Philadelphia is known as the “City of Brotherly Love” and that was exemplified by Stan Drayton’s return to the city as the new head football coach at Temple University.
“This truly is a dream come true for me,” said Drayton in the release. “Philadelphia has always held a special place in my heart as my wife, Monique, and I got married while we lived here.”
Drayton, the former associate head coach and run game coordinator under two Texas head coaches (Tom Herman and Steve Sarkisian), had his head coaching dream realized in the city where he spent six years as an assistant coach for Pennsylvania (1995) and Villanova (1996-00).
He also returns to the state of his alma mater, Allegheny College, where he was both a star running back and began his coaching career in 1993.
Drayton was a highly respected assistant coach, known for recruiting and developing young talent.
At Texas, he was credited with the development of their trio of freshman running backs- Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson and Keaontay Ingram.
His success in bringing in young talent, leading and fostering their development is exactly what Arthur Johnson, hired in October as Temple’s Vice President and Director of Athletics, wanted.
“I am excited to bring Stan Drayton back to Philadelphia as the next head football coach of Temple University,” said Johnson. “I had a chance to get to know Stan while we worked together at the University of Texas. He is an outstanding football coach and an even better person. He knows what success looks like at the highest levels of football. He also knows what it takes to be successful in this city having spent six years of his career here and learned from two of the city’s legendary football coaches.”
Johnson and Drayton worked together at Texas, so Johnson was familiar with Drayton’s talent and impressive resume.
Drayton was the offensive quality control/special teams coach of the Packers (2001-03) and running backs coach of the Bears (2015-16).
But he spent the majority of his career in the college ranks, with stops at places like Syracuse, Tennessee and Mississippi State. He also won two national championships; a BCS title with Florida (2005) and a College Football Playoff Championship with Ohio State (2015).
Now he returns to the state where he once dominated.
At Allegheny, Drayton was a three-time first-team All America running back, ranks second in the school’s record book for rushing (3,272 yards), rushing TDs (54) and scoring (336 points). He also won a DIII championship in 1990, was a two-time All-American in track and was inducted into the Allegheny College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.
Temple wants to return to the bowl circuit, having played in one from 2015-19. They hope that Drayton, the second Black head football coach in the school’s history (Ron Dickerson was the other), will be the man to make that happen.
