Tag Archives: Stan Drayton

01.12.24
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The two best portal decisions so far

One of the best Youtube channels (Mattbegreat) is reading my mind.

Playing the long game is an actual thing not specifically (in a sports sense) tied to the game of golf.

It also means a lot to at least two college football players who, at least in our mind, made the best decisions of the 3,639 college football who at one time or another this cycle entered the transfer portal.

As of 1:19 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 12, 1,132 players have made decisions according to the official NCAA transfer portal website. That leaves a lot of good players who won’t get NIL money and will be losing scholarships because of this misguided Ponzi Scheme that benefits only the top 10 percent of players at the expense of the other 90 percent.

That’s a lot of good players who can help Temple win an AAC title in 2024 but that’s a story for another day.

Only about two–at least from the high-profile cases I know of–made the most sensible call and those two are Tate Rodemaker of Florida State and Malachi Nelson of USC.

Both were highly rated quarterback recruits out of high school. Both landed at high-profile P5 programs. Both looked at their situations honestly and came to the conclusion that moving from the P5 to the G5 would be best for the long game.

Rodemaker started and beat Florida for Florida State, helping the Seminoles finish the regular season unbeaten. He opted out before the Seminoles’ bowl game with Georgia when it became apparent they were recruiting other quarterbacks. Then he signed with Southern Mississippi, a bottom tier G5 team, this offseason.

Nelson, the No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2022, decided to leave USC for Boise State, a G5 program. Nelson was a 5*.

Five stars don’t usually end up at G5 schools.

Until now.

“Unless I’m highly misinformed,” Matt be great said, “I don’t think Boise State is big in the NIL department.”

They may be a little more deep-pocketed than Temple, but Southern Mississippi is in the same small NIL boat (more like a kayak) and still got a guy who beat Florida wire-to-wire as a starting quarterback.

They were both playing the long game.

Matt Rhule said a great quarterback is going for $1.5 million on the NIL market. Generously speaking, Rodemaker and Nelson couldn’t have been offered more than $500K by a fellow P5 school (if that).

The fact that they left college NIL money on the table for a shot at more NFL money screams of a wise move with the long game in mind.

If Nelson is making $100K at Boise, we think that’s a lot. If Rodemaker is even making more than cost of attendance at Southern Mississippi (usually around $5,000), that would also be unexpected.

Playing the long game for both means finding a school, often on TV, that would offer them a sure thing starting job.

Boise State and Southern Miss could do that.

So can Temple for one of the few remaining big-name quarterbacks left in the portal.

Check that, as Harry Donahue might say.

So should Temple.

If Temple does nothing on the QB transfer portal front other than signing the backup quarterback for Rutgers, Stan Drayton is sending Temple football fans a clear signal.

“I’m playing the short game.”

One putt and he’s outta here.

At least with the $2.5 million Temple is paying him he can buy a lot of drinks for Everett Withers in the 19th hole bar on the day he’s fired.

Monday: Some stat numbers

 

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)

01.05.24
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What we once had at Temple: Fairness

A couple of years before Steve Conjar committed, Wayne Hardin put Temple football on the map.

Honestly, what Stan Drayton might see as light at the end of the tunnel some of us (raising my hand here) see an oncoming train.

Give Drayton at least some credit here.

Pretty sure the Temple job he signed up for nearly three years ago is not the same as it was back then. Hell, in three years it might be worse. Yes, there was a transfer portal back then but NIL didn’t exist and neither did tampering.

At one time none of that existed.

A story on one of the two greatest linebackers in Temple history appeared recently on social media and it was a reminder of both simpler and fairer times.

Emphasis on fairer.

Steve Conjar in my opinion was a better linebacker than Tyler Matakevich because it took him three years to compile pretty much the same number of tackles Matakevich amassed in four full years.

Loved them both because they loved Temple back.

In that story, Conjar explained that “bigger-time” schools backed off from him because of a high school injury but Temple was the one school that remained loyal and that’s why he remained loyal to Temple.

Now, nobody shows loyalty to Temple anymore with the number of great Temple players who have entered the portal.

Temple was one of only a few (and the biggest-name school) to recruit quarterback E.J. Warner. Instead of showing gratitude to Temple by honoring his commitment, Warner bolted for another school in the same conference.

Really, nobody shows loyalty to anyone anymore because even Alabama lost 12 players to the portal this week.

The two greatest linebackers in Temple history meet up post-game.

That can be a good thing because nobody in any power structure cares if the Temples of the world are getting screwed in college football but start screwing the Bamas and the Georgias and watch change come from the top down.

Change will never happen from the bottom up but there is hope from the top down.

All we have now is memories of what Temple did against other schools with bigger names when the playing field was level.

Now it’s tilted in a 180-degree direction with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Until the system backfires on the rich, nothing will change.

At least we had the Steve Conjar and Tyler Matakevich Eras.

Monday: Apples to Apples

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

12.29.23
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Kurt Warner admits E.J. blew it (kinda sorta)

“Those opps did not come, UNFORTUNATELY.”

_ Kurt Warner, talking about E.J. Warner’s “opportunities” after transferring from Temple

E.J. Warner blew it.

Without saying so, Kurt Warner pretty much said it in as many words the other day.

The word “unfortunately” (our emphasis) says it all.

It looks as though from that one-sentence quote above that Warner was looking for a Power 5 opportunity and had to “settle” for another team in conference, Rice, with the same goals and aspirations as the team he left, Temple.

