The highs and lows of Temple fans

Temple fans came disguised as empty seats last week.
Photo by Matt Breen

Almost two years to the day after giving me my proudest moment as a Temple fan, my fellow Temple fans gave me a not-so-proud moment a week ago tonight.
Not unexpected, just not proud.
First, the good part.
Eagle Bank Bowl, Dec. 29, 2009. Of the 23,000 fans in attendance on a night where wind-chills reached sub-zero temperatures, 20,000 were Temple fans and they were all loud and proud.
Just before Matty Brown scored Temple's second touchdown of the evening, a familiar "Let's Go TEM-PLE!" chant started from my section (lower level, 50-yard-line) at RFK Stadium.
It got louder.
"Let's Go TEM-PLE!"
Then, finally, a rhythmic "LET'S GO TEM-PLE" literally shook RFK from its rickety foundation.
We all looked around.
The lower deck, the upper deck, both sides of the field, everyone was on their feet screaming "Let's Go TEM-PLE!" from the top of their lungs.
I think the fans willed Matty into the end zone.

It was an imperfect storm that led to the fan apathy. First off, you can't lose to a gosh-awful team like Bowling Green and let the starting quarterback remain in that game after 135 straight three-and-outs.

I said to my friend, Nick, "buddy, take this in. We may never see something like this again at a Temple game."
Sadly, we never have.
Sure, there have been other great moments, like when 40K Temple fans sounded like 100K fans to Penn State's 17K fans, who sounded like 1K fans, this season.
They needed to be rewarded with a victory.
At this year's Villanova game and Penn State game, the atmosphere was, as Steve Addazio said, electric.
If you are going to be considered for a BCS Conference, that electricity has to stay on all the time.
At the Miami game, the atmosphere was befitting an electrocution.
It's not like I didn't see this coming from, oh, about 400 miles away.
It was an imperfect storm that led to the fan apathy.
First off, you can't lose to a gosh-awful team like Bowling Green and let the starting quarterback remain in that game after 135 straight three-and-outs. There's got to be more of a sense of urgency to move the ball against a defense ranked No. 10 in a 13-team league.

Perfect football weather forecast for Saturday (1 p.m.)

Then, you can't lose to an Ohio team that LOST to teams YOU beat by scores of 42-0 and 34-0.
On the heels of both of those laid eggs, you can't have a home game on TV to give a lazy and fragile fan base an excuse to be lazy and fragile.
All of those factors led to a poor showing at the gate.
Army is an attractive opponent and hopefully the win over Miami has restored some of the fans shaken belief. Keeping the game off TV is just as important.
This is a bowl game for Temple, as is next week's game versus Kent State because, without wins in both, there will be no bowl.
I said to one of my tailgating buddies a couple of hours before the Miami game: "This is bad. I don't expect more than 15,000."
When at least half of my other tailgating buddies, people who show up for every game that's not on TV, are missing, you know it's bad.
I expect a good and representative Temple crowd on Saturday, something between 21-27K.
I'm hoping that nobody sits on their hands when someone starts a "Let's Go TEM-PLE" cheer.
We need to get that electricity turned on again.
Where's that damn switch?

Survive and advance time for Owls

They do allow you to give the ball to the fullback and Wyatt Benson can run.


Survive and advance.
You can toss out all the scenarios you want about Temple having a chance at winning the MAC East if so-and-so beats such-and-such but, simply put, we've reached the "survive and advance" part of the season for Temple.
Win and live another day.

"Please tell Daz to stop using you as a fullback. Toss left, toss right.
Screen passes. Sweeps. That's The Franchise I know."

Photo by Ryan Porter

Lose and there will be no postseason, even though there will be another game to play.
Getting to a bowl game seems possible, even probable, for Temple should the Owls go 8-4 again.
You can forget about a bowl with a 7-5 Temple team.
Lose to Army and it's over.
Yeah, you can say lose to Army and beat Kent and Ohio loses to Miami (and Buffalo finishes ahead of Bowling Green) and the Owls could win the MAC East.
That's way too many variables to leave in other folks' hands.
That's why I'm hoping that Temple goes balls out in practice this week for Army.
Prepare for that option, which I have full confidence Chuck Heater is doing right now.

Joe Jones: Reverses, throwback passes.

Work on getting Bernard Pierce up to speed (and by speed we mean tweaking the offensive package so that he goes right and left and not up the middle).
If you want to run up the middle, hand the ball off to the fullback.
Get Chris Coyer more comfortable in his role, which means to stick the ball into Bernard Pierce's belly and quickly pull it out and make a pass downfield to an open Temple Owl.
Work on the reverses with Joey Jones and throw in a trick play (a throwback pass from Jones to Coyer) or two (a halfback pass by Bernard Pierce). Heck, both Jones and Pierce can throw the ball (they both have a touchdown pass in their careers).
Army knows Jones can throw the ball. His touchdown pass, a nice tight spiral at Army, was Temple's best forward pass last season.
Maybe even fullback Wyatt Benson will get the ball once or twice a game. As good a blocker as he is (and he's a terrific one), he was a stud running back in high school at Haverford School.
Army hasn't seen that part of his game on film yet.
When it is survive and advance, you pull out all of the stops.
Hopefully, that's what practice will be all about this week.

