Everett Withers picks up where he left off in becoming Owls' DC
Everett Withers left his position as Stan Drayton’s chief of staff in late December last year for Florida Atlantic to become its assistant head coach and defensive passing game coordinator.
But when former defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot accepted a job as the Philadelphia Eagles’ linebackers coach, becoming yet another former Owl to join Nick Sirianni’s staff, Withers returned to Temple last month to replace Eliot, ensuring some stability to the program at a time during spring ball that would have otherwise been tough to lose a coordinator.
At FAU, Withers was originally offered the role of defensive coordinator, but he declined. Instead he opted to “coordinate the back end” of FAU’s defense, coaching nickel cornerbacks and safeties, he told reporters Friday.
Once Withers returned to the field, his feelings changed.
“Once I got back on the field, you know, obviously the recall and juices and energy and that stuff that of coaching the players and having a unit that type of stuff was good,” Withers said. “Gave me the opportunity, you know, once DJ left, Stan called and (I) said, ‘Yeah, you know, it's probably right for me to do it again.’”
As defensive coordinator, Withers will not be making major changes to the defense Eliot ran last season, one that produced an American Athletic Conference-best 38 sacks.
Instead, he’ll make minor adjustments to simplify it. Rather than make the players learn a new scheme, he took it upon himself to learn Eliot’s.
“I don't want to change anything that the kids already know,” Withers said. “The kids got me caught up to speed with terminology.”
Withers said his chief of staff role last season involved helping Drayton with “coaching the coaches.” Other than a 27-20 overtime loss at Navy on Oct. 29 where he filled in for a sick Drayton, his role was primarily off the field.
Withers has accumulated 35 years of coaching experience and landed his first Power Five defensive coordinator job at Minnesota in 2007 before landing that same role at North Carolina in 2008, later becoming the Tar Heels’ interim head coach when Butch Davis was fired. After moving on to serve as Ohio State’s co-defensive coordinator in 2012 and 2013, Withers then took on head coaching jobs at FCS programs James Madison (2014-15) and Texas State (2016-18.) An analyst role at Texas in 2020 marked the second time Withers had worked with Drayton, so the two already had a good working relationship when Drayton asked him to join his Temple staff prior to last season.
Despite a change in title, cornerback Elijah Clark doesn’t see a difference in Withers’ involvement with the team between the past two seasons.
“To be honest, it's not too different,” Clark said. “When he was here, he was always around, always giving advice, always teaching, coaching. So him being the head defensive coordinator is not totally different.”
Cornerback Brenyen Scott took notice as well.
“I like the way he's modeling the defense. It's not too different from last year,” Scott said. “But there's also ways that (he)(puts) people in perfect position to make even more plays.”