12.15.23
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One headline we won’t be seeing about Temple football on Tuesday

All over college football on the early signing day, the headlines are going to be this team or that team had a terrific signing day.

This is the headline I’d like to see.

There is this team. There is that team.

And there is Temple.

“Temple has done a good job at filling needs so far in the transfer portal.” (We’ve already seen that about Georgia Tech, see above.)

We won’t be seeing that about the Temple football Owls. Maybe Pradva, a site run by a paid employee of Temple University, might have the balls to do it.

This is the TYPE of guy Temple needs badly.

We won’t unless we get the Albany quarterback, the Holy Cross quarterback or the Texas backup.

Without getting into names and there is no use doing that until the signatures are on the dotted lines, what would a great signing day for Temple look like?

Sign someone who is either an accomplished FBS starting quarterback or an accomplished backup, or a starter who put up BETTER numbers than E.J. Warner did at that position. Don’t as in DO NOT give me anyone who had as many interceptions as TD passes. (“Our EJ”–Drayton’s words three weeks ago–had 23 and 14, let that be the benchmark for the next QB.) Better yet, get me Albany starter Reece Poffenbarger or Holy Cross starter Matthew Sluka, two guys who are objectively significantly better than “our E.J.”

That’s priority No. 1.

The idea here is to get better and if Temple’s signing day on Tuesday looks a lot like the one it did a year ago, the Owls won’t be getting better any time soon.

Last year, if you’ll recall, the No. 1 priority in this space was to fix the running game by getting me a big-time back with big-time numbers. There was a Ball State running back available (Carson Steele, he went to UCLA), a kid from Western Michigan available (1,000-yard back Sean Ryan, who went to Minnesota), and a Liberty kid (Dae Dae Hunter) who entered the portal and never found a home. All had approximately twice the 2022 FBS yards as Temple starter Edward Saydee.

What did Temple do?

Sign a player, E.J. Wilson, who had half of Saydee’s yards at FIU. The reason was that he had a prior relationship with a Temple RB coach.

Weak sauce.

Great city, great school, once ESPN Game Day program, should be an easy place to bring big-time recruits to and not just guys who had prior relationships with current Temple assistant coaches.

I’m not real good at math but that’s how you get twice as worse and not twice as better.

The numbers pretty much reflected that in Temple’s brutal 2023 season. Wilson made no impact for Temple.

None.

This Tuesday, the bottom line is also the numbers.

If the Owls can bring in a FCS starting quarterback with better numbers than E.J. Warner, they are going to get better. If they bring in a FCS starter with single digit TD passes and more interceptions, they are going to get worse. There are quarterbacks from Holy Cross and Albany who can do WAY BETTER than that but, so far, there is no indication Temple is recruiting either of them.

If they don’t, they will be flirting with a one- or two-win season in 2024 and head coach Stan Drayton will be saying goodbye to his short head coaching career.

Speaking of Drayton, one of the stated reasons that Temple brought him here was that he was a terrific recruiter at places like Texas and Ohio State.

He has not been that here.

Since Maalik Murphy, the backup at Texas, was recruited when Drayton and athletic director Arthur Johnson were at Texas, you would think those two would do Temple a solid by bringing him to Philadelphia. If his relationship with those two and a definite starting job with the Owls isn’t enough, what are we paying those guys $4 million for?

You would think that but that’s probably not going to happen.

My prediction is that a lot of guys will be signed who had prior relationships with Temple football assistant coaches and not necessarily guys who put up impressive numbers in their prior spots. Watch the relationship and watch the numbers those transfers put up at their prior places.

If the numbers aren’t good and the relationships are, put two and two together, minus two more and you will get the record of the 2024 Temple Owls.

If, on the other hand, some big-time running back and a big-time quarterback who have NO relationship with the current Temple coaches get here, put two and two together and add two and you have a bowl contender.

Don’t hold your breath for that second scenario, though.

Monday: Holding My Breath

16 thoughts on “One headline we won’t be seeing about Temple football on Tuesday”

  1. Seems as if Drayton is as hard headed as Carey. Temple just named a new faculty athletics representative (FAR) who, as part of the duties, “advises” the AD (and works directly with the university president). If this newly appointed person has any gumption, she will be advising our AD to DO SOMETHING!!!! about the abysmal football decision making (or lack thereof).

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  2. Unless that person has a knowledge of football, it’s another useless hire. Since Al Golden and Matt Rhule left town, Temple has specialized in that department. One thing we have learned is listening to the players about who to hire is important. They wanted Matt Rhule and the uni gave him to them. They wanted Phil Snow and the uni patted them on the head and said, “thanks for the suggestion but we got this.” They screamed the loudest for Fran Brown and the uni said “let’s bring in the Mayor of Miami’s son.” Now Fran Brown is bringing all kinds of five-star talent to a gosh-forsaken place like Syracuse. Brown loved Temple more than any other place at one time and he would have continued the Rhule legacy here.

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  3. just signed rutgers backup

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    • To me, you don’t get better when you lose the best quarterback in the Temple vs. Rutgers game of 2022 and pick up the second-best quarterback of that same game. Would have loved to see Temple go hard after a lot of other guys who actually put up great numbers in FBS and FCS football and are STILL in the portal.

