Tag Archives: Dante Wright

04.26.24
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Special Qualities for 5 Temple guys

Antwone Santiago was a beast at Platt and made these same kind of plays at Temple last month.

Every once in a while, someone comes from out of nowhere to surprise the Temple football community.

Who would have thought, for example, that an obscure running back from Gainesville, Fla. named Kenny Harper would be such a leader of the 2014 Temple Owls or that a fullback named Nick Sharga would be the guy to a power offense built around his skills that led to a couple of double-digit win seasons?

Sharga is now a priest and we can only thank God for him.

Harper was the guy who got up at the end of the end of a 6-6 season in 2014 and told the team to “leave no doubt” the next season.

They did not, going on to the first of consecutive 10-win seasons and a couple of appearances in title games.

Sharga helped facilitate those wins by being the lead blocker for running backs Jahad Thomas and Ryquell Armstead, the epitome of Temple TUFF, and keeping the offense on the field for 7-8 minutes of each quarter and keeping other offenses off the field. That helped the defense stay rested and effective unlike the first two years of Matt Rhule’s spread offenses.

Now it is time for a new generation of guys with “special qualities” and, just from watching the Cherry and White game, some Temple fans are able to identify at least five:

One, linebacker Antwone Santiago __ Santiago made plays all over the place in the month-long spring practice and had perhaps his best outing at Cherry and White. Drayton: “He’s got a chance to be a special player here at Temple,” after the game. Still, he’s 6-3, 215 and to play effective linebacker he needs to both put on weight and hit the weight room in the next few months ahead.

Two, wide receiver Dante Wright __ Wright didn’t make first-team freshman All-American at Colorado State for fraudulent reasons. He was an impact player for the Rams and, last year, at Temple, was the Owls’ best receiver. He’s a terrific punt returner as well.

Three, defensive end Tra Thomas__ In a 27-23 loss to a bowl team (USF) last year, Thomas had a a pair sacks and had a career-high tackles (8) against Rutgers last year and, at times, looked unblockable against a Big 10 team. He had a great spring and appears poised to give the Owls one of the top edge pass rushers in the AAC.

Four, tight end Reese Clark__ A star for a three-time large school Pennsylvania state champion, St. Joseph’s Prep, Clark caught the lone touchdown pass in a 41-7 loss to Miami last year. Now, out from under the shadows of David Martin-Robinson, Clark is going to get plenty of opportunities to display his pass-catching and tackle-breaking ability at the position.

Five, running back Antwain Littleton _ At 6-1, 265 pounds, Littleton was a load to bring down at St. John’s (D.C.) and then, “slimmed down” at 6-1, 235 at Maryland, Littleton was able to make an impact in the running back rotation at a Big 10 school. When he left, Maryland head coach Mike Locksley bemoaned that his “second-team running back” demanded $100K or he would leave. Littleton was the only guy who fit that description and, hopefully, the Owls will get their money’s worth this season.

In a sport where 22 guys start, are five enough to produce a winning team?

No, but the past has shown that guys come out of nowhere and lead Temple football to big things and maybe that kind of history can repeat itself. The spring has shown Temple certainly has those guys in the building.

Monday: Splash Alert

07.07.23
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Numbers crunching: Hope and Change

By Mike Gibson

Not for nothing, some numbers could mean big things for Temple football fans.

Hopefully sooner for some than later.

The Powerball for Saturday night is $610 million. I’m playing a lot of numbers pretty close together because they are the most important ones for Temple football this season.

I will take 15-6-10-7-24 with 13 as the Powerball and take my chances tomorrow night.

The reason is that I think those are the five most important numbers of players for the 2023 Temple football Owls. (Unfortunately, a lot of Owls who are just as good including tight ends David Martin-Robinson and Jordan Smith have numbers too high to qualify as Powerball numbers.)

If they don’t come through with the $610 million, my fervent hope is that even a slight improvement of their 2022 numbers will mean the Owls’ bottom line will be the best since 2019 when the number on the left was greater than the number on the right.

Let’s go through it and, for the record, I’m predicting the production for every single one of these players improves the Owls’ chances of winning.

You heard it here first: Layton Jordan will be the AAC Defensive Player of the Year.

15-WR Amad Anderson. The Purdue transfer had his best season for the Owls a year ago when he caught 38 passes for 348 yards and four touchdowns.

My hope: He gets that number up to 60 catches, 700 yards and 8 touchdowns. My prediction: 514 yards, 6 touchdowns.

6-LB Jordan Magee. Last year’s stats: 86 tackles. My hope: 123 tackles. My prediction: 100 tackles.

10-WR Dante Wright. Called by one non-Temple person as “the steal of the portal” this guy is the most explosive wide receiver Temple has had since All-Pros Steve Watson and Leslie Shephard. He was a first-team freshman All-American at Colorado State where he caught 57 passes for 805 yards and four touchdowns. My hope: 1,000 yards and 10+ touchdowns. My prediction: 1,000 yards and eight touchdowns.

