Temple hires Sam Houston State’s K.C. Keeler as its football coach
Keeler won an FCS title with the Bearkats and another with Delaware. He also coached at Rowan.
Temple has hired Sam Houston State coach K.C. Keeler as its next football coach, the university announced Sunday evening.
Keeler, who led the Bearkats to a 9-3 season in their second year in the Football Bowl Subdivision, coached the Huntsville, Texas-based program to an FCS national title in the 2020 season.
Earlier this week, a source told The Inquirer that Keeler met with athletic director Arthur Johnson and had a phone conversation with president John A. Fry.
“Coach Keeler has a track record of evaluating, recruiting, and developing student-athletes into championship-level young men,” Johnson said in a release from the university. “His leadership, experience, and the culture he establishes within programs are exactly what Temple football needs as we look to return to prominence in the competitive college football landscape. We are ecstatic to welcome K.C., his wife, Janice, and his entire family to Temple.”
“Coach Keeler is a proven winner, but just as important as that, he is a proven program builder. That is exactly what he did at both the University of Delaware and Sam Houston State University,” Fry said. “He also led the Bearkats through a seamless transition from the FCS to the FBS, where his teams continually rose to the challenge. Coach Keeler is the perfect leader to help us navigate the rapidly changing landscape of college football and position Temple to compete for conference championships and play in bowl games. This is a great day for Temple University.”
Keeler is a native of Emmaus, Pa., who got his first head coaching job at Rowan, where he took the Profs to five Division III national championship games. He coached at the Glassboro school for 16 seasons, seven as an assistant.
He took over at Delaware in 2002, won the Football Championship Subdivision title in 2003, and spent 11 seasons with the Blue Hens until he was fired after the 2012 season. He finished 86-52 in his Delaware tenure.
“I am beyond thrilled to be named Temple University’s next head football coach,” Keeler said. “I would like to thank Arthur Johnson and president John Fry for this incredible opportunity. Their shared vision and enthusiasm for returning this program to greatness has been contagious. I’m eager to get to work to bring that vision to fruition for the Cherry and the White. It’s a perfect fit and it feels great to be coming back home!”
Across his 31 seasons as a head coach, Keeler has had just four losing seasons: three at Delaware, one at Sam Houston State. Since joining the FBS in 2023, the Bearkats ranked just outside the top 100 nationally in recruiting each season, according to On3 Sports, but sat in the middle of the pack in the Conference USA recruiting rankings.
Now Keeler, who brings a career mark of 271-112-1 to North Broad, will become Temple’s 18th football coach after going 97-39 in 10 seasons at Sam Houston State. He will lead an Owls program that has finished 3-9 in each of the last four seasons, and will succeed Stan Drayton, who was fired Nov. 17. Temple’s last winning season came in 2019.