Salem’s Rogers makes it official, signs into Temple football’s largest class ever; will report in January to take part in spring practice

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

SALEM – Kemp Carr has had a lot of hard-working players in his long tenure as a high school football coach, but the list is short of those who have worked as hard as Antwuan Rogers has to get to where the Salem senior found himself Wednesday.

When he was coming up Rogers played like a kid. He’d give what he thought was winning effort on a play, but didn’t always see it all the way through. There also was a measure of maturing away from the field that needed to take place.

Then, the winter after his freshman season he sat in the front row and watched his senior teammates signed to play college football and decided that was something he’d like to do. It was right there he knew there was work to be done.

Fast forward to Wednesday. One by one coaches, teachers, family and teammates rose to speak about the Salem senior after he signed to play college football at Temple and to a person the prevailing comment – with pride – was “he’s come a long way” to achieve his longtime dream.

It has been a long road – “real, real long,” Rogers said – a lot longer than the stretch of country road Carr has the Rams run in the summer for heart and conditioning, although Rogers will tell you that hill is a lot harder. It was on that road, where Rogers threw up in the oppressive heat and went back for more, Carr knew his senior sackmaster had was going to do whatever it took to get to the next level.

“Everybody faces struggles, battles,” Rogers said, “but it’s all about perseverance. The best football players face the most adversity.

“I think about that every day. Just looking back at my freshman year, I get amazed. If you look at my film (now) you see I run to the ball every play; eighth grade, freshman year, I didn’t play like that. I’d quit before the whistle blew. I’ve grown so much as a player.”

In signing with the Owls, Rogers becomes the Rams’ first major Division I football signee since record-breaking and future NFL All-Pro Jonathan Taylor signed with Wisconsin in 2017 and the first Salem athlete to graduate early to pursue their sport. The 6-foot-5, 245-pounder, one of four edge rushers in Owls coach K.C. Keeler’s first high school signing class, will enroll in January – one of 21 early enrollees — and be on campus to participate in spring practice.

In Rogers, the Owls are getting a fierce pass rusher who recorded 23 sacks this past season, setting the single-season school record with a beastly single-game record eight against KIPP in the opening round of the South Jersey Group I playoffs. He had 98 total tackles.

He led a defense that held six opponents to a touchdown or less. Behind that defense, the Rams went from 0-9 in Carr’s first season to 6-5 and won their first playoff game since 2022.

“He has the mindset that he tries to win everything, every rep, every wind sprint, everything, and that’s what pulls over to what you see in the game,” Carr said. “You notice he never came off the field. He was on every special team, offense, defense, that’s because he had a stamina to do so.

“How do you get that stamina, how do you build that? You build it in practice. You build it in the offseason. The kid is just relentless. His motor never stops. They ran toss on the opposite side of him and he was chasing down the ball. Some things are not teachable. Effort is one of them. He’s always given that gallant effort.”

Carr called the difference between Rogers from when he first saw him on film to what he has become “night and day.”

And it’s been an inspiration to his teammates who were on hand to help celebrate the occasion.

“His freshman year he came in and didn’t really play, he was undersized and not that strong,” recalled senior Willie Chatum, who’s known his linemate since second grade. “He took the off-season of his freshman year serious, got bigger, got stronger, got faster, then his sophomore year, junior year he went all out and worked hard every single day.

“It made me want to work really harder. When we were working out together he was working so hard it made me want to work even harder. He was making me want to go do it, gave me motivation. I felt like I was doing something to get better.”

Senior receiver William Dunn has known Rogers since they were cutting up as 3-year-olds and has been with newest Owl “every step of the way.” He, too was “motivated” watching his carpool partner sign on the dotted line.

“It makes me not want to give up on my football dreams,” Dunn said. “I want to take it to the next level, whether it’s JUCO, Division III, somewhere else. I still want to make it D-One. I’ve got hope. He gave me hope. He gave me a little spark.”

Carr hopes that’s what every one of his players took away from Wednesday’s program and he left them with a simple two-word message.

“Who’s next?”

Salem sack master Rogers ready to embrace life-changing experience as he prepares to sign with Temple

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

SALEM – The phone buzzed in Antwuan Rogers’ pocket during Tuesday’s mid-morning rush. On the other end of the line was his Temple recruiting contact Malachi Timberlake, just checking in again with the Salem senior, but this time to make sure everything was still on track for Wednesday’s red-letter day.

“‘Are you ready,’” Rogers said, recalling the conversation. “’Your life changes tomorrow.’”

Indeed. First thing Wednesday morning Rogers will sign with Temple to play Division I football. He’ll enroll in January and participate in spring practice to get a jump on his freshman college season. And he plans to come back to walk with his graduating class in May.

It’s a day he’s dreamed about since he was a ninth-grader sitting in the auditorium watching his senior teammates do exactly what he will be celebrating Wednesday afternoon in front of friends, family and teammates. He was too young to understand the enormity of the day when Salem’s record-setting future NFL All-Pro Jonathan Taylor signed with Wisconsin in 2017, but the implications of what he’s about to do really hit home that day as a freshman.

“When I saw that I was like I can’t wait to do that,” he said. “They all knew where they were going to college, just about everything they worked for was happening for them and I just felt happy to see it. It made me realize I had to work harder to get there.”

And that’s what he did.

He said the summer between his sophomore and junior year was “the hardest I ever worked in my life.” Early-morning workouts, nap, practice, work out again. Whatever it took.

It paid off in what he called a “good” junior season for a winless Salem team and it got him invited to the All-American Game in Texas that winter – just a few months after K.C. Keeler was named the Temple head coach — an experience he said “opened me up as a person.”

He’d never been outside the Delaware Valley area before and the flight to Texas was his first ever, but the moment he stepped on the plane it hit him that “this is what football can do, it can change my life like this.”

And then he impressed in the workouts and the game.

“At first even though I was nervous around all these people who were tops in the country and have all these offers and you go in with the butterflies like any other game, but I held my own,” he remembered. “I did my thing with the top guys. I was like I could be considered a top guy.”

In Rogers, the Owls are getting a fierce 6-foot-5 pass rusher who made his bones terrorizing opposing quarterbacks this season. He recorded 23 sacks, breaking the single-season school record that had been his goal with a beastly single-game record eight against KIPP in the opening round of the South Jersey Group I playoffs. He finished the year with 98 tackles and 28 career sacks

Although he had interest from two other major programs, the Owls were always high on his list. He went to “a lot” of Temple games growing up, knew a lot of their players and when he finally went there on a visit it all felt so familial.

Timberlake was calling Tuesday morning just to make sure it still felt that way. He’s ready.

“It’s the day that’s everything I worked for,” Rogers said. “Sometimes you get unmotivated, you see a lot of guys getting offers around you and you don’t have any, (but) you just keep your head down and keep working.”