KC Keeler recognized things needed to change when he arrived at Temple. And it went beyond acquiring talent.
Going into the 2025 season, Keeler’s first as Temple’s head coach, he sought the trust of his new players.
For four and a half days, he met with each of them individually. He listened. He was transparent, asserting he couldn’t meet every request. But he wanted his team to know he was paying attention.
One thing became apparent rapidly. Some were anxious or uncertain about their meal plans. Temple’s staff addressed it, and players started receiving $500 more per month for food, Keeler said. Training table meals were also made available to them.
“And so right away they felt heard,” Keeler told HERO Sports. “And so I thought it was really powerful that I could do something right off the bat and they said, ‘Hey, you know what? There’s not lip service here. This guy listens to us. This guy hears us.’ I think that was really important.”
Temple went 5-7 in Keeler’s inaugural season as its head coach. But the program had indisputably showcased improvement in that season. There’s no denying things were different at Temple a season ago. And there’s reason to believe Temple will be even better in 2026.
“Not only do we have a strong core of veteran players that came back, we also have the whole coaching staff and all the recruiting staff coming back. All the trainers are back,” Keeler said. “I think we added a pretty talented group. So we feel like there’s a pretty good blank canvas to paint on right now, and I think we have high expectations of what we can do with this team.”
KC Keeler’s Arrival At Temple
Keeler arrived at Temple from Sam Houston, where he went 97-39 in 11 years. The Bearkats made it to the FCS playoffs six times and went undefeated during the COVID-delayed spring season of 2021 en route to a national title.
He also helped the program transition to the FBS. In Keeler’s last season at Sam Houston, the Bearkats went 9-3, earning bowl-eligibility in just their second season after moving up. From 2002-12, he was the head coach at Delaware, which made it to three FCS championship games with one title victory in 2003.
And now he’s at Temple, which endured four consecutive 3-9 seasons from 2021-24 as well as a 1-6 season in 2020. The last time the Owls played in a bowl game was 2019 when they went 8-5 overall in Rod Carey’s first year.
So playing in bowl games and winning the American appeared unrealistic when Keeler took over. And that’s exactly what Keeler confessed to being: unrealistic.
He wanted his players to be unrealistic, too. Winning more than three games seemed to be exactly that. But it wasn’t.
In fact, the Owls lost by just one point to both Army and Navy. At 5-7 and 3-5 in American Conference play, if either of those games had gone differently, the Owls would’ve been looking at bowl-eligibility and a .500 record in the league standings.
Keeler pointed out Temple’s 52-25 loss at North Texas in the Owls’ regular-season finale. They lost fairly decisively. But at halftime, Keeler highlighted the significance of playing until the end and how much that would mean for the program moving forward.
Temple outscored North Texas 18-17 after intermission. Keeler realizes that might be a “nothing burger” for others in a game that was otherwise out of reach.
But it was important for the Owls. They weren’t giving up.
“There’s a lot of little things that you do to make a program take a jump forward,” Keeler said.
Pouring into the players’ education was another one of those things, in Keeler’s mind. When he first arrived, he sensed apprehension from returning players who wondered what their future would be. Would they be cut and therefore incapable of finishing their schooling?
“I’m going to help you get your Temple degree,” he remembered telling them. “And as long as you follow my lead and you do the right things, we’re all going to work this out together. So I think that develops some trust. And I think that trust permeated through the whole building and that’s why I think so many of our kids, all of our starters stayed because they knew there’s some integrity here and we’re in this thing together and this is more than just football. I think they bought into all that.”
Temple’s 2026 Outlook
The future is promising in Philadelphia. Temple has one of the best incoming classes in the American when accounting for transfers and high school recruits.
Keeler pointed out the Owls didn’t lose a starter in the transfer portal, which isn’t common for Group of Six programs.
Keeler prides himself on surrounding himself with exemplary people, and Temple retained its coaching, support, and training staffs. Keeler brought head strength and conditioning coach Kevin Schadt and general manager Clayton Barnes from Sam Houston, and both are providing critical continuity.
“I know after the first practice, we all felt like this is a team that will have a chance,” Keeler said of this spring. “Now, we’re a long way away, but just raw ability, this team will have a chance to compete. So I feel good where we are right now. A lot of work in front of us, though.”
Keeler is right. Temple is far from having everything figured out. That includes the quarterback position.
Former starter Evan Simon is now gone, and Temple will likely turn to a transfer to take over in 2026.
Ajani Sheppard is at Temple as a redshirt junior. He transferred from Rutgers to Washington State last offseason – Keeler said he tried to get Sheppard to go to Temple then – but didn’t play in 2025.
Jaxon Smolik arrives at Temple after transferring from Penn State as a redshirt sophomore. He played sparingly and dealt with injuries there.
Neither has a ton of collegiate experience, but both have taken on leadership roles with the team. Both are also studying with Temple’s coaches constantly. Keeler believes the QB competition will “go down to the wire.”
“They have the ability, and they just need to get rep after rep after rep. And that’s what they both have lacked,” Keeler said. “They’ve lacked the opportunity to play. But the ability’s there. … Both guys are going to push each other. Both guys are strong leaders. And again, I think we have two guys that can play at a high level in this conference.”
Aside from the quarterback position, Keeler noted Temple’s offense was too inconsistent, especially late last season. And he pointed out the Owls’ defense gave up too many explosive plays.
But he feels this year that Temple won’t have to mask or make up for specific deficiencies on either side of the ball. That’s because he believes in the future of this team and trusts they will be even more competitive.
“I don’t think it’s unrealistic for us to think that we can go challenge to be a bowl team, to win a bowl, and go challenge to be in the conference championship game,” Keeler said. “I don’t think that stuff’s unrealistic anymore. … And so I’m trying to get a different mindset in their heads. Last year was last year, and there was some growth.
“But quite honestly, with the guys we have coming back and the guys we’ve added to this program and with all the turnover that’s happened in this conference, why shouldn’t we think that we should be one of the best teams in this league?”
