Asked Grok the other day what school started the single-digit tradition in college football and got the correct answer.

Temple University.

You knew that.

I knew that.

College football fans in general, though, have a very short memory as many of the SEC and Big 10 teams are adopting the same tradition, so forgive them for thinking this is a new thing.

Sometimes artificial intelligence can be very smart and this is one of those times.

There are things, though, that artificial intelligence can’t do and tell you the whys of who got the new Temple single digits.

Here’s what we do know: Some old, some new, Temple players got or retained single digits on Thursday. What we don’t know is what digits are assigned to whom and those will be released in the next several days.

Presumably, Colin Chase will retain his No. 1, as will first-team All-American punter Dante Atton, who will retain his No. 7.

That brings us to the new guys, center Grayson Mains, safety Saboor Karriem, tight end Peter Clarke, linebacker Eric Stuart, and Sam Brown.

Unfortunately, Mains will never see his number on gameday because archaic football rules don’t allow offensive linemen wear single digits. Think about that. Defensive linemen are allowed to wear single digits yet offensive linemen aren’t? Makes zero sense.

Anyway, that gets us into the reasoning part because the new single digits tell us more about the 2026 Owls than the old ones do and that’s something that would stump artificial intelligence.

Real intelligence tells you that Mains fought off a challenge from a highly regarded P4 transfer, Rutgers’ John Stone, to keep his starting center job. He is the unquestioned leader of the offensive line.

Real intelligence tells you that Karriem, the defensive star in Illinois’ 34-32 win over USC in the Big 10 this year, has a chance to be a star for Temple in many other games.

Real intelligence–and NFL scouts–tells you that Clarke is one of the top five tight ends in the next draft and “only” needs 10 touchdowns and 1,000 Temple yards this year to move up to No. 1.

Real intelligence says that a healthy Brown is a Big 10 quality running back and watching that translate to the American Conference should be fun to watch.

Real intelligence says Stuart was Temple’s top linebacker while wearing No. 22 last year and he improved over that standard subsequently.

Type all of those questions into Grok and you get no answers but real intelligence sometimes fills in those gaps.

What the new digits say about the most important digits (w/l) seems encouraging for the number on the left being higher than the number on the right.

Monday: Russian Roulette

Friday: Things I’d like to see less of in 2026

Monday: Game Week