Temple football rebuilding with new transfer group, scholarships still to be had | Signing Day

Temple will have a new look next football season, with a large infusion of transfers replacing a bigger number of players who have left the program to either transfer, depart for the NFL draft or simply stop playing the sport.

Wednesday is the beginning of the late signing period for college football teams and Temple won’t be announcing any new high school recruits.

The Owls also won’t announce any new transfers, but coach Rod Carey said the program has about five scholarships remaining and new additions could still come before the Owls begin training camp in August.

Temple, coming off a 1-6 season, had 11 players put their name in the transfer portal, with nine having already found new homes. Two more players, receiver Branden Mack and defensive tackle Dan Archibong, bypassed their final year of eligibility, which would have been a sixth season, to put their name in the NFL draft.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Trad Beatty is not going to play football, according to Carey, but he will leave Temple with his degree.

» READ MORE: Kingsway LB Zach Schneider commits to Temple

Of Temple’s graduate transfers, who have all been previously announced, two came from the SEC, ACC and Big Ten, one from the Pac 10 and another from independent UConn.

“We lost some great players but got some great players coming in,” Carey said.

Last year, for instance, running back was thin due to Re’Mahn Davis quitting the team in midseason and other injuries. Now the two transfer additions are senior Ra’Von Bonner from Illinois and sophomore Iverson Clement of Florida.

Temple wasn’t in the running for Clement when he was a high school student at South Jersey’s Rancocas Valley High.

“The transfer portal allows places like us to recruit kids that maybe on the first go-around may not have considered Temple,” Carey said on Tuesday in a phone interview. “A player like Iverson Clement didn’t become less talented at Florida, but we were able to get somebody of his ability.”

Carey said running back should be a strength not only with Bonner and Clement, but senior Tayvon Ruley has decided to return for a final season. The NCAA did not count this past season on the eligibility of any Football Bowl Subdivision player.

The Owls lost key players on the defensive line, including Arnold Ebiketie, who transferred to Penn State and Ifeanyi Maijeh, now at Rutgers.

Transfers coming in on the D-line are sophomore Lancine Turay and junior Xach Gill of North Carolina, and senior Willie Rodgers of Washington State.

» READ MORE: Two former North Carolina defensive line players to transfer to Temple football

“Xach played against us in the bowl game [the 2019 Military Bowl] and I have great respect for him, he is strong, holds the point of attack well and has a lot of similarities to Dan Archibong,” Carey said. “LT [Turay] is a long, big, twitchy athlete, who we are really impressed with. Will [Rodgers] has great athleticism, is really explosive off the line and played a lot of football at Washington State.”

The gem of the transfer group is redshirt freshman quarterback D’Wan Mathis, who started the opening game this past season for Georgia. The Owls need help at quarterback since fifth-year senior Anthony Russo decided to transfer to Michigan State after starting 26 games for the Owls. Mathis has four years of eligibility, so Temple is getting a player who was with an SEC program for two seasons.

“He has a fast release, a strong arm, is an extremely dynamic athlete and is incredibly intelligent,” Carey said. “There was a reason he was the No. 1 dual threat [high school] quarterback in the nation.”

Don’t be surprised if Mathis comes in an earns the starting spot, but like anybody else, he will have to prove himself, as will all the transfers that Temple has now, or may add before next season starts.