After being part of three college football programs over the last eight months, comfort hasn’t exactly been a luxury for Gevani McCoy.

But in speaking with reporters following Temple’s first preseason scrimmage Saturday at Chodoff Field, the redshirt-senior quarterback said he feels “super comfortable” in offensive coordinator Tyler Walker’s system, and it’s starting to show. 

McCoy, who finished out last season at Oregon State and spent the spring at Texas State before re-entering the NCAA’s transfer portal and landing at Temple, finished Saturday’s scrimmage with two touchdown passes and one interception and led all three of the offense’s touchdown drives.

While there’s still much work to be done for Temple’s offense 20 days out from its Aug. 30 season opener at UMass, McCoy appears very much in the mix for the starting job with Evan Simon, who threw for 2,032 yards, 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions in nine starts for last season’s 3-9 Owls team. 

 “I’ve been here for some time now,” McCoy said, “and so we worked all offseason and put in that work. So it feels real good, and I feel very comfortable here. So I’m excited for this season.”

The 6-foot, 195-pound McCoy distinguished himself as one of the top FCS quarterbacks in the nation during his second and third seasons at Idaho before transferring to Oregon State prior to last season. After leading the Beavers to a 4-1 start, McCoy eventually lost the starting job three weeks later and ultimately decided to transfer at the end of the season. 

While McCoy spent the spring at Texas State, Simon had the benefit of getting the first-team reps and learning under new head coach K.C. Keeler and Walker, who led Montana State to last season’s FCS national championship game.

Although Simon got a head start on McCoy in that regard, Temple’s quarterback position appears to be anything but over heading into Monday’s preseason practice, which will be the Owls’ 11^th session of the summer. 

“Evan’s got 15 practices on him, but they’re both doing a great job of competing,” Walker told reporters after Saturday’s practice. “The strength of that quarterback room just can’t be one player, and they’re better because they’re both in there, and they know that this job is not going to be one day, it’s not going to be one rep, it’s not going to be one week. They’re going to have to earn it, and I think they both know that we want to take care of the football and that quarterback’s got to make the other 10 guys in the room a little better, and they’re doing that. So I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of both of them.”

McCoy’s touchdown passes in Saturday’s scrimmage went to redshirt-freshman wide receiver Bryson Goodwin on an out route and to sophomore wideout Tyler Stewart on a seam route. A sharp, 24-yard pass to JoJo Bermudez set up the offense at the 1-yard line before running back Terrez Worthy took it in from there. 

Keeler has told reporters on multiple occasions that he made it clear to Simon that the staff would bring in another quarterback from the portal to compete with him and that Simon has been instrumental in onboarding McCoy this summer. Simon got the first crack again at quarterback during Saturday’s scrimmage and went 4-of-5 early to move the offense beyond midfield before he was subbed out for McCoy, as the staff frequently made substitutions at the position during the first half. 

Walker rightly noted that there is still much to clean up for his offense less than three weeks out from the season opener. There’s work to be done with pre-snap and post-snap identifications, Walker said, and two holding penalties led the offense to settle for a field goal on one drive.

McCoy said the competition with Simon has sharpened both players on the field and indeed led them to be closer off the field. 

“We’ve got a great relationship,” McCoy said, “and all we can do is just stack days and bring the best out in each other and compete. You know, that brings the best out in everybody. But we’re all real tight in that room, and it’s a great time. But I would just say, (it’s about) stacking days and being consistent.”

“We all know that we’re here to play football,” McCoy added. “But at the same time, though, we all got our own stuff that goes on, so it’s just a game. But we’re all really tight, and we all hang out outside of the facility and stuff like that.”