Gameday preview: USF
AT A GLANCE
USF at Temple
Saturday, Oct. 17
Noon, Lincoln Financial Field
Television: ESPN+
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
HEAD COACHES:
Temple
Rod Carey
Career record: 60-36 (second season at Temple)
USF
Jeff Scott
Career record: 1-3 (first season at USF)
KEY PLAYERS:
TEMPLE
QB Anthony Russo
RB Re’Mahn Davis
WR Jadan Blue
WR Branden Mack
DT Ifeanyi Maijeh
LB Isaiah Graham-Mobley
CB Christain Braswell
USF
QB Jordan McCloud
RB Johnny Ford
WR Latrell Williams
DB Nick Roberts
LB Antonio Grier
WHEN TEMPLE IS ON OFFENSE
Temple has its virtual homecoming game against USF this Saturday with a chance to get its first win of the shortened season.
The Owls are coming off a 31-29 road loss to a reeling Navy team that culminated in a failed 2-point conversion attempt with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. Third-year starting quarterback Anthony Russo rolled out to his right looking for running back Re’Mahn Davis, who was smothered by Navy linebacker Terrell Adams at the 3-yard line, leading to the incompletion.
Head coach Rod Carey said postgame that he overruled offensive coordinator Mike Uremovich’s play and that it’s one he’d like to get back.
“We should have gone with his in retrospect,” Carey admitted. “I thought mine was a good one. They covered it, so he didn’t really have any place to go with the ball. So it was a bad call. It wasn’t Anthony. It was my fault.”
Russo threw for 206 yards on the night, connecting on 21 of his 30 passing attempts. But perhaps the most noteworthy takeaway from his opening day performance was the way he made plays with his legs.
Russo rushed for 20 yards on four attempts, two of which resulted in goal-to-go touchdowns. Navy’s defensive line has had its struggles so far this season entering the game, having allowed 119 points. Not to mention, the Midshipmen were short-handed four defensive starters for injury-related reasons -- linebacker Diego Fagot, linebacker Tama Tuitele, safety Evan Fochtman and nose guard Sio Saipaia. Saturday, Russo will face a Bulls team that has limited opposing quarterbacks to only 33 yards off scrambles all season.
In terms of his weapons offensively, Russo was able to spread the ball around, getting four different guys at least four receptions. Branden Mack led the way with seven receptions for 80 yards and one touchdown. Jadan Blue and tight end David Martin-Robinson hauled in five catches apiece while Randle Jones added four. Temple’s receiving corps should continue to be a strong suit, returning each of its three starters from a year ago.
Part of that success came from Uremovich’s play calling.
“[Uremovich] did a great job of getting me some short, easy completions to start the game,” Russo said. “I think he knows that’s a great way to calm a quarterback down, especially in a Week 1 game like this, so I definitely think I calmed down once I was able to get a couple of completions under my belt.”
USF is being outscored 130-58 through its first four games, including losses to Notre Dame, Cincinnati and ECU. Its lone win came over The Citadel on Sept. 12. Opposing quarterbacks have completed 50 of 91 pass attempts and have been picked off by Bulls defenders just four times. Three of those four came during a 28-7 loss to Cincinnati on Oct. 2.
During Tuesday’s media availability Russo said he’s seen different looks on tape from USF’s defense than he’s seen the past two times they’ve played.
“Normally they are a press man, right up in the wide receiver’s faces and playing man coverage with a good amount of blitz,” Russo said. “This year it’s much different. They’ve gone with a three-safety look and some funky different looks in the back end of coverages.”
Russo added that this week will be big for watching film on both pre-snap and post-snap alignments to be able to diagnose tendencies with a lot of the shifts in the Bulls’ secondary and a handful of varying three-safety looks.
Temple left plenty of points on the board in its 17-7 win over USF last season on Nov. 7. The Owls had a turnover on downs on the Bulls’ nine-yard line, Jager Gardner got stuffed on a 4th-and-1, Russo threw a pick inside the Bulls’ 30-yard line, they settled for a field goal after driving down the field early in the fourth quarter and turned it over on downs again inside the red zone towards the end of the game. Still, they walked away with a win.
Blue led the way for the receiving core in that game with 121 yards on 11 receptions. The receiver with the next most receptions in the win was Jose Barbon with three for 17 yards.
Saturday should be a chance to redeem themselves by finishing drives and putting the ball in the end zone, something the Owls were better with against Navy but ultimately thwarted them from picking up the win.
Fans also got their first look at Temple’s backfield depth. Davis, the unequivocal leader in the backfield, saw the majority of the carries with 23 for 97 yards. Tayvon Ruley had the next best with 46 yards on five carries.
Three of Temple’s four touchdowns against Navy came on the ground -- two from Russo and one from Davis. Considering USF has allowed opposing teams to rack up 956 total rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns, the Owls should find success in the ground game. The last outing for the Bulls, a 44-24 loss to East Carolina, only highlighted their run-defense struggles, allowing 210 total rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns.
As for Temple’s offensive line, Carey was pleased with the unit’s performance as a whole last weekend.
Offensive line coach Joe Tripodi shuffled a few pieces around for the Owls’ first game of the season. Leon Pinto started in place of Adam Klein, who suffered a minor injury in practice but is expected to return on Saturday. Vincent Picozzi and Michael Niese both saw starts at the tackle positions for the first time in their respective careers. And former starting left tackle Isaac Moore was also thrown into the shuffle, seeing seven snaps at left tackle.
