College Park, Pennsylvania James Franklin, the head coach of Penn State football, revealed that Stan Drayton will be joining the team as the new running backs coach.
“Stan Drayton benefits our program by bringing decades of experience coaching running backs at the highest levels,” Franklin said. He’s a valuable addition to our team. We will greatly benefit from his head coaching experience and his career dealing with top backs in our running backs room. I am thrilled to have Stan and his family visit Happy Valley, together with his wife Monique and daughters Anaya and Amari.
Drayton declared, “I am honored and thrilled to be joining this prestigious organization under Coach Franklin’s leadership. “I greatly admire the program and atmosphere he has established here. In addition to having a strong running back heritage, Penn State currently boasts a very skilled running back room. I am ecstatic to have this chance and am eager to start working.
After three seasons as Temple’s head coach, Drayton, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, joins the Nittany Lions. Having coached running backs for 25 years, he has 32 years of coaching expertise. Drayton has five years of NFL coaching experience and has been a member of coaching staffs that have won two national championships.
- Prominent running backs including Brian Westbrook, Jerious Norwood, Carlos Hyde, Ezekiel Elliott, Bijan Robinson, Matt Forte, and Jordan Howard have all received tutoring from Drayton over his coaching tenure.
- Before Temple, Drayton spent five seasons at Texas as the running backs coach, run game coordinator, and assistant head coach under Steve Sarkisian (2021) and Tom Herman (2017–20).
- Drayton oversaw the growth of three backs who had a big effect during his five seasons with the Longhorns: Keaontay Ingram, Roschon Johnson, and Bijan Robinson.
- Robinson received first-team All-Big 12 recognition in 2021 and was third in the Big 12 in running (112.7 yards per game; eighth nationally).
- In 2020, Robinson had an outstanding season, breaking the school’s single-season yards per carry average record of 8.2 ypg with 703 running yards on just 86 rushes.
- In 2015, the Bears rushing offense was 11th in the NFL averaging 115.9 yards per game, a 16-spot improvement from their ranking of 27th (90.1 ypg) a year prior to his arrival. Drayton helped Langford, a fourth-round draft pick, finish fifth among all NFL rookies with seven touchdowns and ninth among rookies with 816 yards from scrimmage.
- Before joining the Bears, Drayton coached at Ohio State where he won the 2014 National Championship. He joined OSU as a wide receivers coach in 2011, before leading the running backs for the next three seasons.
- During the National Championship season in 2014, Drayton tutored Elliott, who as a sophomore, finished third in the nation and second in single-season school history with 1,878 rushing yards.
- Elliott capped the 2014 season with three-straight 200-yard rushing games (tied for the most in single-season school history with Eddie George in 1995). He was named College Football Playoff National Championship Offensive MVP with 246 rushing yards (tied for third most in single-game school history) and four touchdowns on 36 carries against Oregon. Elliott was also named Offensive MVP of the Sugar Bowl (230 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries) versus Alabama in the semifinals.
- In 2013, Drayton helped senior running back Carlos Hyde finish eighth in the nation in rushing, averaging 126.8 yards per game (1,521 yards and 15 touchdowns on 208 carries in 12 contests).
- Hyde was named the Big Ten’s Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year as his 1,521 rushing yards were eighth-most in school history and his 7.3 yards per carry was the highest single-season average in school history.
- In his first season as Ohio State’s running backs coach in 2012, Drayton guided the Buckeyes running backs to 1,536 yards, 21 touchdowns and an average of 5.4 yards per carry during the team’s 12-0 campaign.
- Prior to his time with the Buckeyes, Drayton spent the 2010 season as the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Florida for his second stint with the Gators, while also making stops at Syracuse (2009) and Tennessee (2008).
- His first season with the Gators ended in 2006, when the team averaged 160 running yards per game and Florida won the BCS National Championship.
- Before Jerious Norwood was selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the third round of the 2006 NFL Draft, Drayton helped lead him to a 1,000-yard running season in 2004 while he was a student at Mississippi State.
- Prior to Mississippi State, Drayton coached running backs at Allegheny College (1993), Bowling Green (2000), Villanova (1996-2000), and Pennsylvania (1995).
- Additionally, Drayton worked as a graduate assistant (1994) at Eastern Michigan and as an offensive quality control and special teams coach (2001-03) with the Green Bay Packers.
- Additionally, Drayton served as a graduate assistant (1994) at Eastern Michigan and as an offensive quality control and special teams coach (2008-03) with the Green Bay Packers.
- Another well-known Villanova student was Westbrook, a two-time All-American who, in 1998, became the first athlete at any level to record over 1,000 yards in a single season, both running and receiving.
- Westbrook, who was selected in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the 2001 Walter Payton Award winner for Offensive Player of the Year in NCAA Division I-AA.Player Accomplishments
- As a running back at Allegheny College, Drayton was selected to the first team All-America three times. He stands second in the school’s record book for rushing (3,272 yards), rushing touchdowns (54), and scoring (336 points). He also played for the squad that won the 1990 Division III National Championship.
- In track, he competed in the 100- and 200-meter sprints and was named an All-American twice.
Drayton received his bachelor’s degree in English in 1993, and in 2005 he was admitted into the Allegheny College Athletic Hall of Fame.
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