Tag Archives: Temple football recruiting

12.04.25
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A Signing Day that could not have gone better

Lamar Best could pull a Bear Bachmeier (BYU) and be 11-1 as a true freshman starting quarterback.

Based on what happened Wednesday inside the Edberg-Olson Practice Facility, Temple is going to have a pretty good football team in 2026.

Certainly, better than the 5-7 product we saw in 2025.

That’s because Temple signed the No. 1 recruiting class–objectively, because that was determined by the 247.com rankings–in the American Conference and 21 of those 32 signees will be enrolled in the school by January, giving them a head start both in the weight room and with the program’s culture.

Signing day 2025 could not have gone better because of that.

It was a history-making class for at least a couple of reasons.

At No. 63 nationally, it was the highest ranked class Temple has had since Steve Addazio was able to bring in the No. 54 class after the 2011 New Mexico Bowl win over Wyoming. (Prior to that, Al Golden brought in a No. 52 class after the 2009 Eagle Bank Bowl game against UCLA.)

That was all in the middle of an historic Temple bowl run, which saw the Owls attain bowl eligibility for nine of 11 seasons. By comparison, Temple hasn’t been eligible for a bowl this decade and it is a decade that is getting pretty old.

Clayton Barnes showed every Temple fan why K.C. Keeler wouldn’t have taken the Owl job if he didn’t come along. He is the Howie Roseman of college football.

What determines the product on the field, though, will be the next signing day early in January when the Owls reap whatever they can sow from the transfer portal.

Probably the marquee pick of the 32 is St. Joseph’s (N.J.) Regional state champion quarterback Lamar Best, who played in a high school league every bit as good as the one current BYU true freshman Bear Bachmeier played at Murietta Valley (Calif.). Best not only knocked off national power Don Bosco in the state title game, he had a very similar sophomore season to Bachmeier in high school. Bachmeier threw for 2,853 yards and 26 touchdowns at Murietta while Best, then at Willingboro, threw for 2,607 and 35 touchdowns.

Whoever Temple brings in could very well lose the starting job to Best but the Owls probably won’t risk that scenario. To me, after an examination of both his film and the last true freshman Temple starter, P.J. Walker, he’s at least as good a passer but a far better runner. Walker was a true drop back passer in comparison to what Best can do with his legs.

The fact that neither head coach K.C. Keeler nor recruiting guru Clayton Barnes want to leave the results of the 2026 season on a true freshman indicates the soundness of their roster approach. They brought in two other great high school quarterbacks, Brody Norman and Brady Palmer.

The only “cinch” starter among the group appears to be Upper Moreland High punter extraordinaire Luke Sword. If he doesn’t punt much, the Owls are either scoring touchdowns or kicking field goals and those are the preferable options.

If nothing else happens, they will need an experienced winning No. 1 quarterback. Keeler said they will bring in two.

If this is Luke Sword’s first punt at Temple, I won’t be mad.

Refreshing to hear for Temple fans who were absolutely screwed by Rod Carey when Anthony Russo went down and felt the same level of de ja vu with Stan Drayton when E. J. Warner missed several games with an injury. Temple will never be one hit away from a season-ending injury with Keeler as head coach.

Whether that quarterback is from the P4, G5 or even the FCS, it doesn’t matter. If anyone doubts K.C. Keeler’s ability to do that, we only need to refer you to the acquisition of Gevani McCoy. That came days after the Owls lost current Heisman Trophy candidate Trinidad Chambliss to Ole Miss.

McCoy earned the admiration of every Temple fan in that he battled holdover Evan Simon to a virtual standoff before the opener at UMass, lost his job, and became a good soldier in supporting his teammates until the end.

Temple needs someone like that, who is good enough to beat out a true freshman with all the talent in the world or back him up as insurance in case he gets hurt. Someone with the character of a McCoy.

If nothing else happens, the floor is six wins. The ceiling with an experienced winning college quarterback is double digits.

If the next recruiting season (portal) is as exciting as the one concluded on Wednesday, Temple fans are in for a treat. They will need to get off the sugar high of the last treat and a month should be enough time.

Monday: Room At The Top

Friday: Burying The Lead

06.26.25
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Objectively, the best Temple recruiting month ever

The Owls already here hit the weight room on the hottest day in Philly since 2012.

A couple of famous names who signed on the dotted line illustrated what we’ve been thinking for a couple of weeks.

Objectively, this 2026 recruiting class is the best Temple one since 2007 and the credit must be given to a full court press the K.C. Keeler staff did this month.

