Roy Roundtree rallies Temple's wide receiver room

By Mike Livingston

OwlScoop.com Staff Reporter

The loudest voice on the Temple sidelines during practice isn’t usually who you think it would be.

It’s not who the Owls’ own defensive backs would assume, either, as they look over in confusion at times to the sound of 37-year-old wide receivers coach Roy Roundtree’s voice.

Roundtree, a 2012 University of Michigan graduate and former NFL player for the Cincinnati Bengals, leads the Owls’ wide receiver room with a unique sensibility.

“I try to tell them when we cross that white line, it’s the defense and offense that’s trying to get better,” Roundtree said following Saturday morning’s practice. “Iron sharpens iron, so of course, I kind of get at the DB guys to get them rallied up because I want them to compete. I want them to kick our tail every day, and that’s the thing — I have those relationships with the secondary guys, and that gets my guys on the sideline like, ‘Yeah, Coach Tree.’”

Their position coach’s personality is something that vividly projects through the Temple wide receiver room each day on the practice field and seems to give the unit a swagger when they take to the field.

“My guys know they’re confident,” said Roundtree. “They know what they’re doing. They’re going to play fast, they are going to have an edge. I always have it. You have to protect your brothers, and that is from the quarterback and from the running back who is carrying the ball. If we can be consistent with that, we are going to be very explosive.”

Roundtree heads an Owls unit that may be one of the most talented on the entire roster going into the 2026 season, with players like Colin Chase, one of just two returning single-digit players, along with JoJo Bermudez and Jayce Freeman, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound transfer from FCS Stony Brook.

That group could be the catalyst in a Temple offense that features players like tight end Peter Clarke and a revamped running back corps that added midyear freshmen R.J. Blount and Ameir Morrow and Rutgers transfer Sam Brown to complement returning backs Hunter Smith and Keveun Mason. 

The receivers will be conducted by one of two transfer quarterbacks, whom Roundtree’s receivers have helped acclimate to their new offense. Both Jaxson Smolik and Ajani Sheppard have become close with top receivers like Chase and Freeman. 

Both signal callers have been finding Freeman routinely throughout spring practices to this point.

“We’ve got two guys who are really good,” said Chase, who caught 40 passes for 414 yards and four touchdowns last season. “Competition always brings out the best in people. Iron sharpens iron, and they’ve both been really solid this camp so far.”

That moxie Roundtree has embedded in his players has helped guys like Chase and Freeman direct an offense and lead, especially in a situation where the Owls haven’t elected a permanent man behind center yet.

It’s also important to a room that includes several new transfers like Demonte Green (Midwestern State), Reis Stocksdale (Bowling Green), Kenedy Uzoma (North Carolina), and Freeman, along with freshmen like Darius Pope, Hunter Watson and Coen Logan.

“I like his philosophies and what he’s been teaching,” said Freeman, who caught 44 passes for 771 yards and eight touchdowns at Stony Brook last season while averaging 18.9 yards per reception. “I mean, shoot, I still have a lot of things to work on, so him helping me with everything that I’ve been lacking has been big, which just gets me excited for this year and this season.”

Roundtree’s philosophies stem from more than a decade of coaching experience, along with four years under Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh as a player and another two as a graduate assistant for the Wolverines in 2018 and 2019.

Roundtree was a star during his four years in Ann Arbor, catching 154 passes for 2,304 yards and 15 touchdowns.

“When I was at Michigan, every day we were on the field (in practice), I thought it was an Ohio State DB,” Roundtree said. “Every day I’d try to win the battle, and that’s what I put in their mind. Every day, of course, we are Temple Owls together, but when we cross that white line, you can evaluate how you can beat this DB every play. Can you have that iron-sharpens-iron mentality? Because when Saturday comes, we’ve got that first game. We’re all on the same sideline.”

Roundtree’s voice may carry across the practice field now, but if his message takes hold, the results should speak just as loudly for Temple’s wide receivers this fall.