by Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]

Revenge is there for the taking.

Oh, as my own version of Andy Williams' “It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” kicks in with the advent of another college football season, the reality is that a lot of time will pass and that a lot of things will have to happen this fall.

But, make no mistake, with the way the schedule shapes up, the way the roster shapes up and the way the law of averages shapes up, the Temple University football program does, indeed, have payback within its grasp, starting with Friday night's opener vs. Army.

With regard to South Florida, with regard to Houston, with regard to anyone who trivialized the Owls' coming of age in Matt Rhule's third year as head coach.

Not for nothing, but what they accomplished in 2015 was along the “shock and awe” line ... without a smidge of condescending laughter deservedly attached. A school-record 10 wins. A division title. A bowl berth. Two sellouts at 69,000-seat Lincoln Financial Field. The snapping of a 74-year drought against Penn State. A nation-awakening effort against Notre Dame in primetime.

But they got embarrassed by the Bulls, lost the inaugural American Athletic Conference championship game to the Cougars and left the door open for doubters with a poor showing in the Boca Raton Bowl.

Which brings us to this:

A 2016 campaign that will test the legitimacy of the Owls ... while offering them a chance to be even better. Out of the four toughest AAC games on the schedule, three of them are at home, including a Friday night showdown on Oct. 21 against South Florida. The nonconference slate actually allows them to get their proverbial sea legs before diving in Sept. 17 at State College to prove whether or not last season's victory against the Nittany Lions was a fluke or the start of something new in their rivalry – namely the Owls being a real rival.

Now four years into Rhule's reign, talent or depth is no longer an issue. Despite the losses on defense, chief among them first-team All-American linebacker Tyler Matakevich, the Owls' remain strong there and, if anything, Temple has one of the strongest offensive backfields in the country, being able to count on – at minimum – four guys to shoulder the rushing load, headed, of course, by last year's breakout performer, Jahad Thomas, but truly bolstered by a trio of sophomores: Ryquell Armstead, David Hood and Jager Gardner, who merely set an Owls' TD record with a 94-yard run for six in his one start last season.

The key to something special, though, is the return of Phillip Walker as quarterback. For two reasons:

His ability and Rhule's willingness to finally take the reins off.

Should Walker, now entering his fourth season as starter and arguably the best player at his position in school history already, fully reach his seemingly off-the-charts “pass-run-lead” potential after being given the green light to do so, revenge likely will be had. On all fronts.

Even more impressive for a developing program – if not, maybe it still will.
​

Unsung heroes?

​Yeah, Temple has a few ...

​Take Nick Sharga. He is not a household name, even in the family of Temple football supporters. However, he’s an intriguing story and, frankly, an emerging player.

So much so that you almost have to wonder if he might have as much impact as a headliner would … on the field, and not off while showing his guitar-playing skills.
​
A special teams dynamo from the moment he transferred into the program as a walk-on from West Virginia Wesleyan, the Allentown, Pa., area product from a family with 11 kids was awarded a single digit jersey, which honors the toughest (non-OL) players on the team prior to his redshirt sophomore season in 2015. He then went out and played some offense (FB) and defense (MLB), too, being the only member of the squad to do so.

A big kid (6-2, 240) with a penchant for being physical, he begins this season as No. 1 on the depth chart at FB and nowhere to be found on it for defense.
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Just don’t be surprised if that changes. Sharga has a knack for getting involved. Even had a couple kickoff returns last year.

by Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]

Yeah, it’s officially football season. But still …
​
Kinda tough to escape the goings on with Major League Baseball just yet. At least it is for me. Especially with teams pushing for the playoffs down the stretch and individuals stating their cases for individual honors.

Thing that really jumps out of late: It looks like reigning American League MVP Josh Donaldson isn’t about to hand over the hardware so easy after all. On pace for a very good season, the Toronto third baseman has gone off recently, super-charging an already-potent lineup with enough juice to carry it past Baltimore and Boston into first place in the AL East. In the last four days alone, Donaldson has five homers, 10 RBIs and seven runs scored.

Yeah, no argument here that if you’re going to start a team from scratch, Mike Trout is the most sensible choice. Tremendous talent and just 24. But Donaldson, even at 30, is hardly chopped liver at this point, and, frankly, he’s had a better season than the Angels outfielder again.

He leads the AL in runs scored (106), is third in homers (34) and sixth in RBIs (92) and has a better on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS than he did last season when he topped the circuit in runs scored, RBIs and total bases.

Oh yeah, he’s also fantastic with the glove.

Trout, generally accepted as the best player in the game, shouldn’t even be Donaldson’s biggest challenge to a repeat as league MVP. The stiffest competition right now actually comes in the form of Houston’s diminutive dynamo Jose Altuve (MLB batting average leader), Boston’s Mookie Betts (tied for AL lead with Donaldson on a combined 198 runs and RBIs) and David Ortiz (MLB slugging percentage and OPS leader), and teammate Edwin Encarnacion (AL leader in RBIs).

