Tag Archives: travel

05.28.26
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An historic opportunity for fan engagement at Temple

The “later date” is today and the time and network is the ESPN flagship network and Temple football will be the only thing on in every sports bar in country in the most crowded Happy Hour of every week, Friday.

On the surface, a 4 p.m. start on a Friday afternoon for a Temple football game looks pretty strange.

First of all, Temple fans who can afford to do it will have to take a day off–or at least negotiate a half-day–to get in some semblance of a pre-game tailgate.

What we’re talking about is Temple being part of an ESPN tripleheader starting at 4 on Sept. 25 with a home game against a true national team, Army.

That’s the somewhat bad news.

The good news might outweigh it, though, if the university as a whole takes this as a challenge.

Declare that Friday in September “Temple Football Day” on campus and cut off all classes at noon. Start a free shuttle bus system at 12:30 in front of the Bell Tower that runs every half hour and make sure the students get treated like royalty with free food and a free tailgate when they get off the bus. Incredible, because it involves not only the 10,000+ students living on campus but the 20,000+ plus students who commute to Temple from Philadelphia and the suburbs.

You are not going to get all 30,000 full-time students to buy in but 15,000 is a realistic goal since cash-strapped students (I know because I was one 100 years ago) love free stuff.

It’s an investment not only in the future but in the present.

Temple football being the only thing on every TV in every sports bar in the country during one of the most lucrative times of sports TV watching–Happy Hour on the final day of the work week in America.

If the university tried to purchase that kind of national advertising, it would cost in the high millions. They now have it pretty much for free and must capitalize to create an engaged crowd showing a worthwhile product.

That means, on a Friday in Philadelphia, students leading the way.

Have those fans watching an involved crowd of mostly students behind their classmates would be the most positive advertising Temple can ever purchase not even locally but nationally.

K.J. deserves all the credit for this terrific idea.

The future part comes into play by establishing a bond between the current students–both commuter and residents–and the university and attracting financial support down the road from students who remember their positive experiences with the school while at the school.

A fun, winning, game against a nationally known team like Army is a positive experience. (That would involve a whole day of defensive practice against the triple option one day a week during at least August and maybe through the first three weeks of Sept.)

We’ll leave the winning part up to head Temple football coach K.C. Keeler and his staff.

The creating the experience part is up to President John Fry with a nudge from athletic director Arthur Johnson. Thousands of engaged, happy, students now lead to millions in contributions in 20 years. A small investment now for a huge return later.

That ball is in their court or, in this case, field (Lincoln Financial).

Monday: A Surprise Position

It’s about time the student section comes back to this level of support. The Army game provides a perfect opportunity.

05.03.26
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A fluid situation: Temple’s home schedule

Up until a few days ago, the last weekend of September was already planned.

Tailgate on Saturday morning, a game on Saturday afternoon.

Then the schedule makers changed things up by moving the Saturday afternoon home game against Army to a Friday night game.

There are good and bad things about that Friday night (9/25) date.

First the good.

Temple gets a chance to open some eyes on national TV against a respected opponent.

Then the bad.

From Temple’s perspective, an extra practice day against Army is always a good thing especially considering that the Owls have to travel to Toledo on Sept. 19, which is exactly one week after the home Penn State game.

Not an ideal situation, so maybe head coach K.C. Keeler will set aside a practice day per week to install defensive principles against Army and Navy.

Whatever problems Temple had against Army were offensive-related, not defensive, in a 14-13 loss. You limit Army to 14 and you should be able to win the game. My feeling last year was Temple didn’t take advantage of its passing game and played into Army’s hands.

Maybe that approach changes this year. We’ll see.

Evan Simon threw for over 300 yards against Navy but didn’t get that same chance because Army capitalized on the time of possession. He uncharacteristically overthrew tight end Peter Clarke in the end zone and that would have given the Owls the win.

Also problematic in the Army game a year ago was a 45-yard field goal miss by Carl Hardin. You get so few scoring opportunities against Army, you have to cash it and Temple missed two big chances there.

The realization in this day and ago is that the schedule is so fluid fans will have to rearrange any plans they have given the time of games and day of games. That’s all due to TV controlling things.

It’s not ideal but it’s all part of the imperfect college football world we live in today.

Friday: A Second All-American

Monday: Legacy Pecking Order

02.26.26
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The 2026 Temple schedule: Some takeaways

At some point, both Temple fans and the ones of the outside are going to have to come to some sort of conclusion on the way the 2026 season is going to play out.

