Temple Football

A couple of days ago, I dashed off a note to Philadelphia Inquirer TV writer Mike Klein and asked him to get the ratings for Temple's EagleBank Bowl football game with UCLA.

I thought they'd be high because Temple always did well on TV when Paul Palmer was going for the Heisman Trophy in 1986 and before that when Wayne Hardin put together a string of winning years.

There always has been a lot of interest in a "winning" Temple team.

While the "hardcore" fan base delivered some impressive numbers at RFK Stadium, with 20,000 Temple fans making the trip in brutal cold, the "softcore" fan base also produced last Tuesday.

While there were reports all over the place that several watering holes inside Center City (the game was played during Happy Hour) were packed with people cheering on the Owls, there's nothing like cold, hard numbers produced by the ratings folks at ESPN.

The numbers Klein found were even beyond my expectations and ran in his Inklings column Tuesday.

I dashed off a similar email to Daily News' columnist Dan Gross, a Temple grad, who wrote me back: "I'll try to get you the numbers, Mike, but I don't think I'll put them in my column."

Klein beat Gross to the punch.

Go to Philly.com , search for Klein's Inklings column from Jan. 5 and page under "Owls fly" and Klein's numbers are really the best empirical data supporting the "latent" support and interest for Temple football in the Philadelphia area.

An estimated 140,000 viewers watched the game, which made it the most-watched ESPN bowl game in Philadelphia since 2007 (Penn State was in the Alamo Bowl then).

All of this proves a couple of points:

A winning Temple football team can deliver the fourth-largest market to any football conference in the country, and there is a "softcore" group of fans just waiting to jump on the bandwagon and follow a Temple team that proves to be a consistent winner.

The bandwagon's journey will get underway only with a convincing win over Villanova to start next season, but there is enough evidence that there are thousands of people waiting to jump on this Owl Express once that happens.

Warm up those engines.

Walking out of RFK Stadium, I thought about this town and something that happened here just about 150 years ago.

Ford's Theater, the place where Abraham Lincoln was shot, is only two blocks away from the Renaissance Marriott, the Temple team hotel.

I thought about the famous phrase born out of that tragedy.

"So, other than the ending, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"

If we have any Temple fans named Mrs. Lincoln who care as much about the Owls winning as I do, she'd probably say the same thing about Tuesday's EagleBank Bowl game with UCLA.

Liked both the play and the game, but the ending was, err, shot.

Lead?

Check. (Owls were leading, 21-20, 2 minutes, 29 seconds into the final act, err, quarter.)

Fans?

Well, 20,000 of the 23,000 were from Temple, so check. Great job by our terrific fans, by the way. Loud and proud and everything I dreamed they would be.

In the seconds before Temple scored that second touchdown, the loud "Let's Go Temple" cheer shook the old stadium so much I thought it was going to collapse.

Jonathan Tannenbaum, in his excellent blog Soft Pretzel Logic, wrote that the roar of the Temple fans after the first touchdown was "as loud I have heard for any" D.C. United soccer goal in that stadium.

D.C. United, by the way, has scored a lot of goals in that stadium. Maybe three or four thousand.

So Temple's fans deserve my MVP (most valuable persons).

Then the game, like the Mrs. Lincoln's play, imploded.

I don't care too much about theater, but I care a lot about the game, the team and the school involved, that's probably why I walked around the stadium about 45 times before leaving Tuesday night.

"I thought you were still walking around the stadium," my friend, Mark, said when I finally arrived at the team hotel.

Hell, if I didn't realize I was in a supposed dangerous neighborhood (I couldn't tell, but my pre-game briefing cautioned me), I'd probably still be walking around the stadium.

On the train down to D.C., I read a terrific article by Mike Kern on Temple's last bowl game and how Wayne Hardin outsmarted Roger Theder, the then California coach.

Hardin said Cal asked for game films, then made a point to ask his assistants which Cal assistants wanted the films. He gave them three, then tailored the game plan to counter what the Cal assistants would see.

Pure genius. Pure freaking genius.

I wasn't surprised. Hardin outsmarted everybody, including Joe Paterno.

On my 24th pass around the stadium, I wondered why it's always TU messing up on center snaps and never another team.

On my 27th pass, I wondered why Kee-ayre Griffin wasn't out there at right cornerback (I saw him at the team hotel and he looked healthy and wasn't limping).