7-CB Jalen McMurray. The sophomore-to-be is easily the most talented CB to play at Temple since Rock Ya-Sin transferred from FCS Presbyterian. He already owns a Pick 6. My hope: He gets another Pick 6 and raises his interception level to his number (7). My prediction. He leads the team in pass breakups with 10 or more and picks off four passes.

24-RB Joquez Smith. Smith is the most heralded incoming running back at Temple since Al Golden signed state indoor 100-meter track champion Bernard Pierce out of Glen Mills. Pierce proved himself right away at Temple, getting over 1,000 yards freshman year, including a 268-yard, two-touchdown game in a 2009 27-24 win at 10-win Navy. Smith has a much higher ceiling than returning starter Edward Saydee and, if he wins the job, it will be a good sign. His best season was his junior year at high school when he went for 1,883 and 27 touchdowns for unbeaten Florida 6A state champion Tampa Jesuit. My hope: 1,500 yards, 15 touchdowns in his first season at Temple. My prediction: 943 yards, 11 touchdowns. Either way, it’s an upgrade over Saydee’s 639 yards and six touchdowns.

Temple’s Powerball: 13: E.J. Warner and Layton Jordan

For the first time in 15 or so years, Temple’s two best players are not wearing single digits (yet) but are wearing the same lucky number: 13.

If you live in Pennsylvania and your house rep is a Republican, dash off an email urging for them to vote to release these funds. Martina White, I’m looking at you.

A lot of people are predicting a sophomore slump for quarterback Warner. I’m not one of them. The simple reason is that this guy lives in the film room at 10th and Diamond and is getting great coaching not only from inside that building but from an NFL Hall of Fame quarterback. Joe Burrow from LSU went from 16 touchdown passes his junior year to 60 his senior one. Do I think Warner can go from 18 true freshman touchdown passes to 60? Not this year but it’s not out of the question he could hit 40. My hope: 40 touchdown passes, 10 or fewer interceptions. My prediction: A Temple season record 30 TD passes with the same number of interceptions he had last year (12).

Jordan is a remarkable playmaker with 18.5 tackles for losses, including a TFL that resulted in a touchdown in the checkered end zone at Navy. He had nine sacks and three defensive touchdowns. The grad student will earn his football Ph.D. at Temple with double-digit sacks, 20 TFLs and five defensive touchdowns. If he does all that–and I think he will–he will be a first-round NFL draft choice, joining former Temple Owls Haasan Riddick and Mo Wilkerson. He will also be the AAC Defensive Player of the Year, joining former Owls Tyler Matakevich and Quincy Roche in earning that honor.

That’s both a hope and prediction. Hitting all of those numbers tomorrow night would but a nice bonus but I will gladly setting for hitting the numbers associated with those numbers no later than the AAC title game.

If the hope outperforms the prediction, Temple will be one of the teams in that game.

Monday: Cheat Sheet

12.30.22
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Numbers gives Temple flexibility on special teams

Dante Wright shows off his punt returning skills at the 3:19 time stamp.

One tenant in Lincoln Financial Field is forced to play its best punt returner at wide receiver because (ostensibly) they don’t want to get half of the outside receiving game hurt.

The other tenant will not have that problem in 2023.

Given what DeVonta Smith did at Alabama returning punts–where he was nothing short of a magician in the open field–it has to be tempting for Nick Siranni to use him on special teams.

The Philadelphia Eagles don’t have that flexibility due the to limited numbers of receivers the NFL has.

Temple football does.

In this same season (BC=Before Carey), Temple’s Isaiah Wright returned a punt for a touchdown against South Florida.

Dante Wright is no Devonte Smith on punt returns but he will definitely be Temple’s best punt returner since another Wright, Isaiah, roamed the field in 2018.

That year, Wright–who had a cup of coffee with a Washington team called the Redskins (now Commanders)–was named the AAC Special Teams Player of The Year for his ability to break a game open with returns.

This Wright could fill the same role at Temple.

One, Wright was a dynamic punt returner at Colorado State.

Two, the 2023 Owls went from only five scholarship wide receivers at the close of 2022 to what will be 10 at the start of the 2023 season due to the addition of five outstanding players, including Wright–a 2019 freshman first-team All-American at Colorado State and Richard Dandridge, who many Florida prep writers consider the No. 1 outside receiver in the state of Florida.

To me, this whole notion of wide receivers getting hurt on punt returns is overblown. They can get hurt just as easily on a five-yard out as they can returning a punt but, even given that, the Owls have receivers like Amad Anderson, Zae Baines and Dandridge who can be dangerous and productive on the outside. They added three other dynamic newcomers but none have the history of returning punts and kicks like Wright. They can afford to put someone who has the ability to take it to the house back returning kicks.

Wright is that guy.

Now head coach Stan Drayton hasn’t officially named Wright as the punt returner, but he now has that flexibility. Temple used to have the best special teams in the AAC not only because Ed Foley’s units could block kicks on a consistent basis but because they always had a returner who was capable of flipping the field on every punt.

