Temple's Rhule gives blunt assessment of quarterback Walker

LAST YEAR, P.J. Walker became Temple's starting quarterback as a true freshman in the sixth game. And his presence made an impression. He passed for 20 touchdowns, with eight interceptions. He threw for four scores twice, including the season-ending 41-21 win at Memphis. If nothing else, his performance provided hope for the future.

Now, another season is nearing a close. The Owls are 5-5, which is a three-victory improvement. If you'd told most observers in August this is where they'd be, few would have complained. Yet after a 4-1 start, well, perspectives change.

Every team they've played in the last five games is going to a bowl. Which is what they're trying to do, for the first time in 3 years. But they haven't scored more than 20 points in that stretch. And they've exceeded 14 only once.

Walker's thrown three TDs and 10 picks since mid-October. The offensive line has remained a work in progress, and issues there impact everything else. Walker has played mostly under duress, as they say. Nonetheless . . .

"I'll say it very bluntly," said second-year coach Matt Rhule, who usually does exactly that. "P.J. hasn't played good enough. That's No. 1. No. 2, no one's made a play for P.J., right? Eli Manning had five picks last week. All of a sudden [this past Sunday], he throws the ball to Odell Beckham. He jumps up and catches it behind his head, and everything's off and running. You know, you can't find a time where we've thrown a ball up since about Houston [on Oct. 17] where someone's just, forget about jumping up and making a play, but, like, catching a curl route. I mean, he's not getting much help right now. He's getting hit. And you can't play quarterback when you're getting hit."

On Saturday afternoon, the Owls play their final home game, against Cincinnati (7-3, 5-1 American), which has a chance to get at least a piece of the conference championship. The Bearcats have won five straight. Before that they'd lost three straight.

The Owls, who almost beat Memphis in their last South Philly appearance on Nov. 7, are coming off a bye after losing by 17 at Penn State. In that one, Walker had an interception returned for a TD and threw another one deep in his own territory that set up another.

Those were hardly Temple's only mistakes.

Still, it generally starts with the person who has the ball in his hands on every snap. Because the last thing you want is for your leader to start losing confidence in himself.

"You just tell him the truth," Rhule said. "The one thing that's happening to him is, he's just competing at every turn. [Sometimes] he's trying to do too much. But I don't see a guy who's backing away from the challenge. I don't see a guy who's shell-shocked. He made a couple of runs in that Penn State game where we didn't block for him, the back went the wrong way, he's supposed to throw back in the flat, he makes two guys miss and gets us to like second-and-4.

"I know the talent he has. What I want to see is, when things are going hard, what kind of guy are you?"

Better to find out now. For what's left of this journey, and those to come.