Carey briefs media on the way to preseason camp in The Bronx

Temple head coach Rod Carey gave a brief press conference on the team’s bus while traveling to the SUNY-Maritime College football facility in The Bronx to begin fall camp on Wednesday afternoon as a part of the American Athletic Conference's Media Day.

Carey begins his third season as Temple’s head coach with a 9-11 overall record. The Owls, as a whole, are looking to rebound from a rough 1-6 mark in 2020.

Last season, the Owls started a month late and were without key players throughout their schedule due to COVID-19 complications. From a COVID protocol perspective, things should be much easier this season as, according to Carey, Temple’s roster is already more than 80 percent vaccinated.

Temple heavily utilized the transfer portal this offseason, bringing on 12 transfers to help fill spots vacated by former starters who transferred or left for the NFL Draft. Georgia transfer quarterback D’Wan Mathis has already been named the team’s starter, replacing Anthony Russo, who transferred to Michigan State.

As first reported by OwlScoop.com two weeks ago, Temple will spend the first couple of weeks of preseason camp up at SUNY-Maritime instead of in Philadelphia. With so many new players joining the team and competing to fill large roles on the field, Carey is hoping their holding fall camp in the Bronx will help them emphasize team chemistry.

“We just thought it was time to get away and get together as a team,” Carey said about why they are holding camp in New York. “The first thing is bonding. It just takes everyone out of their element and gets us together alone. From there, it is about the work. It’s always about the work.”

Carey also shared some thoughts about Mathis, which players have stood out on defense, and the team’s offensive line depth. Here are a few excerpts from the rest of his press conference.

Carey on what the team can learn from last season:

“I know this: nobody can throw anything at us that we can’t handle now. When you go from them telling us how we can practice or what we should do or when we should do anything light of that, we can tackle it.”

Carey on having a normal fall camp schedule:

“Biggest thing is you can set a schedule and you can stick to it. That’ll be the number one advantage that we have, and then we got to get the work in, which we are gonna get in on schedule, I guess you would say.”

On D’Wan Mathis’ growth and the quarterback room:

“[Mathis] hasn’t played a lot of football since high school. So the curve for improvement is fantastic and you see that day to day which you guys won’t see, but we see it. In that room, he has a lot of similar characteristics to everybody. We got a room full of dual-threat guys now.”

“D’wan Mathis is our starter, and Re-al [Mitchell] had a real good spring along with a couple of other guys that are younger and in there. Then Justin Lynch got on campus as well. He looks really good, so I think there is going to be a good competition there for the backup role.”

On Name, Image and Likeness:

“With NIL, we did our work before it. We were starting in January when we came back. We got education sessions and kind of really taught them what it was going to look like from what we knew and really that came to fruition. That was kind of handled last semester. Really it is all about the work right now.”

Carey on the AAC’s policy of not rescheduling games due to COVID-19 outbreaks:

“We didn’t get any (games) rescheduled last year, so it didn’t matter to us. It doesn’t matter this year either. No change for us.”

Carey on which players have stood out on defense:

“I think (linebackers) Yvandy Rigby, Jordan Magee, Kobe Wilson, (cornerbacks) Keyshawn Paul and Cameron Ruiz. Those are all guys you are gonna hear their name as we go forward here, along with (defensive linemen) Will Rodgers, Nick Bags and Darian Varner. We got a whole bunch of them that are going to be brand new.”

Carey on the team’s offensive line:

“In the spring we had all five of those guys for a good portion of it. Really Adam Klein, Issac Moore, C.J. Perez, [Joseph] Hooper are really the guys, but then we brought in a couple of transfers, and we brought in a couple of other guys. There is going to be a good competition there.”