On my 29th pass, I wondered where was WR Jason Harper, who defined the term "warrior" all season and someone who can make yards after the catch and refuses to go down.

On my 32nd pass, I wondered what would have happened had their been a smooth transition of Adam DiMichele to a quarterback with similar skills and toughness and leadership (there wasn't).

On my 37th pass, I wondered what previous starting QB Chester Stewart did wrong to lose his job over the last month.

On about my 44th pass, with steam coming out of my ears (I swear it was from being mad TU lost, but it was probably just the cold), I thought about that Hardin story.

Could you imagine Al Golden intentionally deceiving a fellow member of the coaching fraternity so Temple could benefit?

Could you see  Golden cutting Rick Neuheisel's throat (I mean that figuratively, of course) to win a game?

I couldn't.

Golden is a very good coach in every way and a great (and I mean GREAT) CEO/Ambassador of Temple football, but I'm not ready to say he's a great game coach.
Or even a better-than-average one.

I will say that when I see Temple do all the little things (i.e., fix the kicking game) a good team needs to do routinely. I mean, snaps on punts are routine for just about everyone else.

Why not Temple?

From the Ball State game on, snapping on punts has been a needless adventure and the CEO needed to fix that long before now.

That's what he needs to do before I can call him an above-average game-day coach.
Great game-day coach?

Who knows how long that will take, but I don't think it will be long because Al is a smart guy. Remember, Hardin came to Temple as a head coach with prior experience from a then big-time Navy program. Golden, who was never a head coach before, is still learning on the job.

Hardin was a smart guy and great game coach and he'd do everything short of robbing a bank to win a big game for Temple. That's how much Temple winning meant to him.

Afterward, Golden said he hopes the team learns from the experience.

I hope he doesn't exclude himself from doing the same.

As a college football fan, I've been following the 2009-2010 bowls fairly closely this season, as I'm not in the mood to waste my $20 entry fee for my bowl pool.

I'll have to say, I only followed Tuesday's EagleBank bowl between the Temple Owls and UCLA Bruins casually, as I was more interested in the top-25 matchup in the Champs Sports Bowl later that night.

If you just looked at the final score, which went in favor of the Bruins 30-21, it appeared to be a rather uninteresting game. But the truth was Temple dominated over half the game. And what ended their control of the bowl?

Not the players, but the referees.

Temple's offense was on a roll going into halftime, up 21-10, and came out in the second half looking just as lively, despite giving up a touchdown to cut the lead to four on UCLA's first second-half possession.

The Owls drove methodically down the field on a 60-plus yard drive, but the Bruins defense stiffened a bit as the Owls reached the red zone, drawing a 3rd-and-3 at the ten yard line.

Temple rushed on an off-tackle play to the right, and although the running back was tripped up by two side-by-side UCLA defenders one yard behind the line of scrimmage, he made an unbelievable scrambling effort and was able to stumble all the way to the first down marker at the seven yard line before finally falling down.

However, when the ref came to spot the ball, it was over a foot short. The Owls looked around a little confused, then lined up for their fourth down try.

Thankfully, a review was called down from upstairs, and Owl fans could breath a sigh of relief that the error was spotted.

On ESPN's television broadcast, the replay was shown multiple times, and they were able to slow it down to show that the runner's elbow landed directly on their "unofficial" yellow line.

Yet, after three or four minutes of review, including a commercial break on the television broadcast, the call was upheld.

It was a terrible call, and not only the announcers but I'm sure most other viewers around the country agreed it was a very perplexing decision. They did not know at the time that it would make be the deciding difference in the game.

Temple was then completely stuffed on fourth down and turned the ball over to UCLA.

After that, it was all Bruins; the shaken Temple offense threw a pick while driving on the next drive. After that, they lost a net 24 yards on their final four possessions, allowed an interception return for a touchdown, and finally a safety while punting late in the fourth quarter, which put the game out of reach.

So, although the difference was nine points, more than an extra Temple touchdown could have covered, it was the momentum of the call that might have ended up costing the Owls a victory in their first bowl game in 30 years in front of a national television audience.

Simply stated, it was the refs, not the players, that named a winner and a loser of Tuesday afternoon's EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C.

