Bernard Who?

Villanova (and Rutgers and South Florida, among others) have never seen anything like Montel Harris.


What can be said about Montel Harris that hasn't already been said?
We all know the facts, that Harris was the second-leading rusher in the HISTORY of the ACC, that he was LAST YEAR'S runaway choice for Preseason Player of the Year in that same conference, that he once ran for 252 yards and five touchdowns in a 52-28 win over North Carolina State and had 22 games of over 100 yards against ACC teams such as Florida State, Virginia Tech and Miami.
Much bigger-time teams than even the ones he will be facing in the Big East.

David Wilson and Luke Kuechly were first-round NFL picks.
Danny O'Brien is the starting QB at Wisconsin. Few considered
them nearly as good as Montel Harris in the ACC media poll.

All I was interested in finding out Tuesday during a media sitdown with the new Temple running back (and quite possibly this year's Big East Player of the Year) was finding out if Montel Harris was 100 percent because, if he is, he will make people forget Bernard Pierce.
No bigger Bernard Pierce fan than me but, as good as Pierce was (and still is), a healthy Harris is better.
There's a lot of empirical evidence out there to suggest that. Harris had more yards in a much higher level of football playing roughly the same number of games as Pierce did.
Harris says he's 100 percent. I believe him.
If that holds up, people might be saying Bernard Who if not by September, then certainly by October.
He says he's fine and so does head coach Steve Addazio and the cuts he made on the field on Tuesday said so the loudest.
"I'm feeling 100 percent," Harris said. "The knee is good. It was the left knee, but most people aren't able to tell."
When I first saw the many video highlights of Harris, his running style reminded me a lot of not Pierce, but Matt Brown, the other half of Temple's 1-2 running punch. Harris is bigger and heavier. Brown might be a tad faster. Both are tough and both can make runners miss and make what Addazio calls "explosive plays" downfield. Throw in a great running quarterback like Chris Coyer and a spread offense that opens the field up and a few bulbs could break this year on the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard.
"I'm a balanced runner able to make things happen in the open field but also able to break tackles," Harris said.
Even though Harris ran into some trouble at Boston College, I think he will be a solid citizen at Temple.
"I'm just here to say I'm here to play football and I'm a great football player and I have great character off the field," Harris said.
Everyone at the E-O has known that for the past month or so.
In eight days, the seamless transition from BP to MH could become just an unquestioned upgrade to Temple's fans.

ACC's 2d-leading all-time rusher coming to TU?

First, Temple recruited Montrell Dobbs as a possible long-term replacement for Bernard Pierce. Now, Montel Harris seems to be at least a POSSIBLE short-term solution, according to CBS and BC Interruption.
 Everybody knows the REAL replacement for Pierce is our very own Matty Brown, who was Temple's No. 1 all-purpose back last season. If Harris, as rumored, comes to Temple he will be eligible to play immediately since he will likely be graduating from Boston College in a couple of weeks, the so-called Russell Wilson Rule.

Tweet by Bruce Feldman on Tuesday.

Wilson graduated from North Carolina State and was able to finish his career at Wisconsin. Dobbs is sitting out a year and is positioning himself an interesting No. 1 fight between himself, Jalen Fitzpatrick (who could be a slot receiver), Khalif Herbin (who also could play slot), Brandon Peoples and Jamie Gilmore for the top spot on the 2013 Owls. Maybe one or more of those guys could be redshirted if Harris arrives on campus.
So Temple should be able to make a smooth transition from the Brown/Pierce Era to an equally impressive stable of tailbacks.
The difference between Montel and Montrell is that Montel will be able to play right away.
IF Harris comes to Temple, somebody is giving him very good advice. If he enters the NFL supplemental draft coming off a knee injury, he has virtually no chance to make an NFL roster. If he enters the NFL draft coming off a strong senior year at Temple, he's got a good chance to do it as a first-round draft choice.
Pierce would have had the same opportunity if he had followed Steve Addazio's advice to remain at Temple one more season.
 IF Harris comes, and that's still a big if as of this minute, he will come with Pierce-like credentials. In fact, Harris is the second-leading all-time rusher in the history of Boston College and that's impressive in itself. He would have entered this season as a prohibitive favorite to break Ted Brown's ACC career rushing record that stood since 1979. Harris came into the 2011 season as the ACC's preseason Player of the Year, but obtained a medical redshirt after hurting his knee in the first game.

If he doesn't come, Temple will be fine at tailback. If one of the incoming freshman don't pan out, Jalen Fitzpatrick can be an impact player at that position, just like Brown has been. Temple has more depth at that position than in the kicking game, put it that way.
Harris was kicked off err, asked to leave, the Boston College team for unspecified reasons, but if he comes here he would do so with the blessing of two top BC assistants who are now at Temple, quarterbacks' coach Kevin Rogers and offensive coordinator Ryan Day. Obviously, they know the kid and, if they vouch for him, Steve Addazio would likely give him another chance.

IF Harris comes to Temple, somebody is giving him very good advice. If he enters the NFL supplemental draft coming off a knee injury, he has virtually no chance to make an NFL roster. If he enters the NFL draft coming off a strong senior year at Temple, he's got a good chance to do it as a first-round draft choice.

Matt Brown, in my mind, would share the No. 1 tailback spot in the same way he shared it with Pierce. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement for both and one that figures to be a mutually beneficial one for Temple as well.
Heck, it's not as if a tailback has never been injured.
 Between Paul Palmer, Pierce, Brown and guys like Todd McNair and Stacey Mack (and now both Montel and Montrell as well as Peoples and Gilmore), you could make a case for Temple being Tailback U.
With a distinctive Capital T.
Interesting footnote on this story. In the Owlsports.com Cherry and White game notes, it said "Matt Brown is wearing No. 2 for the spring game. His number in the fall is yet to be determined." I wondered out loud why they didn't just announce he was wearing No. 2 henceforth and, err, Temple football forever.
Harris wears No. 2.
Mystery solved.
Maybe.

Bernard Pierce to Ravens!

Final BE draft standings:
(2012 schools only)
Cincinnati 4
*Temple 3
UConn 1
Rutgers 1
Syracuse 1
USF 0
Pitt 0
Louisville 0
*Pierce (Ravens), Rodriguez (Bears) and Whitehead (Lions) help Owls tie single-season record for most players drafted (1987). Derek Dennis (Carolina), Pat Boyle (Lions), Morkeith Brown (Bucs), Stephen Johnson (Saints), Rod Streater (Oakland), Kevin Kroboth (Eagles), Adrian Robinson (Steelers) and Wayne Tribue (Broncos) sign FA contracts.

