Tag Archives: writing

08.27.26
by

Temple football: Sometimes less is more

One of the best interviews with K.C. Keeler I’ve ever seen

Nobody is perfect.

Not even a perfect head coach.

For me, K.C. Keeler is the perfect head coach for my team because my team is Temple and Keeler is from Philadelphia (Emmaus is close enough), was recruited by Temple and didn’t go to Temple only because Hall of Fame coach Wayne Hardin ran out of scholarships and found his way back to Temple when Temple needed him the most.

Yet nobody is perfect, even my perfect head coach.

Would love to see more jet sweeps for JoJo and fewer for Chase this season. No more 3-yard handoffs on the first play of the game to the best running back.

The Navy debacle is well-documented here and I would have wound down the clock down and kicked the field goal with three seconds to win the game, 27-24. That’s not second-guessing. That’s exactly what I told Navy fans I would have done in real time in the same place and at the same time the game was played. They agreed with me that Navy was fucked if Temple did what I told them Temple should do.

In real time.

Keeler got greedy and took the touchdown and trusted his defense against the best player in the league (Blake Horvath). The best player in the league won.

Not the only concerning sign I saw last year so less of those is what I want to see this year.

What did I see last year?

Too many first-play handoffs to Jay Ducker or jet sweeps to Colin Chase.

Don’t get me wrong.

I love Ducker and Chase.

Couple of things wrong with those plays.

One, after three or four games, handing the ball off to Ducker is telegraphing the play to the next team. Two, Chase doesn’t have the speed or the twitch to take the first play to the house. Sam Brown is the “Ducker” of this year. If you are scouting Temple tendencies, you will expect a handoff to Brown on the first series.

That’s not the best game plan, nor is the handoff to the slowest receiver on the field. There is a faster receiver with more twitch who Keeler called the “best punt returner in the nation.”

Know who that guy is?

JoJo Bermudez.

Why Bermudez didn’t get those toss sweeps last year and Chase did is something I will never understand.

First play of the Rhode Island game shouldn’t be the expected handoff to Brown nor a jet sweep to Chase.

If anything was learned from last year, it should be a jet sweep to your best and fastest player, Bermudez. Or maybe you want to save that play for Penn State.

If so, doing less is more.

I’ll leave the perfect decision for my perfect head coach.

Monday: Game Week

08.24.26
by

Paul Darragh: Another Temple captain gone too soon

Had the BOT went through with its plans a decade ago, we’d all be tailgating at an on-campus stadium that might have looked like this. (Photo from the TempleAllSports twitter account)

Tailgating isn’t what it used to be.

For years, we’d have a solid crew of tailgaters who would reliably show up every single season.

Something happened since and, for the last three or so years, the normal “crew” would be missing one or two guys who we lost to passing away.

Some of them were real shocks, like John Belli.

Paul Darragh definitely was in that category, too.

Darragh wasn’t a regular but just an occasional visitor. He didn’t make it every Saturday, but he would be there every other year, and we’d see him pretty often on Cherry and White Day.

That’s the last time I saw him at a C and W game a couple of years ago. I won’t be seeing him again because he passed away at the all-too-young age of 63. I mentioned to him that I saw him make an interception on an old Youtube video.

Temple season ticket holders mingle with players and coaches on Saturday.

“I never had an interception, Mike,” Paul said.

I took his email and sent him the video and he got a kick out of it and thanked me for it.

“I completely forgot about it,” Paul wrote back.

Great guy.

Darragh might have been a regular tailgater except he had things to do on most Saturdays, like being the head coach at Bloomsburg University. He was named head coach on Dec. 6, 2013 and promptly went 10-2 his first season.

He was also an assistant coach at many places including Temple.

In his playing career, he was a three year starter at linebacker and captain of the 1983 Owls, Bruce Arians’ first Temple team. He also started the last two seasons of Wayne Hardin’s career.

