Tag Archives: K.C. Keeler

03.30.26
by

Hunter Smith: Temple’s home run hitter

Hunter Smith never played baseball but had a knack for the long ball going back to his high school days here.

Almost lost in the pages of notes on Temple’s official website was the fact that last year’s Mr. Outside was being left out of contact drills this spring.

Not to worry, though. There’s no injury involved just a preservation of talent, a decision made by head coach K.C. Keeler.

Hunter Smith almost took this to the house against Tulsa. Radical idea: Let’s wear these uniforms every game. At least these same helmets.

Hunter Smith, who led the Sun Belt Conference in rushing in the 2023 season, was the Glenn Davis to Jay Ducker’s Doc Blanchard (that’s a 1940s reference) and gave Temple an effective 1-2 punch … but he wasn’t the home run hitter for the offense last year.

Evan Simon, who threw 24 touchdowns against two interceptions, was.

Given Temple’s quarterback history and the inexperience of the current QB room, it’s unrealistic to give that moniker to the new quarterbacks.

First of all, Simon’s season was historic and bettered anything at least from a stats standpoint that P.J. Walker, Adam DiMichele, Anthony Russo, E.J. Warner or even Maxwell Award-winning quarterback Steve Joachim did.

To get that kind of season two years in a row is unrealistic when it never happened before.

However, it is realistic to expect more from Smith because his role should be expanded. He won’t have to share carries with Jay Ducker so his chance to hit more “home runs” and, as an RB, finding that crease and taking it to the house.

Temple fans saw glimpses of that last year when he had a 65-yard touchdown against Howard and a 54-yard touchdown against UTSA. His 74-yard run at Tulsa set the Owls up with a first-and-goal at the 1 and that’s when OC Tyler Walker got away from the plan (give the tough inside carries to Ducker) and tried to “reward” Smith with the TD by giving it to him the next three times. (Keeler denied that but Ducker was ready and available but not used.) Put it this way: Why give the ball to a guy who had to be gassed after a 72-yard run? Ducker had to be scratching his head.

Now the Owls have to find a guy to fill the inside role that Ducker had and they have plenty of candidates for that. As far as Smith’s role, though, he’s healthy and ready for a great final season and Keeler is wise not to take any chances with spring contact for his version of Kyle Schwarber.

Nobody wanted Schwarbs to pull a hammy in Clearwater and if Smith is going to get any contact, it should come in summer camp.

Friday: One Week to Cherry and White

03.26.26
by

Saboor Karriem: Temple football’s spring sensation

This is the type of guy Temple would have never had a chance to recruit in the pre-portal era.

Shockingly, there is a flip side of the portal.

Not enough to overcome the other side, which is really bad, but enough to open some eyes.

Flip side, meet Saboor Karriem.

Saboor Karriem kicked USC’s ass last year with 10 tackles (7 solos) in a win over the No. 21-ranked team in the country. Maybe he can do the same to Matt Campbell’s first Penn State team.\

Remember that name. It’s pronounced SUH BOR KUH REEM and he’s going to make a lot of plays on the field for the 2026 Temple Owls.

Our motto on this website has always been and always will be judge players not by their potential but by what they have done.

That’s why we’re not big fans of the current quarterback room but are big fans of the running back room, offensive line and wide receiver room.

Now add at least one safety to that equation.

Karriem wowed the camp with at least one interception where he flew airborne, caught the ball, and landed with both feet inbounds closing on a ball he had no business getting to in the first place. That’s athleticism personified. A tremendously athletic play a Big 10 impact player would make and maybe not someone even an American Conference stalwart could do.

Karriem is the sensation of spring camp which started three weeks ago. On the day after he had that interception, he locked down an exceptional Temple wide receiver group.

He’s pretty much done the same thing all spring from a safety position.

As good as Karriem is, OwlsDaily.com’s Shawn Pastor has him listed as No. 2 on his mock safety depth chart behind last year’s starter, Avery Powell. That’s a good thing, not a bad one. Powell was game captain against Charlotte (a 48-14 win), intercepted Owen McCown in a 27-21 win over UTSA and tied for first in the nation (not the conference) in three fumbles recovered.

Something tells me a coach as accomplished as K.C. Keeler might find a way to get both on the field at the same time for Temple.

While Powell might have been the kind of guy Temple got in the past, Karriem is not and maybe that kind of talent infusion will make a difference.

