Back when Urban Meyer was the head coach of the Ohio State football program, the Buckeyes had some truly great running backs. Carlos Hyde, Ezekiel Elliott, and Curtis Samuel were all in the backfield during his early tenure. Zeke and Samuel helped the Ohio State Buckeyes win a national title in 2014.
That 2014 season was the final season that Stan Drayton coached the running backs. Drayton was hand-picked by Meyer to be the running backs coach and coached from 2012-14. Drayton had previously worked under Meyer back at Florida. After 2014, he moved on to the NFL to coach with the Bears.
It took Drayton until 2022 to finally become a head coach somewhere. Following five years of coaching at Texas, he was hired as the head coach of the Temple Owls. He was expected to help bring the Owls back to a respectable level. Unfortunately, he failed to do that.
Former Ohio State football coach Stan Drayton has been fired from Temple
Drayton was never able to get it going at Temple. He has been fired not even three years into his tenure leading the program. He leaves with a record of just 8-25. It's hard to say the firing wasn't justified when you see a record like that. It's not like the program was getting any better.
It's a shame that Drayton failed in his stint as a head coach. There's a very good chance that he won't get another chance to lead a program. Still, he's an excellent running backs coach and does a great job developing backs. He'll be able to find work as an RB coach somewhere at the very least.
The Buckeyes have had good success running the ball under first-year running backs coach Carlos Locklyn. They seem to have found a good hire with him coming over from Oregon. Hopefully, Drayton can land on his feet somewhere.