Don’t know what motivates new Temple football defensive coordinator Everett Withers but do know one thing:

He was a competitive enough guy to have made it all the way to the NFL as a player so when someone tells him he can’t do something or they are not confident in him doing something, the competitive juices usually flow the other way.

That was Withers the player, though.

If Withers, 59, the coach is the same way, Temple should be in good shape.

The website Wager Talk is not a big fan of Withers. Nor am I.

My concerns about him are well-documented in this space and have been since he was hired by Stan Drayton to take charge of 1/3d of the team in March.

One, in his last sole role as defensive coordinator–not all that long ago in 2021 for FIU–his defense hemorrhaged points like a motorcycle rider does blood falling off his bike at 60 mph without a helmet.

Two, he was sole DC at Austin Peay (1989), Louisville (1995-97), Minnesota (2007), North Carolina (2008-10), and FIU (2021) and doesn’t have a great record in any of those places.

With UNC in 2008, his teams gave up double-digit points in every single game with the exception of a 28-7 win over Georgia Tech. In 2009, the Tar Heels’ best defensive effort was a 19-6 win over Duke (every other FBS game giving up double digits) and in 2010 they did not hold a single team to 10 points or less.

In fact, you have to go back all the way to 1995 when Withers shut out an FBS team.

College football offenses have changed a lot since 1995.

Just as an example, Chuck Heater–who is without a job right now–shut out FBS teams in consecutive weeks for the 2011 Temple team. That was 16 years after Withers shut anyone out and more than a decade ago.

To say it’s a concern for this Temple fan is an understatement. However, it’s not a concern for head football coach Stan Drayton so if the Owls give up 30 or more against Akron, it should be on the CEO, not the DC, to step in and fix things. Withers is Drayton’s buddy and evidently Drayton’s comfort factor with Withers outweighed any thought about hiring a DC with a better track record.

Akron head coach Joe Moorhead has proven he can put points on the board with lesser talent than Temple before (Fordham, 31 points, 2013) so that should set off all kinds of alarms inside the Edberg-Olson Football Complex.

Withers would have to be living in a bubble right now if he’s not aware of criticism over his record stopping modern college football offenses.

If I’m him, I’m in the E-O until midnight studying every single damn play Akron ran in scoring 28, 44 and 22 points in its last three games of 2022 and devising a plan to stop the 10 most successful ones. I’d be hitting that rewind button a million times and taking notes and delivering them to Jordan Magee and Layton Jordan and company next week. In practice, I’m making sure those guys know what’s coming and are ready for it. I’d make sure they are in the right spots and, if they are not, I’ll be asking the scout team to rerun the play until the defense gets it right.

Somebody saying you can’t do something should be a motivating factor to prove them wrong. We will find out if that applies to Everett Withers in a week and a day.

Monday: Game Week