There was about three months in between Stan Drayton’s firing at Temple and his acceptance of the running backs coaching job with Penn State, allowing the 53-year-old time to miss football. At his introductory media session on Monday, Drayton said he had trouble sleeping and quipped that his wife “does not receive my coaching very well.”
Instead of taking a year off from coaching, Drayton is back to doing “something that is my calling.” And he’s taking several lessons from his abrupt coaching end on North Broad with him to Happy Valley.
“The one advantage of being a head football coach is that you have the ability to not only develop a room but also set a standard of development for your coaches and your staff as well. And I learned that I was pretty decent at that point of it,” Drayton said. “I was able to really get people to buy into a vision and sell them on why the vision is what it is, right?
“Sometimes we get lost in the game of football, of just obtaining wins and losses. Trying to win ball games, and then you forget the development of the young men itself.”
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Penn State wasn’t the only opportunity to come Drayton’s way in the weeks following his Temple departure on Nov. 17 after nearly three seasons at the helm. The Cleveland native said he received interest to join several staffs in a senior analyst role. He added that Penn State coach James Franklin reached out to him shortly after he left Temple, offering to let Drayton sit in on practices, but Drayton ultimately decided to spend the time with his family.
But the “itch” for coaching persisted with Drayton. He interviewed for the vacant Penn State running backs coaching job on Feb. 10 before officially getting the job on Feb. 14. He’s looking forward to coaching Penn State’s running back tandem, Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen.
“This is something that I’ve done over 32 years experience as a coach, where I’ve taken guys, no matter where they are in their development, and taken them to where they want to go. I’ve been very fortunate to be around some very talented individuals over my career. And to say the same about those two guys, they’re right up along the same talent level as anybody I’ve coached to this point,” Drayton said. “I know they love the game, and that’s kind of like my deal — if you love the game, I got you.
“Me being hired here is just a matter of me trying to set some standards in place for them, some expectations that we have as a unit, for each other, and also what I have for them as individuals.”
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Drayton is a former running back himself, starring at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., from 1989-92, then serving as a running backs coach at several schools, including Penn (1995) and Villanova (1996-99). He’s also had stops at major programs, including at Florida twice (2005-07, 2010), Ohio State (2011-14), and Texas (2017-21) and has coached several players who went on to NFL careers, including Ezekiel Elliott, Roschon Johnson, Bijan Robinson, and former Eagle Brian Westbrook.
Right now, Drayton says he’s focused on getting back to the “intricacies of coaching” after being in more of a CEO role leading Temple’s program.
“Me coming back at this role, being a position coach and having an opportunity to bring head coaching experience [and] being aligned to Coach Franklin’s vision for Penn State, it’s something I think is going to be beneficial for everyone,” Drayton said. “I’m so excited to have my own room and actually be able to hold a shield and set up a bag drill and actually, you know, [be] with those guys in the intimate setting. This is something that I really missed as a head football coach.
“The number one thing I learned from Temple is without alignment, it’s a tough go, and here I’ve already seen the level of alignment that’s from top to bottom here at Penn State, which makes me even more excited to be a Penn Stater.”
Source: www.inquirer.com…