Tag Archives: Stan Drayton

07.15.22
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5 Individual Owl achievements that can happen

In Darvon Hubbard, the Owls have a big-time SEC recruit from Texas A&M who should, combined with a veteran offensive line, significantly upgrade the running game.

Hard to believe, Harry (Donahue, in this case) but after three years of despair, it’s not hard to see some Temple football Owls making a mark this season.

After all, all the cheering in the practices in the snow and the weightlifting at the E-O have signaled an all-for-one, one-for-all atmosphere around the $17 million Edberg-Olson Complex we haven’t seen since the first year of the Geoff Collins Era.

That team, arguably a nine-win squad, still did the university proud by winning seven games and taking home a bowl title.

Former Virginia Tech starter Quincy Patterson probably beats out former Georgia starter D’wan Mathis to give Temple the deepest 1-2 quarterback punch in the AAC this season.

Underachieving is not an option this year.

Regular achieving?

In this space, we’ve set the bar at six wins.

Hard?

Sure.

Impossible?

Definitely not.

Since the team is the sum of the individual parts, we can see five things happening on that level that lead to a team success.

Now, mind you, we’re not predicting them, but can definitely envision them:

One, Quincy Patterson becomes a first-team all-league quarterback. Sean Hennigan of Memphis, really, is his top competition but a guy who heard pass-rushing footsteps against a 3-9 Temple team certainly is vulnerable against a guy who once led Virginia Tech to a double-overtime win against North Carolina. Patterson, in my mind, has the “it” factor that both P.J. Walker and Adam DiMichele had. I hope I’m right.

Two, Isaac Moore, Adam Klein and Victor Stoffel take things personally. All three of these players were outstanding for Chris Wiesehan under Collins and the return of their coach revitalizes the Temple offensive line. Moore in particular signaled the end of the Rod Carey Error a year ago today when he was quoted in OwlsDaily.com as saying: “It’s Temple. You cannot lose here. Everyone knows that.” (That was in response to a question about a rare 1-6 season at Temple.) Wiesehan, who did not experience a losing season in his prior years at Temple, was considered by many an outstanding candidate to get the job Stan Drayton did and that’s because many current Temple players went to bat for him. Reason? He had pretty much this same talent operating on a much higher level under Geoff Collins. That would lead to the next achievement.

Three, Darvon Hubbard gains 1,000 yards and scores at least 10 touchdowns. Hubbard was a three-star Texas A&M recruit for a reason and it was because it was a state champion 100-meter guy who also maximized his carries on the high school football field in Arizona. With less than 100 carries, Hubbard had over 1,000 yards in his senior year in high school football. That’s a lot of yards per carry. If he does the same against AAC competition, the Owls more than double their run production next year. Hubbard will probably be the best transfer running back Temple has had since Montel Harris scored seven touchdowns in a single game in 2012.

Amad Anderson is definitely the best Anderson at wide receiver since Robby (celebrating with the great Temple fans here the win over Penn State) caught clutch passes at Temple in 2015.

Four, Adonicis Sanders and Amad Anderson exceed the production of Jadan Blue and Randall Jones. Sanders, who caught the game-winning touchdown pass against Duke last year, could do the same this year. Anderson was a productive starter at Purdue before coming to Temple. Their collective target? The four touchdowns and 661 yards Blue (now at Virginia Tech) and Jones combined for last year. I will bet $20 against any Temple fan at the season-ticket-holder party who wants to take me up on that.

Five, the Owls as a team get more sacks (16+) this year than they did last year (15, 105 yards in losses). North Carolina transfer Xach Gill (who didn’t play last year) is a significant upgrade inside and Layton Jordan is an improvement outside. Kentucky transfer Jerquavion Mahone (who did play last year) needs to improve on the inside and surprisingly Dyshier Clary is listed as a DE starter on the other side ahead of Darian Varner and Evan Boozer, who both have good motors. That’s pretty good DE depth.

If a team is the sum of its parts (and it is), the parts point to better production. Does that equal 2x the wins?

