Cherry and White game just one part of process

Maybe current Ohio State HC Ryan Day (seen here as Temple assistant) can do former OSU assistant Stan Drayton (now Temple head coach) a solid by sending him a 4* quarterback stuck deep on the depth chart.

Spring football ended on Saturday for Temple and a whole lot of other schools.

Pretty good crowd for the C&W game considering the 30mph wind and consecutive 3-9 seasons.

What we’ve learned over the last month is Temple probably hasn’t done enough to improve from 3-9 significantly.

Temple is probably a very few really good transfer portal starters at key positions from improving but the good news is that the transfer portal is getting ready to explode and maybe, just maybe, the Owls can fill those positions with an upgrade in talent.

Quarterback is one of those positions.

Temple is not going to have a bag of cash to give any of group of players in the portal but it does have something most schools can’t give–a real chance to grab a starting job.

There are 130 FBS teams and most of them have a starting quarterback at this time. Maybe five jobs are open and Temple is one of them.

Reese Clark had to reach back and catch this TD pass, which is really a simple throw.

Temple would be a perfect place for a 4* quarterback like Wisconsin’s Nick Evers, who found himself third team after the spring and entered the portal recently. Miami transfer Tyler Van Dyke transferred in and grabbed the No. 2 job and former SMU quarterback Tanner Mordecai appears to have that job locked down.

Evers is a significantly more talented quarterback than anyone else in the Temple quarterback room but he’s the not the only one. According to portal experts, a good dozen or so accomplished quarterbacks will shake free starting today and several could be more talented than even Evers.

The Owls better get one.

Temple has some pretty good receivers in Dante Wright, Zae Baines and Ian Stewart. The Owls apparently have three good tight ends, led by St. Joseph’s Prep great Reese Clark.

They built depth among the both lines and their linebacking corp as a group appears better, even though they don’t have anyone as talented as Jordan Magee. The secondary, which was a disaster last year, was upgraded with a Texas State transfer. Another disaster, the kicking game, appears to have been fixed.

They’ve added two All-American running backs from the JUCO ranks and someone in Antwain Littleton who did some impressive running in the Big 10.

Their most pressing area of need, though, is the most important position.

The Owls are not that far away if … and this is a big IF … they are able to add a playmaking quarterback who can stick around for more than a couple of months this time.

Friday (April 19): Five Guys

Monday (April 22): A Possible Hail Mary For Temple

Friday (April 26): Special Qualities

10 thoughts on “Cherry and White game just one part of process

  1. When will TUFB catch a break? The 2024 roster is stronger and deeper than the previous two. However the team could actually be worse, no QB.

    The most important position on the field is the one you recruit first. The McDowell drama doesn’t look good for Drayton.

    Drayton’s inability to manage the most important position is appalling.

    1. His lack of basic football Head Coach IQ contributed much to the Warner departure. (Your QB gets knocked stupid? Have the team doctors check him out on the sideline, immediately. Don’t trust the player of the coaches.)
    2. McDowell is a transfer gypsy. So, how do you screen players in the NIL era? The questions you asked three years ago need revisions. Drayton gave the green light on McDowell…,
    3. What on earth did the staff see in Simon?

    Carey was never able to find “his” QB. Just look at what happened to him. A college football head coach w/o a QB is a dead man walking.

    • Plus I see McDowell is now transferring to McNeese State. Agree with you about Drayton, how could he sign a QB off the portal who appears to feel he is best suited to FCS? Didn’t attend the Cherry and White game but QB report from that sounds like the offense will be a disaster this season

    • Carey had many problems, mostly from being old school in a new school world. As far as QB, Rhule gifted him by recruiting Russo but Carey was so hard-headed he ran a “Justin Lynch” type offense with a “Tom Brady” type QB. All he had to do was run the same offense Belichick had in Boston and he would have had more than 8 wins in 2019 and Russo would not have felt the need to transfer after 2020. As for Simon, he’s a Russo type without a Russo arm or talent. About half as good as Russo and 1/10th as good as E.J. That’s not how you get better.

      • Russo would be all-AAC if he were on this 2024 TUFB team. Can you imagine.., definitely a 6 win team

      • Most definitely. Russo wasted his final year by transferring to Michigan State. Russo would be the second-best QB in the AAC now behind only Sean Henigan of Memphis.

  2. Hi Mike, I see another local kid here, from Millville HS in deep down South Jersey is going to play FB at Alabama !!! How many great FB runners have we had at TU since someone like the other Millville HS product of 10-12 years ago ? He used to split the defense first line with power and speed. What the heck has our HC and recruiting staff done recently. I remember posting my complaints that Previous HC R Carey was just stealing money , now I feel the same about this one. Am I wrong…

    • He works a lot harder than Carey but gets the same results. Wouldn’t say he’s stealing money if he goes out and gets me a top-level transfer portal quarterback but it is certainly trending that way. He should have gotten rid of his DC in the offseason. Allowing FIU to give up nearly 40 ppg a game in 2021 might have been an outlier but then following that up with allowing Temple to give up the same amount of points in 2023 is now a trend. What would it have taken for Stan to fire Withers? 45 ppg? 50 ppg? 55ppg? When you get up in that 40 stratosphere, it should be an automatic firing. Get the best FCS DC out there and roll with him.

  3. https://atozsports.com/college-football/rice-hc-mike-bloomgren-talks-ej-warner-replacing-jt-daniels/

    Stoffel and Warner would still be Owls if Drayton had the sixth sense of a college football HC.

    Important message for all HC candidates: If your QB (the face of the program) gets knocked stupid, have the team doctors evaluate him on the sideline, immediately! Make it a team rule.

    Task the team doctors to stay engaged during the game. Keep them on the lookout for trauma. Give them the authority to take immediate actions w/o being prompted.

    Warner left as a result of a program failure. The HC is responsible. Another firing after three years waits to happen. That will be six straight years of futility.

    • Let’s hope TU has a new president in place by the end of this year at the latest, otherwise even if this season is a copy of last season or worse don’t think Drayton will get canned. I think new president need to get a new FB HC and AD going forward.

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