Welcome

To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, when a man is tired of modern football, he is tired of life. Vintage football, however, is different.

We've clambered into The Football Attic to relive all that was good about the beautiful game and invite you to join us.

Long before big business and unbridled commercialism took over football, there was much to enjoy about our favourite sport. Whether it was collecting Panini stickers, playing Subbuteo or watching The Big Match on a Sunday afternoon, you couldn't fail to feel a tingle of excitement as the world of football took you on a sensory joy ride that you'd never forget.

And that's why we're here. There's much to remember and so much time to remember it, so join us as we dust off the memories of a lifetime up in The Football Attic.

Time for watching JJ today

If you were hit by JJ, you'd go play baseball, too.

Heck, my favorite college football player is Bernard Pierce.
Didn't get to see him on Wednesday night (except for yelling encouragement from the sidelines).
Damn.
My favorite pro player is DeSean Jackson.
Won't get to see him today (suspended for missing a team meeting).
Damn.
But my two favorite teams are the Temple football Owls and the Philadelphia football Eagles (in that order) and I will get to mix both of those starting today (1 p.m., Fox).
That's because former Temple Owl Jaiquawn Jarrett gets his first pro start.
Go JJ.
Go Birds.
(Both Eagles and Owls.)
Then I'll go work off the Applebee's Oriental Chicken salad I'm planning to eat while watching the game.

Teams to root for today: UB, SMU, Rutgers

Even in this age of instant communication, it's going to be hard to find the score of the Buffalo at Eastern Michigan game.
First off, it's never on KYW-AM (they only give top 10 scores) and it's not on over the air TV (even pay cable) anywhere.
But it is on the internet and, for Temple fans, provides a rooting element.
All these teams would do Temple a big favor by winning:

Hooter is more endearing.

BUFFALO at Eastern Michigan (1 p.m., MAC all-access) _ If the Bulls finish ahead of Bowling Green in the standings, they provide a positive backup tie-breaker for Temple should it finish in a three-way tie with Miami and Ohio. Eastern Michigan is a three-point favorite. The game is on internet only. Buffalo's got a chance. It beat Ohio.

She'd be perfect for me
if she was 20 years older
and I had $1 million

Navy at SMU (3:30, FSN) _ Southern Methodist football players wrote a letter to the school newspapers complaining about the lack of enthusiasm by their own fans in a win over TCU. They must be looking at the coeds and not on the field of play. Navy has to win all three of its remaining games (at SMU, at San Jose State and vs. Army) to qualify for a bowl Temple could be looking at attending (D.C., likely) and SMU is the toughest of the three. SMU is a seven-point favorite.

Cos and Hall and Oates are more famous.

RUTGERS vs. Army (3:30, Yankee Stadium, CBS College Sports) _ Same deal with Navy as Army has to win all three of its remaining games to qualify for a bowl. If Temple LOSES to Army, it still has a chance to qualify for a final bowl slot if Army loses today. Hopefully, both Rutgers and ESPECIALLY Temple beats Army. The Black Knights of the Hudson have proven to be a tough out on occasion this year, losing at Miami (Ohio) by only a touchdown and beating Northwestern, 21-14. Northwestern, you'll recall, won AT Nebraska last week. Rutgers is an eight-point favorite.

Bradley, Addazio and the MAC Roundtable

In the interview process, dynamo (left) always beats wet noodle.

One of the unexpected perks of blogging about Temple football is the people who reach out to me and try to fill in some questions that I have to help me keep the general TU football community relatively well-informed.
Some of them are well-connected people.
Around Dec. 23d, I was scratching my head when the name Steve Addazio came up as the guy who got the Temple head coaching job. All I heard for a week was Tom Bradley was the leading candidate and then with about five furlongs left, Addazio comes charging at the finish line and nips Bradley at the tape.