Wright was that guy. Wright is this guy, too.

It will be nice for a Temple special team unit to strike fear into the hearts of the opposition again.

Given the additional numbers on signing day, the Owls are trending that way.

Monday: New Year’s Resolutions

Friday: Four to Score

12.23.22
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Temple Signing Day: A Golden Night

Roughly about the same time the most consequential Temple football class since Al Golden’s penultimate one was being signed on TV, down the dial iconic anchor Jim Gardner was saying his final goodbyes to Philadelphia.

From a ratings standpoint, bad timing.

Overnights had the 6 p.m. Action News broadcast at 540,000 viewers which was the highest rated 6 p.m. Action News since Sept. 11, 2001.

You all know what happened on that day.

Sorry, Jim, but I eschewed the local news that day for another down the dial, the Temple Football Signing Show (ESPN+, also 6 p.m.). Probably only the 20,000 or so hardcore Temple football fans joined me. Maybe a sliver of the 20,000 or so “softcore” Temple fans did as well.

The reason was simple: Action News goes on and on for another 46 years with or without Jim Gardner.

Temple football is always looking over its should for the axe.

Fortunately, due to what happened, the Owls future looks bright on paper and any rumors of their demise are, as Mark Twain would say, premature.

We have to say on paper because this is the highest-rated class since the second Steve Addazio class (52) after the big 2011 New Mexico Bowl win over Wyoming.

In fact, it ranks with Al Golden’s first two classes which were the top ones in the MAC.

Back then, Golden would host Temple fans for a night on campus to watch the film of the new recruits and take questions afterward. He always embraced the fact that the Scout.com and Rivals.com services had his recruiting classes ranked No. 1 in the league.

Golden never won a MAC title because recruiting classes have to cycle through the system for a full four years in order to win a league title and he left for Miami before that. A strong argument could be made that his recruiting got the Owls in a position where they were able to make a move up in leagues from the MAC to the Big East. Golden promised to build a house of brick, not straw,

Golden kept his promise and I had to laugh when all the stories about Matt Rhule being hired at Nebraska said it was Rhule, not Golden, who revitalized Temple football. Temple disagrees. Golden is in the Temple Sports Hall of Fame for a reason and Rhule is not.

Golden was the guy who did all the heavy lifting. Rhule benefited from it.

Now it appears that Stan Drayton is following the Golden Template, not the Rhule one, and the organization is better for it.

Drayton realizes his hard work has Temple ranked high up the Group of Five recruiting food chain and has, like Golden, embraced recognition.

The Owls had this chip once. They need to get it back.

Temple put out a couple of social media posts backing up its hard work and that’s smart. Every staff pats themselves on the back and thinks they did a great job but it’s nice to know impartial observers do as well.

For this post, we won’t go through every individual signee (there are plenty of days between now and Cherry and White to do that), but we will note that Dante Wright was a first-team freshman All-American wide receiver in 2019 and the first-team All-American freshman quarterback in 2022 was E.J. Warner.

Put those two on the field together in 2023 and the potential is there for the Owls to turn the Lincoln Financial Field scoreboard into an adding machine. Freshman running back Joquez Smith is considered by most Florida prep writers to be the best running back in that talent-fertile state and his 55 touchdowns over the last two years provides the receipts. Edward Saydee had 53 touchdowns in three years at Penn Charter. Inter-Ac football is good, but it’s not on a 6A Florida level like Tampa Jesuit is. Saydee will give Smith a run for his money but we’ve got to think on pure logic alone Smith wins the job.

Plus, Amad Anderson and Zae Baines made huge receiving strides in the second half of the season and Richard Dandridge, perhaps the best wide receiver in the state of Florida, joins that room. Hands down, Temple has the two best tight ends in the AAC in David Martin-Robinson and Jordan Smith and having those two on the field at the same time only serves to jumpstart what had been a subpar running game. The offensive line has been upgraded so we probably won’t see a pass on a 3d and 1 next year. Gosh, I hope not.

The safest passenger on the bus home in 2016.

Defensively, although Darian Varner made a dumb decision to leave for Virginia Tech (didn’t he learn anything from Jadan Blue last year?), defensive coordinator D.J. Eliott says Layton Jordan (the better Owl edge rusher) is all in and will return. Drayton got Jordan plenty of pass-rushing help and look for Jordan and Jordan Magee to have years next year that put them high up in NFL draft conversations. Staying at Temple will probably make Layton and Jordan millions in the NFL draft. Just ask Haason Reddick.

Jim Gardner might have been the big story on Action News Wednesday but what happened down the dial was the best news for Temple football we’ve seen since The Golden Era.

Afterward, Drayton talked championships as the Temple standard. Channel 6 can have the ratings. I will take riding home on a bus with the AAC championship trophy over that any day of the week. Wednesday made that day a lot closer.

Monday: Five Plays We’d Like to Have Back

Friday: Five scholarships left