Growing up, Willy Love spent his time with his mother in the Camden community. He traveled with her as the pair went to food drives around the city, and as he got older, he began to help her at the daycare where she worked.
He still helps her to this day, and his upbringing has helped give him the mindset he holds as a sophomore safety at Temple.
“My mom installed that side of me at a very young age,” Love said. “Just seeing the way she would come home from work and then go back to her second job, and just always make it back home to do community drives at my old elementary school. So that right there, it kind of started for me.”
Love developed his mindset when he was 10 years old and has simply mimicked what his mother passed down to him. He played in all 12 games as a true freshman at Monmouth last season, but now he has a chance to do so closer to home.
With an even bigger platform.
Following the 2024 season, Love decided to dip his toe into the transfer portal. He had 25 tackles in his lone season with the Hawks and began carving a role out for himself in the linebacker room. Once he entered, he got in contact with K.C. Keeler, who was hired as Temple’s new head coach on Dec. 1, and eventually newly-minted defensive coordinator Brian Smith.
The move gave him a chance to come back home, just across the bridge from his hometown. However, it was a former connection at Monmouth that sealed the deal for his eventual Dec. 22commitment. Chris Raitano, Monmouth’s linebackers coach, joined Keeler’s staff at Temple, and the move sold Love on his new home.
“That was a no-brainer,” Love said. “ I remember I was in the portal and Coach Raitano called me, I believe on a Friday, and said ‘Hey listen, you coming up here for an official visit?’ At that moment, I shut everything else down, and I knew I was coming here.”
One of the biggest reasons for transferring closer to home was getting the platform to serve the people in his community, something he has done since he was a kid. That platform has been put on full display this summer, with a body cam person showing his escapades. Those efforts landed him on the Allstate Wuerffel Award watch list for college football’s community service award.
“I want to show where I come from, that we’re no different across the bridge,” Love said. “I want to just bring everybody together and show that we’re one big community. Even though a bridge separates us, we’re one big community. It just means I’m able to put on for my city, Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey. I’m able to play football here. I’m able to show my skills.”
Those skills are taking a shift heading into Love’s sophomore season as he transitions to safety after playing linebacker at Monmouth. The switch has come naturally for him, having played safety and cornerback at Woodrow Wilson High School.
The biggest change for Love has been changing his mindset from playing linebacker and being a safety. He has worked with Smith in order to flip the switch while still using his 6-foot-3-inch, 215-pound frame to his advantage.
Smith has worked to hone Love’s ability to read and react and shift his aggressive playstyle.
“Because of my skill set and my play style, I’m gonna move like a safety, but I’m also built like a linebacker, so I get the best of both worlds, physicality-wise, and also the mindset of controlling the entire defense,” Love said. “So, being with Coach Smith, he helped open my mind up. Instead of just being so aggressive and a hit-first mentality, he opened it up to think first and then hit, or just read everything first and then react.”
Love enters the season battling it out to work his way onto the depth chart in Temple’s most experienced position rooms. The Owls lost starting safeties Andreas Keaton and Elijah Deravil, who graduated last spring, but have plugged in the holes.
Javier Morton returns as the Owls’ sole returning starting safety, and Louis Frye has been slotted next to him with Zyil Powell and Avery Powell coming in when the two need breathers. Love has spent camp trying to break through and work his way up to something he feels will happen due to his versatility.
“Even right now, day by day, I’m elevating. I’m showing I’m more aggressive,” Love said. “That’s still being evaluated right now, but one thing I can say is I’m gonna make plays wherever they need me. They need me at linebacker, I’m there. They need me at safety, I’m there. Wherever they need me at.”
