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Highly touted running back among Temple's recruits

Temple averaged 3.5 yards per carry during a 6-6 football season, so one of the things that coach Matt Rhule was looking for was an upgrade in the backfield. Rhule, entering his third season, appears to have accomplished the goal.

Temple head coach Matt Rhule. (Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports)
Temple head coach Matt Rhule. (Eric Hartline/USA Today Sports)Read more

Temple averaged 3.5 yards per carry during a 6-6 football season, so one of the things that coach Matt Rhule was looking for was an upgrade in the backfield. Rhule, entering his third season, appears to have accomplished the goal.

Of the 20 players signed by Temple on Wednesday, three are running backs, which is the strength of this recruiting class.

"We were hoping to find an impact player, a skill-position player who can come in and challenge for playing time and to make plays," Rhule said at a news conference.

Rivals.com said Temple had the fourth-best recruiting class in the 11-team American Athletic Conference.

The most highly touted Temple running back is four-star recruit T.J. Simmons, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound speedster from Lakeland Christian School in Florida.

He originally made an oral commitment to UCLA, then pulled out. Simmons chose Temple over Marshall. Besides those two schools, he made his other official visits to UCLA and South Florida and took a number of unofficial visits, including trips to Clemson and Florida State.

Rivals.com listed him as the 17th-best running back in the Class of 2015.

"The publicity I've received gives me more motivation, but it is humbling as well," Simmons said in a telephone interview with The Inquirer.

Simmons missed his senior season after he broke his left leg in the season opener. As a junior, he rushed for 1,257 yards and 11 touchdowns on 130 carries.

"I just want to work hard, do what the coaches say, and I hope to help the team," Simmons said.

The running back said his leg is healed and he is 100 percent physically. He will compete in track as a sprinter.

"He is heralded, he is fast, he is explosive," Rhule said of Simmons.

Another back is Jager Gardner (6-2, 205) from Charles D. Owens High in Black Mountain, N.C. As a senior, he rushed for 2,776 yards and 36 touchdowns on 282 carries.

"Jager Gardner is a special talent," Rhule said. "We don't know exactly what he is yet." He said the Temple coaches envision Gardner being a big back in the 220- to 230-pound range.

The third back is Ryquell Armstead (5-11, 205) from Millville, the high school of Los Angeles Angels star outfielder Mike Trout. As a senior, he rushed for 1,488 yards and 18 touchdowns.

"Recruiting Ryquell reminds me when we recruited Bernard Pierce," Rhule said, talking about when he was a Temple assistant and recruited the current Baltimore Ravens running back. "Bernard was a local kid, a little under the radar, came to camp and ran really fast, and that is what Ryquell is."

Among other players who could challenge for early time are linebacker Chapelle Cook of Lakewood, N.J., and two offensive linemen, Benson Israel (6-1, 316) from New Jersey's St. Joseph Montvale and Jovahn Fair (6-3, 285) from Firestone High in Akron, Ohio.

Defensive end Josiah Bronson (6-5, 265) is another highly touted recruit with strong football roots. His brother John, 32, played briefly for the Arizona Cardinals and his brother, Demitrius, is on the Seattle Seahawks roster but did not appear in any games this season.

The lone quarterback in the class is Logan Marchi (6-1, 170) from Bristol, Conn., who doesn't appear ready to challenge for immediate time, especially with incumbent P.J. Walker returning.

Marchi enrolled at Temple in January along with Timber Creek senior cornerback Kareem Ali and linebacker William Updegrove of Berwick, Pa.

Ali's former Timber Creek teammate Greg Webb, a defensive lineman from Hutchinson Junior College who will have three years of eligibility at Temple, is another of the highly regarded players in the class.

The other local Temple recruits were tight end Jake Robinson of Haddonfield, defensive back Jeremiah Atoki (Vineland), defensive lineman Dawayne Young (Martin Luther King), and linebacker Taiyir Wilson (Perkiomen Valley).

AAC Recruiting Rankings

Here is how the recruiting classes in the American Athletic Conference were ranked nationally by scouting websites Rivals.com, 247sports.com, and Scout.com:

Team   Rivals   247sports   Scout   Avg.   

Cincinnati   57   66   59   60.7

South Fla.   58   65   70   64.3

Central Fla.   63   67   76   68.7

Memphis   77   71   88   78.7

SMU   81   78   79   79.3

Temple   75   74   93   80.7

Houston   88   91   86   88.3

Tulane   102   90   110   100.7

Tulsa   95   105   107   102.3

Connecticut   96   95   116   102.3

East Carolina   111   97   102   103.3

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More recruits

Temple signees who were not included in a list of commitments in Wednesday's editions:

T.J. Simmons RB 6-1 195 Lakeland Christian

Taiyir Wilson LB 6-2 210 Perkiomen Valley

Dawayne Young DL 6-3 280    M.L. King