10.20.23
by

TU Needs to Have an honest convo about Drayton

In a perfect world, on private jet somewhere, Lew Katz would have watched Temple lose a 55-0 game on national television to SMU, made a call or two and Stan Drayton would be out as the head coach of his favorite university on Saturday morning.

There are Lew Katz’s all over college football. Temple, unfortunately, no longer has one of those guys. Drew Katz, his son, is on the BOT now but, unlike his dad, cares more about keeping that money in his pocket than making Temple great.

Since jet engines are as imperfect as hiring RB coaches to be head coaches, though, Katz is no longer here and Temple has no one in any position of authority who can make a hard and necessary call right now.

Temple, put it simply, is between a rock and a hard place.

Everyone–including me–loves Stan Drayton The Man.

Football world–including me–pretty much already has mind made up on Stan Drayton the head coach.

We need to have an honest conversation about Drayton today.

Temple University has committed way too much money to a lifetime RB coach and expected him to do a completely different job at a high level. He has not. It looks like he never will. He has three years in his contract for $2.5 million a year and a university with more pressing security issues simply cannot afford to eat the money it would take to replace him.

CBS radio host Zach Gelb and Jacksonville kicker Brandon McManus muse about what happened to a once-great program.

Ask yourself this question: Which university is getting the best ROI? Florida Atlantic, which hired Tom Herman as a first-year coach for $700,000 or Temple, which is paying Drayton $2.5 million in his second season?

Katz certainly could and would write a check for whatever it would take to get someone else in here STAT.

Unfortunately for the Owls, there are no Lew Katz’s around anymore.

Nobody cares might be too big a stretch but the 1,000 or so real fans who sat in the seats at the 70,000-seat Lincoln Financial Field is not enough to move the needle.

The Peter Principle certainly is in effect here.

Drayton was a great RB coach wherever he went. Great RB coaches aren’t always cut out to be great head coaches. Drayton certainly has proved that much in his year and a half here.

Our picks this week. We’re a quarter on our way to a $266 payout for four measley games. Thanks, Stan and Everett. (Rather have Temple win and eat the money but this is getting too easy.)

He knew the Owls needed help on both the offensive and defensive lines and failed to replenish both in the offseason. A good CEO would have brought in a dozen great FCS linemen. He knew he needed a great defensive coordinator to replace D.J. Eliot, who left for the Eagles, and replaced him with a “friend” who was not a qualified person.

I’d rather have a great recruiting SOB signal stealer who wins than a nice guy who loses.

For all of these sins, Drayton deserves to be replaced.

Because Lew Katz is not here, we know he won’t.

Rock, meet hard place.

If Temple choses to drop football in a May BOT meeting instead of continuing to pay an unwise contract going forward, don’t blame Drayton.

Blame Temple for hiring a running back coach for what should have been a primo G5 job.

Monday: Five G5 HCs who are doing a great job

27 thoughts on “TU Needs to Have an honest convo about Drayton”

  1. Hate to say it but if you can’t hold your staff accountable you need to be held accountable. Unfortunately this very good and kind man is out of his depth.

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  2. Who hired Drayton? Who hired the AD? Both should have left with the person who hired them.

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  3. This once proud program has hit rock bottom in just a few short years! Defense has given up 41, 48, 49, 45 and 55 points over the last five games, 55- zip this evening! Our once nationally recognized and respected team is a total embarrassment! I fear for the program. Many of us long time and hard nosed loyal Owl fans may not be around when (if?) this team finally gains back that respect with winning ways. Sad state of affairs!

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  4. And just why is the BOT being so inactive? Why? I mentioned it before and say it again; wouldn’t be surprised if the 3 MILLION dollars being spent on the HC and DC (and another 1/2 mil on the OC?) is being skimmed by BOT members to look the other way. Sound ridiculous? Whats ridiculous is how they are looking the other way while the program is sinking fast, horrible hires for big salaries while other schools pay far less and are successful none-the-less. I say look under the table! Something’s fishy folks. And if you think my suggestion is ridiculous, it isn’t as if things like this don’t ever happen. It just doesn’t make any sense what they’re allowing to happen…..

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  5. I believe that the BOT is just riding a dead horse and will be dropping football at the first available moment. The NIL has destroyed college sports especially football. Our basketball program took a huge hit from the transfer portal and Teme hasn’t been active enough.
    I have reached a point to decide on renewing my season tickets (27 years).
    I will not follow quitters.

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    • Temple’s motto used to be “Greatness Doesn’t Quit.” They dropped that for the absurd Drayton-created phrase: “Chasing Greatness.” Well, Temple under Drayton is that fat kid trying out for the track team who watches has everyone else passes him to the finish line. Chasing Greatness means zero, nada, nothing. Catching Greatness means everything. We need a Marty Stern for our track coach who cuts fat kids.

