Temple players say they must move on after Geoff Collins departs as football coach

Temple redshirt sophomore tight end Kenny Yeboah knows what it is like to go though a coaching change, so he took news in stride that Geoff Collins was leaving as the Owls' head coach after two seasons for the same position at Georgia Tech.

Collins addressed Temple’s team early on Friday morning before departing for a press conference Friday night in Atlanta. Ed Foley -- the assistant head coach, tight ends coach and special teams coach -- will serve as interim coach and guide the Owls in the bowl game. Temple (8-4) will face Duke (7-5) in the Independence Bowl on Dec. 27 in Shreveport, La.

“I know [Collins] is from Georgia and figured it was his dream job,” Yeboah said on Friday in a phone interview. “You can’t really hate him for it. It [stinks], but it is part of life.”

Yeboah says the players have no choice but to move on.

“I feel bad for the freshmen, and it happened to me as a freshman. But it won’t affect me at the end of the day,” Yeboah said. “It is about the players, and the coaches don’t play the games for us.”

Redshirt junior running back Jager Gardner took a practical view of the situation.

“It is tough when you think about it and get a bond with your coach, and then it is broken away so abruptly,” Gardner said “You have to adapt to it.”

Foley also was the interim head coach in 2016 after Matt Rhule left for Baylor. It was Foley who guided the Owls in the Military Bowl, which they lost, 34-26, to Wake Forest.

“He is a great person,” safety Delvon Randall said of Foley. “I am excited to go play for him again one last time.”