Temple's Matakevich earns his jersey
He is among the latest Owls selected to wear a single-digit jersey as one of the team's most mentally tough players.
BEFORE JOINING Temple last season as a freshman, Owls linebacker Tyler Matakevich always wore his favorite number, 44. This season, he will wear a number that means something entirely different, one that represents toughness.
Entering Temple last summer as a freshman, Matakevich was given No. 32. While he was unsure of the number at first, he got used to it. On Tuesday, Matakevich was assigned No. 8, as one of the nine toughest players on the team, who all wear single digits.
"It's definitely an honor," Matakevich said. "The tradition with the top nine, the toughest nine on the team is great, and [coach Matt Rhule] brought that back again. Honestly, it really is just an honor."
Rhule said Matakevich symbolizes toughness with every play on the field. While Matakevich is the youngest player to be given the honor, Rhule thinks he has the work ethic and passion needed to wear one of those coveted jerseys.
"It's like anything else when you are given that responsibility, you have to live up to it day in and day out," Rhule said. "You can't really have a bad day effort-wise and you can't complain and you can't do soft things like turning down hits. We expect them to play at a really high level. Sometimes when you get that kind of recognition and you think the coaches are going to back off of you, but we have to coach them even harder, so everyone sees that we are all here to get coached."
Through the first 3 weeks of training camp, Matakevich has responded to the extra attention from his coaches. And his fellow teammates took notice of Matakevich's effort in naming him one of the team's toughest.
"His teammates voted him and he got the most votes out of anybody [Monday] night, when we voted, so he has really bought into being tough and physical," Rhule said. "There has been no player that I have really challenged more, and he has responded. He has bought into it, and I think his teammates have noticed it so far."
On Tuesday, with temperatures in the low 90s, the defense closed out practice with a water-balloon fight. Matakevich picked up his first water balloon and immediately went in the direction of Rhule.
"He picked up the balloons and came right at me first, because I have been hard on him, but he has bought into it and I think his teammates have noticed that," Rhule said.
In 11 games last season, Matakevich led the Owls with 101 tackles - 26 more than linebacker Nate D. Smith's 75, which were second on the team. The 6-1 linebacker added three tackles for a loss as a freshman on his way to being named the Big East Rookie of the Year and second-team All-Big East.
Matakevich joined wide receiver John Christopher as the only sophomores to be given the top-nine honor.
"If a guy like Tyler has earned it as a sophomore and [Christopher] as a redshirt sophomore, then that says a lot about who they are," Rhule said.
While Matakevich was successful last season, he enters this year with a new head coach and a new defensive coordinator. So far in camp, he has been impressed with the knowledge of the new coaching staff.
"[Defensive coordinator Phil Snow] and coach Rhule are really pushing us a lot," Matakevich said. "Every play, they are trying to get all 11 players to the ball and we are definitely being challenged and we are buying into what they are saying. We look a lot better than what we did on Day 1, but we still have a long way to go."
Matakevich said he has greatly benefited from the short time he has spent with Snow.
"He has so much knowledge that it is literally unbelievable," Matakevich said. "He could just talk to you literally for hours about something that you would have no clue of, and I think his knowledge just makes him such a good coach."
Despite being named one of the team's toughest players, Matakevich plans to enter this season with the same humility as a year ago and continue to improve.
"I'm just still going to go into each game with the same mindset to do anything I can to help our team win and do my assignments to lead this defense and help all the guys we have so we can be successful," he said. "Now, I just finally got the opportunity, and I'm definitely not going to let coach Rhule down or let my teammates down."