Tag Archives: Maalik Murphy

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