In today’s day and age, almost everyone has considered starting their own podcast. Temple Football safety Andreas Keaton is no exception to that claim. While he was bored during his free time before the start of spring practice, Keaton pondered if there was an opportunity to get one started.
Keaton joined Temple in the offseason after transfering from Western Carolina and was searching for a way to bond with the team off the field while also still getting his name on the airwaves.
Keaton quickly created a plan, but he just needed some teammates to follow suit. He didn’t have to search far out of his position room to get people to join him. Keaton recruited fellow newcomer Louis Frye and veteran cornerback Ben Osueke to host the podcast with him, thus “Talking with DK and the OWLS” was born.
The show’s goal is to give people a glimpse of what goes into being a student-athlete The trio also wanted a platform to show their personalities that can’t be seen on the football field.
“That podcast was kind of a way to show the younger guys, just guys in general, what being a college athlete is really like and it’s not always what they think, or it’s not ingrained in the head,” Keaton said. “So sometimes it’s good to show the younger kids how much fun it is to be a student-athlete, to be a football athlete, to do these things outside the field and on the field.”
The trio announced the start of their podcast on April 14 via Instagram and the first episode dropped the following day.
The podcast steered away from football topics, instead focusing on their lives outside of the game. The first episode was kicked off by answering the question “How is life as an athlete?” The discussion was the closest the group had gotten to talking about life on the gridiron.
Viewers were able to see the players break away from the athlete label that typically personified them. Younger athletes began to notice and started reaching out to Keaton on his Instagram page. Keaton said viewers have reached out to him as a virtual mentor and began asking for advice on different matters, including football questions and more personal issues.
“We get our own little DMs, you know, just questions about things that can help them,” Keaton said. “That makes them feel more comfortable asking to reach out and ask questions if they’re struggling with this or they have a certain question or if they want advice.”
Keaton also used the platform to get close with his new teammates during the offseason. Each week, they were joined by a new member of the team and the topic of the episode was tailored to the guest’s interests, hoping to uncover things that were previously unknown.
When fellow defensive back Jamel Johnson and Darrell Sweeting hopped on the show, the topic was fashion. Cornerback Jaylen Lewis had an in-depth conversation about Marvel movies. Defensive analyst Jordan Hopkins chopped it up with the group about how he balances his social life with coaching.
While football was never at the forefront, sports topics were still allowed to be discussed. They debated who the greatest basketball player of all time was with linebacker D.J. Woodbury Sr. and the best quarterbacks in the NFL with quarterback Tyler Douglas.
Keaton has quickly established himself as a leader in the locker room during his short time on North Broad Street. The podcast planted the seeds of who the Owls were getting and perfectly encapsulates the reason he was named a single-digit captain.
“He’s a mature guy,” said defensive backs coach Dominique Bowman. “He’ll be a great father one day, a great husband. He’s a great human being all around,”
Keaton wanted to add a segment where each guest gives advice to viewers because “not everybody gets to where they are the same way.” He believes that the more perspectives the viewer can get, the more motivation they can get by seeing people from so many backgrounds succeed.
“Everybody has their own little journey so that means everybody has their own different advice they can offer,” Keaton said. “We can sit up there and say the same things over and over but just hearing it from a different person, from a different journey is a better voice.”
The podcast was an outlet that select members of the team used during the mundane time of the offseason. The most recent episode was released on June 20 because the trio stopped recording when more serious things, like the upcoming football season, required all their attention.
While the podcast episodes have come to an end, they are not opposed to restarting the show once the season is over.
“It kind of started out like a great idea just to have fun in the offseason,” Osueke said. “But right now, we just focusing on winning the next game and focusing on the season. Putting our all and all our attention on the season and being a winning team.”
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