Also objectively, this is the best recruiting month ever.

In an era where the G5 never beats the P5 (or P4 now), at least five recruits came down to two choices:

Temple and Syracuse.

Like the old Bill Cosby ad said, “they could have gone anywhere. They chose Temple.”

Now to the two famous names that haven’t been discussed in this space before:

Duane Johnson Jr. and Hanks.

Not Tom Hanks, but Alex Hanks, who is one of the Syracuse flips as a 6-1, 195-pound safety. The recruiting site 247 has him turning down a ‘Cuse offer on June 20 to commit to Temple.

The other is Duane Johnson Jr., who is no relation to the “other” Dwayne Johnson Jr.–better known as The Rock–who played his high school football in Bethlehem, Pa. and college at Miami (where he played against Temple). This Duane Johnson Jr. is FROM Miami and, like the other Johnson, a 6-3, 190-pound linebacker at the high school level. The Rock bulked up to 6-3, 290 and became a DE at Miami before becoming a superstar in wrestling and movies.

Temple’s Duane Johnson turned down offers from his hometown FIU and Bowling Green to come to 10th and Diamond.

Temple’s 2026 recruiting company as of 6/26/25.

Another player we haven’t mentioned here previously is Josh Nengite of Susquehanna Township (Pa.), and the attached announcement here gives a clue as to why he–and the other 23 June commits–picked Temple: “The goals for the program and how we are going to accomplish them.”

Keeler and his staffed are locked in with that message.

For all of this excitement about Temple’s 2026 recruiting class, 247 still has the Owls–with 24 commits–rated as No. 76 nationally. Historically, that ranks behind Al Golden’s second class at Temple (2007), which ranked No. 1 in the MAC and No. 52 in both the Rivals.com and Scout.com national rankings. That translated to a 2009 appearance in the Eagle Bank Bowl against a UCLA team that had a No. 3 recruiting ranking in 2007.

Bad, because only 64 teams play in the so-called Power 5. Good, because of the other 66 teams in FBS, Temple is rated No. 12.

Good, because Keeler’s 2026 class is rated ahead of Nebraska, Auburn, Virginia, Missouri and Virginia Tech.

The other consideration here is that Temple’s Fab Five that turned down ‘Cuse turned down a very good staff with a great history of recruiting for a staff with a vision for the future. It’s one thing that new head coach K.C. Keeler already has a proven eye for talent. It’s validation when an entirely different staff sees the same thing. So maybe that 76 is closer to 66 because no other G5 program is grabbing that many P4 offers, at least thumbing through the other AAC offer sheets.

No one knows if our Duane Johnson will approach the fame of the other Dwayne Johnson or our Hanks will make a football impact that Tom Hanks made on the world stage.

What we do know is that they will join a group of guys who have been vetted by dozens of eyeballs on two highly paid and well-respected staffs 500 miles apart and now will be playing before a lot more eyeballs in the largest stadium in the AAC.

Chances are pretty good those Lincoln Financial Field eyeballs will like what they see.

Monday: Immediate vs. Future

06.19.25
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Temple returns to recruiting footprint

Another year around the sun came and went on June 19th for this reporter and it was my annual reminder that the expiration date invisibly stamped on my forehead is rapidly approaching.

In a sense, Temple Football Forever, too. We don’t know the date and probably don’t want to at this point.

Yet while this website won’t last forever, what new head K.C. Keeler did this week was a sign that Temple football as a program will last, if not forever, a long time.

If Keeler keeps this kind of recruiting up, chances are he will be talking about Temple going from one year with a lot of losses to one year with a lot of wins like he did here at SHS last year.

That’s because he stepped away from the nasty habits of the last three head coaches and returned to the Owls’ recruiting footprint.

Bruce Arians once said it was simply metro Philadelphia, South Jersey, the Lehigh Valley and the D.C./Virginia corridor that included Norfolk and Richmond.

Al Golden reaffirmed that when he arrived on the scene, correctly pointing out that Temple is smack dab in the middle of 46 percent of the nation’s population.

“If you drew a 250-mile circle around Temple, that’s well within a five-hour drive for any family who wants to send their kids here,” Golden said. “That’s 46 percent of the nation’s population and you should be able to find 25 great players from that many kids.”

Arians went 6-5 twice against a Top 10 schedule with that philosophy.

Golden ended 20 years of Temple misery adopting it.

