Tag Archives: ncaa

03.27.25
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Something positive: Keeler is holding it together

Last year, Stan Drayton allowed Rock, Paper and Scissors between Forrest Brock and Evan Simon to determine the first-team QB reps. Now Rock, Paper and Scissors doesn’t decide anything. Thanks to K.C. Keeler for that.

Let’s face it: College sports is a complete bleep show now.

More players entered the NCAA Division I basketball portal than ever on Thursday (we would give you the exact number but it was 1,700 at noon and 1,887 at 4 p.m. and probably over 2,000 now), including basically the entire Temple University men’s basketball team.

The Scotus decision on the NCAA vs. Alston in 2021 caused complete anarchy in college sports. The transfer portal preceded that but there was very little movement because there was no big money thrown around. Kids used the portal for the reason it was intended–to get playing time at another school when they weren’t getting it at their own.

Have to wonder if Whizzer White–an All-American football player in an era where amateurs dominated college sports–would have agreed with his colleagues if he had lived long enough to remain on the court.

Temple’s major sports have struggled since because the grads are not as deep-pocketed as the products of the SEC and Big 10 schools.

While coaches like Adam Fisher, Stan Drayton, Aaron McKie and Rod Carey haven’t been able to keep a semblance of sanity, probably the most impressive aspect of the first few months is that new head coach K.C. Keeler is holding things together. Make no mistake about it. Demerick Morris can play in the NFL. He is THAT good. He came to the correct conclusion that can be done for a championship coach. He dipped his toe into the water and went to Oklahoma State before deciding he made a mistake.

Maybe it was because of Keeler’s reputation. Maybe it was because of something else, like Keeler sitting down and having a heart-to-heart conversation with every single one of Temple’s scholarship players.

Still, what is unmistakable is Keeler is holding it together at Temple in a way Drayton, Carey and now Fisher haven’t demonstrated.

That’s an improvement in an era where chaos now reigns.

Less chaos probably means more wins for Temple.

Monday: What the awards tell you

Friday: The Last Cherry and White Game Ever?

03.16.25
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Only one way to convince the doubters

Watching the NCAA basketball selection Sunday reaffirmed my doubts about the future of college sports.

You pay to win.

After years of complaining about Cinderellas getting access to the 68-team tournament, the Power 4 finally devised a way to keep out what they see as deplorables.

NIL and transfer portal.

Each year there are less and less Cinderella types and more and more of the bluebloods. The SEC got a record 14 teams in the tournament. The ACC got a team with a Quad 1 record of 1-11.

One and eleven against the best dozen teams on the schedule.

When it comes to Temple football, the outlook is slightly different because college football’s rough equivalent of March Madness is a 12-team tournament and the way things have been structured for awhile, the Temples of the world are not getting into something like that.

All new Temple head coach K.C. Keeler has to do, though, is to make the top 80 teams in the country to create some excitement around here. There are 130 FBS teams and 80 of them make bowl games and that’s a reasonable expectation for Temple football.

After four-straight 3-9 seasons and a 1-6 season before that, getting to a bowl game is going to feel like winning the national championship around here. The top 40 of those bowl teams pay to play but the bottom 40 get there through grit, guile and organization.

So far, Keeler has shown signs of improvement in that latter area yet there are doubters among Temple fans. Some say he’s “too old” and doesn’t fit the profile of a young hungry coach fans were used to under Matt Rhule and Al Golden.

Those were different times, though, where the “young and hungry” coach could recruit high school players, put them in the weight room for a year and redshirt them for another year before they would be ready to shine. Now try that and the player is gone after the “shine” year and Temple gets out of the deal is developing a kid for another program.

One day, maybe far into the future, a more equitable system might be in place but we have our doubts about that.

What we have no doubt about is that Keeler is the right guy for Temple at this time but we won’t know for sure until December.

If he’s able to pull it off, it will be worth the wait.

Next step: Humor

03.14.25
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Temple: One season over, one begins

Like many Temple fans, watched the finale of the Adam Fisher Story on Thursday night as the men’s basketball team lost to Tulsa.

Unacceptable.

Temple is a great school in the only World Heritage City in the United States with nearly 40,000 full-time students and many more famous alumni than Tulsa and Tulsa is in the middle of bum-bleep Oklahoma with only 3,200 full-time students.

If there is a legitimate leadership council at Temple, heads should roll.

That’s a discussion for another time and probably the next Board of Trustees meeting at Sullivan Hall.

One season is over and one is beginning.

Temple is led on the football side by a CEO who proved he knows what he is doing at three separate schools.