Dec. 29, 2009 | 4:30 PM EST, Washington, D.C. on ESPN

EagleBank Bowl

UCLA Bruins (6-6) vs. Temple Owls (9-3)

Opening Line: UCLA -4.5 (current UCLA -4 )

Game Preview

Thank you to the bowl gods for giving us this weirdo matchup. The MAC doesn't play the Pac-10 very often, and Temple makes it to a bowl even less often.

Kudos to the Owls on their 9-3 season. Most people would have been pleasantly surprised with half the number of victories though it is hard to tell whether they are a true product of improvement or just mediocrity in the MAC.

On the other hand, I don't think UCLA is very good, but this was a very strong year in the Pac-10. All their losses were to be expected.

UCLA Preview

When the Bruins won at Tennessee in week two, it was expected that the team might have actually turned the corner. However, they were clearly not ready for league play, opening with five straight losses. The primary culprit was an offense that scores only 21 PPG — good for 100th in the nation.

Sure, they have had injuries, but that is not the whole story. They just don't have any feared playmakers, and Norm Chow can only work so much magic.

Luckily for the Bruins, their defense is very good, giving up the same 21 PPG (not surprising given the .500 record). DT Brian Price is a future first round pick and should be able to wreak some havoc against the Owls, who haven't seen a player like that since they got beat up by Penn State.

Temple Preview

Temple will definitely be the sentimental favorite against UCLA, but despite the difference in records, they are the less talented team.

They had a great run of victories, but none were over quality opponents, and in the last game of the year, when they needed to beat Ohio to play in the MAC championship, they came up well short (and Ohio couldn't even beat Marshall in their bowl game).

They are led by an emerging coach and got fantastic production from freshman RB Bernard Pierce — neither he nor his line are of the caliber that UCLA is used to competing against, and Pierce is questionable to boot. Temple just doesn't have what it takes to win a game like this, but UCLA will do their best to keep it close.

Game Prediction

Anyone expecting offensive fireworks will be disappointed. Temple wants to run the ball but will find the sledding tough against the Bruins. Eventually the Bruins will gain enough of a field position edge that they will have no choice but to score. It won't be pretty.

Score Prediction

UCLA - 17 Temple - 3

Pick

As a Trojans fan it is hard to side with the Bruins, but Temple just has no momentum coming into the game. I feel very comfortable spotting UCLA the points even with their tragic offense.

UCLA Bruins Football Betting Trends

* Bruins are 4-0 ATS in their last four non-conference games.

* Bruins are 6-1 ATS in their last seven games as a favorite.

* The total has gone UNDER in five of UCLA's last six games.

Temple Owls Football Betting Trends

By Ryan of The Sportmeisters

The NCAA post-season kicks off December 19 with 33 games being played in a three week span. Seniors will get their last hurrah, and teams will attempt to end their season on the winning side in the hopes of improving recruiting that follows afterwords. The Sportmeisters will preview each of the 33 games that lie ahead, and provide our predictions as well. Let’s get to it!

EagleBank Bowl: December 29, 4:30 PM, Washington, DC

Temple (9-3) vs. UCLA (6-6)

About Temple : Temple and winning have not gone hand in hand for much of the past, and this season started off as much of the same. Two straight losses had fans thinking, "When does basketball season begin?" But then something clicked, and nine straight wins gave the Owls life. Even though they lost their final game of the season, Owl fans are flying high this year as they roll into a bowl game.

They win by putting the ball on the ground and grinding out victories. Temple is 23rd in NCAA FBS with 192.33 yards a game, and that can be attributed to freshman RB Bernard Pierce. His 1308 yards and 15 touchdowns in only 11 games helped him earn MAC Freshman of the Year honors. Though he missed the final game with a shoulder injury, he is fully expected to play in the bowl game. If he’s a no go, the burden will fall on freshman RB/WR Matt Brown, who had 446 yards and four touchdowns, including 172 yards and a touchdown in the season finale that Pierce missed.

The defense gets enough practice chasing Pierce down that it led to a top twenty rushing defense (20th at 108.83 yards per game). Sophomore DL Adrian Robinson led the team with 11 of its 33 sacks and led the team with 12 tackles for loss. It’s that pressure that forces team to pass, where Temple struggles, giving up 226.83 yards a game. Temple has the tools and the players to contend in the bowl game but could use an improved secondary preventing deep passes.

