Former Temple head basketball coach Fran Dunphy is stepping into his new role as the university's acting director of athletics with a whole host of challenges.

The athletic department is working to get fall sport student-athletes safely back on campus for voluntary workouts beginning Monday during the COVID-19 pandemic while also trying to figure out the best way to support their fight against racial injustice.

“I think really I’m just trying to learn right now,” Dunphy, the all-time winningest coach in Big 5 history who retired after the 2018-19 season, said during Thursday’s Zoom press conference. “Learn the landscape, and there’s so many people at Temple athletics who know much more than I do right now, and I got to get up to speed on all of the sports.”

Dunphy said Thursday, in part, that he was happy to be the "fill-in person, to try to just kind of settle things" as Temple looks to replace Pat Kraft, who was named Boston College's new athletic director back on June 3. Kraft, who will start at Boston College July 1, had been at Temple for seven years, including the last five as athletic director. Dunphy said he spoke briefly with Kraft Wednesday and plans to speak with him more in the coming days as he transitions into his acting athletic director role.

In addition to Kraft, Dunphy mentioned two people he's been able to talk to and get advice from in accepting the position. He first reached out to his former player and current senior J.P. Moorman II to get his perspective on bringing about social change.

The other conversation he mentioned was with his successor, Aaron McKie. Dunphy said the word that kept coming up in those talks was 'humanity' and how important it is to do the right thing.

In his 30 years of head coaching experience between Temple and Penn, Dunphy said he’s learned that everybody makes adjustments.

“It’s just the way of the world,” Dunphy said. “There’s a lot of ideas about what the best way to handle all that is… but it’s going to take a lot of different, again smarter heads than me, to figure all this out. But I do think we’ll make the adjustment. We’ll figure it all out and everything will be OK.”

Dunphy also admitted he’s not a very good no-sayer, so there wasn’t much hesitation to take the interim position when he was approached by Temple President Richard Englert. He admitted there may be days where he smacks himself in the forehead unsure of the decision he’s made because he was getting used to life in retirement, but he said enjoys the challenge and appreciates the opportunity just as much.

“I was a basketball guy and a head coach for 30 years. That’s what I knew,” Dunphy said. “But I’m just trying to figure out everything that I can and talking to a lot of folks… We’re all challenged by many, many things in our lifetime and I just want to do a good job and reward the confidence that people at Temple have shown in me.”

Dunphy did not sound like he wanted to be considered long-term for the athletic director position when asked about it at the outset of Thursday's call with reporters.

“I think there are going to over the next however many months or whatever the timeframe will be, I think they’ll have great opportunity to interview many, many great candidates for this position," Dunphy said. "I think it’s a great job. It’s a hard job. It’s a very challenging position. But I think there’s going to be some great candidates present themselves, so I’m happy to be the fill-in person, to try to just kind of settle things. I don’t know what terminology I would use in that way, but I am a fill-in candidate or fill-in person now, and I’m happy to do it. I just hope I can help.”

When asked again if he had allowed himself to think about doing the job permanently, Dunphy again downplayed that possibility.

"I haven't thought about it for one second," Dunphy said. "What I've thought about is trying to catch up on all of the things that are going on in the university world today and then obviously into the college athletics world as well. And then the reality is, you look at this is a pro sports town, too, and looking at how the pro teams are handling the situation that we're in. So we'll all learn from each other, and that's what this is all about. We're in such uncharted waters. There's so many unknowns. I think there's going to be new things presented to all of us every single day, and I just hope to learn as much as I can. I'll learn from our senior staff. And as I said to the group yesterday, I'm not afraid to ask a lot of questions, because I'm going to need a lot of help."