Friday, December 7, 2012

Dec. 7: A day that would have lived in TU infamy

In retrospect, Temple would have said Aloha to $500K if Hawaii hadn't backed out of a verbal agreement.

Steve Addazio leaving for BC is the best thing
that ever happened for P.J. Walker.
Seventy-one years ago today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Dec. 7 a day that would live in infamy.
He wasn't talking Temple football because that day came a couple of months earlier for the Owls: Their last win over Penn State.
Yet, just from what happened this week, it might have applied to the current-day Owls, too.
Tonight, around midnight Philadelphia time, Temple was scheduled to play Hawaii in what would have been the Owls' 12th game of the season. Hawaii backed out of a verbal agreement. In retrospect, that decision saved the Owls about a half-million dollars.
Knowing what you now know about Steve Addazio, how many assistants would have been around to coach this Temple team against Hawaii?
One? Two? Zero?
Remember, this is the same Addazio who said "don't be passing through" and to "make Temple a destination school" and that Temple was his "dream job."
He said all those things about Boston College this week. What a phony.
Five years (or less) from now, he'll be saying the same thing about UConn if he doesn't get fired first. My money is on the firing.
Already, Ryan Day is in Boston recruiting for Addazio.
So is Justin Frye.
Some Temple holdovers, like Chuck Heater, are holding down the fort at the E-O in this most important recruiting weekend of the year. I've met Chuck and talked to him. I think he's professional enough to expouse the benefits of staying at Temple to these recruits. The same goes for recruiting coordinator Tyree Foreman, who was instrumental in getting quarterback P.J. Walker to commit to Temple.
To me, Addazio leaving for Boston College is the best thing to even happen to P.J. Walker. Addazio is probably the only dinosaur left among college football head coaches who run a 1901 offense (run, run, sack, punt) in 2012.
Great to see this tweet yesterday from one of TU's  top-rated  recruits.

Chances are, the next Temple football head coach, whether he's Mike MacIntrye, Dave Clawson, Matt Rhule or Mario Cristobal or someone else believe in chucking the football downfield and P.J. Walker will thrive in that system.
P.J. Walker and Temple are perfect together. The Owls lose all four quarterbacks on their depth chart after next year and P.J. would immediately slot into the starting job in 2014. In fact, he might see a lot of playing time in 2013.
So he's better off staying and helping the new coach bring Temple a Big East championship soon.
So are the rest of the recruits.
Yesterday, a great pass-rusher, Tyler Haddock-Jones, tweeted that "of course" he was going to TU. Lord knows, Tyler and incoming NT Averee Robinson can make an impact along the defensive line and the Owls need immediate help there.
The same things Addazio said that made these guys commit to Temple are true today.
Just because Temple is no longer his dream home doesn't mean that applies to the recruits who committed to a great school, not a flawed man.

Tomorrow: How the coaching dominoes affect the Temple field