Otherwise, it was a forgettable moment in Temple football’s 59-34 loss to UTSA.

The Owls’ quarterback, E.J. Warner, rolled right and improvised a throw to tight end Peter Clarke, who caught the first touchdown pass of his career.

Clarke is from London, England, and became the first foreign player ever to score a touchdown for the Temple University football team and the Owls have been playing since 1884.

Clarke is still here mostly because that was his most notable moment for the Owls. Still, had Clarke caught 40 passes for 10 touchdowns he would also still be here because, as an international student, he is ineligible to sign NIL deals and that removes the main incentive to enter the transfer portal.

It is what makes Clarke the quintessential Stan Drayton player. Drayton came to Temple promising to build a culture of guys who both want play here and win an AAC championship here. Then the wheels came off. Guys who were building blocks of the program left for greener (i.e., money) pastures. A 3-9 season in 2022 turned into another 3-9 season in 2023.

Under this system, progress seems impossible.

However, if the Owls were able to recruit enough guys with Peter Clarke’s background–not just from London but from all over the world–they could build the kind of winning culture Drayton envisioned when hired without the axe of the NIL and the transfer portal hanging over their heads.

Imagine this: Temple puts an international all-star team together and keeps all of those guys for four years because there is no financial incentive to go elsewhere.

The problem with this, though, are there enough great international players for Temple to win? Maybe not from Europe, Asia or Australia, but there is certainly enough evidence to suggest that Canada could be a fertile recruiting ground for the Owls. McGill, one of the great Canadian Universities located in Toronto, not only plays football but plays it on a high-enough level to contribute twice as many starters to the CFL as any other college, including the American ones. The current “Oklahomas” and “Alabamas” of Canada are Western, Laurier and Montreal Universities. Plenty of good AAC-level players on those programs who might enjoy the opportunity to compete in the states. If these guys can play in the CFL and become stars there, and they have proven that over the last 50 years, they can play in the U.S., too.

When you consider Henry Burris, a former Temple great, is arguably the greatest CFL player of all time, that’s impressive. Burris could be a catalyst to send good Canadian players South and there just might be enough of them to make Temple a perennial AAC power.

The Owls are just banging their heads against the wall by developing players from high schools here and then having them leave for elsewhere once proven. Putting together an international all-star team might be the kind of end-around play Drayton needs for the stability that doesn’t exist now.

It’s worth a shot.