Hell, we hope so.

Monday: Temple’s Kyle Schwarber

03.22.26
by

Stopping the run: The Return of the Nose Guard

Jaylon Joseph’s pass rushing skills at Lafayette got him named to the Jerry Rice Watch Lists as the best player in FCS. Temple fans will get to see those skills this fall.

The biggest difference between some of the positions listed on the Temple football roster this spring versus last year at this time is the return of the nose guard designation.

It’s been awhile and it might have something to do with the realization among the Temple brain trust that sending more bodies up the middle against the service academies takes away the fullback and forces action from sideline to sideline.

Matt Rhule learned that lesson the hard way in the 2016 opener as Phil Snow played a conventional 4-3 defense against Army and the Cadets were able to come away with a 28-16 win as the fullback ran at will up the middle.

To Rhule’s credit, he improvised and adjusted a dozen games later. Averee Robinson–a three-time Pennsylvania State champion heavyweight wrestler–took the nose in a 5-2 defense and dominated the Navy center. The Middies gave up the fullback that game and strung the pitches from sideline to sideline, where Temple’s superior and quicker athletes (including Hasson Riddick and Sean Chandler) were able to shut that down as well in a 34-10 championship win.

What were listed as DTs last year on the roster (there is no official depth chart listed yet) are now NGs and that’s a sign that the Owls are serious about beating the academies. Or at least more serious.

There are plenty of issue on the defensive line still. Among them who is going to be as effective a rush end as Cam Stewart? Who is going to replace Khalil Poteat, Sultan Badmas and Sekou Kromah?

In the opening spring press conference, head coach K.C. Keeler said that the Owls were able to “retain all of our starters” and he felt that Temple was the only team in the G5 able to do that. What he left out, though, was the fact that Kromah was a starter who left because he ran out of eligibility (and the oft-injured Badmus and Poteat were impact backups).

When JaMair Diaz was at Glenville State, he was up for Division II player of the year and had a dozen sacks as a sophomore.

Now the Owls have to look for impact guys to replace them and there are question marks all over the place.

One of the exclamation points is that it looks like the Owls will go to a 5-2 with two DTs, a NG and two DEs which should help them up front against the service academies. The Owls have three nose guards vying for the starting job in the middle and those are Joseph Auzenne (6-1, 295), Penn State transfer Kaleb Artis (6-4, 315) and Troy Cunningham (6-3, 265). Auzenne has the most experience but his season high for tackles came in the Georgia Tech game (only three). Artis sat out the 2025 season with an injury and Cunningham waited until the last game of the season (North Texas) to see game action.

Other interiors include redshirt sophomore Russell Sykes is listed as a DT. He’s got the requisite size (6-3, 260) but he’s light on experience. He only had one sack and six tackles in the 2025 season.

Not a whole lot of real game experience except for the rush ends like All-Patriot League DE Jaylon Joseph (Lafayette) and Sam Houston State transfer JaMair Diaz, who was once DII Player of the Year at Glenville State. On paper, those might be upgrades over Poteat and Stewart.

Might.

The maddening thing is that we won’t know for sure this spring or even in the summer because between now and then it’s the good guys vs. the good guys.

As with a lot of positions on the 2026 Owls, we will have to wait until the real games are played.

03.19.26
by

Karma comes to Poteat, Kromah, and Badmas

K.C. Keeler trusted Sekou Kromah enough to take him to AAC Media Day with Evan Simon. Kromah stabbed Keeler in the back by entering the portal and now he is completely out of college football. Blame the white helmets. They are bad news both on and off the field. That’s the very definition of Karma.

Hard to believe three of Temple’s best defensive linemen in the 2025 season dipped their toes in the transfer portal.

One, Sultan Badmus, ended up in an objectively (not subjectively) worse place than Temple (Arkansas State).

The other two (Khalil Poteat and Kromah) are probably out of eligibility due to the courts clamping down on some previous lose eligibility requirements for JUCO players.

Hard to believe, Harry (Donahue) because the courts had been so inclined to give unlimited eligibility to a lot of players.

Had they remained at Temple, the fact that a staff led by the current winningest active Division I head coach (K.C. Keeler) going to bat for them might have convinced the court to grant their JUCO appeals and at least given Badmas a more high-profile landing spot than Arkansas State. Had Badmus landed at the real Arkansas (and not the State part) that would have been an upgrade from Temple.-

Even in a 5-7 rebuild, Temple would have probably beaten the 2025 version of Arkansas State (yeah, we know they made a bowl) but three touchdowns. They might beat the 2026 version by six touchdowns.

