in motion to create just the tiny holes Rock needs to rip off 2-, 3-, 4- and 7-yard type runs against the 91st-ranked FBS run defense.

Any good General will tell you it’s always a good strategy to attack the weakness of your enemy. Fortunately, UCF has a chink in its armor and Temple has Armstead to take advantage of that weakness.

Bill Parcells employed a similar strategy with running back Ottis Anderson in Super Bowl XXV. A reporter after that game asked Parcells a question about why he kept feeding him the ball even though most of his first-half carries were only two and three yards: “It wasn’t the two and three yards, it was the cumulative effect those two and three yards had on the defense. Those runs allowed him to break the big one and win us the game.”

Pass only off play action once the run is established and only to move the sticks and keep the clock rolling. Armstead will have to carry the ball 25 times for Temple to win and none of those should be out of an empty backfield where a linebacker can key on him.

That way, two things are accomplished–long scoring drives for Temple and keeping the ball out of McKenzie’s hands. Limit McKenzie’s possessions and he won’t be able to do things like ring up 45 points (as he did against Pittsburgh). The cumulative effect will allow Armstead to do what Anderson did and rip off enough big ones that both wear down the UCF defense and keep the Temple defense fresh. This is Temple’s Super Bowl and taking a page out of the Tuna’s super playbook is probably a wise approach. Certainly, he turned out to be a better General on the football field than Monty did in Market Garden.

Anything outside of that thinking and winning in Orlando may be a bridge too far for these Owls. The MD game plan could be just what the doctored ordered to keep the Owls’ championship hopes alive.

Thursday: Final Game Day Thoughts

Friday: Game Analysis

10.29.18
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This Season’s Most Pleasant Surprise

Just when you think nothing could surprise you about this Temple football season, the most pleasant surprise arrived a week ago on Saturday.

No, it wasn’t Dave Patenaude using Rob Ritrovato as a full-time fullback (although that would be an even more pleasant surprise for me) nor was it even the win itself over a ranked foe, it was the Temple fans in the final moments against Cincinnati.

What first started as a murmur turned into a loud roar:

DEE-FENSE!!!!

DEE-FENSE!!!

DEE-FENSE!!!

For what seemed to be the last five minutes of the game, I turned around and everybody was yelling it. All 33,026 fans were on their feet, clapping and stomping and yelling and pounding the seats in front of them.

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After years of imploring my fellow fans in Section 121 and 122 to join me in chanting “DEE-FENSE, DEE-FENSE” everyone got with the program and it was a beautiful thing to see. Often times in the past, those folks sitting were clamoring for the ones standing in front of them to sit down. If you want to attend an entertainment function and do nothing but sit and politely applaud, I recommend the Kimmel Center. A football game is a real chance to affect the outcome and, when that happens, it becomes a magical event to attend.

With the exception of the final five minutes of the PSU game or the AAC title win at Navy, those final five minutes might have been my favorite five as a Temple fan.  You know, the kind who cheers and helps the team. The Penn State and Notre Dame home games in 2015 were nice, but there were those pesky other 35K  non-Temple fans in the stadium that day and that night who were annoying.

The Tulane game that came in between those two featured 35K Temple fans (and nearly zero Tulane fans) but that was a 48-14 beatdown and fan support was not needed that day.

It was very much needed eight days ago and the Temple fans, like the team, came through in the clutch. They impacted the outcome because, in a vacuum, Cincinnati probably wins that game.

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The Temple fans standing, stomping and cheering for the Cincinnati game made a difference. You could see the Temple defense feeding off the crowd and the crowd feeding off the Temple defense. Cincinnati’s quarterback blamed the snap snafu in overtime–really the key play in the game–on the crowd noise and when was the last time an opposing player blamed Temple crowd noise for a loss?

I can’t recall it in my 40 years of watching–and cheering–for Temple football. I was able to rewatch the game on ESPN and the crowd noise came through loud and clear. The fans helped a lot and they knew it.

The Cincinnati game is hopefully a blueprint for the Nov. 17 game against South Florida for the fans to follow and one that hopefully becomes the norm, not the exception, in years to come.

Tuesday: A prescription from the doctor

Thursday: Game Day

Friday: Game Analysis

10.27.18
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Who Should Temple Root For Today?

