McKeesport grad Jordan key figure in Temple’s D
From the moment the ball hit his hands and remained in his grasp, Layton Jordan’s instincts took over.
With his Temple team leading Massachusetts, 14-0, in the third quarter last Saturday, the junior outside linebacker hauled in an impressive one-handed interception. With the ball in his control, Jordan couldn’t help but think back to his high school days at McKeesport, when he was a standout running back. He waited a split second for his teammates to readjust and block, followed the path they paved for him and ultimately found his way to the end zone for a 41-yard touchdown, his first scoring play in a game since a 28-21 loss to Gateway in the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals in 2017.
“When I first caught it and I really secured it and I knew I had the ball, high school snapped right in my head,” Jordan said. “I’m like ‘Oh, I’m a running back now.’”
That play, stellar as it was, provided only a small glimpse at what Jordan has done for Temple this season.
Now in his fifth season with the program, the McKeesport graduate has emerged as one of the Owls’ best, most valuable players. Four games into the 2022 season, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Jordan is tied for sixth among all Football Bowl Subdivision players with 4.5 sacks — tying him with, among others, Alabama All-American Will Anderson — and is tied for 10th nationally with seven tackles for loss.
It’s a significant step forward from where he was in his previous seasons with the program, a leap made possible by a handful of factors and personal qualities — some of which are inextricably linked to the region that raised him.
“It’s either ball or go back home and try to provide that way. I wanted to do it the better way,” Jordan said. “That gave me an edge. There are close friends dying. There are close friends living. There are a lot of things going on. I lost a lot of good friends I grew up with. It gives me a different type of chip on my shoulder. Everything must be mine. I have to take everything and run with it.”
Coming out McKeesport, there was little question Jordan had the potential to be a differencemaker at the next level. A Post-Gazette Fabulous 22 selection in 2017, Jordan was a two-way star for the Tigers, locking down opposing receivers as a defensive back and averaging an absurd 9.4 yards per carry as a running back in his team’s flexbone triple-option scheme.
He ended up committing to Temple, where change became a central theme of his life. The coach he committed to, Geoff Collins, left for Georgia Tech after the 2018 season, which Jordan redshirted (Collins was fired Monday by Georgia Tech, four games into his fourth season there). Collins’ replacement, Rod Carey, was fired last November after three underwhelming seasons.
Despite that turnover, Jordan said he never seriously considered transferring. As he saw it, going somewhere else meant starting over and abandoning everything he had already worked to build at Temple.
“It wasn’t really a challenge,” Jordan said. “It was more of a mental focus. You’ve just got to mentally lock in. Coaching staffs come in and you might not be that guy for them. Or you might be that guy for them. You’ve always got to be mentally in there. You can’t be mentally overwhelmed. You have to stay the same person. Don’t ever change. Just stay the same person and always do the right things so they don’t have anything they can’t oflike about you or have nothing bad to say about you.”
With the arrival of Stan Drayton, Jordan’s third head coach in five years, came another switch. During the offseason, Jordan moved from defensive end to outside linebacker after having changed from linebacker to defensive end as a redshirt freshman in 2019. The two positions require different skill sets and mindsets. As Jordan explained it, defensive end is “more attack, then react” while outside linebacker is “react, then attack.”
That transition has gone about as smoothly and prosperously as he could have hoped. In four games, Jordan has more than doubled his sack total of two from his previous three seasons. His 19 tackles have already surpassed his previous season high of 18, from last season. His interception last week in what turned out to be a 28-0 victory that pushed the Owls to 2-2 was the first of his college career.
“His job is to be an impact player,” Drayton said of Jordan last Saturday following his team’s victory. “His job is to make plays when his number is called within the defensive scheme. He’s just doing his job. That’s his job. He’s doing what he’s supposed to do. There’s nothing special there. We expect him to do those things he’s doing on the field.”
Jordan’s individual success has been a catalyst for the kind of larger team success for which he yearns. One- third of the way through the regular season, Temple is tied for third among FBS teams in sacks, tied for fourth in tackles for loss, 18th in scoring defense and 38th in yards per carry allowed. Last season on their way to a 3-9 record, the Owls were 122nd in scoring defense and 107th in yards per carry allowed. They’re already just two sacks shy of matching their team total from all of last season.
More than any sack or touchdown scamper, those are the kind of figures that resonate the most with Jordan.
“I’m not that big into hype,” he said. “If they say ‘Oh, that’s Layton. He did this’, I’m like ‘Nah, we did this. We, as in the team and the defense. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to do that.”