Get real.

"I don't think people understand what goes into this," Temple football coach Al Golden said recently in his office in Edberg-Olson Hall. "I'll get comments on campus, or meeting with professors. 'So what are you doing in the offseason?' I still get that. From those that don't know the profession, even some in academia.

"The offseason's hard."

For those who hadn't noticed, for the last few decades the actual seasons on North Broad Street haven't been seashells and balloons, either. Golden came aboard 29 months ago. As he has pointed out, there are only so many Division I-A jobs. And the vast majority of them aren't Texas. Or even Baylor.

Whatever folks may or may not think of Temple football, and there's no shortage of opinions either way, this is the most anticipated season for the program since, well, feel free to fill in the blank. In their first full year in the Mid-American Conference, the Owls won four times in 2007, which is as many as they had won in the previous four seasons combined. And they have virtually everyone back.

(Including their coach, who interviewed for the UCLA gig in December.)

Still, Golden insists that, other than the first four opponents, he couldn't tell you what the schedule looks like without looking it up. Yet he already has completed a 2009 spring-practice itinerary. The public deals only in results. Yet the things that must be dealt with the rest of the time set everything in motion.

Golden adheres to his blueprint. Even during so-called summer vacation.

"I've always said the hardest month may be June," he said. "We're [scouting] our first four opponents, we're getting ready for our five [1-day high school] camps, we're getting training stuff done, we're getting our individual position sections done, the drill tapes our players look at in preseason camp, and we're kind of at that selection phase in recruiting where we've gathered all our information and are now stacking our board, plotting our course . . . Our coaches only have 4 days off the whole month.

"As a head coach, you can never get away from it. There's no escape. There's very seldom a day where something doesn't come up. At this point, basically we're [booked] until training camp [in August]. But we're still getting calls to do charity events, alumni events, this, that or the other thing.

"If I didn't have Nadia [Harvin, his secretary] or someone like my wife [Kelly] at home, two people who understand me and keep me organized . . . "

Not that he needs much help. Want to know what he's doing at virtually any moment, from Jan. 9 to Aug. 20? It's all there, in black and white, a full 34 pages' worth, in an outline titled, "So You Want To Be A Football Coach!" Right down to interviews with members of the media. There are days that start with 3:30 a.m. wake-up calls. And some that almost never end.

Nothing is left to chance. For him, there's no other way.

"What's the difference between trying to see seven or eight schools a day and running for governor, for God's sake?" he asked. "That's essentially what we're doing.

"We've probably met 1,000 people in a week. Everybody, you name it. We're in high schools saying hello to 50 people. It's not like we're coming in the side door, and leaving like Elvis. We're going there to work."

It's about visibility. And selling. A university. A philosophy. A commitment.

"It comes down to people," Golden said. "It's about trust, cultivating relationships. When we came in, we had so many ties to this area. And we've continued to make inroads. There was a disenchantment [with Temple]. I think high school coaches felt disenfranchised. You have to know your customer. But now we've reached so many people, and they're going back and telling their people, 'Hey, do you know what's going on at Temple?' If a kid's engaged by that, then we can proceed. But first we meet with the principal, guidance counselors and coaches, before we ever get to the prospect. All we needed was the conduit, to drive us from Point A to Point B.

"The difference now is, there's a definite product [to offer]. If the university hadn't changed, we couldn't be doing this. Look at all the things that are taking place here, in terms of infrastructure. That's all it takes. It's a cooperative effort."

Golden talks about the footprint - one that didn't exist before his arrival. He will quote John Foster Dulles, the U.S. Secretary of State during the Eisenhower administration. Or Herb Kelleher (CEO, Southwest Airlines). And tie their words and deeds into his protocol.

"[Dulles] once said, 'The sign of a good manager is not whether you have a problem,' " Golden related. " 'It's whether you have the same problem you had a year ago.' That's one thing we [address] very well.

"It's not about reinventing the wheel. It's about doing it better than anybody.

"I'll [hear] from people who say, 'I can't believe how many kids are wearing Temple stuff now.' It's name recognition, a brand. It's a guidance counselor in Bucks County telling us they've already done 15 applications for Temple and it's only October. And that it's unheard of. A lot of it has to do with our presence."

Times change. No, Temple probably isn't going to a Sugar Bowl anytime soon. Still, the program's no longer a standard punch line. It's a first step, one that emanates from within. Until you alter reality, the perceptions can't go away. Golden's turned this into a grass-roots movement. Obviously, someone's buying. The last two recruiting classes were ranked among the best in the MAC, by those who supposedly know. Pass the word.

"You can't enter categories you can't have success in," he said. "It's the old Jack Welch saying from GE: 'If we can't be first or second, we either got to fix it, sell it or close.' We can't have 3- or 4-day camps like Penn State, Maryland or [Boston College]. But we can have the best 1-day camp on the East Coast. We created a market. Pick the battles you can win . . . Treat everything like you're trying to solve a problem.

"Say McDonald's is Penn State. And Burger King is Notre Dame. How do other guys survive, right up the street? How do they take them on? They identify who their clientele really is, and go from there. We have a lot of assets. So how many categories can we win?

"If there are 30 people in a room when the lights go out, what happens? Well, 15 will [complain]. Three others will call the utility company. Somebody else will walk out, go down the hall and yell at somebody. So our feeling's been, why doesn't somebody just flip the switch?"

There's talk of bowl eligibility, and even MAC titles. Maybe even this year. Which would, of course, represent one heckuva flip, even if Golden isn't looking past the next item on his checklist.

"Let's be honest," Golden cautioned. "We've won one road game in the past 2 years, and we're on the road seven times [in the first 10 games]. Think about that. That's next to suicidal.

"Anyone can say we're going to set out to do this or that. Everyone does it. That's great. But in and of itself, that's aspirational. It has nothing to do with the outcome. You have to be able to execute all the steps it takes to achieve that outcome . . .

"We're just trying to win today."

You can look it up. The date book doesn't fib. *