That’s a math question even Albert Einstein would be hard-pressed to answer but the across-the-board improvement we see in mid-July seems to support the hypothesis.

Monday: What They Are Saying …

06.27.22
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Drayton makes the call to Temple fans

As if he didn’t have enough work to do, new Temple coach Stan Drayton was given another task by the Temple administration last week.

Making phone calls.

Like the calls to recruits and portal transfers and other coaches, the latest calls were just as important.

Maybe more important.

TFF would like to thank a player from the Al Golden Era, Matt P., whose generous donation enabled us to purchase a printer for this site. Copying down info on recruits by hand was really time-consuming and now going forward this speeds up the process of gathering stats and other information for the site. All donations to TFF go back into the website, paying for things like copyrighted photos and site hosting and, now, a TFF printer. Thanks, Matt.

Drayton called a hefty number of fans who had been season-ticket-holders but for some reason or another decided to put the money away the last two years.

The diplomatic reason is COVID but I suspect the real reason Temple season tickets dropped particularly last year was the abysmal performance of the prior coaching staff.

Notice we didn’t say “team” because the kids who left for other teams depleted the talent level on the roster so much so that the kids who were left behind couldn’t compete.

I got a little taste of what was to come at the 2019 tailgates when several parents mentioned to me at post-game tailgates, “Mike, nobody likes the guy (Rod Carey) and everyone wants out.”

If that was in the late stages of an 8-5 season, you can imagine the patience completely ran out after 1-6 and 3-9 seasons.

It’s apparent Drayton has stopped the bleeding of players out the door, welcomed a lot of good players into the program and is liked by the team, all the while instilling discipline necessary to compete at a high G5 level.

You need players and coaches committed and Temple has that.

The last piece of the puzzle is fans and Temple must show the rest of the college football world that the buzz around the program extends beyond the practice facility and into the stands.

With those phone calls, it’s apparent Drayton understands what’s needed and a personal appeal to the Prodigal Son fans is an excellent way to start.

Getting the Doubting Thomases, though, back into their seats requires a win at Duke and, if Drayton understands the first three pieces of the puzzle (as he’s demonstrated), he surely understands what he has to do next.

Friday: Decrafting the schedule

Monday: Honeymoon Period

06.17.22
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Temple football: Follow the money

Temple took a gamble by making the Sept. 17th game with Rutgers homecoming rather than the more winnable UMass game a week later. Temple has not had less than 32,000 for a homecoming game in any non-Covid years for the last decade and the gamble is a win over RU would make those fans come back for a Homecoming-like crowd against UMass.

Anyone who followed those great detective shows of the 1960s can relate to this way of solving a crime.

Some police Lieutenant, say Columbo or Kojak, would put the clues together like a puzzle and the final piece would be revealed in the final act pointing to the killer.

Often, but not always, money was involved.

Nobody knows how this Temple football story currently being written by the staff of new head coach Stan Drayton ends but the pieces in the puzzle are pointing in the right direction.

Drayton has upgraded the Owls’ talent by way of the transfer portal in a way not even Matt Rhule was able to, let alone Steve Addazio, Geoff Collins or Rod Carey did.

Definitely, the stock of the franchise is up but, just looking at it from a money perspective, Temple football has appeared to have flatlined over the last decade or so. Does that mean the Owls have peaked? No, because there is more money coming into the program.

If Temple had been able to sustain this average after 2015, we’d be talking about the Owls in the Big 12 and not, say, Houston.

Shawn Pastor of Owlsdaily.com did the most impressive digging we’ve seen since the TV series Six Feet Under to come up with how much the football program has made over the last decade.

Not surprisingly, the Owls had a good year in the Big East, raking in $5.3 million in 2012-13. That year was highlighted on the field by a 17-14 win at 5.5-point favorite UConn and not much else.

