Thursday: Kevin Copp of the Temple Owls joins

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, four thirty three on thank you for making
us part of your day. U TSA and Temple play
football at the Link in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon. We'll
be on the air at ten. The kickoff is at
twelve Central time. If you're going to Philadelphia or in
that time zone and listing on the free iHeartRadio app,
it is for you.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It absolutely is. Yes, you can tune in.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
It'll be a little bit later there one hour later
one o'clock Eastern time.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Kick.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Kevin Copy is the voice of the Owls. Kevin, thanks
for being with us two and two on the year.
But your only two losses are the two pretty good teams.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Yes, aren't really assess where Temple is at this point
in the year. Andy, It's great to be with you.
You know, you look at the first two weeks, you know,
going on the road to UMass, I think a lot
of questions. First year head coach and Casey Keeler, you know,
a lot of new names in the program. What was
it going to look like? And it was a resounding
win forty two to ten. You back that up with
a pretty expected fifty five seven result against Howard last

(00:58):
two weeks, not nearly as but you know, I think
a lot of teams in the country, if you had
Oklahoma at home and Georgia Tech on the road back
to back, are going to be zero and two in
those two games. So yeah, I don't know that there
have been any surprises really when you look at the
first four results of the year. I think this game
and the games moving forward within the American Conference are
going to be the real litmus test to see, you know,

(01:20):
how successful this rebuild is going to be for Temple.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
You know, Jeff Traylor and I were talking about this
off the air a few weeks ago about how to
get teams to come to an American Conference school that
are power for schools. What was the hook that get
o you to come to Temple.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, it's a question I've been asked a lot, and
you know, I wish I knew all the pieces of
the puzzle. But I think it's a couple of things.
First of all, it was a two for one, So
Temple's got two trips down there. We opened the season
there last year and we'll go back in twenty twenty eight,
So two for one to guarantee the return trip. And
I think for Oklahoma you know, they looked at it

(01:54):
as a unique opportunity. They had never played a game
in the Northeast in the history of their program, and so,
you know, I think if you're in Oklahoma, the thinking is,
you know, we've got alumni in the Philadelphia area, New
York and Boston in DC. You know, this is a
drivable game for them, and so I think it was,
you know, an opportunity to kind of, you know, have
a recruiting footprint, have a you know, a footprint for
their alumni, and make it something special in the city

(02:16):
of Philadelphia. So yeah, I think that was a little
unique to Temple and our location. You know, playing in
the pro stadium I think helps with that. But yeah,
certainly it's been a challenge for all of us to
get those types of games on the schedule, and it
was it was a neat opportunity.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Casey Keeler comes from sam Houston, most recently two hundred
and seventy three wins. What's special about him and the
few to the limited time you've had to be around
him so far.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, the word that jumps out to me is professional.
It just you know, a guy that has been around
has done this, has succeeded at a lot of different levels,
you know, before Sam Houston, where you know, he did
win a national championship at the FCS level, and Sam
Houston guided them through that transition from FCS to to
FBS the old one. A had a nine win season there,

(03:01):
so did great work there. But even going back to
you know, his Northeastern roots here, won a national championship
at Delaware at the FCS level in two thousand and
three and has just he's got a long track record
of success and I think he has his methods for
going about doing that. I think they've translated well into

(03:21):
the you know, the current era of college football. He's
a bit of an old school guy, but I think
it works here at Temple. And yeah, I think he's
just you know, attacked every aspect of you know, putting
a product on the field for Temple with professionalism. And
he's got a staff that you know, has done this
before and has had some success at other locations. And
I think he's been a great fit. I think it's

(03:43):
been an absolute home run for Temple even before we
got to the games. But I think that you know,
the early results are fairly encouraging so far.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
On top of that, how about Evan Simon the quarterback.
What has he done to impress you so far this year?

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well, the biggest thing he's done is not turned the
ball over. I mean that's been incredibly impressive. You know
the fact that Temple has protected the ball as well
as they have. But you know, for Simon, you know,
he came in out of Rutgers a couple of years ago.
You know, he had to win the job mid season.
Last year, he was not the opening day starter. Last
year he won the job. Then you come in, you

(04:17):
have a coaching change. This new staff brings in, you know,
a highly talented guy out of Oregon State, Geovanni McCoy,
and it's an open quarterback battle again. So I just
give him credit for the way that he has gone
about his business his fifth year, last year of college
football eligibility, and you know the fact that he has
worked as hard as he has to win the starting job.

