DiMichele, Derenthal, Francis ... as good as it gets

By Mike Gibson
When a bunch of old guys get together to compare players from past eras with the current ones, almost without fail the young guys can't compare.
That's been pretty much true with me over the years, but not this year.

Saturday
1 p.m.
Temple vs.
Eastern Michigan
TV: None
Radio: 1210AM
Weather: At kickoff,
32 degrees, breezy
and partly sunny;
Ticket specials:
Bring a canned food
item and get
a $5 ticket;
Purchase adult
ticket and get
a child in for
a $5 ticket;
World Series
trophy will be
on display
starting at 11:30

I've been to every Temple home game for the past 37 years and I will go on record right now that there are three players on the current Owl squad who are every bit as good at their position than any former Owl and one guy, Bruce Francis, who is flat-out the best Temple receiver I've ever seen.
Yes, that includes Gerald "Sweet Feet" Lucear and Steve Watson and Pete Righi and Randy Grossman.
This season is sad for a lot of reasons, but none include these wonderful representatives of Temple University.
They deserved a better fate.
They deserve at the minimum to win their last two games. They really deserve to go to a bowl.
The tale of the tape:
ALEX DERENTHAL, center _ Because of the Rimington Watch List hype, I've made it a hobby to point the binoculars at No. 59 as much as I could and go back and watch the tape of the TV games. Alex is good, real good. There's a reason you don't see guys coming right up the middle at Adam DiMichele and his name is Alex Derenthal. He's real good at picking off the loose defender, who might otherwise kill the QB. Donny Klein of the 2002 team was a great leader as a center and my favorite Owl of that year and so was Dick Beck, the captain of the 1990 team, but Derenthal is in the conversation with those guys and just as good.
ADAM DIMICHELE, quarterback _ The 3-7 record is not his fault. He's a 7-3 quarterback playing on a 3-7 team. Look at it this way: When it was his turn to make a big play at Navy, he did, hitting an incredibly clutch 3d and 6 pass on the dead run for a first down. He was the guy who delivered the bomb right into Travis Shelton's hands that would have made it a 13-3 game against UConn. He was the guy who drove the Owls down the field with 38 seconds left for what should have been the winning touchdown at Buffalo. In my mind, he's better than that "second tier" of Owl quarterbacks that included Tim Riordan, Henry Burris and Matty Baker, three terrific quarterbacks. He might not be as good as Steve Joachim, Brian Broomell or Marty Ginestra but that even could be debated. Joachim, another guy who transferred from Penn State, was named National College Player of the Year by the Maxwell Club for quarterbacking the Owls to a 9-1 record. For my money, though, DiMichele is every bit the leader Steve Joachim was and that's not taking a thing away from Steve. Broomell and Joachim were more talented, but this kid's heart is just as strong.
BRUCE FRANCIS, wide receiver _ I'm willing to bet a significant amount of my inheritance to anyone who shows up at the tailgate Saturday that Bruce Francis will be on an NFL roster next year. As I have written many times this season, I don't remember ever seeing a Temple receiver who NOBODY ... and I mean NOBODY _ can cover. That includes players like Steve Watson (Denver Broncos), Leslie Shepard (Washington Redskins) and Randy Grossman (Pittsburgh Steelers). Nobody can cover Bruce Francis. If I was the Owls' offensive coordinator, I would play everything off BF. Pitch and catch to BF until the defense puts two guys on him. Chances are Bruce shakes the first guy and scores anyway. Then drop back, pump fake to BF and run the underneath draw to Kee-Ayre Griffin. Roll right, look across the field to BF and hit the tight end over the middle. Or drop back, pump fake to BF and throw across the field to James Nixon. Then reset the whole thing and come back to BF again. The thing that separates him from "Sweet Feet" Lucear was that you could, at times, cover Gerald. This Francis kid is running free through some pretty good seconardies on a consistent basis. Get him the ball.
Despite the fact that Bruce Francis set records this year, he was underutilized. I believed that all season. I believe it now. He would have made the offense so much more effective had everything been run through him.
There are plenty of reasons not to attend the last two games. A lot of fans are disappointed, especially me. But I will be proud to go to support Nos. 59, 82 and 13 for leaving everything they had on the field for this program, the school and the fans.