Facility-Challenged Temple Starting to Get Football Right

Mention Temple athletics and John Cheney might come to mind — maybe a religious team of some sort, but football? Never.

For years, Temple University has been below the lowest of the low, getting forced out of the Big East conference and racking up a 20-game losing streak. Attendance at Owls games could barely pack the Palestra, Philadelphia’s 8,000-seat shrine to basketball. Something has changed this year, however. After winning just five games in two years and 10 in three seasons under Head Coach Al Golden, the Owls have won six games and are bowl-eligible for the first time since 1979.

There are a few reasons why things have been so bad in north Philadelphia for all these years. First and foremost is the state of its facilities. Name the top schools in college football and the list of teams with truly urban campuses isn’t incredibly long, particularly in the Northeast corridor. New York has Columbia, Fordham and Hofstra, but each one is in the FCS. It’s just hard to justify, with limited space, putting in the resources to build not only a stadium, but a quality practice facility.

Temple’s practice facility, long described as atrocious, is finally competitive. They have a field that is roughly 80 yards long right next to Interstate-95 and Edberg-Olson Hall, a 23,600-square foot building containing offices, film rooms, locker rooms and a weight room for the football team, which is an upgrade for the Owls, who have spent years making due with their limited space. After years of toiling in the pits of college football, Temple decided it was time to pump some cash into its football program and that, along with the hire of Golden, has paid serious dividends on the field.

As far as a stadium goes, you can argue that either Temple is blessed or it is cursed. Unlike the University of Pennsylvania, which has historic Franklin Field, or Villanova with its own cozy 10,000-seat on-campus stadium, Temple hasn’t had a stadium of its own. For years, the Owls were forced to watch as quarterbacks were sacked to the cold, hard AstroTurf of Veterans Stadium. Playing in a professional stadium sounds like it would be great, but when you don’t draw many fans, the bowl of the Vet, and now Lincoln Financial Field, can seem pretty empty. There’s something about playing on campus that really makes college football — it’s why Minnesota left the Metrodome and built its own on-campus stadium. Plus, renting out a professional stadium — as Georgetown knows with Verizon Center — doesn’t come cheap, and when you can’t sell tickets, that financial burden is only increased.

Then, there is the unfortunate position of playing football in the professional-crazy town that is Philadelphia. College basketball has become an entrenched institution in Philadelphia thanks to the Big Five, but when it comes to football, the Eagles reign supreme. Schools like West Virginia, an old Big East foe of the Owls, or even Kent State, a current MAC rival, have built in fan bases in their respective areas. Temple has long been third on the Philadelphia totem pole to the Eagles and Penn State — if it was even on the pole at all. It’s hard to attract recruits when your facilities are bad and your fan base is even worse, and Temple suffered the consequences.

In December 2005, however, the Owls brought in Al Golden, a 35-year-old defensive coordinator from Virginia, and things turned around – even if not at first. Golden’s inaugural team stumbled to a 1-11 record, but was able to snap a 20-game losing streak with a homecoming win over Bowling Green. In his second season, he added four more notches to the win column and it looked like the future might be bright for Golden at Temple. Last year, Temple racked up five wins, but should have had more, dropping last-second leads as teams that aren’t used to winning do, including an infamous Hail Mary touchdown to Buffalo on the final play of what had looked like a sure victory. The close losses kept the Owls from becoming bowl-eligible, but the improvement was noted.

This year had quite the inauspicious start, as they lost in the Mayor’s Cup to cross-town D-1AA rival Villanova, and suffered an expected trouncing by Penn State. But ever since, the Owls have been rolling. Temple has won seven straight on the legs of freshman running back Bernard Pierce, a native of the Philly suburbs. Pierce had 172 yards last night against Miami (OH) and has already eclipsed 1,000 yards on the season; he’s second in the nation in rushing with 133.9 yards per game.

With three games to go, Temple’s final two against Kent State and Ohio could decide the MAC East division champion, putting Temple in the MAC championship, and potentially a quality bowl game. The last bowl Temple played in was the Garden State Bowl (because nothing says bowl season like a trip to the sunny Meadowlands) which was dissolved two years later in favor of the season-opening Kickoff Classic.

Whether they win the MAC or not, Temple has given its fans a season to remember, and may have gained some in the process. If they continue this success, it’s going to be hard for the Owls to keep Golden in north Philadelphia before big-time schools come knocking with bigger contracts and better facilities; but for now, Temple fans should just enjoy the ride. It doesn’t happen often up on Broad Street.

Ryan Travers is a senior in the College. He can be reached at travers@thehoya.com. Illegal Procedure appears in every Friday issue of Hoya Sports.