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Published Aug 7, 2024
Veteran presence: Wright, Morris and McIlquham meet the media
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John DiCarlo  •  OwlScoop
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Temple’s football program added more than 40 players to its roster via the 2024 recruiting class and some late spring and early summer additions. Just about every position room at Edberg-Olson Hall was overhauled – some with new assistant coaches and just about every other with new players aimed at reversing the trend of three straight 3-9 seasons.

Defensive tackle Demerick Morris, wide receiver Dante Wright and long-snapper Andrew McIlquham, on the other hand, have represented some rare stability at their respective positions. Morris and Wright are fifth- and sixth-year players, respectively, and likely starters and single-digit candidates. McIlquham, who has delivered every punt, field goal and PAT snap over the last two seasons, is on the Wuerffel Trophy and AFCA Good Works Team watch lists for his community service work off the field.

The veteran trio of players spoke with a pair of reporters Wedneday on Zoom, and OwlScoop.com was on the call during interviews you can watch here.

Dante Wright

Demerick Morris

Andrew McIlquham

Wright, the Owls’ top returning wide receiver, punt returner and all-purpose yards leader, is entering just his second season at Temple, but he will be the veteran in a wide receiver room that will include a new position coach in Tyron Carrier.

Beyond that, just six of Carrier’s 19 receivers have played FBS football. So Wright, who tallied 39 catches for 507 yards and four touchdowns while playing through an injury last season, had institutional knowledge and maturity to lend his new position coach.

“When he came in, we had a couple guys that knew the offense just a little bit more than him, just because him being new to the offense, so he kind of leaned on us to kind of help him get the young guys going, especially in the summer, when the coaches were gone,” Wright told OwlScoop Wednesday. “That was a really good time for the older guys in the room to kind of show the younger guys how to operate, how the season is going to go, and just what the coaches are looking for, how the quarterbacks are going to help us get the ball.”

Morris sustained a preseason camp injury that initially looked to be season-ending, but the 6-foot-3, 300-pound graduate of Chicago’s Phillips Academy returned for the last two games of the 2023 season. Like Wright, he’ll welcome some new reinforcements to his position, including JUCO transfers Sekou Kromah and Khalil Poteat and FAU transfer Latrell Jean, but he’s also looking forward to playing alongside teammates who did suffer a season-ending injuries in former 4-star recruit and Georgia Tech transfer, K.J. Miles, and Miami transfer Allan Haye, who missed the rest of the 2023 campaign after logging a sack but getting injured back on Sept. 28 at Tulsa.

“K.J. is a very high-motor guy -- fast, physical, strong, very mobile type of guy,” Morris said of Miles. “So, K.J. is a guy that adds value to the room. Alan Haye adds value to the room. Lattrel Jean adds value to the room. Everybody adds value to the room in some type of way. But it's good to have K.J. back out there moving full speed. And him going through a lot last year, he was dealing with a lot of stuff. It's very good and happy to see the guys that went down, they’re back up. It’s our time, and we just gotta move forward and play healthy and play physical football.”

Stay tuned for more at OwlScoop.com on Wright, Morris and McIlquham as our preseason camp coverage continues.

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