The offense, was, well a little offensive last year. I loved watching the defense.
I have all the games saved, and I often just skip the time when temple was on offense last year. But hey, the year before that the defense had issues.
These are the types of issues that come up when you have three head coaches over a four year time span, and the first of those three coaches had a tough time recruiting at the end because everyone thought he was going to leave any minute.
You have recruiting issues, which really is the life blood of a program. You have continuity issues. You have scheme issues. Issues abound. It is easily understandable, and yes rhule haters, even understandable that the teams we saw two years ago and last year foundered first on defense and then on offense.
Last year everyone was hoping for a modest improvement on the defensive side of the ball. All the pain felt the year before and some excellent recruiting changed the tenor of the defense in one year. A dramatic turnaround to say the least. Well, we are far into spring practice and things are filtering out.
It would appear as though the offensive line is much improved. Not only does the top five seem to be much improved, but there would appear to be much improved depth as well. This would be a huge boost for the offense. Brian Carter switched over to offensive line and he appears to be a strong starting guard. Obviously we have Friend at center. If Dawkins comes back for the fall, we can shift redshirt freshman McHale over to right tackle and then it will be a full on war for that last spot at left guard which is held again this year by Ahmed.
The other huge thing is that PJ has looked sharp. PJ has the physical tools to be tremendous. He has a strong arm and is accurate. If the qb coaching is working, and he was looking better towards the end of the season, with the obvious improvement in the receivers, is this offense going to be on?
The running backs are also making some noise. I know everyone expects one or both of the bigtime running backs we have coming in the fall to own these spots. But don't look past the players we have here. It sounds as though Zaire Williams is out of the doghouse and showing some stuff. Hood, Thomas, Gilmore and even Jabo Lee is coming on. Who knows how this is going to play out, but honestly, I have to say I am liking the talent level out there quite a bit.
It is also interesting to note that even with a number of scholarship qbs currently battling it out, if the season were to start now, DiGiorgio would be the number 2. The backup qb can be one of the more important positions on the team. PJ started every game last year, but he did battle injuries the entire season. While I dislike saying we got lucky last year when discussing anything that happened on the offensive side of the ball last year, I do think we really got lucky last year. So I think everyone will be watching this battle going forward. Does DiGiorgio keep the spot in the fall or do a slightly more seasoned Marchi or even a back to full health Nutile take the spot?
Honestly, how often have we seen the battles that we see now when it comes to temple football? Dogbe seems to have switched to defensive tackle. Don't wait on this guy. He has speed to burn at that spot. PMO, Finch, and Martin among others are going to battle it out on the ends. I know that everyone wants to see who steps up at wr, rb and offensive line for us, but we are going to have battles breaking out all over the offense and defense. Will there be additional changes occurring in the defensive backfield this year? How is Anthoney Davis rehabbing? there are a who wealth of talented defensive backs trying to start.
I can't even go into all of the battles and who might step up.
And all of this isn't even touching the number of players that are coming in this fall. Webb and Bronson are some big big guys coming in on the defensive line. Cook and Grimes are coming in at linebacker and aren't going to want to sit on the bench too much.
And it just wouldn't be an article unless Karim Ali Jr was mentioned. He is a midyear freshman coming in who graduated from high school early to start spring practice with the team. He is already second string behind some very talented players with other very talented players wanting to get his spot.
Man, optimally, we would redshirt all of these freshman coming in, but some of these guys will just force their way onto the field. I know everyone is talking about the running backs coming in but there is a lot of top shelf talent coming in this coming fall.
Its an exciting time to be an owl...
This post was edited on 4/17 11:20 AM by thetempleowl
