Temple: America's Team .... and Philadelphia's

Story first appeared in Philadelphia Daily News in Oct. 2007.
By Mike Gibson
Perhaps Wayne Hardin, as is his custom, said it best.
"We're America's Team," the former Temple coach once said. "You know, 'Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor.' "
America's Team. Temple is more that than the Dallas Cowboys. America likes a Horatio Alger, rags-to-riches, story. Dallas never was that. Temple is.
It certainly is Philadelphia's team, with 10 times as many Philadelphians playing for Owls than the professional team that plays football in the same stadium.
If it doesn't deserve America's support, then it certainly deserves Philadelphia's.
Especially after the pro football team in town gave an embarrassingly passive display on how not to play football.
One of the Eagles' fans said it best, ranting from his seat to a TV camera in the seconds after a 19-16 loss to the Chicago Bears.
"Andy, you always say we've going to get better next week," the fan said. "You always say we've got to clean that up. We'll get better next week. Well, it's this week. It should be this week. Give me a break, Andy."
Philadelphia fans should come over to the other side and support a team that plays hard-nosed, aggressive football and a group of kids who more represent them in reality than the overpaid, spoiled and passive bunch who don't.
Temple.
This is an exciting team playing an exciting brand of football, much like Wayne Hardin's teams did in the 1970s.
At the time Hardin made his remarks about Temple being America's Team, he was specificially talking about Temple football recruiting.
Under Hardin, Temple got a lot of players who were hungry to prove themselves to the higher profile schools who overlooked them in the recruiting process. It got a lot of players tired of people telling them they were an inch too small or a step too slow. It got a lot of players who were poor in numbers of scholarship offers, but rich in areas like reputation and character.
Hungry, tired, poor.
The formula worked before.
It is now working again.
The current Owls have an interesting mix of players, but this group reminds me more of Hardin's teams than any team since because of the character of the players involved.
This Temple group, like Hardin's groups, have an inordinate number of players who were captains of their high school football team.
Eighteen members of the current 1-2 depth chart were captains of teams who won their high school championship. Most of those high schools were large schools in high-profile environments and most of those players excelled under pressure situations.
It was a proven recruiting template 30 years ago and it has proven to be the same under coach Al Golden.
Golden has a bunch of leaders, captains, who play aggressive, not passive, football.
Something tells me if Brian Griese was driving for 97 yards and no time outs against Temple, Golden would have dialed up a few well-timed blitzes that would have brought violence to the football Griese was holding.
"People in Philadelphia will be proud of this team once it starts to develop because it's tough, it competes and we have fun out there," Golden said.
You won't be able to get into the Penn State game on Nov. 10 because it already is sold out but check it out, Eagles fans, on Nov. 17 against Kent State.
You might like it.