Category Archives: Stan Drayton

01.07.24
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Temple football: Too much hesitation

The playwright Joseph Addison first penned the phrase: “He who hesitates is lost.”

That wasn’t last year or two years ago but way back in 1713 in his play “Cato.”

True then. True today.

If Temple football has done anything over the last two years, it’s a lot of hesitation followed by a lot of losing.

The Owls needed a running back last season, didn’t get one worth a damn in the portal (although Liberty’s 1,000-yard back, Dae Dae Hunter, slipped through the cracks and ended up nowhere) and repeated their 130th-ranked running game in the 2023 season by going with the same backs that produced those same numbers.

It only figures that a 1,000-yard back would make your running game twice as good.

Apples to apples.

Albany quarterback Reece Poffenbarger has been in the portal since Dec. 13. That’s almost a month. This is the type of guy Temple should have swooped in on and shown love to no later than, say, Dec. 14th.

Temple needs to replace E.J. Warner and his 23 touchdown passes and Poffenbarger would bring 36 touchdown passes from this year to next year’s table.

Not very many names left in the portal, but Temple can offer an immediate starting job four upgrades from E.J. Warner and should.

That’s how you get better.

Touchdown passes are some pretty nice apples.

Instead, there is no indication that Temple went after either one of those guys and there has been a lot of hesitation and that’s a recipe for a lot of losing to follow.

Poffenbarger had not been linked to any school before last week when Miami swooped in and is pursuing him after getting turned down by Cam Ward, Kyle McCord and other P5 transfers. At Miami, Poffenbarger would have to compete with one 4* and two 3* QBs.

At Temple, all he would have to do is beat the Rutgers’ backup.

Had Stan Drayton come and and used the last 27 days to get Poffenbarger’s name on the dotted line instead of hesitating we might have our upgrade.

A couple of weeks ago we floated the idea in this space that Arthur Johnson bringing in Geoff Collins to be DC and “head coach in waiting” to upgrade the worst defense in all of college football and, instead of jumping on that idea, Temple appears to be set to go with the same DC in 2024 who produced putrid numbers in 2023, Everett Withers.

There is also an apples-to-apples comparison between those two.

Both of those guys had a one-year stint at the same place, Florida International. In Withers’ year as DC at FIU (2021), the Panthers gave up 39 points a game. That year the “lowest” point total Withers’ defense gave up to a FBS squad was 31 points in a loss at Central Michigan.

Collins is not only the best DC in FIU history (and Withers the worst), but he knows his way around the Edberg-Olson Complex. Happy Birthday to Nadia Harvin, by the way.

In Collins’ year as a DC at the same school (2010), the Panthers gave up 27.3 points per game and allowed a season-low 10 points in a 34-10 win over North Texas. At the same place, in the same job, Collins’ numbers were significantly better than Withers.

Now Collins is becoming the DC at North Carolina.

Temple might not have been able to woo Collins but getting in on him first and offering him the head coaching job in waiting might have been helpful to upgrading the overall defense and forced UNC to look in another direction.

Last year, Temple did a lot of hesitating in the offseason followed by a lot of losing in the real season. What were seeing (or not seeing) now appears to be a repeat of last offseason.

“He who hesitates is lost.”

If Joe Addison’s ghost could float into the E-0 today, he might say “I told you so” to Stan Drayton.

Friday: The two best portal decisions (so far)

01.01.24
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TU’s New Year’s Resolution: Extreme urgency

TU can’t compete with Ole Miss to get P5 portal players but it certainly can get its share of FCS players.

About halfway through the disappointing 2023 football season for the Temple Owls, I found a way to drown my sorrows that did not involve alcohol.

Bet against the home team.

My reasoning was that if I was going to suffer–and, believe me, watching Temple football lose, 45-13 and 55-0 in consecutive weeks was extreme torture–I was going to get paid for it.

After the college football season ended, I adopted that philosophy for my hometown NFL team.

With Temple going 3-9 and the Eagles 1-4 after that, needless to say, it’s been a profitable few months at the betting window.

All things considered, though, I would rather lose the bets and see my teams win.

The Temple losses stung hardest, though, because no matter what happens, the Philadelphia Eagles will never go out of business. That can’t be said for the other tenant in the same stadium. Since the end of the season, the Owls have lost their best quarterback, best offensive lineman and best cornerback via the portal.