As far as I'm concerned, the Ravens got the steal of the draft in the third round when they selected Bernard Pierce.
Baltimore made a trade to move up seven spots to get Pierce.
Pierce was the Pennsylvania state champion in the 100-meter dash as a high school kid four years ago and he runs even faster with the football in his hands.
He's got great vision, a sick burst to the outside, terrific moves in the open field and has the ability to punish tacklers and fall forward for an extra five yards at the end of every play. He's a  much better receiver than people give him credit for (remember, he had Chester Stewart throwing him the ball for much of his three years at Temple). Largely because of Pierce, the Owls ran an offense that eschewed the pass for a power running game.
Ravens play Eagles in game two.
If Pierce starts, I'm not betting on the Eagles that day.

What can Daz do for Brown?

Bernard Pierce and Matty Brown react after Bill Bradshaw tells them about ordering gloves with the Temple T on the palm side.

Social scientists a lot smarter than I am give the three stages of grief as disbelief, disintegration and reintegration.
No doubt when you lose your favorite player from your favorite team as I did last week, there is an element of grief involved and I experienced all of those stages of grief in a relatively short time.
I'm in the reintegration stage, though, because while I grieve over Bernard Pierce's loss, Matty Brown has always been my second-favorite player.

?

No truth to the rumor that this is how the team reacted
when Daz said Spencer Reid was replacing Bernard Pierce.

Bernie and The Bug are gone as a team but the bug is still here. Yet he cannot carry the running game alone, just as Bernie could not carry the running game alone.
At the end of December, head coach Steve Addazio threw out these names as possible sidekicks to Brown next year:
Jalen Fitzpatrick, Darius Johnson, Kenny Harper and Spencer Reid.
Sorry, Steve, I'm not buying it.
Fitzpatrick was a quarterback in high school and never played running back before. Johnson was an undistinguished and pedestrian running back in the Philadelphia Public League, quite possibly the worst high school football league in the state of Pennsylvania. Reid was given a scholarship as a running back despite running a painfully slow 4.6 40, making him slower than two of the Owls' three starting linebackers last year. (Heck, I still think his dad could have afforded a full ride to Temple, saving that scholarship for, say, Ryan Brumfield.) Kenny Harper was better known as a safety in high school for Gainesville (Fla.) Buchholz and, quite frankly, did not EVEN REMOTELY show me any flashes of either Pierce or Brown on the limited number of carries he had at that position last year. I sincerely hope that when Justin Gildea moves from strong safety to free safety Harper will slide into the starting strong safety position next year. Both players could be All-MAC on defense right away.
Fitzpatrick would be perfect to slide into Joey Jones' slot receiver spot. Deon Miller returns as one starting wide receiver and the Owls can chose from a whole lot of good options at the other WR, including playmaker Ryan Alderman.
My No. 1 solution would be for Temple to go out and find a big-time stud JUCO running back who is ready to go both on the field and in the classroom. Someone who has Bernard Pierce's vision, speed, moves and quick burst to the outside.
Maybe that someone is Tiger Powell of Lake City, Fla.
Maybe it is someone else.
If Temple is not going to sign a big-time stud JUCO running back who is ready to go next year, there are better options available (some involve shuffling of personnel from offense to defense):

Brandon Peoples, Archbishop Wood _ It's tough to ask an incoming freshman to make an impact right away but Brandon has the right initials. Another BP had 268 yards and three touchdowns in a 28-24 win at Navy as a true freshman, so maybe Brandon can duplicate that effort. He's 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, though. Pierce is 6-1, 218. Peoples is not competing for the PIAA state 100-meter dash championship. At Peoples' age, Pierce won it.

Nate Smith, like BP, has a nose for the goal line.

Nate Smith, current starting linebacker candidate _ This is my personal choice on the current team to help out Matty Brown, leaving the two current linebacker starters in place. Smith has the size (6-0, 220) of Pierce and is just a tenth of a second slower than Pierce. As a senior at Highland Park (N.J.), he was unstoppable, rushing for 2,442 yards and 32 touchdowns. That's five more touchdowns than Bernard Pierce scored for Temple in this record-breaking year. Brother of former Philadelphia Eagle L.J. Smith so he's got very good bloodlines.  Nate has been a lifelong Owl, going from the Highland Park Owls to the Temple Owls.

Wyatt Benson (6-0, 215), current starting fullback _ Benson, a blocker extraordinaire, could play his current position and pick up five to 10 carries a game to take some of the rushing load off Brown and quarterback Chris Coyer. He finished his prep career at Haverford School (the Inter-Ac, unlike the Public, is a GREAT high school league) with 663 rushing yards, 217 receiving yards and 18 touchdowns.

Ahkeem Smith, current starting linebacker _ Started out as a backup running back to both Pierce and Brown at Temple. As a senior at Bethlehem Liberty, was a superstar running back in a great Lehigh Valley League with 27 touchdowns and 1,837 yards in his senior year. Showed the current coaches his running ability by scoring a touchdown against Buffalo on a fake punt.

Blaze Caponegro, current starting linebacker _ The 2008 Shore Conference Player of the Year ran for 350 yards against Manasquan (yes, that was 350 yards in just one game), scoring five touchdowns. So he knows how to run the football.

BP is gone, but not forgotten

This great photo of BP's final home game turned out to be prophetic.
Photo by Mike Edwards

Section 121, Row 22, seat 1 just got a whole lot quieter today and the season is still nine months away.
Bernard Pierce declared for the NFL draft, according to the Associated Press late Thursday night.
The noise coming from that seat for the last three years was a loud "GIVE THE BALL TO THE FRANCHISE!" and The Franchise was Bernard Pierce.
Now the franchise will have to be Matty Brown.

"We're going to keep moving along. We're going to have a good football team. That's going to happen."
_ Steve Addazio

As much as I love Matty Brown's game, we saw all too well the limitations Brown had in the final two games of the 2010 season. With Pierce out injured and the box loaded, Brown was largely ineffective against Ohio and at Miami and the Owls lost their final two games.
Have things changed since?
We will find out soon enough.
I can't be as enthusiastic about giving the ball to Brown 25 times a game as I was adamant about giving the ball that much to Pierce.
So while I will be cheering for Brown like mad, he's going to have to show me he can get the short yardage consistently if the defense is crazy enough to load the box against a Chris Coyer-quarterbacked team.
Brown's competitiveness should carry the day, but I also think Addazio's No. 1 recruiting priority is to grab a guy with Pierce's size, speed, vision and burst to the outside.
Good luck with that, Steve.

Why is it that Matt Barkley comes back at USC, Montee Ball comes back at Wisconsin, Landry Jones comes back at Oklahoma and Temple gets screwed by losing Bernard Pierce? Can't the "little guy" ever catch a break?

