Temple football: The road to Super Phenomenal

One last Temple look at Matt Brown. Something tells me we will see him again playing on a different day of the week.

Interested in keeping Temple Football Forever regularly updated during recruiting season? Please click over the donate button to the right.

Right about now, Temple head football coach Steve Addazio is setting the GPS for the road to Super Phenomenal.
If the Owls get there, it will depend a lot on Daz inputing the right coordinates.
At the very least, you've got to figure that Temple is going to be a better football team this year than next.
The Owls played as many as 16 freshmen starters at times this year and a couple of solid teams leave the schedule in Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

Addazio says the team is moving in a "super phenomenal direction" and you've got to hope that Daz's definition of "super phenomenal" is not just five wins next year.
What is my definition of "'super phenomenal" .. hmm, AT LEAST flipping the 4-7 into 7-5 next year. I've never seen a "regular" phenomenal 6-6 team. If "super phenomenal" is, say, 9-3 or better in a couple of years, you've got to at least go 7-5 along the way.
Still, though, there are some serious concerns to be addressed before the Owls chose the road that leads them to Super Phenomenal.
Since you've got to go with the current roster personnel, I would tweak things just a big to improve the 2013 Owls. I don't think anybody currently playing in high school is going to make the Owls super phenomenal next year.
My easy fixes:

Looks like the Army Billy Goat followed the Owls from
West Point in this great image captured by Frank Stephens.
The shadow behind John Christopher was not photo shopped.

DEFENSIVE SECONARDY _ Can this be fixed in one year? I don't know but I would give a serious look to former Rutgers' recruit Abdul Smith as a cornerback. Unlike the current starter, who was recruited by FCS Hofstra (now without a program), Smith brings solid BCS recruit potential in there and I thought he played very well in his most extended duty, the UConn game. With lock-down cornerback Anthony Robey on the other end, that's an upgrade. I would give Kevin Newsome the entire spring to become the star playmaking free safety I think he can be and he was proven to be in high school. If the first two QBs get injured, Newsome's 2012 of being third-team quarterback won't be wasted and he could fill in as emergency QB. He's too good an athlete to keep off the field, though.
DEFENSIVE LINE _ Since the Owls appear to be thin there and have plenty of talented linebackers, why not go 3-4 instead of 4-3. With a 3-4 you need to have a good nose guard and I think both Levi Brown and Hershey Walton fit that bill. I would recruit a big, mean, pass-rushing JUCO DE or at least two. Playng a 3-4 allows you to blitz a couple of  speedy linebackers on passing downs, while leaving two back to cover a screen or draw.
OFFENSIVE SCHEME _ I would ditch this run-first approach and rehire Scot Loeffler as offensive coordinator. The Owls' offense was much more smooth under Loeffler and he was even able to make Chester Stewart effective in the Maryland game by a lot of short rollout passes to the tight end and running backs on first down. That made Bernard Pierce a much more effective back. Daz needs more than a yes man as OC and Loeffler would fit that bill nicely. Without Matt Brown and Montel Harriss, the Owls can't be one-dimensional. I think Jamie Gilmore and Montrell Dobbs would thrive under a more balanced approach and the Owls have to show future quarterback recruits they are more than ready and willing to throw the football.
That's how my GPS tells me to get to Super Phenomenal. I hope Daz has the same GPS system.

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

Fast Forward Friday: What, Me Worry?

In this, the second installment of "What, Me Worry?" ,  Temple Football Forever is officially worried.
Fortunately, the first installment of worry (The Big East invitation) turned out to be unfounded.
I hope this installment turns out the same way.
Worried  about the outcome of tomorrow's game at Army.
Nothing the Owls have done in the last four weeks have shown me they can beat EVEN Army, and that would be the exclamation mark of a downward trend between this season and last season that is alarming at best.
Look at what Army's has done in recent weeks:

• Beat Boston College, a team that gave Notre Dame a decent game.
• Lost by one point to an outstanding Northern Illinois' team.
• Beat Air Force, a decent team from the West that gave Michigan a good game.

Look at what Temple has done in recent weeks: Lost by 47-17 to a Pitt team that gave Notre Dame a good game.

Even Temple grad Dick Weiss is picking against the Owls.

Lost by 45-17 to  a Louisville team that was given a good game by 0-9 Southern Mississppi and 1-9 Florida International.
Lost by 35-10 to a Rutgers' team that lost to Kent State.
Temple beat Kent State, 34-16, last year.
Temple also beat Army by 42-14 last year.
Temple also beat Ball State by 42-0 last year.
Ball State is one of the best teams in a Mid-American Conference that is outstanding this year.
Listen, I know Temple lost six starters on defense and most of the offensive line to the pros last year but it did not lose SO much talent to have this kind of a downturn in 12 months.
Except for a 16-for-20 performance in the passing game against South Florida, Temple seemed to spend the entire season in an attempt to return college football back to the days of Woody Hayes and "three-yards-in-a-cloud-of-dust" approach. Only it worked for Ohio State, not Temple.
Beating a 2-8 Army team would not be a feather in the Owls' cap, but it would certainly show signs that this program has a pulse and won't take the final game against Syracuse lying down.
Yeah, I'm worried.
I have reason to be.
I hope the football program and team prove my worries as unfounded as the administration did back in March.

