Gridiron Dynasty - Rockne DIA (BCS)

[joannes3000]

From: Loyd Poole

To: Coach joannes3000

Subject: Congratulations, Coach!

Sent: 1/3/08 3:22AM

Welcome to Temple, Coach! We are thrilled to have you leading our program and we are sure that you can lead us to great success.

Loyd Poole

President

Temple University

Timothy Patel

Athletic Director

Temple University

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I don't think anyone was surprised by me moving on. In fact, I was so disgusted with our loss to Baylor that I put in my application for the Temple job opening the day after our bowl loss. I could've stayed at Toledo and reloaded for another bowl run, which would've been helped tremendously by RS QB Douglas Morris and RS TE Juan Barton. Those guys will terrorize opposing defenses until they leave for the NFL.

In moving to Temple, I have resigned myself to take on another rebuild of enormous proportions. Temple has not had a human coach for 13 seasons. In that span of time Temple hasn't achieved a winning record or gone to a bowl game, with the best season being a 6-7 campaign. This team will follow the rebuilding process that I have taken with Duke, and hopefully we can get this thing turned around before I get fired.

[joannes3000]

I'll quickly list the noteworthy players on our team that is full of sim recruits.

SR QB Joseph Bailey is going to be a starter. He has excellent elusiveness; above average athleticism and technique; average work ethic, stamina, and game instinct; and below average strength.

SR QB Andrew Billings is an extremely capable backup and I wish he was a year younger so I could have two years of steady QB play. I'd RS him, but that would likely cause him to leave early next year any way. He has excellent stamina; above average athleticism; average work ethic, game instinct, and technique.

SR WR John Jones will be one of our primary receivers. He has phenomenal elusiveness; excellent speed, work ethic, and stamina; above average hands, average athleticism and game instinct; and below average technique.

SR TE Ron Ward will be our other primary receiver and will be an excellent run-blocker as well. He has phenomenal strength; excellent athleticism, work ethic, blocking, hands, elusiveness, and technique; and average speed, stamina, and game instinct.

SR OL Raymond Moody will help anchor our OL. He has above average athleticism, stamina, strength, and blocking; average work ethic; and below average game instinct and technique.

SR OL William Dupree has excellent work ethic; above average athleticism, stamina, and strength; average blocking and technique; and below average game instinct.

JR OL Francis Hudson has above average athleticism, stamina, strength, and game instinct; average work ethic and blocking; and below average technique.

SO OL Scott Melton has excellent work ethic and stamina; above average athleticism, and strength; average game instinct and technique; and below average blocking.

SR DL James Barton is the lone bright spot on a horrendous DL. He has excellent athleticism, stamina, and strength; above average game instinct; average tackling and technique; and below average work ethic.

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As you can see, our offense should be ok, although I wish we had a decent RB to run behind what is a surprisingly good OL. I will concentrate on landing a RB with this recruiting class but won't break the bank in doing so. Our passing game will likely be the most effective facet of our offense.

Defensively, we are going to get destroyed. Even with James Barton, our DL core average looks like a good DII team. We have no noteworthy LBs either, with the unit's core average being below average for a DII team. That said, teams will run all over us. If offenses choose to pass, they should have no problems either, with no good DBs on the roster. Our DB unit's core average would be average for a DII team. Yuck.

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With 12 open scholarships (chose not to rescind any), here is the game plan for my first season of recruiting:

*2 RBs - hopefully we can get a decent starter this season, but I will settle for backup-types to start saving money.

*2 WRs - looking for one starter to tandem with John Jones, but again I will look to save money.

*1 TE - looking for a run-blocker.

*2 OL - looking for a couple of decent OL, and I'll settle for players that have one average core.

*2 DL - looking for talent. Anything will be an upgrade over what we currently have.

*1 LB - again, looking for talent, because we don't have any at this position.

*2 DB - see LBs.

Obviously, the primary concern in year one of the rebuild will be to save as much money as possible during recruiting. We won't be competitive in recruiting for at least two seasons because of the lack of success Temple has had over the years. Better to bankroll money now, so when we can reasonably battle for recruits, we'll have some cash to spend.