Since then, though, the numbers have been surprisingly consistent in the American Athletic Conference years:

2013-14: $4.8 Million

2014-15: $3.4 Million

2015-16: $4.6 Million

2016-17: $4.9 Million

2017-18: $5 Million

2018-19: $4.5 Million

2019-20: $5.9 Million

Those above numbers reflect Temple’s cut from the conference alone. Gotta think the 2015 games against Penn State and Notre Dame enriched the coffers even more and, to be fair, the Owls probably lost money by Pat Kraft’s decision to bring Wagner here. Looking forward, though, somehow, with the $54 million settlement the AAC has made with the three departing schools–Houston, Cincinnati and UCF–Temple and the leftovers are in for somewhat of a windfall making this upcoming season the best for football revenue ever.

Now it’s up to the university to spend the money wisely. Spending money to make money probably is the way to go with an aggressive advertising campaign designed to put butts in the seats.

More butts in the seats mean not only more money flowing into the coffers but a signal that the product is worth buying. The best way to put those butts in the seats is to win and, at least so far, all the clues point to Drayton handling that end well.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a detective to figure that out.

Monday: Temple on TV

06.13.22
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Media a willing partner in denigrating the G5

Good luck finding any Group of Five college football content on the internet these days.

Not that there isn’t plenty of college football content, just not any college football content mentioning the larger half of the teams currently playing FBS ball.

A great segment on 60 Minutes would be the Power 5 schools working to eliminate the G5 schools.

Josh Pate of CBS Sports seems to have the most popular YouTube channel and the titles are just slightly misleading, including “CFB Expectations” and “Most Important CFB Players in 2022” and “Boldest CFB Predictions.”

Pate probably should drop “CFB” and rebrand each video “Power 5” because he never mentions any of the G5 teams in expectations for the 2022 season. Or any player from the G5 although at least one G5 player has been a first-round NFL draft pick since the G5 came to be. Surely, there are important football players on G5 rosters, too.

I mentioned that to him recently with this exchange:

His guess wouldn’t be my guess.

Every rule the Power 5 forces the NCAA to enact works against the existence of the G5.

My guess is that he would say it’s because there’s “more interest and more clicks” with Power 5 stories and he’s got a point there but there are other larger stories the media is ignoring about college football that might not get the clicks Pate would want but need to be told.

Just once I’d like to see the media delve into why the Power 5 limits the playoff system to just four teams (and college basketball is more inclusive) and how can Group of 5 teams compete with P5 teams down the road in areas with rules in place like the NLI and the transfer portal. What should be done to even the playing field? In my opinion, something should be done to help the G5.

Not too many videos will be done about that this offseason but maybe they should. To me, it would be a great story for someone like 60 Minutes to pursue since the college football media seems to be a willing partner with the P5 in the denigration of the G5.

Friday: Temple Money

06.10.22
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Temple has many more playmakers this year

Football is not a complicated thing.

Teams that make plays win.

Teams that have more playmakers make plays.

Adonicas Sanders

From where I sit, Temple has at least … at least … five big-time playmakers it did not have last year and that should play a role in the turnaround we wrote about in this space on Monday.

The Owls lacked a lot of things a season ago in finishing 3-9 but the sore thumb in this badly bloodied hand was a lack of speed.

For no matter how highly you think of last year’s running backs (Edward Saydee, Kyle Dobbins or Tayvon Ruley) or even record-setting wide receiver Jadan Blue (now at Virginia Tech) or even four-star starting quarterback D’Wan Mathis, none of them were able to take that ball, turn the corner and outrun anyone on a long touchdown run.

That’s not to say it didn’t happen. Randle Jones outran the entire Akron and SMU teams in recent years on his way to touchdowns and Amad Anderson took a short pass and did the same against Memphis.

Still, as a matter of course, Temple didn’t have enough of those kinds of players a year ago.

It does now.

Five come to mind:

Iverson Clement

Iverson Clement _ The former Florida Gator moved from running back to cornerback because the Owls need speed at that position. New coach Stan Drayton said he studied the film and no doubt saw a tight end chase down a Temple cornerback from behind in the South Florida game and made a vow that it won’t happen again. Iverson intercepts that same pass and puts six on the board in the fall. Because of a falling out with the former staff, Iverson didn’t see the field last year. He will see it this year.

