As the culture of Temple football has been established, it’s also fueling the team’s motivation

Adam Klein views Temple’s football training camp as the fourth-quarter stretch in establishing the team’s culture under first-year coach Stan Drayton.

“The past three quarters [have been about] trust, unselfishness, and family,” said Klein, the Owls’ right offensive tackle. “[It] has really helped us expedite that process of coming closer together as a family and becoming closer as a team, so I think that process was expedited ... which is great to see.”

Part of Drayton’s rebuilding process since the spring has been reconnecting with former players to better understand the Owls’ traditions, like the “Temple Tuff” moniker. Then he focused on strengthening the team’s trust with his coaching staff, hoping the Owls will buy in to his system.

“We’ve grown in the offseason,” Drayton said. “They’re loving each other more. They care about each other a lot more. ... In my experience, when those things are existing within a program, we tend to win ballgames, so we’ll see how that looks.”

Early in this preseason camp, Drayton has emphasized that the team’s motivation won’t stem from the opinions of others. However, Klein believes part of his fellow teammates’ renewed motivation does have to do with proving those who doubted the program wrong.

» READ MORE: Roster full of experience coupled with a clean slate has Penn football feeling optimistic

Klein, a fifth-year graduate student, admitted the Owls still have a bad taste in their mouths after the last two seasons. Temple went 1-6 in 2020 and 3-9 in 2021 under former head coach Rod Carey and finished at the bottom of the American Athletic Conference.

“We know that’s not the Temple brand of Temple football,” Klein said. “[It’s not] that Temple Tuff mindset, and I think we’re all just really excited to have Coach Drayton here because he really wants to get that back.

“Knowing that our coach has our back, and Coach Drayton, he wants us to be the best people we can be, especially our position coaches as well, those are just the main factors of why I think that we can really excel this year and we will excel.”

Temple ranked last in the AAC preseason polls. It could be fair to say expectations are low, especially during a first-year rebuilding process. Still, the lingering question remains: Will the Owls’ culture translate on the field and help them outperform their record from last season?

The 6-foot-5, 293-pound Klein, who noted he has a new level of confidence compared to previous years, said team meetings, practice, and off-field conversations are different because of the coaching staff’s high energy.

With that reinforced energy, defensive end Darian Varner believes each group is starting to mesh, learning how to play off each other’s styles. While he still feels the team lacks consistency, Varner said the Owls’ communication is stronger.

» READ MORE: Three Villanova stars hit the big stage, representing the U.S. in 3x3 basketball

Between returners, the freshman class, and new additions from the transfer portal, Drayton wants to keep competition for spots wide open. He has yet to establish a depth chart, instead choosing to have each guy take reps with the ones, twos, threes and fours. But Drayton said after Temple’s first scrimmage on Saturday that he is starting to prepare for the season opener against Duke on Sept. 2, which means narrowing down those starting spots.

“The scrimmage was a great opportunity for us to finally work on game day mechanics,” Drayton said. “We had to, as a coaching staff, get ourselves organized, communicating the proper way, and the players had to work on their communication.

“One thing I can say as a whole is that everybody came out with great energy, great effort, people flew around. It was fast football out there, so I’ll speak in general, everybody really got better on that day.”

Temple announced its first six single-digit awardees Monday night, a concept introduced by former Owls coach Al Golden in 2009 that awards players who are the toughest and most dedicated with a single-digit jersey number.

During a team meeting, Drayton had former single-digit players in attendance, either in person or on Zoom. The single digits went to Klein (No. 2), Varner (No. 9), offensive lineman Isaac Moore (No. 4), former Georgia Tech receiver Adonicas Sanders (No. 5), linebacker Jordan Magee (No. 6), and cornerback Jalen McMurray (No. 7).

Though the tradition is usually to award ten numbers (0-9) to players, not every season sees them all distributed. Temple had only four single digits on the roster last season — safety Amir Tyler, linebacker William Kwenkeu, and receivers Randle Jones and Jadan Blue — all of whom graduated or transferred out, leaving a vacancy for team leaders. More numbers may be given out in the days to come or even earned after the season starts.