Arians’ Reaction to Win Was Classy

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When Bruce Arians led the Arizona Cardinals to a late-season upset of the Seattle Seahawks two years ago, it was the final loss of the season for the Seahawks on the way to winning the Super Bowl. The question for Arians then was a natural one as someone in the press room asked him if that was his biggest win as a head coach. Arians paused for a second and said, no, his biggest win as a head coach came at Temple when the Owls broke a 39-year losing streak to Pittsburgh in the 1984 season.

So, of all the congratulatory messages pouring into third-year Temple head coach Matt Rhule after a 27-10 upset of Penn State on Saturday, the one posted by Arians on his twitter page was priceless:

Rhule had one-upped Arians in the sense that he broke a longer streak over another in-state rival in Penn State (after a 74-year drought), so the two men have been in the same shoes at the same place. No one knew more what a win over Penn State could do for the Temple program than Arians, who said the first question asked of him at his first Temple press conference was, “Why does Temple even play football?” Like the presser after the Seattle game two years ago, Arians paused before a thoughtful response: “To beat Penn State.” Arians came close twice, losing to nationally-ranked Nittany Lions’ teams, 23-18, in 1983 and 27-25 to what would become an 11-1 PSU team in 1984, but never quite got over the hump.

Now that Rhule did, Arians used both twitter and the phone to express his satisfaction with the result. Rhule took the call and said, “Yes sir, thank you sir.” to a guy who was a young coach at Temple once, too. Rhule said he did not know what else to say to the NFL coach of the year. Then Rhule went out to the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field and presented the game ball to another former Temple coach, College Football Hall of Fame member Wayne Hardin, who came close a few times against Penn State but, like Arians, could not get over the hump.

In the fraternity of college coaches, and the circle of life, all three coaches will now share a pretty neat memory forever because only those three fully understand the magnitude of the moment.

Tomorrow: Still Not Focusing on Cincinnati (but we are sure the team is)

11 thoughts on “Arians’ Reaction to Win Was Classy

  1. Beautiful and sweet was the victory. We have been going to TU football games for 20 years now ( most every season with season tickets at full retail price ) and the victory over PSU helps heal much of the long time of pain.
    We are very pleased that coachs Rhule and Snow did what it takes, for a win over a major team. Also very pleased in the reaction of TU fellow-fans we talked with during and afterwards. We were just all very happy, pleased and content ,and saw little of over the top reaction like dancing on the grave of the enemy. Victory is sweet and the TU fans classy response was just beautiful .
    Go Owls.
    What can we do to find a televised Cincinnati game next Saturday Night ? That is the question. Cinn is a great team and I enjoy watching them also.

    • I know for sure one place that has ESPN News on HDTV and it’s Gearo’s in Bustleton Ave and Welsh Ave. in the NE. Fran the Bartender always puts the sound up (unlike Dave and Busters and Benny the Bums which flat-out denied my sound requests). Any other Temple fans are welcome to join us. Saturday night, 8 p.m. Easily accessible from public transportation (58 bus, which runs every half hour even at night on weekends). I have not heard an Owl Club watch party event. I think they are dropping the ball by not having one.

      • Thanks so much Mike for the info. I’ll be in Happy Valley to watch PSU so I may not be back in time to catch TU vs Cincy at Gearos.

        If you haven’t noticed Im a philly sports fan so I don’t have an issue rooting for PSU (or St Joes in ball)

        I’d love to come out and talk some TU football. This D is awesome

  2. Oddball question: did Rhule have a Penn State clause like Golden and Daz? Given the way the team played and was coached he deserves it. Hopefully that kind of attention continues on into the season.

    • To my knowledge, Matt Rhule has no buyout clause. He wanted a 15-year contract when he got here in 2012. They gave him 5 and a 4-year extension this year.

      • Interesting. Adding something like a bonus of sorts for beating Penn State would have been nice.

        It’s let me be very boastful in front of all the Penn State fans I work with. Really hope they go undefeated the rest of the season.

  3. Temple received 8 top 25 votes and are ranked ahead of Florida, Michigan, Miami, Stanford and Penn St in today’s AP Poll. They even received 1 more vote then Cincinnati.

    • I was wondering what it would take for TU to be ranked, I figured they’d need to be 4-0 or 5-0

      • i’d say 3-0 but psu would have to have hammered both buffalo and rutgers, which I think they are going to do. Because of the implications for Temple, PSU is now my second-favorite college team. ND, which I want to keep winning until we pull out our Halloween bag of tricks, is my third. I’ll be proudly wearing my T hat and a Cherry shirt of some kind Saturday night. Don’t hesitate to introduce yourself.

  4. Mike, I was rooting for ND opening night. I saw they crushed whoever they played. I might be able to convince my friend to go with me to see the game when we arrive back home around halftime.

    Luckily for me, I’ll be able to see PSU crush Buffalo in person. Maybe Ill provide an update in here.

    I cant be the only person who just likes philly sports and doesnt pick teams.
    – I know plenty of ppl who love nova but dont like SJU/TU,
    – or Lasalle ppl who dont like SJU,
    and I had no idea there was this rivalry of sorts between PSU and TU
    – I also see a really surprising rivalry between Nova fball and TU football ????

    • yes, the last two nova-tu football games were 42-7 and 41-10 in favor of the Owls. I like that kind of rivalry. If Temple wins at Penn State next year, they will go out as PSU rivals and PSU will probably never schedule a rematch, as James Franklin will probably say to Matt Rhule, “ain’t gonna be no rematch.”

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