In his post-coaching career, Darragh and most of us tailgaters would have returned to campus and enjoyed many Saturdays at the alma mater had the university stuck to its plans and built an on-campus stadium. Now it looks like there will never be an on-campus stadium as the area (15th and Norris) set aside was held for a few years and now is used by the university for other things. It’s amazing to me that the university spent $1 million for a rendering of the stadium by Moody Architecture yet an artificial intelligence tool (see above) did one for free that looks only about a million times better.

Maybe one day there will be a stadium on campus, but that day will probably be a lot closer to 50 years from now than five or 10. Of course, that talk could be revived if the Owls open the season with wins over Rhode Island and Penn State. It would take something that big to revive the project.

Doubtful that any of us will be around to see it but if it ever gets built, a tradition that included guys like Darragh will be the figurative foundation.

Friday: Less is More

Monday: Game Week

08.16.26
by

The opener will be on us before we know it

Saboor Karriem goes for the tackle against Eagles’ No. 1 pick Makai Lemon. Both will be calling the same stadium home.
Hey, guess who follows Temple Football Forever? The father of Penn State starting quarterback, Rocco Becht. Anthony Becht was a great tight end at Monsignor Bonner and the New York Jets. Thanks for the follow.

One of the things about getting older is having pains in places where you’ve never had them before.

Because I had a pain in my leg I couldn’t identify other than it being nerve-related, I mentioned that to my physician and he referred me to a neurologist. That was way back in April.

Made the appointment the next day and the “earliest” he could see me was Aug. 13.

“Geez, that seems like years away,” I told the person who answered the phone.

“That’s the earliest we have.”

That’s the U.S. Healthcare system in a nutshell.

Long story short, that time between April and August lasted what seemed like five minutes simply because the late spring and summer is my favorite time of the year.

So it goes with Temple’s football opener against visiting Rhode Island on Sept. 5.

If the time between April and August seemed like five minutes, the time between now and kickoff will be like a minute.

Or shorter.

Nobody knows that better than Temple head football coach K.C. Keeler, whose Owls conducted their first preseason scrimmage on Saturday.

One of the strongest areas of the team is the safeties and defensive coordinator Brian L. Smith calls it the deepest part of the defense.

Among the starters is expected to be Illinois transfer Saboor Karriem, who comes to Philadelphia with CVS type receipts. He started and had the most tackles in a 34-32 Big 10 win over USC last year, notching seven solo tackles and three assists. While there are concerns about the bright lights in big games at both the quarterback and cornerback positions at Temple, there are no such concerns about the safeties and linebackers, who played well for the Owls and other teams last year.

Recently, Karriem was “mic’d” up by the Temple video staff and his best quote was, “I miss my brothers, but I have 115 (other) brothers (here).”

Because of the uncertainty at quarterback, it looks like the Owls will have to lean on the defense for most of their success this year.

Fortunately. the defense is showing signs of being up to the task in summer ball so far but the proof will come on Sept. 5.

“Rhode Island Sept. 5 at 2 p.m., that’s it,” Karriem said.

It might seem a long way off now but it’ll be upon us in a minute. That’s the way these things work, both in life and in football.

07.16.26
by

A Temple Football Championship: There are no words

Editor’s Note: Every once in a while, I get asked why I write this site and my answer is winning. We get barely (and I do mean barely) enough contributions to keep this website alive yet winning remains the goal. Winning games, yes, but winning championships more. This is the one time in my lifetime of being a Temple fan I was there in person to watch Temple football win a championship. Yet winning remains the goal. When it happens, I’m usually speechless but I’ll try to come up with something. There are no words but I summoned some and they are below.

The morning after arguably the greatest win in Temple football history, there are no words.

Literally no words are coming out of my mouth, at least in the sense of being able to talk this morning.

The throaty and hoarse condition is more than OK because it was the result of cheering for the Owls at beautiful Navy-Marine Corps Stadium as they captured what really is their first-ever major football championship. The 1967 MAC title was admirable, but that was a day when the school played to a level of football that was beneath their status even then as one of America’s great public universities.

