Enjoyed watching Memphis-UCF, Xavier/Providence & Georgia at LSU.

This writer is very high on Tavon Young, who is taking part in the Senior Bowl.

http://optimumscouting.com/draft/20...nse-led-by-vernon-butler-and-tavon-young.html

Freddie Johnson, an athlete from North Fort Myers High in Florida, committed to Temple last night. He's got next-level speed. Johnson reports a 4.3 40-yard dash but it's probably closer to 4.4.

Johnson, who won his conference's 200m sprint last year when he was at East Lee County, chose Temple over offers from schools like Marshall, Kent State, Florida Atlantic and Western Kentucky.

John mentioned this in another thread but a source he spoke with compared Johnson favorably to Robby Anderson in his ability to take the top off a defense.

So, for those keeping track at home, Temple's up to 21 commitments for this class. A couple of those won't pan out, for one reason or another, so it's reasonable to expect Temple to get verbals from 5 or 6 more kids. The Owls have also clearly put an emphasis on improving their team speed, considering that they've added three kids (Johnson, Randle Jones and Linwood Crump) with 4.4ish speed in the past few days.

Here is her story on the SMU-Temple game.

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebask...nger-perfect-but-still-has-plenty-to-play-for

It is mainly from the SMU point of view but just like her days at the Philadelphia Inquirer, she takes her shot at the attendance (after Larry Browns backhanded compliment about the court storming):

“Can you believe Temple stormed the court beating SMU?” Brown said. “Oh my God. The fifth-winningest program in America. Pretty amazing. Never thought that would ever happen.’’

Technically, "court storm" was a bit of an exaggeration.

It was more like an aggressive gathering, thanks to snow-induced crowd-thinning.

This game was originally scheduled to be played Saturday, but a blizzard dumped 30 inches of snow on Philadelphia, pushing the tipoff back to noon Sunday. With the city still digging out and mass transit all but shut down, only a small collection of die-hards showed up. Officially game attendance was listed at 6,096, but then again, officially Moore is listed at 5-foot-9.

And so, the "if a tree falls" question: If an undefeated team loses and no one is really there to see it, did the team really lose?

Alas, for SMU, the answer is yes.

Montel Aaron, Rashad Weaver (current Michigan commit), Dae'lun Darien and Karamo Dioubate will be among this weekend's visitors. I believe they'll be at the basketball game as well.

Working on getting a full list together as we confirm more info.

as a kid growing up in North Jersey, I saw too many home grown players go off to places like Nebraska and Penn State. I wish this could have been the mantra then.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...up_Jersey_recruiting.html#p3bFCjm8CMyRYeYh.03

Temple commit Dae'Lun Darien was offered by Penn State today. Haven't been able to confirm how this affects Darien's commitment to Temple quite yet but it's something to keep an eye on.

Currently 4/4 with a 51 harder in less than ideal kicking conditions has the Broncos behind, 13-12 to Pittsburgh. He is the only reason for me to root for Denver.

They are so sad

Both are great, and entirely different animals. Was trying to get your attention. If you are down here, try the breakfast waffle special with the best waffle on earth, two eggs any way, toast or biscuits, sausage or bacon, grits, juice or coffee.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-carolina-panthers-secret-weapon-waffle-house-1453224305

I favor the pecan waffle.

Some of your extollations of Wawa persuaded me to try it some years ago, and you are right, they are great regional joints too. They're in FL now all along I-4 from St. Pete to Daytona. Mission Man's recommendation induced me to try that corn chowder, great stuff.

Oh yeah, beat LaSalle

GO Owls

who is still going to the game tomorrow?

I am just throwing this out there for fun to get the discussion off of firing Fran Dunphy (as I am sick of looking at all the same threads whether you think he deserves it or not):

Is there any scenario where Temple could make the NCAA tourney as an at large? They are 7-6 now with 17 games left. Would 13-4 get them in? Do they need to beat both SMU and Nova? Win 2 games in the AAC tourney? Not lose to any of the bottom teams? Is the AAC strong enough to get 3 teams in?

Again, this is just for fun. I actually don't think it can happen but hope they prove me wrong.

Nova loses in OT. Some guy named Bentil goes for 31 and 13.

I know we are all down on Dumphy and this team but since Big Earnest has been inserted in to the lineup things seem much more achievable. The last five games have been encouraging, defense has improved offensively new players step up each night. My stomach had a flitter of excitement last night, yes it was LaSalle but things seem to be jelling. I still can't stomach Dingle and Bond at the foul line, Bond jump shoots of any kind and an appearance of Williams on the court. But yet an SMU win almost seems plausible.

Friend was just interviewed during practice of the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl 2016 practice in Carson, Calif.

He said he excited to be there, but was grieving over his grandmother, who died a day ago.

After the interview, Anthony Becht, who played at Monsignor Bonner in the early to mid-1990s and then was a great TE at West Virginia before becoming a first-round pick of the Jets in 2000, praised Friend. Talked about his 46 reps of 225, and his pulling speed, and athleticism and smarts.

