New Temple football coach K.C. Keeler doesn’t want the word ‘rebuild’ associated with his Owls

One thing became crystal clear right away when new Temple football coach K.C. Keeler took the stage in the Fox-Gittis room of the Liacouras Center on Tuesday morning: He’s not interested in rebuilding anything.

“We have to go get this thing right away,” Keeler said at his introductory press conference. “Don’t think we’re going to rebuild here. We’re going to get this done now. There’s no reason we can’t be fighting for conference championships. And by the way, the conference champion in this league, they have a pretty good chance to go play in the playoffs.”

Keeler, the Sam Houston State coach who was hired by the Owls on Sunday, spoke to fans, alumni, and current Temple players publicly for the first time Tuesday.

Keeler vowed to establish a new culture as he was joined by Temple athletic director Arthur Johnson and university president John Fry. Johnson, who spearheaded the search for the coach, said it was critical to move quickly and prioritize experience when picking a successor to the fired Stan Drayton.

“We wanted to find a candidate who was devoted to recruiting and developing young men on the field and in the classroom,” Johnson said. “We had a strong pool of candidates that I was extremely impressed with. But as we went through this process, it became clear that there was one person that checked all of the boxes.”

» READ MORE: New Temple football coach K.C. Keeler quickly improved his previous teams. Can he do it again?

Keeler spent 10 seasons as the head coach at Sam Houston State and helped navigate the program through the transition from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision. Keeler’s Bearkats went 9-3 in the 2024 season after a 3-9 finish in their FBS debut.

Establishing a strong culture from the minute he arrived helped create sustained success and motivate players to stay out of the transfer portal despite limited NIL resources at Sam Houston State. Keeler said the same vision would be required at Temple.

“I’m a culture builder, that’s what I told our team,” Keeler said. “Right now we have a brand, we’re Temple TUFF. I love that. It used to be the 10th and Diamond guys. I also love that and we’re bringing it back. So we have a brand already; now we need to have a culture. That’s not just talking about a brand, you’ve got to live the brand every day.”

During the hiring process, Johnson scheduled one-hour interviews with a select group of finalists. When Keeler left his interview with Johnson, he checked his watch and realized three hours had passed. Both Johnson and Keeler noted that’s when they knew the fit was right.

“That hour conversation turned into three hours, and no one even noticed,” Keeler said. “Then getting to FaceTime with President Fry, he is so engaged and at the same time hollering at the TV because his Eagles are on. They convinced me, and it came from the same voice that Temple is a great university but in order to be greater, they wanted to get football back on track.”

Keeler also alluded to recent public speculation about whether Fry, Temple administrators, and members of the Board of Trustees were committed to football over the long term. Following conversations with Johnson, Fry, and Temple board chair Mitch Morgan, Keeler said speculation surrounding the program’s future is “not a real thing.”

Instead, Keeler said Fry and Johnson talked about how they can use a successful football program to improve Temple as a whole and remedy some broader issues the university faces.

“They’re not making this decision without complete surety,” Keeler said. “The whole ‘will Temple football survive’ question, that’s not a thing. It’s just not a thing. I wouldn’t be coming here if I thought it was a thing. The real messaging is: This is a great university and we need great football.”

Keeler said his first order of business will be establishing his coaching staff, which he hopes to get started on this week. After that he will focus on energizing Temple alumni, students, and fans to buy in to what he hopes to build on North Broad Street.

“There are a lot of very successful Temple alums out there,” Keeler said. “They just need to be cultivated and know that there’s a plan in place and we would like you to be a part of that plan.”

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