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.

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

“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.

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.