No Happy Ending in Happy Valley again

Owls must swarm to the ball like this on every play against Buffalo.

My doctor has a Penn State mural that I have to look at when I go for my annual checkup.
It's one of Joe Paterno leading the football team down the main street at State College, presumably during a pep rally. If you haven't guessed by now, my doctor is a PSU grad.
We always have some small talk about the mural, then he asks me about Temple football.
He just shakes his head from side to side.

Al Golden's RX: WIN ... THE .. GAME!!!!!

It's THAT look, the one every Temple fan seems to get all the time, the "why bother" look.
"I don't think they are going to do it," he said, never referring to what it is but I know what he means.
I tell him with the right coach, Wayne Hardin, they did do it once and what was done before can be done again. Hardin won 80 games (and lost only 51) against a schedule tougher than the current MAC one the Owls play. I tell my doc another coach, Bruce Arians, went 6-5 against a schedule that was ranked No. 10 in the nation one year.
Both had far less tools to work with than Al Golden does now.
I tell him, with the right coach, that someday the Owls will be competitive with Penn State and by competitive I mean final score and a drive at the end of the game deciding it either way. I tell him it happened before against better Penn State teams. I tell him if Central Michigan can beat Michigan State, we will have our day against Penn State.
He just shakes his head and gives me that look.
That was my No. 1 goal going into today's game: Getting rid of THAT look forever.
It didn't happen because James Nixon dropped a ball he should have held onto and it didn't happen because we went for a trick play on 4th and 1 a couple of times when we could have run the ball and probably gotten the first downs.

The final score was 31-6, but add that touchdown Nixon should have had and add that touchdown or two we might have gotten except for those funky 4th and 1 calls and it could have been 31-20 or better.
I'm tired of adding imaginary points. I want real ones now and a lot of them.

The final score was 31-6, but add that touchdown Nixon should have had and add that touchdown or two we might have gotten except for those funky 4th and 1 calls and it could have been 31-20 or better.
I'm tired of adding imaginary points.
I want real ones now and a lot of them.
Could have, would have, that's what I'm tired of at this point.
This is Year Four of the Al Golden Regime. He's had four recruiting classes. There are no excuses now.
Other programs, like Toledo, Navy and Rutgers, have beaten PSU over the last 30 or so years.

How come Penn, a FREAKING Ivy League team, can hold Villanova to 14 points and we can't? I lay these first two games at the feet of the coaching staff.

Why not us?
Why not?
Just a guess, but probably because we look confused out there at times. How come the Penn State offense doesn't need to constantly look over to the sideline before they snap the ball? The Lions get a lot more done, too.
How come Penn, a FREAKING Ivy League team, can hold Villanova to 14 points and we can't?
I lay these first two games at the feet of the coaching staff.
They can't do anything about the fumbles or the dropped passes, but they can get this Keystone Cops look on offense fixed. They can blitz more on defense.
So while other Temple fans might have been encouraged by this latest outing, I wasn't.
I'm looking at a two-game body of work and what I see is Roseanne Barr-ugly. No amount of make-up is going to make that big fat pig look good.
Or this one: Oh and two is just that. Zero and two.
Temple fans deserve no less than a long winning streak starting this Saturday and could haves and should haves won't cut it anymore.
Al Golden's charge is simple and you can write this is big, bold letters: HE MUST WIN SEVEN OF HIS NEXT 10 GAMES. At least. I will take all 10, but I guess I'm more greedy than Al is. He would have had to win only six if not for the Villanova debacle, but that was his fault so he gets no Mulligan for that game. He must make it up down the line.
I don't want to write about should haves anymore.
I want to write about great touchdowns, lots of them, and great defensive stops, lots of them.
The talent is here.
In 10 weeks, we'll find out if the coaching is, too.
Five and six wins is just unacceptable anymore. Unacceptable.
Over these next 10 games we will find out if Al Golden is the right coach.
Winning, not coming close, not "enjoying the game" should be the only standard by which to judge him now.
It's Time.
Buffalo is the biggest game of the year... be there and make noise. If you don't have tickets, click here: