Temple-UTSA: You can’t make this stuff up

Wanted: Head football coach Temple University: If you watched the Owls on national TV Friday night, you know the opportunity that awaits you. A bunch of kids representing a great university played their asses off, only to to lose at UTSA, 51-27, because there were a lot of illegal shifts and illegal formations. If you know how to structure a practice to eliminate those kind of mistakes and put these wonderful young athletes in a better position to win, please contact Arthur Johnson at Temple University, Broad and Montgomery, Philadelphia, PA, 19122. Only successful head coaches need apply. Temple can’t make a mistake on another “promising” assistant because promises are often broken.

That pretty much summed up Temple’s effort in a 51-27 loss at UTSA on Friday night.

The kids at Temple played as hard as they could but a lot of procedural errors held them back.

As we’ve said in this space many times over the past couple of months, illegal shifts and illegal formations don’t happen to teams playing Temple nearly as much as they do to Temple.

The reason for that is simple: Temple structures its so-called practices like a team that was coached by a career assistant coach, which is exactly what happened over the last three years.

A career winning head coach at any level knows how to structure a practice so those kinds of mistakes don’t show up on national TV.

So that’s the decision facing Arthur Johnson now.

Does he go out and get a “promising” assistant to be head coach or does he go out and get a guy who delivered for some other school what he promised.

I’ll go for the guy who delivered the goods and not someone who is promising to deliver.

Maybe the most remarkable moment of Friday night’s game was the interview of Johnson while a slow quarterback negotiated his way through the entire Temple team for a 75-yard touchdown.

You can’t make that kind of stuff up but there it was for the world to see.

It left Johnson speechless and the world laughing at Temple once again. So, if you are keeping score, the last four appearances on a major ESPN network, Temple gave up 55 points to SMU, 51 to Oklahoma, 52 to Tulane and 51 to UTSA.

Enough is enough.

Get a guy in here who knows how to stop someone and has proven it by delivering more W’s than L’s to the school he was at before Temple.

Monday: Russell Conwell’s Pick for Next Head Coach

13 thoughts on “Temple-UTSA: You can’t make this stuff up

  1. There is only one person wholly responsible for three consecutive seasons of disaster. It is not Stan Drayton, it is Arthur Johnson.

    Johnson hired Drayton without an appreciation for the culture, or how to win at 10th and Diamond. The hire should have put everyone on notice, Johnson is out of his league, clueless.

    Worse, he handcuffed Draytonʻs first year by hiring him after the recruiting cycle. Remember, Drayton was the last FBS HC to get hired that year. Second, Johnson recently admitted to being asleep at the NIL wheel.

    You are what your history says you are. Is it me? Why on earth would anyone in their right mind allow him to hire anyone, again?

    SMFH, I just donʻt get it.

  2. Who hired Johnson? Why was he hired over whomever else was considered (assuming there were others)?

    Shouldn’t that person be in line for criticism as well?

    • Jason Wingard. I guess he could be in line for criticism but he’s long gone.

      • Like you wrote, the team played hard. Shame they haven’t figured out 4 must be in the backfield, no more, no less. That’s down to coaching. Has to show that way in practice and be called out there. A little better QB and we’d have a different vibe on this thread. OC went to well too often with the delay/draw. UTSA DT’s got coached to not push to the QB when 31 was in pass blocking as game went on. Shame QB couldn’t “read” that and audible out of the call.

      • That was my point on earlier comments. There is no loyalty left for Johnson. Why is Temple giving Johnson liberty? He has done nothing to earn it. Wingard is gone.

        Templeʻs history of interim presidents has taken tolls. Itʻll take years to right the ship. The sooner Fry starts the better.

      • The latest name I’m hearing is Kyle Flood. You’ve got to be f*cking kidding me. He’s an assistant at Texas now. Stan Drayton was an assistant at Texas then. Arthur Johnson was the Director of Football Operations at Texas. Crazy. If if hires Flood, it might be a way of throwing a grenade over his shoulder and blowing up Temple football on his way out.

  3. OMG x 100…, this is becoming more of who is willing to work for Johnson rather than the best choice to lead TUFB. The investigation of TUBB is still ongoing, scandal awaits. Do need Flood scandal gasoline?

    Intervention before Car 54 crashes, again…, geez

  4. I would add Paul Chryst’s name on the list. He had a pretty successful tenure at Wisky and probably should’ve been given the benefit of the doubt after a 2-3 start in 2022. Prior to Wisky, Chryst was Pitt’s head coach.

  5. From Philly Biz Journal on Friday:

    “Fry said Temple’s board of trustees is currently leading an analysis on the school’s athletics, including football, that he expects to see soon. The program has had a losing record in each of the last five seasons.

    Fry said he recently spoke to a president of a school in the Power 4 with a “very substantial, successful” football program that was “absolutely worried sick” about the future of college football.

    “Temple is not alone in stepping back and trying to assess what it’s going to do in a completely unpredictable environment, not only in terms of the market, but the regulatory environment,” Fry said.

    New rules around NIL have also disproportionately benefitted well-backed athletic programs whose donors are willing to shell out millions of dollars to recruit top players, creating a larger gap between powerhouse programs and the rest of the NCAA.

    In fiscal year 2023, the latest data available, Temple reported spending $24.9 million on its football team, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That was by far the most it spent on one sport and close to triple its costs for men’s basketball, the next most expensive program at $8.6 million.”

    Letʻs hope they donʻt wait until after the analysis to make a HC hire. Any worthwhile candidate would want a firm commitment from the BOT to compete $$

    Only at Temple, you canʻt make this stuff up is spot on. Do an analysis after you fire the TUFB HC.., the timing is unbelievable.

    We have Car 54, and a BOT living on Earth Two. Meanwhile TUBB is still under investigation.

  6. Here’s Captain Obvious sounding in:

    The new world of big-time college football and basketball is apparently too complicated for the present athletic department organization to function effectively in. Temple is not the only school in that situation, keep in mind. Big money to supplement the school’s budget has to be committed from outside donors to play with the big boys. And those donors will want a department staff and coaches who can swim in those shark-infested waters. Can the university make those financial and hiring commitments? If so, will the right people step in and guide the athletic department on hiring the right coaches? Keep in mind, Nick Saban no longer wanted to work in the big-time college football world and stepped away. It’s not a game for just any coach now.

    Monumental decisions have to be made by the BoT.

    Step one is for one of those yet-to-step-up donors to lead pressure behind the scenes to have Lurie significantly adjust the stadium contract. If Lurie won’t budge, time for alumni in politics to make statements, and alumni in the media to write stories. Make it so that Lurie benefits from the program having success.

    • Don’t like this new President dropping a story about Temple studying the future of football in the middle of a head coaching search. If you want to eliminate the 10 most attractive candidates, that’s exactly what you do. Johnson is working in one direction, Fry in the other. Fry just threw a grenade in the middle of the head coaching search.

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