Big East and Temple by the numbers

Temple's $10 million addition to its $7 million practice facility nears finish line.

It's a great week to be a Temple Owl.
Not only did Temple Board of Trustees member Lewis Katz (and two others) get a bargain-basement price on the two Philadelphia newspapers, the Temple football team has been practicing pretty much injury-free in front of a palatial $10 million addition to an already relatively new $7 million football facility.

That facility should be done by the start of summer practice.
A few weeks later, a thorough beatdown of Villanova should be done as well.
The Philly papers went for $500 million in 2006 and Katz purchased the same property (same printing presses and massive River Road property in Conshohocken but less a few employees, your humble correspondent included) for $55 million Monday.
Not a bad time to do some numbers crunching with regard to Temple's football prospects in the Big East this fall.
News flash: While the Big East is a significant step up for Temple, the Owls are not joining the SEC.
According to the two best indicators of team strength in college football, Temple is coming into the league pretty near the top end of the remaining members.
Sagarin (USA Today) had Temple finishing the 2011 season ranked No. 30 in the country, with only Cincinnati (No. 28) ahead of it and the Owls finishing ahead of Rutgers (37), South Florida (47), Louisville (64), Pitt (68), UConn (73) and Syracuse (83).
Realtime RPI.com had Temple ranked No. 37, behind only Cincinnati (24) and Rutgers (30). Louisville was 53, Pitt 64, 'Cuse (83, again) and UConn 89.
I think Temple will be significantly better this year. The Owls have nine guys returning who have started games on defense in the past. That, and the superb coaching of defensive coordinator Chuck Heater, will keep them in every game. Explosive plays downfield by players like quarterback Chris Coyer, RB Matty Brown, WR Deon Miller and TE Alex Jackson should put enough points on the scoreboard. It's going to be hard to replace defensive end Adrian Robinson and linebacker Stephen Johnson, but a good program does those kind of things routinely.
Temple has proven to be a good program over the last three years by the only numbers that matter (won/loss ratio) and there is nothing in the numbers going forward that suggest a change any time soon.
While the competition will be a little better than the MAC, the hard numbers by unbiased sources like Sagarin and Realtime suggest it is nothing the Owls can't handle.

Whatever Happened To... Long Laces?

Doh!

This photograph is possibly one of the most famous football images of all time. The smallest of details seem burned into the subconscious - the Seiko advert in the background, the sloping roof of the executive boxes, the expressions of both participants, one sheer effort, the other a mix of panic and futility.

There is one small detail however, that most won’t even realise is there, but one which only people of a certain age would even understand. Look at both Maradona’s and Shilton’s boots. They’re both wearing Puma... Kings I believe. This is clear due to the large Puma logo down the side of the boot.

But wait. There’s something amiss with that logo, for it appears to have a large black line right through the middle. Now, those of us of that certain age can immediately say what it is. In fact, you can probably still smell the mud falling away as you recall achingly removing the boots from your feet after a hard fought 1-0. Or feel the crispness under your fingers as you came to put on those boots for the next match, the laces still caked in turf from last time, for as we all know that black line cleaving in twain the Puma logo, is a lace... a football boot lace.

In the days of personalised, lighter than air, Himalayan Camel leather boots with self-triggering air bags (probably), the concept of laces longer than the Great Wall of China wrapped several times under the sole of the boot is completely anathema. Boots these days only seem content when the laces are kept hidden, concealed beneath aerodynamic, bullet proof Kevlar panels (maybe). Try wrapping a lace round a boot these days and it’ll just about make it to the other side!

The most important question I feel is not so much, why don’t they still do this, but why on earth did they ever?  Why make laces so damn long you had to wrap them round the boot? I’m sure there was a logical reason for it – maybe old style boots just weren’t secure enough? Maybe it was a FIFA edict brought in after the infamous* 1974 Boot Loss Incident, where Chile took its entire team off the pitch against France after 2 of their players’ boots came off and the French players hid them and refused to give them back. The simple fact is, I don’t know why as when I started wearing boots they fitted perfectly and could easily have stayed on with normal length laces.

Yet another thing the modern game has deemed unnecessary, but frankly one whose absence, I think, has barely been noticed.