Today is not that day.

Soon, but not today.

Today is the day to look at the schedule released on Thursday and decide whether it is a favorable one or not.

It is only if one priority is set today: The Army game.

Yeah, I know take it one game at a time and take care of Rhode Island first but put that aside for now because Rhode Island beat Hampton, 38-10, in 2025 and that was almost the same exact score (34-7) Howard beat Hampton by two weeks after Howard lost to Temple.

Freaking 55-7. That doesn’t mean Temple should beat Rhode Island by 38 more points than 55 (that’s 93) but it will be closer to 55-7 than anything else.

Rhode Island and Temple aren’t in the same stratosphere, so I think that’s something we can all agree on and move forward with a more realistic evaluation of the schedule.

Why is Army so important?

The Owls host Penn State the week between those two games and are at Toledo after that. Everyone who follows college football would say PSU is a so-called “trap” game because beating Penn State is so important to Temple fans.

The guy who needs to figure out how to put in a game plan to beat Army figured out a way to recruit the No. 1 class in the AAC. Temple fans should sleep well over that fact.

From the Temple football perspective, it shouldn’t be. While it would be great to have a 2015 redux, the reality of the college football world is that Penn State has 200x the money to build a roster than Temple does. Back in 2015, it was way closer to 2-1.

Winning the AAC championship is the only goal. So, while you try to win Penn State and Toledo, you go light on the game plans in those games and heavy on the game plan against Jeff Monken.

Because the Army preparation is only a week–ideally playing a service academy should be two weeks–a lot of the prep time for the triple option should be imbedded not only into summer camp but into spring football that begins in a couple of weeks.

That usually means Brian L. Smith’s defense but Smith did fine against Army last year (limiting them to just 14 points) so the offense should be involved as well. Two weeks after Temple lost, 14-13, to Army, Tulsa (which lost to Temple) was able to score 26 points in a 26-25 win at West Point.

So Tyler Walker’s offense was unacceptable against a team vulnerable to the pass. So, I don’t know, maybe put in a game plan that throws the ball more, stopping the clock on (hopefully) rare incompletions and attacking the most vulnerable part of the Army defense (defending more athletic receivers like JoJo Bermudez and Colin Chase). Last year’s game plan was Jay Ducker right, Jay Ducker up the middle and Jay Ducker left.

That’s a great game plan against the 11th-ranked RUN defense in the AAC (North Texas) but a terrible game plan against (let’s be honest) slow white cornerbacks. Giving the ball to Ducker last year (or even my favorite player this year, Hunter Smith) is not the answer.

The good news is that the Owls have nine months to work on that. The better news is that the current winningest active college football head coach is on the case and probably sees the same things I do.

Monday: That’s the kicker

Friday: Now’s The Time

Monday: 5 Things We’d Like to See in Spring Practice

02.06.26
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Main Goal of Spring Practice: Generating a pass rush

The addition of Jerry Rice Award finalist Jaylon Joseph is encouraging for the 2026 pass rush.

Every once in a while, pounding the keys to produce content for this website can be frustrating.

None more so than the last month when I had to hit the keys on this laptop 10+ times to get the letters “n, w, r and e” to appear.

Sekou Kromah (58), who bought in enough to the Temple culture to be a part of media day 2025, is gone. He would have been a valuable piece on the 2026 team if he elected to stay. Someone got in his ear and gave him bad advice.

Looked on the internet for a fix and got a can of compressed air and that only seemed to make it worse. Then someone said get “70 percent Isopropyl Alcohol” wipe the keys down and that would work.

(It didn’t.)

Took it to a shop Tuesday and they told me they could fix it for $120. They said they would have to take out each key and remove the residue, and the labor would be that much. “Geez, I don’t have that money.” Took it home and decided to pound away. (I’m on a fixed income.)

Always wondered if anyone was out there who would miss this site and then got my message from above on Thursday.

Some great Temple grad donated “roughly” the same amount of money to fix it today without even knowing my problem.

(Thanks so much to that wonderful guy who I’ve never had the pleasure to meet.)

Message from above.

This may change tomorrow but Kromah has not yet landed anywhere. He is not welcome back. He should have remained where he was.

Hopefully, K.C. Keeler asked and received the solution to his major problem the same way.

Generating a pass rush.

I don’t see it even with the new additions both Keeler and General Manager Clayton Barnes added.

Here’s why.

Temple loses edge rusher Cameron Stewart to graduating and Khalif Poteat and Sultan Badmus to this ridiculous transfer portal and followed closely the possible replacements.

