Former linebacker Tyler Matakevich heard his name called in the seventh round of the NFL Draft by the Steelers on Saturday.
Matakevich was the 26th pick of the seventh round and the 246th overall pick.
The linebacker won the Chuck Bednarik and Bronko Nagurski awards last season after totaling 138 tackles, 4.5 sacks, and five interceptions.
For his career, Matakevich tallied a 493 total tackles, which broke the school record.
Former defensive lineman Matt Ioannidis was selected in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins on Saturday.
Ioannidis was the 13th pick of the fifth round and No. 152 overall.
The defensive lineman was a first team All-American Athletic Conference selection last season when he totaled 39 tackles and 101/2 tackles for loss.
During his time at Temple, Ioannidis totaled 115 tackles and 29 tackles for loss. He also added 10 sacks in his career.
Other Owls’ defensive linemen drafted in the last 15 years include Raheem Brock, Dan Klecko, Terrance Knighton and Muhammad Wilkerson.
Former defensive back Tavon Young was selected in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday.
Young was the sixth pick of the fourth round and No.104 overall.
Last season, Young totaled seven pass defensed and 41 total tackles in 11 games after setting career-highs in interceptions and passes defended as a junior with nine and four, respectively.
The Oxon Hill, Maryland native was an American Athletic Conference honorable mention selection as a junior.
Young, who is the 64th football player to be drafted into the NFL in the program’s history, is the first Owl to be drafted since 2012.
Temple, the No. 3 seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, will face Tulsa Saturday at 8 p.m. on ESPN3 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut in the tournament quarterfinals.
The Owls (19-10, 13-5 The American) are looking to secure their first bid for the NCAA Tournament since the 2010-11 season after a semifinal finish at the Women’s National Invitational Tournament in 2015.
Temple comes into the conference tournament with a Ratings Percentage Index of 66, which is third highest in The American.
The squad owns two wins against Top-25 RPI teams, South Florida and the University of Florida. The Owls also have a win against Villanova, No. 46 in the RPI. Coach Tonya Cardoza’s team is 3-5 against Top-50 RPI opponents.
Temple’s offense is led by sophomore guard Alliya Butts, a first-team all-conference selection, and junior guard Feyonda Fitzgerald, who earned second-team honors.
Butts is averaging 15.5 points per game, which ranks fifth in The American, while Fitzgerald is averaging 13.2 points per game and is second in the conference, averaging 5.4 assists per game.
Fitzgerald has had 157 total assists this season, the fourth most by and Owls in a single season. The 5-foot-7 guard is eight assists away from totaling the second most assists in a season in program history.
Senior guard Erica Covile, who scored her 1000th point in a 78-64 victory against Houston on Feb. 29, has had eight double-doubles this season and has started every game for the Owls.
Temple has outscored its opponents by 6.7 point per game this season, which is second in The American. The Owls rank third in the American with 70.4 points per game.
With a victory on Saturday, the Owls will earn back-to-back 20 win seasons, and will face the winner of South Florida, No. 20 in the AP Top 25 Poll, and Southern Methodist on Sunday.
Mark McCormick can be reached at mark.mccormick@temple.edu or on Twitter @MarkJMcCormick.
Former Temple Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw is the new interim director of intercollegiate athletics and recreation at La Salle, the school announce Monday.
Bradshaw will assume the position on March 9 after the school announced current Athletic Director Tom Brennan would step down from the position at the end of the basketball season.
Currently an an intercollegiate athletics consultant with Lauer, Sbarbaro Associates/EMA Partners International, Bradshaw was the athletic director at Temple from 2002-13.
Bradshaw also served as La Salle’s athletic director from 1978-86. He then moved to the same position at DePaul University from 1986-02.
Under Bradshaw lead at Temple, the football team went to two bowl games. The team’s appearance in the 2009 EagleBank Bowl was its first appearance since 1979. The football team also received a $10 million upgrade with a 15,000-square-foot expansion in 2012 to Edberg-Olson Hall.
Bradshaw was also responsible for the hiring of men’s basketball coach Fran Dunphy, who has led the team to six NCAA Men’s Division I Tournament appearances.
Bradshaw was part of the negotiations that led to the announcement that most of Temple’s sports would be competing in the Big East Conference in 2012. After the folding of the Big East in 2013, the Owls became a member of the American Athletic Conference.
La Salle announced that a search permanent athletic director will come at a later date.
