Tag Archives: news

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?

10.20.24
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How about restoring the T for Temple U tradition?

The 2024 team could learn a lot from the 2016 team and this is how the players sung T for Temple U after a big win over USF that year. This is a tradition both home and away after every Temple win.

Since I haven’t been around for many wins over the last three years and missed this year’s Utah State game in person, decided to saunter on down to hear the team sing “T for Temple U” after the 20-10 win over Tulsa on Saturday.

After football wins for as long as I can remember, the team breaks out into a loud “T for Temple U” rendition joining the band after the alma mater.

The alma mater is the B side.

Here is Temple running back Montel Harris leading the 2012 team in a post-game rendition of “T for Temple U” in front of the Temple band who made to to Army that day. Harris had 351 yards and 7 touchdowns in that game.

T for Temple U is the A side.

I should have known better.

The team dutifully hung around to hear the school band sing the alma mater and swung to and fro but when the band fired up T for Temple U the team rushed off into the locker room.

Geez, got to stick around to sing T for Temple U with the band and fans.

Heck, even in road games, the players themselves sang the song “A Cappella” and the fans sung along.

When did that change?

The most important part of this video is from the 2:04 mark on. Notice the players getting into it.

I know it’s a little thing, but someone has got to tell Stan Drayton to keep the troops around for the most enjoyable post-game tradition at Temple.

Two songs, not one. The second song is the most important one. The alma mater is the appetizer. T for Temple U is the main course. Don’t go to a 5-star restaurant, pick at the salad and get up and leave.

Maybe getting out of the habit of winning got them out of that habit of celebrating but both habits are something that need to bridge the current and the past. Drayton needs to get with his leadership council tomorrow and mention, hey guys, we plan to win Saturday and, after winning, let’s enjoy the experience with the fans who bother to make the trip.

Another crazy thing about Saturday was the stupid white helmets. They look horrible and are not Temple helmets. Besides the odd look, they have numbers on them and that’s department of redundancy redundant. The players have the numbers on the front and back of their jerseys. They don’t need numbers on the helmet. Also Saturday was the day that the school honored the 1979 Garden State Bowl champions.

How about playing that game wearing the same exact uniforms, including the iconic Cherry “TEMPLE” helmets?

Would that have been too much to ask?

No.

For now, though, I’ll settle for restoring the long tradition of the football team singing T for Temple U with the fans and not just inside the locker room afterward.

Friday: ECU Preview