Tag Archives: Sekou Kromah

07.26.26
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Biggest Media Day Takeaway: The Defensive Line

An unexpected question led to an unexpected answer from second-year Temple head coach K.C. Keeler during one of the many media day side interviews.

Someone asked Keeler about “taking back” arguably his top defensive lineman of a year ago, Sekou Kromah, if a court challenge the player had against the NCAA succeeded. The expected answer was that the Owls were supporting Kromah in his effort to play another year but wouldn’t commit either way until the issue was resolved.

Now the Owls need Nebraska assistant Adam DiMichele, who turned 41 on Sunday, to sue the NCAA for that final year of eligibility Joe Paterno denied him and come back to play quarterback for the Owls. Hey, Lebron James is older so he can do it.

The unexpected answer was that, while Temple lost some big-time players along the DL, Keeler said that the line was definitely upgraded at all positions due to the personnel General Manager Clayton Barnes and company brought into the building.

Without Kromah, rush end Cameron Stewart, and Khalil Poteat, the Owls figured to struggle finding pieces from elsewhere to plug and play but Keeler honestly felt the new players represented a talent upgrade. Keeler indicated the reason for that was because he couldn’t “cut” anyone a year ago due to the fact that he told the Owls in the first team meeting that anyone who wanted a Temple degree was welcome to stay and get one.

With all but three linemen on the defensive side either graduated or out of eligibility, Keeler (and Barnes) could go out on the open market and get players who were better than the prior staff recruited. Now Poteat has joined the Kromah party and also filed a lawsuit. With so little time remaining, hard to imagine any other place one or both of those guys end up not being Temple again.

Here’s the kicker (or the three-point stance): Even if they come back, there’s no guarantee they could reclaim their spots as starters.

That’s saying something because, when Stewart, Poteat, Kromah and a couple other interior linemen were healthy they were pretty formidable. Arguably, they were the stars of the 26-21 home win over bowl-bound (and champion Tulane-beating) UTSA, sacking Owen McCown three times and hurrying him into incompletions or interceptions 14 more times.

It was the best pass-rush ratio of any game last year.

The problem was health, though, as Kromah was only able to start five games due to a bum shoulder.

With the entire offensive line returning, it only figured that side of the ball would dominate in the Cherry and White game, but it didn’t and the defensive line had more than its share of moments.

So what Keeler said on Friday pretty much jived with what some of the offensive linemen were saying after the spring game.

With only three players back on the DL who saw significant action last year, the Owls had to fill the other holes with seven transfer portal players and one junior college pickup and those guys proved themselves in spring ball.

Khalil Poteat celebrates a sack at UMass.

The cream will rise to the top when summer camp starts in earnest on Friday and we’ll be able to plug some names into starting spots shortly after that.

While most of those names will be new ones, a couple of Prodigal Sons could be added to the list if their cases are expedited through the courts.

For a team that returned every single ELIGIBLE starter (the only one in the G5), adding a couple of guys who supposedly completed their careers at Temple could be the Cherry on top of this White cake.

Friday: An Under-The-Radar Story

Monday: Keeler’s Biggest Gamble at Temple

07.09.26
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Temple telegraphing its leaders with Media Day docket

Not much mid-July news for Temple football but a couple of clues came out today about the leadership group.

Both past and present.

Head coach K.C. Keeler calls it his leadership council and designated for assignment tight end Peter Clarke and linebacker Eric Stuart. That assignment was accompanying Keeler to the American Conference Media Day sessions.

Those choices said a lot, considering that last year quarterback Evan Simon and defensive end Sekou Kromah were the guys.

Simon at the time was in a knock-down, drag-out battle with Gevani McCoy for the quarterback job. That went down opening day at UMass, where Simon grabbed the job by throwing six touchdown passes. McCoy became the good soldier backup ready to save the season if Simon went down.

Kromah was who we’d thought he’d be, one of the two best pass-rushers on the team, and a solid run-defender. He made life miserable for UTSA quarterback Owen McCown in the Owls’ most impressive win of the season, 26-21, at Lincoln Financial Field.

For some reason, Kromah entered the portal. There were no takers because his eligibility was in question. Today, he filed a federal lawsuit applying for emergency relief, meaning eligibility to play this season. Kromah’s lawyers cited a case in Ohio that was similar to his where a federal judge granted that eligibility and it seems like he has a good chance to play.

Will it be at Temple?

A lot of that is on the other three guys mentioned at the top of this story–Keeler, Clarke and Stuart–because, in cases like this, if a player wants to come back Keeler leans on his leadership council.

