Tag Archives: football

11.24.24
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Russell Conwell’s clear-cut choice: Gabe Infante

Two-time national high school championship head coach Gabe Infante’s teams practiced at 12th and Cecil B. Moore, which makes him the very definition of Russell Conwell’s “Acres of Diamonds” in your own backyard.

Wasn’t able to get the seance with Temple University founder Russell Conwell I requested over the weekend but did the next best thing.

Read everything he wrote.

Then I had my answer to the question I was looking for: Who should be Temple’s next head football coach?

Conwell’s clear-cut choice:

Gabe Infante.

Even before Conwell founded Temple, he was best known as the guy who wrote “Acres of Diamonds.”

The Cliff Notes version of that story is about a Persian farmer who sold his property to search the world for diamonds only to return and find the old farm was full of Acres of Diamonds in his own backyard.

With this Temple football coaching search, that’s clearly Gabe Infante.

Ever since Matt Rhule left Temple after posting a pair of double-digit-win seasons, the athletic directors charged with replacing him sold their farms looking for Acres of Diamonds far and wide from 10th and Diamond.

Turns out, like the guy from Persia, the diamonds were already here.

Knowing he wouldn’t achieve his goal of being a college coach if he stayed in high school, Infante gave up his comfortable career and accepted Manny Diaz’s offer to be his first Temple assistant. He and Rod Carey didn’t get along (a plus for Infante and a minus for Carey) and Infante would up as a valuable assistant at Penn State. When the Lions’ defensive coordinator (also Diaz) took the head coaching job at Duke, Infante became the Duke assistant head coach.

Former Temple and current Buffalo Bills RB Ray Davis gave his opinion of Gabe Infante here.

Other than Indiana, Duke has become the feel-good story in college football this season and Infante has had a big role in that.

Much like Rhule, who had to leave Temple for a year of apprenticeship with the New York Giants, Infante acquired similar experience at both Penn State and Duke.

He’s ready.

I’ve never met Gabe, but, having covered Pennsylvania high school football since 1975 for both the Doylestown Intelligencer and Philadelphia Inquirer, I’ve gotten to know people I respect in the high school football world on both sides of the river and they all rave about him. Not a single one has said a negative word about his ability as both a head coach and a CEO of a program. The reviews about him as a person are even more glowing.

Not only that, in his two years as an assistant coach at Temple, he gained respect of the players.

Gabe Infante is a legendary high school football coach in Philadelphia.

I have seen plenty of his games when he was head coach at the Prep and his teams never jumped offsides, never had false starts and always made dynamic plays on special teams. Their offensive line sprinted to the line of scrimmage for every play. (No lie. Check the film.) They were more well-drilled than most college and NFL teams.

When Temple fired Stan Drayton a week ago, I initially thought it might be a good thing for Arthur Johnson to hire Geoff Collins because Collins is the only coach in Temple history to never have a losing season. The soundbite of Johnson saying “Ladies and Gentlemen, I reintroduce you to the only head football coach in Temple University history to never have a losing season: Geoff Collins.”

Would have been a classic line but Collins already had his time here and left.

This is Gabe Infante’s time.

Just ask Russell Conwell.

Friday: North Texas Preview

11.22.24
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UTSA game: An appeal to Chris Woods

When Everett Withers was fired at Texas State, Chris Woods took over the HC responsibilities. Now that Stan Drayton has been fired at Temple, Woods is the new DC. He could be the key tonight.

There are plenty of damn good coaches on the current Temple football staff.

If Temple was held back by coaches, we can identify three of them–head coach Stan Drayton, OC Danny Langsdorf and DC Everett Withers.

Unfortunately for the Owls, two of the bad guys are coaching tonight (ESPN2, 7 p.m.) when the Owls travel to UTSA.

One of the good guys is in charge of a third of the team and another good guy (Adam Scheier) is in charge of another third (special teams).

Withers is the interim head coach, but he has promised to stay away from the defensive and offensive play-calling and, if true, that’s a good thing.

That leaves a bad guy (Langsdorf) in charge of the other third (offense), so expect a lot 2-yard passes on third-and-7.