About UCLA : A 3-0 record had fans and pundits thinking the Bruins were back with head coach Rick Neuheisel. Five straight losses quickly had those fans and pundits hiding. UCLA bounced back, winning three of their last four to make bowl eligible at 6-6. Due to the Army/Navy game, they would have been bounced if Army had won.

The Bruins have had some trouble finding consistency on offense. They switch between freshman QB Kevin Prince (1829 yards, six touchdowns) and senior QB Kevin Craft (722 yards, two touchdowns), with both expecting to see time in the bowl game. Their leading rusher, freshman RB Johnathan Franklin, has 560 yards with five touchdowns. To top it off, their No.1 WR, sophomore Nelson Rosario, has only one touchdown to go with his 657 receiving yards. Needless to say, UCLA has some struggles.

Defensively, there is a little more structure. Though their numbers are still middle of the pack (338.33 yards per game, 21.25 points per game), there are a couple players who stand out. Junior DL Brian Price was named Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year after recording 43 tackles (22.5 for loss), seven sacks, and two forced fumbles. Sophomore LB Akeem Ayers added 64 tackles (10.5 for loss), five sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble return for a touchdown, and three interceptions (one returned for touchdown). UCLA was eighth in tackles for loss per game (7.83), so expect to see a lot of powder blue in the Temple backfield.

The Matchup : Temple is 1-1 in their bowl history. This is their first bowl appearance since a win in the Garden State Bowl in 1979.

UCLA is 13-15-1 in bowl games. They have lost two in a row, most recently in 2007, their last bowl appearance. This is the first match-up between the two teams.

UCLA gives up 144.42 yards per game on the ground, a number they will have to shrink against a rushing attack such as Temple. Whether it’s Price or Brown, Temple has speed to burn. UCLA gets pressure in the backfield and makes plays, but they will need to make a number of them. This will force the Owls to turn to Junior QB Vaughn Charlton (1231 yards, nine touchdowns, nine interceptions).

UCLA needs to find some consistency in their offense. Temple isn’t the strongest against the pass, and whether it’s Craft or Prince, someone needs to throw the ball in the air, and make crisp throws. Temple recorded 15 interceptions on the season, so accuracy is a must.

The Prediction : Temple snaps a 30-year waiting streak with a victory, 30-17.

Every morning for the past month or so, I've gotten up and wiped the sand from my eyes, stretched a little bit and sprinted to the door for the morning paper.

I quickly thumbed to the second sports page and checked the bowl pairings.

There it was.

I wasn't dreaming after all.

Thirty years of being bowl-less will play mind games with a person's psyche.

Temple's football team is in a bowl game and the opponent, geez, is UCLA.

Damn.

It's not in Idaho or Kansas, either.

It's in D.C.

It's within driving distance.

The best news yet is that with less than a week to go until the kickoff of the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C., Temple's entire ticket allotment of 5,000 has been sold. Just a few $100 seats remain and the wine and cheese crowd (read: Temple's well-heeled alumni) should gobble those up by game time.

Temple coach Al Golden's message of hope is selling about as well in D.C. and Philly as President Obama's did a year ago (and that was very well, by the way).

Consider that Nevada's ticket sales for the Hawaii Bowl were in the "low hundreds" and Temple's performance at the ticket window has been spectacular.

How the hell did we not win the Mid-American Conference (err, that would be no pass rush or blitz) and get the marquee matchup of all MAC matchups?

I pinched myself for good measure to see if that part wasn't a dream, either.
I'm so pumped I would walk down to D.C. to see the Owls in a bowl game but, thanks to Amtrak, I don't have to do that. Not everybody is as pumped as I am.

After about 10 days of going through this routine, I logged onto a computer.
Sports message boards are the next stop on the technology train above sports talk radio. You can check the pulse of the sports community by reading these boards and you can even add a viewpoint or two without having to talk to a producer.

Most of the fans were like me, pumped and ready for the trip.

Then I came across a segment of the fan base that pretty much disgusts me.

The posting was entitled "The EagleBank Bowl is pretty much a made for TV game" and the poster went on to say that because "it'll be too cold and I'm all alone I'll be watching this game on TV."

Cripes.

I'm going all by myself and it'll be just as cold for me. Fifty percent or so of the people I know going to this game will be making the trip alone and I'm guessing it will be just as cold for them, too. I know at least four guys driving up to the game from Florida and my guess is that it will be colder for them than all of us.