What do Arians (York), Golden (Colts Neck, N.J.), Matt Rhule (State College) and Keeler (Emmaus) all have in common? They played their high school football within 250 miles of Temple.

What do Geoff Collins, Rod Carey, and Stan Drayton have in common?

They did not.

Daron Harris makes returning kickoff and punts for touchdowns look easy, like this one against Imhotep.

Now with a slew of local recruits signed recently, Keeler apparently has decided that blueprint makes sense for him, too.

Among those guys are a 6-4, 315-pound offensive tackle from Strath Haven named Billy Brown, an All-Philadelphia Catholic League tight end named J. P. Oates and defensive backs Daron Harris of Chester and Dylan Abram of Monsignor Bonner.

Temple might not be back this year, but rest assured Keeler’s plan is to return the Owls to those kinds of days.

That’s not all.

Defensive tackle Jude Okeleke (pronounced OAK-LEAK-EEE) turned down a solid offer from Fran Brown and Syracuse to commit to Temple this week, saying “I’m home.” While not a Philly-area recruit, it’s nice to know that Okeleke considers Philadelphia home. Technically, he is within that 250-mile footprint, having played at the Taft School in Watertown, Conn. Better yet, he is considered one of the top 75 DT prospects in the country. Being from Nigeria and not able to earn NIL money, Temple gets the added benefit of probably keeping him for four years.

Brown was a first-team Philadelphia Inquirer OT playing in 2023 before moving onto Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. last fall.

Oates was a first-team All-PCL tight end for a 10-0 regular season LaSalle High team last year, catching 47 passes for 576 yards and five touchdowns.

Harris was called “one of the top athletes in the state” by Chester head coach Dennis Shaw, scoring 28 touchdowns for the Clippers in a variety of ways (5 rushing, 7 kick returns and 2 interception returns).

Abram was all-PCL and had five interceptions for Bonner after returning to his original school from Philly Public League power Imhotep.

None of this proves Temple football is back to the winning days of Arians, Golden and Matt Rhule but usually a good blueprint leads to a solid foundation.

History always repeats itself and, while we’re all getting older, all evidence points to Temple football getting better.

Monday: The Foreign Component

02.11.24
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Temple football: The rest of the recruiting story

Terrez Worthy is going from a field with (sometimes) no yard lines to the best stadium in the NFL.

Watching the Super Bowl on Sunday night was a study in contrasts, the old versus the new.

At least at the quarterback position.

Patrick Mahomes’ 25-22 overtime win for the Kansas City Chiefs over Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers represents a win for new school football, where the quarterback who is mobile and can complete any pass beats the immobile one who can do the same.

That’s already happened in college football. The championship quarterbacks in each conference can move and throw. The middling teams don’t have that guy.

Temple will be making that same transition in the 2024 season with Clifton McDowell, a mobile quarterback who can make any pass, replacing E.J. Warner, an immobile quarterback who can do the same.

Forget what Pravda is telling you about Evan Simon winning the Temple quarterback position. That ain’t happening. Just remember you read it here first. McDowell is a poor man’s Patrick Mahomes. Simon is a homeless man’s Brock Purdy.

What about the rest of the story, though?

Temple’s cloudy kicking situation just became sunny and bright with the addition of Maddox Trujillo.

Football is a 22-man game, not a one-or-two-man one.

The small picture is that Temple improved the passing game by moving the pocket and the running game by replacing Edward Saydee and Darvon Hubbard with a pair of JUCO All-Americans and a Big 10 running back.

The rest of the story is the bigger picture.

The only known photo of a current Temple recruit blocking an extra point.

Temple bulked up both lines and increased its depth while doing so.

For a deeper dive, this is a pretty good place to start but there are a couple of players who stick out.

A high school player from New Jersey, a defensive lineman named Giakoby Hills, is 6-5, 270 with four blocked kicks. The athletic ability to block that many kicks is impressive and Temple has not blocked an important kick since a 6-5 wide receiver named Deion Miller blocked a field goal that would have given UConn a win over Temple a dozen years ago. The best kicker in the country then, Brandon McManus, then made one to give the Owls a 17-14 win.

Speaking of kickers, the days of kicking the ball out of bounds–which have been four dark years–are seemingly over with the addition of Austin Peay kicker Maddox Trujillo, who made 38 of 53 field goals and 96.2 percent of his extra points. If he does those percentages at Temple, he will be second only to Don Bitterlich in both categories and better than the best kicker in the nation in 2012, McManus.