The Owls have looked putrid their last three appearances on major ESPN networks and the major reason was Withers, as his defense gave up 55 (ESPN) last year to visiting SMU and 51 (ESPN) this year at Oklahoma before completing the 50-burger trifecta two weeks ago in a 52-6 loss at Tulane (ESPNU).

One of the good guys will have something to say about the outcome and that is interim DC Chris Woods, who coached the most impressive Owl position group, the linebackers.

Our low/risk, high/reward, picks this weekend. Elijah Robinson’s Syracuse defense can’t stop a nosebleed, and UConn has the running game to punch them in the nose. If Nebraska can give Ohio State a game, so can former Temple assistant coach Curt Cignetti; Virginia is sneaky good at home and, if UCLA can win at Rutgers, the No. 24 team in the country certainly can.

My plea to Chris is this: Go down (or hopefully up) with your guns blazing. The Owls have been way too passive on defense this whole season under Withers. It is now time to bring the house, especially those talented linebackers.

Every third-and-long, do what Withers failed to do all season in allowing the Owls to yield 35 ppg: Put the opposing quarterback on his ass.

In this case, it’s Owen McCown, the son of former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Josh McCown.

McCown has fueled UTSA’s trip to a bowl game, which could be clinched tonight with a win over Temple. Even in a 46-45 loss to a Tulsa team that the Owls defeated, McCown was impressive.

Why?

Because Tulsa played soft coverages against him.

Temple has played soft coverages all season but that was never Woods’ call.

Woods was Bob Stoops’ DC for the Dallas Renegades in the XFL, where he was much more aggressive attacking the passer than Withers has been his whole career. Dallas led the XFL in sacks under Woods with 26, and a dozen of those were by linebackers.

Good news for Temple.

Temple has some very good players in defense, including linebackers Tyquan King and D.J. Woodbury, and it would be nice to see that kind of talent unleased sacking McCown instead of dropping back into coverage.

If Woods has the balls to do it, the Owls have a fighting chance.

If not, we will all know that Withers broke his promise and dabbled in the defensive play calling.

Late Tonight: UTSA Game Analysis

11.20.24
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The case against Elijah Robinson

Unlike many Temple fans, I’m going to take Fran Brown at his word.

As someone who recently took up the sport of kings, I learned pretty early in the process to stay away from Maiden Claiming horse races.

Reading the thumbnails on The Daily Racing Forum, some horses got better reviews than others on the basis of their pedigree.

Pretty good return on a $2 investment on Tuesday at Parx because I picked the four horses with the most wins. Arthur Johnson will cash at the Temple football coaching hiring window if he takes the same approach.

You’d never really know if they could win a race until they did.

Some never did.

I didn’t start to consistently finish in the black until I stopped betting Maiden Claimers and stuck to the Graded Stakes and Allowance Optional races.

That’s because I had a “past performance” record to go on and my formula of picking exotics based on how many past first-place finishes put me in the black. Not a perfect formula, but a pretty good one.

That works, too, with college football coaches.

The big-time programs don’t take a chance on career assistant coaches because there isn’t a “past performance” sheet to check and double check.

That’s not the only reason why Temple shouldn’t take a chance on Elijah Robinson (or his Syracuse staff mate, Jeff Nixon), but it is the best one. Robinson, a career assistant, is 1-2 as an “interim” head coach.

With Texas A&M talent. Doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies about what he might be able to do with Temple talent.

We were on record as being against the Manny Diaz and Stan Drayton hires BEFORE THEY WERE HIRED HERE for many of the same reasons we’re against any assistant coach, including Elijah Robinson and Jeff Nixon.

Here’s another: Every single great thing said of Robinson by an ex-player or ex-coach (or current one, even) was also said about Stan Drayton three years ago.

You know how that worked out.

Yes, Temple has had some success with assistants before, like Al Golden and Matt Rhule.

That was a different time and a different place in the college football world.

There was no NIL or transfer portal and an assistant could take the time to build a program from the ground up with high school recruits. Back then, you could recruit a high school guy, get him in the weight room, red shirt him and play him by his second season.

Nobody’s got time for that anymore.

You’ve got to get the transfer portal people to win right away.