Adonicas Sanders _ Sanders caught two passes against Duke, both for touchdowns in a 31-27 win for Georgia Tech last year, and no doubt Drayton has an inkling Sanders can reprise the role in the opener.

Darvon Hubbard

Darvon Hubbard _ The reason Texas A&M made Hubbard one of its prized recruits a couple of years ago was the elite speed at the running back position the Owls did not have last year. The 100- and 200-meter Arizona High School track champion had over 1,000 yards on just 99 carries at Willow Canyon High.

Dominick Hill_ A defensive back, it’s fair to say without the transfer portal, Temple doesn’t recruit a player like this. He was the No. 1-ranked player in the Orlando Sentinel’s 2020 Central Florida Super 60 and it’s easy to see why because he led Jones High in Orlando to a 13-2 record in 2019 with 30 tackles and a district-leading six interceptions as a senior. The Orlando area is considered the best area for recruits in the best state for recruiting in the nation.

Quincy Patterson _ After watching this young man’s film for the last four weeks, I’m convinced the Owls have recruited their best quarterback since beating out Nebraska for Dodge City Community College first-team All-American Walter Washington. As tentative as Mathis played for most of last season (other than the Memphis game, it appeared he was walking on eggshells), that’s how confidently Patterson plays a position that demands confidence. The Owls will rally around this special talent.

Those are just five playmakers the Owls have this year who did not see the field last year.

There are more and they will let themselves be known to the fans by making big-time plays that translate into wins.

06.06.22
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Temple football: Expect a turnaround

Last two games don’t appear on this graphic.

Somewhere on the Walt Whitman bridge around 5:37 p.m. on Sunday, Joe Girardi was banging his head on the steering wheel.

Phillies fire him three games ago and, under the new guy, win all three games against a Los Angeles Angels’ team that came into town with a winning record. Joe probably doesn’t like the perception right now that he was the problem.

Coaching change makes a difference

Now I don’t expect Rob Thomson to be manager of the year, but I do expect him to do much better than the 22-29 Girardi did.

Sometimes a change at the top is necessary and what’s good for the Phillies probably is 10x better for Temple football.

That’s because while the Phillies clubhouse hasn’t been good place to be over 10 games prior to Girardi’s dismissal, the Temple football clubhouse was absolutely toxic by comparison over its last 10 games.

More players left under the last guy than came in and new coach Stan Drayton has not only reversed that trend, but the players coming in have largely been an upgrade over the players leaving and that could not be said of the Owls for the last couple of years.

That’s why in this early-than-should be projection we have the Owls at 6-6 and making a bowl game. Last year we saw enough in February to predict in this space that the Owls would win two games.

They won three.

Large contingent of Temple fans make the game at Navy seem like a home one for the Owls

If the Owls win one more than projected, I will be very happy considering what has happened the last two seasons.

Here’s our game-by-game predictions as of June 6:

Sept 2.–Temple 24, Duke 21 _ Adonicis Sanders reprises his role of a year ago, catching a touchdown pass from Quincy Patterson in the final play of the game to beat Duke. Owls carry Stan Drayton off the field. A quality control coach at Indiana bangs his head against the steering wheel when he hears the final score on the radio.

Owls 1-0

Sept. 10–Temple 62, Lafayette 7 _ Owls do to Leopards what they should have done to Wagner a year ago. They only have to throw five passes all day as they score long touchdown runs on their first four handoffs. Elijah Warner gets in the game in the second half as Patterson rests after the first quarter and Dwan Mathis throws a couple of touchdown passes on the second.

Owls 2-0

Sept. 17–Rutgers 34, Temple 14 _ Owls stay close for three quarters but avoid the mistakes on special teams that allowed last year’s game to get out of hand.

Owls 2-1

Sept. 24–Temple 35, UMass 21–Owls jump out to a 28-7 lead at halftime but are spotty in the second half. “We lost our focus and I got on them about it,” Drayton says afterward.

Owls 3-1

Oct. 1–Memphis 38, Temple 21–Tigers get revenge for losing the last two games in Philadelphia. “When I saw it was a home game, I knew we were going to win it,” Memphis quarterback Sean Henigan said. “Philadelphia is a house of horrors for us.”

