My much older friend is irritated by my lack of patience in waiting for Temple to stack together some wins this year after teasing us with some close losses last season.

“Stick with us,” he says, “it takes a long time to build a program.”

Ten years or so ago, I might have agreed.

Heck, five years ago a compelling argument could be made for his case.

Not now.

All over college football Group of Five teams are firing head coaches one year and turning things around the next.

Look at Troy, which went up to Army and won, 19-0, on Saturday.

Jon Sumrall turned Troy around in one year, (not two, three or five) last year. He replaced Chip Lindsay, who went 5-7 before getting fired in 2021. In one year, Troy went from 5-7 to 12-2.

Never expected Temple to go from 3-9 to 12-2 but 3-9 to 5-7 should not have been asking too much in 2022 and that should have set the Owls up for a winning season this year.

That’s progress. What we’re seeing is not.

Temple went from 3-9 in Rod Carey’s last season to 3-9 in Stan Drayton’s first season. It’s hard to imagine right now where Temple’s third win will come this season. The product the Owls put on the field this year is a disgrace and much more an indictment of the coach and the overall organization than the players. Last year’s “progress” was linear. This year looks like a regression. You could see the players fighting like hell last year, even in losses. I don’t see that same fight this year. They have a new guy pushing buttons on defense and he’s pushing all the wrong ones. Players who left were not replaced. Depth which could have been built with portal transfers was ignored. Three scholarships that could have gone to established FCS stars were left on the table and given to Temple walk-ons instead.

The overall plan needs to change.

Go on the Troy message boards and you will find the same posts ripping Lindsay’s incompetence that you found on the Temple boards ripping Rod Carey. They accused Lindsay of setting Troy’s program back five years, just like Temple fans did Carey.

Sumrall didn’t want to hear any of that. He rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

How did Troy do it?

They hired someone very familiar with the Troy recruiting base in Sumrall and a guy who hit the portal hard for (mostly) FCS players. That’s a real good level of football, a few steps up from Temple’s stated plan of recruiting JUCOs and high school players. With 19 new starters last year, mostly FCS starters who Sumrall identified in the portal, Troy went 12-2. Sumrall’s familiarity with a successful prior regime cannot be understated. The closest coach at Temple who currently fits that profile is offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan, who was a big part of both Matt Rhule’s and Geoff Collins’ success here.

Troy did not get a 70 burger dropped on it in Sumrall’s first season like Drayton got dropped on his first team.

There is no big bag of NIL cash at Troy to entice those players, just an opportunity for success at a next level up.

Temple does not have time to recruit and develop high school recruits anymore nor should it. The Board of Trustees is watching the school’s athletic reputation dragged through the mud like Drayton is dragging down Temple’s reputation by losing big to no-names like Tulsa and North Texas. You’ve got to think that it is considering cutting its losses if some serious progress isn’t shown on the field soon.

Charlotte hired a new coach in Biff Poggi, who brought in 70 new players and none of them were high school kids. The Charlotte kids play hard and were within a touchdown at SMU in the fourth quarter this season. They lost on Saturday to Navy, 14-0, but they were not embarrassed by either Maryland (38-20) or Florida (22-7). There is progress there this year in his first year that hasn’t been shown at Temple in Drayton’s second.

Last year, G5 schools like Marshall (beating Notre Dame), Georgia Southern (Nebraska) and MTSU (Miami) had big-time wins and this year no less than 11 G5 schools have beaten P5 schools.

Temple isn’t one of them.

Schools like Troy and Charlotte have crafted a blueprint for Drayton to follow. Drayton is old school trying to build a program an old way that won’t work in the transfer portal era. He needs to get with the program fast or we might not have one to follow.

This year might be a wash but next year doesn’t have to be.

Hit the portal hard and get some great players from the FCS level who would appreciate the opportunity to shine. Recruiting high school kids and waiting for them to develop is something Temple does not have time for anymore.

The time to win is now. Last year should have been the developmental year.

Those who think it “takes a long time” to build a program will invariably find out they’ve run out of it.

Friday: SMU Preview

Saturday: SMU analysis