Temple was going to have a tough enough time competing with Penn State even with the full squad healthy, but injuries might make the mountain even bigger.
Head coach KC Keeler gave an updated on his team’s physical health at his weekly press conference Monday.
Keeler said that the team’s starting left tackle, Giakoby Hills, will be out for six weeks after suffering an injury in the team’s season-opening win over Rhode Island.
The team could also be without its other starting tackle, Kevin Terry, and left guard, Eric King, who Keeler said would be game-time decisions.
“We have guys who are starters for us at one position that played a different position in high school, and so it’s not going to be unusual for them to have to bounce out to another position if we need to for depth,” Keeler said. “But we feel good. We have eight or nine offensive linemen that can play at this level. It’s just a matter of moving guys around.”
There’s also another problem.
WHO IS THE QB?
Temple doesn’t know yet. Temple played two quarterbacks against Rhode Island, with one of them being a guy familiar to Penn State fans.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Jaxon Smolik was at PSU for three seasons before transferring to Temple over the winter.
He went 4-for-6 for 57 yards and a touchdown against Rhode Island. Temple also played former Washington State and Rutgers QB Ajani Sheppard, who was 5 for 10 for 85 yards against URI.
Neither has won the job yet.
“Right now, we’re still trying to figure it out,” Keeler said. “I don’t think either one of them was like, you know, it’s my job. I think they both did some good things, and I really I would like to get away from you get a couple series, you get a couple series. Eventually someone’s going to play more snaps than the other guy. It just so happened we had 31 plays for each of them.
“There are some good things you can take, but we need more consistency, and that’s for both of them. So I think as the week goes on, we’ll decide which is the best path to go, and I think you’ll see one of the guys get maybe some more snaps than the other one. They both have unique skill sets. I think we’re in a situation where we’re going to play both at some point on Saturday.”
WHAT’S THE LINE?
As of now, Penn State is a heavy 23.5-point favorite over Temple.