An instantly recognizable guy with a winning record as a head coach not only would create the kind of excitement with the fan base that would drive NIL money into the program but might bring some of his own players from a winning team and inject that winning culture into Temple.

A guy like Scot Loeffler might bring players from Bowling Green. A guy like Geoff Collins might bring players from UNC.

Doubt very seriously Robinson (or Nixon) bring players from Syracuse.

Had Temple gone, say, for Jim Mora Jr. three years ago instead of Stan Drayton, do you think the Owls would be better off?

I certainly do.

Mora will have UConn–a team Geoff Collins beat 57-7–in two bowl games in the same three years Drayton had the Owls going 9-25.

Past performance is the best indicator of future performance and, with an assistant, there is really nothing to go on but hope.

Hope doesn’t get me to a bowl game but a guy who has proven he can win as a head coach and has Philly and Temple ties will. Go get a guy like that.

Friday: UTSA Preview

11.15.24
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Temple-FAU: A question of coaching

While the two teams will be playing at night in the fourth quarter, the crowd should be about 1/20th of this photo.

Not much to choose from a metrics standpoint in tomorrow’s FAU at Temple football game.

Plenty to choose from a coaching standpoint.

At one end of the ring, you have an AAC championship head coach in Tom Herman. In the other, you have someone who rose to success as a running back’s coach but no higher anywhere else.

The game between a pair of 2-7 teams (2 p.m., ESPN+) will come down to a question of coaching. Head coaching to be specific.

Temple’s been pretty stubborn in its approach all season.

On the offensive end, the Owls refuse to jumpstart a running game by using two tight ends and bringing more blockers to the point of attack than any defense can handle. Instead, the philosophy of OC Danny Langsdorf has remained stubborn: Use a short passing game to set up a running game.

The only problem with that is defenses don’t respect all of these ball fakes and RPOs without an established run game and you can’t establish the run game without utilizing at least two tight ends and maybe a fullback. That sense of urgency is heightened by the fact that there should be high winds the entire afternoon.

Tom Herman knows both of those facts. After nine games of watching Temple closely, we doubt that Stan Drayton does.

The key two words here are “gusty winds” and that means Temple has to devise a game plan to help Torrez Worthy establish the run by using two tight ends and a fullback. It won’t.

That’s not the only reason Temple, a two-point favorite, will probably lose.

On the other side of the ball, FAU is starting a new quarterback now that Marshall transfer Cam Fancher got injured.

Everett Withers’ philosophy on defense is to drop about 111 people into pass coverage and let the other quarterback run around and pick a receiver. (We’re exaggerating for effect, but we know that Withers, a former DB himself, would drop all 11 guys into pass coverage if he could.)

Our low/risk, high/reward picks for this weekend.

The way to attack a new starting quarterback is to blitz linebackers, particularly D.J. Woodbury, on third-and-long situations and Withers has an unreasonable reluctance to do that.

When at Temple, Bruce Arians said “the best pass coverage is to put the quarterback on his ass.” Arians should know. He was a starting quarterback at Virginia Tech only about nine years before he became Temple’s head coach.

You should know if Temple is going to win tomorrow by watching for two things.

One, a two-tight end offense that helps an immense talent like Torrez Worthy establish a running game. Two, a defense willing to send the house to sack the quarterback.

If you don’t see either by the end of the first quarter, Temple will lose.

That’s my guess because the Unholy Trinity of Stan Drayton, Danny Langsdorf and Withers has been way too stubborn in their approach while Herman can improvise and adjust.

It’s what championship coaches do and low-level assistant coaches don’t.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

Monday: Debunking an NIL Theory

11.09.24
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Time to make Wiesehan interim head coach

Unlike most of Drayton’s assistants, Chris Wiesehan knows the secret sauce to winning at Temple.

Safe to say that this will be the last time Temple football appears on a non-streaming ESPN network.

Maybe ever if the Owls decide to keep Stan Drayton around.

Getting that largest of the current G5 markets like Philadelphia certainly has its appeal but the last three appearances by a Drayton-led Temple team on a “regular” ESPN network has produced these results:

SMU 55, Temple 0 (ESPN)

Oklahoma 51, Temple 3 (ESPN)

Tulane 52, Temple 6 (ESPNU)

Enough is enough.

