Root of P.J. Walker's success: New QB coach

Anyone can see how Temple quarterback P.J. Walker is sharper this season. Walker knows it, and talks about how he's not necessarily more precise with his passes. It's more about the ones the quarterback is not throwing.

Walker's statistics jump out: After 15 interceptions last season, Walker has had two through 126 passing attempts - both in the second quarter of the Massachusetts game - as the Owls have gotten off to their 5-0 start.

Plenty of Walker's progress is as simple as a sophomore turning into a junior. But if you ask Temple head coach Matt Rhule, whose team hosts Central Florida on Saturday, how much credit he gives new quarterbacks coach Glenn Thomas for Walker's improved decision-making, Rhule will use the word significant.

So a new head coach for the Atlanta Falcons this season trickled down to helping Temple getting off to this historic start, since Thomas suddenly became available after seven seasons with the Falcons, the last few working with Matt Ryan as quarterbacks coach.

Rhule said of Thomas: "He came in - I'd never use the word simplify, because we didn't simplify. He just cleaned it up. He just allowed P.J.'s thought process to just be clean. . . . as opposed to P.J. playing with sort of a cloudy mind - am I supposed to go here, here? . . . Things being real complex. We just cleaned it up."

Some of this sounds like common sense, but there's a place in football for common sense. The complexity is in the details.

"At the quarterback position, it's about making decisions, smart decisions, on-time decisions, and decisions with a purpose," Thomas said after a practice this week. "I want every decision that he makes to have a purpose, have a reason for why he's doing it - whether it be taking off running late in the down, or he hit his third step and throws the ball, or he gets to the second progression. He needs to have a purpose and I need to educate him on those purposes, for why he's making those decisions."

Thomas absolutely had an impact on him, Walker said, as soon as the coach arrived in the spring, recommended by Owls offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, an old friend. Right away, the new coach and quarterback talked about not trying to force the ball, taking the sack if you need to, trusting the defense.

Asked for an example of a discussion from Saturday's win over Tulane, Walker talked about a bad read he'd made on one of the receiver routes, how he should have just thrown the ball away, although he got away with it for an incompletion.

"We harped on it on the sideline - we shouldn't make that decision," Walker said.

Thomas, who is up in the press box with Satterfield during games, talked about how he immediately was impressed when he saw Walker's arm strength on film. That was confirmed when he saw the quarterback live this spring.

They went to work on what Walker sees pre-snap, what he's thinking in late-down situations, "off-schedule decisions," meaning when a play breaks down. If Walker makes the right decision, that kind of play can work to his advantage. They began to speak the same language.

Does Thomas bring up Matt Ryan's name?

"I do," said Thomas, who had worked at Division II Midwestern State before going to the Falcons. "I use him as an example. This is how one of the best in the world does things. I think that brings instant credibility or validity into maybe some coaching techniques or some mechanical things that we do or some training things in the meeting rooms."

When Rhule talks about Walker, the respect comes from all different angles. This was a guy who separated his shoulder in the Penn State opener and kept going, although Walker cut down on his running the next few weeks. He arrived at Temple with a reputation as someone who watched a lot of film, who wasn't convinced he already knew it all.

"The biggest thing I'd say about P.J., our team plays for him," Rhule said. "They don't like when he gets hit, because he has always taken responsibility. I don't think anyone's ever heard him say even an ounce of, 'It's not my fault, it's somebody else.' A lot of times it was somebody else, you know; he's just one of those kids, he's a winner."

If the new quarterbacks coach is demanding a lot of his quarterback - which by all accounts, he is - Walker began noticing the results even before the games began.

"He's a guy who sets his standards high," Walker said of Thomas. "He pushes me to have high goals for myself."

The words all sound good. The numbers tell the story. Anyone can see it.

mjensen@phillynews.com

@jensenoffcampus