Bernard Pierce's demotion (temporarily)

Bernard Pierce's demotion (temporarily)
by Kevin McCann
August 24, 2010

According to Bernard Fernandez's story in the Philadelphia Daily News, Temple's running back and Heisman trophy candidate, has been demoted to the second string. Two weeks ago, Pierce suffered a head injury of undisclosed severity. Head Coach Al Golden declined to comment on the injury.

Matt Brown, Pierce's back up, will assume the starting running back position. In my opinion, Brown is a great athlete. Last season during Pierce's shoulder injury, Brown showed his talent. He averaged 5.9 yards per carry and ran for 529 yards during the season. He is 5' 5", 170 lbs and tough. He landed on his unprotected face while being tackled during Temple's season ending loss to Ohio University last November. Brown finished the game without complaining about this awkward tackle.

Hopefully this time will allow Pierce to heal and start marching towards a possible Heisman season.

New Quarterback for Temple

Chester Stewart, Temple quarterback.

I’m glad to see Al Golden picked Chester Stewart as the newest starting quarterback for the Owls. I liked Stewart’s performance during his starts over the last two seasons. Expectations are high and fans want to see how far he can carry the team. I think they have the right guy. He was 70% accurate in camp this summer and he can hit a receiver in stride on a long bomb. Stewart’s mobility could add another dimension to Temple’s offense.

From what I’ve seen in Stewart over the last two seasons is that he’s a good field general. He knows the offense, he can control the tempo of the game and can surprise the opposition with a big play. The first time I saw Stewart play was on Oct. 4 2008 vs. Miami (OH). He passed for 178 yards including a 43 yard touchdown pass to Bruce Francis. This pass was a thing of beauty and it really impressed me. Temple news reporter, Tyson McCloud, wrote in his summary that before the game the offensive line told Stewart that they wouldn’t let anyone touch him. This allowed Stewart not to be hurried and persevere when the game got tight.

The Owls along with Stewart are more mature this season due to their successes last year. I feel that Temple will do as well as they did last season and Stewart could be poised to have a break out season.

Bring the Heisman home to Temple U

Here in the Philadelphia area there are five billboards along the major interstates promoting Bernard Pierce’s case to win the Heisman trophy later this year. From what I saw and read in 2009, Pierce should have won the trophy. I remember listening to the game vs. Toledo last year and Harry Donahue (the voice of Temple Football) mentioned that Pierce just ran over 270 yards for the game. The first thought that popped into my head was “didn’t he run for over 250 last week?”

This running back has tons of talent, a great offensive line and playing in the "east coast offense" allows him to shine. One thing that this scheme and team will not give Pierce is speed. The long touchdown run vs Navy on Oct. 31 showed all of us as fans how explosive Pierce can be.



Can’t wait for the season.

Check out his website:
www.pierce4heisman.com/