There is no reason to believe that won’t happen at a fourth.

On the other hand, Fisher’s major claim to fame was editing videos for Jim Larranaga at Miami.

Pretty wide gap between the two hires.

K.C. Keeler’s first week as a Temple head coach at an “official” spring practice will end tomorrow and there is a lot of good to say about his production.

Temple’s “Employee of the Week” showed an impressive grasp of the personnel under his disposal.

As a hard-core Temple fan for the last four years, I’ve studied the roster pretty well and think I have a firm handle on the ability of the holdovers.

In his first press conference as Temple’s head coach, Keeler demonstrated an “off-the-charts” kind of knowledge of the individual skills of every player who every reporter asked him about. That proves to me he both already studied the film and had an honest sit-down with all 105 scholarship players in the program.

Now all that needs left to be done is a clean evaluation of a month of practice and a further determination of what must be done in the transfer portal to plug a hole here and there.

That’s the kind of knowledge that Stan Drayton never showed in his three years here.

Will it translate into more wins?

That will all be determined by how Keeler’s staff fills the 10 or so holes that will inevitably need to be filled after spring practice is concluded.

Put it this way: I have a lot more confidence in a football guy leading my football program than a video guy leading my basketball program.

Monday: Doubting Thomases

02.27.25
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Football: The Game where coaching matters most

Some great stuff about hockey here but advance to the 41-minute mark for the Keeler comments.

There has been a procession of coaches at Temple throughout the past few years and most gave passing props to the school’s football history or former stars.

Geoff Collins was the most clueless.

Temple’s only Heisman Trophy runner-up, Paul Palmer, applauds the hire of K.C. Keeler. (He hasn’t aged a bit since 1986.)

At a Temple alumni function that coincided with one of his first spring practices, Collins walked up to a bunch of Temple football alumni who were wearing varsity jackets. Collins assumed they were high school coaches who he also invited to the same practice.

“Hey, I’m Geoff Collins, where do you coach?” he said to one.

That one was Temple football Hall of Famer and arguably GOAT Paul Palmer (really, the only other GOAT is Joe Klecko but since this is just for Temple stuff and not for pro football stuff, Palmer’s got to be the guy).

Swing and miss by Collins right in his first at-bat.

Palmer was way too humble to say “I’m Paul Palmer, the greatest Temple player of all time” so instead he said he coached at Haddon Heights (N.J.), which was also true.

Collins had no idea who he was talking to that day.

Al Golden and Matt Rhule both understood and respected Temple history. Golden said when he played at Penn State no team hit him as hard as Temple so he went back to TEMPLE on the helmets to honor that time. Rhule adopted many of the Temple traditions passed on to him by his former boss.

Temple has played football since 1894 and never hired a national championship coach who got that title in Division I or above. That all changed in December and the impact should be felt on the field.

Steve Addazio was the guy who got rid of the greatest helmet in Temple history and put the block T back on it so he also swung and missed on traditions.

When it comes to Temple football, Collins wasn’t the only tone deaf guy but he certainly holds a spot in the Tone Deaf Hall of Fame.

The same certainly cannot be said about new head Temple football coach K.C. Keeler. He not only recognized Temple right away, but said the only reason he didn’t end up at Temple was because Wayne Hardin ran out of scholarships and so he ended up at Delaware.

Good stuff and, yes, he knows who Paul Palmer is.

Came across this great podcast by former Temple tight end Bryant Garvin and Temple fan Monty Moss (give it a like and a sub) talking about Temple’s new coaching hire and Palmer endorses Keeler for all of the right reasons.

Palmer talks about not only what Keeler did at Rowan, Delaware and Sam Houston but his commitment to all three institutions. He makes the very valid point that Keeler is in his mid-60s and that’s not an age where you think about moving on but one where leaving a legacy is more important.

Why not make that legacy at the school where you wanted to be as a 17-year-old kid?

Keeler brings with him all the “how to” stuff he brought to those other schools but the “want to” stuff has always been there with Temple.

The Temple GOAT understands that. The rest of Temple Nation is about to find out.

Monday: An under-the-radar recruit

02.03.25
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Some great players remain in the portal

Hard to believe the number of very good players left in the college football’s transfer portal and, the longer they stay there, the better the chances for a G5 school like Temple to come away with some.

There’s no secret who new Temple portal expert Kyle Pollock should be targeting because the Owls lost two of their better defensive lineman to both portal and graduation and their offensive line struggled in pass protection last season.

Both need to be resupplied.