Carey was adamant that he would have liked to see Temple’s offense produce more yards in the run game, despite 166 yards rushing. An improvement in blocking up front would also give Russo more leeway to extend broken plays with his legs.
“We’ve got a really good test with Temple,” USF head coach Jeff Scott said during his media availability on Tuesday. “I’m very impressed turning on the video. I didn’t really know what to expect knowing that they played their first game against Navy and they looked like they were in mid-season form offensively.”
WHEN TEMPLE IS ON DEFENSE
Temple’s defensive struggles and lack of live game reps were highlighted early on in Saturday’s opening game loss. Navy’s triple-option dismantled the Owls up front, torching them for 251 yards rushing.
The Midshipmen scored on each of their first three drives, but ultimately the triple option’s biggest impact on the game was eating up large chunks of the game clock. In total, Navy held on to the ball for a little over 35 minutes of the game.
Carey was clear that the issues on the defensive side of the ball had nothing to do with personnel or Xs and Os. Rather, it came down to fundamentals and technique. The lack of live game reps was evident in the defense’s struggles to finish tackles and their persistent high pad level.
“Our pads were just too high,” Carey said postgame. “Sometimes that happens in the first game of the year. But when you play an option team for the first game of the year and your pads are high, that’s a bad recipe, and it certainly was tonight.”
Despite the challenges, graduate linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley set a career-high with 14 tackles, including a timely sack late in the fourth quarter forcing a 4th-and-20 that limited Navy to a career-best 50-yard field goal from sophomore kicker Bijan Nichols. That kick was ultimately the difference.
Temple’s defense, including newly-awarded single digits Ifeanyi Maijeh and Will Kwenkeu, Dan Archibong and Graham-Mobley were underwhelming and fatigued through much of the Navy game. They struggled to get off the field on third and fourth downs and looked worn down by the triple option.
Saturday will be an opportunity to turn things around against a team they’ve largely dominated defensively in the past.
Last time Temple and USF squared off, sophomore quarterback Jordan McCloud completed 23 of his 38 passing attempts and threw for 225 yards with a touchdown. That touchdown pass to Bryce Miller was the Bulls’ only score of the day in a losing effort at Raymond James Stadium on Nov. 7.
In that game, Temple’s front seven made life very difficult for McCloud, sacking him nine times. Quincy Roche, who has since transferred to Miami, had 3.5 sacks, Dana Levine accounted for 1.5 sacks, while Dan Archibong and Arnold Ebiketie had one apiece.
“He’s certainly a dynamic athlete,” Carey said of McCloud. “I think you finally saw them settle in offensively last week playing him. They certainly found, I think, something that’s working for them in him and he is a guy you got to account for all the time.”
USF officially named McCloud its starting quarterback on Tuesday following a near 300-yard passing performance against ECU. He completed 26 of 35 passing attempts with a long of 52 yards to freshman wide receiver Omarion Dollison midway through the second quarter.
Scott said he felt comfortable naming McCloud the starter after the toughness he showed in the loss Saturday night and then the way he picked up on things in the film session Sunday morning.
The 6-foot quarterback split duties the first four games but will find himself in the starting role moving forward. This season, he’s completed 56 passes, 18 of which have been behind the line of scrimmage. And 40 of those 56 have been for less than 10 yards. Much of USF’s offense is predicated on short passes leaving it up to skill position players to make plays.
Temple’s secondary didn’t see much action against a Navy team that completed two passes on two attempts. Carey said during Monday’s media availability that “you don’t learn anything” about their coverage skills in a game like that. Which became more clear after getting a chance to dissect the game on film the following day.
The Bulls’ main downfield threat is 5-foot-11 junior wideout Latrell Williams, who hauled in eight receptions for 93 yards in the loss to ECU.
Mitchell Brinkman is another notable threat in the passing game. He’s a grad transfer from Northern Illinois, where he played under both Rod Carey and Mike Uremovich. He also shared the offensive line with Temple’s starting center and NIU transfer C.J. Perez. Brinkman had two catches for 47 yards against the Pirates.
USF’s offensive line has also been in flux their first four showings.
Demetris Harris will be in at left guard after missing the first three games of the year. Saturday will be the first time all year the Bulls have had the same starter at left guard for more than one game. On the other side at right guard will be redshirt senior Michael Wiggs. He’s been USF’s only consistent piece through four games across the line.
The Bulls have allowed 13 sacks, which is the most out of any team in the conference by a wide margin.
Saturday will be a bounceback opportunity for guys like Maijeh and Archibong and a chance for the secondary to get a multitude of reps in coverage.
“We waited for four months to play a team and now all of a sudden we got another one in a week. Are you kidding me?” Carey said. “That’s like a kid in the candy store. Even with the things we have to correct, it certainly feels good.”
Extra Points: Branden Mack is three catches away from moving past Robby Anderson and into the top ten all-time for Temple receptions. ... Temple will celebrate a virtual homecoming when the Owls play their first game at Lincoln Financial Field this Saturday. ... The city of Philadelphia has approved up to 7,500 fans in outdoor stadiums. Temple will begin to phase in fans beginning with friends and family members of Temple football players and coaches, potentially offering a three-game season ticket plan for Nov. 5 against SMU, Nov. 21 against ECU and Nov. 28 against Cincinnati.