Kajiya Hollawayne's journey from QB to WR has lifted Temple's offense
A little more than four years ago, Kajiya Hollawayne was entering the college football world as an early enrollee and 3-star quarterback recruit at UCLA.
Saturday afternoon, he’ll have the chance to help Temple in its upset bid of No. 13 Oklahoma at Lincoln Financial Field as a wide receiver.
A lot has happened over the last four years of Hollawayne’s football journey. He didn’t play with the Bruins in 2021 and redshirted before transferring to Grambling, switching to wideout and playing six games there during the 2022 season. Another transfer landed Hollawayne at Riverside Community College for the 2023 season.
After he caught 22 passes for 425 yards and three touchdowns at Riverside, he followed his former position coach, Tyron Carrier, to Temple prior to the 2024 season and caught nine passes for 120 yards last fall for a 3-9 Owls team. When Temple moved on from former head coach Stan Drayton and hired veteran coach K.C. Keeler to replace him, Hollawayne decided to stay at Temple, and the decision has paid off for both him and the Owls.
Just two games into the 2025 season under Keeler and new offensive coordinator Tyler Walker, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound redshirt junior has come into his own as a capable – and productive – target for quarterback Evan Simon. Hollawayne is already one-third of the way into last season’s reception total, and two of his three catches so far have gone for touchdowns, including a four-yard scoring catch last week against Howard that helped put Temple comfortably ahead by 24 points before halftime.
Asked during Monday’s weekly media availability about what has been working well for him through Temple’s 2-0 start, Hollawayne kept things simple.
In fact, he kept pretty much all of his answers straightforward and business-like.
“Just doing what the coaches say, staying high on the detail part and focusing on the task at hand,” Hollawayne said, “trying not to get a week ahead or anything like that.”
Temple’s ability to not look too far ahead has perhaps been one of the team’s most impressive traits so far. Although the Owls will certainly be facing a much tougher opponent Saturday in the 13th-ranked Sooners, they showed no signs of taking UMass and Howard lightly. Temple compiled 97 points and 1,027 yards of total offense in those wins, and Hollawayne’s 24-yard scoring grab from Simon in the season opener put the Owls ahead for good in the second quarter and marked the first career touchdown reception at Temple and at the FBS level.
While the additions of Delaware transfer JoJo Bermudez and St. Thomas transfer Colin Chase most notably elevated Temple’s wide receiver room, Hollawayne’s development has also been important to the Owls’ success.
Hollawayne considered his development and that of the wide receiver room a work in progress back in the spring, and it’s “still going” entering Week 3.
“Every week, we get better,” said Hollawayne, who played at California’s San Jacinto High School. “We elevate every week. And I would just say that the work in progress, it’s never gonna stop until we reach the goal that we want, and that’s a (American Conference) championship.”
Hollawayne and Temple’s receiving corps will be facing an Oklahoma defense that early on is tied for 10th in the nation in scoring defense, having allowed an average of just 8.0 points per game. The Sooners’ secondary includes a pair of experienced safeties in Peyton Bowen at strong safety and Robert Spears-Jennings at free safety, along with redshirt-junior cornerback Gentry Williams and true freshman corner Courtland Gillroy, who has played a team-high 93 snaps and did not allow a reception in five targets against Michigan last week.
“It’s a physical secondary,” Hollawayne said, “a lot of experience in their secondary. We’ve just really got to focus on this game and try not to let all the bigger pictures and stuff determine what we’ve got to do in the end.”
Schematically, Hollawayne said, Oklahoma is doing a lot of the same things it did when the Sooners routed Temple 51-3 in last year’s season opener.
“I just know us being Temple and them being Oklahoma, they’re going to play us a lot different from the teams they play,” Hollawayne said, “so I would just say be ready for anything.”