To me, a Saturday without Temple football is a Saturday without sunshine.

This time, figuratively and literally as the rains will be pouring and the winds will be howling in Philadelphia–which would be a terrible time and place to host a home game today.

Call it a blessing in disguise.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything on the line today for the Owls in AAC football.

On the surface, you might say root against all of the AAC East teams in action today–specifically, Cincy and USF–but I’d say hold on a minute.

If you are Temple, you’d WANT Cincy and USF to beat the two Texas teams, SMU and Houston and here’s why: If Temple is able to beat UCF next week and South Florida on Nov. 17, it will have beaten three ranked teams in four games. If Cincy beats SMU, it also has a chance of getting ranked again. Houston, even with a win over USF, will probably not crack the rankings.

Temple controls its own AAC East destiny and if this truly is going to be a great season (or a “ridiculous” team as Geoff Collins called the Owls before the start of it), you’d want the best possible resume at the end. Because with wins over UCF and USF, the Owls will hold AAC East tie-breakers and a berth in the title game. Even a loss to Houston could be absorbed in that scenario. Temple has to beat both the Florida schools anyway so go Florida schools.

That said, I think USF’s unbeaten season ends today.

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Here is our six-pack (home teams in caps):

HOUSTON 21, Usf 10 _ The host Cougars easily cover the 7.5 spread. They have speed to burn and may end up as the overall league champion.

Cincinnati 35, SMU 20 _ Cincy will find the crowd noise not as loud in Dallas as it was in Philadelphia so there will be no snafus with the snaps and the Bearcats will easily cover the eight points.

NC State 24, SYRACUSE 17 _ ‘Cuse changed quarterbacks from Eric Dungey last week and that indicates a level of panic in upstate New York. This game went from a pick to ‘Cuse being a one-point favorite to now the Wolfpack being a two-point favorite. The movement of those points tells me something.

BYU 20, Northern Illinois 10 _ Somewhat surprising that this is only a 7.5 line because NIU is a run-of-the-mill MAC squad and BYU was good enough to beat Wisconsin.

VIRGINIA 24, North Carolina 10 _ Virginia has been an up-and-down team, but UNC has been mostly trending down. Cavaliers should easily cover the nine here.

MISSOURI 42, Kentucky 19 _ While UK has shown some life this season, it is still a basketball school. Missouri sold me with a 66-33 win over a halfway decent Memphis squad last week and should easily cover the modest 6.5 spread.

Next week, we get to go to Parx Casino and put real modest money on the non-Temple slate, even though the house and the farm remain off limits.

Last Week: No Picks

Overall: 14-9

ATS: 8-16

Monday: The Fan Experience

 

 

10.25.18
by

Shallow Owl

shallowowl

Ninety percent of Temple fans see the bloated Gweneth Paltrow when they look at Dave Patenaude; Geoff Collins evidently sees the slimmed-down version

“Anybody who can line up with two tight ends and a fullback and run the ball, I think that’s really awesome.”

_ Dave Patenaude, Jan. 15, 2017, the day he was hired as OC

They like to talk about measurables–height, weight, speed, vertical jump, strength–when the focus is on the athlete.

Accurately assessing those measurables, and weighing it against the intangibles, often determines the success of an organization.

There are measurables that determine the success of coaches, too, and the No. 1 thing is wins versus losses, but other factors can be weighed.

That’s why Geoff Collins’ love affair with his offensive coordinator, Dave Patenaude, is perplexing. It reminds me of the movie “Shallow Hal” when the lead character sees the bloated version of Gweneth Paltrow as beautiful and everybody else has a different view. When we (well, at least 90 percent of Temple fans) see Patenaude we see a guy who has all kinds of neat weapons and shoots them like a blind guy. He’s certainly not a trained Marine marksman with the, err, AR-15. You want measurables? Here are some facts on Patenaude, ranking his offense against the other 130 FBS offenses:

Total–92d

Rushing–104th

3d down conversion–59th

4th down conversion–63d

Time of possession–108th

Want more measurables?

Against Villanova, Patenaude put up nine offensive points while coaches in the same position with less talent (Stony Brook, 29; Towson, 45 and even Maine, 13) put up more against that same defense.

davefacts

Pretty grim, huh?