Brown's competitiveness should carry the running game on most days. That and the knowledge Coyer gives the Owls an added running dimension they did not have in the past five years.
"I kind of understand Matt now," Addazio said. "He's an emotional, competitive guy. Sometimes I put my arm around him and make sure he keeps it in perspective.
"I think he's the best back in the conference next year."
I'm kind of disappointed in Pierce's decision because it is part and parcel of the "rich get richer" mentality that is prevalent in college football today.
Why is it that Matt Barkley comes back at USC, Montee Ball comes back at Wisconsin, Landry Jones comes back at Oklahoma and Temple gets screwed by losing Bernard Pierce?
Can't the "little guy" ever catch a break?
It makes me want to scream.
All of those guys had more to lose than Bernard by coming back and they STILL made the decision to return.
Addazio made clear that he laid it on the table for Pierce, telling him to come back if he's not a first-round draft choice and letting him know that those who advised him otherwise had agendas.
Pierce won't be a first-round pick, but he's not coming back.
"What I'm not going to do is try to impose my will, I'm not doing that," Addazio said. "I'll support his decision. Those are personal decisions. We're going to keep moving along. We're going to have a good football team. That's going to happen."
I think Addazio just might be right. Temple will have a good football team without Bernard Pierce, but my nagging thought is that it would have had a great one with him.
Win them all and it becomes a moot point, but that's a high bar to set for a 5-foot-5, 150-pound guy.

Palmer would be flattered by Pierce comic book

The front and back covers of the Paul Palmer comic book.

This may or may not be a moot point, depending upon whether or not Bernard Pierce comes back for his senior year, but it's something I had to ask the other great Temple running back.
"Would you mind if Temple used the same comic book campaign for Bernard Pierce than it used for you?" I wrote him.
I just got the reply this morning.
"I'd be flattered," Paul Palmer said.
Heck, I know that Bernard has a tough call in the days ahead.
Not tough for me or Steve Addazio, but for him.

Paul Palmer (middle, between Vinny Testaverde and Brian
Bosworth) at Heisman awards: "I'd be flattered" by
a Bernard Pierce comic book. Notice all three are wearing
Temple-colored ties.

It's Addazio's opinion _ really, the general consensus out there _ that if you are not a sure-fired, stone-cold-lock for first-round pick in the draft, then you should come back and, in his words, "enjoy your senior year and get your degree."
That's reasonable. If there is money now (by comparison a paltry and not guaranteed amount), it only figures to double and triple next year and then it becomes guaranteed money as a No. 1.
I think, and Addazio seems to agree, that Bernard can raise his stock one or two rounds with another solid year at Temple.
And, who knows, if everything breaks right, catapult himself into a Heisman Trophy race.
These are things that are all weighing heavily on Bernard's mind right now, so maybe a little comic relief is in order.
As in comic book relief.
I came out in favor of this comic book as early as Bernard's sophomore year but Temple's promotions people went all high-tech on me with a Facebook page and a Bernard for Heisman website.
Nice, but sometimes the old ideas are the best ones.
Simply replace every Palmer image and stats with those of Pierce and you got yourself a damn good Heisman campaign for 2012 right there. The template and story board is right there. Replacing Palmer's life story and stats with Pierce's should be a snap.
The only missing element would be someone to draw the illustrations.
If the illustrator for that is dead, there's a sports anchor guy in Allentown named Troy Hein who wrote a children's book and has the best illustrator around. Hire that gal (her name is Kathryn Roman).
Heck, Temple would be stealing its own terrific idea and Palmer benefited from it to the tune of a second-place finish in the Heisman Trophy balloting of 1986. The Owls' promotion department send 1,050 comic books to 1,050 Heisman Trophy voters. It was the best $10,000 Temple spent on anything. It came back 10,000,000-fold (that's 10 million) in terms of viewers who saw Temple associated with good football while watching the Heisman Trophy ceremony on CBS-TV that year.
That (and a 1,866-yard season) got Palmer a seat at the table in between Miami's Vinny Testaverde (the eventual winner) and third-place finisher Brian Bosworth of Oklahoma.
It also might have helped Palmer get drafted in the first round.
I've watched every game of both careers and I happen to think Bernard is the better player (sorry, Paul). I usually (though not always) side with the older guys (nobody can tell me that Mo Wilkerson was better than either Joe or Dan Klecko), so that's saying something.
If Bernard comes back, he should get that comic book and whatever help Temple can offer him along the path to a Heisman and a first-round pick.

Addazio's sound advice for Bernard Pierce

One last time, Derek "Bonecrusher" Dennis leads the Diamond Marching Band in bowl-championship T for Temple U. Bernard Pierce will do that after the national title game next year (hopefully).

At this time of the year around the turn of the century (last one, not this one), a young girl named Virginia wrote a letter to a newspaper editor asking if there really was a Santa Claus.
What followed was about the best response to a letter to the editor in the history.

"I've always been a believer if you have a chance to be a first-round pick, that's great. But, if not, I think you come back and get your degree and enjoy your senior year and be a marquee player in the country and all the great things that go with it."

_ Steve Addazio

Steve Addazio isn't an editor, but he gave Bernard Pierce just as good response on whether or not he should enter the NFL draft.
The basic tenant of which was, yes, Bernard, there will be an NFL next year (and the year after that) and if you are not going to be a first-round pick THIS year, stay in school, get that degree, and possibly get guaranteed first-round money NEXT year.
I haven't seen one first-round projection this year, but I can easily envision it after a solid senior season for Bernard.
Here are some highlights from the Addazio press conference:
"I have (sat down with Bernard) and he's got to sit down with his family and evaluate the situation. Those are personal decisions and they've got to make them based off the facts.
"You put your stuff into the NFL and get feedback and let them process the information, that's all you can do. I've got friends in the league and give them feedback. You give him all the information that's factual and doesn't have an agenda to it.

Four of the estimated 6,000 TU fans in Owlbuquerque.
Thanks, CT, for the great photo

"I've always been a believer if you have a chance to be a first-round pick, that's great. But, if not, I think you come back and get your degree and enjoy your senior year and be a marquee player in the country and all the great things that go with it. I'm a guy who deals in facts. I'm not an agenda person. You want the facts, here's the facts. If you want my opinion, then here's my opinion. In this world we're in today, at times, there's a lot of different opinions that have agendas.
"All you can do is offer your help. Do I have all the answers? No. I have some experience in it. All you can do is offer your opinion."
On whether the decision to come out should be made on whether or not he's a first-round pick:
"Me, yeah. That's not just me. That's a pretty strong consensus out there. I mean, Stay in school. Get your degree. Play college football. You are supposed to be in college for four years.
"Guys came out of school early for one reason. The money got so grand in the first round ... I mean, that's why but not to just do it. The NFL is a rough business. Stay in college. Enjoy yourself as long as you can. Get your degree. It's all about getting your degree. Get your life set. Joy is fleeting. Knowledge is everlasting. Don't get away from those fundamentals."
Very profound.
Not exactly as profound as "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" but certainly "Yes, Bernard, there will be an NFL next year" rings just as deeply.
Heck, I've always written that Bernard is a first-round draft pick. I maintained that since his freshman year but that assumption was made on the basis of a four-year career.
If he stays for his senior year, he will be one just as certainly as  there is an  NFL.
Santa Claus?
I'll leave that question for the newspaper editors.

