Temple is solid compared to Penn State, Pitt

Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

Major college football is in a state of flux at Penn State and Pittsburgh.

By comparison, Temple — Pennsylvania’s other Football Bowl Subdivision school — is on steady ground.

In Steve Addazio’s first season — taking over Al Golden’s rebuilding project — Temple finished its second nine-win season in three years with a 37-15 victory last week over Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl.

“I just think, obviously, right now we’re focused on trying to do the best job we can in recruiting,” Addazio said.

“Right now this is a great opportunity to build our brand, to help people focus in on where Temple has come from and where [it’s] headed,” Addazio said.

Temple went 1-11 its first season under Golden in 2006, then won 26 over the next four years before Golden left to coach Miami. Addazio, the former assistant at Florida under Urban Meyer, maintained the momentum with a 9-4 season.

Now he’s on a well-deserved holiday break and resting up before the January recruiting push.

“You get a great surge, a tremendous finish,” Addazio said, referring to Temple’s season-ending four-game winning streak. “The national exposure helps you when you come back.”

A member of the Mid-American Conference, Temple doesn’t play in a league with an automatic BCS bid like Penn State and Pitt.

But those schools have also had unstable coaching situations.

That once was never an issue at Penn State under the 46-year tenure of Hall of Famer Joe Paterno as head coach.

But he was fired Nov. 9 in the aftermath of child sex abuse charges against retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

Pitt on Thursday introduced Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst as its new head coach, a little more than a week after Todd Graham’s stunning departure for Arizona State after just one season in western Pennsylvania.

Addazio hopes Temple can keep getting noticed and building on its recent success.

“We are going to keep growing,” he said.