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Temple hires Northern Illinois' Rod Carey to replace Manny Diaz who replaced Geoff Collins

Nick Bromberg
College football and motorsports writer
Rod Carey was 52-30 at Northern Illinois. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Rod Carey was 52-30 at Northern Illinois. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Temple hopes it has found its coach for the 2019 season.

The school announced Friday that it had hired Northern Illinois coach Rod Carey. Carey officially replaces Manny Diaz, though, in practice, he replaces Geoff Collins.

Collins left Temple to go to Georgia Tech. Diaz, Miami’s defensive coordinator, was officially hired as the Owls’ coach on Dec. 14. But as Miami coach Mark Richt abruptly retired on Dec. 30, the Miami native returned to the Hurricanes and became the team’s head coach leaving Temple looking for a coach again.

“We are very happy to announce that Rod Carey will take over as the next Temple head football coach,” Temple athletic director Patrick Kraft said in a statement. “Rod is a proven winner with a history of success as a head coach at the FBS level. He has won four regular-season titles and two MAC Championships at Northern Illinois while taking the Huskies to six bowl games, including the 2013 Orange Bowl. He has also recruited and coached All-American players at NIU.”

Northern Illinois won the MAC title in 2018 over Buffalo. The Huskies then lost 37-13 to Northern Illinois in the Boca Raton Bowl.

Carey was 52-30 at NIU

Carey succeeded Dave Doeren at Northern Illinois in 2013 and was the team’s interim coach for that Orange Bowl game referred to above after Doeren went to NC State.

His team’s best two seasons came in 2013 and 2014 when NIU won 23 games. In the four seasons since, NIU has won eight games on three occasions. The Huskies, however, have not won a bowl game in Carey’s tenure.

Temple has gone to four-straight bowl games. The Owls won 10 games in each of the 2015 and 2016 seasons under now-Baylor head coach Matt Rhule. He was replaced by Collins, who led the team to seven and eight-win seasons in his two years in Philadelphia.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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