Spring notebook: Stan Drayton talks single digits, practice updates
Temple head coach Stan Drayton spoke to reporters Saturday morning before the team's eighth spring practice of the year and first scrimmage.
He touched on how the team has performed so far, single-digit voting, and said he won’t name a starting quarterback until after fall camp.
Drayton also said several players who were injured last season are practicing in a limited role, including Audley Isaacs, Onasis Neely, Lancine Turay and Evan Boozer.
Here are a few quotes and excerpts from the press conference, and you can listen to the full interview here.
Drayton on the team stacking good practices:
“Absolutely. We're getting better every single day. We just talk about just that much every single day, just improve on something. I think we talk in terms of unit pride, that's getting better everyday leadership. Somebody is arising every day, so we are stacking practices in that respect. But is it where we need to be now? Not yet from an execution standpoint, and assignment standpoint. We still got a ways to go, but these guys are putting in time, and I expect that to improve.”
Drayton on only having one punter on the roster:
“We could survive a spring with one punter. I don't know if we could survive a whole fall with one punter. One thing we do have is position flex with both of our kickers, our punter. They can do both. So if we run into a crunch, we'll have to do double duty, there.”
Drayton on the mechanics of the practice depth chart:
“We practice ones and twos. We do because we're just trying to get everybody an opportunity to get evaluated, but there's times where there's ones that have to go with the twos, and there's twos that go with the ones, so there's truly not a depth chart in place. I mean, there are some guys with some experience that we know are going to have a place on this football team somewhere on the depth chart. But there's still a lot of guys to be evaluated. So we've given everybody an opportunity to show improvement.”
Drayton on the quarterback room:
“Not bad, not bad. I mean, getting better. Like I said, that the one thing that I love about them right now is they're trying to take command into position. You know, they're trying to act like quarterbacks meaning that on and off the football field. You got to be a student of the game. So in that respect, they're studying the game. I mean, they're trying to take ownership of the offense. It just takes time, right? They're hearing a lot of things, doing a lot of things for the first time, and it's gonna take some time. They don't know the whole playbook inside out, so that development piece takes a lot more time than most positions.”
Drayton on his defensive mindset after coaching running backs for almost 30 years:
“My mindset is defense, even as a running back coach back in the days. My mindset has been defense as I've tried to coach that position, like as a defensive position. They bring a physicality to the table. They represent Temple TUFF. We're trying to get that mindset that is coached up on defense on offense. Cheering for the defense is a very natural thing for me.”
Drayton on cornerbacks Keyshawn Paul and Cameron Ruiz potentially getting a single digit:
"They don't know everything they need to know at this point. When we talk in terms of single digit, I mean, we're recreating that standard. And this is way up here, and our guys are still down here. We got guys that are showing traits of it, but it's a daily evaluation for single digit. It really is. We've had some former single digits that I've walked into this building to try to give them a taste of what their mindset is supposed to be like. I think our young men when they hear those guys speak, they realize the work that they have ahead of them to even think about being a single digit. So now we're gonna hold that in a very high standard. Do we have anybody that shows traits of it? Yes. But you know, not worth mentioning right now. There still has to be a daily grind towards something like that.”
Drayton on what the process will be for picking single digits:
“We'll probably still keep it along the lines of a team vote, but I'm not ready for this team to vote for anybody right now. Again, the mindset is not conditioned where we need it to be. That's the reason why we're bringing these former single digits in here to talk to our guys so they can understand the mindset of a Haason Reddick. The mindset of those guys are on a whole 'nother level. When they hear them speak, they realize how far they've got to go. So we'll create the criteria as a coaching staff and present that to the team at some point. Then they'll have a chance to really self evaluate each other, and we'll move from there.”
Drayton on the team’s reaction to someone like Haason Reddick coming back to talk with them:
“When a guy like that stands in front of the team and talks, I mean, they're on the edge of their seats. They're trying to grab on every single thing, because they know that guy can relate to exactly what they're going through right now. When he starts talking about the standard and the culture that he lived through, it helped him develop, to get him to the place where he is today. They all want to be where he is. So they're giving him full attention, full respect, and they just want to hear, at the end of it, no doubt. He's surrounded by those players. They just want to hear, and they want to feel the love that he's putting out, and they want to see what it is to be Temple TUFF. Our kids, they're wanting to be Temple tough. They want to represent what this university represents. And so when a person like that stands in front of them, they're trying to grab on to every word.”
Drayton on moving past last year’s bad film:
“We, as a coaching staff, did a lot of evaluation of last year's film, but I refuse to take our kids back to that. It's about what we're moving forward, so to look back in the rearview mirror, not doing a whole lot of that. We're addressing the day as it comes, we're addressing each moment, one moment at a time, one play at a time, and we're really pressing forward in our mindset.”
Drayton on linebacker Yvandy Rigby:
“When he's in good position, he'll deliver a blow. And when he knows what he's doing, he's pretty damn good. He's also showing some inconsistency in that respect, too. So, you know, these guys haven't really cut it loose yet, because they're still processing the information that's given to them on a daily basis. We're still installing and every time there's a new install, the one thing that we noticed is that our kids process,, but [Rigby], like everybody else on this football team – they're trying their asses off. I mean, they really are. He's given me great effort. You know, he's got a great attitude when he walks into the building, and that's been pretty consistent.”