*made up

Future Nostalgia: Panini Euro 2012

I didn’t collect Panini World Cup 2010. I regret it now. I got to the party early, no-one arrived, so I went home. In my absence, the world showed up, had a great time and talked about it for weeks afterwards, every word lingering painfully within earshot. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

As an adult, I’ve collected every Panini sticker album for a main tournament from Euro 2000 onwards except one - World Cup 2010. Why I ever felt it was a fruitless exercise two years ago I don’t know. The main thing is, I’m back. Not only that; many of the people I respect and admire in the football blogging community are joining me for the ride.

I bought my album last Friday, sealed as it was with three free packets of stickers inside its clear wrapper. It felt good. Really good. When I was a child, new Panini albums – those tied in with each domestic season in the UK - would typically be given away free with Shoot! magazine. Now they fight for shelf space in their own right with all manner of other magazine fodder in WHSmith's. Just as well the Euro 2012 album stands out with its vivid purple front cover.

This leads us to a strong element of the new album - the design. It permeates every page of the book, and that's largely due to the delightful way Brandia Central have branded this summer's tournament for UEFA. The floral device is very easy on the eye and allows for plenty of colour to be used without being too overpowering.

The next thing to notice is the layout of the team pages. No longer is each vacant sticker space accompanied by an abbreviated player profile below it. Most of that stuff's now on the sticker itself, remarkably. The player's name, club, date of birth, height and weight are all now below the player's face, thereby leaving each team page as a series of empty rectangles (save for a column displaying the appearances and goals for each squad member). A brave move by Panini, but one which works rather well.

And what about those stickers? Well they're beautifully designed as ever too. The usual high quality photographs feature throughout, and this year we have a few new ideas to liven things up. Each team includes three 'In Action' stickers showing full length images of three chosen players within a snazzy purple border. There are stickers showing the slogan 'Creating History Together' in the languages of each competing nation, stickers showing the mascots holding the team flags, a sticker for the UEFA Respect campaign - even a sticker for the official match ball.

But how did I fair out of all this?  Which stickers featured among those in the packets I opened first?  Well the first sticker I saw in my first packet couldn't have been more enigmatic, for it featured Italy's own Mario Balotelli. I got Liverpool's Daniel Agger, Spanish superstar David Villa and Manchester United's very own Ashley Young.

All very well, but I didn't get any shiny foil badges or team picture stickers, so the following day I did the decent thing and bought myself another half a dozen packets. At 50p each I realised that the option of flamboyantly buying a whole box was going to be out of the question (for now at least), but at least this new batch of stickers brought me the Portugal flag, Andrey Arshavin and Samir Nasri, plus a whole host of other well known football players gracing this summer's tournament.

And so it begins. A whole new collection is underway, only this time I have many friends to share the Panini love with. Already on board are Terry Duffelen (Football Fairground/Bundesliga Lounge), Chris Nee (The Stiles Council/Twofootedtackle), Andrew Gibney (French Football Weekly) and in the very near future, The Football Attic's very own Rich Johnson.

Between us, we'll be sticking our stickers like there's no tomorrow and sharing our experiences on Twitter (me included), so if you'd like to tell us how you're collection's going, send us a tweet! Better still, if you've got any doubles you'd like to tell the world about, make sure you use the hashtag #paninidoubles because you never know - someone might need it for their own collection...

Daz: 'I like our personnel'

No truth to the rumor that was Holy Water poured on Chuck Heater last year.

There's a lot of uncertainty upon entering the Big East season for Temple's football team.
Lack of talent is not one of them, though.
On Friday, after the 13th practice of the season, head coach Steve Addazio made clear that "I like our personnel" and that there is plenty of talent to sustain and build upon the level of success of the last three years.
I agree.

Chuck Heater won't have to be a miracle-worker with this group of Owls.

