Category: Sports

Last summer, K.C. Keeler and his wife, Janice, began building a house in Wilmington. This would not have been notable if Keeler were coaching at an SEC dynasty or a Big 10 stalwart.

But he works for Temple, where head football coaches have long been transient.

The Owls have shuffled through 11, including interims, in 15 years. Some were fired because they weren’t winning; some were poached to fill higher-paying jobs.

One coach, Manny Diaz, stayed for 17 days before running off to the University of Miami. Another, Geoff Collins, led Temple to a 15-10 record, only to leave for Georgia Tech after two years.

Collins took over for Matt Rhule, who went 28-23 over four seasons before departing for Baylor. Rod Carey came next, and was fired after three seasons, during which he posted a 12-20 record.

Stan Drayton, who won only nine games in parts of three seasons, didn’t even make it to the end of the 2024 campaign.

This dynamic — being a smaller Division I program with fewer resources — has led Temple to a difficult balancing act. The school is established enough to hire good coaches but not always to keep them.

Keeler, whom the Owls hired on Dec. 1, appears to be different. He has an established track record of building winning programs, and the 66-year-old won’t likely use Temple as a stepping stone.

He’s deeply invested in the Owls and has genuine belief in his team’s ability. He also has local ties: The coach grew up in Emmaus, Lehigh County, 50 miles north of Philadelphia, and has a daughter and grandchildren who live in Delaware.

Which is why he built a home in the area. Keeler is the first Temple head coach since Bruce Arians in the mid-1980s to do so.

“It’s incredible what he’s done,” said senior quarterback Evan Simon, “and it’s only his first year. I wish I had a couple more with him.”

A winning legacy

Keeler’s first memory of Temple dates to the late 1970s, when he was a starting linebacker at the University of Delaware.

The Blue Hens were a strong team but consistently struggled against the Division I Owls. In 1978, they won 10 games but were soundly beaten by Temple, 38-7.

In 1979, when it won a Division II national championship, Delaware lost only one game. It was to Temple, at home, 31-14, on Sept. 22.

Keeler graduated in 1981, and was hired as an assistant coach at Amherst College in Massachusetts that year. Rowan added him to its staff in 1986 (when it was known as Glassboro State College) and named Keeler head coach in 1993.

Over nine seasons, he led the Profs to an 88-21-1 record, with seven Division III playoff appearances. Delaware brought him on as head coach in 2002 (succeeding Tubby Raymond after 36 seasons) and Keeler went 86-52 with the Blue Hens, reaching the Division I-AA national title game three times and winning a championship in 2003.

He joined Sam Houston State as head coach in 2014, and posted a 97-39 record through 11 seasons, making the FCS playoffs six times and winning a second national title in 2020.

Temple, meanwhile, notched only 11 winning seasons between 1981 and 2024. The Owls had suffered an especially tough stretch of late, failing to win more than three games in a season since 2019.

But for Keeler, the shine of those 1970s-era teams never wore off. He still saw a winner. So, when Temple approached him last year after firing Drayton, he took the opportunity.

Things got off to a slow start. Some players were worried that they wouldn’t be welcomed back.

Others were unsure of how they’d jell with Keeler and his staff.

The head coach held a team meeting in December, before his introductory news conference. He tried to tell a couple of jokes, to lighten the mood.

No one laughed. Keeler turned to his special teams coordinator, Brian Ginn.

“Boy, these guys are serious,” he said.

“Yeah,” Ginn responded. “They just went 3-9. I can see why they’re serious.”

A few hours later, Keeler told the media what he told his team: that there would be no rebuild. That he was here to win a bowl or a conference championship.

Simon, the senior quarterback, was standing in the back of the room, listening acutely.

“It was a little scary [at first],” he said. “I mean, this place hasn’t won more than three games since, who knows? I don’t even know.”

Over the next few days, Keeler held one-on-one meetings with all 114 players on Temple’s roster.

He asked what they liked — and disliked — about the program, and what changes they wanted to see.

The coach quickly showed a willingness to listen, even to seemingly mundane concerns. Many players lived off-campus and mentioned that they had to pay for a meal plan that they didn’t use.

Keeler talked to a few higher-ups, and was able to make a change, putting $500 worth of meal money back into players’ pockets. Temple now provides grab-and-go lunches and snacks, available outside the locker room.

The head coach continued to encourage his team to communicate, and gradually, the players began to feel more comfortable.

In February, Keeler got word that a former Temple defensive tackle, Demerick Morris, would be leaving Oklahoma State. He had transferred there in December 2024 but had a change of heart, and was eager to return to Philly.

Keeler wanted to bring him back, too, but decided to ask his defensive line coach, Cedric Calhoun, to check with rest of the linemen first.

They were not on board.

“Coach Calhoun goes, ‘They said, [expletive] no. There’s no way they’re taking him back,’” Keeler said. “And he was in a panic. I’m like, ‘It’s OK, let me handle this.’”

The three defensive linemen — Allan Haye, K.J. Miles, and Sekou Kromah — shuffled into Keeler’s office and sat shoulder-to-shoulder on his cherry-red couch.

Before Keeler explained his side, he made sure the players knew it was their decision.

Then, he asked for their perspective. They said that years ago, the four linemen had made a pact not to enter the transfer portal. To stay at Temple and “fix” the program.

When Morris left for Oklahoma State, Haye, Miles, and Kromah felt betrayed.

“[To them], it was ‘Demerick broke the pact,’” Keeler recounted. “‘Demerick took the money.’”

The head coach laid out the situation in more pragmatic terms. Temple needed to bring in another defensive tackle, regardless. Why not go with the familiar option?

