Temple football: Too much hesitation

The playwright Joseph Addison first penned the phrase: “He who hesitates is lost.”

That wasn’t last year or two years ago but way back in 1713 in his play “Cato.”

True then. True today.

If Temple football has done anything over the last two years, it’s a lot of hesitation followed by a lot of losing.

The Owls needed a running back last season, didn’t get one worth a damn in the portal (although Liberty’s 1,000-yard back, Dae Dae Hunter, slipped through the cracks and ended up nowhere) and repeated their 130th-ranked running game in the 2023 season by going with the same backs that produced those same numbers.

It only figures that a 1,000-yard back would make your running game twice as good.

Apples to apples.

Albany quarterback Reece Poffenbarger has been in the portal since Dec. 13. That’s almost a month. This is the type of guy Temple should have swooped in on and shown love to no later than, say, Dec. 14th.

Temple needs to replace E.J. Warner and his 23 touchdown passes and Poffenbarger would bring 36 touchdown passes from this year to next year’s table.

Not very many names left in the portal, but Temple can offer an immediate starting job four upgrades from E.J. Warner and should.

That’s how you get better.

Touchdown passes are some pretty nice apples.

Instead, there is no indication that Temple went after either one of those guys and there has been a lot of hesitation and that’s a recipe for a lot of losing to follow.

Poffenbarger had not been linked to any school before last week when Miami swooped in and is pursuing him after getting turned down by Cam Ward, Kyle McCord and other P5 transfers. At Miami, Poffenbarger would have to compete with one 4* and two 3* QBs.

At Temple, all he would have to do is beat the Rutgers’ backup.

Had Stan Drayton come and and used the last 27 days to get Poffenbarger’s name on the dotted line instead of hesitating we might have our upgrade.

A couple of weeks ago we floated the idea in this space that Arthur Johnson bringing in Geoff Collins to be DC and “head coach in waiting” to upgrade the worst defense in all of college football and, instead of jumping on that idea, Temple appears to be set to go with the same DC in 2024 who produced putrid numbers in 2023, Everett Withers.

There is also an apples-to-apples comparison between those two.

Both of those guys had a one-year stint at the same place, Florida International. In Withers’ year as DC at FIU (2021), the Panthers gave up 39 points a game. That year the “lowest” point total Withers’ defense gave up to a FBS squad was 31 points in a loss at Central Michigan.

Collins is not only the best DC in FIU history (and Withers the worst), but he knows his way around the Edberg-Olson Complex. Happy Birthday to Nadia Harvin, by the way.

In Collins’ year as a DC at the same school (2010), the Panthers gave up 27.3 points per game and allowed a season-low 10 points in a 34-10 win over North Texas. At the same place, in the same job, Collins’ numbers were significantly better than Withers.

Now Collins is becoming the DC at North Carolina.

Temple might not have been able to woo Collins but getting in on him first and offering him the head coaching job in waiting might have been helpful to upgrading the overall defense and forced UNC to look in another direction.

Last year, Temple did a lot of hesitating in the offseason followed by a lot of losing in the real season. What were seeing (or not seeing) now appears to be a repeat of last offseason.

“He who hesitates is lost.”

If Joe Addison’s ghost could float into the E-0 today, he might say “I told you so” to Stan Drayton.

Friday: The two best portal decisions (so far)

9 thoughts on “Temple football: Too much hesitation

  1. Mike,

    While nothing you wrote is untrue, are you minimizing just how bad this program looks from the outside? For this kid Poffenbarger, as an example, maybe competing for the 3rd string job at Miami is more desirable than a first string job here at Temple.

    I agree that there is little evidence of Stan Drayton going out and making the moves needed to improve, but your arguments presume anyone would accept his offers.

    • It’s a business decision. Looks like Miami is bringing in both the Maryland starter and still going after Reece. If I’m Reece, I know I can throw 23+ touchdowns at Temple and probably do what E.J. did in a year–transfer to a more “sure” thing. Temple would be a sure thing this year. No way he’s beating the guy who is the younger brother of the Miami Dolphins’ QB. These kids want to play and want a path to the NFL. They don’t want to sit a year.

  2. Taulia getting to Miami isn’t a given. He’s petitioned for a fifth year of eligibility. So the line may not be as long there if the request is denied. He rolls the dice versus a sure thing at Temple. Maybe he just goes for the weather.

  3. What type of team is Drayton building? IMHO I don’t think he has figured out how he wants to win, let alone how he can win. He has built a new complete team without an identity. Simulated pressure vs attack and sack the QB? Zone/Cover 2 vs man press?

    Run the ball between the tackles and throw it downfield between the hash marks vs spread option w/o an option QB?

    Who are these TUFB Owls? Dunno. Any road will take you there if you don’t know where you want to go. What does Drayton believe in? What is his football philosophy, what coaching tree does he have an allegiance? We still don’t know who this guy is.

    • Depending on how this season pans out I wonder if we will ever get that chance at TU. A 3rd year of 3-9 or worse and Drayton has to be gone.

      • Not worried as much about Drayton as the program itself. It’s OK to go 3-9 the first year after Rod Carey. It’s not OK to go 3-9 the second season. I feel with that fact plus the NIL and the transfer portal the uni is more likely to pull the plug on the program than give another guy a chance. Look what Jerry Kill did for NMS and Jeremy Cantwell did for Liberty. Temple needed Drayton to be that guy to go from 3-9 to 6-6 and then 8-5, etc. He wasn’t. Hoping he will be is not a good plan.

  4. It’s not like they would be pulling the plug on anything noteworthy. TUFB has a losing record in over 100 yrs of history. Only 2 conference championships, and 9 bowl games..,

    Think about it for a moment. Been playing since 1984 and have only won 3 bowl games. Combined with a tradition of losing and dismal support…, the university simply can’t afford to reinforce failure.

    Poor everything into bb and move on. We, the die hards, will survive.

  5. At least publicly, has there been any action or inquiries by former players in or formerly in the NFL to question the BOT, president, and/or AD concerning the direction of the program? It’s been stated here there’s been no pledging of funds from those players for NIL or the program in general. Did they possibly offer support with certain conditions needing to be performed? Is there an obligation for the players of some degree to the program that enabled their moving to the highest level of their profession?

    This is not to single out the NFL Temple players past and present, as being able or responsible to turn things around, but they have massive visibility and could shine a very bright light on certain functions at the university.

    For the record, I am not an alum. Father and grandfather, yes. My interest comes only from being a follower/game spectator for 50 seasons being Temple is the ONLY FBS program within the Delaware Valley (until Delaware moves up).

    • Ironic that all of the current Temple football players in the NFL lobbied for Temple to hire Fran Brown last time and said they would give mucho bucks to Temple if the BOT listened to them yet none have given a penny since Drayton was hired. Not a coincidence. At some point you have to listen to those players who invested their bodies for Temple, both current and past. Now Fran is signing every freaking 5* and 4* superstar who never would have considered Syracuse otherwise. That could have been us.

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