Four coaches in four years: How Temple football players have adapted, once again, ahead of 2019 season

The players act as if it was not a big deal. The coach knows it was a big deal.

They all agree that the Temple football players have shown the ability to adjust, a needed skill during all the coaching changes in just the last four years.

As Temple prepares for its opener Saturday against Bucknell at Lincoln Financial Field, head coach Rod Carey will be making his debut after serving the last six seasons as coach at Northern Illinois.

Another season, another coach. It has almost been the norm recently at Temple.

Consider that Carey is technically the fourth head coach that this year’s graduate students, seniors, and redshirt juniors have worked under. That is not counting two stints of having former assistant Ed Foley serve as interim head coach during two bowl games.

The coaching carousel began when Matt Rhule, after leading the Owls to the 2016 American Athletic Conference championship, left for the head coaching job at Baylor. Foley, who is also now at Baylor with Rhule, coached the Owls in the Military Bowl, a 34-26 loss to Wake Forest.

Geoff Collins replaced Rhule and lasted nearly two years, before departing for Georgia Tech before the Owls’ bowl game last year. Foley again coached the Owls, in a 56-27 loss to Duke in the Independence Bowl.

Manny Diaz was hired in December to replace Collins, but he lasted just 18 days before accepting the head coaching job at Miami.

Then in came Carey.

During spring practice and in the preseason, there has been little mention about all the coaching changes. In a way, all the upheaval may have brought the team closer together.

“The most important thing is the bonding in the locker room,” quarterback Anthony Russo said. “If we stick together as a team, it doesn’t matter who the coach is, we will be good as long as we keep that bond.”

Senior defensive tackle Karmo Dioubate laughed about it. He said the players’ attitude is control what they can control, which doesn’t include the hiring of coaches.

“After the third one, you are like, at this point, bro, it is what it is,” Dioubate said.

With new coaches come new systems, new terminology, and new ways of doing things. And the players must prove themselves all over.

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“First off, it was kind of tough when Coach Rhule left because we didn’t now what to do and we were all kind of thrown off by it,” said senior linebacker Shaun Bradley, a first-team all-AAC choice last season. "And nobody really expected it.”

When Collins left, the players were more ready, although nobody could have prepared them for Diaz’s brief stint.

“Kids are always resilient, more than you or me, in handling change. When you go through that, they had to make a decision: Are they playing for a locker room or playing for a guy in the office? They made the decision they were playing for the locker room,” said Carey, who added that he marvels at how the players have adapted.

Even learning another new system was seen as a major positive by Russo and Bradley, two of the team leaders.

“This is my third offensive coordinator and I have been able to learn three different pass-game and running-game concepts and protections,” said Russo, a redshirt junior. “I think it has made my football IQ better.”

Bradley agreed.

“If you get to the next level, you will really know what you are talking about,” Bradley said.

Despite all the change, Temple has gone to bowl games a school-record four consecutive years. Coming off an 8-5 season, Temple should be among four teams in contention for the competitive AAC East Division title.

Russo, Bradley, and others have said there are no excuses. If Temple loses games this year, it won’t be because the players had to adapt to another coaching change.

“No way,” Russo said. “We are going to be smart and tough, and no matter what the circumstances are, win, lose or draw, we will play tough.”