Archive: January, 2013
Former Detroit Lions fullback Shawn Bryson and Shelton Gaffney, the former strength and conditioning coach at Johnny Long’s Training Academy (Tenn.), joins Temple’s football staff.
Bryson will serve as a graduate assistant, while Gaffney was hired as an assistant strength and coordinating coach.
Gaffney was Tennessee’s assistant strength and conditioning coach from 2008-10.
Temple guard T.J. DiLeo was named to the five-member Capital One Academic All-District basketball team.
The district includes Division I programs from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, West Virginia and Kentucky.
By making the team, the graduate student is on the ballot for Capital One’s Academic All-America team. DiLeo has a 3.81 cumulative grade point average while pursuing a master’s degree in marketing.
Temple swingman Scootie Randall participated in Thursday's winter graduation ceremony for Temple's recent College of Liberal Arts graduates.
Randall earned a sociology degree in December. His graduation came one day after the 6-foot-6, 225-pounder scored a team-high 21 points in a 71-64 victory over Richmond at the Liacouras Center.
The Communications Tech product made his first five field-goal attempts en route to shooting 8-for-13. It marked the fifth-year senior's second impressive performance after enduring a two-month shooting slump.
My look at some of the best and worst performances and happenings from Temple’s 71-64 victory over Richmond on Wednesday at the Liacouras Center:
Best performance: As much as I wanted to give this award to Scootie Randall, it had to go to Khalif Wyatt. While Randall led Temple with 21 points, the Owls would not have won the game without Wyatt’s late heroics. The senior guard scored six of Temple’s final 10 points. His highlight was a three-pointer that gave the Owls a 64-61 lead with three minutes, 5 seconds left. The Norristown High product finished with 19 points, a career-high seven rebounds, a game-high five assists, two steals and five turnovers.
Worst performance: I had to give this award to Cedrick Lindsay. The Spiders guard struggled through 2-for-10 shooting to finish with four points. He averaged 12.5 points in Richmond’s previous two games. The junior also have more turnovers (two) than assists (one).
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Back on the morning of Dec. 18, Temple was 8-1 and on the verge of cracking the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Six weeks later, the Owls are 13-6 after losing five of their next 10 games.
It’s obvious that Temple misses guards Ramone Moore and Juan Fernandez, who graduated last spring.
Familiarity. It is perhaps the strongest factor in Zaire Williams’ recruitment.
That was a great thing for Temple in its recruitment of the Class of 2013's No. 36 running back prospect in the nation, according to Rivals.com.
“I just felt like I was at home,” the three-star athlete from Timber Creek said when asked about his decision to verbally commit to Temple Tuesday night and decommit from West Virginia.
Timber Creek's Zaire Williams and Paul Davis, of Cairo (Ga.), on Tuesday night became the latest high school seniors to give verbal commitments to play football at Temple Tuesday.
Williams, a 5-11, 188-pound running back, decommitted from West Virginia to pick the Owls. Williams suddenly became the headliner of the Owls 2013 recruiting class.
As a junior at Cherokee High School, Williams rushed for 1,621 yards and 28 touchdowns. He finished that season with seven consecutive 100-yard games. Williams set school records with 385 yards and six touchdowns in a 57-56 overtime setback to Cherry Hill East.
Dayshawn Reynolds, a senior wideout/defensive back at Atlantic City High School, gave Temple a verbal commitment to play football on Tuesday.
The Owls recruited the 6-foot-1, 181-pounder to play defensive back and return punts. However, Reynolds was one of the regions top wideouts, catching 49 passes for 907 yards and 10 touchdowns this season. He is a first-team all-South Jersey selection by The Philadelphia Inquirer for his effort.
There was a thought that Reynolds, who visited Temple this past weekend, would enroll in a junior college next year.
Fifty-seven seasons after his last game in a Temple uniform, Hal Lear will see his No. 6 jersey hang from the Liacouras Center rafters.
The former guard will have his jersey number retired during a halftime ceremony of Temple’s Wednesday night game against Richmond.
“I am grateful for this honor,” Lear said in a statement. “But more importantly, I feel so privileged to have gone to Temple. Education is so important and I was well educated at Temple.”
