Ryquell Armstead has given Temple a near-unstoppable 1-2 punch in the backfield, helping the Owls take over the driver's seat in The American's East Division
by Dick Weiss
PHILADELPHIA-- Temple coach Matt Rhule wasn't sure where Ryquell Armstead would fit in when the Owls started scouting him at Millville High in South Jersey.
When Fran Brown, Temple's defensive backs coach, drove across the bridge to watch him as a junior, Armstead wasn't even a starting tailback on his team. He was a fullback. But Brown kept telling Rhule that Armstead was a good player.
“(Armstead) came to our camp and ran fast and I said he could play safety here,” Rhule recalled. “On his senior tape, they said that he's a running back. And I said, ‘He doesn't look like a running back.’”
Then, Armstead had one of those breakout games as he rushed for a schoo-record 337 yards on 29 carries against Absegami High. Rhule reexamined the tape and was blown away with Armstead's track speed. “I said, ‘My goodness, he is a running back.’” Rhule said.
He suddenly envisioned a star in the making who ran with power and was capable of breaking big plays.
The future is now.
The 5-foot-11, 205-pound sophomore running back -- who had four offers coming out of high school -- exploded for 76- and 42-yard touchdown runs Friday night as the Owls finished off a high scoring USF team, 46-30, in a critical American Athletic Conference East Division game Friday night that was televised nationally on ESPN. He finished with 210 yards in 20 carries, becoming the first Temple player to gain over 200 yards since 2012, when Montel Harris rushed for a school record 351 yards against Army.
For Temple, it was shades of Paul Palmer, the 1986 Heisman Trophy runner-up.
“I'm just excelling,” Armstead said. “I get better every week. A main factor is making sure I take care of my body because last year I was injured. I am able to power players in the first and second quarter. I don't run or shy away from contact. That way, by the end of the third quarter, players don't want to tackle me.”
Temple is suddenly in control of its own destiny in The American’s East Division.
The Owls, who do not play Navy or Houston, are now 3-1 in league play. They are technically tied with the Bulls (6-2, 3-1) for first place in the division but have the advantage of head-to-head victories over both USF and UCF, the other one-loss team in the East. The Owls have four remaining conference games, against Cincinnati and East Carolina at home and Connecticut and Tulane on the road.
Armstead started the season as a backup to senior Jahad Thomas but was given an expanded role after he started the first two games of the season when Thomas was sidelined with a dislocated thumb. Thomas, who returned for Temple's third game when the Owls played Penn State, finished with 64 yards rushing in 16 carries and had two touchdowns against USF.
The two backs have combined to give Temple a devastating one-two punch. They have nine touchdowns apiece entering this week’s game against Cincinnati.
“I guess it would be healthy competition,” Armstead admitted of his relationship with Thomas. “We don't talk about yards or carries or anything like that. I love to compete with him. If I get into the game and score a touchdown, he wants to score a touchdown and vice versa. We really feed off each other's energy.”
The win against USF was Temple's best game of the year in all three phases. The Owls rushed for a total of 319 yards. “They just ran power,” USF coach Willie Taggart said. “They kept running power and we didn't stop them. They held the ball and we didn't get off the field defensively. Their plan worked.”
The Owls had 528 yards of total offense against a good team that had defeated them, 44-23, last season. The Owls converted 10 of 16 third down opportunities. They controlled time of possession, 39:07 to 20:53. They blocked a punt, blocked an extra point and scored on a safety. They got three field goals from a freshman kicker Aaron Boumerhi.
“I knew we had to keep scoring,” Rhule said. “They were averaging 40 points in their last 11 games and their quarterback Quinton Flowers is really talented. He's like a video game out there. So we wanted to keep their offense, with all those crazy formations, off the field.”
Flowers, one of the most exciting players in the conference, completed 11 of 19 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for an additional 90, breaking loose for a 50-yard run on one play.
The game was close for most of the first three quarters until the Owls took a 27-23 lead on a 42-yard Armstead run with 3:53 to go in the third quarter. The Owls defense forced a three-and-out on USF’s ensuing possession, and then blocked Jonathan Hernandez’s punt. Keith Kirkwood recovered the ball for Temple and returned it to the USF 20. Two plays later, Thomas waltzed in from nine yards out, and in less than four minutes, the Owls went from a three-point deficit to an 11-point lead, 34-23.
The American always gives you your money's worth.
This has been a good week for the league, which appears stable after the Big 12 decided to table expansion and has a chance to build its brand as a potential P6 member - particularly with competitive league games that are being played before larger crowds and are starting to move the needle in TV ratings. The stress has died down and the buildup to the championship game has a chance to become dramatic in both divisions.
“Obviously a weight was lifted off our shoulders,” American commissioner Mike Aresco said. “Now, we have a lot of work to do and a chance to do it. It looked like we have the stability to get it done. We are reviewing our P6 narrative. We have to convince the media, and we have to convince the public that we are in that conversation and in that group. That is different from the legislative path to autonomy, which is a concept that the fans don't really care about. They care more about if we are competitive or not.”
Temple has come a long way since a season-opening loss to Army. The Owls gathered momentum from their miraculous last-second 26-25 road win over UCF the previous week and used it as motivation to pull off their biggest win to date in The American.
“The players got better every game,” Rhule said. “Those are men in that locker room now. When something happens to you, it's how you respond and they kept responding. We're 15-0 when we score 28 points. So we just tried to score 28 and run for 150 yards. We have a very simple plan and it worked.”