Fortunately, despite all of the turmoil in one section of the Edberg-Olson Football Complex, the coaching offices, Temple avoided it in the larger part of the facility, the locker room.

Until the last few days.

Thank you TU! #TempleTUFF pic.twitter.com/sFpW9xfVbX

— Aaron Boumerhi (@aaron__boumerhi) April 5, 2019

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First, the Owls got the news that kicker Aaron Bouhmeri was leaving and then, on Monday, wide receiver Sean Ryan announced via Twitter that he was leaving for West Virginia.

When you go to war, you want to go to it with all of your soldiers and those were two POTENTIAL starters. In both cases, though, there were reasons that deserve some illumination here.

One, Boomer–as responsible for the 2016 American Athletic Association championship as anyone on the team–was perpetually injured with a nagging hip flexor. He played a couple of games in 2018 but could not go on and there was a school of thought that he would be ready to kick in spring ball.

He was not and that did not make the new staff comfortable that he would be able to go in the fall so they are in the hunt for another kicker. I must admit when Austin Jones was the victim of a cheap shot at Memphis, the Owls were cooked for that season but who would have known that Boomer would hit 15 of 17 field goals and be just as good as Jones?

Boomer will always have a special place in Temple lore.

The Ryan case is different.

Isaiah Wright says he will carry the ball in the backfield this season and I think he will be turn out to be so valuable there that this coaching staff will have no choice of keeping him there even though they are talking about moving him all over the field. That, plus the star of last year’s spring game (Jadan Blue) returns to catch passes with the breakout star of the regular season, Branden Mack. Add to that the fact that Randle Jones and Freddie Johnson need receiving reps and that wide receiver room is so crowded they might have to knock down the walls.

As a certain government official says about the country, we’re full there and there is no more room.

I think Ryan saw the handwriting on the wall and left for West Virginia. I don’t know what he expects to find when he gets there, but he knows what is here and he decided he did not want to fight for reps. One thing I’m certain of is Troy’s Neal Brown is every bit the head coach Rod Carey is and will give him as fair a shot as Carey would have.

Anytime players leave, though, you wish them well and hope that they don’t regret the decision.

Meanwhile, it’s going to be harder to find a kicker with range than a backup wide receiver so we’re hoping Rod Carey and his staff have someone in mind.

Friday: Cherry and White Preview

Monday: Spring Camp Roundup