Stan Drayton’s coaching roots trace back to Ken O’Keefe and his career at small town Allegheny College

If you ask Stan Drayton how he got into coaching, he’ll tell you Ken O’Keefe, his former Allegheny coach, introduced the idea 29 years ago. Long before taking on the head coaching job at Temple, Drayton started as an assistant fresh out of college in 1993 for his alma mater.

On his first recruiting assignment, Drayton made the two-hour drive to Cleveland and canvassed schools around his hometown. O’Keefe didn’t hear from him for a week. And without cell phones, there was no way to contact him.

When Drayton returned to Allegheny, he told O’Keefe he had gotten a flat tire the day he left, about halfway between western Pennsylvania and northern Ohio.

“When he got back, I asked, ‘Did you get it fixed? Is that how you got around during the week?’ ” O’Keefe said. “He goes, ‘No, no, I just drove on the doughnut the whole week.’ ”

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The newly appointed running backs coach tossed the flat tire into his trunk, replaced it with the spare — which shouldn’t be driven on for more than about 50 miles — and continued the trip. Drayton refused to let anything stop him from reaching each school on his list before 7 a.m. during his first recruiting assignment.

O’Keefe, who coached the Gators, with the Miami Dolphins and most recently Iowa, admits he has no recollection of telling Drayton he should get into coaching but stands by the endorsement. He took notice of Drayton’s relentless work ethic, congenial nature, and the pride he took in how he operates.

After one season as Allegheny’s running backs coach, Drayton worked his way up the ladder for 28 years. He coached running backs at six different Power 5 programs (2004-2014), before joining the Chicago Bears (2015-16), then at Texas (2017-21) before being named Temple’s head coach on Dec. 16.

“[O’Keefe] was the first guy who gave me a grease board and a dry erase marker and said here’s how you draw a circle,” Drayton said. “He was the one guy who walked into my high school in the inner city of Cleveland and found me. I love Ken O’Keefe.”

Allegheny’s offensive coordinator at the time walked into John Marshall High School upon recommendation from their coach and met Drayton the football player, who primarily played defensive back for the Lawyers.

The running back ahead of him in the pecking order later committed to Youngstown State, then flipped to defensive back. Drayton took the inverse path, committing to Allegheny in 1989 and switching to running back.

Allegheny’s staff had no reservations about making the defensive back turned running back from Cleveland their number one target. It was a matter of convincing him to move from the city to a rural area.

“He recruited me the right way. He poured into my person, who I was, where I was from,” Drayton said. “He poured into my family. Told me what it was like to be a student-athlete. It was bigger than football, he developed a real relationship with me. To this day, I still live that way.”

Over a three-year college career, he set three program records that stood for nearly a decade in scoring (336), rushing yards (3,272) and rushing touchdowns (54).

Track and field was Drayton’s other love. He still holds the Allegheny record for the fastest 100 meters (10.63 seconds) and 200m (21.27) times. O’Keefe, with a little extra inflection in his voice, said, “You don’t get too many guys that can run like him.”

Which is why Drayton was later nicknamed, “The Bottle Rocket.”

Peter Vaas was Allegheny’s head coach for three season, leading the program from1986-89. In 1990, he bowed out for an assistant role at Notre Dame and was succeeded by O’Keefe.

His first year with the Fighting Irish overlapped with Raghib “Rocket” Ismail’s final season. Ismail was runner-up for the 1990 Heisman Trophy, and in the spirit of his rocket moniker, ran an unofficial 4.28 40-yard dash at a predraft combine.

“I used to kid people at times when Stan was really playing well,” O’Keefe said. “ ‘Yeah, Notre Dame got The Rocket but we got The Bottle Rocket!’ In my eyes, it was a huge compliment.”

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Innate athleticism wasn’t why O’Keefe pushed Drayton into coaching.

While Drayton had a reserved, almost shy presence, he still had the confidence to speak up when the team’s focus went awry. His personality never naturally commanded a room. Although, according to O’Keefe, he was the first guy in the locker room to uplift his teammates.

The two still keep in touch to this day. Earlier this year, O’Keefe’s wife collected some old memorabilia from the time they shared at Allegheny — newspaper clippings and pictures from their 1990 National Championship overtime win against Lycoming — to send a care package to Drayton for his family.

Now “basically retired,” O’Keefe offers himself as a resource for former players. But says he takes greater pride in how they communicate with each other and in their respective jobs.

“I don’t know if you’ll find another guy who cares as much about his players or has as much empathy,” O’Keefe said of Drayton. “I’ll guarantee you this, a big problem most coaches have is they forget what it was like to play. They get disconnected from the players. I can guarantee that will never happen with Stan Drayton.”