New Mexico Bowl: Final exam for Daz

Dave "Owlified" Gerson's excellent senior highlight video. If there is a "techie" out there who can remix the background music of this from the classical format to D.J. Khaled's "All I Do Is Win" on a loop than get back to me. Love the Ed Benkin call of Joe Jones' touchdown catch and don't love the Harry Donahue call on the Kee-ayre Griffin blocked field goal "running with it is Robinson. Johnson, rather" (which is pretty much a typical Harry Donahue call).

This is going to look awfully good at the E-O.

My good friend Fizzy and I were talking about Steve Addazio's first year as Temple's head coach after the final game of the regular season.
"I'm going to have to give him a C," Fiz said. "Not excellent. Not good. Satisfactory."
Fizzy is a former Temple football great and someone who spent the rest of his life giving out grades for a living as an esteemed educator.
I thought his grade of Daz was a fair one until that point.
I gave him an incomplete because you really can't give Steve Addazio a grade until he completes his finals.
That comes tomorrow (2 p.m., ESPN) in the New Mexico Bowl.
If Temple beats Wyoming to a pulp, 31-14, something on the order I expect it to, Addazio's grade improves to a B+, which is very good. If it's a 28-27 win, it drops to a B.
I could not in fairness give Addazio a B or an A on the basis of his first regular season because I thought he made some key errors in judgment that could have cost the Owls at least a couple of games:

Some that come to mind:

• Removing Mike Gerardi with a lead in the Penn State game. I thought Gerardi was following the "plan to win" until he was removed. The plan to beat Penn State was to avoid turnovers and make plays in the play-action passing game. Gerardi even threw the ball into the ground in the first half of the Penn State game, rather than make a turnover. When Chester Stewart was ineffective, Gerardi was reinserted and I really felt that the pressure went back to Gerardi to make a play in order to keep his job. The result was that he forced the ball into tight windows and Penn State picked him off twice.
• The failure to remove Stewart in the Toledo or Bowling Green games. Stewart was never held to the same high standard Gerardi was and he was allowed to remain in the game Toledo despite throwing two picks. Against Bowling Green, it was painfully apparent he could not move the team. As a result, two games got away from the Owls.
• Not recognizing the talent he had in Chris Coyer. Daz said he was "thisclose" to starting Coyer against Villanova. Had he done that, it's much more likely Temple would have gone 10-2 instead of 8-4. Heck, Villanova was the perfect game to get Coyer's feet wet. Owls would have beaten that sorry ass team, 42-7, with Stewart (suspended for that game), Gerardi, Coyer or Clinton Granger.

Now come the finals on Saturday before an ESPN national television audience.
Daz will ace his final with a 31-14 win and earn my B plus. He can't get an A because I really feel this is the most talented team of the last three years and Al Golden reached a minimum eight with slightly lesser talent.
If he wins this game, though, Daz will accomplish one of the big things he said he would do (see sidebar of this blog) which is to get the team in a bowl game and win it.
That's very good in my book and something Golden never did.
Heck, even a tough marker like Fizzy might be forced to redo his grade as well.

Five 7 reasons why Bernard Pierce should stay

"When I get out of here, I'm going to lay out that guy with the long hair
 from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Troy Polamalu, and the only reason I'm going to be able
 to do that is because I stayed my full time at Temple building my body for the rigors
 of the NFL.  When I do that, you'll know it's a signal from me to you to stay in school."

??

Just as promised, Steve Maneri lays out Palamalu.

??
The subject of my favorite Temple Owl came up with one of my favorite Temple fans in the parking lot before the game last Friday.
"What is Bernard majoring in?" my friend, Chet, said.
"Nuclear physics," I shot back.
Of course I knew Bernard Pierce is majoring in the same thing I majored in at Temple University, Communications. I have that degree on my wall and it is next to my two Associated Press Best Sports Story awards and one Pennsylvania Newspaper Publisher Association award for Best Feature Story.
Without the degree, I don't get a chance to get the other two items framed. Whatever little writing talent I had as a 17-year-old was harnessed into a readable style thanks to Temple profs.
??

Of course, I could never run the ball like Bernard Pierce can but I see a bright future for him in Communications after football and the average work lifespan of a good NFL running back is about five years.

The average work lifespan of a TV guy with a Temple degree is about 60 years longer than that.
Ask Kevin Neghandi of ESPN.

Another reason to come back: Steve Addazio tells funny jokes.

????

If Bernard really was majoring in nuclear physics, I'd advise him to leave.

Since it is Communications and he is thisclose to graduating, he would be a wise Owl to stay.
He's going to run into a lot of shady sports agent characters and they are going to give him a lot of advice designed to get their cut of his money a year early. My best advice (and it's free) for him is to go with the first agent who tells him it is in his best interest to stay.
Five good reasons:

?

Mel Kiper is much more likely
to call Bernard Pierce a No. 1 choice
next year, not this one.

? Draft status _ There are plenty of good running backs coming out including Trent Richardson (Alabama), Lamar Miller (Miami), Montee Ball (Wisconsin), Chris Polk (Washington), Cyrus Gray (Texas A & M) and LaMichael James (Oregon). I know Bernard is better than these guys. You know Bernard is better than these guys but, right now, those guys are rated higher than Bernard. That means he could go as low and third or fourth round. Next year, when he's the unquestioned best (by you, me AND Mel Kiper), he will get guaranteed first-round money and be able to start his own TV station. If he gets drafted in the second round or below, which appears likely, there is no guaranteed money, which means he is an injury away from getting cut and sitting next to me in the stands at Temple games wishing he was out there (just like Big East player of the year Walter Washington sadly did when he got bad advice from an agent and came out early in 2004).

?? ?

Bernard already has a nice suit
ready for next year's Heisman ceremony.

?

The Heisman Trophy _ With Richardson, James and Ball graduating, Bernard has jumped over the field into the top five in next year's Heisman conversation. All the good backs will be gone. He'll be on national TV in the bowl game and every TV guy will be mentioning his name as one to watch in next year's Heisman talk. Also, he's playing Villanova next year in the first game. He should get 500 yards and six touchdowns in that game alone and that should catapult him into the top of the race. Usually, guys who get to the top early stay there at the end. If he stays, I will make it a singular mission to gather up all my Temple communications alumni buddies and get Bernard the Heisman Trophy. What a great thing it would be for him to be at the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan accepting the award that just eluded Temple's Paul Palmer in 1986. Plus, it would set him up for a good TV gig 10 years down the road.

??

No wonder BP has such
great vision.

