Golden standard at Temple football
Coach invigorates losing team that's facing UB
Al Golden never considered steps of progression. When he took the task of rebuilding Temple football, he instantly set his sights on the big picture.
Instead of merely being competitive, Golden wanted to establish the Owls as one of the premier programs in the Mid-American Conference. But Temple football has experienced zillions of rebuilding jobs for the majority of its history. Some said it couldn’t happen. Golden responded, why not?
“One thing I’ve been saying to [the players] is everything that we’re doing now, it may seem like you’re doing the right things, but all that does is give you a chance to win on Saturday,” Golden said. “All of the fundamentals, all of the principles, all of the values that we believe in, that just gives you a chance to win on Saturday.”
For some, Golden already has created a minor miracle in Philadelphia. When he took over at Temple in 2006, the Owls had not enjoyed a winning season since going 7-4 in 1990, and prior to that had not won more than six games since finishing 10-2 in 1979. They are coming off a 4-8 season in 2007 with wins over Northern Illinois, Akron, Miami and Kent State.
Winning four of their last seven games in 2007 created a sense of hope that had been lost on a program whose last bowl appearance came in ’79. The Owls proved last week in an overtime loss against Connecticut — the defending Big East co-champion — that they are truly contenders for the MAC East Division title.
At noon Saturday in UB Stadium, the Owls (1-1) face another test against a University at Buffalo (1-1) team with similar aspirations.
“We can win every game on our schedule, which is something you couldn’t say before,” said Temple quarterback Adam DiMichele. “Also, we could lose to every single team so it’s going to come down to execution.”
Golden’s rebuilding job at Temple is as challenging as Turner Gill’s at Buffalo, if not more. The Big East removed Temple from the conference for a lack of commitment to football earlier in the decade. Two years ago, the NCAA took away nine of the Owls’ 85 scholarships for low Academic Progress Rate scores, the most severe penalty of the eight Division I-A football programs sanctioned that year.
Then there was the task of changing the losing culture of Temple football.
“There wasn’t a lot of support,” said junior middle linebacker Alex Joseph, a Butkus Award candidate. “I heard that numerous times they had a lot of students cursing the players out, throwing rocks during practice, throwing bottles. You name it, they threw it.”
Temple went 1-11 during Golden’s first season in 2006 and opened with an eight-game losing streak. The Owls didn’t score a touchdown until the fourth game, and were outscored by UB, Louisville, Minnesota and Western Michigan, 174-10.
“Coach had to go out and weed out the guys who were problems,” DiMichele said. “Coach just let them go because they couldn’t cut it. Some of the guys had their priorities all wrong and they weren’t putting the program first, so he weeded them out and now we’re with guys who are with the program 100 percent.”
Temple lost eight straight games before consecutive victories over Northern Illinois, Akron and Miami, the longest winning streak since 1990. No more flying objects at practice.
“Now,” Joseph said, “it’s all love.”
Academically, Temple made a more pronounced commitment to providing the proper academic support for its student-athletes. Although Temple was stripped of four more scholarships last spring, it was because of academic failings that took place before Golden’s arrival. The APR score of players recruited by Golden is 980, well above the minimum of 925.
“He stresses academics like no other,” DiMichele said. “We have a great supporting staff, a real family atmosphere.”
The next step is winning games.
“We’re not at the point where we would like to be,” DiMichele said. “But we’re headed in the right direction.”
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