Ten months after parting ways with Clark Atlanta (D-II - GA), Teddy Keaton is going home.
Stillman College (NAIA - AL) announced Thursday that Keaton, a 2000 Stillman graduate, will serve as both athletic director and head football coach as the school reinstates Tiger football for the 2027-28 academic year. It's his third stint in Tuscaloosa and his second as the head man.
Stillman last fielded a team in 2015. Citing financial strain, the school cut football and every other sport except men's and women's basketball beginning in the fall of 2016, with then-president Peter Millet saying the college "could go under financially" without the cuts. In August, Stillman announced football would return as part of its 150th anniversary celebration, competing at the NAIA level as a member of the HBCU Athletic Conference.
Keaton knows the building. He began his coaching career at Stillman as an assistant under Theophilus Danzy from 1999 to 2004, working as director of football operations and running backs coach during the program's earlier return.
After that first run, he took a winding path. He was head coach of the Lakeland Thunderbolts in indoor football, where he went 27-4 over two seasons, was named AIFL Coach of the Year in 2007 and sent six players on to the Arena Football League. He also served as defensive coordinator for the Odessa Roughnecks, head coach of the Huntington Heroes and offensive coordinator at Webber International (NAIA - FL) from 2008 to 2010.
Stillman hired him as head coach in 2011, and he won a share of the SIAC West Division title in year one. He went 27-26 over five seasons with three winning records before the program went dormant. He spent time as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Miles College (D-II - AL) before Allen University (D-II - SC) hired him in January 2018 to build its program from scratch.
At Allen, Keaton guided the Yellow Jackets through the move from NAIA to NCAA Division II. His final team in 2023 went 7-3, the program's first winning season at the D-II level.
Clark Atlanta (D-II - GA) hired him in November 2023 off an 0-10 season. The Panthers went 7-3 in 2024 and reached the SIAC Championship Game. Last fall, they slipped to 3-7 overall and 2-6 in league play, and the two sides parted ways in December. Quarterback David Wright was the SIAC Offensive Player of the Year in both of Keaton's seasons in Atlanta, one of three SIAC Players of the Year Keaton has recruited and developed across his stops.
Stillman lists his career head coaching record at 80-61-1 over 25 seasons of college and indoor football.
"Coach Keaton's return to Stillman brings together our history and our future," Stillman president Dr. Yolanda W. Page said in the release.
Keaton's program will run under the motto "Be The Reason," built on competing on the field, accountability in the classroom and developing leaders beyond football.
Restarting a program is its own job, and Keaton has done it twice now, at Allen from the ground up and at Clark Atlanta from a winless roster. Doing it again at his alma mater, while also running the athletic department, gives him roughly a year to build a staff, a roster and a support structure before the Tigers kick off again.
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