Marcus Satterfield will be the the new head coach at Tennessee Tech University, according to a report from FootballScoop.com.
Tennessee Tech, who competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference.
Former coach Watson Brown retired Nov. 2 after coaching the Golden Eagles for the last nine years. Under Brown, Tennessee Tech compiled a 42-60 overall record and won the Ohio Valley Conference title in 2006, its first in 36 years.
Satterfield joined Temple’s staff in 2013 as the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. With Satterfield at the helm, the Owls averaged 399 yards of total offense per game in 2013, the highest total during his three years as Temple’s offensive coordinator.
In 2015, the Owls won 10 games for the second time in school history and averaged 366.7 yards per game.
Before joining coach Matt Rhule’s staff at Temple, Satterfield served as the offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga from 2009-12.
Satterfield began coaching in 2006 at the University of Tennessee-Martin as the offensive coordinator. In 2008, he was named the team’s associate head coach and passing game coordinator.
Senior linebacker Tyler Matakevich won the Bednarik Award, which is given to the best defensive player in college football, Thursday.
The senior linebacker is the first player in program history to win the award and the first player from a Group of 5 school to win the award.
Monday, Matakevich also won the Bronko Nagurski Award, given to the top defensive player in college football. Other winners include former University of Michigan defensive back and Heisman Trophy Winner Charles Woodson (1997) and former Boston College University linebacker Luke Kuechly (2012).
Matakevich had 126 total tackles and 15 tackles for loss this season. He also has totaled 41/2 sacks and five interceptions.
The linebacker has recorded at least 100 tackles in each of his four seasons at Temple.
The other Bronko Nagurski Award finalists were Penn State senior defensive end Carl Nassib and Alabama senior linebacker Reggie Ragland.
Senior linebacker Tyler Matakevich and six of his teammates were named to the first team Alll-American Athletic Conference.
Matakevich, who was the only first-team all-conference unanimous selection, received The American’s Defensive Player of the Year Award. The senior has 118 tackles this season, including 141/2 tackles for loss, and five interceptions.
“It’s quite an honor,” Matakevich said in a press release. “I said it before and it’s no different now. I’m able to make plays because my coaches put me in the right position and my teammates take on blockers to free me up. I’m prouder that Temple had more all-conference selections than any single award I have received.”
Other first team all-conference defensive selections included redshirt-senior defensive lineman Nate D. Smith, senior defensive lineman Matt Ioannidis and senior defensive back Alex Wells.
On the other side of the ball senior offensive lineman Kyle Friend and Eric Lofton and junior running back Jahad Thomas were named to The American’s first team.
In his first season as the team’s primary running back, Thomas is The American’s No. 3 leading rusher with 1,188 yards and 17 touchdowns.
“It means a lot, knowing the work that the team and I put in during the offseason, to have the success we’re having over the year, and having the chance to play for a championship this week,” Thomas said in a press release. “It’s been great. We’re having so much fun this season, and I love everybody here, and how hard they push me and how we’ve pushed each other to get to this point in the season.”
Other honorees included sophomore defensive back Sean Chandler and junior offensive lineman Dion Dawkins, who received second team honors, and redshirt-junior defensive lineman Haason Reddick, who was an honorable mention.
Blanca Fernandez won Paul Short Run Friday with a time of 20 minutes, 27 seconds.
It was the Leon, Spain natives first 6K race win and third win in three races this season.
Fernandez, who defeated Connecticut’s Emily Durgin by two seconds, won the 4K Big 5 Invitational Sept. 11 and the Main Line Invitational Sept. 18
As a team, the Owls finished 29th out of 35 teams.
Sophomore Katie Pinson finished in 77th with a time of 21:50, topping her previous personal best time of 22:15 from last year’s NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.
The other five Owls finished outside the Top 200.
Due to inclement weather from Hurricane Joaquin, the Owls’ Big East Conference opener against Old Dominion University, the No. 15 team in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association coaches’ poll, in Norfolk, VA Friday has been postponed indefinitely.
Earlier today, the match was pushed up to noon from its original start time of 3 p.m., but it was later suspended because of the weather concerns. Temple’s game Sunday at noon against Liberty University at Geasey Field will be played as scheduled, unless something changes.
The team will now open Big East play against No. 1 Connecticut Friday Oct. 9 at Geasey Field at 2 p.m.
The Owls are 3-7 so far in the 2015 season, and have lost five of their last six games.