Our classes are extremely unbalanced, with 3 SR QBs, 4 SR DL, 4 SR DBS, and 4 SR K/Ps. Next season will be a ridiculous recruiting class, as that is a class of 15. We will also have gaping holes at DL and DB. We'll have a little more wiggle room next season during recruiting, with 3 extra scholarships since we will only have 1 K/P compared to the 4 we currently have. DL and DB will be terribly unbalanced for a few seasons until I can get classes balanced out a little bit with some creative RSing.

In fact, I think I'm going to RS 2 DBs and 1 DL this year to start the balancing process. I run the risk of the SRs not staying around next year for their RS season, but they will leave regardless if I don't RS them. Might as well try! The only real impact will be that I will run lean at DL and DB this year, but we won't be competing this year any way.

[joannes3000]

To say that I'm pleased with our recruiting this year is an understatement. Being a first-year coach at an abysmal school, we still managed to pull in a terrific class. And while some of it can be attributed to my recruiting ability, I was extremely surprised at just how good recruiting is in the Northeast, both in terms of quantity and quality.

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Offense

RB Herbert Fink has excellent hands and elusiveness; above average stamina; average speed, work ethic, strength, and technique; and below average athleticism. He should grow into part of a dynamic tandem at RB. RB Miguel Munoz will be the other half of that tandem. He has excellent speed, work ethic, and stamina; above average hands and elusiveness; average technique; and below average athleticism and strength. Munoz could turn into something special with his work ethic.

WR Robert McDonald has average speed, work ethic, stamina, elusiveness, and technique; and below average athleticism and hands. WR Robert Galindo is a converted RB with above average speed and stamina; average technique; and below average athleticism, work ethic, hands, and elusiveness.

TE Edward Walker has excellent athleticism; average stamina, blocking, and elusiveness; and below average speed, work ethic, strength, hands, and technique.

OL George Jones has excellent athleticism, work ethic, and stamina; above average blocking; average strength and game instinct; and below average technique. OL Willie Mitchell has excellent athleticism and stamina; above average game instinct; average strength, blocking, and technique; and below average work ethic.

Defense

DL Arthur Cole has above average strength; average work ethic, stamina, tackling, game instinct, and technique; and below average athleticism. DL Kevin Stevens has above average stamina and tackling; average athleticism and strength; and below average work ethic, game instinct, and technique.

LB Robert James has above average speed and stamina; average strength and tackling; and below average athleticism, work ethic, game instinct, and technique.

DB Robert Britt has above average work ethic, stamina, and elusiveness; average speed; and below average athleticism, hands, game instinct, and technique. DB Gary Cantu has average speed, work ethic, stamina, hands, and elusiveness; and below average athleticism, game instinct, and technique.

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I only overspent (more than the allotted 15k per scholarship) on two recruits, one of which signed with me. I had about 45k in dead money, which is pretty good considering I was the new coach on the block. In the end, I managed to bank a little over 45k while signing an average class while operating in below average conditions.

Recruit rankings pegged our class as the 42nd best in the country. Our class was the best in the division and the 6th best in the conference. Here are the recruit rankings for this season:

Syracuse - 9

Connecticut - 28

West Virginia - 32

Pittsburgh - 51

Rutgers - 14

Temple - 42

South Florida - 30

Marquette - 37

Cincinnati - 69

Colorado State - 87

Depaul (sim) - 108

Louisville (sim) - 102

[AHF]

Does "work ethic" roughly translate into "potential for improvement"?

[joannes3000]

Quote:

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Does "work ethic" roughly translate into "potential for improvement"?

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It's half of the equation. The other half is an actual potential "rating" you get from scouting trips. I don't pay attention to potential at DIA, however, since most DIA-caliber players are likely to hit their ceiling by the time they graduate or declare for the draft; given that they have decent work ethic. I figure a player that grades average will reach their ceiling before they leave, with grades of above average or excellent reaching it MAYBE half a season sooner.

Potential is something much more critical at DII and DIAA, where there players still have relatively high ceilings to reach and where teams have enough flexibility with their recruiting budgets to actually take the time (and expense) to scout players that you aren't immediately pursuing.

