Anything other than being able to compete with a good Coastal Carolina team would have been reason for major distress for Temple football.

The next logical step is a win.

That’s something that has been hard to come by for Temple in Stan Drayton’s three seasons as he is now 6-21.

Drayton came to Temple and promised–in my presence on Cherry and White Day–to the Bruce Arians’ alumni that he would “get this thing back to the way you guys are used to seeing it.”

He’s running out of time, unless he meant that AFTER 10 years of 3-9 seasons he would get it back to the good old days.

As the lady said in that famous tik tock video, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”

Even in Arians’ worst times, those guys never saw something like this. Arians faced three top 10 schedules, going 6-5 in two of them. Drayton faced the 121st, 129th and now 131st schedules and fared worse.

Now it’s time to win (2 p.m., Saturday, Lincoln Financial Field, ESPN+).

Utah State is not terrible, but it is nowhere near as good as Coastal Carolina. Several Utah State starters are out. The two best Temple players who are out are edge rusher Diwan Black and wide receiver Zae Baines. Those are two areas where Temple is deep. Owls should be able to survive those losses.

Temple held Oklahoma to 1-for-12 on third downs but threw that effort away when the offense turned the ball over four times. That game might have been much more competitive had it been turnover free. Maybe closer to 21-3 than 51-3 but we will never know.

The Owls, though, took a step forward by competing in a 28-20 loss to a very good team.

For some reason only known to Drayton, he stuck with a turnover machine in Forrest Brock against Navy and he played like Forrest Gump and the Owls lost 38-11.

We will never know what happened if Evan Simon had started against Navy but suspect it would have been a much closer game if he did.

Now it looks like Simon will start against Utah State.

Simon has started and won big games before in the Big 10. He deserves a shot to build on his Coastal Carolina performance.

We suspect that if he manages the game, and Antwain Littleton (not Joquez Smith nor E.J. Wilson) gets the carries, Temple will be able to establish a balanced attack and be able to fake it to Littleton and get explosive downfield plays in the passing game to guys like Antonio Jones and Dante Wright.

That’s the next step.

Do the Owls go forward, sideways or backward?

Drayton promised but hasn’t delivered.

He knows what he has to do now.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis

As a Temple fan you have to ask yourself, “does the season end with a loss?”

At this point, the answer for Saturday’s 2 p.m. game with visiting Utah State (2 p.m., ESPN+) has to be a resounding yes.

Simply, to save Stan Drayton’s job anything other 6-6 season puts his team outside top 80 teams in the country. Since there are only 134 teams, that’s less than mediocre.

After four-straight losing years, Temple will be at a crossroads if that becomes five-straight losing seasons.

Unacceptable.

Maybe acceptable for some lesser schools but certainly not acceptable for a school as large and prestigious as Temple University.

So while the math is challenging after 0-3, it’s almost impossible after 0-4. Losing the first three games means you have to go 6-3 over the last nine to reach a bowl game which is doable in a watered-down AAC. Losing the first four games, though, means 6-2 over the last eight and that is highly unlikely.

Utah State has to be a win.

Like Temple at Oklahoma, Utah State had a blowout loss to an elite team (USC, 48-0). Utah State also struggled to beat Robert Morris, trailing at the half and leading only 20-14 going into the fourth quarter. Robert Morris then lost to Edinboro, which lost to Kutztown. Utah State scored 16 points in the fourth to win going away, 36-14.

If Temple lets the likes of Utah State beat it, an argument can be made by new President John Fry about Temple even being in the football business. Does Edinboro give Utah State a better game than Temple? Does Kutztown?

If so, Temple is spending a lot of money and getting nothing in return on the investment.

The way to turn it around is to start forcing turnovers and the way to do that is to bring more people that they can block on passing downs, which means getting to the quarterback, strip sacks, fumbles and forced interceptions.

The defense Everett Withers has played the last two seasons is essentially a “bend and break” defense. It needs to be more attacking than it ever has been to up that -40 turnover margin Drayton has had in his nearly three years here.

Withers might not want to change his scheme, but Drayton is still the CEO and a strong leader puts his foot down and dictates policy.

Or the organization gets another leader. Drayton doesn’t have nine games left to make that decision.

