No truth to the rumor that Temple band alumni were playing taps for the season after that fiasco that some describe as a game on Saturday.
Editor’s Note: Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub has played for Temple and coached subsequently. He’s seen the most well-coached Temple teams offensively (Wayne Hardin) and, now, the worst-coached Temple team, at least offensively, against UConn on Saturday. His recap follows.
By Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub
I would like to begin with a quote from my teammate, Dick Gabel, a former superintendent of schools. “Worst coaching experience since I played for Pete.” He’s referring to our coach in 1959, Pete Stevens. (He was a fine gentleman, though.)
Geoff Collins should whack Dave Patenaude like Tony Soprano whacked Ralph Cifaretto for burning down the stable where his horse lived. (Figuratively, not literally, though. Patenaude has plenty of horses and has been killing them with this ill-advised offense.)
After seven games and three woulda, coulda, shouldas, because of the offensive play calling, Dave Patenaude has proven to be an incompetent play caller with absolutely no instinct for the right play at the right time. Again, and this time twice, he’s failed to score from first and goal. That’s mostly because his first two plays are always run up the gut. He doesn’t understand that the only down you can really fool a defense in that situation, is first down, not third down. First down is when you should run the fake into the middle, and then there’s a multitude of options.
Speaking of the goal line, how about the most bizarre play call I’ve ever seen. On fourth and one, he puts in the wildcat against a gap defense. Not only does that make no sense, he then runs a slow developing fake to the outside, and when the tailback finally turns to run up the middle, he’s overwhelmed by the penetration.
By the way, I’ve nicknamed his offense the Broad Street Offense. That’s not because Temple is on Broad Street, but because Broad Street is one of the longest, straightest streets in the country. Patenaude’s offense is almost always straight ahead. I have to say almost now, because in our seventh game yesterday, he finally ran a reverse which gained thirty-five yards, and never came back to it.
There were a multitude of other coaching mistakes. There were twelve penalties, and this shows an undisciplined team, and that’s carried over from the beginning of the year. Then there was unbelievably poor clock management at the end of the first half, and at the end of the game. The coach let the clock run down despite having three timeouts available in the first half, and two in the second half. It’s my guess they were afraid Connecticut would get a first down. Is that a way to coach a game? Last but not least, it took the coach until the second half to realize he had to blitz and get pressure on the quarterback.
I’m probably missing many more coaching mistakes, but I forgot to bring my notebook to the game. I do know one thing, however. To earn even a six-six record, Dave Patenaude cannot be allowed to call the offense.
Throwback Thursday: When Passing Wasn’t Fancy
By Scoop Jackson
