Temple Football Reducing Pressure After Bye Week Reset

Temple head coach K.C. Keeler held his weekly media availability on Monday, Oct. 26, breaking down a bye week that saw the Owls come to terms with a series of staffing changes. Following Temple’s Oct. 17 loss to previously-winless Charlotte, Keeler relieved defensive coordinator Brian Smith of his play-calling duties — keeping him on as safeties coach — let defensive line coach Cedric Calhoun go and promoted Henry Baker to interim defensive coordinator. Both Keeler and linebacker Eric Stuart praised Smith for taking the role change in stride, a difficult ask for someone with more than two decades of coaching experience.

Keeler also expanded outside linebackers coach Chris Raitano’s duties to cover the defensive line, and had defensive analyst Jordan Hopkins step up to help Raitano with that unit. 

Keeler likes to delegate responsibilities to his coordinators, then on to the position coaches and lastly the players, but as the leader of the program, he makes it clear that the ultimate responsibility for any of the Owls’ failures reflects on him. As such, he said he’s decided to back off on the degree to which he motivates his players: he’s worried that pushing them too hard to succeed is backfiring. 

“When it gets tight, we get tight. I’m trying to take that off of them. Like ‘guys, just worry about playing the next snap,’” Keeler said. “I put the pressure of winning on them, and I talked early in the season about how I maybe have never driven a team harder, because I saw the ability that we had. If I’m one of the culprits, that they’re just putting so much pressure on themselves, then I have to evaluate that.”

Where Do We Go From Here?

With five games left in the season and an uphill climb needed to make a bowl game, Temple is at a crossroads. In adjusting his leadership style, Keeler is focusing on the day-to-day motions of running the program instead of looking forward to Saturdays.

“I’m [usually] so goal-driven and so success-oriented in terms of my messaging; I definitely am a lot more process-oriented right now. The process of winning, it’s a daily thing. Every single day you’ve gotta do the things you need to do to win,” Keeler said. “And so that’s why today’s message was kind of ‘let’s not worry about winning. Let’s worry about the process, and the process will hopefully take us to winning.’”

In addition to letting the staff changes shake out, the bye week gave Temple a chance to get key players like Sam Brown V, JoJo Bermudez and a whole host of offensive linemen healthy. Wide receiver Colin Chase added that he and his teammates had a chance to spend time together away from the pracitice facility, another potential reset that could benefit the Owls as they try to turn their season around.