Temple Owls 2026 Season Preview

Year Two for Keeler

A 5-7 finish and a 3-5 league mark left Temple in the middle of the American, and the No. 102 power rating says the roster still has ground to make up. K.C. Keeler is only a year removed from taking over, so 2026 is about whether the on-field product starts matching the rebuild timeline rather than repeating last year's split conference record. The bar is simple: turn some of those close conference losses into wins.

Line of Scrimmage Problem

Temple's real issue was never turnovers, where a plus-11 margin masked a defense that couldn't get off the field, ranking 131st in run-stuff rate and 122nd against the run. That's the unit Jaxon Smolik inherits behind, a Penn State transfer taking over an offense that moved the ball efficiently in scoring position but couldn't sustain drives on third down. If Temple wins more in 2026, it's because the front seven tackles for loss more than 55 times, not because Smolik has to outscore everybody by himself.

Evan Simon's 2098 yards and 25 touchdowns walk out the door, and Temple hands the keys to Jaxon Smolik, a Penn State transfer whose only college numbers are 3 rushing yards. That is a real bet on upside over track record, especially with Camren Boykin and Patrick Keller also unproven behind him and no returning passing stats anywhere on the depth chart. The offense was already middling in explosiveness (110th) and third-down conversion (91st) last year, so Smolik inherits a line that protects well (19 sacks allowed, 27th) but needs him to create the big plays Simon's group couldn't.

Jay Ducker's 809 yards and 7 scores walk out the door, leaving Hunter Smith (403 yards, 2 TD) as the clear lead back and Keveun Mason (167 yards, 1 TD) as his primary complement. Temple restocked rather than imported a headliner, adding high school signees R.J. Blount and Ameir Morrow along with Rutgers transfer Samuel Brown V, none of whom arrive with meaningful college production yet. That thin proven depth behind Smith matters given the offense ranked 110th in explosiveness, so the ground game will lean on Smith's volume and efficient scoring chances (4.58 points per opportunity, 13th) rather than any breakaway threat from the newcomers.

Kajiya Hollawayne's 39 catches and 6 touchdowns walk out the door, but Temple didn't just run it back and hope. Colin Chase (40-414-4) and JoJo Bermudez (39-501-4) return as the known quantities, while Stony Brook transfer Jayce Freeman slides in as the clear plug for that lost production after posting 41 catches, 774 yards and 8 scores a year ago. With a passing game that ranked 98th in yards per game and 110th in explosiveness, Freeman's big-play ability matters more than his raw target count, and he's the one piece here capable of stretching a Temple offense that too often settled for its floor.

Peter Clarke comes back after a 30-catch, 6-touchdown season that made him the clear focal point of Temple's passing game, and nothing about this room got thinner behind him. Ryder Kusch adds three scores of his own on limited touches, and Penn State transfer Joey Schlaffer arrives with a touchdown catch already on his résumé, giving K.C. Keeler a third option who can immediately push for snaps. With a passing attack that ranked 98th in yards per game a year ago, Temple's answer isn't a rebuild at tight end, it's leaning harder into the one position group that already produced.

Temple's line kept quarterbacks upright well enough last season, allowing just 19 sacks (27th nationally), but the ground game stalled at 148 rushing yards per game and the offense ranked 110th in explosiveness. With five contributors gone from that group, K.C. Keeler rebuilt the room almost entirely through recruiting, signing four-man hauls at both tackle and guard, headlined by Karon Spencer out of Our Lady of Good Counsel and interior signees John Watkins, Aiden Zilker, John Stone and Logan King. Grayson Mains, Jackson Pruitt, Mausa Palu and Eric King give Keeler experienced bodies to lean on while those newcomers develop, but with the departures outnumbering any proven returning identity, this is a line still finding its shape rather than a settled strength.

