Temple football coach Stan Drayton eager to ‘change the narrative’ of the Owls this season

The Owls are projected in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll to finish last. Drayton vowed his team wouldn't buy into any of that.

Temple head coach Stan Drayton is heading into 2024 with a team picked to finish last in the American Athletic Conference.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Isabella DiAmore

Published July 23, 2024, 4:44 p.m. ET

It’s a new era for Temple football. That same line may have been used these past two seasons under coach Stan Drayton, but in Year 3, Drayton’s team does look a lot different.

Fewer than 10 players on the roster played for former coach Rod Carey. This offseason, Temple picked up 18 transfers in the NCAA’s transfer portal, and 31 former Owls entered it — most notably quarterback E.J. Warner, who joined conference foe Rice.

Drayton also had 27 signees in his 2024 recruiting class and has 2025 commitment Camren Boykin, a star quarterback in Virginia, waiting in the wings.

During Tuesday’s American Athletic Conference media day, Drayton said the team improved most “in the trenches,” suggesting a lack of depth last season, particularly on the offensive and defensive lines. He believes the incoming transfers will fill that void but also noted that the culture will need to be reestablished.

“Everybody kind of talks about the climate that we’re in,” Drayton said Tuesday. “You hear about some of the negative narrative, but there’s a positive narrative to it as well. For us, building the roster and building some quality depth, the portal has really helped us.”

Last season, Temple finished 3-9 overall and 1-7 in the AAC. The Owls were projected to finish last in the conference’s preseason poll. Memphis, which won 10 games last season, was picked to win the AAC.

The AAC will include 14 teams this year, as the conference expanded to bring in Army, pairing Army and Navy in the same conference. The conference also welcomed Tim Pernetti, who was named in April as the second commissioner of the AAC after serving as president of IMG Academy.

He succeeded Mike Aresco, who had served as commissioner since the reconstitution of the conference in 2013.

Pernetti noted Tuesday that he’s open to change and expansion as the landscape of college athletics continues to become a larger resource to bring in revenue.

“Collegiate athletics is in the midst of transformative change,” he said. “You might call it chaos. But it’s exciting. Things need to change — transformation leads to opportunity. Opportunity needs investment.”

So how will Temple keep up with these changes while trying to turn around the program? As Drayton says, “We’re still Temple Tuff.”

“I still believe to win big, you’re going to need continuity,” Drayton said. “These guys got to play together and for each other. Our program has not changed that way — whatever the adversity is, we call this climate adversity. We got to deal with it.”

The Owls open their season with a tough schedule, which includes road matchups against Oklahoma on Aug. 30 and Navy on Sept. 7. Temple’s home opener will be against Coastal Carolina on Sept. 14 at Lincoln Financial Field.

“We’re not going to buy into the expectations of the poll and what everybody is saying,” Drayton said. “We’re going to invest our time into us and try to prove us right. … We’re trying to change the narrative.”