So this was it.

ride
I sat in the same aisle across from this trophy on the way home (thanks to Matt Rhule for arranging my seat). I couldn’t stop staring at it.

Walking out of the stadium and into the concourse, I let out a very loud primal: “THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT!!”

Fortunately, I got a few high fives and smiles from my fellow Temple fans and not fitted for a straightjacket. It also put the voice out for 24 hours, maybe more.

When it comes to Temple football today at least, you cannot think in terms of a national championship—the deck is stacked against G5 teams in an unfair system—so what happened yesterday was the pinnacle of Temple football success. Thousands of Temple fans, easily in excess of 10,000 Temple fans, made Navy’s 15-game home winning streak a moot point by turning that stadium into a Temple home field advantage and to get to that mountaintop and look down from it is incredibly satisfying.

Hey, it’s a pretty spectacular pinnacle. The only thing that would have made it better was a G5 slot in a New Year’s Six bowl against Penn State, but that’s not happening for a number of reasons that are not important today. (Objectively, would you take a team for the Cotton Bowl that has won seven straight against this schedule and beat a Navy team, 34-10, over a Western Michigan team that struggled to beat a four-loss Ohio team? I would but I don’t expect the bowl committee to be that objective. I can also grudingly see the WMU argument.)

What is important is that the Owls have gone from being a perennial Bottom 10 team and laughed at nationally to being ranked in the Top 25 for two straight years and going to a title game one year and winning it the next. When you think of the success P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas have had here, there is a Twilight Zone quality to the parallel between this success and their success at Elizabeth (N.J.). In their freshman year at Elizabeth, they won one game; in their freshman year at Temple they won two games. In their sophomore year at both schools, they won six games. In their junior year at both schools, they reached the title game and lost and, in their senior year at both schools, they lifted the ultimate hardware together.

“Get a Dub?”

Truly amazing and I will miss both of those guys.

The Navy team Temple held to 10 points scored 75 on SMU, 28 on Notre Dame, 45 on an 11-2 USF team, 46 on Houston, 42 on Tulane and 66 on ECU.

Back on Cherry and White Day, I wrote that this team will be better than last year’s team while people on other websites—notably, Rutgers and Penn State fan boards—insisted that Temple would take a step back. I was consistent in my belief that this was the STEP FORWARD year, not the step back one, and that belief was rooted in knowledge that both the defense and offense were significantly upgraded despite graduation losses. Only a Temple fan who follows the team closely would know that, not the know-it-alls who make assumptions on subjects they have no idea what they are talking about.

Today at noon, the Owls will know where they will go for a bowl game. They can finish the season in the top 25 and set the record for most wins in Temple football history.

It won’t be the cake because we saw that yesterday, but it will be the Cherry on top of that white cake and it will be delicious even going down past what promises to be a future sore throat.

Postscript: For the comments to the original post click here:

Monday: Regular Programming

Friday: American Conference Media Day

07.05.26
by

Temple’s Mount Rushmore of Coaches

There’s been a lot of talk about Mount Rushmore lately and, while not getting into the context of that discussion, that got me to thinking about Temple’s Mount Rushmore.

Coaches, specifically.

On my Facebook memory feed, I came across a preview of the 1977 College World Series (baseball, of course) that listed Temple as one of the two favorites.

Matt McArdle, a former Temple football safety for the 1979 Garden State Bowl team, responded by saying his brother (John) was the third baseman of that team and we both said that Skip Wilson was responsible for Temple being the most dominant baseball team in the “traditional” East for much of the 1970s.

“Definitely on Temple’s Coaching Mount Rushmore, for sure,” I responded.

With only four spots on that mountain, that caused me to think who would take the other three positions on that mountain.

I came to three men: John Chaney, Pop Warner and Wayne Hardin.

Bruce Arians deserves an honorable mention for both his loyalty and two winning seasons against Top 10 schedules.

Then I asked Chat GPT to make an image of that mountain and, while Chat GPT can do a lot of impressive things, it can’t draw. It had Wilson and Hardin looking like twins and Chaney really not looking like himself.