[joannes3000]

Our inaugural season at Temple is going to be similar to what we faced at Duke. This is a team that has some talent in place, but overall is dwarfed by even the also-rans within the conference. Our inherited OOC slate gives very few chances at a win, as we are simply outmatched. In fact, before I resigned at Toledo I scheduled a game against Temple just so I could gauge what kind of mess I've gotten myself into this time.

Year one predictions? I'll be happy with one win and will be thrilled with 2. We have one sim team on our slate; a conference game at Louisville. The remaining games are against human coaches and let's face it, even the greatest game plans need some talent to work.

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1/19/08 at Toledo

1/20/08 Wisconsin

1/21/08 at Kansas

1/22/08 at Southern Methodist

1/23/08 at Hawaii

[AHF]

Why did you jump to such an extreme fixer-upper? Is that what was available or just the biggest challenge/upside?

[joannes3000]

Quote:

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Why did you jump to such an extreme fixer-upper? Is that what was available or just the biggest challenge/upside?

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[*]Being at a BCS school gives me a slight advantage over non-BCS schools when it comes to recruiting. If two exactly equal schools get into a recruiting battle and put forth the exact same amount of effort, the pecking order goes: non-BCS, BCS, elite.

[*]I hadn't recruited from the NE yet, but I've heard it's an extremly nice area in terms of both recruit quality and quantity. This year's recruiting class went a long way of verifying those rumors to be true.

[*]While there are two wildly successful schools within my own division (Connecticut, Syracuse), I think I will become a far better coach by playing better coaches and teams. I chose Duke because it was an opportunity to match up against some extremely good coaches and I think I will learn a lot from them.

[*]For all the success that Connecticut and Syracuse have had, they are not elites (in terms of recruiting advantages). In fact, the Big East is the only BCS conference that has ZERO elites. Compare that to the Pac-10 where USC is the ONLY elite not only in the conference, but on the entire west coast. The Big East provides a fair chance for everyone to succeed. The longer you survive, the closer to the top you get.

[*]I do like the challenge of rebuilding a scrapheap of a team. Again, it's like my newfound desire to match wits with great coaches and teams. My two seasons at Duke have been more fun than my more successful seasons at other schools. And as long as I don't get fired first, it will be extremely rewarding to truly build a team from scratch.

[joannes3000]

Our season opener had us traveling to my old stomping grounds, and the reality of my move set in as we got beat all over the field by Toledo. We ran for 91/1 and passed for 261/1/1. Our offense put up 352 yards and our defense allowed 488.

14-38 L

We return home for our opener against a strong Wisconsin team. The game was actually close at halftime (down 14-21), but our complete lack of depth showed down the stretch in the 2nd half. We ran for 94/1 and passed for 278/3/1. Our offense put up 372 yards and our defense allowed 397. Two key giveaways by us could have made the difference in this game.

42-28 L

Back on the road, this time in Lawrence to face Kansas. Kansas is in year 3 of a rebuild and this was an opportunity for an upset that we let get away. We tied the game with just over 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, only for our defense to give up the game-winning 40 yard FG as time expired. We ran for 138/1 and passed for 284/3/0. Our offense put up 422 yards and our defense allowed 506.

31-34 L

We headed south to face SMU in game 4. My game planning skills were showcased here, as we nearly pulled an upset where we had no business even keeping the game close from a talent standpoint. We ran for 163/0 and passed for 300/5/0. Our offense put up 463 yards and our defense allowed 481.

37-45 L

We wrapped up our OOC slate with a long trip to Hawaii. We played a fairly complete game, but it's painfully obvious just how little talent I have to work with at this point. We ran for 125/2 and passed for 408/1/0. Our offense put up 533 yards and our defense allowed 496.

24-35 L

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With the first 5 games in the books, all losses, I think I'm buckled up for what will easily be the longest season of my coaching career. I haven't had a losing season (in Rockne) since I left DIII Puget Sound 11 seasons ago, but from the looks of it we will struggle to win 2 games. That will be the lowest win total I've posted in my coaching career, with the current low being 3 wins in my very first season of GD.