The Franchise Tag _ Not Temple's, mine. For the past three years, I have been the guy yelling the loudest from the stands: "GIVE THE BALL TO THE FRANCHISE. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT'S FOOTBALL!!" For some reason, I didn't do that in the Kent State game and, after all three BP touchdowns, the two teenage girls sitting in front of me turned around to me, gave me a fist bump, and said: "GIVE THE BALL TO THE FRANCHISE. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT'S FOOTBALL!" I wonder where they got that from? I must've been a bad influence on those kids. If there's no Bernard Pierce next year, I got nothing. Matty Brown will do a nice job, but it won't be the same without The Franchise. Scot Loeffler, you are on your own calling plays. Could get scary.

Tesa, Wayne and Cyrus Tribue

The Mom Factor _ Watching all the moms with their sons on Friday, I thought it would be great if Tammy Pierce would be escorted onto the field by Bernard Pierce for the Senior Day ceremony next year. Tammy has been Bernard's No. 1 fan since Day One. She deserves that day in front of a packed house next year. (And it will be a packed house. Paul Palmer drew over 40,000 to crappy Veterans Stadium for his final home game.)  I met her in the concourse at the Miami game and, without knowing who she was, she said to me: "Nice to meet, you, I'm Bernard Pierce's mom." I stood there with my mouth open for about five seconds before thinking of something to say. "He's my favorite player, I love him," I said (nothing kinky, of course just like a proud adopted uncle). Tammy said, "Well, we do, too." There's a lot more people at Temple who love him than in the NFL. There is no agent out there who loves him like we do.

Ramone looks sad he came back (not!)

Lavoy: All smiles during his senior year.

Ramone Moore and Lavoy Allen _ Like Bernard Pierce, both Ramone Moore and Lavoy Allen filed paperwork with the pros to determine the level of interest. Hopefully, like Ramone and Lavoy, Bernard will make the same determination to come back. Neither guy is far away if Bernard wants to get advice. Lavoy is practicing with the Sixers. Bernard walks by Temple basketball practice on the way to class every day so he can talk to Ramone as well. Just by looking at the smiles on the faces of both guys during their senior years at Temple should be enough for Bernard to want to experience his senior year at Temple as well.

Daz finally figured out how to use Bernard Pierce best.

The Daz Factor _ Both head coach Steve Addazio and offensive coordinator Loeffler finally figured out by the Army game that the best way to use Bernard Pierce was outside the tackle box, not between the hash marks. You hear the term "edge rusher" almost exclusively referring to a defensive player, but Bernard Pierce is the best edge rusher on offense I've ever seen. When Addazio stopped using Pierce between the tackles like he did at Ohio and Bowling Green, we saw the real Bernard Pierce once again. He's got the speed to beat everyone outside on sweeps and tosses. I don't think they will go back to between the tackles again. That will undoubtedly  mean bigger numbers and bigger things for a bigger and better Bernard Pierce in 2012.

?

?

Survive and advance time for Owls

They do allow you to give the ball to the fullback and Wyatt Benson can run.


Survive and advance.
You can toss out all the scenarios you want about Temple having a chance at winning the MAC East if so-and-so beats such-and-such but, simply put, we've reached the "survive and advance" part of the season for Temple.
Win and live another day.

"Please tell Daz to stop using you as a fullback. Toss left, toss right.
Screen passes. Sweeps. That's The Franchise I know."

Photo by Ryan Porter

Lose and there will be no postseason, even though there will be another game to play.
Getting to a bowl game seems possible, even probable, for Temple should the Owls go 8-4 again.
You can forget about a bowl with a 7-5 Temple team.
Lose to Army and it's over.
Yeah, you can say lose to Army and beat Kent and Ohio loses to Miami (and Buffalo finishes ahead of Bowling Green) and the Owls could win the MAC East.
That's way too many variables to leave in other folks' hands.
That's why I'm hoping that Temple goes balls out in practice this week for Army.
Prepare for that option, which I have full confidence Chuck Heater is doing right now.

Joe Jones: Reverses, throwback passes.

Work on getting Bernard Pierce up to speed (and by speed we mean tweaking the offensive package so that he goes right and left and not up the middle).
If you want to run up the middle, hand the ball off to the fullback.
Get Chris Coyer more comfortable in his role, which means to stick the ball into Bernard Pierce's belly and quickly pull it out and make a pass downfield to an open Temple Owl.
Work on the reverses with Joey Jones and throw in a trick play (a throwback pass from Jones to Coyer) or two (a halfback pass by Bernard Pierce). Heck, both Jones and Pierce can throw the ball (they both have a touchdown pass in their careers).
Army knows Jones can throw the ball. His touchdown pass, a nice tight spiral at Army, was Temple's best forward pass last season.
Maybe even fullback Wyatt Benson will get the ball once or twice a game. As good a blocker as he is (and he's a terrific one), he was a stud running back in high school at Haverford School.
Army hasn't seen that part of his game on film yet.
When it is survive and advance, you pull out all of the stops.
Hopefully, that's what practice will be all about this week.

Temple becomes bowl eligible

Any Eagle fan can tell you what the first words out of a famous Temple football father's mouth will be after a win.
Andy Reid will clear his throat, cough a couple of times, and say:
"First off, any win in the National Football League is a good win."

Deon Miller makes nice catch for touchdown.

That's pretty much how I feel about the Mid-American Conference these days.
Any win in the MAC is a good win and Temple's 24-21 bowl-eligible-qualifying win over gritty Miami (Ohio) was a good way to cap one of the most beautiful November days and nights, weather-wise, I can ever remember in my nearly half-century of living in Philadelphia.
The game was not as perfect, mind you, but pretty much what I expected.
Pretty much what all the Temple fans I talked to in the pre-game tailgate expected, too.
"Twelve-and-a-half points is way too high," I said to pretty much everyone.
"Yeah," pretty much everyone replied.
I thought the defense recaptured a little bit of the swagger it lost in the last couple of weeks (heck, it was hard to blame the defense for the Bowling Green loss) and the offense did just enough.
Game-plan wise, I would have liked to seen more first down play-action passes and not being forced into a situation where you HAVE to pass on third down all the time. I don't think Temple mixed it up particularly well on offense. Then again, compared to last year's offensive game plan, it was pure genius.

