Temple Football Practice Notebook (4/4)

Tagged under: News, Pennsylvania Colleges, Temple

Mike Livingston | April 4, 2026

NORTH PHILADELPHIA – With just a week left in the spring practice sprint, Temple appears to have pushed things into a new gear.

The Owls took to the field for a scrimmage Saturday afternoon, and energy seemed high from the jump. What was the most energetic practice of the spring may also have been the loudest, as Owls’ defensive and offensive players seemed to be trying to out-hype each other before the scrimmage. 

“I think Coach Keeler really got on us about Tuesday,” said linebacker Eric Stuart following Saturday’s practice. “It was probably one of our worst practices this spring. I think it was probably the worst one that we’ve had. So I think, just the leaders taking his message and trying to make sure that the guys are ready to go every day and make sure that we’re going to practice with energy.”

Stuart, along with fellow projected starting linebacker Curly Ordonez and linebackers coach Keith Dudunski, spoke with the media after practice. 

“Yeah, no, I think I’m fortunate because I think I got a really good room,” said Dudunski. We got a lot of good depth in the room. You know, obviously, Eric and Curly are seniors. You know, even though Curly’s not out there every day, he does a great job. On the sideline, in the meeting room, keeping guys on task, but it’s given me a chance, you know, guys like Wes (Wesley Brown) and Tyree (Tyree Alualu), really, everybody, you know, but Wes and Tyree have got a lot of good snaps at the WIL position. I think if you watch the scrimmage today, I don’t think you’ll see any difference from when Group one was out there, but there was always a different group of linebackers running with the ones that, and I don’t think we really took any steps back, so that’s an indication of everybody knows what’s going on, defense, they’re a lot more comfortable with what we’re doing.”

Dudunski’s linebacker group spearheaded that high-energy effort from the Temple defense in particular. 

As the scrimmage got underway, it took three drives for the offense to get much traction and move the ball downfield as Stuart, along with Alualu, clogged up passing lanes and halted the projected starting runningback, Sam Brown, on multiple occasions just off the line of scrimmage. 

The defensive line also generated tons of pressure on an Owl’s O-line, still trying to get their feed under themselves as Jaylon Joseph got a few “mock sacks,” with defensive players unable to actually touch certain offensive players, namely quarterbacks. 

After a slow start, however, the offense was able to get things going a bit as Brown and Keveun Mason both broke off strong runs up the middle of the field. While both Ajani Sheppard and Jaxon Smolik had their highlights connecting with wideouts such as JoJo Bermudez, who caught an impressive grab and go ball, landing him at the one-yard line on an early offensive drive.

The highlight of the day, however, came on a leaping throw from Sheppard, who placed the ball perfectly in the hands of a backwards falling RJ Blount, who was able to separate himself from his defender at the last second to help complete the ball on the left sideline. 

The freshman runningback who has gotten time out of the backfield in the receiving game as well has notably seen time playing with the ones and twos through the spring season. It seems fully possible Blount could start the season as runningback three behind Brown and Hunter Smith.

The Owls will pick back up where they left off on Tuesday afternoon as they begin their final week of spring practices before next April 11th’s Cherry & White scrimmage.

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