Picks:
Last week: Was a good week. I went top-heavy on high-value underdogs. The only loss was the Army game and it was 7-7 in the fourth quarter. I had ARMY getting 18 at Rutgers; MIAMI (FLA.) getting 1 at Virginia (a push); VANDY getting 3 at Mississippi (Vandy won outright); GEORGIA TECH getting 9 at North Carolina (GT blew out UNC  outright); BUFFALO getting 2 1/2 at home vs. Western Michigan (Buffalo won outright). Only liked one favorite: TULSA giving 2 at Houston and Tulsa won, 41-7.
This week: Going the other way, liking three favorites and a dog.  BUFFALO giving 10 at Umass; TULSA giving 2 to visiting UCF and LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE giving 4 to visiting Western Kentucky. Like one underdog and that's SOUTH FLORIDA getting 7 at Miami.
Records:
Last week: 4-1 overall, 4-1 ATS.
Season: 17-8 overall, 15-11 ATS.

Saturday: No story, but complete analysis of the game on Sunday

Vote for Temple

The swing state in this election could be the 12,500 students living on campus.

After what seems like years watching commentary on this presidential campaign, my head is about to explode after hearing about how this state would break down and that state would break down.
One guy says Romney is going to win in a landslide.
I've heard one "comfortable" Obama win prediction.
Most guys say it's going to be close either way.
I have no idea who is going to win.
I'll find out around midnight, unless there's a state out there that still uses punch cards.
Right now, I can be certain of two things.
I'm voting for Temple football on Saturday and, sadly, I don't think there is going to be a big turnout of people voting with their feet like me.
I'm not an expert on politics, but I do consider myself an expert on Temple's fragile fan base.
I'm often able to predict the Temple crowd, almost down to a person.
For the Homecoming Game against South Florida, I predicted 26K and Temple drew 25,896.
For the Rutgers' game, I predicted 41K but I had to smack the upside of my head for not factoring in the "over-the-air" free TV hit of between 5-10K Temple takes. Facts show that when Temple is on live TV, it takes a huge hit somewhere in that general ballpark figure.

You can't call yourself a BCS team and throw the ball only 10 times in a 45-17 loss. That tells your fan base either you a) gave up or b) have Stevie Wonder calling the plays

Rutgers took care of its end of the bargain, bringing at least 15K. (To be fair, RU was 6-0 and Temple 3-2.) Temple must have brought no more than 20K, meaning at least 6K fans stayed home and watched on TV.
This week, probably more unfortunately than other weeks, the game is on TV.
Students have come out in big numbers in the past. There were 12K students for the Villanova game, but that was at night when they did not have to set their alarms after a Friday of partying. When I went to Temple, I had no problem setting my alarm for noon games so I never understood that reasoning. The Temple students could be the swing part of this election, but they came up lame against Maryland and Rutgers so I don't expect they'll suddenly, err, wake up.
I've always said this:
Temple has a hardcore fan base of 15-17K who will show up no matter what.
It also has a "softcore" fan base of between 20-30K who need a reason to believe.
Thirty years of football futility lost that secondary fan base and it's going to take more than three or four years of good football to bring it back.
Three weeks of Gosh-awful football have lost that softcore base for this season.
In a way, I can't blame them.
You can't call yourself a BCS team and throw the ball only 10 times in a 45-17 loss. That tells your fan base either you a) gave up or b) have Stevie Wonder calling the plays.
I expect the 17K to show up on Saturday, but no more.
It might be as low as 15K, which would put it in the same neighborhood as the Penn vs. Harvard Ivy  League football championship game being played at the same time across town.
I do know this: There are 270K Temple alumni, 130K living within an hour's drive of Lincoln Financial Field and 39K students, 12.5K living within a 10-minute subway ride of LFF. That's a lot of potential voters out there. I'm voting for Temple but only because I'm a Temple football junkie and I need my fix.
Someday, hopefully soon, there will be a lot more Temple people who use Saturdays in the fall to cast a vote for their school.

Scripting the first 10 plays versus Cincy

These were Temple's first five plays vs. Louisville.

My back hurts from getting patted so much after calling for the Jalen Fitzpatrick throwback pass to Chris Coyer, finally used by Temple three months into the season.
My heart aches from being non-competitive on the scoreboard for three weeks.
My head still works, though.
I called for that pass on June 4 in a post I wrote detailing what would be a dream scenario season for the Temple football Owls. That's five months and one day ago.
In order to avoid a nightmare scenario and get the Owls jump-started on a fine end to a rocky season, I would like to RESPECTFULLY suggest the following 10 scripted plays to open up the game on Saturday:

Khalif Herbin: First of his many Owl TDs.

We'll assume Temple wins the toss and Cincy kicks it through the end zone.
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.
CI46-Coyer hands off to Fitzpatrick coming around on reverse. Fitzpatrick feigns a throw downfield, handing it off to 4.29 sprinter Khalif Herbin coming from the other side on the double reverse. Field opens for Herbin, who scores a 46-yard touchdown.

Temple 7, Cincinnati 0

Cincinnati quarterback Munchie Legaux then drops back and surprisingly finds the middle of the Temple defense open and hits George Winn for a 75-yard touchdown. Temple makes a nice tackle on Winn in the end zone, though.

TFF's first scripted play of the game.

Temple 7, Cincinnati 7

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.
C30-Coyer hands it off to Harris up the middle, +1.
C29-Coyer hands off to Harris, who uses a crunching block from No. 44 (Wyatt Benson) to get outside ala South Florida and scores a 29-yard touchdown.

