Sam Houston Athletice Site

The 2024 season will be K.C. Keeler's 10th as head coach at Sam Houston. During his decade at the helm Keeler has taken the Bearkats to places they have never been before, including in the program's first-ever FCS national championship in 2020 and its transition to FBS as a member of Conference USA in 2023.

In his tenure he has directed the Bearkats to an 88-35 record. The bulk of those totals come as a member of the FCS where the Kats posted 14 victories over top-10 ranked opponents and 14 wins in NCAA postseason action.

He picked up his 250th career victory during the 2021 season, becoming the 28th coach in college football history to reach that mark, including being the fifth fastest and ninth youngest to do so.

During 30 years as a head football coach, Keeler has produced a record of 262 victories, only 109 losses and 1 tie. His teams at Rowan, Delaware and Sam Houston have combined for 17 NCAA postseason playoff appearances, 11 conference championships and played in 9 national championship games.

His SHSU teams made the playoffs in each of his first 4 seasons at the helm, including FCS semifinals appearances in 2014, 2015 and 2017 along with a pair of Southland Conference championships.

But it was the 2020 season that catapulted the Bearkats, and Keeler, even higher into the upper echelon of FCS programs. 

Keeler helped direct the Bearkats through the COVID-19 pandemic that pushed the season back to the Spring 2021 semester, and then helped Sam Houston close out a perfect 10-0 record with the program's first-ever title at the FCS level. 

After a win over Monmouth in the opening round, Sam Houston knocked off North Dakota State and James Madison, winners of the last 9 FCS titles, to reach Frisco and the title game. The Kats then took down top-seeded South Dakota State to claim the title. 

With the win, Keeler became the first coach in FCS history to win FCS championships at multiple institutions, having also won the 2003 title at Delaware. He also passed Jim Tressell for the most FCS playoff wins in the division's history with 25.

That run to the title helped pave the way for the Bearkats to make the next step in the program's evolution: a move to the FBS ranks. 

Sam Houston joined the FBS and Conference USA prior to the 2022 season and after a 2-year transition period will be competing as a bowl-eligibile program in 2024.

Keeler was named as Sam Houston's 15th head football coach on January 23, 2014. Overall as a head coach he has coached 9 NFL draft picks including Super Bowl XLVII MVP quarterback Joe Flacco and 2018 second-round pick PJ Hall. He has tutored 77 All-America players and 22 student-athletes who have earned either national or district CoSIDA Academic All-America honors.

He directed the Kats to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs each of his first two seasons. In 2016 he led the Bearkats to their second conference title in three seasons and a national No. 1 ranking for the final six weeks of the regular season on their way to being the nation's lone unbeaten team entering the FCS playoffs.

That run helped him become the first Bearkat coach to claim the Eddie Robinson Award as the top head coach in the FCS in a season that also saw Sam Houston's quarterback, Jeremiah Briscoe, earn the Walter Payton Award as the nation's top offensive player.

A year later the Kats returned to the FCS semifinals and Briscoe claimed the Payton again, becoming only the second player in FCS history to win the award multiple times.

As head coach at Delaware, Keeler rolled up an 86-52 record in 11 seasons from 2002 to 2012. His Fightin' Blue Hens won the FCS national championship in 2003 and reached the national championship game in 2007 and 2010. His squads won Atlantic 10 Conference titles in 2003 and 2004 and the Colonial Athletic Association championship in 2010. Delaware went 11-3 in the program's four trips to the FCS playoffs.

At Rowan in Glassboro, N.J., Keeler produced an 88-21-1 record from 1993 to 2001 that included seven NCAA Division III playoff appearances including five trips to the National Championship game. His teams posted a 21-7 record in NCAA Division III playoff action.

Among Keeler's coaching honors are selections as AFCA FCS National Coach of the Year, Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year, Maxwell Club Tri-State Coach of the Year and the All-America Football Foundation Johnny Vaught Head Coach Award.

Keeler began his coaching career as an assistant at Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1981, then moved to Rowan in 1986. He was named head coach at Rowan in 1993.

The Profs won four New Jersey Athletic Conference championships and finished as runner-up in the league twice in Keeler's nine seasons.

Keeler was a 4-sport letterman at Emmaus, Pa., High School. He earned all-league honors and was football team captain as a tight end and linebacker.

He played linebacker for head coach Tubby Raymond at Delaware from 1978 to 1980, helping lead the Blue Hens to the 1979 NCAA Division II national championship. In 1980, he signed a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, also doing. so in 1982 and 1983.

His community service involvement is also extensive over the course of his career, including in 2008 he and his wife Janice raised nearly $1 million dollars as Chairman of the One Campaign for the Boys and Girls Club of Delaware.

He was also honored by the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation as their “Man of the Year”, for his involvement in the Bone Marrow Match Program, at the Maxwell Club Awards in March 2022

Kurt Charles “K.C.” Keeler was born July 26, 1959, in Emmaus, Pa. He and his wife Janice are the parents of daughter Kate and son Jackson, and proud grandparents of Gannon and Isla.

K.C. KEELER HIGHLIGHTS

• Only coach in FCS history to win national titles at multiple schools (Delaware 2003; Sam Houston 2020)
• Only coach in NCAA history to take 3 different programs to a national title game
• All-time leader in FCS Playoff wins (25)
• Keeler's 259 career wins ranks No. 2 among all active coaches at FCS level
• Won the Eddie Robinson Award (FCS top coach) in 2016, becoming the first Sam Houston and third Southland head coach to do so
• Earned his 250th career win in 2021, becoming the 28th head coach in football history to reach the 250-win mark. He is the fifth fastest and ninth youngest to do so
• Earned his 200th career win in 2016, becoming the 12th youngest and ninth fastest head coach to do so college football history
• Only head football coach ever to take 3 different programs to semifinal appearances in NCAA postseason action
• Won 45, Lost 14 in NCAA postseason playoff games (25-7 in FCS playoffs)
• 45 total NCAA playoff wins is second all-time behind only Larry Kehres (77 - Mount Union)
• Most National Championship game appearances of any current football coach (9), the second most in college football history
• Keeler's teams have made 17 NCAA playoff semifinals appearances in 29 seasons
• Keeler has the highest number of NCAA postseason wins among all active FCS head coaches
• The head coach has the highest postseason playoff winning percentage among all active FCS head coaches
• NCAA Division I FCS National Champions
  • 2003, 2020
• NCAA Division I FCS National Finalists
  • 2003, 2007, 2010, 2020
• NCAA Division I FCS Playoff Appearances
  • 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020
• NCAA Division III National Finalists
  • 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999
• NCAA Division III Playoff Appearances
  • 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001
• Lambert Cup
  • 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2010
• WAC Champions
  • 2021
• Southland Conference Champions
  • 2014, 2016, 2020
• ECAC Team of the Year
  • 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2010
• CCA Conference Champions
  • 2007, 2010
• Atlantic Ten Conference Champions
  • 2003, 2004
• New Jersey Athletic Conference Champions
  • 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001
• No. 1 Total Offense team in the nation
  • 2001 (528 yards per game)
  • 2014 (551 yards per game)  
  • 2016 (547 yards per game)