In many ways, the Temple Owls' football program is a better place because of head coach Bobby Wallace.

As a result of his eight years in Philadelphia, the team now dresses in a state- of-the-art fieldhouse, not the cramped basement of McGonigle Hall. They now play at Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles.

But in the way that matters most — wins — the Owls are stuck in reverse, and that's why Wallace called it quits earlier this week.

Wallace's resignation is tempered with weariness. The Owls never had a winning season under his leadership. Going into this weekend they're 19-66 with Wallace on the sideline.

He admitted he had grown tired of the losing. He'll stay on through the end of the year, and then head back to his native Alabama.

"It's not really that I don't feel like I can continue to do the job... . Somebody with a fresh approach — the time is better for that right now than for me to continue to try," Wallace said.

Wallace told reporters the "timing wasn't right" for him, but it will be for the next coach.

But once Wallace was the coach with the "fresh approach." He arrived in Temple fresh off leading North Alabama to a pair of Division II national crowns in 1993 and 1995. He's in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and was named the Division II Coach of the Quarter Century. The guy knows his X's and O's.

But what he didn't know was that football at Temple would wear on him to the point of retreat. He ran the white flag up the pole, surrendering to the inevitable.

The Big East, the very football conference the Owls helped build, destroyed any hope of success.

It's almost impossible to believe that, at one time, Temple was good. In fact the Owls, under legendary coach Glenn S. "Pop" Warner, played Tulane in the first Sugar Bowl. At one point, the Owls dropped out of Division I, but returned in 1970 under Wayne Hardin, who immediately had the Owls competitive against Division I schools.

They went 18-9-1 in his first three years, set a school record for wins (9) in 1973 and ran Hardin's veer as if it was second nature. At one point, the Owls rattled off 14 wins in a row, still the school record. Hardin led them to a Garden State Bowl game victory in 1979 over Cal.

The Owls tailed off in the 1980s, but in 1990 the Owls made a comeback under new head coach Jerry Berndt. He fashioned that edition of the Owls into a 7-4 team that garnered Independence Bowl consideration.

Then came the Big East.

This may seem almost unfathomable to those of us that watch college football or have short attention spans, but the Owls were a guiding force in the formation of this league. The Big East's basketball conference was becoming more and more successful, so those schools, many of them independents, chose to form a new football league, too.

Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Syracuse, Boston College and Rutgers were part of the inaugural class. The University of Miami and Virginia Tech joined in 1992. The Big East, thanks to Miami, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Boston College became a powerful force in college football, challenging the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference for supremacy on the east coast.

The Owls must have been filled with so much hope as the conference became reality. But hope turned to despair as quickly as that first Big East conference game, a 26-7 loss to Pittsburgh. Temple simply couldn't compete with the rest of the league. The Owls lost their first 27 Big East games, a streak that started under Berndt and ended under Ron Dickerson, who at the time was Division I-A's only African-American coach.

The Owls finally beat Pittsburgh on Oct. 14, 1995, more than four years after Big East play began.

Dickerson survived five seasons, with a record of 8-47. He managed a program-high three Big East wins his final season, but all that earned him was a pink slip. In came Bobby Wallace, fresh off his successes in Alabama and filled with ways to make the Owls better. Sure, the facilities got better, but the team never did.

Wallace had a three-year stretch (2000-02) where it looked like he was making progress. The Owls had four wins each of those years. During his tenure he beat every Big East team except Miami.

But the team has cratered the past three years. One win in 2003, two wins in 2004, no wins this year. And, then, the ultimate humiliation. The Big East kicked Temple out of the very conference it helped build. And to make matters worse, the Owls got stuck with their Big East schedule this season. So they're getting their butt kicked by Miami this weekend for nothing.

Miami and Temple are interesting parallels. Both are private universities with small student bodies, respected for academics and located in metropolitan areas. But Miami has won national championships under three head coaches (Jimmy Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Larry Coker) and Temple has won the Garden State Bowl once.

It's strange because both Florida and Pennsylvania are recruiting hotbeds. Miami must compete with Florida and Florida State, but at least the Hurricanes are on their level. It's much harder for Temple to attract recruits when Pittsburgh and Penn State are in the area. Temple just isn't on their level.

Show a recruit the new fieldhouse, give them a tour of Lincoln Financial and it's all good. But then show them the past, show them that putrid Big East record and the paltry attendance and that recruit suddenly feels like becoming a Nittany Lion — even if that means walking on for Joe Pa.

Wallace believes he's left the program in better shape than he found it. And, in some respects, he's accurate. In fact his successor might have a better chance, at first glance. Next year the Owls join the Mid-American Conference, probably the best mid-major football conference around. Temple may not be on their level yet, but they can certainly aspire to get in the neighborhood.

But who are will Temple hire? Who would take this job? Surely not an established head coach. That's career suicide, or at least career coma. Whoever takes this job must be an awesome recruiter, someone who can do a bang-up sales job in an area with a myriad of sports options that leaves few others to join Bill Cosby at home games. He's got to find a system that will foster success at Temple, one that fits the kids he has now and in the future. And that system needs to be unique, a little edgy, one that will get his players and fans excited about it.

He's going to have to be an Urban Meyer-type, and those are difficult to find. Florida may have the only one.

It'll have to be an assistant, or even a Division I-AA or D-II coach like Wallace. Whoever it is, to be successful, he'll have to leave the past behind. And it won't be easy, because most of the college football world will only want to talk about Temple's failures, not successes.

Whoever the Owls hire, they probably shouldn't mention they're 2-11 against the MAC since 1998. That might end the interview right there.