After watching the Owls suffer a 34-26 defeat to Wake Forest in the Military Bowl, new head coach Geoff Collins quickly turned the page on another historic season for Temple football and began the difficult challenge of forming his coaching staff.
So far, there are two newcomers to the Temple football program as Dave Patenaude has been hired as the offensive coordinator and David Feeley was hired to be the head strength and conditioning coach for the Owls.
The offensive coordinator position was one of the biggest hires Collins, a defensive-minded coach, had to make. Dave Patenaude has been the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach the last 5 seasons for Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers, who make most of their noise on the baseball diamond, posted a 10-2 record in 2016 behind an stellar offense that posted over 37 points and 380 yards per game. Before Patenaude’s time at Coastal, he served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Georgetown University. Patenaude has also coached at several universities in the northeast like Holy Cross, New Haven (Conn), Fordham, Columbia, and Hofstra. At Hofstra, Patenaude coached Bryant Savage, the brother of Houston Texans’ quarterback Tom Savage.
David Feeley is the new head strength and conditioning coach. Feeley is coming from the University of South Carolina where he held the same position for one season. Back in 2010, Feeley and Geoff Collins coached together at Florids International University. At FIU, Collins was the defensive coordinator and Feeley the strength and conditioning coach. The two coaches helped lead the FIU Panthers to a victory in the Little Cesar’s Pizza Bowl.
Three familiar faces from the 2016 offensive coaching staff will return, but their positions have yet to be announced.
Ed Foley, who coached the Owls in their bowl game, will be back for the Cherry and White in 2017. Foley has been apart of the Temple football program under three different head coaches (Al Golden, Steve Addazio, and Matt Rhule) and has manned a plethora of positions on the offensive side of the ball. While at Temple, Foley has been the assistant head coach, tight ends coach, assistant offensive line coach, and director of football operations. The Cherry Hill, NJ native has been a mainstay for a Temple football program that has had so much turnover in the last decade as the Owls worked their way from one of the worst teams in Division 1 football to the American Athletic Conference champions that have been ranked in each of the last two seasons.
The other two offensive assistants returning are Frisman Jackson and Chris Wiesehan. Jackson has been the Wide Receivers coach at five different division 1 schools (including at Temple for 2 years) and was also the passing game coordinator for the Owls in 2016. Jackson played wide receiver at Western Illinois and then spent six seasons in the NFL where he played for the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets. In Jackson’s first season as the wide recievers coach he worked hard with senior Robbie Anderson, who was not even with the team the year before, and Anderson had nearly 1,000 receiving yards and seven touchdowns to earn a NFL contract with the New York Jets. This season, Temple’s receiving corps, highlighted by Ventell Bryant and Keith Kirkwood, made huge strides throughout the season and have some very promising talent returning for 2017 season.
Chris Wiesehan has coached at Temple for three seasons, coaching the offensive line in 2014 and 2015 and then the running backs and serving as the senior offensive assistant in 2016. Wiesehan has coached all around the country for the last 22 seasons, making stops at Univ. of Hawaii, the Canadian Football League, and several other division 1 football programs. Wiesehan’s experience and great knowledge for the offensive side of the ball made this a no-brainer for Geoff Collins to ask him to return to the Owls.
While the Temple coaching staff is beginning to round out, head coach Geoff Collins needs to fill the vacancies on the defensive side of the ball. Three defensive coaches, including defensive coordinator Phil Snow have already announced that they will be on Waco next season as parts of former Temple head coach Matt Rhule’s coaching staff.
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