Arthur Johnson (rear, sitting) decides to fire Rod Carey (front) after a 49-7 loss to UCF which dropped his Temple record to 12-20. If he doesn’t do the same to Stan Drayton after a 52-6 loss to Tulane, John Fry should do the same to him. Drayton is 8-25. The numbers are the numbers.

That’s a lot of TV sets clicking off to other games by halftime.

That’s a lot of “regular college football Joes and Josephines” laughing at a great university.

If Temple University cares anything about its national profile, it should elevate offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan to head coach no later than Monday morning.

What does that accomplish?

A couple of things:

One, athletic director Arthur Johnson gets to keep his job for maybe one or two more years. Johnson was the guy who brought in his friend, Drayton, to be the head coach and it hasn’t worked out. Firing that friend will show new Temple president John Fry he is not wedded to that decision and able to separate his personal feelings about the guy from a business decision.

Two, it gives Temple a chance to see if the formula that worked for Troy could work here. When West Virginia plucked Neal Brown away from Troy, the Trojans looked around and said, “we only need a guy who knows Brown’s formula for winning here.” Jon Sumrall was that guy. At Temple, there is no guy on the staff who fits that description more than Wiesehan. He was here when Matt Rhule won here. He was here when Geoff Collins won here.

Chris Wiesehan was here when the Owls won under two head coaches. He’s seen all of the mistakes under this one and is the best hope now to reverse those before the end of this season.

He knows the secret sauce to winning here. If he’s able to stir that sauce with this pot, beat FAU and North Texas, then the Owls have their man.

If not, they have to look elsewhere.

What we do know at this current stage is keeping Drayton around for one more day does nobody any good.

No bigger Temple football fan than me, but I’ve checked out on the season. I’m not going to the final two home games. I imagine many of the other loyal Temple fans like me have come to the same conclusion. Hell, after seeing the effort against Tulane, I think a lot of the Temple players have already checked out.

Why Wiesehan now? Temple has to rid itself of the Unholy Trinity of Drayton, OC Danny Langsdorf and DC Everett Withers, the most responsible people for this mess. Wiesehan can name Chris Woods DC and Tyree Foreman OC. Temple needs to get back to a Temple TUFF running game and if they need to use two tight ends to help out Torrez Worthy, then that’s what must be done. This RPO stuff without the threat of a running game won’t work. On defense, they have to get after the quarterback. Withers’ philosophy of dropping 87 people into coverage never worked anywhere.

A new coach like the popular Wiesehan would be enough for me and a lot of other fans to change our minds. This is a guy the players can rally around as well.

With Drayton, there currently is a malaise in the program.

After nearly three years, Drayton is 8-25 without a single road win. Johnson fired Rod Carey after going 12-20 with multiple road wins.

Given that specific backdrop, firing Drayton now would not only be the fairest outcome but would give Temple a better look at the picture going forward.

The current picture is more than a little fuzzy and Johnson needs to move the antenna around or risk being removed from the screen himself.

Monday: Coverage of the firing press conference?

11.07.24
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Temple-Tulane comes down to a question of trust

This could have been at 12th and Norris had Lewis Katz had not gone way too soon.

Back in 2014 when Temple was beating Vanderbilt on the road, 37-7, fellow AAC member Tulane was opening Yulman Stadium.

It was a 30K on-campus stadium for a school used to playing in a big NFL stadium and it revitalized campus life and the football component.

In Philadelphia at the same time, Temple’s Board of Trustees was going in the same direction, approving a 35K on-campus stadium that had all the same intentions of Yulman Stadium, only bigger and better. Yulman was a big-time donor.

On Memorial Day of that same year, Lewis Katz died in a private jet crash.

What Yulman was to Tulane, Katz was to Temple.

Who knows?

Jon Sumrall is a great head coach. Stan Drayton is not. Temple needs a guy like this.

Maybe the Temple Stadium would have been named Katz Stadium and maybe Temple’s upward trajectory would have continued well past the Matt Rhule years.

Now Katz is gone Temple plays Tulane on Saturday (4 p.m., ESPNU). Katz had a lot to do with both the hiring of Steve Addazio (bowl winner) and Matt Rhule (AAC conference champion) as the head of the athletics committee at Temple both times.

