02.18.24
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Spring Practice: Goals and Solutions

People of a certain age remember what Ricky Riccardo--the 50s TV star, not the late-night WIP radio sports talk show host--used to say to wife Lucy when she got herself in a bad situation.

People of a certain age remember what Ricky Riccardo–the 50s TV star, not the late-night WIP radio sports talk show host–used to say to wife Lucy when she got herself in a bad situation.

“You’ve got some ‘splaining to do” in that Cuban accent of his.

Both Ricky, played by Desi Arnez, and Lucy are gone but Stan Drayton is still here and, while the Temple football head coach hasn’t really adequately explained what happened last year, he needs to address the problems and outline the solutions.

Spare me the excuses and just fix the issues which have been easy to spot over the last 12 games and the fixing process should start soon or expect to see a repeat.

Spring Practice is less than a month away due to NCAA rules, the Owls are limited to the 15 sessions illustrated above.

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The foundation can be set over the course of those practices by eliminating the sources that led to losses.

In my mind, it was pretty simple. Drayton’s pass-first, run-second approach stopped the clock far too much and allowed teams with far more team speed to have more possessions than the Owls and more opportunities to put points on the scoreboard.

This hasn’t been unique to Temple in the past and all Drayton has to do is look at game films from Matt Rhule and Al Golden specifically on how the Owls largely avoided those kinds of embarrassing losses, stay competitive into the fourth quarter and pull out wins. Simply, build an offense around a running game and a passing game built around play action.

It’s been a few months since quarterback E.J. Warner made a (at-best) lateral move to Rice University and, while Drayton has talked to the media a few times since, never addressed his feelings on the issue or offered hypotheses as to why Warner left. More surprisingly, none of the media outlets who covered Temple asked him about it. Clearing that air would be a good place to start. Also, addressing why the defense gave up nearly 40 points a game and outlining solutions might be cathartic.

The basketball version of what Temple football should do was John Chaney’s inside-out offensive philosophy. Pump the ball inside to the big men, have the defense collapse around them and move the ball around to shooters.

The football version of this is run first, pass second. Drayton brought with him an outside/inside offensive philosophy of spreading the field with the passing game and then attempting to run off of it. What might have worked at Texas has not worked here and won’t work with a strong-armed, weak-legged, quarterback. Hopefully, Drayton is a professional enough coach to come to that conclusion on his own watching Temple film for the last three months. 

The good news is that he has a relatively solid offensive line, a couple of JUCO All-American running backs (along with a Big 10 one) to at least try to establish a running game. The quarterback will probably have strong legs to go with a strong arm and that’s something different.

He has 15 practices to do that in the spring and take it into the summer. Whether he has the will to do it will determine how much “splaining” he will have to do to Temple fans who were forced to watch their team take unexpected poundings in 2023.

Friday: Big Mad

9 thoughts on “Spring Practice: Goals and Solutions”

  1. This coach, and his boss, brought mediocrity from Texas and Georgia. Since they left those schools, Georgia is a twice national football champion and Texas is competitive once again. Essentially, Temple has hired “castoffs” from larger schools to bring their “also-ran” philosophy with them, leaving Temple fans with nothing but memories of John Chaney and Matt Rhule teams. Until Temple hires people who hire competent people and not their “buddies “we are destined for continued mediocrity, despite having seen flashes of greatness by EJ Warner, whose performances were overshadowed by underperforming teammates. As an Owl Club member, I feel compelled to tell it like it is.

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    • There was always something off with Temple hiring an AD being the “Texas football Director of Operations” and then turning around and hiring the “Texas football running backs’ coach.” You mean to tell me of all the people who applied for the Temple job he was the most qualified? I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now. He can fix all of those perceptions by doing one thing: Win more than lose. It better start no later than this fall.

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  2. Nice post, Mike. Good analysis.

    I’m cautiously optimistic. Not sure why, but I am. 

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  3. It took Drayton three tries to figure out Spring Practice. This year for the first time during his tenure the team will enter Spring Practice significantly over the scholarship limit.

    Why? b/c dudes get hurt, and it’s hard to rep when players are sitting in the training room getting treatment. Previous Spring Practices were limited, too many injuries.

    TUFB needs a coach that’s proactive, vice reactive. Drayton learns by experience, only. TUFB can’t afford the prolonged learning curve. The dude is over his head despite the heart being in the right place.., just business and nothing personal.

    Progress can always be measured by “compared to what”. The AAC also rans have made more progress this past off season. Rankings matter, you are what the stats says you are.

    https://247sports.com/Season/2024-Football/OverallTeamRankings/?Conference=AAC

    The best hope for Spring Practice is a confirmed identity on both sides of the ball. Nobody, including Drayton, knows how TUFB wants and can win.

    Every player on the MR championship teams had “body blows” imprinted on their brains. They schemed and game planned around it.

    If you don’t have an identity you’ll have a newly created one every Saturday evening when the dust has settled.

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    • Keep an eye on Charlotte. They hired an ex-hedge fund operator who will spend his own money on players. The guy also built his defense first (this year way better than Temple’s) and is working on the offensive side. None of these AAC schools have deep-pocketed alumni (with the possible exception of Memphis and Tulane) so Temple has no excuses to when it comes with being in that upper half of the league. Building the defense first is Job One. Unfortunately, we’ve been dicking around for these past two years in that area.

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      • Watching old CUSA teams like Charlotte, UTSA, Rice, No Texas climb past TUFB is hard.

        Perhaps harder than watching Cincy, UCF, SMU move up. And we once had a senior class who never lost to Cincy…,

        The hardest will be when Tulane, USF, or Memphis leave us behind to join the P5.

        How hard is it to find just three people who can/will sing from the same hymn book? Uni President, AD, and HC?

  4. Temple=The only school in history to take what seems like years (and hell maybe is years) to go from one President to another. Let’s pick a guy from Philadelphia and Temple this time who has political connections to both city and state.

    Reply

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