It's almost fitting that fate would place the Owls in the town of Obama because, for Temple, this matchup is all about hope.

Hope that Temple's football program has arrived to the point it can beat a name BCS school.

Hope that Temple can prove to the nation its fans care.

We'll find out both Tuesday. The Owls must win and they must prove to be a big-time draw.

Conferences are realigning as we speak and nothing would be a better 1-2 punch to the nation that Temple has arrived than winning the game on the field and in the stands. It'll be on national TV. This is a dress rehearsal for the big time in more ways than one.

The guy, any guy, who pretends to be a Temple fan and can't even get off his ass to get on a train or a Greyhound Bus or thumb a ride to get down there is really not a Temple fan at all.

This is a time for all Temple fans to answer the Clarion call.

The Temple fan base isn't big enough that we can afford to have even one of the "hardcore base" sit at home and watch the game on TV and I don't care how cold it is. I've always said and I think I'm right that Temple has a hardcore base of 15K and a softcore group of 20K.

In D.C., the entire hardcore base is required to be there and, on top of that, an urgent appeal is being made to many of the softcore fans as well.

In my mind, Temple has two magic numbers to reach to impress people across the nation on Tuesday.

They must draw more than 28,786 (what Navy and Wake Forest drew last year) and they must have more points than UCLA at the end.

I know the football team can hold up its part of the bargain.

The time has come for the fans to do the same.

Hyperbole has certainly been overused everywhere, but especially so in the world of sports.

The phrase "The Game of the Century" may have been used 100 times in the last century, and it may have never been true (OK, maybe Notre Dame football 10-10 tie vs. Michigan State back in 1966 but that's it).

Occasionally, though, a sentence that sounds like hyperbole is more grounded in reality. Like this one:

Dec. 29th, 2009 is the most important date in Temple sports history.

Not just Temple football. Temple sports, period.

Not because of what the football team might do that day, but because of what you might do. Yeah, you. The one who came across this by surfing the web.

If you ever attended, or cared about, Temple University or care about the future of Temple sports, you will be in the stands at RFK Stadium (pictured) in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Dec. 29th, when the Owls take on UCLA in their first football bowl game in 30 years.

It's the least you can do, and the best way to give back to the university.

We all can't be a Bill Cosby and be a famous spokesman and cheerleader.

We all can't be a Dennis Alter and write out a $15 million check to build one of the best business schools in the nation.

But we all can bring $30 or $50 to the Liacouras Center this week and walk away with ducats in hand for the Eagle Bank Bowl on Dec. 29th.

If we work for a living, and 90 percent of us still do, we all can take a personal day that day or trade that day for another day.

We can all buy an Amtrak ticket. If we can't afford that, we can all get to a Greyhound Bus station.

We can all drive down I-95 for two hours. We all can and we all should.

Imagine the reaction of the nation watching if all that they see is a packed RFK Stadium (it holds 46,000 for football under its new configuration) wearing mostly Cherry and White.

It sure would open up a lot of doors to the university's sports teams that were previously closed, and change of lot of perceptions of Temple's fan support.

The Big East, for example, might extend an all-sports invitation on, say, Dec. 30th. That's how much of an impact a huge Temple crowd would have before a national television audience.

The football Owls would also have their pick of bowls next year, because Owl fans have proven that they can, and will, travel.

Tickets are available for the Eagle Bank Bowl and have arrived at the Liacouras Center. When I walked in to purchase mine up last week, I had to wait in a line 10 deep and there were 10 people behind me.

I hate waiting in lines more than anyone (hyperbole, maybe), but on that day, I didn't care.

If I walk into RFK Stadium on Dec. 29th and see 46,000 Temple fans, that will be the greatest day ever.

For me, and maybe the university as a whole, that's no hyperbole.

Somewhere between getting a prolonged standing ovation at the Temple-Villanova basketball game (pictured) and now, the Temple football Owls stopped to visit the Philadelphia Eagles for a couple of days last week.

At the invitation of the Eagles and Andy Reid, the Owls used the Eagles' state-of-the-art indoor facility to get away from the inclement weather.

"The Eagles were good enough to let us do that," Temple head coach Al Golden said, making sure he thanked his fellow Lincoln Financial Field tenant.