They have not accounted for any of those personnel losses and that doesn’t bode well for the bottom line in 2024.

Gotta think if Temple brought in a couple of experienced FCS pass blockers a year ago, E.J. Warner would not have had been out for two games with a concussion.

With each Temple football loss, though, the bean counters in Sullivan Hall get more ammunition to ask the question: “Are we getting any return on a significant investment?”

(Hell, does Temple have a larger investment not including the hospital than the football program? I doubt it.)

The answer for the last three years has been a resounding no. Three-straight lousy, stinking, 3-9 seasons and this last one might have been the smelliest of a rotten trifecta. This coaching staff had all last year to get a big-time running back via the portal and to load up on both lines.

They did neither.

Instead, they left three scholarships on the table when there were experienced pass protectors and pass rushers still in the portal who could have helped them better than the two freshmen starters they had. It wasn’t as though they weren’t warned. On the day Darian Varner left, we wrote in this space that this was a time to get two FCS starters better than Varner via the portal.

Being forced to play offensive linemen who weren’t ready got their franchise quarterback concussed and caused him to look elsewhere.

Their leading rusher, Edward Saydee, only had 629 yards last year. We wrote in this space that the priority was to get a 1,000-yard rusher. What did they do? Get a 247-yard rusher from FIU.

Everything they did from a personnel standpoint screamed half-measures when they needed double measures.

The No. 1 New Year’s resolution now for this coaching staff has to be extreme urgency and it has to start today because what they did last month was just not good enough.

They need to bring in established FCS stars starting with the quarterback position. They went 3-9 with E.J. Warner last year. To go 6-6, they need someone twice as good as Warner and, in Albany’s Reece Poffenbarger, that option is still available in the portal. (Hell, Matt Sluka is still in the portal and he may be better.) Both are better than anyone Temple has on the current roster by a good bit. They haven’t had a big-time running back since Ray Davis played for Geoff Collins and Rod Carey.

They need to get one and a JUCO doesn’t cut it.

Plenty of really good FCS players are in the portal now and there won’t be FBS scholarships for all of them. Temple needs to scour the portal for the best of those players and show them some love.

Does this coaching staff understand that?

Do they even care?

They didn’t last offseason judging from the results.

Right now, even extreme urgency might not be enough, but it is worth a try. The football franchise depends upon it.

Friday: At Least We Had This

Monday: Comparing Apples to Apples

12.17.23
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Wednesday’s Recruiting Show: Lipstick on a Pig

The hierarchy of talent in college football has been established over the past 50 or so years.

You don’t have to be Nick Saban to know where to get talent from in this age of the transfer portal.

One, P5. Two, G5, Three FCS, four Division I, five Division II and six Division III.

There is a seventh level of football talent below all of that and it’s called JUCO.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one is worth a million. Here, Layton Jordan sacks future Owl quarterback Evan Simon. Jordan, under D.J. Eliot’s scheme, thrived, setting a Temple record with three defensive touchdowns and terrorizing opposing quarterbacks. Under Everett Withers, Jordan more often than not dropped back five yards into pass coverage in no-man’s land where he couldn’t use his talent to sack QBs or cause turnovers. Simon since this lost his job to a quarterback that led RU to a 103d offensive ranking out of 133 teams.

Guess where the bulk of Stan Drayton’s third recruiting class is coming from this year?

Well, you won’t have to guess because we already know it’s JUCO but some Wednesday night must-see TV viewing comes on ESPN+ at 7 p.m. That’s where the Temple football recruiting plan will be unveiled for Owl fans to see on the Temple football signing show.

Whatever Drayton says, and it will be a lot, he will be holding a figurative drawing of a pig in one hand and a roll of lipstick in the other hand and trying to make the most of an ugly situation.

Bring a hanky because we might be witnessing the end of a once-great (at least in the Wayne Hardin years, some of the Bruce Arians’ years and most of the Al Golden and Matt Rhule years) program. Get ready to dab a view tears because, even from the few FBS-level recruits we do know of, there is no indication that the Owls got better in key positions.

Don’t give me Temple can’t get players because of the NIL because a lot of teams in the same NIL boat (South Alabama, New Mexico State, Troy, Ohio and Toledo) are getting enough players to thrive.

Temple should be able to do the same.