Had Katz lived, do you think he would have hired guys like Geoff Collins, Manny Diaz, Rod Carey and Stan Drayton?

I don’t think so but we will never know.

Saturday’s game comes down to a matter of trust.

Do you trust Temple with Drayton and his sieve-like DC Everett Withers or do you trust a guy who made Troy a national power (Jon Sumrall)?

Not a betting man when it comes to the school I love but, if I was, I would lay the 25.5 points on the Green Wave and not blink an eye.

At Troy, Sumrall was a guy like current Temple OL coach Chris Wiesehan–an assistant who had the blueprint of success at that school drawn up by current West Virginia head coach Neal Brown. Wiesehan has all the secrets of Geoff Collins and Matt Rhule, two guys he worked under, at Temple.

When Brown went to the Moutaineers, Troy said, hey, we have a diamond in our own backyard in Sumrall. We don’t need to go elsewhere.

Sumrall took those receipts and made Troy better.

Now he parlayed that into a better job at Tulane, bringing with him his DC and OC and faces a RB head coach in Drayton and a DC who hasn’t been able to stop anyone in the last two decades. It’s Homecoming there. In a packed on-campus stadium that revitalized Tulane football from a few thousand fans rattling around the New Orleans Superdome to a college experience students will remember the rest of their lives.

Tulane went out and hired a head coach who proved he could get it done.

As a head coach, not a running back coach.

Who would you take?

I’ll be rooting hard for my team but I don’t trust my coaches. Have no doubt that my kids will play hard but I don’t see a DC who has ever believed in putting the other quarterback on his ass to my satisfaction. In fact, he lets every QB Temple faces pick his defense apart. Bruce Arians famously said while head coach at Temple that the best pass defense is putting the other quarterback on his ass. Everett Withers’ philosophy is to drop way to many guys into pass coverage and never risk sending way too many guys to force sacks and fumbles.

That’s a passive defensive philosophy and definitely not Temple TUFF.

Hate to say this, I trust the bad guys’ coaches a lot more.

Tulane 48, Temple 10 is about the right prediction. Praying for Temple to win, 24-23, but God might be saying: “Mike, hey, I’m God, but I can only do so much.”

Late Saturday Night: Tulane game analysis

11.03.24
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Will Temple have a press conference if it finishes 2-10?

Stan talks about the American Conference here but doesn’t make any promises about the bottom line.

Even though Temple football didn’t play over the weekend, the results on the field elsewhere in the American Conference don’t paint a rosy picture for the bottom line.

Tulsa, a team Temple beat, was manhandled by a bad UAB team. UTSA, a team that some thought was a possible win down the line, beat Memphis in the same stadium the Owls have to visit.

So the Tulsa win may have been overvalued and, while the team might have had thoughts of a win at UTSA, that becomes less likely by the way the Roadrunners looked against Memphis.

Two and 10 is a definitely possibility now and you’ve got to wonder if Temple will even do what “normal” schools do when a coach goes 3-9, 3-9, and 2-10: Hold a press conference and bring in another head coach.

That’s not a given.

Drayton was optimistic going into the season as the above video shows but the results are the results.

“I’m excited about this football team,” Drayton said three months ago. “This off-season we were able to put together a roster that enhanced our football team.”

That may be so, but the bottom line is the bottom line. You have to win. Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.

Why is Temple 2-6 if the roster is enhanced? Doesn’t that seem to imply it is the coaching?

“We had some major voids in the defensive line and the offensive line,” Drayton said back in July. “We’ve gotten bigger. We’re not trying to find excuses. We’re setting some standards that are really high.”

The Owls head to Tulane, which has only lost to Oklahoma and Kansas State, as 25.5-point underdogs. Tulane probably is the most physically talented team the Owls will have faced all season, with the possible exception of Oklahoma.

IF … and this is a big IF … the Owls have one win left in them, it looks like maybe a home win against FAU but Tom Herman also is thinking the same thing about Temple.

Drayton can avoid that departing press conference by beating FAU, UTSA and North Texas but now that seems as likely as those teams beating Alabama, Georgia and Texas.