Temple 14, Cincinnati 7

At this point, defensive coordinator Chuck Heater can be seen mouthing "bleep it" (only he didn't say bleep) and goes to a 3-4 blitzing defensive scheme and unleashes speedy Owl linebackers Tyler Matakevitch and Nate D. Smith on pass rush responsibilities and Temple records a school-record 15 sacks. Other Owl LBs, like Blaze Caponegro and Ahkeem Smith, do a great job in run support. That allows Temple head coach Steve Addazio the comfort level to go back to his pound and ground approach and the Owls control both the clock and, with the help of Brandon McManus' punting, the field position battle and win going away.
After the team sings "T for Temple U" public address announcer Carlos Bates says the uni will be giving out free Hawaiian Cherry and White Leis to the first 10K fans who come to the Syracuse game.


Hopefully, I won't wake up from this dream to the last three weeks of nightmares.

Fast Forward Friday: Agreement in principle

Owls can go high end and have this view from Trump International ...

According to Hawaii's athletic administration, the school and Temple have reached an "agreement in principle" to play a football game on Friday, Dec. 7, 2012.
Whether it will be a day that lives in infamy or regular fame will be determined by whether or not the Owls are able to squeeze two wins out of their next four games.

... or slum it and have this view from the Maile Sky Court.

Heck, I hope the Owls now win all five but that will require a return to the offensive form they showed against USF and the defensive form they showed against UConn.
We can only hope.
Hawaii sports columnist Dave Reardon, who has a sweet job in a sweet town, noted that because the Owls will be playing the same weekend of the Honolulu Marathon, they might have trouble reserving hotel rooms.
Thanks to the magic of the internet, I found that should not be a problem.
I wanted to enter 50 rooms for three nights arriving Thursday, Dec. 6 and leaving Sunday, Dec. 9, but they only go up to 10 rooms. (This also  works for getting in Dec. 5 and leaving Dec. 8.)
At least 82 hotels had 10 rooms available as of this morning.
If the Owls chose to go first class, 10 people for 10 rooms at The Trump International will run them $12,270.
If they go low end, the Maile Sky Court will set the same amount of people back $4,270.
In between, they could go Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach ($6,470), Modern Honolulu ($10,170), Aqua Waikiki Wave ($10K even), Waikiki Marriott ($8,070) and Hilton Hawaii Village ($6,660).
That's not even counting the airfare.
Where are the Owls getting this money from?
Pure speculation here but the Big East may be hyperventaling from the prospect of having six DIRECT bowl tie-ins and only three current teams qualified to fill them.
Syracuse and Temple could make four and five.
Plus, if Temple makes a bowl it will be a much bigger payout than the money the Owls made at the Eagle Bank Bowl, the Garden State Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl.
Combined.
So a trip to Honolulu to set up that kind of payday would be chump change in comparison. (Or Trump change, if the Owls go first-class.)
Problematic that any of the other BE teams have a chance.
First, though, the Owls will have to show signs that they can come out of a six-quarter on-field funk.
They will have that chance starting tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Louisville Game Day Preview

Hawaii pulls out of talks with Temple

If the Owls get to six wins, they would likely be slotted into a sweet bowl.

Hawaii could not resolve a myriad of issues.

The road ahead just got a lot bumpier for Temple's football team on becoming eligible for a bowl for the fourth-straight season.
Hawaii pulled out of talks to give Temple a 12th game today because it could not resolve ticket issues.
It would have been tough enough to get to a bowl game with Hawaii on the schedule and now it appears to be near impossible.
Now the Owls will have to get to a bowl the old-fashioned way: By earning it.
Four games left, two against teams that have been in the top 20 most of the season, one against a Syracuse team with a premier quarterback, Ryan Nassib, and another against an Army team that beat Boston College.
 Not easy. The Owls will have to hold serve against Army, pull a mild upset against Syracuse and an even more shocking one against either Louisville or Cincinnati.
 The road ahead:

Anthony Robey: Lock-down corner

LOUISVILLE _ The game will be played at 11 a.m. Louisville time (12 in Philadelphia) and is the only home game not a sellout the rest of the way. Louisville has a tendency to play "up" or "down" to the level of competition. It was not able to blow out a horrid Southern Mississippi team in the rain (21-17) and it barely got by a bad Florida International team (28-21). Louisville and Temple both struggled to beat South Florida (Cards by 27-25, Owls by 37-28), but Cards handled a Pitt team (45-35) that handled the Owls. If the Temple secondary doesn't start knocking balls down (and maybe even intercepting one or two passes), it won't matter against a quarterback like Teddy Bridgewater. Except for lock-down sophomore corner Anthony Robey, a 4.39-40 speedster, the Owls look lost on the back line of their defense.
ARMY _ Hopefully, Matty Brown will be 100 percent for this game at West Point because he has been Army's worst nightmare the past three years. Two years ago, in a 42-35 win, Brown singlehandedly led the Owls back from a 28-7 deficit with 226 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Also in that game, the Owls did something they have not done the Steve Addazio Era: Score on a trick play, a 48-yard pass off a double-reverse thrown by Joey Jones, by far the best pass thrown by a Temple player in 2010. Last year, Brown had 159 yards rushing against Army in a 42-14 win prompting the Army fan sitting next to me to ask, "Doesn't he graduate this year?" No, I told him it was Bernard Pierce who probably is leaving. "I wish it was Brown instead," the man replied.

Chris Coyer: More effective throwing on 1st down than 3d.