Warner came closest, probably because of the Stetson hat he wore in the 1930s.

The post got a lot more engagement than I thought it would have with hoop guru Mike Jensen saying I should replace Warner with Harry Litwack. My thought was that if there was a fifth spot on the mountain, he’d definitely be it but the Sugar Bowl appearance gave Warner the nod.

Then I got a lot of people saying Olympic sports coaches like Fred Turoff (gymnastics) and women’s coaches like Tina Sloan Green, Dawn Staley and Nikki Franke belong there.

That’s all well and good but this is a football blog and not a Temple sports blog and we gave both Wilson and Chaney exemptions due to Wilson’s 1,000 wins and Chaney having the most Elite 8 appearances until Michigan State’s coach broke that record.

Let someone start a Temple women’s sports blog–I have neither the expertise nor interest in doing so–and get their own mountain to play with.

As far as football, at least three guys deserve honorable mention–Al Golden, Matt Rhule and Bruce Arians–but didn’t make the final cut for a number of reasons. While Arians showed the requisite loyalty (he turned down an offer to be head coach at Virginia Tech to remain at Temple), he didn’t have enough wins. (Yet his two winning seasons against top 10 schedules was about as impressive as anything a Temple coach has done.) Golden, while deserving credit for bringing Temple football back from the dead, interviewed for the UCLA job after his second season and Rhule, despite two 10-win seasons, didn’t stay for the bowl game that would have set the Temple record.

Longevity has its virtue and that virtue is etched in stone.

Even if it’s only chiseled by Chat GPT and not Gutzon Borglum.

06.28.26
by

Turning a metaphor into a literal demonstration

Swimming upstream.

That’s what teams like Temple, really the entire Group of Five, have been doing since the advent of the transfer portal and the NIL.

Temple has watched while it whatever resources it spends on scouting and developing players turns into benefiting some P4 school. It’s not a fair system but we all knew that.

Little did we know, though, that Good Morning America would turn this metaphor of “swimming upstream” into a literal demonstration on its show earlier last week.

Ginger Zee, the Chief Meteorologist and Climate Correspondent for ABC News, grabbed three Temple football players–including starters Eric King (OT), Colin Chase (WR) and Eric Stuart (LB) for a swimming demonstration. For some reason, they added a pair of athletes from the dance team to fill out this five-person squad.

(You think they’d be able to find a couple of members of another American Conference Olympic sports team.)

Whatever.

Despite the fact that I thought the football players would fare better (at last Chase did swimmingly), it’s publicity the school can’t buy and that’s the best kind. I’d give the other two guys a B+.

It was good publicity for the school on the most watched early morning show in the nation and elevated Temple’s name recognition a bit. It certainly couldn’t hurt the football program.

Temple football players spent all day in OC filming a 4-minute segment that appeared on Good Morning America (6/24/26).

Someone deserves credit for this and maybe its Kevin Neghandi, who works for Disney’s ESPN arm. They could have chosen any one of the 136 FBS football-playing schools.

They chose Temple.

Maybe it is someone in the Sports Information Department, but head football coach K.C. Keeler certainly had to sign off on lending his players to ABC for at least a day and arranging transportation to Ocean City, N.J.

No small feat since being a big-time college football player is a 365-day job.

One of those days being set aside for swimming upstream in a literal sense.

When the guys got back to the Edberg Olson Practice Facility, it was back to swimming upstream in a metaphorical sense.

Let’s hope they ace that test.

Friday: A worthwhile investment

06.19.26
by

My One Birthday Wish: The Keelers Keep their promise

On the day Steve Addazio was hired by Temple, he called it his dream job. Two years later, he said the same thing about BC.

Another year, one foot closer to the invariable end all of us face.

For me, the number is shocking because I outlived a lot of damn close good friends, like fellow Temple fan John Belli and the great Daily News high school writer Ted Silary.

Belli, I had many “Belli” laughs with at Temple games and tailgates and Ted I had many “belly” laughs with covering Philadelphia high school games together. They were both about my age.

