Smoke and fire: The Drayton to The Ohio St. Story

Do a twitter search for “Stan Drayton Ohio State” and there are about 87 results over the last three months.

Do the same for “Stan Drayton Temple” over the same time period and there are roughly three results. Not 87. Not 67. Not 12.

Three.

Where there is smoke there is fire.

We will never know if Drayton, the head coach at Temple, applied for the running back position coach at OSU but he can provide a few clues over the next few weeks.

OwlsDaily.com, the best site covering Temple athletics, did its due diligence and asked Drayton about the OSU situation after the Cherry and White game and he denied it.

Err, what’s he gonna say?

“Shawn, you got me. I applied but Ohio State backed off when they heard about the payout they would have to pay to Temple. So I’m stuck here for now.”

Deny all he wants, Drayton can convey to Temple fans that he really wants to stay here and win over the next three weeks–not months–by grabbing one of those big-time quarterbacks still remaining in the portal.

If he does not, he is sending a clear signal to Temple fans, the Temple players, the entire Temple community that he doesn’t think he has a viable future here and he is riding out the inevitable third-straight 3-9 season his current quarterback room dictates is going to happen.

Temple possibly has the worst quarterback situation of all 130 teams and that’s not just an opinion. It’s supported by the numbers. Its top two depth chart quarterback guys include one who lost 55-0 to SMU last year and another who has a career four FBS TD passes against six FBS interceptions and played for the 129th-best FBS offense last season.

Not good.

Has Drayton thrown up his hands and given up?

Seems so or we would have had General Booty in here on May 5 after he decommitted from Oklahoma on May 4.

Some 3* and above uncommitted QBs still left in the portal desperate for a home.

Drayton would not be the first big-time coach in this transfer portal/NIL era to give up. Chip Kelly left a lucrative and successful job as head coach at UCLA to step down and be an OC at Ohio State. In that vein, a few other successful head coaches–Sean Lewis of Kent State comes to mind last year joining Colorado as an assistant–and leaving HC jobs and dropping down to staff jobs seems to be a trend, not an outlier.

Kelly wasn’t the only HC to be fed up. Nick Saban quit at Alabama. No doubt they’d still be in the same spots if they didn’t have to deal with the NIL and portal.

No head coach wants to go into a recruit’s house when the first words that 17-year-old kid says is “how much are you going to pay me?”

With the recent rumors of a more equitable payout of the TV money across the board, the solution for schools like Temple is to hang in there and ride this out.

Giving up is not an option and Drayton has one chance to prove to Temple that he hasn’t.

Get a big-time quarterback in here STAT.

He has no more than three weeks to do that. If he doesn’t, we will have our answer.

Monday: Succession Planning

8 thoughts on “Smoke and fire: The Drayton to The Ohio St. Story

  1. Mike, you are an admirable optimist, perhaps the ultimate TUFB optimist!

    However, Drayton is on the right side of his TU tenure curve. Chalk it up to another institutional failure.

    How many times has this program taken the wrong turn at a crossroad? Another (opportunity/decision/or coffin nail) awaits in seven months.

    Drayton said he has four Great QBs. Now he has three. Don’t count on anyone better entering the room.

    No NIL, and no history (Drayton, Langsdorf) of developing next level QBs, weak OL, etc., etc.,

    The third string QB at Rutgers (if Simon had stayed) will start for TU vs Oklahoma. Wow, stunning.

    East Carolina may be the only winnable game.

    • Now he has three? Who left? I’m counting 1) Simon; 2) Brock; 3) Douglas; 4) Patrick Keller. Those were the four he was talking about after the spring game.

  2. If Drayton and the AD are pals, then excuse or renegotiate the buy-out so his pal can move on. Not like his leaving deprives the program of a winning coach. Promote an assistant for this season, and use the Drayton’s salary for NIL (and get the QB needed).

    • I can’t speak for Drayton but here is what I’d do if I was a head coach at Temple and my future rode on getting a competent quarterback in here. I’d move $500K of my annual $2.5 million salary wherever I would need to move it to give it to the best available dual-threat QB (not a pocket passer) and hopefully grab 6 wins in 2024 so I can continue to pull in the $2.5 mil next year. Don’t think any Temple coach survives a third-straight 3-9 (or less) season, even the buddy of the buddy who hired him.

  3. So if he on his own decides to leave, Temple still ha to pay up – that seems ridiculous. And how come the AD isn’t sittin gon Drayton to move on certain things like the QB situation?

    • If HE decides to leave on his own, Temple owes him nothing. However, IF he goes to another school that school owes Temple a significant buyout. If he gets fired after this year, Temple has to pay him for the remaining two years on the contract. Don’t know why we keep offering 5-year contracts to unproven assistants.

      • “Don’t know why we keep offering 5-year contracts to unproven assistants.”

        In this case, and immediately previous, like you’ve been saying, buddy system.

      • Yep. Bradshaw to Dunphy (just like that shortstop to second combo in the 60s at LaSalle), Kraft to Indiana buddy Carey and now the Texas two-step of Johnson and Stan.

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