Think-tank trio heading out of football's tank

Let's drive this everything-BCS bandwagon onto a dirt road for a change, to a place where it reeks to inherit the dearth -- of bowl success.

Take the unlikely trio of Stanford, Duke and Temple. They are academic institutions that, in the past, have only tolerated football. Now they're all on track to go bowling in the same year for the first time.

Al Golden has the Owls in position for their first bowl game since 1979. (AP)

The Owls, 6-2, are bowl eligible for the first time in 30 years. Given three guesses, only the most educated fan would be able to name the current second-place team in the ACC Coastal Division -- Duke at 5-3 (3-1). Stanford has the richest football tradition of the three but has been to only one bowl since 1999. Coach Jim Harbaugh has the Cardinal, 5-3 (4-2), within one victory of bowl eligibility.

Temple AD Bill Bradshaw could have been speaking for all three schools when he was asked about marketing strategies.

"We haven't tried winning yet," he said. "I think we'll do that next."

Great concept. We're going to go ahead and assume that all three schools got some academic concessions -- ahem, special admits -- to get them to this point.

"Without quoting me, to answer your question," a high-ranking official at one of the Think Tank Three said of his school, "absolutely."

They also got new coaches, all of them within the last four seasons. Temple has become the new Rutgers on the East Coast. Duke has improved while also taking advantage of a Charmin-soft ACC. Stanford has one of the hottest coaches -- for NFL jobs.

It's nice to see there is life outside of the top 10 in the BCS. It helps that none of the three have played a current top 10 BCS school this season. That's probably a good thing because for all of their sudden success, the Think Tanks can only talk before they can run.

"It's home," Temple's Al Golden said, explaining why he seemingly threw away a hot, young career to take the Owls' job four years ago.

"I've worked at Boston College, Penn State and Virginia. I've recruited this corridor. This is my area."

The Owls lost 16 of their first 17 games under Joe Paterno's former linebackers coach after being docked nine scholarships by the NCAA for academic underachievement under the previous regime. Slowly, though, Golden built a foundation the old-fashioned way -- with 300-pounders on both lines.

Now NFL scouts are starting to show up, a sure sign the program is improving.

Saturday's 27-24 win over Navy guaranteed Temple its first bowl since 1979. Being kicked out of the Big East in 2004 actually helped. Suddenly, it was easier to compete, something Temple had a hard time doing. After one year spent as an independent, Temple joined the MAC. Now it is on track to face Central Michigan in the conference title game.

In the MAC, the Owls are this year's Buffalo.

As a coach, Golden is trying to become the new Greg Schiano, getting most of his talent from New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

"I knew there was a lot of connections there," said Golden, a New Jersey native. "I knew there was a lot of talent. I believed at that time we could win."

Why? Temple was destitute in football. Golden inherited a 12-game losing streak that went to 20 before it ended. One quarterback transferred from Okaloosa-Walton County (Fla.) junior college, where he had been playing baseball. Two Iraq war vets walked on.

But Golden can recruit. His first class was rated among the best in the MAC. Three-and-a-half years later, true freshman Bernard Pierce is the leading freshman rusher in the nation. After Pierce went for 267 yards against Navy, the second-most by an opponent in Midshipmen history, Temple has an identity. It is ... tough.

Pierce spent the last two years at nearby Glen Mills, a boarding school for troubled youth. Sentenced there for a year, he chose to stay for his senior season.

"If I didn't go there," Pierce told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "I wouldn't be in college"

Golden sounds like he is marketing a new energy drink when he says his program is "a new product here on the East Coast."

"We were placed strategically between the traditional Eastern powers: Penn State, BC, Syracuse [and] what I call the I-AA all-star teams, Richmond, Villanova, James Madison, UMass," he said. "I thought it was a great position to be in the marketplace, especially since we were the only one at that level on the East Coast."

Golden, 40, is annually mentioned for other jobs. But now that he has actually won as a head coach the chatter will get, well, chattier. His name has come up as a possible replacement for his old boss, Al Groh, at Virginia.

Golden won't talk about that or a program about to play in the postseason. He doesn't want his Owls to settle with games left against Miami (Ohio), Akron, Kent State and Ohio.

"We had every problem imaginable," said Golden, who suspended several of his best players before his first season. "I was the vice principal and dean of discipline for 2½ years ... From that moment on we decided we were going to put our foot down and eliminate the distractions or the distracters. They have to understand you can't win and have distractions."

Duke

Duke-Carolina usually doesn't mean anything until the winter. Now it's one of the more intriguing ACC matchups this week, in Chapel Hill. In football.

Leon Wright and the Blue Devils are closing in on a long-awaited return to bowling. (Getty Images)

After beating Golden's old employer, Virginia, the Blue Devils have won three conference games in a row for the first time since 1994. They are actually a game out of first in the Coastal and have Georgia Tech at home in what could be a showdown for the division title.

Duke fans now actually have attention span problems this time of year. Basketball is a week away and the football team matters. What happened? Basically, David Cutcliffe took the job two years ago. The two parties never would have met had Cutcliffe not had heart bypass surgery.

After recovering, he left as Tennessee's offensive coordinator -- ahead of the posse, it turned out -- and came to Duke. After a 4-8 debut last season, the offense clicked for Cutcliffe; the underrated unit stepped up and the schedule was, well, soft. So soft that Duke needs two wins to become bowl eligible. It played and lost to I-AA Richmond and beat North Carolina Central, a victory that doesn't count toward bowl eligibility because the school is transitioning to I-AA.

"In this sitcom, this is the David Cutcliffe Show," AD Kevin White said. Do you remember The Music Man, Robert Preston? David came in here as Robert Preston, only with lots of substance. He's got everybody's attention."

It also helped the ACC met the Blue Devils in the middle. The conference softened while Duke toughened.

When was the last time anyone around Duke football rallied behind the words "No Fear"? Those were the words printed on cornerback Leon Wright's eye black against Virginia.

Stanford

Jim Harbaugh probably doesn't want Stanford to be on this list. The program looks down its nose in football at the likes of Temple and Duke. Stanford has Rose Bowls in its background. Waaaay in its background, but still ...

Andrew Luck has helped lead a Cardinal resurgence under Jim Harbaugh. (Getty Images)

The third-year coach knows he didn't get the job because the Cardinal were on a roll. Before Harbaugh arrived, Stanford had lost 13 of its last 15. This is how bad it had gotten: The failures of Buddy Teevens and Walt Harris had made fans long for the magic number .543. That was Tyrone Willingham's winning percentage.

Captain Comeback inherited tailback Toby Gerhart (a hot baseball prospect, too) and recruited quarterback Andrew Luck. Harbaugh is prone to the outlandish, claiming Pete Carroll would leave USC after the 2007 season and that Luck is the best quarterback in the country. However, he's right about how Stanford has rebounded this season.

Gerhart leads the Pac-10 in rushing, Luck leads the conference in pass efficiency and the Cardinal are allowing four less points per game than last season.

"We feel that's the way to be successful -- be physical and not try to out-finesse everybody," Harbaugh said. "This program was built on a foundation of bedrock. It hasn't been built on shifting sands."

We'll see if the sands hold together. To go bowling for the first time since 2001, Harbaugh will have to find one more win among a final four that includes Oregon, USC, California and Notre Dame.

Only then can the bandwagon roll.