He’s got one and it’s coming up in five days.

Friday: Utah State Preview

Three games into the season, we know this about the 2024 Temple football Owls:

They giveth but they don’t taketh away.

Job 1:21 pretty much describes Stan Drayton’s team over not just three losing games but over the last 15 games.

The Lord giveth but also taketh. On the other hand, Drayton’s football teams only giveth and that was on full display in a 28-20 home loss to a good Coastal Carolina team.

Better than the first two games, but not good enough.

Drayton, like Job, is probably too good a man to deserve this fate but seems to be resigned to building a team that turns the ball over a lot but almost never steals it from the bad guys.

Temple was 134th and dead last in both turnover margin and also dead last in forcing turnovers a year ago.

This year is 2023 redux in that Temple hasn’t forced a single turnover but has given it away nine times.

This trend cannot continue or Temple is on the way to another 3-9 season.

Probably worse.

The problems are pretty identifiable. On offense, the line is not giving the quarterback enough time to throw the ball and he’s forced into fumbles or interceptions.

That was again on full display in Evan Simon’s Pick 6. Simon tried to get rid of the ball fast enough, but the rush was on him and his arm was hit, resulting in an interception return for a touchdown.

On defense, Everett Withers plays a “vanilla” system that gives up yardage but is not designed to take the football away.

Weird because take away the two takeaways the Owls coughed up deep in their own territory and had Maddox Trujillo made both his field goals (he made one), Temple wins the game, 23-14.

That doesn’t work in a sport that puts a premium on turnovers. Look at the NFL stats. Teams that win the turnover battle over the last decade have won 86 percent of NFL games. Could not find a similar stat across 134 FBS teams (that number has fluctuated over the last decade).

Still, football is not rocket science. If Temple starts taking it away more than giving it, the Owls have a legitimate shot at salvaging the season.

A couple of things can change those dynamics but the Temple brass has to be willing to change. On defense, send more guys that they can block on passing downs, getting to the quarterback and forcing both strip fumbles in the backfield and interceptions caused getting rid of the ball under pressure.

On offense, forget about E.J. Wilson and make Antwain Littleton the featured back, running downhill to create more makeable second and third down options.

Langsdorf has shown he’s willing to change the scheme to fit his players.

Withers is obviously unwilling to do that.

That leaves CEO Drayton to step in and make necessary decisions moving forward.

OC Danny Landsdorf has proven to be more flexible and might be talked into a run/first, pass/second offense, particularly with a game manager like Simon at the helm. A third-and-3 swing pass to Dante Wright would definitely work better than a third-and-7 Pick 6.

Either way, Drayton is the CEO and has to put his foot down.

In this case, two feet.

Otherwise, like Job, a higher power will come in and give the bad guys more than Temple is willing to take away.

At the end of the season, Drayton will not be blaming that higher power, only himself for not making the hard CEO calls he has to make starting now.

Monday: The Road Forward

Friday: Utah State Preview

Having planned most of my fall Saturdays over the last 40 or so years around Temple football, the last couple of years opened my eyes to the big wide world out there.

So, too, apparently for most Temple fans.

Several of the last few games my usual crew was hit or miss with tailgating. After walking to the end of Lot K and learning a couple of times we weren’t setting up, decision time.

Do I really need to go to every game or does the team need to earn my trust?

I chose the latter.

The plan now is this: Temple wins, I go to the next game. Temple loses, I split the baby and eliminate the travel time, watch the game on TV and hope.

Hope is never a good plan.

My gut feeling on Temple hosting Coastal Carolina (2 p.m. Saturday, ESPN+) is Temple puts up a fight early, then starts doing “Temple-like” things like fumbling, throwing interceptions, getting called for illegal shifts and illegal formations and eventually loses, 37-17.

What do is the BEST I can HOPE for?

A Maddox Trujillo 43-yard field goal as time expires for a 20-17 win.

Coastal Carolina, which didn’t have a FBS program in 2016 when the Owls won their last championship, is 2-0 and Temple is 0-2.

Among those wins was a spanking of a well-coached (Rich Rodriguez) Jacksonville State team. Jacksonville State had no illegal formations and illegal shifts in that loss. Temple had plenty of both in a 38-11 loss at Navy.

