Temple awards single digits to six players
When he spoke with reporters following Friday’s preseason practice, first-year Temple head coach Stan Drayton said decisions on single digits would be coming “soon.”
Soon became Monday, as the program announced that six players – senior offensive linemen Adam Klein and Isaac Moore, senior wide receiver and Georgia Tech transfer Adonicas Sanders, sophomore linebacker Jordan Magee, sophomore defensive end Darian Varner and second-year freshman cornerback Jalen McMurray – had been awarded single digits during a team meeting Monday night.
Klein and Moore were awarded Nos. 2 and 4, respectively, but will continue to wear Nos. 74 and 63 due to NCAA rules that prohibit offensive linemen wearing numbers other than 50 through 79. Sanders will wear No. 4, Magee will wear No. 6, McMurray will wear No. 7, and Varner will wear No. 9.
A release sent out Monday night indicated that several former Temple single-digit players attended the team meeting via Zoom to watch the new awardees get their numbers, including former NFL safety Jaiquawn Jarrett, who narrated a video the team released on social media, Buffalo Bills Pro Bowler Dion Dawkins, and former Temple fullback Rob Ritrovato.
Klein and Moore, both fifth-year offensive linemen, were two of just five players to see snaps as true freshmen back in 2018. Klein, who is expected to start at right tackle this season, has logged 35 career starts at right tackle and both guard positions and was a team captain last season, while Moore has never missed a game in his Temple career and has registered 32 starts at left tackle.
Varner, a third-year sophomore, led the team in sacks (3.0) last season and will move outside from defensive tackle to play defensive end after shedding 20 pounds during the offseason. Magee began to emerge last season and earned the starting WILL linebacker spot in the fourth week of the season against Wagner. He had a career- and team-high eight tackles in the season opener at Rutgers and has registered 69 tackles in 21 career games.
Sanders and McMurray are the two players with the least amount of experience at Temple among the new singe-digit awardees.
The 6-foot, 175-pound McMurray played at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. and then in four games last fall as a true freshman before starting in the spring game. Sanders, who has drawn praise from Drayton numerous times in the preseason when talking to reporters, caught 29 passes for 362 yards and three touchdowns last season at Georgia Tech. One of those touchdowns came in a win against Duke, the Owls’ season-opening opponent this year.
“He’s got it. He’s a real guy,” Drayton said of Sanders when talking to reporters after Monday night’s practice, not long before the single digits were announced. “I mean, he’s a tough nut, comes to work every single day. I love the way he catches the tough ball, you know? People are pulling his jersey off and he finds a way to catch the football. I mean, he’s a Temple tough guy.”
As of now, Nos. 0, 1, 3 and 8 are still available, and the release the team issued Monday night said additional players could be awarded those numbers at a later date.
Temple’s single-digit tradition, which has since been adopted at several other programs across the nation, was started by former Owls head coach Al Golden, who coached at Temple from 2006 to 2010 and is now entering his first season as Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator after six years as an NFL assistant and five before that as the head coach at Miami.