Temple's run defense was the actual problem in 2025, giving up 197 yards per game on the ground (122nd) with a run-stuff rate of just 13.6 percent, and the answer for 2026 is volume rather than a proven name. Khalil Poteat and Allan Haye, the two most active linemen from last year's group, are both gone, leaving Russell Sykes IV (3.5 TFL) and Joseph Auzenne as the only returners with real production to build around up front. Three-star additions Jude Okeleke, Jayden Brown, Antwuan Rogers, Josh Nengite and Uyi Igiehon arrive with no college stats yet, so this is a bet that fresh bodies fix the 118th-ranked sack total before it shows up on tape again.

Temple's run defense finished 122nd against the rush and 131st in run-stuff rate, and the group loses Cam'Ron Stewart, who was the only linebacker producing real disruption with 5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss. Curly Ordonez (69 tackles, 8 TFL) has to carry that edge-setting load largely alone now, with Eric Stuart and Tyree Alualu offering volume but little penetration behind him. Sam Houston transfer JaMair Diaz arrives with modest juice off the edge, but replacing Stewart's disruption rather than his snaps is what determines whether this front stops bleeding explosive runs in 2026.

Avery Powell's 54 tackles anchor a secondary that still gave up 197 rushing yards a game and ranked 122nd against the run, a problem the back end alone can't fix. Eight defensive backs are gone, including Jaylen Castleberry and Javier Morton, so Pooh Lawton and corners Denzel Chavis and Adrian Laing inherit real snaps alongside newcomers Jaeden Gould from UCF and Saboor Karriem from Illinois. The pass defense held up relatively well at 38th nationally in yards allowed per attempt, and if Gould pushes into the starting lineup at safety, Temple can lean on coverage while the front seven work out the tackling issues that plagued 2025.

Temple's kicking game is the rare settled unit on this roster, and that stability starts with Carl Hardin, who hit 11 of 14 field goals with a long of 52 and piled up 73 points. Dante Atton returns after averaging 42.2 yards on a heavy 62-punt workload, giving Keeler a reliable weapon to flip field position while the rest of the roster sorts itself out. The one real churn is at long snapper, where Sam Wolfenden arrives from UNLV to replace both departed snappers, a quiet but necessary swap that keeps Hardin and Atton's operation from missing a beat.

Selling High on 2025

Temple's 5-7 mark actually flattered a team that won the turnover battle by nearly a full takeaway per game and got scored on cheaply on defense, two trends unlikely to repeat in 2026. The bigger swing is at quarterback, where Evan Simon's 2,098 yards and 25 touchdowns walk out the door and Penn State transfer Jaxon Smolik steps in as the settled starter despite almost no passing résumé to point to yet. Stony Brook import Jayce Freeman, who caught 41 balls for 774 yards last season, gives Smolik an immediate weapon, but with 95% of production otherwise returning around a defense that must replace Cam'Ron Stewart's 5 sacks, this looks like a team whose record regresses before it improves.

Smolik Inherits an Efficient Attack

Jaxon Smolik takes over at quarterback with the receiving corps mostly intact, JoJo Bermudez, Colin Chase and Peter Clarke all return, but Evan Simon's 2,098 yards and 25 touchdowns leave a real gap in production to replace. Temple's offense needed fewer yards than the league median to score last season, a trend that rarely holds up two years running, so Smolik has to generate that same efficiency without the passer who made it work. If he cannot, the turnover margin and one-score luck that padded last year's record will not be there to bail out an offense that has to be built almost from scratch.

Better Than the Record

Temple lost more than it won straight up, but bettors who backed K.C. Keeler's team anyway cashed at a 58% clip, and the split tells the real story: this was a team that traveled well, going 4-2 against the number on the road with a 3-3 straight-up mark, while the home crowd got a shakier 3-3 cover job. The road underdog spot hit too, covering 2-1 whenever Temple was an away chalk-dog, a live angle to track again in 2026 given how thin the margins were in conference play at 4-4 against the spread. The one place bettors should stay off Temple is against ranked competition, where the Owls covered just once in four tries and were shut out straight up at 0-4, a gap the schedule will test again.