Stewart will take that Temple degree and run with it, but Poteat and Badmus will land up in worse spots than Temple and probably, like most transfer portal guys, will wish they remained where they were.

Into the breach have stepped people like Jaylon Joseph of Lafayette, who was a finalist for the same Jerry Rice Award that former Temple backup quarterback Gevani McCoy won at Idaho. McCoy did nothing at Temple but would have done plenty if Evan Simon was injured (which he, thankfully, wasn’t). Joseph will wear No. 10 at Temple.

Way harder for a defensive lineman to be nominated for a Jerry Rice Award than a quarterback so maybe Barnes is onto something here.

Other possibilities in putting the bad guys’ quarterbacks on their backside include Russell Sykes (No. 52), JaMair Diaz (transfer from Sam Houston State, No. 56), Kevin Hornbeak (No. 93) and Davier Bishop (No. 97).

Diaz has receipts from performing at a high level at SHU. The others? Not so much.

Me, I prefer receipts.

Barnes and Keeler have studied that film and made their decisions.

I don’t see the same level of pass rush Temple had in 2025 with Stewart, Poteat, Badmus and Sekou Kromah but Barnes and Keeler do and that’s way more important.

Their history of turning around Sam Houston bodes very well indeed for Temple, despite how many times I had to type to get the word “indeed” to show up.

Meanwhile, we will take it to the shop tomorrow.

The defensive pass rush shop at Temple continues through Cherry and White Day and maybe even beyond.

Monday: Tricked Up

12.07.25
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A bowl selection Sunday to remember for Temple

My three-letter reaction when I heard the news on Sunday night.

The last Bowl Selection Sunday that went this bad for Temple came in 2010, when an 8-4 Temple team was told there was no bowl for them.

That time it was the bad guys’ fault. This time the blame falls on the good guys.

Both TE Peter Clarke and DE Cam’Ron Stewart wanted to play.

It was pretty hard, even in those days of 2010, for an 8-4 Temple team to not be chosen but that’s exactly what happened.

“Guys, it’s over,” Al Golden said in a team meeting. “We didn’t get picked.”

A few hours later, Golden left for the Miami job and had to have another meeting to give those kids further bad news.

That was a pretty good Temple team. They beat a BCS bowl (Fiesta) team (UConn) by 20 points and deserved to a chance to bring back some hardware for the Edberg Olson trophy case. The bad guys didn’t want to give Temple a bowl spot that day.

So much for the bad guys.

The question might be who held a gun to Temple’s Temple?

Five weeks ago, Temple was sitting on a 5-3 record and looked like a sure shot for a bowl game. The the Owls lost four-straight games to close out the season and bowl hopes went out the window.

Or so we thought.

A nice bowl trophy fell into their laps on Sunday afternoon–not to mention a nice trip to a warmer place and three weeks of needed practice–and the Owls said thanks but no thanks to a Birmingham Bowl spot that would have put them up against 6-6 Georgia Southern. In my estimation, the Owls would have been a double-digit favorite in such a game and a bowl win, even for a 5-7 team, would put a nice taste in everyone’s mouths and maybe even helped ticket sales for next season.

My guess is that call was made above the K.C. Keeler level but we should find that out in the next few days.

Whoever made the call, though, is a supposed good guy representing Temple.

There are reasons for turning it down including costs, travel and players, but those reasons apply more to the other teams who turned the bid down, not Temple. These Owls were three points away from 7-5 and, in those two games, some extremely questionable calls by the refs robbed them.

These kids deserved a bowl, too.

Back 15 years ago, the prevailing thought was maybe that someday Karma would pay Temple back by giving the Owls a bid on a day they didn’t expect it.

Sunday was the day that something nice fell into their laps and, instead of dusting it off putting it in a place of honor, they threw it out the window.

Somebody has got some explaining to do.

Update: Temple statement below….

So you’re basically saying everybody either said no or “get back to us” but App State said, “Hell Yes!!!! Where do I sign?”

Friday: Room At The Top

11.16.25
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The biggest Temple-Tulane game in 91 years

Last year, this story ranked the Sugar Bowl between “Temple” and Tulane as the 12th best of all time

Most of the time when Temple plays Tulane the Owls are either very good or Tulane is very bad.

Or, as we’ve seen over the last couple of years, Temple being bad and Tulane being good.

The twain never met until now.

It’s finally time to get revenge for that loss 91 years ago.

