The bright side: Coach Daz not leaving

Boston College AD tries to sell Daz to President
by: papreps
Boston College AD tries to sell Daz to school president.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think Daz would concoct a harebrained, one-dimensional, offensive scheme that would lead to so many three-and-outs and put Temple's defense in an impossible position. The question then becomes, "Do you see him as a reasonable person open to change or a stubborn former offensive lineman who wants to run the ball all the time?"

EDITOR'S NOTE: I wrote this story on Sunday, not believing any university was stupid enough to hire a 4-7 coach. I will leave it here as a testament to the stupidity of some college administrators. Hopefully, Bill Bradshaw is on the phone with San Jose State's Mike MacIntyre right now. More on that to come. MacIntrye is available, loves Temple, a former Temple assistant, and probably did the best job of any head coach in FBS football last year. Good riddance, Daz.  Don't let the door hit you in the ass.

On the way up the steps, maybe for the final time ever, from season seats that I have held for nearly 10 years at Lincoln Financial Field, someone said:
"Don't look so down, Mike. Look at the bright side."
He didn't tell me what the bright side of a 4-7 season was, so I had to figure that out for myself.
I walked 22 rows up, made the left into the men's room, washed my hands before leaving, made a left, walked down 34 steps and across Lot K to my car, all the while thinking what could possibly be the bright side to a season I thought would be no worse than 6-5.
Then it hit me just as I was about to stick the key in the door of my car (the remote doesn't work).
This will be the first year as a Temple fan in the last five we won't have to hear the endless speculation about an Owl coach leaving for a possible higher-paying job.
"That has to be the bright side he was talking about," I thought.
Since that kind of off-season speculation has bugged me to no end, I guess not having to worry about that is a bright side.
I'm not so sure it's bright at all. Let's face it. Al Golden recruited five straight No. 1 MAC classes, as ranked by both Scout.com and Rivals.com YET, with the same inherited talent, Daz under-performed half the current MAC coaches. That leads to only two possible conclusions: Daz's 1901 offense doesn't fly in 2012 or both Scout.com and Rivals.com talent analysis was way off.
My eyeball and smell test leads me to think the former, not the latter.

Yes, Addazio's name will come up in some stories by writers who like to throw names against the wall and hope it sticks. Let's face it, though. Coach is going nowhere. Nor should he.
The latest "rumor" has him going to Boston College. I've addressed that in a feature film short at the top of this post. I'm not sure if I should submit the script to Hollywood as Science Fiction, Comedy or Tragic Comedy.
Steve Addazio was a good coach in 2011. I don't think he was a good coach in 2012, largely because  my projections for 2012 were 6-6 (8-3 if everything broke right). Never in my wildest dreams did I think Daz would concoct a harebrained, one-dimensional, offensive scheme that would lead to so many three-and-outs and put Temple's defense in an impossible position. The question then becomes, "Do you see him as a reasonable person open to change or a stubborn former offensive lineman who wants to run the ball all the time?"

The answer to that question holds the key to open the door of a possible 9-3 season next year or keep it bolted shut.

Then I got something in the email box this morning that brightened my day from loyal TFF reader Steve Sipe (due to a coding problem, you can't read that he has the Owls beating Fordham 54-0 and Idaho 45-0 and losing to ND, 34-21). It follows:

Mike, I always love reading your blog. I tried to set up my own dedicated to the Big East and expansion. I did not realize how tough it is to develop a web site. Compliments to you on TFF. One of your articles focused those areas the Owls need to improve to be successful in 2013. I have been trained to use analysis to compare and evaluate data points to estimate future results. 

If your suggestions are followed, I believe the following results will be achieved:   

         OUT OF CONFERENCE (KNOWN)          

08/31      at Notre Dame             L      34 - 21

09/14      Fordham                       W     54 - 0

09/28       at Idaho 45 - 0

10/19       Army                             W     34 - 13

                IN CONFERENCE, IN DIVISION (KNOWN)

Boise State                    L       17 - 14


Houston                         W       34 - 17

Memphis                        W       42 - 10

San Diego State           W       21 - 17

SMU                                W       28 - 13

IN CONFERENCE (ESTIMATE)

Connecticut                    W      24 - 17

Rutgers                            L       17 -16

USF                                  W      35 - 10

I would count a 9 - 3 season and a bowl bid Phenomenal! Most of the western schools do not emphasize defense in the MWC. With varied play calling, the Owls could exploit this weakness. 

On the other side, our defense needed 2 fixes: a better pass rush, and mature secondaries knowing which man to cover. Since a lot of this work was finished by the end of the 2012 season, defense looks strong. 

