Former Temple coach Stan Drayton will become Penn State’s new running backs coach
Three months after being fired as Temple's head coach, Drayton will replace former Penn State running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider, who departed for Notre Dame.
Three months after being fired as Temple’s head coach in his third season at the helm, Stan Drayton has a new coaching gig in Happy Valley.
Drayton is set to take the vacant Penn State running backs coaching job, the program announced on Friday. He will replace Ja’Juan Seider, who departed for Notre Dame on Sunday. Seider had been with the program since 2018 as the running backs coach but added other titles, including assistant head coach and co-offensive coordinator.
Prior to taking the Owls’ coaching job in 2022, Drayton was a running backs coach at the college and NFL levels. Drayton will command a running back room that returns Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton for their senior seasons. Allen and Singleton finished with more than 1,000 yards each last season.
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Drayton played running back at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., from 1989-92, and was 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 (2011-2014), and Texas (2017-21). He’s coached several players who went on to NFL careers, including Ezekiel Elliott, Roschon Johnson, Keaontay Ingram, and former Eagle Brian Westbrook.
He coached for two years with the Chicago Bears in 2015 and 2016. Drayton won a national championship at Florida in 2006 when he was on Urban Meyer’s staff. Penn State offensive line coach Phil Trautwein was a player on that team, and now the pair will work together to continue the Nittany Lions’ success in the running game. Drayton also won a national title in 2014 with the Buckeyes.
Earlier this week, Penn State coach James Franklin described what he would be looking for in the next running backs coach, and Drayton seems to match the qualities.
“There’s some young guys that you can hire that are on an upward trajectory, are going to have really good careers, but you may not get the return on your investment until Year 2,” Franklin said. ”And then there’s other guys that are much more seasoned, but you want to make sure that they haven’t gotten to the point of their career where their career is starting to decline and go in the opposite direction.
“So you kind of find that sweet spot of a guy that’s got enough experience, both in coaching and in recruiting at this level, and that we’re going to get the return on our investment quickly.”
Drayton finished 9-25 (4-18 American Athletic Conference) in a little under three seasons with the Owls. He was fired on Nov. 17, and has since been replaced by K.C. Keeler, who took the job on Dec. 1 from Sam Houston State.