Dream remains alive
The ONLY scenario Temple can win the MAC East:
(Updated 11:35 a.m., 11/11/11)
Temple wins over Kent
Ohio loses to Miami (assuming it beats BGSU)
(TU, Miami and Ohio all tied
with 5-3 records but TU wins
on basis of second criteria)
Note: If Ohio loses to BGSU but not Miami, Ohio wins tie-breaker
source: MAC League Offices

There were a couple of silly penalties, one a late hit out of bounds and one an offsides, but those things can be fixed in the next week or so of practice.
I was heartened to hear that people behind me were getting text messages from folks watching at home that their enjoyment of watching the Temple game was curtailed because ESPN cut in for a Joe Paterno press conference.
Good.
There is no reason to be living within an hour's drive of the stadium for a Temple home game and watch on TV. If my friends from Palmerton sitting behind me can get by one night of the year on four hours worth of sleep, then so can the Philadelphia couch potatoes who give Temple a bad fan reputation by staying home. I hope they missed a lot of exciting plays because I saw them all. I know Temple has a "softcore" fan base who stay at home and watch every time the Owls are on local TV (ratings indicate it), but that part of the fan base does the team and school irreparable harm by doing so. You can't talk about being in a BCS conference and not travel to a home game.
End of rant.
From a personal standpoint, a highlight of mine was finally getting to meet my favorite player's Mom.
I have three favorite players from the current era, Adrian Robinson, Adam DiMichele and Bernard Pierce, but Pierce is The Franchise in my mind and therefore my favorite. Heck, speaking as someone who saw Paul Palmer play every game, he's flat-out better than Boo-Boo and that's the highest compliment I can ever give anyone. He's faster than Paul Palmer, has better moves and vision in the open field and can deliver more punishment to tacklers. The only facet of Paul's game that was better was his durability.
So Pierce is my favorite Temple player and he has been since his freshman year.
Tammy is Bernard Pierce's mom and while it was sad to see BP not playing (he should be back against Army), it was good to see the entire Pierce family just as wrapped up in the Owls as they would be if he was out there.
Hopefully, when The Franchise finally gets out there, Scot Loeffler will tweak the package for him just enough to get Pierce the ball in open space and not utilize him on "fullback-type"  draws so much. Pitchouts to the wide side of the field and screen passes ought to make Bernard Pierce lethal once again.
Still, you can't say enough about the relief effort of tough hombre Matty Brown. If it wasn't for Matty's 120 yards, there would be no three-point win over a good team.
Even Andy Reid would agree.
Time's yours.

The Final Word on Ball State: OUTFREAKINGSTANDING!

OK, out-freaking-standing is a hyphenated word but that was my one-word reaction watching Temple dismantle Ball State, 42-0, while sitting in a Panera Bread in Montgomeryville and getting free wireless internet.
Outfreakingstanding was not my reaction to the broken feed from the MAC corporate offices.
I missed the first two touchdowns completely while looking at a black screen that said something like "feed broken."
Yeah, I knew that.
I also missed a nice pass to Rod Streater that set up one touchdown.
I felt bad for the kid with the hot brunette and the "Wild Cherry" T-Shirt looking over my shoulder at the black screen. Then I realized he had a hot brunette and I didn't feel so bad for him. I told him the score was 14-0 Temple.

Steve Addazio: Pissed-off Owls

"Aww right," he said.
They left shortly after that.
(Panera Bread is a great date place.)
Back to the game.
All week long, Temple coach Steve Addazio said that he would make things hard on the Owls because he wanted "one pissed-off team" to be playing on Saturday in Muncie.
If so, I want Addazio to do the same thing this week, the same thing next and the same thing the rest of the season.
The Owls played pissed off against Maryland and full of themselves against Toledo and it is obvious that they play a lot better pissed off.
So Daz, you have my permission (and probably those of my fellow Owl fans) to do whatever is necessary to keep pissing them off.
Some other observations:

Great job, Chester Stewart

QUARTERBACKING _ Great job by Chester Stewart. All Chester has to do is complete some downfield passes, hand the ball off to the running backs and protect the football for the Owls to run the table. Chester's most impressive job was ball security. With this defense and this running game, ball security is vital. No interceptions. No fumbles. This game also represents the first time since I've been covering Temple football (30-plus years) that four (4) quarterbacks saw time. It looks like now second-teamer Chris Coyer is averaging 72 yards per carry, probably the highest ypc in all of NCAA football. Two carries and two LONG touchdowns. Nice.

The Franchise showed BSU what PSU already knows.

RUSHING GAME _ Bernard Pierce scored three touchdowns, ran 30 times for 121 yards and broke Paul Palmer's career touchdown record (39) with his 39th, 40th and 41st career touchdowns. The stat of note now is that when Pierce carries the ball 25 times or more Temple is 15-0. Plus, Matty Brown added 114 yards including the highlight reel run of the season so far.
DEFENSE _ After giving up 36 points (mostly not their fault), people got on me about not giving the defense grief. I wrote that much of the defense's problems last week stemmed from the two fumbles and the two interceptions and the multiple three-and-outs. I ended my summation with the phrase "in Heater I trust" and Chuck Heater and his fire-eaters came through once again. Too many of those guys played well to mention two or three. They are a group of gang-tacklers and that's what I love second most about them. First most? Putting the quarterback on his ass, which I've said for years is the best pass defense ever designed by man.

Morry Mannies

BROADCAST _  Morry Mannies, the  Ball State play-by-play guy, must be old. He first called Mike Gerardi "Mark Carchitti" and then called him "Mike Carchardi." Ugh. He also mis-pronounced many other Owl names. His sidekick said his record broadcasting Homecoming Games was "40-17." That's right. Forty and 17, a number that was repeated three times. Forty and 17 is 57. If this guy started out at 21, he's at least 78. And I thought Harry Donahue was old. So if this guy is over 80, I've got to cut him some slack. He also said he sat through a 66-0 loss to St. Joseph's. I assume that's St. Joseph's of Indiana. I'll have to tell him someday that I sat through a 76-0 loss to Pitt once.

The Eve of (Villanova's) Destruction

Once again, we'll let the Lovely Laura be your guide on what to expect tomorrow.

Long before midnight tomorrow night, we'll find out if Steve Addazio can coach.
Despite what many of my Florida Gator friends tell me, I suspect he can. The sign of a great CEO is his knack for surrounding himself with top upper-level management.
Already, for whatever flaws Addazio might have had as an OC, he appears to have this CEO thing down.
What makes me confident is that the guy has surrounded himself with coordinators who might be the two best in college football, regardless of the level.

Chuck Heater was the defensive coordinator at Utah when it went 11-0.
Yeah, Freakin' Utah.
He was the co-defensive coordinator at Florida (with Teryl Austin) over  the past couple of years at Florida.
Don't let the "co" title confuse you.
"I call Chuck Heater Mother Theresa," Florida head coach Urban Meyer said last season. "He's worked miracles with our defense."
That kind of endorsement is good enough for me.
Loeffler was the quarterbacks' coach at Michigan for Tom Brady and at Florida for Tim Tebow.
That's all I needed to hear.
I think he can, and probably will, put this offense in a better position to succeed than Matt Rhule has done.
Addazio, by even his detractors' accounts, is a motivator second to none and an accomplished offensive line coach.
I like what this equation can do for Temple's football team this year.
Addazio's motivation + Loeffler's playcalling/QB developmental skills + Heater's fire-eaters = big-time success for the Owls.
Offensively, I look for Bernard Pierce, "datboy Nard", to run wild over this team. Remember, in the first year, as a true freshman, Pierce gained 66 yards on six carries against the Wildcats despite being cleared by the NCAA to play only a couple days before kickoff. Last year, in the joke move of all joke moves, Al Golden helped Villanova out by alternating Pierce with Matty Brown on every other series.

