Linwood Crump's return gives Owls more cornerback depth
Last season, Linwood Crump came into the year as one of the more experienced cornerbacks on the Temple football team.
This season, Crump returns to a cornerback room that has another year’s worth of competition.
Crump was limited to four games last season after he injured his hand at practice before Temple’s game against Maryland. After playing in the season opener against Bucknell, Crump returned Oct. 12 against Memphis and played in the following games against SMU and South Florida.
Crump did not play for the rest of the season and earned a redshirt year.
Crump will be competing for a starting position in a cornerback room that lost Harrison Hand to the Minnesota Vikings as a fourth-round pick in the NFL Draft. Besides Crump, Temple will return redshirt-junior Christian Braswell and redshirt seniors Freddie Johnson and Kimere Brown. Johnson enters his second year as a cornerback after initially playing wide receiver, while Brown returns to the team after an injury last spring that forced him to miss all of last season. One cornerback Temple will miss is redshirt-junior Ty Mason, who opted out of the season, coach Rod Carey confirmed at Tuesday’s media session.
“The competition is back,” Crump said during Tuesday’s media availability. “It’s great. We got a room that’s competitive now. We always talk about it as a defense, so I mean we got four guys that are competing for spots. We got four solid guys. Kimere’s back. Freddie’s back with some experience. [Braswell] is here with experience.
"I mean, it’s a great feeling to know that last year I was the only senior and the only guy to have a ton of game experience. But to come back this year and have three to maybe four guys that have game experience that I know that’s gonna be on the other side and can do what I do on the other side of me, that’s a great feeling to know at corner, knowing that you’re not by yourself.”
Since he’s returned to football activities, Crump has impressed the coaching staff at practice. In addition to playing corner, Crump has also seen some snaps at the safety position and on special teams. Special teams coordinator Brett Diersen went up to cornerbacks coach Melvin Rice to praise Crump’s ability to play special teams.
Rice said both Crump and Braswell will be counted on to lead the corners this season, but admitted that Crump is the more vocal of the two.
“That’s from defense to special teams, he’s giving maximum effort and that’s a guy who’s really surprised me from a leadership standpoint,” Rice said. “Braswell, he’s the guy that’s a silent assassin and a silent leader. You know he’ll get on you when he needs to. Crump is the guy that gets everybody ready to go in practice.”
Of the younger corners, Rice mentioned redshirt-sophomore Elijah Clark and freshmen Garrett Williams and Daiyaan Hawkins as the ones who’ve stood out in practice so far. As one of the leaders of the cornerback group, Crump is responsible for their growth as players.
“It kinda started last year, but I couldn’t really vocalize my opinions too much because I’m on the sideline and I couldn’t really tell everybody what to do because they’re the ones actually playing," Crump said. "But now that I’m back on the field, I think it’s coming more as since I’m older, I’m a older guy know, I’m looking at the younger guys, their footwork.
“Just little tedious things that they might not think is a big deal, but things that can help them better long span, down the road, like just knowing where to put your hand placement. Also, just going 100 percent in drills like Coach Rice said. Just doing everything at 100 percent because it’s always gonna benefit you.”
Since the NCAA granted fall sports athletes another year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Crump is waiting to see how this year goes before he makes a decision to come back next season.
“I hope this year, everything goes well,” Crump said. “An extra year of eligibility is a great opportunity. That’s just a great thing just to know I have another year in my back pocket, but I’m playing this season as it’s my last, and I’m happy to be back honestly.”