06.04.26
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TFF’s No. 1 Summer Priority: Getting Lamar Best up to speed

Thanks to Zamani Feelings for this great artwork. Love the diamonds.

After monitoring the upcoming visits from high school ranks, we’re very aware of what K.C. Keeler’s No. 1 June priority is right now.

Nabbing another No. 1 American Conference high school class. Temple should be able to recruit a great high school class every year because, with the transfer portal, P4s are pretty much dropping high school recruiting.

The Lamar Best part of this interview (sound quality not great, so we recommend headphones) starts at the 9:57 timestamp.

We’re onboard with that but the meteorological summer includes three months, not one, and there is a summer priority after that.

Getting freshman phenom quarterback Lamar Best up to speed.

Whether that speed means overtaking Jaxon Smolik and Ajani Sheppard, that’s pretty much a combination of two things: 1) Tyler Walker cramming his read-option offense into Best’s head and, 2) Best absorbing all that information.

Put it this way: After watching Smolik on Cherry and White Day, I came away with two observations and those were he was good enough to get Temple to a bowl game but probably not good enough to get Temple to a championship. This is a very low ceiling for both Smolik and Sheppard.

To me, the best Smolik can be is an “Evan Simon-Lite”–meaning having a lot of the qualities of Evan, but not all. After seeing Sheppard, he looks like Chester Stewart to me. Not good enough.

For Best, on the other hand, the sky’s the limit. His 41-inch vertical leap and 4.4 speed make him the most athletic quarterback in the conference by a longshot.

Those 5- and 6-yard gains on option reads with Simon (and perhaps Smolik) were nice but they turn into explosive 70- and 80-yard scores with Best.

A few of those and that ceiling is the American Conference championship.

Now no one understands the difficulty of jumping from high school ball to college more than Keeler and his staff but Best already made a similar jump when he went from Willingboro to St. Joseph’s. Willingboro is a good level of football but St. Joseph’s of Montville is the top of the top of New Jersey football.

P.J. Walker made a similar jump from being a New Jersey state champ at Elizabeth to a true freshman starter at Temple.

Best is faster in the 40, has a higher vertical leap and threw more touchdown passes in high school than Walker and it doesn’t take a leap of faith to see him having a more impactful freshman season.

Recruiting is the focus this June, but the Owls have two months to get Best up to speed and that should be job one until opening day. Whether that speed puts him between Smolik and Sheppard or gives him the job outright is something that should be up to Lamar himself.

For those who say it cannot be done, it has been done at Temple in 2013 and at BYU in 2025 with pretty good results. Hell, every year all over college football true freshman quarterbacks win G5 championships.

That’s never been done at Temple. Now would be a good time.

2 thoughts on “TFF’s No. 1 Summer Priority: Getting Lamar Best up to speed”

  1. THE number one priority is stopping the run, and the triple option in particular.

    Keeler and crew would prefer not to play freshmen. IHMO, freshmen should play if they have the talent and physical attributes. Turn the opportunity to play into a recruiting selling point, “you can play as a freshman at Temple if you have the talent and physical ability”.

    The O-line should be better, low probability that group regresses. The RB room is strong and deep, the WR can be better than last year. Enough said about the QB room. Best needs the time to get his body ready for college football, and get his shoulder to 100%.

    On defense, the secondary will be improved. The LB room can be better than last year, low probability they will regress. It’s all up to the DL. Can the DL stop the run and bring pressure?

    Rhode Island will not be an easy game. Their starting QB would easily start for Temple. URI will come to play.

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    • Love Curly Ordonez and Eric Stuart. The kid from PSU might be even better. Kolin Dinkins. A SAF/LB hybrid who will be given the kind of freedom to rush QBs that Lawrence Taylor had at North Carolina. The other safety, the kid from Illinois, had the most tackles in the win over USC than any other Illinois player. The playmaking ability of this defense is off the charts compared to last year.

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