Graphic by Tim Riordan (not the ex-TU QB)

Or so I thought.
I, quite frankly, wasn't excited about either one and I never even heard of Addazio.
Then I got an email from someone who was in the room when both Addazio and Bradley were interviewed.
"Mike, it wasn't even close," the man wrote. "Bradley came in and had the personality of a wet noodle and this guy [Addazio] was a dynamo. It was an easy choice."
I watched the "wet noodle" Thursday in his first press conference as a head coach at Penn State and I understood just exactly how the Temple search committee felt.
All I could imagine was Lew Katz or somebody asking him what his "expectations" are for the Temple football program and Bradley saying "the expectations are the expectations" which he seemed to be saying like 100 times on Thursday.
No thanks, Tom.
Thanks for coming to Philadelphia and don't let the door hit you in the backside on the way out.
I need more specificity than that.
I got it with Addazio and I'm pretty confident Temple made the right choice.
Since the penultimate day before Christmas, Addazio has been that dynamo.
Knowing what I know now, I'm glad to have a guy with that kind of personality leading my team. Also knowing what Bradley probably has known for 15 years, I don't want anybody like that near my team.
This week, I'm hosting the MAC Blogger Roundtable and just like Addazio, both Tim Riordan (Buffalo) and B.J. Fischer (Bowling Green) are blogging dynamos and wasted little time in answering the questions.
Riordan is always the first across the finish line and his answers are here.
Fischer came in a couple of hours behind. One of the more interesting things in B.J.'s blog is that a Bowling Green alumn gave $10 million to athletics. I thought only Karl Smith had that kind of money to give Bowling Green.
I'll add the rest after this paragraph when the ballots are counted:
Let's Go Rockets

Temple becomes bowl eligible

Any Eagle fan can tell you what the first words out of a famous Temple football father's mouth will be after a win.
Andy Reid will clear his throat, cough a couple of times, and say:
"First off, any win in the National Football League is a good win."

Deon Miller makes nice catch for touchdown.

That's pretty much how I feel about the Mid-American Conference these days.
Any win in the MAC is a good win and Temple's 24-21 bowl-eligible-qualifying win over gritty Miami (Ohio) was a good way to cap one of the most beautiful November days and nights, weather-wise, I can ever remember in my nearly half-century of living in Philadelphia.
The game was not as perfect, mind you, but pretty much what I expected.
Pretty much what all the Temple fans I talked to in the pre-game tailgate expected, too.
"Twelve-and-a-half points is way too high," I said to pretty much everyone.
"Yeah," pretty much everyone replied.
I thought the defense recaptured a little bit of the swagger it lost in the last couple of weeks (heck, it was hard to blame the defense for the Bowling Green loss) and the offense did just enough.
Game-plan wise, I would have liked to seen more first down play-action passes and not being forced into a situation where you HAVE to pass on third down all the time. I don't think Temple mixed it up particularly well on offense. Then again, compared to last year's offensive game plan, it was pure genius.

Dream remains alive
The ONLY scenario Temple can win the MAC East:
(Updated 11:35 a.m., 11/11/11)
Temple wins over Kent
Ohio loses to Miami (assuming it beats BGSU)
(TU, Miami and Ohio all tied
with 5-3 records but TU wins
on basis of second criteria)
Note: If Ohio loses to BGSU but not Miami, Ohio wins tie-breaker
source: MAC League Offices

There were a couple of silly penalties, one a late hit out of bounds and one an offsides, but those things can be fixed in the next week or so of practice.
I was heartened to hear that people behind me were getting text messages from folks watching at home that their enjoyment of watching the Temple game was curtailed because ESPN cut in for a Joe Paterno press conference.
Good.
There is no reason to be living within an hour's drive of the stadium for a Temple home game and watch on TV. If my friends from Palmerton sitting behind me can get by one night of the year on four hours worth of sleep, then so can the Philadelphia couch potatoes who give Temple a bad fan reputation by staying home. I hope they missed a lot of exciting plays because I saw them all. I know Temple has a "softcore" fan base who stay at home and watch every time the Owls are on local TV (ratings indicate it), but that part of the fan base does the team and school irreparable harm by doing so. You can't talk about being in a BCS conference and not travel to a home game.
End of rant.
From a personal standpoint, a highlight of mine was finally getting to meet my favorite player's Mom.
I have three favorite players from the current era, Adrian Robinson, Adam DiMichele and Bernard Pierce, but Pierce is The Franchise in my mind and therefore my favorite. Heck, speaking as someone who saw Paul Palmer play every game, he's flat-out better than Boo-Boo and that's the highest compliment I can ever give anyone. He's faster than Paul Palmer, has better moves and vision in the open field and can deliver more punishment to tacklers. The only facet of Paul's game that was better was his durability.
So Pierce is my favorite Temple player and he has been since his freshman year.
Tammy is Bernard Pierce's mom and while it was sad to see BP not playing (he should be back against Army), it was good to see the entire Pierce family just as wrapped up in the Owls as they would be if he was out there.
Hopefully, when The Franchise finally gets out there, Scot Loeffler will tweak the package for him just enough to get Pierce the ball in open space and not utilize him on "fullback-type"  draws so much. Pitchouts to the wide side of the field and screen passes ought to make Bernard Pierce lethal once again.
Still, you can't say enough about the relief effort of tough hombre Matty Brown. If it wasn't for Matty's 120 yards, there would be no three-point win over a good team.
Even Andy Reid would agree.
Time's yours.