CINCINNATI _ The Bearcats have shown some chinks in their armor but mostly have been outstanding. They were able to beat Delaware State, 23-7, a week after Delaware beat Delaware State, 48-14. They also allowed Fordham to stick around for most of the first half. On the other hand, they beat Pitt, 34-10, and Virginia Tech, 27-24. They also have a sophisticated passing attack, something the  Owls might have if they let Chris Coyer throw on first down instead of third down all the time. The pathway to winning is to ratchet up the passing game and head away from pound and ground. The Owls should follow the blueprint they had against USF: 16 for 20 in the passing game and, not coincidentally, 37 points. The plan to win should be 37-28, not 17-14. Planning to win 17-14 is a good way to lose, 47-17.
SYRACUSE _ If the Owls go into this game with only four wins, a crowd of about 11,000 should be rattling around Lincoln Financial Field putting a sad punctuation mark on the dreariness of the season. If, on the other hand, they go into the game with five wins and a chance to reach a bowl game with six, there should be a big crowd cheering them on and a win will depend on whether the Owls' new 3-4 defensive alignment with an abundance of athletic linebackers will be able to put enough blitzing pressure on Nassib to rattle him into a loss. (That new alignment might be wishful thinking on my part but when you can't cover anybody on the back line and you have six linebackers who can run a 4.6 40, that's the way to go IMHO.)
That's the road ahead. It won't be easy to navigate, but earning greatness or even a BCS bowl never is.

Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday

The square-peg round-hole offense

Steve Addazio's post-game press conference.


On the way into the stadium yesterday, I mentioned to a few of Wayne Hardin's ex-players that this was a game that Wayne would have loved to have formulated a plan for because of the over pursing nature of Rutgers' defense and its stout defensive front.

My worst fears about the offensive game plan were realized

In his day, there was no better offensive mind than Hardin. That wasn't me saying it. It was guys like Tom Landry, Joe Marciano (see quote at bottom of this story) and Joe Paterno.
"Wayne would pull out all the stops," I said. "He would throw on first down, throw little waggles and slants to move the sticks on first down, then hand off when the defense was on their heels. Then he might throw in a double-reverse and maybe even a pass off it. All that stuff used to work when coach Hardin called it."

New York Post picks Temple to beat RU in Friday paper.
Unfortunately, the game wasn't played in the Friday paper.

 I also expressed my concern that Steve Addazio would do just the opposite.
Too often, Addazio has tried to fit a square peg into a round hole. When you try to move bigger, faster, more experienced, defensive fronts with an inexperienced OL, you might as well be pounding your head against a brick wall.
All you get is a headache.
Why do I have the feeling that if this was 1940 and Steve Addazio was a Field Marshal in the German Army, he would have attacked the Maginot Line head-on instead of adroitly going around it like Rommel did? Rommel was going for the championship of Europe that year while Daz was only going for first place in the Big East in 2012, but the analogy stands the test of time.
Yes, Temple has to run the ball to be successful but it must convince the defense it can throw the ball first to make the run work.
The best chance to do that would be play fakes on FIRST down, not third when the defense is pinning their ears back on the quarterback.
"One of Steve's great strengths is his stubbornness," I said. "One of his great weaknesses is his stubbornness."
A look at the play chart suggests my worst fears were realized.

Temple had 10 first-down play calls in the first half and seven were Montel Harris running plays, two were Chris Coyer running plays and one was, you guessed it, another running play, a two-yard gain by Jamie Gilmore.  In the third quarter, the two initial first-down plays were a Montel Harris rush and a Chris Coyer rush.Sense a pattern here? I'm guessing the Rutgers' coaches did, too.

Temple had 10 first-down play calls in the first half and seven were Montel Harris running plays, two were Chris Coyer running plays and one was, you guessed it, another running play, a two-yard gain by Jamie Gilmore.  In the third quarter, the two initial first-down plays were a Montel Harris rush and a Chris Coyer rush.
Sense a pattern here?
 I'm guessing the Rutgers' coaches did, too.
As I have written many times, what would be the harm in opening up the game with a two-minute drill, the same two-minute drill that won the game at UConn?
What would be the harm  in taking advantage of Temple past tendencies by faking the ball right into  Montel Harris' belly ON FIRST DOWN to freeze the defense and throwing the short- and intermediate sideline routes that have a high likelihood of success? Temple does have edge athletes who can do damage, too.
What would be the harm in having Jalen Fitzpatrick, a Big 33 quarterback, throw off a reverse?
If it's not there, just have Fitzpatrick tuck it away and take off. He's damn elusive, as his short stint as a spring practice running back showed.
Yes, the defense could have played better in the third quarter but a better-designed offense might have put a lot more than 10 points on the board by then.
Just once, I'd like to see Temple putting square pegs into square holes.
Maybe Saturday at Pitt.
We can only hope.

Throwback Thursday: RU-TU memories

Bruce Arians was the youngest
coach in college football
when he called a "jailbreak"
blitz that resulted in four straight
Temple sacks of Scott Erney
to end the 1988 game in favor of TU

The headline and lede in story written by now talk-show host Mike Missanelli.

Rivalries are a beautiful thing.

I'm old enough to know when Temple and Delaware were rivals.

One of my fondest days was spent in Newark, Del., when Temple beat Delaware 31-8 in front of a still-record and still-stunned crowd of 23,619.

An even fonder day was Temple's 45-0 win in Newark on another beautiful Saturday. The hot dogs in that post-game tailgate tasted like filet mignon. Delaware went on to win the national Division II championship (which became D1AA which became FCS).

Temple even got grief from the local media for scheduling Delaware.

"I believe in scheduling Delaware...and then beating the crap out of them," was the way Wayne Hardin was quoted in response.