Pretty much oblivion for Badmus now when he could have gone out on a high note.

Sad, because a Badmus pressure in the UTSA game led to his tipped ball and a Temple interception deep in Owl territory of a 27-21 win. Sad, also because Poteat and Kromah generated the second-half pressures that made life miserable for UTSA quarterback Owen McCown.

Jadan Blue did all kinds of good things at Temple. He didn’t do anything at Virginia Tech.

Badmas was probably thinking Arkansas after he decided to go into the portal. Going from Temple to Arkansas State is a little like going from Syracuse to Buffalo.

Swing and a miss.

To drop down to a less prestigious G5 league than the American definitely was an impulsive move. He blew his chance to have a great game against Penn State at home before a split crowd of 70K fans and instead his NFL tape will rest on what he does at TCU, the same 70K fans all rooting for the bad (but not Badmus) guys. There is no way you can tell me Arkansas State is paying him more than Temple would have in the NIL. Say, for argument, that Temple was willing to pay $100,000 and Arky State $150,000. No way that should have been enough to move from the best G5 league to the third best.

So Karma is playing a part again for another player who left Temple.

We all know what happened to Jadan Blue. He went from being an NFL prospect at WR and the leading pass catcher in Temple history to transferring to Virginia Tech and catching only 10 passes the next season. He completely dropped off the NFL radar.

Karma again.

Stay at Temple, play for a great coach like Keeler, and put yourself on the NFL Draft radar.

Leave, seek riches elsewhere, and you could end up homeless.

It’s a cautionary tale for current Temple players and moreso for future ones.

Monday: The Replacements

03.15.26
by

March Madness: Knocking Temple football

The best part about this are the fans coming to the defense of Temple football in the comments.

At about this time every year, there is usually a post-mortem on the Temple basketball season and there will always be some wise guy basketball fan who blames Temple football for the basketball team’s woes.

Newsflash: Nobody on the Temple football team plays on the Temple basketball team anymore and the two teams are separate entities with separate revenue streams.

The failure of Temple basketball rests solely on Temple basketball. Temple football can take care of its own business.

The latest “wise guy” is a basketball expert named Aaron Bracy who said “basketball” was the school’s brand and that somehow football was hurting it.

One, who says “basketball” is the school’s brand?

Two, how is football “hurting” basketball?

John Chaney is from a generation ago and even he–as great a coach as he was–wouldn’t within get a sniff of the NCAA tournament if he had to coach with the transfer portal and NIL as a handicap.

So basketball might have been the brand then, but it certainly is not the brand now.

What has the Temple football program done since Chaney coached his last game?

Qualified for a bowl game nine times in a period of 10 years.

Appeared in two AAC title games, winning one.

Hosted College Football’s Game Day.

Nobody is stopping Temple basketball from hiring the winningest active Division I head coach in that sport.

Attracted the largest TV audience ever to watch a prime-time college football game in the Philadelphia market and that’s including regular and post-season games and that’s a record Temple still holds.

Played and won a league championship game 121 miles away from Philadelphia and attracted a crowd of 10,000 of the 22,232 for that game, making Temple’s 34-10 win essentially a home game.

What are the chances of Temple basketball playing a game 100 miles away and enticing 10,000 Temple fans to make the trip?

Zero.

I like Temple basketball as much as the next guy (but, admittedly nowhere near as much as I like Temple football) but never once did I ever consider blaming the football program for basketball’s woes.

They both play in the same league and they both can win the same league.

The football Owls brought home an AAC championship trophy on the team bus in 2016. Admittedly, that was a decade ago but it’s also something Temple basketball has never done. Hell, the basketball practice facility cost twice as much to build as the football practice facility, and both were built this century.

They have the same chance to do what football did and it’s time for them to do it.

On their own, without pointing the finger anywhere else.

03.08.26
by

5 Things We’d Like to See From Spring Ball

If the Owls beat Penn State this season, expect the drums to start beating for their own stadium like this one on the river

When you spend every March in Philadelphia, as I have (except for the few March months I covered the Phillies), there are certain signs of spring.

One, Rita’s Water Ice opens every March 1.

