Khalif Herbin is about two inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than Matty Brown. Otherwise, the two games are very similar as you can see here.
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| Khalif Herbin's 2011 rushing stats |
College football has evolved in the last 20 years in a lot of ways I'm not all that excited about.
One of the ways is the BCS and the power that group of schools have over the other half of the schools who attempt to play FBS football.
It's not fair when six conferences get automatic bids into BCS games while the conferences on the outside looking in have to go without a loss even to be considered for a seat at the table.
Not fair at all.
It's particularly disconcerning that one of the few "good" rules curtailing that kind of power was overturned two years ago surrounding bowl games. Back then, in the good old days, a 6-6 BCS team could not be considered for a bowl over a 7-5 team, no matter what conference you come from. Likewise, a 7-5 team over an 8-4 team and so on and so forth.
The BCS schools, naturally, got together to overturn that rule.
Not fair again.
Recruiting has evolved pretty much the same way.
Non-BCS staffs can work their asses off to assemble a recruiting class to be proud of, only to see the BCS vultures swipe in at the last minute and snatch some of their best recruits away.
Not fair again, but get the trend here?
So I take recruiting with a very large grain (make that boulder) of salt when it comes to Temple football.
Golden spent five years here pushing that rock uphill and he did a pretty darn good job, even though Addazio flattened him with it when he "stole" Tyler Murphy away from Temple.
In those days, Addazio was pushing the rock downhill as Florida's top recruiter.
The closest I ever came to contacting a recruit came was when a top-flight one was considering Temple three years ago.
I heard he committed, but I wanted to make sure so I dashed off an email to a sports writer I knew in that state. I'll call him Doug because that's his name.
"Geez, his father was a boyhood friend of mine," Doug said, "why don't you ask him? Here's his phone number and his email."
"You sure it's OK?"
"Yeah, he's a good guy and a straight-shooter."
My colleague Doug was right and the kid did sign at Temple after all and the father turned out to be a good guy from the get-go.
Still is.
That was the closest I came and still it didn't feel right, so I stay out of the process altogether now.
I believe all fans should do likewise, even in these days of instantaneous social media.
Generally speaking, though, I'll be a little more excited to see a tailback who can hit the home run like Bernard Pierce or a pass rusher who can put a quarterback on his ass like Adrian Robinson than I would recruits at, say, other positions.
That's the kind of immediate help Temple needs now.
Temple's got maybe the best quarterback in the league in Chris Coyer and the best tailback in Matty Brown, but I see a huge dropoff behind Brown that needs to be addressed with this class. If Montrell Dobbs or Khalif Herbin can get eligible and play right away, it has been addressed. If not, another home run hitter needs to be brought into the fold.
When it comes to recruiting individual players, I'm of the firm belief that fans should be seen and not heard.
Not only does it border on NCAA violations, it's a big waste of time until Feb. 1.
That's the day when the faxes arrive with the signatures on the dotted line.
That's when I get excited.
The way the field is tilted so heavily against the non-BCS schools, the only thing you can do is root for Steve Addazio and company to bring in the best class possible.
Pushing that boulder uphill after years of rolling it downhill is a hard-enough task.