(04:41):
I think he's definitely got the respect of his teammates.
We have a tradition at Temple where those single digit
jerseys are voted on by the team and by the
coaches and given to guys that know exemplify leadership. And
toughness and all those things. And so you know, Simon,
I think very fitting to see him wearing that number
six this year, and he's backed it up with great

(05:02):
play on the field. Obviously, it's been a couple of
tough weeks here against Oklahom and Georgia Tech, but you
look at what he did the first two weeks, he's
certainly solidified that starting quarterback spot. And I think he
does a great job leading the offense.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, and especially in this transfer portal era where every
time the coach has changed, the players can leave immediately
and he chooses to stay and battle for the job.
I think that says a lot about him just for
doing that.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Absolutely, and I think we've had a couple of key
position groups and key players that did exactly that. The
defensive line is probably the strongest unit for Temple on
that side of the ball, and they had a group
of four guys that said they made a pact with
each other that said, you know, once they have the
coaching change in the offseason, said hey, we're going to

(05:47):
stick this out together and they're going to build around
us next year. And I think it's no surprise that
that's been the strongest group, you know, positionally I think
on the defensive side of the ball. So yeah, it's
a win at this level where even if things are
going well, arguably sometimes more so if they're going well,
you've got to contend with the transfer portal. I think
it's really important that Temple didn't go the root of

(06:09):
bringing in seventy seventy five new guys. They kept the
core of what was there. They've built around it, and
you know, I think they've gone about the roster construction
the right way.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
And you touched on this as well.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
To play four games and not have a turnover, especially
against Ou and Georgia Tech and even the other two teams,
I mean sometimes you don't even have to make a
mistake or the other team doesn't have to do it,
and you'll still turn it over. That's pretty remarkable. And
have no turnovers to four games.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah, it has been. They've taken great care of the ball.
I think it's something that they have clearly preached. I
think they've set signing up Tyler Walkers, the offensive coordinator.
He came from Montana State where they were the number
one offense at the FCS level last year and it's
worked they've spread the ball around effectively, They've gotten a
lot of guys involved at receiver, They've run the ball

(06:57):
much more effectively than they have in the last few seasons.
That was a persistent sticking point for this team. And yeah,
and they've done all of it without turning the ball over.
And I think that's certainly going to be you know,
when you get into these games that I think are
likely to have a closer margin as we get into
conference play. You know, as you know, winning that turnover
battle can really swing a game. And the fact that

(07:19):
Temple is you know, four for four at least in
terms of winning the turnover battle this season, I think
that that hopefully is a great sign for them moving forward.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
What is Casey Keeler said about Jeff Traylor's team come
into Philadelphia this week and the Temple perspective of the Roadrunners.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah, well, he has, first of all, a tremendous amount
of respect for coach Trailer. I think that's kind of
where the conversation starts. You know, they hadn't faced each other,
but with Casey Keeler being at Sam Houston and being
in the state of Texas, I think he has an
incredible admiration for what Coach Trailer has done. And you know,
I think from a Temple perspective, when you look at
this UTSA team, you know, it starts with being able

(07:57):
to stop the run and that comes from the quarter
position and obviously the running back position. And you know,
you look at the numbers from the Temple Georgia Tech
game from from two weeks ago, you know, rushing defense
was not the strength for the Owls. They got beat
pretty soundly in the ground game, you know, and so
I think that's that's really the big thing that this

(08:18):
team has focused on in the two weeks. They had
to buy coming into this game, and I think that's
been the big focus is you know, getting tough against
the run, because I think there's there's no doubt that
that's going to be a huge factor.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
On Saturday, Well Link and Financial will not only have
our game this week, but twenty four hours later, the
Eagles play the Broncos, and across the street, the Phillies
are going to have a couple of important baseball games.
So it's going to be a busy time in the
area this weekend.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
It's going to be yes absolute chaos down to the
Sports Complex and on top of it, the Flyers have
their final preseason game against the Devils that's right next door.
So yeah, I would advise if you've got any folks
that are making the trip, make sure you get there early.
Probably a little more game day traffic than UTSA might
have had a couple of years ago, the other time

(09:06):
the road Runners were up here. It's going to be
a zoo, but I think it's going to be the
best of Philly sports. We're kind of hoping here at
Temple to ride that momentum of the Phillies and the
Eagles and you know, try to try to get some
of that Red October magic here because it's been a
great time in Philly sports.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Awesome. Thanks Kevin.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
We'll see you Saturday morning at the stadium and have
a next a good couple of days.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
We'll see you on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Safe travels Andy, looking forward to it. Thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
All right, that's Kevin Kopp. He's the voice of the
Temple Owls. And again we're on the air at ten
and the kickoff is at twelve. Chipper Jones has some
thoughts on the Ryder Cup, the Hall of Fame baseball
player talking about new York fans, well, tell you what
do you have to say next.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
It's four forty three on the ticket.