Adrian Robinson: Three sacks.

Defensively, I look for Adrian Robinson to get three sacks and for guys like Kadeem Custis and Morkeith Brown to be spending more time in Villanova's backfield than the Wildcat quarterbacks and running backs.
We won't have to wait until the second or third game to find out if Temple has the right people in charge.
We'll know by 11 p.m. tomorrow night.
My gut tells me a 55-3 Temple win. My head tells me more like 35-14. The score will probably end up somewhere in between.
Anything less than 35-14 and we're not in as good a shape as I thought.
Don't worry.
The Eve of (Villanova's) Destruction is at hand.

Daz: 'Scot will call the plays'

The Heisman "campaign" may be low-key this year, but nonetheless Scot Loeffler would be one wise Owl if he fueled the Owls' offense with BP oil.

Google "Steve Addazio" on the internet and what you are likely to find is a litany of ramblings from Florida fans, justified or not, complaining about how Steve Addazio "called the plays" for the 2010 Gators.
Steve Addazio has become a synonym of offensive incompentence in their eyes.
I think it's a pretty unfair characterization given that the buck always stopped with Saint Urban Meyer.
So Florida fans are going to love this latest pronoucement from Addazio's lips:
"Scot will call the plays," Daz said on Meet and Greet Day last week.

?

? Scot (one T) is new offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler, a quarterback genius who developed Tom Brady and Chad Henne at Michigan and Tim Tebow at Florida.
Loeffler is a big-time offensive mind who knows how to move the football, probably through osmosis, by now.

"Dude, my boy from Temple Football Forever told
coach Daz to give the ball to No. 30. That seals i t.
I'm putting you down for 20 TDs and 2,011 yards in 2011."

Addazio, on the other hand, is a life-long offensive line coach who appears to be more at home in the trenches. If he's comfortable with making Scot Loeffler the offensive head coach and Chuck Heater the defensive head coach, that makes me comfortable, too.

After meeting Daz for the first time last week, I must admit I was, err, Dazzled.

My sense is that he's probably more suited to being a CEO/Motivator than someone who wants to be micromanaging each individual facet of his organization.

That's got to be good for Temple because being a big-time football head coach is too large a job if you can't hire people you can trust. See Andy Reid and his less-than-stellar NFL draft day record as a case in point.

If all Addazio does is leave the offense up to Loeffler and the defense up to Chuck Heater and take care of the CEO duties and motivates the hell out of the Owls, this  should be the best season yet.

The same guy Florida fans hated so much could be the very one Owl fans come to love.

With the exception of a failure to recruit a high-profile tailback to spell Bernard Pierce, he's pushed all the right buttons so far.

There's only one more button to be pushed.

The last thing I told him was to give the ball to No. 30.

He laughed out loud, that hearty belly laugh that I never heard from Al Golden.

Like any good CEO, I hope he processed the tip and passed it along to Scot.

Orlando Sentinel: Sun Bowl vs. Miami

?

It's not going to be this dark in El Paso on Dec. 31 at 2 p.m.

? Gotta love the MAC.
It's the only conference where you can look reasonably horrible before a small crowd in Ohio in the last regular-season game and get what amounts to a reward.
Win the conference or division and go to Detroit,  Boise or Mobile.
Finish somewhat farther back in the conference and go to El Paso or Las Vegas.
Or D.C.
It was that way last year for the Temple Owls, when they spit the bit at Ohio and lost, 35-17, in the defacto MAC East championship game and got the marquee opponent of the MAC postseason in UCLA before 20,000 Temple fans in D.C.
It appears to be that way again this season, the marquee opponent part, not the D.C. part.
I must admit that I thought the season was, for all intents and purposes, over with a 23-3 loss at Miami.
The Owls would not have been a hot team coming into the postseason.
Their one marquee player has been an injury question mark and they would not bring 20,000 fans on the road with them like they did last year.
Reading the reports, though, I'm thinking that the Owls will find their way to a bowl game, more likely than not in a sunny and warm (err, warmer) climate.
If I had to handicap it today, I would go with these numbers:

• 30 percent chance of Sun Bowl vs. Miami of Florida;
• 20 percent chance of Vegas Bowl vs. Utah;
• 15 percent chance of Humanitarian Bowl vs. Nevada or Fresno State;
• 5 percent chance of "some other bowl";
• 30 percent chance of no bowl;

That's from a selective reading of the situation. So it looks more like bowl than no bowl for Temple.
Orlando Sentinel says the Owls will go to the Sun Bowl to face Miami (Fla.) and I will take that.
The first thing you have to do when you read a bowl projection is skip over the ones that have "bleacher report" written next to the writer's byline.
It's a bunch of Joe Schmoes, like you and me, reports worth money Bleacher Report paid for them _ which is nothing.

?

The MAAC Vegas Bowl in, well, you know.

? The people you have to pay attention to are the ones who are paid and answer to the person paying them.
That's why I'm giving credence to sites like CBSSportsline.com and people like Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated.
Those sites have the Owls going to either the Sun Bowl to play the U (the real Miami) or the Vegas Bowl to play Utah.
I'll take either one.
I will pass on playing Boise or Nevada in Idaho, which is where many of the Joe Schmoes on Bleacher Report have us going. Pass, because it's too much of a hardship for our fans.
The only reason I want to play a bowl is to get this bad taste out of my mouth that I've had the last couple of weeks and I want to be there when it happens. Since I haven't been eating garlic, it must be the losing that's eating at me.
I like what Michael Vick said after the game last night.
"I hate losing. It makes me sick. It makes me ill."
I hear ya, Michael. Losing makes me sick, too, and the only remedy is to win again.
I don't want to wait until next year for the cure.
It's only a reward, though, if you go there (wherever) and win.  I want to see these Owls and especially the seniors go out with a swagger. I want to avenge the loss to UCLA and close the season the way it started _ bringing home a trophy. The season started with a Mayor's Cup Trophy.
I want it to end with a Sun Bowl or a Vegas Bowl Trophy.
You can only get that by playing the game.
Beating Utah or the real Miami is the best mouthwash I can think of right now.

Al Golden can fix his team with one phone call

The Brumfield File:

• No. 2 all-time rusher in Pennsylvania history with 8,595 yards;
• Averaged 9.79 yards per carry against defenses designed to stop him;
• Over 100 TDs for his career;
• A 3.0 GPA;

Quotable:

"You hate to say the word 'unstoppable,' but that's what Ryan is. He likes the challenges. The more he gets challenged, the better he plays. But what you like most about Ryan is that he's a great kid. Here's a kid that has every right to have an ego, and he doesn't. He gets along with everyone. It's why his teammates don't only want to play with him � they want to play for him."

