Temple’s Drayton trying to buck history

The best Jeopardy question ever.

If Temple football ever had a question on Wheel of Fortune, the letters might fill in something like this:

What school had a football team that no head coach from there ever won here?

Temple University.

Technically, yes, at least in the last 20 or so years, although the “from here” part is loosely up for debate.

Al Golden,, from Colts Neck N.J. with a binder of Mid-Atlantic area recruits?

Close enough, especially when you throw in the only Temple player of the year from its short time in the Big East was Colts Neck native Dan Klecko.

Matt Rhule?

Anyone who was born in New York City (a short 90 miles away) and played at rival Penn State AND drove up from Western Carolina to knock on Golden’s door begging for a job at Temple?

Definitely from here.

So the two guys who were credited for a) performing CPR on a dead patient and b) getting that patient from the rehab center to winning track meets? Definitely from here.

Jerry Berndt, Ron Dickerson, Bobby Wallace?

Definitely not from here and it showed in their abysmal Temple numbers.

Stan Drayton?

Not so sure.

Does coaching at Penn and Villanova qualify from here?

Not to me, sorry. Having lived in Philadelphia all of my life, I’m 100 percent convinced that both Penn and Villanova are as Philly as Cal Berkely and Boston College, in that order.

Temple is Philadelphia.

Bringing back Ed Foley would immediately fix Temple’s broken special teams.

So Stan starts from behind the eight ball.

Love the endorsements from all of Stan’s ex-players and other coaches who worked with him about Stan but, to me, the best indicator of his future success is the amount of “Temple” guys he surrounds himself with. We’re not talking Penn guys or Villanova guys, but Temple guys. Temple is a special place, much more special than Villanova or Penn.

If Stan’s moves prove to the fans that he understands that, he will hit the ground running.

Losing Gabe Infante was a negative that could be offset by bringing back Ed Foley to hand the keys of the special teams. Bringing in the Texas recruiting coordinator would be nice but adding a defensive coordinator like former Temple LB coach Mike Siravo would be nicer.

I don’t know what Stan Drayton will decide in the next few days but being from there and trying to win here was something Rod Carey tried to do.

He fell flat on his face but, in doing so, gave Stan Drayton a blueprint for success. Stan only needs to follow it. Keep the outside guys outta here and concentrate on how the Temple guys can help.

That’s a much faster way to re-establish the “Temple TUFF” culture than bringing an all-star staff from Texas and Ohio State.

That other way has been tried and failed. The Temple Way is tried and true.

Final college football picks of the year: Would love to pick Cincy getting the 13.5 against Bama but, like all G5 football fans, will watch that with a rooting interest only. Only three games jumped out to me:

EAST CAROLINA getting 3 against BC in the Military Bowl. ECU beat Temple, 45-3 and BC beat Temple, 28-3; MICHIGAN STATE laying the 2.5 against Pitt without former Temple commit Kenny Pickett (opting-out) in the Peach Bowl (hell, freaking WESTERN Michigan beat Pitt with Kenny); UTAH getting 6.5 against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. Utah has been a completely different team since losing to BYU in the Holy War.

Record for the season: 28-25-1. Hopefully, we will hit the 30-win mark by the New Year.

Tomorrow: The Log

Monday: Upgrading the roster

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8 thoughts on “Temple’s Drayton trying to buck history

  1. Where was the announcement that we lost Gabe Infante or is that speculation? Preston Brown still seems to be in the mix. Wonder when the staff is going to take shape.

  2. The loss of Gabe Infante is troubling to this long-time Owl football fan. Agree that Coach Drayton needs to hire “Temple” assistants who have local connections and know what Temple TUFF means! Temple really is a “Philly” school!

  3. from the outside, looking, with no knowledge, still this stinks, it really stinks
    Does these Texas boys have a master plan, I sure hope so.

  4. Well, Drayton is/was a running backs coach. Infante has been TUs running backs coach, is extremely popular and was vying for the HC job – too much competition? So apparently TU couldn’t even demand keeping some guys on staff, altho Carey managed to get rid of the TU guys anyway. I just hope they didn’t give him, as only a position coach, a ridiculous long term contract like they handed Carey. Other than that, we’ll see what he does and more importantly see if it works out, or not. Hoping for the best tho since he at least has worked in some of the best programs.

  5. While understand the Local flavor stuff, lets not fall into the that thinking, when winning programs are not homemade, Saban has been successful with few AL coaches, Kirby, Stoop, Saban OC Bill o’Brien and has Doug former Syracuse coach, had Steve Sarkasian as coaches on his staff, give me competence in making training up players, and recruiting. They can be from Mars, just be able to coach.

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