Clarke was the glue that kept the team together, staying himself and lobbying every single other returning starter to stay. As a result, Temple was the only G5 team to return every “eligible” starter. Stuart, their best linebacker, was one of them.

Do you think he wants to play behind Kromah again? Certainly the comfort level would be there but Keeler would have to sign off.

Who knows, but an area of need for the Owls seems to be pass-rushers who can also defend the run and Kromah qualifies on both counts. His 4.5 tackles for loss led the Owls and his three sacks were second on the team. A player like that doesn’t drop out of the sky often and, even though the Owls have all their roster spots filled. a little tinkering here and there could restore his scholarship. Even if Kromah is granted injunctive relief, he really isn’t in position to demand NIL money and the restoration of another season gives him another chance to impress the NFL and that’s a good outcome for him.

K.C. seems to be saying “now, Sekou, don’t enter that transfer portal, OK?”

From Temple’s perspective, it’s a trade that could help both parties. They get that proven guy on the defensive line and Kromah gets his scholarship back.

Shawn Pastor, the Editor of Owlsdaily.com, when asked if Temple would have any interest in taking him back, said: “Absolutely” in a post on June 13.

That would give Temple three guys who repped on Media Days and that’s one more than they could have expected a few days ago and you can never have enough of those.

Monday: Best of TFF (vacation week)

10.31.25
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Key to beating ECU: Temple’s pass rush

Except for the sarcastic “16 people” remark, this is a pretty good analysis.

Eight games into a season should compile enough evidence to determine whether a college football team is good.

Well, all the available metrics indicate that Temple is a pretty good college football team.

Damn good, coached by the winningest active head coach in football, K.C. Keeler. This week we learned coach Keeler reads TFF because he opened up Monday’s press conference by saying “there was no conspiracy to get Hunter Smith a touchdown.” (That was the subject of our Saturday night post, although we used the word “reward” and not conspiracy. No other analysis of the game brought up the Hunter Smith subject other than this space, so thanks K.C. for the shoutout.)

This might have been the year for Temple to play Penn State. ECU, though, is the Super Bowl for Temple now.

Saturday we should find out how good Temple is when the 5-3 Owls, 3-1 in conference host an East Carolina team that is somehow a 4.5-point favorite on the road (2 p.m., ESPN+).

That 4.5 means the nation doesn’t believe yet, even if Philadelphia might.

ECU is also good.

If the Owls are able to beat this team, it’s time to move them to the elite G5 level. That would be Temple winning at home against a team that was a 6.5-point favorite (UTSA), a one-point loss to another 6.5-point favorite (that should have been a win) and a win at home over a 4.5-point favorite (ECU).

Already, Thursday night provided some extra clues about how good Temple is because UTSA beat Tulane, 48-26, Tulane beat Northwestern (23-3) and Northwestern beat Penn State (22-21).

Metrics that matter. Everyone give Matt Gajewski’s YouTube page a thumb’s up and a like. This guy knows his stuff.

Oh yes. We forgot. Tulane beat ECU, 26-19.

Transitive property notwithstanding a number of experts (see above video) have pointed out some metrics that give the Owls important advantages.

The Owls haven’t had a pass rush since the UTSA game and there is a good reason for that in since the guys who were the protagonists in that rush (Sekou Kromah and Sultan Badmus) have been banged and missed a lot of snaps. They are both back and should cause the ECU quarterback to run for his life, just as they did in the second half to Owen McCown of UTSA.

Kromah and Badmus are good to go and that couldn’t come at a better time for Temple.

All things being equal, the ECU offensive line is nowhere near as good as the UTSA line so if the Owls get consistent pressure on Kaitin Houser, he should wilt just like McCown did.

It would help if the 12,500 students who live on campus hop either hop on the subway for the 10-minute ride to Lincoln Financial Field or get one of the hundreds of free buses the university offers every gameday.

Make some noise to get that pass rush juiced. Stand up on every defensive third down.

This is an all-hands-on deck game both the players and the fans so that means players, coaches, alumni, students and Joe Philadelphia fans whose other hometown football team is on a bye this week are all one party on the same project.

Winning, and singing “T for Temple U” afterward.

This is the best chance to date for Temple to show the nation how far it has come in football under the winningest active coach in the NCAA.

Putting the bad guy’s quarterback on his backside early and often will be the key. Mr. Badmus and Mr. Kromah that is your assignment if you chose to accept it, but Mr. Haye, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Morris and others are free to join in as needed.

Late Saturday Night: Game Analysis