Bruce Arians responds to a text
message congratulatng him on
beating the Green Bay Packers.
BA is still a big Owl fan.

I loved it.

Can you imagine any coach in today's "politically correct" world saying something like that?

Then Temple dropped its rivalry with Delaware and picked up one with Rutgers.

Penn State is supposed to be a rival, but to be one, you've got to prove that you can beat one.

Temple's proven that against Rutgers numerous times, and the proximity of the schools combined with an animosity factor qualifies this as a real rivalry.

You've got to have a little animosity to stir the rivalry pot, and in Rutgers, there's some of that.

Since Delaware, Rutgers has always been Temple's biggest rival.

The rivalry was only further fueled by Rutgers' involvement in kicking out Temple from the Big East. Despite Temple winning four straight games from the Scarlet Knights, Rutgers led the charge to kick out Temple for "non-competitiveness."

"I've never lost to f-ing Rutgers, and I'm not going to end my career losing to f-ing Rutgers." Temple center Donny Klein, halftime of the 2002 game.

So there's some animosity there.

I have some fond memories, too, of some Rutgers-Temple games.

I'm sure Rutgers fans have similar memories as well of games that didn't turn out as well for Temple, but that's what rivalries are all about.

When Bruce Arians was Temple coach in 1988 and Dick Anderson was his opposite number at Rutgers, Anderson had a quarterback named Scott Erney who was killing Temple on the final drive of the game with Temple holding a 35-30 lead over an RU team that beat Penn State.

(Arians is now the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, but he has never forgotten TU, to which he remains fiercely loyal.)

Erney, running a two-minute drill against Nick Rapone's prevent defense, drove RU to the Temple 20 in the game's final minute and appeared to be leading his team to the winning touchdown.

Map and towns by N.J. Schmitty.

Arians then called a timeout, got in Rapone's face, and ordered a jailbreak blitz on the next four plays. "Jailbreak" in those days was the Temple defensive call for eight men rushing, three back in coverage.

"We go jailbreak because we feel you can't block us all," Arians said. "My philosophy, as a former quarterback, is the best pass defense is putting the QB on his ass."

The result?

Four straight Temple sacks, with a defensive lineman named Swift Burch ending the game on top of Erney at midfield. Temple won, 35-30.

"If I was going to go down, it wasn't going to be against a prevent," Arians said, holding the game ball. "I was going to go down with my guns blazing."

With the backdrop of BE explusion, In 2002, at Rutgers in the rain, the Owls trailed at halftime, 14-3.

The Owls, by then, had won three straight over Rutgers, and a senior center named Donny Klein got up at halftime and pounded his helmet on the floor and started an F-bomb tirade. By that year, Temple got kicked out of the Big East and knew Rutgers would be staying in instead.

TU and RU were both 3-1 going into this game.

"I've never lost to f-ing Rutgers, and I'm not going to end my career losing to f-ing Rutgers," Klein said, ending a 10-minute rant that included about 100 f-bombs.

Led by Klein's incredible blocking, a back named Tanardo Sharps rolled up 215 yards on 43 carries, and Temple won, 20-17, on Cap Poklemba's last-second field goal.

The Temple team then ran over to the Big East logo and danced on it, singing the school's fight song in a monsoon.

That's what I would call animosity.

That's what I would call a rivalry.

Temple really hasn't had one of those in long time.

It has now and it's back. I hope these Owls can find a Big East logo and dance on it while singing "T for Temple U" oh, about 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Maybe even Poklemba, who now leads the student cheers as a welcomed "old head", will join in and give dance lessons.

TU-RU by numbers: Who's poop now?

Steve Addazio and the Owls react after reading posts on Rutgers' rivals' site about Temple.

If you have read the Rutgers' message board over the last year or so, you get the impression that all Rutgers' fans agree on at least four things:
1) Temple can't draw more than 15K to its home games;
2) Temple is a bad addition to the Big East while Rutgers is good;
3) Temple doesn't own the Philadelphia TV market;
4) Temple never has had a winning season.

Notice this poster has Rutgers beating Temple for the same reasons he had USF beating Temple.

One fan even went as far as to post a poll on the Rutgers' website comparing the Owls to "poop."
Those beliefs are based, as Steve Addazio has stated, on "way back when days."
The metrics back up Addazio:
 1) Temple has averaged nearly 30K fans to its home games over the last three years. Temple's home game last year vs. Villanova drew 32K fans, 31K from Temple. Temple's home game against Villanova this year drew 33K, 32K from Temple. Temple drew 26K to the USF game and there might have been 100 fans from USF (would you leave Tampa for Philly in Oct.?). The Owls' home game vs. Penn State last year drew 57K fans, at least 40K wearing Cherry and White, as Addazio correctly pointed out in the Maryland post-game press conference (go to 6:00 in time stamp) last year.

Another typical "know-it-all" (err, know-nothing) Rutgers' fan.