The top offensive lineman remaining in the portal is Fa’Alili Fa’amore who is a 6-5, 314-pound junior from Wake Forest. He originally signed with Washington State but moved on to Washington.

C.J. James from UTSA was granted an additional year of eligibility due to the Diego Pavia lawsuit. He’s 6-3, 310 pounds and is familiar with Temple. The Owls lost their starting quarterback to a rival conference school from Texas two years ago so turnabout is fair play. K.C. Keeler has plenty of recruiting connections in Texas so maybe he could pull this off.

Hard to believe the number of very good players left in the college football's transfer portal and, the longer they stay there, the better the chances for a G5 school like Temple to come away with some.
Analysts like Bruce Feldman insist the biggest problem with the transfer portal is the belief among players that they will land somewhere. Nearly 50 percent who enter one year find themselves without a home the next.

Kai Greer (6-6, 285) redshirted this year at Georgia Tech and has offers from places like Liberty and Utah State so Temple should probably throw its hat into the ring for him. Temple beat Utah State, 45-29, last year and Keeler beat Liberty, 20-12, as head coach at Sam Houston State.

Those are just a few of the “types” of lineman Temple can and should go after.

The Owls don’t have the same NIL resources many other schools have but they can offer an opportunity for good players who want to bet on themselves to succeed.

Maybe it’s enough. Maybe it’s not, but we will never know unless we try.

Friday: Signing Day Recap

01.30.25
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Next dozen signees could be key to a bowl game

Quarterback Evan Simon is our Jan. 30 choice as the MVP of the 2025 Temple Owls. Here he is working out earlier this week.

Leave it to a future college football Hall of Fame coach to set the bar high for the 2025 Temple Owls.

“While we’re thinking long-term success in the form of championships, the immediate goal is to be in a bowl game now and we think we can do it,” new Temple coach K.C. Keeler said back in early December.

While the Owls have a lot of holdovers capable of leading the charge to fulfill that immediate destiny (we’re thinking quarterback Evan Simon and running back Torrez Worthy here), what they do in the next dozen signings probably will determine that fate.

Hundreds of really good players remain in the portal and there aren’t enough musical chairs for all of them to receive a scholarship, let alone NIL money, and that’s where Temple has to offer a place to sit.

Look at Matt Sluka, the quarterback who left Holy Cross because he said he was promised $300,000 to play at UNLV but instead got nothing once he landed in Las Vegas. Got to give the kid credit for sticking up for principles and leaving in the middle of the season.

The sensible ones at this stage know the smart move is to find a landing spot where tuition, board, housing and what’s called “Cost of Attendance”–usually a stipend of at least $5,000 a year–is provided to the student athletes.

You know, just like the old days.

The not-so-dirty dozen comes in because the Owls now have at least 12 of those scholarships to dangle and playing for Hall of Fame head coach certainly has its appeal.

Think about it.

In the entire history of FCS football, the No. 1 winner is K.C. Keeler with 171 victories. There is no way with that resume he doesn’t join Pop Warner, Wayne Hardin and Paul Palmer has guys with Temple connections in the College Football Hall of Fame.

On top of that, Keeler is a proven FBS winner at Sam Houston State and he looks to pad that resume at Temple.

We don’t have to tell a guy like that what he needs to do. While the Owls lost their two best linebackers, Keeler already has brought in a linebacker who was captain of the Delaware team and another linebacker who had offers from LSU and Alabama and signed with Michigan State before going to Kentucky last year.

In the pre-portal era, Temple could never dream to sign the latter type of player out of high school.

Now there’s a chance for a significant roster upgrade for this coming season.

Bring some P4 backups and FCS stars in here to rebuild the offensive and defensive lines and away we go.

A dozen should do it.

The rest of the roster is fairly well set and, unlike the last six or so years, the coaching is rock solid.

01.24.25
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Good portal news comes in threes for Owls

Owls getting the work done on Tuesday at The Edberg-Olson Football Complex.

For all of the exciting new additions in the transfer portal for Temple football since K.C. Keeler has arrived, maybe the best news is that some of the current Owls have reconsidered.

Maybe that’s the impression Keeler has fostered over his nearly two months here.

Three pretty good Temple players who entered the portal have done the Prodigal Son thing and returned to the Owls.

Khalil Poteat should be an important part of the defense in 2025.

Good news, as well as bad, comes in threes.

Joseph Auzenne, a defensive lineman who played in 10 games, was the latest to return and told OwlsDaily.com’s Shawn Pastor in a text message on Thursday he was “ready to kick ass for the Owls.”

I like the sound of that.