On Tuesday, I learned that the best damn copy editor I ever had at The Philadelphia Inquirer—Al “Moose” Campbell–(nobody called him Al) passed. He was only a couple years older than me.

Everybody wishes for good things on their birthday but sharing Juneteenth with one of the greatest days in U.S. history–the official freeing of the slaves in Texas, ending slavery in the country–makes it a memorable day not just for me but for eternity.

As a Temple fan, though, I’m realistic.

It would be nice to hit tonight’s Mega Millions and get the $452 million, forward $400 million of it to Temple football and scrape by with the few years I have left on $52 million. Not a damn penny to Temple basketball because I’m sick of the mindset online that says Temple football is holding back Temple basketball. Get one of those fans to win the next $452 million.

That way, Temple wins the next four national titles and proves to the rest of the world how flawed this current college football system is and they got back to room, board and tuition. Even I, who loves to win more than anyone, will feel a little guilt for Temple winning under those parameters.

Janice Keeler (left) will deserve all the credit if K.C. Keeler keeps his promise and makes Temple his final job.

If an even college football playing field means no fifth-straight natty for Temple, that’s a price I’m willing to pay.

That’s not realistic, though, but what is gives Temple an advantage and I will take that wrapped up in a box with a nice bow on it.

For the Keelers–K.C. and Janice–to keep their promise and make Temple their last coaching stop.

That would give Temple the kind of stability no other university–either P4 or G5–has.

We’ve seen coaches promise fealty to Temple before. On the day Steve Addazio was hired by Temple he called it his “dream job.” Two years later, he said the same thing about Boston College.

Two DAYS, not two years, before Matt Rhule was hired by Baylor he said he wouldn’t sell his soul to another school for $4 million because “I’d rather coach these (Temple) kids.”

One day after winning a title for the Temple kids, he sold his soul for the $4 million.

This promise, though, has a different feel.

One, Keeler is the winningest active Division I college head football coach. Two, everybody else not named Keeler leaves for so-called greener pastures.

Matt Rhule made this promise to Temple two days before selling his soul for $4 million dollars.

Keeler is a special case. He’s from here. His kids are living here. His grandkids are rooted here. There is a real anchor to Philadelphia for the Keelers that did not exist in the past for other Temple coaches.

Given that, what a tremendous recruiting tool in an era where the kids know full well the coach who recruits them is not likely to be the same guy who is there at the end of their college careers–or even halfway through–that exists now.

Temple offers stability.

Nobody else does.

That sets Temple apart from everyone else and by association, every Temple fan apart from a fan of any other college football school.

Failing a financial windfall that is probably not forthcoming, that’s a birthday present any Temple fan (not just me) can’t top.

Monday: Speed Kills

05.28.26
by

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.

05.24.26
by

College Football News checks in on Temple football

Every once in a while, you read something on the internet from a guy who thinks he knows everything about Temple football.

With Temple playing Penn State on Sept. 12, we are going to run into a lot of those guys.

Like this guy:

Pretty good tweet followed by an ignorant one about Temple not fielding a football team.

My only answer to him is something a very wise man once said on the cross more than 2,000 years ago: “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.”

In that case, saying it’s a shame Temple stopped fielding a football team. A guy from “Sinking Spring, PA” who should have known better.

I shamed him in the following four posts below his name, including receipts.

Others with some knowledge–like College Football News–are doing a deeper dive into Temple football and coming up with a more fair and balanced assessment.

The one guy who answered the 2stripesCPD post would be wise to read that assessment of this fall’s Temple football team.

Like us in February, College Football News and Temple Football Forever are in agreement that the Owls will finish 6-6.

Unlike CFN, we hope we are wrong and can see a pathway to a few more wins. First, we know Jaxon Smolik is inexperienced. On the other hand, not even in the Al Golden and Matt Rhule Eras–no doubt the best of the last 20 years–was Temple able to recruit a 4* quarterback. (P.J. Walker, for example, was a 3*.) Now, weirdly in this transfer portal era, 4* guys stuck behind other 4* guys are dropping down to Temple.