Quarterback is an issue. I will try to reach out to PJ Walker and welcome him to Temple. I do not believe PJ should be out of the picture. Let Juice Grainger lead our team with PJ as his backup. Convert Neiss into a reverse back that can pass if he can not make to corner to drive downtown. With mature wide receivers, Chris could have been a success. However, losing both wide receivers and tight ends last year made Chris look weak when the Owls went from MAC to Big East. Nevertheless Chris is our 2nd best rusher. Why not give the Owls a Penn State type Zwinack running back. Chris can blow holes and hide fakes as a running back. When you are 3RD and 4, do you want Juice running a draw or handing off to Chris to trample a linebacker. The thought of Chris lowering his 240, 6'3" body into our opponents smells like a 1ST down every time. 

Steve Sipe

I hope you are right, Steve. If so, I will hop and skip out of the stadium after the last game next year and the bright side this year will be a bright spot next one.

You think you've got troubles?

Every time I start to feel sorry for myself that I still haven't found a job in the newspaper business after cutbacks cost me mine and the money is about to run out (there still is a newspaper business, right?), I see something that I have to shake my head about and thank God for my blessings.
Lately, it was a story about a poor military guy who lost both legs in Afghanistan or Iraq and is keeping on keeping on.
I plan to do the same, although the next step might be as a greeter at Wal-Mart. I'll keep my hand in writing here.
That brings me to fandom.
A couple of weeks ago, I was feeling sorry because my university, a school I said was going to shock the Big East world a couple of months ago, was getting pasted for the fourth straight time by a Big East team.
It rocked my world, but it could be worse.
I could be a Boston College fan.
I found this while searching a Boston College fan site the other day:

This from a Boston College fan lamenting a bad day in a bad season.

Montel Harris was trending on Yahoo late Saturday afternoon.
It was the second item right below General Patraeus.
That's good news for Temple, bad news for Boston College.
While Temple is 4-6 with two more Big East wins than many of the pundits thought possible, Boston College is a two-win team looking for a new head coach.
The Eagles have a great on-campus stadium, but a terrible product and the guy who they kicked off the team is doing pretty well at Temple.
Yes, it could be worse.
In life and in fandom.

Wednesday: A tribute to the seniors

Disconnect between vision and reality

Daz promises this will get fixed, but he doesn't promise  it will get fixed by Saturday.

Bottom four teams in passing in FBS football.
Would more play-action passes on first down lift the Owls
out of that morass? Couldn't hurt.

Watch Steve Addazio's post-game press conferences the last four weeks and there appears to be, at least in my mind, a disconnect between vision and reality.
The reality is that Temple is a non-competitive football team right now as judged by the most objective meter: The scoreboard.
Addazio wasn't positively giddy in the post-game, but his positive vision based on these abominably bad outcomes is kind of an odd take.
This team hasn't been a good football team since after the UConn game and I think it's gotten a lot worse.
So much worse that I'm very worried about it being able to beat an Army team that got blown out by Stony Brook.
That's right. Stony Freaking Brook.
Army has gotten much better since Stony Brook, beating Boston College and blowing out a decent Air Force team.
Temple, on the other hand, looks lost out there and has nowhere near the swag it had against UConn and USF.

Temple fans have not had to endure a stretch like this since 2006.

Meanwhile, all over the country, teams with similar or worse talent than Temple are doing impressive things. Louisiana-Lafayette lost at Florida, 27-20, on a blocked punt with 36 seconds left. Ball State won at Toledo and also owns wins over Big East and Big 10 teams. Toledo beat the same Cincy team the Owls got blown out by on Saturday. Kent State beat Rutgers. Ohio beat Penn State.
If those teams can do great things, why can't Temple even stay in a game anymore?
After four straight weeks of devastating losses, I don't know if the Owls can get their swag back.
Young teams should be getting better, not worse, as the season rolls along but that hasn't happened here.
I know Temple's problems run much deeper than play-calling, but it appears to me that the Owls' coaches have been their own worst enemies in the play-calling department. Better play-calling, at least in my view, would have put momentum-changing early points on the scoreboard Saturday and a lot of other Saturdays. That problem dwarfs any other one the Owls might have.
Here are the Owls' first three plays against Cincy:

Run, Run, Run.
Yeah, I know it's a broken record. It's also a terribly unbalanced offense. No other BCS, FBS or FCS team operates an offense this way.
Even though I don't think Chris Coyer was tackled by Munchie Legaux (he's the Cincy backup quarterback), I've been writing all year until I'm blue in the face that this team is not equipped for that style of ball. I've been blue in the face and everywhere else for the last four weeks.

