Good evening, everyone. Some news and notes to pass along from today’s practice, Temple’s first of the spring.
If you listened to my lengthy 1-on-1 interview with K.C. Keeler last month, you know by now that he gives very detailed and thorough answers to questions. So if you like football content, you’ll like hearing from Keeler. Today was more of the same. He was vibrant, upbeat, talkative and informative.
Keeler talks about Demerick Morris and Landon Morris returning
As Kyle first reported, Demerick Morris and Landon Morris are back with the program, and K.C. Keeler confirmed that today.
“I said, ‘Listen, I'm not getting any bonus money for recruiting Temple kids back to Temple,’” Keeler said of his conversation with Landon Morris, “but with what we do offensively and what that tight end did in this offense last year at Montana State, pretty good situation for you. And I think he saw that and he came back. So I think, yeah, we added two really good players who are really good people back to the program that I think you know in the locker room, it is a little bit about, yeah, the grass isn’t (always) greener.”
Three position switches lead Conlan Greene to long-snapping
As for Conlan Greene, he’s been a busy guy during the offseason. The former defensive lineman has gone from switching to tight end to the offensive line to now long-snapping.
“So we need a snapper,” Keeler said, “and, you know, he's dabbled with it. And so we're like, you know what? During these 15 practices, you're probably not going to crack the lineup right now as a defensive end or a tight end or as an offensive lineman. You might be able to crack the lineup as a snapper. Let's focus our energy there. So we've decided to go all in with him being a snapper. So they're tough to find, now. They're really hard to find. And so he has enough ability.
“(Assistant coach) Rick Brown, he coaches the specialists. So he's in charge of the snapper, the holder, the kicker, the punter, and that's all he does. Brian Ginn handles the special teams. (Brown) handles specialists. So we're hoping with 15 practices with Rick Brown just working, technique, technique, technique, we can make him our snapper. There's enough there. It's going to be interesting over these 15 practices. If not, we'll go get one. And so that's why it's really important for us to figure out, do we need to go get one, or we have this guy right here in the building?”
On the injury front, wide receiver Ian Stewart, center Grayson Mains and defensive end Khalil Poteat are limited right now. Stewart was in pads but not taking part in drills as he continues to work his way back from a really tough quad injury. Offensive lineman Luke Watson, Keeler said, “is still a little way’s away” as he recovers from his knee injury.
“He’s not going to take any real reps this spring,” Keeler said.
Keeler sees some athleticism with Evan Simon
Again, we’ll couch this by saying it’s March 11. But based upon what looked to be the first-team offense at times, Evan Simon was running with that group today. At one point, the offensive line in front of him had Kevin Terry at left tackle, Eric King at left guard, walk-on Shane Toolan at center, Mausa Palu at right guard and Diego Barajas at right tackle, so different players were being mixed and matched there.
Keeler said again today that they will look to add another quarterback through the portal, and we’ll keep you updated there. I asked him about Simon’s running ability that he showed when he was at Manheim Central High School and if the staff feels they can still tap into that a bit.
“Absolutely, “Keeler said. “You know, when you look at his tape, it's not that he's not a non-athlete. I mean, people that ask me about (former Delaware star quarterback Joe)Flacco, Joe is a pretty good athlete, even though, he’s almost 6-foot-7. Evan, when you look at his tape, you go, better athlete than you think. So obviously, the way this offense is designed, you like to have an athletic quarterback. But the same time, I've always tweaked my offenses based on who was the starting quarterback.”
Then Keeler went on to mention some of the things we discussed during our interview last month..
“The things we did with (former Delaware quarterback) Andy Hall, who was a fifth-round pick by the Eagles, different than the things we did with Joe Flacco, who was the first-round pick by the Ravens. So still effective offenses, but different because of their skill set. Because they touch the ball 100% of the time, you've got to tweak your offense. And so what we'll do is, if Evan’s our starter, we will have some tweaks in there to make this offense Evan friendly, and that's just, you know, I think smart football, especially at this level. I think if you're at Ohio State, or you're at USC, or you're Penn State, you're going to get exactly what you want for your particular offense. I think at our level, and most levels below the Power Four, you need to go get the best available player, and then you tweak your offense based on his skill set.”
High praise for Carl Hardin
When I talked to Maddux Trujillo last month on The Scoop, he said he felt Carl Hardin would have been an all-conference kicker at Temple if Trujillo himself had decided to go elsewhere, and he thinks the program will be in good hands with him handling placekicking duties.
Tuesday’s practice started with a walkthrough, and the special teams group went through the mechanics of lining up, snapping the ball but not kicking it.
Then to end practice, Hardin and Darren Wu lined up for some field goals. Hardin started at 24 yards and then went back in two-yard increments, and finished the day with two solid makes from 33 yards out. Wu hit a kick from 30.
When I asked Keeler about Hardin today, he said they have put the Raleigh, North Carolina product on scholarship.
“That's the first information I got when I got in this building, that the second-best kicker in this league was a walk-on, and he’s here right now,” Keeler said of Hardin. “I saw a little tape, met Carl, and we put him on scholarship. Never saw him kick in person, but just saw some tape, believed in some people that are currently in this building right now, and that were in the building, and we put him on scholarship because we didn’t want to lose him. And I know Rick has been really impressed and so has Brian Ginn. Been really impressed with his leg strength, his accuracy, his mentality. He is an AAC kicker.”
Other news and notes
In some general observations from the field, Katin Suprenant, redshirt freshman Wesley Brown, Kentucky transfer Jayvant Brown, redshirt junior London Hall, redshirt sophomore Eric Stuart and sophomore Tyree Alualu were working with the inside linebackers, while recent additions like Delaware transfer Ty Davis and Monmouth transfer Willy Love were working with the outside backers. Alualu and Stuart were wearing black jerseys, meaning they’re considered limited, but they were both moving around well in position drills. … Sam Houston State transfer Jay Ducker and Joquez Smith seemed to be 1 and 2 in the running back pecking order today. … Players who seemed to be getting a fair amount of defensive snaps included Ben Osueke and Denzel Chavis at corner, Wesley Brown and Katin Suprenant at linebacker, Javier Morton, Avery Powell and Louis Frye at safety, Cam’Ron Stewart at defensive end, and K.J. Miles, Sekou Kromah and Allan Haye at defensive tackle.
You can listen to Keeler’s entire interview in the link posted on the front page. Just wanted to break down more details here.
