No reason Owls can't win seven or eight

By Mike Gibson
I have to laugh when I hear mostly sports talk radio types go down a potential football schedule and say, "Well, that's a win." Then, "Well, that's a loss."
The incredibly boring Glen Macnow, who is as uninteresting as both Mike and the Mad Dog (WFAN, New York) are entertaining, loves this style of sports talkdom.
It's almost always an exercise in futility.
Take the Eagles' schedule of two years ago.
The Birds had an incredibly tough stretch run of three division games on the road at the end of the season.
"They better get to to 10 before then," Macnow said. "They ain't winning any of those."
Well, they got a hot quarterback, a guy named Jeff Garcia, and won all three.
Garcia isn't an Adam DiMichele clone (it's more the other way around) but Adam DiMichele's game reminds me so much of Jeff Garcia's it isn't funny.
Good arm, but better heart, determination and moxie.
The town of Philadelphia fell in love with Jeff Garcia.
By December, it will fall in love with Adam DiMichele.

None of those four
are unbeatable
and a heavily-pro Temple
crowd in the opener could turn
the UConn game into a rout.

With DiMichele, there is no reason the Owls can't win seven or eight of these games.
NO reason at all.
I won't go down the following list and say well this is a win and that's a loss because I believe to get to eight some "wins" will be "losses" and some losses will be wins.
Let me say this right now: There is not one (1) game on the schedule the Owls can't win and there is not one (1) game on the schedule the Owls can't lose.
Yes, that includes Penn State.
It's almost never the eight you or I think it is but here, on July 22, are the "qualified" wins:
Army, Navy, Buffalo, Western Michigan, Kent State, Eastern Michigan, Ohio, Akron.
The "qualified" losses are:
UConn, Penn State, Central Michigan and Miami.
None of those four are unbeatable and a heavily-pro Temple crowd in the opener could turn the UConn game into a rout. Based on the Navy opener of last year, where the Middies brought a disappointing 2,000 fans while the rest of the stadium (28,000 fans) were wearing Cherry and White, I fully expect a pro-Temple crowd. If the crowd is 32K, my guess is UConn will bring up to 12,000 fans. Temple will bring at least 20,000. If it's 30K, UConn will bring 10K and Temple 20K.
It's going to be a one-sided Temple crowd in any event, especially given the revenge motive.
But there's no reason, right now, you can't get eight wins out of this schedule.
My eight might not be your eight but, in any case, eight would be great and nine would be just fine if you add UConn into this volatile and always dangerous speculative mix.

2008 TEMPLE OWLS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE


Day Date Opponent Time TV
Fri. Aug. 29 at Army 7:00 p.m. (ESPN Classic)
Sat. Sept. 6 Connecticut Noon (ESPNU)
Sat. Sept. 13 at Buffalo Noon (ESPN Regional)
Sat. Sept. 20 at Penn State Noon (Big Ten Network)
Sat. Sept. 27 Western Michigan 2:00 p.m. Homecoming
Sat. Oct. 4 at Miami-Ohio 3:30 p.m. (ONN)
Sat. Oct. 11 at Central Michigan 4:00 p.m.
Tue. Oct. 21 Ohio 8:00 p.m. (ESPN2)
Sat. Nov. 1 at Navy 3:30 p.m. (CSTV)
Wed. Nov. 12 at Kent State 8:00 p.m. (ESPN2 or ESPN360)
Sat. Nov. 22 Eastern Michigan 1:00 p.m.
Fri. Nov. 28 Akron 1:00 p.m.
Sat. Dec. 5 MAC Championship Game 8:00 p.m. ESPN2