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Re-Al Mitchell struggles in his first start

Re-al Micthell’s play in Temple’s 38-13 loss on Saturday left a lot to be desired.

And his head coach let him know it.

When Rod Carey spoke with reporters following Saturday night's 25-point loss at the hands of UCF, he emphasized Mitchell’s lack of urgency and criticized his turnovers.

“The urgency,” Carey said, “I don’t think he played with [it] early. I think he got into a little better form with game speed and better urgency later, but we can’t wait to do that. Those two things, we have to fix.”

In a game where the Owls needed to play keep away, they coughed up the ball on back-to-back possessions to start the game. Temple allowed UCF to get off to the fast start it was hoping to avoid.

On the second play from scrimmage, Mitchell held on to the ball too long and never saw Eriq Gilyard. The junior linebacker sacked Mitchell for a loss of seven and took the football right out of his hands.

On the ensuing drive, Mitchell attempted to throw a screen pass in the direction of either Jadan Blue or Jose Barbon. Instead, the pass was intercepted by Knights sophomore linebacker Tatum Bethune, who made the unlikely interception while being blocked by David Martin-Robinson.

Mitchell passed the two turnovers off as unlucky, but his head coach didn’t see it like that.

“The ball security thing, turning the ball over is unacceptable,” Carey said. “I don’t care if you’re a true freshman or if you’re a fifth-year senior. It’s unacceptable. We’ve got to have more ball security.”

The redshirt sophomore transfer from Iowa State went 10 of 23 passing for 107 yards and two interceptions.

His other interception came on a similar play to one he fumbled on. Mitchell was being pressured and while he had a hand in his face, he had a wide-open Branden Mack. Instead, he didn’t put enough touch into the ball and underthrew the pass, which led to a Corey Thorton interception and left Mack visibly frustrated.

Mitchell’s play was so frustrating for Carey that he turned to a true freshman in Matt Duncan for multiple drives. While earlier in the week, Carey said Duncan had looked “great” on the scout team, he added that the freshman quarterback out of Summerville, South Carolina is still “a ways away.”

Another aspect of Mitchell’s game he couldn’t get going was his ground game. Granted, Mitchell was forced to run behind a makeshift offensive line that saw Wisdom Quarshie and David Nwaogwugwu getting significant playing time at right guard and right tackle, but he still had just 11 yards on 10 carries.

Since coming over from the Big 12, Mitchell hasn’t exactly played up to the level the Owls would have hoped for. The competition and the flashes of potential were on display this summer, but it hasn’t translated to the regular season just yet.

With Anthony Russo (COVID protocol) and Trad Beatty (injury) potentially sidelined for the foreseeable future, Mitchell will look to get back on track against a 1-6 East Carolina team next Saturday.

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