Temple University Athletics
Temple Football Awards Single Digits
8.14.23 | Football
Magee and McMurray earned their respective numbers a year ago. All the others have earned the honor for the first time. As an offensive lineman, Stoffel will continue to wear his #78 in games as the NCAA prohibits offensive linemen from wearing numbers outside of the 50-79 range. He will wear #4 at practice.
Drayton made the announcement to the team during tonight's team meeting. Nearly two dozen former Temple single-digit players were present during a live Zoom connection.
The Temple tradition of single-digits began in 2009 under then head coach Al Golden. The numbers were awarded to the "toughest players on the team." Over time the meaning has been enhanced and awarded not only to the toughest but the best representatives of the Temple culture – those who lead and are role models for themselves and others on and off the field.
Temple single-digits have a few core values: Never afraid of hard work. Never make excuses nor allow others to make excuses for themselves. Real leaders, in spite of their own adversity. Never accept anything less than their best to support our culture.
Drayton captured the essence in one sentence. Temple single-digit players are "Unselfish. They have the willingness to pull people along with them through their words or their actions."
Drayton did note that there are possibly two additional single-digits that could be awarded at a later date – someone to wear the #4 (in games) and #9.
"What I think it means to be a single-digit is phenomenal," said Rigby. "It's breathtaking and it's an honor to be nominated. I was voted by my peers, so it's up to me to uphold the standard."
"Being a single-digit to me," said Stewart, "means motivation, hard work and upholding the standard, and not let anything or anyone fall below it."
"To be a single digit, you need to be different," said Saydee. "You have to be extraordinary and everybody has to look at you different. You have to be resilient. You can't be weak and must be willing to give your effort every single day, no matter the situation. You have to put everything behind you, and use adversity as motivation to just keep going."
"Being a single-digit means everything to me, especially when it's a player voted award this year," said Warner. "My teammates believed in me to be the guy that they can count on when things get tough, but it doesn't stop the work. This pushes me even harder to be better; just because I have a number now doesn't mean that I have to stop being a leader or stop doing what I'm doing as I keep working to be better."
"I have to give 100% effort on and off the field at all times," said Stoffel. "Big things or little things, it doesn't matter, everything matters, and I have to be that leader."
"Being a single-digit meant a lot to me before I even got to Temple," said Martin-Robinson. "When I started getting recruited by them, it's easy to see who stood out on the field and it was the those wearing the single-digits, so I made three goals for myself coming into Temple, and one of them was becoming a single-digit. It's extremely honoring that my teammates think of me so highly, and it's my mission to do right for them."
"I think it's an honor to be a single-digit," said Odom, "especially with the legacy behind all the great players that came to Temple, and I'm going to do everything in my power to uphold the standard."
