Dickerson's high school film (above) and Pierce's high school film (below).
Pierce is a guy who was Pennsylvania state high school indoor champion in the 60-meter dash and then pulled the impressive double of of winning the state 100-meter dash ... that translates to one juke and plenty of 40-, 50- and 70-yard touchdown runs coming soon to a stadium near you
As if Temple's football team didn't present the Mid-American Conference with enough problems early in the season, the league has looked up and found another unforseen one coming from Philadelphia.
Bernard Pierce, a 6-foot, 212-pound true freshman, has done something no other running back in the history of Temple football has done _ rush for over 100 yards in each of his first three full starts.
Before you dismiss that as a byproduct of history, that includes a Heisman Trophy runner-up in Paul Palmer, who was also an NFL first-round draft choice.
It includes a guy like Todd McNair, a pretty good running back in the NFL who is now an assistant coach at Southern Cal.
It includes a guy named Sherman Myers, from Coatesville, who scored four touchdowns on on the ground in a 1979 Temple 49-17 rout of Syracuse.
It also includes recent NFLers like Stacey Mack and Jason McKie.
There are plenty of good running backs who have played at the school.
None did what Bernard Pierce has done.
But then again none may be as good when all is said and done.
Pierce is a guy who was Pennsylvania state high school indoor champion in the 60-meter dash and then pulled the impressive double of of winning the state 100-meter dash in the spring season.
That's scary enough against track guys.Against football guys, it translates to one juke and plenty of 40-, 50- and 70-yard touchdown runs coming soon to a stadium near you.
"We thought he could be special," is the way Temple coach Al Golden describes it.
The Temple student rooting section, which sometimes numbers in the 10s of thousands, has taken to Pierce already.
"SAINT BERN-ARD," the students chant in unison.
So the inevitable question arises.
"Who does he remind you of?"
Not really any of the Temple backs, I thought.
Well, he really doesn't remind me all that much of Paul Palmer. Paul could break tackles, sure, but not as well as Bernard. What Bernard doesn't do as well as Paul is to make tacklers miss, with a little juke here and a jibe thbere, but it's still early.
Hmm. Who?
People who watched Temple practice in the summer came up with one name.
Eric Dickerson.
It's what I thought when I saw Pierce for the first time in the Villanova game.
Dickerson was the kind of guy who would approach the hole, take about a half-second to mull his options against the defense, then attack the weakest part of it.
So, I thought, that pretty much was Pierce, a modern-day Eric Dickerson.
I thought me and the other Temple fans were the only ones who thought that until I heard the Buffalo announcers.
"He kind of reminds you of Eric Dickerson," one of them said during the Owls' 37-13 win three weeks ago.
Then the Eastern Michigan announcer said the same thing.
"He runs like Eric Dickerson," he said.
That's all I needed to know.
We're all in agreement then.
There is a new Eric Dickerson and he runs the football for Temple University.
That has a nice ring (and a lot of truth) to it.
