On the Owls next possession they were able to put together a few nice plays, moving the ball to midfield when they faced another long third down against the Lions D. And here is when it all changed. The Owls came out in a five wide spread with only quarterback Vaugn Charlton in the backfield. It was only when the ball was snapped that the Lions Defense picked up star running back Bernard Pierce lined up in the slot. By then, it was too late as Pierce ran by his defender and hooked up with Charlton for a 50 touchdown pass. 14 – 7 Lions.

The Lions tried to answer the Temple Touchdown quickly, throwing deep on their first play from scrimmage, but Temple defensive back Kevin Kroboth was there, intercepting the errant throw.

The Owls sent their two minute offense onto the field and were able to muster a field goal, trailing 14-10 at the half with all the momentum and the ball starting the second half. The Owls then did what they’ve been able to do all season, taking the second half kickoff and marching methodically down field mixing runs and play action pass, and eating up clock the whole time. QB Charlton capped the drive with a 15 yard touchdown pass to a wide open Joe Jones and giving the Owls a 17-14 lead.

In the past, the Owls defense might have folded, but you could just feel it in the silence of Beaver Stadium that this day was different. The Owls, switching to mostly a three down linemen dime package confused, harassed and out muscled the Lions offense, holding them to a costly three and out as time was starting to favor the Owls.

Temple’s offense then put the ball in the hands of BP, mixing in the occasional pass, and BP responded with runs of 9, 14, 12, 7, and 15 yards. He then capped the Owls scoring on an 11 yard dive play making the score 24-14.

The Owls 24 unanswered points seemed to put the game away, but Penn State would respond, scoring a late touchdown, but as with so many balls this day, the ensuing onsides kick attempt went strait into the arms of the Owls who were then able to kneel on the ball and enjoy what may be the biggest victory in Temple Football history.

Now wouldn’t it be great if we were able to read this for real!!!!!

But, since I can’t wait, I picked up the newest version of NCAA Football and immediately started my Dynasty with the current Owls (even though I think many of the Temple players and team are highly underrated in the game!!! But yes, I am biased)

The season started with a 63-7 trouncing of “FBS East,” the games equivalent of Villanova. I’d rather stack up against the real Nova, but, alas, they aren’t in the game.

That was followed by a 28-21 nail biter against defending MAC champ Central Michigan. A Bernard Piece touchdown with under a minute left accounted for the game winner. On a side note, check out pierce4heisman.com.  BP is the real deal.  And sign up on his Pierce 4 Heisman Facebook page too!

That following game was a revenge game against UConn.  BP ran for 3 tds and the Owls through for one more for a decisive 28-7 win over the Huskies.

Bernard Pierce runs for first of three td’s over UConn, NCAA 11

Bernard Pierce TD Run puts the game away, NCAA 11

Same TD, Different View, NCAA 11

And here are some pix from the game:

Let’s hope the real Owls get off to the same start their EA Sports counterparts did!

Go Owls!

Last weekend, Temple Football played it’s annual Cherry and White game on Main Campus.  While a lot of people were upset the game was not held on the Ambler campus, I thought it was great having it on Main.  Any chance to bring people on to the main campus to see how it has developed is great for the University.

As for the game itself, this is what we learned about out football team, absolutely nothing.  If anyone tells you differently they really don’t know what they’re talking about, unless the person talking is a member of the coaching staff.  If the Owls ran more than a dozen different offensive plays I would be surprised.    However, it was great to see so many people turn out an support the program.

The really nice thing is that because there were no bleachers, I was able to basically sit on the sidelines and do what I love to do, take pictures.  I have posted some of my favorites in this gallery.

[View with PicLens]

I hope you enjoy them.  Now, let’s kick Nova’s ass!

The season started with two great wins in the Charlston classic and a disappointing loss Clemson in the finals, and I think that three game stretch may have typified the season.