The gap appears to be that large.

A normal school would have a press conference to say something to the effect that Drayton is a great guy but the number on the left hand side of the win column never exceeded the number on the right side and that’s why we have to move on.

It will be impossible to sell any season tickets coming off 1-6, 3-9, 3-9, 3-9, and 2-10 years. The crowds have eroded from respectable to nearly non-existent over those years. This is a fan base that got used to going to bowls on a regular basis between 2009 and 2019. These fans can take one or two years of building, but not five consecutive ones.

You know that. I know that. The question is, “Does Temple know that?”

Or does Temple even care?

While that press conference three months ago was nice, the one at the end of the year appears to be a necessity now.

Friday: Tulane Preview

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

10.27.24
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Temple should make a big splash with new hire

Jon Gruden wants to coach a G5 team and his familiarity with Philly and Temple would benefit both.

Good Temple showed up against Tulsa on Homecoming but “same old Temple” showed up on Saturday at East Carolina.

The same old Temple that we saw for the last six years under Rod Carey and Stan Drayton, that is.

Buffalo Bills’ running back Ray Davis called Gabe Infante the best coach on the Temple staff when he was here.

The good Temple comes out once or twice a year and that’s not enough.

Carey was fired after a 12-20 record and three years. Drayton is 8-24. If Temple is going to intellectually consistent, it also has to fire Drayton.

There’s no bigger Temple football fan than me–it’s my favorite sports team by far–yet I’m not going to another game this season. It breaks my heart too much to watch this train wreck.

So we’ve moved on and so should Temple. ECU moved on last week by firing Mike Houston. Rice moved on Sunday by firing Mike Blomgren.

If Temple wants to hire an assistant, Chris Wiesehan would be a great fit since he was successful here under two bowl coaches, Geoff Collins and Matt Rhule and knows what it takes to win here.

Got to wonder why Temple is sitting on its hands while other schools read and react. Maybe the administration is waiting for Drayton to change his first name to Mike.

Should Temple go big splash or local ties?

Better to do both.

After bringing in a successful head coach from the Midwest and an assistant coach from Texas, the priority should be to bring someone who has been a successful head coach here at some level.

Or at least understands the Philadelphia and Temple culture.

Geoff Collins wants to come back. Any coach who is 2-for-2 in winning seasons at Temple should be welcomed back like a Prodigal Son.

That means no more assistant coaches because hiring an assistant coach is a crapshoot and Temple needs a sure thing.

That’s why we’ve eliminated all assistant coaches from our list, including esteemed Fran Brown assistant head coach Elijah Robinson at Syracuse.

Brown was perfect for here, Robinson doesn’t have Brown’s effusive energy. They are two different personalities. One is extroverted. One is introverted. While they complement each other perfectly at Syracuse, only one type would succeed at Temple.

Temple needs an extrovert.

Do you go for a big splash like Jon Gruden, who knows Philadelphia and Temple from being here as a long-time assistant coach with the Eagles or do you go the Manny Diaz direction and pluck his Duke assistant head coach Gabe Infante, who was a big-time successful state champion head coach at nearby St. Joseph’s Prep?

To me, you can’t go wrong with either hire.

Temple has the I-95 and I-76 billboards ready just in case Gabe Infante says yes.

Infante isn’t going to make “learning on the job” mistakes like Drayton does nor is he going to be a “my way or the highway” guy like Carey was. Manny Diaz, with assistant head coach Infante’s help, is pulling at miracle at Duke this season.

Gruden said in a story published in August he was open to taking a Group of Five head football job and wanted to make that school a winner.

Temple is a G5 coaching job that Gruden is very familiar with.

Down the line, Geoff Collins also falls into the “sure thing” category for what Temple is looking for now because he knows how to win here, loves it here and his kids played hard for him.

Geoff Collins had the Owls practicing 365 days a year, including this one in the snow on 2/17/17. Stan Drayton took a two-week vacation in Houston the middle of this summer. Wonder why there are so many illegal formations, shifts and false starts? You can start with practice, practice, practice.

In Collins’ first season at Temple, he went 7-6 and won a bowl game. In his second, he went 8-5 and handed ranked Cincinnati an overtime loss. Collins has sent messages through back channels saying he wants to come back.

