06.05.23
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Toughest Temple coaching job ever? Probably

Jon Gruden on AG’s TU teams: “The Temple Owls play as hard as any team in the country.”

Imagine being a plumber who was an apprentice to the best in the business and the guys he worked for raved about him and said he should have his own company.

Then say someone gave him that job and then a couple of years later took his wrench, plunger, and snake away and told him to do the best job he could with his hands.

That’s kind of what Stan Drayton is facing today as head football coach at Temple.

Doubt when he took the Temple job that Drayton realized the Owls would have to battle the NIL and transfer portal.

The job he took two years ago was harder than the job Rod Carey took or the one Geoff Collins took. Neither of those guys had to face the NIL or the transfer portal on the level Drayton had to face.

In fact, the debate worth having is who had the tougher job?

Al Golden or Drayton.

A valid case can be made that Golden’s was tougher. Thanks to the eight years of Bobby Wallace, Golden took a team headed for a 20-game losing streak and a woeful APR that robbed the Owls of almost as many scholarships as the Penn State scandal hurt the Nittany Lions.

Golden kicked out all of the poor students–some of them happened to be very good players–and then slowly built a house of brick, not staw (his words).

By the time he left in 2010, the Owls had beat a Fiesta Bowl team (UConn) and Golden’s nine-game winning streak was the second-longest in Temple history (only to Wayne Hardin’s 14-game winning streak between 1974 and 1975). His appearance in the 2009 Eagle Bank Bowl was Temple’s first bowl game in 30 years.

Yet how would have Golden done had he had to battle a roster full of JUCOs and a system that allowed other teams to poach his best players?

Not well, I’d guess.

Would Muhammad Wilkerson, for example, be a first-round pick for Temple under Golden or would he have transferred to another school?

We all hope that Mo would have stayed, but that’s just wishful thinking.

While the case can be made that Golden’s job was tougher, Drayton has fewer tools in his box than Golden did 15 years ago and he’s going to have do get his hands much dirtier than Golden ever did.

Can Drayton beat a BCS bowl team and rip off a nine-game winning streak? Probably not but an AAC title still remains a realistic goal and, should he do it, probably deserves the same spot in the Temple Sports Hall of Fame that Golden occupies now.

Friday: The One Big-Time Foe the Owls turned down

Monday: Rating The Hires

7 thoughts on “Toughest Temple coaching job ever? Probably”

  1. Different eras, but the same challenge faced Al and Stan – resurrect a dormant program.

    Carey evaporated 15 years of progress in a short time. That gave Stan one of the toughest challenges in all of CFB. People still may not understand how much of the roster was at portal risk when he was hired.

    He has done good work in laying a foundation and there is reason to expect more success as each year comes.

    Reply

  2. Off-topic, but best way for most eyes to see. Maybe persuade this alum to support the program?

    A new limited partner is joining the Phillies ownership group
    A change is coming to the Phillies’ ownership group. Stanley C. Middleman, a Philadelphia native and Temple University graduate who founded a mortgage bank in New Jersey, agreed last week to buy one-third of the Buck family’s interest in the team, Phillies managing partner John Middleton announced Tuesday. The deal, which is expected to be finalized next month, is also pending approvals from Major League Baseball.

    Reply

    • If he was an at-will employee, termination is very easy. If he was under contract, not nearly as easy, and you could end up doubling or tripling the cost of the contract if you don’t handle correctly.

      I would think he was under contract as that his how pretty much all of D1 CFB operates.

      Reply

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