Temple football coaching staff retains Ed Foley, Fran Brown, Gabe Infante, and Adam DiMichele

As expected, Temple announced Thursday that the four assistant football coaches who were hired by short-tenured former head coach Manny Diaz will be retained by new coach Rod Carey.

The four are Fran Brown, Ed Foley, former St. Joseph’s Prep coach Gabe Infante, and Adam DiMichele. Temple said that DiMichele, who was quarterbacks/inside receivers coach and recruiting coordinator-offense this season, will have an off-the-field role.

Brown, an Owls assistant for four years before spending the last two years at Baylor, is expected to be assistant head coach/co-defensive coordinator. Foley is expected to continue as special-teams coordinator and tight ends coach as he enters his 12th season with Temple.

Brown and Foley are key to the Temple recruiting efforts with their local ties. Both were South Jersey standouts as football players at Camden and Cherry Hill East, respectively, and each is known as an outstanding recruiter.

When Collins resigned, Foley was Temple’s interim head coach and guided the Owls in their 56-27 loss to Duke in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

Infante said earlier this week that he will be the running backs coach. On Thursday Infante was named the 2018 National High School Coaches Association‘s National Football Coach of the Year after guiding St. Joseph’s Prep to 13-0 record and Class 6-A state championship.

Diaz lasted just 18 days as Temple coach after replacing Geoff Collins, who departed after two seasons for the same position at Georgia Tech.

On Dec. 30, Diaz resigned at Temple to take the head coaching job at Miami, where he had been the defensive coordinator.

Temple now has announced eight assistant coaching hires. The five others besides Brown, Foley and Infante are from Northern Illinois, where Carey had been the head coach for the previous six years.

Their titles have not been announced, but a source said that Jeff Knowles, who was the linebacker coach/defensive coordinator at NIU, is expected to be the co-defensive coordinator at Temple. The other hires on defense are Melvin Rice, who coached cornerbacks, and Walter Stewart, who was the defensive line coach.

The two hired on offense from NIU are Craig Harmon, who was the quarterbacks coach this past season, and Joe Tripodi, who was the offensive line coach and running game coordinator.

With eight on-field assistant coaches hired, Carey still has two more assistant coaches to name and both will be on the offensive side. Mike Uremovich, who was NIU’s offensive coordinator, has interviewed for the head coaching job there. If he doesn’t get the job, he is also a candidate, according to a source to be hired by Temple.

It’s possible, depending how things work out, that Temple could hire co-offensive coordinators, a source said.