Thumbs up to the Media Guide Cover

For the most updated depth chart (until the eve of the Villanova game) click on the headline above

This cover speaks to the meaning of Temple TUFF.

The date was Dec. 30, 2009 and I was in the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C.
After filing my report from the Eagle Bank Bowl for this website from the desk of my hotel room, I debated about whether or not I should watch the replay on ESPN2.
I was hurting so much that night I could not sleep, so I turned on the TV.
To a lot of people, a close loss to UCLA was acceptable.
Not to me.

What impressed me most was how loud the 20,000 Temple fans were and how that noise translated to HDTV. I knew they were loud from being there, but I didn't know how it translated.
Standing in the minus 11-degree wind chill, I heard the stadium literally shake with a LET'S GO TEM-PLE cheer after the Owls scored the second touchdown but I wondered if the ESPN audience got the message.
They did.
The announcers praised the Temple fans and the energy they brought to the chilly night.
Then, with a half-time interview of Al Golden, the term "Temple TUFF" was born.
Wearing only a dress shirt and a Cherry-colored tie, the announcer asked Golden if he was crazy.
"No, that's Temple TUFF ... T. U. F. F.," Golden said.
The term stuck and new coach Steve Addazio embraced it as the cornerstone of his program.
You can tell by the cover of the Media Guide released this week.
All I can say is that there are a bunch of TEMPLE TUFF guys on that cover at the train station in the middle of one of the toughest neighborhoods in the country.
Hopefully, the toughness will carry over onto the football field this fall.
For a complete depth chart, put your cursor directly over the thumbs up headline and click once.

Steve Addazio needs $2 million in two weeks

Addazio poses with the greatest helmet
in the history of college football.

One of the disappointing things about not being in a position to be a big-dollar donor to the Temple University football program is that I don't get a lot of the correspondence asking for money.
That might seem odd t to you but, as I've said before many times, if I had disposable income (like millions), I'd spend a good portion of it on the Temple football Owls.
Sadly, I don't so I didn't get the latest letter Steve Addazio penned a variety of big-ticket donors.

In it, he reportedly said that the uni was in the process of raising $8.5 million for expansion to the E-O and needed "$2 million in contributions by Aug. 1 to greenlight the project."
Knowing Temple fans like I do, that deadline, to be kind, seems a tad ambitious.
You don't go through 30 years of losing and post two winning seasons and expect $2 million in contributions in a month of the offseason.
Just doesn't happen. The belief system is just not in place.
Yet.
I do my part in small ways, like this blog.
I had a haircut in Center City Philadelphia last Wednesday and proudly wore my "Temple Owls Football" T-Shirt and had a few thousand people take notice of it as I walked 20 blocks from the Inquirer building to the Barber Shop.


Temple vs. PSU single-game tickets
on sale now:



Hopefully, the advertising was subliminal.

Today, I stopped at the Lehighton Walmart wearing the same shirt (washed, of course) and a guy came up to me and said, "Temple. Go Owls."
He was wearing full Phillies gear.
Lehighton is in the middle of Penn State territory (actually, anyplace north of Allentown is).
"This is the year we finally beat Penn State," I said.
"God, I hope so," the man said.
That's what it will take to raise $2 million in less than one month, not a letter from a popular new head coach.
I hope I'm wrong, but 30 years of observing this fan base tells me otherwise.
If you have an extra $2 million or even $2,000 to contribute, please contact bill.bradshaw@temple.edu and I'm sure he will be able to give you further info on this project or direct you to someone who will.
If you do have $2 million, please make the payment contingent upon Addazio keeping the TEMPLE helmet.