Eight Temple Players Selected to Play in XFL

The XFL held its inaugural draft on October 15-16 and eight former Temple players were selected.

The XFL, a reincarnation of the previous similarly named football league also owned and operated by WWE chairman Vince McMahon, will begin play in the spring of 2020. The eight teams are: Dallas Renegades, DC Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, Los Angeles Wildcats, New York Guardians, St. Louis BattleHawks, Seattle Dragons, and Tampa Bay Vipers.

The XFL player allocation process happened in six stages. Quarterbacks were assigned to each club. Former Temple signal-caller, Phillip Walker (2013-16), the school record holder in nearly every major passing category, was the second player assigned and went to Houston.

The next stage of the draft was for the offensive skill position players. Each team had 10 selections and went through a "snake" format in each phase, in which the draft order will reverse with each round. The draft order was shuffled for each phase as predetermined through lotteries. One former Temple player was selected during this stage as tight end Evan Rodriguez (2009-11) was picked by Seattle.

The offensive line was up next and found Jaelin Robinson (2016-18) heading to Los Angeles.

The last stage of the first day was for the defensive front seven, a mix of defensive linemen and linebackers. Praise Martin-Oguike (2014-16) was selected by Seattle.

On Wednesday, the draft resumed with defensive backs, the final position group. No former Temple players were drafted here.

The final stage of the selection process was for specialists and for teams to add addition position players to their rosters. Offensive lineman Cole Boozer (2016-17) was selected by DC, wide receiver Adonis Jennings was picked by Los Angeles, offensive lineman Leon Johnson (2014-17) went to Houston, and tight end Colin Thompson (2014-16) joined Tampa Bay.

Here are the Temple players by team:
Dallas Renegades - none
DC Defenders – Cole Boozer
Houston Roughnecks – Leon Johnson, Phillip Walker
Los Angeles Wildcats – Adonis Jennings, Jaelin Robinson
New York Guardians - none
St. Louis BattleHawks - none
Seattle Dragons – Praise Martin-Oguike, Evan Rodriguez
Tampa Bay Vipers – Colin Thompson

Other former players who were hoping to catch on with the XFL are: TE/DE Romond Deloatch (2012, 2014-16), CB Artrel Foster (2014-17), SAF Delvon Randall (2015-18), RB Rob Ritrovato (2016-18), FB Nick Sharga (2015-17), WR Brandon Shippen (2013-15), RB Jahad Thomas (2014-16), DT Hershey Walton (2012-15). Rosters remain transitional so they could land a spot in the future.

Temple University Athletics

Eight Temple Players Selected to Play in XFL

Related News

Players Mentioned

Cole Boozer

Romond Deloatch

Artrel Foster

Adonis Jennings

Leon Johnson

Praise Martin-Oguike

Delvon Randall

Rob Ritrovato

Jaelin Robinson

Evan Rodriguez

Nick Sharga

Brandon Shippen

Jahad Thomas

Colin Thompson

Phillip Walker

Hershey Walton

Related Videos