Owls 3-2

Oct. 13–UCF 28, Temple 17–Owls put up a good fight but fall late. “Their speed was too much for us,” Drayton said. “I was proud of the way we competed.”

Owls 3-3

Oct. 21–Temple 31, Tulsa 21–Drayton said a big part of the win was showing the team game film of a 44-10 loss a year ago. “I made them watch it every damn day,” he said. “My message to them was that it was an embarrassment to lose to a school that has 3,865 full-time students when we have 39,645 full-time students.” Drayton also credited the Temple students: “Great turnout for the ESPN Friday night game and our kids stood up and cheered on every third down. That made a difference.”

Owls 4-3

Oct. 29–Temple 21, Navy 20–Drayton gives the game ball to defensive line coach Antoine Smith. “Our D-line stopped the fullback and, when you stop the fullback, you make them go sideline to sideline and they don’t have the speed to do that.” Drayton also gave a nod to the Temple fans who made the trip. “The 3:30 start really juiced up our fans,’ he said. “They were quite, shall we say, lubricated when the gates opened and it sounded like a Temple home game.”

Owls 5-3

Nov. 5–Temple 37, USF 20–Temple clinches a bowl bid with three games remaining. “We had this circled for a number of reasons,” Drayton said. “They pushed us off the ball last year for 5-7 yards every play. We weren’t strong enough then. Now we are. We lifted two hours a day, 300-plus days, and our mission was to return the favor and that’s just what we did.” Trey Blair got the Owls off to a good start with by returning the opening kickoff 92 yards for a score. “You won’t see us ever fair catch,” Drayton said. “That’s not Temple TUFF. We make things happen.”

Owls 6-3

Nov. 12–Houston 38, Temple 30–Having clinched a bowl bid, Temple suffers a letdown. “We competed but it wasn’t good enough,” Drayton said. “This program is going to a bowl game. That’s just the first step back to getting this thing to the way you guys are used to seeing it.”

Owls 6-4

Nov. 19–Cincinnati 34, Temple 7–Bearcats wear down the Owls. “They’ve recruited at a whole different level than us for the last four years but those days are over,” Drayton said.

Owls 6-5

Nov. 26–East Carolina 28, Temple 14–In 32-degree temperatures, Owls fall to a team that has beaten them soundly three-straight years. “Fortunately, our next game will be a lot warmer,” Drayton said.

Owls finish the regular season 6-6, doubling their win total of last season.

That qualifies as a turnaround. Not quite the turnaround we all want, but it is one step forward after taking two steps back.

06.03.22
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Temple-Duke a statistical toss-up?

The best thing about the last Temple-Duke game was this pass blocking by current Owls’ Adam Klein and Victor Stoffel.

(Photo and ID courtesy of Zamani Feelings)

Gotta give credit where credit is due so OwlsDaily.com gets a big nod here for finding this gem from ESPN’s Bill Connelly.

OwlsDaily editor Shawn Pastor gets mad at me when I say his shit is better than the Brand X site shit (he wants to keep the peace with the other site) but his shit is objectively better. One site has a trained journalist with 30 years plus of Temple experience and the other relies (mostly) on student writers.

Game, set and match.

Sorry, Shawn, for the unsolicited compliment.

Finding and highlighting stat guru Connelly’s analysis of Temple vs. Duke on Sept. 2 (ACC Network, 7:30 p.m.) is just another example.

If you asked me to analyze Temple vs. Duke a day after Temple’s last football game, I might have said Temple losing by the same 56-27 score it lost to the same team in the Independence Bowl might be the best the Owls could expect.

Things have changed since the last guy left the building and now outside people like Connelly are crunching the numbers together and noticing.

Summer workouts have already begun for the Owls at Edberg-Olson.

Here’s what OwlsDaily.com wrote less than two weeks ago:

“Temple’s season-opening game at Duke should be a coin flip, based on updated SP+ preseason projections for 2022, which ESPN college football writer Bill Connelly released on Monday.  The Owls are rated 118th and the Blue Devils are rated 119th in the new rankings, which Connelly adjusted from the initial 2022 projections that he released in February.  The new numbers are based on transfer portal movement over the past three months and updated rosters for most college teams, Connelly wrote.

