Surprisingly, there is some buzz for Kent State

By Mike Gibson
On my day off Wednesday, I stopped at my neighborhood LA Fitness Club in the Andorra Shopping Center.
(Well, it's not my neighborhood but it's the closest LA Fitness Club to Center City.)
Since it was in the middle of the afternoon, there were only a couple of other guys in the locker room. Both of them were in their mid-to-late 20s.
After they exchanged some small talk about their kids, I overheard this exchange:
First guy: "I've got some tickets to the Kent State vs. Temple game on Saturday. I think I'll go."
Second guy: "I'm going, too. Where are you sitting?"
First guy: "I don't know. I'll go back and check and let you know by email."
Second guy: "I was thinking about going up to Penn State to see them play, but I decided on the Kent game instead. I really think they have a chance to win."
First guy: "Those 62-0 scores were getting old, but I think they competed at Vanderbilt and I think they are going to get better. I want to see them play at home."
By this time, I was impressed.
Talk from young guys about Temple football and no gratuitous shots.
I was impressed. Surprised and impressed.
I spoke up.
"What do you know," I said, "all three people in this locker room are going to the Kent State-Temple game."
Those two guys were friends and I was a stranger, but they immediately included me in the conversation.
"I know it's only Kent State, but this would be big for them," the first guy said. "They really have to show people they can make that step from being bad to getting a little better to winning. I hope this is the week they do it."
"Me, too," the second guy said.
One guy had no connection to Temple other than he was from Philly and wanted, desperately he said, to see a competitive Division IA team in town and Temple was the only school trying to be competitive.
The other was a grad with some passing interest in the team, saying he tries to take in a game once every year.
Both said if Temple started winning they'd come to every game.
This represents the great untapped market Al Golden is trying to reach.
Philadelphians and Temple people wanting to see a representative Temple football team take the field.
As Golden said on Fan Fest Day, "what you see behind me is just the tip of the iceberg of what we can accomplish here in Philadelphia."
Win on Saturday, Al, and that iceberg slowly begins to melt.