“I know Demerick is a great player,” Keeler told them. “I can’t guarantee the [other] guy we’re going to bring in is going to be a great player.

“I know Demerick is a great person. The guy we bring in … I don’t know a lot about him. I know Demerick loves Philadelphia. He’s living here now. He’s from Chicago.”

The linemen changed their minds.

“Again, the key was, this is still your call,” Keeler said. “I am not going to overrule your decision.”

Poor push-ups and ‘terrible’ dance moves

When Simon showed up to practice last summer, he could tell things were going to be different.

At 66, Keeler was doing push-ups in the middle of the field. He was running sprints and stretching alongside his team.

He even took control of the stereo sometimes, playing the music of his adolescence: Bruce Springsteen, Bananarama, and, of course, KC and the Sunshine Band.

The quarterback compared it to being around your fun “uncle.”

“They’re the world’s worst push-ups,” Simon said. “But his energy, it lifts the program. You’re allowed to have fun at practice.”

Keeler strikes a balance. There are times when practice is not fun. The head coach has high standards and pushes his team hard.

But he also tries to foster human connection wherever he can, whether it’s sending a birthday text to a player, hosting team dinners, or organizing trivia nights at Temple’s Liacouras Center.

One of Keeler’s biggest assets is his humor. He isn’t afraid to laugh at himself.

On Oct. 4, in Temple’s fifth game of the season, the Owls trailed Texas-San Antonio, 14-3, at the half.

Keeler reamed his players out in the locker room. He told them that it was the first time he’d been embarrassed to be their coach.

“I said, ‘This the first time I’ve ever even thought this, in my 10 months here,’” Keeler recalled.

The team responded almost immediately. Temple scored 21 points in the third quarter and ended up winning the game, 27-21.

Afterward, the players started dancing in the locker room. Keeler joined in.

The coach received some tough feedback.

“A lot of comments like ‘I dance like an old white guy,’” he said. “Well, yeah, I am an old white guy. But, you know, winning is hard. So when you win? You celebrate.”

The post-win dance quickly became a team tradition, and Keeler began to get creative with which guys he’d single out.

On Oct. 18, in the final seconds of Temple’s victory over Charlotte, he looked to the sideline to find three of his players — Cam Stewart, Khalil Poteat, and Mausa Palu — dancing.

The coach had always instructed his team not to gloat in public. So, he decided to teach them a lesson.

When the players walked into the locker room, Keeler called them out.

“OK,” he said. “You guys want to dance? You’re leading the dance.”

General manager Clayton Barnes hit the music. The team gathered in a circle, as Stewart, Poteat, and Palu showed off their moves.

Then, Keeler showed off his.

“Terrible,” said Kromah.

“It’s like seeing your grandpa dancing,” said running back Jay Ducker. “‘OK, grandpa! OK!’”

“I think he’s got to start stretching before he does them,” said Simon.

On Oct. 25, after Temple’s fifth win of the season, against Tulsa, Keeler summoned offensive lineman Giakoby Hills.

It was Hills’ birthday.

“Giakoby, come on down!” Keeler said. “Birthday boy is going to lead the dance.”

This may seem like a silly custom, but for a team that couldn’t muster a laugh back in December, it’s progress.

And for players like Simon, it has made a difference. The quarterback is in the midst of a career season. He has 22 touchdowns with 1,847 passing yards and only one interception through 10 games.

He credits a lot to “Uncle” Keeler.

“He’s so easy to talk to,” Simon said. “And that’s important as a player. Not being nervous all the time. Because I’ve experienced that, where there’s tension, [and you’re] afraid to mess up. But he’s super easygoing.”

‘Not afraid to fail’

There are plenty of young players who have thrived under Keeler’s quirky coaching style.

But none as successful as Bengals quarterback and 18-year NFL veteran Joe Flacco, who played at Delaware in 2006 and 2007.

Keeler brought the same enthusiasm back then that he does now (with fewer dance moves, to which Flacco responded: “Thank God”).

When Flacco transferred from Pittsburgh to Delaware, he was a backup quarterback, sorely in need of a good spring.

He contemplated playing collegiate baseball, an idea the coach quickly put an end to. Keeler told his pupil that he needed to focus on football. He reiterated, time and time again, that Flacco would be drafted by an NFL team.

It was helpful for the young quarterback to hear.

“I was honestly happy,” Flacco said. “I thought I wanted to pursue [baseball], but deep down, I really didn’t. And he didn’t want me to do it. So, I was like, ‘Good, I don’t really want to do it.’”

After Flacco was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2008 NFL draft, he met with his former coach.

Keeler asked him a question.

“I’m going to be talking to another team [someday], and they’re going to want to know,” he said, “what makes Joe Flacco great?”

The quarterback answered without hesitation.

“I’m not afraid to fail,” he responded.

Keeler might have this quality, too. He was not afraid to loudly proclaim that he wanted Temple to become bowl-eligible this season, and his team is close to meeting that threshold.

The Owls have lost their last two games, in part because of mounting injuries. Despite that setback, they sit at 5-5, the most wins since 2019.

Temple needs to win one of its remaining two games — Saturday against Tulane or Nov. 28 at North Texas — to qualify for a bowl game.

But regardless of what happens, Keeler won’t be afraid of the outcome. And if the Owls win, he certainly won’t be afraid to dance.

“[He has] a belief and ability to make [a program] bigger than what everybody thinks it is,” Flacco said of his former coach. “It’s not only that he says it, and preaches it, but he also gets you to believe it. And that’s huge.”