It was great pub for Friend and the Owls.

In case you missed it, Linwood Crump committed to Temple today.

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Crump's an interesting case. He played at Sayreville before the whole hazing fiasco cancelled the rest of his junior season. Crump didn't play as a senior.

He did, however, attend local camps and displayed upper-tier speed. He's reported 40-yard dash times in the 4.3-4.5 range. A source I spoke to said he was very impressive at a Rutgers camp and caught the eye of EJ Barthel. Barthel, at the time, was on Rutgers' staff but is now volunteering with Temple. Temple had offered Crump prior to Barthel joining the staff but his presence helped with the recruitment.

Because of his association with the Sayreville program and the fact he hasn't played in a football game since September 27, 2014, Temple was the only school to extend an offer.

Before the Sayreville situation, Crump seemed like he was poised to become a very legitimate prospect. In three games with Sayreville in 2014, Crump rushed for 236 yards and averaged 9.1 yards per carry. Seems like this is a low-risk, high-reward situation.

They lost at home by nine today to a horrible USF team. This is their 4th loss in a row and they appear to be reeling.

I don't think Robbie could have played any worse. Mid way through the 3rd Q he's dropped two passes (back to back) and missed two.
He's a kid who needed to really open some eyes at this venue, and he hasn't. If I'm an NFL Scout, I see a guy who's got great straight line speed, can cut fairly well, but has poor hands. If he interviews like the times I met him, nice kid, but very quiet and reserved, not engaging, I don't see any reason I'd watch him anymore unless he wows me at the Pro Day.
Very disappointed to post this, the kid had an incredible chance, but just didn't step up.

Anyone going to the 2/6 game in Orlando ? Gator & Fred ?

You asked for it and Rivals actually delivered.

With the switch to the new site format, Rivals has also launched a mobile app. It's available on Android and iOS. I've included screenshots from the iOS version since that's what I use but it should be similar on Android.

First off, to find the app go to the app store and search for Rivals.com. You should find something like this...



Install that and open it. When you log in with your Rivals user name, it should recognize that you're an OwlScoop subscriber and default in our home page. If you subscribe to more than one site, you may need to mess with the settings to determine which team you want to be your default.

Remember how we mentioned that the new format would be more mobile friendly? Well, this is the justification for that.



You'll be able to scroll through all of our front-page articles from the Articles tab in the app. After that, there's a forums tab, a notifications tab, a teams tab and a settings tab.

For big news articles, John and I will push these notifications out to the app and they'll appear as a notification on your phone and in the notifications tab of the actual app. If, for some reason, you decide that you don't want the notifications on your phone, you can disable them in the settings tab.

So, there you have it. It's pretty simple and user friendly but should make reading OwlScoop on the go that much easier.

Anyone going to UCF game on 2/6 ? Gator & Fred ?

Darnell Saloman, from Miami. High major talent. Off the field issues.

Hope he likes snow.

Until Sunday...Time to be announced.

temple didn't make one play in the last two minutes with a 4 point lead . Between Coleman , Dingle and Brown , the Owls just played losing basketball at the end . They had one shot in four possessions and then finally a give me by Memphis allowing Brown to tie it . Then Dingle ... What the hell was he thinking . Memphis is just above mediocre and so is Temple ........

Mmmmmmmeeeeedddddddiiiiiioooocccccrrrrreeeee !!!!

PS. I know Obi has his problems but the best shooter on the team is a total second or third choice on every set play . He was open on the pick and pop countless times and never sees the ball . I see no screens for him . I see him screening and then hoping someone sees him on the puck and roll . Get this kid some shots . The team is a pathetic shoting team so get your best shooter some shots . Change the frighin offense but get him shots

Just to give you guys a head's up, the Rivals network is switching the format of sites on Tuesday, January 12. On that date, you'll still access OwlScoop the same way you usually do but you'll notice some differences.

The main difference for you, as the reader, is going to be the way you see articles. Instead of the front page showing five articles, all of the articles will now be in one long, scrollable list. To get a better idea of what i'm talking about, take a peek at the new version of Blue White Illustrated's site. https://bwi.n.rivals.com/ As you can see, all the articles show up underneath the main article and the list keeps going instead of showing up to the right of the article.

As for the actual articles, you'll also notice a bit of a difference. The new format allows John and I to easily add flare to the articles. Scroll through this article to see what I'm talking about.

https://temple.n.rivals.com/news/bounceback-2

We're able to insert images, tables and videos a lot easier than we were on Rivals' old format.

From what we've been told, this new format is going to make your mobile experience much, much better. The transition for you, as the user, should be seamless. For John and I, it'll take some getting used to but we're not expecting much of a learning curve.

While the new design is going live on Tuesday, it's not a completely finished product. You'll notice some "old" versions of pages, such as the recruiting database, lingering around until new versions can be built by Rivals.

Just keeping you guys up to date so you're not caught off guard on Tuesday.