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Published Aug 17, 2024
Media day musings: Owls talk about the season ahead
Ryan Mack
OwlScoop.com Staff Reporter

Temple held its annual media day Friday afternoon at Edberg-Olson Hall. The Owls will open up their third season under head coach Stan Drayton at No.16 Oklahoma on Friday, Aug. 30 as heavy underdogs in Norman, and there are still several questions to be answered before then.

Reporters spoke with Drayton Friday looking for some of those answers, but the head coach said he’s still waiting on them himself.

For starters, Drayton remained even-keeled about the Owls’ most important question mark — the quarterback position. He has said several times this month that Rutgers transfer Evan Simon, Forrest Brock and Tyler Douglas are all in the mix to land the job.

On Friday, Drayton instead focused on the improbable task at hand – attempting to upset the Sooners.

“We’re really enjoying the process and embracing the process,” Drayton said. “That’s been the fun part, watching our kids take it one day at a time. We forced them to focus on being in the moment. I think our players on a daily basis have shown the ability to do that.”

Here are some key takeaways from Friday’s media day.

Drayton still hasn’t named a starting QB

Douglas, the redshirt freshman from New Jersey’s Ocean Township High School, has kept his name in the conversation with his ability to make plays with his legs, but it’s more likely that Drayton and offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf will choose between Simon and Brock to take the first snap at Oklahoma.

Brock played an unsuccessful second half of football last season in a blowout loss to SMU and had a head start on learning Langsdorf’s offense, which all three quarterbacks have said will have more RPOs attached to it this season due to their mobility. But none of the three signal callers emerged from the spring as the clear-cut starter, pushing the decision into preseason camp this month.

Drayton told reporters that the team would scrimmage at Penn’s Franklin Field Friday night. That practice will likely go a long way in building the depth chart, but Drayton wasn’t tipping his hand Friday.

“I just don't want to underestimate the quarterbacks that are in that room that are putting forth really good effort and prep as we get closer and closer to this game,” Drayton said. “You learn something new about them every single day. But I think we are getting close. We do know the strengths and weaknesses of our quarterbacks right now. It's going to be a combination of how they fit the surrounding cast around them. We'll announce it when the time is right.”

As for scrimmaging at Penn, a program Drayton called home back in 1995 much earlier in his career as the Quakers’ running backs coach, getting off campus and heading to West Philly at night would be a chance to see how the team handles some different scenery.

“We play in the evening,” Drayton said. “It's just a great opportunity for us to attack the day for us as coaches. Really get a gauge on how our players prepare, how they handle a little bit of pressure that's being applied and induced by the coaches at this point.”

Single digit decisions

Former Temple head coach Al Golden, now the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, began the tradition of honoring the Owls’ toughest players and best leaders with a single digit. With the exception of Steve Addazio, every head coach who has succeeded him has carried on the tradition.

Just one single digit, wide receiver Ian Stewart, returns this season, and the players and coaches will begin the voting process this weekend.

Like the quarterback decision, Drayton does not want to rush it.

“It's a lot harder for me,” Drayton said. “There are a lot of intriguing traits that are coming out of our young men. The one thing that I love about this group of young men, is that they are pretty selfless in their approach. Their larger purpose is to become a brotherhood and a family.”

Western Carolina transfer Andreas Keaton has impressed Temple’s coaches at safety since enrolling in January and taking part in spring drills. After leading the Catamounts in tackles each of the last two seasons and consistently earning praise from the Owls’ staff since his arrival, Keaton acknowledged he could be in the mix for a single digit Friday but said he’s trying not to think about it too much.

“If it happens, it happens,” said Keaton, a 2023 preseason first-team all-Southern Conference selection. “Right now, I'm fully invested in trying to give my all to this team. Like Coach Drayton said, we need to be able to get these guys on the right track.”

Return of the president

John Adams uncorked a well-timed one-liner as he walked over to the microphone at a team meeting room Friday to greet reporters.

“The president is back,” the 6-foot-2, 190-pound wideout said with a smile through a low voice, a reference of course to the fact that he shares a name with the second president of the United States.

Adams enjoyed his first breakout game last season in Temple’s 49-34 loss to UTSA on Oct. 7. The walk-on posted 10 catches for 127 yards and a score, but his production peaked there, as he caught just one pass in each of his next four games. Some of that production dip could be attributed to the poor quarterback play in the absence of former injured starter E.J. Warner, who sustained a concussion during the UTSA loss and missed the next two games.

Just a month later, Adams broke his leg at UAB and missed the rest of the season. He missed much of spring camp and was forced to watch from the sidelines and participate in warm-ups.

Adams, who said he’s been playing football since the age of six while growing up across the river in Deptford, New Jersey, got his start at Temple under former head coach Rod Carey and worked his way onto the field on special teams.

Now he’s in the mix to potentially earn a scholarship and become one of the team’s top receivers after catching 15 passes for 149 yards and two touchdowns last season.

“It’s been a journey. It’s ​​been an emotional journey,” Adams said, “coming in and starting as a walk-on and still earning my way to earn a scholarship. Being in that room, we have a lot of talented wide receivers here. The journey was hard. The journey is still hard. It’s never going to get easier, but I’m pushing through it, getting better day by day, practice by practice, making sure I’m a good contributor to the team and just staying focused on what I need to do to help the team. That’s really been my goal since I was a freshman here.”

Making Haye

Miami transfer Allan Haye joined Adams on the injury list last season after sustaining a season-ending injury at Tulsa. He was just catching his stride in defensive coordinator Everett Withers’ scheme and had notched a sack in the Tulsa game. His injury was a blow to an already-depleted defensive line.

Haye spent the offseason focusing on himself, taking a break from watching his defensive tackle counterparts and just watching his film to see how he could build on his first season of getting significant snaps.

“I wanted to see what I did right, what I did wrong, how to fix the things I did wrong and stuff like that,” Haye said. “So I watched a lot of me.”

Now he’s ready to make a difference for Temple’s pass rush.

“I'm doing good right now,” said Haye, who tallied 12 tackles and that sack at Tulsa. “I don't think the coaches expected me to be where I'm at right now, so I think I’m ahead of the curve. I took a lot of time, and I focused on my rehab and making sure my leg is right.”

He won’t have to do it alone.

Fellow defensive tackle Demerick Morris suffered what initially looked to be a season-ending injury in preseason camp last season but returned for the final two games of 2023. Now the pair get to share the field for the 2024 campaign.

Haye said he has embraced Withers’ decision to switch from a 3-4 to a 4-3 base defense, a scheme he has enjoyed since playing at Hollywood, Florida’s Chaminade-Madonna Prep.

The 4-3 base allows him to get more vertical and attack the quarterback, something he has welcomed with open arms.

“It's fun,” Haye said. “I'm coming from places where we get vertical, we go penetrate the backfield. Getting back to playing like that is fun, because last year's defense was my first time playing in a 3-4.”

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