“Temple has moved up one spot after being rated 119th in February, while Duke has dropped two spots from 117th to 119th.  Across the entire 2022 schedule (and the entire American Conference), the biggest change over the past three months was Houston dropping from 35th to 44th in SP+.”

The key wording above is “the new numbers are based on transfer portal movement and updated rosters for most college teams.”

Here’s the difference between now that bleak Sunday morning after a 38-14 loss to Navy:

Temple has significantly upgraded its roster since that game and Duke has not made the same splash with impact portal guys as good as Darvon Hubbard, Quincy Patterson and Adonicas Sanders to name a few. Patterson beat a team much better than Duke (UNC) as a starting quarterback and Sanders caught the game-winning touchdown pass for a bad Georgia Tech team in a win over Duke last year.

What we don’t know is the gameday coaching ability of Mike Elko and Stan Drayton since neither has been a head coach anywhere.

On Sept 2., in a toss-up game, that could be the difference.

Hmm.

Pat Kraft hired both Manny Diaz and Rod Carey. His first choice was Mike Elko, who turned him down.

If Elko is anywhere near the equal of Diaz or Carey, bet the house and the farm on Temple.

Especially if the Owls are getting any points.

My guess is that they will be getting at least three before game time, probably more.

Connelly, who has a good history of knowing his stuff, seems to feel it will be closer.

Hell, I hope he’s right and will go one step further. I hope the Owls win as a road favorite at a Power 5 school, which would be the first such win since Vandy in 2014.

That probably won’t happen since the public’s perception of Temple over the last two seasons was sullied by a failed Indiana grad hired by another failed Indiana grad proving only one thing.

Indiana guys should stick to hoops.

Monday: Early game-by-game predictions

05.30.22
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Three-month sprint to Duke

Now the summer begins, the fastest three months of the year for almost all of us except the few cold-weather lovers.

For Temple football, it’s a sprint, too.

In roughly 90 days, the Owls will travel to Duke for a shot at redeeming the national perception of the program which was good three years ago but reached nearly Bottom 10 status the last two.

The last guy dropped the baton and the Owls have a lot of running to get to the finish line but the line will be there whether they beat Duke to it or not.

Temple head coach Stan Drayton has pushed all of the right buttons so far, upgrading the two areas of need in quarterback and running back. He’s probably not done in the talent acquisition department, either.

Owls were 4-15 the last two years and that did not sit well with anyone around here.

Is it enough to beat Duke?

The Blue Devils have their own problems they have to fix and, like Temple, a new head coach. They lost to arguably a team with less talent than Temple, UNC-Charlotte, so they are beatable.

Ironically, one of the storylines during the opener would be surrounding that coach, Mike Elko, who was Pat Kraft’s first choice to replace Geoff Collins. Elko turned down the Owls to get a pay raise in Texas.

Since Kraft has made two horrible choices for that job since (Manny Diaz and Pat Carey), Elko’s hiring for Duke could bode well for Temple.

Maybe Elko would have been an equally bad hire for Kraft as Diaz and Carey turned out to be.

If that trend holds up in September, Stan Drayton could look very good in comparison.

Any Temple fan has to hope so. Whatever the case, will win find out in a blink of an eye because these next three months usually go like that.

05.27.22
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What the Dandridge commitment means for Temple

Ten million percent committed is a pretty solid commitment but that’s what Richard Dandridge, one of Florida’s top receivers, gave Temple on Wednesday.

What does “10 million percent” mean?

For starters, it’s a lot more than 100 percent or 1,000 percent or even 10,000 percent.

It probably means come early signing day in December even an offer from Alabama or Clemson or Ohio State will be turned down or that’s too much credibility going down the drain for any young man to tinker with.

This will probably be the shirt Richard wears to the LC to watch future AAC Player of the Year Khalif Battle play for the Temple basketball Owls.

