When Stan Drayton walked into his postgame presser following Temple’s win against Florida Atlantic Saturday, the feeling in the room felt off. It felt like the Owls had just lost their third straight game instead of completing a walk-off overtime victory.
Drayton spoke about the fight his team has shown under his leadership despite their lack of wins. Temple won just nine games during his nearly three years at the helm, but he spoke with pride about how much his squad has overcome.
“We needed this victory,” Drayton said. “Temple Football needed this victory. Our kids worked hard for it. That became our thought process in a premium, is making it for us. It was all about us and it feels good to win.”
Twenty-four hours later, it became evident why the feeling in the room was the way it was. Temple Athletics announced Sunday morning that Drayton was dismissed as the program’s head coach, ending his tenure before his third season could conclude.
Here’s a complete overview of Drayton’s tenure as Temple’s head coach and how things took a turn for the worse over time.
INITIAL HIRING
Drayton was hired in December 2021 following former head coach Rod Carey’s dismissal. He had spent the previous five seasons at the University of Texas as its running backs coach. During his time in Austin, Texas, he had coached current NFL running back Bijan Robinson, as well as future professionals Ezekial Elliot and Carlos Hyde during his previous pit stops.
“This truly is a dream come true for me,” Drayton wrote in a press release after being hired. “Philadelphia has always held a special place in my heart as my wife, Monique and I got married while we lived here. I’m so thankful to [former Temple University president Jason] Wingard, Arthur Johnson and the Temple community for this great opportunity.”
The general consensus was positive, but a number of fans were skeptical of Drayton after he was initially hired because he had never served in a role higher than a positional coach during his career. He spent most of his time working with running backs and had never handled play-calling responsibilities during his time as an assistant coach.
There were some rumblings that former assistant coach Fran Brown would take the reins following Carey’s dismissal. Brown had two stints on North Broad, serving as the Owls’ defensive backs coach and had ties to the area. However, Brown wasn’t selected for the gig that ultimately went to Drayton. He was tasked with rebuilding the program which was a far cry from when Matt Rhule was the head coach of the roster a decade earlier.
NEW CULTURE, SAME RESULTS
Drayton was charged with resetting the program’s culture that Carey had previously undone during his time as head coach. Former coaches like Rhule and Al Golden had helped turn the program around, but those results took time to achieve. Golden had three losing seasons before he saw positive results and Rhule was in his fourth season when he finally got his hands on the American Athletic Conference title in 2016.
Temple brought in 40 new players in each of Drayton’s offseasons as head coach and had to navigate the loss of premier players to different schools. The Owls lost players like Darian Varner and Jalen McMurray to Power Four schools, and quarterback E.J Warner left the program for Rice last offseason.
The Owls never notched more than three wins in a season while Drayton was head coach, but the team did have a different culture than it did before he was hired. But the improved culture never translated into wins.
“Let’s not get it twisted. We’re not getting used to losing,” Drayton said before his final game. “We’re not trying to make that a part of our DNA, even though that’s been the end result. There are some small victories that have been along the way that we are building upon during the course of the season.”
ROAD STRUGGLES
Drayton collected just nine wins in 34 games during his nearly three years leading the program. All nine of those wins came at Lincoln Financial Field and struggles on the road largely defined his tenure.
Temple played in 15 road games under Drayton and none of them resulted in a victory. A bulk of those road struggles came in conference play — an issue that extends even beyond Drayton’s tenure.
The Owls haven’t won a road conference game since they took down South Florida on Nov. 7, 2019. Since then, the Owls’ AAC road struggles only got worse. Temple was outscored 146-51 in three conference road games this season. The road struggles started before Drayton was hired but no improvement was seen across his three years.
The conference road struggles were brought to light two weeks before Drayton was let go. The Owls faced East Carolina and Tulane on the road in back-to-back weeks and were completely overmatched. Temple gave up more than 50 points in each game and never looked competitive.
NIL RESOURCES
At Drayton’s weekly press conferences on Nov. 11, he spoke openly for the first time about not having the NIL opportunities other programs have. After the Nov. 9 loss to Tulane, Drayton said Green Wave head coach Jon Sumrall explained to him how he has the platform to invest in more elite athletes through NIL.
Drayton has previously remained quiet on the program’s NIL situation because he “didn’t want it to sound like an excuse.” But after seeing the type of athletes Tulane had on its roster, he felt he needed to address it, he said. Drayton claimed the program will remain stagnant until it’s given the resources needed to elevate it.
The lack of NIL opportunities has consistently made the recruiting process more difficult. Temple has been unsuccessful when competing with other programs in its conference in recruiting. Because Temple hasn’t been able to provide the best experiences, athletes have opted to go to other schools, sometimes even to lower conference teams.
“There’s definitely a gap there if we don’t catch up in terms of the investment piece of it, there’s no doubt about it,” Drayton said. “They are setting the standard, the type of body type, the type of football player that is coming into this conference and we absolutely need to level up to be competitive with those type of teams.”
There were mistakes during Drayton’s tenure as coach and his time will ultimately end up going down as a failure to most fans. While he wasn’t able to bring Temple back to where it was in the mid 2010s, he attempted to help revitalize a program that was spiraling when he took control of it.
“[The team] walks on campus after losses and it’s not fun for them sometimes,” Drayton said. “We hear the negativity. It’s hearing and paying attention to it and embracing it is one thing. We hear it, but we don’t embrace it.”
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