K. C. Keeler Meets With Media Friday
1/24/2014 4:23:00 PM | Football
K.C. Keeler took a phone call from retired NFL coach Dick Vermeil after Sam Houston State announced its most recent coaching hire Thursday.
The congratulatory call led to a brief exchange about football in the state of Texas and Vermeil said that Keeler would be “living the dream” of a college coach.
During Friday's news conference held at the Ron Mafrige Field House, Keeler admitted that life with his family had been comfortable since he last coached in 2012, yet he had accepted the lead position at Sam Houston because of how much he missed the job.
Some time around the end of September and the beginning of October, Keeler's wife Janice told him it was time to get back into coaching. Janice Keeler is just about as hands on with her husband's teams off the field as he is with them on it, helping coordinate gatherings and events.
They missed the relationships with the players, coaching staffs and communities.
But in order to live the dream referenced by Vermeil, who as former head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles cut Keeler in 1982, Sam Houston State has to win championships. The Bearkats' 15th football coach in school history had no qualms with being frank about it.
“I'm going to set the bar very high,” Keeler said. “That's who I am. I'm not going to make excuses. We're here to be the best.”
That was the message Keeler delivered to existing Sam Houston State players just an hour after Friday's press conference began.
“We're here to win a national championship. We want to win one sooner than later,” Keeler said. “I've played for 10 national championships, two as a player and eight as a coach. It's a challenge. But it's something our players need to know about me. We're here to be the best.”
Keeler teams at Rowan University and Delaware have made 13 NCAA tournament appearances and eight trips to national championship games.
His 2003 Delaware squad won the FCS national championship in 2003. The Blue Hens reached the FCS Championship Game in 2007 and 2010. Delaware compiled an 11-3 record in NCAA playoff competition.
“The mission statement is simple and each player will have a copy of that statement on their lockers,” Keeler said. “We're here to relentlessly pursue being the best football team in the country. We will measure ourselves in three ways. One is academic excellence. Another is social responsibility. Our guys will be involved in the community like you've never seen before. And, the third this is we're here to win national championships.”
Senior running back Keshawn Hill said the concern since former head coach Willie Fritz left for Georgia Southern earlier this month was finding established leadership to keep things rolling.
“Basically, his whole mind-set is all about winning,” Hill said. “I've never heard a coach say that all he wants to do is be the best. That's what I've always felt like in my own mind so I feel really good about that. I'm excited.”
The new coach's first priority is recruiting.
“I'm very excited to start talking to recruits,” Keeler said. “Our coaches have done a great job of identifying talent. Now we have to keep that talent. One of the things that is impressive is that a lot of these guys have stayed with Sam Houston when everyone was coming in here and trying to pilfer them. That speaks volumes about where this school is. If this university wasn't where it is academically and the players knew that, they'd just go somewhere else. But this is where they want to go to school.”
Williams said the Bearkats' goal is still to consistently compete at a high level, especially after three straight Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearances and FCS finalists in 2011 and '12.
“This is a great day to have an opportunity to move our football program in a new direction and it's exciting for all of us,” Williams said. “I have to admit, when you go through a search process. … it's a complicated decision, more than what people give it credit for from that standpoint.
“You get a lot of input from a lot of different people and then you have to compact it into less than two weeks. That's not an easy task.”
Keeler brings an overall record of 174 victories, 73 losses and one tie as a head coach to Huntsville. In his 11 seasons at Delaware (2002 to 2012), the Fightin' Blue Hens rolled up an 86-52 record. Delaware went 11-3 in the program's four trips to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs with an FCS national championship in 2003 and runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2010.
“He was showing me his 2003 national championship ring at lunch and it was FCS Selection Committee,” Williams said. “He doesn't remember this, but I was around that team. I got to see him in practice in 2003.
When I saw the ring and saw him kind of hoist the national championship trophy that night in Chattanooga, I was standing pretty close. I didn't know at that time, he didn't know it at that time that we'd be here today.
“That's amazing how our profession is and how all things kind of grow in that direction.”
Janice Keeler had a three-item checklist for where her husband could coach. There had to be warm weather, championship potential and good people running the administration.
Everything seemed to check out well on Friday except the weather since it looked like Delaware in Huntsville on this particular day. The Keeler family plans on being around long enough to get a more accurate impression of the Texas climate.
“I'm here for the long haul,” Keeler said. “This is a great job. I've been two places in 28 years. I'm a builder. I left Rowan because I went to my alma mater. This is a place that my wife and I are looking to settle in and make it something special. We're excited about that.”
