How Jamere Jones' journey through the portal helped Temple beat UTSA

In the chaotic, transient world of college football, where rosters are reshaped annually by the transfer portal, stories like Jamere Jones’ are sometimes overlooked. 

He isn’t a five-star recruit. He didn’t transfer from a Power Four  powerhouse. 

He is a seventh-year player, a fifth-year senior, a testament to persistence – and the byproduct of the keen eye of a recruiting department willing to dig deep.

Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field, with Temple trailing 14-10, Jones became one of the  most important players on the field. The 6-foot, 210-pound safety who started his football journey as a high school junior in Montgomery County, Maryland kickstarted a two-play sequence that gave Temple its first lead of the day. 

With UTSA driving at its own 40-yard line, Roadrunners quarterback Owen McCown lofted a pass deep toward the right sideline that had a little too much air underneath it. With his teammate Ben Osueke supplying coverage from his cornerback spot, Jones did his job by looping in from the middle of the field, intercepting McCown’s pass and returning it 12 yards to the Owls’ 46-yard line. 

On the very next play, running back Hunter Smith ran 54 yards untouched into the end zone to give Temple its first lead of the day at 17-14 with 7 minutes, 24 seconds left in the third quarter. 

Although Temple later lost that lead and had to regain it, the Owls’ would not have won their conference opener without Jones, who was able to look back after Saturday’s game upon a remarkable turn of events. 

“This was not planned at all, actually,” Jones said. 

Jones’ college career began at Shaw, where he posted 16 tackles as a true freshman in 2019 before the COVID pandemic wiped out the 2020 season. Twenty-two more tackles and five pass breakups followed for Jones in 2021 before he decided to transfer to Nebraska-Kearney, another Division II program, and sat out the 2022 season as a redshirt.

Jones collected 25 tackles and three pass breakups in 2023 before starting 11 games last season – mostly at free safety – and making the most of it as a second-team All-MIAA conference player. He led Nebraska-Kearney with 72 tackles and nine pass breakups to go with two interceptions. 

Jones announced last January that he had signed with an NFL agent. Several months later, Jones said he was a “regular guy over the summer doing a program with an actual company” as he recalled things after Saturday’s game. 

But he wanted to give his dream of playing Division I college football one last shot, and a lot of things had to fall into place for Jones to get back on the football field and do what he did Saturday. 

First, Jones submitted an appeal in the summer for a hardship waiver at the D-II level first to get an initial season counted as a missed opportunity and gain a year at that level. Then he had to file for a Division I clock extension in August to establish a second missed opportunity in order to be granted another year at the D-I level. He announced his verbal commitment to Temple back on Sunday, Aug. 3. 

Although Jones had been granted permission to start practicing with the Owls, he didn’t make it to Temple until the second week of August’s preseason camp. He didn’t find out that he got his clock extension and was finally eligible to play this season until the Thursday afternoon prior to the Aug. 30 season opener at UMass game, which is why he didn’t travel with the team to Amherst.

And only then was the team able to put Jones on scholarship. 

The Owls had a starter they felt pretty good about at the Viper position, a safety/linebacker hybrid, in Louis Frye, but wanted some depth. And when Frye wasn’t able to play Saturday due to a hand injury, the late-summer move to acquire Jones paid dividends for Temple, which had not won an American Conference opener since 2021. 

Austin Siegal, Temple’s assistant director of football operations, tipped off the Owls’ staff about Jones. And when you consider that Siegal – who had worked for 18 months at Louisiana-Monroe prior to joining Keeler’s staff – also gave the Owls a heads-up about Smith from his time there, the Jones interception to Smith touchdown turnaround was a tribute to shrewd scouting. 

“I’ve got to give a shout out to our recruiting department,” Keeler said after Saturday’s game. “Because those are those kids you find from an NAIA school or FCS school or Division II school that no one else is looking for, and you found them. And (Jones) is going to make a big impact for us, especially with the injuries we have there.”

Apart from his third-quarter interception, another important play from Jones that could be easily forgotten was a third-down stop he made later in the fourth quarter. With Temple holding a 24-21 lead and UTSA getting the ball back with 5:08 left to play after a Dante Atton punt, the Roadrunners faced a third-and-8 from their own 26. 

Needing to convert that third down to keep UTSA’s chances alive, McCown took the snap. Once again, he looked for an open man. And once again, it was Jones who erupted into the frame, this time stopping wide receiver David Amador II three yards shy of a first down. UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor made the bold decision to go for it on fourth-and-3 from his team’s 31 with 3:27 left, and the call backfired when Temple defensive end Cam’Ron Stewart pressured McCown into an incompletion. 

Seven plays later, Carl Hardin added a 36-yard field goal to make it a 27-21 ballgame. 

So in the span of just two quarters and two key plays, Jones helped change the trajectory of a game Temple very much needed to win if it wants to entertain thoughts of playing in a bowl game this season. 

The late-addition, D-II transfer was no longer just a depth piece; he was one of the main reasons Temple was walking away with a win.

In the postgame press conference, Jones was humble, grounded by his long road and his faith. 

“I want to thank my Lord and savior,” Jones said. “Without him, we are nothing. As long as you have good in your heart and you wait for your opportunity, your opportunity will come and you’ll seize it. He will allow that for you. 

“It means a ton being around guys that are always encouraging me, even though I came in late, and having a great staff motivating me. It means so much. It was great, honestly.”

OwlScoop.com Editor John DiCarlo contributed to the reporting for this story.