2) Most of the schools thought Temple was a good enough addition to the Big East to invite the Owls back in on March 7, 2012, despite what Rutgers' fans think.
 3) Temple's bowl game against UCLA drew the second-highest TV rating of ANY BOWL EVER on ESPN in the Philadelphia market, second only to Penn State's 2007 appearance in the Alamo Bowl and higher than any SEC, PAC-10 or Big East matchup ever shown in the Philadelphia market.
 4) Temple is working on four straight winning seasons, while Rutgers is not.
Who is poop now?
More Temple vs. Rutgers' numbers:
Temple opponents (2012): 18-14; Rutgers' opponents (2012) 10-21. Advantage: TEMPLE.
Temple in its last 20 conference (MAC and BE) home games: 17-3; Rutgers in its last 20 conference road games: 8-12. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple in its last 20 overall conference games: 12-8; Rutgers in its last 20 overall conference games: 8-12. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple overall record last 3.5 years: 29-14; Rutgers' overall record last 3.5 years: 28-16. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple current streak of winning seasons: 3; Rutgers current streak of winning seasons: 1. Advantage: TEMPLE.
Temple wins against Rutgers in last 6 games: 4. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple at home against Rutgers in last 4 games: 3-1. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple all-time in Philadelphia against Rutgers: 9-6. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple this year in BE road games: 1-0; Rutgers this year in BE road games: 1-0. Advantage: EVEN
Temple Bowl MVPs currently on roster: 1; QB Chris Coyer Rutgers Bowl MVPs currently on roster: 1, RB Juwan Jamison. Advantage: EVEN.
 Jamison rushing yards against UConn: 110; Montel Harris rushing yards against UConn: 142. Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple coaches with national and SEC title rings (3;) Rutgers coaches with national and SEC title rings (0). Advantage: TEMPLE
Temple conference championships (1, co-MAC East, 2009); Rutgers conference championships (0). Advantage: TEMPLE.

Tomorrow: Throwback Thursday

The (not so) secret formula to beat Rutgers

The media blitz already has begun for this game with a crowd of at least 40K expected.

"We've got the best kicker in the country. That was the mindset. I was tempted to go for two (at the end of regulation) but  I thought, 'Let's go to overtime.' In overtime, we were really starting to pound the ball in there and almost scored (a touchdown) but I had enough. I was afraid we were going to have a center/quarterback exchange problem so I was going to center the ball to the left and I thought the best kicker in college football has got to win the game for Temple right now. And that was our strategy. We're lucky it worked out."_ Steve Addazio

One of the requirements for a journalism degree when I was at Temple was to take Creative Writing 101.
The basic tenant of the course was that a good story always has a solid beginning, middle and end and all three are intertwined.
So it is with Temple University's 2012 football team.
The beginning (a 41-10 beatdown of Villanova) was good. Villanova is a much better FCS team than most people give it credit for and the 5-2 Wildcats are coming off a 38-14 win at No. 3 Old Dominion in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,000. Right now, Villanova looks like it could put up about 100 on Howard and 40 on Tulane.
The Owls are 3-2 and 2-0 and that's better than most prognosticators expected.
The middle and end of the story is yet to be determined.
The middle comes EXACTLY at halftime Saturday against Rutgers and how that plays out will go a long way toward determining what happens at the end.
No one know knows what will happen on Saturday, but the formula to beating Rutgers is pretty simple:

1) Get off to a good start. The Owls have had some trouble doing that largely due to their stubbornness about establishing the run against solid fronts. Maybe they can tweak the game plan to fix that (see No. 2).

2) Get away from the offensive philosophy of pound and ground. If you thought the Penn State and UConn defenses were good at stopping the run, Rutgers is better. The Owls can move the ball on the ground against Rutgers ONLY if they set it up with some well-designed short slant passes. They can take advantage of past tendencies by play-faking to Montel Harris to freeze the defense, particularly on first down (not third). Roll out terrific running and clutch throwing quarterback Chris Coyer, the New Mexico Bowl MVP. That moves him away from the rush and gives him an option to run (if it's open) or pass (if the DBs) come up on run support.

Brandon McManus kicks the game-winner against UConn.

3) Get field goal kicker Brandon McManus, on the Lou Groza Watch list as placekicker of the year in BCS football, in field position to kick five FGs. He's got a range of 55 yards and in, so that should not be too difficult. McManus has also kicked a 70-yarder (under a rush) in practice. Hopefully, the Owls can get him closer and more often Saturday. He is also on the Ray Guy Watch List as best punter in the nation and  the Ray Guy in him will do the Lou Groza in him a favor with his normal booming punts.
"We've got the best kicker in the country," Steve Addazio said. "That was the mindset. I was tempted to go for two (at the end of regulation) but  I thought, 'Let's go to overtime.' In overtime, we were really starting to pound the ball in there and almost scored (a touchdown) but I had enough. I was afraid we were going to have a center/quarterback exchange problem so I was going to center the ball to the left and I thought the best kicker in college football has got to win the game for Temple right now. And that was our strategy. We're lucky it worked out."


4) Show some "trickeration" for a change. That has not been on any past Temple game film and would probably work now. A throwback pass from Big 33 starting QB Jalen Fitzpatrick, now the Owls' best WR, off a reverse (or double-reverse) to either Coyer, Romond Deloatch or Khalif Herbin would work against an over-pursuing defense.

That gets Temple 22 points.
Then the Temple defense just has to do about as good a job as Howard and Tulane did against RU.
Not much to ask since the Temple defense is about 100x better than Howard and Tulane.
It's as simple as 1-2-3-4 and would be a heckuva middle to a great story, setting up a terrific ending.
It might even be a classic in the non-fiction section by New Year's Day.

Tomorrow: Got a winner in town
Wednesday: TU-RU by the numbers
Thursday: Throwback Thursday (TU-RU theme)

How 'bout 'dem OWLboys?

Chris Coyer talks about the fateful two-minute drill.