Now, on an unusually beautiful 60-degree day on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field (3:45 p.m. kickoff), both Temple and Tulane are pretty good and the stakes are higher than any other meeting between the two teams in a long time.

How long?

The last time that happened was 91 years ago when the two teams played in the first Sugar Bowl game, won by Tulane, 20-14. (They brought the same refs that officiated this year’s Army game.)

Tulane is playing for an American Conference championship a spot in the college football playoff. Temple is playing for a bowl game.

Both things mean just as much to each team as the other thing does so something has to give.

From the Temple game plan perspective, it’s time to pull out all of the stops.

Attacking your opponents’ weaknesses means unleashing Evan Simon on the 127th-ranked passing defense by throwing more than 30 passes.

That doesn’t mean to panic but it does mean a lot more “imaginative” plays than what we have seen through 10 games.

That means setting Kajiya Hollawayne up for the reverse pass by giving him the ball a few times a jet sweep. Only after a couple of successful jet sweeps, have the former four-star UCLA quarterback sucker the defense into him and use that arm to hit JoJo Bermudez in stride for six. Being a great coach means taking advantage of the unique talent of your players and, when you have a wide receiver with a 4* arm, not using that arm is coaching malpractice.

Should be a beautiful day to enjoy the last home game of the season, so Temple fans should make plans now to support these kids.

Also, trust in the numbers, which never lie.

Attacking your opponents’ weaknesses means unleashing Evan Simon on the 127th-ranked passing defense by having him throw more than 30 passes. UTSA’s Owen McCown demonstrated the wisdom of that approach by going 31-for-33 for 370 yards with no interceptions four touchdowns.

Not surprisingly, UTSA won that game against Tulane, 48-26.

Simon is a better quarterback than McCown, at least in our opinion, and that is also is matchup advantage Temple needs to lean on heavily. If Temple’s Mon-Friday practices emphasize all of that, it’ll be a pretty sweet “T for Temple U” afterward. If it’s the same/old, same/old we’ve seen on offense all year, that won’t do.

Bombs Over Baghdad. Or at least South Philly.

Friday: Temple-Tulane Preview

10.18.25
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Temple: Killing two monkeys with one rock

Took a philosophy course because I needed an easy elective due to pulling 60 hours a week putting out The Temple News back in the day.

(It was a daily then.)

Had a bearded professor who smoked a pipe in class and described a situation where two problems were solved at the same time.

I raised my sleep-deprived hand.

“You mean, like killing two birds with one stone?”

Chalk up another win to the Cherry helmets, which looked particularly good with the White uniforms today. Let’s keep the best helmets in college football going forward.

The guy with the beard took a puff of the pipe, stroked his beard, waited about 10 seconds, and said:

“What an unfortunate way of putting it, Mr. Gibson, but I guess you are right.”

It’s one thing killing birds with stones and it’s another thing to take out a couple of monkeys with a rock and that’s exactly what Temple’s football team did today.

Two monkeys off the Temple football back. One, the first road win since 2019 and, two, the first time the Owls have won more than three games since the season prior to that one.

All because of a 49-14 rout at Charlotte. (Should have been 56-14 because the Owls fell on a scoop that could have easily been a score, but we’ll let that slide.)

Kyle Pagan of Crossing Broad bet 2x as much as I did way back in July. God bless him and everyone who had confidence in this team.

Important milestones if you put your money where your mouth was back in July, like I did. Way back on May 28, I picked the Owls to win six games and get to a bowl.

When challenged by a poster on OwlsDaily.com about that way back in July, I put my money where my mouth was and bet the over 3.5 wins.

My response to his post was this: “If I had $100,000, I would have bet that but since I only bet what I can afford to lose, I put $50 on the Owls.”

I’m $57 richer today.

Would have been $100K richer if I had the money to bet back then.

My reasoning then was simple: One, the Owls upgraded not only at the head coaching level, but also at the key coordinator positions.

In 2025, I reasoned, the Owls would pick up one or two more wins because they wouldn’t have the plethora of pre-snap penalties they had in the three years under Stan Drayton and the three years before that under Rod Carey.

Building on that reasoning was the way K.C. Keeler approached his important role as CEO of the program, which meant plugging some roster holes with key pieces.

Add those two things and it was easy to come to the conclusion that Temple could make the jump from three to six.

Keeler, in my mind, already has proven himself to be the best head coach we’ve had here since Wayne Hardin. Ironically, that was the guy who told him that we didn’t have enough scholarships for him back in the late 1970s and then turned the conversation to golf.