Hopefully, defensive coordinator Mark D'Onofrio rifled through Eagles' defensive coordinator Sean McDermott's drawers on the way out and stole the book that the late Jim Johnson wrote on blitzing.

If the Owls are serious about winning and not just making a good showing on Dec. 29 in the EagleBank Bowl, they will blitz UCLA from the opening introductions until the final seconds tick off.

UCLA has a very capable quarterback, freshman Kevin Prince, who is battling a shoulder injury right now.

Go get him and put him down hard and often.

Bring violence to the football.

People who read this blog know my philosophy of defensive football is a mind meld of Johnson's.

If you can't get to the quarterback with four, send five. If you can't get to him with six, send seven. If you can't get to him with seven, send eight.

Blitz early and often to send a message to UCLA offensive coordinator Norm Chow that the Owls are not content to remain in a base defense and get picked apart like they did against good quarterbacks from Villanova, Miami, and Ohio.

Surely Chow, a smart guy, will be dissecting Temple film and come to the conclusion that the Owls like to sit back in coverage rather than come after the quarterback.

What he won't see is a whole lot of blitzing.

Even though rush end Adrian Robinson leads the MAC in sacks, he'll need all the help he can get against UCLA.

I'll stop only at sending eight, because I believe the back group that includes Jacquain Jarrett, Dominique Harris, Marquis Liverpool, and Kee-Ayre Griffin has the talent to keep anything that breaks in front of them.

I believe a blitzing scheme is perfectly suited to the personnel Temple currently employs on defense.

The Owls have terrific run-stopping linebackers in Peanut Joseph, Alex Joseph, and John Haley specifically. But those guys also have the speed and the nastiness necessary in chasing down a quarterback and either making the tackle, stripping the ball, or forcing an interception.

They are not great at pass coverage, so why not sic these dogs on the quarterback instead?

That's what I'm talking about, Willis.

Hopefully, D'Onofrio smells meat and goes in for the kill on Prince, changing the Owls' scheme to where nine guys line up at scrimmage and either fake the blitz or go for the kill on every passing down.

I vote for going for the kill.

Think about it.

Over your years of watching football, what decides games more than any other factor?

Turnover ratio.

You can hope the other team fumbles or throws the ball between the two numbers on your jerseys or you can force them to do it.

Nothing puts fear in a quarterback's eyes and the ball up for grabs more than a collapsing pocket.

Nothing collapses the pocket like a blitz.

"I've tried (throwing) but I'm not at the stage where it's really comfortable," Prince said.

The whole idea is making Prince feel uncomfortable. His stats are the best of any UCLA quarterback (157 completions in 277 attempts for 1,827 yards, six touchdowns, and seven interceptions). There's a huge drop-off in his backup, Kevin Craft (60 for 107 for 722 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions).

The game plan shouldn't be that complicated to develop and put into practice the next couple of weeks.

It's one word.

Blitz.

Temple head coach Al Golden passed on word today that Sunday will be party time.

The university is holding a bowl selection announcement party at the Liacouras Center on Sunday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 PM.

Golden and his football team will be there, so will many of its fans, sitting in front of the TV and waiting for their name to be drawn just like the Temple basketball team has done or so many other selection Sundays.

It will be a party unlike anything the university has seen since 1979, which was the last time the Owls made a bowl game.

Hopefully, guys like Bobby Bernardo and Joe Klecko and Wayne Hardin will be able to make it.

Bernardo was a linebacker on the last Temple team to win 10 games in a row and, in 1973, he was a sophomore starting linebacker when the Owls won eight-straight games. The star on that team was a nose guard named Joe Klecko, who would later gain fame as an All-Pro with the New York Jets. A photo of Klecko and then Temple coach Hardin accompanies this story.

Bernardo took time out to recall those years when a guest on the Bob Rovner radio program recently.

"We were supposed to go to the Tangerine Bowl," Bernardo said, "but that was the year of the gas shortage and they were worried about their being enough gas for the fans on cars and planes and they picked Florida State instead. There were only about eight bowls in those days.

"We were 9-1. Florida State was 5-5, but they were closer so they were picked."
Such is the history of Temple's near-misses in bowl games.

In 1990, the 7-4 Owls were one of six teams wooed by the Poulan Weed-Eater Independence Bowl but they picked a 6-5 Maryland team instead.
"They (the Poulan Weed-Eaters) made the mistake, we didn't," quarterback Matty Baker said.