Those figures are remarkably consistent with last year’s ones as none of the Owls’ offensive stats above were in the top 50 in the nation. At the end of last year, Collins announced a staff shake-up where he named Ed Foley the head coach in charge of the offense but kept Patenaude in the OC role. It’s been quite apparent that Foley’s position is just lip service with Patenaude holding the keys to this Ferrari. He’s crashed it into the wall for the second-straight year.

We’ve seen the same failings this year as last with the offense and Collins is just as responsible as Patenaude if not more so. Last year, Collins called Nick Sharga “the best fullback in the country” but our charting of plays had Sharga playing an average of 4.7 plays per game as a fullback. Shouldn’t “the best fullback in the country” be in there, if not for every down, at least for 20 offensive plays?

rocknitro

(Before you say he was injured, he was healthy enough to lead the nation in special teams’ tackles so he was healthy enough to play offense as well.)

The team’s current fullback, Rob Ritrovato, is largely limited to the same special teams’ role and he has punched the ball out for Temple recoveries twice in it. You’d love to see a blocker like that lead the way for tailbacks like Ryquell Armstead and Jager Gardner, but Patenaude stubbornly won’t show that look and Collins evidently is fine with that. It’s a good look because both players benefited from it in a 10-win season.

So we’ve reached this point. An offensive coordinator who wants to change everything that worked in two 10-win seasons for everything that does not work the last two. There is no hatred here for the man himself; there is much hatred here for his stubborn refusal to use a system that is best suited for the personnel under his command. He completely overhauled an offensive concept that worked beautifully for two seasons for one that has been an utter failure for the last two. This guy is the most ill-suited coach for Temple, assistant or head, we’ve seen since Jerry Berndt tried to jump here from the Ivies after ruining things for those other Owls, Rice.

The defense has done the job this year. The skills of the players on offense are at least as good as the defense, maybe better.

The lack of production on one side of the ball can only be attributed to a scheme that does not work and needs to be changed. Run an elite tailback behind a great fullback, establish the run, and hit explosive downfield plays in the passing game by using play-action fakes.  I see that. You see that (at least 90 percent of you) but, unless Collins sees it, the full potential of this program will never be realized.

Next Thursday would be a perfect place to implement that kind of game plan.

Don’t hold your breath.

Saturday: Around The AAC

Monday: The Fans

 

 

 

 

10.23.18
by

5 Things To Work On In The Bye Week

UCF is still having nightmares about Ventell Bryant

One of the mottos of Temple football is to be 1-0 every week.

That’s hard to do this week since it’s a bye one.

That doesn’t mean what happens this week can’t contribute to being 1-0 next week.

Let’s think about it. Both Temple and UCF have a “bye” week this week, which means both the Owls and the Knights are spending extra time pouring over the other team’s tendencies in an effort to gain some kind of advantage in preparation.

russopj

The first person to congratulate PJ in the end zone? Anthony Russo.

The team that both changes up what they do and attacks the weakness of the opponent will probably come out on top.

I don’t have any game film on UCF but, according to the NCAA stats, UCF’s rushing defense is ranked No. 91st and its passing defense 46th. I’m not a math major, but it would seem to be easier to beat UCF with a steady diet of runs versus passes.

If I was the Temple OC, I would be devising a game plan based on attacking the Knights via the ground. That usually means running Ryquell Armstead (who will be 100 percent a week from Thursday) behind fullback Rob Ritrovato but current OC Dave Patenaude is stubborn to the edge of insanity in his refusal to use a fullback as a lead blocker. Still, running the ball against a weak run defense has to be the focal point of any game plan. It worked for Memphis. It can work for Temple.

Did Temple learn anything about running the ball against a weak run defense when it failed to attack the Achilles Heel of Buffalo? Geez, you’ve got to hope something good came out of that disaster.

Patenaude’s been banging his head against a wall all season so maybe it’s too much to expect that he puts some ice on it. I know that. You know that. He doesn’t know that and I don’t think even Geoff Collins knows that. If the light bulb hasn’t gone on yet, they are still using kerosene lamps at the EO.

What Patenaude has shown he is willing to do–just in the Maryland game–was to run tight ends in motion as lead blockers for Armstead, opening up the entire offense with play-action. We can only hope he is willing to do the same in Orlando. He must if the Owls are going to have any chance.

