Evolution is a pretty good teacher only to students eager to learn.

College football has evolved.

In 10 months, we will find out if Temple’s coaching staff has learned anything from Darwin’s New Football Theory.

The No. 1 lesson should be that to succeed as a G5 college football program the answer is to forget the old model. The “old model” was recruit high school guys, redshirt them for a year, have them back up for another year and finally start around the third.

That doesn’t work anymore.

The first G5 coaching staffs to learn that lesson will survive. The others will become extinct.

If your true freshman starts, you are lucky to have him for one more year. If your true freshman becomes a sophomore and draws attention, he’s gone before he gets to the third year.

Do Temple coaches either a) realize that fact or b) have a plan to counter it?

Quite frankly, early indications are that they have not but it’s never too late.

All we’ve heard so far is that the Owls signed a couple of JUCOs and are in the process of recruiting a third-team linebacker from North Carolina State.

Not good enough.

The model the Owls have to follow is the one that made teams like Liberty, Troy and New Mexico State national stories this season.

Neither Liberty, New Mexico State nor Troy–all teams with similar or worse NIL resources as Temple–put together double-digit win seasons by grabbing third-team P5ers or JUCOs, which seems to be Temple’s approach. They put together very good G5 teams by ignoring the high school and the JUCO route and going straight to FCS football, which is a significantly higher level than both. They grabbed top players from very good FCS programs and those players had enough of a chip on their shoulders to thrive at a tick higher level.

If Temple head coach Stan Drayton was smart, he’d make a special trip to the Temple vs. Albany basketball game on Sunday night and grab both their quarterback and defensive ends, three guys who are better than anyone the Owls had this season. Albany beat Villanova, 31-10, this season and there is no bigger Temple lover and Villanova hater than me but even I have to take the Cherry and White-colored glasses off and admit Villanova would have destroyed Temple this year given the roster and coaching makeup of both teams.

The Great Danes are led by QB Reese Poffenbarger, who threw for a pair of TDs and ran for two scores in a win over Richmond. Poffenbarger leads the FCS with 33 passing TDs and ranks seventh with 3,030 yards passing on the season. He’s a big reason why Albany averages 30.5 points per game this year. Albany’s defensive pressure has also helped produce an FCS-best 27 turnovers. What did Temple do worse than any other FBS team this year? Get turnovers. On defense, edge linemen Anton Juncaj and AJ Simon have combined for 26.5 sacks this year. The Great Danes lead all FCS teams with 47 sacks and they only give up 16.8 points per game.

Having all three be the same kind of package deal both P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas were out of Elizabeth High would be a recruiting home run for Temple.

Would Poffenbarger be an upgrade over E.J. Warner?

Most definitely.

Would he come to Temple?

Way more likely than, say, Ohio State’s Kyle McCord, who would probably give Temple a hometown discount.

Poffenbarger’s edge rushing teammates on the other side of the ball also could make an immediate impact on a Temple team starving for turnovers.

Getting guys who destroyed a team that would destroy Temple moves the Owls up the food chain by quite a bit.

Also, the Owls got Diwan Black from Florida last year and Florida has a number of highly rated recruits in the portal now. Use that resource of Black to develop a pipeline to Temple. Have Diwan recruit those guys. Diwan was a backup at Florida. He didn’t need a big NIL deal to sign at Temple.

It only figures that if Temple has Florida talent it has a better chance against Oklahoma on Aug. 31 than it does by wasting precious scholarships on JUCOs and high school talent.

Everybody says there is no shot a quarterback like McCord comes to Temple but McCord’s dad is loaded the family doesn’t need a big NIL deal. Would it hurt to reach out? No. Temple should at least TRY to upgrade from E.J. Warner’s departure. At least give the McCords a call. I’d grab the Albany quarterback first. If not him, then go after the Toledo quarterback or the Holy Cross quarterback.

Right now, by signing JUCOs and third-string NC State guys, it looks like they are mailing it in and, if that’s so, they are sealing their own severance paychecks.

Although we don’t know everything going on behind the scenes, the Owls need to aim for some P5 players who can make an impact or proven FCS guys.

Forget the high school and JUCOs. There is no time to gamble and Temple needs to reach for the stars. They don’t need to grab 25 but at least a dozen accomplished players would upgrade a roster that needs significant upgrading.

Monday: The Single Bullet Theory