Let’s start with the MOST key position: Quarterback.

Unless Holy Cross quarterback Matt Sluka (who is still unsigned) walks through that E-O door in the next two days, it appears the Owls DOWNGRADED when their No. 1 offseason priority was to UPGRADE over E.J. Warner.

“Our E.J” (Drayton’s very words three weeks ago) appears to have made a lateral move within the conference when he was reported on Sunday to sign with fellow AAC member Rice. This comes a year after former Temple linebacker Kobe Wilson made a lateral move to another conference member. Huge statement by both Temple Owls on how they viewed Drayton’s possibility of future success here.

The bottom line in the Simon/Warner swap is that anyone with 20/20 vision the last time those two quarterbacks faced one another will tell you Warner, in his first collegiate start, was the better of the two quarterbacks that day in a 16-14 loss to Rutgers.

Warner only put up more impressive numbers as he got his feet wet. Simon flatlined and lost his starting job to a starting quarterback who could lead the Knights to a 103d offensive ranking of out 133 teams in 2023.

So, bottom line, was a coach with the pedigree of Greg Schiano thought the 103d-ranked quarterback was better than the guy Temple got.

That guy starts against Oklahoma on Aug. 31.

Unless Drayton can find Sluka’s phone number in the next day or two. (Hint: It’s in the Worcester, Mass. phone book.)

Friday: The Post-Game Show

12.15.23
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One headline we won’t be seeing about Temple football on Tuesday

All over college football on the early signing day, the headlines are going to be this team or that team had a terrific signing day.

This is the headline I’d like to see.

There is this team. There is that team.

And there is Temple.

“Temple has done a good job at filling needs so far in the transfer portal.” (We’ve already seen that about Georgia Tech, see above.)

We won’t be seeing that about the Temple football Owls. Maybe Pradva, a site run by a paid employee of Temple University, might have the balls to do it.

This is the TYPE of guy Temple needs badly.

We won’t unless we get the Albany quarterback, the Holy Cross quarterback or the Texas backup.

Without getting into names and there is no use doing that until the signatures are on the dotted lines, what would a great signing day for Temple look like?

Sign someone who is either an accomplished FBS starting quarterback or an accomplished backup, or a starter who put up BETTER numbers than E.J. Warner did at that position. Don’t as in DO NOT give me anyone who had as many interceptions as TD passes. (“Our EJ”–Drayton’s words three weeks ago–had 23 and 14, let that be the benchmark for the next QB.) Better yet, get me Albany starter Reece Poffenbarger or Holy Cross starter Matthew Sluka, two guys who are objectively significantly better than “our E.J.”

That’s priority No. 1.

The idea here is to get better and if Temple’s signing day on Tuesday looks a lot like the one it did a year ago, the Owls won’t be getting better any time soon.

Last year, if you’ll recall, the No. 1 priority in this space was to fix the running game by getting me a big-time back with big-time numbers. There was a Ball State running back available (Carson Steele, he went to UCLA), a kid from Western Michigan available (1,000-yard back Sean Ryan, who went to Minnesota), and a Liberty kid (Dae Dae Hunter) who entered the portal and never found a home. All had approximately twice the 2022 FBS yards as Temple starter Edward Saydee.

What did Temple do?

Sign a player, E.J. Wilson, who had half of Saydee’s yards at FIU. The reason was that he had a prior relationship with a Temple RB coach.

Weak sauce.

Great city, great school, once ESPN Game Day program, should be an easy place to bring big-time recruits to and not just guys who had prior relationships with current Temple assistant coaches.

I’m not real good at math but that’s how you get twice as worse and not twice as better.

The numbers pretty much reflected that in Temple’s brutal 2023 season. Wilson made no impact for Temple.

None.

This Tuesday, the bottom line is also the numbers.

If the Owls can bring in a FCS starting quarterback with better numbers than E.J. Warner, they are going to get better. If they bring in a FCS starter with single digit TD passes and more interceptions, they are going to get worse. There are quarterbacks from Holy Cross and Albany who can do WAY BETTER than that but, so far, there is no indication Temple is recruiting either of them.

If they don’t, they will be flirting with a one- or two-win season in 2024 and head coach Stan Drayton will be saying goodbye to his short head coaching career.