Coyer absolved those sins with what I believe is the most clutch throw I've ever seen from a Temple quarterback and I've seen a lot of clutch throws

Five games into the season and there are so many theories about how this football season is going to play out for the Temple Owls.
Prior to the fifth game, I had a premonition that this was going to be a "16-13 or 21-14 game" and I wrote that in my Friday post, adding "go with the Owls."
I was wrong.
It wasn't 16-13 or 21-14.
It was 17-14.
And they needed overtime.
Close enough, and I got the right side.
We all know now how the first five games have played out, with the Owls winning more than they have lost and being unbeaten in the all-important conference games.

My reaction to UConn players walking through the halls.

Still, though, my belief turned into absolute metaphysical certainty only when I found myself sharing the same hotel as the UConn players, the Sheraton in Rock Hill, CT.
Not having a refrigerator in the room, I had to get up every two hours in the middle of the night and walk down the hall to keep my tailgate, err, stuff cold. My makeshift "refrigerator" was a trash can filled with ice that kept melting. So I needed frequent refills.
Each time I opened my door, I saw two or three UConn players wearing Huskie sweat clothes walking aimlessly through the halls.
At least it looked like aimlessly to me.
At the same time, I was being told that Temple ran plays in the parking lot at its team hotel on the other side of town in Cromwell and also received texts from that hotel saying the Owls were safely tucked in their beds and not wandering the halls.
Temple head coach Steve Addazio has that kind of stuff pretty much locked down.
I didn't know UConn head coach Paul Pasqualoni was lax on the discipline end, but the evidence seem to have suggested otherwise.
Still, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement in other areas for Temple, either.
Hey, I wasn't thrilled with the offensive game plan (I WAS thrilled with the defensive game plan) but a win is a win.

The way this team currently is constructed, the run can never set up the pass. It's not going to work. It's got to be the other way around.

Coach Wayne Hardin used to always say, "run when they expect you to pass and throw when they expect you to run." A simple but effective philosophy taken from the old shell game. He wasn't considered an offensive genius for nothing.
I can honestly say that every time Temple runs (first and second down, mostly) I expect Temple to run. The same can be said for the Temple passing downs. If a schmuck like me can figure that out, well-paid RU coach Kyle Flood has a whole lot of easy tendencies to game plan for this Saturday.

For the life of me, I can't figure how Temple ran Montel Harris (28 carries, 142 yards) wide on fourth and inches when center Sean Boyle was left uncovered and quarterback Chris Coyer could have gone 20 yards on a sneak. Coyer absolved those sins with what I believe is the most clutch throw I've ever seen from a Temple quarterback and I've seen a lot of clutch throws.
I don't know what the harm is in a play-action throw every once in a while on first down, not third, or rolling Coyer out with quick slants to Jalen Fitzpatrick and Ryan Alderman to set up success in the running game. The way this team currently is constructed, the run can never set up the pass. It's not going to work. It's got to be the other way around.
That's the kind of stuff that has to be locked down as well as bedcheck has been.
Success in the final six games depends on it.
I can say that with the same absolute metaphysical certainty I felt about Temple winning after watching those UConn guys walking the halls.
Unless I see the offensive approach change against Rutgers, no more predictions.

New York Daily News likes Owls

Yesterday's New York Daily News called it.

Temple vs. UConn
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Rentschler Field, East Hartford
TV: ESPN3 (internet only)
Radio: WPHT (1210-AM)
Line: UConn favored by 5 1/2

Weather: Tailgating should be cold, with early-morning temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s, but game time temps should be in the mid-50s. Gloves re recommended if tailgating.
Directions (from Philadelphia): North on I95 to exit 48 (I91). Take I91 North to I94 N; take exit 91 toward Silver Lane and follow the signs to Rentschler Field
ETT: At least 4 hours

What have Wayne Hardin, Bobby Wallace and Al Golden done that Steve Addazio has not?
All but Daz have beaten Connecticut as a Temple head coach.
According to sentiment from the New York Daily News (above), Steve Addazio should join that club tomorrow (1 p.m., Rentschler Field, no over-the-air television).
Yeah, we know that the NYDN picks by the 5 1/2-point spread but the consensus is so overwhelming that it's probably a safe bet that 1-4 of the panelists think Temple is going to win that game outright. For the record, The Philadelphia Inquirer's Keith Pompey picked Temple to win, as did CBS Sports. Two ESPN bloggers picked UConn to win.
And, err, why not?
If Temple and UConn were on the stock market, one would be rising and one falling.
UConn has had trouble scoring points of late and Temple is coming off a 37-point outing in a win over South Florida last week.

CBS Sports likes Temple to win the game OUTRIGHT.

Temple has a dynamic quarterback in New Mexico Bowl MVP Chris Coyer and UConn does not.
Coyer, rated near the top of the nation in passing efficiency last season, went 16 for 20 against USF last week and added 54 yards on the ground.
Temple has Boston College's all-time leading rusher, Montel Harris, an 8-time ACC Player of the Week and one-time Big East Player of the Week. Harris is coming off a 133-yard, two-touchdown performance. UConn has a nice running back in Lyle McCoombs, but he is no Montel Harris. Not even close. The UConn rushing game ranks 112 out of 120 teams nationally and is averaging 2.8 yards per carry. Without a significant inside threat, expect Owl pass rushers Sean Daniels and John Youboty to have a field day pinning their ears back and going after the quarterback.

Steve Addazio returns to the state where he won
three straight titles at Cheshire High.

