What we once had at Temple: Fairness

A couple of years before Steve Conjar committed, Wayne Hardin put Temple football on the map.

Honestly, what Stan Drayton might see as light at the end of the tunnel some of us (raising my hand here) see an oncoming train.

Give Drayton at least some credit here.

Pretty sure the Temple job he signed up for nearly three years ago is not the same as it was back then. Hell, in three years it might be worse. Yes, there was a transfer portal back then but NIL didn’t exist and neither did tampering.

At one time none of that existed.

A story on one of the two greatest linebackers in Temple history appeared recently on social media and it was a reminder of both simpler and fairer times.

Emphasis on fairer.

Steve Conjar in my opinion was a better linebacker than Tyler Matakevich because it took him three years to compile pretty much the same number of tackles Matakevich amassed in four full years.

Loved them both because they loved Temple back.

In that story, Conjar explained that “bigger-time” schools backed off from him because of a high school injury but Temple was the one school that remained loyal and that’s why he remained loyal to Temple.

Now, nobody shows loyalty to Temple anymore with the number of great Temple players who have entered the portal.

Temple was one of only a few (and the biggest-name school) to recruit quarterback E.J. Warner. Instead of showing gratitude to Temple by honoring his commitment, Warner bolted for another school in the same conference.

Really, nobody shows loyalty to anyone anymore because even Alabama lost 12 players to the portal this week.

The two greatest linebackers in Temple history meet up post-game.

That can be a good thing because nobody in any power structure cares if the Temples of the world are getting screwed in college football but start screwing the Bamas and the Georgias and watch change come from the top down.

Change will never happen from the bottom up but there is hope from the top down.

All we have now is memories of what Temple did against other schools with bigger names when the playing field was level.

Now it’s tilted in a 180-degree direction with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Until the system backfires on the rich, nothing will change.

At least we had the Steve Conjar and Tyler Matakevich Eras.

Monday: Apples to Apples

11 thoughts on “What we once had at Temple: Fairness

  1. I have said over and over that the college football landscape has changed, and changed in a bad way. You are right, there no longer is commitment to a school and its football program. It’s mostly about moi! My wellbeing is what’s important here. It is particularly harmful to programs such as Temple. That is so very obvious. The player transfer portal and the NIL have transformed college football from an amateur sport to a professional entity. Terrible move by the NCAA! Don’t know if Temple football will ever get back to winning most games such as in those unforgettable 2015/16 seasons. It’s a mess right now. Hopefully things will eventually change for the better.

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    • actually, professional football is much fairer. The NFL has a draft to lift up the less fortunate teams and players can’t declare free agency before their contracts are up. Until these four-year scholarships are binding contracts (with certain limitations like coaches leaving) like the NFL, watch the fans stop watching and paying to attend college football in droves.

  2. I would also like to see the graduation rate of players who make multiple transfers in a 3 to 4 year time span. One of the arguments that is made in defense of the transfer portal is that non “student athletes” can basically transfer at will. That being the case not all credits are transferable to a new school, so is that another part of the current transfer portal madness, if you are a football or basketball players all credits are accepted at the new school to keep the pipeline working. I agree players should be allowed to transfer if coaches are leaving or in the case of guys like Saydee and Stoffel, they spent 3-4 years at TU and are using a grad transfer. Where I really get pissed is with players like Varner and Warner, whose situations I don’t feel the portal was designed for.

  3. Gentlemen the system will not change in our lifetimes. It’s not magic that teams like JMU, Delaware, Jacksonville St, etc., have moved/will move up and be successful. If they can find a way in the current system to be successful then we should not lament the system.

    Play the cards you are dealt or leave the table. What has TU accomplished given countless numbers of opportunities? You can’t blame poor decisions, lack of leadership/vision on the system.

    TU should have capitalized on the MR years and built an on campus stadium. Perhaps a dude like Elko would have taken the job and we would be in the P5 right now. Look at what UCF and Cincy have done. Watch what USF and UTSA will do. Remember when Rutgers, Maryland, and BC were our football peers? What did they do that we didn’t do?

    Humans adapt to the environment and overcome. TU Athletics has become the home of the inhumane society. The current AD is the Head Curator. And, he enjoys not having a boss.

    • Agree. Temple should improvise and adjust. The Maryland QB entered the portal. There are a lot of really good players in the portal that THINK they are going to get great NIL deals and then find out those deals aren’t on the table at this late date. This is the TYPE of guy who Temple should swoop in on and grab. Temple needs a Howie Roseman of the portal. Instead, they are stuck on this 1980s JUCO mentality. Fran Brown went out and grabbed Kyle McCord. I guarantee you McCord didn’t get the $1.5 million from Cuse Nebraska offered him. He wants to play. His dad is freaking loaded. Temple could have offered him the same opportunity.

    • I’m beginning to believe Drayton isn’t going to go after anyone in the portal where he has to work against a P5 team. Just seems to go for the easiest players he can sign. This isn’t a knock against those who commit to TU, they want to be here, but rather Drayton doesn’t really seem to have a real feel for recruiting. I actually think he is worse on this front or at least no better than Carey. Was going over the transfer portal today and 61 players have left TUFB via the portal under Drayton’s watch. Just hope for 2025 if this program is still alive a real search for a new HC is carried out, kind of doubt it though

      • Gee, wouldn’t be surprised if Temple resigned Drayton with a bigger contract – would be typical with all the dumb-ass decisions that Temple allows to consistently take place. So many bad decisions that are beyond head-scratching or downright belief.

      • The buddy system would truly be in effect if Arthur gave budster Stan an extension after another 3-9 next season. Looking at the current roster and the signings, I think 0-12 is more likely than 3-9. Sign a combo of disaffected P5 players and FCS stars and Temple has a winning season next year. Instead, we load up on questionable JUCOS. At this stage, Drayton doesn’t get it.

  4. Mike, I think what Drayton gets is that the TU job is his big pay day and with the current university administration in flux riding this for as long as he can before moving back to a P5 RB coach role. What is really sad to me is the number of TUFB fans who keep saying he needs 3-4 years when year 2 was worse than year 1 for Drayton. No excuses for 2024 it now the team he put together but I doubt Johnson does anything until their is a new president

    • Oh he’ll be riding out his contract all right – Temple can’t afford 2 big buyouts in a row (altho with all the fool-hearty money decisions we’ve seen I guess its possible). I doubt there’s another school in all of America that does so many questionable things as Temple has been doing in football. Which is why I keep saying there has to be something going on behind the scenes none of us are aware of.

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