_Tom Barr, head coach, Owen J. Roberts

Sometimes numbers mean nothing.
Sometimes the numbers all add up and the mathematical formula is pretty clear.
I found some numbers that were pretty fascinating over the last few days and I just want to share some here.
They tell the story of why this Temple season has a different, more hollow, feel for me than last year did.
They also show me the equation for getting the Owls out of this morass.
Temple football by the numbers:

• Al Golden is 0-14 against MAC teams with a winning record;
• Al Golden's two most impressive non-MAC wins were against Navy last year and against UConn this season;
• Against Navy last year, Bernard Pierce went for 268 yards and two touchdowns with a pretty anemic passing attack on his side;
• Against UConn this year, Bernard Pierce went for 179 yards with three touchdowns (again, with an anemic passer).

So who is most responsible for Temple's success?
Al Golden or Bernard Pierce?
Certainly, you can make a case for Bernard Pierce to date.
Going forward, to use a term Al Golden fancies, going forward, Al Golden is most responsible for Temple's success.
That's because the one thing he can supply is out there for the taking.
Bernard Pierce. Or at least a Bernard Pierce clone.
Certainly, we'd all like to see the Bernard Pierce of last year show up for his junior season (and the bowl game if the Owls are lucky enough to secure one).
What Al Golden failed to do "going backward" was make sure the Owls had a running back with Pierce's ability or close to it backing up Bernard should Bernard have gone down.
Let's face it.
Bernard had some injury issues after last year ended. Temple should have been better prepared than to replace him with a 5-5, 150-pound guy, no matter how good that 5-5, 150-pounder was.
The No. 1 running back recruit was a guy named Myron Ross (now Myron Myles) out of Wissahickon. Myron's a nice back, like Matty Brown, a nice back, not a Gosh-darn superstar.
I don't think Myron Myles on his best day can give Temple going forward what Matty Brown did.
And that, quite frankly, wasn't enough against Ohio and Miami.
And it won't be enough going forward.
He struggled to go over 1,000 yards in his senior year at Wissahickon.
Bernard Pierce was a Gosh-darn superstar, a 2,000-yard back, at Glen Mills.
We all kind of knew he would be something special in college.
So what Al Golden can do going forward is get me another Bernard Pierce as an insurance policy should the real one go down.
Short of cloning Bernard and waiting 18 years for the gestation period, I have a sure-fire answer:
Ryan Brumfield of Owen J. Roberts.
Brumfield, like Pierce, is a gosh-darn superstar.
I wrote about this kid in Friday's Inquirer.
He's five inches taller than Matty Brown (5-10) and 30 pounds heavier (180). He's a tenth of a second faster (4.4 compared to 4.5) and he's a lot shiftier and stronger. He's not quite Bernard (6-0, 218) but he's proven to be more durable.
Think a bigger version of Paul Palmer and that's what I'm talking about.
Brumfield has an offer on the table from Buffalo (Al Golden, I beg you, please don't let this kid go to Buffalo) and "interest" from Pitt, Penn State and Rutgers.
If Temple gets involved now, the Owls can have him.
The Owls should get him.
Temple needs Brumfield and Brumfield needs Temple.
That's a one plus one that adds up to two superstar runners for the Owls.

The CUSA move: Makes sense for Owls

Temple finally gets into the changing college football landscaping business.
It's one thing when an anonymous blogger throws out a rumor. Those kind of things happen all the time.
It's another when a respected college football journalist like Rivals.com's Tom Dienhart does it, followed a few hours later by an assistant AD at Rice adding the "exciting news" coming later today that Temple and one other school will join Conference USA for football only, effective starting in the 2011 season. Dienhart has broken many stories and his reputation is impeccable in the business, so his word is nothing to be trifled with and when the Rice AD says "exciting news" coming today that's as close to a two-source confirmation that you'll get in today's increasingly electronic media.
When Owlscoop.com editor John DiCarlo asked Bill Bradshaw for a comment regarding the proposed move, Bradshaw said he couldn't comment.
If nothing was happening, don't you think Bill Bradshaw would have said nothing was happening?
Something is happening.
So I'm buying it.
Temple to CUSA. Since this has to be approved by the Board of Trustees, the time frame could be a little longer than expected.

It will be released not by Temple first but by the CUSA office. Only after it is made official will Temple have some kind of comment.

2010 C-USA BOWL SCHEDULE
(2011 sked is similar to this one)

Date Bowl (Site) Time (CT) Network

Fri., Dec. 31 AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Tenn.) 2:30p ESPN

Thu., Dec. 30 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl (Fort Worth, Texas) 11:00a ESPN

Wed., Dec. 29 EagleBank Bowl (Washington, D.C.) 1:30p ESPN

Fri., Dec. 24 Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl (Honolulu, Hawai'i) 7:00p ESPN

Tue., Dec. 21 Beef O'Brady's Bowl (St. Petersburg, Fla.) 7:00p ESPN

Sat., Dec. 18 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, La.) 7:00p ESPN

The Owls were wooed by CUSA a few years ago before accepting the MAC's football-only invite and that turned out to be a life-preserver for a then-drowning program.
The move was first mentioned by a Tulane blogger a couple of weeks ago and it turns out he had some pretty good sources.

Truth be told, the CUSA Bowl lineup is so much better than the MAC's it's not even funny.
Even if Temple wins the MAC this year, the, err, reward for Temple fans is a trip to Detroit for the championship game followed by another trip to Detroit for the bowl game.
No offense Detroit, but that's dreadful. I can just imagine the Temple fan now complaining that he can't go to Detroit because the walk from his car to the indoor stadium will be "too cold."
The only way Temple can avoid that is to win out, beat Penn State, Villanova and UConn and sweep the MAC. Something like that could ... could ... put Temple in the Rose Bowl or the Sugar Bowl and more likely mean a certain Heisman Trophy for Bernard Pierce.
That's my mantra this year "12-0 and we're Golden."
I'd love to meet the Temple fan who went to the last Sugar Bowl involving Temple (1934). If he/she is still alive and, say, 20 then, he/she would be 96 now.
Possible, not likely.
Still, if this turns out to be true, I'm ambivalent about this.
Seriously, I've always liked the MAC.
I liked the MAC when I was a kid.
I liked the MAC when Big Ben was at Miami.
I liked the MAC when Garrett Wolfe was making his run at the Heisman.
I liked the MAC when Northern Illinois upset Alabama a few years ago and when Central Michigan beat Michigan State last year.
I liked the MAC long before Temple even got involved with that conference.
Now that Temple's in it, I follow all the MAC games even more closely.
I don't see how Rice will put more opposing fans at Lincoln Financial Field than, say, Bowling Green but, let's face it, BG never put more than a few hundred in there anyway.
It's a step up for football certainly and Owl hoop heads will probably like the nonleague schedule a lot more than they do now.

If Temple wins the MAC this year and THEN Conference USA next, I'm loving the move and the history that comes with winning two leagues in consecutive seasons.