Clawson, who makes a reported $375,000 per year as Bowling Green's head coach, was interviewed and withdrew his name from consideration when the Owls narrowed down their list last year. He has Philadelphia-area connections, having been a coordinator under Andy Talley at Villanova. He has hopes for a power conference job but, if none of those materialize, he is a proven winning coach who beat Steve Addazio's bowl-winning Owls in 2011.
Niumatalolo has been Navy's head coach since the 2007 season and is probably the best coach in America nobody knows about, consistently beating teams like Notre Dame, Indiana and Missouri despite severe Naval Academy recruiting restrictions. He's had a winning season in all but one of his years as a head coach and has taken Navy to five bowl games. He is making roughly the same amount of money as Rhule ($1.2 million), but would his ceiling on winning would be higher at Temple due to service commitments and academic restrictions at Navy that don't exist at Temple.
Jagodzinski has the word God in the middle of his name and he was one at Boston College during the 2007 and 2008 seasons, having the Eagles ranked as high as No. 2 in the BCS standings in 2007. The last time Temple hired a major Eastern coach who had his team ranked No. 2 in the country, the Owls had an unprecedented run of 13 years of success and that man, Wayne Hardin, is now in the college football Hall of Fame. Hardin had Navy ranked as high as No. 2 twice as a head coach before coming to Temple. "Jags" as the BC fans called him, had a fall from grace when he was fired for applying for the New York Jets' coaching job that eventually went to current Jets' coach Rex Ryan. Jagodzinski currently is the offensive coordinator at Georgia State, making only a reported $200,000 a year, and would get a $1 million pay raise to build both his and Temple's reputation up from the ground. It would be a good fit for both.
When Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw hired Rhule, he talked about interviewing candidates "who were head coaches of teams currently in bowl games" and Lembo, who had his Ball State team in the Beef O'Brady Bowl, was thought to be one of those coaches Bradshaw was talking about. Temple moved quickly on Rhule because it did not want to disrupt its recruiting class, leaving the better head coach, Lembo, behind. Lembo, who was once the head coach at nearby Lehigh, makes only $330,000 at Ball State and understands East Coast recruiting and would get the most out of this current Temple talent level.
One of the three finalists for the Temple job last year, Bowles is the current defensive coordinator with the Arizona Cardinals and a Temple grad who wore Temple sweatshirts to all of his press conferences as DC with the Philadelphia Eagles' last year. He currently has the Cardinals' defense ranked No. 3 against the run in the entire NFL. They were ranked No. 28 against the run last year. As a head coach, he was 3-1 as an interim head coach for the Miami Dolphins, so he, unlike Rhule, is a proven winner as the top man. For Temple's purposes, he's probably the best-possible choice. He would bring discipline to what is now an undisciplined team, would relate well to recruits, and would possibly bring an outstanding defensive coordinator with him in current Cardinals' DB coach Nick Rapone, a former Temple DC. Rapone's daughter currently is a Temple student. They would both leave Arizona with the reluctant blessing of current head coach Bruce Arians, a former Temple head coach who still holds a soft spot in his heart for the school.
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