My gut feeling … Donaldson remains hot and runs away with it.

HARD TO IGNORE
Not for nothing, but one of MLB’s great individual achievements is registering 400 total bases in a single season. It’s only been done 29 times. By 18 different players.

Babe Ruth set the standard with 457 in 1921, but it was Yankees teammate Lou Gehrig who really shined over time in the category, doing it a whopping five times.

Phillies fans under the impression that their franchise’s history worth considering only stretches back to, oh, say, 1950, may want to take note that Gehrig’s closest colleague in the “400 club” is Chuck Klein, who pulled the trick three times in a four-year span for your team, your town, your Fightin’ Phillies.

Anyway, guess what? Betts has a legit, albeit outside, shot to reach that magical mark. Currently, he stands at an MLB-best 307 total bases, well ahead of the 290 Bryant has to top the NL. If Betts maintained his pace, he’d fall shy at 392. But the 23-year-old already has exceeded expectations exponentially this season, so … you never know.

HARD TO BELIEVE
Sticking with the 400 club, it’s amazing to realize that guys such as Ty Cobb and Ted Williams never reached it. Perhaps even more amazing than guys such as Hal Trosky and Luis Gonzalez getting there once and Todd Helton twice.

Even weirder, two years in the history of MLB saw four players pull it off in the same season: 1930 and 2001. Klein, Gehrig, Hack Wilson and Babe Herman did so in the former, while Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, Gonzalez and Helton did so in the latter.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Josh Donaldson
Blue Jays 3B ... .294 batting average, 34 HRs, 92 RBIs, 106 runs scored.
Mookie Betts
Red Sox OF ... .322 batting average, 30 HRs, 96 RBIs, 102 runs scored.
Jose Altuve
Astros 2B ... .354 batting average, 22 HRs, 88 RBIs, 93 runs scored.
David Ortiz
Red Sox DH ... .318 batting average, 31 HRs, 101 RBIs, 64 runs scored.
Edwin Encarnacion
Blue Jays DH ... .269 batting average, 36 HRs, 106 RBIs, 83 runs scored.
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NATIONAL LEAGUE
Kris Bryant
Cubs 3B-OF ... .305 batting average, 35 HRs, 89 RBIs, 109 runs scored.
Daniel Murphy
Nationals 2B ... .345 batting average, 25 HRs, 98 RBIs, 80 runs scored.
Nolan Arenado
Rockies 3B ... .293 batting average, 35 HRs, 112 RBIs, 96 runs scored.
Anthony Rizzo
Cubs 1B ... .295 batting average, 25 HRs, 91 RBIs, 77 runs scored.
Corey Seager
Dodgers SS ... .320 batting average, 23 HRs, 62 RBIs, 87 runs scored.

by Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]

He was the cute and cuddly character.

Though lacking the leading-man qualities to headline the show, he was so lovable, and dependable, that, for many, he became their most favorite of all, stealing their hearts … and, apparently, their minds as well.

Carlos Ruiz, do they really know ye?

Not for nothing, Phillies fans, but can you dial it back a notch or 20 on the “Chooch, you were the best” blubbery as the team’s glory-days catcher heads to the West Coast to finish out his days as a major-leaguer?

Sheesh …

Hey, the guy was a nice player. A solid performer whose value couldn’t just be measured strictly by statistics. A steadying, calming presence in a clubhouse filled with MVP-caliber talent and ego to match.

He fit … perfectly.

But the best?

The best what …?

Philly athlete for taking a post-game pie in the face and never breaking an ear-to-ear smile?

Misshapen-looking figure to handle the tools of ignorance behind the plate with shocking aplomb?

Misshapen-looking figure to bat .325 and earn an all-star nomination, his one and only, in 2012?

No argument with those. But to suggest he was the key cog at any juncture of arguably the organization’s most successful stretch in history is beyond ludicrous.

Yo, he cracks the top 10 on importance because Brad Lidge and Jonathan Papelbon were relief pitchers, Hunter Pence blew through town on an abbreviated 155-game stint and the team didn’t have a standout third baseman.

Otherwise, you got no shot claiming him to be better, or more impactful, than Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino or even Pat Burrell and expect to see a straight face staring back at you from anyone thinking straight.

Yep, Ruiz was there for the whole run. He was involved in all the big games, regular season, playoffs, World Series, in every picture captured from those big game. Got it. Awesome.

