Welcome to our 2025 spring football coverage and preview series!

Before we go any further, let’s first acknowledge that covering spring ball is a lot different than it was three years ago. Some – if not several of the players we cover and write about over the next several weeks – may not be with the program when new Temple head coach K.C. Keeler and his staff kick off preseason camp in late July or early August.

Thanks to the NCAA’s 10-day spring transfer portal window opening from April 16-25, there will be more roster movement after the Owls wrap up spring drills Saturday, April 12 with the annual Cherry and White game. And for a program coming off a fourth consecutive 3-9 season, there’s not a single position room at 10th and Diamond Streets that couldn’t use some reinforcements.

While Keeler’s new staff will be focusing on installing their respective systems and looking for that sweet spot between scheme fits and best-available players, some players likely know they’re essentially auditioning for roster spots over the next month. If they feel they’re not a fit at Temple, they can hit the portal. Or they might see the writing on the wall after post-spring meetings with the coaches and gently be encouraged to do so anyway.

Some coaches, Keeler explained in his lengthy interview with OwlScoop last month, over-signed when it came to the last couple of recruiting classes, which is why the veteran head coach and his staff were judicious about saving scholarships to offer players who enter the portal next month.

“We think there's going to be a lot of opportunities after spring ball,” Keeler said. “We think a lot of people over-signed, and I know they have over-signed, because I've already had coaches reach out to me and say, ‘Hey, we over-signed, and there's going to be players available.’ So I think leaving some scholarships available after spring ball was a smart thing. We'll have some opportunities.”

Keeler also revealed a good deal about how he’ll approach spring practices, which will be open to the media.

He said he’ll follow more of an NFL model in that his teams won’t be tackling much to the ground.

“We’ll tackle to the ground maybe twice,” Keeler said.

He also talked about subtleties and adjusting, which means he won’t be afraid to have the team hit and tackle to the ground more if missed tackles become an issue.

By now, of course, Keeler and his staff have met and evaluated every player on the roster. The 65-year-old, the only coach to have won FCS national championships at two different programs (Delaware and Sam Houston State), knows quite well that a player who was once second or third on the depth chart can quickly benefit from a coaching change.

That’s why he sees himself as a blank slate heading into spring drills this week.

“That's why I told them. I said, ‘Well, that's one of the great things of having someone new come in,” Keeler explained. “If you had any transgressions or you had any faux pas, it's all behind us, because I'm just looking about what you're doing from this point forward. And if you're one of those guys who have street cred, you'll earn that street cred back very quickly, because that's who you are, and so I'm really interested to see.”

In offering a quick scan of each position, we’ll put a handful of players into three categories:

1. The veteran in the room

2. The fresh face(s)

3. The player with the most to prove

We’ll start soon with the quarterbacks and go from there.

You can listen here to part of our interview with Keeler in which he talked about how he’ll approach spring practice.

Front page photo by Noel Chacko.