Longtime supporters of Temple football have experienced misery that would make even a UAB fan shudder.
From 1980 to 2008, the Owls recorded three winning seasons — one of which was wiped away by the NCAA — and eight seasons of one win or fewer. They made zero bowls, cycled through six coaches, were expelled from the Big East due to their lack of success, and considered dropping football entirely. When the program replaced head coach Bobby Wallace with Virginia defensive coordinator Al Golden in 2006, Temple had won 30 of its last 167 games.
But less than five years later, Golden had carried the Owls out of the pits of despair, leading the program to its best two-season stretch since the 1970s and doing the unthinkable: snapping Temple’s decades-long bowl drought. Although Golden was hired by Miami in 2011, he left a strong foundation in North Philly, a foundation which Temple would use to become one of the most consistent mid-major programs of the 2010s.
Unfortunately, the bedrock has crumbled in recent years. The Owls are 10-33 in games played since the pandemic. Rod Carey, who led the team from 2019-2021, was the first Temple coach since Wallace to fail to record a winning season. Current head coach Stan Drayton, hired in 2022, is on a similarly unimpressive run. The Owls have suffered through three consecutive 3-9 campaigns, haven’t cracked the AAC’s top eight since 2019, and haven’t won a road game since 2021.
Coming off its worst three-year stretch since the mid-2000s, Temple finds itself at a crossroads, seemingly staring over the edge of an all-too-familiar cliff: another 3-9 season would put the program in its worst condition since the nadir of the Wallace era. Almost unanimously the worst team in the AAC, the Owls will attempt to claw their way back to relevancy while saddled with a gaping hole at quarterback, a head coach on the hot seat, and the remnants of a historically bad defense.
Good luck!
Offense
Bluntly, Temple was not very good last season.
The Owls claimed early-season victories over Akron and Norfolk State before losing five games in a row, including a 55-0 home decimation at the hands of SMU. Temple proceeded to go 1-7 in conference play, tying them with East Carolina for last on the AAC leaderboard.
Temple wasn’t bad in the way that ECU was bad, which is to say unlucky. Half of the Pirates’ losses were by ten points or less; the Owls, by contrast, lost six games by 22 or more points.
Despite their struggles, there was a faint glimmer of hope for Temple throughout 2023: they sported a competitive, sometimes-downright-good passing game. The jewels of the offense were sophomore quarterback EJ Warner, who followed up on a fabulous 2022 season by throwing for 3076 yards and 23 touchdowns, and tackle Victor Stoffel, who was named second team all-conference after allowing just one sack all season. The duo’s combined efforts led Temple to a 65th-place national finish in dropback EPA.
But any chance of building on that momentum was snatched away over the offseason, as Stoffel left for Cal and Warner elected to transfer to conference rival Rice in one of the most significant AAC moves of the spring. Temple also suffered several losses to graduation, including all-conference tight end David Martin-Robinson and preseason all-conference receiver Amad Anderson.
So where does the Owl offense go from here?
According to its preseason SP+ rating (115th), down. Temple’s quarterback room, which consists of junior Forrest Brock, redshirt freshman Tyler Douglas, and Rutgers transfer Evan Simon, sports a combined career touchdown-to-interception ratio of 5:8. Whoever wins the job will have returning receivers Zae Baines and Dante Wright to throw to, but the Owls do not have a surplus of proven offensive talent. Their skill positions gained fewer than five new players over the offseason. An intriguing addition is receiver Ashton Allen, a grad transfer from USC who hasn’t played football since high school. Allen spent the last four years running track for the Trojans, winning a national championship as a member of the USC 4x100 relay team.
The returning Joquez Smith and the incoming Maryland transfer Antwain Littleton are two solid options at running back, but they’ll have to navigate the issue of the Temple offensive line, which was one of the least effective run-blocking units in the country in 2023. All-conference selection Wisdom Quarshie returns at guard, but the Owls aren’t bringing many reinforcements into the trenches — former South Carolina center Grayson Mains is the only incoming transfer from a four-year school.
With the loss of Stoffel and the lack of new faces, there’s little reason to believe Temple’s OL (or run game) will take a big leap in the fall. The group struggled mightily in the Owls’ April spring game.
And then there’s the…
Defense
Despite having several gaping holes to fill, Temple invested very little transfer capital in its offense, a decision that makes sense when you wrap your head around the situation on the other side of the ball. In 2023, the Owls ranked 130/133 in both defensive SP+ and defensive EPA; they gave up an average of almost 450 yards per game. Their passing defense was perhaps the worst in the country. Statistically, Temple was one of the nation’s few teams that rivaled UAB in porousness.
Similarly to Trent Dilfer, Stan Drayton had no choice but to try and stop the bleeding, bringing in over 20 defensive transfers to reinforce a unit that forced the fewest turnovers of any in the nation. Perhaps the most impressive of the newcomers is safety Andreas Keaton, an FCS Western Carolina transfer who boasts a long list of Southern Conference accolades. Keaton will instantly compete for playing time, as there’s very little continuity in the Temple backfield (although that might not be a bad thing). The Owls lose their top six leading tacklers, 100% of their interceptions, and 50% of their fumble recoveries.
As returning talent goes, pickings are slim. DE Diwun Black, a former Florida transfer, was tied for the team lead in sacks last season while being one of the fastest edge rushers in the conference. Black is a popular breakout pick among prognosticators. He’ll certainly see plenty of snaps.
Just like last year, this defense is on “worst in the country” watch.
TL;DR
Three Best Players:
G Wisdom Quarshie
EDGE Diwun Black
WR Dante Wright
Three Burning Questions:
Who steps in to replace EJ Warner’s production at quarterback?
Will the 20+ defensive newcomers stop the bleeding?
Will another losing season cost Stan Drayton his job?
Outlook and Prediction:
The offense is going through a full rebuild and the defense is somehow going through an even fuller rebuild. On paper, this is a reset year for Temple, an unfortunate situation to be in the third season of the Drayton era.
The Owls will take on a difficult non-conference schedule highlighted by a trip to Oklahoma and home games against Coastal Carolina and Utah State. An October 5th matchup against UConn will provide Temple with their only obvious opportunity for a non-con victory.
Unfortunately for the Owls, Temple won’t see similarly-bad Charlotte in AAC play; home matchups against Tulsa and FAU are probably TU’s best chance of springing a conference win.