There are plenty more “worthy” of mention but we will end this with a guy named Worthy. Terrez Worthy was the most valuable player for Maryland in the 2022 Big 33 game against Pennsylvania, giving Temple its third MVP from a Big 33 game (Adrian Robinson and Jalen Fitzpatrick were the others). Both of those guys did great things at Temple and, if Worthy, who is 5-11, 190 with breakaway speed does the same, Temple will have its best running back since Ryquell Armstead.

All good things on paper.

Now let’s see them do it on the field.

Friday: New Coaches

08.11.23
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Temple 2024 recruiting: Flying too low to ground

Kee-Ayre Griffin was Al Golden’s first recruit whose offer sheet included only other P5 schools. RIP.

Without mentioning any names, there is a big announcement today when a lineman from Delaware is going to announce his college decision.

It’s a big deal for Temple football because that is one of his two remaining schools.

The other is Old Dominion.

Yikes. Nice school, but it is no Temple.

Nice player, hope he commits to the Owls but this refrain is becoming too familiar.

Adrian Robinson (43) went from Big 33 MVP to turning down a Pitt offer, playing for Temple and then the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos. RIP

We’re about a quarter of the way through the 2024 signing class and the schools Temple is keeping company recruiting-wise certainly don’t match the reputation of the university on the football landscape over the last 15 or so years.

Maybe the last three but not the last 15.

There was an old World War II trick pilots used when radar was first introduced: Fly low to the ground to avoid detection, complete the mission, and fly just over those same treetops to get home safely.

That works pretty well in wartime and not so much if your goal is to win Group of Five championships.

Temple needs to pick it up.

Let’s look at some of the commitments so far:

Adrian Lang, CB- Temple beat out Central Michigan, Akron, Boston College and Bryant for his services.

Dan Evert, TE-Temple beat out Akron and USF.

Bryson Goodwin, WR-Temple beat out Bowling Green, Jacksonville State and Middle Tennessee.

Denzel Chavis, CB-He chose the Owls over Army, Bucknell, Columbia and Cornell.

Chris Dietrich, QB-After throwing 12 interceptions against only 11 TDs for his New Jersey High school team last season, Dietrich received interest from Bucknell, Monmouth and Duke. He picked Temple.

Tyler Stewart, WR-His commitment list included Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay, and MTSU.

Geez. I’m sure these are nice kids and I KNOW they made the right choices, but Temple football has come a long way since the days when it recruited two MVPs from the Big 33 game (Adrian Robinson, who the Al Golden stole from Pitt) and Jalen Fitzpatrick, who the Owls convinced to come to 10th and Diamond against the arguably more beautiful Maryland campus in College Park. Al Golden’s first major recruit was running back Kee-Ayre Griffin from St. Peter’s in New Jersey, who turned down solid offers from Pitt, Rutgers and BC to take his shot at Temple.

When Golden was hired, I dashed off an email to him congratulating him for getting the job. He took only about 20 minutes to respond: “Thanks, Mike, wish me luck. Today we’re about to steal a guy from BC and Rutgers who is really good. We got involved and it turns out he loves Temple.”

That guy was Griffin.

The apologists for the Owls recruiting under-the-radar will always point to Tyler Matakevich getting no offers and Haason Reddick being a walk-on but what they forget is that the championship-level teams those guys were part of also included guys who Power 5 teams recruited.

You need a mix of both and those teams successfully recruited their fair share of guys more highly paid staffs evaluated and wanted too. It’s pretty much the same reason the top 25 recruiting rankings mirror the same top 25 teams you see in the AP poll every year.

For every Reddick and Matakevich you hit on, there are about eight misses. Conversely, for every Robinson, Griffin and Fitzpatrick recruited, you miss on only about two. There is a reason why P5 coaches look at the same film you look at and like the same guys.

Welcome to Temple for the guys who have picked this place.

Going forward, the message to the coaching staff should be to aspire to get those guys teams they want to beat also want. Certainly of the 18 or so scholarships left, there are 18 great players within a 400-mile radius of Philadelphia who would rather spend the next four years in a vibrant city with a great sports culture vs. a cow pasture where boredom easily causes homesickness. Find those guys who are energized by that dynamic. That was the Golden Rhule selling point and it needs to be revised now.

Do better.

Flying too low to the ground to avoid radar risks crashing and burning and, with Oklahoma and Penn State on the schedule in a very short time, they have to fly higher.

