10.31.24
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After nine years, what went wrong?

Nine years ago today, Temple was on the top of the college football world.

The Owls were 7-0 and ranked No. 21 and gameday was in town for a prime-time matchup with No. 9 Notre Dame.

Only because Will Hayes decided not to put up his hand and deflect away what would have been an easy play to make, Will Fuller caught the game-winning touchdown pass and the Irish hung on for a 24-20 win. The game still ranks as the No. 1-rated TV college game ever watched in the Philadelphia market, which is still the No. 4-ranked TV market. Better than any Penn State-Ohio State game. Better than any Penn State-Notre Dame game.

Lincoln Financial Field was packed with mostly Temple fans to see the No. 21 Owls play the No. 9 Irish nine years ago today.

Temple was the draw, not Notre Dame. Probably no college football game will ever attract more eyes in the Philly market, including a national title game that might include Penn State.

Who knows where the Owls would have been ranked if Hayes knocked away that pass and Temple went to 8-0.

My guess is no lower than 12th.

Now the Owls are ranked No. 19.

From the bottom.

That’s falling over 100 floors faster than a broken elevator in a horror movie.

So the question has to be asked: What went wrong?

Sitting in my seat dejected by the loss and comforted by classy Notre Dame fans walking by and patting me on the back (“you guys have a helluva team”), the thought occurred to me that this might have been the Zenith of Temple football.

What never occurred to me was that the Owls would fall this far and this fast.

While I never thought 7-0 and ESPN gameday would be the norm, I thought it was possible, maybe even likely, that Temple would be the kind of job that would attract good enough coaches to compete for a bowl game every year.

Temple still remains a big TV draw because of its market. Imagine if the Owls won consistently.

It has not.

It would be easy to blame the NIL and the transfer portal for this mess and certainly it’s a contributing element but it’s not the full story.

Temple’s fall is attributable to mostly Temple decisions. The Board of Trustees approved a plan to build a stadium on Temple’s own property but let no more than 20 or so neighbors bully them out of that decision.

My feeling then as it is now is that Temple has as much right to build anything on its property as I do putting up a white picket fence around my house. That goes for every university in the country.

If a bunch of neighbors came up to me and objected to my fencing plans, I would politely say, “Geez, it’s my property and I think it improves the value so thanks for your input but I’m still putting the fence up.”

That’s one mistake.

The others were hiring ADs who felt that it was more important to hire buddies than it was to follow the formula that got Temple to the top in the first place.

Temple has now suffered through 1-6, 3-9, 3-9 and 3-9 seasons.

If it is lucky, it might get to a fourth-straight 3-9 season.

The only hope for Temple to fix that elevator and start climbing to the top is to follow the formula that got Matt Rhule and Geoff Collins here. Get the best person. Get someone who the AD never worked with but has impeccable credentials on his own.

Or it can chose not to fix the elevator, which would be the nuclear option no one wants.

Monday: A Dream Press Conference

7 thoughts on “After nine years, what went wrong?”

  1. Odds are TUFB won’t get back to that 2015 level but is it too much to ask to have a program that finishes in the say the top 3 of the AAC on a consistent basis and at be in a position to get to one of the conference tie-in bowls that play an ACC team (Military Bowl and the Fenway park bowl for example). Having been at the Garden State Bowl and Eagle Bank Bowl I don’t have an issue with cold weather bowls 🙂

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    • Not too much to ask. Other teams have coaches who scour the P4 backup ranks for starters. Ours are stuck in 1986 JUCO thinking because that’s when they started in their college coaching careers. Plus the illegal formations and shifts are a sympton of either not practicing hard or the right way. Don’t get me started on the difference between a tush push with a 160-pound QB vs. a 6-1, 225 guy who can bench press 355 pounds.

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      • From ESPN today,

        “Temple: Stan Drayton is looking at his third straight losing season, sitting at 2-6 (8-24 overall). Drayton is on his first contract, but the buyout isn’t prohibitive. That makes a potential exit possible but not inevitable. The Owls did beat Tulsa soundly for an AAC win and played well in a game they gave away to UConn at the goal line.”

        Counterintuitive to root for Tulane to blowout Temple? No!

    • Very interesting read and made me think about how a lot of the points in the article could be applied to TUFB. First with regards to using the portal while it has been hit and miss when recruiting backups from P4 programs I would rather get linemen from that route like Mains, Haye and Black then from the preferred Drayton JUCO route. With regards to JUCO players, if you are going there focus on players like Worthy who lead the entire NJCAA in rushing rather than a player like Brock. Not criticizing him but rather he seems to have been a middle of the road JUCO QB and the jump to D1 seems a little to great. Basically I feel TUFB should be focusing on other G5 starters in the portal and top FCS players as the bulk of portal recruits. As for looking at HC prospects that are sitting HCs not sure how appealing TUFB is for other G5 HCs. Seems we do pay at a higher end than a lot so maybe that’s enough or should the focus be on top FCS coaches? Biggest take away for me from that article is that kind of “plan” needs to be put in place here.

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  3. No reason to give Drayton the same contract Carey had since Carey was a two-time MAC champion when he came here and Drayton didn’t do anything above a position coach level. Yet they did because they didn’t want it to look like they settled for less. Should have been a win/incentive laden contract that started at half of Carey’s $2 million. For every win above six, Drayton should have received an additional $500K. Watch how much of his own salary he puts into NIL with those stipulations. He’s coasting to the finish line and Temple is paying the price on the front- and back ends.

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  4. Yes, yes…simple logic would dictate that if you hire your position coach buddy, you none-the-less, don’t hand out an exorbitant contract; and yes, it should be based on incentives (proving yourself first). It still feels like something fishy is going on, like Johnson benefiting from that out-of-line contract. And where the hell is the BOT?

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