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    • Biggest red flag with Drayton so far has been his recruiting. Not disparaging any of the players who have signed on and hope for their success here. There seems to be no real plan here, last season should have been heavy on the portal to beef up both lines and RB. Drayton never seems to “swing for the fences” with his recruiting approach. I feel you can win 6 games in the current AAC on talent alone. TUFB right now is certainly not going to win any out coaching the opposition. That is the big difference with all the Fran Brown talk, he is creating a buzz with his recruiting. He may turn out to be no better with the Xs and Os than Drayton but he seems to at least building up a level of talent that can keep a team competitive

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      • Correct. LAST year was the year to bring in accomplished FCS linemen (not JUCOs and high school guys) to plug the needs and THIS year was the year to supplement with skill players. We brought in one guy who really helped us (Dante Wright) and a lot of guys who hurt us (I’m looking at that Purdue kicker who set the national record for number of kickoffs out of bounds as well as a few other guys). We’re so far behind the eight ball I don’t see how Drayton gets out of this self-inflicted mess.

    • Meanwhile, Ohio (not State) is getting it done with the same amount of NIL money Temple has (zero) and better coaches. Davis Brin, our old QB friend from Tulsa (who beat Temple in 2022), is getting absolutely manhandled by the Bobcats’ defense. The freshman first-time QB Ohio is running out there (Navarro) looks like Johnny Unitas compared to the suspects we ran out there at the same position against North Texas and SMU.

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  5. From todays Lancaster News…..

    COLLEGE FOOTBALL
    Simon to transfer to Temple
    Manheim Central product, a backup for Rutgers, appeared in just 1 game this season
    MIKE GROSS
    MGROSS@LNPNEWS.COM
    Former Rutgers quarterback Evan Simon, a Manheim Central High School graduate, has announced he is transferring to Temple.
    The decision was first reported by OwlsDaily.com, Temple’s affiliate in the 24/7 Sports network.
    The 6-foot-3, 205-pound signal-caller has two years of eligibility remaining. In three college seasons, he has completed 97 of 168 passes for 952 yards and five touchdowns in 16 games.
    Just one of those games came this season, as Rutgers settled on sophomore Gavin Wimsatt as its QB of the present and near-future. In Simon’s lone 2023 appearance, he completed 2 of 3 throws for 30 yards and a TD in a 24-13 loss Oct. 7 at Wisconsin.
    Simon entered that game when Wimsatt was injured.
    “Evan doesn’t sweat anything,’’ Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said afterward. “That’s one thing he’s got going, he’s a cool customer. And I thought it was great that the first play in there (offensive coordinator) Kirk (Ciarrocca) throws the ball, calls a pass, that shows how much we believe in him.
    “He’s done a great job of just preparing as if he’s a starter. And sure enough, when the opportunity came, he made the most of it.”
    In high school, Simon was an all-state player and led Central to the District Three Class 5A title and state championship game in 2018. He threw for 8,078 yards during his Baron career, which still stands as the second most in Lancaster-Lebanon League history.
    Simon’s first college start was against Temple, a 16-14 Rutgers win in week three of the 2022 season.
    “Simon is a guy who manages the pass game really well, throws with good accuracy, but also when it’s time for him to use his feet, he’s very effective,” Temple head coach Stan Drayton said before that game.
    Temple’s starting QB this season, E.J. Warner, entered the transfer portal Nov. 28. The Owls went 3-9 in 2023.

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    • Basically, I see this as him waving the white flag. He probably thinks there isn’t a way to fight this transfer portal and NIL system but there is. Just pick up a phone and call guys like Jerry Kill (New Mexico State) and Rich Rodriguez (Jacksonsville State) and TIm Albin (Ohio) and ask them how they are doing it with no NIL money. All are getting paid 1/4th of what Drayton is and producing 10x better. To quote Bluto in Animal House: “Was it over when the Germans (sic) bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no.” (Stan is the guy sitting on the couch.)

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      • It seems like Drayton is in collect the paycheck mode and then hook up with a P5 program as RB coach. Not dumping Withers tells me he is not looking to make corrections. There were enough returning starters on the 2023 defense even with the loss of Varner that it shouldn’t have been as bad as we saw. Layton Jordan was banished to the bench, Jalen McMurray showed flashes of pro potential in 2022 and seemed to regress this year.

      • McMurray looked like Darius Slay in his prime last year and looked like the 10-year-older version this year. Layton Jordan was making plays in the backfield last year, forcing fumbles and scoring and this year he was told to lay off 5 yards deep in pass coverage. Same players. Different system. If Stan can’t see that, he doesn’t deserve to be a head coach.

  7. Just saw McChord is signing with Syracuse. Seems Brown is living up to his reputation as a great recruiter. Stan seems content with bringing in back ups and JUCOs, no knock on the kids but I think this just shows how bad TUFB is. I’m no Brown fanboy like a lot of folks over on OwlsDaily seem to be but that’s because I really haven’t followed him. Just don’t get what Drayton offered over him, outside of relationship with the AD. Brown genuinely seemed to want the TUFB HC job. So far this off season not seeing much to expect a record better than 3-9 in 2024, especially if Withers is still DC in the spring. My question is when a new TU president comes on board do they clean house dumping Johnson and Drayton or do they just let TUFB die on the vine and ultimately stop the financial bleeding. Thinking Drayton may be one bad hire too many.

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    • I’m thinking your last sentence will come to fruition sooner than later. This is what then President David Adamany wanted to happen after Bobby Wallace brought in roughly the same number of JUCOs in the 2004 recruiting class. He may get his wish now. It’s going to be the BOT, not the next President.

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