Two, there is a first sunset after 7 p.m. (Sunday).

Three, Temple starts spring football practice.

Can Phillies opening day be far behind? (Spoiler alert: It will be on us in a flash.)

Temple’s spring practice begins on Tuesday and ends with Cherry and White Day a month from now and we can tell you right now that the only significant outcome will be dibs on first- and second-team spots on the depth chart.

To say that you can determine what the Owls will do in the regular season based on that is really premature but there are some position battles that should be interesting.

Quarterback

Evan Simon set the bar high for the next QB.

We should see separation between Jaxon Smolik and Ajani Sheppard by Cherry and White Day. Expect one to quarterback the Cherry team and one to quarterback the White team. Right now, it’s a 50/50 shot who starts the opener against Rhode Island. Will it be that way in August? Something tells me one of the guys coming in during the summer, Lamar Best, balls out. If he does, it will be hard to keep that “it factor” off the field.

Pass rushers

Plenty of prospects to replace the reliable group of Cam’ron Stewart, Sultan Badmus, Khalil Poteat and Sekou Kromah but just as many suspects. To me, the key to winning in college football is keeping your quarterback’s jersey clean and getting the bad guy’s quarterback dirty and Temple did that in its most significant win, a 26-21 job over a UTSA team destroyed league champion Tulane, 48-26. Getting the guys who replicate that feat on a MORE consistent basis than that one game will be the difference between another 5-7 season and a 7-5 one.

Tight End

1,000 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns should be enough to get Peter Clarke drafted in the first round.

Temple has the best tight end in the country returning in Peter Clarke (IMHO) and he has a chance to become the next Owl drafted in the NFL’s first round. Still, as good as Clarke is, he wasn’t the starter in the opening game last season (spring sensation Ryder Kusch was). Does Temple go two tight ends to jumpstart the running game? That’s an option for the Owls to work on this spring.

Kick returner

Temple had one of the best punt returners in the country in JoJo Bermudez last season. Question is do you use your best wide receiver on punt returns again or find someone else? I think redshirt freshman Tylik Mitchell is one of the many who can fit that role. He ran a 10.7, 100 meters in high school. How fast is that? Former Temple superstar running back Bernard Pierce WON the PIAA state indoor 100 meters as a high school senior at Glen Mills with a 10.8. Mitchell was an elusive running back in North Carolina, so he’s got the same “twitch” to his return game that Bermudez has.

Secondary

The Owls have always had transfers come in to take up key spots and this year is no exception. Purdue transfer Earl Culp should be able to compete for a starting spot as should Asa Locks. There’s always room for a wild card to impress.

Friday: Second Seasons

Monday: Under Attack

03.05.26
by

Now’s the time to predict 2026: A one-game improvement

I can’t believe Parker Navarro is still in the portal but I know Temple is the perfect place for him.

Going into this transfer portal season we outlined the “type” of quarterback Temple needed to get in order to compete for the American Conference championship.

That quarterback was an FCS superstar or a capable “star” FBS quarterback looking for a tick up in competition.

Temple, for all of its transfer portal successes, failed to get that guy. Instead, they got a couple of guys who only proved that they couldn’t get on the field for P4-type teams. Not only didn’t they get a proven FBS starter, but in terms of receipts, they didn’t get someone with the pedigree of Evan Simon (starter at Rutgers) nor Gevani McCoy (starter at Oregon State), last year’s 1-2 punch.

So while they improved at a lot of positions they regressed at the most important position on the field.

Not good.

So, sadly, I don’t see the Owls competing for an American Conference title but there is room for improvement and I do see the Owls improving incrementally.

At my age, that isn’t fast enough but I will take the small wins when I can get them.

Why are we not waiting until May? It looks like all the players are in place now and they will compete only against themselves between now and Cherry and White Day.

Parker Navarro, a quarterback who does fit all the qualifications of an AAC championship quarterback, is still in the portal.

It doesn’t have to be Navarro, whose eligibility issue is up in the air but someone like him.

We can only hope but I think Temple is done at QB. I hope I’m wrong.

We predict 6-6 without Navarro or someone like him.

With an inexperienced starter, or someone like him, I see the Owls winning 9-10 games and getting into the AAC championship game.

I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Temple is done and going with six quarterbacks. None to me have the “it” factor with the possible exception of Lamar Best, who arrives in July.

