01.21.19
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Red Flags and The Carey Hiring

This is the only (somewhat) Red Flag I care about.

It would not be a Temple coaching search, post-Al Golden at least, to find a red flag or two on the field.

We found several in the short-lived hiring of Manny Diaz that had to do with him never being a head coach before, lack of knowledge and recruiting ties in the Northeast, never having coached north of Jacksonville and having a father who was Mayor of Miami. All those flags pointed in the direction of a U-Turn back South, although we thought it might be a year, not 17 days.


Rod Carey isn’t perfect,
nor without red flags,
but he has won before
in a difficult league
and his green flags
seem to outnumber
his red ones

Steve Addazio, the Florida assistant, was perhaps the most-hated man in Gainesville when he took the Temple job.

Matt Rhule was a guy who the players lobbied for twice before he was awarded the Temple job.  Dick Vermeil said about fans lobbying for the backup quarterback when Ron Jaworski was struggling: “If you listen to the fans, soon you’ll be sitting next to them.”  That pretty much applies to athletic directors listening to players.

Geoff Collins’ Mayhem defense was torched against Tennessee, Alabama and Florida State in the weeks before he was hired at Temple.

The reality is that Hardin was as close to perfection as you can get and any Temple fans who remember him have been spoiled. Golden had a pass in that he was given an impossible job–end a 20-game losing streak and rid the program of malcontents, all while bringing up the APR.

Now Rod Carey comes aboard and his only red flag was that a significant portion of the Northern Illinois’ fanbase was happy to see him go.  I haven’t been able to find a single columnist or beat writer who covered NIU criticize him, but a lot of fans did not hold him in high esteem.

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Interesting that the middle fan could not spell DeKalb

The Temple Red Flag File

JERRY BERNDT _ For some reason, Temple President Peter J. Liacouras was enamored with Berndt, who never had a real record as a winning head coach before. RED FLAG: He was 0-11 with the Owls (Rice Owls) the year before he was hired by the Temple Owls. He also got to go 1-10 with the Temple Owls, making him the only head coach in history to go a combined 1-21 for two teams named the Owls. Berndt could not recruit his way out of a paper bag.

RON DICKERSON _ Joe Paterno, no big lover of Temple football (thank God in retrospect), urged Dickerson not to take the Temple job. When Dickerson was adamant about taking it, Joe supported Dickerson, saying that “Ron is the best defensive coordinator in the country.” RED FLAG: The “best defensive coordinator in the country” allowed 55 points in his last regular-season game, after moving from Penn State to Clemson. Dickerson was in over his head as a CEO. He could recruit, but he couldn’t coach his way out of the same paper bag Berndt recruited from.

BOBBY WALLACE _ The man won three Division II titles, but those were Division II titles, taking the scraps of players not wanted by the big Southern schools like Auburn and Alabama. Because he was hooked into the Southern recruiting system, he found some good players for that level. Those kind of players would never work for Temple and Wallace found out that the hard way. RED FLAG: He didn’t have the level of drive or commitment needed to succeed at football’s highest level, no desire to live in the Northeast and Temple wasted eight years of their fans’ lives as a result.

With Carey, the red flag (note singular) does not seem to be as egregious as the ones with the above coaches and it seems to be something at least he has owned.

His first words upon hearing Pat Kraft’s glowing introduction:

“That was more nice things said about me than I’ve heard in the last six years,” Carey said.

Maybe those NIU fans were spoiled. Maybe Carey has learned from any perceived flaws.

It’s hard to imagine a Temple fanbase happy to see a coach leave who has won four division and two league titles in six years. Rod Carey isn’t perfect, nor without red flags, but he has won before in a difficult league and his green flags seem to outnumber his red ones.

Wednesday: 5 Things We Won’t Miss About Mr. Mayhem

Friday: Comparing First Years

Monday: Minimal Expectations

Wednesday: This Year’s Lab Experiment

Friday: A Primer

8 thoughts on “Red Flags and The Carey Hiring”

  1. IMO Wallace was the worst TU football coach of all time. He should have been let go at least 3 years earlier than he was. But the worst thing was keeping him for 8 years – 8 years! It wasn’t necessarily a bad hire however, given his success at N AL. But unfortunately it didn’t translate into Div.1 and the north east. Carey seems like a good (if not great) hire too, but we’ll see as we always have to.

    Reply

    • You know it would be an interesting stroll down memory lane to discuss the WORST Temple football coach………my money would be on Ron Dickerson.

      If memory serves me right, and I believe that it does, Temple opened up Wallace’s 3rd season 3-1. They defeated Navy, Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan early on and dropped a close game at Maryland before entering a Thursday night ESPN game at Franklin Field against West Virginia.

      There was some buzz around the team, Wallace had yet to quit trying and Tarnardo Sharps was a top-notch back. The Owls lost 29-24 and I kinda recall that it was very late in the game and they blew it. Maybe a late turnover, I can’t quite recall. I checked Football Reference, and the attendance at that game was 25,263 and from what I remember, a real number, not inflated. The crowd was absolutely pro-Owls and rocking.

      The team got blown out at Virginia Tech the following week and wound up finishing at 4-7, which was pretty much Wallace’s best results (they went 4-7 the next year too, but won 2 BE games).

      My point being, that at some point early on, Wallace had things moving forward. I have no idea why this particular game was so dramatic, but I sensed it then and recall now, thinking that it meant something big. An opportunity had just passed right by the Owls and would never been seen again for 6-7 years until Golden straightened things out a bit.

      Yeah, sure Wallace wound up stealing money for years afterwards, but there was that fleeting opportunity.

      Dickerson, on the other hand, was just a boob from day One. Anybody who was ever there to watch those Spring practices at Ambler (remember them Mike?) knows that without a doubt.

      Reply

  2. read 2 more NIU coaches hired today, one to be the co-OC ? The other to be an ANALYST ?
    It is what I thought the new guy Carey has no pull outside of his limited world.
    Now we steal all NIU’s coaching ? Not nice to gut NIU, I mean it
    We shall see, won’t we.

    Reply

    • nightmare scenario unfolding, Carey is bring his NIU OC to Temple in the same role. The NIU offense sucked.., AND nobody on this staff has ever coached RBs or WRs.,

      apparently this HC does not believe you need coaches with experience for the skill positions…,

      This will make Temple one the only schools in the entire FBS who have RB and WR coaches with zero experience coaching those positions

      Reply

      • To me, the nightmare scenario would have been Dave Patenaude staying. This is a piece of cake by comparison. We’ll find out if it’s a Tastycake Chocolate Junior or Fruit Cake by the Georgia Tech game.

      • I’ll still take FBS level coordinators over the mediocre FCS coordinators who are now at GT

  3. Gee, Sounds like NIU Fans know exactly what’s going to happen here. It was a nice run Temple Football had going with a sound and true strategy for success. Hopefully, we haven’t pissed off Fran Brown enough by the time the hole gets too big to dig out of.

    Reply

    • hmm, let’s see. The NIU offense sucked, so we are bringing that same crew to Temple..,

      all the WRs and RBs are watching this unfold, and the questions they are going to ask themselves, “is this new coach better or worse than my old coach? Can he help me make it to the next level?”

      so who is going to coach the skill positions? I think Carey will flip a coin on that one, all the same to him.

      I have been a student of college football forever and a day. How many programs have done what Carey is going to do with position coach assignments? My bet is zero.

      Reply

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