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