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2008 Temple Owls Football Recruiting

Overview
This is the first time Temple has been added to the MAC Football Recruiting Analysis. The Owls signed 25 prep prospects and one JUCO. Of the twenty-six new players added to the program, twelve come from Pennsylvania including six from the greater Philadelphia area. Four prospects are from neighboring New Jersey and two apiece from Maryland and Florida with one each from CT, NY, DC, VA, GA and TX. Five prospects are listed primarily as RB and OL with four each for DL and LB. Three each were added for WR and ATH with two listed as DB.

Top Players

• Vaughn Carraway, CB/WR, 6-2, 170 Laureldale (Muhlenberg) PA – 2 nd team all-state at DB; listed as a four-star recruit by Scout.com and a three-star recruit by SuperPrep and Rivals.com; recruited by ACC, Big East and Big Ten schools.
• Tony Cornelius, RB, 5-11, 180, Boca Raton FL – Rate the 138 th best RB in the nation by ESPN.com and had an injury riddled high school career; it was reported by two recruiting sources that Cornelius had an offer from Iowa.
• Muhammad Wilkerson, DL, 6-5, 290 Linden NJ Hargrave Military Academy – Listed as a top-40 prep school player in the country and was nationally rated as a top power forward for basketball as well; several offers from MAC and Big East schools.

Sleepers

• Sean Boyle, OL, 6-5, 295, Towson (Calvert Hall) MD – Honorable mention all-state, considered a late-bloomer prospect.
• Alex Jackson, DE, 6-4, 225, Dunnellon FL – Honorable mention all-state player from Florida with speed and strength.
• Anthony Rapley, WR, 6-3, 210 Atlanta (Mays) GA Fork Union Military Academy – All-State Georgia prep player in 2006; recruited by SEC schools for basketball out of high school and may join the Owl b-ball program as a walk on.

Final Analysis
Al Golden is proving to be a solid recruiter and certainly looks to be building a very good foundation of talent on Broad Street. Having lived in the greater Philadelphia area from 1992-1997 I know first hand how hard it is to recruit the Temple program but Golden is definitely cementing in the building blocks to build a top-level program in the MAC. He is already getting noticed by programs like UCLA and I’m sure other BCS schools will be looking at him very closely over the next two or three years. As for the 2008 class, it rates as OUTSTANDING compared to other MAC schools this year as the Owls look to be a strong contender in 2008 for a MAC East title run.

Of Note:
14 members of this class attended Coach Al Golden’s Football Camp and 18 of 26 signed served as team captains…Three players from this class are scheduled to play in the annual Big 33 Classic…Steve Caputo is an all-state performer who chose Temple over Syracuse…Maurice Jones has reported 4.3/40 speed…James Nixon was ranked as the 38th best CB in the nation by Scout.com…Marlin Terrell had reported offers from Big 12, C-USA and WAC programs…Wayne Tribue’s highs school GPA exceeded 4.0 and he was rated the #73 OG in the country by ESPN.com…DL Josh Williams originally signed a national letter of intent with Boston College in 2006 before entering Arizona Western College…Muhammad Wilkerson originally signed with the 2007 class.

Name Pos. Elig. Ht. Wt. Hometown High School / Other

Deven Baker WR Fr. 6-4 190 South Bound Brook, N.J. Bound Brook

Pat Boyle OL Fr. 6-5 295 Towson, Md. Calvert Hall College

Sean Boyle OL Fr. 6-5 295 Towson, Md. Calvert Hall College

Steve Caputo OL Fr. 6-5 300 Kennett Square, Pa. Unionville

Vaughn Carraway CB/WR Fr. 6-2 170 Laureldale, Pa. Muhlenberg

Tony Cornelius RB Fr. 5-11 180 Boca Raton, Fla. Boca Raton

C.J. Hammond WR Fr. 6-2 175 Washington, D.C. St. John's College HS

Alex Jackson DE Fr. 6-4 225 Dunnellon, Fla. Dunnellon

Maurice Jones RB/DB Fr. 5-10 190 Belleville, N.J. Belleville

Kevin Kroboth ATH Fr. 6-0 180 Nazareth,? Pa. Nazareth Area

Ryan Murray OL Fr. 6-6 315 Philadelphia, Pa. Edward Bok Tech

James Nixon* RB Fr. 6-1 177 New Haven, Conn. Hyde / Bridgton Academy

Shahid Paulhill DL Fr. 6-4 275 Philadelphia, Pa. Northeast Catholic

Geoffrey Prather LB Fr. 6-2 210 Gulph Mills,?Pa. Archbishop Carroll

Anthony Rapley WR Fr. 6-3 210 Atlanta, Ga. Mays / Fork Union MA

Adrian Robinson LB Fr. 6-2 225 Harrisburg, Pa. Harrisburg

Ahkeem Smith RB Fr. 6-0 190 Bethlehem, Pa. Liberty

Marlin Terrell RB/DB Fr. 5-10 185 Coppell, Texas Coppell

Wayne Tribue OL/DL Fr. 6-3 290 York, Pa. Central York

Lawrence Turner LB/QB Fr. 6-1 215 Newport News, Va. Heritage

Quinten White LB Fr. 6-3 200 Philadelphia, Pa. Cardinal Dougherty

Tahir Whitehead S Fr. 6-2 200 Newark, N.J. West Side

Muhammad Wilkerson DL Fr. 6-5 290 Linden, N.J. Linden / Hargrave MA

Jared Williams* ATH Fr. 5-9 185 Pittsburgh, Pa. Perry Traditional / Ariz. Western

Josh Williams* DL Jr. 6-2 260 Queens, N.Y. New Hampton Prep / Ariz. Western

Malcolm Williams ATH Fr. 6-0 180 Reading,? Pa. Reading

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