Expectations continue to rise for Temple football

TEMPLE coach Al Golden was explaining what it took for him and his staff to reverse the fortunes of one of the least successful programs in major college football, a 4-year odyssey of pain and progress in which the Owls' record has improved every season, from 1-11 in 2006 to last year's 9-4, marking the school's first winning campaign in 20 years and first bowl appearance in 30 years.

It's quite simple, really. Golden and his staff, who for the most part had become accustomed to varying levels of success, had to learn how to lose, really lose, before they could teach Temple's young players, who had known mostly failure, how to win.

"Going into last season, we really didn't know how to win," Golden, a former Penn State tight end, said yesterday at Temple's Media Day at Lincoln Financial Field. "I think we learned how to win as the season went on. And to be honest with you, we didn't win in a fashion that was easy at times. We started off 0-2, which kind of had been a tradition around here for a long time. But instead of folding, I think the guys hung in there and the season kind of turned. We won consecutive road games for the first time since I've been here. We beat a good Navy team on the road. And, of course, we played UCLA in the [EagleBank] bowl.

"The key to coaching at Temple is, you have to put your ego aside. You have to deal in human psychology, you have to establish a culture. In the beginning, it was rough. I've talked about the psychological effect of the first 2 1/2 years . . . the toll it took on the coaching staff and me personally. It was excruciating at times."

How excruciating? In Golden's first season, the Owls suffered back-to-back 62-0 losses to Louisville and Minnesota, a 63-9 rout by Clemson and, of course, the standard 47-0 blowout against Penn State.

Little by little, though, the talent level on North Broad Street rose, as did the Owls' confidence, to the point where they are now the preseason favorites to win the Mid-American Conference championship and appear in a second consecutive bowl for the first time in Temple's 112-year football history. One columnist, David Jones of the Harrisburg Patriot-News, is so high on the state of Golden's rebuilding project that he has gone on record predicting Temple will end its 27-game losing streak against Penn State.

So the pressure to keep a good thing going must really be on Golden now, right? Well, not exactly.

"Having expectations of being a winning team, that's not pressure," he said. "Pressure was [having only] 54 scholarship players and trying to go play Penn State, Clemson and Louisville. Pressure was having 63 scholarships and getting our faces kicked in by Buffalo, with everybody booing you, not realizing we had just finished playing a game with 22 freshmen. That was pressure."

Chester Stewart, the 6-3, 214-pound redshirt junior who will start at quarterback when the Owls open their season against Villanova on Sept. 3, is typical of the early-entry program for untested kids Golden was forced to implement when his cupboard was nearly bare.

Stewart, who played only one season of high school football, admits he was woefully unprepared for the task of stepping in and running the team when starter Adam DiMichele was injured in the first quarter of the Penn State game in 2008. The Nits went on to win, 45-3.

"It wasn't just Chester," Golden said. "We had a lot of guys that played early and didn't understand that they were playing because there was nobody else. Those guys played before they were ready to play. The [bad] habits you develop, the imprint it leaves on you, sometimes is irreversible."

Stewart said he came away from that game determined to improve, both as a passer and as a leader. He spent most of the summer watching films of upcoming opponents.

"I've definitely come a long way," Stewart said. "I've matured a lot, learned how to play better and faster, how to read defenses better. Watching so much film, I'll be that much more ready. I'll already have played the game in my head."

Stewart should have a lot of help. Sophomore tailbacks Bernard Pierce (1,361) and Matt Brown combined for 1,890 yards rushing a year ago, and they'll be operating behind a massive, veteran offensive line, anchored by center John Palumbo, Steve Caputo and Colin Madison, which averages over 300 pounds per man. Free safety Jaiquawn Jarrett and defensive end Adrian Robinson (13 sacks last season) are the standouts who helped Temple rise from No. 117 in total defense in 2008 to No. 44, the largest 1-year improvement in Football Bowl Subdivision history.

"I'm glad the stakes are higher now," said Golden, smiling, the pain of the past alleviated, at least for the moment.