Temple is looking for a new football coach.
The Owls announced Sunday that Stan Drayton had been fired with two games remaining in the 2024 regular season. Drayton’s dismissal comes after the Owls defeated Florida Atlantic 18-15 in overtime on Saturday.
Defensive coordinator and former Texas State coach Everett Withers will be the team’s interim coach for the final two games of the season.
“I would like to express my appreciation to Coach Drayton for his dedication to Temple University, our student-athlete and the football program over the past three years,” Temple athletic director Arthur Johnson said in a statement. “Under his leadership, our student-athletes have excelled in the classroom, been outstanding community members, and Coach Drayton has represented the university with an enormous amount of integrity and class. I wish him and his family the best of luck in their future endeavors.”
“With the changing landscape of college football and the playoff format, the opportunities for Temple football have never been better. Our expectation is to compete for American Athletic Conference titles, consistently appear in bowl games and build a program that our fans, alumni and students can be proud of in the classroom and beyond. I am confident that our fans will rally around our student-athletes and support them as they always have.”
Competing for AAC titles and a spot in College Football is still a long way off for the Owls. The win over the other Owls on Saturday brought Temple’s record to 3-7. Temple was 3-9 in each of Drayton’s first two seasons and he leaves with a career record of 9-25.
Temple hasn’t made a bowl game since the 2019 season, when the Owls went 8-5 under Rod Carey. That was Carey’s first season with the program after replacing Geoff Collins.
Since then, Temple has not won more than three games in a season and four games in Carey’s last two seasons.
The program is a far cry from the back-to-back 10-win seasons it posted under current Nebraska coach Matt Rhule in 2015 and 2016. Rhule’s team improved with eight wins in two seasons from 2013 to 2015 and left for the job at Baylor. after the 2016 season.
Overall, Temple has won just one conference championship in school history and has appeared in nine bowl games.