Matt Ioannidis wears No. 9 as a defensive tackle. Players wearing Nos. 1-9 were voted by teammates as the toughest on the team. Photo by Mike Corsey

Temple defensive tackle Matt Ioannidis is not just a tough player, he is a very tough player.

If you follow Temple football, you know you don’t have to actually watch a game to know that.

How? Ioannidis wears No. 9 and if you are wearing a single digit number on your uniform, you were honored by your teammates with the distinction of being one of the toughest Owls on the squad.

“Coach (Matt) Rhule brought back the tradition that the nine toughest players on the team wear single digits, 1-9,” Ioannidis said after a recent practice. “I was lucky enough to earn one this year during training camp . Everyone came out and we all worked really hard. I came out and I had some things on my mind I really had to work on. I wasn’t expecting it. I was out here just hoping to do well this year. When I earned it and they awarded it to me…it was really a blessing, a great privilege.”

By bringing back traditions like this coach Rhule is trying to improve chemistry and stability.

If there is such a thing as a journeyman football team, Temple is just that. The Owls football team currently competes in the American Athletic Conference AKA “The American,” a NCAA’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision team.
Temple’s football program was a member of the Big East Conference until its expulsion after the 2004 season due to a variety of program shortcomings.

Matt Ioannidis, a defensive tackle.has 16 tackles on the season. Photo by Mike Corsey

Temple played a limited MAC schedule in 2005 and 2006 before becoming an affiliated football-only member and playing a full 8-game league schedule in 2007.

Thanks to a major realignment of Division I conferences. Temple football returned to the Big East in 2012, and then became a full member of the renamed American Athletic Conference in July 2013.

Ioannidis said he knows the program has bounced around a bit, but he is happy that the Owls are an AAC team.

“My senior year they were in the MAC,” said Ioannidis, referring to Hunterdon Central Regional in Ringoes, NJ. “When I came in as a freshman we were in the Big East. Now the Big East has now switched to the AAC. That’s where we are now. I never played in the MAC so I can’t really speak on that competition level. A lot of the teams from the Big East are in our conference now. We all just basically formed into this conference. There is a lot of good competition in this league and I look forward to playing every week. You’ve got to love the competition, you’ve got to love going out there and getting into a dog fight.”

Ioannidis, like virtually every football player at every level does not want to talk about individual statistics and for good reason. It is about winning games and being a team player.

Ioannidis is all that. But when pressed into the subject, the 6-foot-4 285 pounder did admit that the better individuals do, the better numbers each player produces on offense and defense, the better the team is likely to do in the win column.

A thousand-yard rusher, a 60 percent completion rate by a quarterback or a double-digit sack total by a defensive player would be welcomed by any team.
“My individual goals are to do all those things,” said Ioannidis, referring to leading his team or league in tackles and sacks. “A good defensive tackle year I would say is somewhere between eight and ten sacks, you’d want to lead the team in TFLs (tackles for loss) …stuff like that. Things you can do in the trenches (to help win).”

“But It comes back down to the process,” Ioannidis said. “In our program we talk about going back to the process..taking care of your job. Going through your steps, going through your keys, going through progressions…it’s just the process that matters. That’s what it really comes down to with us.”

Going to a post season Bowl game is certainly on the mind of every player on the team. Ioannidis said though that the only thing on anyone’s mind is the next game. For the Owls when this interview took place was the game against Delaware State.

“It’s not about who we’re playing or where we’re playing, It’s about our brand of defense, it’s about us and about our style and our standard,” Ioannidis said. “We prepare like we are getting ready to play in the national championship every week. We have to play like it is the biggest game of our lives.”

The Owls have played exactly like that, routing the Hornets 59-0. Temple followed that win with an impressive victory over UConn 36-10.
What is next for Ioannidis? He had 16 tackles on the young season including 1.5 TFL, a sack and a break up.

Defensive tackles, regardless of where they played, usually do not rack up stats, even NFL prospects. For defensive tackles it is who they get in front of and how well they set up their teammates for big plays.

Is the League anything Ioannidis has taken the time to dream about?

“I try not to,” Ioannidis said. “That’s just something I work as hard as a I can this year and if that comes, that comes. It is not a goal of mine. It (an NFL look) will be more a result of the effort I put in now. I want to just stay humble and work as hard as I can here while I am here. If I am lucky enough and blessed, it would be awesome to.”