September 22, 2020 –
The Temple football team is getting ready to play the first game of the season on October 10th at Navy. It has been difficult to get everything moving in the proper direction due to restrictions and quarantine. But the trend, especially in practice, is starting to move upward.
“We’re in fall camp mode,” said Coach Rod Carey. “The practices have been good, crisp, and yesterday was the first time that I came off the practice field and felt like that was our first football practice. It was crisp. Nobody was dragging. We’ve been through full practices, but have seen some guys struggle. It was a combination of things; we haven’t done that yet, they haven’t been training through COVID. There was a lot to correct, we’re not there yet, but it felt and sounded like a football practice should.”
“This has been a little more normal,”
The opening game opponent has played games, which Temple has not. It is something that adds to the complexity of getting ready for a game.
“We try to make practice harder than games as far as tempo and hitting and amount and volume,” said Carey. “So, when you get to games it’s a little easier. But game speed is game speed.”
And Carey has said that Temple has film on Navy, and Navy has no film on Temple.
Much will depend on the upperclassmen for the team and those single digit players such as; Randle Jones, Branden Mack, Christian Braswell, Jadan Blue, Daniel Archibong, Isaiah Graham-Mobley, Amir Tyler, William Kwenkeu, Anthony Russo, and Linwood Crump. They are the experienced players that provide a road map to the younger players. They’ve been here before and have shown the ability to handle the situation. Carey is impressed with the team leadership.
“This group of leaders has had more to deal with than any leaders that I’ve been around,” Carey said. “They’ve handled it well. The biggest thing they’ve done is they’ve communicated to the team and back up to the coaches better than any group of leaders I’ve had. Their communication so that we can understand where they are has been invaluable.”
Now there can be more on-field and position battle emphasis over the next few weeks.
First game not too far away, but it appears the Cherry and White are getting closer being prepared.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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