Temple dropped its homecoming game to UConn, 34-20, on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.
By midnight, KC Keeler was texting his coordinators with homework.
"I told them I want a detailed explanation of where you think our strengths are and where you think our weaknesses are, and how are we going to get this corrected?" Keeler said Monday, per 247.
The loss dropped the Owls to 2-4, one week after a road win over a previously unbeaten South Florida team.
"We're a bad football team right now," he went on to share. "We're a better football team than 2-4, we are."
"Fundamentally, our pads are high, our eyes are in the wrong places, we're not executing the way we need to execute on either side of the ball," Keeler said. "Defensively, we're in the wrong gaps. Turnovers killed us, an illegal procedure wiped out a touchdown. That's just bad football."
UConn rolled up 373 yards and 24 points in the first half. At the break, Keeler asked defensive coordinator Brian Smith to "take the expensive things off the menu," and the Huskies managed roughly 140 yards and 10 points the rest of the way.
"We should have gotten there earlier," Keeler said. "We made good halftime adjustments, we got to our base calls, we played fast."
"It's the nature of being a defensive coach, you chase ghosts, you think of what formation they can throw out at you," Keeler said. "You're trying to prepare for everything, and you need to keep it simple. You have your top three, four calls that you can play against everything, and here's my tweaks. We definitely need to simplify. We're not playing fast enough because there's too much thinking going on."
Every coordinator has built a Tuesday call sheet that looked great on the whiteboard and got his kids beat on Saturday. Keeler wants all 11 aligned and all 11 in their gaps. "There's no excuse to not be fitting the gaps we're supposed to be fitting," he said.
He also put the weight on the staff, himself included. "As coaches we need to do a better job of putting the players in position to be successful," Keeler said. "We have a better roster than what the record shows. If our coaching staff is as good as we think they are, we should win those games."
Keeler is in his second season at Temple after going 5-7 (3-5 American) in 2025. He arrived in North Philadelphia with 271 career wins and two FCS national titles. He went 97-39 over 11 seasons at Sam Houston (2014-24), winning the 2020 season championship, and 86-52 at Delaware (2002-12), where he won it all in 2003. Before that, he went 88-21-1 at Rowan (D-III - NJ).
Six games remain for Keller and the Owls, all in conference: Charlotte, at East Carolina, at Navy, UAB, Rice and at Memphis.
"I still have a lot of belief in this team," Keeler said. "It's only conference games going forward. I don't think the teams we're playing are better than us."
The coordinators have had their homework objectives for a few days now. Saturday against Charlotte will show whether a simpler menu holds up.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.