Golden already following a proven recruiting template

From left, Jarrett Dunston, Anthony Ferla and Jason Harper

By Mike Gibson
The theory turned out to be as effective as it was simple.
BillyBall, it was called.
Oakland baseball general manager Billy Beane's "recruiting" or "drafting" philosophy differed from that of so many of his contemporaries.
He believed strongly that height or weight, how fast a guy could throw the ball as measured on a radar gun or 40-speed mattered not as much as performance.
What Beane looked for was simple.
How did players perform on the field at a high level?
Duh?
It's a proven philosophy that produced a farm system that for years was the envy of programs with much larger payrolls.
Handicapped by a small payroll, Bean went out and stacked the A's with players who hit home runs, had high batting averages and won/lost records. Beane figured if athletes proved themselves against the best possible competition at a lower level, it only followed they would do so on the next level.
For the most part, he was right.
Bean stacked the farm system with players who produced statistics, meaningful numbers, for quality programs and guys who were instrumental in the success of their prior teams. While other guys relied on radar guys and stopwatches, Beane relied how the guy actually played the game.
It worked for Billy Beane.
It worked for former Temple University head coach Wayne Hardin, too.
When Temple was winning on a consistent basis in college football, it did so recruiting players from traditional winning programs at the high school level.
Hardin stacked his program with players from the Central Bucks Wests and the Mount Carmels, character guys who did nothing but win on the high school level and expected nothing less in college.
If push came to shove, he would take a 5-10 guy who was a player over a 6-4 guy at the same position who couldn't play. Hardin wanted tough guys who he could count on at crunch time.
As a result, the Owls won four four straight years in the 1970s, a run that culminated in a 1979 Garden State Bowl win.
It appears as though Al Golden is following that same template.
Within the last few days, Anthony Ferla, Millage Peaks and Jarrett Dunston joined what appears to be a stellar first recruiting class at Temple. Earlier, Jason Harper, the Daily Record's 2004 Player of the Year, committed to Temple, too.
Those three, like the vast majority of the current class of at least 18 verbals (headed for 23), are proven winners with high achievement records on the field of play for traditionally winning programs.
Hardin's philosophy was to recruit high-character winners who were used to being part of winning programs and then coach the hell out of them.
Apparently, Golden feels the same way.
His players have got the 40-speed and the vertical leaps, too, just a better record of being good, clutch football players who have performed under pressure in big games for marquee programs.
They will accept no less from their Temple experience, either. That can only bode well for the players themselves, Golden and for Temple fans.