Countries who had citizens view Temple Football Forever in the last two days. Not shown is Saudi Arabia (one view). We need that guy to make a significant NIL contribution to Temple football.

Also, leading rusher Terrez Worthy dipped his toes in the transfer portal water and decided that it was ice cold and is back to compete for the No. 1 tailback job with Jay Ducker.

The third player who tried the portal and returned was opening day starter at left offensive tackle, Kevin Terry. When the guy the past staff trusts at the most important pass protection position on the team comes to that conclusion, it can only help.

Temple is set at quarterback with Evan Simon, a guy who can win an AAC title, and some pretty good receivers and tight ends. The linebacker room is solid and there is a pretty good group in the back end on defense.

Temple needs to replace the best placekicker in the country and that might be the toughest get.

There are still wants and needs because the offensive line should be upgraded and the defensive line has holes created by the portal, but with 11 scholarships left to dangle in the second portal window, Keeler has some currency for good players running out of options.

The portal has been, at least for the last two years, a buyer’s market with way more players in it than available scholarships. That means some really good players should shake free and fall to Temple.

Whoever does, they should be welcomed by a lot of the guys already here who have bought into this new culture.

01.20.25
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Keeler finally showing his recruiting hand

Jay Ducker appears to be the biggest addition so far for K.C. Keeler.
Ty Davis takes an INT to the house for Delaware.

A lot can change in 12 months.

This time in 2024, Temple football Chief of Staff Marcus Berry was talking about having a “good plan” to upgrade the roster.

We learned then that the plan was rooted in 1980s recruiting philosophy where immediate needs were filled by JUCO transfers. Not surprising because head coach Stan Drayton and DC Everett Withers were assistant and head coaches, respectively, back in the 80s and never changed with the times.

New Temple head coach K.C. Keeler was also coaching Rowan in the 1980s but the difference seems to be that Keeler has adjusted to the current reality of the transfer portal and finding talent at higher levels than JUCO.

New Temple LB Jayvant Brown talks about his offers coming out of high school.

As we’ve been preaching in this space for the last two years, the fastest way for Temple upgrade the roster is at levels higher than JUCO, with a special emphasis on disaffected but good P4 backups and FCS stars.

That appears to be the case with the latest additions.

The biggest addition is Jay Ducker, a proven 1,000-yard FBS back at Northern Illinois as a freshman who Keeler is familiar with because he was at Sam Houston State this year. Ducker, who is 5-10, 205, had 1,184 yards in just his freshman year for NIU.

Temple looks like it landed a pair of cornerback starters in Youngstown State’s Jaylen Castleberry and two-year Hampton starter Omar Ibrahim. Castleberry (6-0, 190) was an All-Missouri Conference performer where he had 50 tackles, including five tackles for losses.

On defense, the new 3-4 will be bolstered by a pair of speedy linebackers, Delaware transfer Ty Davis (6-3, 218) and Kentucky transfer Jayvant Brown (6-0, 225). Originally a Michigan State commit, Brown had offers from LSU and Alabama coming out of high school in Florida.

While Keeler also added a backup RB to an All-American at Stony Brook, and a starting quarterback at Robert Morris, those appear to be walk-ons for depth purposes.

The other guys are potential starters and there is not a JUCO in sight.

That’s a new plan better than the old one.

01.12.25
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Walker should turn the LFF scoreboard into an adding machine

This is the way Montana State plays offensive football and the way Temple will going forward.

After three years of watching Stan Drayton’s offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf throw 3-yard swing passes on 3d and 5, Tyler Walker’s approach should be like a breath of fresh air.

Walker is Temple’s new OC and he will be joined by offensive line coach Al Johnson.

There are a couple of strong signals in those hires for Temple football fans.

One, there is no indication that either one of those coaches had a prior relationship with new Temple head coach K.C. Keeler. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing, as Drayton showed by his hires that he was more wedded to hiring friends than he was to the overall advancement of the Temple program.

He made one of those friends, Everett Withers, his Chief of Staff and then gave Withers carte blanche to hire a staff that included three of Withers’ assistants at Texas State University. Withers was fired there after a 2-10 season.

Losers beget losing and that’s exactly what happened at Temple.

Huge red flag.

Arthur Johnson and John Frey have to be pleased with K.C. Keeler’s staff additions.

Hire the best people, not the guys that you feel comfortable having a conversation with by the Edberg Olson coaches office water cooler.

Keeler has signaled he is willing to do the former, not the latter. Drayon never did.