The signs are obvious, too. Just look at the rushing yards I put up each game. Typically, the only time I pass for more yards than I rush for are games where I'm outmatched in terms of player talent. One thing I will get a chance to do this season, however, is refine my passing attack. I'm going to put more of a focus on the passing game and try to make my running game a very complimentary part of our offense. We have a little talent at RB, but clearly we can't run it like I prefer to.

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1/24/08 at Louisville

1/25/08 #11 South Florida

1/26/08 Colorado State

1/27/08 Pittsburgh

[joannes3000]

I forgot to mention that I got paid a very nice compliment by a fellow Big East coach. huskerbob, the coach at Syracuse, does a Big East commentary during the season and he had this to say after our near-upset against SMU:

Quote:

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463 total yards can't be ignored. Owls are more competitive than maybe their talent should be. Progress.

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I also just read this little gem in his Syracuse thread:

Quote:

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Week 12

at Temple

The Owls are a huge rebuild job but coach joannes has a track record to suggest it won't take long.

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While I appreciate these comments coming from a good coach, it's blowing my disguise as an average coach!

[AHF]

Given the huge talent imbalance it looks like you are putting a scare into some people. Hopefully with another competitive recruiting class next year you will be in positition to pull a few of those off next season. The seniors you will be losing can't be much of a loss.

[joannes3000]

Quote:

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Given the huge talent imbalance it looks like you are putting a scare into some people. Hopefully with another competitive recruiting class next year you will be in positition to pull a few of those off next season. The seniors you will be losing can't be much of a loss.

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You're absolutely correct. It will be addition by subtraction as players graduate. Keep an eye on Duke, for example. After this recruiting period, 3/4 of the team will be my own guys and I expect us to make a quantum leap in terms of how competitive we are.

[joannes3000]

Our conference slate tips off on the road against Louisville, which will likely be our only win of the season. We ran for 424/5 and passed for 98/1/0. Our offense put up 522 yards and our defense allowed 271. It was nice to know we can still dominate teams we're supposed to.

45-17 W

South Florida comes calling next, and we're back to our (expected) losing ways. We ran for 50/0 and passed for 195/1/1. Our offense put up 245 yards and our defense allowed 502.

45-10 L

Our next home game against Colorado State was a good indicator of our team's makeup. We played tough for one half (17-21), but didn't have the depth to stay competitive in the 2nd half. We ran for 93/0 and passed for 326/2/1. Our offense put up 419 yards and our defense allowed 440.

48-23 L

Pittsburgh is first on our divisional slate, and they had no problem beating us. We ran for 79/1 and passed for 258/1/1. Our offense put up 337 yards and our defense allowed 541.

45-20 L

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Well, we managed to meet year one's expectations with a win against Louisville. The remaining games will likely be one-sided defeats, which I expected as well. It's going to be a long time waiting until next season...

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1/28/08 at West Virginia

1/29/08 at #3 Connecticut

1/30/08 #16 Syracuse

1/31/08 Rutgers

[joannes3000]

Game 10 has us on the road against West Virginia. We were a 15.5 point dog and showed why. We ran for 40/0 and passed for 416/1/1. Our offense put up 456 yards and our defense allowed 632.

20-52 L

We traveled further up north and got beaten even worse by a UCONN team that is headed to the NC game for the 3rd time in 4 years! We ran for 58/0 and passed for 183/1/1. Our offense put up 241 yards and our defense allowed 549.

10-63 L

We headed home after one beatdown and caught another; this time by the other powerhouse in the division - Syracuse. We ran for 81/0 and passed for 226/1/1. Our offense put up 307 yards and our defense allowed 668.

63-10 L

Our final game of the season (mercifully) was against a motivated Rutgers team trying to improve their bowl bid. Our late-season tailspin aided that cause. We ran for 80/2 and passed for 253/1/0. Our offense put up 333 yards and our defense allowed 537.

49-21 L

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Mission accomplished for season one of the rebuild. We notched one win; ensuring that my job security doesn't go down since we "improved" from last season's winless campaign. I had 12 losses over the past 4 seasons prior to Temple, and I managed to match that loss total in one season here. Ouch.

I've got a very interesting change coming this offseason to report. Having had much success with using the Pro set, I have decided to go full tilt with a balanced offensive attack and will be implementing the I form as well. I have been consulting with a HOF coach and over the span of two days that we spoke, he won a NC with a team running a balanced attack. With Temple still very well in rebuild mode, now is a perfect time to install an offense this radically different. In fact, I'll be switching to the same offense at Duke!

