Blue-chip QB recruit's favorite color: Cherry

Some excellent Chris Coyer video is on Oaktonfootball.com


... Recruiting Quote of the Season: "I'm super excited for Temple. They are going in the right direction and they have the greatest bunch of guys I've ever met." ... Immaculata (N.J.) four-star lineman Cody Bohler, upon giving the Owls a solid verbal in November ...



By Mike Gibson
When it comes to Temple football recruiting the past couple of weeks, I can only think an exchange in an old war movie.
The Marines are on some island, maybe Guam, maybe Guadalcanal, and the Japanese are nearby, inching their way through the grass in the pitch dark.
The only sound you hear is crickets, though.
"It's quiet out there," one Marine whispers.
"I don't like it; it's too quiet," another says.
Then all hell breaks loose when one of the Japanese activates a trip wire and an attached mine explodes.
Bombs, machine guns, flares.

The Chris Coyer File
Height: 6-3
Weight: 221
40 speed: 4.64
Passes attempted: 142
Passes completed: 94
Percentage: 67
Yards passing: 1,407
Touchdown passes: 17
Interceptions: 4
Yards rushing: 1,287
Touchdown runs: 15
Sr. Record: 13-1*
*Really, 13-0, due
to early injury in
state title loss

So, too, is it with Temple recruiting.
It's been a couple of weeks since the Kadeem Custis verbal and nothing has happened.
It's a little too quiet for my taste, but from all reports I've been hearing quarterback Chris Coyer is about to activate a trip wire soon.
Maybe very soon, if not in a few days than a week or two.
If so, all hell will break loose in the bowels of Edberg-Olson Hall, the $7 million state-of-the-art training facility of the Temple Owls.
Instead of flares and machine guns, expect champagne corks to be popping. Or at least a celebratory can of Diet Pepsi.
Either way, getting Chris would be a major coup for Al Golden and company.
Look at it this way.
Already in the program is the top wide receiver in the state of Pennsylvania last year, Vaughn Carraway, the top running back from the New Jersey class of 2005, Kee-Ayre Griffin, the Newark Star-Ledger's defensive player of the year in Aaron Hush and the top lineman in Philadelphia in 6-5, 275-pound Kadeem Custis.
Coyer, if he picks Temple, can throw to Jason Harper, the Newark Star-Ledger Player of the Year in 2005, and Marquise Liverpool who, coming out of Don Bosco High was ranked one of the top 25 wide receivers in the country.
Weapons?
Coyer will have a Rambo-like arsenal of weapons to throw and hand off to once he steps on campus at Temple.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, recent recruits from Golden's first few classes.
If they get Coyer, the Owls will have their marquee quarterback recruit they've been targeting for awhile and maybe the final piece of a well-conceived puzzle. Quite possibly, they'll have the first sustained lefty starter (they've had one or two for a couple games at a time) in Temple football history.
Coyer would provide a couple of things the Owls don't currently have among their stable of quarterbacks.
Depth, and elusiveness.
Temple only has two current scholarship quarterbacks, Vaughn Charlton and Chester Stewart, who are talented pocket passers, as Coyer is, but neither has shown an ability to tuck the ball away and get a first down should the protection break down. I've watched Charlton and Stewart for two years and both can throw the long ball, but I haven't seen either escape the rush on a consistent basis.

It's a sixth sense, feeling the rush and getting out of there when absolutely necessary and then doing something positive with the ball.
I know Charlton and Stewart have five senses. I'm just not sure about the sixth.

It's a sixth sense, feeling the rush and getting out of there when absolutely necessary and then doing something positive with the ball.
I know Charlton and Stewart have five senses. I'm just not sure about the sixth.
That characteristic came in handy for dearly departed quarterback Adam DiMichele (sniff, sniff, read my tribute to him here) and it might serve the next Temple quarterback well, whoever he is.
I'd prefer the Owls go after a more polished signal-caller, like Garrett Barnas, but true freshmen have been making a positive impact all over the country, so it can happen at Temple, too, with the right combination of talent and maturity.
Coyer has shown not only that ability, but the ability to turn that tuck into a 60-plus-yard score on any given play.
Coyer now has offers from Central Michigan, Temple and Ohio University and lately Ohio State has gotten involved.
Time is running out, though, and Temple coach Al Golden has to decide whether it's Coyer or another player who will get the scholarship. Coyer likes Temple because it's a short drive for his family and friends, hence an announcement could be imminent.
Temple already recruited a scholarship quarterback in Mark Giubilato, but rumblings are now that he will be designated as an "athlete" and looked at on the defensive side of the ball. At least that's what another recruit target, Danville's Andrew Shoop, told Scout.com's regional recruiting coordinator Bob Lichtenfels. That interview was available to only pay Scout.com subscribers, so I can't provide a link but Shoop said that was the essence of a recruiting conversation with Temple offensive coordinator Matt Rhule.
It's all about moving the chains and keeping drives alive in big-time college football these days.
A dual threat like Coyer doubles those chances.