Even Temple Is a Winner in New World

Imagine you just awoke from a 20-year nap. What would be the most shocking discovery?

That a black man is in the White House? That you have to call India to get computer advice? That ESPN's SportsCenter is more influential than the CBS Evening News?

Or that Temple is a college football power?

I'd go with the Owls, especially when you see who's no longer a power.

Notre Dame, Florida State, Nebraska, Michigan and Miami. Their kingdoms have been overrun by the likes of Cincinnati, TCU, Boise State and Bill Cosby's alma mater in Philadelphia.

It's enough to make a Wolverine cry, or spend another $15 million on a hot new coach who'll bring back the good old days.

Good luck.

College football threw another parity party this season, and almost everyone showed up. The superpowers aren't that super. The big conferences are riddled with mediocrity. SMU is going to a bowl, and Michigan isn't.

Doesn't that make college football more fun?

Not if you live in Ann Arbor. But America loves underdogs. Maybe that's why I enjoy Notre Dame making like Mrs. Fletcher. She was the elderly woman lying prone on the bathroom floor in the old LifeCall medical alert commercials.

"I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Not with Charlie Weis on top of you, anyway. And as psychologists say, change is good. Without it we'd all be speaking with British accents and wearing powdered wigs to formal occasions.

FSU fans would probably prefer that than losing to South Florida. Losing to Temple just three years ago would have qualified a coach for immediate dismissal.

"Everything you study and read and learn about dysfunctional organizations or losing businesses, we were the epitome of it," Temple Coach Al Golden said.

The Owls just won their ninth straight game, beating Kent State 47-13. That doesn't make them a superpower, but it makes a good case study for today's subject.

Temple had 27 losing seasons in the past 29 years. The Owls didn't just lose, they stunk. They won two games or fewer 12 times since 1990.

Things were so bad in 2005 that the school was considering dropping from FBS to FCS status. There were only 54 scholarship players due to academic probation. You had to be broke or crazy to want to coach college football in Philadelphia.

"Don't take it. Don't touch it."

That's what confidants told Golden. He was the defensive coordinator at Virginia and fit the mold of the college football turnaround artist.

Golden's philosophy came as much from studying businessmen like Jack Welch as football men like Bill Snyder. He uses terms like "core values" and "culture," both of which needed serious changing at Temple.

"There are a lot of programs you can take over where all you have to do is coach," he said.

That was way down on Golden's initial To-Do list. He knew Temple was in the middle of a population center and fertile recruiting patch.

The potential was there, Golden just had to sell his vision to alumni, faculty, administration, fans and recruits who considered Temple a joke. And why shouldn't they, considering Cosby has done shows wearing a Temple sweatshirt?

The 0-11 team Golden inherited improved to 1-10 his first season. It lost by an average of 34 points per game. Just three years later, the Owls are closing in on a MAC title and their first bowl bid in 30 years.

That kind of transformation could not have happened in the days when dynasties ruled. Holding schools to 85 scholarships started the process, but those limits have been around almost 20 years.

There's been an influx of calculating young coaches willing to try get-rich-quick offenses, which explains Urban Meyer's meteoric rise from unknown college assistant to deity in six years.

The superpowers used to monopolize TV, which showed one national game per week. Now almost every conference has a deal with some network and there's at least one game on every night. Exposure leads to brand recognition, which leads to recruiting doors being opened.

Compared to 20 years ago, more players seem bigger and faster thanks to early training and, ahem, nutritional aids. Golden said what's really helped is how the traditional powers try to lock up five-star recruits when they're juniors in high school. The traditional powers still stock up, but they miss out on the late bloomers.

"The speed of recruiting means there are a lot more mistakes being made by the big boys," Golden said. "It's kind of the herd mentality."

If any school gets the right coach and supports him, it can pull a Cincinnati or a Boise State. That potential just wasn't there 20 years ago. Then again, neither was Google.

"Anti-trust laws apply to college athletics," Golden said. "There are no more monopolies."

As depressing as that may be to Mrs. Fletcher U and her fallen friends, the new paradigm has an upside. Just get the right coach, give him the tools and make your bowl plans.

If Temple can get up, anyone can.