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Season 2 of this rebuild should fare a little better. I've got a much softer OOC slate, having scheduled 4 currently sim-coached teams and one human-coached team. Our conference schedule will always be brutal, and we can all but count on 2 losses at the hands of division powers UCONN and Syracuse for the foreseeable future.

I'd like to think that we can at least tack on 2 additional wins next season, based on having another recruiting class on board. With a half-assembled squad, I could've beaten Kansas and SMU this season - teams I lost to by 1 score. My early prediction for next season's win total will be a conservative 3 wins, given the fact that we will be installing a relatively new offense.

[joannes3000]

I got two emails this morning from players that decided to leave the program due to lack of playing time. Juan Turner and Nathaniel Jackson were two of the three SRs I chose to RS last season in an attempt to balance out my classes a bit. Their decisions leave us with a recruiting class of 21, which is a LOT more than I want to have in any given season.

On the bright side, this many defections will let us revamp the team a whole lot quicker if recruiting goes well. If we're able to fill our scholarships this season, we will have turned over more than half of the roster in two seasons - 12 recruits last season plus 21 recruits this coming season.

The downside to this is that we will have a very young and unbalanced team. And while it will be nice when this incoming class is playing their SR years, it will be tough having to replace them every 4 seasons or so. I've always been a bigger fan of having balanced classes (12/13/12/13) because I think it leads to more steady play overall.

Rather than sweat the details and attempt to balance my classes out, I think I'm going to let things ride and just recruit on a season-by-season basis with this team. The idea is that I'll be able to get competitive sooner by focusing on having 8 OL at all times rather than having 2 FR, SO, JR, and SR playing OL. We'll see what method produces the best results!

[joannes3000]

Boy, talk about late! Too much stuff going on, as usual.

Year two of recruiting went a lot better on several key fronts. Number one, we filled a huge class of 21 scholarship players without taking on a single AC signing. As I mentioned before, that means we've turned over 35 of 50 players in two seasons, giving us a much needed injection of talent. In an already loaded recruiting area (Penn State, Syracuse, Connecticut, Boston College) we need to get established a lot faster so we can get our share of recruits. Number two, we landed quite a few quality players. We secured both lines and surprised even ourselves by landing a pair of playmakers on offense. This class, while void of elite talent, is still an impact class due to the size and overall quality.

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Offense

QB Ernest Flowers has excellent work ethic; above average athleticism and elusiveness; average technique; and below average stamina, strength, and game instinct. He will take a RS his FR year to let his work ethic do it's thing. Flowers could turn into something special in two years.

QB Carlos Gunn has above average work ethic, stamina, and game instinct; average athleticism and technique; and below average strength and elusiveness. Gunn will be our starter this year and should develop into a capable backup after Flowers takes over next season.

QB Curtis Yates has average athleticism and game instinct; and below average work ethic, stamina, strength, elusiveness, and technique. Yates was recruited solely as an extra body this season and will likely have his scholarship rescinded next season.

RB Kenneth Goldstein was a DB in highschool but will excel as a RB for us. He has phenomenal elusiveness; excellent athleticism and speed; average work ethic, strength, hands, and technique; and below average stamina. Goldstein is going to be an immediate impact and will become a part of our regular RB rotation.

RB Scott Pierce has phenomenal elusiveness; excellent strength and hands; above average speed; average work ethic; and below average athleticism, stamina, and technique. I'm afraid that Pierce's abysmal ATH will hold him back and that's why I was able to get him with relatively little fanfare. His other core attributes (ELU, STR, SPD) project him to be an excellent RB, giving us a quartet of young studs - Pierce, Goldstein, and last season's standouts Miguel Munoz and Herbert Fink.

WR Jack Huffman has phenomenal speed and hands; excellent technique; above average elusiveness; and below average athleticism, work ethic, and stamina. Huffman is the gem of our class; one of those guys you fully expect to leave after 3 seasons. There must have been a ton of local talent at WR this past season, because we didn't battle any elites for him.

