Temple football: Location, location, location

First-year Temple head football coach K.C. Keeler is proving the old real estate adage:

Location, Location, Location.

At this time last year, then Temple head coach Stan Drayton was starting the second week of his two-week vacation in Houston, Tex (his house there)., texting the two reporters who cover Temple football on a regular basis that everything back home was cool because he was in constant contact with the senior leadership group.

Contrast that to what happened on Tuesday night when Keeler met with a couple hundred Temple fans at the Wissahickon Brewing Company.

That’s in Philadelphia, not Houston.

In that time, Keeler showed a grasp of the Temple personnel that Drayton never had.

There, he called last year’s starting quarterback, Evan Simon, “a dude” and incoming quarterback Gevani McCoy a guy who could win the job based on his history as a starter at both Oregon State and Idaho (two teams who have beaten Temple in the last 30 years). Drayton, on the other hand, fumbled his quarterback situation by naming the worst quarterback in Temple history, Forrest Brock, as the starter in the Oklahoma game over a Temple quarterback, Evan Simon, who started and did decently well in Big 10 games.

K.C. Keeler comes approved by Hooter.

Drayton, a running back guru, fumbled the ball.

Keeler, on the other hand, seems to have a grasp on his QB situation by even floating the idea of a two-quarterback system.

Afterward, Keeler left–not for Houston–but for his home here. This weekend, he might go as far as his longstanding home at Rehoboth Beach, Del., which is exactly 1,535 miles from Houston and only 121 miles from Philadelphia.

No need to have the team leadership group on standby. He can be at 10th and Diamond in a hurry.

Keeler dropped a couple of jokes–not staged, but based on his first few months here–that had the Temple fans in stitches on Tuesday and left the definite impression he was not going anywhere and he was large and in charge.

I don’t know about you but that’s comforting to me.

Monday: The No. 1 Target

4 thoughts on “Temple football: Location, location, location

  1. Hey Mike,

    Great article as always. I was interested in the anecdote about the 2 QB system being floated. I was wondering what Keeler said and who e would be running it with Simon?

    Thanks

  2. Keeler appears to be doing all the right things to turn the program around. Will the wins come as a result?

    Maybe.., the AAC is tough, zero easy games. And, the AD will continue to be an albatross.

    IMHO, the number of wins will be determined by how well the OL develops. Disappointing no starters emerged from the portal. The returnees must get bigger, stronger, and control the line of scrimmage.

    • Bermudez and the LB from UMass will start from the portal but your point is valid. Should get more than two starters in any portal cycle. On the flip slide, it’s good that Worthy will probably start over a guy who is coming off being the leading rusher at NIU, Memphis and Houston in three consecutive seasons. Keeler said Ducker’s finishing speed in the spring wasn’t good enough and put the Owls in a situation where they had to kick FGs and weren’t scoring touchdowns. With Worthy’s finishing speed, they will be scoring touchdowns.

Leave a reply to Liam W Cancel reply