Envelope please: The last scholarship goes to ....

Dick Beck (left) paid Temple forward by producing kicker Brandon McManus.
By Mike Gibson
It's all over but the shouting.
Or, in this case, the shout outs, via texting and phone calls.
Nobody does that better than the current Temple football coaching staff.

2009 Temple Football Recruits
According to Scout.com's list.
According to Rivals.com's list.

Nobody works harder to get verbals than Al Golden and company and nobody works harder than Al and and the guys on his staff to keep them.
Once again, Mark D'Onofrio worked his magic in New Jersey where the Owls landed a healthy portion of this year's class. D'Onofrio is as aggressive in his job at Temple as he was on the field at Penn State.
And that's good for us.
So D'Onofrio, a Temple treasure in my mind, deserves an extra special shout out from this corner.
So does Golden, Matt Rhule, Ed Foley and every member of the staff.
Since there are no more scholarships left, it's time to analyze the current crop.
I think this class is the best of the four Al Golden classes and, more importantly, the most complementary. It won't say that on Scout.com or Rivals.com because they are only interested in the three- and four-star guys. The reality, though, is that this is the best. Need areas were addressed that weren't completely addressed in prior classes.
When we went into this recruiting season, I said we needed at least three need areas addressed:

• A big-time JUCO QB who can throw on the run and had a solid record of achievement (I really wanted Adam DiMichele back, but no amount of sweet-talking the NCAA is going to get me that medical redshirt);
  
• A big-time fullback who can get the short yardage when needed;
  
• A big-time kicker;
  

We got the kicker and the fullback in Brandon McManus of North Penn and Blaze Caponegro of Wall Township.
I will now hold my breath and live without the quarterback, Garrett Barnas, who will now play out the final two years of his college career elsewhere. I hope and pray Barnas gets a shot at 1A ball. The two-time All-American JUCO QB got royally screwed by Syracuse, who pulled his scholarship a month after he became the first verbal of the current Orange recruiting class. Barnas is a class kid, a 3.4 GPA, by all accounts a superb leader, an incredible athlete (holds the Illinois state record in the 110 hurdles) and can throw BBs and the deep ball on the dead run, just like Adam DiMichele.
Oh yeah. One more thing. He wanted to play at Temple.
He could have easily been the last verbal of Temple's recruiting class.
Give the Temple coaches some props, though. They took a long, hard look at his highlights and said they'd love to have him but didn't want to commit three QB scholarships in the one class.
Which brings me to the final scholarship recipient, another quarterback who can move and has a high record of achievement, Chris Coyer, who committed the night the Owls were blowing kisses at Barnas (figuratively speaking, of course).
Chris, of Oakton High in Vienna (Va.) appears to be the final scholarship in this class.
What was that they say in the Bible?
"The last shall be first and the first shall be last."
Well, that's been the case for a lot of players who got the last available Temple scholarship.
Kee-Ayre Griffin of St. Peter's Prep (N.J.) got the last scholarship from Golden's first class. Temple fans had to wait a couple of years for him to arrive on campus, but he's shown flashes of greatness so far as the Owls' starting tailback.
That's worked out pretty well, I'd say.
Often, our last available scholarship has turned out to be our best player.
When I worked at the Doylestown Intelligencer, I did a story on a senior offensive guard named Dick Beck. He was by far the best offensive lineman I had ever seen play high school football in the dynamic Central Bucks West program, yet was largely under-recruited.
I asked Dick who was recruiting him.
"Towson State and West Chester State," Dick said.
"Whoa, hold the phone, Dick," I said.
I immediately started a letter-writing campaign for Dick to play at Temple.
I wrote letters to then-Temple coach Bruce Arians and sent him the story I wrote about Beck. I also sent Arians a DVD (in those days known as a VHS tape).
Bruce wrote me back (before the days of email), "Mike, I love the kid, too. We project him as a center. He's a little small and I'm involved with two other bigger centers. If those two guys fall through, we'll see what we can do."
I wrote back and said I've never seen an offensive guard (he was that then) pancake so many defenders on one play so consistently and in so many games. Those two guys Arians talked about fell through. Dick Beck got the last Temple scholarship. He then became the sole captain of Temple's last winning team, the 1990 squad that went 7-4.
When Dick committed, CB West head coach Mike Pettine (Sr., not the Jets' defensive coordinator) called me and gave me the exclusive.
"Bruce told us the story and all I want to say is that Dick owes you a dinner," Mike said.
Dick never took me to dinner.
Being a captain of a 7-4 Temple team is paid in full in my eyes.
Now Beck has become a spectacular head coach at North Penn (his record is 83-15 with one large school state title) and has paid Temple forward with a terrific kicker, Brandon McManus, who will win a lot of games for Temple.
I have a feeling Coyer will follow this legacy and make Temple very proud as well.