So we’re going under the assumption that Temple is done at the quarterback position.

I see the Owls beating Rhode Island (55-10), losing to Penn State (35-14), beating Toledo (17-13), losing to Army (24-21), losing at South Florida (55-24), beating UConn (17-10), beating Charlotte (48-23), losing at East Carolina (36-19), losing at Navy (17-14), beating UAB (21-14), beating Rice (28-17) and losing at Memphis (35-21).

That’s 6-6 and the very definition of mediocrity. As Wayne Hardin once said, “mediocrity is not my cup of tea.”

Nor mine.

An experienced guy is out there. With him, I see a more competitive game against Penn State, wins at USF at home vs. Army and at Navy and a possible win at Memphis. That’s not 6-6 nor mediocrity.

Go get him or expect meh when “yeah” should have been the Year Two goal all along.

Monday: 5 Things We’d Like to See From Spring Ball

Friday: The New Bowl System and Temple

02.12.26
by

Interpreting the Tyler Douglas departure

In this day and age, checking the Temple football roster on a daily basis is an unfortunate task for close fans of the team.

A simple check a few days ago by OwlsDaily.com’s Shawn Pastor came up with this gem.

Last year’s third-string quarterback–and the second-string quarterback two years ago–is not on the team.

Tyler Douglas.

When will this madness end?

I hate having to check the roster every few days, let alone every day but this is the college football world we live in right now.

Pastor said he reached out to Temple and the program has no comment on the situation.

This is where we are, though.

Douglas was a much-heralded recruit from the same school (Ocean Township, N.J.) that former Temple commit (and NFL quarterback) Kenny Pickett came from.

Much was expected, but little was gained.

Douglas was famous for two plays in his entire career at Temple, both bad.

One was a fourth-and-goal fumble on a tush push at the goal-line that would have given Temple a “sure” win at bowl-bound UConn in 2024 and the other was a botched up fake reverse pass at Army last year in a 14-13 loss. (The UConn thing was not my call. Mine was a Sam Cunningham-style leap with Terrez Worthy that would have worked but I wasn’t OC that day. As far as the Army call, I would have made it with Kajiya Hollawayne on the first play of the game. The reasoning was simple: Hollawayne was a 4* UCLA QB recruit and Douglas wasn’t.)

Two plays.

Two disasters.

Yet, by all accounts, he was/is a good guy so when Temple head coach K.C. Keeler told him he was no longer in his quarterback plans, if he entered the transfer portal, he would get a waiver to come back if nothing happened.

Nothing happened so Douglas ostensibly accepted Keeler’s offer to come back and compete for a wide receiver’s job.

Ostensibly, because one day Douglas was here and the next day he’s gone.

What does that mean for the 2026 Owls? To me, Keeler was being a nice guy allowing Douglas to return but, unlike him, I didn’t see too much playing time for Douglas at WR.

Maybe the Douglas camp came to the same conclusion.

Our stats are skyrocketing right now. Thanks to the fans of this website.

If so, that means Temple can upgrade the roster with a “real” receiver if it wants or save that scholarship for a bigger need, like pass rusher on the defensive side.

According to Feb. 6 data, Missouri edge rusher Damon Wilson–who had 3 1/2 sacks at Georgia–is still available, as is Ohio QB Parker Navarro and San Jose State QB Walker Eget and both quarterbacks have more receipts than Douglas.

Hell, they have more receipts than any of the six quarterbacks currently on the Temple roster.

My interpretation of both the Douglas situation and what Keeler has done so far indicates that they may be done at QB, but open to any other impact player.

Wilson would be that kind of guy who overshot his self worth parachute and pulled the backup parachute plug and could end up at Temple.

Hopefully, Keeler and Clayton Barnes are looking to the sky right now.

02.09.26
by

One way to spice up the 2026 Temple season: Trickeration

The original “Philly Special” that inspired the next Philly Special.

Believe it or not, “trickeration” is a word.

The Oxford Dictionary lists it as meaning “deception” and indicates the word is used “less than 0.01” percent of the time in the English language with almost all of those references in U.S. English.

With Temple football recently, the word is used less than that.

Maybe 0.00.

If K.C. Keeler and Stan Drayton have one thing in common, it’s that they haven’t really pulled out a successful trick play over the last two seasons. Keeler was asked about that by Shawn Pastor and said: “I don’t like to use them when we’re not playing well.”

