Preseason position preview: Running Backs

Temple coach K.C. Keeler made it very clear that he intended to run the ball when he hired Montana State offensive coordinator Tyler Walker as part of his inaugural staff. And that hire worked, as Temple’s ground game had a mild resurgence in 2025 to the tune of 1,769 yards and 13 touchdowns. Temple’s offense, which went from 19.6 points per game in 2024 to 27.8 points per game in 2025, surpassed 170 rushing yards in seven of its 12 games.

Sam Houston transfer Jay Ducker lived up to his billing as an every-down back last season and led Temple with 157 carries for 809 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. Louisiana-Monroe transfer Hunter Smith was second on the team with 403 rushing yards and two touchdowns while true freshman Keveun Mason rushed 28 times for 167 yards.

Well, Ducker is gone, as is Joquez Smith, who transferred to New Hampshire. But Smith and Mason return, as does redshirt freshman De’Carlos Young, and the Owls have also added two talented freshmen in three-star recruits R.J. Blount and Ameir Morrow. Beyond that, Temple added Sam Brown V, a former four-star prospect from La Salle College High, as a transfer from Rutgers.

“It’s our job to make sure that [Brown] stays healthy,” Temple running backs coach Andrew Pierce said this spring. “But I knew he had that explosiveness and his ability to be patient, his vision, all those things. That’s why I want him to be here and help us move this program forward and this offense. I think he will jell very, very well.”

There should be plenty of carries to go around this season. The question becomes how they will be distributed and whether the Owls can take that next step from a good rushing offense to a great one.

Projected starters

Open competition.

Reasons for optimism

There’s talent in this running back room, including some backs that are proven at the FBS level.

When Brown was healthy at Rutgers, he showed the capability of being a productive Big 10 running back. Against Indiana in 2022, Brown carried the Rutgers offense when he rushed 28 times for 101 yards and a touchdown in a 24-17 win. Unfortunately, he broke his foot in that game and was forced to miss the remainder of his true freshman season. Two years later, in 2024, Brown had touchdowns in his first three games of the season, including two against Virginia Tech, before injuries cost him the majority of the season. For his Rutgers career, Brown rushed 205 times for 829 yards and had nine total touchdowns. At 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, Brown is a bigger back than his counterparts and should display the physicality to succeed at The American level.

And during spring ball, Brown ran with the speed, toughness and agility that landed him in the Big 10 in the first place and looked far less like like a veteran college back on the wrong side of an injury recovery. If Brown keeps trending in the right direction, there could be some real possibilities for this backfield and a Temple offense that is returning four starting offensive linemen.

Smith, meanwhile, proved to be a weapon in his first year at Temple when he had a 54-yard touchdown run against UTSA and a 65-yard touchdown run against Howard. Two years before, at Louisiana-Monroe, Smith rushed 94 times for 507 yards. For his career, the Arkansas native has averaged 5.8 yards per carry and has shown big-play capability throughout his college career.

Mason, a former Delaware commit, carved out a bigger role for himself in the second half of the season last year. After rushing one time for five yards in Temple’s first five games, the Florida native rushed 27 times for 162 yards, for an average of six yards per carry, over the remaining seven games.

So that gives Temple three backs that have had success at the FBS level. And that does not include Blount, who rushed for 1,442 yards and 16 touchdowns at Pennsauken High School last year, and Morrow, who averaged 9.3 yards per carry at Brooklyn’s Erasmus Hall.

Beyond the actual personnel, Walker’s offense has been successful in running the ball in both of his seasons leading an offense. At Montana State in 2024, Walker’s Bobcats offense featured three 1,000-yard rushers and averaged 294.6 rushing yards per game. Last year, at Temple, Walker’s offense ranked No. 79 nationally with 147.4 rushing yards per game. While that average does not seem as impressive, it’s important to note that it was the highest mark by a Temple team since 2018 when the Owls had a future NFL running back in Ryquell Armstead.

Reasons for concern

It’s no secret that Temple wants to run the ball. And while the Owls have experience in their running back room, a lot of that experience has injury history and has come in complementary roles.

Brown served as the lead back at Rutgers earlier in his career but spent the last three seasons as a backup, albeit to two standout running backs in Kyle Monangai and Antwan Raymond. Smith, meanwhile, led Louisiana-Monroe in rushing in 2023 but surpassed 15 carries in a game just once during that season. Mason had a career-high nine touches against East Carolina. Blount, Morrow and Young have yet to log a carry at the collegiate level.

The success of Temple’s rushing game could come in two different ways. Can somebody step up and become the bell cow that Ducker was last season? Or, instead, will Walker and Pierce be able to pull the right levers at the right time and successfully employ a running back-by-committee situation?

“I would love to have three backs that I can rotate in,” Pierce said. “That is kind of the rotation I would love to have — three guys that I can [get] in there and keep them fresh and be able to do exactly what we want them to do, because I think I’ve got an explosive room as well.”