Here were my suggested first three plays against Cincy, published in a post last Monday:


TU25-Chris Coyer uses a play-action fake to Montel Harris to freeze the defense and rolls out and hits Ryan Alderman for a 6-yard gain near the sideline.
TU31-Coyer drops back to pass, then shovels it forward to Harris for an 8-yard gain.
TU39-Coyer runs right on a read option with Harris trailing. When the pitch guy goes for Harris, Coyer takes it upfield for +14, running out of bounds for ball security purposes.


First down has got to, at least SOMETIMES, be a play-action fake to Harris to freeze the defense and get a big gain in the passing game downfield. Then go back to the run. Instead,  Temple starts the game in this familiar pattern and it's no surprise that it failed.

Here are Temple's next three plays when it got the ball back:

Run, run, pass.
Incredible.
Talk about a buzzkill.
When you don't throw the ball on first and second down, you get forced to throw it on third and then everybody in the stadium (and especially the defense) knows what you are going  to do. Is it any wonder Temple quarterbacks don't get time to throw the ball?
Here were my suggested second three plays against Cincy:


TU25-Coyer drops back and hands off to Harris on the wraparound draw, good for +15
TU40-Coyer rolls out and finds Harris over the middle of the field, +10.
50-Coyer rolls out and DBs come up on run support so he floats the ball over DBs head to Fitzpatrick, who gains 20.

Run, Run, Run.Yeah, I know it's a broken record. It's also a terribly unbalanced offense. No other BCS, FBS or FCS team operates an offense this way

I think this package is a little more imaginative and a little harder to defend than Daz's or Ryan Day's (whoever was responsible). These are easy, confidence-building throws made away from a rush designed to get the QB in a rhythm.
But, as John Belushi might say, noooooooo, Temple's got to stay in a stuck pattern of run, run, run or run, run, pass.
Geez.
Meanwhile, after the game Addazio said he's confident this thing will turn around.
The quickest way to do that is not to appeal to the players' pride, but to be more creative in the offensive approach.
This team can only succeed if it spreads the ball around and makes teams defend the entire field.
That disconnect between vision and reality is almost as disturbing as the blowout losses have been but not nearly as hard to take as the unbelievably ill-conceived and stubborn play-calling week after week.

Newsome: 'I'm a Temple Owl until the day I die'

"When I was at Penn State ....  I would always look at when we played Temple. They would always get close to us, and I used to see just the fight in these guys, knowing they were the underdogs, and they kept fighting with the big dogs. I thought that was very impressive, really impressive, with their fight. And that was a big deal as to why I came here." _ Kevin Newsome

Kevin Newsome spoke to the media for the first time after practice on Tuesday and I have to say that I was very impressed. Not only did Newsome come up with the quote of the summer camp "I'm a Temple Owl until the day I die" he opened the door for the possibility of playing on defense and special teams to help the Owls. Go to the 1:50 mark on the time stamp for the exact quote.
Another great quote was this one:


"When I was at Penn State ....  I would always look at when we played Temple. They would always get close to us, and I used to see just the fight in these guys, knowing they were the underdogs, and they kept fighting with the big dogs. I thought that was very impressive, really impressive, with their fight. And that was a big deal as to why I came here."
I always thought Newsome would make a great starting OLB or  safety for the Owls and I still think that.
Newsome was 240 pounds three months ago and has now slimmed down to 215, which would probably make him a better safety candidate than a linebacker.

Whether head coach Steve Addazio or defensive coordinator Chuck Heater think that is more important.
Everything I've been hearing from Addazio so far is that Newsome is in a battle with Juice Granger for the No. 2 quarterback spot. If Addazio thinks it is more important to have three athletic and solid QBs, then Newsome will remain in the QB rotation.
Newsome was Darryl Clark's backup at Penn State for the entire 2009 season.
Whatever Daz says about this, I agree with but seeing Newsome holding the clipboard as No. 3 QB when he can be a playmaker on defense right away would be frustrating from my standpoint as a fan and maybe Kevin's as a player.
There's no law against Newsome playing defense for the Owls this year and moving back to the other side of the ball if needed. Brian Broomell started on defense as a true freshman at safety, then moved over to quarterback by the time he was a senior and led the nation in passing efficiency.

Temple's Fan Fest is Wednesday
(8/22) from 5-7
at Xfinity Live (outside section).
It's free but $15 to park due to
Phillies game that night.

I don't think Kevin would have brought up defense or special teams if he wasn't being considered for one or both.
We'll find out in less than two weeks.

Tomorrow: 2011 ACC Preseason Player of Year Montel Harris