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.

Brown turns down SEC and Big 10 offers for TU

Buddy Brown's junior year highlights at Williamstown, N.J.

"You don't have to go to Rutgers, you can go right here. We are not North Jersey people. We are basically a step over from Philly. We love the Eagles. We love Temple basketball. We like all that. So why not stay here and have a chance to make a change?"
_Sean Brown, Buddy Brown's father

Ben Franklin once said it first in this town, over 200 years ago:
"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
Now you can add a third certainty.
Delusional Rutgers' fans.
Prior to Temple getting verbals from  Jihaad Pretlow and  P.J. Walker, RU fans were drooling over getting their services.
When the two committed to Temple, the prevalent opinion was Rutgers must have backed off at the last minute and "they weren't that good, anyway."
Now that Williamstown four-star linebacker Buddy Brown has committed to Temple, RU fans are saying the same thing.
Truth is no offer was ever pulled. Brown was 247.com's top-rated linebacker in New Jersey and the 10th highest-rated player on the board at any position in that state. He was a four-star national recruit by them and a three-star national recruit by Rivals.com.

Your typical, run-of-the-mill, Rutgers' football fan

Brown picked Temple fair and square.
It doesn't matter what a group of nerd fans say, but what Brown says.
"I think more recruits should take a harder look at Temple," Brown said. "They will be impressed."
One RU fan came onto Owlscoop.com and wrote, "you really don't think someone would turn down an offer to come to Rutgers or Penn State over Temple, do you?"
Well, yeah, and there's no thinking involved, just facts.
Ask former Big East player of the Year Walter Washington (who turned down Nebraska), former Owl wide receiver Mike Palys (who turned down Penn State), former MAC defensive player of the year Adrian Robinson (who turned down Pitt) and current quarterback Chris Coyer (who turned down Ohio State), among many others who could have gone anywhere but chose Temple.
Rutgers' fan reaction is curious and humorous, more than annoying, really.
They can't accept the fact that Temple has a more charismatic head coach than they do, a guy who was head coach at Florida (even if it was for three months). They can't accept the fact that Temple has a defensive coordinator who as a defensive coach was instrumental in an 11-0 season at Utah and was the brains behind a national championship defense at Florida.
They can't accept the fact that, in comparison, they have a dull, bland, unproven offensive line coach taking over for Greg Schiano.
Yeah, right, and the 23th-ranked linebacker in the country got an offer pulled from Rutgers when he had offers on the table from Wisconsin (Big 10) and the SEC (Mississippi State).
I didn't know Rutgers, 7-13 in its last 20 conference games, was in the NFC East.
Baghdad Bob must have had a degree in communications from Rutgers.
He was the guy who stood on one bank of the Tigris River on April 8, 2003 in Baghdad saying "American Troops are committing suicide" and "they will be either killed or burned in their tanks"  before getting to the other side.
Two U.S. Army M1 tanks could be seen in the background. By April 9, the entire town of Baghdad was secured and Bob was arrested by the troops he said would commit suicide or burn.
RU will learn the hard way on Oct. 20, 2012, just like Bob did on April 9, 2003. Tweet

Source: RU leaning toward Flood

Call me naive, but I believe him.

In a perfect world, Steve Addazio would take the microphone at halftime at today's St. Joseph's University at Temple basketball game and say something like:
"I was offered an opportunity to interview for the head coaching job at Rutgers yesterday and I declined. I'm not going anywhere. Temple is where I wanted to be all along and this university is better-positioned to do great things than Rutgers."
Cue the thunderous applause from the 10,006 fans in attendance.
Band breaks out into T for Temple U.
Students storm the court at halftime to slap Daz on the back.
Owls finish up their rout of St. Joe.
As we all know this is not a perfect world and that probably won't happen.
(Don't say I didn't throw the suggestion out there, though.)
Still, Temple fans should calm down.
I have a good friend who I worked with here, now working in North Jersey, who said his paper is earlier today was about  to break the story that Florida International University (FIU) coach Mario Cristobal will accept the head coaching job. If that fails, current assistant Kyle Flood would be the fall-back choice.
Now it looks like Cristobal doesn't see the Rutgers' job as the Alabama of the North (only Rutgers' fans are that delusional) and he's going to pass.
That opens up the, err, floodgates for Flood.
Flood would not be the big splash RU fans are looking for but Greg Schiano's leaving for Tampa Bay made the timing bad all around.
Pernetti was given permission to speak with Addazio, but that never made it past the phone call stage according to my source.
The guy is a first-rate reporter and I believe him.
Still, I long for the days when Temple football had coaches like Harry Litwack, John Chaney and Fran Dunphy, guys who see  the Owls as a destination not just a step along the way.
I long for the days when Temple football had a guy like Bruce Arians, who did not take the Virginia Tech job when it was flat-out offered to him (not just an interview), saying, "I couldn't leave my Temple kids."
I long for the days when we had a guy like Wayne Hardin, who turned down the offensive coordinators' job with the Dallas Cowboys to stay and do big things at Temple.
Before the game with Wyoming, Steve Addazio said he was that kind of guy, saying that he loved Temple and could see this as his last stop.
I sense that Steve is different than Al Golden in that he is principled and loyal enough not to leave after one year at Temple.

Teams to root for today: UB, SMU, Rutgers

Even in this age of instant communication, it's going to be hard to find the score of the Buffalo at Eastern Michigan game.
First off, it's never on KYW-AM (they only give top 10 scores) and it's not on over the air TV (even pay cable) anywhere.
But it is on the internet and, for Temple fans, provides a rooting element.
All these teams would do Temple a big favor by winning:

Hooter is more endearing.

