Temple blows up Penn State and blows people’s minds

Historical connections - Temple beat Penn State at the Linc Sept. 5 in front of 69,000 fans of somebody. My granddaughter Anna, a Temple lacrosse player, was there with her friends. I mentioned to her that her grandfather played football for Temple while her great-uncle, my brother Tom, played for Penn State. And my brother was friends with Jerry Sandusky, and I knew Bill Cosby. My wife graduated first in her class from Penn State, and my sister and sister-in-law are Penn State graduates. James Franklin, the Penn State head coach, was co-captain of Neshaminy High School along with my nephew Mike. Temple coach Matt Rhule played for the Nittany Lions and grew up in State College. After the game Rhule said, “We didn’t beat Penn State today, we just won the game.” Earlier in the week Rhule said, “Saturday we have a chance to blow people's minds. This game was never about them, it was about us.” Since a 1941 victory (one player from that team is still alive) Temple was 0-38-1 against Penn State. The dream of Temple football during their years of pushing to Division I was to bring major college football to a city that is proven crazy for professional sports. Philadelphia is the fourth-largest media market in the country. Notre Dame will come to Philly to play the Owls Oct. 31, which will be game eight of the season. The place will be packed because after Pope Francis rolls down Broad Street, seeing Notre Dame is the next best spiritually energizing thing for devout Catholics.

Downbound train - Many Temple students went to the Penn State game by the Broad Street subway. University of Delaware students rolled south down Main Street on Friday night; many walked to “The Tub” to see the opening night game versus Jacksonville. Delaware, which won a national championship in 2003 under K.C. Keeler, is a program rolling south with future unknown - it’s all so hard to figure. Delaware and Temple played a lot of football games against each other,  and I’m told advantage goes to Delaware. And somewhere during that period Villanova dropped football then brought it back as a model 1AA program - I just can’t say championship subdivision. The Football Championship Subdivision has gotten strong with teams like Montana and North Dakota State not to mention Coastal Carolina with its Delaware connections, but somewhere along the way the wheels have come off the locomotive for Delaware as fans sing Springsteen, "Don’t it feel like you’re a rider on a downbound train?”

No public anonymity - If you are a sports fan who behaves badly in public then you are fair game and on the record as a public nuisance. Screamers forgo right to privacy protections. Get personal with a coach or worse, a player, look for your muppet self in this column not listed by name but by the behavior everyone had to endure who isn’t insane.

Conspiracy of crazy - Two Texas high school football players took a cheap shot on a clueless ref from behind on the last play of the game - I mean they blew that zebra up and their careers are instantly over. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare that your child will totally lose his ever-loving mind and you become known as the mom of the cheap-shot safety. I could tell a hundred stories on the subject, just keep reminding your teenaged child, “Don’t change the direction and orbit of this family by some stupid and unnecessary aberrant act in the public arena.” They, of course, will have no idea what you are talking about.

Snippets - Middle school sports tryouts and practices get underway this week. Those coaches do a remarkable job - the work is rewarding but it takes a real teacher and a lot of patience. If giving weighted grades is a good idea for “harder” classes, then why not give credits to students in a varsity sport and stop requiring them to take a phys ed class? The youngest Cape players to have won a field hockey state championship at Cape during the four-year run are sophomores, while the oldest is a senior in college like Jacki Coveleski at 4-0 Delaware. Mets at Nationals series this week will be electric and fun for fans, which is the entire reason for playing in the first place. Here is a photo of Larry Windsor of Laurel just weeks after brain surgery. Larry came to the Labor Day race because that’s where his friends were. A good man. Go on now, git!