That’s the No. 1 thing to work on this week and next, establishing the run, controlling the clock and keeping the ball out of Heisman Trophy candidate McKenzie Milton’s right hand.

Here are four more:

Attack the center of the field. UCF game film almost exclusively has the Owls attacking the perimeter on passing routes, primarily fades. Pump faking those routes and throwing over the middle to tight ends Kenny Yeboah and Chris Myrick is something UCF won’t expect.

Use trick plays that work. Since Patenaude’s almost never do, take a page out of Matt Rhule’s playbook and line Toddy Centeio up as a wide receiver. Have Centeio catch a double pass from Anthony Russo and then throw downfield to either Isaiah Wright or Ventell Bryant, who usually catch everything within their zip codes. A variation of this play worked for Rhule at SMU when he used Jalen Fitzpatrick–a former Big 33 quarterback– on an end around touchdown pass to Robby Anderson for a long touchdown. Other tried and true Temple trick plays have been Adam DiMichele’s jump pass to TE Steve Manieri for six in a Tuesday night game against Ohio and another jump pass to the tight end from Chester Stewart (for Al Golden) at the Fake Miami. Maybe even allow DiMichele, the QB coach, to draw those up. Another was ADM’s fake kneel down at Navy. If the Owls have the ball with the clock winding down in the first half, that’s always a good one. Navy got suckered and Bruce Francis was 20 yards behind the nearest defender for an easy six.

Shore up the perimeter run defense. For some reason, Temple has susceptible to the perimeter run for the past three games. From my observation, it’s been smaller defensive ends being too easily being sealed off on edge blocks. Change up the personnel and replace those smallish ends with more athletic and harder to move ones like Dan Archibong (6-5, 295) and Karamo Dioubate (6-4, 265) and trust Michael Dogbe and Freddy Booth-Lloyd to handle the middle of the 4-3. UCF knows it can attack the perimeter. Having Dan and Karomo there will disabuse it of that notion.

Make good use of the holder. For many seasons, the Owls’ holder on field goals has been the punter. This year, it’s Anthony Russo. A fake field goal–something the Owls have not shown all year–won’t be a high priority for UCF.  Since Will Mobley isn’t a long-distance kicker, this might prove to be a better option than punting on the UCF 35 or so.

Also, ditch the Centeio packages. They don’t work because they telegraph Temple’s intention to run Centeio. You could hear the Cincinnati players yell out “watch the run” and point to No. 16 in Section 121 at LFF last week. It doesn’t fool anyone.

Might be a good idea to brush up on 32-second, no timeout, drill, too. There’s a good blueprint for that at the top of this post.

Thursday: Shallow Owl

 

10.22.18
by

Fizzy’s Corner: Russo is the real deal

capture

Temple fans react to the game-winning touchdown. Don’t know what the person with the sunglasses (lower right) is looking at, though.

Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub is a former Temple player and later, an educator, teacher, coach, and writer. His thoughts on Temple games appear periodically in this space.

weinraub

                     By Dave (Fizzy) Weinraub

Sometimes the football gods even things out.  We played mediocre football for 57 minutes and 15 seconds, but then came back to win the game.  You should have taped the game because, based on performance, it was maybe the unlikeliest win in the last sixty years.   Cincy missed three field goals or the game would have never gone to overtime.  Kudos to our defense.  In the overtime, Cincy choked.  There was the snap before everyone was ready, and then the penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.  Game over!

For the first 57 minute and 15 seconds, watching Dave Patenaude call offensive plays was like watching an elephant dance with Royal Ballet.  Not that my friends are highbrow, but some couldn’t watch anymore and left with 5 minutes left in regulation.

 Anthony Russo looks to be the real deal with a big, accurate arm.  Our receivers are long and fast and very difficult to cover.  This team is a big play team and should be coached that way.  Throw the hell out of the ball from the get-go.

Other thoughts:

  1. With first and goal (the first time) – the first two plays were up-the-gut.
  2. With first and goal (the second time) – the first play was up-the-gut.
  3. A little later in the first quarter, with a first and fifteen, up-the-gut.
  4. At the end of the first half, we call a timeout to get the ball back with time on the clock and then run the ball the first two plays.  Cincy then had time to go downfield but missed the field goal.
  5. Every first down from the beginning of the second half until 9:57 left in the game was a running play.

