Golden: Holt will be back in the lineup

By Mike Gibson
On the first-ever Al Golden Radio Show Monday night, the first-year Temple University head football coach wanted to talk about the positives of his team's overtime loss at Buffalo.
That didn't mean he was ready to gloss over the negatives.
At the South Philly Taproom, Golden talked about both the good and the bad and fielded questions from athletic supporters Fred Altenberger and Bob Morrison during his first half-hour radio show.
He also mentioned that starting running back Tim Brown might have been suffering from a lack of conditioning due to having missed about 23 of the 29 practices coming into the game and, almost as an afterthought, said "(Keith) Holt will be back in the lineup" for Saturday's game with Louisville.

The highlights, using Golden's words:

• "The positives are that we competed. We knocked two of their players out and hit their quarterback a ton. Our kicking game, which we placed a great emphasis on, we did a great job and (punter) Jake Brownell did a great job and had three balls downed inside the 12.
  
  
• "Another one, we played 18 freshmen in the game. I'm excited about both those quarterbacks. ...
  
  
• "Adam (DiMichele) is our starter right now and Vaughn (Charlton) was a little bit nervous during the game and a little bit nervous in the pre-game and that's not untypical of that situation. He's got those first-game jitters out of the way and we'll just have to move forward.
  
  
• "We won the hidden yardage game and when you can punt and change the field and not get points, it's the function of something else. We didn't execute well enough on offense."
  

Golden also said he "doesn't know what Ben's status is," meaning starting tight end Ben Hendy (broken thumb) and his availability for the Saturday noon home opener against Lousiville at Lincoln Financial Field (seating chart pictured above).
He also praised true freshman linebacker Junior Galette, who was named the Owls' defensive player of the game.
"Junior is a young man who plays with such a great motor and is one of our more physical players," Golden said. "I don't care what Division 1A program you are looking at, speed is what you are looking for and Junior's got that at that position. He'll be challenged this week by this group coming in and I think he'll respond. He's a tough kid." That's when Golden mentioned Holt would be back in with the starting linebacker group. On Aug. 24, Golden spoke highly of Holt in this New Jersey newspaper story.
Morrison asked Golden if he would considering using two large backs to help protect DiMichele and also on short-down situations at the goal-line.
"It depends, Bob, on what the opponents are doing," Golden said. "Our failure at the goal line was the result of individual breakdowns and not a function of protection. We had some young guys who were not ready for those moments and those looks that we got. The bottom line is to protect the quarterback and we're going to do that."

Golden on Tim Brown:

"When coach (George) DeLeone changed the running attack at halftime, Timmy ran the ball well. Timmy got tired and because we don't talk about injuries, few people know that Timmy missed almost two weeks of training camp. He's not really in condition right now. He made it for 6 or 7 practices of the 29 practices and I expect him to continue to get the carries and get stronger. ... Timmy's nifty and there's a fine line between hitting the hole and getting your butt through it and Timmy's just going to have to do that (in goal-line situations)."

On the play at the goal line:

"I made the decision after 2d down we were going to go for it. We had 3rd and a foot and I told George to use 2 plays do it right here but we lost yardage and and once it's 4th and 3 that's a completely different animal. We screwed up the execution of that play on third down we had a player go the wrong way."

Altenberger mentioned that the offensive line seemed to get worn down in Buffalo and mentioned the use of a fullback in short-down situations.
"In terms of the offensive line, we'd like to have more depth at that position," Golden said. "Any way you can move the chains, we're going to find a way to do it."
Golden on the penalties:

"We counted 9 in the game and that's not one of the characteristics I want of my team. I'll tell you the one that really killed us came start of the second half. We got the ball to the 45-yard line and got called for a block in the back and I looked at the films and today this is a mystery call. I already sent it in to the MAC (for review). It came at a critical junction of the second half. We had a chance to start at midfield and we get pushed back to the 13. That really hurt us."