K.C. Keeler: UMass will have "no idea" who's starting for Temple at QB in season opener
The biggest storyline of Temple’s preseason football camp has centered around the starting quarterback job.
Will it be the transfer, Gevani McCoy, or the incumbent, Evan Simon?
If K.C. Keeler has his druthers, no one outside the program will know for another 12 days. The veteran head coach said after Monday’s practice that he has no intention of making that news public prior to the Owls’ Aug. 30 season opener.
“UMass will have no idea who’s starting,” Keeler said before injecting a little humor into the conversation. “We’ll probably announce K.C. Keeler, and they probably will figure out that’s not going to happen.”
So, yes, there’s a little gamesmanship involved here. Barring any leaks or change of heart on Keeler’s end, the veteran head coach doesn’t want UMass getting a head start on preparing for just one Temple quarterback in the opener.
McCoy threw for 1,300 yards, three touchdowns and six interceptions at Oregon State last season before spending the spring at Texas State. He re-entered the NCAA’s transfer portal and landed at Temple after Simon, who tallied 2,032 passing yards, 15 touchdown passes and nine interceptions with the Owls last season, had the benefit of a head start on new offensive coordinator Tyler Walker’s scheme this spring.
Conventional wisdom suggests that Keeler and offensive coordinator Tyler Walker would want to get that decision shored up by this weekend. On one hand, it wouldn’t be ideal for the first-team reps at quarterback to be split up among two players.
On the other hand, be it coach speak or not, Keeler didn’t seem to mind the idea of dividing those first-team reps even in late August with the opener fast approaching.
“I don’t know if there’s a timeframe when we have to do this with them,” Keeler said, referring to when the staff would inform either McCoy or Simon that they are the starter. “I think they’re both getting a lot of really good reps. And so I think it’s one of those things where I think we sit with Tyler and say, ‘OK, is there a need to get one more [first-team] reps? … They’ve gotten so much ones and twos that I think I don’t know if that’s going to be a need or not, and I think it’s a situation where, I’m not a guy who likes to play two quarterbacks. We got two quarterbacks right now we think can play. And so we’ll kind of figure that out.”
Monday was Temple’s 17th preseason camp practice of the summer and the ninth that has been open to the media in its entirety. McCoy and Simon have consistently split first-team reps at quarterback, so Keeler is being sincere in saying the reps have essentially been split evenly, although McCoy has certainly helped himself with solid performances in scrimmages over the last two Saturdays.
Thursday’s practice, one that will precede the team’s local media day, will be the last one open to the media before the season opener, so it’s quite possible one of the two could be named the starer and get all or most of the first-team reps next week within the confines of the gates surrounding Chodoff Field.
“We’ll figure out who’s going to take that first snap eventually,” Keeler said, “but it’s really not a priority right now.”
In addition to talking about the quarterback competition, Keeler spoke Monday about injury updates to right tackle Diego Barajas and left tackle Kevin Terry and said single digits will be announced Thursday.
You can listen to his Monday post-practice interview with reporters here.