Two, the frustrating offensive system that caused Temple fans to pull their hair out is no more. That means a unique RPO game based on establishing the run first and then throwing off fakes to the running backs that results in explosive downfield plays in the passing game.

Too often, especially with immobile quarterback E.J. Warner, Langsdorf tried to force a square peg into a round hole–hoping a short passing game would open up running lanes on draw plays.

That never worked because the Owls could never convince defenses their running game was a threat.

That’s where Johnson comes in because the Montana State offensive line coach and new Temple one, realizes that some beef is necessary to move the ball on the ground first.

Fortunately, he had a mobile quarterback who won the Walter Payton Award as FCS Player of the Year but still that mobile quarterback threw for 29 touchdowns against only two interceptions.

Contrast that to Warner’s best year at Temple–23 TDs, 13 interceptions.

In case you didn’t notice what happened in the NFL on Sunday, winning teams only win when they cut the number of mistakes to as close to zero as possible.

Temple QB Evan Simon may not be as mobile as the Montana State QB, but he has functional mobility and a knack to protect the football.

Even if the Owls don’t get a super mobile QB in the transfer portal, Simon can run this kind of offense and maybe even draw some NFL eyes with it.

Drayton proved that hiring losers begets losing and Keeler is determined to show hiring winners will do the exact opposite. Sounds like a plan.

Friday: High-Profile Reunion

Monday: Five Most Impactful Newcomers

Friday: Wants and Needs

01.10.25
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What Thursday’s semifinal said about the state of Temple football

Some TU fans say this guy can’t throw. This film indicates otherwise.

What a difference a decade makes …

That’s what we learned most from Thursday night’s 27-24 Notre Dame win over Penn State in a national football semifinal.

Temple’s Brandon Shippen, right, scores against Notre Dame’s Max Redfield, left, in the 2015 game.

Especially from the Temple football perspective.

One decade ago Temple routed Penn State, 27-10, in front of a strongly pro-Temple sellout crowd at Lincoln Financial Field.

About a month and 25 days later, No. 21-ranked Temple took No. 9-ranked Notre Dame down to the wire before safety Will Hayes jumped the wrong way allowing William Fuller with 1:07 left to catch the game-winning touchdown pass in a 24-20 ND win.

That crowd was more evenly split but another LFF sellout.

That game was the highest-rated game ever in the Philadelphia TV market for college football.

We will see by Friday whether that game withstood the test of time and beat Thursday’s night’s game in Philly.

Either way, that was a magical year for Temple and, to be honest, something we probably will never see again through no fault of Temple.

That’s the perfect way to illustrate where we are with Temple football. The big boys with the big money will always get the players and the Temples of the world will get the discarded scraps.

Even though K.C. Keeler is a great coach, the best he can hope to do is recruit P4 castoffs and make some noise in the G5.

That’s OK because even in that environment Temple can win and compete for G5 championships.

It’s not 2015 but it certainly beats the alternative.

Winning in football at the level Temple currently plays at should be the goal and not competing for national championships.

There are still a lot of good things that can be accomplished at that level, including energizing the alumni and getting them out to more games than just Homecoming.

Look at it this way: A few months ago people were talking about dropping football being a viable option at Temple.

No more.

All the Temple administration had to do was hire a definite college football Hall of Fame head coach in K.C. Keeler and then start recruiting players like the Michigan backup quarterback (Alex Orji) who visited Temple this week. My personal feeling is that he reminds me of Quincy Patterson and Walter Washington, a run/first, pass/second quarterback. In a fair QB battle, my money is on Evan Simon. Temple can win with Evan Simon. Not so sure about Alex Orji but if these coaches trust him, I trust them.

Temple is bringing in championship-level coaches not only in Keeler (who won national titles at Delaware and Sam Houston) but the offensive coordinator at Montana State and his OL coach.

Certainly better than the coaches we’ve had the last three years with the possible exceptions of Chris Wiesehan (OL), Tyree Foreman (RB) and Adam Schierer (ST). Those were objectively good coaches who got overruled by incompetent ones.

Keeler is bringing in his own guys and that’s exciting.

It’s also exciting that he’s bringing in P4 guys who were recruited at a high level but stuck behind better talent. They have a chip on their shoulder that will be on display game days.

They might not be able to win there but they can certainly win here.

We’ll always have 2015 and 2016 but getting back there isn’t realistic in the current environment. Getting back to respectability certainly is and that’s something we haven’t seen since 2019.

After 1-6, 3-9, 3-9, 3-9 and 3-9 it’s about damn time.

Monday: A Deep Dive Into Temple’s New Offense