Keeler didn’t want to talk golf but headed to Delaware.

Now he’s back where he should have been in the first place. In my opinion, he’s the best coach at Temple since Hardin because he’s had to do it with a transfer portal and NIL that Al Golden, Matt Rhule, Bruce Arians and even Hardin didn’t have to deal with. Arians deserves a lot of credit because he had two winning seasons against Top 10 schedules but he got to keep all his players then.

Temple ran into trouble after Golden and Rhule and Keeler has righted that ship.

Killing two monkeys with one stone is impressive enough.

If somehow he is able to run the table with this team and this schedule, a big Gorilla is in sight and that might be an American Conference championship game.

Let’s get greedy.

Monday: Tulsa Week

10.11.25
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First- and second-guessing turned out to be the same

With 1 minute, 16 seconds left in a 24-24 game, Temple quarterback Evan Simon hit Kajiya Hollawayne at Navy the 1 and Hollawayne was fortunate enough not to score.

I say fortunate because that gave Temple some time to play with and an opportunity to burn Navy’s last two time outs.

A gift, really.

No way the team on the right should have lost to the team on the left.

There were a couple of Navy fans in front of me and I leaned over to one and said:

“If I’m you guys, I would let Temple score here. If I’m Temple, I take three knees, make Navy take two timeouts and kick a field goal to win the game.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

America’s next Military leaders never had an opportunity to pull a France and surrender because Temple scored a touchdown on the next play and it looked like the Midshipmen, as they have all night, put up a fight.

That meant Temple gave the ball back to Navy with that 1:16 still on the clock.

I leaned over to my Navy fan friend and said, “That’s too much time with this quarterback.”

He tried to console me.

“Temple has a good quarterback, too,” he said.

“Yeah, I know but it won’t make much difference because he’s probably not going to get the ball back.”

We all know what happened after that. Blake Horvath, who in my mind is every bit the quarterback (and probably more) than Oklahoma’s John Mateer in the Heisman Trophy race, did what Heisman Trophy winners do and negotiate the length of the field.

Navy, 32-31, game, set and match.

By my calculations, a first-down knee and a second-down knee kills both Navy timeouts. A third-down knee takes the clock to about 40 seconds or less.

A fourth-down FG from extra point distance wins the game, 27-24.

Or at least gives the ball back to Horvath with 40 seconds and no timeouts as opposed to 1:16 and two timeouts left.

Maybe Horvath takes the ball all the way down the field. Maybe he doesn’t but, what he actually did with those 40 seconds was to get the ball to midfield.

That’s where the game would have ended all things considered.

Afterward, Temple head coach K.C. Keeler said he “wasn’t comfortable” with taking knees and anything could happen but, to me, after a first down on the 1, you can pretty much safely take a step back and down the ball without a disaster.

The alternative was worse.

Keeler also said there would be second-guessing and “I get that” but, when the second-guessing also includes the first guessing a Mike Philadelphia had with a Joe Annapolis guy while this was unfolding, that’s where I don’t buy it.

I’m thinking we weren’t the only two people in the stadium having that same discussion with 1:16 left.

Every NFL team would have done the same thing which means great coaches, even Hall of Fame ones like Keeler, occasionally make mental mistakes.

Just like the one a pitcher for the Hometown baseball team made a couple of nights ago. This hurts a whole lot worse.

Monday: Game Week

10.05.25
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Why I don’t care (much) about attendance

This is the Temple student second a dozen years ago. There is a shocking lack of a student section now. They went away with six straight losing seasons. They will hopefully return sooner than later.

“I’ve seen the light
And I’ve seen the flame
And I’ve been this way before
And I’m sure to be this way again … “

_ Neil Diamond, 1974

Log onto a message board to read Temple fans reacting to a joyous football win and, inevitably, some Debbie Downer will say something like this:

“Great win, but somebody has to do something about attendance.”

College football’s attendance problem includes not only Temple but UCLA and almost every American Conference school with the exception of ECU, Memphis, Army and Navy and scores of others across all conferences.

Invariably, said Mr. Downer will post this during a game thread from some place outside of the stadium while watching the game on TV. Many of them sitting on a couch and eating potato chips less than an hour’s drive from the stadium.

Translation: “I don’t like the problem, but I can’t be bothered to be part of the solution.”

Speaking as someone who has been to all three home games, I don’t have time for people like that. While I’ve been to all of the games, the slow erosion of the Temple fan base is completely understandable, and I don’t blame a single fellow fan for not attending. This fan base has been beaten down by consecutive 1-6, 3-9, 3-9, 3-9 and 3-9 seasons.