BUFFALO at Eastern Michigan (1 p.m., MAC all-access) _ If the Bulls finish ahead of Bowling Green in the standings, they provide a positive backup tie-breaker for Temple should it finish in a three-way tie with Miami and Ohio. Eastern Michigan is a three-point favorite. The game is on internet only. Buffalo's got a chance. It beat Ohio.

She'd be perfect for me
if she was 20 years older
and I had $1 million

Navy at SMU (3:30, FSN) _ Southern Methodist football players wrote a letter to the school newspapers complaining about the lack of enthusiasm by their own fans in a win over TCU. They must be looking at the coeds and not on the field of play. Navy has to win all three of its remaining games (at SMU, at San Jose State and vs. Army) to qualify for a bowl Temple could be looking at attending (D.C., likely) and SMU is the toughest of the three. SMU is a seven-point favorite.

Cos and Hall and Oates are more famous.

RUTGERS vs. Army (3:30, Yankee Stadium, CBS College Sports) _ Same deal with Navy as Army has to win all three of its remaining games to qualify for a bowl. If Temple LOSES to Army, it still has a chance to qualify for a final bowl slot if Army loses today. Hopefully, both Rutgers and ESPECIALLY Temple beats Army. The Black Knights of the Hudson have proven to be a tough out on occasion this year, losing at Miami (Ohio) by only a touchdown and beating Northwestern, 21-14. Northwestern, you'll recall, won AT Nebraska last week. Rutgers is an eight-point favorite.

"How's Temple going to do this year?"

By Mike Gibson
One of my New York friends, a guy who loves the Yankees named Frank, asked me what is turning into a yearly question the other day.
He usually asks "How's Temple going to do" but this year phrased it differently.
"How many wins is Temple going to have this year?" Frank asked.
"Seven," I said.
"SEVEN?" he asked, incredulously. "They haven't had seven wins total in the last seven years combined!"
(That's not quite true but it's what Frank and so many fans believe.)
"Seven," I said again. "Check back with me in December."
Now Frank is a very good sports fan, a Giants' fan as well as a Yankee fanatic.
Strangely, he's adopted Temple football over the years and has become a closet Owl follower. He went to Pace University and his wife went to Temple.
He pretty much knows everything about every baseball team.
He'll tell me how many homers Ryan Howard, one of his fantasy players, needs to hit this week so that his team can advance.
On the front porch of his summer place near mine in the Poconos he has a sign that says "Mickey Mantle Way."
A good, solid, sports fan with impeccable credentials. Yet he shook his head when I said seven.
I meant eight, but I said seven because I didn't want to hear him follow me in his golf cart yelling while I was jogging and trying to listen to Mike and the Mad Dog at the same time.
Eight, I'm saying now.
I'd love to get greedy and have nine, 10 or 11, but I'll settle for eight and consider seven OK.
As I turned the bend and rounded the road in the direction of the Blue Ridge Country Club, I thought Frank was pretty typical of the informed sports fan around the country, the kind of guy who just can't picture Temple winning seven games.
Well, for the first time in nearly a generation, some informed fans and pundits are picking Temple to win seven games. One ESPN insider wrote as much. Athlon's College football preview also predicted the Owls to win seven games.
Bright, intelligent, objective, people.
They could have chose any team to win seven games.
They chose Temple.
And they don't see the world through Cherry and White-colored glasses.
You really have to know college football to pick the Owls to win seven games. In fact, you'd really have to be a hardcore college football junkie.

Here are my simple reasons:

• 1. Temple really won five games last year. The loss to Big East co-champ Connecticut was a well-documented travesty. Only some UConn fans really believe the myth perpetuated by some that Bruce Francis was juggling the ball. In fact, MAC officials used the side angle those same UConn fans claim showed Francis juggled it to support their apology to the Owls saying their officials got it wrong.
  The MAC officials viewed the play from every conceivable angle, including the Hartford TV station reverse angle, and came to the inescapable conclusion that BF had both the ball and possession. In fact, the ball clung to Francis' hands so snugly that some claimed he must have had a sticky, glue-like, substance on those gloves.
  Bobble my ass.
  Period, end of story.
  
• 2. Temple played the second half of the season without its MVP, quarterback Adam DiMichele. He's back and better than ever. Check out the scrolling quote of the day on the sidebar of this blog. With DiMichele, the Owls beat UConn and later won three straight games, including a one-touchdown win over a Miami team that beat Syracuse, which beat Louisville (who also, by the way, beat UConn but that's another travesty for another day). Temple led, 24-7, and physically manhandled Miami before the Redhawks came back to make the score respectable.
  
  You really have to know
  college football
  to pick the Owls
  to win seven games.
  In fact,
  you'd really have to be
  a hardcore college football
  junkie.
  
• 3. Temple won those five games with just 64 scholarship players. This class brings the Owls up to NCAA norms.
  
• 4. Temple recruited the best class in the MAC for the third straight year. It's going to show up on the field. It has to.
  
• 5. Temple is now strong in areas where it was weak last season (running back, offensive line) and stronger in areas where it was strongest last season. Remarkably, over the last few days, the Owls picked up a BC recruit, Eric Reynolds, who was considered the No. 1 high school running back in Pennsylvania last season. He might not be good enough to start and I'm serious because in Joe Jones, a kid from Florida who had to sit out a year with an injury, the Owls may have a future pro.
  
• 6. Temple had the No. 1 overall defense in the MAC last season. Temple had the No. 1 red zone defense in the country last season. No. 1. Everybody is back from that defense.
  

I told Frank seven wins because he's a doubting Thomas for now.
Much like the rest of the unwashed college football country.
That's OK, though.
It's going to make those of us who don't doubt look all that much better once we get a helluva Christmas present under that tree.
Two tickets to a bowl game.
It's going to happen.
At Temple.