01.23.26
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The Keeler Presser’s Most Surprising Answer

I suspect some of these folks are the heroes Temple needs right now.

Now that their offseason personnel work is done, Temple football fans finally got a chance to hear some questions and answers.

Some were predictable.

Some came out of left field.

First, the predictable.

As we speculated in this space way back in December, we figured that Temple–specifically athletic director Arthur Johnson–was caught with pants down the day he received a call from Birmingham Bowl officials asking if Temple was interested in playing Georgia Southern.

For the record, this site anticipated that call because Temple players were not only in the classroom but killing it while there. (Unlike the Miami QB who admitted to not attending a class in two years.) After the season was over, we wrote that Temple might not receive a bowl call but, as a 5-7 team with a good academic record, it should be prepared just in case.

Head coach K.C. Keeler’s answer to that question was illuminating because he indicated by the time Keeler got the call Appalachian State already accepted.

That’s all I needed to know because, a week ago, we wrote that’s exactly the way we expected Keeler to answer the question and, if he did, that indicated that the fault was that the Temple administration wasn’t prepared for such a call.

Inexcusable.

This should have been buttoned down long before Bowl Selection Sunday. Johnson should have told President John Fry that the call was possible and that the university should say yes.

Why?

Because I–and almost all of the computer models–felt that Temple would have kicked the living crap out of Georgia Southern (unlike the non-competitive App State squad) and that would have jump-started momentum and possibly season-ticket sales–into the 2026 season.

We will never know because someone higher up than Keeler fumbled the ball.

Now to the good part.

Keeler indicated that he and General Manager Clayton Barnes “met with a group of donors” last week.

My reaction?

“We have donors?”

It’s nearly February, which means the Keelers will return to this boardwalk in Bethany Beach, Delaware for the annual Solar Plunge like this photo from 11 months ago. Hopefully, they will find a Temple grad there with bucoo bucks and a Yacht docked nearby.

As someone who worked his way through Temple on two part-time jobs and slept (maybe) an average of four hours a night and STILL scrounged my couch to find tokens to get to school, hard to believe we have donors.

But, according to Keeler, we do.

(Hell, if I parlayed those tokens and that degree into a multimillion business like the hero who gave $55 million to the College of Heath in October, my $55 million would have gone into the football program and not a penny for the COH or even Temple basketball but I chose the newspaper business about 20 years too late and I’ve returned to my scrounging for tokens days.)

Because, in college football these days, donors might be more important than even players or coaches and their very existence at this so-called “commuter” school is an indication of more wins in the future.

Until sanity is restored, it’s not the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s and the X’s and O’s that win anymore in college football.

It’s the money. If you want to get to the other side, you have to play the game the way it is and not the way you want it to be.

I’ll accept that only for now and hope we get back to room, board and tuition and what amateur sports is supposed to be all about sooner than later.

Monday: The Personnel Piece

One thought on “The Keeler Presser’s Most Surprising Answer”

  1. A shame no one considered the possibility of the bowl invite. It isn’t that it came about overnight. Teams opting out of the mid-level bowls on top not being enough teams that qualified to begin with should have flashed a yellow light in one of the offices in the athletic department for them to get their ducks in a row…just in case.

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