What will Temple look like under interim football coach Everett Withers? Find out Friday night
The Owls never won a game on the road in Stan Drayton’s nearly three years as the head of the program. Withers will look to snap that Friday night against UTSA.
A new era is coming to North Broad Street. But first, Temple has to finish its last two games of this football season, starting with Texas-San Antonio on Friday night.
When Owls athletic director Arthur Johnson announced Sunday that Stan Drayton was dismissed as the program’s head coach, defensive coordinator Everett Withers assumed the role as the interim coach. Now the Owls look to close the season on a positive note.
“Don’t forget, we did win a game on Saturday,” Withers said. “I’m extremely proud of our team, and we’ve got some very mature kids on our football team. They understand that this is a great sport but a tough business. I think they are handling all of this remarkably well.”
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Temple (3-7, 2-4 American Athletic Conference) is in a strange spot preparing for its game against the Roadrunners (5-5, 3-3). The Owls never won a game on the road in Drayton’s nearly three years as coach.
New-look defense?
Withers appointed linebackers coach Chris Woods to interim defensive coordinator on Monday.
In the offseason, Withers changed the Owls’ defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4 to allow his outside linebackers more opportunities to get after the quarterback. Edge rushers Tra Thomas and Diwun Black have shown major flashes this season when they are on the field together.
Temple did not record a sack in regulation last week against Florida Atlantic. The Owls got back-to-back sacks during FAU’s overtime drive to help set up a 40-yard field-goal attempt that ultimately was missed. Withers was tasked with calling the defensive plays and communicating with defensive captain D.J. Woodbury, a linebacker. The unit allowed back-to-back 50-point performances against East Carolina and Tulane before holding FAU to just 15.
With a new coach calling the plays, it’ll be interesting to see how the Owls defense adapts early on.
Newfound energy?
On Monday, Withers said he was proud of his team for blocking out the noise after Drayton’s dismissal. The former coach received overwhelming support from players on social media after the athletic department announced the change.
Despite lacking positive results on the field, Drayton seemingly changed the culture of the program following the tumultuous tenure of former coach Rod Carey. However, Withers referred to the session after Drayton’s dismissal as “the best practice in a while,” and said players were “laser-focused” and showed up earlier than usual.
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If that’s the case, then Temple will need to play laser-focused football on Friday to earn its fourth win of the season — something the Owls haven’t done since 2019, when they won eight games.
Pay close attention to the energy on the sideline and how fast the Owls are able to start on offense.
“I’m proud of the way the team practiced,” Withers said. “They showed up early, they had the energy, they were very attentive on the job descriptions, so we expect to clean up things that we didn’t do correctly and go out and have a game [on Friday.]”
Wright’s offense
Quarterback Evan Simon prided himself on his ability to spread the ball around to multiple receivers earlier this season. Tight ends Peter Clarke and Daniel Evert found moderate success by the midway point of the season but have fizzled out since.
However, star wide receiver Dante Wright has taken off since then. Wright missed three games in the middle of the season but is still on pace for one of the best seasons in Temple history. He has 56 catches for 664 yards and four touchdowns. Before his undisclosed injury, he was among the top 20 in the nation in each of those categories.
Last week in the Owls’ win against FAU, Wright finished with 14 catches for 147 yards. His 14 receptions were the second-most in a game in Temple history.
“It felt great being back on the field,” Wright said. “Missing a couple weeks made me unsure of how things were going to go, but this game was really good for my confidence, and we were able to win, so that’s also really good for the team, and I’m really happy with the performance.”
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