Temple produced just 509 yards of offense and one touchdown through the first two weeks of the season.

In the Owls’ 28-20 loss to Coastal Carolina, Rutgers transfer quarterback Evan Simon took over under center for Forrest Brock, who suffered a wrist contusion in the Owls' 38-11 loss against Navy.

With Simon at the helm, Temple’s offense doubled its touchdown total and flowed much smoother, sustaining longer drives downfield.

Two players who contributed to the improved offensive output, offensive lineman Eric King and wide receiver John Adams, spoke with reporters on Tuesday. Among other things, they talked about what it was like having Simon in the huddle against Coastal Carolina, how they felt the offense played, and what they must do Saturday to come out with a win over Utah State.

“It was mainly just our confidence,” said Adams, who caught two passes for 30 yards Saturday, including a 15-yard touchdown catch.“We know that we can go out there and prove everybody wrong. It was mainly just confidence and believing in each other. Getting the run game going and getting the passing game going and just going play by play. That’s really what it was.”

Calm, cool and collected

In his press conference on Monday, head coach Stan Drayton mentioned the “moxie” Simon had on the field and on the sideline on Saturday.

King echoed that assessment, saying Simon was calm and assertive in the huddle during the game, making sure everyone was prepared.

“[Simon] was really in control of everything,” King said. “He would tell us to relax and calm down. Sometimes he would say, ‘Shut up’ if people were talking while he was trying to give us the call. He was in control of everything. He was speaking to us like he knew what he was doing, and that really gained my trust.”

While both quarterbacks were practicing with the team leading up to the Coastal Carolina game, Adams said the rest of the offense didn’t find out Simon was going to start until the walk-throughs before the game.

Adams echoed a lot of what King said about Simon in the huddle and how he managed the offense in Temple’s loss.

“He did his thing,” Adams said. “He’s been there before, so I’m not really surprised. He did his thing at Rutgers, so I knew that he was going to be able to hop in there and do his thing, control the huddle and just be himself."

King’s first start

A redshirt freshman out of North Jersey’s Saint Peter’s Prep, King grabbed his first collegiate start at guard in Temple’s home opener.

“After watching the film, I feel like I did pretty solid in my first start,” King said. “I definitely need some improvement, but I think I did pretty pretty solid.”

Wisdom Quarshie’s injury and James Faminu’s benching moved Jackson Pruitt and the 6-foot 3-inch, 300-pound King into the starting lineup.

King wasn’t certain he would start until later in the week. King, as well as the other four linemen, played all 63 offensive snaps Saturday, marking the third week in a row where all five starting offensive linemen played every snap, something that was very scarce last season.

“Honestly, it was a lot of nerves,” King said. “I was excited. At the same time, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I came into the locker room on Friday almost about to vomit because I’m like, ‘I’m really about to start my first college game.’”

While King was happy with his performance, he knows he still has some stuff to work on if he wants to continue to progress.

“Probably just staying low on my blocks,” King said. “I know exactly what I was doing, but probably just staying low on my blocks, really running my feet and just playing for six seconds like coach says in practice all the time.”

Scouting Utah State

Temple’s offensive line looked more in control last Saturday, and the Owls will need to do that against Utah State if they want to get into the win column.

“Utah State has some twitched-up D-linemen,” King said. “[They're] Not very very big, just very twitched up, fast and they’re good with their hands, so I’m anticipating that all week in practice.”

The Owls saw a lot of man coverage from Coastal Carolina defensively, which helped free up the box to get the run game going.

In the first couple of looks scouting Utah State, Adams has seen multiple types of coverages that the Aggies run, including some man.

“We’ve seen different coverages,” Adams said. “We’re still trying to break down the specific coverage that they use, but their coverages mainly right now are some man, some three and some four. But we’re still just trying to break that down more.”

Safety Jordan Vincent has paced Utah State’s defense with a team-best 32 tackles and an interception. Inside linebacker Jon Ross Maye, a transfer from Division II Lenoir Rhyne who is second on the team with 25 tackles and has two tackles for a loss, earned a mention from Drayton Monday when the third-year head coach was asked about the Aggies’ defense.