Advertisement
football Edit

Gameday preview: Rutgers

Following Temple’s first win of the season last week over Lafayette, the Owls will welcome the 2-0 Rutgers Scarlet Knights to Lincoln Financial Field Saturday afternoon for a 2 p.m. kickoff.

This will be the 37th meeting between the two programs, with Rutgers leading the head-to-head matchup 21-15. Rutgers has won the last five matchups with the Owls, including a 61-14 rout of the Owls in last year’s season opener. It was Temple’s largest margin of defeat in 2021.

Rutgers is coming off a 5-8 2021 and looking for its first winning season since 2014. It’s head coach Greg Schiano’s second stint in leading the Scarlet Knights program, following a 68-67 stretch with Rutgers from 200 to 2011.

With last year’s starter still out due to injury, Rutgers has been utilizing a two-quarterback system through its first two games. Sophomore Evan Simon has completed 18 of his 25 attempts for 214 yards and two touchdowns, while fellow sophomore Gavin Wimsatt is 9 of 21 passing with two interceptions while rushing for 102 yards on 11 carries.

Rutgers is a run-first team, and two weeks into the season, the Scarlet Knights are averaging 270 yards a game, good for 11th-best in the country.

WHEN TEMPLE IS ON OFFENSE

The story of this football team has been the quarterback position for last week after true freshman E.J. Warner came on in relief in the second quarter of D’wan Mathis, who had already fumbled twice in the game.

Although first-year head coach Stan Drayton didn’t officially name Warner this week’s starter during his weekly Monday press conference, Warner was listed atop the depth chart, so it looks like the 18-year-old will be making his first career start. In relief against Lafayette last week, he went 14 of 18 passing for 173 yards and two touchdowns.

After getting virtually nothing going in a shutout loss at Duke in the season opener, Temple’s backfield showed some signs of life in beating Lafayette. Edward Saydee, Darvon Hubbard and Jakari Norwood combined for 31 carries for 141 yards and two touchdowns, with Saydee and Hubbard each finding the end zone. Saydee led the room with 11 carries for 55 yards, and Hubbard, the Texas A&M transfer, had 10 carries for 59 yards and scored Temple’s first touchdown of the year, but he did fumble once.

Rutgers has only given up 24 yards a game on the ground in its first two games, although that number is a bit skewed considering the Scarlet Knights played a bad FCS team last week in Wagner. Still, it’s an impressive enough mark early on, so establishing the run might be tough for Temple.

Graduate wide receiver Jose Barbon is coming off of one of his best games in an Owls uniform. He had eight catches for 118 yards, including a 29-yard catch thrown by Mathis down the right sideline that led to the Hubbard touchdown. Barbon had chemistry with Warner very quickly, and the freshman will need someone to feel comfortable throwing to in tough situations, and that could be Barbon. Redshirt freshman slot receiver Ian Stewart had two catches for 23 yards and caught a 15-yard pass for his and Warner’s first career collegiate touchdown.

While no tight ends had any catches at Duke, redshirt junior Jordan Smith emerged in the win against Lafayette with two catches for 26 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown from Warner that lifted Temple to a 28-14 win in the fourth quarter. If David Martin-Robinson can’t play again for a third straight week, Smith will need to be involved in the offense again, as James Della Pesca has yet to record a catch through two weeks.

“It was awesome to see Jordan get success out there,” Drayton said. “He’s worked his butt off with the opportunity he had out there and took advantage of it. Very talented young man. He has worked his butt off through things, changing positions, putting on weight, and having to learn a new system. It has been a constant improvement in a trend in the right direction so I think the future is bright for Jordan.”

The offensive line, although still very much a work in progress, made some improvements last week as Temple ran for 146 yards and Warner had some time to get the ball down the field. Both were aspects of the offense that led to Temple being shut out in week one.

There was a change in the depth chart this week, as sophomore Bryce Thoman takes over at left guard for redshirt freshman James Faminu. After Drayton praised Faminu last week, Thoman played in his place last weekend. Drayton did mention Monday that right tackle Adam Klein is day to day heading into Saturday’s game after leaving last week’s game in the second half with an injury. If Klein can’t go against Rutgers, which would be a tough loss for the Owls, sophomore Jimto Obidegwu would be his likely replacement, as he filled in for Klein last week.

Jose Barbon leads Temple with 13 catches for 163 yards through two games.
Jose Barbon leads Temple with 13 catches for 163 yards through two games. (Don Otto)
Advertisement

WHEN TEMPLE IS ON DEFENSE

After the Owls struggled to pressure the quarterback and stop the run at Duke, things turned around last week. Temple had eight sacks and surrendered just 110 yards of total offense. After giving up 172 rushing yards at Duke, Temple held Lafayette to 27 yards on the ground.