While there are significant losses in the areas of offensive line, the team is pretty well set at most other positions.
Even talented tailback Bernard Pierce, who figures to go now lower than the third round of this year's NFL draft, finished second on the team in all-purpose yards to his replacement, Matty "Rock" Brown. In the true spread that Addazio plans to run with talented (and unbeaten) quarterback Chris Coyer at the helm, you can make a pretty good argument that Rock is a more effective college back.
The credit for much of this talent still goes to former head coach Al Golden, who made a practice of stockpiling prospects by redshirting most of his incoming freshmen. That was part of Golden's "core values" of building a "house of brick, not straw."
In each of his final two seasons, Golden redshirted no less than 16 of his 25 incoming signees.
Many of those guys will play significant roles with the 2012 Owls.
"The reason I redshirted at Temple so much," Golden told a Miami-area newspaper recently, "was that I was committed to building a program. That's the way the so-called powerhouse programs do it. We weren't able to do that the first couple of years, but we were able to do it by the time I left. I want to do the same thing [at Miami]."
Addazio doesn't believe in redshirting as much as Golden did, but that doesn't mean he won't benefit from it.
In many positions, even ones where high-profile starters left, there could be a talent upgrade from last year.
Take the case of tight Alex Jackson.
Jackson, another redshirt, split starting time with Evan Rodriguez two years ago.
"I think of our all tight ends last year he had the highest end [talent]," Addazio said. "He wasn't ready to play last year, but now he is and that's going to show."
Even on the offensive line, if you count Jackson's starts from two years ago and Sean Boyle's starts from two years ago and Martin Wallace starting all last year, that's three returning offensive line starting caliber players and that's pretty good. Also, Big 33 recruit Adam Metz benefited from a redshirt year (thanks, Al Golden) and is ready to compete for his spot. These are quality offensive linemen.
On defense, there is plenty of talent along the line with John Youboty, Levi Brown, Kadeem Custis, Kamal Johnson, Marcus Green and Sean Daniels all returning. All have started games in the past. Two starting linebackers, Blaze Caponegro and Ahkeem Smith, return, as does Olaniyi Adewole, who got considerable playing time last year as a sub. Starting strong safety Justin Gildea returns, as does his backup, Chris Hutton. Starting free safety Kevin Kroboth is gone, but one-time five-star recruit Vaughn Carraway was his backup last year and should slide right into that spot without a drop in production.
At the corners, last year's true freshman, Anthony Robey, was a lock-down cover specialist and starter until he got hurt midway into the season but is looking in top form in practice. Zamel Johnson also started at corner, but he is being pushed by Rutgers' transfer Abdul Smith. Maurice Jones, who got plenty of playing time, is also in the corner mix.
Temple defensive coordinator Chuck Heater was called "Mother Teresa" by no less an authority than Urban Meyer for his work as DC of the Florida defense two years ago.
Addazio could have called Heater the same thing last year the way he pieced together a Temple defense  that lost seven starters from 2010 into the third-best defense in the nation (behind only Alabama and LSU) in 2011.
Heater won't have to work a miracle for Temple's defense this year because he's got more capable parts already in place to have a defense that keeps the Owls in every game.
The same can be said for the rest of the team as well and that's doesn't even count the reinforcements from the calvary who arrive (hello, Kevin Newsome, Jamie Gilmore and company) in July.
Aug. 31 can't come soon enough.
To borrow a phrase from Mr. T, I pity the fool called Villanova.
Hopefully, a blowout there starts an avalanche of similar good results for Temple fans the rest of the fall.

The League of Blogs

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to save full-size version

As mentioned yesterday here at The Football Attic, we're proud to announce a new feature to promote peace and harmony amongst the football blogging community - The League of Blogs.

In essence, we thought it would be a cracking idea to create an e-wallchart (tipping our hat specifically in the direction of those previously sold by Subbuteo) featuring team strips created specifically to represent football blogsites.

The Football Attic's Rich J got the ball rolling by delving into the realms of fantasy to create a fictional home and away shirt for us, and now we invite you to do the same for your own football blog.

All you need to do is download our template, design a kit or kits that graphically represents your football blog perfectly, and send it back to us. We'll put your designs on our e-wallchart (see above) and forever more your blog will be immortalised shoulder-to-shoulder with your peers in the blogging community.

Step 1

Choose a template to download by clicking on the JPG or GIF images below. When the full-size version opens up on your screen, save it to your computer.

If you'd like a template in Adobe Illustrator (.AI) format, drop us a line to admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com and we'll send one out to you.

.GIF template

.JPG template

Step 2

Get colouring! You can design your strip digitally with a graphics package like Adobe Photoshop or you could print the template out, colour it in with your felt-tip pens and scan the finished article. Either way, you should have a .JPG or .GIF file at the end of the process for each strip you're designing.

Step 3

Send your .JPGs or .GIFs to admin [at] thefootballattic [dot] com along with your website's name and URL. Once we've got your design(s), we'll add it/them to our e-wallchart shown at the top of the page and that's that. Job done!

Oh and if you're not much of a designer or you don't own any felt-tip pens, why not tell us what you'd like your kit to look like? Email us at the address shown above with as much detail as possible and we'll try to turn your ideas into reality!

Thanks for taking part, and if you enjoyed designing your kit, why not tell your friends to take part too!

