Temple Owls: Enough Weapons To Blow Up a Scoreboard

It's got be good to be Temple quarterback Vaughn Charlton right now.

He's got more weapons than an F-15 fighter pilot and the plane hasn't even gotten out of the hanger yet.

That's what they've been working on all week in the command center of Temple football, otherwise known as the Edberg-Olson Practice Complex, shining that Stealth jet and moving it out of the hanger for the final seven games of the season.

At least that's the drift I get from reading head coach Al Golden's Twitter page yesterday.

"Today was a learning day for the team," Golden tweeted. "We must get better at what we do."

Golden has to feel that Temple has too much talent to go 6-for-17 for only 95 yards in the passing game against Buffalo. The offensive scheme, to me, has been all out of whack so far.

The weapons are there and every bit as deadly, from a football sense, as a cruise missile.

Bernard Pierce

Last week, ran for 180 yards on 25 carries in a 24-12 win at Eastern Michigan. Keep feeding the franchise the ball, but not on obvious running downs. Mix it up a little bit. Run him on second-and-longs sometimes, pass on first down other times.

Pierce was the Pennsylvania state champion indoor in the 60-meter dash and also outdoor in the 100-meter dash last year in high school. That's fast.

James Nixon

The guy regularly gets behind defenses. Don't throw him the play-action bomb once a game. Throw him the bomb at least five times a game. Nothing will loosen up the middle for Bernard Pierce runs more than the threat of throwing the play-action bomb to James Nixon.

He runs a 4.3 40-yard dash. "I've been around coaching for 21 years and I've never seen anybody that fast," Golden said.

Evan Rodriguez

Should get the ball five to 10 times a game, 10 to 15 yards down the field where he can use his athletic ability for some impressive RAC (run after catch) yardage? How many tight ends in Division I ball today were terrific punt returners for his high school team?

I know only of Evan Rodriguez. I love to see him with the ball in the open field and not these five-yard out patterns they throw him.

Jason Harper

Was the Bergen County (N.J.) Player of the Year as a high school senior running back, runs fast and hard and has a good set of hands...use him. He was a running back good enough to get more than 100 yards against bowl-bound UConn two years ago and he would cause defenses major headaches in the short passing game, bubble screens, and the like.

Try those plays with him. Give him a head of steam. He's still one of the fastest guys on the team. Harper can also go deep as he proved last year against Kent State and Eastern Michigan.

I'm sure Golden didn't like one guy calling for a fair catch when the other guy had a lane to run last week on a punt return.

I'm sure Golden is not enthralled with their pass rush or pass coverage, either.

They must get better in all those phases, not more than an offense which is underachieving considering the sum of its parts.