Temple University Athletics
Photo by: Betsy Manning/Temple University
Owls First Full-Contact Practice
8.5.14 | Football
The Temple Owls today held their first practice in full pads, and their fifth overall. After practice, head coach Matt Rhule spoke with the media. Below are selected quotes from his meeting, a complete video can be seen here.
On first practice in full pads: "It was a really hard practice; I think with conditioning, they were really physical. The beginning of practice where we did all of our team stuff was intense. Some guys got banged up, but overall I was pleased. I'd rather tell them to slow down than speed up."
On Stephaun Marshall switch from strong safety to linebacker: "He's getting the feel for it. He's always been a guy in high school who played down around the ball, in the Memphis game he played great down around the ball. He gives us speed, he's one of the toughest guys on the team, great special teams player. It's just the instincts and the vision and all those things that it takes by playing it day in and day out aren't really what he has to conquer right now. He's had a good start, and as we get into that first scrimmage, I'm anxious to see what all he puts on tape."
On which running back looked most impressive: "I think Kenny [Harper] had got off to a slow start the last few days, I think he's been impressive. And [Jaime] Gilmore, and Zaire [Williams] has been very focused, which is good. You have to kind of go look at today, today was the first day we were really hitting. And I'll have to go look at the tape to see who was showing it."
On red zone receivers: "The receiving corps, kind of like I said at media day, no one's really differentiated themselves yet. A lot of guys are showing I can do this, I can do that, but in that area where you need to have a big receiver that can go make a play, a lot of guys are making plays but no one's said 'hey, I'm the one, get it to me.' We feel really good about the slots and Jalen [Fitzpatrick] and those other guys, it's just who's going to emerge outside. So, I'd say the red zone, we don't have that figured out yet."
Tomorrow the players will go through a walkthrough (10:15-11:45am) with no contact before two practices on Thursday (8am and 3pm).
On first practice in full pads: "It was a really hard practice; I think with conditioning, they were really physical. The beginning of practice where we did all of our team stuff was intense. Some guys got banged up, but overall I was pleased. I'd rather tell them to slow down than speed up."
On Stephaun Marshall switch from strong safety to linebacker: "He's getting the feel for it. He's always been a guy in high school who played down around the ball, in the Memphis game he played great down around the ball. He gives us speed, he's one of the toughest guys on the team, great special teams player. It's just the instincts and the vision and all those things that it takes by playing it day in and day out aren't really what he has to conquer right now. He's had a good start, and as we get into that first scrimmage, I'm anxious to see what all he puts on tape."
On which running back looked most impressive: "I think Kenny [Harper] had got off to a slow start the last few days, I think he's been impressive. And [Jaime] Gilmore, and Zaire [Williams] has been very focused, which is good. You have to kind of go look at today, today was the first day we were really hitting. And I'll have to go look at the tape to see who was showing it."
On red zone receivers: "The receiving corps, kind of like I said at media day, no one's really differentiated themselves yet. A lot of guys are showing I can do this, I can do that, but in that area where you need to have a big receiver that can go make a play, a lot of guys are making plays but no one's said 'hey, I'm the one, get it to me.' We feel really good about the slots and Jalen [Fitzpatrick] and those other guys, it's just who's going to emerge outside. So, I'd say the red zone, we don't have that figured out yet."
Tomorrow the players will go through a walkthrough (10:15-11:45am) with no contact before two practices on Thursday (8am and 3pm).
Tuesday, June 02
Saturday, May 30
Tuesday, May 19
Tuesday, May 05
