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How Temple Should Stand as a Warning to the Rest of the AAC
Temple is overpaying on Rod Carey. As a result, they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place that should act as a warning to the rest of the AAC.
By Dan Morrison Mar 25, 2021, 9:00am EDT
EXCERPTS:
"in a move to gain stability (after losing a series of former Head Coaches to P5 teams), Temple offered (former Northern Illinois Head Coach) Rod Carey a massive contract, six years and $2 million annually.
The first two seasons had a $10 million buyout. It’s down to $8 million going into his third season. That’s too much for Temple to be able to afford as they slide into the bottom of the conference under Carey..."
"It’s no secret that things are going poorly in Philadelphia. The Temple Owls went 1-6 in Rod Carey’s second season..."
(It had been years since) Temple last had a losing record (in 2013).
...the Owls were getting blown out. By the end of the year, even ECU beat them by four scores.
It’s not that Temple didn’t have any talent(ed players). It’s that they gave up, and seemingly quit on their coach.
Head coach Rod Carey's tenure appears to be trending downwards into a nose dive. It’s a worrying pattern, as he slid Northern Illinois from being an Orange Bowl team to a just above average MAC team.
https://www.underdogdynasty.com/2021/3/2...ach-hiring
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The former Temple AD who signed Carey to such a lucrative contract should have done his due diligence. If he had, he would have noticed that
under Coach Carey, Northern Illinois had one of the nation's least productive offenses in 2017 and 2018, and that Carey's teams had an atrocious 0-6 record in their bowl games).
He should have known the program was in trouble when Carey (who functioned as N. Illinois' HC and Co-Offensive Coordinator decided to bring his highly-inexperienced and ineffective Co-OC with him from Northern Illinois, rather than hiring an experienced, effective OC to start out his tenure at Temple.
Another warning sign should have been the fact that Carey's (a former Offensive Lineman (Center)) and his Co-OC's position specialties were as Offensive Line Coaches, prior to becoming Co-Offensive Coordinators.
Ordinarily, one would hope that a team's Offensive Coordinator would have spent his developmental years as a Quarterback or Running Back Coach, but Temple's offense is run by a couple of former Offensive Line Coaches, and that should tell you just about all you'd want to know about the Temple Owls offense under Coach Carey.
Despite inheriting a team with dozens of talented players, Carey's first Owls team only managed to defeat one team that had a .500+ record.
Miraculously, they became bowl eligible in 2019, thanks to playing seven sub-.500 teams, only to be blown off the field in the 2019 military bowl.
The 2020 Owls finished the 2020 season ranked #116 in the Massey Composite rankings, and were among the 15 lowest scoring teams in the nation.
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The question is this: What can Temple do, since they can't afford to buy out his contract?
The University doesn't have many options, but things are looking so bad at this point that drastic measures might be considered.
One possibility would be to relieve Carey of his duties, let go of his least effective assistants, and assign the role of Head Coach to an aspiring young Coach who would be willing to handle the Head Coach's duties for the amount that a top assistant might ordinarily be paid, around $200,000/year - - which would be considered a fortune by many Americans.
Q: Why would that even be contemplated?
A: It probably wouldn't be contemplated, but while it would be a gamble, if Carey's players keep giving up on him half way through the season, it's possible that almost anyone could do a better job of coaching the team than Carey can.
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