But overall there were many positives.  Here are some of the good things I took away from the season:

• Another 20 plus win season in which we made yet another NCAA Tournament.  I know a lot of people were very disappointed with our early exit, myself included, but seeing that the week before I was prepared for a NIT berth, I’d rather take an early exit.
• Another great A-10 tournament run ending in a record 8th championship.
• Sweeping St. Joe’s for the season, now winning five in a row against the Hawks.  Given our lack of success against them in the previous years, it’s nice to re-establish our dominance over them.
• Dionte Christmas becoming the first player in A-10 history to lead the league in scoring for three consecutive season with a 19.5 ppg average.  Despite being in a slump late in the year, Dionte has proven himself as an individual who can play at the next level.  We’ll miss him on North Broad St.
• The development of Sergio Olmos.  The way the year started for Sergio, you had to wonder (missing the Charlston Classic).  Then his amazing performance against Tennessee made many of us beleive he was finally reaching his potentional, only to be bench several games later.  But much of Temple’s late season success can be attibuted to Sergio steady offensive and defensive play down the stretch.  It amazed me when I was sitting in the Liacouras center how almost everytime he caught the ball, someone would make a remark like “Why you throwing him the ball?” only to have Sergio turn and score.   Did he make mistakes? Yes, but more often than not he’d be very, very productive.  Sergio will have a long professional career over seas.
• The emergance of Craig Williams.  Craig has the potential to be big time for the Owls.  In addition to his outside shooting, he can rebound and showed signs of an inside game.   If he can further devolop the intermediate to short game, he could be a major force for the Owls.  I think injuries lead to his late season slide, but he can overcome that with a strong off-season work out program.
• Juan Fernandez not breaking into the starting line up.  The big question at the end of 2008 was when will new-comer Juan Fernandez start.  The fact that he didn’t showed how much Semaj Inge contributed to this team, but it also gave Juan a chance to learn more about the college game.  And he did often deliver when put into the game.

Unfortunately, the season also had it’s share of disappointements.

• LaVoy Allen.  I know what your thinking.  How could a guy who almost averaged a double-double (10.9, 9 rebounds a game) season be considered disappointing?  Well, I have very high expectations for LaVoy, as I think he could be one of the most dominate Forwards in the country.  There were times when he was completely unstoppable, and other like he didn’t even know where he was.  I also think the team didn’t do a good enough job getting him the ball where he could score.  With his ability and range he will have a big, big season next year, but only if he gets a little meaner!
• The schedule.  Only having 11 home games sucked, especially give our home and away records (9-2 in the Center).  It was a fluke that the schedule got set up this way, and lets hope it doesn’t happen again.
• Our play away from the Liacouras Center.  This team was truly Jekyl and Hyde when it came to playing home vs. playing away.  There is something that the coaching staff has to either change and do completely differently in the way they approach the games on the road, as the A-10 has become to balanced to automatically assume that you will win in anyone’s gym.

Well, these are my thoughs on the past year.  Overall, I think Coach Dunphy and his staff had another great season and, quite obviously, is way ahead of where many of us thought he would have the program.  Next year will be the big test though.  With all of his own players and a much better schedule, he must have another 20 win season and be back to the NCAA.  Anything short will be disappointing.

And now Owls fans, let’s look forward to kicking Villanova’s ass at the Linc on September 3rd!

Semaj Inje proved that scoring the basketball isn’t the only way to contribute to a team, and his contributions were huge.  8 assists, 5 rebounds, a block and a steal all when it mattered most.  And let’s not forget Ryan Brooks.  Ryan hit some early shots and then went quiet until it was needed, hitting a huge three at crunch time.
Finally, a not about the fans.  They were amazing and could be heard loud and clear over the radio.  Finally, Temple is building a fan base that will propel this program for years to come.  I couldn’t be prouder of the students of TU!!!!

As for the Bad and the Ugly, there really is none.  Back to back A-10 champs!!!

Some final thoughts:

Congrats to Duquesne University and their Head Coach, Ron Everhardt.  To make it to the finals only five years after the tragic shooting of five players on their team, and after no real success in over thirty years is an amazing triumph for them.  And to do it with such a young team!!  This team is going to challenge for many an A-10 championship in the future, and I pitty the teams that have to play them in the NIT.

Coach John Chaney should get some of the kudos, as Temple’s seniors, Dionte, Sergio and Semaj, lead this team all year.  Coach Chaney’s legacy will be with this program for a long time, and it’s nice to know that his final group could go out the way so many of his other players have, as Champions.

Also, how about Coach Dunphy.  He is proving that his success at Penn wasn’t because he played “softer” teams in the Ivy league.  I still think Coach needs to change some of the things he did at Penn, but this season Temple had it’s most successful home season, despite only 11 home games, in years (9-2 at home), but another amazing tournament run.  The sky’s the limit for Coach Dunphy on North Broad street and he’ll continue to have my support on North Broad, no matter how good, bad and/or ugly!