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  6. I wouldn’t be surprised if the university finally decides to drop the football program after season end. How could they let the program sink to this level after having such successful seasons in 2015 and 2016? It costs $$ to field an FBS program,which is a major issue with this particular program. We pay Jeffrey Lurie big bucks to lease the Linc, a facility that seats just under 70,000. One where the team rarely even comes close to halfway filling. The team does not generate sufficient income with such meager crowds. Then there is the unresolved on campus football facility. It just doesn’t look good at this point. It is what it is unfortunately.

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    • Just had this discussion a few weeks ago with some Temple alumni. Without an on campus stadium it is going to be difficult to recruit at a high level. High School kids are sophisticated these days and know their options. Temple is losing out on players who go to Penn State, Rutgers and Maryland. Not to mention, some top talents who want to start immediately go to the FCS and play with the likes of U. Delaware, Lehigh and Lafayette. Some serious discussions to be had.

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  7. I still don’t understand why you would hire a head coach who was never even a coordinator before. Drayton has essentially been a running backs coach his entire career. Yes, he may have coached some great running backs, but I think it’s pretty telling that he was never really promoted above that position at any of his coaching stops. Also, if we are being honest, running back is pretty much the easiest position to coach. That’s one reason why rookie running backs make more of an impact than most positions in the NFL. That position doesn’t have nearly as many nuances to learn as say quarterback or offensive line.
    I knew we were in trouble when I watched Drayton’s introductory press conference and heard him say, “I’ve always wanted to be a leader of men.” Great leaders don’t talk about being leaders or aspire to be leaders. Great leaders just go out and do it, they let things happen naturally.
    I also don’t understand why we gave Drayton 2.5 million per year. A guy in his position who was dying to be a HC would have taken the job for a million a year. Just because the previous guy made X amount, doesn’t mean you have to pay the new guy X amount. We should fire Drayton and hire the best FCS coach out there with Northeast connections. Even 1 million a year would be a huge pay raise for them, and give them a shot to coach at the FBS level.
    I hate to bash on Stan Drayton because he really does seem like a nice guy and I believe he has good intentions, but it’s obvious that he is not HC material and is definitely not right for TUFB. This program is already on life support, and if Drayton continues on the current trajectory for 3 more years, it might never recover.

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      • It would also be great if the program gave them some incentive to contribute by winning some games. It’s the old Chicken or Egg theory. Plenty of programs are winning with virtually the same NIL that Temple has (zero). Look at Jacksonville State, Charlotte, Georgia State, Marshall, etc. I think a lot of ex-players are fearful that the program will be cut and they will be throwing good money after bad.

  9. There are D3 schools with more NIL opportunities than Temple Athletics. It is unfortunate, but you have to have leaders with money, ambition, enthusiasm and more money to get an NIL collective up and rolling. Temple doesn’t have that and if you disagree, read:
    https://www.inquirer.com/college-sports/temple/temple-collective-athletics-nil-money-owls-basketball-20231004.html?query=Temple%20NIL

    NIL is all that matters. Money is all that matters. NIL money allows schools to work the transfer portal. The guy that runs Temple’s NIL program says “the house is on fire”. If you don’t have an NIL program, you can still have collegiate athletics, just don’t expect to competitively in basketball, football and in today’s messed up world even non revenue sports. Temple has 100k in their NIL Collective, just look at what this lacrosse player from Ohio State earned–it’s lacrosse.
    “Capitalizing on NIL in lacrosse is not new, either. Ohio State lacrosse player Mitchell Pehlke netted $200,000 in NIL earnings in Year 1 of college athletics’ new era.”

    That gives you an idea of the enormity of the challenge. Is it good? I’d say no. It crushes schools that find a diamond in the rough player. That player gets poached and when you are talking about somebody giving a 20 year old 200k and the school he is currently attending offering 5k-its a no brainer.

    Stan Drayton is not the coach to lead this team in the NIL era. Look at Mark Stoops at U of Kentucky (they have a big NIL program), after the UGA game he pleaded with UK fans to send money to the NIL Collectives as he said “Georgia bought some pretty good players”.

    Does anyone think Stan Drayton can get in front of a room of TU alumni and get 250k in NIL money??
    Does anyone think Adam Fisher can get 250K?
    For hoops you should have hired Pitino, he gets NIL $, which gets players, which is getting St Johns attention. I don’t care if you don’t like Pitino, he gets the way NIL has changed college sports.

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  10. Pitino would have been my choice. He would have taken the Temple job over Iona but not the Temple job over St. John’s. In football, only Al Golden has the street cred with this fanbase (and alumni players) to ask for and get money. The Temple HC job is still a better job than the DC at Notre Dame. Maybe not two years from now but certainly now.