That says the guy had impeccable timing and good fortune. It does not place him on a pedestal above, or even on a par, with those other nine – and, please, just stop trying to push him as being the Phillies’ best catcher of all time. That’s an insult to Mike Lieberthal, a two-time all-star and Gold Glove winner, and Darren Daulton, a three-time all-star and Silver Slugger winner, far superior players who didn’t need “intangibles” to curry them favor in any voting.

Bob Boone? Debatable. Repping the other World Series champ for Red Pinstripe Nation, he was a four-time all-star and seven-time Gold Glove winner, but, frankly speaking, he was pretty lame at the plate.

Chooch’s averages (.266, 10 homers, 61 RBIs, 59 runs scored) per 162 games blow away Boone’s (.254, 8, 59, 48), but not nearly as much as Lieberthal’s (.274, 20, 82, 71) and Daulton’s (.245, 19, 82, 71) do his.

Seems perspective out there gets wildly skewed due to personality and emotion and the passage of time. With Ruiz being so likable and the fan base so attached to the 2008 championship team and the 2011 squad that won a Phillies-record 102 games, and, obviously, Ruiz being part of both, he is seen as a far better player than he actually was.

People tend to forget that Burrell hit 33 of his not-too-shabby 292 lifetime homers in 2008, that Werth still managed to register 27 bombs, 85 RBIs and 106 runs scored in his “disappointing” 2010 campaign, that Victorino was a three-time Gold Glove winner in center field with the Phillies, and all were much better run-producers year in and year out than Chooch, and that Lee was a better-than-Halladay, better-than-Hamels ERA dynamo during his five-year stint in Philly, not to mention the author of the most dominating, single-game World Series pitching effort in team history.

The others? Not even worth stating their cases. Strong enough with no words needed for support.

Hey, wish Chooch well in LA, alongside Utley, and will remember the good times he was a part of here.

But, gotta keep it real. No matter how cute and cuddly the guy was.

by Jack Kerwin  |  [email protected]

It seems to be an annual rite of passage anymore.

From summer into fall.

Summer starts to fade into its back end. Kids begin heading back to school. The days get a little shorter, with earlier sunsets symbolizing that cooler, chillier times lay ahead.

But there, on the horizon, in a blaze of self-absorbed, unable-to-move-on glory, comes another Tim Tebow controversy, certain to fire things up in the sports world, if only for a short period of time.

His rise in Denver. His trade to the New York Jets. His failure to catch on and stick. His repeated comeback attempts, either realized or suggested, cup of coffee with the Eagles included. Now this: Him giving it a shot in another sport.

Gotta say, love it.

It’s hilarious. Like a real-life actualization of fictional George Constanza’s “every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in.”

Tebow is the ultimate showman. A giver, taker and pleaser who just cannot let go of the limelight.

Which is funny, because his latest clingfest to centerstage, an outlandish attempt at a professional baseball career, more than a decade after he was an all-state baseball player at Nease High School in suburban Jacksonville, Fla., would actually take him far away from the TV cameras he’d be featured by every week this fall as a college football analyst.

Thing is, got no problem with what he’s trying to do … and think it’s ridiculous that anyone does.

For all the “true” baseball peeps out there offended with his workout for Major League Baseball organizations, including our own Phillies, yo, get a grip. It’s a classic Exhibit A case of “no harm.”

Why not check out what the guy can do, to see if he can actually play?

Frankly, teams always are looking to find new talent. So they wouldn’t be doing their due diligence if they didn’t take the time here to see what an elite athlete might be able to do on the diamond.

Make no mistake, despite his failings at the NFL level as a quarterback, Tebow stacks up with the very best baseball has to offer in the size-speed-strength department, and that includes anointed God-like entity Mike Trout of the Angels.

We’re not talking about a bust of an athlete. The guy, legitimately, will be recognized as one of college football’s greatest players ever for a long time because of the type of drive, determination and all-around athletic prowess he displayed while winning the Heisman trophy and two national championships at the University of Florida not any specific gridiron-related, or position-related, skill.

Pretty comical to hear the comparison between what Tebow is attempting to do at age 29 with what basketball legend Michael Jordan did a generation ago at age 31 leading to bitchfests on one hand and more genuflecting on the other – gee, wonder which gets what ...

It’s the same damn thing, only Jordan had the cache with Chicago ownership, both the Bulls and the White Sox, to make his meandering through Double-A a done deal as soon as he said he wanted it. Tebow actually will have to earn an opportunity by putting his baseball wares, good or bad, on display next Tuesday in Los Angeles.

My only confusion with any of this is the guy seems like he was born to play football. Not quarterback. Somewhere else. Tight end. Linebacker. Something. Anything. To harness and utilize all that talent, intensity and power.

Thing is, Tebow chasing the golden goose in baseball is fine by me. Just think he’d fare better in a sport that demands the type of physicality he brings to the table.

​But love the uproar regardless.​