After three years of Carey and three years of Drayton, I will take the Capri pants and Mayhem every Saturday.

Hell, Troy football became real good for a couple of years when it hired Neal Brown’s assistant coach, Jon Sumrall, because Sumrall had the Neal Brown blueprint of success. If Temple is going to go the assistant coaching route, then Chris Wiesehan, who was a successful assistant here, has all of the Temple success secrets of both Collins and Matt Rhule.

Another possibility with head coaching experience include Sam Houston State’s K.C. Keeler, who knows Philadelphia and is a winner.

Me?

Go for Gruden and the big splash or get a guy like Gabe Infante who is a proven winning head coach and has all the local connections he needs to win here, just like he’s won everywhere.

Let Rice and ECU pick a running back guru for those jobs.

Temple should get a proven winning head coach.

10.24.24
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Can Temple football make a historic run?

People a long way away from Broad and Montgomery are noticing TU plays hard for Drayton.

Something is definitely happening with Temple football in the past few games.

The trend is definitely upward but there are still areas of concern like penalties and, more importantly, the ability to run the football.

Our master plan of turning $7 into $570 is two down and 10 to go and we don’t have to throw one ball out of bounds against UAB to do it.

The Owls seemed to have cleared up their turnover problem when they inserted Evan Simon as the starting quarterback for both Coastal Carolina and the Utah State games and Simon, despite playing three less games than E.J. Warner, has proven to be an upgrade over the son of the NFL Hall of Famer.

There’s no doubt that they play hard for Stan Drayton and others seemed to have noticed (see the above video).

Simon has 10 touchdown passes to three interceptions, while Warner has the same number of TD passes but nine interceptions–two that went for touchdowns. Simon’s passer rating is also double that of Warner.

Going into the season, nobody thought Temple upgraded the QB position, but the sample is large enough to now believe that Simon is a better quarterback than E.J. Warner. He is certainly better than Forrest Brock.

Now the question that begs to be asked: Does Temple go on a historic run starting on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+) at East Carolina?

To me, unlike the above video, a historic run would be one of two things: One, win them all or, two, win all of the rest with the exception of at Tulane.

5-7 has no particular appeal to me nor would it be historic.

A 6-6 or 7-5 record would.

Winning Drayton’s first road game as a Temple head coach would go a long way to answering that question.

Certainly, Vegas doesn’t believe in the Owls but that’s nothing new. Temple was a 6.5-point underdog but beat Utah State, 45-29.

These Owls are 7.5 dogs but are on the road and the nation doesn’t believe Drayton can win a road game.

Maybe this might be the time. It’s a tough environment but Temple teams have won there before.

ECU’s Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Would be nice to have this at 12th and Norris.

I’m not making any predictions, but I think this is no more than a field goal either way and Temple in 2024 has the best field goal kicker in the country, just like it did it 2012.

ECU has a new head coach and a lot of people think this will infuse energy into the Pirates. Maybe it will but maybe there will be a “Temple effect” with that hire. For the past three years, Temple has suffered Drayton learning to be a head coach on the job and maybe this is ECU’s turn as its head coach has never been a head coach on any level before.

Let the bad guys have a coach who makes first-time mistakes for a change.

That’s the hope.

Temple is only one of two ESPN+ games in the 2 p.m. window. Win, and get a great home crowd for FAU. That’s 8 a.m. Hawaii time. 🙂 Click over above image for a more readable view.

The Owls may have found their feature running back in Torrez Worthy. Feed the beast the ball and, even if he gets a lot of 2- and 3-yard carries, he’s eventually going to break one.

When he does, the offensive game plan should be to fake it into his belly and hit guys like Antonio Jones, Zae Baines and Dante Wright on the run.

Defensively, get after the passer and trust technique on pass defense. No face guarding and go after the ball, not the man, in the air.

None of that has been done to any Temple fan’s satisfaction so far but the Owls have fought and that’s the first step.

The next one is to get Drayton his first road win, run over to the Temple fans in the stands and sing T for Temple U after the game.

Only then make the move for the locker room and the larger celebration that will ensue.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis