10.07.23
by

Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Defenses

After Saturday’s Homecoming 49-34 loss to UTSA, the math just doesn’t add up for Temple.

With six games left, the football Owls have to win four games just to become bowl eligible. That doesn’t look likely. Hell, Stan Drayton’s stated dream of “winning championships” at the school will have to wait another year.

Or two unless he hits the portal as hard as he should.

Or maybe never with this guy in charge of his defense.

You could make a strong argument that the math didn’t add up all the way back on St. Patrick’s Day when Drayton handed the keys of his defense to long-time friend, Everett Withers, after D.J. Eliot left the same DC position to become a linebackers’ coach with the Eagles.

If Drayton learned anything this season, friends don’t let friends drive defenses.

Were there more qualified people available?

Sure.

The last time a head coach handed the keys to his defense over to Withers was not all that long ago in 2021 and Withers got the head coach, Butch Davis, fired at FIU. Of the 130 FBS teams that year, FIU finished 128th in total defense, giving up just over 496 yards and 39.7 points per game. That’s hard to do on purpose, let alone ostensibly trying to tackle people.

That’s not the kind of resume you take into a job interview.

Yet Drayton probably didn’t vet Withers because he knew the guy and liked him.

When I was sports editor of two daily newspapers, I never hired a guy because I liked or knew him before. I would sort through the resumes and find the best guy for the job. When I was 24, I was given the responsibility of hiring someone for an assistant editor’s position.

Nobody worked out. They were either too slow or too sloppy or too unreliable. That is, until an experienced guy walked in and killed the tryout. Wrote the best headlines, made the best edits, laid out the best-looking pages.

“This is the guy I want to hire,” I told my Editor-In-Chief.

“But he’s 50,” my editor said. “Are you sure?”

“Fifty isn’t old,” I said.

“You’re getting a raise,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because I’m 50.”

Editor was true to his word with the raise and he let me hire the guy, who turned out to be one of the best hires I ever made. I didn’t become his friend until after the hire.

Withers is 60 but he could be 30 and still wouldn’t have been the best person for the job. In his last season at FIU, he allowed 54 to Texas Tech, 31 to Central Michigan, 58 to FAU, 45 to Charlotte, 34 to Western Kentucky, 38 to Marshall, 47 to Old Dominion, 50 to MTSU and 49 to North Texas.

Most not FBS powerhouses but he made them look that way.

I’d rather have a 90-year-old guy who knows how to stop a modern offense than a 60-year-old who appears to be in over his head.

So far at Temple, against FBS opposition, he’s given up 21 points to Akron, 36 to Rutgers, 41 to Miami, 48 to Tulsa and now 49 points to a 2-3 UTSA team.

He has Temple on par to break the dismal record of the 2021 FIU defense.

That’s a shame because an offense that scored 26 points against Tulsa and 34 points against UTSA has done enough to win. E.J. Warner woke from his season-long slumber and became the E.J. we knew and loved at the end of last year. He and the offense deserved better. The defense once again didn’t hold up its end of the bargain.

Sometimes you have to take the keys from your friend and tell him he can’t drive anymore. If Stan doesn’t do that to Everett, he’s staring at another 3-9 season.

That’s only if there’s at least one team out there Temple can win a shootout against.

Monday: Post-mortem

11 thoughts on “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Defenses”

  1. Mike, you always said its up to the “CEO” of the FB program to make decisions and act. So whens our CEO gonna do his job? BTW, UTSA came into the game 1-3 so no excuses. Can’t Drayton see past friendship and, as you also said, take over the D? Everything with Temple football just becomes more ridiculous every week…..

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  2. At this point, the Owls have secured their berth in the Tie D Bowl

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  3. What I noticed watching this game in-person, is that despite giving up touchdown after touchdown, I never saw the defense get together on the sideline and try to rally the troops. In past years after giving up points, you’d see the guys huddle together and hear Shaun Bradley or Sam Franklin, or one of the other fiery defensive leaders scream at the guys to tighten up and get their act together on the next series. Sometimes it might even be an assistant coach who comes over and tries to rally the troops. I have not seen that once this year. This team continues to give up points at an alarming rate, and nobody seems to care. They just trot back over to the sideline and sit on the bench until it’s time to go back out on the field again. I haven’t seen anyone yell, throw a helmet, etc. The same can be said for the offense. This team has no fire in it’s belly whatsoever. They say that a team takes on the persona of it’s head coach. If so, someone needs to check Drayton for a pulse. I haven’t seen him chew anyone out in 2 years. It’s as if he’s teaching this team that losing is perfectly acceptable.

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  4. Sure, the Defensive Coordinator is horrible but it’s looking more and more like Stan Drayton (no head coaching experience) was another Temple Football bad hire.

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    • The GT coach demoted Andrew Thacker after giving up 38-straight points to Bowling Green. That’s the kind of gonads that a great CEO should have. In about 24 hours, we will find out if Stan is a great CEO or is content to quietly collect his paycheck from Temple.

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      • Sure seems like “collecting paychecks” is certainly part of it if not all of it. Gotta say tho, UTSA sure has some monster linemen, hard for our D-linemen to handle – and vice-versa our O-linemen are not protecting EJ, who had a great day. But all in all Withers has got to go or be demoted – the biggest check collector of all. But you’re right Mike, Drayton has to make a decision or it really is friends are more important than winning. We certainly could have won that game.

  5. Hi Mike, you must be Clairvoyant like me now! It seems like it’s going to be another rough year for us Loving Fans of Temple Football.

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    • Not happy at all. This was supposed to be a much better year. Evidence indicates otherwise on defense. Held RU to 16 points last year (really nine not counting the pick 6). This year 36. Held Tulsa to 29 last year. This year 48. We have nine returning starters on defense so this is a horrible look.

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  6. How about the ultimate Croney move with A Johnson hiring his Texas Buddy for our Temple Team, Mr Stran Drayton with about 0, Zero, Nada, real coaching experience beyond a position , never for a team or even O or D co-ordinator in the past 10-15 years.
    Yet that is the real reason for this all new, yet familiar mess we have. Reminds me of Dickerson and Bobby W, era’s of the past.

    Mike, as usual you were correct to be concerned about unproven, untested, experienced lacking hires for HC here.

    I would have preferred a top notch local High School coaching staff with several regional and state titles to their names.

    An example would be from Millville NJ, where that previous coach , ‘Dennis’, is now on the staff of Rutgers I think. He and his group led Millville HS to State Titles and prior lead small school Salem NJ to titles. That is a winner.
    Like that HS coach that slipped away from Temple a few years ago, with a proven record in the Philly Area for his HS experience.

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