Spring Football Returns to Temple tomorrow

While spring practice officially starts tomorrow, the Owls have been hard at work all winter at the indoor facility. Temperatures approaching 70 degrees on Tuesday no doubt will push practice outside.

Some things change and some remain the same, even in the transfer portal/NIL environment.

Those who attended the men’s basketball home finale against North Texas on Sunday (a 66-61 win) saw a senior day that honored more players who didn’t spend four years at Temple than did. That’s sad because watching the journey of these players from freshmen to seniors was always a fun part for fans.

On the football side, things are just beginning as K.C. Keeler’s first spring practice begins tomorrow (March 11).

There are five big days in college football and the opening of spring practice is one of them. Opening of summer camp is another, as is the first signing day and the regular opening day.

The fifth one for a school like Temple has to be bowl selection Sunday because the top 80 teams in a 130-team FBS make it. A couple of bad coaching hires and Temple has been outside that loop for the past six years and that’s a disgrace.

The Owls decided to find someone who knew what he was doing rather than a guy (Stan Drayton) who they HOPED knew what he was doing.

More Temple fans follow football than the next two most popular sports combined, as this poll on OwlsDaily.com proved.

Already, Keeler has made an important spring practice decision in that the Owls are going to have their Cherry and White game. That’s important because with this new hire is a new enthusiasm for the sport at Temple and getting people out in April to see the new staff at work can only help drive up season tickets.

Hopefully, Keeler has checked out the game film for important players like running back Torrez Worthy (who came into his own in the second half of last season) and quarterback Evan Simon, who proved to be Temple TUFF despite a playing behind a line who didn’t give him much protection.

As important as the work is on the field in the next month, it’ll probably be even more important to scour the portal to get some pass rushers and pass protectors on both sides of the line.

That’s because we don’t get to see players developing from freshman to seniors anymore. While that’s sad, if you get a ready-to-play guy into the program by summer, there’s an opportunity now for an upgraded roster that did not exist back then.

2 thoughts on “Spring Football Returns to Temple tomorrow

  1. How many kids will Keeler encourage to hit the portal after Spring sessions?

    IMHO the first year is huge for roster build. Drayton’s first year of talent acquisition was dismal, and he never recovered.

    Keeler needs to end Spring with 10 or more available scholarships

  2. Hey, that is a surprise thought about encouraging some them to scram, to Splits-Ville. But thinking about it, why not, probably a dozen or so may not be all that wonderful. Now adays new Coaches tend to clean the shelves soon after coming onboard. I know I was a bit shocked when Colorada HC Sanders let many of them go. Oh well, the modern world. Just hope Keeler finds a few new ‘keepers’.

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