Through four spring practices, it was clear to head coach K.C. Keeler that Temple’s defense was ahead of the offense. That is typical for most schools in the country, but Keeler also sees some talent that fits new defensive coordinator Brian Smith’s defensive scheme well.

There are veterans at nearly every position on the defensive side of the ball, including safety. The Owls' secondary struggled near the end of last season, but the backline returns a pair of experienced players and an exciting transfer who changed positions.

The veteran in the room: Javier Morton

The fresh face: Avery Powell

Player with the most to prove: Louis Frye

Morton returns to the Owls’ back line with the most experience of the group after starting five games last season. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound safety came to Temple before last season after spending two years at Nebraska, including 2023 where he played under former Temple head coach Matt Rhule.

The Nebraska transfer was expected to play a major role in a reconfigured secondary and showed flashes of being a strong contributor, but also struggled with consistency.

Morton opened last season as one of the starting safeties and turned in a strong Temple debut with four tackles in the loss to Oklahoma. He racked up 10 tackles in the Owls’ first win of the season last year against Utah State but then failed to record a tackle in the next two games.

He finished last season fourth on the team in tackles with 48 and had one interception. Morton returns the most tackles from last season and will again be expected to play an important role in Smith’s new defense.

The Owls lost their other starting safety Andres Keaton to graduation and turned to the transfer portal to replace him.

Keeler brought in Powell from Missouri State. Powell, a product of Jersey City’s Saint Peter's Prep did not join the Owls as a safety, however.

Powell came out of high school as a cornerback and spent the first three years of his college career at cornerback. He played at Holy Cross as a freshman where he redshirted and transferred to Missouri State.

With the Bears, Powell became one of the better cornerbacks in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. As a redshirt freshman in 2023, he finished fifth on the team in tackles with 58 and 32 were solo tackles. He also recorded two tackles for loss and tallied a team high eight pass breakups. Powell’s 2023 efforts earned him a spot on the Phil Steele Freshman All-America Team and he was named to the MVFC All-Newcomer team.

Powell saw his statistical output decrease last season as he put up 38 tackles, two pass breakups and one tackle for loss. The New Jersey native entered the transfer portal in the offseason and landed back closer to home. Once on North Broad Street, the Owls’ coaching staff decided to move him to safety to pair with Morton.

Smith said last weekend that Powell is currently slotted at strong safety.

“It's kind of more like a nickel, so we'll have him in the slot, covering,” Smith said. “He's also got the ability to go outside if we need him to. So just getting guys in that can cover. We've been a big man-to- man team in the past, so the more guys we can get in the defense who have coverage ability, whether it's outside or inside, it helps us to be able to do what we want to do.”

Powell bumping back to safety seemingly knocked Frye down the pecking order, leaving Frye with plenty to prove in spring that he can be the guy to hold down the back line alongside Morton.

Frye joined Temple last offseason after spending three years at Northern Illinois. With the Huskies, he mostly played a special teams role and had just 16 total tackles during his three seasons.

In his first season at Temple, Frye worked mostly in a reserve role behind Keaton and Morton. He made one start against Tulane and recorded just 16 tackles last season. Frye opted to return to Temple following the coaching change but now seems destined to be a backup again. With Powell looking to cement a role at safety, Frye will have a few more spring practices to prove he can be the right fit in Smith’s defense.

Front page photo by Landon Stafford.