WR Raymond Walker has excellent speed and hands; above average elusiveness; average athleticism; and below average work ethic, stamina, and technique. Walker will be limited by his low technique but if he improves steadily, he could become a very capable sidekick to Huffman.

TE Matthew Fontenot has phenomenal speed and hands; excellent strength and technique; and average athleticism, work ethic, stamina, blocking, and game instinct. Fontenot will be menacing in our short passing attack, possessing the speed and hands of an above average WR. He's also a average blocker, but he won't waste much energy run-blocking. He's going to wreck LBs in coverage.

OL Carlos Anderson has phenomenal work ethic; excellent strength and blocking; above average athleticism, stamina, and game instinct; and below average technique. Anderson was one recruit we broke the bank to get. He's an instant starter on our depleted OL, and even on a competitive team he would be a great addition. He already carries above average cores (BLK/STR/TECH) and his tremendous work ethic means he will only get better.

OL Kyle Burton has excellent work ethic, strength, blocking, and game instinct; above average technique; and below average athleticism and stamina. Burton's low stamina will be an issue for the time being, but his high work ethic should take care of that. He projects to be an anchor on the line right beside Anderson, and we dug deep into our recruiting budget to land him also.

OL Theodore Riley has phenomenal blocking; excellent work ethic and strength; average game instinct; and below average athleticism, stamina, and technique. Riley is the 3rd piece of a MAJOR overhaul of our OL. Like Burton, his low stamina will be an issue, but his high work ethic will take care of that. Riley also projects to be a stud, giving us 3 critical pieces at one of the most critical positions. We dug deep into our recruiting budget once again to land Riley.

Defense

DL Michael Ferguson has phenomenal tackling; excellent work ethic; above average strength and technique; and below average athleticism, stamina, and game instinct. Ferguson has above average cores (TKL/STR/TECH), but his secondary attributes (ATH/GI) and stamina keep him from being a stud. That said, his great work ethic project him to be a monster.

DL Steven Sears has phenomenal tackling; excellent stamina; above average game instinct; average technique; and below average athleticism, work ethic and strength. Much like Ferguson, Sears is a tremendous tackler, but his below average strength will hinder him. His low work ethic project him to be a solid, if not spectacular starter.

DL Joseph Stafford has excellent strength and game instinct; above average tackling, and technique; average athleticism and stamina; and below average work ethic. Stafford projects to be another solid starter, but his low work ethic will keep him from developing into something spectacular.

DL David Winkler is to our defense what Jack Huffman is to our offense - a dynamite recruit. Winkler has phenomenal strength and tackling; above average athleticism and work ethic; average game instinct; and below average stamina and technique. If Winkler had higher technique, he would've been recruited by every elite in the country. As it stands, we had to fight off several local schools, but we went all-out to the tune of close to 90k spent to pry him away from Rutgers (his hometown is Bridgeton, NJ).

LB Danny Hernandez has above average speed, work ethic, tackling, and technique; average stamina; and below average athleticism, strength, and game instinct. He will benefit from a RS this season and will hopefully develop into a rotational starter.

DB Benjamin Brown has excellent athleticism; above average work ethic, stamina, hands, and elusiveness; average speed, game instinct, and technique. Brown projects to be an above average starter in two seasons.

DB Craig Jensen has excellent elusiveness; average athleticism, speed, and work ethic; and below average stamina, hands, game instinct, and technique. Jensen will RS this season and hopefully that will give him time to develop the rest of his cores (SPD, GI, TECH). His ELU is already top-notch.

DB Jorge Johnson has phenomenal elusiveness; excellent stamina; above average athleticism, speed, and work ethic; and below average game instinct and technique. Johnson is one of those raw athletes coming out of HS. His good work ethic projects him to be a solid starter, and if his GI/TECH grow into the above average range, he has the potential to be a standout DB.

DB Richard Rose has phenomenal work ethic and elusiveness; excellent speed; above average stamina and technique; average athleticism and game instinct; and below average hands. Rose projects to be a stud in the secondary for us. His speed will make up for his average GI, and his ridiculous WE means he will continue to improve. Rose is already the #1 DB in our passing defense and he will likely hold that spot until he graduates or leaves early.