Monday: Motivation

Friday: 5 Top Things We Want to See in 2023

07.06.20
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Recruiting 2021: That’s What I’m Talking About

 

There are none so blind as refuse to see.

The blueprints for Temple football’s decade-long transformation from 2006 chump to 2016 champ were in the Edberg-Olson Complex for all to see and it appears, after some rummaging through the files in the attic, Rod Carey’s staff have found them in one important area: Recruiting.

After a hiatus of Geoff Collins making a failed run through the South to fuel Temple with largely suspects, the Owls have gotten back to the prospect formula that worked so well for Al Golden and Matt Rhule:

Recruit Mid-Atlantic and DMV (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) hard but, more importantly, get a significant number of players who have Power 5 offers. For Golden and Rhule, that breakdown was roughly this: 10-15 three stars and above with solid P5 offers with the rest of the class at least two stars and trusting the film on the others.

That’s what I’m talkin’ about, Willis.

 

Two stars like Tyler Matakevich (consensus national defensive player of the year as a senior) and Haason Reddick (a first-round NFL draft choice) were coached into five stars by the time they left.

Still, you can’t coach every two-star into a five-star and your chances are a lot better when your base is three.

betting

We won’t get into every recruit, but running back Johnny Martin III is rated near the top of RBs in New Jersey and strong side defensive end Jordan Laudato of West Chester Henderson was rated as high as the No. 2 DE in the state of Pennsylvania. The Owls’ most recent commitment, safety Christian Abraham (St. Joseph’s, Montvale, N.J.) is in the top 30 of defensive players in that state.  Justin Lynch (Mount Carmel, Chicago) is the brother of a quarterback (Jordan) who was a Heisman Trophy finalist at Rod Carey’s former school, NIU. He was the leader of a state championship team in Illinois a year ago. In horse racing, good bloodlines almost always mean triple crown contenders. I like Lynch’s future at Temple. He was one of the few who didn’t have a P5 offer, but his film is among the most impressive.

According to Scout.com, Temple now has 10 “hard commitments” and not a single one is lower than a three-star. Almost all had Power 5 offers (not just interest) in hand by commitment day. That’s the best recruiting start we’ve seen in a long while.

Even more importantly, the Owls have been building trust and relationships centered particularly around running backs coach Gabe Infante. Recruits have gone out of their way to praise Infante and he seems to be thriving in a role once played by Fran Brown.

Friday: One of Dick Englert’s last letters from a fan

02.07.20
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Signing Day II: Epic Fail

From the day the regular season ended, the expectations from this Temple football fan for next season was a minimum double-digit in wins and an AAC championship. There were that many impact players returning.

Then the dominoes fell.


There are moving parts here,
though, in that next year’s
team will be primarily recruited
by Geoff Collins and Matt Rhule,
so there is some hope but these
coaches also were primarily
responsible for coaching that
talent down to 55-13, 42-21 and
62-21 losses that should have
never happened. In the above video,
Temple head coach Rod Carey talks
about the “culture here” but that
culture hasn’t included three such
losses in a single season in almost
a decade so you’ve got to wonder
about the culture

The Owls, a touchdown underdog to a 6-6 UNC team, were blown out, 55-13. Then they lost one of the top three centers in the country, Matt Hennessy, and the best defensive player in the AAC, Quincy Roche, and a real good defensive back in Harrison Hand. I hoped all three would be back. None will. That, combined with losing three great linebackers as a part of the normal attrition in college football, lowered the bar a little.

I recalibrated those expectations from 10 to six wins based on that alone.

Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of good players on this team–from quarterback Anthony Russo (who has a chance to put up the best career stats of any Temple signal caller next year) to wide receivers Jadan Blue and Branden Mack, running back Ray Davis, seasoned offensive linemen (Vince Picozzi, Isaac Moore, Joe Hooper and Adam Klein), defensive players Isaiah Graham-Mobley, William Kwenkeu, Audley Isaacs, Ifeanyi Maijeh, Dan Archibong, Kris Banks, Arnold Ebiketie, George Reid, Amir Tyler, DaeSean Winston, and cornerbacks Christian Braswell, Ty Mason and Freddie Johnson. Geez, BUT those guys needed Hennessy, Hand and Roche to go to war with them to go from good to great.

Maybe, though, the second signing period would produce acceptable replacements for the guys who I thought would be back.

Like if the Owls could do a couple of things–like getting portal help from Miami defensive end Scott Patchan and Rutgers center Michael Maetti–move that bar back up to eight. What happens if Ray Davis goes down? Do we have an elite level college football tailback to replace him? No.

