Drayton nearing decision on single digits

With exactly three weeks left before the season opener at Duke, first-year Temple head coach Stan Drayton said Friday that “decision day” is “coming soon” for awarding single digits.

“We’ve got guys that are close,” Drayton said following practice, “but that’s something we’re going to talk about as a staff. We’re going to really evaluate that hard. I think there’s definitely some guys that are close, but I don’t ever want to disrespect that tradition here, and I’ll take as much time as I need to take.”

“One thing that we’ve had an opportunity to do is bring in some former digits that have come in here to talk to our team about what that means,” added Drayton, who hosted former Temple single-digit and current New York Jets defensive end Jacob Martin after Thursday’s practice. “And the standard has been set. And I want to make sure that we take the proper time, all the time that we need to make sure that we don't disrespect what that means. So we're in the process of, and we're getting close.”

In a tradition started by former head coach Al Golden and carried on by his successors like Matt Rhule, Geoff Collins and Rod Carey, Temple has awarded single digits to who it deems to be its toughest and most exemplary players in a variety of voting ways – players only, staff only and a combination of the two.

This time around, Drayton said, the coaching staff will decide solely on the single digits without votes from the players.

“Just with the mindset of our football team, I think they've kind of lost that understanding of what that stands for,” Drayton said, “so I think the coaches will take up the responsibility to announce those honorees this year.”

Jakari Norwood has arrived

Drayton said his team will conduct its first preseason scrimmage Saturday, and they will get another look at running back Jakari Norwood, an Illinois transfer who now has three practices under his belt with the Owls.

Although Norwood played sparingly during his time in the Big Ten and tallied 244 yards on just 49 carries in four seasons with the Fighting Illini, Drayton has praised Norwood’s skill level, referring to him as a back with a “fifth gear” and “home run” ability.

“He showed me that he's got the talent that we thought he had,” Drayton said. “He's got some great ability, really good upside, but he's also shown that he needs to get into game shape, and that's going to take a little bit of time. We’ve got a plan in place, and every day, we’ve just got to kind of work him to get game ready. And from a conditioning standpoint, we'd really focus in on that area.”

When asked if Norwood’s speed and ability to break long runs is something that could potentially separate him from the rest of the running backs in that room, Drayton was measured in his assessment there.

“We haven't seen him get tackled yet, he hasn’t been in a live situation yet,” Drayton said. “I haven’t seen it play after play after play after play. And then we're being very smart about how we acclimate him into practice, so he hasn't gone through the heat, the physicality, on a consistent basis yet. So that's what we'll know more in time.”

Later in his conversation with reporters, Drayton said redshirst sophomores Edward Saydee and Texas A&M transfer Darvon Hubbard have been the most consistent running backs so far in preseason camp.

“They’ve put together play after play, for the most part,” Drayton said. “They’ve put together the most consistency of the group thus far, but there’s times where there are flashes from (Onasis) Neely. There are flashes from Trey (Blair.) So again, we keep a mindset of competition, and we don’t ever want anybody thinking that they have a spot on the depth chart. We don’t want them to be satisfied if they’re a starter. We don't want them to be satisfied if they're a third. We want them to continue to compete, so these are things that we're not talking about with them. But from a consistency standpoint, I will say yes (on Saydee and Hubbard), but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be the top two.”

You can listen to Drayton’s entire Friday interview with reporters here.

Coming up this weekend: Reports on the offensive and defensive lines through the eyes of offensive line coach Chris Wiesehan and defensive line coach Antoine Smith.