P Jeffrey Johnson has above excellent work ethic; above average technique; and below average strength. He will handle the kicking and punting duties during his tenure.

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Well, we definitely went all-out during this recruiting period. As you can see, there was a lot of terrific talent and the majority of it was local once again. There were quite a few studs that Penn State, UConn, Syracuse, and Boston College gobbled up, with Penn State grabbing the majority, but we got our fair share also. On average we spent a little more than the allotted 15k per scholarship namely due to some costly battles against Rutgers, but it was very well worth it.

Recruit rankings pegged our class curiously as the 50th best in the country. I fully disagree with that. The coach at Syracuse does an annual recruiting recap and here's what he had to say about our class - "Temple - B Grade doesn't match the rankings but the Owls had a huge class this season and really were able to make a jump in their overall talent. WR Huffman is a quality talent and added some quality talented depth on both lines." Here's how the recruit rankings fell for the conference:

Syracuse - 6

Connecticut - 14

West Virginia - 8

Pittsburgh - 16

Rutgers - 40

Temple - 50

South Florida - 30

Marquette - 56

Cincinnati - 59

Colorado State - 47

Depaul (sim) - 99

Louisville (sim) - 98

[joannes3000]

Season two of the Temple rebuilding project has already gotten off to a hot start with our recruiting class. We actually have some decent depth in place on both sides of the ball now; compared to last season where we had some talent but no depth. With the infusion of talent we got with our recent recruits, we could actually scare some teams.

With an OOC schedule full of sim teams, we will have no problem matching 1 win from last season. We have 4 sim teams on tap altogether, so we should be able to bank on 4 wins at the very least. Kansas state is a likely upset candidate, given their rebuilding status and an average coach. Unfortunately, we drew Marquette and South Florida from the opposite division, and we're not looking at any upsets within our division. 5 wins is our goal, with 6 being extremely optimistic.

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2/23/08 at Central Michigan

2/24/08 at Utah State

2/25/08 at Kansas State

2/26/08 at Ohio

2/27/08 at Buffalo

[joannes3000]

We started the season with a bang on the road against sim-coached Central Michigan. A 7-7 tie was blown wide open in the 2nd quarter when we scored 21 unanswered points. We ran for 408/5 and passed for 107/1/0. Our offense put up 515 yards and our defense allowed 297 yards.

45-14 W

We traveled to Logan next to face sim-coached Utah State. We got off to a strong start again, taking a commanding 30-3 lead at the half and never looking back. We ran for 483/6 and passed for 152/1/0. Our offense put up 635 yards and our defense allowed 305 yards.

50-9 W

For game three we traveled north to face Kansas State. Once again we got off to a strong start, rattling off the final 14 points of the 1st half to pull away. We ran for 387/4 and passed for 169/2/0. Our offense put up 556 yards and our defense allowed 288 yards.

45-17 W

Off to Athens for our 4th consecutive road game, this time against Ohio. Having played in the MAC for two seasons, I was familiar with the program and the coach and I knew this was going to be our toughest game to date. We were down 16-13 at the half, took a 27-23 lead going into the 4th, and had the game tied at 30 with under 2 minutes to go when our team's lack of depth finally bit us. We lost the game on a 26 yard FG with 1 second on the clock. We ran for 252/2 and passed for 130/1/0. Our offense put up 382 yards and our defense allowed 370 yards.

30-33 L

Staying in the MAC, we traveled to face sim-coached Buffalo for our 5th and final road OOC game. After playing to a 7-7 tie in the 1st, we went off for 27 points in the 2nd and went on to win handily. We ran for 454/7 and passed for 115/0/0. Our offense put up 569 yards and our defense allowed 397 yards.

54-27 W

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Our 4-1 start quadruples our win total from last season and we should've won against Ohio. We played teams comparable to us in terms of talent (other than Ohio, who was better) and I like the results. We dominated the teams we were supposed to and nearly had an upset against a better team.

I'm very pleased with our offense's progression going into the first full season of our new balanced attack. Our running game is effectively setting up our passing game and controlling the clock. The only loss we've had so far was one where we lost the TOP battle.