Instead, as a result of Signing Day II, where the Owls got only two players who couldn’t play at a high level at Wake Forest and West Virginia and an offensive line transfer from Dayton, Michael Niese, the needle was moved back to six. The need for a great running back to replace Jager Gardner wasn’t even addressed. Both Scout.com and Rivals.com had this class rated in the middle of the AAC pack. The West Virginia transfer, Kwantel Raines, a 6-3, 205-pound freshman safety, played in six games and had nine tackles.

I hope I’m wrong but if the Owls recruit in the middle of the AAC pack, that’s exactly where they should expect to be.

rhulerusso

I don’t think the phrase RPO ever came up when Matt Rhule closed this deal.

There are moving parts here, though, in that next year’s team will be primarily recruited by Geoff Collins and Matt Rhule, so there is some hope but these coaches also were primarily responsible for coaching that talent down to 55-13, 42-21 and 62-21 losses that should have never happened. In the above video, Temple head coach Rod Carey talks about the “culture here” but that culture hasn’t included three such losses in a single season in almost a decade so you’ve got to wonder about the culture. The “Temple football culture” has never been run-pass option. It’s always been smashmouth downhill running and explosiveness in the passing game off play-action fakes. I don’t think Matt Rhule ever recruited Anthony Russo by selling an Elite 11 Level pocket passer on an RPO.

Recalibrating expectations lower might be OK if you are a head coach who makes $2 million per and has a $10 million buyout, but as a Temple fan, I got used to being in two straight title games and two-straight 10-win seasons and that’s the level where this coaching staff should aspire to be.

Now we’re coming off two-straight eight-win seasons and looking under every rock, I don’t see seven wins next season let alone eight and not filling the holes that needed to be filled in this crucial second signing period is not a good sign.

Carey said he wants people who “want to be here” but if the AAC player of the year doesn’t want to be here (and we fans want him here) and is replaced by a guy who couldn’t get on the field for Wake Forest, the only way that can be interpreted is that a great talent doesn’t want to be here and lesser talent does.

Usually, the team with the better talent wins. Unless that formula changes unexpectedly, we’re pretty much bleeped next year.

We should find by Miami if it will be an enjoyable year or not (hint: no more 55-13 losses are acceptable) but the indications are not good. Right now, whatever Vegas sets as the win total, I would advise my betting friends to take the under. (I don’t bet Temple football so it’s moot to me.) Signing Day II was the last day to convince me otherwise and, in my mind, it was an Epic Fail.

Give me more than eight wins and I will repost this in a year and apologize. It’s hard for me to imagine that scenario now.

Monday: The records are this close

02.03.20
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Spring Practice Question: Are the Owls better?

Screenshot 2020-02-02 at 1.26.50 PM

Punxsutawney Phil woke up yesterday and did not see his shadow and that means an early spring football practice at Temple.

Or something like that.

In actuality, we knew spring practice would be earlier than usual a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that the Cherry and White game will be on April 4th instead of the usual third Saturday of that month.

While the practice schedule hasn’t been released yet, you’ve got to believe that the first full one will not be too much after March 1. Since February is a short month anyway, that’s right around the corner.

So the big question becomes: Is Temple better this spring than last spring?

Two months ago, we would have said unequivocally yes. A month ago? No.

Wednesday, after a late signing day that demands a center and a defensive end (and maybe a running back who can step in for Ray Davis if he goes down), the answer will probably be the same.

As of the writing of this post, former Miami defensive end Scott Patchan is still in the portal as is the best center in the portal, Michael Maietti, formerly of Rutgers. Patchan was the starter until NFL prospect Gregory Rousseau took his job and left when Quincy Roche arrived on campus.

So far, though, the Owls have decided to go in a different direction, picking up Emmanuel Walker, a DE from Wake Forest, and an offensive lineman from FCS, Michael Niese from Dayton. Nice pickups, but neither have the street cred or production level of Patchan or Maietti. Patchan was a starter at Miami; Walker never started at Wake. The other guy is making a jump from FCS to FBS and does not have the 33 Big 10 starts that Maietti has. Starting in the Big 10 is one thing. Starting in the Big 10 for Rutgers and still making the Rimington Watch List as the best center in the country is quite another. Temple would seem to have an in for Maietti since Don Bosco is not all that far away and the Owls did so much for another Don Bosco grad, Matt Hennessy.