The Owls are looking at two primary options right now.

1) They have a good shot of taking the ACC's unoccupied spot in the Eagle Bank Bowl in Washington, D.C.

2) They are a lock for the International Bowl in Toronto if they don't.
If I had to handicap it right now, I would say 60 percent chance for Eagle Bank and 40 percent chance for Toronto.

The party will be for this wonderful team that won nine straight, but it will also be for guys like Bobby Bernardo, too.

"Ever since I can remember, my dad (Bill, the former Northeast High coach) was taking me to Temple games," Bobby said. "That since 1957. I've been going all these years and I can't tell you how wonderful it's been to go to the games this season."

Bernardo was on one of about five Wayne Hardin squads which deserved to go to bowl games, but never did.

College football has never been about getting the best teams in bowls, but bringing the teams with the  most fans. That's why the cycle of the same teams being good all the time has been perpetuated ad naseum.

Other teams deserve a shot to be good, too, and get rewards like bowl games.
Temple did its part to break that corrupt cycle this year and now awaits its reward.
The Owls won't be passed over this time and that's one of the advantages of being in a conference.

Party on, Wayne's boys.

It seems there aren't a whole lot of people out there who can deal with any Temple football success.

Earlier this decade, a few weeks after Temple beat then fellow Big East conference member Rutgers for the fourth-straight season, the Owls were asked to leave the Big East for being "non-competitive."

Conveniently, Rutgers being non-competitive with the non-competitive team wasn't an issue then.

Now, after the first season in which Temple won nine straight games in its history, the Owls are being asked to leave the country.

Don't worry.

This time, unlike the last, it's a good thing, not a bad one.

Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw appeared late Saturday afternoon on the Bob Rovner radio program on a Philadelphia station for a two-hour guest stint (WWDB-AM) and much of the talk centered on Temple football.

In it, he hinted strongly that Temple will be asked to leave the country only because it will be extended an offer to the International Bowl in Canada shortly.

The delicious irony is this:

One of the three possible opponents Bradshaw mentioned was Rutgers (the other two were South Florida and West Virginia).

"You might think WIP and 950 are the sports radio stations in town, but we talk more Temple sports here on my show than anywhere else," said Rovner, a former state senator and Temple grad.

Although the show is ostensibly a political one, Rovner wasn't kidding. Co-host Frank Rizzo Jr. was away, so Rovner got to play sports talk show host for a day. The show talked Temple sports, mostly football, for two hours.

Bob Bernardo, a former Owl linebacker who played for the last Temple team to win nine in a row, was a call-in guest.

The meat of the show centered on bowl scenarios.

Bradshaw also hinted (strongly) that the university might be forced to turn down an Eagle Bank Bowl Invitation for that International Bowl berth.

He speculated that Central Michigan would go to the GMAC in Mobile and Ohio to the Little Caesars Bowl in Detroit, leaving Toronto and a Big East foe on the table for the Owls. There was another option, he said.

He noted the Eagle Bank Bowl in Washington, D.C. was tricky because it would be the last invitation extended and it would be contingent upon Navy beating Army.

But that Army-Navy game is set for Dec. 12, a week after all the bowls are offered.

Should Army pull off the unlikely upset, the team accepting that contingency bid would be left outside of the bowl picture. Temple is at the top of the contingency list, he said.

Temple officials aren't likely to roll the dice on Eagle Bank, even though the odds are stacked in Navy's favor. That's why the Owls will likely accept a bowl invitation, if tendered, by the International Bowl committee when the initial offers are extended on Dec. 6.

"We might have that kind of choice," he said. "I should know more around 3:30 on Monday afternoon after we have a conference call with the MAC."

The Eagle Bank Bowl would be tempting in that considerably more Owl fans would be able to make the trip.

Despite forecasts to the contrary in 1979, Temple traveled very well to its last bowl game, drawing over 55,000 its 28-17 win over California in the second Garden State Bowl.
Temple could travel very well to D.C., not nearly as well to Toronto.

The allure of Toronto, though, could be playing a team from a conference that kicked the Owls out.

The interview between Rovner and Bradshaw will be rebroadcast on WWDB in one week.
By then, though, the Owls and their fans will probably be applying for passports.