Is it any wonder Cincy was blitzing inside the tackles on first and second down?  I know they saw that upstairs because they started to pitch outside.  Why didn’t Patenaude roll out or bootleg Russo, or have him run some RPO’s?  By the way, we rushed for a total of 80 yards on 30 carries. Do the math.   Also, we were stubbornly trying to run without Ryquell Armstead, our premier runner.  (Gee, was he injured or something?)

  1. In the fourth quarter, Russo quickly brings us downfield to another first and goal and he’s hot.  So coach Patenaude takes him out and puts Centeio in so he can run the ball.  When he comes in, everyone knows he’s going to run the ball.  Why can’t Russo run a keeper on first down where there would be deception?
  2. Then, there’s a slow developing reverse pass.  Well, that’s a beautiful play at midfield where there’s room for the receivers to get open, but not at the goal line.
  3. Two of Russo’s three interceptions, were seemingly miscommunications with the receiver, as was one last week.  What in the world is going on?
  4. Coach Collins gets called for a 15-yard penalty for losing his cool; unnecessary!

Yes, I know, I should be grateful for the win and not be such a wise ass.  But this is big-time college football and our coaches are getting paid a lot of money.  They need to earn it.  You and I are not disloyal if our constructive criticism brings improvement.

With better coaching, our woulda, coulda, shoulda record might be 7 – 1, or even 8 – 0.

Tomorrow: 5 Things That Should Be Addressed on Bye Week

Thursday: Shallow Owl

Saturday: Around The AAC

Monday: Game Week

Wednesday: UCF Preview

10.20.18
by

Never a Doubt

You kind of got the idea that this was a big game no later than the second Temple beat Navy a week ago. Temple was unbeaten in the AAC East. Cincy was ranked nationally and unbeaten overall.

What you weren’t all that sure of is how the Temple fans would embrace it until the morning of the game.

Lot K filled up by 8:30 and the adjacent lot (M)–which was almost totally empty for the last home game–was filled by 9:30.

predictable

This is the only prediction I made for the game, coming in the comments section on Friday (this is for the guy in the concourse afterward who said I predicted a loss).

Temple fans brought not only their bodies but the noise when it mattered the most. When Anthony Russo hit Branden Mack for the touchdown that tied the game with less than a minute left, the sound for the next 15 minutes was pretty much deafening:

“DEFENSE!!! DEFENSE!!! DEFENSE!!!”

All 33,026 fans–at least the 26,000 or so that were in the stadium at the time–were standing for the entire crunch time and the Temple kids fed off the noise.

Of course, that was when Temple was on defense for the final seconds of regulation and the entire overtime. Russo’s penchant for amnesia served him well, shaking off a bad play with making the plays when it counted in a 24-17 overtime win.

hostile

Cincy Enquirer had an inkling Temple fans would be loud and it was right.

It was a big win for Temple in a number of ways. This was the first time in Temple history that it was FAVORED over a ranked team, the first time it beat a ranked team (as a favorite) and the first overtime win in school history (losing at Cincy and twice at LFF).

crowded

Temple started the game with some pretty good runs by Jager Gardner but abandoned that approach probably too quickly. It would have been nice to see what Gardner could do following Rob Ritrovato through the hole, but Temple offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude has so many offensive weapons and so little knowledge on how best to use them (hint: run the ball with a fullback and use play-action passing as the staple) it’s beyond perplexing.

It’s something that needs to be fixed going forward, but head coach Geoff Collins seems to have a blind spot when it comes to Patenaude so maybe it will have to take some gentle persuasion from the powers-that-be in the offseason to convince Collins he needs a new OC. It seems to me that a system that worked in consecutive double-digit win seasons with a lot of these same players should never be tinkered with in the first place.

As it is, there is too much talent on the offensive side of the football for this to be the No.  89 offense in the nation.

Meanwhile, the kids on the field deserve most of the credit for this positive result with a big assist to the kids and adults in the stands who also brought their A games.

Monday: Fizzy’s Corner

Tuesday: 5 Bye Week Objectives

Thursday: Shallow Now