You can only do so much hoping for next year to improve before you say I’m out.

I never did, but a lot of my former tailgate buddies from the Halcyon Days of Al Golden and Matt Rhule who shall remain nameless did. One guy liked to go in an hour before the game because he “wanted to see the punting” and I found that humorous. I haven’t seen him in years and hopefully he’s still alive.

It took Al Golden a couple of years to go from crowds similar to the 12,131 who showed up for the UTSA game to at least a couple of times a year topping 30,000 and it will at least take K.C. Keeler that long to build it up.

When you spend six years tearing that down, it’s not going to take six weeks to build it up.

Maybe one or two years of winning. Maybe even three.

A sampling of Temple Homecoming Crowds

Six years of losing isn’t the only thing working against Temple attendance. The NIL and the transfer portal haven’t helped. When a fan base feels they are at an unfair disadvantage against foes they used to have a fair advantage against, that contributes to lack of interest in the product.

The problem is not specific to Temple. Look at UCLA which, like Temple, got a big win in a largely empty (larger than needed) stadium. The Bruins have lost for awhile but beat Penn State, 42-37. One of the reasons was because they were able to spend $3 million on a quarterback but that’s a P4 team with no fans.

A P4 team able to pay big-time money without fans.

Temple used to have a large and loud student section. It will be nice to see that come back.

The good news is that Homecoming looms and Temple regularly brings in 30,000 of its own fans for that one occasion. Many of them don’t even like football but love the university which gave them a great education and want to renew that experience at least once a year.

Temple, like Neil Diamond in that great song, has been this way before and it is sure to be that way once again. Interest has ebbed and flowed and been there in the past and will be there in the future again following some sustained winning.

Maybe if this biggest crowd of the year likes what the Owls are selling they will want to come back for one or two more games this season.

At least that’s the hope.

Maybe even Mr. Downer will put down the chips, get off the couch, stop complaining about the crowd and become a solution to the problem.

Friday: Navy Preview

09.25.25
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Temple’s Secret Sauce: The American

Anyone who watched East Carolina dismantle defending American Conference champion Army on Thursday night had to come to the same conclusion I did:

This league–outside of Memphis–is nowhere near as good as it was last year.

Get rid of these white helmets and the Owls win 6 of their remaining 8 games.

Temple has eight games left, all in this conference. The secret sauce for the Owls’ success includes four things:

One, the AC isn’t as good as last year;

Two, Temple has the best head coach in the league;

Three, Temple might not have the best quarterback in the league (I think it might but the experts don’t) but it unquestionably has the best 1-2 QB combination.

Four, Temple doesn’t play Memphis (until, hopefully, the championship game).

Mix, stir, and this could be tasty.

What does this mean?

My glasses are not completely Cherry and White and I know some things can and will go wrong. That’s why no matter how well the Owls play in the final eight, I give them at least two losses.

Going into this season, nobody thought the Temple at Army game was in play.

I trust this guy with my team.

Now I think it is. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Temple is the favorite going into that November game.

First things first, though.

Here’s how the season will break down (and remember you read it here first):

If Temple is able to split the next two games at home (UTSA and Navy), it finishes 6-6.

If Temple is able to sweep those next two, it goes 8-4 and has an outside–really outside–chance of making it to the title game at Memphis.

Best helmets in college football

Either way, it’s a complete culture change to what we’ve seen the last six years.

The biggest news out of the Edberg Olson Complex this week was that RB Terrez Worthy, one of my favorite Owls, quit due to “mental health issues.” That came six months after one of my other favorite Owls, John Adams, quit due to pretty much the same thing.

I didn’t know that was a thing that you could self-diagnose but I have to respect those two guys.

I go to the doctor twice a year and am always shocked when one of the questions is: “Do you ever think of killing yourself?”

Err, no, but if Temple kept either Rod Carey or Stan Drayton more than three years, ask me next time.

This is the burden of Temple fans. Why do we have starters leave for “mental health issues” and never have walk-ons do the same?

Fortunately, both the mental and physical health of this team other than my favorite RB seems to be OK. Temple will not face a team nearly as good as either Oklahoma or Georgia Tech this year. How they handle that next level down determines the Owls’ fate.

Mix in the best head coach in the league and some magic can happen. Not going to say eight wins or six wins but, given the competition ahead vs. the competition behind, color me optimistic.

That means Cherry helmets, not White ones.

Monday: Game Week