To that, I say: There is always the first play of the game.

Keeler tried one at Army late in the game with third-string quarterback Tyler Douglas throwing a reverse pass that was blown up when the Cadets’ leader on defense yelled out “hey, watch 14 with the pass. He’s their backup quarterback.”

For the past two years we were screaming for 4* UCLA quarterback recruit Kaija Hollawayne to put that arm to use but those calls fell on deaf ears. To me, the key part of the trick there is that we know he was a UCLA QB recruit and the Temple coaches know, but the bad guys don’t.

The bad guys certainly knew Douglas was a quarterback and that’s why that play didn’t work.

Deception is the key and, to me, trick plays might not help Temple but they certainly couldn’t hurt.

P.J. “You want to do North Philly, North Philly?” Matt” “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Almost all of the time Matt Rhule used one it worked out.

One year we casually reminded Matt that Jalen Fitzpatrick was the starting QB for the Big 33 game and he hadn’t thrown a pass while playing wide receiver at Temple.

“Don’t be surprised if you see him throw one this year,” Matt told both me and John Belli at the season-ticket holder party. Midway through the season, Fitzpatrick threw a 95-yard touchdown off a double-reverse at SMU, which remains the longest pass completion in Temple history.

ESPN did a show on the “Philly Special” on Friday night where Doug Pederson said “he saw first saw the play in a college game” and then saw the Bears use it in the regular season.

The college game?

Penn State at Temple, 2015. A wide receiver reverse to a high school quarterback named John Christopher, who hit QB P.J. Walker out of the backfield.

That’s why it was called the Philly Special because Temple used it first. The Eagles version also featured a high school quarterback, backup tight end Trey Burton, throwing the pass.

Real football games started on a Aug. 30 and ended last night with the Super Bowl.

Some of the games were more boring than others, including the last one. Trick plays add some spice to the equation, and they work more often than not.

At Temple, they’ve almost always worked and sometimes helped bridge a talent gap.

We talk about bringing back the good old days to Temple and one way would be bringing back those fun plays that led to big gains and even bigger wins.

02.02.26
by

The day K.C. Keeler beat Curt Cignetti

Buried in a covid season that forced the FCS to schedule spring ball was one of the few losses national championship Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti had in the last five years.

Buried in a covid season that forced the FCS to schedule spring ball was one of the few losses national championship Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti had in the last five years.
K.C. Keeler beat Curt Cignetti in the FCS semifinals and went on to win the natty in 2021 at SHS.

K.C. Keeler got the 2021 win, coaching his Sam Houston State team to a 38-35 triumph in a FCS playoff semifinal against Cignetti’s James Madison team despite being down, 24-3, at halftime.

That’s a lot of halftime adjustments.

What does it mean for Temple moving forward?

Keeler showed that given his ability to improvise and adjust, once he gets “his guys” here, the future is bright for the Owls.

Put it this way: Temple outscored a lot of good teams in the second half (North Texas, Georgia Tech and UTSA) but got wins in only one of them: UTSA.

That was Keeler working with Stan Drayton’s guys.

The only “Keeler guy” brought in with him was Jay Ducker, who nearly became Temple’s first 1,000-yard back since Ray Davis in 2019.

Cignetti talks with Oregon coach Dan Lanning, who was a former Keeler assistant at Sam Houston State.

Now Keeler is identifying more talent to fit what schemes he, OC Tyler Walker and DC Brian Smith want to run and some improvement from Year One to Year Two can be expected. For example, he’s brought in for the first time all of his quarterbacks and they all have a proven level of mobility at least better than last year’s starter Evan Simon. Walker always wanted to use the quarterbacks’ legs as a weapon, and he will have that option this year. He had to scale back on that part of the playbook in 2025.

If any of them display Simon’s accuracy and leadership abilities to go with that mobility, that is the guy who will win the job.

That’s really when halftime adjustments kick into play, getting your Jimmies closer in ability to their Joes and having a coach like Keeler who has matched wits with the best in the business, including Cignetti.

Ironically, Cignetti–a former Temple QB coach–could never dream during that postgame handshake five years ago that Keeler would one day work at the same school.

Maybe the next time they meet, if they ever do, they can trade 10th and Diamond and 12th and Norris War stories.

For now, though, Keeler has won the last battle and that should be impressive enough for Temple fans.

Friday: Closer to Spring Ball