If it was unfortunate to Kurt that “opps” did not come you’ve got to think that if that information was known before transfer portal time Warner might have remained put.

At best, it’s a lateral move because Temple has had much more success in the sport over the last 15 years than Rice has had. E.J. probably didn’t care.

Unfortunately is a very good word because unfortunately Temple took a huge public relations hit by Warner landing at a fellow conference team at least perceived to be no better than the one he left.

The website Crossing Broad said it was embarrassed for Temple that Warner left for Rice. Long-time college writer Mike Jensen also publicly scratched his head over the move.

Since ultimately the kid (and maybe not the dad) made the final decision, it’s on him. In his mind, Rice was better than Temple and maybe this bowl season backs him up.

You can tell a lot about the state of Temple football by watching these bowl games, even though the Philadelphia Owls haven’t been a participant in a bowl since four years and two days ago. The Houston Owls have been in bowl games the last two seasons.

On Thursday, 6-6 Boston College, the same team that squeaked by Bob Chesney and Holy Cross, 31-28, hammered a team that destroyed Temple, 55-0.

Just goes to show you how far Temple has fallen.

We as fans have seen it.

So apparently has E.J. Warner.

The same people who put a roster together capable of losing 55-0 to a conference foe are still in charge of putting the 2024 roster together.

The defensive coordinator who was in charge of the FIU defense when it allowed 39 points a game and the Temple defense when it allowed 38.7 ppg is still in charge.

Evan Simon is still the projected starting quarterback even though both Matt Sluka and Reece Poffenbarger are still in the portal and remained unclaimed.

Can’t give anyone the warm and fuzzies about TU’s 2024 chances.

Let’s hope E.J. didn’t make the right decision. Hell, I hope A.J. Padgett beats him out for the starting job and E.J. rides the pine for the rest of his career. It won’t make Temple look any better if E.J. shines there.

Right now, though, unfortunately, E.J. looks like he’s made the right decision. It’s up to Drayton to prove him wrong by bringing in a lot more talent than he already has. This current roster is about one dynamite quarterback and a half-dozen starters short of, say, Rice.

Monday: What’s The Holdup?

12.22.23
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Postgame Show: Temple’s Final Hail Mary

The most impressive thing about this video is Kevin Copp being at the E-O on 7 p.m. Wednesday night and in Hawaii by 2 p.m. Eastern time the next afternoon. Call him the Padre Pio of the Owls.

Unless something changes, it’s not hard to envision the final 30 seconds of Temple’s opening half at Oklahoma roughly nine months from now including a meaningless Hail Mary.

Evan Simon goes back to pass at midfield and before he gets a chance to throw, is swarmed under by a host of Oklahoma Sooners.

Temple runs off the field in Norman, down, 43-0, with the announcers saying the clock will run continuously in the second half.

Temple fans turn off the TV in disgust and head for a run or a bike ride on a beautiful August afternoon.

A couple of things COULD happen between now and then to make that halftime score more respectable–say, 28-13 instead of 43-0–but Wednesday night’s signing day show gave no indication that would be the case.

Just from watching Stan Drayton, I got the distinct impression this whole signing day was one big recruiting Hail Mary.

If this one falls incomplete, and Temple finishes with another three-win season, I could see the Temple Board of Trustees saying we don’t like the way college football is going and we’re not going to compete in it anymore. We don’t like paying a coach $2.5 million-a-year who got beat by 12 coaches over the last TWO seasons making LESS money.

Signing Darian Varner and Reece Poffenbarger would probably put Temple in the middle of this pack.

The ROI doesn’t make sense.

I’m somewhat surprised they haven’t come to that conclusion now but Drayton and the program have been given a stay of execution.

They don’t have good appeal lawyers judging from this recruiting class.

While all over the AAC teams were bringing in five to 10 Power 5 recruits and supplementing those by more FCS players and only one or two JUCOs, Temple signed more JUCOs than any other team in the conference.

It’s just not logical that JUCOs can beat guys who were recruited to win national championships but this is the logic Drayton and staff are going with right now.

There is a reason why the Alabamas and Georgias and Washingtons and Michigans have recruiting classes ranked near the top of the top 10 every year and finish in the same place on the football field. The highly ranked recruits produce on the field and the coaches who don’t give up 39.8 points-per-game in their last two stops–which Everett Withers has–tend to stop the teams they are playing.

So by going with JUCOs and sticking with Withers, Temple is throwing a Hail Mary pass.

A high wobbly dying quail and not the kind of tight spirals we’ve been used to seeing E.J. Warner tossing.

A couple of things can change that dynamic. Temple can get Darian Varner back because he has entered the portal and Temple’s biggest defensive need is putting the bad guys’ quarterback on his ass. Temple can also upgrade the quarterback position from Simon to Albany’s Reece Poffenbarger.

Unlike Simon, Poffenbarger can make big-time plays, avoid the rush and hurt teams with his feet. He entered the portal yesterday and probably the first team that shows him love will be shown love in return.

Does Danny Langsdorf even know that? Does Drayton?

We will soon find out if they can add a starting quarterback LIKE Poffenbarger or a pass-rusher Prodigal Son like Warner.

If they don’t, these great Temple fans will have to figure on doing something else on Saturday afternoons for the next 20 or so years. That’s probably how long it will take for college football to return to the old transfer and money rules.

By then, Temple could be NYU or The University of Chicago. A great school that once had a great football program.

Don’t let that happen, Stan and Danny.

Monday: Off for Christmas

Friday: From One Owl To Another

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