The Owls might benefit from that.

In fact, our post last week was us putting our money where our months were and plucking down $10 on Temple to win the American Conference football championship, repeating a feat it was able to accomplish a decade ago. That $10 investment could return us $460. (I wish I had $100 for a $4,600 return but we preach only bet what you can afford to lose.)

The twitter account @gnestro probably doesn’t even know Temple football won the AAC title in 2016 nor appeared in the championship game in 2015.

Father forgive him, because he doesn’t know what he’s saying. Or talking about. With Temple football playing Penn State this year, it won’t be the first or last guy who claims Temple gave up on fielding a football team.

So we have to get ready for those kinds of comments.

College Football News supplied the most interesting stat in its lead paragraph and that was in 33 years of football, K.C. Keeler has never had two losing seasons in a row.

He doesn’t plan on having one now, no matter what that guy down the street who claims he knows something about football tries to tell you. Plan is the operative word and what Keeler has done both maintaining and adding to the roster is the result of over 30 years of planning and it should pay dividends once again.

Friday: The Most Surprising Room

05.22.26
by

The best $20 you will ever spend

As a big fan of the local Philadelphia comedian Joe Conklin, saw that he was appearing at one of my favorite venues, the Keswick Theater, on a rare night I had off in my “real job” and then clicked on the price.

That was $118 for a single seat.

Yikes.

Love Joe, but that was a little bit above my pay grade.

(Decided to rent a $5.99 movie that night instead.)

Then saw Joe was appearing at Parx Casino on the penultimate night of my birthday (June 18 as June 19 is the day I came into the world) at Parx Casino for $35. Clicked on that and got tickets.

Same show. Saved almost $100.

Pretty good bargain if you like to laugh and hear Philadelphia sports personality impressions as much as I do.

I’m pretty sure this is June 1 but might want to confirm when you get tickets.

If you are a Temple football fan, a better bargain becomes before that night.

K.C. Keeler, Wissahickon Brewing Company, June 1, for a measly $20.

Make plans to attend now if you are able to fit it into your schedule.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do so because that’s a Monday night and my “real job” requires me to be in the office doing editing for a myriad of weekly papers that will appear on Wednesdays throughout the Philadelphia area.

Who knows how long that will last so that’s why we ask those of you who appreciate this site to donate $5, 10, 50 or 100 from time to time.

So this is pretty much for those who work traditional 9-5 jobs.

K.C. Keeler isn’t as funny as Joe Conklin, but he is pretty funny and provides more insight on Temple football than just about anyone else.

If I didn’t have to work that night to put food on the table, I would definitely be there and ask him at least one of the next five questions:

Sekou Kromah was good enough to take to media day. Will Keeler take another pass rusher to the same event in August?

One, I know he was going for an experienced quarterback to replace Evan Simon, but what qualities did he see in inexperienced guys like Jaxon Smolik and Ajani Sheppard that would give him the confidence to make them the starter?

Two, I know what Hunter Smith and Keveon Mason can do as running backs, but is there another guy (along with Rutgers transfer Sam Brown) who can emerge from that deep room and surprise everyone?

Three, we had a damn good pass rush when Khalil Poteat, Sultan Badmus and Sekou Kromah were healthy–which was exactly one game, the UTSA win–so what do you see in the transfer portal replacements that make that pass rush better?

It took 15 years but we finally got to our 150th country today, May, 22, 2026

Four, one-point losses to Army and Navy robbed the Owls of 7-5 and a sure bowl appearance and, what, if anything, will you do different in preparing for both triple options this year?

Five, what, if anything, did you learn from the Owls telling the Birmingham Bowl that you had to think for an hour or two about the invitation and what, if anything, would the university do differently given the same call next season?

Thanks, K.C., and I wish I was there, but Joe Conklin is appearing on my night off and you are not. I will see you at the season ticket holder party in August.

Monday: Get Ready for An Attitude