From a pure production standpoint, even though both Walker and Patchan are grad seniors, Patchan has better numbers: 24 starts, 63 tackles, 3.5 sacks and 8.5 tackles for a loss. Walker, on the other hand, has played in 11 games with 19 tackles (five for losses) and two sacks. It’s an apples to apples comparison, too, as both have competed in the ACC over the same amount of years.

As of the publication of this post–a little after midnight on Feb. 3–both Patchan and Maietti are still available in the portal according to their respective twitter feeds. That could change later today or tomorrow, but most certainly by Wednesday.

Maybe the Owls never went after both. Maybe they did and were spurned but if, in the end, they come up with less of a portal haul than they could have, the team as a whole that got a lot worse losing Hennessy and Roche in early January didn’t do enough to replace them by February. If, however, adding Pachan and Maietti to a haul that includes Niese and Walker, that’s different.

That would mean an early spring practice will be a lot sunnier and warmer than we originally thought.

Friday: Post-signing Day Review

 

 

12.20.19
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Temple Recruiting Forecast: Imprecise

Kevin Copp breaks down the class

The long-range forecast for Annapolis is shaping up as pretty good for a week from today, which is good for Temple football.

Screenshot 2019-12-19 at 10.46.41 PM

Probably can get away without even a coat at the Temple-UNC game. The recruiting forecast is a little chillier.

The even longer-term forecast for Temple football recruiting: Not as good.

Like the weather, though, long-range recruiting forecasts can be imprecise and there is the hope that this one is, too.  Early signing day has come and gone and Rod Carey’s staff–despite losing recruiter extraordinaire Fran Brown–was able to get 20 signatures on the dotted line. That leaves approximately five more signatures to get by the second signing period in February.

Temple summer practice, football,

We’ll deal with those and the entire evaluation of the class at that time, though. For now, examining the trend is an important exercise and the Owls barely broke a sweat. The people who are paid to rate these things, Scout.com and Rivals.com, have Temple rated No. 8 and No. 4 among the schools that count, their fellow AAC rivals.

Do you think of Temple as an eight-place school in this league or even a fourth-place one? I don’t. The Owls have lost four coaches in a relatively short time span and, despite that, have the second-best regular-season record among AAC teams (only two games behind Memphis and at least one game ahead of everyone else). The Owls have one league championship and two league title appearances and only Memphis and UCF surpass those numbers at least in terms of championship appearances.

The goal should be higher than that, though.

Temple is in the middle of a vibrant city and right smack in the geographical center of 46 percent of the nation’s population, so winning both the recruiting and standings matter. If you don’t think recruiting ratings matter, just look at the teams that finish in the Top 10 every year. The Clemsons, the Ohio States, the Penn States, the Oklahomas and the Alabamas also routinely finish in the top 10 of the recruiting rankings. In the AAC, Cincinnati had the top recruiting class on either Scout.com or Rivals.com the last four seasons and, this year, beat out Temple, which did not. By the way, Oklahoma is on the schedule in 2024 so Rod Carey better get on the stick now.


… just look at the
teams that finish in
the Top 10 every year.
The Clemsons, the Ohio
States, the Penn States,
the Oklahomas and the
Alabamas also routinely
finish in the top 10 of
the recruiting rankings

 

Nobody is asking Temple to finish in the top 10 of the recruiting rankings but it would be nice every once in a while if the Owls would rip off a few 1-2 finishes in their own conference. Of Al Golden’s first five recruiting classes at Temple, at least three of them were rated No. 1 in the MAC by either Scout or Rivals. Four years after Golden’s first season, the Owls were playing toe-to-toe with a PAC-12 team, UCLA, in the Eagle Bank Bowl. There was no discernable dropoff in talent between the teams in that game.

I was struck by Marc Narducci’s story on the one recruited quarterback, Matt Duncan of Summerville, S.C. Narducci mentioned Duncan’s unimpressive four touchdown passes in his senior year by saying he had inexperienced wide receivers. I’m not buying it. A big-time recruit should have 25 or more touchdown passes, no matter if the waterboys are catching it. Anytime you mention the word “but” along with the stats is not a good sign. Anthony Russo had 35 touchdown passes in his final year at state champion Archbishop Wood.

Putting up big-time stats for an elite high school program certainly matters.