Speaking of Drayton, one of the stated reasons that Temple brought him here was that he was a terrific recruiter at places like Texas and Ohio State.

He has not been that here.

Since Maalik Murphy, the backup at Texas, was recruited when Drayton and athletic director Arthur Johnson were at Texas, you would think those two would do Temple a solid by bringing him to Philadelphia. If his relationship with those two and a definite starting job with the Owls isn’t enough, what are we paying those guys $4 million for?

You would think that but that’s probably not going to happen.

My prediction is that a lot of guys will be signed who had prior relationships with Temple football assistant coaches and not necessarily guys who put up impressive numbers in their prior spots. Watch the relationship and watch the numbers those transfers put up at their prior places.

If the numbers aren’t good and the relationships are, put two and two together, minus two more and you will get the record of the 2024 Temple Owls.

If, on the other hand, some big-time running back and a big-time quarterback who have NO relationship with the current Temple coaches get here, put two and two together and add two and you have a bowl contender.

Don’t hold your breath for that second scenario, though.

Monday: Holding My Breath

12.10.23
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Single digits=Single bullet for shooting self in foot

There are a lot of ridiculous things about the transfer portal but this one has hit home bad over the last five years.

Why does Temple continually shoot itself in the foot with single digits in the era of the transfer portal?

Enough is enough.

Temple TUFF is supposed to be a Temple thing.

Yet every year Temple guys with single digits hit the transfer portal. This year it was No. 3 E.J. Warner (and maybe Alex Odom (No. 0), although we hear he might be done with football in general. Edward Saydee (No. 2) also hit the portal.

Last year it was No. 9 Darian Varner.

On the first day of spring classes in 2021, Christian Braswell took his single digit number and skipped town for what he hoped would be greener pastures.

The then No. 2 took a No. 2 all over a Temple football tradition, the single-digit number.

Braswell wasn’t the first single-digit Owl to leave but he should have been the last.

Let’s give E.J. that honor.

The way to do that would simply be to tweak the rules and reward single digits only to seniors in the summer camp prior to their last seasons.

Four years ago, Quincy Roche took his No. 9 to Miami.

Braswell took his No. 2 to Rutgers, joining another single-digit, No. 8 Isaiah Graham-Mobley, who took his to Boston College.

Head coach Stan Drayton can and should end all of this now.

Unlike the transfer portal and the NIL, this is a problem that has a solution.

To me, there’s a lot to be said for the single-digit tradition but loyalty should be valued as much as toughness. There’s something annoying about watching a Miami game and hearing several times that “Roche is so tough, he earned the Temple single digit as an underclassmen.”

Same for Braswell. Same for IGM.

Did not see Varner play a down for Wisconsin but heard he did not play many.

Matt Ioannidis (left) and Tyler Matakevich were two of the most loyal single digits in Temple history

When you think about it, it’s a slap in the face to Temple that someone like that plays for someone else.

That should remain a Temple staple and the only way to do it under this present college football environment is to reserve it for seniors who have stuck with the program for their entire careers.

Reserve the single digit for Temple seniors so that no Temple single-digit guy ever plays for anyone else.

It’s the least Drayton can do.

Friday: 2024 Temple Success Depends on It

12.08.23
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Temple needs to game the system

You know how to get Temple fans excited? Bring in a better QB than E.J. Warner.

Evolution is a pretty good teacher only to students eager to learn.

College football has evolved.

In 10 months, we will find out if Temple’s coaching staff has learned anything from Darwin’s New Football Theory.

The No. 1 lesson should be that to succeed as a G5 college football program the answer is to forget the old model. The “old model” was recruit high school guys, redshirt them for a year, have them back up for another year and finally start around the third.

That doesn’t work anymore.

The first G5 coaching staffs to learn that lesson will survive. The others will become extinct.

Both the Albany and Holy Cross quarterbacks would be significant upgrades for Temple over E.J. Warner.

If your true freshman starts, you are lucky to have him for one more year. If your true freshman becomes a sophomore and draws attention, he’s gone before he gets to the third year.

Do Temple coaches either a) realize that fact or b) have a plan to counter it?

Quite frankly, early indications are that they have not but it’s never too late.

All we’ve heard so far is that the Owls signed a couple of JUCOs and are in the process of recruiting a third-team linebacker from North Carolina State.

Not good enough.

