PHILADELPHIA -- Temple fans and alumni gathered at the Wissahickon Brewing Company in East Falls Tuesday night for Temple Athletics’ annual Temple Takeover event. The well-attended festivities gave fans a chance to mingle with Temple coaches, including women’s basketball coach Diane Richardson, men’s basketball coach Adam Fisher and football coach K.C. Keeler.
“I am currently undefeated. It’s just been awesome coming back, and this is home,” Keeler told the crowd at the event. “I think a lot of people are surprised I left Sam Houston. I lived seven minutes from my office. Lived on a lake, except for the little problem with a crocodile I once had. It was a pretty good life. But when [Temple Athletic Director Arthur Johnson] called, and I got the phone call from my agent to say that the deal was done, my wife cried for an hour. We have three grandchildren in Wilmington, Delaware. This has always been home to me, and coming back has been great.”
Building a culture at 10th and Diamond Streets
Beyond Keeler’s quip about being undefeated before the start of his first Temple season, he has been a proven winner at every stop he was at before landing the gig last December. He is the only coach to have won FCS national championships at two different programs (Delaware and Sam Houston State) and is the all-time winningest coach in FCS playoff history. Keeler also led Sam Houston State to a 10-3 record and an appearance in the New Orleans Bowl in 2024 in just its second FBS season.
The spring was an evaluation period for the team to see where it needed reinforcements before the second transfer portal period hit on April 16. Since then, the Owls have attempted to restructure the team to best fit the brand of football they are trying to instill.
“I feel pretty good. We had some needs in the spring. I think we went out and addressed those needs. I think we have a chance to compete now,” Keeler said. “We brought a couple of really good wide receivers (Delaware transfer JoJo Bermudez and St. Thomas transfer Colin Chase) in. I like the tight ends (Cal Poly transfer Jake Woods and Bethune-Cookman transfer Thomas Nance) we brought in. I think offensively, we had to get more dynamic. I think we did that defensively. We had some safety issues in terms of our depth, and we needed more competition there.”
Keeler said he would bring competition to the quarterback room for Evan Simon. The former Rutgers transfer threw for 15 touchdowns and 2,032 yards last season but knew another quarterback was on the way following the departure of Forrest Brock.
That competition came in the form of Gevani McCoy, who spent the spring at Texas State after playing last season at Oregon State.
McCoy spent three seasons at the FCS level at Idaho, where he threw for 43 touchdowns in that span. He was the Vandals’ starter in 2022 and 2023, where he won the Jerry Rice award as the best freshman in the FCS in 2022. McCoy started nine games last fall at Oregon State and threw just three touchdown passes to six interceptions, but he also ran for 328 yards and five scores.
Now he has a chance to compete for the starting job at Temple.
“So you had to bring a guy in that you felt like if he had to play him tomorrow, he could play,” Keeler said. “So we feel really good that there's going to be a healthy competition between Evan and Gevani. I think we’ve got a high-level guy. He was the Rookie of the Year in the country in the FCS. So yeah, I think it's going to be a great competition.”
Fisher enters year three
Fisher was tasked with overhauling Temple men’s basketball’s roster for the third year in a row since his hiring. The Owls lost nine players from last season to expiring eligibility and the transfer portal but have since reloaded with nine newcomers, including UIC transfer point guard Jordan Mason, whose signing was announced by the program Tuesday night.
Beyond the seven transfers and two incoming freshmen, the staff’s ability to retain rising sophomores Aiden Tobiason and Babatunde Durodola and rising senior Mohamed Keita was just as important. Tobiason and Durodola combined for 54 starts, and Durodola was the only Temple player to start all 32 games.
“We were so ecstatic,” Fisher told reporters. “I joked with our staff that the day the portal ended, I told everybody ‘Don’t come to the office.’ I'm so happy that we were gonna bring back two guys who started. I'm sure there are a lot of people in their ear. They wanted to be back. I think they saw what guys have done in our program.”
Temple bolstered its frontcourt with the addition of Bowling Green transfer big man Jamai Felt, who was recruited to the Falcons by current Temple associate head coach Michael Huger. After two different ACL injuries cost the 6-10 Felt his first two college seasons, he made the Mid-American Conference all-freshman team after leading the MAC in blocks with 46 and averaging 5.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while shooting 64.2% from the floor.
The Owls haven’t had a rim protector like Felt in Fisher’s first two seasons.
“Every guy we brought in was for a purpose,” Fisher said, “whether it be (Manhattan transfer) Masiah (Gilyard), the leading offensive rebounder for a guard in the country. (Alabama State transfer guard) CJ Hines played in the NCAA Tournament, can score and push the basketball.”
Building on success
After an 11-win campaign in her first year, Diane Richardson has coached the Temple women’s basketball team to consecutive 20-win seasons.
Richardson will try to replicate that success and take it a step further by winning the American Athletic Conference tournament and grabbing the automatic NCAA Tournament bid that comes with it, but she’ll have to do it without two veteran leaders in Tariyonna Gary and Tiarra East, who graduated in the spring. Despite the losses, Temple returned nearly the entire team, including key contributors in Jaleesa Molina, Kaylah Turner and Tristen Taylor.
All of them have impressed so far in their short time back on campus, Richardson said Tuesday night.
“Today, I stepped into workouts and Jaleesa Molina is … not only is she coming out of her bag, but she's also talking a lot more. She's gonna be a leader for our team,” Richardson said. “Of course we’ve got KT and Tristen, and they’re going to be leaders as well.”
ECU transfer Khloe Miller is already in the building. The forward nearly committed to Temple in 2023 and, after redshirting her freshman season with the Pirates, committed to the Owls the first day the portal opened without taking a visit.
Temple also added Saniyah Craig, a 6-1 forward from Jacksonville who averaged 11 points and 11 rebounds per game. She was named to the ASUN All-Freshman team during the 2023-24 season and broke Jacksonville’s single-season rebounding record with 332 as a sophomore, leading the conference.
“The thing about Saniyah Craig is she's got that Dennis Rodman mentality,” Richardson said. “She's going to go for the ball, and she enjoys rebounding. I think that's why she's so good at it.”