{"id":426654,"date":"2024-12-02T18:16:21","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T18:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=426654"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Temple-tabs-K-C-Keeler-to-rebuild-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Temple-tabs-K-C-Keeler-to-rebuild-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple tabs K.C. Keeler to rebuild program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Temple hired K.C. Keeler as its new coach on Sunday. Keeler led Sam Houston State to a 9-3 overall mark and 6-2 in Conference USA play this season in the school&#8217;s second campaign at the FBS level. &#8220;Coach Keeler has a track record of evaluating, recruiting and developing student-athletes into championship-level young men,&#8221; Temple athletic director Arthur Johnson said in a statement. &#8220;His leadership, experience and the culture he establishes within programs are exactly what Temple football needs as we look to return to prominence in the competitive college football landscape.&#8221; Overall, Keeler was 97-39 in 11 seasons at Sam Houston. His squad went 10-0 in the shortened 2020 season due to COVID-19 and won the FCS national championship. Keeler, 65, also won a national championship in 2003 during an 11-year stint (2002-12) at Delaware. One of the players he coached during his time with the Blue Hens was Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Flacco. &#8220;I am beyond thrilled to be named Temple University&#8217;s next head football coach,&#8221; Keeler, a native of Emmaus, Pa., said in the news release. &#8220;I would like to thank Arthur Johnson and President John Fry for this incredible opportunity. Their shared vision and enthusiasm for returning this program to greatness has been contagious. I&#8217;m eager to get to work to bring that vision to fruition for the Cherry and the White. It&#8217;s a perfect fit and it feels great to be coming back home!&#8221; Flacco is looking forward to seeing how his former coach fares with the Owls. &#8220;Coach Keeler took a chance on me 20 years ago and I&#8217;ll never forget that,&#8221; Flacco said in the news release. &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t be more excited for him and his family. If you&#8217;re an Owls fan, I&#8217;d be excited. He has been a winner everywhere he&#8217;s been.&#8221; Keeler will replace Stan Drayton, who went 9-25 in three seasons before being fired last month. Defensive coordinator Everett Withers coached the final two games &#8212; both losses &#8212; as Temple finished 3-9 overall and 2-6 in American Athletic Conference play. &#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/48adec92b391b0bfd8c318cd4361f14d.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Sep 3, 2022; College Station, Texas, USA; Sam Houston State Bearkats head coach K.C. Keeler watches warm ups prior to the game against the Texas A&amp;M Aggies at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>-Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Temple hired K.C. Keeler as its new coach on Sunday. Keeler led Sam Houston State&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}