Stan Drayton apologists will be the first to point out that NIL and the transfer portal have worked against him but there have been other factors that have caused Temple to lose that cannot be ignored.

Illegal shifts, illegal formations, personal fouls on offensive linemen have nothing to do with the NIL and transfer portal. Nor does sticking with a starting quarterback who keeps giving the ball to another team. For some reason, those things have hurt Temple more than they have hurt the bad guys and that is something the administration should investigate sooner than later.

An “X-factor” type situation in Temple’s favor this week could be a quarterback change. Forrest Brock has been a turnover machine in the two losses and could be replaced by Evan Simon, who is more of a game manager. Brock is in “concussion protocol” and is a game-time decision. My vote is to give him a long rest and give Simon a chance to be Lou Gehrig to Brock’s Wally Pipp.

There’s a chance that if Simon does start, eliminates the turnovers and moves the team, Trujillo gets his chance to be a hero.

If so, I HOPE so see everyone next week against Utah State.

That’s the plan.

Watch the game on TV between 2-5, win, then go on a bike ride between 5:30 and 7 blaring “T For Temple U” from my bluetooth speakers. Then I put aside next Saturday for Utah State and good Temple friends.

With a Stan Drayton-coached team, that’s not worked quite the way I had hoped the last two seasons. He only has a couple of games to change this dynamic around.

For my sake and, more importantly, his.

Late Saturday Night: Coastal-Temple Game Analysis

You can learn a lot about a football problem by reading a play-by-play sheet.

Certainly, a lot more than walking around a locker room and listening to post-game platitudes or excuses from a head coach.

Admitting mistakes is the first step to fixing them and you couldn’t find many admissions from Temple head football coach Stan Drayton in the post-game press conference after a 38-11 loss at Navy on Saturday.

Not worth delving into every Drayton word but what he essentially said was that they were going to have to find players who had the right mindset to be out there.

Little was said about the coaches but, after looking at the play-by-play, sheet, that’s probably where the emphasis should have been. All week long, Drayton said “getting off to a good start” was priority No. 1.

What did the Owls do on the first drive?

Quarterback Forrest Brock throws 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage, a catch by Dante Wright. Then E.J. Wilson rushes for 0 yards and Brock throws a 9-yard pass to Antonio Jones, which was complete but short by 3 yards. Just a bad scheme all around for a coaching staff that supposedly put a high priority on getting off to a fast start.

Got to throw the ball past the sticks, not behind them, on that first drive.

Worse was the penalties.

On the drive that resulted in a safety, offensive lineman Wisdom Quarshie was penalized for unnecessary roughness.

Joquez Smith was called for offensive pass interference on Temple’s next drive.

An illegal formation penalty ended Temple’s drive right after that one.

The next drive featured a false start.

The next one was ended by an offensive holding.

No penalties on the next drive but the one after that featured an illegal formation.

By then, the score was 22-0 and the game was pretty much over.

The No. 1 fix has to be to eliminate the penalties, particularly the illegal formation and illegal shifts. That doesn’t speak well for the staff and begs the question “what does this team do during the week?” Do they even practice?

No. 2, REPLACE THE QUARTERBACK! Either Evan Simon or Tyler Douglas but a message has to be sent to the rest of the team that seven turnovers in two games is unacceptable.

Brock isn’t cutting it and sending him out there is sending a message that while offensive linemen who miss a block are pulled or defensive backs that blow a call are pulled, nothing happens to a quarterback who keeps giving the football to another team.

The team has to rally around another quarterback. Accountability should matter for the coaches and the players. A quarterback being exempt from accountability is a recipe for disaster.

No. 3, on defense, the tackling was abysmal and, when that happened in the Bruce Arians era, he made the team hit the field the next morning and put the pads on for the hardest-hitting practice he ever coached. The Owls became a great tackling team the rest of the year. Maybe putting the pads on for the four practices prior to Coastal Carolina would have a similar impact.

Many problems were on display against Navy. Business as usual won’t solve them. Shaking up the troops with extended practices to fix the penalties and hitting might not, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.

Friday: Coastal Carolina Preview