Holy Cross’ quarterback, Matt Sluka, is also better than E.J. Warner. Get him on the next train to 10th and Diamond.

The model the Owls have to follow is the one that made teams like Liberty, Troy and New Mexico State national stories this season.

Neither Liberty, New Mexico State nor Troy–all teams with similar or worse NIL resources as Temple–put together double-digit win seasons by grabbing third-team P5ers or JUCOs, which seems to be Temple’s approach. They put together very good G5 teams by ignoring the high school and the JUCO route and going straight to FCS football, which is a significantly higher level than both. They grabbed top players from very good FCS programs and those players had enough of a chip on their shoulders to thrive at a tick higher level.

The only way to fix this, Stan, is to get me a better quarterback than E.J. Warner. When I posted this on Facebook, OwlsDaily editor Shawn Pastor correctly pointed out that including last year’s Duke game, the tally without Warner is 130-14. Ugh. Tough job, but that’s why we are paying you the $2.5 million.

If Temple head coach Stan Drayton was smart, he’d make a special trip to the Temple vs. Albany basketball game on Sunday night and grab both their quarterback and defensive ends, three guys who are better than anyone the Owls had this season. Albany beat Villanova, 31-10, this season and there is no bigger Temple lover and Villanova hater than me but even I have to take the Cherry and White-colored glasses off and admit Villanova would have destroyed Temple this year given the roster and coaching makeup of both teams.

The Great Danes are led by QB Reese Poffenbarger, who threw for a pair of TDs and ran for two scores in a win over Richmond. Poffenbarger leads the FCS with 33 passing TDs and ranks seventh with 3,030 yards passing on the season. He’s a big reason why Albany averages 30.5 points per game this year. Albany’s defensive pressure has also helped produce an FCS-best 27 turnovers. What did Temple do worse than any other FBS team this year? Get turnovers. On defense, edge linemen Anton Juncaj and AJ Simon have combined for 26.5 sacks this year. The Great Danes lead all FCS teams with 47 sacks and they only give up 16.8 points per game.

Having all three be the same kind of package deal both P.J. Walker and Jahad Thomas were out of Elizabeth High would be a recruiting home run for Temple.

Our bowl picks. We played them both separately and in a parlay. If this 12-team parlay hits, a $10 bet returns $23,456.50 from Parx Casino.

Would Poffenbarger be an upgrade over E.J. Warner?

Most definitely.

Would he come to Temple?

Way more likely than, say, Ohio State’s Kyle McCord, who would probably give Temple a hometown discount.

Poffenbarger’s edge rushing teammates on the other side of the ball also could make an immediate impact on a Temple team starving for turnovers.

Getting guys who destroyed a team that would destroy Temple moves the Owls up the food chain by quite a bit.

Also, the Owls got Diwan Black from Florida last year and Florida has a number of highly rated recruits in the portal now. Use that resource of Black to develop a pipeline to Temple. Have Diwan recruit those guys. Diwan was a backup at Florida. He didn’t need a big NIL deal to sign at Temple.

It only figures that if Temple has Florida talent it has a better chance against Oklahoma on Aug. 31 than it does by wasting precious scholarships on JUCOs and high school talent.

Everybody says there is no shot a quarterback like McCord comes to Temple but McCord’s dad is loaded the family doesn’t need a big NIL deal. Would it hurt to reach out? No. Temple should at least TRY to upgrade from E.J. Warner’s departure. At least give the McCords a call. I’d grab the Albany quarterback first. If not him, then go after the Toledo quarterback or the Holy Cross quarterback.

Right now, by signing JUCOs and third-string NC State guys, it looks like they are mailing it in and, if that’s so, they are sealing their own severance paychecks.

Although we don’t know everything going on behind the scenes, the Owls need to aim for some P5 players who can make an impact or proven FCS guys.

Forget the high school and JUCOs. There is no time to gamble and Temple needs to reach for the stars. They don’t need to grab 25 but at least a dozen accomplished players would upgrade a roster that needs significant upgrading.

Monday: The Single Bullet Theory

12.04.23
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To be a TU fan now you have to believe in magic

Even Depressed Ginger, an Ohio State fan, is against the transfer portal.

Hell month in Tallahassee, Florida began on Sunday when Florida State football fans screamed bloody murder both on campus and in social media.