That’s one of the reasons I really like Nazir Burnell of Bishop McDevitt (Harrisburg) who caught 27 touchdown passes in his senior year. That jumps off the page because, in the Al Golden Era and afterward, Bruce Francis’ 15 touchdown catches rates as the high-water mark in a single season for Temple receivers. Trey Blair of Haverford High should also become a great college player. The linebacker commit who turned down a Georgia offer, Kobe Wilson, should be in the running to start alongside Gasparilla Bowl defensive MVP William Kwenkew and Isaiah Graham-Mobley next year. Darrius Pittman, the tight end transfer from Purdue, has a chance to mollify the loss of Kenny Yeboah.

Other than that, a lot of them fall into the developmental category, generally speaking. Not that developmental players haven’t fueled success in the past, but you don’t want to punch your meal ticket on those types.

At his signing days, Golden got up and announced to the crowd that his classes were ranked No. 1 in the MAC several times and that statement drew loud applause. It was the result of his hard work and the hard work of recruiters on his staff like Ed Foley and Matt Rhule.

No doubt the Owls have survived a lot by developing the Keith Kirkwoods, the Tyler Matakeviches, the Quincy Roches, the Mo Wilkersons, the Haason Reddicks, the Matt Hennessys and the Jadan Blues–guys who were not heavily recruited–but recruiting an entire roster of those guys makes the margin of error even smaller. It would be nice to be able to develop those types alongside guys who were, say, a Big 33 MVP like Adrian Robinson (who de-committed from Pitt to attend Temple and had a great career here) or  Russo, who turned down an LSU offer and is at least on track become Temple’s all-time leading passer in terms of yardage.

That’s the kind of mix Temple should try to achieve and, just from the early forecast, it looks to have fallen a little short. The good news is that Temple might enter next season as the overall league favorite and achieving that championship could spur an even better-recruiting class in a year.

Let’s hope the forecast for the weather report holds up in seven days and the long-term recruiting forecast changes more in the Owls’ favor by the end of the winter.

Monday: An All-American Game Week

07.08.19
by

Some July 4 Recruiting Fireworks

carey

Coach Carey’s football camps served as a catalyst for an impressive recruiting haul so far.

One of the Temple assistant coaches tweeted out a message indicating that July 4 was a big day for Temple football.

He wasn’t kidding.

The Owls got these two graphic commitments below PLUS Willingboro (N.J.) wide receiver Chris Long.

Screenshot 2019-07-07 at 10.59.22 AM

As one Chris Long leaves his locker room at Lincoln Financial Field, another gets his locker there.  Maybe they can just move the nameplate to the Owls’ permanent lockerroom there.

Two very good players, one for the Eagles, one for the Owls.  Plus, Dyshier Clary and Alex Odom verbaled officially on July 4. It seems that Rod Carey’s football camps have left such a positive impact on a talented group of campers that offers are being accepted at a pretty fast clip.

Something good is happening this recruiting cycle and it appears that the talent is being upgraded–maybe significantly upgraded–over the last two Geoff Collins’ recruiting cycles.

There is always a caveat with recruiting these days because verbals are just that, a promise. Yet, looking over the last 10 classes, it’s a very rare instance that someone who made a promise to Temple flips and goes elsewhere. A couple of the biggest de-commits recently were Harrison Hand and Rob Saulin who Matt Rhule poached for Baylor but at least one of them came back (Hand, who has been approved to play this fall). Another who fits that bill was tight end Tyler Sear, who first committed to Temple only to flip to Pitt and now is back at Temple. Arkum Wadley committed to Temple and became a solid Big 10 running back for Iowa. Temple has benefited from the process as well as Karamo Dioubate committed first to Penn State, but changed his mind before signing day to Temple.

Right now, the Owls have 15 hard commitments, including Long, who turned down numerous Power 5 offers and is just the latest product of the hard work of recruiters extraordinaire Fran Brown. Between Brown and the NIU hires, including defensive line coach Walter Stewart. The Northern Illinois hires were able to bring in a top defensive lineman from Chicago that they were pursuing from a long time ago and Brown has been able to get his top targets.

So far, Scout.com lists Temple as second in the conference in recruiting.

You can say with a bullet because, when others were barbecuing and hitting the shore, the Temple coaches were hard at work. With roughly 10 more scholarships (given variables like attrition), the best might be yet to come.

Saturday: Temple’s Moon Landing

Monday (7/15): Who’s Here and Who’s Not

Saturday (7/21): GT Looks at Temple

(Due to a change in my work schedule at my primary job, posts will be Saturdays and Mondays through the Bucknell game, then we will resume a three-day schedule–Sundays, Wednesdays and Saturdays after the opener)