Beyond that, it’s just another indication that new Temple head coach Stan Drayton continues to push all the right buttons as we wrote in this space last week.

Put it this way: Drayton obviously feels some pressure to produce this year so stacking the roster with transfer portal talent better than the talent in the building has been job one.

All signs point to that job being near complete with the addition of probable starting quarterback Quincy Patterson a week ago yesterday. In just a few short months, Drayton has upgraded the quarterback room from a guy who started the 2021 opener for 2022 National Champion Georgia to a guy who led Virginia Tech to a win over a North Carolina roster that hammered Temple, 55-13.

You can talk all you want about Patterson’s passing but his throwing ability was on display against Mack Brown’s Tarheels and it was good enough.

At least for me considering the guy on the short end for Temple against UNC was statistically one of the four best quarterbacks in Temple history.

Patterson has two years of eligibility left at Temple and Dandridge will be one of the guys he will be able to throw to in 2023. Dandridge is a guy who had 10 touchdown receptions and over 1,000 yards receiving in one of the best leagues in the very best high school state.

That’s an explosive combination.

Even more so, Dandridge’s commitment is an indication that Drayton understands that the way to build the Temple program is the same way Al Golden and Matt Rhule did … by establishing strong relationships with great high school players that lead other great high school players to want to join that first guy.

That might not be a 10 million percent improvement over Rhule or Golden but it certainly is a 100 million improvement over the last CEO here and just watch where that leads.

Dandridge might be the first high-level recruit, but all indications are he won’t be the last.

Monday: A Three-Month Sprint

05.20.22
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Quincy Patterson: Season-changer

About a year ago at this time, I was absolutely convinced the 2021 Temple football Owls would finish 2-10 and you could not move me off that block.

As excited as I was about Stan Drayton replacing the old guy for this season, I looked at six wins as the absolute ceiling for the 2022 Temple football Owls.

Even looking at it eight optimistic ways, doubling last year’s win total seemed the best we could do.

With the news on Wednesday, the freaking sky is the limit.

Stan Drayton broke the good news to Temple fans in New York City on Thursday night.

We speculated in this space very recently that Drayton promised an upgrade at the quarterback position but did not see it. We said a week ago that Drayton was “bringing in a couple of guys” to compete for the starting quarterback job with D’Wan Mathis and I said that even given “one of those guys was Elijah Warner, who is the other guy?”

That “other guy” is Quincy Patterson with his recent signing at Temple.

This is a game-changer. Hell, it’s a season-changer. This has moved the needle from “ceiling of six wins” to a winning season.

A winning season needs to happen this year. I’ll take 7-5 but I’m much more into 8-5 and 9-3 or better.

Patterson now makes that possible.

Owls were “acceptable” on defense, offensive line, wide receiver and even running back but Mathis’ history of fragility and his underwhelming first year with the Owls made quarterback the No. 1 priority.

Prior to last week, Florida Gator transfer Emory Jones and Pitt Panther transfer Davis Beville were considered slight upgrades Temple could get over Mathis.

Patterson (who seemingly came out of nowhere because he entered the portal last week) is a huge upgrade and Drayton seeing the flaws in spring practice and getting upgrades since at running back and quarterback is the biggest indication that this guy is pushing all the right buttons.

Patterson is just what the doctor ordered for Temple football.

Consider this: This man singlehandedly led Virginia Tech to a 6OT win over a North Carolina team that beat Temple, 55-13. That was an 8-5 Temple team that beat No. 21 Maryland, 20-17. (That Maryland team hammered Rutgers, 48-7, four weeks later.)

This is no Re’Al Mitchell or even a Mathis.

I hope Mathis is Temple TUFF enough to accept the challenge and compete for a job I feel he will eventually lose but, if he wins it, Temple is better off with the competition.

The reality is that since both Mathis and Patterson have now entered the portal twice they are both committed to Temple for another year or will have to sit out before transferring to the next school.

For that reason, the Temple quarterback room has morphed from the thinnest to the deepest in the AAC and that’s a very good thing for all of us.

Monday: The Golden Voice