Our defense is holding it's own, getting it's fair share of stops and turnovers. GD is undeniably slanted toward offense, however, so 'limiting' teams to under 400 yards of offense is typically a good day. Looking at conference play, it won't surprise me if we only win one more game (against sim-coached DePaul). Our conference is entirely too strong and my team is entirely too young (35 FR/SO) to make a lot of noise.

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2/28/08 South Florida

2/29/08 at Marquette

3/1/08 at DePaul

3/2/08 Connecticut

[joannes3000]

The humbling portion of our season begins with our first home game of the season. Playing host to South Florida, we were reminded of our lack of depth. We went into halftime down 13-10 but were outscored 20-0 in the 3rd and 34-7 in the second half. We ran for 215/0 and passed for 92/1/1. Our offense put up 307 yards and our defense allowed 529 yards.

47-17 L

We traveled to Milwaukee next to face Marquette on the road. Our breakdown occurred in the 2nd quarter where we were outscored 21-3 but we managed to play them even throughout the rest of the game. We ran for 226/2 and passed for 132/1/0. Our offense put up 358 yards and our defense allowed 445 yards.

24-42 L

On the road again, this time in Chicago to face sim-coached DePaul. We got a chance to win a game in between the rest of the in-conference beatdowns. We ran for 407/3 and passed for 77/2/0. Our offense put up 484 yards and our defense allowed 233 yards.

34-10 W

We came home in time to face national juggernaut UConn and I was happy that the game wasn't as big a blowout as last season's 63-10 slaughtering. We ran for 122/2 and passed for 177/1/1. Our offense put up 299 yards and our defense allowed 522 yards.

49-20 L

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Well, the beatdowns are getting lighter. UConn only beat us by 29 (53 last year) and South Florida only beat us by 30 (35 last year). I'm also pleased that we've been able to muster up a bit of a running game in our losses. Last year we typically had our running attack limited to less than 100 yards, but with a bit of a passing attack this season to go with us attacking out of balanced formations, it's tougher to key in on our running game.

The remaining games don't look to be any different than these - we're likely to lose all of them. Maybe we pull an upset against Rutgers or West Virginia on my ability to game plan, but we're still quite far behind in terms of talent compared to nearly every team within the conference.

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3/3/08 at Syracuse

3/4/08 at Rutgers

3/5/08 at Pittsburgh

3/6/08 West Virginia

[joannes3000]

The humbling continues during the home stretch of our season as we went upstate to face powerhouse Syracuse. We were never close, as expected, but once again we're showing progress against the big boys. We ran for 152/2 and passed for 103/0/1. Our offense put up 255 yards and our defense allowed 485 yards.

17-40 L

Next, we traveled to New Brunswick to face Rutgers. We led 13-10 at the half, but once again just don't have the depth yet to pull the upset in the 2nd half. We ran for 136/2 and passed for 141/1/0. Our offense put up 277 yards and our defense allowed 332 yards.

21-29 L

One more road game before our home finale, this time against Pittsburgh. In a testament to his coaching ability, mjmage administered the largest beatdown we suffered all season. We ran for 145/0 and passed for 154/0/0. Our offense put up 299 yards and our defense allowed 520 yards.

3-46 L

Our regular season finale was at home against West Virginia and we nearly pulled the upset. It wasn't until we failed to convert a 4th and long at midfield that the game was decided. We ran for 220/3 and passed for 192/0/0. Our offense put up 412 yards and our defense allowed 372.

34-27 L

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This season was much easier to stomach than last season, given that we won 5 games this year. Not only that, but we had near-upsets against Ohio, Rutgers, and West Virginia. So while our increased win total is a decent indicator of our team's progress, it's the scoreboard results that tell the story.

We're going into season 3 of the rebuild next year, and I expect to hit 7+ wins next season. Just like with my rebuild at Duke, year 3 is typically the time you see teams turn the corner. 3/4 of the roster will be my guys, and with Temple, it will be more than that. Only 17 players remain from the teams sim-coach days, and at least 9 of them will be graduating this offseason. Another solid season of recruiting should give us enough ammunition to pull some upsets within the division next season. With a cupcake OOC schedule, and hopefully one or two upsets in conference play, we could very well be bowling this time next year.