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Owls push ahead with football for now

While the possibility of a fall 2020 college football season seems tenuous at best according to numerous reports, Temple’s football program is continuing to work out and prepare for the start of preseason camp, which is set for this Friday, Aug. 7.

The Owls, who went 8-5 in head coach Rod Carey’s first season on North Broad Street, lost four players to the NFL Draft and had four more sign contracts as undrafted free agents from that squad but still return several key contributors on both sides of the ball, including quarterback Anthony Russo, running back Re’Mahn Davis, wide receivers Jadan Blue and Branden Mack, defensive tackle Ifeanyi Maijeh and linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley.

If preseason camp does indeed commence and moves toward the start of a 2020 season, there are several incoming transfers to keep an eye on who could make an impact this season, including quarterback Re-al Mitchell (Iowa State), center C.J. Perez (Northern Illinois) and defensive end Manny Walker (Wake Forest.)

With the start of preseason camp just two days away, here’s a look at some of what we know and don’t know.

The schedule

As of now, Temple could lose three of its four nonconference games on its schedule.

Although the game is still listed on Temple’s schedule on the athletic department’s official website, the Owls’ season opener set for Sept. 5 at Miami will have to be rescheduled or postponed after the ACC’s Board of Directors announced last week, among other things, that its fall sports schedule would be pushed back and that football games would not be played until the week of Sept. 7 at the earliest if public heath guidelines allow. A source told OwlScoop.com earlier this week that moving the game to later this season, moving it to a future season or canceling it altogether are all up for discussion. However, the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson reported Wednesday afternoon that Miami's 2020 nonconference game would be against UAB, which would mean the Owls' matchup against the Hurricanes would be moved to a future season or scrapped entirely.

The Owls have already lost a game on their schedule after the Big Ten announced it would play a conference-only schedule in 2020, which nullified the previously-scheduled Temple-Rutgers game set for Sept. 19 at Lincoln Financial Field. Additionally, it looks like the Owls’ Sept. 12 home game with Idaho could be up in the air as well after a report from The Stadium’s Brett McMurphy revealed that a majority of the team’s players do not want to play this season due to concerns about the long-term impact of COVID-19.

The lone nonconference game that does not appear to be in question as of now would be the Oct. 10 road trip to play UMass.

As for Temple’s conference portion of its schedule, the American Athletic Conference announced Wednesday that it will plan for conference play to start Sept. 19. That plan currently calls for each of the league’s teams to play their eight conference games on their originally scheduled dates “with the understanding that the opponents will strictly adhere to protocols and standards for testing, pregame, in-game and postgame operations set by The American's Medical Advisory Group,” according to Wednesday’s press release.

For the Owls, that would mean conference play would kick off Saturday, Sept. 26, at Navy in Annapolis. That game comes one week before the team’s scheduled bye week.

If the program is unable to schedule any other nonconference games, it’s possible that the Owls would not play their first home game at Lincoln Financial Field until a Saturday, Oct. 17 matchup against USF.

The state of the roster

Several key members of the team returning from season-ending injuries have continued to participate in the workouts at Chodoff Field leading up to the scheduled start of preseason camp on Friday, most notably linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Upper Merion High School product had amassed 36 tackles and 4.0 tackles for a loss before suffering a season-ending ankle injury in the Owls’ loss to UCF

A healthy Graham-Mobley will be especially important for a Temple linebacking corps that lost Shaun Bradley (sixth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles), Chapelle Russell (seventh-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Sam Franklin (signed with the New York Giants as an undrafted rookie free agent the NFL.

“I feel great,” Graham-Mobley told OwlScoop.com back on June 11 during an appearance on the site’s podcast, The Scoop. “The week before COVID hit (in mid-March and forced colleges and universities across America to shift to online learning), I was entering my final stages of rehab, getting more back into moving more laterally and getting back into football shape.”

When asked about which players could step into more prominent roles this upcoming season at linebacker, Graham-Mobley mentioned several names, including Will Kwenkeu, who played in 37 games and totaled 81 tackles through his first three seasons but was granted a redshirt year in 2019 after playing in just two games, as well as Audley Isaacs, George Reid and incoming freshman Kobe Wilson.

Recruiting

As of Wednesday afternoon, Temple has secured 15 verbal commitments from the 2021 class, with the latest coming from Coleman Jeffcoat from Charlotte's Mallard Creek High School. Jeffcoat, who spoke to OwlScoop.com about his Temple offer and his recruitment back in April, could play tight end in college according to a source familiar with his recruitment.

Temple's 15-player 2021 class is currently ranked 52nd nationally and third in The American behind Memphis and Cincinnati by Rivals.

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