Teddy Keaton’s relationship with Stillman College has always been a little different.

Before he was a head coach, an athletic administrator or a program builder, he was a student. Before he was tasked with bringing football programs to life, he was on the sidelines at Stillman College, learning the business of coaching under Hall of Fame coach Theophilus Danzy.

Now, nearly three decades after he first arrived on the Tuscaloosa, Alabama campus, Keaton is having another homecoming.

Stillman announced Thursday that Keaton, a 2000 graduate of the historically Black college, will serve as athletic director and head football coach as the school prepares to bring Tiger football back for the 2027-28 academic year.

For Keaton, it is a return to a place he already knows, and a program he has already helped build once before. According to a news release, he first joined Stillman’s coaching staff in 1999 as an assistant under Coach Danzy, remaining with the program through 2004. In 2011, he returned to his alma mater as its fourth head football coach. Over five seasons, he went 27-26 and helped the Tigers earn a share of the SIAC West Division title in his first year.

This time, though, the return, and the assignment is bigger. Keaton is returning to reestablish the program itself.

And he has spent much of his career preparing for exactly that kind of challenge.

Over 25 seasons in college and professional football, Keaton has built a reputation around taking programs that need direction and giving them one. In 2018, he helped launch football at Allen University, building the program from the ground up and guiding it through its transition from the NAIA to NCAA Division II.

Later, he took over at Clark Atlanta University after the Panthers finished 0-10. One season later, Clark Atlanta was 7-3-1 and playing in the SIAC Championship Game. He has also won multiple indoor football championships and coached three SIAC Players of the Year at three different schools.

So the return to Stillman is nothing short of special.

It is where his coaching career got it’s first start. And now, as the institution prepares to celebrate its 150th anniversary, he has been asked to help write another chapter in the school’s story.

“Coach Keaton’s return to Stillman brings together our history and our future,” Stillman President Dr. Yolanda W. Page said. “He knows this institution, he understands our students, and he has demonstrated throughout his career that he knows how to build programs.”

Keaton, isn’t just focused on bringing wins back to the campus. His vision includes a football team that expects its players to take the classroom as seriously as they take the field, and prepares young men for lives and leadership beyond college football.

His guiding motto is simple: “Be The Reason.”

That philosophy will come into focus as Stillman begins the work of recruiting players, assembling its coaching staff and preparing for its return to competition.

The return also gives former Tigers, alumni and supporters a reason to reconnect with a program that has been absent from campus since 2015.

And there is something fitting about having Keaton at the center of it. He was once one of the students who called the campus home. He has already stood on the Stillman sideline. He has already worn the title of Tigers head coach.

Now, he’s coming back to do it all again—with a little more experience, a much bigger assignment and a familiar place waiting for him.

Stillman football is coming home, too.

Author: Shelby Stewart

Read the original article on Essence.