Boise State OL coach Keane is more interested in his impact than getting credit for it
As his playing career at UC Davis was winding down, Boise State offensive line coach Tim Keane wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life.
He thought about becoming a doctor or maybe a teacher, and it wasn’t until he spent a summer volunteering at a group home for teens in Sacramento that he realized coaching was his destiny.
Volunteers at the group home burned out quickly, but it didn’t take Keane long to realize he had the perfect tool to connect with the kids: sports.
“I’d show up and get them playing, and their eyes would light up,” Keane told the Idaho Statesman earlier this month. “That’s when it clicked. This is how I can impact young people’s lives.”
Keane joined the coaching staff at UC Davis shortly after graduating in 2007. It was the first of what turned out to be three stints at his alma mater.
He spent the past four seasons (2016-19) as the Aggies’ offensive line coach before following his former teammate, Tim Plough, to Boise State after he was hired in January to run the Broncos’ offense.
Keane was a center at Davis from 2003 to 2006, and Plough was his quarterback. The duo also coached the Aggies together on two different occasions, with Plough serving as the offensive coordinator from 2016-19.
Like Plough, Keane wasn’t sure he would ever leave his alma mater.
“I met my wife at Davis. My kids were born there,” he said. “It’s always hard to leave the place you call home, but Boise State is a special place full of elite people.”
As players, Keane and Plough developed a close relationship on the field, but they also carried that dynamic to the sideline as coaches and into their personal lives. Their wives are friends, their children celebrate birthdays together and their chemistry is natural, whether they’re talking about converting on third-and-short or the weather.
Both coaches moved to Boise without their families this winter, and they’re living together as they look for homes here. Keane said he does most of the cooking and Plough is in charge of washing the dishes.
“He and I have really been through a lot together, and we really grew together as coaches,” Plough said. “I’m really glad to have him here, and I know we already have a great relationship, which is going to make it that much easier to teach.”
Plough made it clear that he didn’t bring Keane to Boise. He gave new head coach Andy Avalos a long list of names to consider for offensive line coach, although it did help that Avalos and Keane knew one another before joining forces at Boise State, and their wives are also close friends.
“Tim is an amazing person, first and foremost,” Avalos said. “He has a great understanding of the game and a great ability to connect with his players, and he’s a great teacher, which was what we were looking for.”
At Davis, Plough and Keane ran one of the most productive passing attacks in the FCS, and Plough said that began on the offensive line.
“Especially the last couple years together, we really developed something unique offensively, and I don’t think he gets enough credit for the success we had,” Plough said.
In 2018 — the year the Aggies won their first Big Sky Conference championship — Keane’s offensive line allowed the fewest sacks per game (0.86) since the program joined the conference. It also paved the way for program single-season rushing records to be set in carries (447), yards (2,159) and touchdowns (27).
Keane was promoted to run game coordinator the following season, and while the quarterbacks were busy averaging more than 40 passing attempts a game, he helped running back Ulonzo Gilliam Jr. rack up 1,249 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground.
The 35-year-old native of Palm Springs, California, said that was the year the lessons taught by his many mentors in the coaching profession really sank in.
“You can’t push the player if you don’t know the person,” Keane said. “People, especially football players, can see when something is phony, so you can’t fake it. The way I coach has to be something true to my personality and who I am.”
Laying the foundation
Keane isn’t new to Idaho. When he played at Davis, College of Idaho head coach Mike Moroski was the Aggies’ offensive coordinator, and when he decided he wanted to coach, it was Moroski who first put him to work breaking down film.
When Moroski left Davis in 2013 to restart the football program at College of Idaho, which was dormant for 37 years, he picked Keane as his offensive coordinator.
“There was no one else I really considered,” Moroski said. “In coaching, you want known entities, and I wanted someone who I knew I would work well with. He’s also one of my favorite people in the world, and I’m glad he took me up on my offer.”
Keane spent two seasons helping Moroski get the program off the ground, and while it was a learning experience that has proved incredibly valuable in his career, he’s not sure he would ever want to do it again.
He put in a lot of long days, which included washing uniforms and even painting the field on top of putting together a game plan, running practice and recruiting, but Keane said it made him a better coach.
“I got to see how to completely start from the ground up and lay a really strong foundation,” said Keane, adding that those years as offensive coordinator gave him a new perspective on the game. “Being an offensive lineman, I saw the game a certain way, and it was really helpful to have to construct a game plan every week and have to see it through the quarterback’s eyes and try to make it all fit and explain why we’re doing everything.”
College of Idaho’s roster that first year was mostly made up of freshmen and sophomores, and the Coyotes’ schedule was full of teams of upperclassmen. So, Keane and Moroski decided to run the option in an effort to even the playing field, and it paid off.
With Keane calling the plays, the Yotes racked up 4,190 yards of offense and averaged 25 points a game in their first season back on the field.
The following year, those numbers improved to 4,514 yards and 28.5 points per game, and the NAIA program was ranked in the top 30 nationally in passing efficiency, sacks allowed, third-down conversions, total offense and yards rushing.
The success on the field was nice, Moroski said, but watching Keane grow as a coach is something he’ll always hold dear from those early years with the Yotes.
“He was never the most talkative player, but he was always a take-charge kind of guy, and I think that may have tipped me off that he was going to be a great coach,” Moroski said. “He’s a teacher and a great communicator, and he has the ability to connect and push his players to be their best.”
Upset of a lifetime
Keane’s penchant for connecting with his players comes from his ability to relate to what they’re going through.
He’s seen the highs college football has to offer when, as a junior, he helped Davis record its biggest win in program history. He’s also lived through the struggle of being a nonscholarship athlete and fighting for a starting spot.
He was the starting center at Davis when it upset Stanford in 2005, but the jubilation that follows such an unexpected win isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when it comes up in conversation.
The first thing he’ll mention is the holding penalty he was called for in the end zone, which led to a safety, and an errant snap, which led to an early fumble.
Moroski said it’s true. Davis was down 17-3 early in large part because of Keane’s mistakes, but he also said the adjustments Keane made in the second half played a huge role in the Aggies’ 20-17 win.
“We were overmatched by Stanford, but we found a way to hang in there and moved the ball and scored just enough to get that great win,” Moroski said. “Tim didn’t hang his head or get mad. He just kept fighting. That says a lot about what he can teach his players.”
Plough remembers first thinking Keane was going to make a great coach his junior year. He was the backup quarterback in 2006, but he got on the field for mop-up duty in the second half of a lopsided win at Montana State.
The signal for the first play came in from the sideline and Plough remembers thinking it wasn’t going to work, but he wasn’t confident enough to call an audible. From his three-point stance, Keane whispered that he should make a change, so he switched it to the first passing play that popped into his head.
That play went for a touchdown, and back on the sideline, the coaches congratulated Plough on his ability to dissect the defense. Keane never looked for recognition, though. He just trotted back to the bench and got ready for the next series.
“He got no credit for it and he didn’t want any, even though he was the reason we did that,” Plough said. “That says a lot about who he is. He doesn’t want the credit. He just loves football and he loves teaching.”
Doing the dirty work and getting none of the credit; that’s the life of an offensive lineman, Keane said. And that’s how he lives his life.
“Impacting a young person’s life is more important than wins and losses, and it’s certainly more important than anyone knowing my name,” he said.
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
