Temple coaching great Wayne Hardin lauds this year's model

WAYNE HARDIN'S last season as Temple's most successful football coach was 1982. The Owls finished 4-7, for the second time in three years. But in 1973-74, they won 14 straight, as the program was making the transition from playing the Bucknells and Xaviers of the food chain to a more steady diet of Pitts and West Virginias. And it was mostly good.

Especially 1979, when the Owls went 10-2 and beat favored Cal in the Garden State Bowl, 28-17. It's the only time a Temple team won that many games.

"That's history," said Hardin, still pretty darned sharp at 88. "Everything in life is there to be broken. I spent my life breaking records. I told Matt (Rhule) the same thing (when he got the job). He's here to break records. That's what records are there for. Go do it.

"They're making it happen. It's not just happening because it's your time . . . Breaking a record is not the greatest thing in the world. (It's) sustaining it, breaking a record over and over. Like when we won 14 in a row. Nobody even knew it. And who cares? But we cared. We did it over two seasons, so it wasn't as good as it could have been if we'd done it starting out the season. But those are records people need to look at. This is the time."

The Owls are 7-0 for the first time ever. The last time they were even 6-0 was 1974. They're ranked 21st by the Associated Press, in the polls this season for the first time since '79. And Saturday night at Lincoln Financial Field, they'll play No. 9 Notre Dame (6-1) in what's undoubtedly the most-hyped game ever for North Broad Street.

Hardin contacts Rhule regularly, usually by email. Before the opener against Penn State, he told Rhule this was the day they were finally going beat the Nittany Lions. And they did, for the first time since 1941.

Why not?

"When I first got the job at Navy (in 1959), we had the new stadium (Navy-Marine Corps Memorial), and we were the first ones in it," recalled Hardin, who had started there as an assistant under Eddie Erdelatz four years earlier. "I was the head coach six years, and we never lost a game in that stadium. I didn't even know it. That's exactly how life goes. I had no idea.

"I was down for a reunion, and the director of athletics told me that. I thought he was kidding. There was no way I knew. It wasn't the important thing. Winning was . . .

"I remember we were playing Notre Dame, and I was trying to do my homework, find something that would help us win the game. And someone said to me, 'We don't have to beat Notre Dame. Just don't get slaughtered and you can be here forever.' And I was, like, 'I'm not that way. If we're going to play them, we're going to beat them.' And we did (five times from 1956-63).

"After we got them a couple of times, somebody from Notre Dame asked me if I'd ever thought about coaching there. And I said, 'No sir, I really haven't. I'm happy where I am. I've got a job to do.' And I asked him why he'd think of me as a potential coach at Notre Dame. And he said, 'We really like people that beat us.' I'm in the Hall of Fame because we beat teams when we were the underdog."

The Owls have been the underdogs three times this season. Not shockingly, they're not favored to beat the Irish. Whatever happens, the Linc will be packed. Even if roughly half the crowd figures to be wearing green, Hardin thinks that's the best thing about all this. And he is going to be there, right?

"I hate to tell you this, but I couldn't get any tickets," he said, chuckling. "You'd be amazed how happy I am about that. I've got four kids, and they want to go. Fans in the stands, that's what matters. You've got to have support, more than anything else.

"Where I like to be for a game like this is in my lounge chair, with the TV four feet in front of me. Nobody in the house but me and the high-def. It's the best seat. No distractions. That's the one thing you don't want."

Isn't that what Rhule and his players are always saying about all the outside noise, especially now that the bandwagon has picked up serious steam? Maybe they really do think alike.

"I think Matt's got a good, level head on his shoulders," Hardin said. "He's typical of one of my pet theories - that great athletes are not good coaches. I had Steve Van Buren (on his staff) with the (Philadelphia) Bulldogs (in 1966). And he just said, 'Here's how you do it.' But they couldn't do it. Someone who's gone through the struggles Matt's gone through, being a walk-on (linebacker at Penn State), trying to play, and everything he's accomplished has been work. He's applied himself, and you have a better chance to communicate with your players when you're in that position.

"We got to be friends when he first got here. I get abrupt sometimes. So I told him, 'Any time you've had enough, just say so.' But he's still talking to me."

He's probably listening, too. Maybe even when Hardin talks about the win over Cal, which, until four years ago, was Temple's only bowl victory. Rhule was only 4. Some stuff never gets stale.

"We played Villanova in our last game, and the head coach from Cal (Roger Theder) came to scout," Hardin said. "Both teams played awful. One of the worst games I ever coached in my life (but still won, 42-10). And he said, 'How did they get into a bowl?'

"We absolutely tore them (the Bears) apart in our preparation. We had one (running) play that no one (else) has ever run to this day. We had to tell the guard to get the hell out of the way. The hole was 5 yards wide. There wasn't anybody there. And we scored 21 points in the first quarter, on that play.

"Those are the type of things that can happen. That's how upsets are made. People study."

Kind of makes you wonder what message he might send to Rhule this week. Because he sure sounds like someone who still has a bunch of wisdom to pass along. And he obviously enjoys sharing it, even if it doesn't get him in the house against the Irish. He'll just keep being who he is, and doing what he does, for as long as he can find a way.

Who knows? Maybe this could turn into another one of those historic days.

"I've always said you spend the first 28 years of your life getting an education," Hardin philosophized. "You get a wife, get a job, get ready to go. The next 28, you work your tail off. Then you take the last 28 and retire. If you have any more of them, they're bonus years.

"There's nothing wrong with getting older. Just don't get old."

Hey, it's his remote.