The Seminoles were left out of the four-team college football playoff and they have a point for wanting to be in there.

The second-leading tackler in Temple history gives his thoughts on the NIL and the transfer portal and his feelings pretty much reflect what every Temple fan is thinking today.

There was a lot of boo-hooing going on Sunday afternoon in the state capital of Florida.

I had to laugh because Florida State fans are going to be fine compared to Temple ones. They will go to the Orange Bowl with a 13-0 record against a Georgia team they can make a statement against. They have gobs of NIL money and will be able to retain 99 percent of their players for the forseeable future.

Hell for a month isn’t so bad.

Temple might have entered a period of five or less years of hell by comparison. The Owls don’t have money and probably won’t be able to keep nearly that percentage. They probably won’t be going to a bowl game.

Temple football fans are the ones I feel more sorry for and it extends beyond the logic than I am one.

Fixing college football is easy.

Actually doing it is hard.

Here’s one solution: Eliminate the NIL and to put all of the college football TV money is one pot, split it in two (50 percent for the schools and 50 percent for the players) and give an equal share to every single college football scholarship player. That way nobody on the No. 1 team makes more than anyone on the No. 130 team and everybody has an equal shot. Make the transfer portal active for any team that loses a head coach. Otherwise, 90 percent of the college teams have no chance to succeed and the sport will lose 90 percent of the fans of more than half their teams.

Those numbers aren’t sustainable for the sport overall even if the blue bloods in the sport refuse to admit it.

The fact that a head coach, even our own favorite Matt Rhule, is this involved in the NIL is a sad commentary on the state of college football today.

More importantly, no single player on any team makes more money than any other single player and that would eliminate the prima donna problem that exists in most locker rooms that didn’t exist, say, a decade ago.

That would also rebut the two arguments that started all this NIL and transfer portal nonsense: 1) If the coaches can move, the players should be able to (solved by a transfer portal for coaching changes); 2) The schools are making millions and the players also deserve a share.

Making it an equal share should make everyone happy.

Everyone, with the exception of the rich.

Kent State or Temple or Toledo would have a much better chance to compete against the Oklahomas, Ohio State and Penn State under those parameters.

You have a better chance of losing your free ride to college than you have of getting a single penny once you enter the portal. Those are the facts.

The Kent States and the Temple and Toledos don’t make the rules, though. The people who make the rules are the Ohio States, the Oklahomas and the Penn States. If it benefits them to “steal” players developed by schools like Temple, they will do it. They will take the best and leave the rest behind. Screw the kids who get talked into going into the portal. Seventy percent of them did not find a home and lost their scholarships last year. Who knows how many this year?

As long as this system benefits those who make the laws, the rest of us can go to hell and that’s where most of FBS college football fans are now. Certainly the G5 ones.

Excuse me if I don’t shed a tear for Mike Norvell or Florida State.

Friday: How Temple can succeed in this system

11.30.23
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E.J. Warner: Could haves and Should Haves

The fact that E.J. was concussed during this press conference probably led to him leaving Temple. Ironically, a “concussed” Warner made far greater sense here than a fully “cussed” Stan Drayton did in any of the press conferences.

When the history of Temple football of Temple football is written, and I have a sinking feeling that will come pretty soon, there should at least be one chapter titled: “Could haves and Should Haves.”

Maybe two.

One for players and another for coaches.

Stan Drayton has exactly nine months to close a 161-team gap in talent.

Not only for the 2023 season, but the program as a whole.

Had to laugh at all the “should haves, could haves” coming out of Stan Drayton’s press conferences in this abysmal 3-9 season.

Instead of blaming the guy who was in charge of the defense when both FIU (2021) and Temple (2023) imploded, he shook his head and blamed the PLAYERS for “misfits” after allowing 48 to Tulsa, 55 to SMU, 45 to North Texas and 45 to Memphis.

That finger should have been pointed inward, not outward.

No way could Saint Everett Withers be responsible for putting said players in terrible spots.

Sarcasm intended.

Now E.J. Warner is gone in the transfer portal and another set of should haves and could haves need to be raised today.

Had Temple gone out this offseason and got a big-time offensive line and a big-time running back in the transfer portal, would Warner be gone now?

Doubtful and there are a couple of clues.