The Good: This was a heavyweight championship fight between two of the A-10 elite.  The truth is the top 5 teams in the A-10 (Temple, X, Dayton, Duquesne, URI) this season are about equal, and I believe all of these teams, with the exception of X, are VERY underated.  However, tonight was the Owl night, as they did it with their best defensive game of the season, holding Xavier to season lows in points, 53, and shooting percentage, 34.5%.  Temple also struggle to make a shot until late in the game (X plays tremendous defense), but senior Dionte Christmas showed what a tremendous play he is, making two long threes and hitting a foul shot to seal the win.  It would have been very easy for Dionte to pack it given his struggles for the first 50 plus minutes of basketball he had played over the first two days of the tournament, but instead he wanted the ball as all great players do, and he delivered.

The Bad: It’s really hard to find anything bad about this game.  As I said, this was a great basketball game between two really good teams.

The Ugly: Despite this win, the Owls could still be left out of the NCAA tournament if they don’t get the automatic bid by winning tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I don’t see the A-10 getting 4 teams in, so if Duquesne wins tonight the winner of tomorrow game would be in and the looser in the NIT.  That said, let’s hope the Owls take care of business in what should be a very partisan Temple arena tomorrow night.

GO OWLS!!!

The Bad: Unfortunately, there’s no other way to put this but Dionte Christmas was just horrible shooting the ball, making 1 field goal on 10 attempts.  He also commited some bad fouls that forced him to the bench for much of crunch time when St. Joe’s made a run.  Unfortunately, this far overshadows the great job he did in creating easy shots for his teammates throughout the day.

The Ugly: Five turnovers on five straight possesions late in the game, giving St. Joe’s hope late in the game.  This kind of play tomorrow against an aggresive Xavier team will lead to a blow out loss for the Owls.

The Owls and Hawks Tip-off

goals.  The Owls consistanly looked for each other and made a lot of easy shots as a result.  This continued on the defensive end as well, highlighted by senior Sergio Olmos, who held St. Joe’s leading scorer Ahmad Nivins to a 6 for 16 shooting night, 27 points lower than his season shooting average.  Sergio also showed great spurts on the offensive end.  Dionte Christmas also seemed to end his shooting funk, hitting several large shots when St. Joe’s pulled to withing two late in the game.

The Bad: Really, is there anything bad when Temple beats St. Joe?

The Ugly: The game was real chippy late, and Sergio Olmos took exception late in the game shoving Tasheed Carr after after an extra hard foul that should have been called flagrant.  If a guys winds up, it’s usually intentional.  Another ugly spot in the second half when the referees allowed a St. Joe’s basket on a shot the was clearly taken after the shot clock had expired.  Even if it hadn’t, it was close enough that replay should have been used, a request made by the Temple bench that was ignored by the officials. (Overall, it was a well officiated game, at least compared to the typical horrible officiated in many TU-SJU games.)

The Bad: Another terrible game from Dionte Christmas, as well as the rest of the team.  The lowlight was Semaj Inge getting called for a technical.  You need to keep your head!!!

The Ugly: As a result of this lose, the Owls have gone from a chance to win the A-10 regular seasing to fourth place.  The only way for the Owls to now make the NCAA tournament is to win the A-10 tournament, which given the tallent among the top teams in the league will not be easy.

The Bad: Overall sloppy play with some really weak passing at times.  Sloppy play like that against the A-10 elite will make for quick exit from the A-10 tournament and an NIT berth.

The Ugly: The National Anthem.  Yes, the anthem was ugle.  Time for me to rant.  Why do people singing the National Anthem feel the need to embelesh?  Holding and vibrating notes that make them feel like a squeeling pig.  This has been ever since Whitney Houston sung to Anthem in the Super Bowl all those years ago.  To all you Anthem singers out there, you ARE NOT Whitney Houston.  In fact Whitney Houston isn’t Whitney Houston anymore more.

My quess is that the person singing today’s Anthem doesn’t even know how many versus there are in the Anthem.  I think this should be a test that one has to take  in addition to being able to sing.  You must know how many versus in there are in the Anthem.  For those who don’t know, the answer is four!