HELP WANTED: Quarterback, Temple University. One of the nation’s great universities, the sixth-largest educator of professionals in the world and located in a Top Four TV market, is looking for a dynamic, playmaking quarterback to lead the Owls back to national prominence.

In the last decade alone, Temple was ranked in the Top 25 three times (the most recent in 2019), won one AAC title and also competed in another ACC title game. Its 2015 game against Notre Dame was the most-watched college football game in the history of the Philadelphia market. It has had one XFL MVP (P.J. Walker) and another Maxwell Award winner as the best player in college football (Steve Joachim). We don’t have a big NIL bag of cash for you but if playing college football for money is your only goal, please look elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you want to gamble on yourself and make a ton of money down the road, this is the place for you. Temple has three great wide receivers in Dante Wright (a first-team All-American freshman, 2019), Zae Baines and Ian Stewart, a transfer from Michigan State. Also, walk-on John Adams might be the fastest WR the AAC. Reese Clark leads a terrific tight end group. Your major competition for the QB job is a guy who has four career TD passes against six interceptions as a FBS QB and another guy who lost, 55-0, to SMU last year. If interested, please contact Stan Drayton at @standraytonTU on X (formerly known as twitter).

That’s it.

That’s the pitch.

There are about 18-20 quarterbacks in the transfer portal better than anyone currently in the Temple quarterback room.

The very success of the 2024 Temple football team rests on Stan Drayton’s ability to get one of those guys. There are plenty of programs who would like to have those 20 guys but only a very small handful that could offer a realistic chance for the starting quarterback job in a still high-profile program that appears on TV on a regular basis.

Hell, Temple opens on a Friday night on ESPN. The Flagship ESPN. Not ESPN2, ESPNNEWS, ESPNU or ESPN+.

The real thing.

The stage for a quarterback who believes in himself and has some good WRs to throw to does not get any bigger. Opening weekend of the college football season and the first college football game most people will see. “Who is this guy making those throws for Temple? He’s good.”

That’s what’s on the plate for any one of 20 great quarterbacks in the portal now are smart enough to know that Temple offers them the best chance to start.

We’ve narrowed our choices down to five guys, two with Temple recruiting connections.

In no particular order, they are this:

Reece Poffenbarger

Does the former Albany quarterback, who has family within short driving distance of every home Temple game, really want to spend this 2024 season holding a clipboard at Miami for Cam Ward? I don’t think any competitive person wants to and I’m assuming that’s Poffenbarger’s makeup. This is a guy who can lead Temple to an AAC title and then name his price at the end of the season. Poffenbarger is not in the portal now, but he can be nudged in that direction as could any other FBS player.

Sol-Jay Maiava-Peters

There are a couple of would-be interesting connections between Peters and Temple. One, he was offensive MVP of the New Mexico Bowl in 2022 for BYU in a 24-22 win over SMU. Temple’s Chris Coyer, also a QB, was the offensive MVP of the same bowl in 2011. Two, he was a high school teammate of current Temple RB Antwain Littleton at St. John’s High School (D.C.). All Drayton has to do is call Littleton into his office, have Antwain dial Peters’ number and hand the phone to Drayton and Peters is on the next plane to Philadelphia.

Timmy McClain, QB UCF

If you want your program to bring in the most predictable, boring pocket passer, then Timmy McClain isn’t your guy. But if you want a dual threat option that makes absolutely insane plays from time to time, then McClain should be on the radar. Unlike the above three guys, McClain might be looking for a college payday over a chance to lead his team to a title but he’s still worth a shot.

Nick Evers, QB Wisconsin

Evers is a former 4* recruit who entered the portal after falling to No. 3 in the Badgers’ depth chart behind Tanner Mordecai and Tyler Van Dyke this spring. If you think Temple can’t attract 4* QBs, think again. In the past five years, the Owls were able to recruit Dwan Mathis away from Georgia and Re-al Mitchell away from Iowa State. Mathis was the starter on opening day in 2020 for Georgia and Drayton’s first opening day starter (2022). Mitchell, a backup to current 49ers starting quarterback Brock Purdy at Iowa State, never made an impact in Philadelphia. Both had ball security problems. Evers does not have that history.

Austin Smith, Eastern Michigan

Another Temple connection here is that Smith knows Nico Piriano, who is now Temple’s football director of operations. Piriano worked in the same capacity under Chris Creighton, a great head coach, at Eastern Michigan where he got to know last year’s EMU starter Smith. Would Smith be an upgrade over what Temple has now? Well, put it this way. Smith had more than twice as many TD passes (nine) in 2023 than Evan Simon has in his whole career (four).

Temple can get one of those five guys or another guy outside of those five currently in the portal or it can sit back and do nothing.

What would sitting back and do nothing tell you?

Stan Drayton is playing out the string at Temple and planning on pulling a Chip Kelly move to return to the P5 as an assistant coach.

Sitting back and doing nothing is not an option for Temple fans. Drayton owes it not only to those fans but his players to get the best quarterback available and not settle for the ones he has now.