Temple has shown signs of improvement on defense only lately, while UConn has been solid all season.
Temple has a great kicker and punter in Brandon McManus, while UConn has no similar weapon.
Since field position figures in any close game and this one figures to be close, give that advantage to Temple as well.
UConn has the experience edge on both sides of the ball, a large enthusiastic home crowd.
Temple has the edge at QB, RB, special teams and coaching. UConn has an aging coach and offensive coordinator, Paul Pasqualoni and George DeLeone, that the fan base is generally dissatisfied with while Temple has three key members of two SEC national championship teams (Addazio, DC Chuck Heater and OL coach Justin Frye) running the show.
It should be close, but all the New York Daily News experts can't be wrong.
Go with the Owls, something like 16-13 or 21-14.

Tomorrow: No story due to travel
Sunday: Complete analysis on the game

Throwback Thursday: The infamous call at UConn

Temple people have moved on from injustice, but the animals (below) are still having a cow.

Throwback Thursday this week was supposed to be about Scott Andrien's remarkable catch that beat Syracuse in 1982, but the gentleman I met in the parking lot on Saturday who promised to send me photos of that play either forgot to do so or forgot that he promised me.
No matter.

Fans driving by a busy intersection this week saw this.

We'll save that throwback for Syracuse week.
We'll keep the throwback theme intact for UConn and that's the infamous game of 2007, when the Owls beat UConn, 23-22 (extra point not even counted), as Bruce Francis clearly caught a tipped ball by Adam DiMichele.
Great play, though. I love passes off reverses and I hope to see former Big 33 quarterback Jalen Fitzpatrick, now the Owls' top receiver, throw one some game.
Why Dyonne Crudup was throwing to DiMichele and not the sure-handed Francis (who never juggled a ball once in his four-year career at Temple) is a story for another day, but my guess is that most Temple fans have moved on from that miscarriage of justice.
So have I, even though I was sitting on the side of the field where I could clearly see the ball stick to his one hand like crazy glue and the foot come down about 10 inches inside the back line.
I used to have a cow about it, but now only cows are having a cow.

Bruce Francis was so sure he caught it, he immediately called
for the protest flag to be thrown by Al Golden.

The photo above and to the right, taken in suburban Philadelphia this week (we won't say where to keep the cownappers away), shows Larry Holstein (yes, that's the cow's name) still protesting the call of Big East replay official Jack Kramer, who might as well have been Kramer from Seinfeld because that call was a joke.
Unlike Larry, though, the day I moved on was when Temple beat UConn by two touchdowns. Both teams finished 8-4 that year and UConn went to the Fiesta Bowl while Temple stayed home.
Those days of an 8-4 Temple team staying home are over, thanks to a BCS conference affiliation.
Still, the Big East has not been immune to calls that it protects its teams against other conferences (although I'm waiting for that to benefit Temple some day).
At Syracuse last year, a Big East crew ruled a clearly made extra point by Toledo missed and 'Cuse went on to win the game in overtime.
I've always written that non-conference games should have crews from neutral conferences. The Penn State vs. Temple game, for example, should have had a field crew from the Sun Belt and a replay official from the PAC-12. Instead, there was a field crew from the Big 10 and a replay crew from the Big East.
Take the competing conferences crews away and all of the conspiracy theorists will be restricted to talking about Freemasons, the Kennedy assassination Temple home attendance figures.
Hopefully, the NCAA will wise up and do that in the future.
Now, though, things should be decided on the field since Temple is back in the BE.
Hopefully, this game won't come down to a controversial call either way.
Or I'll have a cow.

Tomorrow: Gameday preview 24 hours early

Robert Burton Week at UConn

This was the talk of national radio and ESPN TV on Jan. 26, 2011.

Game time is 1 p.m. Saturday.

In the crowd of about 35,000 fans at the Temple vs. UConn game on Saturday, there will be one person who can't lose.
His name is Robert Burton.
You won't see them, though, unless you have a pretty good set of binoculars that can peer through some stained glass or the ESPN3 telecast catches a glimpse of him because Burton will be in one of those fancy heated club boxes.

Our prediction on this game, published on June 4 in this blog (before
Montel Harris got here).

UConn or Temple is going to lose, that's a given, but Burton will be a winner either way.
That's because if UConn wins, Burton will get to see his favorite school win an important college football game at Homecoming.
If UConn loses, he'll get to say "I told you so" and probably will be trying to suppress a smug grin behind the stained glass. Largely because Hathaway left, Burton has since patched up his well-publicized differences with UConn.
Burton was the guy who donated $3 million for his name to be given to the Robert Burton Football Complex, then wanted it back after UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway hired Paul Pasqualoni instead of Steve Addazio.

The Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Club parking lot, at
Silver Lane and Simmons Road, is where visitors usually tailigate at UConn
but the official TU alumni tailgate will be at the Gray Lot across the street.

Now Addazio is at Temple and Pasqualoni is at UConn.
That's why this week is Robert Burton Week and Saturday is unofficially Robert Burton Day at Rentschler Field.
It didn't matter that Temple already hired Daz in the days before Randy Edsall resigned, Burton wanted UConn to go after him anyway.
I've got to give Hathaway a lot of credit for showing some ethics in picking the best available person and not raiding a fellow institution of hiring learning's most recent hire.
At the same time, it looks like Temple made the better hire in that the Owls' stock appears rising while the Huskies seem be going in the opposite direction.
The Owls can further solidify that general consensus with a solid win on Saturday.
In all games, there are winners and losers.
In this one, on this day, at least there is one person who could be both.

Rentschler Field forecast for Saturday.