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Published Mar 10, 2020
Spring forward: Owls kick off first spring practice Tuesday
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John DiCarlo  •  OwlScoop
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Temple head coach Rod Carey and several of his seniors spoke with reporters following Tuesday's practice, the Owls' first of the spring.

You can listen to those interviews here:

Rod Carey

Isaiah Graham-Mobley

Branden Mack

Randle Jones

Dan Archibong

The Owls, who went 8-5 last year in Carey's first season at Temple, will go through two sessions this week before enjoying their first practice in pads Friday.

Carey provided a few updates of note following Tuesday's practice.

-- Along the injury front, Carey said players dealing with long-term injuries like linebacker Isaiah Graham-Mobley and offensive guard Vince Picozzi would be out for the spring and be set to return to a full range of football activities in late May or early June. Graham-Mobley, an Upper Merion High School product, tallied 36 tackles in eight games before sustaining a season-ending ankle injury in Temple's loss to UCF back on Oct. 26.

"Rehab has been going really well," Graham-Mobley said. "Getting into running and progressions ... I should be back very soon."

Carey also said defensive tackle Ifeanyi Maijeh, a first-team all-conference selection in 2019 after registering 6.5 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss and 52 total tackles, would miss spring practice as he recovers from sports hernia surgery. He is expected to be ready for preseason camp.

- In talking about the offensive line and replacing someone like center Matt Hennessy, who left Temple to enter the 2020 NFL Draft, Carey said the staff has decided to move junior Adam Klein from right tackle to center. Asked if it's a permanent move, Carey said, "It's permanent right now, if that makes sense. Unless he can't physically do it. But from what I saw, he can do it. So he's in a battle for the center job, and we moved him. He would have been in a battle for the right tackle job."

The 6-foot-5, 295-pound Klein, a former Episcopal Academy standout, began to cement himself as the team's starting right tackle three games into his true freshman season in the Owls' 2018 road win at Maryland and got his first career start a week later against Tulsa.

"I think just his body type is more suited to (center) than it is to tackle, really," Carey said. "And he's a super smart guy, too, on the same par as Matt (Hennessy) when it comes to that."

With Klein moving to center, Carey said redshirt sophomore David Nwaogwugwu and redshirt freshman Jermaine Donaldson "are really in a battle right there and really going back and forth."

- As he has been in previous conversations about the subject, Carey was pretty transparent and self aware when it came time to talking about the departure of defensive end Quincy Roche, the 2019 American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year who left Temple as a graduate transfer before choosing to enroll at Miami, where the Owls will play their 2020 season opener.

“We were very supportive of him," Carey said, "but he chose them over us. So I’m like the scorned ex-girlfriend, OK? I’m not real happy about it. It doesn’t change that we had a relationship, and I supported him through that process. I didn’t agree with any of his reasoning. I think it was all flawed, but why wouldn’t the ex-girlfriend feel like that?”


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