Stan Drayton was a 22-year-old getting his first taste of coaching at Allegheny College, where he had starred the previous three seasons.
Ken O’Keefe, then the head coach of the Gators, can remember instructing Drayton and a few other graduate assistants that he expected them to visit six high schools each day for a week.
O’Keefe said Drayton was intense and dedicated then, just as he’s been throughout his 32-year career.
Drayton was assigned to recruit the Cleveland area, where he’s from. About 10 miles from the Allegheny campus in Meadville, Pa., Drayton’s rental car got a flat tire.
“He comes back at the end of the week,” O’Keefe said. “I found out he drove all the way to Cleveland and drove all week on a donut (temporary spare tire). ‘Stan, what happened? Why didn’t you turn around, come back here and get it fixed?’
“ ‘Coach, you said we had to hit six schools a day. How was I going to make it to every school?’ That tells you who he is. He’s committed.”
Drayton’s 54 now and in his first season as the running backs coach at Penn State, hired to coach preseason All-Americans Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen.
“He’s been really good,” Singleton said. “His resume speaks for itself. He told us he’s going to be there for us anytime we need him. At the same time, we’re going to be working hard when we hit the field. I love that, too. I want a coach who pushes me hard, who tells me when I’m messing up and who holds me accountable.”
Drayton replaced Ja’Juan Seider, who left Penn State after seven seasons to join Notre Dame’s staff and who had recruited and mentored Singleton and Allen. Drayton has been in similar situations and admitted they can be challenging.
“I’m still in the process of earning their trust,” he said. “It’s competency and consistency. It’s these guys believing I can help them get to where they want to go. It’s consistency in who I am as a person and my character and making sure they see the same person every day.”
Drayton has coached in the NFL with Green Bay and Chicago and in college with Eastern Michigan, Penn, Villanova, Bowling Green, Mississippi State, Florida, Tennessee, Syracuse, Ohio State, Texas and Temple, where he was the head coach the last three seasons.
He has built a reputation as a running back whisperer, coaching such players as Brian Westbrook, Jerious Norwood, Carlos Hyde, Ezekiel Elliott, Matt Forte, Jordan Howard, Bijan Robinson and Roschon Johnson.
He believes Singleton and Allen are as talented as any backfield duo he’s coached. He understands their goal is to win a national championship and become top draft picks.
“These guys want big things out of their careers,” Drayton said. “They want to go to the league and do big things, so there’s no time for fluff. There’s no window dressing or sugar-coated conversations.
“I’m very, very direct and very, very demanding. Those guys have received it well. That’s a sign of really great players and a great relationship building among us three.”
Drayton was once in their shoes. He never played tackle football until he was a sophomore at John Marshall High School in Cleveland. He was small (5-9) and received only one Division I offer, from Akron.
“I was a late bloomer,” he recalled. “I didn’t know how good I was. Ken O’Keefe came into John Marshall to recruit me. He was just consistent. He was the only coach who reached out to my mom.
“They were the only coaches to paint out a big picture for life after four years of college for me. They had a clear plan of how they were going to raise me as a young man. That became more important to me than the scholarship offer from Akron.”
He was a three-time first-team All-America running back and helped Allegheny win the 1990 NCAA Division III championship. He remains second at the school for rushing yards (3,272), rushing touchdowns (54) and scoring (336 points). He also was a two-time All-American sprinter in track.
“The guy was a role model for everybody else to follow, whether it was on the field, in the weight room or in the classroom,” O’Keefe said. “Stanley didn’t come in as an unbelievable student, but he found ways to improve and to get better. He still does. He graduated in four years. He did a tremendous job in school.
“He was a role model to his teammates because of his work ethic and his positive attitude. That was something very special.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers invited Drayton to a workout, where he ran a 4.38 in the 40-yard dash. But that was the end of his NFL experience as a player.
“They wanted to see if I could return kicks, but I had average hands,” he said. “They started punting the ball and I put one on the ground. I didn’t expect much. At that time, I knew I was going to be a lawyer or a coach.”
Joe Philbin was O’Keefe’s offensive coordinator at Allegheny, where he joined the staff for Drayton’s sophomore year. Later in his career, he was Green Bay’s offensive coordinator when the Packers won the Super Bowl in 2011 and then the Miami Dolphins head coach for four seasons.
Philbin saw something in Drayton that he thought would make him a successful coach. He convinced O’Keefe to hire him and taught him the basics at the dry erase board.
“Right away I could tell he had a knack for coaching,” Philbin said. “It proved to be the case over his career. As a player, even though he was very talented, he was a very, very hard worker. He always asked a lot of questions. He was very detailed.
“We thought he had really good potential. He was a good communicator, which we thought would serve him well in coaching.”
Drayton was still considering becoming a lawyer after serving an internship in Washington. But once he took the LSAT and struggled, he turned to coaching as a career.
“When Joe put me at the board, it made sense to me right away,” he said. “My only hesitation was, ‘How the hell am I going to tell my parents that I went to Allegheny College for four years to be a coach?’
“Joe had already opened my senses to it. I loved the game and I knew I wasn’t ready to be away from it. The coaching piece made a lot of sense.”
Drayton has succeeded at most of his stops, including being an assistant coach on national championship teams at Florida (2006) and Ohio State (2014). He has coached seven 1,000-yard rushers, five NFL draft picks and two All-Americans.
“I’m just really proud of him,” Philbin said. “He’s just a class guy. You want your kids playing for someone like that. He’s the kind of guy you want to be around.”
It’s not surprising that Drayton’s wife, Monique Fuller-Drayton, and their two daughters, Amari and Anaya, are athletes. Amari is a gymnast at LSU and Anaya is a recent high school graduate who plans to run track at Penn State.
Fuller-Drayton is the reigning USA Masters track and field champion in the 400 meters and silver medalist in the 200.
“It’s hard to watch my daughters compete, especially Amari,” Drayton said. “Gymnastics is such a brutal sport. It’s hard for me to sit still when they’re competing. At the same time, it’s very, very rewarding.
“It’s so much easier to watch my wife. It’s so fun to watch her. She’s 52 years old and trains with my daughter (Anaya) every day. My wife is a fierce competitor.”
So is Drayton, which is why his three years at Temple, where the Owls went 9-25, left him looking for a better situation to work. He found it at Penn State, which has hopes of winning the Big Ten and national titles.
“I know I’m on a road that’s going to have potholes and hurdles along the way,” he said. “I just endure them. When another opportunity (to be a head coach) presents itself, I’ll be ready.
“But I’m 10 toes down right now. My No. 1 goal right now is getting Nick (Singleton) and ‘Fat’ (Allen) and this team to a championship. That’s my only focus. I’m truly happy where I’m at.”
A longtime offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Iowa before his retirement, O’Keefe has proudly watched Drayton’s journey. He believes he can make a difference with the Nittany Lions.
“This guy’s an impressive person,” O’Keefe said. “He has tremendous gratitude for all of his different experiences. He has a great wife and great kids. If there’s a guy I would want my son to grow up and be like, it’s Stanley Drayton.
“He’s amazing. He has the right character. He’s a man of integrity. He’s everything you want.”
