Many of Temple’s former football players had spent the previous three months preparing for what in all likelihood was their biggest job interview up to that point - Thursday’s Pro Day. The Owls had more than 10 different players in all three phases of the game working out in front of 25 NFL teams.

While the process was strenuous, there was still a chance to let up a bit.

Temple defensive end Diwun Black showed that almost immediately after.

Following the former Owls’ workouts, Black had a bit of fun before his presser. He asked a reporter if there was dirt on his nose before he began to speak, which set the people surrounding him into laughter.

Beyond that, it was business as usual.

“I showcase my time a lot at the Tropical Bowl (a postseason all-star showcase game) and during the season,” Black said. “Coming here after training, getting prepared to run my 40 and all the drills, it means a lot to show my growth, showed my weight gain, my speed from the end of the season to now. So it was very important for this day.”

Black was one of 11 Temple players who took part in Temple’s annual pro day at the Aramark Star Complex. They completed the 40-yard dash, broad jump, shuttle and 3-cone drill before embarking upon positional drills for the rest of the morning.

Then it was on to the high jump and bench press prior to going in front of the media at Edberg Olson Hall. While the drills may not outweigh a player’s game film, a good showing can sometimes take a player from nowhere to an NFL team’s radar, maybe as an undrafted rookie free agent or at best a late-round pick. Defensive tackle Latrell Jean led the way with 28 bench-press reps of 225 pounds while guard Wisdom Quarshie had 24.

Black, a former 4-star recruit who once verbaled to three different SEC programs while in high school before playing at a JUCO and then Florida before Temple, had 19 —much to his dismay, as he hoped to reach 20.

“It's kind of different,” Quarshie said. “Even though all positions always do the same drills and stuff, when it comes to the o-line, they do look for certain things – how fast you can move to 225 and how many times you can do it.”

While scouts were there for most of the players hoping to get their foot into the NFL door, the main course of the morning was kicker Maddux Trujillo. The Austin Peay transfer came to Temple in 2024, hoping to work on his kickoff work, and left after one season as an all-time Owl.

Trujillo made a name for himself by drilling long-distance field goals during the 2024 season. The Georgia native hit five field goals from more than 50 yards, including a Lincoln Financial Field record 64-yard field goal against Utah State on Sept. 21. Trujillo kicked the festivities off on Thursday by showing off his leg to the scouts in attendance.

He missed just a single kick that went wide left, but the rest of his kicks were perfect. Nearly every attempt hit the net at the top of the complex. He finished the day by drilling a 65-yarder before going back to Chodoff Field at the team’s facility to practice kickoffs in front of the Ravens, Patriots, Eagles and Commanders.

While it’s hard to project how many kickers will go in any given draft (three were selected in each of the last two drafts), Trujillo has the best draft prospects of any Temple who worked out Thursday.

“I hit the ball as well as I really could have today,” Trujillo said. “It was good to be around a bunch of scouts and coaches that were here to see me, and it was good to put on a good showing for them.”

Wide receivers Ashton Allen and Dante Wright showed their speed during the 40-yard dash, running a 4.57 and 4.56, respectively, when it was their turn to go. Those numbers would have put both players just outside the top 30 times at the NFL Combine. Allen’s 10-foot, 6-inch broad jump would have been the 12th-best mark at the combine.

Black's mindset was to show off his speed at his size of 6-3 and 250 pounds. His 4.88 40 on Tuesday would have kept him in the company of a player like West Virginia’s Sean Martin at the combine, although Black had hoped to clock a 4.6 instead.

Linebacker D.J. Woodbury, who is likely in the same position as Black, ran a 4.86 40-yard dash. Former Temple linebacker Jordan Magee, a 2024 fifth-round selection of the Washington Commanders, was watching from afar, continuing a cycle of former Temple players giving support.

“That’s what college football is, Woodbury said. “You meet a lot of different brothers that you will have forever. When he did his pro day, I was here supporting him, and he did the same to me. That’s what brothers do. We support each other through a good time or bad time.”

Perhaps the most impressive Pro Day performance came from biggest winner was one who has never dawned an Owl uniform.

Temple’s Pro Day also draws players from other programs, and Del Val wide receiver Nahsir Morgan helped himself as much as anybody Thursday, turning in an 11-foot broad jump that would have tied Virginia Tech’s Jaylin Lane for the third-best jump at this year’s NFL Combine.

Whether they get drafted or not, Thursday was a chance for several players to be in the company of NFL personnel, and that wasn’t lost on someone like Quarshie, an unheralded 2019 Temple recruit out of Hammonton, New Jersey’s Saint Joseph Academy.

“Man, this is special,” Quarshie said. “Just seeing all the scouts come back, I remember when I committed to Temple in 2019 and I was like, ‘Man, this is the place to be.’ From year on end, I go to every pro day, and I see the love that Temple has. So I know when I step on the field for pro day, it's bigger than me. It's about the program, what you represented for Temple. So it was a special day. It means a lot to me.”

Front page photo by Landon Stafford.