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  11. As I said, something is going on. Whether dropping football is in the cards or whatever, Temple has big salary guarantees to pay off. Between millions for coaches and paying Lurie (hell, he should help Temple for NIL money as a tax deduction) etc. there’s no planning going on that leads to even moderate success – none – in fact the opposite is true, spending big bucks while accepting horrible results. I’m at the point that it would be good to drop div 1 status and go down to FCS, playing a local schedule – there’s plenty of schools within a bus drive and throw in some games with Rutgers, PSU, Pitt, etc., but stop wasting so much money. Which gets me back to so much money being spent on unqualified friends for coaches and LINC rent and absurd travel expenses, etc but no plans for an OCS. Again I ask, WHY? Somethings going on.

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    • Since there aren’t even rumblings about firing Withers, it looks like they (BOT) are content to allow Drayton to bring the program down to a level where it would be more palatable to discontinue it. Even if they drop the program, they are still on the hook for the Drayton contract. I think that’s what’s going on. Drayton can save his job by firing Withers and turning over the roster with 70 portal transfers but I don’t think he has the stomach to do either.

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      • What is Drayton’s contract another 3 years after this season at $2.5M per year? Could the BOT be thinking play out the 2024 season, don’t renew the lease for the Linc, not making lease payments after that covers a good prtion of Drayton’s remaining 2 years. Assistants are only on annual deals so the would all be done after 2024. I agree with you Drayton doens’t appear to be the kind of coach that will fire Withers or recruit even half the number you put out there from the portal. While he seems like a much nicer person and has a better relationship with the players than Carey, I’m not seeing anything in his tenure so far that indicates he is any improvement on the field or with recruiting over Carey.

    • I remember bring this up years ago but I was scolded so I just left it alone….FCS might be a good idea at the end of the day. I am not sure what the arrangement is with AAC. CAA would not be bad with Delaware, William and Mary etc….I do not know the business implications though.

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  12. The Culture. The Raiders support the local UNLV football team (it is in their long term interest). In addition to contributing $1M per yr to their NIL collective, they have made an artificial field just for them! The Raiders prefer a grass field, so they have a roll out for grass. When the Raiders found out UNLV prefers turf, they created a turf roll out just for them.

    Wow! Lurie treats Temple as if they were Hamas.

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/stadium/unlv-artificial-turf-installation-begins-at-allegiant-stadium-2036254/

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    • Lurie is an A-hole to Temple. If Temple wants to continue football (and I’m at the point where being in the AAC just to be in Div. 1 isn’t making any sense (and I agree with Anokewal) we should drop down and get a local schedule and drop the absurd deal with the LINC. Play somewhere else, anywhere else, just to spite Lurie (seems like he has a stranglehold on our BOT members – horrible LINC deal and can’t get OCS approval?) and save a bunch of money. So many local possibilities: crosstown rival Nova (a real rival), Penn, Princeton, Cornell, Delaware, William&Mary, Colgate, Lafayette, Lehigh, Navy, Army, Rutgers (a classic rival also). There’s a schedule already, within driving distance. But as I’ve said, the BOT likes to spend/waste money, seemingly on purpose. Why waste millions more just to have an excuse to drop the program – its hurting the whole university. Somethings going on…..

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      • Temple deemphasized football back in the 1950s as far as I know, playing the likes of Hofstra, Susquehanna and Wright State (say what?). 4 or 5,000 was a typical home crowd. Then in the 70s they went back to a “big time” schedule. They actually had a good game in the renewed rivalry with Penn State early in that decade. Owls nearly beat the Nittany Lions at Franklin Field on September 7, 1975 before 57,112 fans, losing by just one point, 26-25. The Wayne Hardin era. I went to that game. But it took a looooong time to return to winning more than losing! To those who suggest the program drop down to FCS level – I say bad idea. Either tough it out in the AAC, or drop the sport.

  13. To Jim Graham: I’ve always liked the idea of being in Div. 1, but even that was watered down by the NCAA by dividing into P5/G5; and now major conferences are being gobbled up too. My feeling is that IF Temple wants to continue with FB dropping down would make sense competitively and economically “with the current way things are being handled” (I agree, Temple has gone thru long stretches of similar incompetence, but that was before NIL and the portal to deal with, all of which makes TU’s specific situation even worse) – but the BOT obviously is wasting scads of money on purpose. Why? we’ll find out. Something sure as hell is going on…

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    • Fair enough. But I will always remember those two magnificent years for Temple football, 2015 (beat Penn State and nearly beat Notre Fame, both before a packed Linc) and 2016, when we won the conference championship. But that was pre Player Transfer Portal (2018) and the NIL (2021). Things then went south soon after that and we ended up in the hopeless situation where we now find ourselves.

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