Fun with Mega Millions and Temple football

"You won't believe this, but we just got a donation of $231 million" Bill Bradshaw
tells a puzzled Steve Addazio.

My Mega Millions' ticket Stephen Colbert's both have something in common, No. 6 as the all-important Mega Ball number tonight.
Colbert got to his number a little bit differently than I did, picking 1-2-3-4-5 as his first five and six as his Mega Ball number.
Heck, I know both Colbert and I have the same chance of winning (zero) but it is fun to think about so I made it a game with two lines based on "some" (not all) of my favorite Temple football players.
I went with No. 6 because it was the number worn by Paul Palmer, the Temple football player who came closest to winning the Heisman Trophy (second, 1986).
Palmer's line: 12 (Brian Broomell), 26 (Anthony Young), 43 (Adrian Robinson), 52 (Stephen Johnson) and 55 (Steve Conjar). 12-26-43-52-55 (6).

Steve Conjar

Then I went with a line featuring Maxwell Award winner Steve Joachim (9) that includes Matt Brown (2),  New Mexico Bowl MVP Chris Coyer (10), Brandon McManus (19), Ahkeem Smith (24) and Bernard Pierce and Garden State Bowl MVP  Mark Bright (30). That line reads 2-10-19-24-30 (9).
I'm only spending $2 to win $640 million because you don't have to be a mathematician to figure out that purchasing $4 worth of tickets doesn't double your chance of winning.
If I'm the only winner, I'll "settle" for the cash payout of $462 million and give half to Temple football via the Xtra Point Club. The only condition is that Temple spend it on a new stadium and name it "Temple University Stadium" or, at the very least, purchase the naming rights to Lincoln Financial Field and call it "Temple University Stadium."
(Hey, if Akron can build a beautiful stadium for $61.6 million five years ago, Temple can build something slightly better for $231 million. It already has the land, 15th Street and Norris to 15th and Montgomery.)
That's it.  I'll scrape by on the other $231 million.

Matt Brown will be wearing No. 2 this year.

I'm serious, too. Temple's lawyers can consider this post a promisory note.
Once they get the money, it is theirs to spend under no further conditions and no further suggestions from me. (It would be nice, though, if it gave Temple fans the security of knowing another program won't be able to poach their coach at the end of every season.)
I'll give the money to Bill Bradshaw and Steve Addazio at halftime of the spring game on April 14 with one of those oversized white checks with Cherry writing.
I don't have kids and only one living relative so I can afford to do this.
In addition to the tangible cash contribution, an ancillary benefit is that Temple football becomes the No. 1 story in the Philadelphia media. I'm sure the cynical professional sports media will be calling me crazy but it will be crazy like a fox because any publicity is good publicity when it comes to putting Temple TUFF front and center of Philly sports talk.
Heck, with a jackpot like this, maybe the talk of the nation as well.
It would be fun to find out.
No Mercedes or Porches, strippers, mansions, like that guy from West Virginia who besmirched an otherwise great sports broadcasting name  (Jack Whitaker) for me. Maybe a Hurricane-proof six-month-a-year snowbird getaway house near Tampa, Fla., an HDTV and a new Chevy and I'm good to go.
Now comes the hard part. Getting those numbers to come up.

Football Attic FC & The League of Blogs Wallchart

Football Attic FC?  Have Chris and Rich decided to unhang their boots and get back out on the field?  Of course not!

Following on from Chris' excellent article about his days as a teenage kit designer, we decided we ought to have an official Football Attic FC strip. To that end, I got out my crayons (OK, a graphics package) and put together the home shirt.

FAFC 'Home'

Obviously, there may come a time that FAFC will be drawn against another team in... er... brown... maybe St Pauli? This would of course necessitate a change strip. We at the Football Attic are firm believers in using reverse colours for the away kit and our first choice was for a straight reversal of the home design, but, ever the perfectionists, it just seemed a bit too simple. And so, the away kit you see here was born.

FAFC 'Away'

That's all very stylish and suave I hear you say, but what is this League of Blogs Wallchart thing you also mentioned?

Well, it's a natural train of thought that leaves Football Attic Central and journeys across the blogosphere stopping at other football blogs to see what their kits would be like. Given the Football Attic thought train never stays on a straight path for very long, it was only natural to arrive at the decision to create a Football Blog Kit Wallchart.

Here's the deal... We'll shortly be putting up a Subbuteo-style template. Download it, design your blog's kit, send it back to us and we'll compile them all into an awesome wallchart for you to cut out and keep.

Watch this space!