Spring practice notebook: Carey 'excited' for long road ahead
Temple kicked off spring practice Monday with a later than usual start to the spring season.
Rod Carey was happy to be back on the field, encouraged by the level of energy and enthusiasm provided by his players, but Temple’s third-year head coach wasn’t exactly thrilled with the results.
Temple’s first practice of the spring simply wasn’t good enough in Carey’s eyes. There’s a lot of new faces, but this is something they’ll have to grind out and get better at. Carey understands that with the amount of roster turnover that this process is going to take some time, so it comes as no surprise that he’s expecting a long road ahead.
The Owls hadn’t had a padded practice since the Tuesday before their would-be season-finale against ECU last season. While they’ve been doing some drills and conditioning, it’s all been without a football. A football was finally added to the mix on Monday, as the Owls look to get the most out of the NCAA’s 15 allotted practices.
Temple has seen its athletes back on campus since the start of the spring semester, but Carey wanted to delay the start of spring practice because of the extenuating circumstances surrounding a disappointing finish to last season.
Here are OwlScoop.com’s observations and notes from Carey’s first media availability since December of 2020.
Rod Carey on Temple’s quarterback room:
“It’s a really talented room. What I’m hoping for, and I don’t know if I’ll get it, is that somebody takes it and runs away with it and wins the job so it’s easy to name that going into fall camp. I don’t know if we’ll get that but I hope we do. We got all shapes and sizes from D’Wan [Mathis] all the way down to Re-al [Mitchell]. They all have good athletic ability and can move with their feet. It’ll definitely give us an added dimension to our offense that we haven’t had.”
Carey on the mood of the program:
“I like our team makeup. The door swings both ways in the transfer portal. It’s not an exit only. It’s also an entrance. We feel like we have done exactly what we should have done and improved our football team. Simple math would say when you’re a Group of Five school, you’d like to take guys from Power Five schools. And we’ve done that. In some cases, we’ve reached down and those are exceptions but we’ve certainly done that and improved our football team.”
Carey on redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jose Barbon:
“He has played a good bit of football for us and it’s time for him to take the next step and become that starter. He has all the gifts, all the ability and he’s got to do that. And I think he will. He’s got a good shot. He’s got a good work ethic and the whole deal but that’s what I’m looking for.”
Carey on some of the younger guys he’s looking forward to seeing step up:
"A guy like James Della Pesca had a great offseason. I’d really like to see what he can do this spring. He’s putting himself in a good position. Kobe Wilson - the guy is ridiculous. I mean, he’s had an unbelievable offseason. Trey Blair, Jordan Magee, and Yvandy Rigby have looked fantastic this offseason. We got a lot of them that have had great offseasons, but that’s just to name a few.”
Carey on Georgia transfer quarterback D’Wan Mathis:
“The number one thing that he has to do this spring is just get comfortable with the offense. All the physical abilities are there. He can throw, he can run - the whole deal. When you’re talking about a guy who has only played in a few college football games, he just has to learn this offense because it’s a new offense, and then get comfortable so those decisions can be made at the speed at which they need to be made at. Right now, it’s just a steep learning curve. That would be my goal for him. I think he would probably tell you he has a way different goal than that, but that’s mine right now.”
Carey on the cornerback room:
“I think we hammered [the transfer portal] too. We brought in a couple of really good ones. There is a great competition. You got [Elijah Clark] and Freddie [Johnson], who have played and are back, And [Jeremy Jennings] we moved over there. You got Ty Mason, who is back out of an opt-out and then you got [Keyshawn Paul] and [Cameron Ruiz].
What am I looking for out of that room? The same thing I’m looking for out of every other room. I want to see someone step up and grab it. There’s enough ability there. I think our talent is probably better than it was as a group at that position. We gotta play that way but talent-wise, I think that’s where we’re at.”
Carey on being able to be back for spring practice:
"We got shut down after two helmet practices and we already got those out of the way this year. We’re looking forward to getting into pads. It’ll be the first time guys are wearing pads since Tuesday of ECU week. The importance is to get back out there. We got to practice football to play it. Don’t take my frustration from practice that it just wasn’t damn good enough as there wasn’t a lot of great energy out there. The guys were excited to play. Our job is now that we got that energy, to get it going in the right direction. We’re super excited about it.”