Matakevich Winning Butkus Award Would Be Big Boost for Temple Football

Football fans of Temple can give their fingernails a rest. From standout linebacker Tyler Matakevich‘s twitter feed in December, it looked  like he would return for his senior season with the Owls in 2015.

Now that the deadline for declaring is about to pass, it’s all but official.

That’s no small commitment because, according to most mock drafts, Matakevich would be one of the top 10 linebackers selected in the NFL Draft if he decided to come out. Now that Matakevich has decided to do something for the Owls, Temple must decide to do something for him in promoting him for the Bednarik Award that goes to the nation’s best defender and Butkus Award that goes to the nation’s best linebacker.

I think he has a decent chance of winning the Butkus Award and that would be a big feather in the cap of Temple football. He doesn’t need to do anything superhuman to win it, either. Just keep doing what he’s been doing and help the Owls win two or more additional games in 2015 than they did in 2014. With Notre Dame and Penn State on the schedule and both figure to be highly rated TV games, his name is fast-tracked to the head of the LB class.

Temple did the same in 1986 for running back Paul Palmer, when the school came up with a clever comic book idea that promoted him for the Heisman Trophy. He did not win it, coming as close as possible — losing to Miami’s Vinny Testaverde and ahead of such luminaries as Oklahoma’s Brian Bosworth and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.

Matakevich is driven by a desire to get Temple to a bowl and sitting and watching others play seems to fuel the flames for next season.

Matakevich is one of the few players to earn all-conference honors in two conferences, the now-defunct Big East and current successor AAC. He also currently is the NCAA’s leading active leaders in tackles among all five divisions (FBS, FCS, and Divisions I through III). For his entire time at Temple, he has given the Owls his best.

Promoting him heavily for the Bednarik and Butkus is the least the Owls can do for him now.

Temple’s Hype Machine Needs to Get Grinding Now

Owls need to get Tyler (8) and Kyle's (79) name out there now and let their play do the rest in 2015.

Owls need to get Tyler (8) and Kyle’s (79) name out there now and let their play do the rest in 2015.

There can be little doubt that Tyler Matakevich and Kyle Friend will be the two best players on the 2015 version of the Temple Owls. Heck, they were this past season.

Temple promotions hit a home run with this comic book since it was written about all over the country.

Temple promotions hit a home run with this comic book since it was written about all over the country.

Today’s release of the All-American team was a perfect illustration of why both guys need to be heavily promoted for the Rimington and Bednarik Awards for the nation’s best center and linebacker, respectively.

You cannot tell me that there are nine linebackers in the country better than the Owls’ Tyler Matakevich or nine centers better than his teammate, Kyle Friend, who manhandled a first-round NFL draft choice from Notre Dame two seasons ago. Yet that is precisely what the Associated Press’ All-American team release was telling me today.

Active career tackle leaders in all divisions. Source: NCAA

Active career tackle leaders in all divisions.
Source: NCAA

Heavily promoting both for the nation’s top award at those positions would help solve that problem. Temple did the same in 1986 for Paul Palmer, when it came up with a clever comic book idea that promoted Boo-Boo for the Heisman Trophy. He did not win it, coming as close as possible—losing to Miami’s Vinny Testaverde and ahead of such luminaries as Oklahoma’s Brian Bosworth and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.

The Owls’ promotion department—not the sports information arm led by Al Shrier–mailed the comic book to all 1,056 of the Heisman voters at the time and, since many of the Heisman voters were members of the national press corps, a few of them took the time to write a column about it and Palmer’s name was out there in places it would have not normally been.

One mile from history but  1,000 miles from making a national impact is how this BP I-95 billboard campaign failed.

One mile from history but 1,000 miles from making a national impact is how this BP I-95 billboard campaign failed.

The Owls’ mounted a half-hearted campaign to get Bernard Pierce the Heisman, but put it up only on billboards in the Philadelphia area and it drew little notice across the country.

Shoot for the top and settle for something less or shoot for the top and get to the top. It’s up to Temple now. They have the ball and a chance to score big now. Let’s hope they don’t use three wides and ignore the running game here, too.

The Owls’ 2014 running game might have been a joke, but copying the comic book idea for these two guys would not be.

Positively Beautiful

Watch Tyler Matakevich’s block on Khalif Herbin’s punt return. Gotta find a way, any way, to get the ball in Herbin’s hands more.

Watching Temple systematically dismantle Delaware State, I am reminded by the admonishment of a cop when a group of runners I was with came along a five-car pile-up on what was then the East River Drive about 30 years ago.

“Nothing to see here, boys,” the officer said, “run along.”

Nobody got hurt, just a bunch of totaled cars. Temple was a Humvee running into a Mini Cooper on Saturday.

To me, Saturday’s game was a thing of beauty. The Owls sped around the corner like a finely tuned machine and let up just enough on the gas pedal in the second half to avoid the 100-0 win. Nobody ever said Matt Rhule wasn’t a nice guy. Temple finally dominated one of these lesser teams like it should every time out.

Afterward, I ran into a beautiful person I respect very much and she said: “Now, Mike, no negativity or I’m going to come looking for you.”

Hey, how could anyone be negative? Before the game, I wrote, “44-7 would be nice; 63-0 would be better.”

rushing

Really, when you win, 59-0, there can be no nitpicking. A year ago, Towson dominated one of our conference brethren, Uconn, 31-19, and Towson had its hands full with this very same Delaware State team last week. Sure, P.J. Walker forced a couple of interceptions, but he’s got a bum ankle and maybe he’s not planting properly. The speed runners looked a lot better this week. Is that a product of the opponent or getting more speed back there?  Would have liked to see Connor Reilly loosen up his arm more, but I’ll chalk that up to coach Rhule not wanting to run the score up.

Mostly, all good stuff. Even the uniforms looked good. I’m a big believer in Karma. When you win, keep the unis the same; when you lose, change up the unis. Love to see the Owls come out in the Cherry Helmets with the school logo next week just because I’m superstitious about stuff like that.

If the Owls play next Saturday like they did this Saturday, they should not need overtime to win at Storrs this year. That should be something worth watching. The real season begins then.