Right there, on the far right, is Temple’s ambidextrous punter.

Every year it seems pouring through media day stories for nuggets of interest is about as fruitful as going to Sutter’s Mill near San Francisco and seeing if there is any Gold left.

Not this year.

Shawn Pastor, who really does the best job of INDEPENDENTLY reporting Temple sports, came up with this gem on his Owlsdaily.com site the other day talking about the punting:

“Four-year starter Alex Starzyk is gone, and Collins didn’t put the punters on public display in the Cherry and White Game.  So there’s not much for people to judge between walk-ons Conner Bowler, Max Cavallucci, Zach Kirby, Drew Levin, and Will Mobley – except that one of them might be a secret weapon.

“I thought the punters did a good job in the spring,” Collins said.  “And we’ve got a guy that can kick left-footed and right-footed rugby, so that’s really tough to defend.  So I think we’ve got some unique options.”

Starzyk punted straight-on and rugby-style, which gave opponents a different look.  But he was right-footed, and hence didn’t bring the entire field into play when teams came after him

“If the punter is always going to roll to his right, you can overload that,” Collins explained.  “But now we have the ability to go right and left.  He can go right and rugby-punt, he can go left and rugby-punt, and he can kick it fairly decent straight-on.  But he specializes in rugby.”

So who is this mystery punter, or is Collins keeping it a secret for now?

“Yeah, kinda, sure,” Collins said.”

Shawn left that out there hanging like a Hector Neris curveball, but we couldn’t resist the challenge of unmasking him.

It took delving into the past of each one of those names, but we found him and it’s Drew Levin. The dictionary says the word “ambidextrous” refers to only the hands, but it also been used in the past referring to last’s switch-kicker at Texas A&M.

The advantage of having one is dubious at best but it is an advantage. Temple has done the rugby punts in the past but the defense—or special teams—have overloaded the block and protections to the punter’s right side. With a guy who can kick with both feet, they won’t be able to do that.

In this chess game called football, you make the moves you can and this time Temple has control of the board.

My hope is that the Owls do not have to punt at all and score gobs of touchdowns but, if in the unlikely event they do have to punt, it should be at least more interesting this season.

Friday: Silver Linings On Stadium Issue