The players wanted Matt Rhule and the administration gave him to them and they rewarded with consecutive 10-win seasons. The players wanted Fran Brown and they gave a big FU to the players and ended up with Rod Carey and Stan Drayton. There is a lesson in there somewhere.

His mom, Brenda, tweeted after Warner missed the North Texas game “I hate football but I love my son.” The hate comes from the fact that Warner’s bell was rung so much in the UTSA game that he had to miss the next two. E.J. had a big red mark on his far head for the final couple of games he game back to play. My educated guess at some point is that mom and dad discussed after the concussion that it was time to get Warner out of Temple before he got killed (figuratively speaking, of course).

Had Warner been protected sufficiently and Temple established a running game that would have contributed to at least a few more wins, the discussion could have changed.

Warner’s dad is worth $30 million. E.J. doesn’t need the NIL money. Playing in an NFL stadium for an improving team with a halfway decent offensive line and a viable running game probably would have been enough to make him stay.

Could have, should have but we will never know.

Check that, as Harry Donahue might say.

We will ONLY know what Drayton thinks about Warner leaving on signing day, Dec. 21, the next “media availability” for Drayton. That’s almost a month away.

E.J. Warner is headed to another school, my guess following Curt Cignetti to Indiana. Both should have been retained by Temple.

If this were any other big city with any other high-profile quarterback, the head coach of the city’s most prominent college football team would have already been interviewed and given his thoughts on the departure and plans to replace him.

Instead, nobody from the media cares and there is no demand among the fans of the few outlets who cover the team to get a quote or two from the coach.

In the same week, two former Temple assistant coaches were arguably the very best college football head coaching hires this offseason. On Tuesday, Fran Brown was hired by Syracuse and, on Thursday, Curt Cignetti was hired by Indiana. Brown was a defensive backs coach at Temple. Cignetti was a four-year QB coach at Temple.

When the Owls had head coaching openings, Temple players begged for both Cignetti and Brown to be hired and those pleas fell on deaf Temple administration ears. When it comes to Temple football, the Temple administration has dropped more balls in Sullivan Hall than anyone ever has at Lincoln Financial Field.

Amazing how Temple players begged the administration to hire four coaches in my lifetime: Cig, Matt Rhule, Phil Snow and Fran Brown and the administration gave a big FU to the players all but one time. That one coach the kids selected gave Temple a win over Penn State and an ESPN College Gameday.

Could haves, should haves indeed.

Monday: Do You Believe in Magic?

11.26.23
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Temple football: The Fix is in the building

Notice how New Mexico State lets the clock run down to 1 or 2 seconds before snapping the ball.

Just when you thought you’d witnessed everything there was to see in college football, the 2023 Temple football season rolled around.

Temple’s No. 1 priority is to find a RB in the portal who can put these kind of numbers up in 2024.

Then you remembered you saw something like this almost a decade ago and it wasn’t the end of the world because a certain coach had an Epiphany.

In 2014, Temple’s offense went to an up-tempo approach and finished with mediocre results: A 6-6 season and mediocrity wasn’t head coach Matt Rhule’s cup of tea.

So what did he do?

Go back to what worked when Al Golden laid the foundation of a winning program: A heavy run emphasis with a feature back behind a punishing offensive line.

Rhule alluded to the approach in a 2015 preseason interview in USA today:

It doesn’t mean a great quarterback can’t succeed with that approach because P.J. Walker broke all of the passing records at Temple BECAUSE opponents were afraid of the run and Walker was able to fake the ball into the belly of a talented runner, freeze the linebackers and safeties and complete easy passes over their heads.

More importantly, Walker, Rhule and Temple won. Rhule’s Temple TUFF approach on offense produced double-digit wins in Walker’s final two seasons, including a win over Penn State and an ESPN College Football Game Day appearance.

Now E.J. Warner has shattered all of Walker’s records without, really, anything to show for it in terms of wins.

Warner can continue to pad his remarkable legacy if stays for his final two seasons at Temple but add that Cherry on the top of the White and do what Walker did in his final two years.

Win.

Rhule left that blueprint somewhere in a dusty corner of the Edberg Olson Complex and it’s up to head coach Stan Drayton to find it. Rhule had a DC who actually knew that the key to shutting out high-powered offenses was to attack the opposing quarterback, cause sacks, strip fumbles and interceptions.

