Matakevich deserves a spot in the College Football HOF

Tyler Matakevich leads the fans in “T for Temple U” after a big Temple win in 2015.

We expect a lot of good news in the area of recruiting by the end of this month.

As far as Temple football goes, though, the month got off to a good start when it was announced that Tyler Matakevich was one of the newest candidates for the College Football Hall of Fame.

About time.

Matakevich represents the last kind of player Temple will have under these new rules.

He was not only the national defensive player of the year, but won both the Bronco Nagurski and Chuck Bednarik Awards.

Guess what?

If Temple now gets a sniff of a player like that, he’s off to the next school.

That’s one of the many things that stinks about college football now.

College football then, though, was special and if Matakevich gets in–that’s a big if because there are 80 players nominated–Temple gets to celebrate the way things used to be when loyalty mattered.

Matakevich’s 493 career tackles still stand as a Temple program record, and he became the seventh FBS player to log at least 100 tackles in all four of his college seasons. The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Matakevich in the seventh round of the 2016 NFL Draft, and the Steel City was Matakevich’s home for the first four seasons of his NFL career before he played four more with the Buffalo Bills from 2020 to 2023.

The tackles were a little misleading because Steve Conjar nearly had as many tackles from 1979-1981 and played only three seasons, not four as Matakevich did. Still, Matakevich and Conjar formed a bond and Matakevich was at several of Steve’s post-game tailgates.

Matakevich returned to Temple’s Edberg-Olson Hall back on March 19 to take in a spring practice and talk to several of the program’s players and coaches.

Hopefully, he talked about how much loyalty means and the benefits of staying with a program from beginning to end.

Matakevich remained and had everything at Temple that he could have had anywhere else. That’s a message worth conveying to future players.

3 thoughts on “Matakevich deserves a spot in the College Football HOF

  1. Isn’t there some mathematical formula to assess which record is the real record – 3 seasons vs. 4 seasons. No comparison especially since Conjar was close. Similar to pole vaulting between fiberglass and stiff poles (aluminum) – just ask Don Bragg! It’s 2 different events, should be 2 records.

  2. Sadly have to agree with you. If Keeler finds players like Matakavich, Wilkerson, Pierce, the prototypical Temple player, one season and their phone is ringing, tampering rules ignored. If the team gets to a bowl, probably opt out.

    • Yep. The only thing that negates that eventuality is if the same guy who gave $500 million to the College of Health gives $500 million to Temple football and I don’t think that happens. Our two “richest” football supporters, Lew Katz and Bill Cosby, died in a plane crash and the other “died” in a sex scandal (even though he’s technically alive). Both had net worths in the billions at one time. If that ever happens to me, I take a couple mil to live off of and give the rest to Temple football but neither me nor Temple football have ever been that lucky.

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