The only recruiting model Temple really needs

Temple needs it to rain players and should raid for the transfer portal this season and high school players next.

Over the next few days, the dominant topic of discussion in the Philadelphia area will be of two weather models, the GFS and the EMRF.

For those acronym-challenged people, they refer to the Global Forecast System model and the European Mid-Range Forecast.

One, the GFS, is calling for a pretty big snowstorm in the city; the other, the EMRF, is saying only a little snow changing to rain.

Snow-haters like me are rooting for the EMRF to win out in this battle of the computer projections.

In this day and age of college football recruiting, there are two models, too.

Really, that’s the Transfer Portal System (of) Recruiting to take precedence over the High School method that has lasted for a few generations.

Temple fans should root for the TPSR over the traditional HSR model in a recruiting cycle that is set to end in a couple of weeks because there is a lot of talk of “being patient” with new head coach Stan Drayton and that “four wins would be considered progress.”

That notion needs to be disabused right now. Patience, smachience.

The green area the above graphic represents the spots that Temple should target getting every significant portal player inside that geographic circle. If so, the Owls can be a winning team as early as next year.

Only a few Temple fans seem to “get it” and one of them is a friend of mine who posts under the screen name of MH55 on OwlsDaily.com. This was a particularly brilliant post that cut to the heart of the work that Drayton needs to both do and get done over the next two weeks:

MH55’s immediate expectations for Stan Drayton should be the same for every Temple fan.

I used to sit in the general proximity of MH55 on the 50-yard-line lower level. We both attended the game where Temple scored 55 points on Eastern Michigan the day after Thanksgiving. That was my first purchase of Chickie and Pete’s crab fries and, after one or two hot bites, I handed the bucket to MH55, who had acquired a taste for them. I was pretty happy not to throw them in the trash.

What we saw that day was the beginning of a pretty remarkable transformation of Temple football from a 20-game losing streak to college football respectability.

There was no transfer portal that day, so Al Golden had to build Temple football the hard way, finding under-recruited players, slowly building their bodies in the weight room, and patiently waiting to win.

There’s a quick-fix system now, the portal, and there are way too many good Power 5 players in it for the available scholarships. Once these players realize it, Temple becomes a viable option. That’s how Georgia’s 2020 starting quarterback, Dwan Mathis, ended up at Temple.

If Temple wants to win right away, and it should, it will have to hit the portal hard this year and rely on more traditional methods in subsequent years. Temple needs guys ready to play now, not guys they need to build up in the weight room and wait three years for contributions.

It could be the same story Drayton writes by signing day if he’s smart. Temple needs to bring in as many as 15 Power 5 portal transfers, good ones, who will not be satisfied with playing on a team with “just” four wins. It certainly needs more than the six Rod Carey’s staff brought in last season.

Or it could go into the portal pool the same way Carey’s failed staff did, one toe at a time. That wasn’t good enough.

Drayton’s staff needs to be immersed in it and the talent Temple puts on the field will have to be significantly better than the last group Owl fans saw. Temple needs great players now, not three years from now, and the only way to get them is through the transfer portal. As much as I want it to rain instead of snow Monday, that’s how much I want February’s signing day to rain great players at Temple. They aren’t getting immediate impact players out of any high school who hold only offers from Buffalo and FAU.

MH55 gets it. In about two or three weeks, we will find out if Drayton does, too.

Monday: The Tie That Binds

Friday: Johnson’s Next Project

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10 thoughts on “The only recruiting model Temple really needs

  1. Mike, Nice piece here. Drayton seems to be connecting with the Temple program and its Temple Footballs alums. As Paul Palmer evidenced with him at Spencer Prescott’s service. This is reminiscent of Al Golden’s body of work. So that is encouraging. Now, it is on Coach to attack the transfer pool, as well as those under recruited “diamonds” and develop them. If I recall correctly, SMU rebuilt their roster in just one year, a few years back. As a side note,I would love to see our uniforms return to the Temple helmet, and maintain the checked pants. That was a Hardin design to make Temple immediately recognizable on the field and TV. As well as the diamond theme. Al Golden embraced that period of Temple Football and its success. We now have a more recent group of Temple Football alums that have had success to encourage the passion at 10th & Diamond. First order of business, is to re-establish the Temple Tuff moniker, compete, and win. Hopefully, Drayton and his staff are up to the task at hand.

  2. Only problem with raiding the portal as you suggest (and I agree with) is that I believe Ryan Wallen outlined they only have 6 scholarships to give out for 2022. My understanding that number is assuming they sign the 3 kids committed that didn’t sign early. They will really need to hit on the portal if that is all the room they have.

    • Just for clarification sake, how can they only have 6 scholarships available if so many kids have left the program?

      • This is what Ryan Wallen posted on 247 board…

        Expanding off of this, I’ve spent the last few days updating the football scholarship distribution page, which shows the breakdown of where Temple’s scholarships are currently being allocated and who all falls under what class right now. If anyone is interested in viewing it, it can be found here: https://247sports.com/college/temple/Season/2022-Football/ScholarshipDistribution/

        Based on the numbers, the Owls have 76 current scholarship players (if we include the three commits who signed with Temple during the early signing period). The number jumps to 79 assuming the remaining three commits all sign with Temple on NSD, which seems to be very likely. So based on that, Drayton and his staff have 6 scholarships to work with before heading into spring ball. I suspect a few players will leave after spring ball, as always is the case, but that’s what it looks like right now for the Owls.

        In terms of depth the biggest areas of need in my opinion are quarterback, offensive line, defensive end, cornerback, and wide receiver or safety, in that order.

    • Rod Carey, the gift keeps giving…., how in the world can one man screw up recruiting so bad, both during and after his tenure?

      Carey is the result of an interim uni pres and AD. Zero oversight, nobody held him accountable, and nobody took exception to his mismanagement of recruiting/portal/talent acquisition.

      Carey and Drayton will set NCAA records for bad recruiting for different reasons.

      Even UCONN is out-recruiting TUFB.

  3. How many years, what salary is Drayton getting? Sure hope another one doesn’t have to be eaten.

  4. Is a position coach the best 2mil+ can get now-a-days? The hires and the contracts just seem so poor considering there are better choices out there, and from within. Lawyers, BOT, pres and AD, where do they come up with and/or allow these hires – this is the continuity we get? And when we do get a good one occasionally, it’s mostly dumb luck.

    • Back in November I wrote I didn’t know who the university was going to get to replace Carey but the one common denominator for successful head coaches is that they’ve been “here” in some manner. Matt Rhule (Penn State, NYC, played Temple), Al Golden (Penn State, Colts Neck NJ , played Temple) and understood Temple. Drayton has “been here” but never played Temple nor has he the experience recruiting the Mid-Atlantic Region that Rhule or Golden did. Brown fit that bill more than Drayton and maybe Golden didn’t want to do it but all the ex-Temple players wanted Brown and got Drayton. This reminds me of Carey except he imported NIU coaches and Drayton is importing Texas coaches.

      • Find me a defensive staff in the past that had three future Temple coaches on it who participated in a pair of 2-10 seasons who succeeded at Temple. Other than Phil Snow, who had good defensive coaches under him at Temple and not Eastern Michigan, it’s never been done. Temple is trying to do something that’s never been done .. get a bunch of guys who hemorraghed points for two straight years and apply the same philosophy at 10th and Diamond and hope they turn into Bud Carson and Jimmy Johnson.

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