There was a reason Temple had the worst turnover ratio in FBS in the last 25 years and that was sitting back in a passive defense and not causing, for want of a better word, Mayhem in the enemy’s backfield. Speaking of Mayhem, Geoff Collins might not have been a great head coach here but he has proven to be a great DC at several stops and he’s not doing anything so Drayton should pick up the phone.

Here are the five fixes Temple needs to make this offseason:

One, fire Everett Withers and conduct a nationwide search to get the best FCS coordinator in the nation in here. Two, recruit a huge and punishing OL also from the FCS ranks of players in the transfer portal who would appreciate a Temple opportunity; Three, get a big-time running back who strikes fear in the hearts of opponents every Saturday, not just one Saturday a year. Four, recruit a couple of corners who won’t make the first pass of every game an 80-yard touchdown. Five, use the new clock rules to your advantage by running it down to the last five seconds of each play and limit your opponents’ plays (see the genius of the Jerry Kill approach in the video above).

Geoff Collins (here with Nadia Harvin) was in the building in March. He’s not doing anything now, has a defensive philosophy that would cause turnovers and is only a phone call away.

Joquez Smith was as great in one game (Norfolk State this year). Edward Saydee was great in one game (USF last year). Temple needs a running back who can rip off eight or nine 100+ yard games, not one a year. The Owls need a running back who is great every week, like Paul Palmer, Tarnardo Sharps, Kevin Duckett, Tom Sloan and Bernard Pierce were.

Drayton said on Saturday that “everything will be evaluated” and that includes the coaching. Rhule already did that heavy lifting for him.

Somewhere in the coaching offices at the E-O, there is a cheat sheet with the formula to win at Temple written right there in black and white, which are OK colors for game plans but not OK for uniforms.

The sooner Drayton finds it and implements it for his own program the sooner the winning will come.

Or the, err, Sooners will lay a 90-burger on the Owls sooner than you think.

11.20.23
by

Memphis looking for a new Philly tune

Stan Drayton’s seat can cool off considerably if he is able to win on Friday.

In about four days, Memphis’ football team will be trying to do something it hasn’t done in Philadelphia in nearly a decade.

Win a game.

They will enter Friday’s noon game (ESPN) has a 12.5-point favorite and the only surprising thing is that the oddsmakers see it as that close.

History plays into part of it, both recent and distant.

The distant part is that in 2019 Memphis brought into Philadelphia a team that eventually finished 12-2 and won the American Athletic Conference championship and lost, 30-28.

Two years later, the Tigers played a Temple team that openly rebelled against head coach Rod Carey in his final year and came away with a 34-31 loss.

One of the current players for the Owls, Amad Anderson, was the star of that game, taking a pitch and going 59 yards for a touchdown to seal it. Because a lot of key players for Temple hit the portal the prior year and many were threatening to do so the next, Carey’s hot seat was blazing by the final game of the season that new athletic director Arthur Johnson had to use an extinguisher to put out the fire. It was a costly piece of equipment as Temple is in the last year of paying Carey $2 million not to coach the team.

Our picks this week: Two in the bag already as another coach, Chris Creighton, at a much harder place to win than Temple (Eastern Michigan) delivers with another bowl season. Could not believe that EMU was getting 6 and they won outright.

The Temple team that beat 12-2 Memphis in 2019 finished 8-5. The Temple team that beat Memphis two years ago finished 3-9, while Memphis finished 6-6.

The last time Memphis won in Philadelphia, a familiar face here won it for the Tigers as current Eagles’ kicker Jake Elliott drilled a 31-yard field goal with no time left for a 16-13 win in 2014.

The recent history for Memphis is that the Tigers are 8-3 while the Owls have the exact opposite 3-8 record but the fact that Memphis “only” beat USF, a team that the Owls should have beaten, by 59-50 two weeks ago indicates the Owls might have an outside chance. Better yet, Memphis struggled to beat Navy, 28-24, and that was a team the Owls hammered, 32-18, three weeks ago.

The Owls can win. They probably won’t.

That’s only if they play a perfect game, no turnovers and no key penalties and, for Temple, that has been the biggest if of the season.

After a season of imperfection week after week, even envisioning that scenario seems preposterous.

Whether or not it sets the throne Drayton sits on ablaze is a story for another day.

Late Friday Night: Memphis-Temple Analysis

Monday: Season Recap