Temple University Athletics
TEMPLE ANNOUNCES 2002 FOOTBALL RECRUITING CLASS
2.6.02 | Football
"I am extremely happy with the job our coaches did this recruiting season," said Wallace. "We brought in 24 student-athletes for official visits and extended 23 scholarship offers. Of those 23 offers, we received 18 national letters of intent today. That's a 78 percent success rate, which is outstanding."
The 2002 recruiting class is Wallace's fifth since being named Temple's 23rd head football coach on December 5, 1997.
The Temple Football Program will welcome 18 student-athletes to Owl Country, with 15 arriving in the fall as true freshmen. One freshman recruit is already enrolled at Temple and will participate in spring drills. Two signees will be making the transition from junior colleges and will also enroll in the fall.
In terms of position, 10 signees are expected to contribute on offense and eight are slated to perform on defense. Five offensive linemen highlight the class. This group averages over six-feet, six-inches in height and weighs an average of 289 pounds.
"The areas we targeted were the offensive line and the defensive backfield," said Wallace. "We were successful in both of these areas, adding size to the offensive line and speed to the secondary. We are also very proud of the two highly-rated quarterbacks we were able to sign. This recruiting class rivals the recruiting class we brought in last year."
The 18 new additions to the Temple football program hail from six different states and the District of Columbia. The states that are represented in this year's class are Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois and Florida. Pennsylvania leads the way with seven recruits while New Jersey is just behind with six signees.
Temple returns 17 starters in 2002 (10 offense and seven defense). The Owls bring a two-game winning streak into the 2002 campaign after winning their final two contests for the first time since 1990. Temple expects to return 46 letterwinners from the 2001 team that went 4-7 for the second time in as many years. The Owls finished sixth in the BIG EAST Conference with a 2-5 league mark behind a defense that concluded the season ranked 19th nationally in total defense.