The linebacker room has been the biggest bright spot on this defense through the first two weeks, and five of the Owls’ eight sacks last week came from that position group, led by Layton Jordan’s 2.5 sacks. Single digit inside linebacker Jordan Magee led the team with eight tackles and also contributed a sack. He leads the team with 16 tackles through the first two weeks of the season. Replicating those sack totals against a much better Rutgers offensive line will be tougher this week.

The cornerback room is still sorting itself out, especially when it comes to the competition for the second corner spot. Single-digit and redshirt freshman Jalen McMurray has solidified himself as the strongest cornerback on the roster so far with nine tackles and the most snaps of any corner by a lot to start the season. The other cornerback spot is between Dominick Hill, Elijah Clark and safety Corey Palmer. Clark and Hill have had their struggles to start the season, and Drayton made it clear Monday that the second corner spot is up for grabs.

“Trying to put the right guys in the right situation at the right time,” Drayton said. “Corey Palmer was a guy that played corner, Elijah Clark played some corner, and D Hill played some corner. It’s a competition going on there, and we’re going to put the right guy there at the right time.”

De'Von Fox blocks a punt last week, one of three on the day.
De'Von Fox blocks a punt last week, one of three on the day. (Don Otto)

WHEN TEMPLE IS ON SPECIAL TEAMS

Rory Bell had his first field goal attempt of the season last week and missed from 45 yards. He will look to make his first field goal of the season if he gets the opportunity.

Instead of Amad Anderson returning punts and kicks, Drayton turned to Jose Barbon for punt returns and Malik Cooper for kickoff returns. Barbon had two returns for two yards and Cooper had three returns for 40 yards as Drayton continues to evaluate who should handle those roles.

After three seasons of poor special teams play in all phases, De’Von Fox’s three blocked punts last week were a breath of fresh air. Duplicating that effort on any week would be tough, and especially this week. Rutgers punter Adam Korsak is one of the Big Ten’s best punters and is also an Australian, rugby-style kicker like Temple’s Mackenzie Morgan, so Fox won’t have the opportunity to run at a stationary punting target this week.

KEY MATCHUPS

Rutgers wide receiver Aron Cruickshank vs. Temple cornerback Jalen McMurray and the Owls’ secondary

Cruickshank is the leading receiver for the Scarlet Knights with six catches for 83 yards and a touchdown. Last week he caught a 40-yard touchdown from Simon that gave Rutgers a 14-point lead at the time over Wagner.

In addition to getting downfield as a receiver, McMurray and his teammates have to be mindful of Cruickshank as a threat on reverses and push passes.

Rutgers’ running backs vs. Temple’s front seven

Temple allowed just 27 rushing yards last week, but Rutgers’ running backs are much better than what the Owls faced against Lafayette. Kyle Monangai and Al-Shadee Salaam have each rushed for 122 yards and two touchdowns, and Wimsatt is also a threat to run at quarterback with 102 yards on 11 attempts.

Setting aside Rutgers’ blowout win over Wagner, it’s more important to look at what the Scarlet Knights did in coming from behind to win at Boston College in the season opener. Rutgers put together a 12-play, 96-yard touchdown drive that utilized 11 runs and a 22-yard touchdown run by Salaam that won the game for the Scarlet Knights in the fourth quarter.

Temple quarterback E.J. Warner vs. Rutgers’ secondary

If Warner does indeed start on Saturday, one of the things to watch the most is if he takes care of the ball and makes good decisions, all while playing behind an inexperienced offensive line. Rutgers has four interceptions in two games, led by sophomore cornerback and former Temple commit Robert Longerbeam, who has two of them.

First-year Rutgers defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak could look to bring pressure at Warner from a number of different areas on the field to try to rattle the true freshman.

FAMILIAR FACES

Temple lost three players to Rutgers via the transfer portal two seasons ago in defensive tackle Ifeanyi Maijeh, cornerback Christian Braswell and offensive lineman David Nwaogwugwu.

Maijeh is now a senior and part of Rutgers’ defensive line rotation. Although he doesn’t start, he has seven tackles through two games for the Scarlet Knights.

Also a senior, Braswell picked off a pass at Boston College and blocked a punt against Wagner last week after missing last season with a torn ACL.

Nwaogwugwu, who saw snaps in five games last season, has not played yet this season.

Advertisement