Matt Ioannidis among 3 Owls at combine

INDIANAPOLIS - Matt Ioannidis is seeing familiar faces at the NFL scouting combine. One sign of Temple's emergence into a respected football program is its NFL draft prospects, with three players invited to the annual event.

Ioannidis, a defensive lineman, is joined by linebacker Tyler Matakevich and cornerback Tavon Young.

"It's been great having them here," Ioannidis said. "In the past, we haven't sent a lot of players here."

Ioannidis, who met with reporters on Friday, will go through on-field drills on Sunday along with Matakevich. Young participates in drills on Monday. But all are already in town for the medical tests, psychological tests, and interviews that are part of the combine.

"It's kind of chaotic, and you just have to roll with the punches every day and get up and go," Ioannidis said. "You can't overthink anything or slow down to feel sorry for yourself because you haven't gotten too much sleep or maybe you've been on the go for awhile."

Ioannidis will fly from Indianapolis to Philadelphia after the combine and prepare for Temple's pro day March 16. He also will work with defensive line coach Elijah Robinson to keep his position skills sharp. He believes his strength as a player is the way he uses his hands, but his role in the NFL will depend on whether he's drafted by a team with a 4-3 defense or a 3-4 defense.

"I'm not sure where I fit into these teams' schemes, but I'm confident when the time comes, I'll be able to get the job done," Ioannidis said.

Two players from Philadelphia are part of a deep class of defensive linemen in the draft: Jihad Ward and Shawn Oakman.

Ward, a 6-foot-5, 296-pound defensive end, is from North Philadelphia and went to high school at Bok. He spent two years at Illinois after first going to junior college. That's when he moved from wide receiver and defensive back, which he played at Bok, to the defensive line.

"I just got big," Ward said. "I was playing wide receiver and defensive back, and as I went to JUCO . . . I just kept getting bigger and bigger. They figured out a position for me and said, 'You're a defensive end.' "

He still has his athleticism, though, which was shown with a reverse dunk he posted on Instagram this week.

Oakman is another player who did a lot of growing. The Penn Wood alum who played at Penn State and Baylor is 6-7 and 287 pounds. He was dismissed from Penn State after trying to steal a sandwich from the school cafeteria, which was the "last strike."

"I was young and I did foolish things that a younger man does," Oakman said. "You've got to take it with a grain of salt. It made me who I am today. I'm not proud of my actions, but I'm definitely changing. . . . I was young and making mistakes, not going to school, bad grades, just young mistakes."

Oakman said he wants to show coaches and executives at the combine that he learned from those mistakes.