Coming out of Cumberland Regional High School in Bridgeton New Jersey, Andrew Pierce was hit with a reality check. The Class of 2010 running back finished his high school career with 4,281 rushing yards and 38 touchdowns, but received just a single Division I offer.
Delaware was the only school that gave Pierce a chance to shine — but it came with a catch. Then Blue Hens’ coach K.C. Keeler traveled up I-95 for a meeting with Pierce to lay out a plan to give him a grayshirt. This meant he wouldn’t play during his first semester so he had time to properly develop as a player. Pierce bought into Keeler’s idea and it gave him a belief that has stayed with him ever since.
“I came from a small school,” Pierce said. “Coach Keeler came down and I still remember this day. He sat in one of the offices, with my head coach and came up with a plan for me. When I saw that he believed in me, I was like, ‘I don’t care what it takes, I’m going there.’”
Pierce took the opportunity Keeler gave him and ran himself into the record books during his time at Delaware. He finished his career as a three-time All-American and the program’s second all-time leading rusher.
More than a decade after Keeler coached Pierce, his former running back joined him on staff as the running backs coach at Temple. Now, it’s Pierce’s job to help revitalize a position group that has struggled for the last half decade and will likely be the bread and butter of the offense for the foreseeable future.
“We’re going to run the football,” said offensive coordinator Tyler Walker. “We are going to dictate the tempo of the football game. We’re going to find different ways to create numbers and leverage.”
After finishing his career as one of the best running backs to touch the field at Delaware, Pierce was drawn to coaching because he wanted to be a role model for younger players – just like his coaches were to him.
“I think it’s extremely important, I’ve been to the highest level [of college football],” Pierce said. “I know how hard it is to get there and stay there and that’s my job. That’s why I got into coaching; to impact these young men so they can go achieve their dreams and goals.”
In 2017, Pierce traded in his cleats for a clipboard and went back to Cumberland to become the Colts’ running backs coach. After a season at his former high school, he traveled to North Jersey, where he was a quality control coach at Rutgers.
He spent his time coaching Kyle Monangai, the Scarlet Knights’ star running back who had just arrived in Piscataway. Pierce hit his stride coaching Blue Hens’ running back Marcus Yarns during his three seasons as his alma mater’s running backs coach.
Yarns ran for 1,784 yards in his final two seasons with Delaware and was selected to two All-CAA teams for his efforts in 2023 and 2024. Pierce now hopes his success with previous running backs can help aid a Temple rushing attack that struggled mightily last season. The Owls were one of the worst rushing teams in the country in 2024, with 92.8 rushing yards per game — 126th in the country.
The addition of Pierce gives Temple’s running backs someone who was once in their shoes. Keeler made hires like Pierce and wide receivers coach Roy Roundtree, who were former standouts during their college days, to give Temple’s roster an extra helping hand.
“Putting together a staff is like a jigsaw puzzle,” Keeler said. “It can be a little complicated at times, because there’s a lot of pieces of the puzzle in terms of them as teachers, them as role models, them as recruiters.”
The season is still months away, but Pierce is already laying the groundwork for how he can flip the switch in the Owls’ running back room. For that to happen, he has remembered the confidence his former coach once gave him, he said.
“I tell everybody in this room, it does not matter if you walk on, it does not matter if you’re the number one player in the country coming out of high school,” Pierce said. “Y’all have the same opportunity. We are gonna compete in this room and we [are] gonna work to try to be the best running back in the country.”
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